Justin Wren - The Big Pygmy

The Big Pygmy - with @thebigmygmy "160,000 kids in the United States alone skip school every day because of bullying." These words were spoken by the legend himself, Justin Wren aka The Big Pigmy. Only 20 - 30% of students who are bullied notify adults about the problem. That is why it is so important for those of you who are experiencing this nightmare to tell someone. And if that person doesn't listen then tell someone else. There is someone out there who loves and cares for you. In this interview, Justin shares his first-hand experience of being bullied and how he overcame addiction and disappointment to become dubbed, "The Big Pygmy." The real fight of his life began with his journey to The Congo where he helped negotiate the freedom of hundreds of enslaved people and launch sustainable farming initiatives including clean water. He was called "Efeosa," which means "the man who loves us," and founded the "Fight For the Forgotten" a non profit fighting to empower those who don't have a voice - from the forgotten people around the world affected by the water crisis, to the bullied in our own neighborhoods and schools. Join me in experiencing this powerful and inspiring interview about the fight The Big Pygmy fought every day outside of the ring and how he found his life's calling through God and servitude. WATCH/LISTEN NOW! Please SUBSCRIBE to all platforms, by CLICKING THE LINK IN MY BIO. Please SHARE, REVIEW, COMMENT, REPOST, and TAG SOMEONE to spread the word about the fastest growing show on earth! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

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• 0:45Ed Mylett?

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• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  Welcome to the Ed Mylett Show, the place for winning. Here he is.

• 1:41Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back to Max Out. I'm Ed Mylett. And this gentleman straight across from me here was one of the first people, when I started my show, that I reached out to, that I wanted on here, because I think he's an incredible human being. And so, he's an MMA fighter, he's a humanitarian, but I would call him a world changer. He's a guy that's maxing out his life and changing. So many other people's lives across the globe, so we're gonna get into a formal introduction as I ask you questions, but Justin Wren, thank you for being here.

• 2:10Speaker 03

  Thank you, Ed. Man, so stoked to be here.

• 2:13Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, you know how fired up I am and grateful too, so thank you for being here. Everybody, I just want you to know, this is gonna be a ride for the next hour that you're gonna enjoy so much, and I'm excited because I already know in advance it's gonna change your life. I already know you're gonna wanna share this with other people, and that you're gonna be touched and moved and compelled, hopefully, to take some action yourself. So, this big, strong guy right here is a teddy bear, and he's a giver, and you're gonna know this in about two minutes. So, I wanna step back to the beginning. Justin's involved in a whole bunch of things. Not only is he, and by the way, when I say MMA fighter, this guy was with the UFC, he was on The Ultimate Fighter, he's fighting for Bellator right now, 13-2 career record. I mean, this is a legitimate, big-time athlete,

• 2:55Ed Mylett?

  and it's ironic when someone's that successful in a sport, and it's not even remotely close to the things I'm the most impressed with about you. It's the caliber of man you are, and what you've done with your life, and how frankly vulnerable and open you are about your battles and tribulations too. So, I wanna kinda go back a little bit if we can too. I wanna, I wanna talk about the young, young Justin, just a little bit, okay? Because one of the causes that I'm passionate about, that you're involved in fully now, is bullying. And I wanna talk about you as a child. So, were you this confident and successful as a, as a young guy, that say 10, 12, 13 years old? Were you like this?

• 3:33Speaker 03

  No, absolutely not. I, and first, I'm just so humbled to be here, so grateful to be with you, your audience. This is, uh, this is a highlight for me, for sure. This is amazing. But no, uh, growing up was really, really tough, like for a lot of people. But for me, um, depression, set in at 13 years old, as clinically diagnosed with depression because I grew up getting very heavily bullied. And so, from the age of eight until 15, um, you know, I sat at the lunch table by myself, I got pelted in the back of the head with chocolate milk spitwads, or, or food, or, or fist. I grew up with, uh...

• 4:11Speaker 03

  Tubes in my ears a lot, so it was hard for me to hear. And then I had a speech therapist from kindergarten to sixth grade, really intensive from kindergarten to second grade. But then all the way through sixth grade and so couldn't pronounce words right, got teased because of that.

• 4:27Ed Mylett?

  Were you this big? Were you always a big guy?

• 4:29Speaker 03

  Ah, I was always heavyset and so I was pretty chunky. And I might have been the last kid in the United States that had a chili bowl haircut. Where my parents would put, you know, the bowl over my head and just cut around.

• 4:41Ed Mylett?

  But were you also one of the bigger kids, I mean?

• 4:43Speaker 03

  No, actually I had a gross spurt sophomore year.

• 4:45Ed Mylett?

  Got it.

• 4:46Speaker 03

  So I was shorter and wider.

• 4:48Ed Mylett?

  Got it.

• 4:48Speaker 03

  Is what I was.

• 4:49Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  And I just remember going to school and kids treated me different. And there were some notorious bullies in elementary school and then really ramped up in middle school. And they would pull my shirt up in front of the girls and slap my belly or twist my nipples or call me fat. Or act like they're throwing a harpoon because I'm the size of a whale and all sorts of different stuff. But it got to the point where it was very, very premeditated. And very hurtful in a way where in, in, in high school, I'm sorry, middle school. There's a Texas tradition and it's homecoming. And so homecoming is everywhere, but we have something where we have chrysanthemums. Where we call them homecoming mums that we would get for a date.

• 5:35Speaker 03

  It would be like a big fake flower. Now they look like, your crowd's gotta go Google this. Texas homecoming mums.

• 5:41Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 5:41Speaker 03

  Because it is ridiculous.

• 5:43Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  It is, it's a terribly gaudy. I mean, the, the girls now look like parade floats. Literally if they're this big, the fake flower, it'll have their school mascots in it. It'll have bells and whistles, it'll have LED lights with speakers that are going to the thing. I mean, it's wild. The girls will have to wear something around their neck and a back brace just to keep them standing.

• 6:01Ed Mylett?

  Oh my gosh.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  It's wild. But I remember saving up to buy my date. A homecoming mom and I remember spending my entire allowance on it. Uh, and thought I'd really impress her. Her name was Jessica and.

• 6:15Ed Mylett?

  Does it take a lot for you to even ask somebody?

• 6:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely, because I was going through bullying. I had no confidence. Um, and I spoke funny and just so just to muster up the courage to ask her was it took everything in me. Um, I remember I also bought her a locket uh around her neck and um and she appreciated that. She said, um, and then we went to the homecoming game and I get there and she's got the streamers on it that say Justin and Jessica in the year. And um, I'd spent my allowance on it. We're, we're there. Our team's winning. We're up in the back of the, the bleachers. And then I remember my notorious middle school bully named Justin, same name as me, walking up, putting his arm out.

• 6:56Speaker 03

  Jessica immediately putting her arm around his and then him looking at me and saying, uh, you didn't think she'd really come here with you, did you? Um, he grabbed Justin and Jessica and said, thanks for getting this for her. Um, and then they started walking away and I remember just the, the laughter of uh the entire stadium. Uh, laughing me out of there and me crying on my way out. Um, then the next year it started to magnify and get, get even worse.

• 7:21Ed Mylett?

  Worse than.

• 7:21Speaker 03

  It got, it got a lot worse than that. Um, I mean physically getting beaten up in the uh locker room. Um, getting hit with a helmet, a football helmet, uh, that, that made me quit the football team.

• 7:33Ed Mylett?

  So can I just say something to you? So you start out, I just want to get a picture of this. So there's so many, by the way, parents listening to this right now that need to hear this. Cause you're, some of your children aren't telling you that this is happening.

• 7:45Speaker 03

  Right.

• 7:45Ed Mylett?

  And then there's a lot of children, they're gonna listen to this too. And I think one of the lessons we'll talk about in a minute is you need to tell somebody.

• 7:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure.

• 7:52Ed Mylett?

  But this, you're this little boy roughly from about eight years old. By the way, I had tubes in my ears. I relate to that.

• 7:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:58Ed Mylett?

  Uh, I know how awkward that is. We're both, by the way, born on April twenty seventh.

• 8:02Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 8:03Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, interesting. Yeah, me seventeen years after you, but same thing. But starting at eight years old, it's funny for me how visuals happen just because I'm, I'm weird that way. I picture worse than the bullying, the, the actual kids hitting you. It's strange, I just want to tell you, it's me picturing this poor little boy sitting alone at lunch.

• 8:20Speaker 03

  Right.

• 8:21Ed Mylett?

  And everyone else is talking, having their conversations, and I was that boy a few times. I know the shame of sitting there alone.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:27Ed Mylett?

  Feeling so alone, so lonely, and the worst thing in the world is to feel that alone in a crowd of people.

• 8:33Speaker 03

  Right.

• 8:34Ed Mylett?

  And everyone else seems normal.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  Right.

• 8:36Ed Mylett?

  And so I just picture that happening to you. And so this happens basically every day for years to you for the most part, right?

• 8:43Speaker 03

  Sitting at the lunch table by myself was often, very often. I did find a group to get with, but they were more of like the Gothic kids and

• 8:52Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 8:52Speaker 03

  And it started to scare me because I remember actually, I mean, I clicked with them, but then it started getting darker and darker. To the point to where they would grab frogs and take black cats or those fireworks and put them down their mouth and blow them up and just angry, angry kids. And so I kind of withdrew from that because I started getting kind of scared. There were guys that would start cutting themselves and everything else, and I just, it was a dark place. But then the next year in eighth grade, I got invited to Jennifer's birthday party. And Jennifer was my biggest crush, whether it was elementary, middle school, high school, it was Jennifer. And I remember just being so excited to go to her birthday party. Invitations were being passed out at school.

• 9:37Speaker 03

  And on it, it said costume contest, winner gets a prize. And so her dad worked at Dr. Pepper. The prize was going to be a Dr. Pepper gumball machine. And all the rumors at school were true. They had decorated their living room with Dr. Pepper vintage stuff. And there's a town in Texas called Dublin, Texas, and it's the only place you can get Dublin Dr. Pepper, and it's made with like real cane sugar. And people go all, from all over Texas to go get it. And they had one of those machines in their house. And you didn't have to pay, you just push the button, it pops out. And I remember talking with my mom and uh and kids at school, they were talking about Superman, Batman, all these different Spider-Man, what they were gonna come to her party as. And I just remember she loved Transformers.

• 10:21Speaker 03

  Jennifer loved Transformers. Her favorite one was Optimus Prime. And so I wasn't even big into Transformers, but I remember Dr. Pepper, Transformers, I'm gonna make myself a Dr. Pepper, I'm gonna transform into a Dr. Pepper Transformer. I like that. Yeah, and so my mom helped me. I got a 24-pack on my head, 12-packs on my arm. Uh, the cardboard, we used duct tape. I was a country kid, so duct tape just to make me a uh chest plate. And I had a shield and a sword. I remember going to uh her house and Mimi opened the door, her grandmother. And Mimi said, "Oh my gosh, Jennifer's gonna love this. She's gonna love this." Um, and so I went into the living room, got to push the button, it popped right out. I got to double in Dr. Pepper.

• 11:01Speaker 03

  Go to the backyard, I'm I'm stoked. And when the back door opened, uh I remember being met by my peers. And I looked out and I get blasted with a couple flashes of light. As my eyes adjusted, I hear the sound of laughter and I look out and there's not one person that's dressed up, not one. And that wasn't necessarily the worst thing. It was that Jennifer said, "I can't believe you thought you were good enough to come to my party." Right next to her, Tyler said, "Um, you're worthless." And then Justin, the one that organized the whole thing, that was kind of my notorious bully through elementary, middle school, said, "You should just kill yourself." Um, and when he said, when she said, "You're not good enough," I didn't feel good enough.

• 11:46Speaker 03

  When Tyler said, "You're worthless," I felt worthless, absolutely worthless. And then whenever Justin said, "You should kill yourself," I remember suicidal ideation sunk in right away. Depression, suicidal ideation, I wanted to kill myself. I ran away from the party. That's the first time I ran away. I went to Dairy Queen, hid behind uh the Dairy Queen and just ripping off the cardboard, throwing it in the dumpster and just sitting there in a ball, just crying, until one of the Dr. Pepper, uh, or sorry Dairy Queen employees came outside, heard me crying, they're throwing away stuff in the dumpster, said, "Oh honey, what are you doing? Come inside."

• 12:25Speaker 03

  Um, my mom, uh, this was before cell phones, so my mom was just gonna come pick me up at like nine o'clock. Well, she goes there, I'm not there, I ran away. So she has to go home, uh, hear a voicemail from me, just bawling, you know, telling her I'm at Dairy Queen. She gets there after Dairy Queen's already closed. Um, and she was livid. That, that's, that's whenever they decided they were taking me out of that school. Um, so it was, it was a blessing in disguise, but I was crushed. Oh my. My middle school crush absolutely crushed me. Oh my goodness. And that's probably where, not probably, that is where my heart for, for, for bullying, um, comes in, because a lot of people don't know this. To give you a few, a few of the statistics. Yeah. A hundred and sixty thousand kids in the United States alone skip school every day because

• 13:10Speaker 03

  of bullying. Relentless bullying. That's three million school days lost every month. Oh my gosh. Every month, uh, three million school days are lost because of bullying. Um, I'm from Oklahoma, or at least I live there now, and looking into the at-risk youth behavior survey, twenty-eight point nine percent deal with depression that affects them for two weeks or more. Of all students, thirty percent? Yeah, twenty, twenty-eight point nine, so almost twenty-nine percent. And, uh, fifteen point one percent struggle with seriously contemplating suicide. So suicidal ideation, seven point four percent have actually attempted suicide. Seven percent. My gosh. Of the students. Our babies. Yeah, our babies, our kids. Seven out of a hundred. It's way too many. And, and since

• 13:52Speaker 03

  the rise of social media and everything else, bullying has become an epidemic. Uh.

• 14:00Speaker 03

  Probably whenever it came back around, um, I was already working in the Congo, I was already doing, uh, some humanitarian work there. But I come back home, I have my arm wrapped around my mom, cause she's crying. They own a photography studio, uh, it's sports photography, but they were asked specifically to make a, a memorial for a funeral. Um, I'm having my arm around her, um, I'm wiping tears while she's really, really crying. Um, and the mora plaque leaves, and I was just blown away, speechless, because, um, I didn't know a kid this young could know how to tie a belt and hang themselves. But the child was only nine years old. Nine years old and was told at school, you should kill yourself. So, so that's what he did. Um, I had my, uh, was speaking with, uh, US, yeah.

• 14:49Speaker 03

  US Representative Will Hurd in Texas, San Antonio, he had an anti-bullying summit and Maureen Mollak was there and her son David took his life. Started a law called David's Law in Texas, we're trying to get that into Oklahoma now. But bullying is just an epidemic that is just.

• 15:07Ed Mylett?

  What did it do to you? I'm curious, when you were, by the way, thank you for sharing this. Because I know it's not easy to do and you're helping people right now. And it shakes me just to picture you, because I picture you and that child, you're talking about it in these statistics. As that's happening to you, what could have alleviated it? What could have made it better? Did you not talk to your parents about it? Should you? If you're a child listening to this, let's just say, okay? And you're having, you know, and I also think, I think yours was severe, right? I think sometimes people are like, well, I'm not being bullied because all of those things didn't happen. No, if you're going somewhere and you're scared or uncomfortable to be there, people

• 15:52Ed Mylett?

  are making you feel less than you should feel, you're being bullied. There's extensive everything in life, right? But yours was not uncommon, but also very severe. What should a kid do that's going through something like this?

• 16:04Speaker 03

  Well, I think to define it is a good thing too. So I think bullying, and this may or may not be the correct definition, but it's the misuse or imbalance of power and abuse because of that. And I think, so I know a guy named Steve Hahn, who's like a leading guy, expert for bullying. He says it's peer-to-peer abuse. That's his definition. It's peer-to-peer abuse. It can be verbal, physical, emotional, it can be exclusion, so being just like casted out to the side and not included in things. And I would say the thing that saved my life was being able to open up to a good mom and open up and share. And so if there's a kid listening to this right now, you've got to talk about it. You have to open up.

• 16:49Speaker 03

  You have to share. Because if you don't, you keep it bottled up. I mean, let's think of Dr. Pepper again. You keep that bottled up and you're getting shaken up and you're being bullied and shaken and hit and it's just building up inside internally. That's whenever kids turn to do very terrible things with depression, with cutting themselves, with suicide, and that's not the answer. I want people to know that that there's some incredible people that have come on the other side of it. Well, I get to be with you. Thank you. Thank you. But I mean, my friend Rose Numeunis, she's the current UFC champion. And she's a female, and she's just bad to

• 17:28Speaker 03

  the bone, and she's awesome. She's feisty and fierce. And and she had a brutal upbringing. And so there's a fighter's spirit in every person.

• 17:39Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I hope that people, the young people hearing this, because they can see you. And so I want you to understand something. If you're going through that, this is what your life can turn out. We're going to talk about what what his life's turned out to be so far here in a minute, too. So you need to stay tuned. But there's a few things you should know. And I know you got to tell somebody. And if your mom's not listening, tell your dad. If your dad's not listening, tell a teacher. If your teacher's not listening, tell a coach. And if all of those people aren't listening, I promise you, there are people that love you, that believe in you. There are. You may not see them right now. They're in your life. They care about you. They believe in you. And your life is still going to turn out magnificent.

• 18:10Speaker 03

  Yes, it is.

• 18:11Ed Mylett?

  And in many ways, in many ways, better, because you've gone through this. You don't deserve to go through it. But it's going to give you coping skills, resiliency, toughness, all kinds of things that you aren't going to get if you don't go through it. But we want it to stop. And whatever you do, don't ever do harm to yourself. Ever do harm to yourself. Call, talk to somebody, right?

• 18:29Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 18:30Ed Mylett?

  Did you, did you, when you grew, is this what stopped it? I mean, what stopped it with you? Or did it not stop?

• 18:37Speaker 03

  No, it did stop. I, I found mixed martial arts. And whenever I found the UFC VHS tapes, I remember picking those up and just thinking initially, well, these guys don't get bullied. And so then whenever I turned it over, I remember seeing boxing versus wrestling, and jiu-jitsu versus judo, and sumo versus karate.

• 19:02Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 19:03Speaker 03

  And that was back in the day, whenever they weren't cross training, and they weren't mixed martial artists. So I just fell in love with the human chess match of it. And so I found wrestling, and I started researching it, looking at it. And saying like, if I could transform into one of these guys, then I won't have to deal with that stuff. Yeah. Um, my parents, uh, it makes me almost emotionally thinking about it. Uh, they made a huge sacrifice for me. Um, they got me out of that school. I had to be transferred out of the second school because of bullying. And then they sent me to, um, a, a school in Dallas and I lived in southwest Fort Worth. My school was in northeast Dallas. It was sixty seven miles to drive every day to that school, but there were two Olympic gold medalists.

• 19:46Speaker 03

  Um, that were at that high school. They saw my passion. They saw it as an outlet for me. Um, and when I started, I was terrible. Uh, I was. Were you really? I was terrible. I, I won one match by one point by accident, um, uh, in my first year of wrestling. So first year of wrestling, I was terrible. Um, guys would hold me down and laugh. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. They would hold me down and they would literally laugh. That's crazy. That's amazing. Uh, it was, it was brutal, but at the same time I loved it. I loved it because of like physically just working out. I'm sure you know, like you're getting rid of uh, that, that toxic stuff that's inside of you, those toxins. Um, and so whether that's physically or emotionally. Um, and so I just threw myself at the sport of wrestling.

• 20:30Speaker 03

  Um, I had two coaches that, that mentored me. Uh, one was Kenny Monday, um, and Kendall Cross. And they told me, write down your goals, put them somewhere you can see them. Uh, and, and work towards that. And they said, we promise you, start wrestling at sophomore year. And they said, we promise you, if you commit to this, we'll make you a state champion by the time you're a senior.

• 20:49Speaker 03

  So they told me, write down my big goals and if it's bigger than state champion, write that down. I wrote down national champion. And I remember putting that on my mirror where I'd brush my teeth in the morning and I put it above my bed. Um, and I put it above my bed so that way, when, whenever I'd wake up, I'd see it and it'd be the first thing I, I dreamed or thought about. I was going to sleep, I'd, I'd be dreaming about it. Like that's my goal, national champion. Uh, they got me magazines. They saw my passion. And they said, "Look, put some of the pictures of your favorite wrestling moves around and visualize that." And so I remember putting my favorite wrestling move on the left and my second favorite wrestling move on the right. And that would help me just think, "I need to do this move, I need to do that move." Well, they made me a 10-time state champion, a five-time All-American.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  And then my first national championship I won was with the move on the left. And my second national championship I won was with the move on the right.

• 21:39Ed Mylett?

  Come on, man.

• 21:39Speaker 03

  And so they just told me, "Visualize the life that you want." And Jesse's been through tough stuff. And they, they, they knew the bullying side of things. My mom cried with them, telling them about it. And this is what we think is gonna give them hope. And a purpose and a passion and an outlet, a healthy outlet.

• 21:57Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 21:58Speaker 03

  Because they knew I was suicidal. They knew.

• 22:01Ed Mylett?

  Did you attempt, I know you did at some point in your life. Did you attempt young, or was that later in your life?

• 22:04Speaker 03

  It was later in life. That was when I went through drug addiction.

• 22:06Ed Mylett?

  We're gonna get through to that. So, I wanna, that's unreal, by the way, that you go from the football game with Jessica to, "Is Justin Clown doing this to you again at the party, and he's involved again," to, just a few years later, listen, kids and parents, a few years later, two years later, you know, becoming a state and national competitor and champion is just bananas. And when you start out in the sport, you pick cats who are laughing at you, holding you down. And I just think, kids, you need to know this, this too will pass. Usually what happens, I wanna give you a compliment if you're being bullied. This has been my observation, because it was true with me, it was true with you, and it's true with a few of the boys that I'm interacting with right now. There, and actually one young lady on social media. People mistake your kindness for weakness.

• 22:51Ed Mylett?

  And eventually, your kindness in life is gonna be one of your great gifts and strengths. You've turned your kindness into your mission, into your cause. And so they see your kindness, is what it really is. They see your goodness, and they mistake it as a child, just so you know, for weakness. Don't lose your kindness through this, because it's one of your great gifts. And that's what they see in you, and they don't understand it. And so, all kids that are bullied are the most kind, sweet, gentle kids. By the way, we also, a lot of times, have the capacity to really put a hurtin' on somebody if we, we could, but we just don't think that way. And so, please reach out, please know that you should be following Justin on social media, myself and others that are here to support you, believe in you, feed you positive messages, and just know, your life can be just like ours. You're gonna get through this time, and there are people that love you and care about you.

• 23:36Ed Mylett?

  So, really, really appreciate you sharing that.

• 23:40Ed Mylett?

  You trip me out, man. Like, because we are just now getting into part of the story. But I think your past, for what you've turned into, should give everybody listeners, and even those of you that aren't being bullied, you're just going through a dark, depressed time. One of the things that would surprise most people, brother, that people ask me, what surprises you about people that do your show?

• 24:01Ed Mylett?

  And what's the commonality? Is it their strengths, is their work ethic? And I'll say, well, I can tell you what one of them are, which is going to surprise you. Almost all of them have struggled with some form of depression or anxiety. Is that crazy? So, all of these max-out achievers, whether they're in sports, fitness, finances, personal development, most of them at some point have struggled with down thoughts, insecurity, or worse, depression. It's an interesting commonality between people that end up building magnificent lives. I don't think that those of you that are struggling with that at 45 or at 15 should think that that's some detriment for you. It's actually maybe a positive indicator in some bizarre way on the list of traits of successful people. So, let's keep going into the story, because it's about to get crazy.

• 24:45Ed Mylett?

  Is there anything else on bullying you'd want kids to know in terms of their thoughts, their hopes, interacting with you or anybody else?

• 24:51Speaker 03

  When it comes to bullying, so, I would say that, man, you've got to find something you're passionate about to focus on. Whether you're artistic, whether you are an athlete, whatever it is. Whether it's debate or chess, I mean, it can be anything.

• 25:07Ed Mylett?

  Art, whatever.

• 25:08Speaker 03

  Art, yeah. So, I think that, for me, it was martial arts. Martial arts instilled, wrestling, the martial arts instilled humility, discipline, respect, honor. I mean, it instilled so many great things in me. And so, and there's like 3.9 million kids in the country that do martial arts. And probably half of them find it because of they're being bullied. There's so many kids that are being bullied. And so, I'd say find a martial arts academy. What Fight for the Forgotten is doing is we're getting in 100 martial arts academies this year with bullying prevention and character development. So, we're really stoked about that. We have a program called Heroes in Waiting. And what Heroes in Waiting is doing is we're showing the kids, it's bullying prevention, but more it's character development. So what is a hero?

• 25:53Speaker 03

  A hero is someone who sees a need and takes action immediately. So that can be an action that's big or small, it can be an action that's known or unknown. But, but man, we're all heroes in waiting. We're all ordinary people able to do extraordinary things. So even if you feel right now that you're just ordinary, or you're nothing special, you are capable of so many special, extraordinary things, and so I'm pumped.

• 26:16Ed Mylett?

  This is going better than I ever thought, because I just totally believe that. And I also, you know, the stat that you gave earlier about how many children are being bullied, if anything that does, that tells us how big the problem is, it also lets the kids know that are being bullied, you really aren't alone. There's literally millions of kids going through what you're going through. What I love about you, I just did a podcast on this. I say everybody in social media, personal, you want to have all these emotions, like love, gratitude, passion, all these other things. And we do want to have all those things. But there's like a gateway emotion, that if you possess it, you can get all these other things in multitudes. And that emotion is vulnerability. If you're willing to be vulnerable in your life, it's a gateway to magnifying love, magnifying

• 26:57Ed Mylett?

  gratitude, magnifying connection with people, magnifying contribution. You're kind of the ultimate example of vulnerability, because you come in this massively strong package you could whip about anyone's dude's ass in the world, right? Yet you're completely vulnerable and transparent about your entire life, all of the bad, all of the good, all of the challenges. And so that's why this next part of the journey is kind of interesting to me, because it didn't just turn into roses after that, right? There's still this battle that we all go through in our life. So, go ahead.

• 27:27Speaker 03

  Well, my childhood dream, whenever I was 13 years old, I wanted to be one of those UFC mixed martial arts fighters. At 18, I'd won the national championship of wrestling. At 19, I did it again, Greco-Roman wrestling. And then I went straight to the Olympic Training Center. Out of high school to the Olympic Training Center. And then I'm wrestling in Moscow. And then I get into kickboxing, kickboxing in Amsterdam. And all of a sudden, I'm invited on to the Ultimate Fighter TV show. I'm the main event at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. So my childhood dream became a reality. I'm the youngest guy at the highest level of the sport. When I was on the Ultimate Fighter, I was 21, 22. Next youngest guy was like 29, I think. Heavyweights are normally in their 30s or 40s. And so I was the youngest guy there at the highest level.

• 28:13Speaker 03

  All the lights on me, all the reporters around me saying, you know, hey, you're the next big thing. Or you've got this great big future and you know, you got a bright future. But the thing that sucked was that I was hiding an addiction. I had my arm snapped, I broke it, dislocated it, tore the ulnar collateral ligament. And just that sent me into a spiral. I was told, so my identity became who I was as a fighter. Like, that was my identity. That was the only sense of purpose, of meaning, of value that I had. That was my only value I brought to this world.

• 28:48Ed Mylett?

  You went from having a horribly trashed identity as a kid to the fighter identity.

• 28:52Speaker 03

  Absolutely. And so, you know, whether I won or lost, it would make or break me. And then if I lost, I would just, I mean, down that spiral in a crazy, it was a free fall down into a very dark pit. I got hooked on opiates and oxy was just at my fingertips. Being a fighter, being in pain, having a surgery. And I had three different doctors. One was in Iowa, one was in Colorado, one was in Texas. I get 30, 60, and 90 of those. And then when those ran out that month, I was able to go get it on the streets and through different connections. And I started to wipe away my memory and my life and my pain, probably the pain from being that child, the inner child in me.

• 29:35Speaker 03

  And so, it was a really tough place because I went through probably six years of addiction.

• 29:41Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 29:42Speaker 03

  And, and it was, but it was off and on, but two years were really, really bad.

• 29:46Ed Mylett?

  To what extent? Give me an example. What do you mean by bad?

• 29:49Speaker 03

  Bad where I was chemically dependent to where if I was eating food, food would fly off my fork, or not fly off, but drop off my fork while I was eating. Because I would be trying to get clean because I got to fight to get ready for it. I mean, I'm getting ready for a professional bout against this guy that we circled a date on a calendar, that's whenever we're going at it. And so, having that pressure, but thinking I'm injured and, and then I... I needed it for the pain for a short time, but I wanted it uh because of how it erased that pain, that emotional pain, that depression. Um but it got so bad to where um I went on this eight week binge and I was literally hitchhiking to like two or three different drug houses in Colorado, in Summit County, Breckenridge area and outside of that.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  And uh woke up in some disgusting places. I was basically a missing person for about eight weeks. My mom broke into my house, found the coke, the pill bottles, the bongs, the liquor bottles, everything. I was living like a pig. Um and my best friend called, I had probably sixty missed voicemails. My best friend called and said, I can't believe, this is how far gone I was. Cause I was just a hurt dude that couldn't help but hurt people. And I, I think that's a true statement, hurt people, hurt people. Yes. And so I was so hurt and so caught up in this addiction that I couldn't help but hurt the people that loved me the most. My best friend said on the other line, I can't believe you missed my wedding. I can't believe my best man didn't show up. Oh gosh.

• 31:15Speaker 03

  And so I was just in this very deep um dark pit uh that I couldn't get myself out of. Um and that was, that was a real turning point. I, I went back to my, my team and uh I was training with some of the best fighters in the world. I mean, guys that would come through our gym were like Rashad Evans, George, George St Pierre, uh his main training partner was Shane Carwin and Brendan Schaub. Um there were just so many studs. I mean, these are guys that whenever I was a kid, um some of them I, I had posters of them on my wall. I mean, I idolized these guys and now I'm training partners with them and I'm the youngest guy there. And I got invited in on the team. And I come back to train one time and uh I get there a little late, but everyone's looking at me different.

• 31:58Speaker 03

  Coach pulls me out, Coach Trevor Whitman, he was just voted the MMA Coach of the Year this year. Yeah. Um has a couple champs under his belt and he's just an amazing man. Pulled me into his office and said, Justin, like you got a real problem and you're gonna have to face it. Um we just voted and it was thirty-four to one, you're off the team. And so that childhood dream became a reality, but it turned into a nightmare real quick. And even that nightmare was being ripped away from me. And so that was my identity. It was who I was.

• 32:26Ed Mylett?

  Is that a bottom or did it cause you to spiral further from there?

• 32:29Speaker 03

  That was rock bottom for me. That was rock bottom for me.

• 32:31Ed Mylett?

  How did you, so you, I mean, this is a pronounced deep addiction then that you had. Cause you're allowing it to cost you your dream.

• 32:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:38Ed Mylett?

  It's such a great lesson though, that our identities can't just be about what we do. They've got to be about who we are.

• 32:44Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 32:44Ed Mylett?

  Which is what you changed, right? So you went from this, you know, really this childhood where it wasn't fair for you to even begin to think about who you were, to catching an identity about what you did. And this is the pattern I see a lot. Someone with a low identity, then attaches their identity to what they do. And when that, what they do doesn't work out very well, then they're back to who am I? And I see this with athletes more than probably any other career, but I see it in business too. Someone who's constantly just building a business, trying to make money, to kind of escape who they are, but they never work on that internal identity. They find a way to get their life back to kind of the crappy identity they hold for themselves. How did you get sober?

• 33:21Speaker 03

  So, well, just on that real quick, when you say with athletes, I remember getting my hand raised.

• 33:24Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  And it'd be after a great knockout or a great submission and people would be roaring. And I'd get my hand raised and I would think this thought, is this it? Is this all? And I would have that thought of like, well, what's next? Before I even get out of the cage.

• 33:40Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 33:40Speaker 03

  And I feel like that fueled the addictions even more because win or lose, win, I had a reason to celebrate.

• 33:46Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 33:47Speaker 03

  Um, lose, I wanted to numb myself and forget about the six months it took to train for this fight. And I threw my life at it and, and what happened, you know?

• 33:55Ed Mylett?

  Is this all it is?

• 33:56Speaker 03

  Is this all this is? Is this it? Um, for me, man, uh, there were some guys that came into my life and really rallied around me. Um, and they, uh, they fought for me. Uh, it was a bunch of good guys. Um, they ended up taking me on a retreat, um, this week long retreat. I didn't really want to go on it. Um, it was a religious thing and, uh, and for me, uh, I didn't like religion. Um, and so, uh, they told me, look, come here and just experience God's love. And, uh, I was like, ah. That's not for me, the kind of thing and whatever, you know, you guys, I kept them out of arm's length. Um, but I ended up going, uh, they paid for my flight, they paid for the retreat. Uh, they wouldn't take no for an answer. Um, they were blowing me up on my phone. I ended up going and, uh, and my life changed.

• 34:39Speaker 03

  I just say, this is me personally, it's my faith, but, uh, I encountered God, his love, his grace, his mercy. And I say, God loved the hell out of me. He, uh, blessed the mess out of me and it was my, my relationship with him that, that changed my life. Yeah, bro, it, it changed the addiction. It like, I was using the first three days and this is what, what kind of changed me or softened my heart, kind of changed things was that, uh, they didn't judge me away, they loved me in.

• 35:03Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 35:04Speaker 03

  And so instead of judging me away and judging me because of my addictions or my depression or things like that, they just, they just loved me in. So it was God's love that changed my life. Um, and I, I don't really share that too much as, as much as I should.

• 35:15Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, you should more. And I know exactly what you mean. There's this balance between us not wanting to push upon beliefs on people. But at the same time, you and I both know for us, we're saved by the grace of God because we're not perfect men. To this day, you and I, today, somewhere along the day, you and I today have already screwed some stuff up today.

• 35:31Speaker 03

  I'm a total work in progress.

• 35:33Ed Mylett?

  Right, so am I. And so I love knowing that God's got my back because I'm not perfect. I'm better with him in my life and, and it's just our beliefs, which is wonderful. We're not pushing that upon anybody, but I think it's good for people to know what our foundations are. I think that's a good thing.

• 35:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's, that's the foundation that, that changed my life. Um, and for me, I feel like I got a couple of words there. Um, that my wife even speaks over me now, but it was, uh, my identity and maybe it's not my identity, but it's, it's three words that I feel like described me. And it's, uh, uh, and it kind of happened on that retreat, but it was, I'm compassionate, I'm ambitious and I'm resilient. And so my wife will even say that before I go. Uh, so public speaking is still without a doubt my number one fear.

• 36:15Ed Mylett?

  How's that possible?

• 36:17Speaker 03

  With a speech therapist growing up and being bullied and all that stuff. It still is there. I have this habit where it comes from bullying and the kids twisting on me and stuff, but I pull my shirt all the time. I'm like this and I just get nervous. My hands start shaking before I speak and share my story. But she'll text me or she'll call me or she'll say a little prayer of me and just say, hey, you're compassionate, you're ambitious and you're resilient. Just reminded me that, hey, compassion is what fuels me and drives me. And if there's a, and I'm ambitious, big dreamer and I want to do big things in the world. I want to help a lot of people and then I'm resilient. Tough times are going to come, but I gotta dig deep and overcome these things.

• 36:52Ed Mylett?

  That's beautiful. It blows my mind, not, I know your background, but like you just have reached so many people with both your deeds and your words though. You know what I mean? Like, that's how I found you. I mean, I read the book, I watched your stuff. I'm like, I have to meet this person, right? Because I love that not only have you done great work, but you also give clues as to how you've done it. Like, that's wonderful that your faith's part of it, that the three words are part of it. And that's caused you to kind of step into how I found you, right? And so, how did you end up? I don't, I don't even know this part of the story, right? So, how in the world did you end up with the Pygmies? Like, how does this end up getting to this place? Like, how does a guy from, you're in Oklahoma then or Texas?

• 37:35Speaker 03

  I was actually in Colorado.

• 37:36Ed Mylett?

  Okay, you're in Colorado. So, you're in Colorado. You've had the fighting career. You're already a really well-known guy by that time, fighting-wise, but you've had these issues. And then you end up, guys, just so you know, from where he was in his life, imagine this, some guy has disappeared for eight weeks. Just hear this, because you need to know, your past does not define you. Your current situation does not predict your future, right? So, some of you are in your disappearing act right now. Like, maybe you're not disappearing from your family, but you're off the radar. You're not, you're not contributing or giving or maybe some of you are in some sort of an addiction you shouldn't be in right now. Maybe you're just listening to this or watching, just, you're not on your A-game. You're not maxing out your potential, right, where you are. He goes from this place he's been describing you, to you, to now.

• 38:21Ed Mylett?

  You think God's not good? You think life's not incredible? Imagine if at any point where he's chasing down some more oxy, that he thinks he's going to be where he's about to describe. It'll blow your mind where your life can go. So, tell them where you end up and what happened.

• 38:34Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 38:34Ed Mylett?

  Here we go.

• 38:35Speaker 03

  This is a...

• 38:36Ed Mylett?

  You're not gonna believe this, everybody.

• 38:37Speaker 03

  I think that this is probably my first time to share this on a podcast. But I'll give you the real deal story.

• 38:44Ed Mylett?

  Wow, thank you.

• 38:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:47Speaker 03

  So I started volunteering, I stopped fighting whenever I I um had that life change. Uh and I just felt like if I went straight back to fighting, I was gonna go straight back to the addictions. And that I wasn't stable, winning or losing, uh and uh it'd just be too much temptation for me to go right back to that same old lifestyle. And I would just spiral again. So I heard this quote and it said, no act of kindness, no matter how small, ever goes wasted. No act of kindness, no matter how small, ever goes wasted. And it's nothing that that great, but uh I mean, it is profound. It was profound to me in a way that it was like, that's what I gotta do. Um that's that's what I need to do. And so I started volunteering at the the local um children's hospital.

• 39:31Speaker 03

  Went through night training and started doing that. That's what you do. Man, that's so awesome. So I mean, it changed it changed my life. It changed my life going and and visiting the kids and just pushing the wheelchairs around and just serving them. Just whatever they need. Kid with stage four cancer, you know, um man, um just seeing that that'll change your perspective. They'll they'll change your heart. You'll leave there. There's many times I left there just crying, um just heartbroken. Um and other times I left just inspired, like, wow, that that fighter is so much more of a fighter and warrior than I. That's what I aspire to be like, that six-year-old kid right there.

• 40:06Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 40:06Speaker 03

  Um and so that that started to change my life, working at the rescue mission, working at um uh local at-risk youth uh associations and just uh just just starting to try to help out in whatever way I can. But I didn't have a job. And so I was broke as a joke for eleven months. And uh I I remember just barely being able to pay bills. Um almost getting evicted, all sorts of different stuff, where it was really, really tough time. It was the most rewarding and fulfilling time also. Uh but it was also really tough financially. And I just felt like I was more of a shotgun. Uh where I was like, I'll go do this and I'll go do that. I'll go do this and I'll help here and help there. And this is fulfilling, so I'll just keep doing it. Um and I'll I'll I'll find my niche of where to help eventually.

• 40:50Speaker 03

  Um but I felt like I had this inner desire of I wanted to be more of like a sniper. I wanted to have a focus. And I wanted to be like, this is the difference that I'm gonna make. But I didn't have a real way to find the pygmies where I was gonna go and live with them. But I found myself in a place really broken and confused. I actually got offered my favorite fight, or as a goals list as a kid, I had number one or number three was fight, or be a national champion wrestler. Number two was fighting UFC, number one was fighting at the Satoma Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan.

• 41:23Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 41:23Speaker 03

  So after a year of fight taking off, I get offered

• 41:27Ed Mylett?

  You're kidding?

• 41:27Speaker 03

  A fight at the Satoma Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan. But something in me felt like it wasn't the right time. So I ended up saying a prayer. And I said, "God, what do you want me to do with my life? If this isn't it, like what am I gonna do with my life? And I know that this will sound like really out there and really wild, but it's just what happened, so I'll share it. And it's, I'm really reserved sharing it normally. But I say a prayer, "God, what do you want me to do with my life?" And I swear to God that I had a vision where it was like a movie in my mind. And I saw myself in the rainforest. And I was walking down this footpath and I heard drumming.

• 42:09Speaker 03

  And I'm walking and walking and I hear singing, this very distinct singing that was almost like yodeling. And I'm clearing thickets out of the way and then I open up into a clearing. First guy I meet, he's got ribs poking out and he's coughing and he's coughing. And I know that he's sick. And I see these other people, I know that they're poor, they're sick, they're hungry, they're thirsty. And that they're enslaved. I know that I know that they're enslaved. And so I come out of that vision and two things happened. And so I did a lot of visualization at the Olympic Training Center, before my fights, before wrestling tournaments. But this was unlike anything I'd ever experienced because it was so vivid, so real. It was like I was there almost.

• 42:53Speaker 03

  And I come out of that and I cry and I cry and I cry. I cried a puddle, not a puddle, but whatever the size of tears is. And I just...

• 43:06Speaker 03

  I just couldn't stop crying for these people that I don't know.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  That's so beautiful.

• 43:09Speaker 03

  Um, I don't know who they are, where they are, anything about them. Um, but I knew that they felt forgotten. So I wrote down forgotten on a piece of paper.

• 43:16Speaker 02

  Oh, come on.

• 43:18Speaker 03

  So I wrote down forgotten.

• 43:19Speaker 02

  Come on.

• 43:19Speaker 03

  And right underneath that, poor, hungry, sick, thirsty, oppressed, and enslaved. And, um, and three days later, I meet this guy named Caleb. And, uh, I tell Caleb this vision because I found out he's a kind of wild guy. He's gone all over the world doing humanitarian work, missions work. And, um, and Caleb had, it was best friend, not best friends, but he, he knew Bear Grylls really well. Uh, he's gone through his training. I think Bear Grylls wrote the fore of his book. And, um, I'm like, well, this guy's kind of wild and out there. He's travel, world traveler. I'm going to tell him this vision, but I'll, I'll, I'll be honest, for three days before that, I felt crazy. I felt, I mean, I had experimented with LSD and psychedelics and, uh, psilocybin and, and all sorts of stuff.

• 44:02Speaker 03

  Um, but this was unlike any of those visions, like this was so real and so different. Um, but I struggled with it. Who would I ever tell this to and they're going to think I'm nuts?

• 44:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:11Speaker 03

  And I felt a little nuts. What was that? Was that a mental break, a lapse? What, what happened to me? But I tell Caleb and he kind of cracks a grin and then he leans in and then he, he stopped me. Uh, as I got through it, I didn't get to the forgotten part. I told him all the other stuff. And he goes, Justin, those are the pygmies. And I said, who? And he goes, they're in the Congo. And I'm like, where? And then I started telling the rest of my vision. I tell him forgotten. He goes, Justin, if there's anyone that's forgotten, it's the Muti Pygmies in Democratic Republic of Congo. Um, he had been there a year before. He was supposed to go in three and a half weeks, but he, um, he was taking a team of three other guys. Um, and all they were going to do was a vision trip, a scouting trip, a, a trip to just assess needs and see if they could meet any needs.

• 44:56Speaker 03

  Uh, see if they could help them in any way. Um, and the rebels had taken over the airport that was there. And so they couldn't fly in there. The US State Department said, no one go there. It's a no fly zone. Don't go to Congo for any reason. Um, his wife had talked to him and said, Caleb. I don't think you should go on this trip. The rest of the guys are husbands, fathers. They all backed out on you. You can't go alone. The very next day, I tell him the story. And he goes, if this isn't a sign, I don't know what is. And he goes, let's go. He goes, if you go, I'll go. Um, so we jump on a plane together. We, we jump on a plane together with a buddy named Colin as well. Um, and we go into the Congo. We land on a runway that's grass. Um, and we're actually circling it and they were clearing it with machetes before we land.

• 45:39Speaker 03

  Um, and monkeys are jumping off the runway and other stuff. And so it's, it's wild. It's crazy. I, I'd never planned on going to the Congo. I didn't really even know where it was. I didn't know about the plight of the pygmies. Um, and as we get there, we, we get out of the plane, we drive for like three hours. Then we start hiking for maybe a, an hour or less, maybe less than an hour. But as we're hiking, I, both these guys know the story. I have the piece of paper with me that says forgotten on it.

• 46:07Speaker 03

  We're walking and hiking into this village. It's unknown place to us. And all of a sudden we hear drumming. Keep walking, then we hear singing. Then as we come into the clearing, the first man that we meet, uh, has his ribs poking out. He's got tuberculosis. Our heart breaks for him. Uh, we meet the people and, uh, and my heart just shattered for me. So Caleb and Colin, they like grabbed me and they go, bro, this is your vision. This is your vision. I remember just squatting down into like a full squat. Having my hands on my face, knees, elbows on my knees and just being like, why did this happen? Like, uh, what am I doing here? Um, and the chief, uh, pulls aside maybe like three days later. And I'm still trying to digest this. Why am I here? What are we doing?

• 46:50Speaker 03

  Um, and he says, everyone else calls us the forest people. And this was like kind of the confirmation that this vision actually happened. He said, everyone else calls us the forest people. We call ourselves the forgotten. And when he said forgotten, I just, I just started to cry.

• 47:04Ed Mylett?

  Oh my gosh.

• 47:05Speaker 03

  I just started to cry and, um,

• 47:06Ed Mylett?

  Oh my gosh.

• 47:07Speaker 03

  So I was there for a month. Um, and I end up going back again.

• 47:13Speaker 03

  In the second time I'm there, my plan was just live with them, listen to them, learn from them, and then figure out the best way to love them. So, listen, learn, and love them, you know? Live with them, listen to them, love them. And so...

• 47:28Ed Mylett?

  Come on, man! That's unbelievable. I mean, it's amazing. Like, you should tell that whole story like all the time.

• 47:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's long, though. And it's a little wild.

• 47:40Ed Mylett?

  Well, even where we're going is gonna be wild in a minute, but like, I didn't know that. Like, you basic... like... It's hard for me to process all of that. That's an unbelievable confirmation of a vision, and...

• 47:54Speaker 03

  And for me, man, to let you know, like, I don't share that often, but you just seem like we've connected.

• 48:00Ed Mylett?

  Thank you, brother.

• 48:00Speaker 03

  You seem like a safe place, and it feels like just a conversation between us. There might be some people that think this is wild. And crazy. And that's okay. That's okay. It was crazy.

• 48:09Ed Mylett?

  What it is, is it's such a great confirmation of no matter what your beliefs are, that there's something bigger than us. And that when you dedicate your life to something bigger than you, like, he and I have strong core beliefs about something very specific bigger than us, but for you, whatever it is, there's... when you dedicate your life to something bigger than you, oh my gosh, does your life become magic? And when you can get outside of yourself and start to serve other people. I love that you started out kind of shotgunning, just serving people. And then this prayerful state, and to have it becomes so real. But with all due respect, on top of that, you took the actions, man. Like, you went, you did the work. You made pay... Oh, I was there for a month and I left. You were there for a month in the Congo. But I just want to be clear, are you telling me that prior to this trip,

• 48:52Ed Mylett?

  you really weren't familiar with the Congo and who the Pygmies were, or any of this?

• 48:56Speaker 03

  Honestly, Caleb was the one that told me.

• 48:58Ed Mylett?

  This is... Come on.

• 49:00Speaker 03

  I had no idea who they were. I had no idea who they were. And so...

• 49:03Ed Mylett?

  There's people listening to this that have had prayers in their life or dreams. And the only thing I'll tell you, whether it's a prayer or a dream, just so you know this, you belong in your dream. I talk about this all the time. Your dreams, your prayers are not hallucinations. They're not jokes. They're not some "gotcha, wouldn't that be neat"? They're a glimpse of what your destiny could be. Could be. It's a picture of what your life could be, frankly should be. Doesn't mean it will be. Because there's some things you would need to do to have some faith, some conviction, some action to go. Like, you went on the dad gum flight there when everyone else backs out. That was an action you took. But these dreams that you have, these visions, these prayers, I'm telling you, listen to me.

• 49:46Ed Mylett?

  They're a glimpse, they're a picture, they're a snapshot. For me, they're God's way of sort of just whispering real quick. Psst, hey, psst, take a look. I can't show you all of it, right? That's what it is in our lives. If you don't believe that, it's at least a vision. If you don't believe that, it's your dream, okay? I promise you, you belong in those pictures and feelings you get. So then you come back. What happens after you come back this next time? You decide to do that, to serve, to love them, to listen?

• 50:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. So that was my second trip, and what happened really was the third to last day I was there. There was a little boy named Andy Bo. And I remember cupping the back of his head, or actually it was underneath his mom's hand. And I was holding his little hand, and she was holding his other hand. And that's when blood started coming out of his ears, and for sure, that's when he passed away. And it was just because he didn't have access to clean water. And that, that forever changed me. It gripped my heart, it ripped my heart apart.

• 50:51Speaker 03

  And it punched me right in the mouth with, man. My problems, my first world problems, aren't really all that bad. You know, and I think so many times here, we'll put our problems under a magnifying glass. And that's all we see is our problem, our problem, our problem. And then I think whenever we could step back from it and look at the bigger picture of the world. Our problems can actually shrink in size so much to where you might need a microscope to go find them.

• 51:28Ed Mylett?

  And how do you do that, everybody? You're so brilliant, bro. The way you just need to jump on this, like you're so brilliant about this. How do you do that? Because you're exactly right. The way you do that is you go serve people. You do something, because like you said earlier, when you're at the children's hospital, you can't possibly be with a seven-year-old boy. Who's got stage four cancer. And not have some perspective about how small your problems are. You can't possibly comfort a mother who's got a daughter who's three years old with cystic fibrosis who can't breathe. And worry about whether you got enough likes on your Instagram, or whether you have enough money in the bank, right? Or you didn't get a promotion. There's this perspective. And so you did these things, but, but bro, like it's just, it's incredible. So this boy dies literally in your arms and you're like,

• 52:12Ed Mylett?

  I'm gonna do something about this, right?

• 52:15Speaker 03

  Well,

• 52:17Speaker 03

  it changed me in a way that I couldn't sleep.

• 52:23Speaker 03

  I would be thinking about him, I'd be thinking about his dad that passed away because of dirty water, his other brother that died because of dirty water, his mother that was sitting there and in their culture, sometimes they're topless and, and I could see every bone in her sternum and her ribs. And she was starving, she was sick with the water crisis. And they literally were, had been enslaved and, and people there were literally killing them for no reason. Witch doctors telling them if you can have sex with the pygmies, you'll cure yourself of HIV. So people come to the witch doctor with HIV saying like, hey, I have HIV, how do I heal myself? Go rape a pygmy.

• 53:04Speaker 03

  Congo is the rape capital of the world. In fact, one woman every one minute is raped in the Congo. Which is absolutely astronomical in comparison to any other country. It's a weapon of war there and the pygmies are the least of the least and they get treated less than human. The belief is that because their average height's only four foot seven, that they're half man, half animal. That they're, they're, they're part monkey and all sorts of wild and crazy stuff and they're treated like animals. So I came back and started saying, well, and started brainstorming with some people and saying, how could I go back and make a real difference? Like something practical and started working with the locals there on it, developing a team saying like, what can we do community development wise?

• 53:47Speaker 03

  And this kind of went back to being, you know, compassionate, ambitious, resilient, like how can we put compassion and love in action? How can we be ambitious and dream huge? And how can we live to love and fight for people? Like if I could do two things in my life, that's what it is. Live to love and fight for people. And it's like, how can we come up with a real game plan that would work? And so on that other trip, we, we sat down, we, we. We cast a vision saying, we want to do land, water and food initiatives. But how can we do that in a way and what is that going to take? And it was like, it was going to be at least a year-long trip. And we got to go live there for a year and really implement, work with the locals. We wanted to equip them with the tools that they needed to do the community development. We wanted to educate them with the knowledge to be able to put it into action.

• 54:31Speaker 03

  And we wanted to empower them to be able to do it for themselves. And so we helped build a team of locals. So that way they can do it for themselves. What I kind of have said is that opportunity is greater than charity. Charity can be great, but opportunity is just always better. It just always is. And so how do you empower people with opportunity? How do you open their eyes to an opportunity that's sitting right in front of them? And so, and how do you use what you have to get what you need and what you want? And so it was awesome. We got to partner with some great organizations. I got to go back with well drilling tools and train a team of guys. And I got to live there for a year and help them drill 13 water wells.

• 55:16Speaker 03

  And what they taught me was, and that team has now gone on to drill 77 or more. And so what they say there is a Swahili proverb. And it's so powerful. It's so powerful. And this might be for the kid that's being bullied, that feels all alone. Or it might be for, it just can be for so many people. It translates in so many ways. But it says, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And so that's a Swahili proverb that just started to change me and say like, I'm a fighter, right? And so I'm used to doing things on my own and being independent. I'm used to sitting at the lunch table by myself. But it's like, if we really want to make a difference, we got to come together. And that's going to take us farther. So if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

• 56:02Speaker 03

  And so the team and I were able to lobby and petition and go on behalf of the pygmies and say they need land. They have no land ownership of their own. And so we're able to lobby and get back, purchase back in their name, their tribe's name, strongest thing in Congo courts. On the local, state and national level, we're able to get back 3,000 acres of land. Um, three thousand acres land that's theirs. And so we bought two thousand four hundred and seventy acres. And then another five hundred acres was given to us.

• 56:29Ed Mylett?

  Amazing.

• 56:30Speaker 03

  Um, and that's their land. We were able to establish ten new villages. Um, the Bhutti pygmies live in there. We're able to use water. Uh, it's a literally, uh, there's a short film on this on our website. Fight for the Forgotten dot org. So Fight for the Forgotten dot org. But the short film is powerful because the, the pygmies are there sharing their own plight and their story, uh, their struggles. And then, and then the transformation that happened. And so just getting land and then water. Water literally was a tool that we used, um, with even some of the slave masters to say, look, your kids are dying of dirty water. Um, the slave masters' kids, uh, were dying. Uh, the slave masters were living on it. They weren't wealthy in a way that we think of it. Colonial times and sitting back drinking sweet tea and having a hundred slaves for one family.

• 57:15Speaker 03

  It was, they're making a dollar to a dollar twenty-five a day. So they're literally suffering in, in, in such drastic poverty. And so it was like, well, what if we could come in and drill water wells for you, for you guys? Um, would that, would that change your lives? And they're like, that would save our lives. Our kids wouldn't have to go collect water. Um, they could go to school. Our wives wouldn't have to sit at home. They could go to work. Um, and so water changed everything for them. Uh, so we did land, water, and now they started up their own farms.

• 57:43Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my God.

• 57:44Speaker 03

  And so they were able to, to start farming for themselves for the very first time. It's the first time the pygmies have ever gone to the market and started selling corn and beans and, uh, bananas. Um, and all sorts of stuff to where they're able to now buy their kids clothes for the first time. And then they're able to send their kids and pay school fees.

• 58:01Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my God.

• 58:01Speaker 03

  Send their kids to school for the first time. Um, and so, and, and this is what I want, uh, people to hear is like, okay, well, two things. We're all heroes in waiting and we can all make a big difference. But also, I'm not the hero of this story. I really am not. Um. The people that inspire me, they're my heroes, the people in the field that did the work that are there day in and day out.

• 58:26Speaker 03

  Some of my best friends, some incredible people that inspire me every single day, my brothers. And they even told me this, this could be for anyone out there. But it's if you think you're too small to make a difference, try to sleep in a closed room with a mosquito.

• 58:46Speaker 03

  It's tongue in cheek, but it's if you think you're too small to make a difference, sleep in a closed room with a mosquito. And so for me, that means so much more because I've had malaria now three times. The first time almost killed me. And so, but, but a little mosquito, less than a gram, right? And I'm a 265 pound, six foot three professional athlete. A mosquito kicked my butt worse than anything ever could.

• 59:10Ed Mylett?

  My goodness.

• 59:11Speaker 03

  And, I mean.

• 59:12Ed Mylett?

  That is powerful. By the way, you've had malaria three times, you just said out loud, you heard that, right?

• 59:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 59:18Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 59:19Speaker 03

  But it's all worth it.

• 59:20Ed Mylett?

  That's pretty incredible, brother. You want to go fast, go alone. You want to go far, go together. And so, I mean, guys, come on, I mean, have you ever heard anything like this in your life? I mean, you're, thank you, as we keep going here and we're not done, but I know that people are. It's hard to drive right now because there's water in everybody's eyes, right? Everybody's crying. But speaking of water, we would like to help you go far together. And so I know people, I know, I know the max out universe, I know the people that listen to this. I know that they're compassionate, giving, good group of people. If they wanted to go together with you in any way possible, how would they, is it, should they go to fightfortheforgotten.org? Is that where they'd find out more if they wanted to donate or contribute, they could do that there as well?

• 1:00:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely. So we have, we have some big dreams and goals, you know, I've been doing this since 2011. And I drilled thirteen wells, that team has drilled seventy-seven now. But now we have a goal to fund and drill a hundred water wells this year. And so it's gonna take a lot of work. We're trying to raise a ton of money. But we want to drill a hundred wells and we want to get into a hundred martial arts academies of bullying prevention. So we want to do both, we want to make a difference here and there. Right? And so why do we have to choose one or the other? We can do both. And so I just love that we're gonna make a difference in our own community here in the United States. Because kids need it. And then kids need clean water.

• 1:00:46Speaker 03

  A lot of people don't know that there's eighteen-hundred kids every day. One thousand eight hundred kids under the age of five years old that die because they don't have access to clean water. And so we want to combat that, there's a lot of great organizations out there. I believe we're one of them, and so FightForTheForgotten.org, people can donate, they can contribute there. If you can't donate physically, you can also rally a team. You can start a crowdfunding page on our website, you just say create a team or start as an individual. And we've seen little guys do some incredible things where they're able to raise five thousand dollars for their fifth birthday. Or something like that. Because they wanted to sacrifice getting the gift of birthday gifts to give the gift of clean water, different things like that.

• 1:01:27Ed Mylett?

  Well, you downplay it, but you've done incredible things. And so, you're not gonna say it, but I will. I think it's emotional for me, it's why I wanted you, when I first started this show. For me to picture this little boy who's sitting alone at lunch getting pizza and chicken nuggets thrown at his head and nobody will talk to him. To the guy at the homecoming game. To the Dr. Pepper party, right? To the drug addiction issues. To do all this. I mean, what can you do, folks listening to this? What could you do when you start to hear what this man's done in his life and he's right? There's all kinds of people that have helped him. But he also had the courage when he had that prayer, when he had that dream to start to take some action and then take more action and more action.

• 1:02:11Ed Mylett?

  I think giving to people and contributing and by the way, I don't give and contribute like you do. You're a different level man than I am and I admire you so much. But I do know what it's like to contribute and to give and I know how, I know that that's the only place in life where you'll feel fulfilled.

• 1:02:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:02:28Ed Mylett?

  Is to give to other people. You can be happy temporarily doing other things, but to be fulfilled is to find something you love that you're passionate about to change other people's lives. And you're doing that and I just have this sense that we're gonna come back in about 10 years. And we're gonna even look at this time in your life and we're gonna talk about even how small this was compared to what you've done in the world 10 years. And I just have this sense that this is the beginning of your story. But it's not the end of your fighting story though.

• 1:02:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:02:54Ed Mylett?

  So you end up deciding to come back and now you're fighting for Bellator. You signed a five fight deal with them.

• 1:03:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:01Ed Mylett?

  You've had three, is that correct?

• 1:03:02Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:03:03Ed Mylett?

  You've won all three of those fights. So don't forget, you forget, don't you, everybody?

• 1:03:09Ed Mylett?

  Now, there's this amazing athlete, but I think that, I think that something's changed in you, maybe like your reason for doing it even, so.

• 1:03:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:17Ed Mylett?

  You now know there's several million people listening to this who are like, okay, I'm rooting for that dude in the cage. So like, why did you come back to fight and like, what's that all about? Like, you, you, did you need, did you do it just to help with this cause or why'd you do it?

• 1:03:31Speaker 03

  That was the main driving factor. I was not gonna come back to the sport unless we were gonna make a difference. Uh, and unless I was gonna be able to actually physically fight for people. So my wife and I, we actually, um, decided when I came back to the sport that anytime I get a win bonus, um, that we give that. And so there's a show amount, there's a win amount. So you get, and this isn't to pat myself on the back, but it's, it's literally how I get to fight for people. And so, uh, if you get a hundred dollars to show up and fight, normally you get a hundred dollars to, to win. Uh, or something like that, you know, just.

• 1:04:04Ed Mylett?

  Ratio wise, yeah.

• 1:04:05Speaker 03

  Um, and so in this next phase of the contract, uh, when I win, I win for them. And I get to give that away. And so there is no deeper motivation for me to go out there and put a whooping on somebody. Then, man, we're gonna knock out the water crisis. We're gonna stand up, we're gonna speak out against bullying, and I gotta win this fight. Like, uh, it's just, it's, I think a lot of, and you could probably can say this, um, speak to this, but there's probably a lot of peak performers out there and high achievers that you've gotta raise the bar. You gotta raise necessity. I mean, I know the Olympic gold medalists out there, you know, wanted to do it for their mom that passed away. Or the memory of this person, or because they're gonna make this difference. Um, it's not just a sport.

• 1:04:49Speaker 03

  Um, you've gotta add more to it. And so for me, it was like, I'm not gonna come back and play games in a, in a fight. I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna be driven by purpose and passion, and I'm gonna have a fire in my eyes.

• 1:05:01Ed Mylett?

  You were literally fighting for these people, fighting for these, like, see, to me, it, your lesson is right on the money because I have this theory that the person with the biggest reasons wins. And so, you know, you know, I don't think all the time people think, well, there's internally unbelievably motivated people. No, you have huge reasons. If you're willing to have the courage to attach how much you love your family and your children to you winning in your business, you have a much more greater chance of winning. But most people don't let themselves get that vulnerable again, where they'll attach big reasons because you might lose. You know, for you to say, I'm fighting for these guys, that's a vulnerable thing to say. It jacks up the reasons, so when you win, it's greater and for bigger purpose, but you're taking a bigger risk by saying that, right? And so, it's the lack of vulnerability that cheats us out of all the riches in our life.

• 1:05:47Ed Mylett?

  And the person with the biggest reasons wins, almost always in life. You have huge, huge reasons. I just respect you so much, man, like, and you do love, if he does other things like-

• 1:05:55Speaker 03

  I respect you so much, brother.

• 1:05:56Ed Mylett?

  Thank you.

• 1:05:56Speaker 03

  I'm so blessed to be here. I really am.

• 1:05:59Ed Mylett?

  I could assure you that today is my blessing. I can assure you, and your willingness to share, um, the prayer that you had and the vision, I just want you to know, moves me greatly because I think even at this stage in my life, I think we all have this, you can call it whatever you want, you can call it an epiphany. You and I know it's a prayer, right? A blessing, a vision, you can call it whatever you want, okay? I'm driving, you have an epiphany. But often, we all catch ourselves every once in a while with a glimpse of what our life could be. It might not even be a picture what it is, it could just be a feeling about ourselves we wish we felt more of. More confidence, more peace, more faith, more gratitude, more love, or it's an actual physical picture.

• 1:06:37Ed Mylett?

  Very few people acknowledge this is a vision that I could be or that I could have or that I could possess and then have the guts to take the action, right? That's what I admire about you, but you do this in other areas too. So I just want to talk because I think it's a metaphor. Oh, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. By the way, so just so you all know, like on top of everything else, like to me, that's a huge metaphor because you're not a little dude. You know what I mean? Like I have this theory and I may remember wrong, but I think the bigger you are, the harder it is to climb a big ass mountain like that. I'm just curious, on top of everything you've done, it's not the most important thing you've done, but it it does symbolize many things in someone's life that you've climbed this. So talk about that experience there, who you did it with and what it was like for you.

• 1:07:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I did that with Water Boys, which is a great charitable organization that Chris Long is the founder of. Chris Long won the Super Bowl with the Patriots two years ago, the Eagles last year. He's an amazing man who donated his entire salary last year to education here in the United States and to the water crisis. And he rallied around some great influencers, NFL players, military veterans. And man, to be honest, like it was really tough. It was really hard, but we were all driven by purpose. With every single step, we were raising money for clean water. And with every single step, someone, someone in a village that needed clean water was

• 1:08:07Speaker 03

  was going to get it. And before, the day before we left, we went to a school in Arusha and there was 2,200 kids that had no running water. I mean, it was, we helped them fill their water canisters for the day. I remember filling up a kid's water jug for the day and it was a paint can, someone else, and it was motor oil. And that they were using these leftover, thrown away jugs for their own drinking water. But we were doing it with literally filthy, disgusting. diseased brown water, dark, dark brown and mud was floating in it and there's insects in it. There's like these little worms that were inside their water.

• 1:08:50Speaker 03

  And I know because I've had some of the sicknesses they've had, but there's amoebas, both in your stomach and in your brain. Literally, there's, there's a river blindness that can literally have these bugs that go and attack your retina and you can go blind from, from the river water. There is all sorts of parasites and worms and things that these kids have and they have these big bloated stomachs from, from the dirty water. And so going and seeing those kids and knowing that, hey, because of this climb, these kids right here that we get to know, that we get to meet, they are going to have clean water and they're going to have clean, healthy bellies and bodies. And we're going to help build better lives

• 1:09:32Speaker 03

  for them. Man, that was a driving force propelling us up the mountain. I mean, propelling us up the mountain. Nothing was going to stop us from getting up there.

• 1:09:40Ed Mylett?

  Again, if you want to supercharge your life, you just, you just do this stuff so well. But if you want to supercharge your life, you just load yourself up with the biggest reasons. It makes you superhuman. Either your faith backing you or compelling reasons. And if you combine the two, oh my gosh, could you accomplish anything? What's it like when you get to the top? I'm just curious.

• 1:09:58Speaker 03

  Gorgeous.

• 1:10:00Ed Mylett?

  Gorgeous.

• 1:10:01Speaker 03

  I mean, it was, it was, my favorite though, was on summit day. So summit day, you start at midnight. We didn't finish until eight PM. So it was a 20, that's a 20 hour day, right? 20 hours. It was brutal. And we had this stomach bug that we were passing around to each other. So we were vomiting, diarrhea. It was brutal. All of us got something. Four of us of the 14, I think four, maybe three, didn't make it to the top. Because we were just so sick and passed around this stuff. But I remember waking up and getting out and we got to get up at like 11:30. The stomach bug hit me at 11:45 before midnight, before we start climbing. But I remember looking out and there was this part of the mountain

• 1:10:44Speaker 03

  that it was almost in a 360 degree like angle or view that all you saw was stars. Above your head and you're like you, I can't really explain it, do it justice. But it was just so magnificent, just thousands and thousands of stars. There's no light pollution out there. And so every angle except for your feet, right? Except for where the mountain was under your feet. Um, and in one part where the peak was, I mean, you could just see stars all around you. And so it was, it was magical. It was magnificent. And so, and then when we got to the top, some of the guys dug so deep. Um, Elliot Ruiz, he's a guy that has shrapnel all in him. Um, there's been three Broadway plays made about his

• 1:11:26Speaker 03

  life. One of them was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The other one won the Pulitzer Prize. And him and I were, I, I ended up getting to the front and then coming back to be with him because we're both sick. Um, but he dug so deep. They wanted him to turn around. They wanted him to quit. And by the time he got to the summit, he had tears streaming down his face that were freezing, freezing to his face. Um, and he made it to the top. He gutted it out. And he was just driven by purpose, driven. He had, he had more reasons to win. And it was, it was an incredible moment. And some of the best group of, of one of the best groups I've ever been around in my life. So many inspirational people. Chris Long, Stephen Jackson, running back in the NFL, Connor Barwin. Um, yeah. So it was a

• 1:12:09Ed Mylett?

  Some big men too, by the way.

• 1:12:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, big dudes.

• 1:12:11Ed Mylett?

  I just think, first, I think you are compassionate. I think you're incredibly ambitious. Your resiliency is off the charts. I just think you're just amazing, man. I just, I think your life is amazing. I think you chase contribution. You chase moments. Um, you're not a perfect person, which I think makes you real. And that's true inspiration. If you were just this deity, this perfect guy who does everything in his life pristine, I think, I don't think people think they could do it. I think the fact that you are real about who you are gives people hope. What would you say to somebody who's listening to this? Who, I mean, I think I might have the best person on earth, one of the best people on earth to answer, ask this question. What would you say to somebody who's watching this who says, man, I want to change my life? You know, if I could get two minutes with Justin

• 1:12:56Ed Mylett?

  Wren, and I could ask him, I want to change my life. I want to make a difference in the world. I want to become happier. What counsel would you just give somebody who has that burning desire in their heart, but doesn't know how?

• 1:13:08Speaker 03

  First, I would say, man, I am so far from perfect. I, I still have so many struggles. I have battles, I have demons I have to keep at bay. Um, I am a man that has to fight for his marriage at times, you know? Marriage isn't easy. Um, but I love my wife with all my heart and, uh, and so there is, there's a lot of tough stuff I, I still go through. Um, but I would say,

• 1:13:33Speaker 03

  so I think I had it backwards. I wanted to, I wanted to love my life. And, um, and that's okay. It's a good thing, but I think, uh, so I, I signed my book and I say, live to love, love to live. And so I think that one has to come before the other. I think if we live to love, we will love to live. But I don't think it, it happens without living to love first. So, living to love others, um, living to, to serve others. And whenever we do that, whenever we get outside of ourselves, there's, it's, it's hard to keep looking inward at our problems and our struggles because we're driven and motivated to, to help others and love them. So I don't know that that's the answer.

• 1:14:17Ed Mylett?

  I think that's a beautiful answer, brother.

• 1:14:19Speaker 03

  If you live to love, you'll love to live.

• 1:14:21Ed Mylett?

  I think that it's what you do. And so that's why I think it's the best answer. It's like my observations of you, that's what you do. I love people that are complicated. And I consider you beautifully complicated. You're, you have these tremendous, you have these tremendous contradictions about you that I think are fascinating. And what I mean by that is, the Lord gave you this incredible strength and size and some athletic ability, yet you're this super gentle, kind, giving man. You can be somebody who's been sort of self-destructive to themselves,

• 1:14:54Ed Mylett?

  but build up other people so well. And through building up these other people, you've sort of turned yourself around into this, I think, magnificent man that I admire, that inspires me. And I also want to tell you, I want our friendship to grow and to continue. I want to be able to help you and contribute and you're gonna help me. I can just tell, this is- You're someone I want in my life and I want you also and I don't mean this motivationally and I don't mean this as like a lead in, I want you in the lives of the people in my audience. I trust my audience with you. I really want them following you on this journey. I want them holding you accountable. I want them rooting for you and praying for you because you're out in front now and I think you have an obligation now to even live greater and

• 1:15:38Ed Mylett?

  I think you have the capacity to do it. I think we're scratching the surface here so I want them rooting for you, praying for you, following you and contributing with you too and holding you accountable too. So how do they do that? What's the best place to find you? Is it your social media probably?

• 1:15:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, probably.

• 1:15:53Ed Mylett?

  It's not, it's the Big Pygmy.

• 1:15:55Speaker 03

  It is the Big Pygmy. I forgot to even share that but yeah, they gave me, they gave me two names. It was F A O S A and Mabuti Mangbo and so you gotta say it like that. But F A O S A means the man who loves us and that one means so much. It's a treasure to me. But then Mabuti Mangbo means the Big Pygmy.

• 1:16:10Ed Mylett?

  Is that what your name is?

• 1:16:11Speaker 03

  The Big Pygmy. So I used to be the Viking and fighting and you can kinda see why.

• 1:16:16Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, you can see why.

• 1:16:17Speaker 03

  But on social media, on Instagram, it's @TheBigPygmy. P Y G M Y.

• 1:16:22Ed Mylett?

  And they should follow you there. That's the best place.

• 1:16:24Speaker 03

  That's the best way. Or just go to our website, fightfortheforgotten.org and you can find the links to all my social media.

• 1:16:29Ed Mylett?

  On the video version, we're gonna put these on the screen, but many of you are listening to this in the audio version. Are you gonna fight again soon?

• 1:16:36Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:16:37Ed Mylett?

  We have any idea when?

• 1:16:38Speaker 03

  So I don't have it on the calendar yet, but I'm looking for May or June. I had a shoulder surgery that I'm coming back from. I feel strong, feel good. I just need to get the muscle memory back and get the conditioning there. Need to get my weight down a little bit and then I'm ready to go. So I was in the running to be in the eight man tournament for the Heavyweight World Championship in Bellator. I missed that because of the injury and then I was gonna be an alternate and now it's like, you know what? Let's, let's keep fighting. I'm technically on a six fight win streak and just gonna wanna keep that rolling and.

• 1:17:08Ed Mylett?

  Fight for a world title. I'm rooting for you and you're fighting for all these people too. And so, uh, we all want to fight with you, man. I'm just, uh, moved today. You know, I had huge expectations for that because I knew who you were, but meeting you exceeds them. And that was difficult because I held you in such a high regard even before we began. So, thank you so much for today. Thank you, brother. I just, I love you, brother. I really do. Like, I just, thanks for being so open today, too. And for all the audience here, please follow him. You already follow me. If you're listening to this, subscribe to the audio version of the podcast. Subscribe to the video version. Share this with people. This one, you gotta share, everybody. You know that. And also I'll remind you every day on, on social media, on Instagram, when I make a post in my main feed, as you know, we do the max out two minute drill.

• 1:17:51Ed Mylett?

  And in that two minute drill, uh, everybody who posts with a hashtag max out in the first two minutes, daily I pick a winner, books, gear, coaching call with me. Would you do one, like a 10 minute one that could meet you? Yeah, absolutely. 10 minute call with Justin, just closed him. He can meet Justin. So, all you gotta do is make a comment on my post every day. Within the first two minutes, if you missed the first two minutes, just make a post every day. We pick somebody at the end of the week who posts all the time. So, make comments on my Instagram feed and please spread the word about max out. Today was, uh, selfish was for me. And so, I hope everybody else enjoyed the program, but this was for me today. And I hope all of you listening in got the same inspiration and, um, conviction in your heart that I have to go be a better version of me, to be a better man, because this man in front of me is leading the way.

• 1:18:35Ed Mylett?

  So, thank you again, man, so much. God bless you, everybody. Max out.