Stabbed, bottled & still standing: Brando 'The Balkan Bear' Peričić Pt. 1

At six foot five and 118 kilos, Brando Peričić is one of the most physically imposing heavyweights in the UFC. But behind the fighter is a story most people never see, a story of an absent father, childhood bullying, depression, suicidal thoughts, and a young man who had every reason to fail, yet refused to. In this episode of I Catch Killers, Gary sits down with the Adelaide-born UFC heavyweight in a raw, honest, and deeply personal conversation that goes well beyond the octagon. Brando opens up about growing up in a Croatian household with a single mother working two jobs, a father who went to prison, and a childhood marked by anger, confusion, and pain he didn't know how to carry. From getting expelled in year 10 and working Adelaide's roughest pub doors, where he was stabbed, bottled, and coward punched, to sleeping in the gym while chasing a dream everyone told him was impossible, Brando's journey is as brutal as it is inspiring. Subscribe to our new Youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/@ICatchKillers-Podcast Follow I Catch Killers: Instagram:@icatchkillers https://www.instagram.com/icatchkillers/?hl=enTiktok:@icatchkillerspodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@icatchkillerspodcastFacebook:@icatchkillers https://www.facebook.com/icatchkillers/ See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  The public has had a long-held fascination with detectives. Detectives see a side of life the average person is never exposed to. I spent 34 years as a cop. For 25 of those years, I was catching killers. That's what I did for a living. I was a homicide detective. I'm no longer just interviewing bad guys. Instead, I'm taking the public into the world in which I operate. The guests I talk to each week have amazing stories from all sides of the law. The interviews are raw and honest, just like the people I talk to. Some of the content and language might be confronting. That's because no one who comes into contact with crime is left unchanged. Join me now as I take you into this world.

• 0:46Speaker 00

  My guest today is 6'5", 118 kilos and one of the most feared heavyweights in the UFC, Brando "The Balkan Bear" Pericic. Grew up in Adelaide with an absent father in prison, a single mum working two jobs, and a childhood full of bullying, anger and pain. He didn't know how to handle it all. He got expelled from school, worked as a bouncer in some of Adelaide's roughest pubs, got stabbed, bottled, and attacked with machetes. And still found a way to turn it all around. In this episode, Brando and I have an honest conversation about depression, faith, fighting, and what it actually takes to become one of Australia's top UFC fighters. Have a listen.

• 1:30Speaker 00

  Brando "The Balkan Bear" Pericic, welcome to I Catch Killers.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me, Gary.

• 1:36Speaker 00

  Well, I'm excited to have you. I'm a bit of a combat sport fan, so to have a UFC fighter, heavyweight, at that, on the podcast, very exciting.

• 1:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it's great to be here. Obviously, not many people know who I am. I've already been in the UFC for the last eight months. Yeah, it's been a 10-year-long journey and we've just really started, so.

• 1:59Speaker 00

  Well, you're starting to make a name for yourself. You've three fights in the UFC and two first-round TKOs and the third fight was a second-round TKO.

• 2:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, the last fight was probably my best fight. You know, the first fight I had had some adversity, some nerves. The second fight, the same thing. And then the last fight, I just felt at home. You know, I really felt like the UFC is where I belong.

• 2:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, well, your number one fan, Andrew Carpenter, mate of mine, mate of yours is, and Andrew's been on the podcast, a solicitor that does a lot of work in the child, child protection space, a really good fella, but he raves about you.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  Oh, mate, we just did a charity event in Adelaide and it's just, he was actually my sparring partner back in the day.

• 2:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:43Speaker 01

  So it was amazing to have him there. He's always supported me. And yeah, we, we, we, we actually raised a lot of money because of him and his connections. He says it's because of me, but he put so much effort in. We had nine days to prepare. And yeah, he's, he's, he's a champion.

• 2:58Speaker 00

  No, he's a good fella. And to put it in perspective, he claims that he taught you everything you know about fighting.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  He does. He, he, he did. And I remember when I first started, he used to kick me in the groin every single sparring session. So I actually hated sparring with him.

• 3:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  But yeah, I think it was a bit of a, what do you call it? I don't know, rivalry, two big guys.

• 3:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  They were just going at it. I didn't have much technique.

• 3:22Speaker 00

  Well, get in, get in early before you get experience and get the drop on him. Okay. So you're six foot five, a hundred and eighteen kilos or what you sit at when you're fighting. I'll say a scary looking dude and you fight for a living.

• 3:36Speaker 01

  Gentle giant.

• 3:37Speaker 00

  Okay, gentle giant. Most people's perception of a person that fights for a living is a little bit different. I'm going to put you on the spot right from the start and ask you a hard question. I think it's a hard question. Who are you? Describe yourself. How would you describe yourself?

• 3:51Speaker 01

  You know what? That's actually a very hard question. Um, who am I?

• 3:57Speaker 01

  I'm just me. I am who I am. Um, I'm. Trying to be better every day. I'm not perfect.

• 4:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  I'm a human. I'm having a experience. And um yeah, I'm just trying to be the best person I can be. So I'm a kid from Adelaide. Uh I grew up in a, you know, a very sort of European upbringing, wog, you wanna call it?

• 4:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  Um you know, I live with my grandparents, my mum.

• 4:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  We had a little hobby farm, so country kid, always loved martial arts, loved Bruce Lee, loved Mike Tyson. So I was always fighting.

• 4:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  And every time my grandparents had people come over the house for, you know, dinner or lunch, I'd be kicking them in the legs. You know, I mean, I'd be trying to fight them.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  But yeah, you know, I'm just a kid from Adelaide chasing his dream.

• 4:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:40Speaker 01

  And uh I found a little bit of greatness inside of me, and I'm just trying to nurture that and become someone special.

• 4:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? A lot of people go through life and not find what rocks their boat or what their, what their journey is. But you seem to be very uh laser focused on uh what you wanna do now and uh where you're heading.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  I mean, I think everyone should find their purpose in life and just go for it.

• 5:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  I don't know what my purpose was. I was a very lost youth kid.

• 5:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  Um and I just uh, I don't know, I feel like I had something great inside of me. Like, I felt like I could be someone. And even though people around me, whether it was family or friends, told me I couldn't.

• 5:17Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  And I was nobody, you know, they used to call me stupid, fat. I used to get bullied a lot. I just didn't believe it. I was like, no, I'm, I'm special. Like, God put me here on this earth, I'm here for a reason.

• 5:27Speaker 00

  Well, to have that uh that belief in yourself is important. And there's one uh, I've heard you say that um about yourself, don't mistake uh the kindness for weakness.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 5:36Speaker 00

  I, I find that an interesting saying. Explain what uh what you mean by that.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  I've always been like a kind-hearted person.

• 5:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Even as a kid.

• 5:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  And um I think that made me a target maybe, and I think people take advantage of that. You know, you get a lot of uh narcissists and manipulators and

• 5:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  just nasty people that wanna use you and they, they, they see your kindness and, and they, and they take it for weakness. So they try to take it and take it. Um they try to, yeah, like, I've just experienced it throughout my whole life, always been bullied. And always uh try to treat people how I want to be treated, treated. And uh sometimes people just take the piss. So um you know, even in school, man, I was in year eight, my first day of year eight, the year twelve was trying to pick on me.

• 6:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  You know, and I was like bigger than them. I was like, I don't wanna fight, guys, I don't wanna fight. And you know, they started, I had to finish it.

• 6:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  I was protecting myself, so. That happened throughout my whole life. And um yeah, so I I'm I'm a kind man.

• 6:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  I'm also a dangerous man. When I was younger, I didn't know how to control it.

• 6:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  And that's why mixed martial arts saved my life, because now I can control it. If I get in a situation, I can diffuse it. I can walk away. If I have to, I can run away. But yeah, it's it's people, especially young men, who don't know how to control their emotions. That's when it's dangerous.

• 6:54Speaker 00

  I wanna I wanna talk about that, like the fighting arts, that I I'm a big supporter of that. To keep kids, and it doesn't have to just be uh the boys, the girls, out of trouble. Because it teaches them a skill, it makes them disciplined, and then they learn to control it. Just rewinding to the bullies.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 7:13Speaker 00

  You would see some of the toughest men on the planet now, in the world that you're uh moving in, in the in the UFC. A lot of the tough guys or the bullies that we saw at school, they were hiding fear. That that's my my take on it. And I saw it when I was in the cops. I'd see people that were uh muscled up and covered in tattoos and underneath it was a little boy that was scared. And that quite often uh makes them go down that path of being bullies or or heading their life off in the wrong direction. Do you agree with that?

• 7:42Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 7:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:44Speaker 01

  Um I was scared.

• 7:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  I was scared. My my dad, so I went to jail when I was younger.

• 7:48Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  He never came home, so I still had to fend for myself, I had to protect my mother. And um you know, I had a lot of fear.

• 7:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  You know, and I've seen a lot of things in my younger days, and you know, I didn't trust people that much and what happens when you corner a dog? It's gonna bite ya.

• 8:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  You know, so I think a tough man, and I respect uh men who can control all their emotions.

• 8:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:12Speaker 01

  Who can protect their family, um be kind, loving, um compassionate, you know, play with their kids, their daughter, their son. And also, like, a tough man isn't someone who beats up their kids or their wife or other people acts, you know, strong. And a strong man is someone who sometimes has to back down and walk away.

• 8:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  So, um you know, my father, in my opinion, was a weak man.

• 8:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  And um you know, I still respect him, and he. Did the wrong thing, he paid the price.

• 8:42Speaker 00

  Um.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  Because he paid that price, I didn't have to. Maybe I would have.

• 8:45Speaker 00

  You you think you learn a lesson from from your father's father's mistakes?

• 8:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. Um. You know, I never understood why. I didn't even know, I didn't get a chance to ask him what he did.

• 8:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  You know, all all I know is that he went away and after that, we never had a relationship. I'll go visit him in jail as a kid. And that was my sort of youth.

• 9:05Speaker 00

  That that's hard, isn't it? Cause I I speak to a lot of people that have a actually ended up being in jail themselves. But the memories of when they're a kid and their parents, sometimes it was both parents in in jail and there. There's a shame, there's confusion, there there's a whole range of things that can uh fuck you up in as a young kid developing.

• 9:23Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 9:24Speaker 00

  Tell tell us a a little bit more depth about your your childhood. So, yeah, the Balkan bear. What what's what's the uh background?

• 9:32Speaker 01

  Uh. So, yeah, my my dad's side is full Croatian.

• 9:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  My mum's side's half Croatian, half Bosnian.

• 9:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:38Speaker 01

  And, yeah, I just grew up, like, I love fishing, love hunting.

• 9:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  I used to, uh, like, you know, bite the heads off a fish and, like, just, I was a crazy kid, you know, um. But, yeah, I just, the way I fight as well, it's it's pretty ruthless, pretty relentless. And there's not much emotion. If you look at my face, it's sort of a a killer.

• 9:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  Um. So when you see a bear rip open rip open a salmon or a moose, it's got no emotion. And that's how I fight. So my uncle gave me the name many years ago.

• 10:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  And I'm just stuck.

• 10:10Speaker 00

  I'm stuck with you. Did you enjoy your childhood?

• 10:12Speaker 01

  I did. I I very, I have a beautiful mother, um grandparents, and I was actually very fortunate. When I was actually growing up. I thought I had a shit childhood.

• 10:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  But now I look at it and I compare it to other people's. I'm like, wow, I was actually very lucky. I grew up on a farm. I rode motorbikes, had animals, I had very loving grandparents and mother. But I was an angry kid.

• 10:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  And I sort of ran away from home as well. And um yeah, when I look at it now, man, I had a great childhood.

• 10:41Speaker 00

  Where where's where do you reckon that anger came from?

• 10:44Speaker 01

  Oh, just just my dad leaving.

• 10:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Not not coming back, not wanting to be around me. I couldn't understand it. Like when I I don't have kids, I'm not married, I haven't got a partner.

• 10:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  Um but when I see my mates with their kids, I look at that, I'm like, how could you leave that? You know, like, to me, it's just weakness and um I saw my dad recently, actually, and it was good to see him. But it's a long time between drinks and try to rekindle. But it's I've got my own life and he's got his and yeah.

• 11:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, it would it would be hard. What about schooling? You you said you were bullied at school?

• 11:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:18Speaker 00

  Um well, I I would suggest the bullies might have came out second best.

• 11:23Speaker 00

  Hon, did did you start bullying other kids? Did did it was it behaviour that you were bullied? Or did you have enough uh emotional intelligence and yeah empathy not to be a bully? Were you uh?

• 11:35Speaker 01

  I mean, I can't say no um or yes, but like I basically bullied the bullies.

• 11:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:41Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? Like if I saw the older kids picking on someone else, I would bully them. Two rights that make a wrong. So really, I was a bully myself because those kids were picking on someone else. I was picking on them. So I I I did the wrong thing as well. Um but yeah, I never I never really started anything directly.

• 11:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  It was always sort of I was defending myself or I was defending somebody else. So um I could have done better.

• 12:05Speaker 00

  Well, we all could do better. I uh I I got into a lot of fights when I was a kid at at school because I I was fairly quiet. And yeah, people think, okay, well, he's not not reacting. I should have reacted at the start and resolved the issue earlier, but I'd let it build and then then yeah, then unleash. And and that's probably not not the most sensible way of uh doing things.

• 12:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure.

• 12:27Speaker 00

  Um schooling, education, did you buy into education? Were you? Don't laugh, gotta ask this question.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  I'm a scholar.

• 12:34Speaker 00

  Uh right, professor, yeah. Um. Did you see much sense in or you're more interested in riding bikes around the farm and and fishing and just doing what boys do?

• 12:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, um. I I actually did enjoy school.

• 12:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  But because I got bullied so much.

• 12:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:51Speaker 01

  I hated it.

• 12:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:52Speaker 01

  And uh yeah, I was, I'm still to this day dyslexic.

• 12:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, alright.

• 12:56Speaker 01

  I struggled to read and write, um and I had a real bad stutter as a kid.

• 13:00Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 13:00Speaker 01

  So, yeah, uh school was very hard for me. And when I was a kid, I only spoke Croatian.

• 13:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  And then I struggled at English. So my family only spoke to me English. And now I don't even know one language.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  Don't know Croatian, I don't know English.

• 13:15Speaker 00

  Totally confuse you. Well, you you you've had all the uh all the boxes ticked to get bullied, didn't you? If you uh.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  I was fat as, I was fat as fuck as well, so.

• 13:25Speaker 00

  It's just a bully bully's dream.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:27Speaker 00

  Then coming in in.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  Don't poke the bear, though.

• 13:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. No, I could imagine. So did you get in yourself into trouble in school?

• 13:34Speaker 01

  Well, my first day of year eight, I got suspended.

• 13:36Speaker 00

  Right, okay.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  The year twelve's picked me. I had a big fight with them. They picked me because someone sprayed a wog on the some year twelve's car.

• 13:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  And they blamed me.

• 13:46Speaker 00

  Right.

• 13:46Speaker 01

  And they just, they all surrounded me. And they just wanted to fight. So I was like, alright, let's go. And then just started, just started fighting and I was the one to blame. And yeah, I got suspended. So my mum, you know, a single mum.

• 13:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  She was working two jobs. Uh she had two kids. And she put me in a good school, you know? The only reason I went to that school was because my best friend Nick went there.

• 14:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  And uh she was gonna put me just in a public school. And I didn't wanna be around those type of people. I wanted to go to a better school, cause I knew like, if I'm around these these people.

• 14:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  Um who, they they literally go there, they're selling drugs, they're they're doing all kinds of bad things. So I didn't wanna be around that.

• 14:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:24Speaker 01

  You know?

• 14:25Speaker 00

  It it's important, isn't it? Because you are shaped by your environment as a kid. And if you get dropped into an area area like that, you wanna be, yeah, you gravitate towards where the popular kids are or or what's going on. And you can uh can get down the wrong path. Did you have any good role models? You like your mum, you speak highly of your mum, your your grandparents?

• 14:44Speaker 01

  My grandparents, amazing.

• 14:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  Very hardworking people. My mum.

• 14:48Speaker 00

  Did they they immigrate over to Australia? Did they?

• 14:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, they immigrated in the sixties, I believe, or maybe seventies. Um so it's funny, though. Because I always had this picture in my head, you know, they, the, you know, Creations, Wogs, they, they, they come in one suitcase on a boat.

• 15:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:03Speaker 01

  You know, they start this life and, you know, they worked very hard.

• 15:06Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  But I thought, you know, they were bloody chucking bodies off the boat and, you know, like it was like a three month journey, you know?

• 15:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:12Speaker 01

  And, and, and last, last week when I saw them, they'd go, oh yeah, we had two pools and it was great. All, all the food you can imagine. So I'm like, you came on a cruise ship. And that's not the boat I was picturing in my head.

• 15:23Speaker 00

  Right, so you, you bought into the.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  I bought into it.

• 15:26Speaker 00

  I look, I, I think, I, full credit to them, like, regardless of how they got, got here, and there's some tough journeys of people finding, finding their country they want to live in. But anyone that uproots from a country and then starts a new life, it's, it's gutsy, isn't it?

• 15:41Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 15:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, imagine if they just, sorry?

• 15:44Speaker 01

  I, I actually did it myself.

• 15:45Speaker 00

  Well, you went over, over to New Zealand, didn't you?

• 15:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:47Speaker 00

  Over the Walkland.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  So I literally had one suitcase.

• 15:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:50Speaker 01

  Jumped on a flight, went to a new country, knew nobody.

• 15:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:53Speaker 01

  So I sort of, like, if my grandparents can do it in the sixties or seventies, I can do it.

• 15:57Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 15:58Speaker 01

  And that was actually a big help for me, because it's, it's hard to leave your, your hometown.

• 16:01Speaker 00

  Oh, most definitely. Did they, uh, did they rein you in at all? Did you get any, uh, any good advice from people going, you, you can't solve these problems with your fists? Or what was the, what was the sort of?

• 16:12Speaker 01

  Uh, you know what? Not many words, but the actions, the actions over the years, um, they taught me a lot of like integrity, respect. And, um, just very hard, loyal, humble people.

• 16:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:25Speaker 01

  So they swear a lot. That's where I get it from.

• 16:28Speaker 00

  That, that, that's a descriptive word. Sometimes it helps.

• 16:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, um, but yeah, I think the actions really just played a big role and, um, I had a lot of morals as a kid. And my friends even today, like, um, yeah, they're great people because I chose to, to, to hang around great people.

• 16:46Speaker 00

  When did you, uh, leave school?

• 16:48Speaker 01

  I got expelled from year ten.

• 16:49Speaker 00

  Okay, what happened there?

• 16:51Speaker 01

  Have a guess, mate.

• 16:52Speaker 00

  Oh, no, you weren't fighting, were you?

• 16:54Speaker 01

  I was, I had a fight.

• 16:55Speaker 00

  Right.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  I had a fight and um it was a full circle moment because before my last fight.

• 17:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  It was sixteen years since I went to school.

• 17:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  And the last time I was at school, I got arrested by two cops.

• 17:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:06Speaker 01

  And I got expelled.

• 17:07Speaker 00

  Right.

• 17:07Speaker 01

  And then sixteen years later.

• 17:09Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 17:09Speaker 01

  I get greeted to a school.

• 17:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:11Speaker 01

  By two cops and I'm doing a speech in front of all these kids.

• 17:14Speaker 00

  Wow, okay, that's a, that's a big turnaround, isn't it?

• 17:17Speaker 01

  And I hate public speaking.

• 17:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  Like podcasts and stuff is okay, but to stand in front of a, a, a classroom of kids.

• 17:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  You know, I actually got very nervous, more nervous than I would for a fight. And because I'm dyslexic.

• 17:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  I had to memorize my whole speech. There was no notes.

• 17:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  It was all in here and I had twenty four hours to prepare. So I started the speech, it was supposed to be like, you know, introduce myself.

• 17:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:41Speaker 01

  And then I was like, I never started a fight, but I never walked away from one. That was my biggest downfall.

• 17:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:46Speaker 01

  What do you think I said? I never started a fight, I never finished one. That's my biggest downfall. And all the kids are like, you know, and I'm there for anti, you know, like punching, coward punch campaign.

• 17:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:58Speaker 01

  And I'm talking about I didn't finish a fight, so that was my biggest downfall.

• 18:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, look, you've got to get the message out, but yeah, get, get the speech, uh, the speech sorted out. But that coward punch, um, I, I know Danny Green did a lot of, uh, I know, I know Danny and he's done a lot on that. Very, very good man and feels very strongly about it. But also the parents of, uh, the young, uh, kid that was assaulted here, we've had on the, uh, the, not the, just assaulted, was killed by the one punch and where that campaign started from. And it, it's a good message.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  It is, because it is a coward, cowardly act. And I've been hit many times from behind.

• 18:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:34Speaker 01

  Um, that's why I actually never went out really as a kid.

• 18:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:37Speaker 01

  Or a teenager.

• 18:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:38Speaker 01

  I was working security a lot and even as, as a security guard, people would come up and they used to call it a dog shot.

• 18:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:44Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? They'll come up from behind and they'll, you know, creep up on you and then just hit you.

• 18:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  Um, I've been bottled as well. So, uh, by a full vodka bottle, that, that knocked me out.

• 18:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:54Speaker 01

  And I woke up in a puddle of blood. So, yeah.

• 18:56Speaker 00

  Oh, it, it needs to be called out for, for what it is.

• 18:59Speaker 01

  You're trying to kill someone.

• 19:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, uh, it's shameful. And even the idiots that, um, don't even comprehend that someone could die. Like, like where the campaign started from, uh, hit from behind and hit your head on the, on the concrete and, uh.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  I think we need to educate the youth though, because even as a, as a youth.

• 19:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  I wasn't aware you could kill someone from a punch.

• 19:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? I really, like, I was naive. So I had many fights on and, like, uh, in school, out of school, on the field, off the field. I played a lot of rugby and football. And, um, when I think about it, like, man.

• 19:31Speaker 00

  You realise how lucky you are.

• 19:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  You know, I, I could have been, I could have killed someone, I could have gone to jail, I could have ruined my whole life for, just what, a bit of ego, a bit of frustration. Man, um, the gym saved my life, I'm telling you.

• 19:43Speaker 00

  Yeah, well, that, that, there comes that discipline that I, I talk about. And I saw around boxing gyms and, uh, kids were, were, uh, heading off in the wrong direction and coming there. And they're in fights all the time. And you think, and, and you speak to the wider public and they don't understand the concept that, okay, so you've got a kid that's in trouble for fighting and you're gonna bring him into a gym and teach him how to fight. And that's gonna solve the problem. They see it as you're just teaching him to fight. But what I found is that the kids, once they learnt how to fight, and they also learnt they couldn't fight as well as they thought they could. Which is always funny when the tough guy comes into the gym and thinks he could take anyone out, cause he just gets cranky and he gets lit up by this little, uh, five foot two, uh, small bloke.

• 20:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 20:26Speaker 00

  That looks like an accountant. And, uh, so it teaches them that, uh, yeah, there's a discipline. But the discipline also, I think, points them in the right direction for life too.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 20:36Speaker 00

  And it, it, sometimes it, it, it doesn't work, but the majority of people I see that dedicate themselves. And it, we're talking fighting, it doesn't have to be that. Any discipline that sort of, uh, yeah, works for them, uh, can change their life.

• 20:49Speaker 01

  I mean, I think you hit hit nail on the head there. Even um jiu jitsu. Jiu jitsu is amazing thing and I I see a lot of kids now doing it. And when I have kids one day, that's the first martial arts I'm gonna get them to do. You know, and then, you know, get into kickboxing, uh MMA, um, you know, I I love jiu jitsu. Jiu jitsu is actually the first uh martial art I should did.

• 21:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that's that's like when you can control your body and control someone else, like you don't have to hit them to control them. That's a very powerful thing.

• 21:18Speaker 00

  That that is a powerful thing and and people that might un- understand what we're talking about here. It's a more of a controlling. Uh uh discipline that you can put people in a locker, an arm bar or or something and and contain them without the actual. Uh hi- hitting them where they can collapse and hit their head.

• 21:34Speaker 01

  I mean, there was even a few security guards back when I was doing security. They actually killed people because they put them in headlocks. You know, and they didn't, they didn't know what they were doing and they they killed people. So um just to know when someone's, you know. People, oh, like I put people in headlocks before.

• 21:51Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 21:51Speaker 01

  And they didn't know how to tap.

• 21:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  They don't know how to stop it. They'll just try to pull it and then.

• 21:58Speaker 00

  Even the cops, I came across a lot of uh, yeah, people bounces, as you wanna call them, or or security people and that. And there is, there's good ones, there's bad ones. And you see, you see the ones, and this not just security. I'd see it in cops too, the ones that were always involved in a a punch up or an assault. And a lot of the times it was because the way they spoke to people. And I saw that with some uh people working the doors. Like, there's a different way of speaking. If you've got a bloke that's turning up there and causing trouble, there's a way that you can speak to them without escalating. But if you're, yeah, if you're looking for a fight, it's very easy to get one if you're standing on a door.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  For sure. I I think every security guard or um bodyguard or whoever should be doing some kind of martial arts. Should learn how to control themselves emotionally, because when I was doing it, uh I started at eighteen. I finished about twenty one, twenty two.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  I still wasn't in control of my emotions. So I always try to talk to people and I always try to, you know. Go down that route.

• 22:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:57Speaker 01

  But then when it kicked off, like it kicked off.

• 22:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:00Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? And I got put in the worst pubs and clubs in Adelaide.

• 23:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  You know, um.

• 23:05Speaker 00

  And there would be some bad ones.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  They were, they actually called us a cleanup crew. So it was me and two big Nigerian guys, um. One was a boxer, one was a, just a.

• 23:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:14Speaker 01

  Like a friend of mine. And we would, our boss would put us in these clubs, these pubs.

• 23:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  And there'll be, you know, bikies, noms and, um, they'd always go there and cause trouble and we would just have to clean, like, get rid of them.

• 23:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  And they didn't go, go down without a fight.

• 23:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:28Speaker 01

  Um, so yeah, I've been stabbed.

• 23:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  Got stabbed there from behind. I turned around and luckily I heard his footsteps. He was trying to get me in the, in the gut.

• 23:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  Um, I've been bottled, yeah. I've been attacked with machetes, hammers. So you, when, when, when it's time to go, you go.

• 23:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:46Speaker 01

  Uh, so many knives poured on me and like razor blades.

• 23:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  So, um, yeah.

• 23:52Speaker 00

  It's a, it's a tough, uh, tough way to make a living.

• 23:55Speaker 01

  It is. And it's very dangerous and I respect them. But, um, yeah, a lot of people, um, don't last that long in the industry. So there's always new people coming in.

• 24:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:04Speaker 01

  You know, you get, you get three days of training in the course and then you get your licence kind of thing. I'm, I'm pretty sure that's still how it is, I'm not sure.

• 24:10Speaker 00

  If you were sort of the cleanup crew, cause I, I see some people that are put on the doors and, yeah, you, you don't judge a book by its cover. You, you know that as well as I do. Some people can, uh, look after themselves and they don't look like they can't.

• 24:22Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 24:22Speaker 00

  But you see some people naively think it's like, yeah, just telling kids to, yeah, behave. It, it's not like that. It can get very ugly. Very quickly.

• 24:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:31Speaker 00

  On the door, and especially the, the wrong type of establishment. And when the, uh, if, yeah, the bikies turn up or someone else turns up like, like that. They're looking to make a, uh, name and they don't, uh, don't respect being told what to do.

• 24:44Speaker 01

  I mean, I seen a guy, a glass, this woman, um, with a full, like a solid glass like this.

• 24:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Right in front of me. And my first instinct was to lay him out.

• 24:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  You know, and, uh, that poor woman, her whole face is just, you know, so when, when something like that happens.

• 25:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  It's hard to control yourself.

• 25:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:02Speaker 01

  You know, um, yeah, so I, I saw a lot of things, man, like, I had a guy that got stabbed in the arm.

• 25:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:08Speaker 01

  And hit his artery or his vein and. I don't like blood, but that was traumatizing. I was trying to cover him up and blood squirting out everywhere. I could still like see it in my head, you know, so.

• 25:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's pretty horrible.

• 25:21Speaker 01

  It's nasty, you know.

• 25:23Speaker 00

  It's like that, but that's how, yeah, as a homicide detective, I'd turn up the jobs where someone's been stabbed once and you're not thinking they're gonna die, but it hits the wrong place. And yeah, that's the, that's the consequences.

• 25:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, you would have seen a lot of horrible things in your time.

• 25:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, a lot of horrible things and a lot of, yeah, people think like there's all different types of murders, you know, the serial killers or, you know, contract killings, that type of thing. A lot of times murders happen, stupid things like you've described. Yeah, someone gets into an argument over, yeah, the way he looked at a person or whatever. And yeah, a punch and they're dead.

• 26:00Speaker 01

  How did you do with going through those things?

• 26:03Speaker 00

  I, I, I think when you're, when you're doing the job, like you, you carry the emotion, like you, you, you, I don't think you're a good homicide detective unless you've got empathy for the victims and, you know, understand what, what's going on. But you've got a job to do. Uh, cause I've, I've spoken to a lot of homicide cops since I've, I've left the police. And they've all, all the same. Like when you're doing it, if there's murder, you're called to the murder. So you're, you're focused. You, you've got a job to do. So you don't really carry all, all the emotion because you, you're step by step trying to solve it. When you get home, sometimes you sit at home and it sort of goes, oh, yeah, that was pretty heavy. Or other times, because you're on

• 26:42Speaker 00

  call a lot, you sit there and you think, fuck, I hope the phone doesn't ring. I just, you're sitting at home, you know, relaxing and knowing that if the phone rings, you could be end up in some, you know, horror scene and, and doing, doing what you do, but.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  Would you have like a, a constant anxiety or like expectation for bad things to happen?

• 27:00Speaker 00

  I think you get used to the chaos, but if, if that makes sense, that you, you do it so much, it was just so, that was your, your norm. I, and I, I think I was lucky, uh, that I just had the ability to leave it. Just chill out and, you know, we're talking coming in here about training. Training helped me a lot, like no matter what pressure I was feeling at at work. I'd go to a gym and get someone light me up, kick me in the head or whatever and you you concentrate. You're concentrating there and that was sort of an outlet, that was that was a relief. But, yeah, each person deals with it, deals with it differently. But I think the the thing is you've you've got a job to do.

• 27:42Speaker 00

  I I think about the ambos, cause in the policing, like homicide for twenty years. Went to a hell of a lot of homicides, but when I was in uniform for a couple of years, went to some fatal accidents, they're bad. Like, you're there and that could happen to anyone. Normally with a homicide, you're, okay, this has happened because that happened. Then you see an accident and you think, jeez, anyone in your family, anyone that you love could end up, end up that way. So, yeah, pretty, pretty heavy in that that regards.

• 28:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:10Speaker 00

  But, you know, it's it's life, isn't it?

• 28:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:14Speaker 00

  You you you see that side of life.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  How like mentally is is would would you say a lot of paramedics or detectives go through mental health? Uh, cause my my stepdad's a detective.

• 28:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  And I've seen with him, he goes to work, stuff happens, he comes home. He can switch off, but I can still see that sometimes it affects him.

• 28:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:34Speaker 01

  And it'd be very hard to switch off. That's why I respect police and fire and ambulance, paramedics so much. Because they're they're literally heroes, you know.

• 28:43Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, well, I, yeah, a hero is a a word that's used often. Yeah, there there are some heroes in there, the the sacrifices, sacrifices they make. But it's, you know, we're not conscripts in the police and that, you you choose to do it, there's the reason you do it. Some people find it as a calling. I know the way I describe it, when you you've been in a heavy situation. You come home and let's say it's, yeah, come home and the family's there and do you wanna go out for dinner? And you've been making one decision after another, bang, bang, bang, and it's, you know, some of them are life threatening decisions. And you go, yeah, cause you can make really quick decisions when you've been operating in that pace.

• 29:24Speaker 00

  And they'll say, well, what do you feel like? Do you wanna do, you know, Thai or should we go Indonesian or whatever? And it's almost like you get very short with it. You just, I don't care. Let's, let's just do it. It, it doesn't matter. Or other times you come home and, you know, it might be Christmas time. I did plenty of murders round, round Christmas time and everyone's celebrating and talking and it's hard to just sort of jump into that sort of happy environment when you've just come from something else. But yeah, there's different, different ways of dealing with it, but I, I think we all pay a price in, in some way. And, but yeah, we, we choose to, choose to do it. With um, the mental, on the mental side of it,

• 30:05Speaker 00

  you, you struggle with mental health issues as a young fella for a while.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  In the past, I have for sure.

• 30:11Speaker 00

  You're comfortable talking about that?

• 30:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure.

• 30:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, what, what, what are we talking about there?

• 30:16Speaker 01

  Um, I mean, as a kid, I was pretty, you know, depressed. I would say I didn't know I had depression from a very young age. Um, as soon as my dad went to jail, basically.

• 30:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, probably from eight till twenty two, twenty three. And even, even up until a couple of years ago, there's been, it's been off and on. So it's something that I've had to deal with my whole life. And that could come from a lot of things. Could come from childhood trauma.

• 30:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:43Speaker 01

  Could come from the bullying, family situations. But you know what? End of day, it's, it's probably self inflicted as well. Um, I used to do what my dad did and just blame everybody else. I didn't take responsibility for my life. And I, and I said it's his fault, it's her fault. And I had to grow up. I had, I didn't have a male role model.

• 31:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:03Speaker 01

  My, my grandfather's a very good man.

• 31:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:06Speaker 01

  But he, he wasn't telling me how to be a man. He wasn't teaching me. He was like, well, I was always working with him in, in the, in the, on the boat. He had a prawn troller on the farm. So he taught me so much. But um, I didn't have a, a, a man there saying, hey, like, this is what you're going through.

• 31:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:23Speaker 01

  I know to talk to. So um, a lot of it, I bottled up. I thought I was crazy.

• 31:28Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 31:28Speaker 01

  You know, I've got a bit of ADHD as well.

• 31:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Um, so, you know, being dyslexic. Man, I've got a whole, I've got a whole Rubik's cube of things, you know, like.

• 31:37Speaker 00

  You're dealing with some shit.

• 31:38Speaker 01

  I'm dealing with some shit and uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's been hard, but um, I'm thankful to be here and I'm getting better every single day. And as a man, um, I'm proud of myself. Like, I remember when I was twelve years old. I looked in the mirror, I was this fat kid, no friends, everyone sort of, I thought hated me.

• 31:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:59Speaker 01

  Not everyone did, but a lot of people did. And I looked in the mirror, I saw this man standing there.

• 32:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:05Speaker 01

  Big, strong, he was a fighter.

• 32:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:08Speaker 01

  And after my last fight.

• 32:10Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 32:11Speaker 01

  I saw that reflection.

• 32:12Speaker 00

  You saw it came back at you.

• 32:12Speaker 01

  I just remembered, I'm like, oh my god, I'm that man, yeah. So that's been a crazy journey and I wouldn't take back a single thing.

• 32:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  Everything happened in my life so I could be here today and be the person who I am today.

• 32:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:25Speaker 01

  So actually, I'm thankful for everything. I'm thankful for my dad going to jail. I'm thankful for e- even all the, the, the depression and I've had suicidal attempts before. Um, so all of that's made me who I am and I appreciate life. I've got a great family, I've got beautiful friends. And I've got a really good relationship with God. So that's, that's the biggest thing for me. Um, so yeah.

• 32:48Speaker 00

  And it's all, all come together. But the, the fact you, you mentioned there that, yeah, blaming others. I think there's a lot of victimhood that goes through the world at, at the moment where we're all looking for, to find blame. It's not my fault, it's because of this, it's because of that. Where you, you sort of take ownership and go, okay, well, there's only one person that can turn this ship around and that's, that's me. I, I think it's, it's a good, good thing. Sometimes easier said than done. Did you get professional help? Did you have people speak to you at any stage?

• 33:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, no one's coming to save me. You know, daddy's not coming home. But yeah, so for me, it's, as a kid, I would spend the, uh, the recess, I can't remember what they call it.

• 33:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, morning too.

• 33:31Speaker 01

  Morning break or whatever it is. I used to spend that in the council's office.

• 33:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  And they'll make me sit there and just like, just sit there. I'm like, why am I being punished? You know what I mean? They're like, oh, it's, it's, it's for your own good. So I also get treated really poorly and that wouldn't help. After I left school, after I got expelled.

• 33:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:49Speaker 01

  Um, I started, yeah, working all different kinds of trades and then I started meeting different men and I would always ask them questions. I'm like, hey, how do you do with this? How do you do with that?

• 33:58Speaker 00

  Like emotional questions, like telling you how to build something.

• 34:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, like. Like, you know, how do you do.

• 34:03Speaker 00

  Feeling sad. What's this about?

• 34:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, like deep questions. I'm like, what do you think about life? Like, you know, and then I got a lot of good answers from a lot of good men. And everyone's played a role for me to be here.

• 34:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:14Speaker 01

  Later on in life, like now, I see a therapist, a sports psychologist, that really helps me with my mental. And that's actually leveled up my game massively. I see a hypnotherapist who is basically just someone to talk to. And we go through, you know, a lot of, um, you know, fighting tactics and visualization.

• 34:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:33Speaker 01

  Um, I do my own research. Like, I read a lot of like stoicism, um, books and I read the Bible a lot. I think there's a lot of wisdom in the Bible.

• 34:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  And I sort of anchor myself with with God. And when I fight, there is no fear, because I'm only scared of God.

• 34:47Speaker 00

  And did you, with your religion, did you find that later in life? Or is that something that was imparted on you very early?

• 34:54Speaker 01

  It was always there. Um, I just got lost.

• 34:57Speaker 00

  And you didn't really understand and appreciate it. And it works for, works for you?

• 35:01Speaker 01

  It works for me. And I always just, um, my life has been so crazy. There's so many things like, um. I really shouldn't be alive, you know, and many times I think God intervened.

• 35:14Speaker 00

  Right.

• 35:14Speaker 01

  So, and even just the people I've met along the way, you know, um, like I don't believe in coincidences. So my, my fight, for example.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:23Speaker 01

  Everything, my, my debut fight, everything was going wrong. Um, my mate passed away at the start of the year.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  This is your first UFC.

• 35:31Speaker 01

  This is my first UFC fight. So my mate passed away at the start of the year. The whole year was shit.

• 35:36Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 35:37Speaker 01

  Fucking broken ribs, um, you know, couldn't get fights, um, and then, yeah, before my fight broke my ribs again.

• 35:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:45Speaker 01

  I have a twenty week long camp. I probably trained two weeks.

• 35:49Speaker 00

  Okay, so not well prepared.

• 35:50Speaker 01

  A lot of pressure, biggest moment of my life. And I kept seeing signs and I, I just kept that faith. I'm like, if it's, if what is for me, um, is, is like, I won't miss it, you know?

• 36:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:01Speaker 01

  If God is for me, then who can be against me?

• 36:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:04Speaker 01

  That's what I was telling myself. And then I get in the UFC. I get a contract. I'm like, wow.

• 36:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:10Speaker 01

  The fight lands on my mate's birthday. You know what I mean?

• 36:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:13Speaker 01

  And that was a big emotional thing for me. All his family was there. And yeah, I knocked him out in the first round. And I just, I was having dreams and it was, it was, it was a crazy experience. Um, but I literally. Like my coaches, my teammates, they're looking at me, they're worried for me because I couldn't train properly.

• 36:30Speaker 00

  Well, you had busted ribs at that when you went in the fight. That's very painful.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, for me, I just, I just pushed that pain aside.

• 36:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:39Speaker 01

  And I said, if this is for me, then I'm gonna win this. And I just put all my faith into God. And I literally went in there. I wasn't even fighting, mate. Like, something took over me and I just, I raised, got my hands raised.

• 36:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:52Speaker 01

  It was crazy.

• 36:53Speaker 00

  Um, you, you mentioned stoicism and reading about that. There's a lot of good, good messages in stoic beliefs, isn't there?

• 37:01Speaker 01

  There is, there is. Um, it's like my, uh, sports psychologist, David Neef. He's got a great book. It's called Mindset. And, um, man, he's, he's changed my life. He's changed my game. He's worked with Israel Adesanya. And all the city kickboxing people.

• 37:18Speaker 00

  Where lots of world's champions come out of, uh, come out of there.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, so he's a great man. And I had dinner with him recently. It was just nice to catch up. We've been.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  You know, doing sessions for the last two, three years.

• 37:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 37:31Speaker 01

  To see where I was and to see where I am now, it's night and day. And it's because of that man as well.

• 37:36Speaker 00

  Okay, and it's, they're that role model, uh, or, or mentor that I think we all need in life. You, you'd need a, a sort of pathway, um, to, uh, stay on the, the right, right track. But it sounds like your life could have gone, you know, if you described your childhood and I'm just making notes here and didn't know what you've turned out. I'd be thinking, I know where this is heading. Your old man's gone to jail. You're, you're getting, uh, picked on at school and, uh, you're, you're hating the world. You're hating yourself. It's a, a pathway that a lot of people end up, uh, you know, ending up inside or, or worse. You've had, um, self-harm thoughts and all, all that. Like, you'd have to be feeling like really down.

• 38:17Speaker 00

  At, at that point in time. And, and when you look back now, can you even comprehend that was the state of mind that you're in?

• 38:23Speaker 01

  Man, I don't know what I was thinking.

• 38:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  And I think a lot of people who do do it.

• 38:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Um, they will take it back straight away.

• 38:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Um, I, I, I truly believe that because I've lost a lot of mates to suicide.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:35Speaker 01

  And uh, it, it just affects everyone, you know, it's not just you, like, I'm just so glad that I never, never went through with it or something stopped me. So, uh, David Neef said this, this quote to me, um, one of my first sessions.

• 38:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:48Speaker 01

  He says, a unexamined life is not worth living.

• 38:52Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 38:52Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? So if you don't do the inner work, and that's, I think that's Socrates.

• 38:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:58Speaker 01

  If, if you don't do the inner work and you don't fix the flaws that you have, it's like, um, yeah, it's, you're gonna live a miserable life. And I didn't do the inner work when I was younger.

• 39:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  And um, truly, I think that's, that's what went, put me down that, that road. Like, I think we all have greatness inside of us.

• 39:18Speaker 00

  This, this, like, the philosophy that you, you're talking about this and the way you live in your life, has that been borne out because of the, the pressures you put yourself under in, in the fighting? Does that make you examine yourself more?

• 39:29Speaker 01

  A hundred percent, a hundred percent.

• 39:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:31Speaker 01

  Um, I, I'm just a kid from Adelaide.

• 39:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:35Speaker 01

  Where, where I started from, like, I was a mess.

• 39:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:37Speaker 01

  Where I am now, like, I'm not perfect.

• 39:40Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 39:40Speaker 01

  I'm still learning as, as I go, as I go through life. I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm blessed even be here, like, on this podcast or speaking to people.

• 39:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:48Speaker 01

  I don't know what I'm doing, mate. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just giving life a go and, you know, I'm just trying to help some people out there, maybe. So they can avoid going down the path that I went down.

• 39:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:59Speaker 01

  Maybe they can skip the depression side of things, or maybe going to jail, or um, just believing in themselves and going for it.

• 40:08Speaker 00

  Well, what I like sitting here with, uh, some, someone that the world would have to accept is a tough guy. Yeah, like, you, you're fighting the UFC and uh, yeah, you're a hard man, but you can talk about your emotions and uh. I think, yeah, you were saying you were looking for help from uh, some blokes and you'd ask them and I, I think a lot of people uh, uh. Suffer a lot of pain because they have got, not got someone to talk to.

• 40:31Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 40:32Speaker 00

  And bounce ideas. As blokes, you know it, I know it. I could, we could be best mates and uh, you know, you could go, how are you feeling? And you go, I'm not real good. And I go, oh, you wanna be? Yeah, it can be that shallow, the conversation. So the fact that you can sit here and, and talk about your emotions and your journey, I think is, is pretty cool.

• 40:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think, um, look. I've got a responsibility now, I'm in the limelight a little bit. I've got a bit of a platform, I guess you can say.

• 40:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  I I didn't think I would have one. And I just get so many messages from from blokes, um.

• 41:03Speaker 00

  Well.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  Who who need who need help. So I take this on as a responsibility to sort of talk about my feelings. It's fucking hard, mate. It's it's hard to sit here in front of you.

• 41:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:13Speaker 01

  I just did a better blokes podcast.

• 41:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:15Speaker 01

  And, uh, mate, I cried in front of them.

• 41:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:17Speaker 01

  You know, I wasn't expecting to to open up about things and but I've got feelings, I'm a human.

• 41:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:23Speaker 01

  Um, people see me as this strong guy and, you know, UFC fighter. You know, people call me, they they call me the Russian killer now, because I just, you know, fought that guy. You know what I mean? But I'm I'm I'm just myself and, uh, like, some days I cry, some days I laugh. But every day I wake up is a blessing and we get another chance. So why not just fucking enjoy the day? Give it everything you got, because you might not wake up tomorrow.

• 41:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  And I've seen that with my mates, so, um, I just, I want to help as many people as I can.

• 41:53Speaker 00

  Well, you you're on the on the pathway to doing that and, uh, let's just e- explain the UFC a little bit to, uh, people. So it's the Ultimate Fighting Championships. It's mixed martial arts and the UFC's the brand name, the most, you know, well known. And, uh, people listening to this podcast, it'll it'll come out after, uh, the UFC fight was at the UFC two fifty was at the White House. So if anyone's gonna get some attention, it's Donald Trump and his, uh, his crew over there. But that's what we're talking about. You're in a cage, you're in an octagon. Can you just tell people that don't understand what the the, uh, UFC is all about, what it is about? And then we'll we'll talk about what you're aiming for, which is to become the world heavyweight champion,

• 42:37Speaker 00

  which is quite often referred to as the most dangerous man on the planet or baddest man on the planet. So tell us a little bit about the UFC and your your journey there.

• 42:45Speaker 01

  So the UFC is the biggest fighting promotion in the world.

• 42:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:48Speaker 01

  And when I was a kid, I had no friends.

• 42:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:52Speaker 01

  I used to rent DVDs from Blockbuster.

• 42:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  And I used to watch Ultimate Fighting.

• 42:56Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 42:56Speaker 01

  I used to love it. I used to punch the pillow, I used to put the mattress against the wall and start, like, boxing it. And, um, yeah, I had a dream twenty years ago to be in the UFC.

• 43:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:06Speaker 01

  And I always had this feeling inside of me that I can be a world champion. So. I didn't start training then. I started training when I was twenty four years old.

• 43:15Speaker 00

  Right.

• 43:16Speaker 01

  That's that's considered fairly late. Yeah. Um. And even that's just a testament. Like, when people tell you you're too old.

• 43:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:23Speaker 01

  Don't don't believe them. I was getting told I was too old at sixteen years old. By my uncles and family and friends and um man, like, I just, I shouldn't have listened to them.

• 43:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:34Speaker 01

  But everything happens for a reason, and I think I I came to it at the right time in life. Um. But the UFC, it's it's, you know, if you're a fighter that does mixed martial arts, that is ultimate. There's lots of other promotions, but it's nothing like the UFC.

• 43:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:48Speaker 01

  Um. It's watched by over a billion people around the world.

• 43:51Speaker 00

  It's the biggest growing sport in the world, I think.

• 43:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. And when you're a UFC champion, you you are the baddest man on the planet, especially at heavyweight.

• 43:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  There's there's like now I'm ranked number fourteen, right? So people say, oh, you're the fourteenth baddest man on the planet.

• 44:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:05Speaker 01

  Nah, mate, I'm the baddest man on the planet right now.

• 44:08Speaker 00

  Just haven't got the title yet.

• 44:09Speaker 01

  Haven't got the title yet.

• 44:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:10Speaker 01

  He's he's holding it for me.

• 44:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  So give me a year, two years, I'm gonna hold that belt. Now I'm gonna be the first Australian UFC heavyweight champion.

• 44:18Speaker 00

  Hmm. Well, there's a lot of people that um believe believe in you and believe you're right. I'm not gonna question you when you're seeing this close to me. You wanna be with me? Well, yeah, yeah. No, you've got it. Got my vote.

• 44:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:30Speaker 00

  Um. You fight in in five minute rounds. Uh. Title fights are over five rounds. Other fights are over three rounds. So, yeah, people think, oh, well, that's only fifteen minutes or twenty five minutes. Just tell us, well, you've ended some of your fights very, very quickly. But tell us what sort of training and preparation you've got to do to get to that level, to get uh uh, because you get a contract with the UFC.

• 44:52Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 44:53Speaker 00

  Um. And what you've got to do to get to that level?

• 44:56Speaker 01

  Ten years to be an overnight success. It took me ten years to get in the UFC.

• 45:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:00Speaker 01

  Um. And I'm just starting now. I'm learning on the job. Uh when I was fighting on the local scene, it was very hard to get fights. So I'm still fairly inexperienced.

• 45:09Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 45:09Speaker 01

  I'm literally learning as I go.

• 45:11Speaker 00

  And uh in the fight game, regardless of the type of style, if someone's, yeah, hasn't got the the rankings, but is very good, a lot of people don't wanna fight the person because it's it's in a no win situation. You might get you might get put to sleep and uh yeah. By by someone that hasn't got the uh the reputation. Is that why you were having trouble getting fights?

• 45:32Speaker 01

  Definitely on the local scene.

• 45:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  Uh let's hope that it's not like that in the UFC.

• 45:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:37Speaker 01

  I don't believe it will be.

• 45:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:38Speaker 01

  Cause everyone in the UFC is, you know, they think they're the best. And that's how it should be.

• 45:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:43Speaker 01

  I think I'll beat any man on the planet right now, um even with two broken hands.

• 45:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:48Speaker 01

  Like I'm I'm confident in myself and yeah.

• 45:50Speaker 00

  So we're talking like Cyril Gaines.

• 45:52Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 45:53Speaker 00

  Tom Aspinall.

• 45:54Speaker 01

  Yep, I'll fight him. I'll fight him next week or, you know.

• 45:56Speaker 00

  You've you've got the, you're sitting here, if people are listening to this, there's one uh one or your left wrist in a a cast and your right one's also broken.

• 46:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:05Speaker 00

  That was from your last fight.

• 46:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, so the first minute and a half of the first fight, uh sorry, the first round, I uh three fractures in my right hands, ligament damage, and then probably a minute later, my uh left thumb broke. And I had to get the ligament reattached, so um but I still fought for, I think another six minutes after that.

• 46:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:28Speaker 01

  Uh so every shot, I felt it, you know, just a jolt and pain.

• 46:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:33Speaker 01

  But I wanted that more than him.

• 46:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  He was a very tough dude.

• 46:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:37Speaker 01

  And uh very solid head. I hit him over a hundred, I think it was a hundred and eleven punches I landed on him. So, yeah.

• 46:44Speaker 00

  Then, look, people, people, and I know there's gonna be people listening, say it it's brutal, it's a brutal, brutal sport. What what's your comeback to that when uh people throw that up at you?

• 46:55Speaker 01

  I mean, it is a brutal sport, but it's a sport. And it's, it's um, uh, it's, it's a hard one for me to answer because for me, it's my life. It's something that I truly love. Fighting is, is my love. You know, I haven't got a partner or a wife.

• 47:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  But I love fighting. I'm obsessed with it and it saved my life. I'm very loyal to it.

• 47:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:16Speaker 01

  I wanna do this to the day I die. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna be able to, you know, there's gonna be a time I have to walk away from it.

• 47:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:23Speaker 01

  But um, all my friends now are through fighting. All the, the love of my life and the joy is through fighting.

• 47:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:30Speaker 01

  So as brutal as a sport as it is, it's a beautiful sport and it is an art. And that's why they call it mixed martial arts. Like I am an artist.

• 47:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:40Speaker 01

  And I get to help people now. I get to travel the world. I was a kid from Tapiru, Adelaide, which is like a rough sort of place um, back in the day.

• 47:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  And now I'm flying around the world, speaking to people like yourself and um, man, we went to the creation club. Uh, King Tommy, uh, it's, it's a creation club here in Sydney.

• 47:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:00Speaker 01

  I just popped in randomly. Everyone recognized me. And they're all coming up for photos and uh, speaking to me, giving me gifts and it just blows my mind. So I couldn't have that. Doing a construction job or security and um, yeah.

• 48:16Speaker 00

  And I, I think in, in terms of the brutality, you train for it. Like you, you don't, you're not picking someone from the street. There's a dedication and I, I don't think people can fully comprehend how much training goes into uh, getting you ready before you step into that uh, that cage. Um, that, uh, everyone's there consenting. It's not uh, it's not bullying people on the street. So you're an athlete, you're competing. And uh, people would say to me, how, how, you know, if I do some sparring with a friend, how could you do that? I say it's the same as playing tennis with a friend. It's not, it's not personal. You, you're testing, testing your skills.

• 48:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:53Speaker 00

  And uh, what sort of attitude do you go into the fights with?

• 48:58Speaker 01

  Um, I mean, my first UFC fight.

• 49:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:03Speaker 01

  I was scared.

• 49:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:05Speaker 01

  I was scared. Mate, everything was against me and I was sort of even against myself at one point.

• 49:11Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 49:12Speaker 01

  Just sort of the doubt creeped in and the fear and I really just, I gave it to God. I just surrendered to God. And I said, just whatever, you know, your will will be done.

• 49:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  My second fight, I was more confident.

• 49:25Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 49:25Speaker 01

  But I fought at the O two Arena in London.

• 49:27Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 49:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, the whole crowd was against me, which I prepared for mentally.

• 49:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:31Speaker 01

  And that was a cool experience because in the end I didn't give a fuck about the crowd. I didn't, didn't care about my opponent. And I had a great performance and I was finding my groove. In my last fight, I found my groove.

• 49:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:44Speaker 01

  And um, like, I know I can do this. I will do this.

• 49:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:47Speaker 01

  And it just, like, I'm learning on the job. Yeah, every fight, I'm, I'm learning new things.

• 49:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  And yeah.

• 49:54Speaker 00

  With the, uh, with the training, you, you relocated, you said, uh, over to New Zealand, to City Kickboxing Gym in, in Auckland.

• 50:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:01Speaker 00

  What motivated you to do that? And did you just turn up unannounced and go, hey, guys, I'm here and, uh, and walk in there? What, tell us that story.

• 50:10Speaker 01

  Uh, Israel Adesanya.

• 50:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, and, uh, Style Bender.

• 50:14Speaker 01

  Style Bender.

• 50:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:16Speaker 01

  He's, he is the reason why City Kickboxing is known.

• 50:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:19Speaker 01

  Um, he is the reason why I have a career. And obviously, like, I did a lot of work myself. And, you know, I always had this dream.

• 50:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:29Speaker 01

  But the fact that Israel was fighting on the local promotion, News of Fury.

• 50:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  You know, um, and then I started fighting in that promotion.

• 50:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:36Speaker 01

  The fact that he got in the UFC, um, as a kickboxer and did well, that was a, a mo- a motivation for me.

• 50:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:43Speaker 01

  So there was always this motivation from Israel. He sort of led the path for me. He opened the door. And I ended up performing in front of him at King in the Ring.

• 50:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  I won my first fight, got knocked out in my second fight.

• 50:55Speaker 00

  Right.

• 50:56Speaker 01

  He comes up to me after the fight. He's like, hey, bro, amazing fight. You, you got so much like skill and talent.

• 51:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:02Speaker 01

  Keep going. I want you to come to the gym tomorrow. I was about to retire. After I lost that fight, I'm like nah.

• 51:07Speaker 00

  Okay, so that was, you were at that tipping point that maybe this is not for me.

• 51:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was twenty seven years old, couldn't get fights regularly, wasn't training properly.

• 51:17Speaker 00

  And you would be making stuff all money.

• 51:19Speaker 01

  Oh, I was paying to, to, to fight. You know, I, I, I worked hard, I had sponsors, every fight I would have to pay my opponent or pay for flights or accommodation. So it was costing me money.

• 51:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:30Speaker 01

  And I was sleeping in the gym back in Adelaide. I wasn't sleeping at home, I was sleeping in the gym. Um, but he opened the door for me, he gave me another chance. And then when I met him, he said to me, I actually sparred him, I'm like, bro, where's the gloves? He was like, why? I'm like, oh, we'll spar, you know?

• 51:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:44Speaker 01

  And we ended up sparring and, you know, we had a good rounds together. And he was like, bro, I want you to come help me for my next fight. Uh, it's against Alex Pereira.

• 51:52Speaker 00

  That's cool.

• 51:52Speaker 01

  I was like, yeah, that's amazing. And, you know, we shook hands and he said he was gonna help me out, fly me over and put me up in accommodation. I said, you know what, bro? I thank you, but I'm gonna do it myself. I don't need your money. Uh, it's just a privilege to come train with you.

• 52:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:05Speaker 01

  So then I went back home. My grandfather had a, a stroke.

• 52:09Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 52:09Speaker 01

  And he, he wasn't looking good. And my grandfather was like my father.

• 52:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  So I, I said to Izzy, uh, I'm sorry, I can't come until my grandfather's better.

• 52:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:19Speaker 01

  Maybe I'll see you in the future.

• 52:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:21Speaker 01

  Israel fought Alex, he lost that fight.

• 52:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, I remember that.

• 52:25Speaker 01

  And then I think a few months passed and then my grandfather eventually got better.

• 52:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:29Speaker 01

  I messaged him, I'm like, hey, bro, I wanna come for your next camp, um, if I'm still invited. He's like, come over.

• 52:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:37Speaker 01

  So I was there for the next camp and I've stayed ever since. And that was November fourteenth, uh, twenty twenty two.

• 52:43Speaker 00

  And was that when he was training for the rematch?

• 52:45Speaker 01

  The rematch, yeah.

• 52:47Speaker 00

  Alex?

• 52:47Speaker 01

  And then he brought me over to Miami and then that was my first insight sort of to the UFC.

• 52:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:53Speaker 01

  Um, and it just changed my life, you know?

• 52:56Speaker 00

  And like Israel, he, he was, well, the biggest star in the, in the UFC.

• 53:00Speaker 01

  Still is, he still is.

• 53:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, he, he drew the, uh, drew the crowds and the amazing champion. I know you speak highly of him. You see the public persona of him and there's an arrogance and, uh, and that. But there's a lot more depth to him than, uh.

• 53:14Speaker 01

  What would you say in arrogance?

• 53:16Speaker 00

  Well.

• 53:16Speaker 01

  I haven't seen that.

• 53:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:17Speaker 01

  So for me, Israel was just.

• 53:19Speaker 00

  I, I, I think I'm probably hanging on to when he beat Robert Whittaker.

• 53:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay.

• 53:24Speaker 00

  When, when he turned, turned up here and I, I was supporting Robert Whittaker at that time and I was just shattered after it. But he, he beat him fair and square and I know they're good mates now, so I would imagine there's.

• 53:34Speaker 01

  And Rob's a great dude.

• 53:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  He's, he's a real.

• 53:37Speaker 00

  He's a, a, just an absolute gentleman, isn't he? But that, so with Israel, but there was, I probably, I call it an arrogance, but I suppose that's what he's got to. The ring entry on that particular fight, he just came out and he was dancing like Michael Jackson and just.

• 53:54Speaker 01

  I think that's confidence, brother.

• 53:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, okay.

• 53:56Speaker 01

  I think that's confidence.

• 53:56Speaker 00

  Well, I, I termed it arrogance because he beat, uh, my man, Rob Whittaker.

• 54:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:01Speaker 00

  I hear you, uh, say good things about him. What, what is it about him that you like? And you, you call it like a mentor. He's, you described how he helped your career, but what is it about him as a person?

• 54:12Speaker 01

  He's just a good human.

• 54:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:13Speaker 01

  And I've seen it time and time again. He's never changed.

• 54:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:16Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, you might say arrogance.

• 54:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:18Speaker 01

  But I, I say confidence because that's how, even I am like, there's people who have different perspective, perspectives of us. So there's people out there who love and adore me. There's people out there who think I'm a wanker.

• 54:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:30Speaker 01

  There's people out there who maybe are hurt in the past. So everyone's got a different, you know, view on someone. So, um, for me, my experience with Israel is he's a fucking good human.

• 54:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  And a good bloke. And he's always helped everybody I've seen.

• 54:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:44Speaker 01

  He's always stopped for photos, is always giving his time and energy. And man, he's helped me. He's helped so many of our teammates. He's helped the gym grow, the coaches.

• 54:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  So, um, for me, like, he is a good role model for me and he is my friend, you know? And, um, I'll do anything for that guy.

• 55:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:03Speaker 01

  So, yeah, um, I believe still that he could be our champion.

• 55:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, well, we see.

• 55:08Speaker 01

  If he wants to, if he wants to do it, he'll do it.

• 55:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:11Speaker 01

  And, uh, you know, the, the thing with fans, they're very fickle. A lot of people come up to me.

• 55:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:16Speaker 01

  They, they praise me.

• 55:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:18Speaker 01

  You know, majority of I don't take it on board because I know if I lost, they'll be talking shit.

• 55:23Speaker 00

  That's the, that's a cruel thing of the fight game, isn't it? You see, when, when people are winning, there's an entourage, support fans, and when they lose, it's silence. I, I, I saw that in some gyms that I trained at, where people were, yeah, on the, on the up, like a rising fighter. And then when they lose, you just see all of a sudden, people seem to forget about them. It's a cruel sport like that, isn't it?

• 55:46Speaker 01

  It's a cruel sport, it's a lonely sport. And um, we, every time we step in that cage, we have potential to not walk out of there the same.

• 55:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:54Speaker 01

  So that's why, man, but when people say, why do you do this?

• 55:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:59Speaker 01

  Um, I'm, I'm doing it for myself.

• 56:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:03Speaker 01

  I'm doing it for my family. Um, but I do it for God, I do it for God. And uh, that's, that's what I anchor myself in. I don't care about the fame, the money. Mate, I just flew on a jet, couldn't give a fuck.

• 56:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:15Speaker 01

  It's a, it's a fucking plane, mate. You know what I mean? It's an expensive plane.

• 56:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:19Speaker 01

  Um, but I really don't care. And I'm glad when I was younger, I didn't have much. Because now I appreciate just like living in a van.

• 56:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:29Speaker 01

  I wake up, you know, and today's a good day, no one's died, beautiful. Get to go to the beach, have a coffee, I get to train, build my body. That's joy for me. Money and fame and attention and likes and shit like. I wouldn't have social media if I didn't have to have it.

• 56:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:45Speaker 01

  You know, but I need it as a business and um, you get to meet good people. So it's, there's, there's good and bad.

• 56:51Speaker 00

  Yeah. With the um, uh, the fighting side of things, like people look at it and think a lot of it's physical. But there's a lot more to it. And you, you talked about your, your mind coach and I, I think you do breath work as, as well. Tell us about the preparation is more so than physical, because a lot of it is the mental preparation and the, going in there with the right mindset. Because as you said, you walk into that, they shut that cage, you mightn't come out the same person. And uh, yeah, that's the consequences that you're dealing with, especially in the heavyweight, uh, where you uh, fight.

• 57:21Speaker 01

  Mm.

• 57:22Speaker 00

  Heavyweight division, they're, they're big hits.

• 57:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, look at, look at the last fight with uh, Cyril Gunn and Alex Pereira.

• 57:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:29Speaker 01

  I mean, he was gonna hit behind the head.

• 57:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:32Speaker 01

  And I'm sure Alex is not gonna be the same from, from that fight, you know? He might not see the uh, repercussions now.

• 57:39Speaker 00

  Straight away.

• 57:40Speaker 01

  But when he's older, it will, it will come in. He's had a lot of fights and um, yeah, I, I know. I take this serious and it's my life, it's not a hobby, it's my life.

• 57:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:49Speaker 01

  It's it's a lifestyle because I know um every time I get hit, I'm losing brain cells.

• 57:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  I I I'm doing this to to make a future for myself and also for my future family.

• 58:02Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 58:02Speaker 01

  You know, I'm just a high school dropout, I guess, and I'm I'm just trying to be the best that I can be. So when it comes to this sport, I'm very serious and um I'm I'm here to protect my health. So if I've got to hurt somebody.

• 58:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:15Speaker 01

  To to protect my health, then I'm gonna do it. And and that's that's the brutality of the sport.

• 58:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:20Speaker 01

  It's um it's kill or be killed.

• 58:22Speaker 00

  But the the consent comes in with it too. So the the brutality of it, when the two blokes that step in there or the women are fighting as well, two people that step in there understand the consequences and it's agreed to and uh yeah. So it's a lot fairer than a lot of other situations in life.

• 58:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, and and that's the thing, like, doesn't matter if I win or lose, I'm always gonna shake my opponent's hand.

• 58:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:43Speaker 01

  I'll say a little prayer for him, I'll, you know, give all my love and and yeah. Um whether we talk after that, that's, you know, it doesn't really matter. But um I I don't wanna hurt anybody.

• 58:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:53Speaker 01

  I just wanna win. So if you sign that contract to to fight me.

• 58:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:58Speaker 01

  I know you're gonna try to hurt me, so I'm gonna protect myself. But yeah, it's it's a beautiful sport, it's it's a it's a it's a career.

• 59:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:06Speaker 01

  And uh I I love what I do.

• 59:08Speaker 00

  Okay, well, look, let's take a break with really any scratch the surface. There's so much I wanted to talk to you about and uh I yeah, sat down to uh talk about the UFC. But uh the more I'm talking, obviously, there's a lot of depth there and a lot of thought behind what what you're doing and what your plans are. So we've got a hell of a lot more to talk about. We'll take a break now and uh and come back for part two shortly.

• 59:30Speaker 01

  Awesome.

• 59:30Speaker 00

  Thank you. Cheers.