Episode 1 - The Founders.

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I don't know how to start this, if I'm honest. And I've done, like, ten, maybe twelve different recordings off a script and trying to figure out what feels best, and I've just kind of gone. How about I absolutely wing it? So, here we go. Welcome to the Against Defense podcast. Gets defence podcast with your host, Brazy. Thank you for joining us today. Episode number one. Very excited. Today's episode is speaking to the three individuals that started against the fence, JK, si, and Ash. So I really hope guys enjoy this. If you do, don't forget to hit, follow, subscribe, or, like, depending on where you're watching this, and enjoy. Let's get into the thick of it. So we're just gonna start off with, how did you guys first meet? [00:01:02] Speaker B: School. [00:01:03] Speaker C: Yeah, but at school. Yeah. [00:01:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Si and I had the same form tutorial, actually, I haven't no idea. [00:01:15] Speaker C: It was re, wasn't it? Yeah. So. [00:01:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:01:18] Speaker C: So basically, an re. Me and Jordan would sit at the front, and it was basically, we'd talk about Brock Lesnar because. [00:01:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:01:25] Speaker C: How we originally first started talking was, as most guys our age, we would talk about the WWE, and then it was literally like, oh, did you, like, hear about Brock Lesnar going to that. Going to the organization UFC? Oh, yes. It's a big kind of move. And then, obviously, because we were big fans of WWE, we saw, obviously, Brock Lesnar was a star in WWE. Go and watch mixed martial arts. Go and watch the organization UFC. And that's how we got into the sport of mixed martial arts and how we got into watching the UFC. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it was on, like, over here at the time. It was on. I think highlights were being played on Bravo TV back in the day. Like, the logo, the channel with the logo is like a circle with horns on it. And they used to play, like dog the bounty hunter. [00:02:13] Speaker C: Yeah. And then Sy was also in our re class as well, so. [00:02:18] Speaker D: Was that Miss Nyquima? [00:02:19] Speaker C: It was, yeah. And that's how we all kind of met in one lesson, obviously. Like you just mentioned, you two were in the same actual form class, and then we met in re, and. Yeah, we all blew it off from there. Really did. [00:02:33] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:02:33] Speaker B: Yeah, we all blew each other off. Not really. [00:02:38] Speaker D: I mean, return to sex ed real quick. No, I do remember. I remember Miss Nakuma classes were pretty awesome, and everyone hates Chris and all of that. We kind of bonded on. [00:02:51] Speaker B: It wasn't really an Oklahoma. It was basically, teacher had no idea what she was doing. She would just put on random tv programs for us and we just watched them. Yeah, there were, like some. It was some, like, re. Relative to whatever was being shown, like, I remember. [00:03:13] Speaker D: So, yeah, of like, um, ensemble with all of the subject topics. She wasn't exactly pressing anything, particularly that we had to learn or pick up. So you kind of took a steady pace. Then we start watching everyone hates Chris over the Christmas period and stuff. It's not even Christmas related. And then. Yeah, yeah. [00:03:31] Speaker B: It was like a film, like, called Purple, which was really good. But that had some, like, a lot of, like, messages in it, like to do with, like, racism and then quite educational. [00:03:43] Speaker C: Watch the saved the private Ryan. [00:03:46] Speaker D: Good movie. [00:03:46] Speaker A: What school? [00:03:47] Speaker B: I don't remember that. [00:03:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm trying to think. I know he's quite a bit of. [00:03:52] Speaker D: A trying to shoehorn out to watch. [00:03:55] Speaker C: As a kid, but I don't think she used to always call me Mister Brown, didn't she? That's why we called you. [00:04:02] Speaker D: And that sounds true. [00:04:03] Speaker C: So Mister Brown's eye. Why are you calling Silas Mister Brown? [00:04:09] Speaker D: Is my last name. [00:04:09] Speaker C: Came from re. I mean, re literally was the re. [00:04:12] Speaker B: The birth of. [00:04:13] Speaker C: Of all of us. You know what I mean? [00:04:14] Speaker A: It was. [00:04:14] Speaker D: I guess so. Guess so. [00:04:15] Speaker B: What a lesson as a unit. [00:04:16] Speaker C: Missed out. Quite my legend. [00:04:17] Speaker D: She was so good. [00:04:19] Speaker B: She was awesome. [00:04:20] Speaker D: Yeah. And of course, we had the same form tutor, Miss Ridley. [00:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Who, sigh, still has a crush on to this day for some reason. Found, like, the best idea or best time to try and contact her on Facebook back in February when it was my birthday. [00:04:37] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:04:39] Speaker B: By the way, I'm at Jordan's Arthur's 30th birthday. How are you doing? Like, what? [00:04:44] Speaker D: I just wanted to say thanks for all the amazing lessons you taught me when I was growing up. I thought it was, you know, you're. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Great for sober as well. This wasn't even like after a few drinks. It was like, I'm just gonna randomly message our form to you. All of an old form, like, old school thing. [00:04:58] Speaker D: You guys look so different, but yeah. [00:05:00] Speaker A: Hey, look, if. Anyway, if you don't shoot, you won't score, right? [00:05:05] Speaker B: I mean, she's probably about, what, 40 years old now? [00:05:07] Speaker D: I was gutted when she married. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Ten years. [00:05:10] Speaker D: Yeah, I remember you got married. I was like, what are you doing that for? You got such an amazing last name. [00:05:14] Speaker B: And we got about five kids. [00:05:15] Speaker D: Got to see what we could potentially grow into. I spoke to her for duration of one day to say, hey, great catching up. So school. [00:05:29] Speaker A: It's quite obvious that. It's quite obvious that against the fence started from a shared passion, obviously, you guys talking about sitting in front of. Of the classroom, talking about park and stuff like that, but unlike a lot of other people, you've stuck it out and you've turned it into something which has started to gain some serious momentum, which is called against the fence. Can you take me back to that kind of first conversation? What was going on in your lives that made you kind of go, this is the time to start channel? [00:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it kind of all stemmed from. [00:05:57] Speaker D: Falling apart of the world as we know it. [00:05:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it was the COVID sort of period. But, I mean, Ash decided to kind of look into live streaming. A lot of Call of Duty games. We were playing a lot of war zone at the time, and he'd set up a Twitch channel. [00:06:14] Speaker D: Only a few places that we could meet in that time. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah, we called him modern aje. And then we were just doing what the rob live stream? And then ash goes, one day, I do you know what? We should just livestream ourselves watching the UFC fights, which was like, oh, yeah, okay, we'll give that a bash. But prior to that, fast forward, maybe a few events prior where we were, like, gathering together for pay per view events, and we decided to just kind. [00:06:41] Speaker D: Of, like, in our little bubble as it was. [00:06:44] Speaker B: Yeah, we were recording reactions on our phones of the knockouts. Like, we got the. Okay, the Shmiyev one, knocking out Jared Merscher, and we sort of, like, was, like, laughing, playing it, uploading it on Twitter, and. And then. Yes, then you kind of fast forward. Well, Ash, we were doing the street live streaming for. For Call of Duty, Warzone and all that. And then we did our first live stream of a kind of what was a watch along, which was UFC fight night, Holloway versus. [00:07:20] Speaker C: I was gonna say I was about saves Holloway versus someone. Yeah, Kelvin. [00:07:25] Speaker B: And then. And as we would kind of doing it, we were like, okay. We were getting the feel of it, like, what the things were missing from it. And. And then it kind of hit a bit of a light bulb moment for me, because when before Si and I moved in together, I was living on by myself. I just split up with my girlfriend at the time, was living by myself. I was watching a lot of the United stand, the Manchester United fan channel. And really, what I appreciate about them was the fact that you give the fans a voice and, you know, they're outside the grounds, they're interviewing fans straight after games, and, you know, they're doing, like, these live watch parties and, you know, doing live streams, but talking about latest gossip and transfer news and things like that and the light bulb moment really kind of hit after our first watch along where it was like, right, okay, let's do this full time, but let's do what they're doing. But trying to send it into MMA and the world of the UFC at the time, we looked at how we can kind of do it. Do we do it just for UFC? Do we do it for other organizations as well? But then looking into it, you'd look at however many fight nights there would be. It just wouldn't be humanly possible. After reviewing the first watch along, we kind of sat and realized some of the things that was missing, and we're like, well, if we want to make this content enjoyable for people to watch over a long duration of time, we've kind of got to bring in other elements that are kind of working well in the YouTube MMA space at the moment. And that's you kind of like your Dan Hardy's with the in depth analysis and really kind of listening to former fighters. When fighters are retiring now, they're now going into YouTube and content podcasts and things like that. And for me, it was kind of like, well, how good would it be for fight fans to see that analysis coming from not former fighters, from actual fans? Because to me, that if we want to grow as a sport or the fandom want to grow as a sport, they need to start thinking more technical about what's happening in the fight itself. Instead of viewing the fight as just two guys slugging it out, someone's going to fall, someone's going to tap out, there's going to be a winner. Let's look into things further. What advantages does one fighter have over another? Do you know what I mean? And how does their styles clash? And that's where we kind of thought, right in the week, we need to actually watch physical tape on these fighters, building up to this event and doing as much notes as possible so we can deliver that to the fight fans. [00:10:35] Speaker D: And where we are now. And I think I was saying to you guys earlier last week, I think it was even on the Monday calls that we have, and that's what's really fantastic about this whole journey. And I'll get into in a minute, but we'll go right to the end talking about where we are now. I was saying, you know what's really interesting on paper, and I don't think anyone else in the whole entire UK can probably argue a point stronger than ours. We are the number one fans in the UFC, of the UFC over here in this country. Surely we watch every single fight. We probably tap into fight pass more often than any other fan here in this country as well, because we're always watching fights. [00:11:07] Speaker B: Fight pass has got my money's worth. [00:11:08] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. And then, of course, you've got the fact that we comment on it. We don't miss a single beat on it. Always got news on it. And we're also sharing conversations with people throughout the week on it as well. Constantly. 24, 7365 days a year. I was saying, on paper, we effectively fill out what it would look like to be the number one fan over here in UK for. For UFC. And then if that's where we are at the moment, we thought we're best place, of course, to have a channel to help other fans stay communicated, but also not watch alone, but watch along in community, because it's really unsociable. Hours. We're talking at 03:00 a.m. in the morning. 01:00 a.m. in the morning. And, you know, we've gone to a few events when they do come over to the UK, not often, but I wish it was more then. And we spoke to the fans there and they'll say, oh, we ask them, who do you watch it with? I remember that one guy, Josh, he'll say, watch my mum at night or on my own and that sort of thing. And it's like, wow, well, you don't have to watch alone anymore. You can watch along with a whole community of us. And it's about bringing that voice user. [00:12:03] Speaker C: Saying, watch along, don't watch alone. And it's like, it's taking that voice well, just like, obviously took the words out my mouth as well, saying about obviously united stand because we watched, used to watch a lot of Mark Gobridge as well, and he basically does watch longs on Man United. And that's how we kind of thought, oh, you know what? We can sort of have this kind of element. [00:12:23] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:12:24] Speaker C: Into what we're going to do. And obviously, you mentioned, value kind of. [00:12:26] Speaker D: Pays off more so over here because it needs to be more sociable than it is with what we do. Football is already sociable because you'd be at a pub watching it with your mates. Yeah. Without a community, without something like sociably. [00:12:39] Speaker B: Of course, since doing this, we've picked up on other people who do the same thing, you know, it's not like we've seen them first and gone, oh, let's do what they're doing. It's never been like that at all. We've kind of been doing it with a clear mission and a clear, clear passion, which is to get people involved as much as possible. [00:13:00] Speaker D: The voice of the average fan, taking that voice and put it on the platform for everyone to hear and share as well. [00:13:06] Speaker C: And just to add to that as well, you mentioned in saying it's not like we're doing things others have, I think we have a unique way of looking at a unique way of doing it because the others that we have seen competitors out there that do, do what we do, but we bring that something different and we have that voice for the fans. [00:13:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Like you said, discussing fan opinions, you know, and what other people have got to kind of bring to the, to. [00:13:30] Speaker D: The table, really, and just to wrap up on that as well. Like, we started with where we are now and what it kind of meant going through it, but when it initially started. And what I do love about this is every single week since inception, since we started this, we've always sat down on a Monday, we've always sat as a group and talked and had these meetings. And in these meetings, it's always about what can we do a little bit better from last week? What can we learn from that and how can we improve? And we've always had this mantra since then. It's like, as long as we're getting 0.5% better or a little bit better, we're always, we have this confidence that we are going to get there as a channel and be established as we need to be or want it to be. That's no, that's no issue because we're just constantly going to be putting in those checkpoints and seeing where we are. We are learning, and it might take long time. We can probably find more efficient ways to do what we're getting, but we will get there because we constantly have that momentum. [00:14:14] Speaker C: And the most importantly, I get to sit with you boys every single week. [00:14:19] Speaker D: I mean, the environments change. The environments change. We're in different places now, but we. [00:14:23] Speaker C: Will find a way. [00:14:24] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. We'll find a way back. [00:14:26] Speaker B: Sure. [00:14:27] Speaker A: It's easy, obviously, to look now where you're at. I think it was quite easy to get here. I mean, you've got a team which is growing. You know, you've got the regular people that are tuning in every single week and having quite in depth conversation with you guys while you're live. But we know that building anything worthwhile comes with its fair share of struggles. It's not always going to be easy. And in those early days before you had the consistent fans and you had the consistent viewers and the consistent people engaging with you. Was there ever a moment that you thought, you know, maybe this isn't going to work? And then what kept you from going? Actually, no, I want to stick doing this 100%. [00:15:04] Speaker C: Like si mentioned a second ago about the Monday meetings, I think there was a fair few meetings where I've gone, you know what? All the work, all the effort you put in during the week, and, like, these boys will know as well all the sort of tape that you watch on the fighters throughout the whole week. And obviously, we will have regular jobs, nine to five jobs, as well as, obviously, families and things like that. And, and sometimes it does take a toll, but then it's just a passion for the sport anyway, that will get you there to watch it at the end of the end of the day and just to keep striving forward and. [00:15:34] Speaker B: It'S got to keep working. Got to keep working. [00:15:36] Speaker C: We know, we knew when we first started this it wasn't going to be a one, two year plan. It was going to be so a longer journey than we ever thought. Not to say it would stop after five, six years to kind of get established. We knew it would take a while, but, yeah, there were some struggles, but, yeah, we brought each other up, if any of us were down, if you know what I mean. [00:15:58] Speaker D: Yeah. And we always, we often have. And it's great because sometimes somebody's motivational batteries are a little bit. [00:16:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:06] Speaker D: And then someone else's are charged and they bring that to the fold and it's like, I'm getting charged. Back off of this energy. Thanks for watching. [00:16:11] Speaker B: I'm always charged. That's, that's. That's the secret. Stay charged. [00:16:15] Speaker D: We said charge, not discharged. [00:16:19] Speaker B: Charged. [00:16:21] Speaker A: All the time. [00:16:24] Speaker C: He's not like, charging the car at night. He's fully charged. No, but not 100%. [00:16:29] Speaker D: Really? [00:16:30] Speaker C: You could be spot on. Like, the motivation, to be fair, the motivation for this has never stopped. But you do hit some obviously hard days, don't get me wrong, we've hit some hard days where we put so much effort into one watch along, where we've done a full card watch along, and you think, like, we've done all this effort, and obviously, we brought, like, games into our watch along to try and entertain some of the fans as well. We've had special guests in house. We've had UFC fights in house. Entertain, like you fans out there. And, and sometimes after the watch song, you sit there in the Munda meeting. Boy, is that, is that, is that old? Is that the only views that we got. Is that all that we've done? And you think plumbing, eck, like all the hard work during that week. But yeah, like I said, like Sai mentioned and JK said, like you, if one's down, the others sometimes take a positive that you never thought of and then it just gives you a little bit of confidence that you need to sort of keep striving forward. [00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah. It's why it's always good to sit there, obviously, with the Mundo meetings and then look back at the last week and sit and reflect and pull the positives out of it because it could be quite easy if you do spend too much time looking at the numbers to go hang on. And it goes to you, doesn't it? [00:17:34] Speaker D: Does, yeah. Yeah. [00:17:36] Speaker A: The relationship between creators and audience is always a. An interesting one, particularly with a channel set up the way that you guys have set it up as a. As a fan channel. And it's like an unspoken collaboration almost, where the fans play a huge role in shaping what this channel becomes. Was there ever a moment you've had like kind of some fan feedback that kind of made you go, wow, like, actually we created something bigger than ourselves? Have you had it at that moment? [00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah, no, there has been a few times. [00:18:04] Speaker D: A couple. [00:18:05] Speaker B: Yeah, there's been some. Some good comments. One guy, Lennon, got called Lennon, actually. We kind of spoke with. We met through Twitter, actually, and we got chatting to him. We met him online. We had a face to face sort of call with him. He wanted to give us some kind of feedback and some advice as well in terms of, like, the marketing world. And, uh, Si and I even, like, met up with him when he visited in London. No, we might be meeting him again in a few weeks, actually. But he. He kind of sat us down, was really sort of brought it home in terms of, like, what we're doing and the hard work that's getting put in and that. And it. Yeah, it does. [00:18:55] Speaker D: What? [00:18:56] Speaker C: This is why we love it as well. Because once we get the giggles as well. [00:19:00] Speaker B: You are right. [00:19:00] Speaker C: Me and Si will just go, but no, carry on. [00:19:08] Speaker D: Sorry. Like, that was the level of conversations we were having with each other. [00:19:13] Speaker B: But in terms of, like, specifics, I can't actually. [00:19:17] Speaker D: I can add to that as well, though. You know, the moments when we kind of feel like this is bigger than what we thought it would ever be. One of the most recent examples of it, and I've seen it in a few cases, tends to be in those face to face scenarios where I, like the UFC events. Was that 305 lately? Up in Manchester and. No, three or four. Sorry. And then what happened was as was walking down the queue to go into the venue, you heard people on the other side whispering, it's ATF. They say, that's ATF. And there's ATF. I remember just picking it up in my ears. I walked past, I mentioned to you guys, people out there just saying, look, it's ATF. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Like, they might be people that we've already met before. [00:19:54] Speaker D: You just kind of filled up thought momentum going and, and, and we was at an event as well with. Was it Michael Bisping? I think one of his talk things. Anyway, some. No, even earlier, when it was back in July, back at zero two with UFC, some people asked us to have a picture of us in front of UFC sign and, you know, all of a sudden it kind of feels like, wow, this is getting a little bit bigger than I thought. And people are just pre anticipating, you know, I guess, the success of the channel. And it's not, whilst it's not necessarily reflect exactly where we are at the moment, it kind of does show a mirror to or reflection of where they might think we could be going in the future. And you can almost pick up on that and feel a little bit charged and motivated. [00:20:33] Speaker C: 100%. Another. Another key one who is actually very close to us now is tea. [00:20:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:20:39] Speaker C: Like before obviously come on board of us. Like, the messages that he would say to say that you guys are doing like an amazing job. Like, just keep it up. Like the things that you're seeing, you're not gonna. Sometimes you may not see the things that are actually happening, but you actually doing a very good thing. Just keep it up and. Yeah, just little things like that. It does touch base. Yeah. [00:21:01] Speaker B: I talk about our proudest moment because I know it's kind of side from like, in terms of feedback, best feedback wise from thing. [00:21:10] Speaker A: But yeah. [00:21:11] Speaker B: What's also got as our a lot of enjoyment from. From doing this podcast channel was probably the back when we was at UFC. Was it UFC 8284? [00:21:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:29] Speaker B: Four in London. There was a guy online called Quani who has been in our chats before. He's in our discord, got talking to us and he kind of messaged us and was like, hey, I'm in London, I want to hang out with you guys. Can, you know, you around? And we said, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Come down to the o two. We're going to heading to the weigh ins, the Q and A's or whatever. And he came and we found us and then he said, oh, I'm here. I was meant to go to the event and meant to pick up a ticket, but the person's let me down and kind of screwed me over. And we're like, ah, man, that kind of sucks. You know, the fact you've traveled all of this way for kind of nothing, but you feel free to hang out with us. Could probably come back to ours, watch the fights are tomorrow night, that sort of thing. [00:22:18] Speaker D: Hindsight does sound a bit dangerous. [00:22:20] Speaker B: It does a little bit. Just offering your place out to random stranger online. But, you know, we were just kind of wanting to do the right thing and help him out in little ways. And this kind of where you come into the three Z as part of the story because you was at a DJ set with Dominic Cruz in the car park that late in that night. [00:22:37] Speaker A: That sounds even weirder. [00:22:41] Speaker B: Where you won tickets for the event, did you not? [00:22:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it was pretty crazy that. Yeah, me, Angus, as few other people as well. As. Well, there weren't there. Who was the. Who was that other kid? [00:22:54] Speaker B: Karen Kajo. [00:22:59] Speaker C: That's it. [00:23:00] Speaker B: And connecting you guys. Yeah, because Quan, he was like, wanted to stick around, he wanted to stay out, and we were like, wow, wouldn't you go beef with these guys then, all together? [00:23:10] Speaker C: We're all hanging out, by the way. So obviously, the people that we've sort of been hanging around with this whole day been people that we've spoke to from the, like Jacob mentioned in our YouTube chat, we've got a discord. We all been talking about this pre UFC 284. [00:23:23] Speaker B: We all gathered these people together because. [00:23:26] Speaker C: I think that all of us that we've never seen each other before, we've all been talking through discord and chat and we've all sort of met outside the o two to sort of hang out and just enjoy the experience because obviously there was a few little events there, meeting greets and things like that. [00:23:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:42] Speaker C: First time it's happened, you were outside the DJ set of Dominic Cruz. [00:23:45] Speaker D: I was just going to add as well. It wasn't the first time that's happened either, because I think earlier the year prior, someone else was hanging out with us as well as different channels. [00:23:52] Speaker B: It wasn't. It wasn't as good. It wasn't as good as this, though. That one wasn't because of us. This particular story was the fact that breezy had two tickets. [00:24:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:03] Speaker B: And someone needed to go with him. [00:24:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:06] Speaker B: And you kind of offered them to us, didn't you? [00:24:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I was. Yeah. Because, I mean, I'd won the Milano, so I was a bit like. [00:24:15] Speaker B: Whatever one of yous, you know, does anyone. [00:24:18] Speaker C: So you won a raffle. [00:24:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:20] Speaker C: And you won two tickets to the event. That's mad. [00:24:23] Speaker D: And the choices were go to the event or come back to atfs. [00:24:27] Speaker A: And I obviously went to the event. [00:24:30] Speaker D: Angus. Angus came back to ours. You always went on to the event. [00:24:33] Speaker B: Angus was close to claiming the tickets. I mean, they were offered. I. You know, for me, it was like, we. We got to run the channel. That's kind of main priority. Of course. [00:24:45] Speaker C: Mad that we're turning down the tickets because we wanted to run the channel. That's the commitment that we have to the channel. We could have easily had tickets to the event and then. Yeah. [00:24:54] Speaker B: And it was all in your. All in your kind of choice, really. I wanted to kind of push and say, look, you should really take Quani. But then I didn't want to be the one to make the decision for you because you won the ticket. [00:25:08] Speaker C: Yeah, no, exactly. [00:25:09] Speaker B: But then you kind of then said, oh, I think I should take Kwani. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Yes. [00:25:15] Speaker D: Quani. Did he just, like, ditch you at the event or you guys did stick together? [00:25:18] Speaker A: No, we stuck together. I got quite a funny video when there, and I've brought it up to him a few times on x Twitter where Bruce Buff is doing the announcement for the decision against Usmanda. And Bruce Buffett goes. And then you hear Quani go, no. And he goes still? And everyone goes, yeah. [00:25:43] Speaker C: Oh, that's funny. [00:25:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that's good. But, I mean, it's the fact that that kind of moment, the fact he was able to go because of hanging out with us lot really was pretty special. [00:25:55] Speaker C: If he didn't message us and sort of try and hang her out with us, he could have come down to London, maybe not. Got nothing. But, yeah, it was kind of definitely a proud moment of obviously hanging around with us. Another proud moment. I kind of. I know it's a bit. It's not a lame one, but it was just obviously when we reached our 1st 1000 subscribers. I know every sort of little milestone you kind of remember. It was just like the excitement to get into a thousand. Yeah, I mean, every little sort of step counts. [00:26:22] Speaker D: Yeah, I remember that one, too. [00:26:24] Speaker C: But the funniest point of that is JK popping the champagne. [00:26:29] Speaker B: That's still actually. [00:26:31] Speaker C: Have you seen the video to that breezy? [00:26:32] Speaker A: I don't think I have. [00:26:34] Speaker C: We'll have to. Maybe we'll have to put this in post edit or something. But, like, JK popping the champagne bottle, he's just like, unraveling me. So I'm having a chat and then boom. [00:26:43] Speaker D: Puts a hole through two floors of the house. [00:26:46] Speaker B: Everyone just like, jumps back at the sound of this popping champagne bowl and. [00:26:51] Speaker C: There'S like, champagne everywhere. [00:26:53] Speaker B: I. [00:26:54] Speaker C: It was such a fun. [00:26:55] Speaker B: You do it. Yeah, it was. Best is in the best moments of 2022, so if you want to check it out. Yeah, channel there. ATF best bits, 2022 clips in there and. Yeah, that was probably. [00:27:07] Speaker C: Sorry, I definitely interrupt you there as well. Another obviously proud moment. I don't know if it's obviously not for these boys, but obviously a proud moment for me. So I grew up, obviously, watching Frankie Edgar and I was just coming. Yeah, I messaged this guy constantly, like, you know, his fans. You would message favorite fighter, say hello, we're trying to get a follow back and we see it on Twitter X. We see it daily that they would try and get all, could you follow me back? Could you follow me back? Obviously, I was never kind of that beggy, but I would message Frankie probably. [00:27:33] Speaker D: Quite often more than his mom. [00:27:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll check up with him more than I would my mum, you know what I mean? And nothing. Come to a light. And then obviously, we started the channel and then we got a little bit of a following and then I randomly messaged him, oh, would you like to jump on the channel? And I got a message back and I was like, oh, my God. I, like, I was like, I thought these boys were whining about making a fake Frankie Edgar account. And she just messed. [00:27:53] Speaker D: Yep, did it for three years. Got a blue tick, tricked everyone I. [00:27:56] Speaker C: Posted off and then jumped on a channel. Yeah, that was probably the best moment that I've had on the channel. Just. [00:28:06] Speaker D: I remember that moment very well because we was talk. We had something at that point. Fighter Q and a. We still do fighter Q and A's. I was thinking, well, who's going to run this one? And we thought, obviously, it's got to be ash. We have to put him in the seat. The way we tend to do it is we're quite different from most people who question other fighters because it's like one on one in most cases, but we tend to have quite a dynamic on our side as well between presenters asking questions and bouncing off each other. And then we have a game and we do love a game and we just thought, you know what, it would be great to put ash in a situation. We're teasing them all week, obviously, as boys do. It's like, you know, don't get a boner. Underneath the table while you're talking to Frankie, because we know you probably will be. But it was. It was an incredible experience to watch and see, to produce, and I, um. And just to see that happen, you know, that was. Was super cool. And I would say, um, you know, if I was to talk about pride power moments, is. I'd second that one. And also just how digitally we are home for UFC fans, like, across the world. But more on what JK story just was like, it just points that we are home from here, too, like, welcoming open arms. Um, when I said that point earlier, like, yeah, it wasn't the only time that you got free tickets to the UFC for someone who was hanging out with us. The time before we went to see Mia Kachandler had this great banter with him. The other guy who was close to the entourage, I think his name was Josh as well, but he was part of the conversation. He came out moments behind saying, he just gave me free tickets. [00:29:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that was nothing to do with us, though. We just blamed it, though. [00:29:29] Speaker C: We were just talking. [00:29:29] Speaker B: We were just in the line talking to him the whole time, and he. [00:29:32] Speaker C: Was behind us, one person behind JK. So if JK would have let him go through for any person. [00:29:38] Speaker D: No, it wasn't the case of. It wasn't a case of his current position in the line. It was. That was why Michael Jano saw him, ask him a couple of questions and gave him a ticket. But the guy was a great, absolute vibe, but we were just a home for people, so we was having a conversation with him beforehand, afterwards, as well, and in close proximity to that kind of energy. I thought it was brilliant. [00:29:54] Speaker A: In the process of creating against the fence, you've not just grown the channel, I think you've also grown yourselves as individuals. What do you think is the biggest way? And this one goes to going along the line, but what's the biggest way you think each of you has individually changed and you can comment about each other as well? Against. Since starting against defence. [00:30:16] Speaker B: It'S difficult, really. [00:30:17] Speaker D: I reckon there's still a longer ways in which I can improve and grow. [00:30:20] Speaker C: To be fair, I've got one that's straight to mind, and JK will a million percent agree with me as well. It's just the way. So when we first originally watched the sport of MMA, and obviously the organization, UFC, like Xi, was like a novice, didn't really know much about MMA, didn't know anything. And, like, do you know when you. [00:30:43] Speaker B: Sat in the pub. [00:30:49] Speaker C: And like, it's just one of them to watch him have analysis as well. Sometimes when we do, obviously, breakdowns and. [00:30:57] Speaker D: Get the ball in the goal and. [00:30:58] Speaker C: He'S just watching have breakdowns, and sometimes when a fight's happening and someone's doing, like, a back take or things like that, and to listen to him sometimes from, like, someone that didn't know the sport, to listen to his analysis, I have to applaud. [00:31:13] Speaker B: It's moved on from, oh, why doesn't he just knock him out? [00:31:23] Speaker C: It's probably another proud moment, because obviously, me and JK watched it for a good couple of years before we entered signs of the world of mixed martial arts. And, yeah, obviously, in the short period of time we were doing a channel, what, three, four years? He has come leaps and bounds, and when he has his analysis, you can't knock it. [00:31:42] Speaker D: Just so you know, I didn't watch UFC. I just as casual as they come, so I would just watch the fighters I like. So it was like, Izzy as McGregor, I was like, the person who, I guess you could probably say the person who watched the World cup whenever, you know, whenever England's playing in the World cup. And that's about. No, just the fights. Yeah, I knew of it. [00:31:58] Speaker B: But it's casual, what they call it. [00:32:00] Speaker D: But, yeah, we've certainly come a long way digesting all that content as well. You start finding yourself now, having that great fight analysis when. When you could probably. When someone goes to the corner, you can now you get to a level where you can say, that was great corner advice, or that was toilet corner advice. Was he, was he doing. Why is he not telling him about this, that and so on. But that's the kind of level you kind of get to after watching every day. [00:32:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Have you got anything? [00:32:23] Speaker B: It's quite difficult, really, especially when you're in the week by week sort of process, and you're that cog that kind of keeps things moving, maybe might be to do with, like, the overall planning and the managing of. Not the channel alone, but a lot of, like, the fighter Q and A's and things like that. Some of the, like, games that we've kind of come up with for fighters, I think have been pretty impressive. I would actually say a lot of, actually, things. [00:32:56] Speaker D: Iris, I think Jordan's improved on, actually, everything. [00:33:00] Speaker B: Everything, probably. I mean, we've all been proven everything. It's just every aspect. [00:33:05] Speaker D: I mean, his ego is as big as ever. Well, that head to say, I do think that Jordan's improved in a lot of ways where I might look at some of the content from what he's. He's edited up and clipped up now, and it's just fantastic. It's really good. I think I said recently that I like the thumbnails and doing, because when we first started out doing the channel, we kind of fell into our roles. We never really had a defect definition of like, all right, I'm going to do this, you're going to do that, and you're going to do that. We kind of continued with the same dream of building the best UFC fan channel decided upon, and then we kind of fell into what we were good at. Ash was really good at reaching out to fighters or messaging people and getting engagement with the fans. JK was always, like, the marketing knowledge side of things, and. And then the voice of the channel being like that vocally, and then for me, it was like, less. So much the vocals, but more so, like, the visuals. It was developing what you see on the screen rather than what you hear through the channels or the marketing and that, and then that was kind of how we went forwards and things, and we always put content as first. And so what that means is sometimes it does fall on JK to do some of the edits and the thumbnails, and I got to say that they come leaps and bounds. Like, over time, you learn new techniques and you do improve on stuff. [00:34:19] Speaker B: Got put in the work. That's all it is. That's all it is. Keep putting in the work. [00:34:22] Speaker C: Say, for me. [00:34:27] Speaker B: Pronunciations, we're getting a bit better. You know, fire pronunciations are names, but. [00:34:35] Speaker C: No, just an overall one would be just where we are now. If you. I mean, like you said before in previous questions, like, to have consistent people come in and to know that we have done that, that's just like another sort of thing. [00:34:50] Speaker B: But one thing I think. I think do need to realize is we're not even started yet. No feet off the ground yet. So there's much, much more to come. There's so much more. [00:35:02] Speaker A: Let's feed off of that, right? And we'll take the gloves for a second. We'll talk about some dream scenarios, then looking forward. If there were no limits, money, time, resources, whatever. No limits to any of that, what would the ultimate version of against defense look like? And what's. What's the wildest thing you'd want to do with the channel of the sky was the limit. [00:35:21] Speaker B: We'd be right there in Vegas every single week. [00:35:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:25] Speaker B: We'd be at every single event. We'd be basically pretty much doing what Nina drama's doing. There's, you know, there's no doubt about that. There's a fact that she's on the doorstep. Gives her so much more access to kind of come up with these ideas. All ideas that she does do are amazing, but I do think they're ideas we probably would have thought of ourselves. [00:35:48] Speaker A: I don't know about the Tom Aspinall question, but. [00:35:51] Speaker B: No, maybe not. [00:35:53] Speaker D: All right. [00:35:53] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe not a player on sort of those things. I mean. I mean, not just. I'm not discrediting Nina drama at all. I think what she's doing is absolutely incredible and amazing. [00:36:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:02] Speaker D: We also have a fashion shoot with our clothes off as well, in the same way. Would we also have that if it got me there? Yeah, I mean, exactly as she is. Bring it down, our own version? I would say. I would say, like, we would. I really like the idea of doing something, doing something new and bringing something new. I'll take the very core values of what we are, and I'll probably have that on steroids. So it would probably imagine without that, that price cap, having our own production team around the UFC doing game shows, like proper game recording, recording content with the fighters and in the. In their training in our environments, but effectively being that voice of the fan, but within the context of full access to the UFC and the fighters and stuff, too. So, yeah, I do feel like it would be think embedded, think that, like, the presenters think kind of mash between that and then also just a chance to get fans to have that feel a little bit closer to the game. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Probably give fans the opportunity to have their dreams come true as well. You know, like meeting one of the same time. You know, things like that, that we. [00:37:15] Speaker C: Can do prize giveaways, like prize drawers where, like, a viewer could come out to Vegas with us and, yeah. Do this and do that. Yeah. The main. The main thing for. For me to sort of just gel into what you two just mentioned is have a full production team. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:37:31] Speaker C: To do some of the things that. Well, I know we do them, but, like, just to. [00:37:37] Speaker D: So on a higher level. [00:37:38] Speaker C: Yeah, and, and, yeah, well, JK said, I'd love to just be out there in Vegas, like I said, in the media and just be around that fight week. I would love to just be around that because that being around that fight week is something special. And obviously, we unexpected over here in the UK. Obviously there's times where we may get, like, time to go because out to, like, the european. European places and things like that. But it's just, again, for us, having nine to five jobs. It's. [00:38:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it's getting to a point where we can move on to the nine to five jobs, do this full time, but only focusing on the planning of the content and delivering of the content. Yeah. Because a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that, you know, you don't. You don't see is a lot of things we're doing ourselves. [00:38:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:24] Speaker B: Constantly, week in, week out. And, you know, that does saturate the amount of good stuff that we could 100%. [00:38:29] Speaker C: We sacrifice our weekends. Like, I mean, like, what? I'm about to go and do it. Well, not in a minute, but, like, what I do, like, especially for the free m cards. I'm gonna go straight from here to go and protect my boy football, you know, I mean, like, you still can have that. Anyway, regardless, I'm just simply saying, like, this is obviously if I don't have a nap, like, later on, like, if we don't have naps before an event, sometimes it's a fact of that. Definitely do it for, obviously, you, the fans. But I'm just saying, another scenario that happens for me is if I don't sleep, then, you know, I mean, I'm straight. Straight out the door and taking a boy, and we're going for Vegas one day. [00:39:08] Speaker D: We'll get there one day. [00:39:10] Speaker C: I mean, I'm also a coach for football team, if you didn't know. You know what I mean? [00:39:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:14] Speaker D: He gives the same corner advice to them. [00:39:16] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Listen, mate, 121212. Make sure when you grab the ankle, mate, you slap it. [00:39:25] Speaker B: Right? [00:39:27] Speaker C: Right. [00:39:27] Speaker A: Two more questions and we'll wrap this up. [00:39:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:30] Speaker A: Obviously, you all started as fans, just like the people you follow now, but now you're on the other side of the fence as creators with your own audience. How has that changed the way that you view the things you originally fell in love with as a fan? [00:39:45] Speaker D: Fantastic. [00:39:46] Speaker C: It's a good question. [00:39:47] Speaker D: Who do you want to go to first? Breezy. [00:39:49] Speaker A: Let's go with you. Si. [00:39:52] Speaker D: Right, okay. How has it changed? [00:39:57] Speaker B: Well, you got to watch. Make sure you watch or you're available for every single card. Yeah. [00:40:03] Speaker A: Okay. [00:40:04] Speaker B: Most cards is difficult, I'd sort of. [00:40:07] Speaker C: Say when you're watching it, when you're watching the sport, obviously. Don't get me wrong, obviously we are watching the fights, but again, it's just having that tendency of making sure the chat is. Is okay and obviously we're being good enough for them and attending to them. Like, obviously JK is always making sure and reading out comments and things like that. Yeah, there's not a lot of channels out there. Don't get me wrong. We will remember the day one is and things like that, but I'd love for the chat to just be flooded, what, one day? And, you know, I mean, we'll only be able to read out super chat, obviously, if we, if we see like that, the guys that have been the day one is and things like that, of course we'll have time for. For them and things like that. [00:40:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:47] Speaker D: And it's easy when you're a fan. Life's a bit easier when you just got to consume the content. Yeah. [00:40:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:52] Speaker D: And you're on that side of that fence and it's roses and it's sweet and it's just entertainment after. Entertainment after. You do see the ugly sides on the other side of the fence, you do. You see the. The grafting, the grinding, but you also get the reward of being able to. To feed those who are consuming. And. And that, I find, is. Is also what's as rewarding as creating the content. Um, it's just having other people feed, enjoy it and just get those amazing. That amazing feedback from it does encourage you to keep going. When you hear people say, like, you know, what you guys doing is fantastic. We had people commenting to the UFC when the last time he was in London saying, get these guys in the media a bit further. And it's. And it's remarkable. It's encouraging. And I feel like, yeah, it's a bit harder, but you do have other ways of recharging yourself of people's energy. [00:41:38] Speaker C: I couldn't put it back. [00:41:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I completely agree. And I think I want to take one moment quickly just to say thanks for giving me this opportunity to do this, because one of the things that, like, is so appealing for me doing this is the opportunity to speak to people that I'm genuinely interested in and have that time to ask some questions. Not only that, I think people are going to appreciate to listen to, but I also want to know about them. But then what they don't see is, like, the amount of time I've spent trying to think of the questions, which I think are going to get the best responses, and then also the amount of time trying to feed into people and the amount of messages I sent out the past three weeks to try and get people to come so I can ask them those questions. And it's quite stressful because I've got nine to five job, I've got kids, and then on top of that, you've then got to do all this online stuff and then mix it all together and people. Yeah, people don't really realize that, actually. That can be quite stressful. [00:42:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:30] Speaker B: Welcome to our world, brother. [00:42:32] Speaker D: Hopefully I'm not circling back. Hopefully I'm not circling back too far. But your prior question of what you're proud of this would be that, you know, I'm proud of you, breezy. I'm actually really proud. And I thought the guys here on the panel could say the exact same thing, that you had this idea and this drive, and, you know, when it comes to these kind of initiatives, it's really just do it and we'll fall through the mistakes and we'll learn from it and grow from it. But some of the questions you've had already on this, it's just been absolutely incredible. Very well placed. It's super confident when you have your. [00:43:01] Speaker C: Head, because obviously I mentioned something along the lines of doing this or doing an extra video, and it's all good. Planning it and prepping it. But like you just mentioned there, having a time to actually record it. [00:43:10] Speaker B: The ideas are great. [00:43:12] Speaker C: When you're doing your nine to five job and you've got families, obviously, I'm not you, mate. Well, you don't have four children. I'm just saying, if you just trail, you know what I mean? [00:43:23] Speaker A: Never will. [00:43:24] Speaker C: It's stressful, mate. And to try and obviously have the time away from them now. And like you said, it is hard, but we will get through this together, sunshine. [00:43:32] Speaker B: Absolutely encouraging. [00:43:34] Speaker A: Right, before we wrap this up, one of the questions I quite like to ask, what's one thing that you'd want your fans or anyone out there thinking about starting something of their own similar to this? What's a word of advice? Inspiration, or even just something they can take with them from this conversation going forward? [00:43:50] Speaker C: Consistency. [00:43:52] Speaker D: Yep, yep. [00:43:53] Speaker B: Uh, one word. [00:43:56] Speaker A: Yeah, let's stick it to one word. [00:43:57] Speaker C: Yeah. Consistency then. [00:43:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Um, yeah, two words would be championship mindset. [00:44:06] Speaker A: Okay, I'll allow it. Surprise it. From a united drive. [00:44:10] Speaker B: I say drive drivers. [00:44:12] Speaker D: Can I like double barrel. It'll say Monday meeting mentality. You know, that can probably encompass the whole law of our Monday meetings, which is get to that point of Monday meetings, meet up, take stock, look at where you are, look at where you're going, look at what you need to put a gap is, and just keep doing that every single week and you'll get 1% better each time. Each time. Each time. No matter how long it takes. With consistency, that grit, that tenacity drive. [00:44:40] Speaker C: Championship mindset. Yeah, 100%. Obviously, there's gonna be hard times. Just keep. Keep driving forward and. Yeah, like JK said, we're not even there yet. We've not even started. [00:44:51] Speaker D: Yeah, we're still there. And sorry, I know you asked for one, but only other thing would be. Yeah, don't focus on the numbers. When you've got a passion for these things, it's really that, you know, just. Just follow your passion, do what you love, and make sure that's your drive. And it's not the numbers and it's not the money. That would all come in its own time. [00:45:09] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. That's one thing, right? [00:45:12] Speaker A: Time's getting on. We've got a pay per view coming up. Thank you very much, guys, and I will see you at our next Monday meeting.