Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the against the Fence podcast with your host, breezy today. Episode number two. We've got a double drop for you guys. Hopefully it will keep you entertained in your commutes, wherever you're going. Today's episode is a little bit different to the first one. It's a bit more conversational. Wanted to see kind of how that panned out for in terms of engagement and views. So welcome. Today's guest is Red Wolf MMA.
He's a friend of the channel, and he's got over 3000 followers on X or Twitter. I still call it Twitter. I can't help it. And he has, and I've got to say he has some top quality engagement and posts. So if you guys need someone to kind of give you a break from the kind of relentless kind of media push that we get on X and Twitter about fights being arranged and who done this and who does that, and you just want to break in a bit of a laugh. 100% follow this guy. He always gives me a good laugh, and he has just some top, top posts. So let's get right into it. Enjoy. Red Wolf MMA.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: What's that?
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Not bad. Thanks.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Yourself?
[00:01:13] Speaker A: How are you?
[00:01:14] Speaker B: I'm all right, mate. All right. Bit tired, but, you know, we keep going, we keep rolling.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I was gonna. Yeah, because you were saying just before we hit record, obviously you work a night shift, and it clicked to me how you were watching the Contender series this morning. I was thinking, you're a mad fan if you are staying up on a school night watching the Contender series. But it makes sense.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: If I wasn't being paid for it, I probably wouldn't have done it.
So I thought, you know, while I'm here, I'll have a little watch. And it was actually a pretty decent episode as well.
Plus, plus 1900, plus 901,000. Underdog overhand. Right. I can't remember the name, but it was one hell of a shot.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's one of them ones contender series, where it's a tough one for me because I like the idea of it, but then I also miss the old school tough.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Like when Nick Diaz and Bispin were on it and they were, like, really showing what the fighters were like as people. Because now it's kind of every episode is like an introduction to the person at home rather than kind of what they're doing in the house.
And I don't like that dynamic as much as it used to be. So I kind of. I appreciate they moved away from it, but it was just so good seeing the guys just, like, fighting in the house and getting pissed and stuff.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was like. It was like big brother, but you actually got to watch him bite each other for heels, you know what I mean? Like, I remember when Bisbee was in it on so freak like. I think that's when Americans really got introduced to northern english sense of humor and personality. Do you know what I mean? So they were like, can't think, what's up with this guy? And I'm just like, that's us. That's. That's what we do. Like, so I haven't actually watched tough rages. I watched a bit of these, the McGregor and Chandler one, but you're right, it just didn't feel the same as old. So I kind of watched a couple of episodes and then, like, left it. You know what I mean? But, yeah, I miss the old days of tough. I miss the old days of everything, to be honest.
No, I mean, we had.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: We had Cody Gibson on the main channel for a Q and A, and he said. He said that the amount of footage they took and some of the stuff behind the scenes was, like, so entertaining and so good and just, like, none of it got aired.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it's a shit. I like Coldy Gibson. I remember watching him in it, and I thought, I like. I do like this kit, but he's been on it before as well. I think the previous season, he wasn't on.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: He wasn't on tough. He was. I think in 2014, everyone's going to pull me apart because I've shot a. I have shot a podcast episode with Cody, so if that's wrong, I'm going to look really bad. Now, he. He joined, I think, in 2014 when he was, like, 2027.
And, I mean, he had. His first fight was against Aljama Sterling when. Before Aljo was big.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: And, yeah, I think he had a tough run and then was out again, quit in 2017, came back kind of regional scene. I think he had one fight at Eagle FC with Khabib, and he had, like, usman and stuff on the commentary. I mean, that was quite. Would have been quite interesting. And then. And then, I think had one fight after that and then was back in the UFC on tough. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: He's doing. He's doing all right. You know? He's doing all right.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a shame.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: I was just saying it's a shame they cut so much stuff out of, like, you can tell as well, you know, especially with american shows, they have these, like, quick cuts, and you kind of think, like, that they've missed. Some are out there, so surely some has happened that we've just missed.
But, yeah, man, like I say, it's not the same. That. The same.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: I've not even watched any of the Shevchenko or grasshopper one at all, which.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: I mean, it was the. It was the finale, like, at the weekend, wasn't it?
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: I don't even know.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: I watched the card with the finale on it, and I was like, oh, yeah, these guys are all right. And I was kind of, shit, I should have watched it, you know? But it's just.
I don't know. Like, I say, something doesn't feel right, but the contender series, it's all right. That was probably the second time I'd watched the contender series, and I think I watched it on a pretty good episode where every underdog came through. Do you know what I mean?
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
I want to prep a few questions, so we'll go through some of them, see how we go. Obviously, on this podcast, the idea is that we kind of deep dive deeper into the world of LMA. And we touched on this a little bit earlier, but we'll go into a bit deeper. I can't say what I was gonna say, but I'm curious about your connection to sport. Everyone's obviously got their story of how they got hooked, but what's your connection to MMA?
Was it by training? Is it because there was a particular fight or a fight that drew you into sport? Kind of. Paint the pictures for me.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: I think so. I think the first time I really heard about MMA was I was in high school, but, like, back then, we heard it as a cage fighting, you know? And we saw, like, little. There was a film we used to watch with DMX and Jet li. Cradle to the grave, and. Okay, yeah, t o r t s was in it. And then, like, jet Lee gets into this, like, underground cage fight thing, and he's fighting all these guys in the cage. And, like, back then, you kind of think it's stuff out of films, this. And then I heard about, like, it's for real. So I was. I must have been about 1312, something like that. And then again, I started hearing more about this guy called George St. Pierre. And every time, I was like, george St. Pierre? That's a pretty cool name. And I started when Google was first brand new, and I was, like, googling and seeing all these forums and that, and I was like. And I was seeing clips, and I was like, wow, this guy's for real. Like, this is real fighting. You know, this is the stuff I see on my streets and it's actually happening in occasion. People are getting paid for it. Like, this is mental because we only had boxing. Like, obviously I grew up, like, a lot of boxing, and Mike Tyson was. Was one that massive. And there was a few, like, we had Chris Eubank, do you know what I mean? Ricky Hatton from Manchester. Yeah, from there, it kind of just went from there.
I think in the UK as well, it wasn't very easy to watch UFC in the early days because it was kind of like, still kind of looked in a way, and you could only get it online if you. If you rented dvd's. Well, videos back then. And then Bisbeen, Michael Bisbin started making waves and we spoke about this just before he got into the tough house. And then that's when I think people really started taking note of UK MMA and thinking, oh, you know, there's some talent here and there's some pretty funny personalities, especially Bisbee being, you know, mancunian. And, you know, she's got that sense of humor that not a lot of people will vibe with. But, you know, we were like, this guy, and then from there, it just like dipped in and out, dipped in and out. I always tried to train and do stuff, but I kind of probably trained the unofficial way, which was getting my ass beat in a few fights and learning the hard way, do you know what I mean?
And then figuring out what works and what didn't work type of thing. But then I think it was when Cage warriors was starting to come big and then we had the Conor era, and then BC Sport had a deal with the UFC and that's when it all suddenly over the UK, it became a lot more accessible since it's been a long ride, been in and out of it a lot of. But yeah, MMA is, for me, is just one of those. It's something wrong. I love boxing, but with MMA, it's real fighting, you know, like UFC, use that slogan, you know, it's as real as it gets. Aside from some of the rules, which, you know, are starting to be phased out now.
But yeah, I think that's what I loved about it. And it's one of the few places you could see a really small, skinny guy take on a pretty, you know, hench, you know, ripped guy and take him down and choke him out. Do you know what I mean?
[00:09:19] Speaker A: It's like, yeah, yeah, I like what you said about.
About the kind of bisping path, because as fans that are aware of that time and partook in the sport in terms of watching it at that time, we are at a point now where we're kind of seeing the people that were inspired by that so much that they're now fighters and we're now seeing them in the UFC. And the UK MMA scene at the moment is just exploded. And we've got so much, so much talent that's really working its way up bit by bit to the point where we've got top contenders. We've got the Aspinall, we got the Tom, we got the Arnold Allen. We've got. I mean, we had. We had MacArthur.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
We've just moved over to a different organization for now.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he'll be back. I'm sure he'll be back. I look forward to that. And then, and then we've got the superstar Paddy pimlet as well. I mean, can't forget him.
And it's just interesting to see the path that we're taking. And I think we're. I think. I don't want to get too big headed, but we could be fairly dominant, I think, in a few years time.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I think so. There's definitely been a massive, like, say, boom for uK MMA.
I remember some guy was talking to you on Twitter a while ago. We kind of talked about this and he said, what he said, he said somewhat along the lines of, Bisbin rang. I go, bis been warts, so aspinall could run. And. And it's like, I've seen this little thing where they've put both Aspinall and Tom together and it's like Aspinall's living through Bisbeen's living through Aspinall. And I'm like, I love that. And those two are. Those two are quite close, you know?
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: It's like in the featherweights. And at the minute we've got. We've got Arnold Allen, we've got Laron Murphy, we've got Nathaniel wood. Like, they're the only. They're the three that can think straight off the bat. And, um, we've just got Jordan. I can never say the guy's last name. The epidemic. Jordan the epidemic from, uh, cage warriors. He's just joined.
Yeah, it's v something. Yeah, yeah.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: I can't remember how to say it, but. Yeah, I know. You mean with the tattoos. It's crazy, man.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Literally covered in tattoos. Yeah. And it's massive. It's booming. And, like, nearly every week you hear of a new UK MMA fighter that's. That's being signed to the UFC. So I reckon it's the UK sequel, definitely. It's been a long time coming, but we're getting there.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Yeah. We like to think we're tougher now, so it's good for some of us can stand in there and prove it.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: I wanted to touch a bit on some of your kind of social media because you're quite big on x. You've got. Pardon me, you've got three and a half thousand followers, which is pretty good going when I've got less than 300. So I wanted to kind of more for myself, to be honest, kind of understand what you. What was successful for you to kind of start building that following.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: To be honest, I wish I knew myself because, like, I don't know. I only made that page. I think it was around like 20, 2019. So it's before. Before the pandemic and all that. And I think I just.
I just started talking to people. Just, like, replying to stuff, posting shit. I've always tried to be funny. I've always tried to either make people think or make people laugh, or a combination of both. Do you know what I mean?
I think recently, sometimes I'll see me following, will dip and I'll think, have I said something? Have I really annoyed some John Jones fans again? Which is usual for me.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: And then it'll rise again. You know what I mean? And then you usually get a lot of haters on there. You get a lot of people just talking. Absolutely bobbins. But to be honest, honestly, I don't how it got that far. But I'm always trying to get a little bit more, you know, and try and. Try and reach out to more people and find more, like, genuine MMA fans. Just have a laugh on there. Do you know what I mean?
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: Yeah. But like I say, I've got a few. Got a few, like, suppose you call them memes that have gone, like, really well of clips or videos that I've made.
Yeah, I don't know. It's a good question that I was gonna.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Because one of the things I was gonna say, and you've touched on it slightly there, is, like, the thing that always gets me, and I'm always like, what the hell? I mean, start off with, I think you need to give yourself some more credit. Like, the amount of things I see you kind of interacting with, you put the work in, in terms of engagement and stuff like that. But then the thing that always gets me is like, you'll comment on, like, a UFC Europe kind of post, and you almost have as much likes as the actual post has. And I'm like, how does he think of these things?
[00:14:00] Speaker B: I don't know. I'll see something. And, like, I think it's like, say, I think it's that northern british sense humor where you just kind of, you see something, you think, yeah, I'm gonna put that. Don't get me wrong, there's been a few times where I put some, and then it's gone really well, or there's some times where I should have said something and I've seen someone else post it. I go, why did I say that? You know? Well, I think. I think you, you caught it the other day. Like, I commented on Nina drama, put a picture up, you know, and I just couldn't resist. I had to put the picture. So I'm asking the one that, you know, say, what would it take?
[00:14:36] Speaker A: That was class.
That was class.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: So, like, all these little jokes will come in my head. Yeah, some of them don't, you know.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: I mean, I think that's one thing I love about following you, is that as I kind of sit there scrolling through x, a lot of the stuff that I follow is, you know, fighter pages or people that do kind of, like, news drops and fight announcements and stuff like that. And I'm scrolling through, just completely relaxed, looking at whatever's going on in the MMA world. And then it would just, I'll just scroll down. It will hit me. You've just commented something really funny on something. And I'm just, and I, like, it's such a good thing to have in part as part of, like, your following is someone that always kind of puts something out there that makes you laugh. So, yeah, I really appreciate your post. So keep. Yeah, keep them going because, yeah, they're so funny.
No, honestly. Yeah, I mean, that.
And that's also why I want you to, like, I want you to move into starting to produce, like, your own kind of content as well. Because I think if you brought that kind of comedy that you have on x and put it into some videos and stuff, I think. I think because I don't. You might be able to correct me here, but I can't think of anyone in the kind of MMA content creation or media kind of scene that's particularly out there funny. I know Ben, the Bane Davis, he's quite funny sometimes. But, like, if we call it, I mean, do what you want with you when you, when you start doing it, but if we were to do it as a comedy kind of thing. I don't know who's someone that just out and out kind of. Just comedy kind of content. Yeah.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: I mean, out and out comedy, I can't think of any after, like, some of. Some of the guys I follow from the old school, I call it the OG days of MMA Twitter.
Then we're like, you know, you've got Mac Malley. He can really. Sometimes some of the stuff he puts out. I think the issue as well with X is you've got a lot of people that think they're fungi and they're not, and they're actually just really offensive with it. Like, there's a few new accounts that you see and you just think, man, like, that's just. There's lines that you can tell and, like, you know, but then there's lines that they cross and it's just like, oh, man, come on. But, yeah, I'd love to. I mean, I always do try and mix a little bit of the news thing in there as well. Like, you know, say, like, you know, a fighter has just said something recently. I just shared a clip of Sean Brady saying that he doesn't understand why people keep saying fraud checks for everyone that loses. And I agree with that. Do you know what I mean? Like, fraud checks one of my pet peeves and one of the words, like, I just hate that word. You know what I mean?
Or phrase, should I say?
So, like I said, I do try and mix it with the news, with the funnies, with the. With the clips. Like, I make a few, like Tom Aspinall, if John Jones is ducking some aspinall clips, just to, like, you know, because it's just. It's funny.
It's just funny.
Recently, Dane has been really getting into the glazing at the minute. So I'm like, I'm gonna try and have a bit of fun with that one. And it's all done in good, Jess. Like, I don't hate no one. I don't, like, you know, ever really, like, take the mick out of someone because I can't, like, can't stand them sometimes, you know?
But, yeah, I do want to get started on the podcast, my own podcast. And it is coming. I think we spoke about before, like, you had a similar thing wherever you were. Like, Oman and her in. And then in the end, you were just like, you know, I just want to do it. And everyone just said, right, fine, do it. And here we are now.
So I think, to be honest, I think that's true for a lot of things in life. I think we hold ourselves back for a fear of the unknown, a fear of failure, a fear of what will people think. And I think I do try and remind myself a lot of that in life. It's like, usually it's the things that we fear I. That we should be doing apart from, you know, if someone's wielding a machete and gonna do your Eddie, don't. Don't run at him, like, scarpage, that's a different type of fear. You know, that's like, I'm getting out of it.
Usually the stuff that we. That we worry about, the stuff that we think, I'm not gonna do that. It's like, no, you know, do it. You know what I mean? Give it a go. What's the worst that could happen? So I'm glad you said that to me because I think that's gonna, like, give me that push to get started and a few others. Like so many others. I've got a mate that's like, I can help you out with it and this and the other, and I'm like, yeah, okay. You know, but I keep pushing it to the side. I think for me as well, it's time. Time's a commodity that I don't have a lot of, so, yeah, but it is coming. It's definitely coming. And, you know, hopefully that will transfer. The people that I've got on Twitter will transfer over to the podcasts and stuff like that, and they'll still start to see a different side to me, like, a more personal side of me. Like I said, I've only just started on Instagram as well. Yeah, it took me a few years, and I think that was chatting to you and the against defense boys, and they were like, you need to get on Instagram. I was like, okay, I'll give it a go. And to be honest, like, I've only got 40 followers on that, but I've shared a few clips here and there, and they've gone massive, like, nearly 10,000 plays. And I'm like, this is mad. I've not even got that many followers. Like, how's that happened? You know? So there's some it there, you know? And I think you're right. Maybe I just need to be a bit more or a bit less out of myself. You know what I mean?
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. And I think one of the big things for me doing this is I've never done this before. Yeah, this is completely new to me. But I will spend the time sitting down, reviewing, and having a look into. And I mean, I. One of the things I hate massively is listening to my own voice.
It's such a. It's such a weird thing to listen back to yourself and.
But, but I've got to get over that hurdle. And I think reflecting on each episode afterwards and sitting down and doing the editing and listening to it and understanding. All right, that sounded good. That sounded well. And then obviously at this moment of time, as we record this, these haven't dropped yet. But then looking back at the analytics and understanding, you know, what went well when actually listening to feedback, I know you get some people that go a little bit over the top and aren't very nice when they come to feedback, but there are people there that genuinely enjoy it and do have constructive criticism, which would go a long way. And I think that's the bonus of having a decent network within content creation, especially in the MMA scene, is that you can reach out to, you know, you could reach out to JK or Si or Ash or me or anyone. Jordan's doing his own podcast at the moment. There's all sorts of people out there that are trying to do the same thing. Guys over at casual MMA, they've, you know, I mean, like, some of the content that he produces, I absolutely love. I think it's fantastic, you know, and there's people out there to offer support and advice if you've got a question, you know, so just. Yeah, just. Just do it and see where you end up.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: We were talking about Shia Labouf before with the. Just do it. What are you waiting for?
You know, it is so. It is, it is. I mean, we really do need to give it a go. Like I said, I've watched a few Jardines and he's got, like, really connection with Arnold Allen.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. Mental, that one. We've tried on the against defense channel for ages.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: We were in Manchester and we bumped out. Arnold Allen was at the hotel and that Jardine was there. And then he went and spoke to Arnold and he come back and he's wearing this hat and I'm looking, I went, where'd you get the hat from? He said, arnold Allen's just stuck it on my head. I was like, it's last week.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So where's that? You know, so he took it off and stuck it on his head and I was like, I love that. Because it's like you guys were there for in Manchester, you know, my neck of the woods for 304. And, like, the community spirit was there, like, you know, I think Manchester showed a lot because that's what we're like up here. You know, we are pretty friendly. Where you walk down the street and we say, you're right, mate, to literally everyone. And that community in the MMA world, like you say, there is that.
Yeah, that community feel where we're all kind of connected. And like you say, you've got the toxic side, which, you know, I think you've got in everything, but it seems a lot more prevalent now than it ever was.
There's always some people that talk crap, but, like, these guys, these nowadays, people just, like, go way too far with it.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: And you've got your faceless accounts on Xnow and I think it's made it a bit easier. But like you say, some of them. Some of them you can have fun poking back and then others you just like, better off ignoring them. But like you said, like you said before, there's people that go too far with the criticism and then there's people will offer, like, genuine, you know, I really like that. But what if you try that, I've got a mate who does, like, gaming, like, videos on YouTube, and he'll send to me and I'll watch him and I'll go, oh, that was sweet, that ball. If someone was a little, like, missed with the audio, I'd say the audio was a bit off there, but it might have been me. But he'd go back and go, oh, yeah, actually, yeah, you know, you're right. I need to look at that. So we're all a community. Humans are like very sociable creatures. We used to bounce off each other a bit more and learn from each other. Do you know what I mean?
[00:23:19] Speaker A: 100%.
When you speak about Manchester as well. One thing I did notice is the amount of people, because your presence on x and within the UK scene, the amount of people that were kind of saying hello to you.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: That blew me away a bit. I'll be like, I was just chilling with you guys. I was even in the arena at one time and I'm just chilling, updating my status and I red Wolfenheid. I'm thinking, you know, I mean, like, you know, I'm looking around and it's like some guy that I've met the other day or some guy that seen me on Twitter and, yeah, that was mental in a pretty nice way. And they were saying, oh, really? Like stuff always spoke about such and such before. But yeah, that was. It was pretty, pretty cool. That as well, with 304, like, there was some stuff that happened those nights which like, I never thought would happen. Like, I went out, went out drinking with Nick Pete one of the nights, which was actually Friday night before the event, I'm thinking, because the fight on all night, and then I waking up at, like, 10:00 a.m. fight day with a massive, nasty angle, overthinking shit. Like, what?
It'll be all right, I'll just have a few coffees. It'll be all right, you know, but, yeah, three or four. Fight was immense.
Like, I really want to do it again.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: Was that. Was that your first event?
[00:24:38] Speaker B: It actually was, you know, so I'd never, like, done it before. Like, last time they were in Manchester was 204 Bisb Anderson.
I couldn't get to it, so I was like, you know, it's all right. I think all the other ones have been in London, like, and I've always watched sooner, but then something had happened or won't be able to get down there. So it was always, I kind of just, like, reach myself. Like, I'm not getting to an event anytime soon.
And then I heard rumors of a Manchester event just after Aspinall won the belt for Pavlovich. I was like, mate, if that happens, that's gonna be sick. And then it finally got announced and it was just like. It was. It was funny because, like, it was ecstasy, and then it was like, you carry on reading and you go, oh, it's gonna be on through the middle of the night. You're like, oh, like, I can't wait. You know what I mean? Yeah, but, yeah, that was my first event, and I definitely will be trying to get some more to do a London one. Then it'll be. Your neck of the woods will be coming down.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Yeah, it'd be good to meet up and we can all do some sort of collaboration when you've got your channel going, right?
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly, Matt, exactly. I love that.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Speaking of collaboration, I've got a bit of a fun question here. Obviously, collaboration is one of the most powerful tools in the influencer world, connecting with the new audience or a similar audience to yours that you've not seen before. And it's always interesting to hear I who people would love to team up with. So if you could collaborate with any MMA fighter or another influencer in the space, who would it be and what kind of content would you love to create with them?
[00:26:16] Speaker B: Obviously, that's. There's so many. That's the thing, like, there's so many for me that, like, you, I'd love to. Love to work with, like, obviously, I'd love to work with my boy Aspinall. I'd love to work with Tom Aspinall.
Even if it's like, kind of. Kind of what we're doing. Just like a bit of chin whack or like what he does with the. With, you know, with the fight lab. You ever see Asperger's fight lab on TNT? He does with Adam Catterill. He'll do a bit of training or he'll watch a clip and he break it down and then breaks it down, you know, and stuff like that. So I'd love to do something like that. He'd fling me around the gym like I'm nothing. I mean, love it again. Like, you know, I'd love to do a thing with biswings where we're just like, you know, kind of just. I don't know whether having a brew or having a beer. I mean, like, just like in a pub setting type of thing, and just see how many shots we can get done.
But it's hard because there's so many people that I'd love to work with. I think I mentioned Mac Malley before. I'd love to, like, try and jump on his pocket. He works a lot with Mike Perry and the correct guys and stuff like that. So that'd be good to get into. I mean, I'm open to work with anyone, you know, as long as we can bounce off each other. And we've got, like, a bit of a rapport, you know, I'm up for it. But fighter wise, I mean, I've been talking to.
This was thanks to you guys as well. Talking to Modestus Bukaucus a lot. Yeah, he's coming back up to Manchester to do a bit of training probably in the next couple of months. So all goes well, should be able to link up with him and maybe do some, you know, do some interview or do some kind of training footage or something. You know what I mean? We still got a bit of time to think about that, but, yeah, going forward, I'm hoping I can bring a lot of that new, kind of what, be the new voice, do you know what I mean? One of the new voices in the MMA world. And like you said, with a bit of sprinkle of humor and maybe, you know, make people think about things, you know, and trying not change the game, but add a little bit of a game. Do you know what I mean?
[00:28:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
That karate combat is an interesting one, right? Because there's a guy called Quane, and we met him at 284, and he's quite friendly with. Or he's been to the events, and he's been there with kind of Mac and Ben Davies and stuff like that. And I've never seen it before, but I quite like the idea of it. I don't know. And it's growing quickly, but I don't know. It's a bit of a weird one for me. I mean, some of the. Some of the knockouts I've seen when they've kind of jumped off the side of the ring and that are really, really cool, I'm like, well, I'd love to try that one day. Is that kind of. No, I'm gonna. Antipettis. When he done it on the case of the octagon.
[00:29:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. The showtime. Showtime kick.
When I. When I first saw the pit, I was like, that looks like a skate park, you know, with the. The ramps and all that.
How did I fight in that? But, like you say, you've seen people kind of, like, get pushed onto that bit where it's like that, and then someone's threw a flying knee right onto their face. And I'm thinking, is that allowed? Because is that not him down? But, no, it's allowed. And it's just like, well, this is pretty good, this, you know, I've got one.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: Some pretty cool stuff happening in karate combat, I think I saw. That was something I think I commented on Instagram. Bisbean was, like, punching some bags before he went in for his surgery recently. And I just said, like, we need to see. We need to see Rockhold Bisbee three in karate combat. The amount of lights on that was through the roof, and I'm thinking, wow, actually, like this. Maybe that is what people want to see. Do you know what I mean? I won't mind seeing that, to be honest.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: I think we'll probably get misfits boxing or Polaris or something like that instead. But I don't know. I don't know if Bispher still grapples, but I would like to see him at Polaris event, obviously. Rockhold was just on the Craig Jones invitational, wasn't he?
[00:30:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: So he's doing a bit of grappling Bispin. If you're. If you're. If you're listening, doubt you are. But Polaris, that'd be an interesting one to kind of see and see how that grows as well.
Next question is, kind of looking forward. We've touched on it, and I'd like to see kind of what your vision is, and maybe it could be me trying to help you set some goals. I don't know, but I wanted to know, where do you see yourself in this space and, say, the next five years, is there a particular platform that you're eyeing up to go on to, or have you got an idea already which we haven't touched on about kind of content and stuff?
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Um, so I knew you'd say five years because it was recently. I was. I was actually thinking about five years, and I was thinking then I was realizing how old I was in five years, and I was like, oh, that's just take me, like, a ton of.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Bricks because, see, leave, achieve. Was this been one which people leave, achieve? Yeah.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: I don't know. In five years, hopefully. Like, in fact, to be honest, if we think about this since three or four week. Three or four fight week, because I went to the Sunday after that, like, when the adrenaline starts cooling down and I was laid out and was thinking, like, I could really do some of it, like, the amount of people I met that week, like you guys, Jourdain, Kaz, Crosley, the fight, like, met Molly, met Paddy, meth. But all these people that I was having a really good connection with, and I was thinking, I could probably do something with this. You know what I mean? So it was, um. It was a bit of an eye opener. So I'm open in five years. I'm definitely going to have the YouTube should be going by then. Maybe. Maybe, you know, might have one case of crack subscribers, you know, if I start now, I don't know. But I do want to carry on with the Twitter over the x if.
If it's going all right by then. Do you know what I mean?
Instagram, I don't know about TikTok. I know a lot of people are on set a quick, like, you know, things, but I probably like. Yeah, it's probably one of them where you'll see a clip from there, and then when I go to, like, the full YouTube thing or something. But, yeah, I want to do. I want to do a podcast. I want to do interviews. I want to do, like you say, funnies. I want to do some kind of funny stuff. I kind of do what I like. I don't know, explore a different side of MMA. Like, recently, there's a lot of new fans, which they just want the knockouts. They just want to see people be the crap out of each other like this and the other. And that's. That's. That's one of the best things about MMA. It's brilliant. But there's also, like another side to it where there's like the philosophy of it, the, the, the psychology of MMA.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: Where it's all about respect. It's about like the underdog story. I mean, that just happened recently. Yesterday, one of the Dana White contender series. I think every underdog, massive underdogs, completely swept the board. Do you know what I mean? And it was actually pretty amazing to see because like, they were huge underdogs.
And I think even Dana, you know, said something along the same lines, like, he loves it when an underdog comes through. We don't often agree, me and Dana, but we agree on that.
Especially recently. Don't get me wrong, I love Dana back in the days, but Dana recently is like, I don't know what's going on with the guy. Like, so much up with him.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: Yeah. After Manchester and the post fight, the post fight press conference and he was just like, as a UK fan, like having him come along, come along and kind of disrespect it when he's put the card at like midnight and all the local fighters are trying to have to change their sleeping routines and then he just goes off on one about basically how poor we are. Then he drops Mikayev.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: And I mean, obviously we still don't quite know the truth behind what happened behind the scenes there. No, but it just, it just, it's just a. Yeah, it just seems a bit odd. And some of the stuff he's saying, I mean, the amount that he's going on, I mean, that they did a goat, the goat thing last night of Jon Jones and stuff. And it's like, calm down, man. I know you like Jon Jones, but Tom Asheville, I must be fuming.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: Well, when I saw that, I was like, I said I was watching the contenders and I just looked up because I could have started hearing this, this like trailer. And I looked up and I saw John Jones and I was thinking, are they actually going to announce Jon Jones and stipe on a contender series episode? So I was like, I was watching it and then it got to the end and it's like, no, Jon Jones is the goat. I was like, did he really just put a Jong Jones promo in just a random consented episode? Like, what was that about? Like the amount of people that were probably hyped up, like, oh, he's gone up and I'm Steve Payne Jones and it just didn't happen. I was just like, they're supporting your fighters and then there's next level, like what he's doing now and like you hit the nail on the end. Like, aspinall must be just watching that going, what are you doing, man? Like, I mean, Aspigo put a funny video out not long ago where he was on the hunt for John.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: I've seen that.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: Yeah, hilarious, man. Like, you know, it's just so. But it's spot on as well, do you know what I mean? Because still to this day, Jon Jones has not said, yeah, you know what, I'll fight Aspinall, you know, or after Stipe. Yeah, I'll fight Tom. So I think we know what's going to happen after John and Stipe fight.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think. I think it's a really clever move, actually, from Tom because even if it doesn't happen, if it doesn't come to fruition, the attention that it's getting from Jones fans and, like, the old MMA fans, because they understand who Jon Jones is and they saw his rising and stuff like that.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Either way, it's like, it's a win win for Tom.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: You might not get the fight. He might not get the money for getting the fight. There is always going to be that excuse of he's not. He's not what he was and that's what will happen come out afterwards if Tom beats him.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: But just having the exposure to having the backwards and forwards with, with Jon Jones, I think gives him in terms of, like, social media and influence on social media gives him a massive step forward.
[00:36:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I think in a way as well. Like John, he probably might not say it outright and he never said it outright when he had the beef with, with Kamye. But I think John does respect Sam. Like, I think you can see it. Some of them, even some of the posts, even some like the really, like, weird, nasty post, you can tell that he does respect it. Like you say, tom's just, Tom's just doing what Tom used to do. I mean, he started off being quite nice and saying, you know, john, I would like to fight you, you know, and then it came into John, I'm better than you now it's turned into John, I'm gonna have a bit of fun with you, mate. You know, I mean, and again, that's our kind of like, sense. That's. That's what we do with a sense of humor. We will take the piss. Do you know, like you say, even if they don't get the fight, and I'm not. I'm nothing disrespecting Jon Jones legacy. Like, for me, Jon Jones is personally, this is just personally the second best goal. Like, for me, GSP is the goal, you know, and Jon Jones is one of the greatest writers ever. Like, there's no, there's absolutely no denying that. Even some, Aspinall recently said on the Mount rush mode of MMA, John Jones is on there. Like, you can't deny what he's done. People will always put a little asterisk because of the, the drug tests and the outside of the cage antics and, you know, you can't forget about that. But I'm not disrespecting John, but there's always going to be that. What if. Yeah, and I think, like, John knows he's getting a bit older now and he's not what he wants. Five times undefeated, no matter who you are, you know what I mean? Like, he will eventually creep up here. But, yeah, if Jon retires after Stipe, he's still one of the goals. Do you know what I mean? There's no denying it. And then hopefully Tom gets promoted to undisputed. Or, like Tom asked, he gives him his belt as he's walking out, which I can't see John doing, but no, no way.
[00:38:16] Speaker A: Of course he's not going to do that.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: It's just not in his style. Do you know what I mean?
But, yeah, I think by the end of.
I'd like to say by the end of this year, we're going to have an answer whether Tom's going to be champ or he's still waiting for jump.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: I'd like to see John take the challenge.
I do think he, I mean, he's kind of already alluded to it, saying that he's got nothing left to prove. So he's basically already said, like, once he's done this fight, he's done, um.
And to be, to be fair, I think he hasn't helped himself, but people are really kind of completely forgetting about Stipe and the whole thing.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: But, but he's not fought in God knows how long, so that doesn't help at all.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: No. And I think, like, say it's been, well, I put a thing out a while ago and I have to triple check these because I've seen something on XDev and I was like, that can't be right. And then once I started digging, I found more. It was like, the last time stipe won a fight, Paddy wasn't in the UFC, Piero wasn't in the UFC, taporier wasn't in the UFC. And I'm just like, that can't be right. And I was looking at it. It actually genuinely is. And I love Stipe. I think Stipe is the heavyweight goal in the UFC. And again, and, yeah, he wants the mummy fight before he resigns, and you can't knock him for that. Yeah, but I think, like, a lot of people have said this, like, the john, the stipe fight doesn't need a belt on the line. It's a legacy fight for both of them. People will buy that and watch that. Probably even, you know, without the undisputed belt on the line. That just adds a little bit more intrigue to it.
But, yeah, it's just, it's holding the division up. I mean, I could talk for days. We'll be here, but we'll be there for the whole. Are we. If we carry it on with Jon and stupid, it's a hot topic at the minute. And like you say, Dana doesn't help things by. He's got to be playing into it as well, this whole glazing thing.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: Yeah, look, if I was Dana, obviously he's very protective of Jon Jones, but if you've got to think about the amount of money that fight would make with the amount of to and fro that they both had, I think it's a. I think it's a headliner for any card that they were ever looking at, and it's a no brainer. No matter where they put it, people are gonna tune in. I think it's John Jones. Don't get me wrong. It's Jon Jones.
He's got that McGregor style kind of superstar power, and then it's the kind of whole, kind of. Does he actually beat Tom after Tom's disrespected him so much?
[00:40:54] Speaker B: Yeah, there's gonna be. I was just. Sorry. Go on, man.
[00:40:57] Speaker A: No, no, you go. You go. Go.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: I was just saying, like you say, if you put John on a card, people will watch it. If you put Connor on, people will say they won't watch it. But you know, you know damn well they're gonna watch it. And, yeah, Dana's just being promoted, but Dana doesn't even need to promote this. You know, you could just drop a trailer and a date and a time and it'd be like, yeah, we're there. Do you know? I mean, so, yeah, yeah. Like you say with Tom, I feel a bit like, I mean, this is the thing that Dana could also kind of be promoting Tom and being like, you know what, Tom a bit more than he is. It would be like, Tom is a real challenge to John, and he could be cope. He could even coax John into it and say, you know, well, you know, imagine if he beats Sam, imagine if he does this, make John kind of think, oh, maybe, maybe. And I think that's what's been going on with some recently, is he's been prodding the bear, poking the ego. And DC recently kind of said something about that. Like the only way you get a reaction from Jones or game to notice you is if you press his ego.
And he seems to be working a little bit. So let's see, let's see what's next. But some people are liking this bad boy Tom Aspinall type of approach.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Yeah. When you've got the social media following and the influence that he's now got with the position that he's in, the. Why not?
[00:42:16] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I mean, why not? But it's definitely working. Well, it seems to be working, but we'll see. But I think they just need to announce Jones and Steve bang out. I think a lot of people have pretty much, you know, become aware that it's in November or sometime we've got to wait and see. Either way, I'm looking forward to it. And like you say, a lot of people kind of writing Stipe, Stipe's just having fun creating onlyfans content, dancing around to NSYNC, do you know what I mean? He's loving life. He don't, he don't care. Do you know what I mean? He's like them to argue amongst each other. And a lot of people are saying, could you imagine? Could you imagine if Stipe won? Like the meltdown?
It would just cause pandemonium.
[00:43:03] Speaker A: It would be incredible. I'd also like to see Stipe put out the day before with an injury and Tom step in to replace him.
[00:43:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Trips over a cable, do you know what I mean?
And then some afterglow steps in like, yo, what's up, John?
[00:43:17] Speaker A: Yeah, they catch it on camera and they lift back curtain that Tom's there pulling a rope. Pulling a rope like shit. Up in court.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: I can see him filming somewhat like that as well. He's probably going to do a skip like that.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be so funny if he just did a little edited clip of him behind a curtain going like.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Sneaking up behind him and that.
[00:43:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be very funny. Especially if you then went to win the fight as well. That'd be even funnier.
One thing I did want to touch on, you mentioned it slightly and I. I spoke to you beforehand and we were talking about it. It's obviously that kind of psychology. And. What's the other word I'm looking for now?
[00:43:54] Speaker B: Philosophy.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Philosophy. You've got that on your profile, and it's something that I've never actually spoke to you about. So I just kind of wanted to learn a bit more about what that's about. Really?
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
To be honest, for a while, I forgot it was there. And then when I was changing my bio and that I was thinking about, do I take this out? Do they believe it in? But I think it's been there for so long now that it is a part of me, but so it's a weird one. So, for me, like, philosophy and psychology has been somewhere that's, you know, been quite a passion for me going back quite a while. Even, like, when I was younger, like, I did quotes and stuff like that greek philosophy quote. I had no idea what it meant, but it resonated with me. And I was like, these little things that would get me through. It's one of them that I actually think I'd like to eventually touch on in the future podcasts as well, because I do do a lot regarding men's mental health, and I think that's becoming a lot more.
Accepts is the wrong word, but a lot more people are more aware of it. We mentioned Paddy Pimblett before. Every time he wins, he always shouts out, like, shouts out someone that's going through our times. I think that's what I love about Paddy. A lot of people think, like, paddy's just this gobshite scouser, which, yeah, he is, but he's also, like, one of the most genuine guys you probably ever meet. You know what I mean? He's got a heart of gold. But. So that psychology as well, is not just about, like, you know, the mental health type of thing. Psychology is also learning about yourself.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: And about other people. I think the more you learn about yourself, the more you learn about other people, and vice versa. And I think, like, in a way, fighting is as psychological as it is physical. Do you know what I mean? Because we talked a little bit about that fear of doing something.
I think even if you speak to some of the artists bastards in the cage, they'll say that they got scared or they went out. You know what I mean? They always felt that little bit of. But then they can psychologically use that fear into going out there and putting on a performance of a lifetime.
We spoke about him a lot, probably because he's one of the best MMA fighters at the minute, but Tom Aspinall kind of said somewhere along the fines of, yeah, he gets that fear, but that's what drives him, do you know what I mean? That's what drives him into doing these performances. GSP as well. I mean, if you've ever read GSP's autobiography, the way of the fight, honestly, man, pick that up if ever you can. It's so insightful, it's unreal. And he kind of said every fight he went out to, he was scared. Do you know what I mean? He used that to be like, let's do what that's let's fight for my life type of thing. Yes. And then on to the philosophy. Philosophy is just basically figuring out a reason why we're here. And I think every man, woman, every human needs to find their purpose in life and the reasons to keep going and the reasons to accept hardships. Do you know what I mean?
Like people going back to the goat conversation.
Yeah. John Jones is one of the goals. He's never lost. He's got one loss. But even I will say that loss doesn't count. You know what I mean?
But for me, JSP is the goal. Even though there's two losses on his record, each one of those losses was a lesson. It taught him something. He bounced back stronger. He became better for it. And I think in life, that's basically what we have to do. We're all going to lose at one point, something's going to drop some. It's going to cause us to take five steps back and reevaluate.
But using that kind of philosophy instead of the why is this happening to me? It's kind of like, what can this teach me? So there's a lot of reasons why I do the why. I have psychology and philosophy. And recently I did lose someone very close to me who basically taught me a lot about psychology.
My mentor, he was my best mate, and that hit me like a ton of bricks. And what was quite funny was he was one of them guys that you speak to about when you're feeling like shit. And when he passed, I was like, I need to sweet to him. I feel like shit. And I thought, oh, shit, I can't. Like, I was you bastard.
But again, that's the kind of, kind of like friendship we had. Like, you know, we would call each other all kinds of games and stuff like that.
[00:48:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:48:34] Speaker B: But, yeah, I think psychology and philosophy is paramount to survive, not just, not just the fighting, not just fighters using it, but just people like me and you that go out there into the world because the world's a bit of a crazy place at the moment. It's the worst it's been in a very long time.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:53] Speaker B: And it's that kind of, you know, finding the will and the strength to. To keep going through hardships, which I find, which is very close personal things to me. And if I can help other people do that, and if I can help other people find the light in the darkness, then. Then I've done something right. So, yeah. So kind of going back to what we were saying before about what would I like, you've kind of just. I told you I was tired, so it does take me a while to get to things. But going back to what you said about weddle, I see this on five years. It's hopefully. Yeah. With the podcast and using the comedy, the psychology and the philosophy to help, to help others not learn about mma, not just enjoy fights, but to learn something about themselves and get a brighter future, basically.
Thank you, man. Yeah, yeah.
[00:49:44] Speaker A: I think. You know what? I think that was so touching that that's probably what I'm going to end on.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: Because in the background, you know, them like motivational videos, you hear, I might.
[00:49:55] Speaker A: Do that and send it to you now so you can post it out.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: That's. That's me saying it, while I am absolutely knackered as well. But if it wasn't so tired, it might sound a bit more coherent. But that was just all off the top of the dome, because you wouldn't tell me about what we're going to talk about today, which was quite good, I must admit. You know what I mean?
[00:50:18] Speaker A: Yeah. I think one thing. One thing I quickly learned doing this is that when I went into my first podcast, I had a hard, like a full on script, and I was like, these are questions I'm going to ask you.
And through the natural conversation throughout the podcast, they were answering questions which had already asked.
[00:50:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, they were.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: They were answering questions which I was getting ready to ask. So they'd done like a 510 minutes talk about a certain thing, and they'd already touched on it. And I was going, I was scrolling through at the top because it's got like a script thing here. I was scrolling through. I was going, fuck, they've already answered that.
Can't ask that one either.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: You're just crossing them.
Well, that's it, guys. Thank you for joining.
[00:51:01] Speaker A: You've answered all my questions in the first question. Thanks.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:51:06] Speaker A: So I stepped away from doing that, and it's been a lot more comfortable just trying to have to active listen and kind of think of a question as you go along, and then. And then prep. If you are prepping a question, prep a question which is completely separate.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: Don't. Don't come in with a topic, because I was thinking of a topic for you, and the topic was going to be like, kind of social media. Because your presence on social media and how successful I see you on social media and kind of delving right into kind of that. But if I asked you, like, a quite simple question about kind of how do you approach it? Like, do you prep for the week or something crazy like that, then a lot of. A lot of what you talk about unintentionally would encompass a lot of the other questions. So I thought this time we'll just sit down and we'll just have a bit more of just a chat.
[00:51:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: And just see where we end up.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: Well, I like that. And that's kind of like, you know, like, say, in the future. That's kind of what I want to do. It's just that free flow, like, let's have a brew, let's have a drink type thing. And just like, it's like if you were in the pub, you know what I mean? Or you were. You were like, you know, in a cafe somewhere, and we're just chatting, you know? I mean, I think that's why. I mean, a lot of these podcasts, I think the reason they do so was like, you've got Rogan, and he'll ask questions, but then they just kind of flow. Or, like, the guest will just start chatting. I mean, Rogan does this funny thing, though, I must admit, where he'll say, summer? And he'll start laughing, and then he'd be like, oh, man, that's hilarious. What is it? But would a bear be a shark? And he'd go, really serious. All of a sudden, they'll go, whoa, where did that come from?
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Rogan's quite unique purely because the kind of guests that he can get onto it, like being in an MMA podcast, this is like, we're trying to think of, like, what could be, what kind of audience is slightly different, that we could kind of interview that people or just general MMA fans don't really get to see. So, yeah, I'm slightly jealous of him. I'd love to try and approach, like, celebrities, which aren't fighters but are interested in the sport of.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:53:07] Speaker A: Because it'd be really interesting to kind of hear, like, about, like, their experiences, like, watching the UFC and stuff. But, um, I don't know. I don't know how we're going to do that? We might have to try and, uh, get on with. Kaz.
[00:53:20] Speaker B: Has got some pretty good. There was a. I don't follow football that well, so you might have to connect. There was a football recently that did the, the Adesanya. Well, it's actually Pierre's, but did the, um, the bow and arrow celebration.
[00:53:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Muhammad Salah.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: That was it. It was mo Salah. Yeah. And they asked him, like, oh, yeah, I watch UFC quite a lot. It's like. And it surprised a load of people, I think. Why is it surprising? Like, you know, UFC is, like, massive, you know?
But, yeah, I think even he's been recently, he does. He has, like, Anthony Smith on there, and he has, like, all the fighters coming up, but recently he had a, he had a doctor on, which I still need to watch. I haven't watched it, and he had a doctor on, which is something about, you know, healthy eating. And this doctor's talking about how we should be living longer, but the food that we're eating is, like, basically full of crap. Do you know what I mean? So even Bisbon's starting to lean more into other, the other side of things. You know what I mean?
[00:54:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Because there is a ceiling with this. You can speak to. You can speak to the whole roster of fighters if you wanted to.
[00:54:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:20] Speaker A: And, I mean, if you had the influence to do that, then great.
Along the way, they've got, they've all got individual stories, but the conversation is always going to end up back at, like, what's your next fight? How you prepare stuff. So how do you, how do you prep something different for the audience? And that's where we kind of went, okay, let's talk to. Let's talk to content creators. People are out there doing YouTube, doing social media, and let's also talk to kind of the, let's reach out to people that work for the UFC, maybe see if they want to come on, see what their roles are, see what day to day life. And, like, some of the works for the UFC is because one of the things I wasn't doing, content creation, but I was thinking, oh, I'd love to have a job at the UFC. I wonder what it's like traveling the world. Like, I don't know who she is, but I always see her on the, on the woman watching the live cards. There's a girl that's always got a phone. She posts the clips for the social media page.
She just travels the world taking videos on a phone. And I'm just like, how'd you get that job?
[00:55:18] Speaker B: How'd you get that gig? That's awesome.
I mean, some of the stuff she posts as well is, like, really funny as well. Like, you know, clip from the editing on it is, like, really slick. I mean, I met some of the.
Yeah, probably say this. Yeah, yeah, probably say this. I met some of the TNT sport crew, social media guys and stuff like that. And they were like, you know, they were hilarious. And, like, they were just tweeting, do you know what I mean? And it's meant it's, you know, and it's really good. And what they actually told me as well is they think that people don't read the comments. They said, we do. We read the comments and we have a laugh. Do you know what I mean? Like, some of them hilarious.
So, yeah, so there's all these different jobs. I mean, I always thought that. I always thought about, if it wasn't gonna be a fighter, I won't mind being a referee. I mean, that's the best seat in the house right there, didn't it? Do you know what I mean?
In the cage right there, you know? But I'd be probably one of them. I'd be so into it. I'd be like, oh, this is. Oh, shit, I hear stop.
[00:56:24] Speaker A: How did round two go again?
[00:56:25] Speaker B: I think that happens with her team quite a lot. Sometimes he's just so in the moment, he's like, like, I need to, uh. I need to stop, you know? But, yeah, I'd love to have a, you know, I think a lot of people, that's their dream in it to, uh. Yeah, you know what I mean?
[00:56:41] Speaker A: Yeah, we can all dream.
[00:56:45] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly, man.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: At my age now, I think I'm not going to become a professional UFC fighter.
[00:56:51] Speaker B: I've got a mate, right? And he says that because he's kind of like, he's into it and he knows I'm like, a hardcore. Even says that. He said, like, what do you do? Staying up all night and this and the other? I don't know how you do it. I'm like, it's natural now to me. Do you know what I mean? He said, would you ever do it? Would you ever do professional fight? And I said, I'd love to mate, but I've already crossed the threshold of the 35 curse. I'm getting there. I'm going to lose as soon as I pick, but, yeah, it's probably game over, but I still like to train and maybe do a few charity matches, stuff like that. I mean, there's a lot of influencer stuff happening at the moment and I've heard, probably can't say too, but I've heard like karate combat are getting into the influencer like matchup type of thing recently.
[00:57:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Ben Davies did one fight against. Was it Anderson Silva's son, wasn't it?
[00:57:48] Speaker B: I think it was. And he's doing bare knuckle as well coming up soon against mental.
How mad is that? I think it's Oscar Willis he's going up against, innit?
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Yeah, that's absolutely bonkers.
[00:58:01] Speaker B: You know, fair play to him. That's like, you know, he's done karate combat. I'm sure he's done a grappling match as well, aren't he, or something?
[00:58:11] Speaker A: Not too sure if I'm honest. I'm not sure. I know the karate combat. I'll tell you what though. I'll place it. I'll place a bet with you right now. Right. I bet you pound 20 he will break his hand.
[00:58:21] Speaker B: What? 1st 1st punch throw.
[00:58:24] Speaker A: Not first, not first punch, but he will in that fight. If he lasts long enough, he easily will break his hand. He'll punch the guy somewhere in the face or.
Yeah. Which is hard and he'll break his hand, I reckon.
[00:58:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So there you go. 20 quid. No, because I think he will as well. So I'm not taking that bet. I agree with.
Yeah, yeah. Bare knuckle was mental. Like, you know, it's pretty funny as well that Conor McGregor's got into it because bare knuckle is like pretty predominantly irish. Like the irish travelers were like begging of the bare knuckles.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:07] Speaker B: In fact they probably started it. They were just like, you know, they're the ogs of bare knuckle. Like around my end we had like Paddy Doherty who lived around here, he'd do bare knuckle fighting and this and the other. I think the talk from like four years old, as soon as they can walk, they're throwing in a hay bale and like right batter that boy. Do you know what I mean?
It's a mental world, you know what I mean?
[00:59:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:59:33] Speaker B: But I actually see better pool doing quite well.
Better than power slap.
[00:59:38] Speaker A: Let's not start on that. This will be a two hour episode, I think.
[00:59:42] Speaker B: Well, power slap is doing like power slap will be better than the UFC, won't it?
[00:59:46] Speaker A: So it's doing bigger numbers, you know?
[00:59:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, but all and all sports combined times it by four and that's power slap. But yeah, but that's like saying.
[00:59:57] Speaker A: That's like saying, right, if you look at it when you. When you start a YouTube channel, you see, I mean, we pump out shorts that get like 1010 thousand plus views. Right? Yeah, we get nothing for that. Nothing for that. Because shorts. Shorts don't really generate revenue or income.
[01:00:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:11] Speaker A: Is that you don't get the ads. Like when you put a video, which is like, more than I. I think, like 1015 minutes long, you put an ad in it or something, and that's what generates the money. So, yeah, if you. If I. If someone said you want 10,000 views on a long form content or do you want 10,000 views on shorts? I'll always take the long form content. This power slap is just purely shorts.
[01:00:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I see clips, a lot of clips of power slap, but that's what it is. Clips. It's like a ten second clip of some guys getting waxed in the face and going down like a spud. I mean, you do go. You do kind of go, oh, that was hard. And then you move on, you know what I mean? It was like, you might see another clip and it's a girl this time, getting whacked. I mean, and you're just like, all right, yeah, that was a nasty one. And then you don't have the next thing.
So it is probably doing numbers in, like you say, the views category. But I think David doesn't understand this. They're not like, someone's not sitting down for 7 hours to watch a full, like, power slap event, whereas they would for a full, like, USB card. You know what I mean?
[01:01:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, if someone said to me, power slaps coming to the o two in London. Yeah, it's gonna be on. It's gonna start at 10:00 at night. It's gonna finish at 06:00 in the morning. I won't be there. I bit the UFC. I won't be there.
[01:01:31] Speaker B: Exactly. But if UFC did it and stacked the card, you'd be like, yeah, Mandy, yeah, I'm there. Do you know what I mean? It's like when. I mean, I moaned a lot. I'll say moan. People were, like, getting annoyed with it. But I started a little campaign when 304 was announced to be on through the night, man, I started just going at it. Every meme I could think of about Dana hate in the UK, I went for it, right? But I knew I still. Even though I was posting them, I still knew I was going. Like, do you know what I mean? Even if it did stay on through the night, I still knew I was going. But I was still going to try and get into chains.
Do you know what I mean? Like, it was just fucking once I started and people were starting to, like, reshare them and stuff like that. And I'm on this train with you. Like, we're gonna get sweet, man. Yeah. Here's another one. Do you know what I mean? Like, here's what I thought of on the walk to work, you know, so.
But, yeah, like, power slap. It's fun to watch a clip or two, but, like, for the full event, it's just.
It's not something that I could get into. And it's like, you know, the stuff Dana comes out with when he says about, oh, it's the same as boxing. And it's like, when I. When I heard him say that, I thought, no, you. Come on, man. Come on. You can't. You can't believe that you just. You're just making this up now, you know? I mean, I know. I think he was on the.
I think it was the full send podcast. I can't remember those guys names, but even the guy in that said, nah, I'm not having that. Have you signed?
[01:02:56] Speaker A: Oh, I've seen that clip. Yeah, yeah.
[01:02:58] Speaker B: And even he said the same thing. He said, it's just like, yeah, what was it? Fight one, someone gets slapped. Fight two, it's the same thing every time. So.
[01:03:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:03:10] Speaker B: Dana wasn't too happy about that. You could tell. But it's true. You know what I mean? So. But, yeah, I think, like, say, with UFC as well, the one thing I have to try and remember about UFC and MMA is it's actually quite young. I mean, it's 31 years since the UFC started in 93.
But in terms of, like, you know, sports as a whole, that. That's still pretty young. I mean, boxing has been going since, like, the forties. Like, maybe even earlier than that. Well, we think boxing was going back to the roman times, you know what I mean? They found some ancient roman boxing gloves not long ago, like, was padded and all that, so. But also, here's one for you. It's one of those. This is one of them episodes. Now. Did you know the ancient greeks had a form of MMA? I cannot remember what it's called, so I'd have to look it up. But basically, it was just. It was no old, bad fighting, and it incorporated, like, you know, what. What we call judo, what we would call jiu jitsu striking. So fighting has been in human blood since, like, we were around, you know what I mean?
[01:04:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:04:16] Speaker B: But MMA as a professional sport is still pretty young.
[01:04:19] Speaker A: I always look at it as like a modern evolution of, like, gladiators.
[01:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[01:04:25] Speaker A: People in arena watching people try and kill each other, basically.
[01:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, basically. We just got rid of the weapons and the animals, you know what I mean? It's like, no, mate.
[01:04:33] Speaker A: And put a referee in there just. Just to make sure.
[01:04:37] Speaker B: Don't give Dane enough ideas. That'll be the next. That'll be the next thing. Right.
[01:04:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:04:41] Speaker B: We're gonna put a bear in there with Khabib versus bear for his return. Do you know what I mean? The rematch.
[01:04:47] Speaker A: Well, if we didn't have a referee, then Conor McGregor would have been killed by khabib, I think, right?
[01:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, that was mental. I mean, they released the no commentary clip of that, and I never actually realized it all them years back then that Khabib kind of like, spat on him after he stood up. He kind of like, spat.
Well, I didn't notice that all them years ago. Yeah, yeah, but, yeah, I remember that.
[01:05:15] Speaker A: I remember it was like 06:00 in the morning, and we tapped him out and then launched his gum shots and people jumped in and the missus came in in the morning. My daughter just woken up, and I was just going, you'll never believe what happened. You'll never believe. He's just. He's jumped out the ring and he's fighting with people outside the ring. And I was up for like another 2 hours was normally sleep.
[01:05:43] Speaker B: I remember, like, because you saw the tap and you go, oh, well, you know, that was good fight. Good fight. And like you say, even Joe Rogan's expression was like, hilarious. It's like, no, no, no. And he's flying evil, which is just iconic now as he's flying out of the octagon. And even I was like, stood there like, it was like. It was there. You know, stood there in front of the telly like, yo, what's going on?
[01:06:05] Speaker A: Like, yeah, just Dylan down.
[01:06:07] Speaker B: It's like, yeah. And then when Dana says to him, what was it? If I put this belt on you? Now this whole arena's gone away rough. So, Khabib, I'm ready for this. I am ready. This is okay.
[01:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd love to see that again. Something like that. Something like that would be fantastic. Not what we should be promoting, but it was very entertaining.
[01:06:28] Speaker B: No, there's been a few times where you think it's gonna happen. It's like, it's like the Makai Evan Cape fight.
I thought they were gonna absolutely scrap even after the bell rang, I thought they would pull each other apart. And then they just look like, you know what? We're all right now. I mean, we got it out of our system. We're all good, you know? And I think a lot of people kind of let down by that.
[01:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think maybe Makaif was told something before the fight because, I mean, he's been. He's been quite ladish and loud and proud in other fights, but not to that extent, but to be at that extent. And then when the fight starts to be completely different, it's not normal. So I think.
[01:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah, and I think even, like, moles alluded to it himself and he said, like, there's stuff going on. Dane has obviously said a few things, other people have said a few things. And it's going to be always chinese whispers in it. You know what I mean? Like, people are going to tight lips about it. But I hope he comes back eventually because he's a good kid. Yeah, he's, you know, he's into all kinds of stuff, but aren't we all at that age, you know? I mean, we're all a bit. We're all a bit young and silly sometimes, but, yeah, he's a good kid. He's talented. Very talented.
[01:07:45] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll see how it pans out for him. I'm sure he'll be back. I mean, anywhere else that he goes, surely he's going to start to absolutely everyone that he. He comes up against. So. Yeah, just. Yeah, I'll see. I'll watch his next few fights and see where he is at the end of that.
[01:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah, well, he's back at brave, so he's back where he started. So it's kind of a.
I don't want to say a full circle, but it could be a full circle because circle eventually will bring him back to the UFC. Do you know what I mean?
[01:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that he'll. He will smash it.
[01:08:17] Speaker B: Right.
[01:08:17] Speaker A: I'm gonna. I'm going to wrap it up there. We've gone over our hour. It's 10:20 in the UK, so, yeah, I need to.
Hi, guys. Thank you so much for joining.
If you did enjoy that episode, please don't forget to hit a, like, subscribe follow, depending on where you are. And we look forward to hearing you in the next one.
[01:08:44] Speaker B: Bye.
