Latest / The MeatEater Podcast / Ep. 212: Chad Mendes on the Fight, the Hunt, and the Food

Transcript

Ep. 212: Chad Mendes on the Fight, the Hunt, and the Food · The MeatEater Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: This is me eat your podcast coming at you shirtless,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: severely bug bitten in my case, underwear listening podcast. You
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: can't predict anything presented by on X. Hunt creators are
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the most comprehensive digital mapping system for hunters. Download the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Hunt app from the iTunes or Google play store. Nor
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: where you stand with on X Yanny, tell man, you
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: gotta tell everybody about a handful of things. Tell everybody
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: about the egg rolls you made. The Boutellis has had
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the Ronella's for dinner. Yeah, for the first time. Maybe
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know about that. I've eaten over at your
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: house first. You know what. Your wife's just never joined you.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: She's always been out, and I've just had you and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the kids over. I think it was the first formal
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: total potla is total runella formal dinner. Sure was loud
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: in there. Our house is not very acoustically friendly log cabin,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you know, and we just don't have enough bears and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: lions and shipped on the walls to dampen it down.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: You have five kids in there, it's yeah, and he's
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: got a cold rolled sheet steel table, which doesn't help. No,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: don't help either, But yeah, we're making fun, which if
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you don't know what fun is, it's basically a bowl
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: of very hot broth that's traditionally made from oxtail. I
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: used wild game stock PHO. I'll point out, Yeah, that's
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: how you that's how you spell it. And uh. Then
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: you add to the stock a bunch of very aromatic
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: um herbs. You charge some onions, you charge ginger. There's
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: cardamom in there, coriander. I'm sure I'm missing a few,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: but get the idea very flavorful uh uh strong on
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the nose stock. And the way it all comes together
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: is you have some rice noodles, you have some raw meat,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and then you have some m garnishes like mint leaves, basil,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: green onions, sliced solid pane, you knows, bean sprouts, and
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: you put the noodles and the meat into the bowl
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and then you take a big ladle of the super
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: hot stock poured over the top, yeah, over the raw meat,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: and uh it basically cooks it um. When you're in
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: a Vietnamese like a noodle bowl restaurant, you can choose
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: from oh basically every cut of meat out there, and
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing that some of them they must cook ahead
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of time a little bit, but we just used like
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the tenderess, we used just use backstrap. Well yeah, he used.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Um his baby moose got ran overround the road down
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: below his house. That is that baby moose. It's so
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: pale and we had to eat the whole thing. My
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: kid looks up the hill beyond Yanni's house and there's
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a bedded kylamuse on the hill. So we're like, probably
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: due to the proximity eating her baby. How's that kid? Now?
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: If I was on a hill and someone was eating
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: my baby down the bottom of the hill, I would
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: be pissed, going, what does that bro? Do you think
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: that was the mother of that baby? Who knows? There's
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: quite a few moves running around that drainage. So I
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: like to I like to think it was not uh
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: so that we made some fun and I thought, you know, fun,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: it's just not gonna be quiet because the kids are
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: tend to be Some kids are really into it and
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: my kids, it's like a fifty fifty depending on how
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: they're feeling about how interest they're gonna be in eating fall.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: That night, they kind of flagged the red the raw meat. Yeah,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: they like what it was kind of the attitude. Everybody
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: has the kids. And again some nights my kids tear
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: it up and the other nights it's it's just not
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: what they're feeling. But so I thought, well, it should
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: make a little something extra. And since we're going Vietnamese.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: One of the other things I love to eat a
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Vietnamese restaurant are these fried spring spring rolls that come
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: served with um basically a big stack of lettuce leaves,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: like whole lettuce leaves, think of like a head of
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: just leaf lettuce, and they just separate them out big
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: stack and also the same thing again basil bean sprouts
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: ALPENI knows all that stuff. And you take the fried
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: uh spring roll, which basically just like a skinny egg roll.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Inside of it I had, Yeah, the filling was probably
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: fifty percent uh. Like a rice noodle. It's like a
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: really skinny noodle that it cooks so fast that you
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: don't even actually cook it like boil it like a
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: traditional noodle. What we do is you just basically put
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: it into a bowl and then pour just boiled water
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: over the top of it and just let it sit
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: in there and for ten minutes or so, and and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: that's how you get the best consistency out of those
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: rice noodles, and then from there it goes into the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: hot bowl. Sup. But it also was part of the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: filling for these fried spring rolls, which also had like
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: very finely chopped onions, carrots, cabbage, uh, some rehydrated mushrooms, fish, sauce, garlic,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: a couple other things, and uh yeah, all rolled up
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Steve Fried And for me Friedman, it was was that
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: that befat tho was in there. Yes, it was, yeah,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and my how did you like that double sized West
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and Fryer like things nice and you can get some
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: work done with that thing. Yeah? Did you want to
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: see kids eat some ship man? Give them those? Yeah?
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: We took them skiing the next day for lunch. Is
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: cold and uh yeah, like before they touched anything else,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: their hot chocolate wasn't even drank and they had polished off.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I think five. I'm gonna have to take notes on
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: that one. Yeah. Yeah, the voice chatman, what's up? Ten
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: months old? Baby? Ten month old? Yep, I don't know
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: where got it? Yeah, we uh first baby girl probably
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: plan on having maybe one more. The wife's trying to
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: do maybe two or three more. But I think I'm
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: good with one more, stop at too. Everybody's got everybody's man.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: We got, we got burned on three, we got we
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: were maxed out for a couple of years there. Now
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: we're in the clear, but it got rough. My my
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: good buddies had one boy and they're like, let's just
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: do one more. Had twin girls. We got three now.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: So now that you have a girl, are you sort
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of are you hoping for one or the other for
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the second one. I mean, I'm gonna be honest here,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I was hoping for a girl. I've always just pictured myself.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I'm a softy man. I you know, people see me.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I'm this UFC fighter. I'm supposed to be this like
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: extremely tough dude. I'm the biggest softie you've ever met.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Like I love having my girls, you know, and just
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know something about being able to cuddle my daughter.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: And um, and I'm hoping that she gets into the
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: outdoor lifestyle and I'm hoping that she's into hunting and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: fishing and stuff like that. I'm gonna do my very
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: best to get it go in that direction. And obviously
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: that's up to her, but um, you know, I wouldn't
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: be opposed either way. It would be nice to have
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a boy and a girl. But did you have a
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: rough relationship with your dad a little bit? I had.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I had a very complex relationship with my dad, and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: it made me want a girl because I could. I
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: was like, man, I don't know if I can do
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: all that. Yeah, from the other side, so I was like,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: if I have a girl, hell would be easy. Yeah.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: And I mean I had a good relationship with my dad,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: like he was always taking us to wrestling and doing
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: all that stuff. But my dad was always kind of
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a tough ass, you know, And um, I don't know
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: if maybe that's what it was, but yeah, I feel
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I feel good having a baby girl, and I'm just
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: excited about that. So I had a girl first as
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: as well, and when we were having our second one,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: we waited, we didn't know, and I ended up rooting
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: to have another girl, just because my thinking was I
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: wanted them then to have sisters. You know. I see
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: my wife and her sister and they got a strong relationship,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and um, I can just look at me and my siblings,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and I don't want to say I'm really that much
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: close to my brother than my sister. But a little bit,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: you know, And I figured be nice that their you know,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: your sisters. That's what we ended up with. Yeah, oh nice,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: so they're tight, see that that would be awesome. And
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I grew up in a household. We had eight people
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: living in my house. One night, I had too many people.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: So my mom and my dad had me. And then
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: they split up when I was young, and then my
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: dad remarried. My mom remarried obviously my mom, that wasn't
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: part of this, but um, the woman he remarried had
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: a boy and a girl already and then he had
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: two boys and a girl with her, so all of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: us were living in one house. I had lots of
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: your brother your dad had, My dad got city of me,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: and uh, and that's what I'm saying, Like, Bro, I
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: probably shouldn't make the statement I had a horrible relationship
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: with my dad or anything, but we were close. We
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: He got me into wrestling when I was five years
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: old and wrestled ship every year all the way up
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: through college and then jumped right into fighting. So, um,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: my dad coached me all the way up through up
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: through to high school. And it was actually your your
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: coach into high school. Yeah, and once I got to
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: high school, he backed out and let the high school takeover.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: But um, you know we were talking to another athlete, Um,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: you know, uh Bo Jackson, and I was surprised to
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: hear bo Jackson say that, Um, he wouldn't want his
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: kid to play football? Really, would you want your would
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: you want your daughter to go into UFC? I couldn't. No. No,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna say wrestling UFC. No, not
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: a chance. Uh, you know, because like, what is it
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: about it? Um, It's one of the main reason why
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I got out of it. You guys know Jason Hairston good,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I'm good buddies with them. The whole CTE thing scares
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: a ship out of me. UM. I feel like, obviously,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: with boxing, you know, that's one thing. You're getting knocked down,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and you know, you're basically getting flash knocked out and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: then getting back up and counting it off. I'm back
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: and then get flash knocked out again. You're saying in boxing,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: in boxing, you know, so obviously UFC fighting is not
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: that way. You get flash knocked out and the guy
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: jumps on you and finishes you, that's it, you know.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: But we box as part of our training, So I'm
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: still doing the same ship in the ring, you know,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: ten weeks out before a fight where I'm taking repetitive
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: blows to the head, where if I get my bell
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: rung during spiring, we stop it for a second, and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: we're all too damn hardheaded to be like I'm done,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Like let's keep going jump back in there. You know,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of in my opinions, a lot of
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: head damage that happens. That the sport is so young
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: that we just haven't really seen the long term effects
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: of it. And I want on your sex. I want
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: to bring people that might not know because we talked
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: about Jason Harrison, so I want to make sure people
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: track what you're talking about is Jason Harrison. He was
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: one of the founders of Citica a long time ago
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and then founded uh coo you, the hunting apparel company.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: But he had been a high school college football player.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: UM went into the NFL, never played in the NFL,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: but went into the NFL and practice in the NFL,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: but had a number of concutions and then I guess
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: it was a little over a year ago, took his
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: own life UM and had observed correct me if I'm
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: wrong this, but had talked about in interviews and mentioned
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: his concerns about traumatic brain injuries and that he would
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: he worried that he saw things in his personality and
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: saw things in the way he responded to things. It
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: made him like, wow, is that is that me? And
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: then again, um in a way that was inexplicable to
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of people around him him. And I mean
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: he had everything. I mean, beautiful family, beautiful kids, you know,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: a very successful company. When like when we would go
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: on hunts, he's I remember multiple times, you know, sun
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: coming up, we're getting you know, on a duck hunt
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: or something, and he'd look over at me and just
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: be like, dude, this is like this is living the dream.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Like we're working right now, and it's like it takes
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: you back and you're like, dude, you're right, Like this
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: is awesome. You know, multiple times, and I know he
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: had those moments of him like he knew he had
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the life, like you know what I mean, he knew
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: everything was good. But he had talked to us multiple
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: times about him knowing that he had CT like he
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: knew it, like I'm you know, they had a family plan,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: like ten year plan, stuff like that like that this
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: was something that they knew was was a serious thing,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and you know, it's just kind of a bummer. And
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: for me, like I have teammates that over the last
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, should I fought for eleven years and from
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the beginning to when I just I just retired last December. Um,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: but I can see them changing. You know, there's certain
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: people on our team where we they take a beating
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: in the gym training and they take a beating in
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the fight when they get in there, and it's like, dude,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: you gotta stop. But they just one of the things
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that you see. UM speech Like a lot of the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: times you're just like, dude, where are you? What are
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: you saying? Like they're they're talking to you and they
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: just start jumping around. So it's not like not like
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: like it's not annunciation, it's sort some of it is.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, you got a guy like Chuck Ladell. I
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: don't know if you've ever talked to that guy. Sometimes
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I'm like, ah, I don't know what the funk you're saying. Man.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know that. I didn't know Chuck
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: before my college career, so who knows. Maybe he's always
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: been that way. But there are certain guys where they
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: they're talking and you're like, I don't know what's going on. Uh,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: you know. And and then also just mood swings, Like
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: there's certain guys that during during training cam saying I
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: mean this is probably understandable, but they'll they'll just flip
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: out like something's not going their way and they throw
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: ship and storm out, you know. And you know, I
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: know that's a that's a symptom just not being able
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: to control emotions, you know, and ship just gets out
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: of control. Um, did that factor into your decision to
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: retire big time? You know? I had my first baby. Girl.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Here's how I looked at the whole fight game. I
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: came out of college. Um, and I told you, I like, look,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I i'll fight. I'm gonna first try this out. If
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: I absolutely suck at it, I'm gonna go get a
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: real job. Um ended up being good at it. And
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: I said, okay, and this is this is what age
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: oh shout. I think it was twenty two or twenty
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: graduating college and I got you and you but you've
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: done it during college. No, I just wrestled, so so
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: you had like there's like a transition from wrestling. Yeah,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you're saying. So when you said to know if you're
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: good at it, you mean to know if you're good
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: enough like to make that jump to approached by somebody
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: need to say, hey, you should try this out? Or
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: is it just something that was happening and you're kind
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of like, oh, I got some You're looking at people
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: on TV and stuff being like, I bet I could
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: kick his ass. No, I mean for me, it was Favor.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: You're right, A favorite. I don't know. Do you guys
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: know who that is? The California kid? Uh? He was.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: He was kind of the pioneer for the lighter weight Guys,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: you're gonna be disappointed. It's it's it's real interesting to me.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: But excuse me for not knowing. I'm the same way, man,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I get it. Um No, so you're I wrestle the
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: U C. Davis, So I knew you're I through the
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: wrestling community. Um My wrestling coach at cal Poly would
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: put on a six week camp every summer up in Tahoe,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: and he would bring us in as like counselors and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: like people that would you know, mentors and stuff like that.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And he brought Favor in as well, and so at
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: that time I was. I think it was my freshman
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: summer going into sophomore year in college. Uh, Favor was
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: there and he's getting ready for one of I think
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: he had fought maybe two or three times when he
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: was getting ready for his first championship fight, and he
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: kept hurting all the other wrestlers because he was doing
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: jiu jitsu like submissions and stuff, and none of us
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: knew what we were doing, and so nobody wanted to
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: train with him. And he's like, man, I have to
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: work out, Like I gotta fight coming up. I gotta train,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and either were gonna have to go back to Davis
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and start working out, or I gotta you know, I
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: don't know what to do. And I'm like, i'll train
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: with you. I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: So I jumped in there and we trained together for
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: the rest of the time he was there, but he
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: like pulled me aside and he's like, dude, I think
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: he'd be really good at fighting if you want to
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: give it a shot after college. He's like, I have
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: um a gym up in Sacramento. He's like, I have
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: a spare bedroom in my house. If you you can
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: just crash there until you get a few fights under
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: your belt, and you know, you have some money in
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: your account, and I'm like, well, Ship, I'll give it
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: a shot, you know, like like I said, worst case
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I suck at it and I'll just go get a
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: real job. So we kept in touch all all my
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: college career and day I graduated. That next day, I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: threw all my ship in the U haul and moved
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: up to Sacramento. Yeah, moved my stuff into a spare
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: studying college kinesiology, so study how the body moves, just
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: which a lot of that actually helped out my fight
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: career a lot, you know, a lot of the nutrition
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: classes and just understanding that type of stuff. But um, yeah,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: So I threw all my ship in his spare bedroom,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: and that same day I went and jumped into U
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: to pro sparring basically so and they put this stupid
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: funny looking headgear on you, the sixteen ounce boxing gloves
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: shin guards. Why sixteen O gloves just to keep each
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: other from knocking each other out, which there are still
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: guys that got knocked out wearing those. But you just
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: have these big pillow gloves, you know. Um, And I
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: have no clue what I'm doing. I'm watching these guys.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting on the sideline and these guys are like
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: trying to kill each other, you know, and I'm like,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: what the hell did I just get myself? And it
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: was it was it cage Like walk me through how cage?
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Like people to use the term cage fighting anymore? They
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: do for the time, but it was it like a
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: rebranding maybe. So a lot of people are getting fused
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: on on the sport. So m m A Mixed martial
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: arts is the sport that's like football, and then UFC
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: is like the NFL, so it's um so people like
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: sometimes I'll get asked, oh, do you do you fight
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: in m m A, Like do you fight in the
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: league m m A? And I'm like, um, I fight
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: in the UFC, but I do fight the sport of
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: m m A. But so I used to be or
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: maybe there's still are other yeah UFC s right, No,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: so there's only one UFC, no other things they had
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the same function. Yeah, So so there's the octagon and
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: ship what was that, Yeah, that's what it is. UFC
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: is still an octagon. It's so there's different organizations, so
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: like Bellator is another organization. So do you have the
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: UFC which is like the top of the top, I'd
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: say probably Bellator is right underneath it, and then one
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: is a new one that they just opened up in Asia. Um.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I'd say those are probably like your three biggest right now. Um.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: But the sport is mixed martial arts. So everyone that's
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: fighting in those organizations is fighting mixed martial arts. It's
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: just what organization are you in? That makes sense? Yeah,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: for sure in a from the old days, like when
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: do wrestlers came out of this more successfully than boxer?
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Like it's better to be a wrestler, I think so, Yeah,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: mainly because of in my honest opinion, it's body awareness. Um,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Like someone they can learn how to move and put
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: their body in certain positions naturally without having to think
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: about it, versus someone that's just standing straight up trying
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: to punch you. Like those wrestlers, get those guys down
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and it's game over. You know, if they don't know
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: what to do on the ground, it's pretty easy. You can't.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: It's hard to punch someone from your back. That makes sense.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: What year did you do your first UFC fight? Oh? UFC?
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: So I signed with the w e C, which was
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: World Extreme Cage Fighting, which UM was owned by the
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: same company that owned the UFC, so that was a
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: farm league for the UFC. Yeah, it was like for
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the lighter weight guys, they did like thirty one five,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: one forty five, and one fifty five and that was it,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I believe, I take that back. They had a few
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: other weight classes, but the majority of it was like
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: to put some light on the lighter weight classes because
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the UFC started at one fifty five and up. So
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I don't I really don't understand why they did that
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: in the beginning, but they eventually just realized this is
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: dumb and they just merged the two and had all
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the weight classes exactly. So now the UFC just goes
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: from the smallest weight class up to the biggest all
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: in one organization. What was your weight class? And so
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: my senior year one of I got I got, like,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: you know, pounds, All right, Well that's actually what I went, Chad,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: would you like a week to bulk up? Yeah, Steve
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: actually going to the gym so much. I'm starting to
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: looking like j loet I love it. Uh uh oh
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: go ahead, gal, uh you want to continue down the
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: career path here. Yeah. Yeah, so, um, you went from
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: spare bedroom on a sparring team was for somebody or yeah,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: so our team was Team Alpha Mel. So that was yeah,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: you're I have put together this team. This is the
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: dream of his that he wanted to build this m
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: M A team like nobody had done before. And he
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: started recruiting all these wrestlers and we just talked about
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: his favor had the same mentality like wrestling is the
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: best base. So he started getting all these NT double
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: A wrestlers and pulling us all in and we all
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: came together and built Team Alpha Mel. And we we
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: had coaches like so you have your striking coaches, your
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: strength conditioning coaches, you're jiu jitsu like submission stuff type
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: coach coaches, um. And so you have this one stop shop,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: um where you can just do all your discipline training
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: and one location UM. And that was kind of unheard
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: of back then when it first started. Like most guys
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: when they were getting ready for a fight, they'd have
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: to jump over this gym and just do their submission stuff.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Then they'd have to jump over to this gym and
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: do their strength and conditioning and then over here for striking.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: So this was kind of like a kind of like
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a new thing, new era. Was there, like a revenue
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: share model in there, like what makes the team the team?
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, so we all paid a percentage um of
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: our fight purse, so say to compensate all the training exactly.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So that's how we divving it up. And everybody paid
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: for all the coaches and everything. UM. And and that's
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: just how like everybody pitched in. UM. But yeah, so
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: we would train, UM. We have all these now training
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: partners on one location. So I got guys that were
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: in favor of the world champion at that at that time. UM,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: so I'm training with straight out of college with some
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: with the world multiple world champions, UM, learning the ropes
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and how to fight and like all the techniques. And
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: UM did that for three months and what was that
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: uh supportive atmosphere? Like were they they invested in you
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and in getting you uh improved him? Yeah for sure.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: And that's what was so cool about that team. It
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: felt just like a bunch of brothers. Like everyone came
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: from the n C double a mentality, like the wrestling
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: mentality you guys had a little bit shared exactly. We
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: all knew each other and we all wrestled against each
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: other or on the same team. Some of us um
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: in college and so coming together everyone, you know, it
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: was it was really cool. Everyone's pretty close. Everyone's helping
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: each other out for fights, and um, I did that
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: for three months before I had my first pro fight.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: UM and I still remember. This guy's name was uh,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Incarnacion was his last name. He had a whiffleball bat
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: for a leg. One leg was like, I don't know
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: what the hell had happened. Maybe he got in an
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: accident as a kid, but he was um uh really
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: high class kickboxer, and so you know, he's jacked everywhere
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: as other legs all jacked, and he has this one
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: like really skinny leg all the way from the top
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: of the big birth or yellow just yeah yellow, not
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the red guy. Nope. And I remember going out there
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: and I it was like like, like what do you mean,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: like because it had been specially developed as like, yeah,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I think he I don't know if it was a
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: birth defect or if he got an accident like I said,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: but there was like not a lot of muscle on it,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: but holy sh it, did he throw that sucker like
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: it was a blade. Yeah, he would like head kick
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: people knock him out with that thing. Yeah, And so
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I remember going out exactly. We trained a lot for that,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and he threw that thing at me in the first
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: like fifteen seconds and I moved and I remember it
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: just whizzing by my head and I'm like, dude, you
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: cannot get hit with that thing. I've never being a
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: when I was a little kid man, you remember, like
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: remember like the Chicago Bears had their big deal where
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: they like won Super Bowl, like Fridge Perry and all
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: that ship. I remember, like it's like probably the last
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: sports interview I listened to was Fridge Perry was talking
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: about why he like black shoes. She said that people
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: see those black shoes and they think you're gonna be slow.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Then you smoke him something in that leg. He's like,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, dude, people are like not paying any attention
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to that leg. And all of a sudden, that cold
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: guy has to be it, man, because I remember watching
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: highlights of that guy and just like studying up on
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: him before I fought him, and he had multiple head
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: kick knockouts with that thing, and I'm like, that thing
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: is brutal. I won. I took him down I'm not
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: getting kicked at that damn thing. And I took him
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: down and choked him out, and like, I don't know
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: for a couple of minutes, you know, and I remember
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: getting up just feeling so pumped, like this is this
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: is pretty freaking cool. I just got paid to beat
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: somebody up and that was good money, right yeah, I
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: mean yeah, change to college. It was only a couple
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: of grand. But you know, going from no no money
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: as a college student to a couple of grand in
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, I'm like, signed me up. In
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the second you turn, remember like selling my first magazine stories.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: The second you turn something that's generally cost you money
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and it's something that makes you money is a triumphant feeling.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: It feels so good Like therese, you're like, sucker. Yeah,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: So what what made like someone that self describes themselves
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: as a softie, Like what made you be a like
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: be pumped up about beating somebody up? I think it
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: was more of just a success thing. You know. I
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: was so nervous going into it because I didn't know
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: how the hell I was gonna do. You know, coming
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: off of wrestling, I was I was the main in wrestling.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I was an n C double A runner up, two
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: time All American in college, and so I'm like, I
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: got a lot, Like there's so much pressure that people
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: are are expecting me to come in here and do
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: really well. What if I go out there and get
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: headcacked and knocked out by that football bat, you know?
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: And so there was just for me. I remember feeling
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: super nervous, Like I remember walking because at that point,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: it wasn't um a cage, it wasn't an octagon, it
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: was a boxing ring. So I remember walking, you know.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: And it was basically in my hometown, so I had
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: tons of people that I knew from high school and
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: growing up and watching me, and I'm like, man, I
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: can't please, don't screw this up. And uh. And so
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: I went out there and was successful in a couple
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: of minutes, and I just remember just being like, Yes,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: that was freaking awesome, Like I want to do it again.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the main reasons. It's
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: just the success part of it, like like filling the
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: relief all the hard work, knowing that you just killed
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: yourself for that whole training camp to go in there
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and within a couple of minutes, you know, not getting
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: beat up at all and just being successful. So you
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: probably get people ask you this is probably annoying, but
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: did you get a lot of fights in your little
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: kid I got a few. Yeah, not not because I
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: chose to. I was a tiny little guy, Like I
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: was eighty pounds my freshman year in high school. Like
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I was so small. Yeah, and so like my whole life,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I got picked Like I would get picked on and
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: then I would just whoop their ass, like guys would
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: come up to me thinking that they were just gonna
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: bully me. And I mean, like I said, I started
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: wrestling at five years old. So did you grow up
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Did you grow up poor, like in a poor neighborhood. No,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: not too much. I grew up in like a little
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: farm town. Why is everybody fighting and beat each other up?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man um just a fighting town. Yeah,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of ghetto nous too, like it's a
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: farm town. But there's also because it's in California, Yeah,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: you know what you mean, Like it's hard to picture,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: but there's a kind of a weird there's like agricultural
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: areas in California that it's different than the area in Indiana,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: like like things are kind of more compressed like worlds
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Clyde a little bit exactly. We had such a melting
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: pot of races and just tons, you know, tons of
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: different types of people there. You got one side of
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the town it's all the farmers who, like you said,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the agg people. And then you go over here and
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: it's um, you know, low class, just pretty ghetto people
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: that are living a rough life, you know. And then
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: you go on this side and you've got people with
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: tons of money, you know, living in these big mansions,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: you know. And so it's kind of just a mix
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: of a little bit of everything. But man, I just
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: I remember as a kid being terrified right in the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: school bus because we'd have people that were fighting on
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I didn't like fighting, Like, it's not something I like
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: sought after as a kid. Um, but there would be
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: people picking on other people all the time, getting fights,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: and dude, it was not something I enjoyed. But it's
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: you know how old you thirty four? Yeah, sound like
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: twelve years older than you, but longer reach Like I'm older.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: It's even another advantage I have, right, Um, my kids
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: now in school, so they're five, seven and nine and
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: the Latin. The intolerance these days at school of people
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: like beating people up. It's just like it's like you
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: don't beat people up and you don't bully people. I
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: remember things happening when I was a kid, like on
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: the school bus that I just can't even imagine now.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: There was I don't want to say the kid's names
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: he's still around, and I don't want to say the
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: girl's name because she's still around. But there was a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: girl that would ride our school buss and she would
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: get off the school boss. This is in junior high.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: She would get off the school bus and as she
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: walked up her driveway, the same kid every day would
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: roll down his windows and yell out and call her repeatedly,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: hay thunder thighs, thunder thighs, thunder thighs. Every single day.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Oh you couldn't do that, and like just to have
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: it be though. It's just he's just harassing her about
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: the shape of her body. No big deal, dude, And
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: like they're just the brutality that kids get away with me.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: It's amazing, Like kids are like kids are awful. Man.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: You gotta it's like real Lord of the fly. Gotta
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: kind of go. You gotta like governed kids. Man, I agree,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: And that's I'm kind of terrified. I mean, this same
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: age with all the social media stuff and where we've
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: come as a society. Like I'm terrified for my baby girl,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Like what what the hell is she going to be
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: like when she's in high school? You know, Like what
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: am I going to have to do? How many kids
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: am I gonna have to beat up to keep her safe?
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: You know? And that's I don't know, that's just something
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I'm terrified, But I think that's why we need to
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: have another sibling and hope that you know, it's either
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: it's a girl and they're really close, or a boy
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that can just whoop the mass. My daughter screwed something
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: up on the boss like, which I don't I still
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: don't understand the full story, but um, she can get
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: on the bus in the right way. But we heard
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: from a teacher that my little boy went into her
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: classroom and just read her the Riot Act about no way. Yeah,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: how worried it was. That's cool? Yeah, that's really I
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: guess you just tore down right in front of everybody.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Did not like it? Don't make me worry like that? Did? Uh?
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: So what was your induction the hunting and fishing. It
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: wasn't young young, so I started hunting and fishing. I
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: grew up here in central California, UM Blacktaill up in
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: um D D seven was the zone I grew up
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: hunting near Shaver Lake and Dinky Creek and um, me
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and my dad and my brothers. I don't know what
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: it was. They were never as into it as I was.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: But um, I think just through some buddies growing you know,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: not not even growing up. I think it was kind
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of later in life. Um, but I mean I remember
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: just having this this weird like I would Hunting to
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: me was like one of my most favorite things to do.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Like I remember, here's a story. Like me and my brother.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: My dad used to like, um like discipline us with hunting,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: like you're not going hunting and I would ball yeah,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: like I remember you are going hunting. Yeah, no, you're
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: not going hunting. And I remember, so this one story
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I had this kid, you would use it as like
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: a weaponize it. Yeah. I think that would work very
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: well with your son. Oh god, oh yeah, my older
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: boy because he boy, he's sensitive to he wouldn't like
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: to get excluded but yeah, i'd tear him all. Yeah,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: I don't so. I remember one time, me my brother,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: I was probably six or seven, and my dad. It
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: was a um Friday. He just my dad owns the
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: cabinet business, so he would he's obviously self employed, but
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: he would be like, look after Friday or sorry, after
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: we're done Friday, Saturday morning, we're gonna get up. We're
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: gonna gop. It's like a two hour drive before daylight,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna hunt Saturday, um all day Sunday and
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: come home Sunday night. So you guys an overnight, yeah,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: camp and do all that stuff. He was, he was
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: pretty like he was into it. He was into it
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: as a kid. Want to take kids in tents and
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: ship and yeah, which I don't know. Yeah, that's another story.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: But I remember I had this like star shaped metal
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: that I wanted a wrestling tournament, and I took the
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: ribbon part off, so it was just a star and
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: that was my Ninja Star and me and my brother
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: up in our bedrooms playing Ninja's that Friday night at
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the drywall. Oh no window, my brother was, I was
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: in my room and then it was just an empty
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: doorway and then he was in the other room, and
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I did this, but I tossed
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: it and I remember that one of the star edges
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: sticking in the window, just like breaking a hole and
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: sticking it and like just shattered around the edge. And
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I mean these were pretty big windows in our in
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: our house, you know, And I just remember being like,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: oh shit, like, don't tell dad, don't tell dad. I'm like,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: I run in there, take it up, and I'm like
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out a way to like keep it
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: covered from him finding And of course, like shortly he
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: comes up there to see what we're doing, and there's
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: a freaking hole in the window, and he lost his ship,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: and needless to say, we're not going hunting tomorrow. And
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I didn't sleep on and I was so bummed due
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: to cry, like I cried. I think we just went
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: to bed right then because I was so upset. And uh,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: I think overnight my dad realized it was an accident,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: and he still got us up before. I remember him
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: coming in in the dark and loading us up in
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: the in the truck and we headed up. But did
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: you guys have some successes kids? Um? Yeah, I mean
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: kind of. I killed my very first buck up there. Um.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: It was with my old PSC nova. I saved up
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: um my in high school. I saved up enough money
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: to um like I would mow lawns around our neighborhood,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: and I bought a used PC nova um from a buddy,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: and I killed my very first It was just a
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: little tiny forkspike um frontal shot clean pass through and
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: uh me, my brothers. It was me, my and my
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: two brothers and my dad went down. We found him,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: followed him down this real deep deep canyon, got to
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the bottom, and my dad was like, all right, so
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: we'll gut this showed us how to do all that.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: He's like, I'm gonna hike back up and I'm gonna
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: get the truck and I'm gonna try to find a
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: way to come down here because we're not pulling this
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: thing back up out of here. My dad gets lost,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: and so we're just like, what the hell do we do?
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: We're sitting there in the dark with a dead deer.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: My dad is like wandering through the woods at night,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: and luckily we like drug that thing out and another
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: hunter saw us, loaded it up, and we just told
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: him how to get back to our camp. Um, and
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: my dad was out there from most of the night.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Like he ended up finding his way back to the
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: truck eventually, and then I don't even remember what time
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: he going back, maybe to two or three in the morning. Um,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: but yeah that was Yeah. I love this, Let's do
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: it again. But yeah, I mean I I was successful
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: then and like growing up, I was thinking about this
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: not too long ago. But my dad never really killed anything.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's just him always trying to
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: let us go first, but I killed that one. My
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: brothers never killed anything. And I think my dad killed
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: one other little two point um you know, years down
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: the road. Um, and that was pretty much it. I
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: think we only killed to two or three deer in
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: that area from when I started as a little kid
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: until I stopped hunting up there, which was basically after college.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Did you have all what kind of stuff you did,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: like hunting, you know, be begun hunting and stuff. Yeah,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I grew up doing all that, so um, yeah, there
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: was a lot of good trout fishing up up in
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: that area. Um. We would go up there and sometimes
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: pull over nighters where this was like one of my
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: favorite things to do, where we'd go up there, no tent,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: no nothing um and there was one spot. If it
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: was a full moon, when the moon would come up
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: and over the hill in front of us, those trout
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: would go nuts on a globe, bobber and a cricket.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: So we would just go out there and just sit
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: and wait. Sometimes that moon wouldn't come up till like midnight,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: and you just sit there. Nothing would bite until then,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: and you know, everyone's kind of started getting down like, well,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: maybe we're just not gonna catch anything. And sure enough,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: as soon as that full moon would come up and over,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: we would all limit out on trout like illuminated, illuminated
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And so we would do that from time
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: to time, and we sometimes we're just crashing the bed
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: of the truck for an hour or two and then
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: drive back home. But we wouldn't can't really wouldn't bring
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: anything for it. Just go up there and catch our
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: limit as soon as that moon came up and over,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: and then we drive our two hours back home. When
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: you decided to start going into athletics, did you ever
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: sense that there was you were sort of making a
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: decision in life. You know, there's this Jim Harry I
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: can't remember how. There's this Jim Harrison quote where it's
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: something the effect of I think we're talking about like
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: ten year olds or something, and he's saying that where
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: he grew up, there was already a split. And like
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: you had your boys that had a baseball bat, a
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: baseball mitt on their bike, and you had your boys
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: with a fishing rod on their bike, and they might intermingle,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: but they're kind of their paths in life for like
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: a little bit. Set you defied that because now you're
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: done doing the one and you're like very dedicated at that,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: you know, hunter angler. But did you going off to
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: be so aggressive about athletics, did you, like ever did
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: occur to you that you're just gonna have no time? Yeah?
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: And that actually like this like a discipline right college
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: for me was I really had to put the outdoor
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: life on hold, um because you just couldn't be successful
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: in both. And it was tough for me, man, It
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: was really tough for me. In fact, I almost quit
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: wrestling my freshman year in college. I remember going through
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: the full season and having to cut back on what
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I loved, absolutely love to do, probably more than anything, UM.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: And I was just trying to find myself, like, is
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: this something I really want to pursue? Like I could
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: just go to college and be a normal person and
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: do all the things that I love to do as
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: far as the outdoors goes. And you got that one
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: buddy who's always calling you being like, man him down,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: here's yep. And so it was brutal. Man I almost quit.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Luckily I had a really good coach in college, and
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: we sat down and he just kind of weighed out
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the pros and cons and it kind of just put
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: things into perspective for me. On look, I can suffer now,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I can kill myself for these four years, and you know,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: be successful and have something to where I can transfer
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: out of college into making money and be able to
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: do all that stuff for the rest of my life.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: And so after like really like thinking about it and
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: putting that type of stuff in the perspective, I said,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: all right, and I stuck with it. Had to keep
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: all that stuff on hold. I would still get out
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: from time to time, Like so I went to cal Poli,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: which is right there in your past robles. Tons of
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: wild pigs in that area. So we would go out
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: from time to time and do some pig hunting. Um,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: you know. But for the most part, my dear hunting,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: pretty much everything got put on hold for four years,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: for four years the more exactly. But what's great about
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the fight game is fights fights can happen at any
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: time in the year. It's not like a season. So
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: I might get a fight scheduled. Um. And this happened
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: quite a few times right right before deer season would start.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: So I would kill myself through the ten week training camp,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: go out there, whoop this dude's but and now I
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: usually take like a good two to three weeks off
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: and let my body recover, depending on if I had
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: any injuries or anything like that. And so then that
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: would be my hunting time. Time to yourself. Um. There
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: was a point in my fight career where I started
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: to lose control and started doing a little bit too
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: much of the outdoor stuff, and I could tell my
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: training started stuffer. I was in the in the training room,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I was filling it, you know, getting tired when I
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: and get tired, you know. And another person that actually
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: sat me down was Uriah was like, look, man, He's like,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I see you're starting to struggle a little bit. Um,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: I see you're on all these hunting and fishing trips,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: like maybe we should cut that back a bit, and
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: uh see, I would. Yeah, it's funny because like you're
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: you're performing at such a high level that stuff like
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: that is regarded because like for most people who are
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: so sedentary, that was sort of like that was up
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: their game, you know what I mean, it would be like, oh,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: you look great. It seems like you're getting out, you know,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: and you have a little more energy now. But if
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I have it be that that is like the slack
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: around I know, right, it's kind of weird. And I
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: mean the thing I think the things that made me
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: kind of feel crummy in the in the workout room
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: and say you do a hunt where you're not eating
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: a ton of calories where my body's I'm used to
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: being on like a very strict routine when it comes
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: to diet, like making sure I get enough food and
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the right kind of food where you're living off of
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: freeze dried mills and just eating kind of minimal stuff
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: for four or five, six sometimes a week. Um, you know,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: and I'm not yeah I'm hiking, but my body's used
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: to redlining, you know, multiple times a day so it's
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: almost like taking a step back, which is which was
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: good from time to time, Like right after a fight,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: after just killing myself for ten weeks, that's perfect. You know,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: maybe not so much the calorie part of it, but
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: not killing myself, not redlining my body where I'm just
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: hiking around glass ng sitting for a while. My body's recovering.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: But you know, two or three months of that, it
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: kind of catches up and I would fill it when
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: I'd get in the in the gym and start training.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: When I start spawning with guys and I'm getting fatigued
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that, I'm like, all right, it's time.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: So I did listen to favor. I cut back a
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: little bit, um started, you know, overcoming that type of
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: stuff in the training room. Luckily, it didn't ever affect
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: any of my fights because I was usually pretty smart
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: about like, look, if I have a fight, I have
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: to be serious here. But sometimes, you know, I would
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: fight one time a year. You know, it's I got
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: tons of time. Then I'm just like training, but I
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: don't really have a purpose. I don't have anything lined up.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: You know, they're the US is like putting me kind
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: of on the shelf for now because they're waiting for
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: a certain match to happen, and then I fight the
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: winner of that fight. So I'm just like kind of
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: training for nothing, not training for nothing, but but way
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: more motivating. Yeah, and so I kind of get in
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: those types of years where it's like should I'd rather
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: be out chasing blacktail or something, you know? And so
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: that's why I would be kind of doing that for
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: two or three months at a time, and and I
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: would fill it in there. But did you know, Well,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: let me ask I got two questions, load of questions,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: but scrap that. Did you know? I'll ask you that
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: one later. Um, do you think, like, based on the
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: kind of person you are and what you realize about
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: yourself now, do you think you'd have been successful at
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: anything or do you think you just happened to hit
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: the thing you'd be successful at. Um. I think I
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: probably would find a way to become successful at anything.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: I would like to help. It was it was that
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: it was like a drive to like do it. Yeah,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: And I think that comes from the years of wrestling.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: I I know, like in in college, like during the summer,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: if I just didn't train, if I went like two
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: weeks without training, I feel like the biggest piece of ship.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Like I just feel like guilty almost. And that's just
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: because I'm like so used to doing everything or doing
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: something every day, and I think even now that transfers
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: into my daily life, like and I'm running fins and feathers.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: If if I don't tell people what it is that
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: we didn't do a good job of setting off. So
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: that's a company and me and a good buddy of
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: mine started back in two thousand fifteen. UM. What we
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: call it is like a celebrity outdoor service. So we
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: put together like a yearlong schedule of different species of
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: hunting trips all over the world, UM and fishing as
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: well mixed in there. UM. And what we do is
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: we have like twenty different celebrity pro staff members, which
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: are a bunch of different UFC fighters, pro ballplayers, actors,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: PBR guys, just mix of different types of athletes and
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: celebrities you'd see on TV or watch playing their sport. UM.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: And what we do is we book clients on those
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: trips and then we add one, two, sometimes even three
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: of our celebrities to join people on these trips, a
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: kind of hosting role exactly, and they'll hunt with you,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: they fish with you, hang out and camp, have some
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: beers tell stories like just make it a new, like
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: unique experience, um, because there's a lot of guys that
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: have booked a ton of different things all over the
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: place and they kind of get to that point where
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: they're like, well this is just it's kind of boring
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: for me now, and so now they can kind of
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: mix it up. Or we do get a lot of
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: like bachelor party guys, Like for our fishing trips, we're
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: gonna come hang out with a bunch of different UFC
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: guys and drink beer and catch fish and you know
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: what I mean. And so we launched it back in
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen. Sixteen was our first full year,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: and I honestly I had no clue how it was
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: going to do. Like I was like, is this going
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: to be kind of a conceited Like are people gonna
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: look at me and be like, do you're an idiot?
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: I ain't booking ship with you? Or people are gonna
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: love it and want to come do these cool hunts
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: with me or some of my buddies. And we sold
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: out like every trip that we had that year. We
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: sold out completely and I'm like, dude, we gotta we
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: gotta grow. We gotta add some trips for next year.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Like that was too easy. Yeah, you care if you
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: want to. If you're trying to look this up, it's
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: fins like with the Z so f I n Z.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at Chad's and Feathers is with the Z
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: as well. People in imagine by the type they type
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: in Chad Mendez fins, it'll yeah hopefully, Um, but yeah,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: so we we just basically added from from two thousand
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: sixteen on. We've just added a few trips each year, um,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: and we've sold out everything that we've done. So it's
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: been I mean it's pretty it's pretty rewarding for me
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: to know that people a just want to hang out
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: with these guys, but you know, taking something that I
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: have so much path about, you know, hunting, fishing, teaching people. Um,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: we get a lot of guys that have never hunted,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: never fish, that watch your guys a show a ton
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: and you know, they see Rogan, they see cam, they
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: see all these guys who are going out and you know,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: killing their own meat and living off of that, you know,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: And for me like being able to talk about that
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: in interviews that I was fighting, Like, look, I live
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: off of my wild game, like my training camps. The
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: meat that I eat during those camps is all the
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: stuff that I've killed throughout the year. Or even when
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: you're on like a super regimented diet, you're still putting
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: wild game. And yeah, that's like any any diet that
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: I've So I work with the RP Strength who is
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: a h It's a program that will create your diet
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: as well, and so that's who I use, um what
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: used to my training camps. But all the meat, I
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: can't understand. What I don't understand what that what that's
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: a that's like a consulting Yeah, basically like that you
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: give them all your info, um, your goals you know
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: obviously wait height like all that type of stuff, And
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: like I tell them, A, I have a fight in
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: ten weeks. I need to get down to this weight,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: but I don't want to lose much muscle. So we
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: need to get as lean as like body fat lean
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: as possible while keeping as much muscle as I can
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: so that when I cut that last ten pounds of water, Um,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: you know I don't I'm not dying. Um And so
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: then they put together a full diet plan for your
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: training camp, knowing how much your training, how much you
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: know working out you're doing each day. Detail pretty freaking detailed,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: like um, maybe not quite down to the peanut. We're
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: talking like, um, like a meal would be like a
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: four rounds lean piece of meat, which any wild game
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: is is okay for that umty grams of complex carbs.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: So like your whole oats brown, okay, down to the
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: peanut then, And I mean it's a lot of freaking work, dude,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: it's I mean, meal prepping is a must. Like you can't.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: You can't. I don't have a dial, and you follow
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: this thing and you'll get like yeah, and are you
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: doing your own meal prepping and cooking? Yeah? Yeah, I
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: love you don't have someone coming and do it. I wish,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: but I'm too picky with my food. Man. I love cooking.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: I love Here's here's how much I love it. When
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: I'm cutting weight, Like I'm the week of the fight.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: I'm in my hotel room. I have wig ins in
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: two days and I'm sitting there watching the Food Channel,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: watching these people all these delicious and they're just like, oh,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna make that I'm taking that right. So some people,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: my wife's like, you're freaking insane, like why are you
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: watching this? And I just I don't know, it just
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: feels good to me. Tell me, what can you I
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: don't even know this word kenesiology? Canogy? You studied this
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: in college and then you went to like the highest
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: level in terms of nutrition and body performance like professionally. Um,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: when you look back at it all now, like your
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: formal education, everything you learn from watching sort of like
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: the world's top athletes getting the best shape they've ever
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: been in. What is your sort of interests in tolerance
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: and fad diets and stuff like do you do you
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: do you think there's like a magical formula and are
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: you always like trying new things out or do you
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: think there's just like like what's your diet theory your
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: diet philosophy. Yeah, I've never I don't think I've ever
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: tried any of these fat diets. Um. I see a
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: lot of people doing a lot of different things and
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: teach their own I mean, if I feel like every
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: human body is different, I think somebody's will you know,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: will be okay and getting away with doing certain things
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: where other people's bodies will not put up with it UM.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: I honestly think find what works best for you. Some
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: people could live solely off meat and nothing else and
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: feel great. Some people only want vegetables and that's that
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: works great for their body. Me, I've always been about
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: balancing everything. Like I, I love carbs, I love vegetables,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: and I love meat Like I My my solid meal
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: is a protein, a carb, and a vegetable. And whether
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I'm cutting weight or not, like even during the weight cut,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: like I would always make sure I had that type
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: of so like my those RP mills would be a say,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: like I said, a four ounce lean piece of meat,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: so like a venison steak, and I would have to
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: weigh those out umty grams of carbs so like grams
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: of brown rice um and like two cups of broccoli.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Or my favorite thing would be cucumbers with a little
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: bit of rice wine mint aground them. Just kind of
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: mix it up a little bit. That was it, man.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: That was something that I lived off of for ten weeks. Obviously,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: I mix it up, and towards the end of my career,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: I started getting really creative with it um because you
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: can get away with like they have whole wheat um tortilla, say,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: you know, and I can do four ounces of ground
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: lean venison whole wheat tortilla or just however many would
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: make up what I'm supposed to eat. And you know,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: you can get away with making like tacos or you know,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: because I make a little um piko to guiles salsa
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: or something. It's all veggies. And so I know I
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: need this amount of vegetables, this amount of protein, this
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: amount of carbs. Throw that together. Now I'm now I'm
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: eating something that's not boring. I would eat that anyways,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: you know. And so I would start getting creative towards
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: the end. Um and mainly because I was kind of
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: getting bored of eating the same things over and over.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: And when you're like hungry like that, do you just just
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: feel like that just like punching someone. Oh dude, I
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: get angry bad, I get really yeah. I get really
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: emotional when I get hungry. I have zero zero patients.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: And my wife could probably attest to that too, but
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: um yeah, man, it's I get really irritable, do you guys?
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Is that just I get so irritable? You can watch Steve.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: You give him what's your take on alcohol. I drink it, yeah,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: I mean in moderation obviously. Um, like nothing through training camps,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: I would never drink. But that night after the fight,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: I I'd let loose, like we'd get We'd get a
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: little stupid loose for sure. So what about ahead, oh
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: all your meal prep? Is that what led into cooking
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: for you? Or you've always been kind of tinkering with cooking,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: like through college and stuff. No, I think the cooking
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: has always been something that, um, that's always interested me.
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: And my dad was always the one that cooked in
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: our family, UM, and it was something that I remember
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: watching him have so much passion about and I think
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's just what transferred it over
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: to me or what. But um, I love cooking for people.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I love cooking for large groups like our fins and
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: feathers trips. I'm usually the one cooking most of the meals.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: Like if I work with an outfitter, I'll even ask
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: him like can I at least cook one of the nights,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: you know, And so we'll go and do that for
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: the clients. But it is funny because on on Instagram,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of people who are like,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: look at me, I'm cooking and you can look at
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: it and you're like, you do not cook. But when
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: you're doing it, I'm like, cut knows how to do things. Yeah,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: And I'm no pro by any means. I I even
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: sometimes make stuff where I'm like, what the hell did
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: I do? But I mean, in my honest opinion, that's
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: how you got to learn. I mean, I'll follow a
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: lot of recipes and sometimes I'll tweak things, um where
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: I feel like it would add to it. Sometimes it does,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: sometimes it does not, But um, I love doing it.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: It's something I especially with so so much wild game
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: meat that I have. Like you guys probably know this,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: You get bored of cooking it the same freaking way
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: over and over again. So I'm always like, oh, that's
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: why I like at night, Yeah, something new. Yeah, Because
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: I remember my brother Danny, you know, he lives off
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: wild game his home, and when he goes to someone's house,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: he's like, I just love it because it just tastes
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: like something I didn't make. Because after while everything I
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: may just seems to kind of be the same. Yeah.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, when someone usually when someone cooks something,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: whether it's something you've made or they've made it tastes
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: better when somebody else makes it for you. Like it's
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: the sandwich effect. Like I can make a sandwich and
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: eat it and it just doesn't taste the same. But
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: my wife makes me a sandwich, it tastes ten times
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: better for some reason. I don't know why, why the
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: hell that is, but um, especially if it conforms your
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: idea of what food ought to be. Yeah, exactly. But
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: you know, we've talked about this in the past. Do
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: you get like these very fitness centric people, some of
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: them haunt some of them don't. But it's like the
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: one thing that binds them together is the boneless, skinless
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: chicken breast. And I'm like, I don't care how healthy
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: you are, it's just that is a bridge too far. Yeah, no,
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: I agree, man. And I'm someone that will definitely stray
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: from the health stuff. I've always tried to make things
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: not over the top unhealthy, but I'm a sucker for
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: good eat man. I'll throw some heavy cream in there, dalls,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: some cheese in there, and like, I'm not afraid that
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: my my wife doesn't always like it's like, oh yeah,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: she loves it. In fact, she actually I kind of
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: got her into hunting the last few years. She's um
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: killed a wild pig on that ranch that I told
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: you guys about. Um, she's she's killed a couple of turkeys.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: She killed a four bearded turkey her very first time.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: I said, you might as well just quit now, you're
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: not gonna beat that. But she killed one with her bow,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: which was like the pinnacle of my career because I like,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: I scouted these suckers. I got it all set up
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: and I just I was like, I just want you
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: to try to kill with your bow. And uh, for
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: the first three setups, she was trying to use the
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: guillotine broadheads and she missed uh three different jake's at
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: like eight yards um, and she was getting so frustrated
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: because that's binary rights either like a killer. Yeah, And
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: that's why I did it, because I'm like, I would
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: hate for her to hit one wounded and let's not
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: find it or fly off, and I know that would
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: probably scar and so I'm like, you're either gonna end
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: this thing right now or you're gonna Yeah, I guess
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: it's a little room to like nicke it. But uh huh,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: And she missed three times, and you know, ship we're
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: getting up at like three in the morning and we're
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: having to drive an hour each time, and you know,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: getting set up waiting for the sun to come up.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: These things work in and then she misses and she's like,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: I think the third time it almost broke her. That's
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: when you start telling me like, I wish we'd never met.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't retire for this, So I just switched her
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: to a normal broadhead and I was like, look, this
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: is where you're gonna aim with. The night before, we
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: looked at videos we like. I showed her some pictures
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: of where to aim, and luckily, this giant tom comes
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: walking in. Read it, read it first light. You're calling, yeah,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: call him in. He comes into the decoys and I
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: think I had the decoys at like eight yards because
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: I was like, I gonna get these things. It's close
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: to Hans. He comes in in and she just hammers
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: this thing and he goes like fifteen yards and tips
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: over and I would I was just like, I felt
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: more excited than if I would have shot the dang thing,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: you know, And she's like, is it dead. I'm like,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: it's dead. You got him. And so she was pretty
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: pumped about that, and we had that for um a
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: big mail. We had a bunch of friends that came
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: over and we I smoked it on the trigger and
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: we did this whole big like mail, made like a
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: big ordeal about it, and she loved it so much,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: and yeah it was pretty cool and so um that
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: was my that was my hunting story with a wife.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: So hopefully she definitely said she would do more and
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: that was her last last time doing anything. But yeah,
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: I had to get around the shore next, I know, right,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: it would be cool. Yeah, Hey, when you're on like
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: when you get knocked out all the time, how many
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: times been knocked out? Can you even count them up? Um? Yeah?
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: So and what do you count as a knockout at
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: this point? You're talking about like the flash? Yeah I
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: count those so like getting your bell rung. So this
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: is what I don't know if you guys have ever
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: had that happen where like sounds like boom in your
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: head and it's like one time I was swinging out
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: you know those mac or may like those things you
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: hang potted plants from. Yes, yeah, I remember hitting a
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: tree when I was a kid one time and having
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: that Yeah, so it's like a it's almost like a
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: drum going off in your head. And I was flat
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: out in the long did you did you not remember?
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: And then wake up? Okay, so you were knocked out,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: So like that was the only time I was knocked out.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: Got you. So that's a knockout, and I would count
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: those is a knockout. I wouldn't count the ringing your
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: bell where it's just kind of like everything a bell
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: ring We used ringing your bell to have someone to
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: shoot a shotgun next year year kind of the same
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: because there's like there's literally like for the next three hours. Yeah,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: that's the worst. Um, so we're getting your bell rung,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: someone hits you, You hear that noise, but you don't
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: forget anything, like you're right there the whole time, like
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: holy crap, you know, like a knockout the technical term
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: for that as a bell and you got your belt
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: rung up. And then a knockout is you don't remember
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: ship you just you just wake up. So I don't
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: know if you guys have ever been like blacked out
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: from drinking ever and you just have you ever just
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: come out of it and you're like what the oh yeah,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: you gotta walk out signs. That's kind of like being
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: knocked out. So I think the times I've been knocked out.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: Jose Aldo my first fight, he caught me with a
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: big knee and I just remember waking up. Now, it
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: doesn't hurt because you don't know what the hell happened.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: You're just like shit, you're looking around everybody. Everybody, Yeah,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: what the hell dude sweeping up? That was my first time.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Like about how long though typically in the fight seconds right? Seconds? Yeah? Yeah, so, um,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: I mean like, you don't really I remember watching the video.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: So I get hit with the knee. I went back
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: to my back and then he jumps on me and
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: he hits me like three, three or four times before
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: the ref finally got to them and tackle them. UM,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: don't remember any of that. Um, I don't remember getting
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: back to my feet. I came back to um like
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: talking to the ref already standing, and I was just like,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: what your brain caught? Yeah, it's it's weird. So that's
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: like a legit knockouts, a legit knockout, and those sucks
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: so bad because it's like, so you're open, some dudes
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: asking you questions and all of a sudden you're like
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: come into being. Yeah, like a rest talking to you,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: and then I think you're answering them, because usually when
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: I come back to, I'm talking like I'm talking back
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: to the rest way. I have no idea. I don't know.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: I wish somebody would film this because I don't know
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: if I'm just I don't know what I'm saying. I
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: just when I come back to, I'm talking, and then
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: I like, I think they probably realize when you come to.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: So how many of those let's rule out the bell ringings?
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: I think too okay, other gonna throw at me to
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: no too Luckily, I think because I was a wrestler,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: I was mainly taking guys down and staying on top
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: of him. Aldough was one and Frankie Edgar was the
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: other guys have knocked you out. Um, I got my
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: bell rung with Connor. He did. He didn't put me
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: out though, Connor McGregor. That's like the one day and
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of people know, yeah, and then the second
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: fight with um although he rung my bell um maybe
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: two or three times in that fight where boom and
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: you fall down and you get back up, like I
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: never lost memory on any of it. But it takes
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: your feet out from underneath you, and your your body
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: basically shuts down for a split second. And you're when
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: when that happens, you you jump up and you're imagine
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: you're focused on what you're doing. But are you also like, man,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: I need to be alive a long time. Yeah, I
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: mean like have my and be functional as an old man.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: Or do you like think about that the next day?
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Next day? Yeah, you're not thinking that. In the you
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: can't down. So like for me when I got my
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: bell rung, I fell down. It messes with your vision
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: for a split second to you like you can't focus
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: on anything. It's just like everything's blurry and I just
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: see him running at me and then it kind of
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: clears back up and I'm like, go ship and then
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: I like, you know, get back into grappling and him
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: being on top of me and we get back to
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: the feet. But once that happens once in a fight,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: your head is never the same. So it feels like
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: you have tons of pressure in your head for how
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: long depends, Like for that one that was a brutal fight. Man,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: I pissed blood that night. When I got back to
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: the hotel, my head was probably foggy like that in
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: pressure for a day or two. So if right now,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: if if right now, as I said, you gotta sit there,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: and yann he's gonna sit up. Yeah, he's gonna give
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: you the hardest haymaker he can give you. Would you
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: just be like okay, whatever it? Would you be scared
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: about it? I mean I wouldn't like it? No, not
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: at all. So when you go into a fight, are
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: you are you like thinking like, man, I hope I
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: don't get hit. Yeah, I mean that's yeah, that's the
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: the basic way, Like in the basic way you'd imagine
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: not wanting to get hit exactly. I mean, and like
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: I said, I think the difference between someone that's never
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: trained for fighting and someone that has, like, I think
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: you fear the pain. I fear losing my fight. So yeah,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: I get that's that's kind of I think I'm thinking
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: about its being like you walk into a situation where
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: like you're going smart. You know your feet will get
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: totally cold, right, You're like, my feet will be numb,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: and you're just going to being like it sucks, but
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: I know my feet will be no, and you just right.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: I think some people be like well, if you know
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: they're gonna be no, why would you not go? But
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: just something you become comfortable with over time, like you've
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: been through it. You know they warm up again later.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: It's just just aware that will happen and you whatever.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: But you don't get there about getting hit in the face. No,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing. It's like, you know, I know
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get hit going into this fight. I'm
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: not afraid, Like I said, I'm not afraid of it hurting.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid of waking up and having a loss. You
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. Because here's the shst the fight. Yeah,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: and here's the shitty thing about that is not always
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: the best guy wins that fight. I mean, with those
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: little lass gloves on one tiny mistake. If someone just
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: puts their head down and wing something, even if they're
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: meaning to hit your just winging it and you don't
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: have your your hand covering your chin for a split
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: second and it happens to catch you. You wake up
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: and you're like fuck, you know, like for nothing, I
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: didn't even get the fight. And that's kind of what
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: happened with my Frankie Edgar fight. Like I went out
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: there and just got clipped in the beginning of the fight,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: and I just woke up with the ref pushing me
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: up against the cage like fight's over, and I'm just
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: like mother, you know, like I shouldn't have been, you know,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: like I wanted to fight. And does the community do
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: the when that happens, when someone gets like a lucky shot,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: is it recognized in the community, Is it like, oh, yeah,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: he won, but he shouldn't have won. There's some people
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: that know it, but most people the public perceptions you lost,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: you lost, you got knocked out, you lost. And in
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: my honest opinion, this is how I would look at it.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: So and this is how I based a lot of
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: my preparation for certain fighters. If I'm looking at someone's
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: highlight riels or you know, certain past fights that were online,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: if it's them going out there and knocking a dude out,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: I don't base a lot of my um preparation off
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: of that. If they go out there and completely dominate
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: a fighter from start to finish, even though it goes
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: to a decision, that's what I pay more attention to you, because,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: like I said, anybody could go out there and get
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: lucky and knock somebody out. You know, we have four
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: rounds gloves on, which is basically bare knuckle. You know,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: it doesn't take much to knock somebody off. You catch
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: them right, Um, but if you go out there and
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: take them down or or just outstrike them or just
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: dominate them from the from beginning to end, like that
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: says something. So that's the type of stuff that I
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: would pay more attention to. Yeah, like those fights where
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: everybody's shocked because someone just throws up a calf and yeah,
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: I can see that you might be like, I don't
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: know how much I actually trained for that that that
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: that person did that one time exactly. You know, keep
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: an eye on it. But you know, if unless they've
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: done it to like eight or nine different guys. Yeah,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: that's that's interesting, man, because I could see that you'd
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: you'd be like, I hope I'm not the guy that
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: gets hit real fast and goes down. I can see
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: that you'd fixate on that. For me, in my fight career,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: that was probably my biggest hurdle to get over was
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: the fear of that. Not Like I said, I just
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: didn't ever want to lose, mainly because I didn't want
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: to disappoint. Um. I feel my team, my family, you know,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: just fans for me. You were you were with your
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: wife while you were professionally fighting, right, yeah, yeah, we
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: told you want to wrap it up. Was she pissed? No,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: she she was happy about that. I mean this she
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: did it and you know, put up with it because
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: she knew that I loved it. And and but supportive
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: she like a team. Yes, she was very supportive. Always.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: It wasn't her favorite. Like she's sitting there always like this,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: just you know, peeking out or hands in front of yeah,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: like what happened? What happened. She'd hear the crowd go
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: crazy and her brother would be there next to or
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: something and he'd be like, oh he knocked him out
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: and okay, no ship really yeah? Oh yeah. So she
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: she put up with it. It wasn't her favorite thing,
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: but she was, like I said, very supportive. So um, yeah,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: when you when you were going through all this and
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: and and actually in the you know, really fighting hard
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: as a professional, were you like, man, when I when
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: I quit this ship on going to hunting fish my
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: was that like in the back of your head? Oh yeah,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: the whole time. And that's that's why we created fins
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: and feathers. I was sitting there like, look, I can't
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: fight forever. You know, we don't get we don't get
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: money after we're done fighting. Like if we don't even fight,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: we don't get paid. We get paid per fight. So
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: say we sign a Yeah, yeah, I mean it makes
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: soul sense. But I hadn't thought about it really. It's
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: like it's like it's like job worker. Yeah, I'm an
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: independent contractor. When I'm done with the UFC, they shoot
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: me away and that's it, you know, Like I'm on
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: my own. So so there's there's no sort of there's
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: no sort of like base salary nothing, Nope, it's just
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: fight for money. So we are prize fighting about sponsorships.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: So sponsorships are different. Um. And so this is what
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: I tried to do. I started building a base in
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: the outdoor world. Um about halfway through my career, because
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to do something in the outdoor
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: world when I'm done fighting, that I could make money
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: doing something I'm freaking obsessed with. And so I'm like,
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: what the hell could we do? So me and my
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: buddy were talking about the idea for fins and feathers,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: and it was something we talked about for a couple
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: of years. Um, you know, and what really kick started
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: it for me was my loss against Frankie Edgar And
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: that was that that moment where it was like, look,
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: I just killed myself and went in there and got
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: caught and I didn't even get the fight. You know.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: So when you lose, you only get half of your
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: money that you were going to get. You don't get
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the full amount. So I just took a huge pay
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: cut because I got caught by something. So each guy
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: agrees to a purse, that's you're you're agreen to the
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: winning purse knowing that you lose. But the two guys
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: might have a different different amount everybody potential they had
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: the potential win different amounts of money. Exactly. It's not
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: like one pile to this guy, one pile of that guy. No. No,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: So you sign your contracts. Hey, it's a five fight contract.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: Each fight is um, it goes usually goes up per fight.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: Is there ever a huge in balance between the two fighters.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Like if I win and make millions of
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: you win, you make ship. Yeah, that's usually the case.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: The Connor. Connor is making millions and most guys are
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: not making anything close so he could lose and make
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: more than the guy that won. Uh yeah, And some
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: guys in their contract have a flat rate, you know.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: And so typically it's guys that have been with the
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: company for a long time, the company UFC UFC, and
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: they've their managers to figure out a way to look like,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: tell these guys, look, we'll sign a four fight contract,
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: but these fights are all guaranteed this amount of money.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense, so we do no win or lose. Yeah,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: it's just the flat rate, no matter what. So he's
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: not even incentivized. I mean, you're incentivized for all man
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: or reasons, but the actual money is not incentives exactly.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: All the other career sponsorship and everything else just doing good.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: So that's why we decided to do fins and feathers.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: I'm like, look, let's what can I do? Two start
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: building a a base in the outdoor world. That's why
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: I can start working with different companies in the outdoor
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: space um and working on sponsorships and like trying to
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: figure out ways so I can you know, become relevant
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: there um and get the travel around do these hunts,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: make money doing these hunts and have fun with really
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: cool people. And so we came up with the idea
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: of fins and feathers. And I'm like, well, like I said,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know how this is gonna go. We can
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: give it a shot. We'll try it for a year
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: and if, you know, if it doesn't work, we'll try
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: to figure something else out. He'd be like, or yeah,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: I'll just get real bitter. Watch a lot of TV.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: Get rosy overweight. Oh yeah. And so I mean we
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: did it. I um, I lost the Frankie and I'm
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: like that year, I'm like, you know what, let's get
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: this sucker started. So we started the business. We got
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: our attorney on things, and like got everything planned out.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: We started building the website. It's not really you're like
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: laying in the groundwork, right, Yeah. I started doing it
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: was fighting, like what's the old fighter? Though. Dan Henderson
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: fought into his forties. I want to say he was
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: like forties six or yeah, that's very rare. Most guys,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: um like, you're I favor he retired when he was
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: I think thirty nine. You kind of got your money's
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: work anyways, man, I mean you got out. You didn't
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: like get out way early, not super early. I mean,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: I still probably could have fought for another four or
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: five be money, but like Favor got out nine, was
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: out for like a year or two and then came
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: out of retirement flot a fight when he was forty,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: knocked the dude out, and then just lost his last fight.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: So I don't know, but that's like, you know, anything
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: in the forties is like, that's kind of that's in
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: your cards, Like eventually somebody, I don't think so, man,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: I'm people ask that all some rocky ship man come back.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: I think I think things would have to be absolutely horrible,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: So you're going to do it from a position of weakness,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: things that have to be hungry exactly. So I'm just
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: having so much damn fun doing what we're doing, man,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: And and you know, it's something I love to do.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: I don't have to get punched in the head anymore,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: you know, And so I don't. I don't see myself
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: coming out of retirement anytime soon. So you just keeping
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: your business now. Yeah. I like how you can say
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: I don't have to get punched in the head anymore
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: and it's not a metaphor. Yeah, I'm like when I'm
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: like listening all the good ship. You know, if I
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: need to cheer myself up, I can start adding ned
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: in like no one's punched me in the head probably.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: You know how many mornings I'd get out of bed
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: just like so sore from head to toe. And it's
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: early morning. You know, we don't get cold out here
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: like it is out here, but it's you know, high thirties,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: low forties, and I gotta freaking go to the gym,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: which our heat or freakings sucked, so everything was freezing,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: match are freezing. We have these big like diesel Do
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: you ever see those diesel heaters that it looks like
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: a jet engine like torpedo heating. So we'd have one
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: of those on the side of the mat, so the
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: whole gym smells like diesel exhaust and everybody, Yeah, they
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: heat it up. You never get a fire going into
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: a one of those into the fire, but yeah, I mean,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: and then I'm like, God, these guys that want to
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: punch me in the face, I'm like, dude, don't touch
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: me right now. I don't even want to be here,
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: but you gotta get through it, you know. But yeah,
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: those are the that's the ship. I don't I don't
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: look forward to ever again, Like, I'm good, I'm good
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: not doing that anymore. What's your what's your career advice
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: for people? Oh? Man? I mean I think it is
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: finding something you love to do. Like I love fighting,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: I loved competing. I did it my whole life. Um,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: you know, I say all this negative stuff about it,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: but it was very good to me. I was good
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: at I don't think you sound negative, okay, I mean
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: I think you sound like a guy who's done. Yeah. Right,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: it's not negative, okay, good, just like it's there's like
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: a circumspect, right, or circumspection whatever the hell I'm trying
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: to say. I got you just looking at it from
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: a exactly. But I mean, just find what you love
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: to do and and if like, if it's something you love,
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: it's never gonna be work. Like there's gonna be times,
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: like I said, those mornings where I'm sore from head
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: to toe, it's cold, I don't want to get touched,
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: but you do the workout and you feel good about
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: it after, you know, I just pushed through that, like
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: that was pretty cool. Do you think just do you
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: do you think that um, being as disciplined as you
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: had to have been, Uh, did that come naturally? Did
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: you have to like force discipline? Um? I think there
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: was a mix of times where I had to force it. UM.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: I actually, as a kid, tried to play baseball and
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: my dad these are this is a quote for my dad,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: You're not playing baseball. Only pussies played baseball. So I
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: was like, well, hear that. Pelso because I wanted to
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: play a team sport where I'm out there with a team,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: you know, and baseball and I played on the playground.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: I loved it, you know, And you know I was
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: just always so small. It's like the old portuge. He's like,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: I don't care if you're eighty pounds, Yeah, get your
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: grass in there and wrestle. You know, there was multiple
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: times growing up I wanted to do something else. I
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: wanted to quit wrestling. UM and the discipline that was
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: basically my dad making me stick with it, which looking
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: back on it now, I'm glad he did because you know,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: made me who I am now. Same thing with my
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: freshman year in college wanting to quit, you know, the
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: wrestling part of it. Then you know I wouldn't have
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have made it to the UFC. I wouldn't
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: be sitting here with you guys right now, you know.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: And so there's so many things that I'm grateful for
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: when it comes to that type of stuff. But you know,
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: the discipline part of it sometimes was kind of forced
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: on me. It's interesting that you mentioned the guilt thing, because, um,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: I think people that oftentimes when I see people who
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: just really lacked discipline, they don't have that. We're all
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: see someone and I'll hear about what someone did, and
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: I think I don't know, like like I'm I'm only
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: talking about like how could that be of interest to you?
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: Like how you wasted that amount of time? But where
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: was the party that would have been? Where's a party
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: you that tells you that you can't do that? Some
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: people don't have that. Yeah, the guilt. I have friends
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: like that. I'll go, don't you feel I get like
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: fishing guilt to not fish? It feels guilty, Like you know,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: a long time goes by and you have opportunities that
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: you don't do. It's like it's like ways on my conscious.
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: Netflix I believe is making millions of dollars off these
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: people that don't have that in their brain, that don't
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: feel shame. No, because I I I watch films and
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: TV with a sense of discipline, like I'm strategic about
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: it and I don't feel bad doing it. I get
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: shame at the grocery store, like when I have in
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: between you know, busy week slots travel, like I'm just
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: gonna get this pre made pasta stuff and then I'll
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: throw some meat on top of it when I get home.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: When you get a guilty feelings by the time I'm
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: done cooking, I'm like, why, I it's not that much
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: more time. What are you doing? I get a guilt. Yeah,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: I mean I have a life defined by guilt. Man,
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: Like when we do it like now and then, as
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: a sort of like a nod to our kids, we
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: have like pizza night right, and it's kind of easy
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: for everybody. You know, you don't have to clean up.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: Oh it's great. Yeah, it's like it's just everything about
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: it's easy. They show up, kids are like, oh yeah great,
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: they're like, you don't have to be like eat your food.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: Just eat your food, you like, walk up with the
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: box and the recycling bin and it's just easy. But
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: that makes me feel guilty because we didn't like cook something,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: and like y'all have the kids to eat it like
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: like like, yeah, I have a guilt guided life. I
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: think that's a good thing, though, I mean it sucks
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: from time to time. But ship, man, we don't. Yeah,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I I take that as you know,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: that's what it makes us all successful, like if you
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: didn't have that feeling. Like I said, I have a
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: few buddies that are just like the biggest pieces of
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: ship ever And I'm like, dude, how do you how
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: are you eating that? And how are you like not
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: doing anything after eating that? Yeah? I don't know because
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: I don't have guilt. Bro. Yeah, sometimes I'm a little jealous.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: Get my friends who are like, you know, be like,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: oh man, I feel like a piece of crap because
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: I ran out and got pizza last night. Well, you know,
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: you work all the time and occasionally it's okay to
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: get a pizza and you kind of look at them
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: and you're like, are you really my friend? Do you
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: you film some of your hunts? Yeah? Do you do it? Like?
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: Do you film and put them up? You put them
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: on YouTube? Put them on my YouTube channel? Yet? Yeah?
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: Is that? Do you view that as being tied into
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: fins and feathers? I do um, I think because a
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: lot of those videos actually are Fins and Feathers trips,
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: not all of them. I do a lot of people
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: exactly exactly, and it's you know, they're they're not like
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: the highest quality videos. It's me vlogging, which I feel
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: like resonates more with people, like it's me, like you're
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: seeing this from my point of view. I'm sitting here
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: talking to the camera. Then I'm pointing it to you,
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: you know, and you know, so for me, the the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: marketing part of going on these trips, filming this stuff
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: and being able to with that on the YouTube for
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: people to see it brings such a bigger connection. Like
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: when I go to those shows, like so many people
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: come to the booth and they're like, dude, I love
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: this video, I love this hunt. Oh is that that animal?
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: So there's like a connection setting up a booth like
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: a Friends and Feathers. Yeah, yeah, these do expo type
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: show and then you go man that booth. So people
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: wanted to meet you could go to the locals or
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: not local, but whatever sports show. Yeah, exactly. We only
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: do the booth at two shows. We do the Sack
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: Expo and then that big Hunt Expo. And Utah um
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: and um both are extremely you know, I loved both
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: of them. They can be a ton of work, you
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: know where it's setting the booth up, ourselves, traveling out
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: to Utah and back, and but I mean just seeing
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: all the people like I've been going. I think this
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: is our fifth year, and it's crazy. There's so many
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: like a little kid like wrestlers or just kids that
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: are into the hunting and outdoor lifestyle that I've seen
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: for the last five years just getting big. I'm like, dude,
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: and some of them like we've taken a picture every
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: single year and they'll do like a slide show and
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: it's just cool to see the progression and when you
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: when you if it, let's say people wanted to go
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: and they wanted to make sure that they were going
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: on a trip that you were accompanying. Um, so is
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: there like a guarantee like can they be like I'm
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: going on this trip and Chad Men does going or
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: is it like I'm going on this trip and I
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: don't know who but something They're gonna send someone. So
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: what we do is if you go to our website
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: um Thins and Feathers dot com, our schedule page will
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: be this year's schedule, so it'll show all the different hunts,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: so it'll give the species, the location, the actual dates, UM,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: and then what we do. It'll say price and how
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: many spots are available, but we'll put possible celebrities. And
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: the reason why I say possible. If my name's on there,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: there's like especially now that I'm retired, that I'm going
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: on that one. Um. The other guys we say possible,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: and I usually list like three, like two or three guys.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: UM if a fight pops up or something and they
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: can't go on that trip. Oh yeah, because there's always
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: a little bit uncertain because you schedule way out. So
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: then we'll we'll really take one of these other guys,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: but you you'll have an idea of who's going to
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: go on that trip. Um. I. So that's what I
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: was telling Call in the car. Like the last couple
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: of years, I've gone on almost every single trip UM,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: and I'll bring some of my buddies in mainly because
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: I just don't want like if it's there, if one
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: of my buddies that maybe fights in the UFC and
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: they've never gone on this trip before, they don't know
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: the Outfitter, Yet you know, I just want to be
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: there and make sure everything goes smooth. I want to
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: be there with the clients and make sure everything's going
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: the way that I wanted to go um but last year,
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna start doing that more this year. You know,
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: those those celebrity guys have gone on these trips now
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: and they understand the process. They are buddies with the
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: Outfitter now, and so there's gonna be more trips where
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: I don't have to go on them anymore. And so
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna start just sending more of these guys. And
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: that's that was the original business model for this. Like
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: I obviously I would go on every single if I
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: was single, I would go on every single one of
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: these ones every year. My wife's like, I'm gonna cut
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: your nuts off if you leave one more time. So
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: it's like that could actually impact your desire to go
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: in the first place, exactly. And so I'm starting to
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: just trying to clear up my schedule with these as
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: much as I can and start putting some of these
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: other guys on so that you know, I don't have
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: to travel as much, mixing with all my personal hunts
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: and stuff as well. What kind of trip, um, what
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: kind of trip? Like really lets it all come home
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: in the right way, you know what I mean in
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: terms of being able to like have exposure to someone
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: that you want to hang out with, and it's kind
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: of the right blend of effort and and you know,
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, like is it I'm guessing it's not like
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: hunting doll sheet. No. And that's the thing. Most of
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: our trips are pretty low impact. They're not like we're
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: not really doing We've done the back country stuff a
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: couple of times, but it's tough. Man, it's tough to do.
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: Like a lot of waterfowl, turkeys, we do that type
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: of stuff. Most of the stuff we do is big game.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I looked at the schedule. Man, that's a
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: little bit of everything. And cow are calic archery, l
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: kant mule deer, white tail back in the Midwest, San
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: Diego Tuna trip, which I've heard from a lot of
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: people who have done trips similar. That's a great time. Yeah,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: that one is one of my favorite of the year.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: And we get so we we charted out like a
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: ninety footboat. Um, there's bedrooms and stuff all downstairs. You
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: go out for three days. There's cooks on board, cooking
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: on your meal. It's pretty pampered, you know. And um,
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: they prepared to the tuna. They'll do it like if
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: you catch tuna and they'll make sushamy. Sometimes they'll do
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: like big poke bowls. Um it's nice. But yeah, that's fun.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: Everyone's drinking beer. We got thirty clients on that one. Um,
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: and so usually it's me, Dan Henderson and Claig Wueta
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: that's who's going on this year. But um, we're just
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: there fishing with everyone drinking beer, hanging out that one
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: and you know, and there's nothing. Once I get everybody
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: on the boat and all the paperwork's done, all the
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: planning and scheduling is done, I just get to go
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: have fun. We get to go have fun. So it's like,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm handing out some gifts and stuff during
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: the trip. So but which is easy. But you know,
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: we're catching tuna, having you know, fun of the sun,
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: and that one's a lot of fun. We actually just
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: sold out, um on my flight here. I sold the
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: last three spots on my layover, so we're officially booked
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: out on that one for but um, yeah, man, we
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: try to mix up all kinds of different things. There's
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: some people that really enjoy the mule deer stuff. They
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: don't really care too much about the white tail stuff,
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: so we we make sure we do both. Um. The
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: cow o hunt, I think it's gonna be really cool
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: this year. It's a rifle hunt success, right, Like, there's
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: tons of cows, tons of elk um uh. And so
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: we're gonna go out there and you know, these guys
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: that have never a lot of these guys have never
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: killed anything before. So UM, it's gonna be a cool
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: hunt where we're showing these guys how to do all
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: the field dressing, how to cut these things up and
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: get them prep for the drive home. Um, and just
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: kind of teaching these guys like what, um, what fins
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: and Feathers is about, but also what it's like getting
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: to harvest your own meal and take it home with you. Um.
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: One thing we are really starting to plan started we've
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: talked about the last couple of years, is doing a
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: like a Fins and Feathers academy where we get a
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: lot I personally get a lot of fans that follow
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: me for the fighting side of it that have never
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: hunted or done anything like that. And so they see
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: me hunting and you know, cooking all these wild game
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: mials and having all this meat just readily available in
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: my freezer, Like, dude, I and I you know messages,
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: I really want to do that. I think this is awesome, dude.
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: And again, a lot of people that watch your show, um,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: and they're like, I want to be like that. I
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: want to be able to just go out in my
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: freezer and grab you know, X, Y and Z and
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: go inside and cook it. And so what we're gonna
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: do is we're gonna show people how to get their
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: hunters safety, get their hunting license, take them on a hunt,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: how to hunt, show them all the field dressing and
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: all that stuff, show them how to properly break down
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: an animal, and then cook these really cool mills with
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: a wild game. So it'll be like from start to finish,
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: like if you've never done it before, this is what
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: you do. And just go out and take a handful
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: of guys and girls out and teach him all the
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: stuff that I've learned over the years. And um, you
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: know have buddies that are unbelievable wild game cooks. Maybe
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: bring some of those guys in pair it with different
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: wines or something, um and just call it the Friends
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: and Feathers Academy. So that's like a dream that I've
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: seen for a little bit. I just I think the
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: hardest thing is just finding the locations, um that have
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: all the the kitchen where and like the spots big
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: enough to you know, a kill the animals but then
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: also be able to cook it and teach them all
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: that stuff with with all the right amount of utensils
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff. So yeah, I'm impressed. Man. Just
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: again looking through your schedule. Uh, there's a lot of
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: hunts you go on without getting to hang out with
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: Chad Mendez for the same price. You know, Like you
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: guys are very reasonable price. Yeah, and that we I
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: try to keep it that way. And that's what I
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: was telling you. So what we do is we team
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: up without fitters, and we figure out the monetary side
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: of it per spot. Um. I don't I'm not trying
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: to like jack these up so high that nobody could
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: ever go on them. I mean, is some of the
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: stuff relatively pricey. I mean, if you buy that hunt
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: anywhere that you're probably going to spend around the same
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: amount of money, but um, like I'm not trying to
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: just like jack these up through the roof, you know,
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: And so I try to keep them pretty similar to
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: what you would normally pay. It's not a huge celebrity
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: fee exactly. Yeah. And and and that's that's just one
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: of those things. I feel like it's kind of a conceited.
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: That was one of the issues I had when um
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: creating fins and feathers, Like what do we charge? Like,
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: like what is my worth? Like what do people? You know,
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: what what am I going to charge people to come
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: hang out with me? Like is that kind of fucked up? Like,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: you know, just hard putting prices on stuff? It is?
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: It is, And uh, I think we've kind of nailed
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: it down. We do. Like I said, we've sold out
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: you know, all the years that we've been in business,
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: which is unbelievable to me and to my business partner,
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: and just we've had a lot of people that have
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: rebooked on a lot of the things that have just
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: had so much fun. And what's great is those guys
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: wear the mouth start bringing buddies like, oh, you guys
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: gotta come do this. It was so much fun. And um,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: it's just been so so cool for me to be
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: able to live my dream. You know, I got two
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: more questions for Yanni. Threw this one in. Yanni go ahead, okay,
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: so you just you just throw this in. So Yanni
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: went ahold Y'allni took a whole year off alcohol. Now
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: he's back on alcohol. Now he's taken How long is
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: your little sugar breake? Three months? Three months of no desserts?
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: No way, yeah, he says, Um, how does sugar play
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: in your diet? Yeah? I couldn't squeeze it in earlier
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: when we were talking about diet. But no, we're just
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: picking up loose ends right now. Well, what's your attitude
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: to sugar? If I made you big old flan, would
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: you eat it? I'm gonna tell you, guys what I
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: had for dinner last night. So I ate my meal
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: and for dessert, I had a chocolate brownie with the
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: scoop of vanilla ice cream on it, with some caramel
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: drizzle on tops. And he'd beat yours now. Desert during
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: your ten ten week training period, usually no, but but
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: there are times, depending on and I think this is
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: something that is very important when anyone is sticking to
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: some kind of strict diet, you have to have cheap days.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: You will go freaking insane sticking to the same thing
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: every single day for however long you're going to do it.
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: So like during my training camp, I'd say maybe once
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: or twice through the ten weeks, we would go and
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: I would get an ice like an ice cream or um,
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever it may be. But we would go
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: get something like a like a splurge or I'd even
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: go out and get like a big old fat hamburger
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: or something, you know. So to satisfy that corner of
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: the brain. Yeah, you have to do it, man. And
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: people that say that they never do it, they're lying.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: My wife made an ice cream pie for the kids
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: dinner and he was leaning over. There's like one little
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: piece there, and he was like, you know, I might
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: even eat that piece of ice cream pie. But then
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: he didn't touch it. That's that's strong. Yeah, we'll see.
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: You don't consider sugar the devil. Um. I mean it's
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: not great. No, I don't think it's great, but I
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: think in moderation from time to time is not going
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: to kill anyone. We had a hard time defining. Um,
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: we're kicking this around. I mean I'm not I'm not
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: doing it, but like defind like you know, like what
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: is sugar right, because I mean sugars everywhere. So he
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: had to sort of be like, wow, ship where sugars
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: the point? Like cutting out? Like ship where the point
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: is that sugary and sweet? Because you can't be like, Okay,
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: a strawberry has sugars in it, you know what I mean,
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: there's all that, but I think, yeah, I know. So
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: he had to look at like refined sugar is what
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: you're probably trying to kick, right, yeah, And I were like,
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: like added sugar and when it's easy like catch up,
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: I've been trying to I've been not eating catch up
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: because because that's sugar. And is this sugar? Well yeah, again,
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: when you look at the label and if in the
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: first two to three ingredients it says sugar, That's when
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: I'm aiming not to be eating, right. I thought that
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: it was just tomatoes. Hey, you know something that Uh,
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: when I was working on my book, my first book
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: called The Scavengers Guy to Oat Cuisine. It was about
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: this French chef Scofier and and all the wild game
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: he would cook, but um for a long time like
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: ketchup didn't mean like you'd specify, there's mushroom catchup, really
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: tomato catch up. Yeah, there's many, many, many, And over
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: time it just became like catchup became like catch up,
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: but it catch up. You be like, this's a sort
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: of category of like vinegare toppings, and and that was
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: the tomato one was no more then the mushroom one.
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: I mean it's just like this whole thing like all
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, like dressing just became ranch like ranch
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: like one the fight it was like a general condiment. Yeah,
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: it was like a vinegare, like a perade sort of
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: vinegare topping. I would be annoying to try to bring
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: that one back. What type of catch up? Yeah, you
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: could become like that guy. Yeah, I'm curious. I want
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: to try him though. Yeah, Like, d what do you
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: say catch up? You mean a mushroom catchup? Uh? Last
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: question for you, lest Cal's got one um blue like
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: and I like you work in the hunting industry. I
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: work in the hunting industry. Work in the hunting industry,
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: and so hunting is different for people in the hunting industry,
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: Like the opportunities are different, and you know, people and
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: like you know, you have connections and all, like whatever,
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: you just know what's up, right, When you want to
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: go somewhere, you make a couple of phone calls. You
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: find out what's going on. It's helpful. It's way more
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: than ship. You learn on Google by calling people, you know,
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: because you have a lot of connections. But like I
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: get a sense just from communications from emails, we get
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: that like that, I find a high level of pessimism
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: among blue collar California hunters, like classic weekend warrior like
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: that the kind of hunting you grew up as right,
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: and you described it perfectly. Is that pessimism warranted in California?
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: It just seems it just seems to be like a
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: down and out nous. Yeah, yeah, I sense that a
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: lot in Cali. I don't know what I mean for me,
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: And you're referring to like people buying hunts just being
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: a dude, you know, dut he pulls like a normal salary.
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: He's got a family, he can hunt on the weekends.
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: He doesn't have access to a lot of private land.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: It just seems to be kind of, like like I said,
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: like a general down and out nous. You know, you
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: talked to whatever, like, you know, you can talk to
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: people in Wyloming. There's a general enthusiasm right like yeah,
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: hell yeah, it's great. But it's the pessimism mostly aimed
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: at lack of opportunity or lack of too crowded. No,
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's like lack of community. I think
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: it's too much, if anything, be too much much, and
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: I feel like everything it's just it's so thick, it's
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: so crowded. There is some extremely tough conditions in California,
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: but there are also some really great opportunities for the
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: outdoorsman in California. In my honest opinion, we have some amazing,
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: amazing fishing locations. I think the yeah, the fishing is
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: probably if you say that in California, you're probably high. Yeah,
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: and you're if you're in California, probably are high. Yeah.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: I would probably, um. But I mean there's still great hunting.
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: And here's here's what I've tried to do over the years,
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: because I've felt that before. It's tough like that there's
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: public ground, but it's thick, it's overcrowded. You know, the
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: the amount of animals you're saying, are you know, close
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: to none um, you know, it's the opportunities aren't ideally easy.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: You know, you gotta work your ass off, compared to
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: maybe I go to Utah and I'm seeing a hundred
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: different deer in a day, you know what I mean,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: Like you don't do that. Yeah, no, I don't see it.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: And there's years I would go an entire season without
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: seeing a legal buck, which you know just has to
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: have two on one side, you know. And so yeah,
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: I can see why some people um have that. You know,
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: it's not it's not easy, but I mean, you gotta
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: make opportunity to Like I'm busting my ass daily knocking
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: on people's doors, like seeing different properties that I know
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: have amazing animals on them, and I asked for permission,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: Like do I get told no? Probably ninety nine percent
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: in the time. Yes. So you're still out there mixing
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: it up, like strategizing and trying to get onto good
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: hunting exactly. And there's a ton a ton of great
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: hunting that's private though, and so it's like the worst
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: case they're gonna say no. In fact, recently I got
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: chewed out for asking. You're just gonna feel guilty if
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: you don't go beat on ors that's what it is.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: Maybe right there, I gotta go ask. But so you
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: asked someone and they got pissed. They got pissed you
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: went passed no trustpassing sign to go knock on the
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: door or what was there. So that was their reasoning
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: for it. But it's an easymant road. And I got
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: permission on the road because there is a another piece
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: of property that I can get on that that the
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: only road in and out goes through. So this is
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: a road that they they have a gate that goes
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: you know, thousand yards to their house that's down there.
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: So I hand wrote a whole letter, put pictures of
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: me and my family so they know that it's not
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: some crazy lunatic trying to get in there. Um, explained
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: myself of you know why I would love to archery
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: hunt turkeys on their property. Um, it's a I think
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: it's a hundred acre piece. UM. And I left it
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: an envelope and set it on their gate. Didn't go
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: in their gate, didn't go up there, anything, left it there.
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: And I think two days later, three two or three
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: days later, I get a call from a number that's
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: from the Bay area, and I'm like, I don't know
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: who this is, I answered, and the guy's like, is
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: this Chad? And I'm like, uh, yeah, who's this? He's like,
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: this is so and so I won't say their name
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: even though I probably should um, And he's like it
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: was John Caswell and the biggest dick I've ever talked to?
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: How the did you get that letter on my fence?
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: How dare you even ask to hunt on my property?
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: Like just going off, and my heart's just like beating,
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: like well, I'm getting an earful and I'm you know,
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: trying not to be an asshole, and you know, there's
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: so many things going through my head that I want
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: to say to this guy, and you know, we're freaking neighbors,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: Like it's not that far from my house. I could
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: throw a football into the property that's over there, and uh,
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: he couldn't just be like no, no, you know he
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: had to. He had to chew my ear off first.
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: And so he's going off, going off, going off, and
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: he goes, he goes and to uh answer your question,
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: no you can't hunt on my property, and I'm like, well,
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: I couldn't tell by the tony your voice. But I
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: had an opposite. I had a phone call the other
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: day with a guy where I I wanted to enquire
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: about a property, And when I'm looking him up, I
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: realized that he's got a business where you can send
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: a um like you can send him like a like
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: a you know, you feel out of it auto populates
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: your name and stuff, and you can do an inquiry
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: like a business inquiry. So I do a business inquiry
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: and I apologize in my inquiry, sorry to use this.
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: I just thought it might be less of an annoyance.
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: And if I called you know, And he says, and
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: I lay it out for him, and he said, we'll
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: give me a call next week. I'm like, yeah, hell yeah,
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: I got it right. So we play phone tag a
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: little bit. Eventually get down on the phone and UM
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: has a whole bunch of questions for me. We're talking,
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: it's going great, and I'm about right. I'm to the
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: point where I'm like, well, where should I park? Right?
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: And he goes, well, I don't mean to string you along. No,
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: I'm like, great, very just friendly as ship. You know,
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: did you buy a chance? Tell me what you did mean?
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: I think my feeling He went in knowing that it
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: was a no, but was just being like I took
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: the time to reach out to him, he felt obligated to.
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: He felt obligated to close the loop and very politely,
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, great, um, thanks for calling. I respect
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: your you know, respect your perspective on it. Um. Okay,
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: I I wish I would get that in California's really unusual. Really,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: I either don't get anything back, just silent. Or that guy,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: this guy was from the South, got you. No, he
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: he wanted to, Like we talked, we were talking about
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: early before we start recording. He was closing the loop.
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: That's amazing. I mean, just to wonder what what happens
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: with that dude today who yells down to him to
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: where he's like, oh, I'm gonna take the opportunity to
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: ring the neck of this person with the nicely written
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: note and the nice little family. Yeah, I'll show you
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: to take the really responsible path here and write me
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: a letter illustrating what you'd like to do and how
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: to contact me and giving me a sense of like
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: who you are as an individual. I'll teach you a lesson. Dude.
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: That's how I felt too. I'm like, you know, many
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: people probably would just walk in there and poach and
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: like trespassed. Like I I felt like I went out
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: of my way. I sat down at my computer and
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: like wrote this, Like dude, I was so upset that
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: ate me up to for like I have a good week.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: I'm just like what, like I wanted a kid doing it.
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: You probably never knock on another door. Probably just go
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: the trustpassing route. It's like next time, bro, I'm just
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: gonna go here asking you to trustpassing. It's just a
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: hundred bucks. Yeah. Yeah. The you gotta remember Old John's
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: gotta live with himself every day. Um, live in his
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: own company. I got a question. We get a lot,
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: uh but favorite game and how do you cook it? Oh? Man?
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: I really enjoy access, dear. I So the last I
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: think it's been three years now, I've been going to
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: like Southern Texas UM with the Mountain Ops crew and
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: we do a free range access to here hunt down there.
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: And the first year I killed a buck um and
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: I was it was, you know, during the rut, And
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, man, I wonder how these are gonna
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: be during the rut? Is it gonna be a little
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: you know, gamy, what's it gonna be like on freaking believable.
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: We even had some on the grill next to a
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: piece of elk, and so I was like, I want
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: to taste test these suckers. And I enjoyed the access
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: to dear more than I enjoyed the elk. And and and
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: up until that point, I'd say elk was probably my
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: favorite um wild game that maybe even wild boar. I
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: absolutely really love wild boar um but accessed here. And
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: what like my favorite, probably most um appealing way to
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: make it is I keep the the loin like bone in,
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: and I'll do the tomahawk steaks. Oh yeah, yeah, And
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: so like I'll usually smoke, yeah, smoke them for a
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: little bit for you know, thirty five minutes, and then
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: I'll take them out and get a cast iron hot
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: and I'll do the butter and rosemary. Do you do
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: the old pre smoke? Yeah, yep, cold or hot hot,
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: but really really low because they're thin. I mean, after
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: you slice them, you eat there, even at that low
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: temp for like thirty forty minutes, there are partially cooking,
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: but the goal is just the smoke, just to get
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit of the smoke from ma and then
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: just finish them off in a real hot cast iron
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: and just eat those suckers like lamb walipops. Oh god,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: it's so good. That's a fan favorite for sure. We
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: are trying to do a cookbook. I'm trying to copy
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: you guys. I want to follow in your footsteps. But
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: um yeah, me and uh two other buddies named Chad
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: as well. So there's gonna be three of us, three chats,
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: three Chads, one cookbook. But that's that's a great name
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: for a book. That is that is and you're totally
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: safe because we're not gonna copy you and start getting
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: punched in the head. But we're I want to. I mean,
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: we've been talking about doing it now for a year
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: and a half, so I have no idea when it's
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: gonna when we're gonna launch. We have all the recipes
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: done and we're looking for a publisher and stuff now.
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: But um, I just love the wild game type stuff.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm doing that part of it. We have
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: another guy, Chad Ward, who is uh in the trigger
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: in the barbecue world. He's a pit Masters Barbecue World
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: champ um and he's gonna do a lot of the
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: barbecue side of it. And then we're gonna do. Do
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: you guys know who Chad Building is. He has the
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: foul life. Um, he's gonna you a lot. I'm familiar
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: with that. But he's gonna do a lot of the
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: like the birds and stuff like that, and I'll do
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: more of the big game stuff. But it's just gonna
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: kind of be a mix of a little bit of everything. Yeah.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: Hell yeah. When we get it done, I'll for sure
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: send you guys, I'll blurb with the back I'll just
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: blurb the dude's wild game. Did you a guy up
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: in Toronto? Michael Hunter? Nice? Um? All right, good fellas,
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: very good. Good look at that baby man. Thank you guys.
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: Don't let her go in the UFC. Oh that that
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: was my my question for you. Uh, buddy mine same.
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: You know, very young child at home? Like where do
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: you put the brand new baby life versus the training life?
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: Would you rather be doing baby life? Yeah? I love it,
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: And I mean my wife does most of it. She's
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: she's super mom for sure. Um. When I'm out doing
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: all this type of stuff and doing the finns and
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: feather stuff, she's home alone. Her family is from Missouri,
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: so and and my dad is like four hours south
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: of us, and he just doesn't really do the baby
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: thing anyway. So you know, she's pretty much home alone
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: taking care of the baby. So um, yeah, my hat's
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: off to her for sure. I want to give you
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: some parenting advice, but go for it. Well I can't.
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: I gotta wait twenty years. That's that's the problem with
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: that stuff. Man. I got like ideas, but I haven't.
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: They haven't been born out yet. Yeah, I could be
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: way off, you know, come like, find my kids and
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: they're all they're all jail and whatnot. Be like, dude,
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: don't do that. Guy, Dude, No, I think you guys
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: are good. I'll have to hold off when I'm when
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: I'm how old I be, Yeah, one of my mid sixties,
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: I'll be throwing around some advice. I might be like, whatever,
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: you dude, don't do this in hindsight, alright, Jad Mendez,
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: vins and feathers. Thank you guys very much. Formally, UFC, Yeah,
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: we are retired. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: you appreciate it. Guys,