Latest / Motivation Mindset Podcast / Fearless & Unstoppable: The Legacy of Muay Thai Warrior Liam "The Hitman" Harrison

Transcript

Fearless & Unstoppable: The Legacy of Muay Thai Warrior Liam "The Hitman" Harrison · Motivation Mindset Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: You have to live and breathe it. Just let it
0:03
Speaker 1: take over your life. If and be obsessed with every
0:06
Speaker 1: single aspect of it. Bite your heart is, bite your
0:10
Speaker 1: heart out. If you quit, you can't teach that. So
0:13
Speaker 1: don't ever quit on matter how hard it gets. Do
0:15
Speaker 1: not let that harbit ever get into you. I am
0:35
Speaker 1: Liam Morrison. I'm an eight time World Muti champion from
0:38
Speaker 1: the Bad Company Gym in Leeds. I've been training around
0:41
Speaker 1: twenty five years is now Tempo. When I fourteen had
0:45
Speaker 1: close to one hundred and twenty professional fights a thirteen year old.
0:51
Speaker 1: The first time I walked through these doors and it
0:53
Speaker 1: wore our a bit our younger and stuff, and there
0:56
Speaker 1: were some pretty rough kids around the area and stuff
0:58
Speaker 1: like that, and that fought. I don't want ever them
1:00
Speaker 1: kids who gets bullied and stuff like that. So I
1:03
Speaker 1: came down here just to just to learn how to
1:05
Speaker 1: defend myself basically, and then the second I walked through
1:08
Speaker 1: the gym doors, I just fell in love with it
1:10
Speaker 1: straight away. Before my sixteenth birthday, I've won my first
1:14
Speaker 1: professional title and on about eight profights because with Lydon
1:18
Speaker 1: Set when or fourteen, I had my first profile a
1:20
Speaker 1: week before my fifteenth birthday or fourteen with Lydon's said
1:23
Speaker 1: I was sixteen. So I've turned up to the way
1:26
Speaker 1: in got on the scales. I looked at this kid, thought,
1:28
Speaker 1: you know looks sixteen, he looks a bit older. I've
1:31
Speaker 1: watched him get off the scales, walk out the building
1:33
Speaker 1: and he jumped in his golf GTI and drove himself off.
1:35
Speaker 1: I fought, oh, he's definitely not sixteen. He ended up
1:38
Speaker 1: being nineteen, but I ended up knocking him out in
1:40
Speaker 1: first minute at first round. And then once he'd done
1:43
Speaker 1: something like that, and it were on quite a big
1:44
Speaker 1: show at the time, in a big sports are we all,
1:47
Speaker 1: And at those times those shows were probably some of
1:50
Speaker 1: the biggest ones in the country and now right down
1:52
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the card, but they were busy
1:55
Speaker 1: shows and everyone saw me do it. So once I've
1:57
Speaker 1: done that, there's then no way I can go back
1:58
Speaker 1: to fighting kids juniors who were my own age. So
2:02
Speaker 1: that ri then I was just fighting drown men from
2:05
Speaker 1: the none. So now everyone's looking to get to one
2:15
Speaker 1: championship and now they are paying like ridiculously. Well, if
2:19
Speaker 1: you're on one championship, you're a superstar. You're fighting on
2:22
Speaker 1: live on Sky Sports. You're fighting in fifteen thousand sold
2:25
Speaker 1: out arena. Everyone's going to know who you are, and
2:27
Speaker 1: you're getting paid well, and there's there's chances for massive bonuses.
2:30
Speaker 1: And my career. If I had gone to One Championship
2:32
Speaker 1: same my mid twenties, when I was in my prime
2:34
Speaker 1: and I was smashing a lot of like the top
2:36
Speaker 1: ties to bits when I around that age, I wouldn't
2:39
Speaker 1: have had a long career because there's no longevity in
2:41
Speaker 1: the way I fight in four hounch gloves, my hands
2:45
Speaker 1: hauld have been smashed to pieces. I'd probably been brain dead,
2:48
Speaker 1: and I I've had the career that I've had now,
2:51
Speaker 1: So I'm glad that I did get to still be
2:53
Speaker 1: part of one Championship, still about the biggest stage, and
2:57
Speaker 1: have some of the craziest fights. I won't fight a
2:59
Speaker 1: year on twenty twenty and things that are on One Championship,
3:01
Speaker 1: and I won a big bonus. I'm glad I got
3:03
Speaker 1: to do all that, but I'm glad it's at the
3:05
Speaker 1: back end of my career as well, because if I
3:07
Speaker 1: were fighting the way I fight, if I were doing
3:09
Speaker 1: that all the time in four hous clubs, I don't
3:11
Speaker 1: think I've had as long as career that I've had
3:13
Speaker 1: to be I want to have made it for thirty nine. Anyway,
3:26
Speaker 1: it wasn't scary the first time I went to train
3:28
Speaker 1: because I was just getting used to everything that was scary.
3:30
Speaker 1: Or when I went to live there when I was
3:32
Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen, I went to live there. I lived in
3:35
Speaker 1: the gym with the ties. I lived on a mattress
3:37
Speaker 1: on the floor, and for the first six months I
3:39
Speaker 1: got bullied. I were the only white guy who were
3:41
Speaker 1: living in the gym, and we were living on a
3:42
Speaker 1: mattress on the floor like they were doing. And I
3:46
Speaker 1: think they were just like it was this guy just
3:48
Speaker 1: moving into our spot and they just beat me up
3:50
Speaker 1: every single day. Like the old cliche saying respect is earned,
3:54
Speaker 1: and I had to earn it out there. That light
3:56
Speaker 1: helped build me as a man that had become I
4:00
Speaker 1: was like mental strength and I've taught me not to
4:03
Speaker 1: quit and things like that, because there were many times
4:05
Speaker 1: in that like I just thought what am I doing here?
4:06
Speaker 1: I was getting patted every single day. They don't even
4:09
Speaker 1: talk to me most of the time. I know the
4:11
Speaker 1: language barrier, but they weren't really paying attention to myself.
4:13
Speaker 1: But then after about six months, when we were aspiring
4:16
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, one day I just noticed, hang
4:18
Speaker 1: on a minute, I'm holding my own ear every day.
4:20
Speaker 1: And then after that they started to like they'd sit
4:23
Speaker 1: down in the deep women and sit around and then
4:25
Speaker 1: chat women, and we'd go off and do things together
4:28
Speaker 1: with the Ties instead of me just going off with
4:30
Speaker 1: the other Western fighters and stuff like that. And I
4:31
Speaker 1: got like welcomed into their culture and their way of
4:35
Speaker 1: life and everything like that. But again I had to
4:36
Speaker 1: earn the respect to doing that, and that was a
4:39
Speaker 1: very very tough six month and every time I want
4:42
Speaker 1: to fight, they'd be like buzzing, unhappy, and I got
4:45
Speaker 1: welcomed in. I mean, there's so many fighters would probably
4:48
Speaker 1: just think, oh, you know what, I'm off to another
4:50
Speaker 1: gym where there's more Western fighters or something like that.
4:52
Speaker 1: Got out with it. But I was completely out of
4:55
Speaker 1: my comfort zone. And I think that's a life lesson
4:57
Speaker 1: for everyone, Like if you want to excel into you
5:00
Speaker 1: need to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Before the fight, I
5:05
Speaker 1: said to him, I said, he said, you all right,
5:06
Speaker 1: so I'm nervous. I said, I don't want to. I said,
5:08
Speaker 1: I want to impress all these everyone at jim I
5:10
Speaker 1: want to impress you. And he said, listen, win, lose, draw,
5:14
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. As long as you fight your hardest,
5:17
Speaker 1: fight your heart out, don't quit, and enjoy yourself to
5:20
Speaker 1: that's all that matters. And I thought, I went, I thought,
5:24
Speaker 1: you know what, that's it just took away off my shoulder.
5:27
Speaker 1: That's some of the best advice I've ever had, because
5:31
Speaker 1: as long as you can look yourself in the mirror
5:33
Speaker 1: after the fight and go, you know what, you didn't quit.
5:35
Speaker 1: Then you didn't give up. Yeah, you might have lost,
5:37
Speaker 1: but it don't matter the better man beat you on
5:39
Speaker 1: the night onto the next one. As long as you
5:41
Speaker 1: can do that, the result doesn't matter. As long as
5:42
Speaker 1: you get in and out of that ring after the fight,
5:45
Speaker 1: you look yourself in the mirror and you go, you
5:47
Speaker 1: give everything. You couldn't do anything else. The result doesn't
5:50
Speaker 1: really matter them because you know you give it all.
5:52
Speaker 1: And I went on. I won. I won the fighting
5:54
Speaker 1: round four, and then I had about five more fights
5:57
Speaker 1: for the gym in Thailand, and I won all them
5:59
Speaker 1: all on the back well, and I had a bit
6:00
Speaker 1: of a good run. And then I finally I had
6:03
Speaker 1: a fighting Reginamnerne in one of the stadiums and they
6:06
Speaker 1: were against like a top round fighter, and that was
6:08
Speaker 1: my first loss in Thailand. When I moved over there,
6:16
Speaker 1: it was about survival because I went over there it
6:18
Speaker 1: was the right little bit of money, and then I
6:21
Speaker 1: had to fight to pilate, had to pay the gym
6:23
Speaker 1: owner to stay there. I had to fight for my
6:26
Speaker 1: money to pay my rent. And then when I moved
6:28
Speaker 1: out of the gym just in my own little box
6:29
Speaker 1: room in a little apartment next door to it, I
6:31
Speaker 1: obviously had to pay the rent there. It wasn't like
6:34
Speaker 1: I was getting big purses or big wages back then.
6:36
Speaker 1: I want a big name like I am now. I
6:38
Speaker 1: had to fight my way up to get everyone to
6:39
Speaker 1: know me. When I went first went to Thailand, I
6:42
Speaker 1: had a big name in England and around Europe, but
6:44
Speaker 1: no one knew me over there. So I started at
6:46
Speaker 1: the bottom and my purses were pretty small, so I
6:48
Speaker 1: had to fight, like sometimes twice a month to get
6:51
Speaker 1: that money just so I could pay my rent and stuff.
6:52
Speaker 1: And then even when I'm not fighting for that much money,
6:54
Speaker 1: I was gambling on myself just to bump my money up.
6:56
Speaker 1: And things like that. So I told a story on
6:58
Speaker 1: the last one where I'll bet myself I lost all
7:00
Speaker 1: my own money, lost all the trainers moneys in the gyms,
7:03
Speaker 1: and then I had to fight again three days later.
7:05
Speaker 1: So that's the type of the craziness that I were
7:08
Speaker 1: doing back then. And I think to myself sometimes think
7:11
Speaker 1: I wish social media around back then to catch some
7:13
Speaker 1: of this stuff that I was doing. But then I
7:15
Speaker 1: think to myself, well, I'm actually glad it won't because
7:17
Speaker 1: if it was, and I was getting extra money, and
7:19
Speaker 1: now I won't have all these crazy stories. I've got
7:21
Speaker 1: life experience. I knew that if I wanted to beat
7:29
Speaker 1: these tie champions, I was never actually gonna do it
7:33
Speaker 1: unless I learned to fight out a fight. So yeah,
7:35
Speaker 1: I wanted to be surrounded by top fighters who've all
7:38
Speaker 1: had over one hundred fights. And but like I said,
7:41
Speaker 1: like I had twenty nine unbeating and I got smashed
7:43
Speaker 1: pieces off that tie and that well then like it
7:45
Speaker 1: took I'm going to say, it didn't take long to
7:48
Speaker 1: be fair, And I knew straight away then, like I
7:50
Speaker 1: knew what I wanted to do, I'd already set my
7:51
Speaker 1: goals out and I knew where I wanted to go,
7:53
Speaker 1: and I knew I wanted to be able to hang
7:56
Speaker 1: with the best fighters on the planet, and I knew
7:58
Speaker 1: that if I didn't do this, I'm not going to
8:00
Speaker 1: be able to do that. So I wanted to achieve
8:02
Speaker 1: the goal that were really we're only one thing I
8:05
Speaker 1: had to do, so it we're either go do this,
8:07
Speaker 1: get out your comfort zone, get back to the bottom
8:09
Speaker 1: of the pile, or don't achieve what you want to achieve.
8:11
Speaker 1: I had three close fights with the best fighter of
8:14
Speaker 1: all time, Sanchai, so to be able to say I
8:17
Speaker 1: had free fights with him where I pushed him right
8:19
Speaker 1: to the wire and then ever since that when I
8:22
Speaker 1: were at that age as well, consistency is key. I
8:27
Speaker 1: was at elite level from being twenty years old I'm
8:30
Speaker 1: thirty nine now. He had my last fight on one
8:31
Speaker 1: Championships against another legend of the sport, so to do
8:35
Speaker 1: it for twenty years, no one else has done that
8:37
Speaker 1: from in England, so that's something I'm really proud of.
8:40
Speaker 1: Obviously I've lost to quite a few fights along the way,
8:42
Speaker 1: but when you're at that level constantly and you're fighting
8:44
Speaker 1: as often as I were doing, you're going to do
8:46
Speaker 1: just too many ways to lose, and your fighting Elite
8:48
Speaker 1: TI champions look like the Tides will have a record
8:51
Speaker 1: of two hundred fights, one hundred and fifty wins, fifty loss.
8:53
Speaker 1: I think I've got about twenty eight loss on my record,
8:55
Speaker 1: twenty nine loss or something like that. Most of them
8:57
Speaker 1: I Have've come to walk back end of my career
8:58
Speaker 1: when I've slowed down a little, but all the others
9:00
Speaker 1: are at elite level, or if I did some much
9:04
Speaker 1: stupid and stepped out of a weight class, which I
9:06
Speaker 1: did a lot a lot of times. But yeah, I'm
9:09
Speaker 1: I'm proud that I can say I think I was
9:10
Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen first time I thought of that world
9:12
Speaker 1: elite level, and although I got smashed the bits that
9:14
Speaker 1: one ever since then I stayed there and I kept
9:17
Speaker 1: the consistency all the way to being thirty nine.
9:23
Speaker 2: How long he been telling you what he started to
9:26
Speaker 2: when he was fair to then it was really three
9:29
Speaker 2: four months into his training that sort of started to
9:31
Speaker 2: look and think, this kid has been, you know, consistently
9:34
Speaker 2: never missing the session. It's come early, just a little
9:37
Speaker 2: bit on his own, stays late, keep doing stuff he's
9:40
Speaker 2: own in the and they were all chained together, you know,
9:43
Speaker 2: so taking a bit of notice there and thinking we've
9:47
Speaker 2: got something a bit special about us Ki.
9:56
Speaker 1: So the greatest fighter of this era is a guy
9:59
Speaker 1: called San Chai. He's absolutely ridiculous. He's to go to
10:03
Speaker 1: this area, probably three hundred and fifty fights, three hundred wins.
10:06
Speaker 1: I fought him three times, and especially one of them,
10:10
Speaker 1: I took him right to the wire. I cut him
10:12
Speaker 1: with an elbow, bust him up with some hard punches,
10:14
Speaker 1: and we had a real war. And that is in
10:18
Speaker 1: my top three fights in my career, even though it's
10:20
Speaker 1: a loss, because I took the greatest fighter of this
10:23
Speaker 1: era and greatest fighter of all time, one of the
10:25
Speaker 1: greatest fighters of all time, right to the wire, and
10:29
Speaker 1: knowing that I have his respect, he said after that fight,
10:32
Speaker 1: he said, Liama, one of my hardest fights. Knowing that
10:34
Speaker 1: I did that to one of the best fighters of
10:36
Speaker 1: all time, I can live with myself with whether I
10:39
Speaker 1: lost or not. So in twenty twenty two, I had
10:45
Speaker 1: a fight on one championship and I won Fight of
10:47
Speaker 1: the Year and I won a one hundred K bonus
10:50
Speaker 1: for it because in the first round I got knocked
10:52
Speaker 1: down with a head kick. You're only about a minute
10:55
Speaker 1: into the fight. I got up, he ran in and
10:57
Speaker 1: he knocked me straight back down with a punch. Three
10:59
Speaker 1: knockdowns in the fight you finished. I got up again,
11:03
Speaker 1: and he ran in to finish me and knocked him down.
11:05
Speaker 1: He got up and knocked him down again. He got
11:07
Speaker 1: up and knocked him down again. So we had five
11:08
Speaker 1: knockdowns in ninety seconds in one fight. A year in
11:12
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. You can watch it Lie Marrison Versu
11:14
Speaker 1: mun Taie. And that's what I always say about that fight,
11:17
Speaker 1: don't quick, I've no I think it's I got hit
11:20
Speaker 1: that hard on the second knockdown. If I had just
11:22
Speaker 1: stayed down, I don't think anyone had batter and I
11:24
Speaker 1: lived comforting. Well, no, no, he could do none about that.
11:26
Speaker 1: But I knew I could get up. I knew to myself.
11:29
Speaker 1: And even if you had have just stayed down, then
11:31
Speaker 1: how can I look myself in the mirror after you
11:33
Speaker 1: have to go back and then you fucking said I'll
11:35
Speaker 1: probably go then what's what was going on there? But
11:38
Speaker 1: I didn't. I did get up, and I ended up
11:40
Speaker 1: winning Fight of the Year one hundred grand bonus. And
11:42
Speaker 1: it also got me a title fight afterwards. So the
11:46
Speaker 1: all the bonuses that I got from just from getting
11:48
Speaker 1: up and trying. Like we mentioned earlier, that's when the
11:51
Speaker 1: magic happens. Like just when you think you're on the
11:54
Speaker 1: verge of losing or quitting or getting knocked out, just
11:57
Speaker 1: persevere and like I said, something magical can happen, and
12:01
Speaker 1: he did for me in that fight. So as a fighter,
12:10
Speaker 1: you're in there, and this is a you're in there
12:12
Speaker 1: to entertain the fans as well as I enjoy yourself
12:16
Speaker 1: and all the other things, and they pay to watch
12:19
Speaker 1: a warrior fight his heart out until he can't fight
12:22
Speaker 1: no more. So I knew that I could get up
12:26
Speaker 1: if I had just stayed down. How could I look?
12:28
Speaker 1: Much like I said, how can I look myself in
12:30
Speaker 1: the mirror? Knowing that I still had a little bit
12:32
Speaker 1: left to give? And when he did came in to
12:35
Speaker 1: finish me off, all it took his one shot and
12:38
Speaker 1: the tables turned to one split second, one mistake from him,
12:42
Speaker 1: one big punch from me, and that's all it took.
12:45
Speaker 1: So knowing that I still could throw a punch. If
12:48
Speaker 1: you can land a punch in a fight, it's all
12:50
Speaker 1: it takes. One you've seen in many fights so all
12:52
Speaker 1: over the years, where people get battered from pillar to
12:54
Speaker 1: post and then one punch changes it. I know that
12:57
Speaker 1: in my head, and most people know that, and there's
12:59
Speaker 1: knowing that in my head. If I didn't apply that
13:01
Speaker 1: into a fight, like you can't look yourself in the
13:03
Speaker 1: mirror and you can't call yourself a professional fighter, because
13:07
Speaker 1: when there's people watching you to fight until the very end,
13:09
Speaker 1: until you can't fight anymore, if you don't stick to
13:12
Speaker 1: that moral obligation that you've got to these people and
13:15
Speaker 1: to yourself and to your coaches who spent all this
13:18
Speaker 1: eight weeks training you and putting all their effort into
13:20
Speaker 1: you and killing you in the gym, and spending time
13:22
Speaker 1: away from their family to be you. If you have
13:24
Speaker 1: to turn around to them afterwards and look them in
13:25
Speaker 1: the eye knowing that you probably could have got up
13:27
Speaker 1: and give a little bit more, that's something that I
13:30
Speaker 1: don't ever want to have to do. And that's something
13:32
Speaker 1: that what pushed me through of bit down on the
13:35
Speaker 1: gum shield, got up and LS nine took over. That's
13:42
Speaker 1: so warriors. Someone who's pushing right right to the end,
13:45
Speaker 1: even though another cat win, but they still walk quit,
13:47
Speaker 1: they still keep going. And let's say they might think
13:49
Speaker 1: they can't win, but like, just like I said, some
13:51
Speaker 1: magic might happen if you don't quit.
14:00
Speaker 3: H m hm.
14:50
Speaker 1: You know what, there's so many like three three records
14:52
Speaker 1: that it takes to be a fighter that you can
14:53
Speaker 1: take it every day, Like as long as you can
14:55
Speaker 1: finish at the end of the day and look yourself
14:56
Speaker 1: at miror and go had a good day, then I
14:58
Speaker 1: did all right, Then you did well well done? Just
15:01
Speaker 1: things like that. What does it take to be a fighter?
15:03
Speaker 1: Hard work, discipline, perseverance, all these things. If you do
15:07
Speaker 1: this in any walk of life, whether you want to
15:09
Speaker 1: be a fighter or lawyer or or a musician, if
15:12
Speaker 1: you work hard at anything, that will work out no
15:16
Speaker 1: matter what walk of life you're doing. And that's what
15:19
Speaker 1: I'll take. And the discipline that fighting teaches you. It
15:22
Speaker 1: teaches you you have to be disciplined. You have to persevere,
15:25
Speaker 1: donk with it when it gets hard, no matter how
15:28
Speaker 1: tough it gets in a fight, and like you might
15:31
Speaker 1: feel like giving up and you might getting beaten within
15:33
Speaker 1: an inch of your life. I have found if you persevere,
15:36
Speaker 1: that's when the magic happens. That goes to anything. If
15:40
Speaker 1: you are treating it like a hobby, you're not going
15:41
Speaker 1: to get to the elite levels. You have to live
15:43
Speaker 1: and breathe it, and you have to just let it
15:45
Speaker 1: take over your life and be obsessed with every single
15:48
Speaker 1: aspect of it. You can't cut in a corners. You
15:50
Speaker 1: have to be up every morning running the ten are
15:52
Speaker 1: like they're doing. But yeah, you have to embrace the
15:56
Speaker 1: full aspects of everything because if you don't, then, like
15:59
Speaker 1: I said again, you'll get found out and whatever be
16:01
Speaker 1: able to cut it just at the highest level. I've
16:03
Speaker 1: got a good IQ. When a fight, I am trying
16:05
Speaker 1: to hurt someone kick hard and a punch hard, and
16:07
Speaker 1: I'm throwing everything with bad intentions. So yeah, I am
16:10
Speaker 1: as well as trying to score points, which is what
16:13
Speaker 1: this game is all about. I'm trying to hurt them
16:15
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to knock him out. I am in
16:16
Speaker 1: there to win by knockout, and you have to have
16:21
Speaker 1: that mentality. I think like, if you're in there, you're
16:23
Speaker 1: trying to score points and just like not get hurt
16:25
Speaker 1: and not pick up damage. They are some fighters who
16:27
Speaker 1: are good at that, but it's they're not entertaining to watch.
16:29
Speaker 1: And like I said earlier, if you want to get
16:31
Speaker 1: this good reputation and this good relationship with the fans
16:34
Speaker 1: and the crowd and you want them to love you,
16:35
Speaker 1: that's how you've got to be. My lungs are screaming
16:53
Speaker 1: a bit, don't are you doing? There were a fighting
17:01
Speaker 1: in mid twenties and I thought a really elite, elite,
17:04
Speaker 1: high level tie champion and I've just cut a few
17:07
Speaker 1: corners in training. I've got a bit complace and I
17:10
Speaker 1: got smashed to bits and I was like, give you
17:13
Speaker 1: you brought all that on yourself, Like you've got no
17:16
Speaker 1: one else to blame me other than yourself. And I
17:19
Speaker 1: literally never ever did it again after that fight. Obviously,
17:21
Speaker 1: I've had one hundred and twenty fights so and the
17:23
Speaker 1: one that I did do it in you got found out.
17:25
Speaker 1: There's so many ways to lose in this fight. And
17:27
Speaker 1: you come across someone who was at the highest the
17:30
Speaker 1: highest end of his game, elite level, and they ain't
17:33
Speaker 1: cutting the corners, You're going to get found out and
17:35
Speaker 1: you're going to get hurt. And I did. I got
17:37
Speaker 1: absolutely smashed to pieces. Luckily we had a rematch about
17:41
Speaker 1: six months later, and I've put that loss correct and
17:44
Speaker 1: then again ever since that time then, and I'm never
17:47
Speaker 1: ever cut any corners in training. Never. I always make
17:50
Speaker 1: sure I'm the first one through that all the last
17:51
Speaker 1: one to leave. And I always try and set a
17:53
Speaker 1: good example for all the all the younger fighters, because
17:56
Speaker 1: I never ever want to have that feeling again. After
17:58
Speaker 1: that fight, when I would discover did with myself thinking
18:01
Speaker 1: what on earth were you doing here? You've got a
18:03
Speaker 1: chance here against his top top tie champion. You're in
18:07
Speaker 1: it for a world title as well, and you had
18:09
Speaker 1: a chance here to show that you are in that
18:12
Speaker 1: lelie level. What if you don't ever get that chance again.
18:14
Speaker 1: Luckily I got a rematch and I put it right.
18:16
Speaker 1: But yeah, I was disgusted with myself after that, and
18:19
Speaker 1: I vowed I made a deal with myself in the mirror,
18:21
Speaker 1: like you will never ever do this again. I never did. Well.
18:37
Speaker 1: I was looking back on that yesterday. I was looking
18:39
Speaker 1: at the eyghlights of that fight. I was thinking what
18:41
Speaker 1: were doing in there? I said, I couldn't take the punishment.
18:43
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised fighting like that. I was just getting
18:45
Speaker 1: involved in like just elbows and I won't moving my head,
18:49
Speaker 1: I won't even trying to move. I was just content
18:51
Speaker 1: on just trying to go to war, and after having
18:54
Speaker 1: two years out of the ring with a horrible injury,
18:56
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised I couldn't take the punishment that we
18:58
Speaker 1: were doing in that fight because there was no thought
19:00
Speaker 1: processing what I were doing whatsoever. I just went to
19:03
Speaker 1: war with a fighter who was renowned for going to war,
19:07
Speaker 1: and I lost his game because I played straight into
19:09
Speaker 1: his hands. So I don't remember a bit hard on
19:11
Speaker 1: myself about not being able to take the punishment. I
19:13
Speaker 1: think that was just a ridiculous choice of how to
19:16
Speaker 1: fight that fight. But I just got caught up in
19:18
Speaker 1: it and thought right and I knock him out, and
19:20
Speaker 1: I didnt knock him out, and I got stopped to myself.
19:22
Speaker 1: When you've got them four unce gloves on, if you
19:24
Speaker 1: meet someone in the middle fifty to fifty, that's all
19:26
Speaker 1: it is. Fifty to fifty, it's going to be you
19:28
Speaker 1: war him, And unfortunately it were me. And I was thinking,
19:31
Speaker 1: he's fought six times in the last year in those
19:34
Speaker 1: gloves on one championship. He's active, he's been taking punishment.
19:39
Speaker 1: I'd been out for like nearly two years with a
19:41
Speaker 1: horrendous knee injury. I'd not been taking the punishment. I
19:45
Speaker 1: was bunt as sharp as I probably was going to
19:46
Speaker 1: be after a two year layoff thirty nine And even
19:50
Speaker 1: though I felt really sharp and good in there, and
19:52
Speaker 1: then when it came down to it and we started
19:53
Speaker 1: trading and there was some really good moments where we
19:55
Speaker 1: started training, he managed to walk through the shots and
19:58
Speaker 1: I didn't. And whether that's because I'm a little bit
20:00
Speaker 1: older five times caught up, or whether I've been out
20:02
Speaker 1: of the ring for two years. Either way, coming back
20:07
Speaker 1: off that and coming to nearly forty years old, I
20:09
Speaker 1: just didn't think it'd be wise for myself to be
20:11
Speaker 1: taking too much more damage in those four arts gloves,
20:15
Speaker 1: which is why I let my gloves down at the end.
20:16
Speaker 1: And as hard as that what to know that I'll
20:19
Speaker 1: never go into it like that arena had fifteen thousand
20:21
Speaker 1: people in it. I've never known an atmosphere like it,
20:23
Speaker 1: and the evasion that I got from the American fans
20:26
Speaker 1: when I came out like that was the biggest and
20:28
Speaker 1: the best one I've ever had in my career, and
20:31
Speaker 1: it was just a shame that it ended like that.
20:33
Speaker 1: But again, I don't think it'd be wise for me
20:35
Speaker 1: at this point to carry on taking that sort of
20:37
Speaker 1: damage in those gloves. Fighters have chapters and they've got
20:43
Speaker 1: a shelf life, and there's only so far you can go,
20:45
Speaker 1: and there's only so far you can push it my
20:47
Speaker 1: next chapter. I don't want to just think I'm done
20:50
Speaker 1: with this now? What should I do? I want to dad.
20:52
Speaker 1: I don't want to sit around or they want to
20:53
Speaker 1: be in the gym helping all the young ones coming through.
20:56
Speaker 1: I want to be sparring with them all the time.
20:58
Speaker 1: I still want to train as hard as possible and
21:01
Speaker 1: put my own training in and keep myself fitting strong.
21:04
Speaker 1: I want to hold pads every day. I don't want
21:06
Speaker 1: to have all my hands smashed the pieces. I don't
21:08
Speaker 1: want to be that guy who catch uring a sentence together.
21:10
Speaker 1: I had to think about what I'm going to do
21:11
Speaker 1: in the second part of my life because I've been
21:14
Speaker 1: prepping for this for a while. I knew it was
21:15
Speaker 1: going to come, and as hard as it was laying
21:17
Speaker 1: them gloves down, I think it was the right decision.
21:29
Speaker 1: There's so many way to losing this. I've I've ad
21:30
Speaker 1: meinly fate of losses on my record, but I've had
21:33
Speaker 1: like ninety two wins, eight world titles for all the
21:36
Speaker 1: best fighters on the planet along the way. When you're
21:38
Speaker 1: fighting that regular, there's going to be factors coming in
21:41
Speaker 1: some fights. You're not gonna go one hundred percent. You
21:43
Speaker 1: might have picked up a few knocks in training, a
21:44
Speaker 1: few niggles. It's not like it is now where you're
21:47
Speaker 1: fighting for loads of money. But then I won't fight
21:49
Speaker 1: for loads of money off fighting, and I had to
21:51
Speaker 1: fight regular to keep my income stream coming. Result didn't
21:54
Speaker 1: really matter because other than that one fight we discussed earlier,
21:58
Speaker 1: I could always get out of the ring and say,
21:59
Speaker 1: do you know what? You did everything you could. Then
22:01
Speaker 1: you're beating back better man. And I said that that
22:03
Speaker 1: doesn't bother me. If I have to take a loss
22:07
Speaker 1: to someone who's better than me on the night, knowing
22:08
Speaker 1: I've trained eye artists, and knowing's I've fought my artist,
22:10
Speaker 1: I just got outgunned on the night, I can I
22:13
Speaker 1: can live with that. Fight your hardest, fight your heart out,
22:17
Speaker 1: enjoy yourself, and everything else doesn't matter. Like I said,
22:21
Speaker 1: as long as you get out of the ring knowing
22:22
Speaker 1: you give it all, that's that's okay. You can look
22:24
Speaker 1: yourself in the mirror because you can go back to
22:27
Speaker 1: the gym and if your techniques a bit off, you
22:29
Speaker 1: can work on it. If you got swept a few times,
22:31
Speaker 1: you can work on it. If you've got outscored on points,
22:33
Speaker 1: you can learn to how to score the points. If
22:36
Speaker 1: you quit, you can't teach that. You've either got it
22:38
Speaker 1: or you answer. Don't ever quit, not once, no matter
22:40
Speaker 1: how hard it gets. Do not let that habit ever
22:43
Speaker 1: get into you do don't lever, because once it's in,
22:45
Speaker 1: it's in. Always persevere. And like we said earlier, that's
22:49
Speaker 1: when the magical happened, not being the guy under the
22:53
Speaker 1: lights and having that buzzer getting your hand raised, because
22:56
Speaker 1: that's a drug on earth that nothing can compare to that.
22:59
Speaker 1: And that's what I've chasing since or fourteen, Like getting
23:02
Speaker 1: your hands raised, that's the drugs. Like you're just chasing
23:05
Speaker 1: it and chasing it and chasing it, and that's what
23:07
Speaker 1: that's what's hard to let go. But at the same time,
23:11
Speaker 1: I'm not as arrogant enough to think I can just
23:13
Speaker 1: keep going and keep winning. And I know I'm slowing down,
23:16
Speaker 1: I know I'm getting a little bit older. I know
23:18
Speaker 1: my reactions are a bit, a little bit slower, And
23:21
Speaker 1: like I said, I don't want to be that guy
23:22
Speaker 1: who starts getting knocked out. And do you see guys
23:25
Speaker 1: like they're doing it all started like someone like Tony
23:28
Speaker 1: Ferguson in UFC and stuff. I like him to see
23:30
Speaker 1: him retire, but he just refuses and he just walks
23:33
Speaker 1: up and he keep going and going. And I don't
23:36
Speaker 1: want to be that guy who's just killing them where
23:38
Speaker 1: everyone else is saying he should probably retire. I want
23:41
Speaker 1: to go out on on my own terms. What happens
23:49
Speaker 1: to fighters is they under the lights all the career
23:52
Speaker 1: that that guy, and then all of a sudden people
23:54
Speaker 1: forget you're like that because there's always someone as you
23:57
Speaker 1: leave as someone who just takes your space, and then
23:59
Speaker 1: he's the guy, and you're sort of like left up.
24:02
Speaker 1: I'm still here, I'm still not fighting, but they don't care.
24:04
Speaker 1: People want to see you in that ring smashing something
24:06
Speaker 1: a bit or getting smashed a bits. That's what they want.
24:08
Speaker 1: And it's sad that a lot of fighters they'll just
24:11
Speaker 1: get pushed out and they ain't got anything else then,
24:12
Speaker 1: and that supplies a lot of them get lost a
24:14
Speaker 1: lot of them turn to drugs, a lot of them
24:16
Speaker 1: turning to drink. And I think that's why it's important
24:18
Speaker 1: that I've spent all this this time sorting all these
24:20
Speaker 1: different things out where I'm going to have all these
24:23
Speaker 1: different ways to put my energy into, like the new gym,
24:26
Speaker 1: helping all the fighters, coaching in the new gym, my seminars.
24:29
Speaker 1: I'll still be able to travel, I'll still be able
24:31
Speaker 1: to teach, still be able to coach. I've built a
24:32
Speaker 1: really good reputation for myself as a coach over the
24:35
Speaker 1: last few years, and you know what, it was tough
24:37
Speaker 1: doing that, as well as being a professional fighter. Traveling
24:40
Speaker 1: and doing seminars and helping other people and going to
24:43
Speaker 1: other gyms, as well as trying to be in a
24:45
Speaker 1: fight camp. That would tough. But it's going to all
24:47
Speaker 1: be worth it when I retire, because at least I've
24:49
Speaker 1: got that to fall back on, and everyone knows how
24:51
Speaker 1: good a coach I am. Now former WBC Multi champion.
25:02
Speaker 1: We are fighting for the WBC Diamond Belt, which there's
25:06
Speaker 1: only ten fighters on the planet. We've got it. All
25:08
Speaker 1: the other ones who have it are elite level tie champions,
25:11
Speaker 1: and I think there's a French guy and maybe a
25:13
Speaker 1: Japanese guy. So for me to join these elite level
25:17
Speaker 1: guys that only like a secret club that only a
25:20
Speaker 1: few people can get Indian know what I mean. So
25:22
Speaker 1: for me to join that at the last and last
25:25
Speaker 1: part of my career, this means everything to me, especially
25:28
Speaker 1: to do it in front of my own crowd in
25:30
Speaker 1: England as well. So that the Spanish fighter I'm fighting,
25:33
Speaker 1: he's no pushover. He's a former WBC World champion, so
25:36
Speaker 1: he's going to want this accolade because it's a massive,
25:38
Speaker 1: massive accolade. The only way I see him winning is
25:42
Speaker 1: if he comes to that ring of a shot gun
25:43
Speaker 1: on some of that, and even then I'll find a
25:45
Speaker 1: way to win. I refuse to be beating on my
25:48
Speaker 1: last fight in front of my own crowd for this belt.
25:52
Speaker 1: That's my biggest supporter in He couldn't get out of
25:55
Speaker 1: the Denver fight. That were another reason I can't have
25:58
Speaker 1: a fight without him being in there. He's there in
26:01
Speaker 1: my first ever fight. He's followed me to Japan, he's
26:03
Speaker 1: come to Italy, It's come all over world watching me.
26:06
Speaker 1: I thought I can't have my last fight of out
26:09
Speaker 1: him there.
26:27
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