Latest / The MM-EH Show / UFC Edmonton Fallout + 6 Canadian MMA Fighters | The MM-EH Show 027

Transcript

UFC Edmonton Fallout + 6 Canadian MMA Fighters | The MM-EH Show 027 · The MM-EH Show

0:15
Hey there fight friends. Welcome to the
0:17
MMA show. The show where we only talk
0:19
about one thing and that is Canadian
0:21
mixed martial arts. I am your host MMA
0:23
Andy Codell and I'm excited to be
0:25
speaking to you the few days after UFC
0:28
Fight Night Mton. What a night. It
0:30
started off being pretty rough, not
0:32
going to lie. You watch that, too. Uh
0:33
the first five fights were losses for
0:35
Canadians, but then we picked things up
0:36
after there. We end up getting out of 12
0:39
12 bouts that had Canadians in them, we
0:40
had five wins and some really impressive
0:42
wins in there. So, let's get started
0:44
talking about a few of those. Okay,
0:46
start off at the bottom of the card.
0:48
We had uh Cody Kavanchek making his UFC
0:51
debut. Cody just couldn't get into this
0:53
this fight game. his opponent,
0:54
Sunyonglu, took him down to the ground
0:56
and was able to keep him there and just
0:58
pretty much control him. I know that
1:00
Cody is super talented on the ground.
1:02
So, I'm sure I have no doubt that right
1:04
now as we speak, if not already, he's
1:06
been talking with his coaches and
1:08
figuring out a game plan and what he has
1:10
to do to to fix that issue so it doesn't
1:12
happen again. Cody's a super thrilling
1:14
fighter to watch and he's still going to
1:16
do well in the UFC. I I have no doubt.
1:18
Next, we had Melissa Cronin. Lost her
1:21
fight. Uh she was looking good in that
1:23
fight. she was uh doing what she
1:24
normally does and that she she was
1:26
dominating. She was looking really
1:27
sharp. She was looking good and then the
1:29
tide's turned and she lost. And
1:30
sometimes when you get opponents of of
1:32
equalish ability, that that'll happen,
1:35
right? Um you know, you can go in there
1:37
as prepared as you are, but your
1:38
opponent is also preparing just as hard
1:40
and sometimes you win, sometimes you
1:42
lose. She looked good and uh I guess
1:45
we'll see what's next. Uh Chad Aneliger
1:48
just couldn't quite get into that match
1:50
again again with Steven Coslo after two
1:52
years off for each of the men. I think
1:53
actually I think Steven Coslo had a few
1:55
more years off. Um not sure what
1:57
happened there but uh you know he he was
1:59
was fighting it was never out of the
2:01
fight but lost the fight and so that's
2:03
how that happened. Next, Javad Majub,
2:07
a former uh judoka, former Olympic
2:09
judoka. Uh he was looking really good in
2:12
there, too. And he actually looked like
2:14
such a scary man at the start. But as
2:16
these things happen when you gas out,
2:19
there's not much you can do. Trust me,
2:21
if you've ever trained, there's nothing
2:22
worse in the world than than training
2:24
and sparring and and having no gas left
2:26
in the tank. And your opponent can just
2:28
do whatever you want to to you. It's
2:30
just it's a merciless, terrible feeling.
2:33
And that's what happened to him. He
2:34
could barely move at the end and that's
2:36
when his opponent uh took advantage and
2:38
and beat him in that fight. So Javad's
2:40
got to get his cardio in order, figure
2:42
all that out and then uh you know I he
2:45
can still be a force to dominate. Next
2:47
we have Julian Leblon. And this one's
2:49
kind of heartbreaking for me. Julian uh
2:51
was taken down pretty early and and lost
2:54
in the fight. Didn't get a chance to get
2:56
into it. Oh, I take that back. We need
2:57
to be careful with our words. He had a
2:59
chance to to get into that fight.
3:00
However, he was he was dominated and he
3:02
was he was submitted.
3:04
Um, I don't know what to say there.
3:05
That's two fights in a row where, you
3:07
know, he was he was taken out pretty
3:09
easily. Uh, Julian's one of my favorite
3:11
people in the world, not even only
3:12
fighters. He's such a a gentle, kind
3:14
soul. And going into this fight, when we
3:17
talked prior, he talked about how in
3:19
previous fights, his previous UFC
3:21
outing, his first one, he just wasn't
3:23
really able or willing to to put in all
3:26
the effort. And his words were he he
3:28
wasn't ready to die. and he said some of
3:30
these guys when they go in there to
3:31
fight in the UFC they they're prepared
3:33
to die because so much is at stake. Uh
3:35
he didn't show show that in this fight
3:38
and I'm sorry to see um I think you know
3:41
he probably still has another fight left
3:43
in the UFC and and he's got to do
3:44
something with that fight. He's got to
3:45
show something otherwise I don't think
3:47
he'll be there much longer which is
3:48
terrible to say but it happens. Uh
3:51
Tanner Bozer he was the first bright
3:53
light of the night for Canada in his
3:55
hometown of Edmonton. man. Not only did
3:58
he kick some ass, that man has got some
4:01
microphone skills. Hearing him talk
4:03
afterwards in the cage and talk in the
4:05
post-fight press conference, just what a
4:08
character. Like, you could tell from his
4:09
interview with me, he's uh he's not shy.
4:12
He says what he wants. And I love the
4:14
fact that he talked about how he's uh
4:16
100% in takedowns in the UFC now, which
4:18
has got to put him at the top of the
4:20
list. It's incredible. He beats
4:21
everybody. All right. Good for you,
4:23
Tanner.
4:24
Next, and this is my I've said for
4:26
years, this is probably my favorite
4:27
Canadian fighter, period. Mandel Nallo.
4:30
He's just so talented, man. So skilled,
4:32
and you certainly saw it in this fight
4:34
against Nate Landwear. Nate Landwear is
4:37
not not a joke. He's a good solid
4:38
fighter. And Mandel just picked him
4:41
apart, kept him at range. If you've ever
4:43
heard people use the word sniper or be a
4:45
be a sniper when you're a fighter,
4:47
that's what Mandal was. He just kept his
4:49
distance. He used his long arms, popped
4:51
in his shots, jabs, everything he
4:53
wanted. and he he just did not have a
4:54
challenge with that whatsoever. And one
4:56
thing I love to see and that was at the
4:58
start of the first round he had Nate on
5:00
the ropes a little bit and uh he just
5:02
backed off a little bit. Uh which is
5:04
good in this case if you remember his
5:06
first UFC outing he was fighting Ji
5:09
Herbert and uh he was looking the same.
5:11
He was kicking ass and then he got in
5:13
got a little too overzealous and he got
5:15
clipped and he was knocked out and that
5:17
was that fight. This he showed some
5:19
composure. He showed patience which is
5:21
great and he just kind of stepped back
5:23
and went back to where he started in
5:25
round two and that's when he finished uh
5:27
Nate and uh Mandel man like I'm so
5:30
thrilled now in a way it's kind of weird
5:32
like I I felt he was a he was a secret
5:35
and I knew the secret and now everybody
5:37
knows the secret so it's uh I've kind of
5:39
lost something but that's okay. It
5:41
wasn't for me to keep. I've been talking
5:43
about him for years. So congratulations
5:45
Pandela. That was fantastic. Uh Louis
5:48
Jordan uh submitted rear naked choke. Um
5:51
not the outcome anybody expected. Uh he
5:53
was first UFC card, first UFC, real UFC
5:56
fight after Contender Series and he was
5:58
bumped straight up to the main card. He
6:00
wasn't a prelim. I think that probably
6:01
had a lot to do with his two things with
6:03
his dominance in his UFC contender, you
6:06
know, Dana White's uh contender series
6:08
uh performance and also his brother
6:09
Charles also fights in the UFC. Um but
6:13
uh you know, you can tell he's got crisp
6:15
striking. I know he's extremely good in
6:17
the ground, but this case, uh, he he
6:19
lost on the ground. So, you know, so
6:22
much goes into a first UFC appearance.
6:24
Everyone you talk to that ever has their
6:26
first one always talks about how it's a
6:28
blur and it's a whirlwind and they
6:30
didn't know what was happening. It was
6:31
so it was almost overwhelming. So, I'm
6:34
going to chalk it up to that. I think
6:35
Louis is still extremely talented. Don't
6:37
forget that he actually uh at the UFC
6:40
Performance Institute, he set the record
6:42
for V2 max for all the fighters ever.
6:44
So, his cardio was off the charts. Um,
6:47
still a long way to go. Young man, big
6:49
career ahead of him. So, let's give him
6:50
that opportunity. All right. Next, Mark
6:53
Andre Bario does what Mark Andre Bario
6:55
does. Power bar. He is just a force,
6:58
man. Like against Kyle Dyikaus.
7:01
Uh they were they were giving and taking
7:03
and then uh it looked like for a moment
7:05
like uh Mark Andre was out of it like he
7:07
was he was getting he was getting beat
7:09
and then he turned the tables against
7:11
the cage uh and he just beat the crap
7:14
out of Dyke House and uh wow that's just
7:16
such a typical performance by Markio
7:19
where he's got that grit, he's got that
7:21
tenacity, he's tough
7:24
pardon my language. Uh and he's just uh
7:26
he's just going to keep on going. And
7:28
what did this do this performance do?
7:30
gave him another performance of the
7:31
night bonus, which is I don't even I've
7:33
lost track how many he's had now, but he
7:36
can make a living just off his
7:37
performance bonuses, I'm sure. Jesus.
7:39
Holy good on you, Mark. Andre. All
7:41
right, now we're going to go to Kyle
7:42
Nelson against Christian Perez. Uh, this
7:44
one was over really quickly, which was
7:46
surprising to me. Kyle is a true veteran
7:48
of the sport. Uh, and he he got clipped
7:51
and he got t he got taken out. Um, you
7:54
know, I'm sure he's got no excuses. He
7:56
he got punched and he that's what
7:58
happened. You know, sometimes you lose
7:59
the fight. I do know that that was the
8:01
first fight of a new four-fight contract
8:03
for Kyle. So, he's got three more to go.
8:05
I don't think he's in any danger
8:06
whatsoever. I think he's still a solid
8:08
performer. I think he still puts on a
8:10
show every time he gets in there and
8:11
he's still competitive. So, you know,
8:12
it's a loss. Um, yeah, sucks, but uh
8:16
you'll see him again.
8:18
All right, co-main and main event. This
8:20
was absolutely incredible. Co-main
8:21
event. Jasmine Jazz Devisius absolutely
8:24
dominated Aaron Blanchfield. Absolutely
8:25
dominated her on the ground. And she
8:27
even said in her post post press
8:29
comment, she said, you know, I'm a
8:31
really good grappler and maybe best in
8:34
the world, she put her hand up and said
8:35
it like that. Who can dispute that? I
8:37
mean, she's she's doing what she has to
8:39
do to make that claim. She's beating
8:41
girls up. She's beating highle girls.
8:43
Sorry, women, ladies. Uh Aaron
8:45
Blanchfield was the solid uh what's the
8:48
opposite of underdog? Favorite. I almost
8:50
said overdog. No, she's a solid favorite
8:52
going in there. Everybody in the world
8:54
thought that she was going to win that
8:55
fight except of course for Jasmine and
8:57
her teammates at Nagger Top Team and the
8:59
people who know Jasmine. Such a talented
9:01
woman, such a a a skilled fighter, man.
9:05
She's come so far uh from when she was
9:07
in her late 20s. I don't think she
9:08
started training till she's 26, 27,
9:10
somewhere around there. And look at her
9:12
now. Absolutely incredible. Uh as a
9:14
result of this victory, she was bumped
9:16
up to number three in the UFC flyweight
9:18
rankings. So welld deserved. And that's
9:20
got to mean that she's
9:23
next or second next for a title title
9:26
shot. Right now, the champion, Italy
9:27
Silva, uh Jasmine claimed afterward that
9:29
they have some history together. I'm not
9:31
actually sure what that is. I should
9:32
have probably looked into it, but uh but
9:34
I didn't. Maybe I'll ask her next time I
9:36
see her, but uh yeah, she's probably due
9:38
for a title shot and I would love to see
9:40
that happen. So, uh let's go Jasmine.
9:43
All right. Next, uh the captain of the
9:46
Maple Leaf Militia, Proper Mike Mad.
9:50
I almost don't know what to say. Like
9:53
it's shocking to me that so many people
9:55
are sleeping on Mike Malad. Like going
9:57
into this once again, it's it's like the
9:59
people that know similar to Jasmine.
10:01
It's like the people that know Mike know
10:03
that he's going straight to the top and
10:05
everybody else I don't know if it's cuz
10:07
he's Canadian or it's cuz he's soft
10:08
spoken with hits hard. Uh soft spoken.
10:11
He's kind of out of the limelight. He
10:12
doesn't really make a spectacle of
10:14
himself like some people do that they
10:15
don't really think of him. But they
10:17
should be thinking about him. Look what
10:18
he did. Walking walking I almost said
10:21
walking Phoenix. Walking uh whatever his
10:24
last name is. Walkin Buckley. Sorry.
10:25
Walkin. Um owner of probably the most
10:28
spectacular knockout in UFC history
10:30
against Impac. That spinning back kick
10:32
to the face. Uh just didn't have
10:35
anything for Mike. Mike was solid. Mike
10:37
was a taller fighter and I think that
10:38
helped. He kept his range and then he
10:40
practiced. It shows that that repetition
10:42
in your practice in the in the training
10:44
room over and over and over and over and
10:46
over and over again. Adnauseium is going
10:49
to give you the tools that you need to
10:50
win these fights. He had practiced that
10:52
kick with Crew Elaine for I don't know.
10:56
Once again, I'll have to ask him. It's
10:57
been a long time. And uh Walkin stepped
11:00
right into that into that knee and it
11:01
took him out when that mouthguard went
11:03
flying, man. And the spit went flying
11:04
and he faceplanted.
11:07
Boy, that was something else. That was
11:09
spectacular in its own right. That's
11:11
probably the knockout of Mike's career,
11:13
I'm going to say. And that's going to
11:14
have to make the top 10 that you see
11:16
this year for sure. for I have no doubt
11:18
uh probably at the top of the MMA list
11:19
for the end of this year, but we'll
11:20
we'll see how that goes. And if we still
11:22
have, you know, a lot of time left in
11:23
2026. So
11:26
anyway, that's UFC Fight Night Edmonton.
11:28
Let's move on now to I'm going to bring
11:29
up the list for what's going on this
11:32
week. We're going to talk about the
11:33
fights that are happening in Canada this
11:34
week, upcoming fights.
11:36
And right now it is the week of the 21st
11:39
of October, 2026. And this weekend on
11:42
the 24th, we have and that is Friday or
11:45
Saturday. I'm thinking it's Saturday.
11:46
24th. Yeah, it's a Saturday. So, we've
11:49
got three Canadian events on the 24th of
11:51
October. We've got uh Absolute MMA 9 in
11:53
Calgary. Uh we've got a few uh fighters
11:56
on that. Actually, we've got one
11:57
fighter, our prospect of the week,
11:58
Samira Mod, uh we'll be talking with and
12:00
the main event, Christopher Bryan, in
12:02
his fifth main event for Absolute. Uh
12:04
we'll be talking with him as well. So,
12:06
that's exciting. Next, we've got
12:07
Prospect FC27. Prospect Fight Club
12:12
has evolved several times over the
12:14
years. They started off as a as a prof I
12:17
don't I don't know if they started off
12:18
as professional like a long time ago
12:19
before I started being aware of them. I
12:21
think possibly they were only amateur
12:23
but I'll have to fact check that. I know
12:24
when I first started covering them when
12:26
they started at the Rebel Nightclub um
12:28
they were uh professional. It was just
12:30
professional, no amateur. Of course,
12:32
there was no amateur MMA sanctioned in
12:34
Canada at that point. That came on
12:36
January 1st, 2025, I think it was. So
12:40
once that became illegal again, amateur,
12:42
they started having prom cards and
12:45
slowly they have become, I'm going to
12:47
say, you know, forever BTC was the top
12:50
dog in Canada for uh for for pro MMA
12:53
cards and then Unified came in, started
12:55
making inroads, but I I very doubtful if
12:58
Unifi will ever have a a Toronto card
13:00
again. I I I don't see it happening, but
13:02
I might be wrong and I hope I'm wrong
13:04
because they they're absolutely
13:04
fantastic. Uh, but Prospect has come out
13:08
of nowhere, man. And they're just slowly
13:10
creeping up and, you know, they have to
13:12
be in contention for the top MMA
13:14
promotion in in Ontario right now. ProAm
13:16
cards. They've got Clayton Pie in the
13:18
main event against uh Sammy uh Alphasy.
13:21
Is that his name? Sorry, I'm so sorry.
13:24
But we're talking with Clayton in a bit
13:25
so you can hear his thoughts on this.
13:27
Yeah, Abdul Sami Fazy uh who's also
13:29
really talented. And I think this is
13:30
really good for both these guys. I think
13:32
they're both talented. I think Clayton
13:35
needs to fight tough competition to show
13:36
that he deserves in the big leagues and
13:38
this is a great opportunity for Sammy
13:40
too to take out a big name if he can do
13:42
it. That'd be great. Uh some other
13:44
fantastic uh Cao versus Gino Galparez
13:47
and then these two guys I they're both
13:49
on the show as well. Chel Ragel and
13:51
Alexander Kruski. Uh both terrific guys.
13:54
I I've seen I've attended in person I
13:56
think four of Shelram's uh fights in in
14:00
his career so far as amateur fights and
14:01
he is actually believe it or not the
14:04
first Bhutanese fighter mixed martial
14:07
arts fighter that we know of anyway that
14:09
I've been able to find. He's Bhutanese
14:10
Canadian now from the small town of uh
14:12
country Bhutan. And he talks extensively
14:14
with me about that. And it's pretty
14:16
cool. It's pretty neat to see that he is
14:18
setting uh you know he's trailblazing.
14:20
He's blazing a trail for his whole
14:22
country and he might be going back to to
14:24
coach there someday. We'll you can hear
14:26
what he has to say about that shortly.
14:28
And then Alexander Kruski uh I spoke
14:30
he's from Edmonton and I spoke with him
14:32
when he was in Tristar in Montreal. He
14:35
actually won a 3-month scholarship there
14:37
from Hayabusa. So he made the most of
14:39
it. He was doing like three a days
14:41
training.
14:42
Really talented fighter. I first became
14:44
aware of him in uh karate combat and he
14:48
just looks so good. I saw him on Tik Tok
14:50
before he ever had started MMA. So,
14:52
that's exciting. Uh Bobby Poulter, Bobby
14:55
Poulter is the unified welterweight
14:57
champion and he's fighting on this card.
14:58
And uh man, and he was a late minute
15:01
addition as far as I know. So, this is
15:04
that's what I mean like prospect is
15:05
kicking butt. And the final last card,
15:08
last fight on the main card is Aiden
15:09
Nepal versus Alan Ruiz. Aiden Nepal um
15:13
is
15:14
future UC probably welterweight
15:17
champion. Uh, no doubt about it. I you
15:20
probably heard it from me first, but
15:21
that was years ago because I've been
15:22
talking about this young man forever. He
15:24
is just such
15:27
uh he's a generational talent. He's been
15:29
training since he was 12 years old. Uh
15:30
maybe 11, I think, pretty sure it was
15:32
12. And he's just training as a
15:35
professional uh ever since then. He's
15:36
been training with men when he was 16,
15:38
17 years old. He was getting beat up by
15:41
all the guys at Niger Top Team, all the
15:42
adults. Not actually beat up, but you
15:44
know, he was he was not treated lightly.
15:47
he was he was being respected and he's
15:49
come up so now where he is training with
15:51
Mike Mulad, he's training with Bobby
15:52
Poulter, he's training with Aaron
15:53
Jeffrey and he looks good in there. He's
15:56
got one fight as a pro. Uh it's
15:58
absolutely incredible. So, uh yeah, I
16:01
you know, I've been to a handful of
16:02
Aiden's fights. I was at his pro debut
16:05
and a bunch of his amateur fights and it
16:08
sucks I won't be there for this one, but
16:10
I'll be there in spirit and I'll see
16:11
him. I'll make sure I'm at the UFC when
16:13
he headlines his first card and wins
16:15
that wins that UC gold. All right, so
16:18
that is a prospect. And finally, we have
16:22
a Fight Quest 62 in Canada, Quebec. Um,
16:25
yeah, amateur amateur organization in
16:27
Quebec. I've I've reached out to them a
16:29
handful of times. I don't really get too
16:30
much back. I think there's a language
16:32
barrier there, but uh they have
16:34
consistent. This is their 60-cond event.
16:36
They've got a lot of good shows, give
16:37
opportunities to a lot of good amateur
16:39
fighters, and uh wish them luck in their
16:41
show.
16:42
All right, let's go on now to this
16:44
week's episode. I mentioned Oh, we're
16:46
going to start off with Abdel Essim. Uh
16:48
you saw my clip with him on Instagram a
16:51
couple days ago. He is fighting at UAE
16:52
Warriors on Wednesday. So, by the time
16:54
you see this, that fight's likely
16:56
already over and uh great opportunity
16:58
for him. The Mummy is uh 10-0 currently
17:01
and probably 11-0 by the time you see
17:04
this. And he is a great prospect out of
17:06
Canada. All right, Clayton Pi. Clayton
17:09
Pie, Niger Top Team. He is, this is kind
17:11
of a neat interview because he came to
17:12
the studio, sat down, and we talked not
17:14
only about him fighting Sammy this
17:16
weekend at Prospect, but he is also uh
17:19
running for city council in Thorald,
17:21
Ontario, which is basically attached to
17:23
St. Catherine's. I live in Thorald and
17:25
so uh we talked about a lot of stuff and
17:27
it's really cool. I love seeing people
17:29
get invested in local politics. Just
17:32
like I always talk about how you should
17:34
get in on amateur fighters in the ground
17:36
floor when they're when they're brand
17:37
new, I think you should also get in on
17:39
amateur amateur politicians when they're
17:41
just getting started. Uh it's really
17:43
important to have that sort of uh social
17:45
desire to help and uh good on him. All
17:48
right, Christopher Bryan, we talked
17:50
about him. This is probably one of my
17:51
favorite interviews I've ever done with
17:53
with Christopher. We just talked about a
17:55
lot of stuff. It was kind of weird. I
17:56
don't know how that even happened. And
17:57
it's just like I think he's just very
17:59
open to and fluid with his with his
18:00
brain. And so, you know, we just hop
18:03
topics over and over again. Talked about
18:04
Johnny Cash, talked about all sorts of
18:06
stuff. Uh really interesting guy. All
18:09
right. Then we've got Sheltrim and uh
18:11
Alexander. And then uh the prospect of
18:14
the week, Samir Ahmad. I saw him fight
18:16
at prospect 25. I'm going to say the
18:19
same night that Aiden had his pro debut.
18:21
And he fight he fought at Urus BIK and
18:24
one of the BIK brothers. He is a stud,
18:28
man. He's absolutely stellar talent. And
18:30
uh Samir beat him. It was a good fight.
18:32
It was a fair fight, but Samir won,
18:34
which just, you know, you have to see
18:37
fighters from different regions fight
18:38
each other to know where they stand,
18:40
where they really stand. Like Urudos is
18:42
kicking butt in Ontario. Uh and then
18:44
you've got guys like him, you know, two
18:46
or three or four guys like him across
18:47
Canada. Once they start fighting, then
18:49
you can start getting a sort of a
18:50
national idea of who ranks where. And
18:52
Samir is a really talented talented
18:54
young man. 18 years old. Very soft
18:57
spoken. I had I'm gonna have to boost up
18:59
the audio so you can hear him. But very
19:01
nice young man. Uh originally his
19:02
family's from Afghanistan and uh he
19:05
trains at Champions Creed in Calgary.
19:07
And uh really good kid. Really good kid.
19:09
I'm excited to see how he does. All
19:12
right, that's enough of me yapping.
19:14
Let's uh get on to the show. So I hope
19:15
you enjoy it and I will see you at the
19:17
fights.
19:24
Abdell, good to see you. And we made
19:26
this arrangement to talk tonight on very
19:28
short notice, only a couple hours, and
19:30
that is unusual, but when I saw that
19:32
fight poster today from UAE Warriors,
19:34
that caught me completely by surprise.
19:36
You are fighting in just over a week
19:38
time. You're going to Abu Dhabi and
19:39
fighting at UAE Warriors. How in the
19:41
world did that fight come about?
19:44
Uh, so I only found out about that about
19:47
4 weeks ago or so or maybe or 3 weeks.
19:50
Um, so we found out like 4 weeks before
19:52
the event and we were talking about it.
19:55
Gavin brought it up to me. Um, I knew
19:58
that they were looking for something for
19:59
me for like a couple weeks before um for
20:03
like on their on their show. Um, but we
20:05
were just waiting to hear back and then
20:07
3 weeks ago Gavin sent me the name and
20:10
we said uh we said we're good to go and
20:13
uh yeah and I was a little bit surprised
20:15
too it uh that they announced they only
20:18
announced it just a couple of uh just a
20:20
couple of days ago basically um this
20:23
this close to the event. So um I'm in
20:26
the same boat with you to be honest.
20:29
>> Um I think this is a really good step
20:31
for you. This is a really big step. You
20:33
are, for people who don't know, you're a
20:35
10-0 undefeated home fighter for the
20:36
Maritimes from Darkness, Nova Scotia and
20:39
Tower 1 gym. This will be your first,
20:41
you fought all across Canada, but this
20:43
will be your first fight over in that
20:44
part of the world. Uh, this could be a
20:46
big opportunity for you. Number one,
20:48
you're in Canada, so you're going to be
20:50
seen by all sorts of eyeballs all around
20:52
the world. Plus, it's just a, you know,
20:54
it's probably a good payday and it's a
20:56
good opportunity for you. How you
20:57
feeling about the whole family?
20:59
>> I'm super excited. I mean, it's it's
21:01
kind of like the the right step, the you
21:05
know, the the logical step. I'm super
21:07
happy to get it. Obviously, I'm super
21:10
grateful for all the opportunities I've
21:11
had so far, but um getting to fight in a
21:14
in a in a promotion and on like a on the
21:18
international scene, that's, you know,
21:21
that's kind of what we're working
21:22
towards. So, just want to keep
21:24
upgrading, fighting higher level, higher
21:26
level competition. Um that's you know
21:29
that's the only way to uh get better
21:31
really is you need to keep uh keep
21:33
challen challenging yourself more and
21:35
more and yeah super super happy to get
21:38
this uh to get this opportunity and get
21:40
that experience of fighting
21:41
internationally is um you know something
21:44
I knew I was going to have to do
21:46
eventually. So I'm super happy I'm
21:48
finally able to uh finally able to like
21:50
you know test things out. Some people
21:53
don't realize they think of fighting in
21:54
the UAE and they think, "Oh, it's all
21:56
these guys from the Middle East who
21:57
probably don't know what they're doing,
21:59
but the reality is a lot of fighters,
22:01
they they use their heritage." So,
22:03
you're your family is originally from
22:04
Egypt and you came to Canada, you know,
22:06
quite some time ago. So, even though
22:08
you're Canadian, you're being
22:10
represented as Egyptian over there. Have
22:12
you had any kind of uh outreach by
22:14
anyone in the Egyptian community who's
22:16
interested in you in your fight career?
22:18
>> Have I been? What? Sorry. Have you been
22:20
uh anybody from Egypt shown any interest
22:22
in your fight career, especially now
22:24
that this is happening?
22:25
>> Uh yeah, I mean I get a little bit of
22:27
like messages from people on online like
22:30
other uh Egyptian fighters, some uh fans
22:33
here and there that like just show me
22:34
support people I don't really know.
22:36
They'll just send me messages wishing me
22:38
good wishing me good luck and stuff like
22:40
that. So that's that's creepy.
22:42
I'd say I don't I haven't done no
22:44
research on this, but I'm willing to bet
22:46
you're probably one of the best, if not
22:48
the best Egyptian fighters, mixed
22:50
martial artists in the world. So, the
22:52
fact that you're going over there and
22:53
showcasing your skills, it's got to be
22:55
exciting for Egyptian people to see
22:58
somebody who they can recognize as one
23:00
of their own.
23:01
>> Yeah. Yeah. I think um I haven't been to
23:04
Egypt in in quite some time now, but
23:06
from what I see online, I think the uh
23:09
the MMA scene and like the jiu-jitsu
23:11
scene and stuff like that is like
23:13
growing a lot. And I see I've seen like
23:16
a couple I haven't seen I haven't I
23:18
don't follow it a ton obviously. Um but
23:20
I'm pretty sure there's like at least
23:22
two or three um Egyptian fighters that
23:25
are like fighting at a pretty high level
23:26
in promotions like EFL and and uh stuff
23:29
like that. So being one of them putting
23:32
the uh being able to like represent the
23:35
Egypt and uh and kind of help improve
23:38
our uh our standing in the scene is is
23:40
pretty cool.
23:41
>> Yeah. I just spoke with a different
23:43
fighter yesterday uh who's originally
23:45
from Bhutan and he's probably the only
23:47
Bhutanese fighter in the whole world and
23:50
uh he was talking he said it's pretty
23:52
exciting to be able to represent your
23:53
people. You know I I know you're
23:55
Canadian now but still you've got the
23:56
heritage. It's kind of cool to to be on
23:59
the this the tip of the spear.
24:02
>> Yeah. No, it's it's pretty cool. I um
24:04
obviously I I love Egypt and just the
24:06
way the the way life is. You don't get
24:09
to always uh stay stay like stay living
24:12
where uh where you were born. Somebody
24:15
saying hi.
24:16
>> Yeah.
24:18
>> Oh, is this an interview or a call?
24:20
>> Oh Sorry, Kevin.
24:25
>> You can come anytime, I guess.
24:28
>> Um, what's it called? I uh what was I
24:30
saying? Yeah, it's um you know, just the
24:33
way life is. I didn't end up uh living
24:35
living there for uh most of my life, but
24:38
um I still have family there and stuff
24:40
like that. So, um I'm hoping to uh to
24:44
visit again soon. Um and yeah, it's
24:47
always always have the flags with me. I
24:49
always super proud to represent um is it
24:52
is my home at the end of the day.
24:54
>> Now your Egyptian background is is only
24:57
part of the story. You also have a very
24:58
strong team and you almost like a family
25:00
at one in Dartmouth.
25:03
>> Knowing that you are all on the rise
25:05
together and you all doing really well
25:06
and you're going places. What's the
25:09
support on the been like from your
25:11
teammates knowing that you are making
25:12
that next big step right now?
25:15
>> Same as always. you know, everybody here
25:17
is so super dependable as soon as the uh
25:20
as soon as the fights uh was announced
25:22
and we started the preparation right
25:24
away. Um the nice thing is that we're
25:27
always training um as if there is a
25:30
fight. Somebody is always preparing for
25:32
a fight to be honest. So, we're all in
25:35
in camp because we all are like helping
25:38
whoever it is that's preparing. Um
25:41
everybody's training gets adjusted a
25:43
little bit. Obviously Gavin pretty much
25:45
uh sphere has everything and he's kind
25:47
of keeping everything uh um keeping
25:50
everything you know in his mind and kind
25:53
of uh what's it called? Managing
25:54
multiple things at a time just where
25:56
everybody is um in terms of like uh how
26:00
far out of from their fight uh they are.
26:03
Um but yeah, as always, everybody
26:05
everybody is here super helpful,
26:07
volunteering their time, you know, doing
26:10
the rounds, doing everything they can to
26:12
help, offering um their time and and and
26:15
effort and everything. So,
26:17
>> yeah.
26:17
>> Yeah.
26:18
>> Is Gavin the only one coming out with
26:20
you or anybody else as well?
26:22
>> It's just Gavin. Just Gavin.
26:24
>> Nice. I'm going to uh take my eyes off
26:26
the screen. I'll go over to the my notes
26:29
that I have over here to get the name of
26:31
the guy you're fighting. So, you were
26:32
fighting a guy named Sylvester Chip
26:33
Fumbu. Tell me about what you know about
26:35
S Sylvester and what your what your
26:37
thoughts are on him and what you're
26:39
going to have to do to win.
26:41
>> Uh, we watch him obviously. There's a
26:42
few fights for his fight like his most
26:45
uh recent ones like the last two or
26:47
three. Um, I don't watch it watch my
26:50
opponents a ton to be honest with you. I
26:52
like to get like an idea, but I don't
26:54
want to get fix too fixated on on on
26:57
what they do and um on any or anything
27:00
like that. But I know Gavin does a lot
27:02
of studying and he has like in terms of
27:06
like eye for the sport, I think he's up
27:08
there with anybody in the world really.
27:10
So he does a lot of the studying and he
27:12
kind of uses that to um what's it
27:15
called? Uh
27:16
just guide our preparation. Um and yeah,
27:20
definitely um I believe we prepared very
27:24
appropriately for him. Um he's a very
27:26
good fighter like you know good good
27:28
allaround fighter. Uh, and yeah, we've
27:31
we've prepared very accordingly. I'm
27:35
fairly certain we have uh we have what
27:37
we need to get the job done.
27:38
>> You always do. So far 10 and0 as a pro.
27:41
It's got to feel pretty good uh having
27:43
that in your back pocket.
27:45
>> Yeah.
27:46
>> Do you uh so right now we're talking
27:48
before UFC Fight Night in Edmonton. By
27:51
the time this interview comes out next
27:52
week on next week's show, uh that event
27:54
will have been over. I'm just wondering
27:56
if there's any any fight in particular
27:58
that you're most excited for.
28:01
>> The UFC admit card.
28:02
>> Yeah,
28:04
>> I'm not going to lie to you. I all I can
28:06
remember right now is the uh is the main
28:08
event. I know there's I remember looking
28:10
and seeing there's some other fights,
28:11
but I can't remember that any of the
28:13
other matchups to be honest with you.
28:15
>> So then, so Mike Mead's fight against
28:17
Walking Buckley, what any thoughts on
28:18
that? How do you think that's going to
28:19
go?
28:21
>> I mean, obviously we're all uh rooting
28:23
for uh for Mike here. Um this would be a
28:26
good step up. Like Buckley's um has some
28:28
has a really good record in the UFC, so
28:31
it'd be awesome to see him win and and
28:33
take that next step up.
28:35
>> Yep.
28:36
>> Well, Abdell, I appreciate you taking
28:38
the time on such short notice. You are
28:40
currently Did you just finish training
28:41
right now or you going back to it?
28:43
>> Uh we just finished training. I'm just
28:44
going to just jump in the sauna here in
28:47
a sec.
28:47
>> Nice. For sure. All right. Well,
28:49
Abdalam, known as the mummy, thank you
28:52
so much for your time. Uh, I don't know
28:54
if I I haven't looked yet. I don't know
28:55
if I'll be able to watch the fight. If
28:56
if I can somehow find a stream, I'll be
28:58
watching it regardless. Best of luck.
29:00
And, uh, everybody will read for you.
29:02
>> Yeah. No, it'll be streaming on Fight
29:04
Pass, but So, yeah, you can watch it on
29:05
there. So, yeah.
29:06
>> Sweet. I will watch it then.
29:08
>> Best of luck, man. I will talk to you
29:09
soon.
29:10
>> Awesome. Thanks a lot, Andy.
29:11
>> There you go. Fight friends from
29:13
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, fighting home
29:15
event, UAE Warrior 74 this weekend.
29:18
>> Trust me, it's not even
29:19
>> or I guess when you're watching this, it
29:20
was last weekend. So hopefully he won
29:22
and you can
29:25
>> that
29:26
>> Christopher Brian, good to see you
29:27
again, man. How are things?
29:29
>> Really good. What about you?
29:31
>> Also good. And just so the fans know,
29:33
the people watching. We had a great chat
29:35
before the interview even started. And I
29:36
realized, you know, I I like talking
29:38
with, you know, fighters as people just
29:40
a little while first to chat and stuff,
29:41
but we had a lot of good stuff in there.
29:43
And maybe I'll I'll try to put some of
29:44
that back in the this the uh formal part
29:47
of the interview.
29:48
>> Yes, let's do it. I'd like to start off
29:50
with saying uh of course if anybody's
29:52
watching this, you are fighting in the
29:53
main event of Absolute MMA 9 on October
29:56
24th, I think it is, and you're fighting
29:58
Derek Bergen. And uh a lot of your
30:00
preparation leading up to this, you I'm
30:02
presuming you're doing all your fight
30:03
training. We'll get into that. But one
30:05
thing I've noticed tremendously on your
30:07
social media is after your last fight,
30:09
you were pretty vocal about saying that
30:11
you wanted to start getting stronger and
30:12
get your body more fit. And for sure,
30:14
man, you look like a you look like the
30:16
Hulk right now. you're just you're
30:18
you're you're doing really well. Talk
30:20
about that sort of training and what the
30:22
rationale was behind moving in that
30:24
direction.
30:25
>> So, actually, it's funny you mentioned
30:27
I'm I'm the main event. That's actually
30:29
main event number five for me, which I'm
30:31
proud of. It's like a bit of a milestone
30:32
for me. I think that's pretty cool. And
30:34
then in terms of my preparation and
30:36
living in the weight room, I started
30:38
with like the goal of, okay, I'm kind of
30:41
sick of where my body's at. I want to go
30:43
to the weight room, improve, and get
30:44
better. But I actually ended up falling
30:46
in love with it and I'm just about 12
30:48
months now consistently doing the weight
30:50
room five to six days a week. So it's
30:53
completely changing game for me and I
30:54
fell in love with it like I said. So I'm
30:56
really enjoying it and I feel good and I
30:57
see the results.
30:59
>> I'm so happy for you, man. As a as a
31:01
fellow gym goer, I'm also in the gym
31:03
five or six days a week in the weight
31:05
room. That's not even talking about
31:06
other sort of training and exercising
31:08
and stuff.
31:09
>> It just makes your life better. It makes
31:11
everything better. You're more fit.
31:13
You're more capable. Your posture is
31:15
better. You breathe better. Uh your
31:16
digestion's better. Everything's better,
31:18
man. Just life is good. So, I'm really
31:20
happy for you.
31:21
>> Thank you.
31:23
>> All right. So, what was it about this
31:25
direction that you know, was there
31:27
anything wrong with you before or just
31:29
what prompted you to to start this path?
31:33
Well, I feel like uh just my last two
31:35
fights, I feel like I definitely I quit
31:37
and you know, my head wasn't in the
31:39
game, but I feel way more alignment
31:41
these days and I have a few new things
31:43
that have entered my life that are
31:44
really lighting my fire and keeping me
31:46
keeping me focused and driven. And uh
31:49
you know, I have a quote and it says and
31:51
it's it's actually on my screen. It
31:53
says, "Your biggest enemy is your
31:54
uncontrolled mind." And and once I
31:55
started to recognize that more and more
31:57
and really compound that idea in my
31:59
mind, it's really helped me stay focused
32:01
and do the right thing and stay on the
32:03
right path for, you know, my
32:05
relationships, my business, and martial
32:07
arts.
32:07
>> Mhm.
32:09
>> When you talk about an uncontrolled
32:11
mind, was there anything tangible you
32:13
could mention to us that things that you
32:15
would do that maybe probably weren't
32:16
your benefit that you really had to
32:18
stop?
32:19
>> You know, u not being able to recycle my
32:22
thoughts. you know, if I'm having
32:23
negative thoughts about my, you know,
32:26
life or like self-doubt, uh, not being
32:28
able to recycle those thoughts is was
32:30
definitely a negative impact for me. So,
32:32
just figuring out how to do that alone
32:34
has helped me, uh, be able to do that
32:36
and that kind of contributes to that
32:38
that that that phrase.
32:41
>> This is really weird that you just said
32:43
what you just said because maybe a half
32:44
hour ago, I watched a clip on some video
32:47
somewhere that it was it was a
32:49
psychologist and he posed the question.
32:51
He said to the interviewer, he said,
32:53
"What do you think is more important,
32:54
having more positive thoughts or having
32:56
less negative thoughts?" And he said,
32:58
"The overwhelming result of all these
33:00
analyses by different studies was that
33:02
it's much more important to have less
33:03
negative thoughts?" Positive thoughts
33:05
are great. Yes, they're they're they're
33:06
wonderful, but negative thoughts are
33:08
what really hold you back in life. So,
33:10
the fact you just said that, that's that
33:12
hits the nail on the head. That's uh
33:14
that's incredible.
33:15
>> Yeah. There's no like the less room I
33:17
have for negative thoughts, the more
33:19
room I have for positive thoughts. And I
33:21
feel like it's a game changer, too. Just
33:23
even like practicing gratitude and
33:26
practicing uh saying nice things to
33:28
myself. And it helps that I have, you
33:30
know, great people in my life. I I have
33:32
a lot of supporters who are, you know,
33:34
not just a number, but they actually
33:35
mean something. Everybody uh means
33:37
something to me in in some sort of way.
33:39
And everybody's been boosting me. At
33:40
least has been feeling like that lately,
33:42
including yourself, actually. You know,
33:44
you help me stay positive just by
33:45
reaching out to me. So,
33:47
>> yeah. Well, cool. Why wouldn't I? You're
33:48
Christopher Ryan.
33:50
Sorry. That's a sort of a re recycled
33:52
nardwire quote I like using sometimes.
33:54
Have you ever seen nardwire?
33:56
>> Uh yes. Yes. And he knows a little
33:59
something about everybody.
34:00
>> He knows a little something about
34:01
everybody. But he the common thing he
34:03
says when he he he talks to celebrities,
34:05
musicians, and rappers, and he tells
34:07
them something about themselves that
34:08
they're shocked. They're amazed like,
34:09
"How in the world did you know that,
34:10
Nardoir?" And he goes, "Well, because
34:12
you're Christopher Brian, I have to know
34:13
that." So that I like using that as
34:15
well.
34:17
Well, you know something about me that I
34:19
that that that might be crazy.
34:21
>> No, I don't. But, uh, I'm not saying I
34:23
am Nardo where I just like using
34:24
stealing his lines.
34:28
>> Okay, cool. All right. So, uh, I asked
34:31
you a question before and you said the
34:32
answer was before the interview started
34:34
and your answer was yes. And I asked you
34:35
if you're a nerd. Tell me about any kind
34:38
of nerd things you do.
34:41
>> I love to read big time. There's a
34:44
bookshelf back there that has a ton of
34:46
great books in it and not only just like
34:48
a business books or self-help books, but
34:49
I like some fiction. Like I just bought
34:51
uh
34:52
>> Braum Stoker's Dracula.
34:54
>> Oh, the original.
34:56
>> Yeah, I want to give that a go and see
34:58
how that is. I like all the scary spooky
34:59
stuff and t the season to be spooky. So,
35:02
you know, I'm really excited that
35:03
Absolute's falling in October because it
35:05
really helps me perform. I think in in
35:07
some sort of subconscious way I feel
35:09
better about it.
35:11
Well, I'll tell you something you
35:12
probably don't know about yourself cuz
35:14
you might not have thought about it. Is
35:15
that walking out to the next Absolute,
35:18
you're going to go out in a Halloween
35:19
costume.
35:20
>> You don't even know that yet. You don't
35:21
even know that yet, but I just told you
35:22
you're going to do it.
35:24
>> Done.
35:26
>> I once went to a fight uh in Nova
35:28
Scotia. It was a fighter named Tristan
35:30
Johnson and he came out as Hannibal
35:32
Lectar. He had an orange jumpsuit. He
35:34
had a straight jacket on. He had the
35:36
Hannibal Lectar mask and they carried
35:37
wheeled him out on a uh on a trolley.
35:40
It was pretty cool.
35:41
>> Classic character. Classic character.
35:43
>> Awesome.
35:44
>> All right, so your absolute fight, Derek
35:46
Bergen. What do you know about Derek?
35:47
He's a he's a pretty active Canadian
35:49
fighter and he's he's, you know, a lot
35:50
of footage of him out there. What are
35:52
your thoughts?
35:54
>> I think he's tough. I think he's game. I
35:56
think he's coming to fight October 24th,
35:58
you know, and he uh he's he's clearly
36:00
good. He's beat my teammate. So, you
36:01
know, I uh I'm going to try my best to
36:05
avenge my teammate on October 24th, but
36:08
I'm not underestimating Derrick at all.
36:09
I think he's a skilled martial artist.
36:10
And, you know, one thing I can say just
36:13
via experience with experienced martial
36:16
artists, I could use Ash as an example,
36:18
is
36:19
>> they just love to fight. They're just
36:21
they just love it just because it, you
36:22
know, they're happy to be there. And
36:24
that's actually a scary martial artist
36:25
is somebody who just wants to be in
36:27
there. You know, that alone is is enough
36:29
for me to respect their their abilities
36:31
and their skills, their mindset.
36:34
>> You brought up Ash, of course, being Ash
36:36
Mashreggi. He's a a former opponent of
36:38
yours. He he beat you in that fight.
36:39
>> Great guy, by the way. Great guy.
36:41
>> Super great guy.
36:42
>> Um, when he beat you, he's a very
36:44
physically imposing man. I'm wondering
36:46
if that contributed towards you wanting
36:47
to get stronger and bigger.
36:49
>> Say that one more time.
36:50
>> He He's a very physically imposing man.
36:53
He's very strong. He's very intense. And
36:55
I'm just wondering when you faced him if
36:56
that's something that you saw that you
36:58
really needed to catch up in that fight.
36:59
>> That's actually where it originated from
37:02
is after that fight I felt like I needed
37:03
to be in the way room. And not only
37:05
because he is obviously uh jacked, you
37:09
know, but I was not in the best shape of
37:10
my life. I was going in there kind of
37:12
skinny fat and uh not this time. I'm
37:14
going to be shredded like a Master
37:16
Chief, you know.
37:17
>> Yeah.
37:18
>> Master Chief, by the way, Canadian actor
37:20
if you didn't know that.
37:21
>> What's that?
37:22
>> The guy who plays Master Chief in the
37:24
Halo series. He's a Canadian actor.
37:26
>> Oh, I did not know that. I know. I know
37:27
of him. I didn't know he was Canadian,
37:29
though. That's really cool.
37:30
>> Yeah, I don't remember his name, but uh
37:31
apparently he's a you know, he's a
37:33
actual an actual good person. So, that's
37:35
kind of cool.
37:37
>> All right. So, when I I talk about this
37:40
all the time, and I bring up the fact
37:41
there's an interview I saw with UFC
37:43
fighter Mandel Nell, and he was uh
37:45
having interview with Kenny Dusso, Coach
37:47
Dusso.
37:49
And Mandel said something that just
37:50
resonates with me and I think about
37:52
often. And I think about it almost daily
37:54
in that when you're fighting
37:56
fighting the actual fight itself, you're
37:59
you're trying to solve problems, right?
38:01
You're trying to answer questions. So,
38:03
you know, one fight, say like a 10 fight
38:06
span, you know, your first fight, you
38:07
you're not sure if you can stuff a
38:09
takedown. So, your first fight you try
38:10
stuffing takedowns and you train for the
38:12
next thing, whatever that next thing may
38:14
be. Maybe want to become a better
38:15
striker. I'm not talking necessarily
38:17
about you. It could be any fighter, but
38:18
say your striking is really lacking. So,
38:20
you work on your striking and your next
38:22
fight you try to answer the question, is
38:24
my striking better? Can I can I can I
38:26
knock a guy out? So, I'm just wondering
38:28
as you go through, it sounds to me like
38:29
you are selfidentifying your problems
38:32
and resolving your problems, right? That
38:34
was a that was an issue you were you
38:36
felt you could have been stronger
38:37
against Ash and you're working to
38:38
resolve that. And I'm just wondering if
38:41
that's the latest problem you've solved
38:42
or if you have anything else you're
38:43
working on right now.
38:45
>> Well, I a wise man knows nothing at all.
38:48
So, I feel like I'm always kind of on
38:50
the the chase for more knowledge in
38:52
martial arts and trying to be a better
38:53
martial artist. But one thing I I've
38:55
been focusing on is uh just uh mental
38:58
resilience and mental toughness a little
39:01
bit more than I have focused on. Um I
39:04
want to go until I die instead of
39:06
quitting. You know, I want to go in
39:08
there and give it 150% my best, not just
39:11
95%.
39:13
Do you know that the fact you're even
39:15
just talking about this is I think it's
39:16
a very beautiful thing because
39:18
everything you just mentioned those are
39:20
natural human emotions the the the
39:23
feeling of wanting to quit about wanting
39:25
to stop something and maybe wanting to
39:27
persevere some of these things are more
39:29
natural to others and uh some are are
39:31
inherent in them some things they have
39:32
to learn but the common thing I've
39:35
learned from talking to a high number of
39:37
of highle athletes is that the vast
39:40
majority of them do some kind of mental
39:42
strength training some kind of uh some
39:44
kind of preparation or a visualization
39:46
or just what you said uh you know trying
39:48
to cut out those negative thoughts. I
39:50
think it's it's I don't know why more
39:53
fighters, more people in general don't
39:55
do that because your body is only part
39:56
of the equation, right? Your mind plays
39:58
a huge part in there.
39:59
>> Mhm. 100%. I think uh you know, coach
40:02
Brian, our coach, he talks about that
40:05
all the time. He you know, he I wish a
40:08
lot more people could have a coach like
40:09
Brian because he does it differently
40:11
than I and I've experienced, you know,
40:13
I've been to a few a few different gyms
40:15
and I've met different coaches. Don't
40:16
get me wrong, there's great coaches out
40:17
there, but in terms of just the mental
40:19
game, he is definitely, you know, he
40:21
knows what he's talking about and he
40:23
lifts everybody up in the gym and he
40:25
always tries his best to make sure
40:26
everyone is where they're at mentally
40:28
and he has evidence with that. You know,
40:30
he has reasons and he has sayings and he
40:32
like, you know, one of the sayings is uh
40:35
pressure to power. You know, the more
40:37
pressure we have, the more powerful we
40:39
become essentially is the idea of that.
40:42
And you know, especially for guys who
40:44
are like really talented, I'd like to
40:46
say that I'm a talented martial artist.
40:48
I really have to have that simulated
40:50
pressure because I can naturally get
40:51
away with a lot of stuff
40:53
>> just by being talented, you know. And
40:55
unfortunately, that's, you know, not you
40:58
can't just lean on being talented. You
40:59
have to have it all. And you have to,
41:01
you know, put yourself in shitty
41:02
positions uh everywhere, you know,
41:05
physically and mentally in order to be
41:08
the best martial artist I can be. At
41:09
least that's how I feel for myself.
41:12
I think I think you're absolutely right.
41:13
I think talent is a beautiful thing and
41:15
if you have it, good for you. But most
41:17
people don't have the talent. They have
41:19
they have to work hard. And I find in my
41:21
experience that hard work will beat
41:24
talent. Just natural talent.
41:25
>> Oh yeah.
41:26
>> 90% of I think it it wins ultimately in
41:28
the long long term every time.
41:31
>> No, I 100% agree 100%.
41:35
>> That's impossible. By definition, you
41:36
cannot agree with me more than 100%.
41:39
>> Okay. Well, then
41:40
>> if you can tell me which movie If you
41:41
can tell me which movie line that's
41:42
from, that's bon.
41:43
>> Say it one more time.
41:45
>> You said it's 150%. I said that's
41:47
impossible. By definition, you cannot uh
41:49
agree with me more than 100%.
41:51
>> It's actually not a movie. It's a TV
41:53
series. It was a Simpsons.
41:53
>> Okay. I Oh, the Simpsons
41:57
>> classic.
41:57
>> Yeah. I don't remember cuz I'm a nerd,
41:59
too. I'm a huge nerd.
42:00
>> Yeah. Hey, no problem. I actually just
42:02
got Disney Plus. I'm I'm watching all
42:04
the the Marvel movies and all the spooky
42:06
stuff on there and all the um classic
42:08
movies, you know.
42:09
>> At a boy, what's the last thing you
42:11
watched?
42:12
>> Uh
42:14
I just started the old animated X-Men
42:17
series, so I'm kind of happy.
42:18
>> Oh, yeah.
42:19
>> Yeah. I like that. It's I don't know.
42:21
It's mindless. I don't have to think
42:22
about it. So after Especially cuz I'm
42:24
I'm going all day. Like I'm really
42:26
working on myself all day and grinding
42:28
all day. So, it's actually nice to just
42:29
turn on some like trash TV and watch
42:32
something that, you know, I don't have
42:34
to think about. So,
42:35
>> I I can't believe you just called the
42:37
original X-Men animated series trash TV.
42:39
Man, that is classic. I can still think
42:41
like the music's going through my head
42:43
right now.
42:46
Oh, I've got the all the I still have
42:48
them on VHS. I've had them forever. I
42:50
was going to throw them out a bunch of
42:52
times or get rid of them, but I still
42:53
have them. I just can't let them go.
42:55
>> Mhm.
42:57
>> All right. Right. I think I'm scraping
42:58
the bottom of the barrel for stuff to
42:59
talk about now. So, not really. This is
43:01
fun. I'm enjoying this. I sometimes I
43:03
want to talk about more than just MMA
43:05
cuz, you know, you're not just a
43:06
fighter. You're a person,
43:08
>> which I you know what? Let's talk about
43:10
that. You know, because I think it's
43:12
important to just be more than just a
43:14
fighter, you know. I think just leaning
43:16
on fighting is is not healthy in my
43:19
opinion. And I think you should have
43:20
other things, you know, besides just
43:22
martial arts to have, you know, and like
43:25
one day I want to be a really successful
43:27
business owner and I want to be a great
43:29
father, you know. I don't have children
43:30
now, but that's something that I really
43:32
want in the future. And I uh yeah, it's
43:36
it's funny because I've been like before
43:39
I was tricked into the mindset of like
43:40
listen if you're not only doing fighting
43:43
and that's it blah blah blah blah you
43:45
aren't a real martial artist and you're
43:47
not like that turned into that really
43:49
fast quickly turned into a a kind of a
43:52
garbage thought because I started to
43:54
realize how much better of a martial
43:56
artist I was by actually being more than
43:58
just a martial artist.
44:00
>> Mhm.
44:01
>> Yeah. I think there's a fine line. I
44:03
think there's a lot of truth to what you
44:04
just said. I think it's important that
44:06
we have some kind of maybe not even a
44:09
balance, like not a 50-50 balance
44:11
between fighting or whatever your
44:13
whoever is watching this, whatever your
44:15
chosen thing is, your your profession,
44:16
if you're an accountant or you're a
44:18
whatever,
44:20
>> it's important to if you want to excel
44:22
at that, you have you have to take a
44:24
portion of that of that percentage and
44:26
and add it on to what you're you're you
44:28
want to excel in, right? So, if you want
44:29
to be an excellent fighter, you can't
44:31
just put in 50%. But you also can't put
44:33
in 100%. So, where between 50 and 100 do
44:36
you go,
44:37
>> right?
44:38
>> Like, you're leaving space in your in
44:39
your life to to watch the X-Men trash TV
44:42
and other things. And uh you know, and
44:44
that's probably that's probably good for
44:46
you. If that's working, that's great.
44:48
>> I uh I've also been cooking a lot
44:50
lately.
44:50
>> Whoa. Tell me more.
44:52
>> You know, it's funny actually, it's a
44:53
little secret, but it's not going to be
44:54
a secret anymore, is I have absolutely
44:57
no weight to cut. I'm not gonna have a
44:59
pound of sweat to get out of my system.
45:01
So, I've been eating like a champ and
45:03
I've been feeling like a beast by eating
45:05
like a champ. And I feel really good
45:06
that I don't have a extravagant weight
45:08
cut ahead of me like I've always have.
45:10
So,
45:11
>> um we've been uh my my my lady and I
45:14
have been cooking in the kitchen a ton
45:16
and it's we're cooking good food and bad
45:18
food and I'm I'm really enjoying that
45:20
actually. We just bought a new cookbook
45:21
and we're we're diving into that. So,
45:23
I'm really happy about that.
45:25
>> What's your favorite meal you've made so
45:26
far?
45:28
I I actually am the one who made this
45:31
one, but it was pasta. We made this
45:33
really good Alfredo peso pennet, which
45:35
is really delicious. And the other day
45:36
we had lasagna, which is really cool. Um
45:39
because I've never personally made
45:40
lasagna, but she knows how to whip up
45:42
the best lasagna I've ever had. So,
45:44
>> I've been eating it the whole week. You
45:46
know, I'm feeling good. And it's like I
45:48
feel, you know, my energy systems, I
45:50
feel lightning fast right now in the
45:52
training room. And I feel super strong
45:53
and explosive. And I actually think it
45:55
has something to do with the way I've
45:57
kind of took the approach towards this
45:59
fight and this weight cut. Um, I haven't
46:02
had to taper any food or nothing. And
46:04
you know, the goal eventually might
46:07
actually be to go to 55 just because of
46:09
the type of body transformation I've had
46:10
in the last few months.
46:12
>> But, you know, right now I I feel good.
46:15
I feel strong. So, we'll see. Time will
46:17
tell. Maybe uh next fight. But, let's
46:19
focus on Derek Bergen.
46:21
>> Yeah, let's focus on Derek Bergen. And
46:23
uh the second thing you can focus on is
46:24
next time I'm in Calgary, you can uh
46:26
maybe invite me over for some nice
46:28
pasta.
46:28
>> Anytime. Absolutely anytime.
46:30
>> I love pasta so much. I don't really eat
46:32
all that much. I don't eat much carbs.
46:34
In fact, for the longest time, I didn't
46:36
really eat any carbs at all other than,
46:38
you know, a couple tiny things here and
46:40
there, but the past maybe year, I' i've
46:42
reintroduced carbs to a limited degree.
46:44
And it's it's I eat rice. I eat, you
46:46
know, a piece of bread every day or
46:48
toast every day pretty much. And uh
46:51
yeah, I think just it's it's better.
46:52
It's better overall. Just makes me feel
46:54
better. Makes me feel stronger in the
46:56
gym. I'm not as lethargic. Um yeah.
47:00
Anyway, so that's cool.
47:01
>> I have a question for you.
47:02
>> Yeah, go ahead.
47:03
>> So, outside of what you do for your
47:05
career and what you do here by
47:07
interviewing the fighters, what is
47:08
something that you enjoy doing um just
47:11
on your own time or as a pastime or as a
47:13
hobby, anything like that? What do you
47:15
like to do? Um, that's tough because
47:18
between all my things, it takes up most
47:20
of my time. So, like a normal day for me
47:22
is I'll I'll wake up at home. I'll I So,
47:26
if people don't know, I'm I don't work
47:28
in Canada. I work outside of Canada.
47:30
When I'm home in Canada, I'm there for 5
47:32
weeks. So, I don't even have an alarm
47:34
clock turned on. I just close my bedroom
47:36
door. I have every single light, like
47:38
all LEDs. There's no LEDs in my bedroom.
47:40
But uh if I close my bedroom door,
47:42
there's windows closed, blackout,
47:44
blackout curtains, absolutely pitch
47:46
black. And when I go to sleep at say 10
47:48
at night, 11 at night, I just wake up
47:50
when I wake up. I don't
47:52
>> It's just And usually it's around 7:00,
47:54
6:30, 7:00. But I just feel good. I feel
47:56
refreshed. Um I get up, I'll have a cup
47:59
of coffee, I'll immediately open up my
48:00
computer and look at any any updated uh
48:03
fights from social media, like any any
48:05
announcements, and I'll update my
48:07
website. I do Muay Thai training at 9:00
48:10
every morning at Niger Top Team. I'm
48:12
there for 9. Sometimes I'll do the
48:14
jiu-jitsu class at 10:00 in the morning
48:15
as well. Then I'll go back home and have
48:18
my first meal of the day probably around
48:19
noon. I'll have like a piece of
48:21
sourdough bread. There's a friend of
48:22
mine named Kevin who makes the most
48:24
incredible sourdough bread.
48:25
>> Nice.
48:26
>> So for for me, it's it's it's important
48:30
to have consistency in my food in that
48:32
if I know what to make and I make the
48:33
same thing over and over, it's just
48:35
easy. It's repeatable and I don't have
48:36
to fret about it.
48:37
>> So, I have I have my first meal of the
48:39
day. It's a sourdough toast with some
48:41
avocado, mushed up avocado and uh two
48:44
two two fried eggs.
48:46
>> And uh that's that's my my meal.
48:48
>> Nice.
48:48
>> And then uh Jeez, I do a lot of the
48:52
website stuff. I do a lot of interviews.
48:55
What do I do for fun? I don't really
48:58
know that I do too much for fun. To me,
49:00
this is fun. I I love woodworking. I've
49:02
got a woodworking shop, but I in the
49:04
past year, I've really kicked up my
49:06
output for the MMA stuff.
49:08
>> Um cuz my goal is to make this my my
49:10
full-time career. So, I've kind of put
49:12
the woodworking to the side, but I'd
49:13
love to get back and do that more. Like
49:15
everything's just sitting there, right?
49:16
>> Um
49:18
>> other than that, no, there's there's not
49:19
too much else. I guess I don't have the
49:21
balance I'm I'm preaching about,
49:24
>> you know? Balance is the word of the
49:25
month for me. Uh, I have a whiteboard
49:27
above my TV and it has my to-do list and
49:30
it has uh four things. It's um bridge
49:33
the gap, aim your thoughts, make
49:36
adjustments, and practice gratitude are
49:39
the four big ones right now. And then
49:40
the word of the month is balance. And
49:42
I've been really trying to especially
49:43
cuz uh you and I have busy lifestyles it
49:46
seems like. So, you know, I think
49:47
balance is is so important. It's funny
49:49
we're talking about this cuz it just
49:51
reminded me of my whiteboard and
49:52
reminded me that
49:55
>> what do you mean by bridge of the gap?
49:57
>> Like for example,
49:59
if I this is a small minuscule example
50:02
of it would be I have to take the
50:04
garbage out. I get up. I take the
50:06
garbage out. Not I have to take the
50:08
garbage out. I'm going to go do this
50:09
first and this and this and I'll go do
50:10
take the garbage out. It's like I
50:11
eliminate the time in between
50:13
>> to do anything, you know? when that's
50:15
that that attains to my goals, to my
50:18
to-do lists, to my chores, to my
50:21
business, to fighting. It's like, oh,
50:23
I'm eventually going to do it's like,
50:24
no. You know, we have uh I talk about
50:28
>> something that a lot of people do and I
50:29
think it's super unhealthy and it's
50:31
called mental masturbation. You know,
50:33
it's a crazy word, but I think it's so
50:36
it's so bad for people because everyone
50:38
wants to talk about what they want to
50:39
do, but nobody actually wants to bridge
50:41
the gap and do it, you know? So I think
50:43
that's a huge one for me in terms of my
50:45
success and the level of success that I
50:48
could achieve, you know, by keeping that
50:50
in mind. So amongst all the other things
50:53
that I think about.
50:55
>> Well, it sounds like you're putting in a
50:57
lot more effort into yourself than a lot
51:00
of people I talk to, not even just
51:01
fighters. I mean, it sounds like you're
51:02
very self-aware. It sounds like you've
51:04
got a plan in place and it sounds like
51:06
you're actioning your plan. So, good on
51:07
you, man.
51:08
>> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
51:11
Okay, on that note, I think we should
51:12
probably wrap this up. Um, but before we
51:14
before we get going, I'm wondering, is
51:16
there anything else at all that we
51:17
didn't talk about that you'd like to
51:18
talk about before we go?
51:19
>> Um, best of skill to my teammate Chad
51:22
Neler, uh, and his UFC fight this
51:25
weekend in Edmonton. I think he's going
51:26
to ba this fool. So, let's get it.
51:30
>> Well, when people are watching this,
51:31
that fight's already happened because
51:33
this is coming out next week. But, uh,
51:35
yeah, I'm sure he knows that you're
51:36
rooting for him. I'll be rooting for
51:37
him. Hopefully, all Canada's rooting for
51:39
him. I don't know if you saw I put out a
51:41
short clip on Instagram today about him
51:43
and Kyle Nelson both talking about their
51:45
nickname the monster and they sort of
51:46
fight it out about who gets to keep the
51:48
nickname the monster. It's pretty
51:49
>> I love how graceful they were both
51:50
being, you know.
51:52
>> Yeah, I know.
51:54
All right, Christopher Brian, thank you
51:55
so much, man. This was such a great
51:57
conversation. I really enjoyed talking
51:58
to you and getting to know you more as a
52:00
person. Congratulations on everything.
52:01
Best luck in your fight against Eric at
52:03
Absolute MMA 9.
52:05
>> Okay. Thank you for having me.
52:07
So, uh,
52:08
>> yeah, Clayton Pie, good to see you.
52:10
Thanks for coming to the studio.
52:11
>> Yeah, thanks for having me. It's great.
52:13
I I love the, uh, the decor.
52:15
>> Yeah, I love Got Mega Top Team and I got
52:17
the Clayton Pie shirt just for you.
52:18
>> Yeah. Awesome.
52:19
>> I remember I was supposed to get a
52:20
t-shirt, but you upgraded me to the long
52:22
sleeve.
52:22
>> Yeah. Yeah, that's exclusive, actually.
52:24
They uh I only had a few of those made.
52:27
So, Hey.
52:27
>> Yeah. I think there's like maybe five
52:30
people that have the long sleeve. He was
52:32
just he was kind of playing around the
52:33
guy who I had making my shirts at the
52:35
time. Uh, but he's he's moved away, so I
52:38
I uh have to do use a different uh
52:40
distributor now. But yeah, he liked to
52:42
have fun and try different stuff.
52:44
>> Yeah.
52:45
>> Well, I'm all for it.
52:46
>> Yeah.
52:46
>> All right. So, this is a little bit
52:47
different because I've talked to you
52:49
before as a fighter. That's what I do is
52:50
I talk to fighters.
52:51
>> And we're going to talk about you and
52:52
your your next fight coming up.
52:54
>> But we're also talking about something
52:56
else that's really cool that's going on
52:57
your life and that you are running for
52:59
city council
53:00
>> for the city of Thorald, which uh I just
53:03
found out is actually a city. I live in
53:04
Thorald. I thought it was part of St.
53:06
Catherine's where Mega Top Team is, but
53:07
apparently it's its own city.
53:08
>> Yeah.
53:09
>> Uh right outside this door. Um tell me a
53:11
little bit about what which you have a
53:13
preference which you want to talk about
53:14
first.
53:15
>> Uh not nothing in particular. Whatever
53:17
whatever questions you have for me in
53:19
regards to I mean so I decided to run
53:22
for council uh for a few reasons. Uh one
53:26
being I think municipal politics is a
53:30
lot more important than people give it
53:32
credit for. I think everybody thinks
53:34
federal is the only thing that you
53:35
should vote in. And uh
53:37
>> unfortunately,
53:39
you know, the most that you see a
53:42
difference in your neighborhood is when
53:44
you vote municipally is when you vote
53:46
for the things that's literally going to
53:48
affect your streets in particular, like
53:50
where are we spending our money and uh
53:53
what what projects are we working on and
53:55
that sort of thing. So, I wanted to use
53:57
my platform just to draw attention uh to
54:00
it. But I also think if I was uh elected
54:04
that there's uh some things that I could
54:07
uh work on uh holding staff accountable
54:11
uh uh you know working with bylaw to to
54:14
not be uh so hard on uh some of our our
54:17
businesses and uh residents and uh yeah
54:22
that's uh most of my spiel but there's a
54:24
lot more. when you said right there
54:26
holding staff accountable for bylaws and
54:28
stuff like that. My personal experience
54:32
uh I've never actually had any I don't
54:34
think personal experience with that kind
54:35
of stuff affected me directly
54:37
>> but just what I know from watching the
54:38
news it seems like often times
54:40
bureaucracies kind of get bloated
54:42
>> and they apply rules.
54:44
>> Mhm.
54:45
>> Very strictly without looking at the
54:47
actual individual case and realizing
54:49
does that actually make sense?
54:50
>> Yeah.
54:50
>> When I was in the military we we would
54:52
always be cautious about doing that.
54:53
>> We would have rules. We'd have
54:54
procedures, we'd have regulations, but a
54:57
big comma, big butt, but but does it
55:00
make sense in this case? Yeah.
55:02
>> And I think it's important to give
55:04
people uh sort of a route that they can
55:08
they can make exceptions and
55:10
>> if it's for the better good.
55:11
>> Yeah. You got to use a little bit more
55:13
uh uh bottom up processing for sure. You
55:17
don't you don't you don't want to look
55:19
at the whole
55:20
>> you want to look at the whole picture,
55:21
but each individual
55:23
>> Sure. each individual bit for sure. And
55:26
uh I think uh when when you're looking
55:29
at uh council in particular, there's a
55:33
lot of things that uh we could improve
55:35
in that way instead of just looking
55:37
through uh you know, whatever paperwork
55:41
is presented for us for whatever
55:44
projects we're we're trying to approve.
55:46
We need to be immersed in Thorald and
55:49
hear from, you know, Thorald citizens
55:52
what it is that they want and like what
55:55
differences we can actually make like in
55:58
regards to, you know, parking like uh
56:01
traffic flow. The the these are a lot
56:04
bigger uh issues than uh most people
56:08
realize. like it it like they really
56:11
they really uh uh get people uh upset.
56:16
So uh and you know there's there is no
56:20
winning when you're a counselor either
56:22
like somebody's going to have something
56:24
to say but ultimately you want to do
56:26
what's what's best for the people who
56:29
live in Thorald and work in Thorald. And
56:32
I think my perspective as a property
56:34
manager, I live here, I work here, I'm
56:38
constantly talking with people from
56:41
every single walk of life. Uh I have
56:44
really bad experiences with some of
56:46
those people and I have really good
56:47
experiences with some of those people.
56:49
So I I have a bit of a a better idea of
56:54
what we can do to uh enhance our uh our
56:58
our our city. And I say enhance because
57:01
I don't want to change things cuz like
57:03
we we said the world's great. It's it's
57:06
a beautiful town. It's got like that
57:08
really u nice uh wholesome uh like
57:13
hometown feeling, you know, and uh I
57:16
don't want to change that, but I want to
57:17
make it more cohesive, more uh
57:21
accessible, and uh uh more profitable.
57:25
>> Yeah.
57:25
>> Yeah. I know, for example, Front Street.
57:28
When I first moved to Niagara in 2014,
57:30
>> Yeah.
57:30
>> I took a drive down Front Street, I fell
57:32
in love with it right away. Like, I
57:33
loved it. And this this uh this building
57:35
we're right now, I first saw this
57:37
available for rent, I'm going to say
57:38
like six or seven years ago, and I tried
57:40
to get it then,
57:41
>> and it wasn't until years later, became
57:42
available again. I'm just I'm thrilled
57:44
to be here.
57:45
>> Yeah.
57:45
>> So, before we get too much further, talk
57:47
about your association with Thorald. How
57:49
is it you're in Thorald and why do you
57:51
care so much about this community?
57:52
>> Yeah. So I mean I moved here for school
57:55
originally and uh I I'm from a small
57:59
town called Ingresol. Uh which is you
58:01
know very similar vibe to to Thorald. Uh
58:04
just Thorald has a little bit more uh
58:07
access. You know you can go to a big
58:09
city for for a weekend or you can go to
58:12
St. Catherine's and go to the mall but
58:13
it's still maintains that that small
58:15
town kind of cultural identity.
58:18
>> So uh that to me was really really
58:20
appealing. Uh, of course I went to Brock
58:22
University. I wrestled uh for them and I
58:25
I represented uh Canada internationally
58:28
with team Canada and uh you know I w I
58:32
being here, training here, working here
58:35
uh for the past 11 years, you really
58:38
just you become ingrained in the in the
58:42
culture. So, I uh I wanted to give back
58:46
a little bit and do what I can for the
58:48
community. Uh that has done so much for
58:52
me. Right. So,
58:54
>> so when you've been out in the community
58:56
talking to residents, you mentioned and
58:59
it makes total sense to me that
59:02
some people might call it the small
59:03
stuff, but to a lot of people it's what
59:05
affects them on a daily basis, right?
59:06
>> Every day.
59:07
>> So, what kind of things are people
59:08
talking to you about?
59:09
>> Parking is a big one. uh like park
59:12
parking is is a huge one uh because
59:15
>> collaborate.
59:15
>> Yeah. So, um businesses downtown uh we
59:19
have we have a a a big draw, right? We
59:23
have a lot of businesses downtown that
59:25
bring people in from Niagara, St.
59:27
Catherine's, Wellland, uh Toronto, like
59:30
it goes that far. Like people will come
59:32
uh to to Thorald just for small things.
59:36
uh you know uh so when they're here and
59:41
the street is completely packed full and
59:44
nobody knows where to go to park and the
59:46
signs are a little bit confusing that is
59:49
uh pretty irritating for the business
59:50
owners who are just trying to get their
59:52
their customers in and out and and
59:55
basically you know some people will get
59:57
frustrated and they'll just leave. So,
59:59
so parking is a big issue um recently
1:00:03
and it it's not bad yet. It's not
1:00:06
terrible yet, but I think uh security is
1:00:10
going to become a a pretty big issue.
1:00:13
Thor's growing and we have a
1:00:17
international and uh Niagara regional
1:00:21
fluctuation of people coming in and out,
1:00:23
right? international I say because Brock
1:00:25
University we have people coming
1:00:28
literally from other countries to go to
1:00:29
school here and we have people coming
1:00:31
from all across Niagara region and
1:00:33
Ontario to to be you know tourists and
1:00:36
and uh enjoy the the vineyards and
1:00:39
Niagara Falls and that sort of thing. Um
1:00:42
and Thorald is growing in population
1:00:45
and we also are going through a uh
1:00:49
housing crisis. So unfortunately that
1:00:55
with that comes some
1:00:58
unsavory people. Uh and you know
1:01:00
firsthand because somebody broke into
1:01:02
your car and stole a t-shirt out of your
1:01:04
car. Uh and I personally had to deal
1:01:07
with that individual too uh at my
1:01:09
property. And you know it some of
1:01:12
sometimes you you deal with the unhoused
1:01:14
and they're they're completely uh
1:01:17
reasonable and you ask them what they
1:01:19
need and if you can help them and and
1:01:21
you know they they're they're good but
1:01:23
and for the most part you know every
1:01:25
town has their their their
1:01:28
you know drunks and uh drug abusers. Um,
1:01:32
but up until recently in Thorald, those
1:01:34
people have been happy people and and
1:01:37
easy to get along with and that sort of
1:01:40
thing. But now it's getting to a point
1:01:42
where some of those people are becoming
1:01:44
violent. Some of those people are doing
1:01:46
criminal activities. I've I've had uh
1:01:48
multiple breakins into a couple of the
1:01:51
properties I manage. And uh when you're
1:01:54
trying to
1:01:56
get a handle on these situations and you
1:01:58
call the police and you're waiting
1:01:59
around for up to an hour for somebody to
1:02:02
arrive to help you, you know, there's
1:02:05
there's not much I I I don't want to put
1:02:07
myself in jeopardy um as a professional
1:02:09
fighter, as a as a as a citizen in
1:02:12
general, right? Um, so I think having a
1:02:16
a a security presence, whether that
1:02:18
means increasing bylaw hours into the
1:02:21
evening or uh or uh increasing police
1:02:25
patrols, which Thorald has had increased
1:02:27
police patrols recently, um or
1:02:30
contracting uh security companies to
1:02:33
take care of our parks and our business
1:02:35
centers. I think uh you know, St.
1:02:38
Cathine's does that. Obviously, St.
1:02:39
Catherine's a whole different story.
1:02:41
they have a lot of uh uh homeless and uh
1:02:45
um
1:02:46
>> unhoused people. But uh I think if we
1:02:51
are going to continue our growth and
1:02:54
have responsible growth, people talk
1:02:57
about oh you need the right
1:02:58
infrastructure. The right infrastructure
1:03:00
is proper security. Um everybody's
1:03:05
talking about responsible growth right
1:03:06
now. That's the buzzword among uh most
1:03:08
of the candidates. And I think
1:03:11
responsible growth means taking care of
1:03:14
your citizens, having police patrols,
1:03:17
having security, having you know that.
1:03:20
So that's what responsible growth is to
1:03:22
me. That's what I think one of the
1:03:23
biggest issues in Thorald is um another
1:03:27
very important issue along the same
1:03:29
lines of the the security is affordable
1:03:32
housing. Um there is you people get a
1:03:37
little bit discouraged uh in municipal
1:03:40
politics because there's not a lot you
1:03:41
can do uh to you know stop the housing
1:03:44
crisis. But there are a lot of
1:03:47
affordable housing projects um that are
1:03:50
working for people that are like
1:03:54
responsible like you don't it's hard to
1:03:58
get people on board uh responsible
1:04:00
housing projects or responsible housing
1:04:03
projects affordable housing projects
1:04:04
because they're afraid of the potential
1:04:07
tenants they might end up with and those
1:04:08
tenants could you know ruin their
1:04:10
investment.
1:04:11
>> Sure. Um, but it's about having uh,
1:04:17
you know, incentives for those property
1:04:20
owners or having the city own some
1:04:22
properties that are, you know, built to
1:04:26
help those individuals, not to just
1:04:29
throw money at them or throw a room at
1:04:31
them.
1:04:32
>> Built to help so they have proper social
1:04:35
services in these these uh, facilities
1:04:37
and and that sort of thing. But it's a
1:04:39
it's a very complicated issue. I don't
1:04:41
think I have all the answers, but I I I
1:04:45
was at the last city council meeting and
1:04:46
they are pushing forward with a
1:04:48
affordable housing project. Um, and it's
1:04:52
some some exciting stuff. I I wasn't
1:04:54
always I I struggle with sympathy
1:04:56
fatigue a little bit. So, uh, uh, as a a
1:05:00
property manager when you know people
1:05:02
are screaming and yelling at you and and
1:05:04
trying to fight you and
1:05:06
>> like
1:05:07
>> it seems like it's always like not
1:05:08
necessarily in this case, but in my
1:05:09
exper my my life experience, especially
1:05:12
being a supervisor in the military,
1:05:14
>> say like 90% of your issues come from
1:05:16
10% of the people. It's always the same
1:05:18
people that have a problem with
1:05:19
something.
1:05:19
>> Yeah. Exactly. And and it's about it's
1:05:22
not about
1:05:24
in my mind I used to be like just you
1:05:27
know screw those people but I think it's
1:05:29
about bringing those people into the
1:05:31
fold you know making them uh
1:05:34
contributing members of society not you
1:05:36
know you can't look down at them you got
1:05:39
to you got to help them but you can't
1:05:42
just throw money at them either. I think
1:05:44
people are irresponsible about the way
1:05:47
they they help uh uh people who are
1:05:50
downtro um and they think, "Oh, yeah,
1:05:53
I'll just give them money." It's like
1:05:55
money isn't always going to be the
1:05:57
issue, especially in addiction
1:05:59
situations, right? Uh that's not always
1:06:02
going to be the solution. So I think uh
1:06:04
having you know real solutions that
1:06:08
address the underlying issue which is
1:06:10
sometimes drug abuse, it's sometimes
1:06:13
gender violence. It's it's it's
1:06:15
sometimes you know uh sometimes just
1:06:18
somebody has a really bad stroke of
1:06:19
luck,
1:06:20
>> right? But you can't just throw money at
1:06:23
it and expect these people not to
1:06:26
continue
1:06:27
>> abusing their situation, right? And when
1:06:29
you throw money at things and people
1:06:31
become accustomed to that, it's like,
1:06:32
well, now they're not going to be a
1:06:34
contributing member of society. They're
1:06:36
just going to keep consuming, consuming,
1:06:38
consuming.
1:06:39
>> And it's more than just the end user as
1:06:40
well. So like the people are having
1:06:41
problems throwing money also creates a
1:06:44
bloat in the bureaucracy where they get
1:06:46
accustomed to that money, then they need
1:06:47
more money. And then if they the problem
1:06:49
goes away, they don't get that money
1:06:50
anymore. So they don't want the problem
1:06:52
to go away. So it just
1:06:53
self-perpetuating.
1:06:54
>> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Maybe you
1:06:58
should run for city council.
1:06:59
>> Thank you.
1:07:00
>> Yeah. Yeah. No.
1:07:01
>> So, what is it about the city council
1:07:02
now that is are they lacking? Why do you
1:07:05
like I have to ask why? Why you and why
1:07:07
do you feel you need to go in there?
1:07:08
What are they not doing?
1:07:10
>> Uh I I don't think they're lacking very
1:07:13
much. Um besides perspective, uh I know
1:07:17
a lot of the and I and I've talked about
1:07:19
it before. A lot of the uh the
1:07:22
candidates now they're well established.
1:07:24
they are, you know, they have a lot of
1:07:27
disposable income. Um, they own multiple
1:07:30
properties or businesses and, uh, and
1:07:32
that's nothing against them at all. Like
1:07:35
that we need that perspective. We need
1:07:37
that, uh, expertise and, uh, and
1:07:40
experience. But when you're making these
1:07:44
plans and you're not addressing
1:07:47
uh the working class and the young
1:07:50
people coming up trying to start a
1:07:51
family, which is what I'm doing, um, and
1:07:54
which is a lot of the people that I deal
1:07:55
with are doing. And some people are just
1:07:57
trying to get by. And I don't think that
1:08:01
the current council candidates are
1:08:03
completely in touch with those people.
1:08:05
>> You know, a lot of the a lot of them,
1:08:07
you know, like I don't I don't go on
1:08:10
vacation. and I go on training uh or
1:08:12
fight trips uh when I'm when I got a big
1:08:15
fight or something, but a lot of these
1:08:16
guys are taking multiple vacations a
1:08:18
year. And it's kind of like, you know,
1:08:20
it's uh it's
1:08:23
people don't like seeing that, you know,
1:08:25
they don't like seeing their money uh go
1:08:27
towards somebody who's already got it.
1:08:31
and they'd rather see it invested back
1:08:33
into the people that need it or the
1:08:35
people that are going to really benefit
1:08:38
um uh our uh our society, our our town,
1:08:42
our city. So
1:08:44
>> So when I think of Thorald, I don't
1:08:45
really think of it as a as a poor
1:08:47
community.
1:08:48
>> Yeah.
1:08:48
>> I think of it and I don't necessarily
1:08:50
think of as a rich community either. I
1:08:51
think there's like probably both some of
1:08:53
both, but I think it's sort of median
1:08:55
income. That's my impression I get. Is
1:08:57
that like a am I am I right with that or
1:08:59
>> I think you're right with that. I mean,
1:09:01
uh, it's it's definitely
1:09:04
and financially Thorald as a as a city
1:09:07
is doing fantastic. I want and I can't
1:09:09
stress that enough. The previous council
1:09:11
has done a a great job. Um, uh, we have
1:09:14
like the lowest tax rates in Niagara
1:09:17
region. Uh, and we're
1:09:22
we we have a thriving businesses
1:09:24
downtown. Um, I I think that we're we're
1:09:28
doing well. It's just uh we could do
1:09:32
better,
1:09:33
>> you know, and we could there's no reason
1:09:35
why um Thor couldn't have the appeal of
1:09:38
somewhere like let's say Jordan. Have
1:09:41
you been to Jordan?
1:09:42
>> Of course.
1:09:42
>> There's no reason in the world is
1:09:45
>> Yes. There's no reason why Thorald could
1:09:47
not have that kind of appeal. And we we
1:09:51
have our own appeal for sure. And I'd
1:09:54
like to keep it in the same uh realm. I
1:09:56
don't want it to get too big either. And
1:09:58
I know a lot of people agree with that.
1:10:00
But um there's no reason why we couldn't
1:10:03
be as uh successful as like a Jordan or
1:10:09
>> I I want to say Niagara on the Lake, but
1:10:12
the Niagara on the Lake is a little bit
1:10:13
big and a little bit different. But like
1:10:16
we should have those beautiful parks and
1:10:19
we should have the the nice uh uh
1:10:24
uh downtown centers and our our we
1:10:28
should be fostering a community that
1:10:32
takes care of itself too. Um, that's one
1:10:35
thing I'll say about
1:10:37
um the city as well is like you want to
1:10:41
have residents here also care. Like it's
1:10:44
one thing to see garbage on the street
1:10:46
and then complain like, "Oh, why isn't
1:10:48
the city doing this? I see a piece of
1:10:50
garbage on the street. I pick it up and
1:10:51
I throw it in the garbage."
1:10:53
>> Like I I love Thorald. I'm not going to
1:10:55
like I see garbage. I'm going to I'm
1:10:57
going to get rid of it. I see a weed
1:10:59
popping out of the sidewalk. I get rid
1:11:00
of it. Um there's uh you know and
1:11:04
there's things that I wish I could do
1:11:06
like I wish I could go into the uh the
1:11:09
Beaver Dams Park and get rid of a bunch
1:11:11
of weeds there, but I think I'm pretty
1:11:13
sure I'd get in trouble if I tried,
1:11:14
right? Uh so it's also creating those
1:11:17
volunteer opportunities. I've I've tried
1:11:19
to volunteer to help uh uh the City of
1:11:23
Thor with their media. I just I just
1:11:24
threw it out there because uh for me
1:11:27
personally, I'm not seeing their stuff
1:11:29
pop up on my feed and I'm not seeing uh
1:11:32
the the outreach to like my generation
1:11:35
and the younger generations. They're
1:11:37
they're not, you know, looking at uh
1:11:41
flyers on on Windows and stuff there.
1:11:43
Unfortunately, a lot of it is on their
1:11:45
phone.
1:11:46
>> So, you need to tap into that market and
1:11:48
and then bring those people into the
1:11:50
fold
1:11:51
>> and make them part of the community and
1:11:53
help bring like make them love Thorald.
1:11:56
You need to make people love Thor. Um
1:11:58
instead of just being depressed on their
1:12:00
phone in their their room all the time.
1:12:02
>> Yeah. Now that you mentioned that, I
1:12:03
don't think I've ever seen anything for
1:12:04
Thorald online.
1:12:06
>> That's it. Yeah.
1:12:07
>> Yeah. So, I I I had reached out to uh
1:12:11
some counselors at one point and I was
1:12:12
like, "Hey, put me in touch with your
1:12:15
media guys. I'd love to work with them
1:12:16
for free. Like, I'm not looking for
1:12:18
anything." I think whoever it was at the
1:12:20
time might have taken offense to that.
1:12:22
Um, but I I wasn't meant to be
1:12:25
offensive. I was just being like, "Hey,
1:12:27
I'd love to work with you guys."
1:12:29
>> Um, so having a a a council and a staff
1:12:33
at uh that work for the city that are
1:12:36
receptive to outside help, there doesn't
1:12:40
need to be so much red tape. You know,
1:12:43
you can have the community help the
1:12:46
community, right? Yeah.
1:12:47
>> And there's lots of people with the the
1:12:48
time and the passion for it that would
1:12:50
love to. So, um that's another thing I
1:12:53
think I could I could help foster.
1:12:56
>> Sure.
1:12:56
>> For sure.
1:12:57
>> Uh you know, and uh
1:13:01
>> if it it's helping your neighbor, it's
1:13:03
helping your town. Like people need to
1:13:05
have that mindset where like you see a
1:13:09
problem, you fix it. You don't complain
1:13:12
about it. And if you want to bring it up
1:13:15
to the city, bring it up to the city.
1:13:17
But if you can do something, if you're
1:13:18
able-bodied and and there was a uh
1:13:21
somebody who uh helped get rid of the
1:13:24
graffiti a little while ago. I I'm
1:13:26
blanking on the who it was, but there
1:13:30
was a somebody came through town, spray
1:13:32
painted everything. Uh there's big like
1:13:35
tags all over the place, and uh the city
1:13:39
didn't do anything about it. Um it's
1:13:42
just ends up being like, "Hey, you got
1:13:44
to clean up your paint." Yeah. They give
1:13:46
you a citation. They say, "Hey, clean up
1:13:47
your paint." It's like, so it has to be
1:13:50
on the city's end, too. Like, if you see
1:13:51
that, why don't you take care of it?
1:13:53
Like, why don't you help,
1:13:55
>> you know? Like, you're driving around,
1:13:57
you see something, help, you know, and
1:14:00
it's up up to the sometimes it's up to
1:14:02
the citizens to do it, too, right? But
1:14:04
we, you know, it's not our fault
1:14:06
somebody sprayed
1:14:06
>> Yeah.
1:14:07
>> our buildings, right? So, I'm going to
1:14:09
tell you a story that you're going to
1:14:11
think has nothing to do with this topic,
1:14:13
but trust me, it'll get there. I was
1:14:15
watching just a few weeks ago. It was a
1:14:16
really cool story about a wrestling
1:14:18
coach
1:14:19
>> down I'm going to say Iowa. It could
1:14:20
have been Idaho. I don't know, somewhere
1:14:22
around there. And he mentioned how
1:14:24
>> he had the all boys wrestling. And then
1:14:26
one day a parent said, "Hey, can my
1:14:28
daughter join?" And he said, "Sure, why
1:14:29
not?" And so the daughter the next day
1:14:31
joined on the wrestling mats
1:14:33
>> and had a great time having fun. She's a
1:14:35
kid. Hey, you know, when they wrestle
1:14:36
that age, it's not all serious. It's
1:14:38
mostly about having fun.
1:14:39
>> And he said the next day he had 18 girls
1:14:42
on the mat.
1:14:42
>> Oh wow.
1:14:43
>> Because they realized they asked
1:14:45
apparently they didn't know they were
1:14:46
allowed to participate. Soon as they saw
1:14:48
>> that they were allowed to be doing
1:14:50
something that looked fun. They were
1:14:51
encouraged to join. They did it. And he
1:14:54
went overnight from no girls in the team
1:14:55
to the biggest girls team in the the
1:14:57
whole country or state or whatever it
1:14:59
was.
1:15:00
>> So it's applicable to this. I mean
1:15:01
people just need to know there's
1:15:03
opportunities out there. So if they can
1:15:04
be encouraged or or or brought into the
1:15:07
fold somehow just regular community
1:15:09
members, I think a lot of people would
1:15:10
love to do something.
1:15:11
>> Yeah. And that's uh something
1:15:16
that I'm trying to do even if I don't
1:15:18
get elected. Um like I said, my main
1:15:22
priority was to draw attention to
1:15:24
municipal politics and use my platform
1:15:26
to like get people involved. Um, even if
1:15:29
I don't get in, I'm still probably going
1:15:32
to join some committees and uh do some
1:15:35
volunteer work and and do what I can in
1:15:37
Thorald uh to help out, but I'm not
1:15:39
going to point the finger and be like,
1:15:41
"Oh, this is the city's fault." Or, "Oh,
1:15:43
this is this guy's fault." Like, if
1:15:45
somebody needs help weeding their garden
1:15:46
or mowing their lawn, I'll they ask me,
1:15:49
I'm going to help. Yeah.
1:15:50
>> You know, like I, you know, I'm
1:15:52
able-bodied and and want better for the
1:15:56
people of the world. So
1:15:57
>> just you if if you're like that and
1:16:00
you're a thorough citizen,
1:16:03
>> you know,
1:16:04
>> put put on your gloves and you know, get
1:16:06
in there.
1:16:07
>> Yeah. So
1:16:07
>> yeah. When is the election?
1:16:09
>> Uh so if you're a registered voter, you
1:16:12
would have gotten a uh a envelope in the
1:16:16
mail that has your registered voter
1:16:19
number.
1:16:20
>> I got mine the other day.
1:16:21
>> Yeah. So, you can you can vote online
1:16:24
anytime from October 9th to October
1:16:27
26th. And then there's a few different
1:16:30
uh uh locations uh for inerson voting.
1:16:34
Um I'm blanking on them right now, but
1:16:37
uh I'll uh I'll let you know after.
1:16:40
>> Uh and I'll I'll be posting it on my
1:16:42
socials and stuff uh probably tonight
1:16:45
and as we get closer to the those dates.
1:16:48
Um but yeah,
1:16:51
>> when you go to um run for office like
1:16:55
this, and forgive me, I'm naive about a
1:16:58
lot of the process, how how are you
1:17:01
letting people know that you exist and
1:17:02
that you're a candidate? I know I saw
1:17:04
you had a couple lawn signs.
1:17:05
>> How do you get your word out there that
1:17:07
Clayton Pie is running and you've got
1:17:09
some things you'd like to do and how do
1:17:11
you get them to want to vote for you?
1:17:13
Yeah. So, there's a couple uh
1:17:16
organizations that set uh set up Q&As's.
1:17:19
So, uh there's actually going to be one
1:17:21
this Wednesday at the Thor Legion. Uh
1:17:24
it's on Orman, I think it's three Orman
1:17:26
Street. Um so, people, a lot of the
1:17:29
counselors have signed up to go uh do
1:17:32
like a a Q&A there. There's no like
1:17:35
official uh speeches or anything. It's
1:17:38
just you show up, it's informal. you go,
1:17:40
you meet the candidates, you figure out
1:17:42
which ones you want to vote for.
1:17:44
>> So, I highly suggest uh anybody who's
1:17:47
watching who lives in Thorald to go to
1:17:50
to that meet and greet and uh and don't,
1:17:53
you know, just say you're going to vote
1:17:55
for me and vote for me. Go to the meet
1:17:57
and greet. Meet the other candidates and
1:18:00
make your own decision. Like, don't vote
1:18:02
for me just because I'm a cool fighter.
1:18:04
You know what I mean? That's and I've
1:18:05
been I've been telling that to people,
1:18:07
too. Um, the other thing is about this
1:18:10
election, and this is to my detriment to
1:18:12
say this, um, we've gone down from eight
1:18:16
city councilors to six. So, I think it's
1:18:20
imperative that we reelect a lot of the
1:18:23
current candidates. Um, but, you know,
1:18:27
see what candidates you like. There's a
1:18:29
lot of new candidates that, uh, bring
1:18:31
some really great stuff to the table and
1:18:33
a couple new candidates that I'm
1:18:35
probably going to vote for myself. Um,
1:18:38
and I'm not going to say it because I
1:18:39
don't want to skew anybody's opinions. I
1:18:41
want people to make their own opinions.
1:18:42
Um, but there's also a lot of people I'm
1:18:44
going to
1:18:45
>> Well, sorry. I'll I'll challenge you on
1:18:46
that. I think it's common for
1:18:47
politicians to endorse other
1:18:49
politicians.
1:18:50
>> Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's But I I also
1:18:53
don't want to
1:18:56
take away from from uh the other
1:18:59
candidates. Like I said, everybody has
1:19:00
something great and uh everybody has,
1:19:04
you know, their own preferences and
1:19:06
stuff. Um, I don't speak for everybody
1:19:09
in Thorald. I speak for, you know,
1:19:12
myself. If people want to message me and
1:19:14
ask me who I'm voting for, I'll do that.
1:19:16
But I'm not going to uh try to run a
1:19:18
slate. You know what I mean? Um, and the
1:19:21
other thing is a lot of the a lot of the
1:19:24
candidates, they get upset cuz like some
1:19:26
candidates run a slate, which is like
1:19:28
when candidates are helping each other
1:19:30
and promoting each other and that sort
1:19:32
of thing. A lot of candidates get upset
1:19:34
about that, but then they do it
1:19:35
themselves. And it's always the the, you
1:19:39
know, the candidates that are uh maybe
1:19:43
lacking in some areas that run these
1:19:45
slates and they bring in some really
1:19:46
really good candidates to run in the
1:19:48
slate with them. And I think if you look
1:19:51
at these slates and you look at
1:19:53
individuals, you'll find the ones in
1:19:55
there that you really want to vote for.
1:19:58
Um, that's all I'll say about that. I I
1:20:00
think I don't want to step on anybody's
1:20:02
toes. Like I said, I think everybody
1:20:04
brings something really good to the
1:20:06
table, but I
1:20:08
>> I I don't want people to uh put me in
1:20:12
the same breath as any of the other
1:20:15
candidates. I want them to look at me as
1:20:17
an individual.
1:20:18
>> That's fair.
1:20:18
>> Um and I don't want to, you know, muddy
1:20:21
the waters with any of the other
1:20:23
candidates. So, uh I'm trying to I'm
1:20:25
trying to play nice. I the something I
1:20:27
have noticed is
1:20:31
these the the candidates and politics so
1:20:35
catty so catty everybody's just kind of
1:20:38
like
1:20:38
>> amongst themselves or yeah no like
1:20:40
amongst themselves like ah did you hear
1:20:42
and I I'm guilty of it too for sure I'm
1:20:45
I'm no uh I'm no saint but like I wasn't
1:20:50
expecting like it's municipal politics
1:20:52
we're all trying to do what's best for
1:20:53
the world
1:20:54
>> why are you guys picking on each other
1:20:56
and and doing all the and and you know,
1:20:59
I'm sure other people have uh
1:21:02
alternative uh motives and maybe they
1:21:05
want they just want the validation or
1:21:07
maybe they want the the small amount of
1:21:09
money that you get for running for
1:21:11
council, but I'm legitimately just want
1:21:15
to make things run well. And I just want
1:21:18
for uh uh
1:21:22
clarity and accountability for our
1:21:25
counselors and our city staff. That's
1:21:28
all I want. I don't and that's why I I
1:21:32
would say something like reelect because
1:21:36
we we're from 8 to six. We need
1:21:39
experience. I'm I'm not trying to win
1:21:43
necessarily. I just want the best
1:21:45
possible foot forward for Thorald. And
1:21:48
uh I think I think that means reelecting
1:21:51
quite a few counselors. There's a
1:21:53
couple, you know, that people will be
1:21:56
able to make their minds up about that
1:21:57
are new or are running for, you know,
1:22:00
this is my first I'm a first time uh
1:22:03
candidate. There's other people who have
1:22:05
run a couple times. I think the the I
1:22:10
think even over over a first time CA
1:22:12
candidate, second time candidates are
1:22:15
probably better better picks. And like
1:22:17
I'm like I said, I'm saying this at my
1:22:19
detriment. Um but that's just that's
1:22:23
just the truth, right? So
1:22:25
>> well I'll challenge you on that again as
1:22:27
well because
1:22:28
>> my own personal belief is that yes
1:22:30
within any organization it's important
1:22:32
to have a balance between
1:22:33
>> the people with the experience the know
1:22:35
the corporate knowledge who know how
1:22:36
stuff works and how it runs
1:22:38
>> but it's equally as important to have
1:22:40
fresh blood people in there with new
1:22:41
ideas new things like that
1:22:43
>> and that's where even if like you're a
1:22:45
first-time candidate
1:22:46
>> if you're you've got that passion you've
1:22:48
got the you know you've got the the
1:22:49
passion of youth
1:22:50
>> bring that in there
1:22:52
>> why is that not just as important
1:22:54
important as
1:22:55
>> it's an important compliment to
1:22:56
everything else
1:22:57
>> and and that's that's the argument I
1:22:59
would make for myself and I have made
1:23:01
that argument right I'm not uh I'm like
1:23:04
I said I still think I'd do a good job
1:23:06
um and I think that if people want to
1:23:09
come and talk to me and they decide that
1:23:11
as well then they should vote for me but
1:23:14
if not and they believe you know the the
1:23:17
best path forward with this decreased uh
1:23:20
uh uh counselors is uh reelect all of
1:23:25
them. Uh obviously you can't re-elect
1:23:28
all of them. Um I I don't think there
1:23:31
would be enough counselors running again
1:23:35
or there's too many running. I don't
1:23:36
know.
1:23:38
>> But uh yeah, I want I want people to I
1:23:41
want people to look it up. That's the
1:23:45
thing. I want people to go and look,
1:23:48
right? I want to draw attention. That's
1:23:49
the main thing. That's the main reason I
1:23:51
ran. I want people to go and make a
1:23:54
decision and I want people to think
1:23:56
about what really is best for Thorald. I
1:24:01
and not just Thorald, but the Niagara
1:24:03
region every all across Ontario these
1:24:06
municipal elections are happening and
1:24:09
people don't care about them. So, it's
1:24:12
like you guys have to go. You have to
1:24:14
figure out what candidates and email
1:24:17
your candidates, reach out to them. I
1:24:19
usually respond back to uh citizens who
1:24:22
email me like and I try to give them the
1:24:24
best answers I can as a as a firsttime
1:24:26
uh candidate. Um
1:24:30
but that's what people got to do like
1:24:32
like if you want change it starts at the
1:24:34
bottom, right? Like we were talking
1:24:36
about you have to
1:24:37
>> from municipal, provincial, federal all
1:24:40
the way up. You need to you need to uh
1:24:42
you need to vote for vote for change,
1:24:45
right? And the practical aspect of it
1:24:47
and once again ignorant about so many
1:24:49
things.
1:24:50
>> Uh is it a full-time job? Is it a
1:24:51
part-time job? How's that?
1:24:52
>> Part time. Yeah. So, um
1:24:54
>> so that wouldn't affect your training
1:24:55
and fighting things like that.
1:24:56
>> I mean, I'm sure it would. Uh I I
1:24:59
wouldn't want to half halfass it. Um I
1:25:03
would uh you know, there's there's one
1:25:07
city council meeting a month,
1:25:10
>> so never I would never miss one of
1:25:13
those. I'd always be there in person.
1:25:15
Um, even if I'm a little bit under the
1:25:18
weather, I' unless I'm like at the
1:25:20
hospital, I'm probably going to be at
1:25:23
the the city council meeting every
1:25:24
month. Um,
1:25:28
and uh, other than that, you sit on a
1:25:30
couple different committees committees.
1:25:32
So, you'll have to go to those committee
1:25:34
meetings. Um, a lot of those you can you
1:25:36
can do a Skype call in. Um, but I if
1:25:39
there's an opportunity for me to be
1:25:41
there in person, I will be.
1:25:43
>> There's there's no reason why I I
1:25:47
couldn't be. Right. I'm I'm a like I
1:25:50
said, I'm a
1:25:51
>> I'm a property manager. I'm also a
1:25:53
professional fighter. Um, those two
1:25:56
gigs, they uh they give me the
1:25:59
opportunity to kind of make my schedule.
1:26:00
>> Sure.
1:26:01
>> Unless there's emergency in the property
1:26:03
management side of things,
1:26:04
>> I make my own schedule. Um, so I I can
1:26:10
put uh time aside to do extra and that's
1:26:14
what I want to do. I want to do more
1:26:16
than the bare minimum. I want to show up
1:26:18
as much as I can and I want to sit on as
1:26:21
many committees as I can and I want to
1:26:24
make sure that the young working class's
1:26:27
voice is heard.
1:26:29
>> Yeah.
1:26:30
>> Okay. Yeah.
1:26:31
>> Well, it's exciting for you.
1:26:32
>> Yeah. Yeah.
1:26:33
>> What did uh when you first got the idea?
1:26:35
Well, first of all, how did you get the
1:26:36
idea? Where did it come from?
1:26:38
>> So, um one bias I I will have when it
1:26:43
comes to uh the other candidates is uh
1:26:46
Mike D. Devitas. Him him and I are uh
1:26:48
good friends and I've I've worked for uh
1:26:51
his brother's uh company uh the Dvitus
1:26:54
Group, which is the property management
1:26:56
aspect of of things that I do. Um and
1:27:00
you know, he encouraged me. He said,
1:27:02
"You have a lot of really great ideas.
1:27:04
It'd be great if you ran for for
1:27:05
council." And uh
1:27:09
different perspectives than me, by the
1:27:10
way, Mike. Um and uh we we we agree on a
1:27:14
lot of things and disagree on some
1:27:16
things, right? Um but that's what you
1:27:17
want. You want sure multiple multiple
1:27:20
perspectives. So um uh he encouraged me.
1:27:23
I started going to a couple council
1:27:25
meetings here and there or tuning in on
1:27:27
the the live streams that they have. And
1:27:29
uh I've just seen little things and I'm
1:27:32
like, "Oh, why aren't they doing it this
1:27:33
way?" And uh like I I can't name a bunch
1:27:37
of them off the top of my head right
1:27:38
now, but uh I I just kind of caught a
1:27:43
bug and I was like, "All right, I I
1:27:45
would like to throw my hat in the ring.
1:27:47
I I think I could I could improve some
1:27:50
things." Um,
1:27:52
maybe that's uh ambitious of me or
1:27:54
shortsighted, but I I you know, I trust
1:27:57
myself and uh wanted to uh give it a
1:28:00
try. Yeah,
1:28:01
>> that's awesome.
1:28:02
>> Yeah.
1:28:02
>> And when you uh told this to your family
1:28:04
and friends, what was the the reaction?
1:28:06
>> They're pumped. Yeah. Yeah. Um obviously
1:28:09
you get like the the jokes and stuff uh
1:28:12
especially as a as a pro fighter running
1:28:15
for council. um like, "Oh, you're going
1:28:18
to do a a Freedom 250 in Beaver Dams
1:28:21
Park." And I was like I was like, "It's
1:28:24
actually a pretty cool idea." Um uh even
1:28:27
if I don't get elected, I might start
1:28:30
pushing for that in some some of the the
1:28:32
parks committee
1:28:33
>> uh parks and events uh committee. Uh but
1:28:37
um most of them were just like, "Yeah,
1:28:40
that's great. You're a different face.
1:28:42
You're young. You're uh excited. You you
1:28:45
you know, you love the town. It makes
1:28:46
perfect sense.
1:28:47
>> Um, so yeah, a lot of like pretty much I
1:28:52
haven't had any really negative uh uh
1:28:56
feedback when I tell people I'm running
1:28:57
for council. Uh, there was there was one
1:29:00
guy that moved my signs the other day.
1:29:02
>> Really?
1:29:02
>> Yeah. So, uh, uh, I I know who it is. I
1:29:07
seen him on the camera. Um, and, uh, I'm
1:29:10
not going to put any names out or
1:29:12
anything. And it wasn't any other
1:29:13
candidates, just to just to clarify. So,
1:29:14
he moved it from where to where?
1:29:16
>> He was going to throw them out. Um, but
1:29:19
then it was uh it was a by the by the
1:29:23
student residence building. Uh, it says
1:29:25
create a beauty out front on Front
1:29:27
Street. And there's an alleyway there
1:29:28
with the trees and I have my signs in
1:29:31
there. Um, and this guy uh
1:29:36
>> uh first of all, I'll just say this. I
1:29:38
was at that residence. I was doing some
1:29:39
chores there. I was taking out the
1:29:41
garbage and cleaning and stuff. And uh
1:29:43
when I went in, the signs were facing
1:29:45
this way.
1:29:46
>> Yeah.
1:29:46
>> Okay. And then when I came out, they
1:29:48
were facing that way,
1:29:49
>> so you couldn't see them.
1:29:50
>> So you couldn't see them. And I was
1:29:52
like, "Oh, that's weird." Like, cuz it
1:29:54
was blowing away when I first got there,
1:29:55
and there's a guy who was on the stairs.
1:29:58
And uh I was like, "Hey, did you uh see
1:30:01
if anybody hit this sign over?" He's
1:30:03
like, "No, I think the wind was just
1:30:04
blowing it." And blah blah blah. So I
1:30:06
was like, "Okay." So I straightened it
1:30:07
out, went inside. I came back out.
1:30:09
They're flipped the other way. I'm like,
1:30:10
"Hey, did you see who turned these signs
1:30:12
around?" He's like, "No, no, I was
1:30:13
inside." And I was like, "Oh, okay."
1:30:15
>> Was it him? Was that the guy?
1:30:16
>> No, it wasn't him. No, it wasn't him. He
1:30:17
likes me. He says he's voting for me.
1:30:19
So,
1:30:19
>> um uh but then I checked the cameras and
1:30:22
I seen this other guy. He came uh by and
1:30:26
uh he picked the sign up at the one spot
1:30:29
and then went to the other tree, picked
1:30:31
the sign up, and then went over the
1:30:32
recycling bin and then uh had a uh a
1:30:37
talk with somebody. I couldn't see who
1:30:38
it was, but he was talking to somebody
1:30:41
and then he went and put the signs back,
1:30:43
but he changed the direction of them.
1:30:45
And I was like, I I I know who it is. I
1:30:47
seen him on the camera. I uh I told him
1:30:50
to get off of a roof of one of our
1:30:52
buildings once.
1:30:53
>> Yeah.
1:30:53
>> I think maybe he just doesn't like me.
1:30:55
So, it's like I'm like I think if he got
1:30:58
to know I think if he got to know what
1:31:00
I'm what I'm what I'm stand for and like
1:31:03
he probably just thinks I'm a landlord
1:31:04
or something and I like
1:31:06
>> own that building and maybe hates me for
1:31:08
for you know
1:31:10
>> thinks thinks I have it all. I don't
1:31:11
have it all. Right. Uh
1:31:13
you and your signs.
1:31:14
>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So he's like he was
1:31:16
like you and your signs. He took
1:31:17
took my signs but then he put him back.
1:31:19
So it's nice of him to not you know go
1:31:23
through with what he was doing. He
1:31:24
thought twice about it. And um like
1:31:29
people are like, "Why would anybody
1:31:31
with your signs, right?" Like they think
1:31:33
they think I'm going to I wouldn't do
1:31:35
that.
1:31:35
>> But a lot of my signs are outside of
1:31:38
other fighters houses, so
1:31:40
>> leave the leave the signs alone.
1:31:42
>> Yeah, exactly. Smart idea.
1:31:44
>> Yeah. Yeah. Don't touch my signs. You
1:31:45
might uh
1:31:46
>> you might make somebody mad. I'm not I'm
1:31:49
not going to get mad at anybody. I get
1:31:52
all of my my uh uh aggression out
1:31:56
>> in in the ring. But
1:31:57
>> um that's what I think might be an issue
1:32:00
with some of the
1:32:01
>> some of politics. Uh I think that's why
1:32:04
everybody's so mad. They need to train
1:32:06
and and get their aggression out so many
1:32:08
>> and then everybody would be,
1:32:10
>> you know, they'd have a a bit more of a
1:32:13
humble uh aura about them. they wouldn't
1:32:15
go around wanting to take everybody's
1:32:16
head off or
1:32:17
>> I I say all the time that most of my
1:32:19
friends, most people in general would
1:32:22
not be able to stand in front of a heavy
1:32:23
bag and hit it all out for 30 seconds.
1:32:25
They couldn't do it. 30 seconds doesn't
1:32:27
sound like a lot, but you know, you get
1:32:29
a whole hour training session and man,
1:32:31
you feel so good when you're done.
1:32:32
>> There's some days I can't do it for 30
1:32:33
seconds.
1:32:37
>> I mean, I was pretty hurting today, but
1:32:39
just I'm in training camp for this fight
1:32:41
coming up, too. So,
1:32:43
>> well, on that note, is that a good segue
1:32:44
to start transition to talk about the
1:32:46
fight? Let's
1:32:46
>> talk about the fight. Yeah.
1:32:47
>> Okay. So, you're a professional mixed
1:32:48
martial artist. I didn't really
1:32:50
research, but I think you're 7 and0 or
1:32:51
you know, you're seven and0. Okay.
1:32:53
>> Uh, this is a sort of not a rematch, but
1:32:56
you originally supposed to fight BTC
1:32:58
against John Ramsey and that event got
1:33:00
post postponed for a few reasons and now
1:33:02
you're fighting a new guy. I think he's
1:33:03
a Mexican guy, right?
1:33:05
>> Uh, no. Uh, he's Afghanist Afghan.
1:33:08
>> Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. So he's uh I'm
1:33:11
fighting him uh at PFC.
1:33:15
>> Okay. So October 24th. Yeah. Yeah. So um
1:33:19
his name's uh Abdul. He fought uh
1:33:22
>> Oh, Alfasi. Yeah. Right. He fought Mo
1:33:25
like two years ago and that was his last
1:33:26
fight. Um he has a good record. Uh I I
1:33:30
reached out to to Mo and asked him,
1:33:32
"Hey, what was it like?" He's like,
1:33:33
"He's just really strong and goes for
1:33:35
upper body stuff and uh he's a little
1:33:38
bit awkward." And I'm like,
1:33:40
>> just like every other meathead in my
1:33:41
gym, so they've got perfect training
1:33:43
priorities. So, um, uh,
1:33:45
>> but that was 2 years ago, so who knows?
1:33:47
>> Yeah, he could be a completely different
1:33:49
fighter. He could be the exact same guy.
1:33:51
Um, I'm pretty sure he lives in Canada.
1:33:54
Uh, I don't know exactly where he trains
1:33:56
or anything. Um, but I've I've got the
1:33:59
same He's a similar build to Ramsay. Um,
1:34:03
and I've been in I was in my fight camp
1:34:05
for Ramsay and uh uh I've got a similar
1:34:10
game plan for this guy. So, it's uh
1:34:13
looks good. I feel great. Like I've I've
1:34:15
never been uh as as good as I am right
1:34:21
now, like as far as like my my fight IQ
1:34:24
and my my uh my reaction time. And I I
1:34:29
feel like I've truly become a mixed
1:34:32
martial artist from long ago when I was
1:34:34
a wrestler who could throw overhands. So
1:34:38
I uh I I feel great. Yeah.
1:34:40
>> Yeah. I had that similar discussion with
1:34:42
Hannah a few weeks ago about how your
1:34:44
main base is wrestling and when
1:34:45
wrestlers come into MMA sometimes it's a
1:34:48
bit challenging for them, but you seem
1:34:49
like you've acclimatized yourself quite
1:34:51
well.
1:34:52
>> Yeah. Yeah. And I uh I pride myself uh I
1:34:56
think we had an interview a while a long
1:34:58
time ago and uh you said something about
1:35:01
uh wrestlers having an upper leg and I
1:35:04
said I can't really kick that well.
1:35:08
>> Yeah. So uh now I can kick pretty well
1:35:10
and I've got big legs so they they they
1:35:13
smack and uh I also have a few funky
1:35:16
kicks that I I catch people up off guard
1:35:18
with. Um, and uh, working my kicks into
1:35:22
my my game, even into my wrestling, like
1:35:25
using my kicks to set up my wrestling.
1:35:27
And uh,
1:35:28
>> yeah, I I and my jits is like my not the
1:35:33
last fight, but the fight before that in
1:35:35
Honduras, I got my first uh, submission
1:35:38
uh, victory.
1:35:38
>> How'd that feel?
1:35:39
>> Good. Yeah. Yeah, it he was I couldn't
1:35:42
knock him out, so I I had to do
1:35:44
something to to end that fight early.
1:35:46
Um, he had a block head, man. Yeah, I
1:35:49
was like there's some videos of of it.
1:35:51
They're like kind of bad phone quality
1:35:54
for some reason. The the cameras cut out
1:35:56
uh when my fight came on, but we have
1:35:58
some bad video of uh me just smashing
1:36:02
him and it sounds like he I hit a
1:36:03
watermelon with a baseball bat and he
1:36:05
just was like
1:36:06
>> Yeah,
1:36:07
>> like just a just a tough uh tough sob.
1:36:10
>> I also blame the sleep deprivation.
1:36:12
>> Yeah,
1:36:13
>> you guys had that like techno music
1:36:14
playing till 6:00 in the morning or
1:36:16
something.
1:36:16
>> That was crazy. That was crazy. That was
1:36:18
a fun trip.
1:36:19
>> Yeah.
1:36:21
>> So, I always I had this talk with it was
1:36:23
either Demarks or Cricket or both of
1:36:25
them about you a while back.
1:36:26
>> Yeah.
1:36:26
>> About how when you get fighters
1:36:30
>> on the way up, which you clearly are,
1:36:32
>> it's important that fights.
1:36:36
>> You can take fights that are relevant
1:36:38
and you can take fights against guys you
1:36:40
know you're going to smash. Like,
1:36:41
>> no disrespect to LJ Simmons, like that's
1:36:43
not You don't need to fight LJ Simmons
1:36:45
anymore. You need to be fighting guys
1:36:47
who who answer questions in yourself,
1:36:49
right?
1:36:49
>> Like
1:36:50
>> one of my favorite interviews is with a
1:36:52
guy named Coach Dous Dult, Kenny Dult on
1:36:55
Instagram and he interviewed Mandel Nalo
1:36:57
at UC Winnipeg. Y
1:36:59
>> Mandel explains it beautifully how
1:37:01
>> each fight you should be
1:37:04
>> a fight should be asking you questions
1:37:05
about yourself and you've got to you've
1:37:07
got to solve the answers to those
1:37:08
questions. I'm paraphrasing, right? So
1:37:09
like
1:37:10
>> if you get submitted if say if you get
1:37:12
mounted like how do you escape the
1:37:14
mount? I'm not saying that's you. I'm
1:37:15
just a general generalization, but
1:37:17
>> your fights now, if you want to get to
1:37:19
the next level, you have to take fights
1:37:20
that are showing somebody somewhere that
1:37:23
you're not just a can smasher. Not
1:37:25
saying that that's what it was, right?
1:37:26
But,
1:37:27
>> um, so this is probably a a decent step
1:37:29
for you.
1:37:30
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, that's what I
1:37:33
was looking forward to with the Ramsay
1:37:34
fight. I, you know, he's, you know, high
1:37:37
high level and I thought that was going
1:37:39
to be a really good fight. But the issue
1:37:40
for me in particular is uh I'm I'm
1:37:45
looking for those fights and people are
1:37:47
saying no.
1:37:47
>> Yeah.
1:37:48
>> So um you could ask Pricket and Demarks
1:37:50
that as well. It's like people just keep
1:37:53
keep turning me down.
1:37:55
>> Um so he's I think Pricket says I'm like
1:37:58
the most turned down fighter in the gym.
1:38:01
>> Um and like that you know it makes
1:38:05
sense. I'm uh I I'm kind of funky. I
1:38:08
have a strong wrestling base and I knock
1:38:12
people out. So, it's not a great fight
1:38:15
for a lot of people and everybody's
1:38:17
trying to get their record high and
1:38:18
everybody's trying to make their way in
1:38:20
in this sport. Um, and you know, I'm I'm
1:38:25
looking we're saying yes to tough
1:38:27
fights. Like Darks and Cricket are
1:38:28
saying yes to guys that they they don't
1:38:31
want to say yes to
1:38:32
>> and then those guys are saying no. So,
1:38:34
>> wow. Um uh we we are uh we're working on
1:38:38
it. Um it's just you know there's a
1:38:41
couple guys that want like for for
1:38:45
instance Alj he wanted his win back. He
1:38:47
wanted really bad and uh
1:38:50
>> I I did find something in that fight in
1:38:53
particular and that was the rematch.
1:38:55
I've not had a fight that was a rematch
1:38:58
before. Right. So the way I looked at
1:38:59
that it was like okay well this guy has
1:39:01
a chip on his shoulder. He really wants
1:39:04
this win back, right? Um I was his only
1:39:07
loss. Uh and uh I think I was his only
1:39:10
loss at that point. So now I'm his I'm
1:39:12
still his only loss, right? Um
1:39:15
>> and he made a lot of adjustments that
1:39:17
made me work a lot harder and uh I uh
1:39:22
was, you know, he he was ready for me.
1:39:24
It was a it was it was a tough fight. I
1:39:26
definitely won for sure that decision
1:39:29
unanimous. And um uh but it wasn't it
1:39:33
wasn't the first fight, right? It was it
1:39:35
was a lot different. And uh this uh next
1:39:38
fight is uh the thing I'm finding in
1:39:41
this one is I don't know that much about
1:39:43
this guy.
1:39:44
>> Sure.
1:39:44
>> So it's going in a little bit blind and
1:39:47
I'm going to have to figure out while
1:39:50
I'm in there. Um, which is nice because
1:39:52
I've been getting a lot of uh new
1:39:54
training partners coming into our gym
1:39:56
and uh getting different looks and stuff
1:39:59
and making adjustments while I'm
1:40:02
fighting them. And
1:40:02
>> we have a lot of big guys coming now
1:40:04
too.
1:40:05
>> It's nice and it's not nice because then
1:40:08
it's like now I can't fight these guys,
1:40:10
right? And I'm not opposed to to doing
1:40:12
something like that. Um, if if we have
1:40:15
people who are training at our gym and I
1:40:18
think sometimes people will come to
1:40:20
Niagara Top Team just to just to train
1:40:23
and then be like, "Oh, well, I can't
1:40:25
fight in those Niagara Top Team guys
1:40:26
anymore."
1:40:28
>> Um, uh, I'm I'm just joking though. Like
1:40:31
we're very fortunate that um our gym is
1:40:35
the gym that people want to come to to
1:40:37
train. makes it a lot easier on the the
1:40:40
fighters there because it's like well I
1:40:43
don't have to travel now everybody's
1:40:44
coming to us so I can get different
1:40:46
looks from different people right um
1:40:49
>> international now too like with Josh
1:40:51
>> Oh yeah
1:40:53
and that there is an international
1:40:55
appeal to Niagara Top Team now for sure.
1:40:57
>> Yeah.
1:40:59
>> So you're fighting main event prospect
1:41:02
and this is happening in Niagara on the
1:41:03
lake on October 24th I think it is.
1:41:05
Yeah.
1:41:05
>> It's kind of cool. Aiden's making his
1:41:06
pro debut. It's going to be awesome.
1:41:08
>> I won't be there. I'm pretty won't get
1:41:11
to be there, but uh
1:41:12
>> Damn.
1:41:12
>> I'll I'll watch it later.
1:41:13
>> Yeah.
1:41:14
>> Yeah. It's a shame.
1:41:14
>> Aiden's a killer, man.
1:41:16
>> People don't know.
1:41:19
>> Yeah. It's it's nuts. He's my hardest
1:41:21
rounds.
1:41:22
>> Yeah.
1:41:23
>> Like,
1:41:23
>> yeah,
1:41:24
>> for sure. Um and uh I think he's he's
1:41:28
he's going to shock the world. Mike Mike
1:41:30
Malot had a funny nickname for him. He
1:41:33
called him Aiden Ai Appel.
1:41:36
Uh, and the he had a reason for it. It
1:41:39
was like, "It's fun right now. It's cool
1:41:42
right now,
1:41:43
>> but if we don't get a handle on it, it's
1:41:45
going to be a real problem." And it's
1:41:47
totally Mike Malad's joke. I I don't
1:41:49
want to take credit for that, but it's a
1:41:51
good one.
1:41:51
>> That's a really good one. Aiden is is
1:41:53
he's undeniable. Yeah.
1:41:55
>> It's amazing.
1:41:55
>> Yeah. and so uh uh like unfazed like
1:42:01
he'll he'll get hit and he'll just he's
1:42:05
uh straight focused. Yeah.
1:42:06
>> Yeah.
1:42:07
>> I met him when he was 12 years old
1:42:09
>> on the mats training with my daughter
1:42:10
when we were like this tall.
1:42:11
>> Yeah. It
1:42:12
>> was pretty cool. Well, maybe that tall,
1:42:13
but
1:42:14
>> yeah, it's pretty cool to see how far
1:42:15
he's come.
1:42:16
>> It's a good environment cuz you know you
1:42:18
Atlanta Alena Cook said something to me.
1:42:19
She said, uh, a rising tide raises all
1:42:22
ships. And that's how I feel about you
1:42:24
guys in that room.
1:42:25
>> 100%. Y
1:42:26
>> you're all you're all there. You're all
1:42:28
individuals. You're selfish in the
1:42:29
degree that you're looking out for
1:42:30
yourselves,
1:42:31
>> but big but you're also there helping
1:42:34
everybody else.
1:42:35
>> Yeah.
1:42:36
>> Yep. Iron ship's iron, right?
1:42:38
>> Yeah.
1:42:41
>> But yeah, this uh this fight coming up,
1:42:43
it's a it's October 24th and that's two
1:42:47
days before the last day of election
1:42:48
day.
1:42:49
>> Yeah.
1:42:49
>> So, I'm uh might might hear a campaign
1:42:51
speech up in the the ring after I I
1:42:55
Yeah. Yeah.
1:42:55
>> Yeah.
1:42:56
>> Hopefully you've got a black eye or
1:42:57
something to make it. Put an emphasis on
1:42:58
it.
1:42:59
>> Yeah.
1:42:59
>> Vote for me or else.
1:43:00
>> Yeah. No, I'm fighting for you.
1:43:03
>> Hey, there you go. I love that one.
1:43:04
That's good.
1:43:05
>> Yeah. So,
1:43:07
>> all right, Clay, that's all I got, man.
1:43:08
I'd like to wind things down, but before
1:43:10
we go, I I always like to ask, is there
1:43:11
anything else that you think we should
1:43:12
have talked about that I didn't ask?
1:43:14
>> Uh,
1:43:17
not in particular. I I'm recently
1:43:19
engaged.
1:43:20
>> Yeah, I wasn't going to bring that up.
1:43:21
Congratulations. Yeah.
1:43:23
>> Yeah. So,
1:43:24
>> beautiful lady Sarah, right?
1:43:25
>> Sara. Yeah.
1:43:25
>> S. So, really really excited about that.
1:43:28
Um, we were just at a uh a wedding expo
1:43:33
on the the weekend and she was uh she
1:43:36
was thrilled. Uh just I I was exhausted
1:43:39
just walking around like DJs this all
1:43:43
that. But it's uh going to have a pretty
1:43:45
big one. We're having uh the ceremony at
1:43:48
the Riverbend Inn in Niagara on the
1:43:50
Lake.
1:43:50
>> Wow. And then uh going to have uh maybe
1:43:54
I shouldn't say that stuff. Somebody's
1:43:55
going to run down the aisle or
1:43:57
something, but uh I won't say the date.
1:44:00
Um
1:44:01
>> do you have a rough time frame like this
1:44:02
year, next year?
1:44:03
>> Next year. Next year. Yes, it'll be
1:44:05
it'll be uh coming up. It's it's I hear
1:44:09
it goes really fast. So I'm I'm a little
1:44:12
bit uh
1:44:14
>> nervous about making sure everything
1:44:16
comes together, but
1:44:17
>> Yeah, of course.
1:44:18
>> It'll be fun. I'm exc I'm really excited
1:44:20
for that.
1:44:21
>> Well, I'm pretty sure I won't be your
1:44:22
best man, but I I'm sure I'll be getting
1:44:23
an invitation, so I'm looking forward to
1:44:24
that.
1:44:25
>> Yeah, of course. At least at least to
1:44:26
the reception. I'm We're gonna have a
1:44:28
really big reception, but a pretty uh
1:44:30
>> small ceremony.
1:44:31
>> Yeah, it's exciting.
1:44:32
>> I'm happy for you both.
1:44:33
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, she's the best. Yeah.
1:44:35
And you've you've met her before. Yeah.
1:44:37
Yeah. You can tell right away she's just
1:44:39
like the sweetest.
1:44:40
>> She seems very sweet. Yeah. So, and
1:44:42
people don't know how important that is
1:44:44
when you're you're a fighter to have
1:44:46
somebody who's like,
1:44:48
>> you know, always got your back, right?
1:44:49
>> It's not just a fighter, man.
1:44:50
>> Yeah. Not just being a fighter.
1:44:52
>> Yeah. It's a Yeah. In life. In life.
1:44:54
Yeah.
1:44:55
>> Choosing the right partner is the single
1:44:56
most important decision you can make in
1:44:57
your life.
1:44:58
>> Yeah.
1:44:58
>> 100%.
1:44:59
>> Yeah. I think I nailed it. I mean,
1:45:02
>> I didn't in my last
1:45:05
>> Well, there's still time, you know.
1:45:08
>> No, I'm not giving up. It's all
1:45:10
>> Yeah. Good. Cheers.
1:45:12
>> Yeah.
1:45:12
>> All right, Clayton, thanks for your
1:45:13
time, man. Best of luck. Congratulations
1:45:15
on everything and uh we'll see hopefully
1:45:17
we can get you some some hype for this
1:45:20
election and get you in there and see
1:45:21
things.
1:45:22
>> Appreciate that. Make a couple clips.
1:45:23
>> All right. Take care, man.
1:45:26
>> Hey there, fight friends. We are joined
1:45:27
today by Alex Krsky, a professional
1:45:29
mixed martial artist. Uh well, he's
1:45:31
currently training at TriStar MMA in uh
1:45:34
Montreal. And we'll let him tell you
1:45:36
about where he's from because it's a
1:45:37
pretty long story, I'm sure. But Alex,
1:45:40
good to talk to How you doing today?
1:45:41
>> Uh thanks for having me. Yeah, it's
1:45:43
pleasure. Uh doing good, you know, just
1:45:47
living the life, training hard,
1:45:49
preparing for competition, you know,
1:45:52
staying healthy. So, couldn't couldn't
1:45:54
ask for a better life.
1:45:56
>> No, you're living the martial life.
1:45:58
You're training every day. You're
1:45:59
getting ready. You're everything's
1:46:01
geared towards your your fight career,
1:46:03
which is pretty awesome. I' I'd say.
1:46:06
>> Yes, absolutely. you know, that's that's
1:46:08
the thing I love to do and that's my
1:46:11
passion and you know, I'm living
1:46:15
>> we're we're going to get into that in
1:46:16
just a minute, but I just want to talk
1:46:17
about the first time I became aware of
1:46:19
you. The first time I ever saw you, I'm
1:46:21
pretty sure it was on TikTok, and this
1:46:24
is has to have been over a year ago. I I
1:46:26
was following you. I was liking your
1:46:27
videos and I think this is before you
1:46:29
ever had an MMA fight or one that that
1:46:31
I'm aware of anyway, but you were
1:46:33
fighting karate combat and I was
1:46:34
watching you there and that's what
1:46:36
impressed me. Uh, and the fact that you
1:46:38
are very prolific with your social media
1:46:40
output. You put out a lot of content uh
1:46:43
or you did back then anyway. And that's
1:46:45
what really caught my eye because it
1:46:46
seemed like every time I logged on
1:46:48
TikTok there was a new video from you.
1:46:49
So, I think that's a really good thing.
1:46:52
>> Yeah. Yeah. you know um there was just
1:46:56
one day when I was realized it's you
1:46:59
know it can bring so much more
1:47:02
opportunity so much more eyes so much
1:47:04
more fans and uh you know I was kind of
1:47:08
before I was the type of guy who like
1:47:10
you know staying in the shadow you know
1:47:14
uh I'm just going to post my fight just
1:47:17
after it happens not going to be talking
1:47:19
about that and but then just one day you
1:47:22
know I was Like at the moment of my
1:47:24
life, I was listening a lot of podcast
1:47:26
and uh a lot of like Tony Robinson and
1:47:30
and people like that a lot of like smart
1:47:33
people and
1:47:34
>> you know everybody was talking about
1:47:36
like how basically you know cuz I was
1:47:40
for the longest time I was thinking oh
1:47:41
you know people will think I'm silly or
1:47:44
like you know my English not good um
1:47:48
this and that a lot of excuses and then
1:47:50
and just in the one day I was like you
1:47:52
know, it. You know, whatever. I
1:47:55
don't care what the people will think.
1:47:57
Um because, you know, they'll scroll my
1:48:00
video, they'll they'll forget about it
1:48:02
like next moment. Uh so, if I'm not
1:48:06
going to be caring about myself and my
1:48:09
career, nobody will, you know? So, and
1:48:11
that's the moment where I was like,
1:48:12
okay, I've got to be going really hard
1:48:14
in my social media. I put the goal to
1:48:17
like post every single day. Maybe
1:48:20
probably for six, seven months. I was
1:48:23
doing it for like posting every single
1:48:26
day and I gained like I don't know
1:48:28
12,000
1:48:30
13,000 followers
1:48:32
uh in just 6 months. Um so yeah, that's
1:48:36
I feel I feel like a lot of fighters
1:48:39
right now lacking that. Um cuz you know
1:48:43
maybe of course I didn't get as much
1:48:47
sponsorship as I wanted to be but still
1:48:49
people reaching out you know still
1:48:51
people know me because of my social
1:48:54
media you know
1:48:56
>> so it's can bring some opportunities
1:48:58
along the way you know I'm just kind of
1:49:00
planting the seeds and see what's what's
1:49:03
going to happen later
1:49:05
>> 100% these things take time and you're
1:49:08
mentioning you know about sponsorships
1:49:09
but sponsors come after the audience
1:49:12
engagement. So the more fan the bigger
1:49:14
fan base you have, the more likely a
1:49:16
sponsor will want to contribute to you.
1:49:18
So you say you gaining 12,000 13,000
1:49:21
followers in a short time, that's
1:49:22
fantastic. And I think a lot of fighters
1:49:25
even today, like you'd think that today
1:49:27
in 2026, people in general would
1:49:30
understand the power of social media,
1:49:31
but I think a lot of athletes and and
1:49:34
fighters, they have a hard time really
1:49:36
recognizing that this is almost as
1:49:38
important as going to the gym and
1:49:40
learning how to punch.
1:49:41
>> Absolutely. Absolutely. Especially right
1:49:44
now like you say especially that past
1:49:46
few years you know all the big
1:49:48
businesses they all on the Instagram
1:49:52
like there's barely any like companies
1:49:54
on the Facebooks and there's everybody
1:49:57
right now on the Instagram because of
1:49:58
the biggest platform
1:50:00
>> uh and uh and I think it just when you
1:50:04
when you not promote yourself and
1:50:06
advertise you just missing missing the
1:50:09
opportunities you know so because
1:50:12
there's so many good fighters. There's
1:50:14
like tons of great fighters and you know
1:50:18
sometimes opportunity get those fighters
1:50:21
who maybe not skillwise good but because
1:50:25
they have big audience and because they
1:50:27
have big followership big promotion want
1:50:30
them you know because they can bring the
1:50:32
eyes to their promotion and they getting
1:50:34
paid you know maybe not what they
1:50:36
supposed to pay on their compared to
1:50:39
their skills
1:50:40
>> but they getting that opportunities
1:50:43
because of their followers, you know,
1:50:45
because they they they put some work in
1:50:49
the in the
1:50:51
uh direction where this good fighters
1:50:53
didn't want to. And you know, they they
1:50:56
get that. So,
1:50:59
>> well, you're a smart man, Alex, and I
1:51:01
think that you and I could probably talk
1:51:03
about this topic for another hour, but
1:51:05
I'm going to move on because we've only
1:51:07
have so much time.
1:51:08
>> Yeah.
1:51:08
>> But I'd like to let's say most my
1:51:10
audience probably will not know who you
1:51:12
are yet. Would you mind taking a minute
1:51:15
or two minutes or three minutes or as
1:51:16
long as you want just introduce
1:51:18
yourself, say who you are, where you're
1:51:20
from, and how you got involved in combat
1:51:22
sports.
1:51:23
>> Uh, you know, it just kind of been
1:51:26
always part of my life. I born and
1:51:28
raised in Kersonen, Ukraine. It's a
1:51:31
south part of the Ukraine. Um, I born
1:51:35
and raised there. Started from 5 years
1:51:39
old to 9 years old. I've been doing
1:51:40
gymnastics. Uh and that's what I feel
1:51:44
was one of the best decisions of my
1:51:47
parents to do for me. Uh cuz that's g me
1:51:50
huge athletics and uh just in general
1:51:55
general strength and then after that um
1:51:59
one of my classmate uh one of my good
1:52:01
best friend he was training in karate
1:52:04
karate club and uh one day I was just
1:52:07
like oh I'll go check it out. I'll just
1:52:09
go with you see how it is. And um so I
1:52:12
went there a few classes he stopped
1:52:14
going there and I was just stick uh to
1:52:18
the gym and been training there for like
1:52:21
four or five years. Um
1:52:24
and then eventually I like stopped
1:52:28
training for a year and then in the same
1:52:30
gym one of the uh instructors
1:52:35
uh he started uh competing in MMA uh
1:52:38
competitions there at that time there
1:52:40
was 2014
1:52:42
2015 was um MMA start raising more
1:52:48
attention in Ukraine and people start
1:52:50
doing it more and Um he opened the group
1:52:55
for MMA. So for us was something new. It
1:52:59
was like cuz I was training gojuru
1:53:02
karate which is full contact karate. You
1:53:05
could do takedowns. You could do
1:53:07
submission for 10 seconds on the ground.
1:53:10
Uh basically like almost like karate
1:53:12
combat uh rules, but you you also
1:53:15
allowed for 10 seconds uh submission or
1:53:20
Yeah. just just to show ground and
1:53:22
pound. Not actually punching but just to
1:53:24
show it. Uh sure you punch.
1:53:27
>> Um so and then one of the instructor he
1:53:30
started doing the classes for MMA and we
1:53:34
kind of start training and um maybe a
1:53:37
year later we had first few competition
1:53:40
grappling and and MMA and kind of
1:53:44
everything started going from there. Um
1:53:47
so I was competing for a few years and
1:53:49
then moved to Canada about nine years
1:53:53
ago.
1:53:55
Uh moved to Canada and um
1:53:59
was living in Saskatchewan for 2 years
1:54:02
which was pretty pretty pretty intense
1:54:05
you know like there's was a very small
1:54:08
town 3,000 people was nothing much to
1:54:12
do. I didn't had work visa or student
1:54:14
visa. So I couldn't do nothing other
1:54:17
than like learning English and lifting
1:54:20
lifting weights at the gym because there
1:54:22
was no combat gym. So we were going to
1:54:26
uh hour and a half each way to Manitoba
1:54:29
to Brandon who was training BMMA
1:54:35
um BMA gym uh like once once a week. So
1:54:41
my dad was driving me there and um so
1:54:45
yeah that was kind of that and I moved
1:54:47
to other town in Saskatchewan Estan.
1:54:52
Um had my first fight and unified in
1:54:56
there. Uh, I was thinking I'm in good
1:54:59
condition
1:55:01
uh at the time, but uh I was fighting
1:55:05
um Tyrell Gizer,
1:55:08
>> you know. Um and uh there was a long
1:55:12
time ago and I was had no idea how to
1:55:15
cut weight, you know. I was very bra
1:55:18
science type uh person. you know, I was
1:55:22
cutting my carbs like three, four weeks
1:55:25
out, cutting my sodium three weeks out.
1:55:28
So, yeah,
1:55:29
>> it was very very very hard and uh but
1:55:33
you know, that was a good lesson to
1:55:34
learn. And um yeah, and then from there
1:55:37
I moved to Edmonton, start doing boxing,
1:55:40
start competing in boxing, had the had
1:55:43
the golden gloves in boxing.
1:55:46
um start doing more jujitsu and
1:55:51
and um yeah so kind of then start
1:55:56
training past few years with the shave
1:55:59
bears. Um had my two fights in karate
1:56:03
combat.
1:56:05
Um and yeah last March had my pro debut
1:56:10
in MMA with one of the triar guys.
1:56:14
um had a good good fight, hard back and
1:56:18
forth fight, but then just last round
1:56:20
I'm kind of get a little gassed and um
1:56:24
he took advantage of it and um yeah,
1:56:28
lesson learned and you know now now is
1:56:32
the way harder training camp and we
1:56:34
actually training together in the same
1:56:37
gym with him. So
1:56:39
>> it's pretty pretty cool.
1:56:43
How old were you when you moved to
1:56:44
Canada and did you come by yourself or
1:56:45
with your family?
1:56:47
>> Uh I was um 18 19 at the time and um my
1:56:53
dad was already here at the time for a
1:56:56
few years. He was uh applying for uh he
1:57:00
had himself work visa and he was
1:57:02
applying for family immigration. Mh.
1:57:05
>> Uh, and uh, my mom uh, was here for a
1:57:09
bit and then she just didn't like Canada
1:57:12
and uh, she moved back
1:57:15
uh, and uh, me and my dad was basically
1:57:18
went through whole immigration together
1:57:19
and
1:57:21
uh, was very hard times but um, it made
1:57:24
me appreciate big cities and you know
1:57:28
all the all the things we went through
1:57:30
together and he's one of my biggest
1:57:33
supporter and in my career. here and
1:57:35
which I really appreciate it.
1:57:39
>> Yeah, that's amazing. I'm always uh
1:57:41
amazed at people who pick up their lives
1:57:44
from wherever they are in the world and
1:57:45
they move somewhere else. And of course,
1:57:47
we have a lot of Ukrainians coming to
1:57:49
Canada now or the past few years because
1:57:51
of the the Russian invasion, but uh you
1:57:54
know, you came before that. So, when
1:57:57
your father was here and you came, how
1:57:58
did how did you pick Canada? You could
1:58:00
have gone anywhere maybe.
1:58:02
Honestly, yeah. I was uh I was kind of
1:58:06
wanted to give it a chance to see how it
1:58:08
is because uh you know, from all the
1:58:10
pictures I seen Canada, wow, so
1:58:12
beautiful, so amazing. You know, like
1:58:15
the band, the Lake Louise, that was like
1:58:17
my kind of imagination.
1:58:20
Toronto. Uh and then I first I moved to
1:58:24
Saskatchewan where there's a flat.
1:58:27
There's nothing nothing around like you
1:58:30
can drive for hours and there's just
1:58:33
just nothing nothing basically and I was
1:58:36
kind that was the hardest hardest period
1:58:39
of my um immigration cuz uh you know I
1:58:44
was basically I was thinking I know
1:58:47
English you know cuz in my hometown in
1:58:49
Ukraine I was like in uh college I was
1:58:52
pretty decent you know in English but
1:58:54
then I came here and I was like wow Wow.
1:58:58
Hello. How are you? And that's kind of
1:59:00
it. Um, so that was hard for me because,
1:59:04
you know, nobody I I didn't have any
1:59:07
friends here. Uh, nobody really wanted
1:59:10
to hang out with me because of I'm kind
1:59:13
of mean looking immigrant without
1:59:15
English. Um,
1:59:18
so that was kind of hard at the time.
1:59:20
when I was uh for when we moved to the
1:59:25
other city in Saskatchewan, there was a
1:59:27
little bit better because there was a
1:59:28
more things to do. At least I had the
1:59:30
gym there where I could train. Um but it
1:59:35
was still still hard. And one day I was
1:59:38
like tell my dad I'm like you know what
1:59:40
I don't know what do you want to do but
1:59:42
I'm I'm going to move I'm going to move
1:59:43
to Edmonton or somewhere else. Uh you
1:59:46
know I I just can't handle it. It's just
1:59:49
I'm too like it's too small for me. I I
1:59:52
I need to need to grow. Need to, you
1:59:54
know,
1:59:56
>> take advantage of my young young life,
1:59:59
you know. Uh and he's like, um, okay,
2:00:01
yeah, let's do it. Let's let's move. So,
2:00:04
we kind of decided and move and kind of
2:00:08
was best decision and I was like, wow,
2:00:11
Canada actually not bad. Canada is cool.
2:00:14
So yeah, it took some time but
2:00:17
I appreciate way more bigger cities now
2:00:20
because I have something to compare it
2:00:21
with.
2:00:22
>> Yeah, for sure. Now when you had that uh
2:00:26
two or threeear period when you were in
2:00:28
Saskatchewan, you moved from one city to
2:00:30
Estabbon,
2:00:32
you had were not doing any combat
2:00:33
training like you mentioned, but you did
2:00:35
the karate when you and start to MMA
2:00:37
back in the Ukraine. That's a long time
2:00:40
to to stop doing something and to rejoin
2:00:42
it. Maybe some people would have
2:00:44
forgotten about the sport. Maybe they
2:00:45
would have uh just given up on it. How
2:00:48
did you keep that in your heart? How did
2:00:50
you know that was something you wanted
2:00:51
to pursue again?
2:00:53
>> You know, it just for me I was doing it
2:00:56
for so such a long time. It's just that
2:00:58
was just part of my life and I was just
2:01:01
I just couldn't abandon it. It just
2:01:03
something what I was enjoying to do. And
2:01:06
uh as I say, you know, I was still
2:01:08
training but barely like nothing close
2:01:12
to, you know, as often as I was before
2:01:15
because again I was when I was living in
2:01:18
Musin, I was going maybe once maybe
2:01:21
twice a week at the Brandon to train
2:01:24
there like jiujitsu Muay Thai sometimes.
2:01:27
Uh and in the fitness gym I was kind of
2:01:29
hitting back doing some circuits and
2:01:31
then when we moved to A1 I was uh I was
2:01:34
still training there. They had the like
2:01:36
MMA gym
2:01:37
>> but um
2:01:40
mostly like not the proper MMA training
2:01:44
but you know separately like jiujitsu
2:01:47
Muay Thai. So I was kind of always
2:01:51
involved into that as much as much as I
2:01:54
could, but of course not as uh
2:01:57
consistent and often as I'm right now,
2:01:59
but it was kind of always in my life.
2:02:03
>> Okay. Once you were in Edmonton, you
2:02:05
mentioned you hooked up with Shave Bears
2:02:06
MMA, which is a really good gym in
2:02:09
Edmonton. Tanner Bozer used to go there.
2:02:11
Um and I think he's still associated
2:02:13
with them, but talk about that
2:02:14
experience.
2:02:16
Uh you know that was it was kind of at
2:02:20
the time that was funny because um as I
2:02:23
joined them uh I start training start
2:02:26
preparing for my first karate combat
2:02:28
fight um and
2:02:32
it was amazing like I had a lot of guys
2:02:34
like Gabe Harley Tony uh they helped me
2:02:39
a lot in my first fight. Uh but
2:02:44
probably 3 4 months later, the gym
2:02:47
closed down.
2:02:49
>> The one was in Sherwood Park. Uh and um
2:02:53
>> and everybody kind of just went all over
2:02:57
the place. Just right now recently
2:03:00
Tanner opened his gym, but at the time
2:03:02
everybody was kind of, you know, all
2:03:05
over the place and um was sucks. That's
2:03:08
you know as just I started actually
2:03:12
training with the good good level guys
2:03:15
and it's kind of
2:03:18
disappeared in a moment.
2:03:21
We still like training sparring together
2:03:23
here and there but it's no really like a
2:03:27
group classes.
2:03:29
>> So what did you do from there when the
2:03:30
gym closed?
2:03:32
>> Uh I was training with with my coach
2:03:35
Mike. Um, and uh I was kind of bouncing
2:03:38
around the gyms. We kind of uh Tuesday,
2:03:41
Thursdays we was like doing the
2:03:43
grappling sessions together at the Ludus
2:03:46
and uh and sparring together. But other
2:03:50
other than that I had privates with my
2:03:53
coach and I was going boxing one place
2:03:56
doing jiu-jitsu different place Muay
2:03:58
Thai. So kind of picking the parts what
2:04:01
I need to work on in a different places.
2:04:06
What's Mike's name? What's your coach?
2:04:07
What's his last name?
2:04:08
>> Uh Mike Newton.
2:04:10
>> Mike Newton. Okay.
2:04:11
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
2:04:13
>> So, you did that for a time and now most
2:04:15
recently you're a TriStar gym where you
2:04:18
are are training. I'm I'm not sure if
2:04:20
you've got a how much time you still
2:04:21
have to go there if you're going back to
2:04:23
Edmonton or if you're going to stay in
2:04:24
Montreal, but talk about that
2:04:25
transition.
2:04:27
Yeah, that was uh that was actually
2:04:29
funny funny story because um right after
2:04:32
my last fight um in March back in the
2:04:37
March, I was scrolling the Instagram and
2:04:39
I saw that Tristar and High Boost are
2:04:41
doing collaboration
2:04:43
uh and doing doing the
2:04:47
contest for a scholarship.
2:04:49
Um, so basically 3 months of the free
2:04:53
accommodation, training and flights. Um,
2:04:57
and I was like, hm, interesting. Uh, I
2:05:01
would give it a try, you know. So I I
2:05:04
applied for it to fill up the
2:05:06
application and uh and then maybe month
2:05:10
later they reach out to me. They're
2:05:12
like, "Okay, you've been selected to the
2:05:14
next stage of the competition. uh we
2:05:18
select 20 people and now these 20 people
2:05:21
have to make video two two to three
2:05:24
minutes video explain explaining why you
2:05:27
have to be a winner. Um so I did that um
2:05:34
apply the video and just forget about it
2:05:37
and I was kind of
2:05:41
uh there was probably like July
2:05:44
uh or August. Yeah, probably in July. I
2:05:47
was like just one day I was like
2:05:49
thinking about I'm like, "Ah, you know,
2:05:51
they probably select somebody." That was
2:05:53
a long time ago. I I I guess they
2:05:55
probably picked somebody. And literally
2:05:58
in the next day, I'm waking up and I'm
2:06:00
getting the message from Hayabusa like
2:06:03
you being one of the
2:06:07
uh one of the three winner, one of the
2:06:09
two winners.
2:06:11
Uh I'm like, "What? That's crazy how
2:06:16
like how how is that works? I was just
2:06:18
literally thinking about it. I
2:06:20
completely forget and the day before I
2:06:22
was thinking about it.
2:06:23
>> Yeah.
2:06:24
>> Next day it happens.
2:06:26
>> Uh so they're like, "Okay, when you when
2:06:28
you're ready to come." I'm like, "I'm
2:06:30
ready Monday." I'm like, "Whatever."
2:06:34
Like, "I'll come in a few days." They're
2:06:35
like, "Okay, don't rush. Let's let's uh
2:06:39
like let's do it in two weeks." I'm
2:06:41
like, "Okay, done deal. Perfect." Um and
2:06:44
um you know I was because I'm living in
2:06:47
the place where
2:06:50
uh I have to take care of the building.
2:06:53
I'm like basically caretaker of the
2:06:55
building where I have to
2:06:57
>> uh take care of the you know grass like
2:07:00
keep it clean like prepare for events uh
2:07:04
and stuff like that and you know and
2:07:06
they covering my living for it. Uh so
2:07:10
it's pretty good deal and I was didn't
2:07:14
know how the management will react on it
2:07:17
if I will leave for three months you
2:07:19
know because there's a lot of a lot of
2:07:21
things need to be done and uh I was kind
2:07:24
of debating and I was like talking to my
2:07:26
wife we just get married
2:07:28
>> like two weeks before
2:07:31
um and uh I was like you know maybe
2:07:34
maybe I'll do like month at the time
2:07:36
maybe I'll go one month come back then
2:07:39
go again one month. She's like no you
2:07:41
got to go for a whole 3 months you have
2:07:43
to go uh you'll you'll meet more people
2:07:47
you'll get better connections you'll
2:07:49
like you know people will know you
2:07:51
better cuz one month you just kind of
2:07:53
start knowing the person and then you
2:07:56
leave everybody forget about you so uh
2:07:59
she was the one actually who told me
2:08:01
like no you go for 3 months and I'll
2:08:03
I'll just figure things out here like
2:08:05
I'll take care of everything.
2:08:07
>> Wow. Uh and uh yeah, I'm so grateful for
2:08:11
for my wife and she been nothing but the
2:08:15
support for me and yeah, super grateful
2:08:20
and uh yeah, I just kind of I came few
2:08:24
weeks later and uh
2:08:26
>> Well, congratulations on you for picking
2:08:28
picking the right wife.
2:08:29
>> Oh yeah, big time. Big time. It's
2:08:33
um yeah, super happy about it.
2:08:45
I think there's a delay in our in our
2:08:47
chatting. There's a lag.
2:08:50
>> I'm going to count I'm going to count to
2:08:51
three and as soon as I'm done three, put
2:08:53
your put your hand up. Okay.
2:08:54
>> Okay.
2:08:56
>> One, two, three.
2:09:00
Yeah, there's about a second delay in
2:09:01
between us. That's okay. We can we can
2:09:03
fight through it.
2:09:05
Um, so I'm not sure if it came through,
2:09:08
but I just congratulations on having
2:09:10
such a supportive wife. That that's uh
2:09:11
that's your winning at life already.
2:09:13
>> Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you.
2:09:17
>> Talk about training at Tristar. I've
2:09:19
watching, of course, I'm watching all
2:09:20
your social media you're putting out. Uh
2:09:22
you're pretty disciplined with that as
2:09:24
well. And you show your training, you
2:09:25
show your recovery, your food, all that
2:09:28
kind of stuff. Uh for people who who
2:09:31
don't know about the TriStar dorms,
2:09:33
could you just explain what they are and
2:09:36
why it's it's so useful for you?
2:09:39
>> Uh yeah, so basically uh the dorms at
2:09:43
the Tristar, it's kind of the same
2:09:45
building. So you you literally before
2:09:48
what they say it was connected so you
2:09:50
could walk through the building to the
2:09:52
gym, but now they close it. So you have
2:09:54
to go uh around on the street. So, but
2:09:57
it's just to one minute. It's like
2:09:59
literally 100 mters from the dorms to
2:10:02
the gym. So, it's pretty convenient, you
2:10:05
know. Um, it's kind of one corridor and
2:10:10
maybe eight rooms. Each room, at least
2:10:13
at my side, because there's east side
2:10:15
and west side. Uh, east side where I'm
2:10:18
living right now, it's a little more
2:10:21
luxury cuz, uh, we have the showers in
2:10:25
our room. Um
2:10:28
basically just bad
2:10:31
uh shelf for the clothes. Um kitchen we
2:10:36
share together.
2:10:38
um toilet we share together and
2:10:41
basically nothing nothing super
2:10:45
luxury but you know I again as I was
2:10:49
saying I I don't need much much things
2:10:52
and um I'm pretty happy with the
2:10:55
convenience and
2:10:58
uh how it's working out. I'm just went
2:11:00
on the morning train came back shower
2:11:03
rest eat like went back evening session
2:11:08
came back shower eat sleep you know so
2:11:11
it's
2:11:12
>> super super convenient and um you know
2:11:16
in the moments where I was when I'm
2:11:19
super exhausted and I don't want to
2:11:21
train and I'm tired and then I'm you
2:11:23
know tired of the routine I'm I'm just
2:11:26
reminding myself how how lucky I am to
2:11:30
get such opportunity and how grateful I
2:11:33
am for to do things I was dreaming about
2:11:37
and now I'm I'm basically living that.
2:11:41
>> Mhm. I think a lot of young fighters
2:11:43
watching this interview to them that's
2:11:45
sound like it's an absolute dream. You
2:11:47
get to live basically where you where
2:11:49
you train. What else could you ask for?
2:11:51
>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So it's super super
2:11:55
cool like training with such a high
2:11:57
level athletes around and be surrounded
2:12:00
by by high level coaches and and and
2:12:03
fighters and the people who have been
2:12:06
watching on TV, you know, it's it's
2:12:09
super cool just to ask them questions
2:12:11
and just just be around them like you
2:12:14
gain such a like knowledge and you know
2:12:18
it's it's it's amazing.
2:12:21
Were you surprised at the skill level of
2:12:23
any of the fighters you're you're
2:12:24
training with? Oh,
2:12:25
>> big time. It was a first few weeks was
2:12:28
very humbling experience and the way how
2:12:32
they train and doing the sparring. It's
2:12:34
a little bit different from what I ever
2:12:37
had and uh that was you know very very
2:12:41
humbling experience for first probably a
2:12:44
month. Uh but then I'm kind of started
2:12:48
picking it and and you know g giving it
2:12:52
back to to the guys and now I'm feel
2:12:56
probably the most confident I ever been
2:12:57
in my career
2:13:00
>> in in all aspects.
2:13:03
>> A lot of people consider Fazahhabi to be
2:13:06
uh 100% to be one of the best coaches in
2:13:09
the world if not the best MMA coach in
2:13:11
the entire world. talk about what it's
2:13:13
like working with him and just hearing
2:13:15
his perspective on fighting because it's
2:13:18
it's more than just about a technique.
2:13:19
He gives you a lot of other things,
2:13:21
doesn't he?
2:13:22
>> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. He very
2:13:24
knowledgeable. He pays attention to very
2:13:27
small details. Um it's all about
2:13:30
perfectionism in the technique and uh
2:13:34
yeah it's no wonder why is it so many
2:13:37
good fighters come from the Tristar cuz
2:13:39
behind that there's always great
2:13:41
coaches.
2:13:42
>> Mhm. So you've learned a lot and now you
2:13:45
are getting ready for your second
2:13:47
professional MMA fight. You are fighting
2:13:48
at Prospect 27 in Niagara in the Lake
2:13:51
Ontario and you're fighting a man named
2:13:53
Chelrim Regiel. talk about Tashal Prim
2:13:56
and and what you know about him and what
2:13:58
you're doing to prepare for this fight.
2:14:01
>> Uh, you know, I know that he's for sure
2:14:06
durable and tough opponent who wouldn't
2:14:09
step back. Um, so I'm prepared for a
2:14:12
good good scrub, good war with him. I
2:14:15
know this will be I don't know
2:14:17
potentially maybe fight of the night. Um
2:14:21
cuz I know we both going to bring it. Uh
2:14:24
fans will love it. I'm 100% sure. And um
2:14:29
yeah, I I I
2:14:32
see some of the gaps he have. So I'm
2:14:34
kind of working on that. And uh I know
2:14:36
that's
2:14:38
um I have way more experience than he
2:14:41
does and um probably better in all
2:14:45
aspects of uh of the game. But um no way
2:14:49
I am underestimating my opponent and I
2:14:52
know he go there with the same mindset
2:14:54
and I'm prepared for that.
2:14:56
>> Mhm. I've had the pleasure of watching
2:14:59
Shel fight uh live in person three maybe
2:15:02
four times, but even though I I've seen
2:15:05
lots of your video, I've never seen you
2:15:07
fight live in person. If you were to
2:15:09
describe yourself inside the cage to to
2:15:12
somebody who asked, how would you
2:15:13
describe yourself as a fighter? I can
2:15:16
say complete violence and control chaos.
2:15:20
Uh that's kind of my style. I'm I'm
2:15:24
fighting and uh everybody who ever
2:15:27
watched my fights, they know I'm
2:15:29
bringing
2:15:30
uh very entertaining fights and it's
2:15:33
never boring.
2:15:35
>> I don't like it when fights like this
2:15:36
happen. And by that I mean I like you. I
2:15:39
I met you uh just once in person at the
2:15:41
Samurai Ways, the last ones. I've met
2:15:43
Cheltram a bunch of times. I really like
2:15:45
him. So, two guys I like are fighting
2:15:47
each other and it sucks that somebody's
2:15:49
gonna have to lose. But, you know,
2:15:50
that's the fight game and that's that's
2:15:52
the chance you take. But, I will say
2:15:54
that uh you know, I wish you the best of
2:15:56
luck. I hope you show up uh the best,
2:15:58
Alex, you can be that night. I hope
2:16:00
you're fully prepared and I hope you and
2:16:02
him put on a fantastic fight.
2:16:05
>> I'm sure. I'm sure. Uh it will be very
2:16:08
entertaining fight and uh I hope uh
2:16:10
we'll still meet another time on one of
2:16:13
my fights and it will be pleasure and
2:16:17
yeah I'm looking forward man.
2:16:19
>> Yeah, I'll be at the next uh Samurai as
2:16:21
well on November 6th in Gatau. So
2:16:23
hopefully I can see you there.
2:16:25
>> Unfortunately I'll be probably leaving
2:16:28
back home uh after my fight. Yeah,
2:16:32
because uh my my uh scholarship ends uh
2:16:37
November 7 and uh you know right after
2:16:40
the fight it will be two weeks left and
2:16:43
I don't see the point to stay because
2:16:45
I'll still need to take week off after
2:16:47
my fight and
2:16:49
>> probably won't make much sense to just
2:16:51
hang out in here. Uh I would rather go
2:16:54
back home, see my family, my wife and
2:16:57
you know rest rest up.
2:17:00
I don't blame you. All right, Alex,
2:17:02
thanks again for your for your time. I
2:17:04
appreciate it. Best of luck in your
2:17:05
fight at Prospect 27. Uh there you go,
2:17:08
fight friends. Alex Krski fighting uh in
2:17:11
his second MMA pro fight at Prospect 27,
2:17:14
Niagara on the Lake on October 27th, I'm
2:17:17
going to say
2:17:18
>> 24th.
2:17:19
>> Uh 24th. There you go. He corrected me.
2:17:21
Thank you very much. Take care. Bye.
2:17:24
>> Thank you.
2:17:29
Okay, good. I've got a favor to ask you,
2:17:31
Alex. Can you Can you please look at the
2:17:34
camera and just say, "I'm Alex Krzky and
2:17:37
you're watching the MMA show."
2:17:40
>> Yeah.
2:17:45
>> I'm Alex Krutzky and you're watching MMA
2:17:47
show.
2:17:52
>> Beautiful. Thanks.
2:17:54
>> Awesome.
2:17:55
>> Okay, my man. That was awesome. You're
2:17:56
good. And you know, it's funny. You
2:17:58
talked about your your English abilities
2:18:00
earlier on. Your English is absolutely
2:18:01
excellent.
2:18:03
>> Yeah. You know, it just took some time,
2:18:06
took some practice. Uh but
2:18:09
started from scratch, how they say.
2:18:12
>> Yeah, exactly.
2:18:14
Okay, my man. I'm going to wrap it up
2:18:16
because I've got to get ready for
2:18:17
another interview in a few minutes.
2:18:19
>> Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much. It was
2:18:21
a pleasure, man. Hope to see you soon.
2:18:23
>> The pleasure was mine, Alex. Take care.
2:18:24
See you.
2:18:25
Bye.
2:18:26
>> Bye. Hey there, fight friends. We have a
2:18:28
very special guest today. One I'm excit
2:18:30
excited to speak with. Shelton Regiel.
2:18:33
So good to see you, man. I I've been
2:18:35
following your career for quite a few
2:18:36
years. I've actually attended three or
2:18:38
four of your amateur fights in the past,
2:18:40
either at Thick Boy or at the Canadian
2:18:42
Fighters League or at uh where else?
2:18:45
There was another one, I think. And uh
2:18:47
yeah, you're just really exciting.
2:18:49
>> Absolutely.
2:18:50
>> Yeah, there you go. uh but promote you
2:18:53
know perhaps
2:18:54
>> most interesting about you is you are
2:18:56
originally from Bhutan
2:18:58
>> and to the best of my knowledge you are
2:19:00
the only Bhutanese MMA fighter uh
2:19:02
>> for right now. Yes.
2:19:04
>> For right now. Yeah. So you're kind of
2:19:06
paving the way for for everyone in your
2:19:08
country.
2:19:09
>> Yes. We don't have a grappling. We do
2:19:11
have like boxing judo and all of that
2:19:13
but we don't have wrestling or um
2:19:15
jiu-jitsu or kickboxing. I guess we
2:19:18
don't have that in our country. But we
2:19:20
do have a boxing boxers judoker like
2:19:24
taekondo like karate other stuff.
2:19:27
>> Yeah,
2:19:27
>> we just need jiujitsu wrestling and
2:19:29
kickboxing there.
2:19:31
>> Well, I'd like to talk about that more,
2:19:33
but maybe we'll get to that later. Could
2:19:35
we start off please? Could you take a
2:19:37
moment just introduce yourself, say your
2:19:39
name, say who you are, say where you're
2:19:42
from, where you live right now, and how
2:19:43
you got involved in combat sports.
2:19:46
My name is Sutum Rabgill and I am from
2:19:49
Bhutan Pemma Gatil. I uh came here when
2:19:52
I was 14 and I did uh I moved uh when I
2:19:56
came from Bhutan I went to New
2:19:58
Brunswick. I was living there for 8
2:20:00
years.
2:20:02
So yeah um I got into this MMA to get
2:20:06
away from my old life. I had a bad habit
2:20:09
that I was dealing with. I had my own
2:20:10
struggle fighting my own demons.
2:20:13
So the addiction you know other stuff.
2:20:17
So I got into MMA to um just stay away
2:20:21
from those kind of things. So uh yeah
2:20:25
that's how I got into it and for
2:20:27
beginning I was just going to train and
2:20:29
see where it's going to go. I then I end
2:20:33
up liking it and I was like okay maybe I
2:20:35
will compete. Then I start competing in
2:20:37
jiu-jitsu. Then I start competing in um
2:20:40
sanducky boxing. If you I don't know if
2:20:42
you know but sign boxing.
2:20:43
>> I do.
2:20:44
>> Then I start train after two years of
2:20:46
training I start um competing MMA.
2:20:50
>> Yeah.
2:20:51
>> And so you were in New Brunswick. You
2:20:53
said that. Does that mean you're
2:20:54
somewhere else now? Where do you live
2:20:55
now?
2:20:56
>> I live in Toronto.
2:20:58
>> Okay.
2:20:58
>> Toronto. I live now. Right now I live in
2:21:00
Toronto Scar Bro. I mean like Ontario
2:21:02
Scar Bro. I mean I guess there's the
2:21:05
same thing but yeah I live
2:21:06
>> pretty much.
2:21:07
>> Yeah.
2:21:07
>> How did you you know when you left
2:21:09
Bhutan? Did you come by yourself or did
2:21:11
you come with your family?
2:21:12
>> My family my uh my father came here to
2:21:15
do his PhD.
2:21:16
>> Okay.
2:21:17
>> So uh me and my I mean my family we came
2:21:19
alone with him and we end up staying.
2:21:23
>> And how did you end up in Toronto or
2:21:25
Scar Bro?
2:21:26
>> Scar Bro. Oh, I don't know this long. I
2:21:29
I was going through my um pay uh my my
2:21:32
my own issue. I was like getting a lot
2:21:34
of trouble over there. A lot of trouble.
2:21:36
So I needed a new life and I had uh my
2:21:40
wife was the back that time he was she
2:21:42
was my girlfriend uh she was pregnant.
2:21:47
So there in New Brunswick I don't know
2:21:49
if you know it's very hard to get a job
2:21:51
over there
2:21:52
>> and I was like okay I need to start
2:21:55
something else. So I came here you know
2:21:57
to get a new job start a new life and
2:22:00
stay away from others like you know uh
2:22:03
addiction or whatever. So I came I moved
2:22:06
to Toronto
2:22:08
and yeah I start working.
2:22:12
Yeah.
2:22:13
>> So when you were in Bhutan did you do
2:22:15
any combat sports there at all or is
2:22:17
that something that you started in
2:22:18
Canada?
2:22:19
>> I did taondo as a kid. I did taekondo
2:22:22
when I was eight until 11 or 12,
2:22:26
but it doesn't really count cuz like I
2:22:28
did taekondo I was I did compete two or
2:22:30
three times
2:22:32
taekondo but like I didn't I mean I
2:22:35
guess I learned how to kick and stuff
2:22:37
but like you know you're not allowed to
2:22:39
hit hard in taekondo right so I didn't
2:22:41
really learn too much but like yeah I
2:22:43
started with taekondo I always wanted to
2:22:45
do martial art not going to lie cuz like
2:22:48
I and I grew up watching Jackie Jen,
2:22:51
Bruce Lee,
2:22:52
>> and WWF, all of that stuff, you know,
2:22:55
the good stuff.
2:22:56
>> Yeah.
2:22:56
>> So, I always wanted to be a martial art
2:22:58
martial artist. Then, um, when I came
2:23:01
here,
2:23:03
uh,
2:23:05
I wanted to keep going with the
2:23:07
taekondo, but like it was very expensive
2:23:10
for my family. They couldn't offer it.
2:23:12
Like, my mom was the only one who was
2:23:13
working. My dad was working part-time,
2:23:16
but my dad was studying, so he he
2:23:19
couldn't u work full-time. And my mom
2:23:22
was the only one. She was working
2:23:23
full-time. She was like basically paying
2:23:25
the bills and stuff. So if I went to
2:23:28
like taekondo or like martial arts
2:23:30
school that it was like almost like 150
2:23:33
a month. It was back then it was very
2:23:35
very expensive for us. So that's why I
2:23:37
was like, "Okay, whatever." I didn't I
2:23:39
ended my uh taekondo career right there.
2:23:45
Then how did you get reintroduced to
2:23:46
combat sports? Like there must have been
2:23:48
something that you you saw that made you
2:23:50
want to get back to the gym.
2:23:52
>> Oh yeah. Back of my head I always wanted
2:23:55
to do uh martial art you know. But then
2:23:58
al also
2:24:01
I was like oh I'm getting older like you
2:24:03
know I I I was like I should be
2:24:05
realistic now. I have a kid like you
2:24:06
know I have to focus on that. I have to
2:24:08
start working. And plus like I was still
2:24:10
dealing with my I'm four years sober by
2:24:12
the way, you know. So four years before
2:24:14
or almost 5 years now.
2:24:17
>> Congratulations.
2:24:19
>> Thank you so much. I was going through
2:24:20
my addiction, you know. So like I was
2:24:22
not even thinking about that. So the the
2:24:25
before I stopped doing
2:24:28
um drugs, I I was looking something like
2:24:32
okay uh looking for something like
2:24:34
hobby. Then I thought about it like oh
2:24:38
martial art I I know I like martial art
2:24:40
maybe I can start doing I start
2:24:43
training. Then uh
2:24:46
I looked I looked for the gym. Then I
2:24:48
found Trillium.
2:24:50
Then uh then after that I was like okay
2:24:53
maybe I want to do this. Then I I went
2:24:55
to uh detox like a rehab center.
2:24:59
>> Then I got sober. Then after that I just
2:25:02
went full-time.
2:25:05
So, you said you went full-time. That
2:25:07
means you walked through the doors of
2:25:08
Trillium and you asked to start training
2:25:09
and and you never never turned back.
2:25:12
>> I have a short story. Can I tell you the
2:25:13
story? Before that, before I stopped
2:25:15
doing drugs, I was um doing
2:25:18
>> I went to SBG. It's like right SVG in
2:25:21
Scar Bro. I went to uh SBG. I was
2:25:24
training there for one month, but then
2:25:27
like I was like I was doing too much. I
2:25:30
I was like really like battling with my
2:25:32
h uh addiction. So I needed a one month
2:25:35
off
2:25:37
like to uh get over from the drugs like
2:25:40
get sober.
2:25:42
Then when I came back when I went to
2:25:44
went when I went to SBG they uh
2:25:49
they somebody took my spot so I couldn't
2:25:51
go back. They're like oh sorry it's now
2:25:54
it's packed like the gym was packed.
2:25:56
They couldn't uh register me again. So
2:25:58
then I then I looked for another gym
2:26:00
then I found Trillium. So after that
2:26:03
when I found Trillium then I went full
2:26:05
like you know fulltime.
2:26:07
>> Yeah.
2:26:08
>> Yeah. I started basically I started my
2:26:10
old MMA career like everything that I
2:26:12
have right now. Grappling, kickboxing,
2:26:14
everything that I have right now I got
2:26:16
it from Trillium. Like Trillium.
2:26:18
>> How old were you at that time when you
2:26:20
started at Trillium?
2:26:21
>> I was 26.
2:26:24
>> End of my 26 I think. End of my 26.
2:26:27
>> Yeah. And you're and you're how old now?
2:26:29
>> I'm 31.
2:26:31
>> So So talk about Trillium. You've got a
2:26:32
really good team. I mean, you got Coach
2:26:34
Jim, you've got Cauo is there, a bunch
2:26:36
of good fighters. Talk about, you know,
2:26:38
what that has has done for you.
2:26:40
Certainly, it's helped you stay sober.
2:26:42
You're you're almost 5 years into it
2:26:44
now. Talk about what training uh gives
2:26:47
you.
2:26:50
>> Uh the first thing, not going to lie, it
2:26:52
was the love that I got got it from the
2:26:54
gym. like everyone was friendly like
2:26:56
like I felt like I guess like um
2:27:00
realness and a like a family feeling you
2:27:03
know what I mean like family love
2:27:05
>> and um they really take care of the
2:27:08
student you know what I mean like if
2:27:09
they if you if you like they don't mess
2:27:11
around like they would tell you what you
2:27:14
like doing wrong like you know what I
2:27:15
mean and plus they show show you love
2:27:19
and like as a coach most of them like a
2:27:22
very good coach like Like coach C,
2:27:26
he will see what you are good at
2:27:30
and he will not try to like push his
2:27:32
idea to you like he will use like what
2:27:34
you are good at and he will just fix
2:27:36
that and make that as your weapon. I
2:27:38
don't know if you you know what I'm
2:27:40
saying?
2:27:40
>> I do. Yep.
2:27:41
>> Yeah. So like coach C is like very like
2:27:44
very very like high IQ coach like I
2:27:47
don't know like the way he coach like
2:27:49
it's like next level. You know what I
2:27:50
mean? and coach survey as well. Like I
2:27:53
started with coach survey, start doing
2:27:54
private class with coach survey like all
2:27:57
um he fixed my all this technique that I
2:28:00
have like the the punch kicking the
2:28:03
technique the like simple um like
2:28:06
pivoting like he taught me all of that.
2:28:09
Then I start training when uh coach sir
2:28:13
moved to Markham and then I start
2:28:15
training full-time with coach C. when I
2:28:18
start training with coach see then he
2:28:20
start putting all this combo together
2:28:22
the technique the yeah they're just
2:28:25
wonderful coaches and like a wonderful
2:28:27
gym and all the the teammates around
2:28:29
they help each other
2:28:30
>> it's like a brotherly love you know what
2:28:32
I mean like all these coaches are like
2:28:33
my big brother and like all these like
2:28:35
the teammates we are like all together
2:28:38
like we are like brothers
2:28:40
>> I think a lot of the people watching
2:28:41
this interview can relate exactly to
2:28:43
what you're saying because Trillium is
2:28:45
just one gym and it's done some
2:28:47
beautiful things for you. But there's
2:28:48
fighters all across Canada, all across
2:28:50
the world who have their own trilliums
2:28:52
they go to and they find that
2:28:53
brotherhood and they find that
2:28:54
acceptance and I I think it's a
2:28:56
beautiful thing. I I love hearing that
2:28:57
kind of story.
2:28:59
>> Yeah.
2:29:01
Yeah. I mean like that's for sure. Like
2:29:02
our coaches are like they do really they
2:29:05
really care about their students.
2:29:07
>> Mhm.
2:29:07
>> Yeah.
2:29:08
>> When you started training other than you
2:29:10
said taekwond do when you were a kid,
2:29:11
you you're basically a beginner when you
2:29:13
started. Was there was there anything
2:29:15
that you excelled at that you were very
2:29:17
good at immediately or anything that you
2:29:19
were really bad at right away?
2:29:21
>> I think I was really good at grappling
2:29:24
uh as a like grappling the wrestling cuz
2:29:27
back then when I was in my village I
2:29:29
grew up in a village. I was born and
2:29:31
grew up in a village. In my village like
2:29:34
the wrestling is in our traditional we
2:29:36
don't have a gym or like anything. We
2:29:38
just wrestle in our backyard or like in
2:29:40
a mud
2:29:41
>> like we have wrestling. So like our
2:29:44
uncles we make they would make our like
2:29:47
me and my cousin wrestle or like my
2:29:49
friends who wrestle right like so we
2:29:51
grew up doing that we have like the belt
2:29:52
wrestling we call it kishi
2:29:55
we call it kishi so we hold each other
2:29:57
belts and like you know we wrestle
2:29:59
>> so it's almost like Mongolian wrestling.
2:30:01
>> Yeah. Yeah. I've seen that before.
2:30:03
>> Yeah. So I grew up doing that this kind
2:30:06
of thing you know and like we have like
2:30:08
a different uh there's another sports
2:30:10
called cop fight like we um it's like a
2:30:14
one leg up and one leg down we hold one
2:30:16
other leg up and we try to yeah we try
2:30:19
to like uh make them fall like kind this
2:30:23
kind of sports like basically like the
2:30:25
physical sports you know so I grew up
2:30:26
doing that
2:30:27
>> and like it's a mountain country too so
2:30:29
like we used to run up and down all the
2:30:31
time like you know I mean run to the
2:30:33
school come back up and down.
2:30:35
>> Yeah.
2:30:35
>> So we I always been like doing this
2:30:39
physical stuff like wrestling and you
2:30:42
know what I mean like going up and down
2:30:43
and I used to get in a lot of fight as
2:30:45
well. So that's why I got the I mean I
2:30:48
guess the dog in me I guess.
2:30:51
>> The dog in me. The dogs got a hold of
2:30:53
you.
2:30:54
>> All right. Now that you've been training
2:30:55
for years though, uh you know, how do
2:30:58
you describe yourself as an overall as a
2:31:00
mixed martial artist? If somebody was to
2:31:01
watch you in a cage and watch you fight,
2:31:03
what would they see? What would they
2:31:05
see? What kind of fight are you like?
2:31:07
>> I like mixing up. Like, you know what I
2:31:10
mean? Like, I like to mix up. Like, when
2:31:12
I start fighting, I try to wrestle just
2:31:14
to see like how I'm going to do
2:31:17
by doing wrestling cuz wrestling is not
2:31:19
easy, right? It takes up a lot of energy
2:31:22
>> and it takes up a lot of cardio as well.
2:31:24
Like so like uh I the beginning uh my
2:31:27
first fight as you can see like I
2:31:29
wrestled then even the second fight I
2:31:31
think I wrestled then third fight I
2:31:34
wrestled then fourth and fifth I wanted
2:31:36
to strike only to see like okay where's
2:31:38
my striking level at you know so I start
2:31:41
start striking and I loved my striking
2:31:42
as well but overall I like mixing it up
2:31:47
so freestyle fighter I guess.
2:31:49
>> Yeah. Yeah.
2:31:51
Now, we talked earlier on about you
2:31:53
being originally from Bhutan. I know
2:31:56
when I saw you come out to your first
2:31:57
fight ever. I don't remember where it
2:31:59
was. I don't think it was a thick boy. I
2:32:01
think it was somewhere else.
2:32:01
>> I think it was thick boys. Mr. Yeah. My
2:32:03
first MMA fight. Yeah.
2:32:04
>> Okay. I think that was it. You came out
2:32:06
with a Bhanese flag and for some reason
2:32:08
I knew exactly what it was when I saw
2:32:10
it. I don't know why. I just no
2:32:11
different flags. But, you know, when you
2:32:14
get seen by uh do you get seen by other
2:32:17
Bhanese people around the world and do
2:32:18
they do they know what mixed martial
2:32:20
arts is and do they sort of uh gravitate
2:32:23
toward you?
2:32:24
>> Yes, they um a lot of guys they they
2:32:27
they
2:32:29
support me cuz like I'm the first one,
2:32:31
right? So like they uh like like booties
2:32:35
from Australia, booties from New York,
2:32:38
all the other countries they start
2:32:40
training like they show me video, they
2:32:42
send me videos of them training because
2:32:44
of me. They're like, "Oh, because of
2:32:45
you, you gave me like an motivation to
2:32:48
train." So there's a lot of guys like
2:32:50
they send me a video of them training
2:32:51
MMA. Like back then they didn't want to
2:32:54
do it because like there was no one. I
2:32:55
don't know like you know what what was
2:32:57
the real reason but like but when I
2:33:00
start when my pictures and my videos
2:33:03
start showing up on the feed like they
2:33:06
start u training and
2:33:09
my country they uh in my country they um
2:33:13
they they have a news they have uh I was
2:33:16
in their newspaper and a news a national
2:33:19
uh news and a newspaper
2:33:23
so like because of that like every bene
2:33:26
kind of like not every bist but like I'm
2:33:28
kind of like kind of famous
2:33:31
like in my country
2:33:33
so like because of that like they start
2:33:35
train uh they start training MMA but in
2:33:37
Bhutan they want to train but they they
2:33:39
don't have an MMA gym so like
2:33:42
>> but they still like you know even they
2:33:45
can't train MMA they start training like
2:33:47
boxing other stuff.
2:33:49
>> Sure. Sure.
2:33:50
>> Yeah. But like back then they they
2:33:52
thought like, "Oh, this is like useless
2:33:54
cuz they they didn't see no booties was
2:33:56
doing it, right?"
2:33:57
>> Yeah.
2:33:57
>> So when they saw me doing it, they um it
2:34:01
kind of gave them a motivation to like,
2:34:03
"Okay, let's go." Like, you know?
2:34:05
>> Well, your story actually reminds me of
2:34:08
a different story I saw online just
2:34:10
maybe a month ago, and I'm going to
2:34:11
share that story with you now, and I
2:34:13
promise you it's going to make sense
2:34:14
when I get to the end of it.
2:34:17
This interview is with a a wrestling
2:34:19
coach, a a high school
2:34:23
wrestling coach or just a school like a
2:34:25
like a a small kid wrestling coach. I
2:34:27
think I'm going to say Michigan, but
2:34:29
maybe it was Iowa. I don't know where
2:34:30
some in the United States. And he was
2:34:32
telling a story about how his team was
2:34:35
all boys. All the boys were wrestling.
2:34:37
And then one day a parent came to him
2:34:39
and said, "Hey, could my daughter
2:34:41
wrestle w with the boys?" And he said,
2:34:43
"Sure. Yeah, I don't see why not." So
2:34:45
that day, the little girl got in the
2:34:46
mats with her brother and she she
2:34:48
wrestled. Well, the coach was surprised
2:34:51
when he came back to the gym the next
2:34:53
day and there were like 25 girls there
2:34:56
for class to to wrestle.
2:34:58
>> Yeah.
2:34:58
>> And he said overnight they became the
2:35:00
biggest female wrestling club in their
2:35:02
state. And he he says that's because
2:35:05
when all those little girls were in the
2:35:07
stand, you know, with their parents
2:35:08
watching their brothers wrestle, they
2:35:11
didn't know they were allowed to wrestle
2:35:12
and they were welcome. So all it took
2:35:14
was to see that one little girl
2:35:16
>> to realize they this is something they
2:35:18
could do. So
2:35:19
>> to put that in perspective, you are that
2:35:21
little girl for for Bhutan, right?
2:35:23
>> I guess you're you're showing them this
2:35:26
is this is real. This is something they
2:35:27
can do. And
2:35:28
>> that's you're that's what's called a
2:35:30
trailblazer, man. You're a trailblazer
2:35:31
for Bhutan and MMA
2:35:33
>> cuz like Bhutan like we we grew up like
2:35:35
in a village like it's a tough life over
2:35:37
there. Like I mean it's it is peaceful
2:35:39
country. We don't have no violence or
2:35:40
none of that but like we we have our own
2:35:43
struggle like you know what I mean like
2:35:44
a lot of like we especially me like me
2:35:47
and my friends we grew up in a village
2:35:48
there's nothing else to do.
2:35:50
>> Yeah.
2:35:51
>> So like you know what I mean like we are
2:35:53
tough people like we are like tough
2:35:55
people like you know what I mean? If we
2:35:56
get into this MMA or like this combat
2:35:59
sports I feel like we can take over you
2:36:01
know what I mean? Like we have less
2:36:03
population but like I know for sure like
2:36:06
we we are tough people. Like if we start
2:36:08
training,
2:36:10
if we if there's MMA gym in Bhutan in 10
2:36:14
20 years, there's going to be a lot of
2:36:16
lot of fighters from Bhutan that will
2:36:18
make make it to UFC cuz
2:36:22
I know for sure like my our our uh my
2:36:26
people like we are tough people, you
2:36:29
know, we are kind, we are tough, you
2:36:32
know what I mean?
2:36:33
>> Yeah.
2:36:34
>> Is that is that something you'd ever
2:36:35
want to do? Would you ever want to go
2:36:36
back to Bhutan and open up an MMA gym?
2:36:39
>> That's the plan.
2:36:40
>> Really?
2:36:41
>> Inshallah. That's the plan. Inshallah. I
2:36:43
mean, you know, I mean, I we plan, they
2:36:47
plan, and Allah's plan. Allah is the
2:36:49
best plan. You know, whatever Allah has
2:36:51
planned for me. I'm happy with it. But
2:36:53
that's my plan. I want to go back to
2:36:54
Bhutan and open up MMA gym. Especially
2:36:57
like grappling. I want to take grappling
2:36:58
and wrestling back to Bhutan cuz we
2:37:01
already have judo.
2:37:04
We already have judo like you know so
2:37:06
judo and wrestling is kind of like
2:37:08
similar you know what I mean?
2:37:09
>> Yeah just they need to I mean even
2:37:11
jiujitsu and judo is almost kind of
2:37:12
similar so like we just need to just put
2:37:16
some together you know what I mean then
2:37:20
>> yeah we will have a lot of bney MMA
2:37:23
fighter in the future for sure.
2:37:24
>> That would be amazing. I would be so
2:37:26
proud I mean I'm sure everybody be so
2:37:27
proud of you if you did something like
2:37:29
that. That's really cool.
2:37:30
>> Yeah that's the plan. Let's see.
2:37:33
>> All right. But before you can open up
2:37:34
your MMA gym, you have to have your next
2:37:36
MMA fight. And that is
2:37:38
>> Oh, yeah. Definitely.
2:37:39
>> That's scheduled for October 24th in
2:37:41
Niagara on the Lake at Prospect MMA 27.
2:37:44
And you're fighting a Ukrainian man who
2:37:46
lives in Canada now named Alex Krski.
2:37:48
What do you know about Alex and how are
2:37:50
you preparing to fight him?
2:37:52
>> I know he's a
2:37:54
striker,
2:37:56
so I guess I will mix it up. I'll strike
2:37:59
with him for a little bit, then I'll mix
2:38:01
it up. I mean, take, you know, try to do
2:38:03
my wrestling.
2:38:06
We'll see. I'll test everywhere. I'll
2:38:08
test him or he might test me. Let's see.
2:38:11
We'll test each other. He will test my
2:38:13
striking. I'll test his grappling. So, I
2:38:16
know he's a good striker. I know. Yeah,
2:38:18
he he had over 100 fights, kickboxing
2:38:20
fights.
2:38:22
>> So, but like, you know, it's MMA, right?
2:38:24
It's different. So,
2:38:25
>> yep.
2:38:26
>> I want to see. I'll test his wrestling.
2:38:28
he would test my striking. Let's see
2:38:29
where we end up at.
2:38:31
>> Well, I I just spoke with him. He's uh
2:38:33
right now finishing up a threemonth uh
2:38:36
trip to Tristar MMA where he said he's
2:38:38
learning a lot. So, you know, I don't
2:38:40
know if he's going to be a pure striker
2:38:41
anymore, but regardless, I think you're
2:38:43
you're both really exciting fighters to
2:38:44
watch and I'm really interested to see
2:38:46
how this fight goes.
2:38:48
>> Yeah, I mean, I want to test my I know
2:38:49
he's a tough fighter. I have seen couple
2:38:52
of his fight karate combat and I saw I
2:38:55
didn't see his MMA fight because I
2:38:57
couldn't find it. I but like I f I saw
2:38:59
his combat I mean karate combat
2:39:02
>> y
2:39:03
>> fight he he's a bro. He's a tough guy.
2:39:06
He's a tough guy. That's that's the
2:39:08
that's that's kind of fight that I was
2:39:10
looking for. Even the before
2:39:13
>> uh my prospect last fight that I had
2:39:16
with um what is his name?
2:39:19
What is his name? the the last opponent.
2:39:22
>> Let me check.
2:39:26
>> Yeah, like I was supposed to fight
2:39:28
>> That was Hunter Coin.
2:39:29
>> Hunter? Yes, Hunter. I was supposed to
2:39:32
fight Scout.
2:39:34
>> Scout.
2:39:35
>> Yeah, he he he has a knockout punch. I
2:39:37
wanted to test my jaw, too. You know
2:39:38
what I mean? to see like how I you know
2:39:42
that he was one I thought like he will
2:39:43
be I'll fight him and I'll test my my my
2:39:47
skill there my test my king whatever you
2:39:51
know then I got the Hunter and Hunter oh
2:39:54
my god this guy was a very skillful
2:39:56
fighter too you know cuz I didn't know
2:39:58
he had like so many kickboxing fight as
2:40:01
well Hunter he's like two times national
2:40:04
champion championship
2:40:06
>> I didn't know about that like I didn't
2:40:08
know nothing about this cuz like he was
2:40:09
like he accepted the fight like in 9
2:40:11
days or one week before the fight. So I
2:40:14
didn't know nothing about the hunter.
2:40:16
>> Okay.
2:40:17
>> Yeah. So like I I got into the I mean I
2:40:19
got into the ring I mean in a cage
2:40:21
without knowing anything about this guy
2:40:23
and yeah he showed me he was a tough
2:40:25
guy. He broke my nose whatever.
2:40:29
But he was a tough guy cuz I hit him
2:40:31
with a very good punches like uppercut
2:40:33
and all that but he didn't go down.
2:40:35
>> Yeah.
2:40:35
>> Yeah. Very tough guy. Very tough guy.
2:40:37
Well, you're a tough guy, too. And your
2:40:39
your record reflects that you're 5-0 as
2:40:41
an amateur. How is it at this point?
2:40:44
You're 31 years old. Why Why are you
2:40:45
going professional now?
2:40:48
>> Uh yeah, I'm not getting any younger,
2:40:51
right? So, like maybe I have like five
2:40:53
or six years in this game. I want to
2:40:57
I think even my coaches, I talked to my
2:40:59
coaches before I went uh before before I
2:41:02
made this decision. I asked them, "Am I
2:41:04
ready for pro?" And coach say, "Yeah,
2:41:06
you ready for pro?" Cuz I'm there every
2:41:09
day. I'm there six days a week and like
2:41:11
I Mondays, Wednesday, Friday, I train
2:41:14
twice a day. And um
2:41:18
my coach see me training every day since
2:41:20
like when I start training like 4 years
2:41:22
ago with them. They saw me. I was coming
2:41:24
there every day. Like I like you know
2:41:26
what I mean? Like I was there almost
2:41:28
every day and they saw me training and
2:41:31
and I asked them like am I ready for
2:41:33
pro? They all of my coach were agreed
2:41:36
with me and that's like you know only
2:41:39
the reason why I made the decision. If
2:41:41
they say I I wasn't ready I was not
2:41:43
going to go pro.
2:41:44
>> Mhm.
2:41:45
>> They told me I'm ready then I went pro.
2:41:47
But I deep like inside deep inside me I
2:41:50
I thought I was ready as well. But I
2:41:53
just wanted the last word from coaches
2:41:55
right like they they know me better cuz
2:41:57
they see me training every day. And I
2:41:59
asked them and they say yes.
2:42:02
>> And here we are. You're just a few short
2:42:04
weeks away from your pro debut. It's got
2:42:06
to be exciting for you.
2:42:07
>> Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. Excited.
2:42:09
I don't know. Excited feelings and all
2:42:11
that mixed feelings. You know what I
2:42:12
mean? Cuz it is a pro and it's different
2:42:15
timing.
2:42:17
>> Elbow, knee, everything on the face. You
2:42:19
know, it's different now.
2:42:21
>> 5 minute. Oh.
2:42:24
>> What's the What's the worst you've ever
2:42:26
been hit before? You said you got your
2:42:27
nose broken by Hunter. Was there
2:42:29
anything else?
2:42:30
>> I think that that was that that was it.
2:42:33
Uh uh I got hit like I didn't get
2:42:35
wobbled. Oh no.
2:42:38
My first stand up fight I went against
2:42:40
the guy that was like 170
2:42:44
170. It was a c catch weight.
2:42:47
>> Yeah.
2:42:48
>> I was 155 the whole time. He was 170
2:42:51
coming down to 160.
2:42:53
And um he weighed in and we fought after
2:42:57
2 days after the wear in. So that the
2:43:01
fight day he was already 170. He was big
2:43:04
guy. Oh he gave me concussion. That was
2:43:07
my first kickboxing fight ever. It was
2:43:10
first striking fight ever. And like yeah
2:43:13
he he it he was a bad concussion. This
2:43:15
every punch that he touched me I felt
2:43:18
like my brain was shaking cuz this guy
2:43:20
was big and long tall. And um every
2:43:24
punch that he touched my I mean he he
2:43:26
touched me I felt my brain was shaking.
2:43:29
>> I bet.
2:43:30
>> Yeah. But he didn't put me down though.
2:43:32
You know I haven't been hit worse than
2:43:34
that in a street when I used to fight. I
2:43:37
used to get in a lot of fight. I broke
2:43:39
my jaw in a fight back then. Somebody
2:43:41
snuck me in like in a street. I have
2:43:44
been hit with a bunch of stuff before
2:43:46
but like Yeah. I never went down.
2:43:48
>> Wow. And you want to test your chin?
2:43:51
Okay. I got it.
2:43:52
>> Yeah,
2:43:54
I mean that I guess.
2:43:57
>> All right, Chelra, I think it's time to
2:43:58
to wrap things up. I really appreciate
2:44:00
you taking the time to chat with me, but
2:44:02
before we go, I'm wondering, is there
2:44:04
anything else that you think we should
2:44:06
have talked about that I didn't ask you?
2:44:09
>> I think it's everything. Yeah, I mean,
2:44:10
you know better. Like, I don't do this
2:44:12
every day, right? So, I'm kind of
2:44:14
nervous as well.
2:44:15
>> Oh, nothing to be nervous about. I mean,
2:44:16
you've met How many times have we met?
2:44:18
Like, bunch of times. Just
2:44:19
>> I know this camera just I mean I guess
2:44:21
I'm camera shy.
2:44:23
>> That's okay. It's normal. You'll be
2:44:25
better next time.
2:44:26
>> Yeah. I hope I might get used to this
2:44:29
camera stuff, right? Media.
2:44:30
>> Okay. I'm going to end off by saying the
2:44:32
same thing to you that I said to Alex.
2:44:35
And that when I heard about this fight,
2:44:36
I didn't like it for the only one
2:44:39
reason. The one reason is I like you
2:44:41
both. He's a good man. You're a good
2:44:43
man. I like you both. I like you both as
2:44:45
people. And I hate the fact that you're
2:44:47
gonna fight and somebody's going to win
2:44:48
and somebody's gonna lose. But
2:44:50
>> that's a fight game, right?
2:44:52
>> That's what happens when you fight.
2:44:53
Somebody's somebody's gonna be happy,
2:44:55
someone's going to be sad. So, all I can
2:44:56
do is I can wish you the best of luck. I
2:44:58
hope you're uh as as best prepared as
2:45:01
you can. I hope you show up on fight
2:45:02
night being the best Cheltram Ragiel
2:45:05
that you can be. And I hope you have a
2:45:06
great fight.
2:45:07
>> Thank you so much. Thank you very much.
2:45:09
Thank you for your support. You always
2:45:10
been supporting me since the beginning.
2:45:13
You was there in my first fight? I think
2:45:15
second fight. Second fight, too.
2:45:18
>> No, no. I think you were a second fight.
2:45:20
Yeah, second fight. Fourth and fifth.
2:45:22
>> Yeah.
2:45:23
>> I'm glad you're keeping track. It's been
2:45:24
a bunch of times, but
2:45:26
>> Yeah. Yeah. You were there like four
2:45:27
four of my fights. Yeah. You couldn't I
2:45:29
mean like I fought in Ottawa. That's the
2:45:30
only time that you didn't come.
2:45:31
>> Okay.
2:45:32
>> It was all the way in Ottawa.
2:45:33
>> Yeah.
2:45:35
>> All right.
2:45:35
>> But thank you so much for your support.
2:45:37
Yeah.
2:45:37
>> You're welcome. There you go. Fight
2:45:38
friends. Cheltram Ragiel. Uh Bhanese
2:45:41
fighter. Bhanese Canadian fighter
2:45:42
fighting at prospect 24 on October 24th.
2:45:45
Make sure you watch it if you can.
2:45:49
Hey there fight friends. We have our
2:45:51
prospect of the week here with us right
2:45:53
now. His name is Samir Ahmad. Samir
2:45:55
Ahmad. He is a 4-0 amateur fighter based
2:45:57
out of Calgary. I was first introduced
2:46:00
to this young man at a prospect, the
2:46:02
last prospect or the second last
2:46:04
prospect when he beat the highly touted
2:46:06
other highly touted amateur prospect uh
2:46:09
Urus Bos Bosikk and uh Samir won that
2:46:12
fight and he looked really good doing it
2:46:14
and so I just had to chat with him right
2:46:15
now. Samir, how are you?
2:46:17
>> Hi. Hi. How are you? Thank you for
2:46:19
having me here.
2:46:21
>> You're welcome. Now, for a lot of my
2:46:24
audience, this will be the first time
2:46:25
they've ever heard your name and they've
2:46:27
ever heard your face. Could you please
2:46:29
just take a moment, introduce yourself,
2:46:31
say who you are, say where you're from,
2:46:33
and how you got involved in combat
2:46:35
sports.
2:46:37
Hi guys, I'm Samir and I'm from
2:46:40
Afghanistan
2:46:41
and I've been doing
2:46:44
uh mixed martial art uh since when I was
2:46:49
uh 6 years old
2:46:52
and I'm still doing it and I like it.
2:46:57
How old are you now, Samir?
2:46:59
>> Uh, now I'm 18 years old.
2:47:02
>> Wow. So, 18 years old. So, you've been
2:47:04
training for 12 years. You've had four
2:47:06
amateur fights, MMA fights, and you've
2:47:08
won them all. Uh, that's pretty
2:47:10
impressive. Like, at 18 years old, you
2:47:12
must be uh I don't even know if I've got
2:47:14
a question in there. I'm just going to
2:47:15
say good on you, man. That's excellent.
2:47:18
>> Thank you, man.
2:47:20
>> You said you're from Afghanistan. I've
2:47:22
noted uh in the past several years a lot
2:47:24
of uh Afghani fighters come to Canada
2:47:27
and they they fight now and they're
2:47:29
doing really well. Do you have like a
2:47:31
community of Afghani fighters you you
2:47:34
talk with that you're a part of like do
2:47:35
you train with any other Afghani
2:47:37
fighters in Canada or do you talk to
2:47:39
anybody across the country or even
2:47:41
anywhere on the around the world?
2:47:43
>> Yeah. Yeah. I am I'm training with some
2:47:47
Afghani guys and Champions Crate and
2:47:50
they're helping me. It's good to have
2:47:53
somebody with you like same country as
2:47:56
you. It's good. It's easy to understand
2:47:59
them.
2:48:00
Yeah.
2:48:03
>> So, how long have you you've been at
2:48:05
Champions Creed then?
2:48:07
>> It's been maybe like three and a half or
2:48:11
four years.
2:48:13
>> Okay.
2:48:14
Yeah, when I come to Canada, I was uh
2:48:18
going to different gym and after 6 month
2:48:21
I changed to Champions Creed because
2:48:24
it's number one gym in Calgary or
2:48:28
Alberta.
2:48:29
>> Mhm. When you first started uh when you
2:48:33
first heard about Champions Creed, how
2:48:35
did you know that it was a good gym? Did
2:48:37
it just from word of mouth, people told
2:48:38
you it was an excellent gym? or did you
2:48:40
meet the coach Brian and Sheila Bird or
2:48:43
uh how did you get started there?
2:48:46
So, uh I saw on Instagram there was one
2:48:50
Afghani fighter was fighting in absolute
2:48:54
MMA and I saw him he's training in
2:48:58
Champions Creed and I messaged him and
2:49:00
he said, "Yeah, Cam, it's a good gym and
2:49:03
I just joined the gym.
2:49:05
They're actually good good sparring
2:49:08
partners.
2:49:09
Everything is perfect there." Uh yeah.
2:49:14
Yeah, that's always exciting when you
2:49:16
find a good place that that fits you
2:49:19
because and it's not even putting down
2:49:21
other gyms. Like everybody that's
2:49:23
watching this show right now has their
2:49:25
gym they go to and they love. Most of us
2:49:27
have tried other gyms before we got to
2:49:29
our main gym. And there's not there's
2:49:31
anything wrong with them. It's just you
2:49:32
find a gym where you fit and Champions
2:49:35
Creed is your fit. So that's that's
2:49:37
great that you're a part of such a team
2:49:38
like that because they are an excellent
2:49:39
team.
2:49:40
>> Yeah, 100%.
2:49:43
Talk about your main coaches. Is Brian
2:49:45
Bird your main coach or Josh Fox or how
2:49:48
does that work?
2:49:50
>> Um, coach Brian is my main coach. He's
2:49:53
the
2:49:54
>> Yeah, he's coach and also coach Chad.
2:49:58
Good luck. Chad fight a fight this
2:50:01
weekend. You said good luck.
2:50:04
>> I'll I'll ask you about Chad later on,
2:50:06
but first things first, what's coach
2:50:09
Brian Bird like as a coach, an MMA
2:50:11
coach?
2:50:12
He he's he's a great coach. He's
2:50:16
I'm learning from him a lot of things
2:50:19
every time.
2:50:21
And uh yeah, he's uh his jiu-jitsu is
2:50:26
different level and he's a great MMA
2:50:28
coach
2:50:30
and it's good to work with him.
2:50:34
>> Yeah, I agree. He's a fantastic coach.
2:50:36
He has a really good thing happening in
2:50:37
Champions Creed and uh Absolute MMA, his
2:50:40
own promotion. That's a fantastic avenue
2:50:42
for him to showcase his fighters.
2:50:45
>> So, the last time I saw you fight, it
2:50:46
was an Ontario prospect. And now you are
2:50:49
next fight is going to be on October
2:50:50
24th at Absolute MMA 9. And that's got
2:50:54
to be exciting. You're so close to that.
2:50:55
How are you feeling?
2:50:57
>> I I feel uh good. My training camp was
2:51:02
perfect. This like I I I feel like this
2:51:06
was my best training camp ever. I feel
2:51:09
sorry.
2:51:11
And you guys will see October 24th. Um,
2:51:16
whoever is in Calgary, please buy the
2:51:18
ticket and come watch me fight.
2:51:23
>> Yeah.
2:51:23
>> What do you know about the guy you're
2:51:25
fighting?
2:51:26
>> Uh,
2:51:29
I I usually don't even look like uh what
2:51:32
my opponent doing. I don't care like
2:51:35
what I'm doing and I know I I'm I'm
2:51:38
based in everywhere. I can do
2:51:40
everything. Jiu-jitsu, wrestling,
2:51:43
striking
2:51:44
and the they I just know a little bit
2:51:47
from like about him because I saw one of
2:51:50
his fight like in person in absolute
2:51:53
MMA. It was just shooting shooting try
2:51:57
to take his opponent down. But if he try
2:52:01
to do the same thing to me, it's like
2:52:03
he's going to do big mistake because
2:52:05
it's five round fight and he's gonna
2:52:07
guess himself out and he got a fight
2:52:10
with me. Striking and striking is my
2:52:12
word and I will knock him out easy and
2:52:15
see. You guys will see.
2:52:18
>> I didn't realize your fight was a five
2:52:20
round fight. So, it must be for a
2:52:21
championship then.
2:52:22
>> Yeah, it's for the 135 build.
2:52:26
>> Wow, that's exciting. 18 years old and
2:52:28
MMA champion. Um, that's got to be
2:52:32
that's got to be exciting you and making
2:52:33
you happy and getting eager to get in
2:52:35
there.
2:52:36
>> Yeah, I I'm I want featherweight
2:52:42
champion in Prospect FC and I defend it
2:52:44
one time. I want to go get the 135 bel
2:52:48
and then after that if it's possible I
2:52:50
want to go get 125. So, three division
2:52:53
champion and then after that I will go
2:52:55
professional. Wow, that's incredible. Do
2:52:59
you have uh you know, I hear you say
2:53:01
that and it's incredible, but three
2:53:03
divisions, it doesn't happen very often.
2:53:05
I'm trying to think if anybody's ever
2:53:07
done it. Probably. But, uh, you know, is
2:53:10
that really wise to to to change your
2:53:13
weight so much over the span of time?
2:53:17
>> It's it's it's no problem for me. I had
2:53:19
a base nutritionist with me. Uh, and he
2:53:25
he he fixed everything for me like he he
2:53:27
he told me that if you want to go to
2:53:31
because my first uh two fight was 125.
2:53:35
So he said if you want to go back to
2:53:37
125, it's no problem. We're going to
2:53:39
make it. So I trust him and we will make
2:53:43
125 if I need to because I want to
2:53:46
become three. I mean, three division
2:53:49
champion. I think it's going to be the
2:53:52
fir I'm going to be the first guy.
2:53:55
Like, I don't know if anybody before
2:53:57
done this before. I don't know, but I'm
2:54:00
going to be the first guy. And yeah, you
2:54:03
guys will see.
2:54:05
>> I don't know either. I know there's
2:54:06
multiple dual champions. Have you ever
2:54:09
heard of uh Henry Cejudo used to fight
2:54:11
in the UFC?
2:54:12
>> Yeah. Yeah. So Henry Cejudo had two
2:54:15
championship belts in two different
2:54:16
weight classes and he famously coined
2:54:18
the term champ which a lot of people use
2:54:21
now. So it's possible in the future you
2:54:23
might be champ.
2:54:25
>> Yeah it's it's possible 100% if they if
2:54:29
the promotion give me the opportunity
2:54:33
and it's possible 100%.
2:54:36
>> And who knows as you get older and you
2:54:38
you know become a mature man your body
2:54:40
fills out you might even want to go
2:54:42
higher. So you might be champ champ
2:54:46
>> like uh yeah when I go professional then
2:54:50
I will
2:54:52
change my weight class 100%.
2:54:55
>> Yeah. Okay.
2:54:56
>> All right. So uh I had a question on the
2:55:00
top of my mind but I don't remember what
2:55:01
it is. Oh yeah. Um your fight style I
2:55:04
was really amazed going into your
2:55:06
prospect fight against Uros. I had seen
2:55:09
him fight in person five or six times
2:55:12
and I had a lot of respect for him. I
2:55:14
still do, but no disrespect to you. I
2:55:17
I'd never heard of you. I didn't know
2:55:18
you going into that fight. So, I assumed
2:55:21
that he was going to win. But that
2:55:23
fight, I'll tell you, I think I gave you
2:55:24
guys my fight of the night that night.
2:55:26
And you you won that fight and you
2:55:28
deserve the win the win. You were so
2:55:30
good. You were just explosive. You were
2:55:33
fast. You were technical. Uh, incredible
2:55:36
fight on your part.
2:55:38
um talk about that fight and and you
2:55:41
know if that if that taught you anything
2:55:44
about yourself because he was not a
2:55:45
pushover you had to earn that victory.
2:55:48
>> That guy was actually
2:55:51
good fighter. His record was seven and
2:55:53
one.
2:55:55
And uh actually that fight 3 weeks or
2:55:58
four weeks before my fight I injured my
2:56:01
like knackle it was I thought I I I
2:56:05
broke it and I went to doctor I checked
2:56:07
it it was it was uh not broke but it was
2:56:12
so like I couldn't use my right hand
2:56:16
like almost all fight camp and then last
2:56:20
week of the fight it was better I
2:56:21
couldn't I I I was using it and then
2:56:24
fight I was not even 100%. So October
2:56:27
24th, you're going to see like 10 time
2:56:30
better than that because I'm 100% ready.
2:56:32
Everything's on point.
2:56:34
>> Amazing.
2:56:35
>> Yeah. So that night I was not uh it was
2:56:38
not my 100%. So once you see my 100%
2:56:41
you're going to be more surprised.
2:56:44
>> When you're not training and fighting,
2:56:46
what do you do with the rest of your
2:56:48
life? Do you go to school? Do you work?
2:56:51
No, I I all I do is training. And uh I I
2:56:56
finished high school two years ago and
2:56:59
I'm not working. I'm not going to school
2:57:01
anymore. All I do is training and yeah,
2:57:06
I love doing this. And I have uh my
2:57:10
dad's been supporting me since day one.
2:57:13
And I just he just told me just go train
2:57:17
and that's it. Yeah, that's uh like
2:57:22
I don't know what to say. He's uh like
2:57:25
without him all this like wouldn't be
2:57:28
possible.
2:57:30
>> Yeah, that's incredible. He's so
2:57:31
supportive. A lot of fighters would
2:57:33
would wish they were in a situation like
2:57:35
yours.
2:57:37
>> Yeah.
2:57:39
>> So, what's the long-term plan with your
2:57:41
fight career? I think I'm going to know
2:57:42
the answer, but I want to hear you say
2:57:43
it.
2:57:45
So
2:57:47
maybe one more, two more fight amateur
2:57:50
and then I talk to my coaches. It's hard
2:57:53
to find me fighting amateurs.
2:57:56
>> Mhm.
2:57:56
>> I may go pro and then like all MMA
2:58:00
fighters who's fighting and professional
2:58:04
they want to make it to the UFC one day.
2:58:08
The mine is same thing. I want to make
2:58:09
it to the UFC
2:58:12
and fight in a high level.
2:58:15
>> Mhm.
2:58:15
>> And it's going to happen. Just time will
2:58:19
time will show everything. So I just I
2:58:21
I'm not just talking. You guys will see
2:58:23
me in UFC one day.
2:58:26
>> Yep. It's really fortunate for you that
2:58:30
in your gym you've got two UFC fighters,
2:58:32
at least two. Chad Aneler, Hakee Dawu.
2:58:35
He's not in the US anymore, but he was.
2:58:38
Also, other high level fighters. It's
2:58:40
got to be good having people like that
2:58:42
in your corner that have have been where
2:58:45
you want to go and they can help guide
2:58:46
you.
2:58:47
>> Yeah, 100%.
2:58:52
>> All right, Samir, I was really uh
2:58:53
thankful that I got to speak with you
2:58:55
tonight. Um, we're going to wrap things
2:58:57
up, but before we go, I'm going to ask
2:58:58
you, is there anything else that you
2:59:01
think we should have talked about that I
2:59:02
didn't ask you?
2:59:04
I I just want to say uh
2:59:08
um please guys come support me. October
2:59:12
24th it's going to be good show in
2:59:14
Calgary Absolute MMA. Buy ticket and
2:59:18
come support me. Thank you so much. I
2:59:22
will see you guys October 24.
2:59:25
>> Thank you Samir. I was at the last
2:59:27
Absolute. I think it was on May 2nd. Uh,
2:59:30
unfortunately I won't be able to be at
2:59:31
this one, but uh, I'm regretting it
2:59:33
because I'd love to watch you fight
2:59:34
again, but I think I will have many more
2:59:36
chances to watch you fight in the
2:59:37
future. So, congratulations on
2:59:39
everything and good luck at your fight.
2:59:41
>> Thank you so much for having me. Have a
2:59:43
good day, sir.
2:59:44
>> All right. You, too. Take care.