Latest / Caught on the Mike... / ONE FC's Ben "Vanilla Thunder" Tynan

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ONE FC's Ben "Vanilla Thunder" Tynan · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Listener discretion is advised.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: We have a great conversation.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: You can also watch this episode of I'm excited for you to hear what we have to talk about.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, I have been doing this podcast for almost four years now.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I work a lot with my friends on Elevation Fight Team and High Altitude Martial Arts, and it has gone without fail.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody has said to me, dude, have you had vanilla on yet?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And today I have the one, the only vanilla thunder Ben Tynan.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: How the hell are you, man?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's quite the introduction.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing pretty good.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Doing good.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sweet, man.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Sweet.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you're an MMA heavyweight.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you've been fighting most recently with one fighting championship.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Are you in a multiple fight contract with them?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I got a six-fight contract, so I'll be fighting a lot with one.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of want to give you the opportunity to introduce yourself and let's kind of talk a little bit about your origin story, more in particularly how you went from Canada to North Dakota to Colorado.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about it, man.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, cool.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh as for myself, I am Vanilla Thunder, uh, you know, the charming blonde here.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I uh was born in Canada, um uh lived there as a little kid, and then moved to actually Seattle when my mom uh remarried.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I lived in Seattle for quite some time.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then I went to school in North Dakota State because I wrestled for them.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I've kind of been all over the place, but yeah, been in Denver for three years now, so it's been pretty good.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, what brought you to Denver and what attracted you to training at high altitude and uh with elevation fight team?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it was it was just the fight team.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was training up in Seattle, and uh I was trained there for a couple years, but like there's no really like good heavyweights to train with up there.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And like growing up wrestling, I know to be the best, you gotta train with the best.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, man, let me like I don't have a wife or kids or nothing holding me down.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, let me just pick up shop and move somewhere, you know.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I was checking out some of the top gyms, and uh Elevation, of course, had like you know, great, you know, big boys and just an overall team.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I figured I'd check them out.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: They seem like a good fit.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided to bless them with my presence.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, you almost went Ric Flair with that one.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: If I you're gonna if you want to be the best, you're gonna train with the best.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Rick Flair, yeah.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: The man was right, you know.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: He had blonde hair too, and he was a charming guy as well, right?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very handsome.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, so what have you found training with that group of dudes?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because I kind of already have know the answer in the back of my mind, but what have you found training with them that you hadn't experienced elsewhere?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because I noticed personally there's a different sense of character with the elevation guys and the high altitude guys, or as you guys all affectionately refer to yourself, the gorilla gang.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, the gorilla gang.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're really tight-knit group.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's super rare to have as many like heavyweights, high-level heavyweights in one room like we have.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's kind of strange because we we like been kind of because we got so many big guys, uh, more big guys have been kind of coming along.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of just like growing.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we got some up-and-comers who are still amateurs who have like great backgrounds, and then we have more like seasoned guys like Curtis or Zach on the team, and then you got some killers like me and Ty, and it's it's kind of cool.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: You get like a little bit of everything with it.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and ladies and gentlemen, if you are not following Vanilla on Instagram, there is this fantastic picture.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: It was like what, a year, year and a half ago, where the guys recreated the Dagestani uh spa photo.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I don't know what makes me laugh more.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Your walkout attire, you gotta talk about that.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like the tuxedo t-shirt.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: How did you land on that, man?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't, you know, I don't really know.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of always uh I'm I've always been a fan of cutoff t-shirts.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of like I wear a bunch of cutoff t-shirts.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta show off the guns, you know.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I felt like uh I don't know, I felt like that would be good.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's just weird how it all came together because I've I've always wanted the jean shorts from my like from my amateur days.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I tried ordering some jean short, like, like shorts online, and uh I got this really cheap pair that came in that I found out was underwear, and it was like so skimpy and tiny, and I'm like, okay, I can't wear this.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of had to wait for the right moment.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, that came together.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, it's just uh the tuxedo shirt kind of came, and me ripping it off.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't know, I I don't know where I came from.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt like, hey, I should rip my shirt.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And when you think about how kind of I want to say loose that organizations like UFC have gotten recently with a lot of people's fight attire, their their walkout kits and such, I it won't be long, man.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know you've got this six-fight deal with one.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have aspirations to try other are you or are you at liberty to say?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, whether you've got aspirations to try other organizations?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just depends where things go.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I always pictured myself in the UFC and that was kind of the goal.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: But uh kind of where things are going right now, one's a really, really cool company, and I'm not just saying that to kiss ass.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh since I've been a part of it, it's been a crazy journey and experience, and uh I really like it.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like I like you said, I love how um one's more lenient with uh you know, like letting people become more characters, you know what I mean?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: They let you be yourself, whereas in the UFC, they're trying to make everyone the same and just have the brand out there, like, oh, this is UFC.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas one, it's like, no, here's this crazy guy with blonde hair who likes wearing jorts and beating dudes up.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, dude, this is awesome.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's a lot better fit for me.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Did you, before you signed with one, did you watch their version of The Apprentice at all?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: With the president and CEO of one.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Me neither, but I've like, I've been highly curious about it.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, shit, man, I might get on Amazon and just watch that back.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're right, like one is gaining some serious momentum and has the past three years or so, and they're getting quite the reputation.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I've always had the opinion that competition is the best thing for the workplace.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, uh Walgreens wouldn't survive without a CVS, you know, your Ace hardware, your Home Depot, and Lowe's wouldn't survive without them competing with each other.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: So the same thing goes with like UFC One, Bellator, you know, some all of these organizations that are making power moves and doing great things.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: What are your long-term aspirations if you stay in place with one?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know there were some call outs after your last victory.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, I don't know.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I I really uh I'll all right.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I really want to be the champ of one.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the the go-to plan.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Their belts are really badass, they're huge, golden, like shield-looking things.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I was actually picking one up during the the photo shoot uh for my last fight because they had it sitting on the side.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, how do I get some photos of this bad boy?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it it looks like a really good belt.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely want to uh run through uh the heavyweight division here, but uh like you said, uh the company's growing a lot, so it's kind of cool to see because as it picks up more traction, it's it's only gonna get bigger, it's only there's only gonna be more fighters joining.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's kind of cool.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like uh to be a part of uh one right now is like I feel like a historic moment because I feel like they're only gonna get bigger.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I'm one of those like guys who are like entered during that transitional phase, I feel like I don't know, it'll be nice having my face up there.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's always exciting being at the ground level of something, isn't it?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's crazy because it's a it's a different type of excitement.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like I remember this is gonna be the craziest comparison.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like about a year ago when threads dropped.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Instagram's threads, their their attempt at trying to do a Twitter for about two weeks, the algorithm was absolutely insane, and you could interact with anybody and everybody.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: And and it was like, man, this is kind of exciting because I'm at the ground level of this to where everybody's accessible, everything every piece of information that's coming across is exciting to read, exciting to hear.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I imagine as one's building momentum, it's kind of the same feeling.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's cool.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're gaining ground here in the US, but you go over to Asia and they're huge.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh not to sound like an asshole, but it felt really nice to get people to recognize me when I was just over in Thailand.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, even afterwards, I went to the beaches of like Fuket, and like once a day, like you know, random people come up and be like, I saw you fight, no wanting photos.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh yes, yes.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's that was oh, I will take a photo, but you know, I I have to get back to my life, you know.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh I'm a very busy man.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, I absolutely love that, dude.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't apologize for that.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like be the be the asshole, own the moment.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's champ shit, you know?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you're right.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: You make a good point.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: That is champ shit.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna be the champ, you gotta you gotta act like the champ.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: There it is.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's the Ric Flair reference again.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: It keeps coming to Ric Flair.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: You are the Ric Flair of one uh fighting championship.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's what is gonna happen.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now now you gotta walk out with the uh the tuxedo t-shirt and the big feather boa and the Rolex watch.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've been working on that actually.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: You might be seeing the old vanilla thunder robe here soon.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: I love that, man.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about your amateur record.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: You were undefeated as an amateur, you were 3-0 in LFA, 2-0 with one fighting championship.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of friends that fight, as you know, um, both on the amateur level and the professional level.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: You haven't experienced a loss yet.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Has has that crossed your mind what that would do to you mentally in your mental space if that happens?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've never lost, and I probably never will, to be honest, Mike.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's Woo! There it is.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: You think a guy like this loses in life?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nah.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's I just accept it.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's what it is.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up wrestling, and of course, I've had plenty of losses in wrestling.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know how to deal with losses, I know how to deal with competition.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the one thing I learned from wrestling is I know how to not accept losing, you know, like it comes to a point where I feel like too many people like accept losing, like they look as at it like being, I don't know, like an emotional, like, you know, I lost this is so heartbreaking, you know.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I learned like through my life is like there's no like there's nothing pretty about being a loser.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: There, you know, like as much as people love watching like drama movies and oh, they were so close and they lost, here's my sympathy.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And in the long end, there's nothing glorious about it, you know.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you kind of gotta push that part out of you and say, if a loss comes, so be it.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the guy's gotta earn it, the guy's gotta take it, you know.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just gonna like choke myself and be like, well, you know, I've had a really hard time this last couple months, and things feel a little off, so you know, I'm I'm just gonna like you know, sit all sad like and just oh well, he beat me.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't feel right.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, you gotta kill me to beat me, you know.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, I love that.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Having that collegiate wrestling background, what's something that you've learned making that transition to MMA, whether it be style, your approach to the art, and what have you since your time in Colorado?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I feel like the best thing I took from wrestling is just kind of uh uh mindset.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that that's the best thing that Dap providing.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just dealing with losses like I was ranting about, but it's also like preparation and just like embracing the competition.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I know too many people who feel like they gotta amp themselves up before a fight, or or they get super nervous, or they don't know how to like deal with like, oh, I don't know what to do, I'm all nervous, and like that's the joys of wrestling, is I've dealt with that so many times, like from when I was a kid to a grown man, that like I know myself, I'm confident in myself, where I'm like, eh, fuck it, you know, it's a fight.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid to go out and compete.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Let's kind of talk a little bit about some of the other things that inspire you.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, watched a recent interview where you're talking about your Charizard tattoo.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, ladies and gentlemen, if you are not aware, uh, my friend has a giant Charizard tattoo on his bicep.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Huge Pokemon fan.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Check that out, everybody.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are the pop culture things that kind of motivate you outside of the ring and kind of get do get you amped up?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because you talk about not getting overly amped up, but what does amp you up?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: What inspires you?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, it depends on uh on the mood.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the one thing I like doing before uh like my fight week is I like watching some like classic martial arts movies to kind of get me, you know, like you said, in the mood.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that of course involved like Van Damme films.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of like my go-to.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh before my first fight with one, I watched Blood Sports, and uh the whole time I was watching it, I was like, Oh my goodness, this is me.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Van Damme, you know.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I was traveling across the world.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was competing in the Kumite there, but you know, I was competing for one.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: The main big villain was like the South Korean killer, and I was like, I'm fighting a South Korean killer, and I was like, Oh my god, this is me.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of fun to watch and get me in the mood.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: This last fight, uh let's see, I watched like the original Mortal Kombat movie, I watched Kickboxer, that one's another classic, so um yeah, just go ahead.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Van Dam films, they they never fail.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: I love it, man.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, as a result of having this love for all things pop culture and fighting and getting all of this experience with one, what is a crazy social media follow that you've had that just it unexpectedly happened out of the blue?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Has that happened yet?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Unexpected social media.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no, not really.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: I I think the coolest thing was that Chachi like commented on my post.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, What?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: He commented on my post?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt like that was kind of cool.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: After I uh uh whooped on uh uh Khan, like he just like commented, like, oh great work.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, hey, all right, all right, that's pretty cool.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, boss man's watching.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: So let's look forward say two years.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: What are your hopes in the next two years?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: What do you hope to accomplish?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what are you going after?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned the championship, but let's like think big picture in general.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: What are your long-term goals?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: My long-term goals in the next two years.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, first on that list, like you said, would be getting that belt.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, next year I plan on uh I want to get a house.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think that'll be cool, get some property, you know, act like a grown-up, for goodness sakes.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 30 years old, you know, and I got roommates.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know, I I think it would be cool to get my own place.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh yeah, I don't know.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: From there, uh I definitely I want to get uh my dad's old Mustang actually.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: He has uh uh a 69 uh a Mach 1 Mustang fastback, and that was his pride and joy when he was alive.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: He passed back in '96, '95.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: So my uncle uh bought it off my mom, and then my uncle just sold it like a year ago to some like car collector.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I have the car collector's info.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to hit him up, and uh hopefully once I get a little more money, uh, I'll I'll take that off their hands and you know, restore the family honor.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, similar train of thought, similar train of question.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Moving to Denver, walking in that room for the first time.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Who was somebody that you met that is now your teammate that you were completely awestruck by?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: I sound like an asshole again.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're they're all really good in their certain ways.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it just kind of depends.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Each each guy trained with is very gifted in a certain area, you know what I mean?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of cool that we get to like build off each other from that.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: But awestruck, I guess we want to say term.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: I I definitely take the most hits from blades, and there's times where where he's feeling himself where I'm like thinking to myself, like, I'm in awe.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what the hell am I getting hit with?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I feel like there's also days where like he's having a bad day and he's tired and I'm able to get like an edge on him, and I'm like, Yeah, what the hell?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's the typical, like, just you know, competitive environment in the practice room, you know what I mean?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's uh uh if if there's a a chance we'll beat each other up and then you know just hang out afterwards.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen you corner other guys.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think Curtis in particular.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, do you have plans of doing that a little bit more in the next year on top of your own fights?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime my teammates want me in the corners or anything, I'm more than happy to, you know, join them.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's kind of cool because I feel like the most important thing, like, because we have our main like like you know, Vinny's our main striking coach, Cody's our main grappling coach.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it's good to have like good teammates in your corner with a good energy because there's just something about just like going to war and having your boys at your by your side, you know.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I feel like I'm just kind of one of those guys that they're like, hey, get my corner, you know.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I want you know old Thunder lips backing me out.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: So oh man, I absolutely love that.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sweet dude.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta tell you, man, I understand why everybody wanted you and I to have this conversation.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: I I I feel like we're cut from a similar cloth, and I love that.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do you do any training?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Any uh graph lab?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I no.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know what's funny?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was a kid that moved all over growing up.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So um martial arts for me was a way to socialize.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: So there I would move every two to four years as a kid, um, you know, get Involved with Taekwondo or whatever uh discipline was being trained in the town that I was living in.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I I spent a lot of time in McDojo's.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh anybody that's affiliated with martial arts understands what a McDojo is.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: So as far as knowing any discipline or actively training in any discipline right now, absolutely not.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I just spend a lot of time in the gym.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a former musician that is the biggest MMA fan in the world.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: I spent so much time in the music business.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: I've pretty much played opening for every single one of my favorite bands that I could have.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, coming this close.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: But it just never happened.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that was something that I was okay with making peace with.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, you know, I got to a point in my life where I was just like, man, this isn't gonna happen for me, and I'm okay with it, because I have stories that I can tell my kids that a lot of my contemporaries probably wouldn't have.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it it kind of falls to the same exact question I asked you about taking that loss.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like it the first time you kind of suffer a loss and making peace with things and kind of being at that point in life.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I've used all of that and have leveraged it to a really cool podcast to where I get to sit down with cool guys such as yourself and some of my favorite musicians and have these great conversations.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that was that's my story in a in a short tangent.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: What'd you play?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: What'd you play?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was a singer, if if probably not surprising, but yeah, I was I was a front man.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was a it was a lot of fun, man.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Dang, all right.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: And your band, you you guys made some music and stuff.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Could I check you guys out?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Send you a link to the stuff that I did, but my very last show, and this was my Super Bowl moment, and I've mentioned this on the podcast several times.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: My very last show was opening for Three Days Grace and uh Avenge Sevenfold.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it was just like, I was like, dude, it's not gonna get any fucking bigger than this.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: And at the point I was at, I was 35, and my kids were kind of getting into elementary school, and I was like, this is my Jay-Z black album moment.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna walk away while I'm on top and make peace with it, and that's what I did.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Dang, that's really cool.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, well, I I know maybe that was your Super Bowl moment.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty historic, though, to be uh that music scene.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, oh yeah, dude.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I played all over the Midwest.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I absolutely loved it, but there's there's a nasty, I'm sure it's the same way in fighting.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: There was a nasty underbelly where I saw grown men acting like a junior high school girls' locker room several times where I was like, man, I'm getting too Danny Glover style, I'm getting too old for this shit.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you get that in martial arts.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh it makes me miss wrestling because uh there's a lot less of that, I feel like, in the sport of wrestling.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot more just like blue-collared, like just saying things as they are.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: If a coach or someone's pissed at you, they'll just tell you right to your face.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: When I start getting into MMA, yeah, if you go to like the wrong gyms or something, or talk to the wrong people, you'll hear from the grapevine, oh, so-and-so's mad at you because you did this.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, how old are we?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, just tell it to my face.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly, dude.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's the exact type of person I am, and I think that's why I had to walk away from it because that's like even in my day job, and what and I don't talk about what I do for a living on the pod, but I I'm the same way.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: I am overabundantly transparent to the point where I say I communicate to a fault.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm pissed at somebody, they're gonna know I'm pissed at them.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if I'm happy with somebody, they're gonna know that I'm happy with them.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't believe in this like hiding behind bullshit and gossip stuff, man.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's the worst.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's the worst.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, that's in MMA.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's a problem.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's in any type of industry where the spotlight has to shine on you for any certain amount of time.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can do that.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense to me, but not a lot of that in wrestling.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's no spotlight in wrestling.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: You just go, you do your thing, you walk away, and then you do your thing again the next time, right?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: No one cares.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: The only people that were in the stands when I wrestled was my mom and my teammates' moms.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like no one really cared that much.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that makes sense.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: With all of this being said, because this is a perfect segue to this question, um, you know, a lot of what I do with this podcast, I say that it's a Trojan horse.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if I'm having an MMA star or a famous musician or an actor or somebody along those lines on my show.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: I call my show the Trojan Horse because it's all about the human experience.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's all about how we get into the thing that we're into and then how we walk away from it after it's all said and done.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, my closing question that I ask every single guest is what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I just say do what you love.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I feel like way too much of life is is people just like complaining or just doing stuff they hate.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like just follow your passions, and that sounds super cheesy.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like you know, out of a fortune cookie, but that's kind of one thing I've done, you know, with my life.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like after I graduate college, everyone's like, hey, all right, now we get a job.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I kind of want to do MMA, and they're all like, Well, why'd you go to college?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and it's kind of like, well, uh I got a degree so I could be a teacher and I want a teaching coach, but like in my head, I'm like, I'll save that for later on in my life when I want to be more of a mentor.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I want to chase this crazy dream of being a world champ, age fighter, you know.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and people said I was crazy at first, and I feel like now I'm kind of you know picking up some momentum where people are like, hey, okay, he might be on to something.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like as long as everyone just kind of does like what makes them happy, I feel like everyone will just get along and be happier.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my thought.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I think I think that's kind of the common thing.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's when people will doubt you until you start finding success, and then everybody crawls out of the woodwork.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody, I believed in you all along.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: But that's that's our jobs.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I think that's our jobs as creatives, I think that's our jobs as human beings.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's to prove people wrong a hundred percent of the time.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Prove anybody that's doubted you wrong for sure.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dude.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: I love this.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm glad that I got to interact with vanilla thunder.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: Man, thank you so much for doing the podcast.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you, brother.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad we know each other now.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have to make it a point to high five you uh next time I'm I'm out in Colorado because I I try and make my way to the gym when I can.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, hell yeah.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to see you, man.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: All right, man.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: The world's a much better place within you and it.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for doing the podcast, man.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, I want to thank Vanilla Thunder, Ben Tynan, for doing the show again today.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Man, there were gremlins in the systems when we recorded this.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Remote software wasn't working, computer was going down, but I think we ended up with a great episode regardless.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's some learning curves as I move to the video format of Caught on the Mike.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you're checking out those episodes on YouTube.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you're following Ben at Vanilla Thunder MMA on Instagram, and check him out on his next fight.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Visit me at www.caught on the mic.com.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Search me out on all social media platforms.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate the follows.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate the five star ratings on your podcast platforms.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Michael Clark.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, thank you.