Latest / Brewsers / Brewsers #392- John Gooden

Transcript

Brewsers #392- John Gooden · Brewsers

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze, and Bruisers.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Rody John, and today we talk to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: John Gooden. We talk about how he got into MMA,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: broadcasting for the UFC, and so much more. You have
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: heard John Gooden multiple times over the years, and I
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: can't wait to hear from him again. Unfortunately, we won't
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: hear from him this Saturday, but we will definitely be
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: hearing from him again soon. I love everything he does
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: with commentary, and you're going to love his stories as well.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So you don't want to hear from me, you don't
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: want to hear from him. So without further ado, here
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: is John Gooden. I would like to welcome a show
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: with John Gooden. How are you doing today, sir?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Doing good. Thank you very much.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you for being here.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, thanks for inviting me. It's always good to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: chat to other people in our community, share some stories
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: and all that good stuff.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Well, for those listening, kind of paint us a
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: word picture. Where are you at and what's going on
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: around you?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Right now I'm at home. It's a very wet home. Sadly,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: we were on vacation. That wasn't the sad bit. But
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: whilst we were there, we sprung a pretty significant leak.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: So I've had to turn off the dehumidifiers and the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: fans because you'd hear what sounds like a jet engine
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: running through the house. So yeah, we've lost a few, well,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: probably nearly half the house. So yeah, that's not so good.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: And it means that I'm very much not up to
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: date with the current goings on in the LMA world
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: because I've been trying to fix the home and get
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: myself back to get the family back on its feet
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: so that we can live here. It looked like we
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: were going to have to evacuate at one point, but
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: it looks like we're going to be okay.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I had an issue in my guest bathroom where
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I had the same situation where they redid the whole
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: house before I bought it and they were putting the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: baseboards down and they were shooting the nails and one
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: went right in the pipe. Little did I know that
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: that actually happened because it didn't start separating until years later.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: since I'd been in there.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Oh no.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Who knows how long it's been trickling. And so they
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: had to read data. I mean, they're still working.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: So they had the two of those huge things and yes,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: they are very loud. Luckily it was in the bathroom,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: but what's ironic is I've had friends now recently this
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: past week had the same situation with her dishwasher. So
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: what was your leak situation?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: In the attic and it was a joint and yeah,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: so it came all the way down through. So we're
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: in a, we're in a renovation project anyway, it's a
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: do or upper, but even so it was already in
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: a bad way for just, it doesn't look very good
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: whilst you're mid projects, but this is, this has set
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: us back significantly. So we've got to do the whole
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: insurance thing. It's a real stress, but there you go.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I have a busy summer, busy rest of the summer.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I'm off to Shanghai on the weekend, then straight over
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: to Paris and, Going to Vegas in September. So, yeah,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: we've got a lot going on. But, you know, it's life.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I've been through it before. And what doesn't beat me
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: makes me stronger and all that.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: There you go. It's too bad you're a licensed electrician,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: not a plumber now.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny because there have been times over the
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: last year where I've thought, oh, you know, I'll turn
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: my hand to this plumbing stuff. It can't be that
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: far removed from the toolkit and knowledge that I've got, well,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: how wrong one can be. I managed to fix a
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: couple of toilets to be fair. I got, I switched
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: over some systems, but they're the metrics of the, of
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: the thing, all the little fitments and stuff. It's crazy.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: It's they still, they're still using a blend of millimeters
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: and inches, which blows my mind.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: It's like be one or the other. Well, why do
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: you have both? But yeah.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: As someone who lives in America, and we have a
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: much different measuring system over here as well, so I
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: completely understand.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Well, no, that's fair, but I reckon you're probably consistently inches, right? Yes.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Whereas over here, we're meant to be in millimeters, largely
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: millimeters every now and then, the centimeters will come into it.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: But to throw in quarter inch, half inch. Right, right.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, I thought, anyway, yes. So that scrambled
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: my tiny brain a little bit. Yeah, I've been trying
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: to turn my hand to most things, but they're, you know,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: gas and plumbing is beyond my reach. Yes.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and gas can be very dangerous. So definitely do
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: not mess with that.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: If you do not know what you're doing. Exactly.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Well, normally I ask people in the MMA space, what
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: is your earliest memory of martial arts? But you seem
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: to just wanted to be in the television and production
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: world from a young age, right?
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Or.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: When did that kind of, which one came for you first?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Martial arts.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. 40 years ago now. It's been a long journey.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: I started with judo. And interestingly, I've got a young daughter. And, well,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: this is even more wild. My wife had never seen
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Karate Kid. And we had movie night the other night.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: So we actually, we went back and watched Karate Kid.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: And it was so nostalgic. That was such a big
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: movie for me. So yes, I did judo. And then
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: obviously the whole striking bit was missing. So I ended
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: up doing karate with a good friend of mine back
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: at school. And my uncle, funnily enough, who's like a
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: fourth or fifth degree black belt in Shotokan karate now.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: He's still training, bless him. He's well into his 60s
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: and he's in good shape. And after that, I went
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: to some more hardcore stuff. I then did like the
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: amateur novice ABAs boxing. And then there was a big gap.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: None of my friends have ever really been into the
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: martial arts scene or combat sports that's always been something
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: I've done by myself and you know how you want
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: to connect keep connected with certain people so I went
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: back to football for my early 20s and then in
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: my late 20s I wanted to get back involved in
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: in martial arts and combat sports and that's when I
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: found Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Muay Thai and then started putting it
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: together for MLA and these days I just largely stick
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: to the grappling although I I just done a shoot
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: with um Saladin Parnas who's headlining in in Paris that's
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: right and just just watching this guy work the bag
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: and his striking stuff I do miss it the body
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: can't move the way that it used to even if
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I wanted it to so I never I'll never look
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: as good as as he does but It's made me think,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: should I get the gloves back on and start doing
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: a bit? Because I've been so focused on the grappling.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: There's so much to learn with grappling. Striking as well.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I don't want to take away from that. But yeah,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: I get encouraged by watching these young athletes do their
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: thing and forget my age and restrictions sometimes.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I think that's the beautiful thing about sports in general,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: because I think people of any age can be, especially
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: when it comes to football, people are seeing the guys
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: on the pitch and be like, I could still do that.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: And you get out there, you're like, no, I can't.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Even cartwheels, people are like, I could do that. And
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I'm like, no, go ahead, try it.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I have a flex here. So part of our
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: warm-up routine, yes, we're one of those gyms. We go
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: through a whole bunch of stuff. And Sam Patterson, UFC
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: fighter we trained together, he introduced the cartwheel into the warm-up.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: And I'm one of few. that can actually cartwheel both sides.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: I have my grand old age, but it is funny
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: when we look at the rest of the class and
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: you've got these, these young fellows that are, you know,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: really a real handful inspiring, but they can't do a cartwheel.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Come on guys. What are they teaching you at school now?
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, we've all got to be able to do
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: a cartwheel. My daughter can cartwheel.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Let's figure this out. So yes, that's about all I
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: can do though. Everything else pretty terrible, but I've got,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I've got a deadly cartwheel.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Hey, there's nothing wrong with that, as long as you
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: got that.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: We got something, right?
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Well, when did you actually start, I mean, as I
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: was curious, when did you actually start really getting into
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: what was it about the TV world or the broadcasting
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: world in general that kind of grabbed you?
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a funny one. I actually have a pretty
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: terrible memory, but there are little things that come to
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: mind that made me think that it was something that I'd,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Probably not fully understood, but enjoyed certain aspects. So I
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: do remember creating my own radio shows with a friend
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: of mine, Ben, when I used to go and visit
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: my grandmother. We would always do that. And, you know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: it was old tapes at the time. So that's probably
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: my earliest memory. I would say I was not even
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: 10 years of age when we were doing things like that.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Then after I graduated, I stayed at home. I was
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: in love at the time, so I didn't want to
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: go too far. And then I worked in the city
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: of London and my confidence really grew. And I wasn't
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: so keen on the work that I was doing in
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the financial markets. And I was watching TV and seeing
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: these guys with this really interesting job presenting shows. And
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: they were on the road a little bit going to
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: interesting places. So I actually threw the towel in on
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: financial markets and joined the BBC and was working for free.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: It's a pretty typical route. You become a runner, junior researcher,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: then somehow someone says you've got a little something and
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: they put you on the TV at some point. But
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: it didn't kind of work like that for me. There
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: was a point of difference where I was probably just
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: a little bit older than the other folk that were
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: trying to run that path. And I was still quite
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: serious about life. I wanted to be established and.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Get on the.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Property ladder and start looking towards family and all of
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: those 2.4 kids type deal. But yeah, I gave it
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: a go and it didn't kind of work out. The
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: money was terrible. These cool jobs that are out there,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: they don't pay very well unless you get to the very,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: very top. And I was being pushed into the stuff
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: behind the camera, which at the time I wasn't really
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: interested in. I wanted this interesting, cool job where I'd
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: be going out and doing reports and presenting these shows.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: And as a young single man at the time, I
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: also saw the upside of how that might help out
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: with other things. Of course. It's a pretty decent job
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: title to band around. And it was way before the
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: age of social media. In actual fact, the department at
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: the BBC that I worked in was next door to
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: something called Points of View. So if you ever had
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: a real issue with a particular host, presenter, program on TV,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: you would pen a letter which would go to this
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: department and then some poor buggers would have to sit there,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: read through them and send them up the chain if
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: they were particularly serious. So that was... you know, when
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: you think about it, you've got to really dislike something
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: or someone to sit down and write a letter. Well,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: it's not like that these days, let me tell you.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that was just, it was pretty interesting when
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: I think back to those times. So I actually ducked
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: out of it. In my mind, I said, I gave
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: it a go. It wasn't meant to be. I screen
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: tested for a couple of things, but it was never
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: really the kind of work that I wanted to do.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I went back to college actually and retrained
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: as an electrician. That was my father's line of work.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: He But he's only just retired, actually. He had a
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: fairly successful, modestly successful electrical contracting business. So I went back,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: learned the practical skills, then kind of helped him run
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: the business through, I don't know if it was like 10,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: 15 years. But all the while, I was practicing sports.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: MMA became a big thing for me. And the thing
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: about where I am now, it really has been quite
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: an organic thing. journey in that I found this sport,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: very passionate about this sport. Everything that I do, I'm
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: pretty much two feet in. I didn't like the way
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: it was misrepresented or didn't like the way it was
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: represented and how misrepresented it was in the press. And
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: then there were other little things where I'm looking up
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: to these coaches and thinking that they're these most extraordinary
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: athletic specimens, also pretty deadly as well, but no one
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: on the high street would have a clue who they were.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: My coach, David Lee, he fought a couple of times
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: in the UFC. He's got like three black belts in
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: different disciplines, you know, whole bunch of skills. He's forgotten
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: more than I'll ever learn, but he's not really, he's,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: he's not a man of any significant wealth. Not saying
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: that's necessarily his, his aim, by the way, but it,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: it just blew my mind that more people didn't know
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: who he was and respect him. And he wasn't side
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: by side with perhaps some other mainstream sports stars. And
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: we're not even there yet, but it became my mission
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: to kind of tell the story a little bit more.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: And I didn't see it in any other way that
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: it would be cool to write a few reports and
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: there weren't many people doing it. So you're giving your
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: time for free just in the hope that it's going
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: to help the sport grow. And then I got involved
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: in some safety initiatives and, And then coach put on
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: his own show in Watford. And eventually, to cut a
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: long story short, I ended up taking the mic, which
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: was a dictaphone at the time, just me by myself,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: doing largely amateur, a couple of pros on the fight card.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: And I'll be running around getting people's stories, getting some
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: notes for the workouts. I'd call the action. And that
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: developed into gym visits, training with the guys, learning more
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: about their stories, bringing that to commentary, being noticed for
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: what I felt was like a pretty normal and enjoyable
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: research process. But no one else was doing it, apparently.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: So Cage Warriors picked me up. And as an extension
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: of that, after I was with Cage Warriors for a
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: few years, the UFC were coming back. to town looking
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: to expand things out. And there weren't that many. The
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: talent pool was shallow, John. So I managed to get
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: a crack at things. And I was so in tune
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: with what the UFC wanted. And I think the other
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: people that they were screen testing were established broadcasters that
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: really wanted to put their mark and stamp on the product.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: And I don't think Mr. Dana White really cares for
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: this radio journalists, you know, style of however he thinks
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: the show should be presented. And I just slotted in
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: and yeah, here we are like year 12. So who'd
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: have thunked it? That's it's crazy when I think about that. Yeah.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: And it's wild to think that, yes, obviously MMA was
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: happening in England and the UK and in Europe in general, obviously,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't nearly what it is today. And so
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: when you were finding these coaches and like you said,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: nobody else is really talking to them. Like, I still
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: kind of feel that way a little bit now. Like, yes,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of these coaches have way more of a
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: platform now. A lot of them have their own podcast
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: or whatever they do, but I still don't think a
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: lot of people are taking the time to really talk
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to them because they're kind of, I mean, literally that's
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: what their job is, is to be the coach and
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to be the playmaker. Whether the fighter actually listens to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: them is a whole nother story, but they are the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: ones who helping like break down who they're facing and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: break down the fighter that they're coaching and be like,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: this is where you're a better avenue for this situation,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: as opposed to you doing this, which you normally do.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: And it's just like, you know, kind of molding them
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to where hopefully they can go into battle, which is,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: you know, go into that cage and come out of victory.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: It's interesting that you identified that because it's something that
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I've been banging the drum about for some time now.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: I did a series called coach dad actually, where, You
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: had a coach who was also the father of said fighter.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: And we've actually got a few here in the UK.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: And of course, you've got Wonderboy and his dad. And
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: it's such a unique dynamic. You know, as a parent,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: you're supposed to be protecting your child. But these guys
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: find themselves walking their kids into battle. Some of them,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: it's very normal. Andy Aspinall. um, and wonder boys, dad. Yeah.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: That's what they've done in that tiny closet of a
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: gym room that they would use is unreal, right?
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Unreal. But then you'll talk to, uh, Richard Shaw, who
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: was Jack Shaw's coach and, um, Nathaniel Woods, dad. And
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: those guys are nearly throwing up and they have a
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: real battle, psychological battle, walking their, their sons to, to
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: the cage, to the octagon. I find it fascinating, but
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: also I, Some of my work's out there now. I
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: spoke with a number of coaches when I've gone to
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: gym visits. I went to the Fighting Nerds. I went
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: to Marquez MMA. I've spoken with Eric Nixick and John
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Kavanagh as well, because it really struck me, particularly with Connor.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I've been around through Cage Warriors. I was around those
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: guys quite frequently, particularly John, because he had multiple athletes involved.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: competing on cage warriors events. And you'd hear certain lines
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: that he would use. You'd hear certain, just certain theories
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: and concepts. And then you'd put it, you'd give Connor
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: a microphone and all of a sudden Connor's packages it.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: He says it within a, in a broader package. And
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: you're like, Oh, I've heard that somewhere before. I've heard
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: that from John Kavanagh. So, so sometimes I like to
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: go to the roots and learn for myself selfishly. but
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: also try and understand things. And these guys and gals
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: who are leading teams, they're more than just coaches, especially
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: in our sport, because it's such a small sport and
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: we don't have like lots of layers and like a
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: hierarchy that you would do it with like Premier League soccer,
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: for example, football. You become a dad, you become a psychologist,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: a counsellor. And often that weighs heavy on you some
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: of these coaches and we've been very, it's been very
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: sad in our sport that we've now I've now experienced probably,
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: probably five coaches have taken their own lives because that
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: it's the most alpha sport in the world. And you've
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: got to be the alpha of all of these alphas
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: and you've got to shoulder a whole bunch of stuff. And,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: you know, it's, yeah, it's, it's crazy. So I'm fascinated
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: by the, you know, interacting with coaches, listening to what
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: they've got to say and the way that they do
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: things because they're with the most unique bunch of extraordinary
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: individuals and athletes. So yes, I think you're onto something there.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: We do need to shine the light on them a
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: little bit more and give them more support.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Exactly. I mean, I imagine there's a equivalent of Phil
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Jackson over in obviously Premier League and football and everything.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: But over here in America, I think just like, Phil
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Jackson is just one of those like Zen masters as
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: they call him, but it's just one of those things
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: where you're trying to get your point across, but there
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: are so many different like personalities and you don't know
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: what they just like, maybe they had bad morning whenever
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: their spouse or whatever, or kids or traffic or who
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: knows what the hell's going on. Or they're, they're even
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: their managers. You got to deal with those guys too.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: And it's like, this is what you do is out.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: of the cage. I'm dealing with the cage, but again,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: you have to deal with all these different personalities just
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to make sure that one fight actually goes all the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: way through. And obviously you come back with a victory.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And we've got, Scenarios like American Top Team, where
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: we're more frequently seeing American Top Team versus American Top Team.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: And then you've got guys like Mike Brown, who not
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: only have you got that situation, but you talk about personalities.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: They have got a dozen top UFC fighters under their
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: roof that are all pining for your attention, that are
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: on probably a similar schedule in terms of when they're
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: going to be fighting. I don't know how they manage that.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: because I come from a smaller gym where we, yes,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: we have and have had a small number of pros,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: but right now Sam Patterson is the guy and he
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: gets a lot of the attention because he's the only
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: one that's, that's in the UFC. If you were to
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: take that away from him and split that two, three ways,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: it would be really interesting to see reactions always round.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: So fascinating and very individual because you're dealing with people.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, without a doubt.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: You gotta wear so many hats and, take them off,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: but different ones on and obviously different personalities. And yeah,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: it's wild. And I think my hat's off to them
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: who do it and continue to do it on a
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: successful level.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Well, when it came to the research of obviously going
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: to the gyms, talking to the coaches and talking to
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: everybody in there, how much of your research are you
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: doing when it comes to the fights alone? Because you've
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: got at least 10 fights, which means you've got 20
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: people to research. You've got all these different fights either
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: go through and watch all of their fights, which if
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: you can find some of them, good luck. And then
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: obviously then try to say, break them down as almost
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: as like you're a coach themselves, but you're just commentating
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: on the situation.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's, I have to say it has evolved and
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: changed and it shifts. I've got road to UFC coming
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: up next week. I will typically watch more tape for
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: road to UFC fighters than I will do for UFC fighters. One,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: because I've probably seen the UFC fighter fight before and
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: that recall does come into play. Sometimes there'll be something
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: that happens and it will just trigger a memory. Whereas
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: if I'm doing a new fighter to the UFC or
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: this Rhodes UFC tournament, there's not a lot of reference
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: points there. They're from obscure teams. And I mean that
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: with respect. They're just in the Asia region that I've
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: not heard of before. And I don't know any of
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: their teammates and I don't know the coach and I
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: can't build that web of research where if you say
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: it's American top team and he's under Mike Brown and
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: I know that that's a teammate and he's got this
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: many sparring partners in the UFC at 155 pounds. I
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: might not even need to watch a fight and I
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: could probably deal with the walkout. make something interesting enough
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: there i never would do that but when you've got
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: total fresh people then my only resource really especially with
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: the language barrier is like what does this guy look
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: like when he or girl look like when they're fighting
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: so that's that's where i tend to do a bit
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: more but i will always try to watch the last
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: three fights of everyone on a fight card And then
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: hope my memory serves me for the rest. If it's,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: if it's relevant, but my, my job is slightly different.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: I enjoy the tape, the tape research. However, I, I,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: my job is to tell the story and that story
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: is not always about the fight. It might be, it
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: might be about rankings, but I'm not really doing the
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: championship fight. So it's people that are on their journey
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: to get there and, this may be their first time
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: as a main event athlete and there's a story in
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: that but I like the human side a lot and
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the colour commentators that I'm sat next to probably won't
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: be diving in to that detail unless we're all in
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: the same room having the fighter meetings that we do
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: but historically they'll be watching the tape because they love
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: doing that and that's what they're used to doing and
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: they can interpret it better than I can but they
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: might not be having the softer conversations and uncovering all
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: of the, you know, the dirty laundry or the clean laundry,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: which is an appropriate term. But really just diving in
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: to see what makes up this athlete so that we
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: can help them build their fan base or, help them
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: create division. Like your Sean Strickland's, you know, whatever it is,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: love them or hate them, you want to watch them
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: type deal. But yeah, it's important for me to be
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: the conduit of the fighter. Like, help me tell your
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: story in the shortest way I can. I've only got
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: a walkout and some fight action. It's pretty difficult to do.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: But if I can weave something in there to help
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: us understand what this man or woman represents or, you know,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: where they're from and what makes them, then... That's my
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: job done. And I really enjoy that side of things.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the actual human aspect of it all. Obviously, we
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: watch because they're fantastic athletes and we love seeing what
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: they're doing inside the cage. But the human aspect of it, again,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: for me, is one of the most important things because, again,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: we don't know what they're going through going into this,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: whether that's going to bring them down or it's actually
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: going to inspire them and push them even further up.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And we are getting more and more fights now.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: So it is. Yeah. And it's so you've got to
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: try and stick out. And it's my job to help
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: you stick out.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: It's on me to find the story. That's I put
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: it on me. It's a pressure. But, you know, just
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: because they don't speak English doesn't mean it's I shouldn't
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: work twice as hard to try and find out. And
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: it's getting easier now. Some of the tools, even on Instagram,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: they've got the translation stuff and you've got auto-dubbing. Honestly,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: my job, when I think about what it used to
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: be to what it is now, I don't know how
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I haven't cut my time in half. I'm obviously just
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: not as efficient. But yeah, it is easier now to
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: reach out to people with these translation tools to just
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: find out what's going on. Culturally, though, I will say this,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: certain old USSR... region yeah they're just they're not sharing
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: they don't share and why why would they like who
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: the hell is this guy john gooden all right he
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: works for the ufc but why have i got to
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: tell him all of my most personal stuff so it's
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: harder sometimes to get across what we're trying to achieve
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: with the broadcast and get them to open up but
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: you got at least got to try you got to
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: find these notes because otherwise it's it's x versus y
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: and that's sometimes entertaining and beautiful enough for you and I,
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: but if we really want to grow this sport, if
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: those individuals want to kick on, then we've got to
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: give them a hand and they've got to help us
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: help them by sharing their story. Yeah.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I was watching Izzy's reaction video to this past weekend's UFC.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: And he was even saying, it was like, Oh, what
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: do you got like 400 guys at least under contract now,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: like fighting. And it's like, you have to stand out.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Like no matter what it is, you've got to find it,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: whether it be your look or the way you hopefully
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: finish fights or even the, you know, you know, I'm
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: not exactly the biggest fan of what John Hokig, what
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: he's been saying after the, the, but Hey, he's got
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a gimmick and it's working and people are wanting to
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: watch him fight. He fought at the white house.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: So it's that that's kind of, that's just a, I
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: think a sign of the time, sadly, I'm a little
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: bit longer in the tooth. So I just, I, it's
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: unfortunate that the negative is what drives a lot of
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: the narratives these days. I really wish it really wish
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: it wasn't as someone that's always trying to be a
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: cheerleader and, promote promote promote whatever it is as long
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: as it's you know innocent and in the right context
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: then that's the way to go but yes you are
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: right you you have to set yourself apart and we've
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: seen people reinvent themselves Jorge Masvidal he got it late
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: in his career and all of a sudden became a superstar.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Um Colby Covington did the same thing yeah.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah he did but he's to the same in the
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: same vein as Josh Hokett, right? That's the way that
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: they've gone down. But yeah, there's others as well that
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: have really, you know, cottoned on and thought, yeah, this
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: is something that I should be doing, sharing in a
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: certain way and letting us in. And yeah, we enjoy,
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: you know, following these athletes around and seeing what they're
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: truly about. And that's, yeah, that's how we're going to
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: grow as a sport.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: There you go. Well, you touched on about your passion
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Your broadcast partners, I mean, I think right now for me,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the dream booth is you, Laura Senko, and Paul Felder.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: That's very kind of you to say. Thank you very much.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: I love John Anik. I think he's great. But I
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: think he's better when it comes to handling the DC
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: train that there is. And then Joe Rogan's just Joe Rogan. So,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: you know, he's good. But, you know, there are certain
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: drinking games out there that you could be hammered by
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the time the whole card's over if you want to.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: But I'm not asking who your favorite people to work
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: with inside the booth is, but what do you think
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: that each one of your broadcast partners kind of bring
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: to the table when it comes to actually coming to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the booth and commentating?
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's the question, actually, because it's my
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: job to find that and lean into it, bring that
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: out of them. So I know that Laura, she loves
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: her jiu-jitsu. She's a real wordsmith. She studies hard. So...
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: I know that if it comes to grappling, the nuances
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: of grappling, particularly the jiu-jitsu stuff that's the direction that
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: I'll go in and if like we know that I
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: mean this is going to really sound like it I'm
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: demeaning him almost but Felder loves elbows for example and
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: spinning shit like if that's there I'm going to pull
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: for it I also get on really well with Paul
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I get on well with a bunch of the guys
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: well hopefully everyone but I know that Paul has a
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: really good sense of humor and he understands me. Laura
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: the same. So I know that I can have fun
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: with them and be lighthearted and we can we can
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: play ball a little bit. We can keep that going.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Whereas Dom is hysterical off camera and he's a lot
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: more loose. But when you come into the broadcast, he's
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: very serious about his martial arts.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: You can tell, yeah. He's very smart, but yes, he
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: is very serious about it.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: He's very dialed in. So sometimes I've tried to do
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: that lighthearted stuff and it's just, it's like throwing something
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: at a brick wall and it's just gone flat. So
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, well, this isn't the place. This isn't
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: the time. So what I do need to do is
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: play to his strengths. He's a, some of the stuff
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: that he's been through as well, even down to like injuries,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: you know, that's and how you get back. And he's
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: very black and white. So you know that you can
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: go to Dom for a very definitive line and you'll
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: get it from him. DC with wrestling, lighthearted, you can
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: be playful with him too. So yeah, I mean, I've
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: just heard that Michael Chiesa is going to be making
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: his fight night appearance in Shanghai. I was calling fights
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: with him. I've done it on UFC BJJ actually. I've
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: also worked with him on Road to UFC. And he
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: brings high energy. He, again, loves wrestling. been on The
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Ultimate Fighter, would definitely talk to him about tournament-based stuff.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: So it's just looking at the resumes of those individuals
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: and also their personalities and the quirks of those things
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: so that you can, you've got to be a little
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: lighthearted on these broadcasts. They're so long. If we were
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: like really dry, really serious the whole time, then I
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: think it's a bit of a hard listen. So yes,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I just feel more comfortable playing certain games with others,
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: but at the same time, because we have a three-man-woman booth,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: then we can vary up those things. But my job
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: is to get the best out of those that I
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: sit next to. They're the ones that have trodden the boards.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: They're the hall of famers and champions sometimes. So it's
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: make them sound good, get the best out of them
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: to help us educate, entertain, and also bring out the lines,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: which can really lay a broadcast and I know that
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: the athletes that we are commentating on appreciate certain tones
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: of feedback and those celebratory lines as well. So it's
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: just trying to get all of that out there in
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: a broadcast in the most effective way, pulling on the
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: right chords for those individuals.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember there was a time, I think it
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: was Michael Bisping and Dom, and I thought, just because
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: my business is also very, uh, lighthearted and he'll, he'll,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: he'll banter with you. I thought they were going to
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: get in a fight just because he was trying to
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: be funny. And Dom was like, no, this is, this
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: is not the time to be funny.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And it's, so it's like read the room, right. It's, uh, it's,
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: but it's just, it's unfortunate when that happens. Cause I,
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, I, I don't mind talking about it, but
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: I obviously had a bit of a, prickly situation on
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: air with bisping uh i think it was coming up
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: to this time last year it was around november and
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: in brazil we some cross wires around like a refereeing
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: issue and yeah what i learned from that is no
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: no one wants to hear conflict yeah like we and
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: going back to you know we were talking about the
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: colby covington josh hoker my mind is as someone that's
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: very I'm very aware of things probably too aware and
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: probably a little sensitive and sometimes I think that people
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: just want to see car crashes oh no no wrong
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: and all of that stuff but what that situation taught
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: me was Michael and I had this this bad few
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: minutes together and and if I may say so it's
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: like two of their favorite uncles can i say that
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: yeah two of their favorite uncles having a having a
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: dispute around the dinner table it's like no one wants
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: this yeah we just we all want to get along
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: i've worked a hard week here right crack open these
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: beers sit back be entertained by you guys and now
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: now you guys can't even get your shit together yeah
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: can you please just you know stick to the script
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: and that was actually as bad as it was to
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: have a moment like that on air um it was
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: good to understand that people didn't sit there going, I'm
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: piling in on the fact that, you know, there, there
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: was some sort of dispute going on and they just
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: wanted it to end. And, uh, yeah, that's just a,
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: I'm pinning back the curtain to my mind a little bit. My,
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: my frailties, if you will.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: No, no, I can't please understand it happens in youth in,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: in your head, it might even last longer than it
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: actually does, but it, for you be living in it
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: because you were a part of it. And you're like,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Oh crap. Am I going to hear about this when
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I get done? Is this going to pass the note?
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Is this my last fight? Like, are we going to,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: this is over.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: Exactly. All of that. And it is a very, it's
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: a very exposed place.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: When you're sat there in the commentary booth, they are
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: live microphones right here. You can't turn them off. Well,
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: you can turn off the coffee and stuff, but you
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: can't disappear for long. You can't just check out. that
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: you are on that broadcast. We're normally in and around
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: from 3 p.m. And then we're off at 11, 12.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: It's a hell of a shift. And it's, again, going
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: back to what I said, not only do I want
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: to bring the best out of those that I'm sitting
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: next to, I want everyone to have fun. Because if
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: we're having fun, then those that are listening and watching
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: are hopefully enjoying it as well. And by the way,
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: we only really come into play when the fights are
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: a little slower. Normally the fights do the work for you.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: It doesn't really matter what I say. If the fights
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: are great, everyone's happy, but sometimes there are those slower
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: nights where we need to layer things a little bit
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: more and, and build for the next week and the
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: week after that. And so we are engaged with you
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: guys a little bit more than perhaps people might want.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: So it's important that we all have a good time
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: doing it. Exactly.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: What is maybe one of the wildest things you've heard
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: in your ear during a broadcast that probably had nothing
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: to do with you, but it was on? Because I
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: imagine there's a lot going on in your headset because
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: you've got to be the traffic controller when it comes
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: to the sponsorships. You've got to make sure that, again,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: you've got a three-man booth or a three-person booth. So
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: you've got to make sure everybody's getting their time right.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: And then also you're not trying to step over anything
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: that's happening inside the cage. But again, there's so much
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: going on inside your headset that most people were never
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: going to hear. So what is maybe the wildest thing
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: that has come through your headset?
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: I think, well, going back to, it was a time
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: at Cage Warriors, actually. We were in the Middle East,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: and they had opened the communication line for all of
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: the camera operators and crew around the arena. So we
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: had all of that chatter just fed into our ears
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: while we're trying to call the fights. Now, it's not
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: quite as... It's not anywhere near the level of broadcast
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: of the UFC. But even so, I was a lot
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: younger and less experienced and hadn't had to deal with
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: those things. So that was pretty unnerving. I haven't really
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: had too much wild stuff go on. I've had a
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: few producers and directors that haven't agreed with me or
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: if I've missed a cue or they've questioned something. I
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: think one of the more unnerving experiences I had was
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: when an old producer of mine was the truck gets
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: pretty wild. Especially with US broadcasts. You guys are very passionate.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: And the UFC broadcast is high energy, right? So just naturally,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: everything's ramped up. By virtue of the fact that we're
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: all going crazy for these fights as well. So you're
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: trying to match those levels. It's no good if my
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: producer's down here and we're trying to be up here.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: They have to match it so that we're all vibrating
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: the same way. Uh, anyway, we, we had a producer
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: that was, they're having fun in a truck too. And they've, they're,
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: they're spitballing themselves about what they think about the fights
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and individuals and what they may look like and all
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: of these sorts of things. And they were feeding the,
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: what was being said in a truck to Canada. They
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: could hear all of that. And let's just say the
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: guys in the truck, I mean, you know how it
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: is like, guys get together in a bar they're not
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: always complimenting so they were they were saying some pretty
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: some pretty interesting stuff and then i think someone caught
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: hold of it and they were putting a script out
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: on reddit and you just think that is the worst
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: the worst thing like you think you're you know you're
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: having a private moment and so your your tongue is
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: loose and then it's being broadcast to a whole nation
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: yeah so that's that scared the bejesus out of me
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: because i thought you got it there is always a
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: hot mic there is always a hot mic gotta be
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: so careful of who's listening who you're talking to is
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: the is the mic live and yeah it gives you
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: an awareness yeah probably an unhealthy awareness sometimes where that
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: paranoia comes in but yeah the that was, that was
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: pretty wild. And it was a serious error on someone's
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: part as well to have those guys in and put
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: those out there. Yeah. Yeah.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Well, so, I mean, you kind of mentioned it that
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: obviously as people know who watched the, I mean, I'm
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: one of those that tries to watch the first fight
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: all the way to the end, depending on what's going on. But,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: they're long days and you got to be there. I
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: don't know how many hours ahead of time call time.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: I imagine as much earlier, cause you got to make
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: sure again, everything is going right. You're in the right
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: spot and everything like that. What are kind of some
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: standards for you that are in your bag on a
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: regular basis?
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, the bag. Okay. Yeah. I actually have a commentators kit.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: I like to have a couple of different colors of highlighter.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: So I should, I should say this. I have, my
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: scripts for the program for all the elements that will
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: get me through a UFC broadcast. They are printed onto cards.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Then I have fighter bio pages. I'm just looking around
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: and see if I've got something I can show you.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: I can show you bear with me, bear with me. Yeah.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Cause cause Bruce just showed us on Instagram the other day,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: how he kind of splits up his card. And so,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: which I don't think he's, he's put on there before,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: but yeah.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So. Oh, wow. Okay. so that's a, you probably
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: can't see all the stuff it's blurring out, but I've got,
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: so I've got like blue corner, red corner, and I've
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: got a whole, all of my research for those individual
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: athletes for that fights will be on there. And as
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: I'm going through, like on the walkout, I'll kind of
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: prepare as the fights coming around, we have a little
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: sizzle that happens. I'll be looking at my notes going,
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: Oh God, right. So how should I, how should I
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: kick off this walkout? And I'll start highlighting in one
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: color and then, I'll go, no, no, no, this is
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: for fight action. So I'll switch to highlighter and go, right,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: that's a really good point. I can bring it in.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: And as the guys are talking, there might be something else.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: So then I'll get a marker pen. So I've got
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of Sharpies. So yeah, I have a
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: writing pen. I have a Sharpie. I have a couple
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: of different highlighters. I also have a stress ball. Because
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: when I take a pen, I'm terrible at clicking it
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: or tapping it. So I need to have something in
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: my hands. Otherwise I'm probably going to like rub or
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: pull the bloody cloth off of something. So I used
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: to take, but here's a, here's a little story. So
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: we were, I do a lot of producing during fight
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: week as well. So the interviews that you see with
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: the orange globes around the fighter, where they do their
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: fight hype pieces, um, in Europe and Middle East, maybe,
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: or pretty much any show I'm working, I get to
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: produce those as well. And we had Shara Bullets come down,
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: so this is Azerbaijan. He brought his two girls with
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: him this time, which was lovely to see, because you
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: don't often see fighters like that, especially guys like Shara.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: From that part of the world, they don't share their
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: families as often, in my experience, from what I've come across.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: So Now we've got his two girls in the room
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: and his younger girl, you know, I don't know if
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: it's a common thing, but the second kid is almost
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: twice as confident as the oldest kid. I don't know
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: why it is, but she was, she was going crazy
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: and she was getting involved in all sorts of things,
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: but his eldest was a little bit more shy. And
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: I know that my daughter likes like, like the fidget
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: toys and stuff. So I've actually given her, I had
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: a stress ball going into that and I gave it
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: to her. so that she could just, she was just
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: playing with it while we were doing our thing. But
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: she left the room with it, which is absolutely fine.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: I've had it for a long time. So I lost
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: my stress ball. So I had to, recently I had
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: to replace it. But sometimes these things are supposed to
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: be passed on around the world. And now mine is
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: perhaps in Russia, somewhere in the Middle East with Shara
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: Bullitt's daughter. But I'll do that. I also like to,
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: my wife's into homeopathy. So I've got some stuff to
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: calm me down and some stuff to energize me. So
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: I take a couple of those things. I'll always take
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: a little medical kit. So you never want to be
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: caught short if you need to toilet a whole bunch.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: So there might be some stuff for that. I will, fishermen, friends,
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: things for like eucalyptus stuff. Yeah, those bits. And I
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: will typically always have like a little inhaler stick Love that.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: And lip seal, just especially in Vegas and some of
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: the drier places. You've got to keep the the apparatus
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: well lubricated. That's something to clip up. Yeah. So I
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: think that's probably about it. I have a bag with
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: with all of that stuff. I have custom in ears,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: which are a real game changer. You know that you
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: can some of the places that I work, I'm lucky
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: to be on the international team. rotor and we have
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: some wild crowds internationally and it gets loud so to
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: be able to block that out is good otherwise that's
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: that's it a couple of little things that my daughter
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: has written or made for me I take that into
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: the booth and yeah otherwise it's just it's just the
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: pipes and and the notes.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah I'm always curious because again they're they're long days
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: and also Obviously, you want to have something to drink,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: but you're not drinking too much because, again, like you said,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: you got to go to the bathroom on a regular
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: basis and you don't.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: I've never managed that particularly well. I've always been conscious
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: of the voice that conscious of the fact that I
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: don't have a particularly powerful voice. And I followed Mike Goldberg,
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: for example, who has an extraordinarily powerful voice. Yeah. So
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: I've always thought of using like intonation, cadence, et cetera.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: But you can't get past the high energy voice. necessity
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: of a UFC broadcast so I have to shout a
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: lot which means I then have to drink a whole
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: bunch which means I'm going to the toilet a lot
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: so I've if ever you've been to a live event
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: you sat near the front you definitely would have seen
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: me sprint at least two maybe three times to the
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: bathroom during broadcast oh and there's something else is a
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: little bit a little inside tip for the vocal performers
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: there's a tea called throat coat it's a herbal herbal
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: tea that's Yeah, I don't know what's in it, but
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: it sort of protects the lining of the throat and
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: the larynx, maybe. Can you protect the larynx? I'm not sure.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: But whatever it does, it works. And I will always
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: start the night with one of those. I don't caffeinate
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: too much because it sends me over the edge. The
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: fights are enough to get me going. And if I
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: overdo it with the caffeine, I actually feel quite unwell
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: and on the edge of, like, freaking out so yeah
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: i try to back off from that unless it's really
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: desperate and yeah it's just water and bananas to keep
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: me going.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Throat coat okay i'm a ring announcer for a wrestling
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: company here in america so i gotta start check it
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: out yeah.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah check it out it's on amazon yeah.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Um you said something that that sparked something uh but
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: then it went away so i don't know i don't
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: know where my next one is gonna be Well, so
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: you've been with the UFC for 12 years now. You
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: just signed a contract, what, last year for three more years,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: was it?
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we're midway through. I think I
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: might be on a second year out of maybe a
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: four-year deal. I can't remember if it's three, four, but yeah.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: Well, what are some of your favorite memories of just,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: whether it be fights or just personally when it comes
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: to your time here in the UFC so far?
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, the first... the first few months leading
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: into the first broadcast, I do have some, some pretty
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: big memories about that. Like going to out to Vegas
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: to work for the first time, just, just going to
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: HQ and meeting everyone for the first time, learning how
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: things are done the UFC way and work, you know,
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: building a, a broadcast partnership with Dan Hardy.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: And then I miss him so much on commentary.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did some stuff together that, you know, I
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: will always be very proud of the Inside the Octagon show.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: We did a couple of other bits as well. But
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: I think that's that's the one that was very regular
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: that the fans seem to really have an appetite for.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: So I miss I miss doing that. I learned a
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: lot doing that. And I maintain hopefully I've maintained some
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: of those learning lessons and brought them into commentary now.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: So that was good. I think the first time I
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: ever got to work stateside in a commentary position is
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: a big deal for a guy from a small town
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: village in near Watford in England. And then I'm on,
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: I'm being flown across the world to like the sin
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: city fight capital of the world. You know, I was
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: a boxing fan before an MMA fan. So to then, Yeah,
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: I pinch myself every time when I come into land
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: in Las Vegas and I see the bright lights. I'm like,
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: how have I been selected to do this? But yeah,
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: that's pretty cool. The Fight Island experience, although it wasn't,
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, looking back
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: now on how we were in a very privileged position
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: in many ways. I think we were taking some risks,
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: but they're probably not as bad a risk as we
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: probably thought at the time.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Well, from what I heard, there's a ton of testing.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't like if you left the hotel and
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: came back, I think you had to get retested or something,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't it?
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a quarantine zone. If you went out
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: of the quarantine zone, yeah, you weren't allowed back in.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: So it's very strict. And we had and even if
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: you were in the quarantine zone, I think it was
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: every every three days or something like midweek. You'd get
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: another test just to make sure you were good. Then
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: just before the fights. Yeah, it was an incredible legit. nightmare.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: But there's a bunch of the guys that worked for
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: the UFC that got like Fight Island tattoos because it
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: was such a unique experience for them that they kind of, yeah,
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: just wanted to remember it. And I hadn't really thought
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: of it the way that they had. So I think
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: it was, conversations after the fact because i was yeah
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: it was a really like financially it was a real
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: really tough year for us we were i thought we're
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: going to lose our house at one point so i
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: couldn't make the payment so yeah we got through it
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: so now i can look back with uh with it
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: with a little bit of a you know a more
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: nostalgic view in a positive way um yeah i just
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: overall it they Yeah, there are some individual fights. There
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: are fighters that you can't help but get a little
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: bit closer to and you see them rise. You sometimes
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: see them fall as well. And those moments are pretty
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: special or raw. I get to travel out with my
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: producing work for the UFC. I get to visit people
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: in camp. I mentioned Saladin Parnas. I was with him
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: last week. And in the past, that's how I've gotten
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: closer to guys like Tom Aspinall and Darren Till and
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: Alexander Gustafsson, Jimmy Manuel, for example, Joanna Jomrzejczyk. You know,
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: I've met their families, you know. I mean, again, what
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: a privilege. So I have a lot of really special memories.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: And I'm hoping they continue because I've still got energy.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: I still feel like I can add value. So as
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: long as they'll have me, I'll keep going.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Well, I hope they keep you around for a very
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: long time.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, thank you very much.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: Not trying to get too personal, but do we, how,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: how is Tom Aspinall doing? Do you, do you speak
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: to him on a regular basis?
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: He's been, I mean, he's, so I, I reached out
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: to him and, you know, I'm very aware that with athletes, they,
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: they need something to focus on. They need a goal,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: a target. And so, and it also, if they're completely,
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: within a rehabilitation schedule and they can't get close to
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: the sorts of outputs from before they can get to
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: some pretty dark places.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I have crazy if you're not taking care
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I've reached out to Tom a few times,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: but I mean, I can't see why he would like, um,
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: just play it all down. Right. He's, he's been fine. Okay.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: You know, he's, he's got a, he's got a family.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: And when I said like an immediate family, kids of
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: his own wife, his dad is obviously a big part
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: of his journey is he's close with his brother. So
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: he's got good people around him and the UFC heavyweight
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: championship belt. And even the status he had before has
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: afforded him some opportunities where he's now running his own podcast.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: Like he's got some, he's got his own gym. There's
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: this stuff going on. That's keeping his mind busy. So yeah,
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: it sounds like he's doing pretty good, but a lot
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: of it, it does all hang off of you F
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: and C and particularly champion. So there's only a certain
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: amount of time before those things, you know, have to
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: take a different direction, but hopefully, hopefully we'll see him.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: It's looking like more and more like the MSG, right?
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: So that, well, well, the last, the previous one to that. Yeah.
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: We've got Volkanovski. in uh in abu dhabi right so
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: if he's not headlining there the one that's after that
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: is msg otherwise we're looking for december that that could
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: still be on the cards but a heavyweight championship fighter
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: msg just sounds right doesn't it and it will sell
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: big so.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Also i mean if you look back that's kind of
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: what they've been always doing now is like msg has
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: always kind of been whatever that big fight is and
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: it has luckily been the heavyweight one you know yeah
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about the champion or lack
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: thereof before Tom, but I think Tom has been, to me,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: the number one heavyweight champion since he won the quote-unquote
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: interim title.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, it's very unfortunate what happened in his first defense,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and it's kind of ironic that the guy who poked
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: him in the eye actually got the interim title, so
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: now they get to actually have that immediate rematch.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. It's fascinating, isn't it? And when that gets announced,
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: the lead up is going to be very interesting indeed.
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: But I just, you know, of all of that, I
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: just want to see those guys and when all of
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: the other BS, I mean, it plays into it, but
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: come the night, like just hopefully there's just no issues
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: and we just get to see incredible, beautiful violence between
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: two very well-skilled athletes, like real new breed heavyweights, right?
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: Because it could be a, it could be an absolute blockbuster.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: I think they could challenge, each other in ways that
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: they haven't been challenged before. So let's hope for that
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: and see where we land.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I just hope Aspinall's in a good place
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: mentally right now. Cause that's what I was always curious about.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: Cause like you said, athletes need something to actually focus on.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: If he's can't do what he normally does on a
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: regular basis, I'm curious where he's mind goes mentally because
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: there's so many different athletes across any sport that once
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: they do have that injury, it can be a while
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: until they actually get back and then they're not exactly
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: the same until they start finding that groove. And then,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: you know, but again, mentally, I really hope that he's fine.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He's missed a lot of years through injuries and
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: inactivity because people wouldn't fight him. So I've, I'm aware
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: that it's been a challenge, but, but then does that
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: mean that he's a little bit more used to it?
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: It's not his first time around suffering. I don't know.
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: I'm guessing here, but. Now he's in a much better
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: place where he's not sitting there with a bank account
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: that's dwindling so rapidly that he can't support his family, right?
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: It looks like all of those things are taken care of.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: So at least that's one less thing to worry about.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: But let's see. Let's hope he comes back as good
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: as he went away, if you will. And, you know,
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: we see the best Tom Aspinall, the best Cyril Gann,
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: because that could be something special. Exactly. Exactly.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, speaking of that fight, I think it should
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: happen in Europe, mainly obviously because both of them are
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: gigantic European fighters, not just size-wise, but popularity-wise. And I
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: know that Dana is not the biggest fan of stadiums. However,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: I do think European fans would show up. Like, maybe
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: a Wembley, or I don't know what Paris is. I
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: don't even know what a middle ground would be. It
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be Scotland.
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: I think they have. Paris, because I was just there.
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure one of the guys I worked with
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: said they had a closed roof on one of it.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if it's the Stade de France or
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: if it's one of the others. I don't think it's
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: necessarily filling it with numbers. I think it's the atmosphere
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: that Dana has a slight issue with. It just gets lost.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: He's run it a few times and you've got to
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: be a brave person to to go against Dana's thoughts
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: on something. And I mean that because he's run things,
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: he's tested things, he's tried things, and he is obsessed
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: with the in-house experience and the broadcast. So he really
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: does know his products inside out where it does and
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: doesn't work. So I kind of trust him for that.
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: Although it would be cool especially when it's people that
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: you know, right? The Connor, the Ilya, the Tom Aspinall,
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: they all are paddy, you know, and some of these
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: stadiums and grounds that they're talking about are places that
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: I've visited or would love to visit. So then you
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: secretly deep down, you're like, oh, that would just be
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: a dream for many people to have that happen. But
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: it's got to work, right? And we shall see how
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: that all goes. But first and foremost, let's get them healthy, fit,
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: Of course, yeah. And into the place. But yeah, if
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: we could have it in Europe, that'd be great. That's
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: a few less time zones that I would have to
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: travel if I'm any part of the broadcast. They're too
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: big for me. They've outgrown the John Gooden experience. But
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: hopefully I'll be able to have my fingerprints on some
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: of that broadcast in some way, shape or form.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: I love that. what is it like for you? What
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: is it after a show look like for you? Cause
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: obviously we talked about, you don't, you're not too caffeinated
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: because you're already ramped up from the fights and the
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: atmosphere and the crowd. What is coming down look like
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: for you? What is kind of like the wind down
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: period for you?
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: Boozy. It's very boozy.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: What's your drink of choice?
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: I'm a, so I'm a vodka tonic guy. And that
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: sounds like it's a really, Oh, look at this healthy guys.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: I'm actually, you're a triathlete as well.
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: So you have, well, Well, I have an allergy to yeast.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: And I only found this out in the last sort
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: of 10, 15 years. And there's a reason why I
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: had the most brutal hangovers, where I'd be projectile vomiting
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: for the best part of the day. And it turns
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: out it's probably because I'm allergic and poisoning myself. So
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: it tends to be a little bit easier for me
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: to stick to the vodkas. I get on really well
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: with the producers and other members of the crew. So
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: it's a good opportunity after... these shows done to just
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: kick back and you know start laughing about some other
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: stuff uh maybe it's maybe we we sort of go
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: over some of the fight stuff and the broadcast but
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: then we get into other silliness and have a little
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: fun we might visit you know sometimes we go to
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: the bars in or out of uh of the hotel
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: resort if you will and yeah just kind of quality
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: time with the team and yeah Sometimes, if you ask
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: Paul Felder, we like to wrestle. in the hallways of
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: a hotel and let things get a little out of hand, maybe.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't think he's had a drink since then, actually.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: Bless him. Yeah, so that's typically what it looks like.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: Don't go to bed often. And we all have flights sometimes.
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: to get out of these places sometimes they're scheduled at
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: like 7 a.m they want us at the airport ridiculous
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: like three hours before not two so then we're picked
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: up normally an hour before that time so then it's
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: no point going to bed because by the time you
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: get back to the hotel it's midnight 1 a.m so
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: like okay straight through yeah and then then you jump
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: on the jump on the jet to get home not
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: the private jet just the jet engine plane well some
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: might but uh yeah Yeah, that's how it looks. They're
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: good times. I look forward to those, those bits post
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: fight as well. Yeah.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: I'm always curious about that. Cause I always think after
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: a show is one of my favorite things. Like obviously
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: the show is fantastic. We all love working through it,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: but it's usually afterwards. We kind of like, like you said,
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: we kind of nitpick it or be like, Hey, what'd
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: you think? Or, Hey, what could we have done here?
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Or maybe next time we can do this or something
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: I also glossed over seeing the athletes as well. Something
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: that I've, I'm, I think I'm getting better at it.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: Maybe I'm, desensitizing, but I just did. I never knew
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: what to say to an athlete that had lost. And
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: I think it's because I'm still very much involved in
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: our fight team and, and I train, I'm around it.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: I see how hard everyone works to only get this
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: opportunity once, twice, three times a year, if you're lucky
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: and for it to go away and something to happen,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: or if it's a close decision, it's like, oh man,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: that is just brutal. So yeah, you end up, It's
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: a sensitive time there, but then there's a lot of
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: people celebrating. And often you'll see the athletes coming together
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: after a fight all battered and bruised and sharing a
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: drink or a laugh or hanging out with one another's
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: families and teams. And that's what makes our sport so special,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: I think. So, yeah, those bits are pretty cool as well.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned how you are allergic to yeast, and
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: I read that you are also a vegan as well.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: Did any of that kind of tie in or what
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: was your changing point for you for about being turned
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: in vegan?
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't been vegan for probably about three years now.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, OK.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it just wasn't working with the travel, some health
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: stuff as well.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Not easy.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: I need to say it just wasn't easy. And the yeah. So, yeah,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: very much kind of eating everything. yeah dairy and dairy
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: and yeast are my uh of my body's enemies so
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: I have to stay away from those things but yeah
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: I one of the reasons why I never fought pro
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: was I blew my back out pretty bad I was
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: out for years and I couldn't just couldn't get it
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: straight so wanted to perform surgery but I resisted and
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: um one of the only things that I could control
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: was what was going into my body and then the
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: whole kind of alkaline diet and all of those sorts
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: of things. It took me down some paths, which eventually
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: led me to like a plant-based lifestyle. And I did,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: I went, I went fully in on that and yes, we,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: I was very mindful of what I was consuming. And
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: then I eventually got back on my feet and then did, yeah,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: did a, you mentioned earlier, I did a whole season
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: of triathlon and, but now my, my efforts are, very
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: much on martial arts again and particularly grappling I'd I'm
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: really want to get a black belt in one of
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: these martial arts I've not stuck at them for long
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: enough before but I'm I'm close now with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: so I want to get my black belt there who
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: knows maybe I'll go back to Judo that sounds like
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: a pretty um obvious transition but I picked up a
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: lot of injuries when I was doing judo as a kid,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of stuff. I spent a lot of
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: time in the hospital waiting room doing judo. But yeah,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: I've tried and made a pretty healthy lifestyle, and hopefully
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: there's some older men that are encouraged by my continued
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: efforts to hang with these young lions.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: I just think it's important in general for people to
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: obviously– care about what's going in your body. Cause I mean, now,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: especially I've talked to so many people in the alcohol
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: industry that we're now starting to see the nutrition and
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: the ingredients of a lot of these alcohols that are
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: actually people want to know what's going in their body.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing. But a lot of these big
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: companies still aren't going to do it because they're not
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: going to tell you what's going, what's going inside there. So,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: but I, I think it's just, people need to take
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: care of their body. Obviously keep yourself moving, whether it
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: just be walking or grappling or going to the gym
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: and doing whatever, like, No, you don't have to look
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: as fantastic as a lot of these athletes that are
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: entering the cage, but just get yourself moving. Like, it's
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: just like, it's not that hard. You all have time
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: to be on your phone, go with, go on your
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: phone right now, figure out what your screen time is,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: and then maybe try to cut that in half or something. Exactly. See,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: cringe on your face, but you still make time to
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: make yourself movement or mobile and doing stuff. And I
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: think a lot of people just don't, it's just, it's
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: obviously so much easier to doom scroll and binge or whatever, but,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: do something while you're doing that as well.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm still doing a lot of manual labor stuff. So,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: you know, we're renovating the home at the moment. So
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: that's constant movement and, you know, lifting, carrying, getting into
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: like certain positions, but one, it stops you from being
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: on the phone until you are, you are contorting the
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: body in a way. Yeah. You got to keep it going,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: getting to an age now where I'm unfortunately seeing people
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: pick up, you know, little diseases here and there and, and, and,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: you know, seeing people lose their lives and like their
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: hearts are giving up and they're having strokes and things.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: And man, it's frightening. I don't know how I've gotten
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: to this age. I don't know where it came from.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: I still feel like I'm, you know, just about to
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: turn 30 and that was a long time ago. So
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: it creeps up fast. So we've got to do the
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: best that we can while we can.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I just turned 43 a couple of weeks ago.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: And I feel like you said, you're like, I just
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: turned 30. I don't feel 43 whatsoever.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: And, and this, this is another thing about my lack
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: of competition. Like when I, a few things happen, which
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: don't mean from competing professionally, but I perhaps might have
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: been able to do so if I, if I wasn't
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: considering it so much, there, there are some, some things
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: at play. If I did have a semi-pro fight, which
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: fell through, but then you wait too long and then
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: something happens like the back injury or your, someone blows
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: a knee out. And, All of a sudden, you know,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: years and years go by and maybe you walk away
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: from something and you kind of don't, it's that whole,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: you live with the regret. So while you can definitely
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: do it, I think that's something to apply to lots
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: of aspects of life, not just like movement and stuff,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: but just give things a go because. You never know.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: And sometimes, you know, if it was a business idea
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: and then you have your first child or something, you
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: haven't got time to launch that business idea. And you
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: might be stuck in that nine to five for another
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: five years before child goes to school and your time's
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: freed up. So there's while you can just give it
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: a go. Get out there and do it.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Tomorrow's not promised.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: Exactly that.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I have a segment on the show. I call
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: it the five count. It's just five random questions.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: Go for it.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: Number one, what for dinner guests dead or alive would
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: you have?
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: For dinner guests? Oh, that's an interesting one. What am I?
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: What do I really like? I think Winston Churchill. I
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: would like to speak with Winston Churchill. Sporting. I've. Who
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: do I really like? Who do I really like? I
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: think Jean-Claude Van Damme would be, there'd be an interesting conversation.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: Very interesting. Yeah, I've always enjoyed his movies. Guy Ritchie.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of Guy Ritchie right now. I
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: think he'd make an interesting conversation. And who else? God,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: that's a tricky one. Who else? I'm struggling. I'm struggling.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: What else do I really enjoy? I would, I would
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: like to have, I'll say Ian Wright.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: I love him.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: He's an Arsenal footballer. He's a real legend. He's a
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: very talented broadcaster these days, but he's one of the
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: most positive guys. So he'd light up the room. So yeah,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: let's go with those.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: There we go. Number two, if you owned a liquor company, brewery, winery,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: coffee shop, or dispensary, which one would you own and
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: what would the name be?
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: Well, it would be a coffee shop, I think. I
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: do enjoy the coffee. I really do. What would I
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: call it? Well, I'd be giving it away now because
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: if I was to come out of it, then it's
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: obviously going to be an absolute blockbuster. And, you know,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: being a creative that I am, I don't know, I
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: would probably put some kind of spin from the MMA
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: martial arts influence into that, that I would find a
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: way to tie those two together or maybe bow ties together.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: That stuck with me, hasn't it? Didn't necessarily want to,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: but it has definitely tied itself around my neck in
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: a more tightly manner over these years. But yeah, coffee,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: I think, would be the one that I would try first.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: I thought you would have played with the Gooden in
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: your name.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: Too obvious, though, isn't it?
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: Is it, though? I mean, depending on what the name is, though.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: It would be, but there's only a couple of ways
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: you can go with it. You know, Jobs of Gooden.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: Gooden Every Cup?
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Good.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah. All right.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: You're welcome i wasn't gonna ask i was gonna ask
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: about the bow ties earlier but you you've yes you've
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: kept them but you also have not had bow ties
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: before so i didn't want to i wasn't sure if
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: that was going to be your signature look or not.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: Do you know what it was just to just to
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: clear it up the one of the reasons one of
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: the main reasons why was because of how poorly represented
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: the sport was over here. And the guys that I
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: saw doing it before were kind of tap out t-shirts
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 2: and ripped jeans. And when I was boxing, it was
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: typically at a black tie event. So there would be
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: charity based events and everyone in attendance would be wearing
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: essentially a dinner jacket. So I took a little bit
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: of that influence and was like, yeah, well, why shouldn't
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: we be wearing at least a suit around these athletes?
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: They deserve to have our respect in the way that
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: we're presenting ourselves and So, yeah, I started doing that.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: But then I wasn't wearing a dinner jacket because it
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: didn't always feel appropriate. But, you know, getting these kind
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: of funky-ish, fashion-ish sort of bow ties, they used to
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: be way more out there than what they are now.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: It's a little bit more refined. Maybe that's age. Maybe
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: that's because I see how utterly ridiculous I used to look. So, yeah,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: they've kind of just stuck around. But I actually find
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: it quite a breath of fresh air when I can
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: put on a typical necktie. Right. Yeah.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: Okay. Number three, what emoji do you use most?
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: It would probably be prayer hands or the salute.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: Okay. Interesting. Number four, who or what inspires you?
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: Who inspires me? There's no one individual. I think it's important.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: to have a white belt mentality in pretty much everything
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: that we do and to take inspiration from as many
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: different places. And I really enjoy doing that, particularly for
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: my work as a broadcaster, because it might mean that
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: I find a different packaging for a way that we're
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: trying to explain something that's quite nuanced. So, yes, I
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: take many influences. I'm like a magpie. I will steal
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: anything shiny from anywhere. Yeah.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: People don't know what a magpie is. Look it up.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: They're amazing.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: Oh, is that, is that not, does that not translate?
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: Here you go.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: There's my colloquialisms. Yes. Apparently on British TV, they, the
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: police put out a commercial where they would say, lock
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: up your, your doors and windows. And the example that
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: they showed was obviously this, this magpie everyone knows about,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: and it would come in and it would steal jewelry,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: anything shiny, see shiny objects and it, and it takes
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: them away. So that's, Sorry. Yeah. I love this. Finding
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: out the kind of English Americanisms.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: Well, I know about them mainly because I'll out myself
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: on this. I'm a fan of Bravo shows. So Ladies
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: of London was one recently. And one of the ladies
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: actually had a magpie inside her cottage. Like they just
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: flew around.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: There's a superstition around magpies as well. So if you
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: see one magpie, it's meant to be bad luck because
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: they go around in pairs. So you have to salute
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: if you see one magpie. But if you see two,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: it's good luck. So if you go out in the
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: morning and you're having a rough day already and you
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: see one magpie, if you're superstitious, you might go, oh, great.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: Double magpie now.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: However, if you were going out that same morning and
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 2: you saw two magpies, it might uplift you if you
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: were superstitious.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then number five, what would you tell your
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: 17-year-old self? don't worry about it. It will all be okay.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: Love that. Again, something you tell yourself in any age.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. This too shall pass, I think was the more
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: formal way of saying it.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: Well, if anybody wanted to find out more about you,
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: follow you online, help support you in any way, how
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: can they do all that?
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess the socials. I keep talking about things
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: that are coming up and I delay in getting them
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: out there, but I'm definitely on Instagram. I would appreciate
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: people checking out my YouTube because my UFC Fight Pass
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: deal didn't get renewed this year. So I haven't really
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: had an outlet to put things out creatively. And because
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: I don't have a great big following because I haven't
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: sort of needed to because someone's always kind of funded
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: my content. I now I now can't monetize anything. So
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 2: I probably need to pay attention to building out my YouTube.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: And I'm also starting a newsletter. I've actually started writing
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: in the background. I want to get a whole bunch
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: of stuff out there so that it's regular because I
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: have over my career done things for Fight Pass. I've
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: done a bit for the UFC, might have done a
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: bit over here. And I don't know if everyone kind
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: of knows where to find it. So I want to
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: bring it all together and share some of my insights
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: and stories from on the road just like going out
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: to see this guy in Paris and what I thought
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: about him what I saw that was different and one
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: of the first things I'm writing about is I got
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: promoted to brown belt recently in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: that that promotion was I had an unhealthy obsession around
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: it for probably about a year and it's it's quite
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: fascinating when I step back and look at how I
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 2: was behaving around the whole thing as a 40 something
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: year old man, when, when as an MMA athlete, I
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: couldn't give a hoot about belts and stripes, but now
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 2: it's all I have. So actually it was, it's yeah,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: it's like an awareness for maybe for coaches of how,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: even when you get a little older, there are people
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 2: that care about those things. So yeah, just sharing some,
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: some views from, you know, my life and, and cage
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: side as well.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: Well, there we go.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: I look forward to reading this newsletter and then, I
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: love what you're doing behind the booth. And anytime you're
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: on the mic, I get excited. So thank you so
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: much for this time. And I hope we can do
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: this again.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you very much. I enjoyed this. Cheers.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, John, for being on the show. Again,
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: if you are not listening and enjoying John Gooden's commentary
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: when it comes to UFC, you are missing out. And
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: it is interesting timing that this interview did come out
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: around the same time that Tom Aspinall unfortunately has relinquished
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: the heavyweight title. So best luck to Tom. I do
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: hope a quick and speedy recovery. But I want him
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: to be safe first, like I said in the interview,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: and mentally and physically. So I can't wait for Tom
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: to be back in the cage, but I also can't
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: wait to hear John Gooden on commentary as well. So
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: while you're following him on social media, definitely go make
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: sure to go follow us on social media. It is BruisersPod,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: that is B-R-E-W-S-E-R-S-P-O-D, on the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: If you want to send us an email, it is
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: BruisersPod at gmail.com. If you want to follow me directly,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: it is RodyJohn, that is R-O-D-I-E-J-O-N. RodyJohn is the name
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: on the Twitter and on Untappd. In case you want
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: to find out what I'm drinking, maybe we can have
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: a beer together. If you want to follow me on
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: the threads or the Instagram, it is officialroadyjohn. So until
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink local, and cheers.