Latest / Caught on the Mike... / Mark Habibi of Fightbook & Wise Owl Boxing

Transcript

Mark Habibi of Fightbook & Wise Owl Boxing · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: We spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about one of my favorite things in the world, not stored.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a lot of conversations with some of the best outdoors in the world.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: He is a disruptor to that industry.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: He is a manager, he is an entrepreneur, and he's watching a platform called Fightbook that don't install all of these companies.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Up joined me on the podcast today with Wise Owl Boxing and Fight Book.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about all of these things and generate a little bit of excitement for what's to come.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mic.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know I am a fan of the fight game, and I'm about to talk about a disruption that's going to occur in the industry that's going to help fighters, promoters, everybody across the board.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: With me is the brains behind that disruption.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wise Owl Boxings and Fightbook.com.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Habibi.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Mark, how are you?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm great, Mike.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: How you doing, buddy?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, good, man.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was great to see you a couple weeks ago at the Dynasty Combat Sports event.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was a crazy time.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wayne MF Sullivan always putting on the show.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody was that night.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was crazy.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when you guys came in, you had texted me like five minutes before there was a fight that the ref had stopped because he thought he saw somebody tap out, but they didn't.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So like the judges and the ref were talking and the promoters got involved.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, uh my co-host Caleb, he hits me, he goes, Hey, T Bud's walking behind you.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, What?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there was there was Bud Crawford, then I saw you across the room.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was crazy.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Bud always gets a lot of attention when he shows up, especially in Omaha, Nebraska.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's his that's his hood.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: So everybody shows him love, and uh, and he's not, you know, he reciprocates and and and gives love back because that's just who he is.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's a large part of what makes the fight community exciting.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my co-host, same co-host from that night, he asked me, Mike, why do you have so many fighters?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you have such a love for MMA and the sport, combat sports in general?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I say it's always to disrupt the narrative of stereotypes that people throw out there.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Fighters and people that are associated with the fight industry are some of my most favorite people to talk to because they are the most level-headed people in the room constantly.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're real, they're raw, especially blood.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: What you see is what you get with that dude.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk about you.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh let's roll out the red carpet.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: How did you get into the sport yourself?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I've always loved boxing since I was a little kid.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've loved boxing several years ago.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I expressed man uh interest in wanting to manage somebody, it didn't work out.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh again, several years ago, I went down that that management path, and that led me to Bud, and then him and I became business partners, and we took a different path together.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but through that network and just being exposed to people, um, I expressed interest in wanting to manage, and I ended up signing Charles Conwell as my first uh as my first spider.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: He was uh under promotional agreement with Lou DeBella back then.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: I got him with Golden Boy, and once uh I stealed the deal with him, the rest just started to fall in place.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was actually um, you know, so that was my my first experience is that you know I started with somebody like like Charles who's an Olympian, which is a great way to start your career as a manager, right?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the idea of fight book came after managing guys at a lower level than Charles because when you're dealing with guys that have promoters, the burden is not on me as a manager to find the opponent for them.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: But when I'm building a guy from scratch, he's making his pro debut, I have to source those guys.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I soon realize how inefficient the process is of finding opponent.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's no centralized platform where you can just get on, search what you're looking for, and that's it with a few simple clicks.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: It, you know, you gotta send mass text messages out there, you gotta get on these Facebook groups, you gotta search by it's like finding a needle in a haystack.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's what we're trying to do.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're trying to solve that problem, streamline the process of uh of making fights.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's crazy that you bring all that up because I have a lot of friends that are involved with the sports entertainment world, if you will, pro wrestling, but I have a lot of friends in the MMA space, the boxing space, and such.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I spent a good number of years in the music industry, and it's crazy how the business parallels are so similar as far as sourcing opportunities, uh networking with the right people, putting yourself in front of the right audience at the right time, because so much of the entertainment and sporting business is all about timing.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, in regard to that, why is right now the right time for Fight Book?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the technology is advancing every single day.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: You got AI coming into play now, and it's I'm honestly quite surprised that nothing like this exists today.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and in speaking with people in the industry, uh, I've come to the realization that maybe it's not like that kind of by design at this stage of the game.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we can dive into that a little bit more later on.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, what we are doing at Fight Book is gonna bring some transparency to the sport, and I don't know if that's gonna be welcomed by everybody out there.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it definitely is gonna benefit um the two sides that are at one extreme or the other, that we got the promoter and you got the fighter, and then you got everybody else in between.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, there's a lot of people that play by the rules, but then there's a lot of people like to bend the rules, and I don't know if if Fight Book is gonna be welcomed by everybody because of the transparency it's gonna bring to the sport.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we've kind of been talking in vague terms about it.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you break down the brass tacks of what exactly the Fight Book platform is and the services that it aims to offer?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you have the traditional way that fights are made these days.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: You have a promoter that puts on a show, he engages a matchmaker, that matchmaker reaches out to his network, whether it's booking agents, coaches, directly to the fighter, and you know, he's given a few selections to choose from, and then he makes his ultimate choice.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Fight book is gonna allow for that, and it's gonna make that process much more efficient.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that's gonna allow to happen is it's gonna create a two-way marketplace because our goal is to get promoters on board to upload their upcoming shows, their fighter requirements, and they can get very specific with the parameters of what kind of fighter they're looking for for their show.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: This way, a fighter can be proactive and instead of waiting there and hoping that some booking agent's gonna call them, they can get on the platform, they can see what shows are coming up in their area, and if they happen to fit the criteria of what that promoter is looking for, they can bid to be on that show.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we're creating a two-way marketplace which doesn't exist today.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I love that, man.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited about that because it's gonna empower the fighters to, you know, not just be school pigeons and be sitting in a gym hoping that somebody's gonna discover them.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: They can actually be proactive, get up and and go see what other opportunities are out there for them.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is a really broad question, but in the past five or six years, actually just shortly before the pandemic, it seemed like the fighting space of both boxing and MMA was really kind of having a second-third renaissance, like a lot of eyes coming back to the product.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, assessing your why for launching a product like this right now, why do you think that is that people are coming back around to the fight world at large?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think social media has a lot to do with it.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: You've got these influencers that have the influencers that have now uh you know gotten into the space and they're bringing a whole new set of eyeballs onto the sport.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people want to hate on Jake Paul, but the guy's doing great things for the sport of boxing, he's bringing in a whole new set of viewers, he's doing great things for women's boxing, and that's just you know, that's just one guy.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: So um I think social media is definitely getting bringing more attention to the sport, and when you have, you know, guys like Jake Paul are bringing a different audience out to the sport and more eyes on it.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's I think it's a great, I think it's a great thing.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad you said that because I was gonna ask you along those same lines, considering um businesses that we don't need to touch on, you're an entrepreneur in other areas.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: How important is that marketing engine right now with social media?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And where have you found it to be the most effective?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's huge.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Look at the paydays that these guys are getting.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to knock anybody about their professional boxing career, but without saying any names, these guys that have huge social media followings and that are substandard fighters are making more than these guys that are at the top of their game, you know?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so it has a huge influence.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Social media has is has changed the dynamic.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: So there's two equal guys out there that are fighting for a spot on the on to be a part of a promotion company.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: You'd be foolish to think that that promoter is not going to look at those two, you know, who their followers are.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And if there's a guy who's got 10 times as many followers, well, he's he's that much more attractive.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's just an it's just more free advertising, if you will.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: For sure, for sure.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're talking about and considering the umbrella and the scope that Fight Book is going to cover, initially you're launching it primarily for the boxing community, correct?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: But long-term goals you want to branch out?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: The long-term goal, yeah, because I I feel like the same issue exists in all combat sports.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I feel like it's not just fighters.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, we're starting with this whole matchmaking thing, but the reality is, you know, people want to be able to search and filter anything they need when it comes to making a fight, whether it's a cutman, a coach, somebody who's making your outfits, ring rentals.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, the list goes on and on about everybody who's behind the scenes in making a production.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: So what we want to do is basically bring everybody involved into the sport that's part of the sport, and give them their own platform to advertise their services.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: So everybody who becomes a member of Fight Book is gonna get their own handle similar to an Instagram handle where they can promote their business and a user is gonna be able to get on there.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if there's a show that's happening in, you know, Omaha, Nebraska, they can search for cut men out there.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: They can search for ring card girls, ring announcers.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the list goes on and on.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: We're just so I I don't even want to define what Fight Book is yet because I don't even think I know what it is yet.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: This multi started as an idea and it's just progressing and developing and evolving day after day.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I've got all these ideas that I'd love to implement immediately, but my tech guys are saying, slow down.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just launch, let's launch what we've got right now.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: You can add all these bells and whistles.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want me to like stop the launch so we can perfect this thing because there is no perfection, it's gonna be evolving as time goes on.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna make adjustments and get feedback from people.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: And already, you know, I I there's managers and promoters that were like, whoa, I don't want to put, I don't want my guys to be on here because we don't want them to get poached.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know what?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: I after listening to their to their constructive criticism, I decided, hey, manager can get on there and create a profile and they can deal with all the correspondence.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: The fighter doesn't need to be included on that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: If because if they have a contractual agreement with the manager, that's what the manager's job is, anyways.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we're modifying things and adjusting things to make it more palatable for everybody because we want everybody to use SpikeBook.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: We want everybody to engage, and so we want to alleviate all these concerns that are out there.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're not trying to replace tech, we're not having technology replace people because I think the human element is very important in making a fight happen.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And also, you know, we're not we don't want to try and ruin any relationships by having anybody get poached.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, if you want to, if you if you're as a manager, you're managing 20 guys, you want to bring them all to the platform, bring them on.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can be the sole contact, you know, for those fighters that you have contractual oblig relationships with.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, if a fighter is a free agent, they're gonna be getting all the correspondence themselves, right?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we're making a hierarchy, but I think it makes sense and it's consistent with the contractual obligations of all parties.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: As Fight Book exists right now, end of January 2025, what is the barrier to entry?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: What is the basic offering that you have right now?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, right now, we're our focus right now is just gathering product, product being the fighters, right?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: So once we officially launch, we want people to be able to transact.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: So right now, we've been offering a$25 pre-registration fee to any fighter that registers before the end of January, which is just a few days away.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're close to 500 fighters that have pre-registered already.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think that's enough to actually launch, but we're gonna continue our efforts until we actually do officially launch in the next 60 days or so.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's gonna be a slow launch.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're not gonna be able to start doing everything, like the contra contracting features and all these things aren't gonna be there yet.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, right now, what Fightbook is, if you go to the platform, it's literally just a landing page where you can put in, you know, the information that we're asking as far as pre-registrations, which is like number of rounds you'd be willing to fight, your weight class, geographic region, you're the minimum purse you'd even consider.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then once we as you know, once we launch, then it'll get a little we'll we'll dive deeper.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was gonna ask, when you do go live officially and you officially launch, do you kind of have an infrastructure in mind that you want to accomplish within the first I don't know, six months to 18 months as far as how you want the product to look once it's up and running?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I I know what the product's gonna look like.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: It hasn't been built yet, but I but we we have designed it.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're doing all the coding for it right now.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, projections, I I have no idea.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: I honestly don't, Mike.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know how the I don't know how the boxing you have to throw away logic and reason when you're talking about those world of combat sports, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: So like I'm just taking this one day at a time.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna make adjustments as we go, and you know, hopefully the boxing community, the fighting community sees value in the platform and they start to transact.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we're 100% free.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: We're not charging anybody anything, we're not tying anybody into any contractual agreements.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: I want people to come explore, play with the with the platform, you know, see if they see value in it.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'll worry about monetizing it later on.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not even gonna try and charge a penny for at least the first year, 18 months here.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to see if people actually will adopt the platform and start using it and exploring it.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to create any hurdles.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: With the things that I followed on social media, and folks, if you're listening to this, I want you to stop what you're doing, get on Instagram, look for Fight Book, follow Fight Book, follow Wise Alboxing, follow both of those because you can see this come to life over time.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But some of the promotion I've seen you doing, it seems like there's already a lot of interest in it, and you're getting really aggressive with the marketing with it, which tip of the hat to you, sir.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: That that's a chore and a half already.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: The feedback has been great, it's been great.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm excited, and that's why I'm moving forward, and then we're gambling on this thing, right?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're building this whole thing out, we're not trying to charge a dollar, so obviously we're bullish on it.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: We think that it's needed, it's it's there's a problem that Fightbook is gonna solve, and we're tapping into a market that's that hasn't really been explored yet.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: So we're excited to be out there and and making our stamp.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I was talking to a few friends of mine about uh you appearing on the show, and I'm like, he has got this program that the only way I can explain it is it's like one part Zillow, one part social media, one part, you know, old school message board for fighters, and it's going to be amazing.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just that first conversation I had with you when you were kind of telling me the concepts you had for this, you got me excited, and I'm not even a promoter or a fighter.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I love it.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's that's awesome.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you have any talent that you are intentionally pursuing to partner with uh upon the launch of this?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think the the strategy here is to get the message out to the fighter, and who better than to give a message to a fighter than another fighter, right?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we are forming um uh what is that brand ambassadors.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have brand ambassadors go out there.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you never know who it's gonna be, we'll see, but uh somebody who's notable in the boxing industry or a few few notable people in the boxing industry should come out and be our brand ambassadors to help get the message across to the fighters.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we're excited about that partnership.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So right now, pre-registration is occurring.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have the official go live date set yet, then?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I come from a construction background and real estate investing.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing ever goes according to plan.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't even want to say like this is long state.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: I've done you it's done, it's gonna be done when it's done, right?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's done with the certificate of occupancy in construction, and this will be done whenever it actually rolls out.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: So um I think in the next 60 days, but you know, I want to leave some flexibility.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not I don't have a firm, hard set date.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys are making appearances at a lot of fights to kind of get the word around about it.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about that, talk about some of the things that you're doing feet on the ground right now.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: So California is our test market.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: We want to do a proof of concept out here.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's enough fights that happen out here, and it's a it's a good area for us to saturate the market.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, instead of scattering our efforts throughout the country at first, we want to really focus on California.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're sponsoring pretty much 85-90% of the boxing shows that are out here.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're really excited.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: We got put on a couple of Golden Boys uh shows December and just uh last week.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: So they're supporting us.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so we really want to just saturate the California market.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: We have these fight fight book girls that are acting as ring card girls and also models at our booths, and they're taking pictures with fans and passing out free fight book merchandise.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we're just you know educating people on what fight book is and passing out some free swag and trying to just you know focus on California right now just and get promoters accustomed to using it, everybody uh used to transacting on Fight Book.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: I love that, man.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you talked about the fact that you're not looking to monetize it immediately.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: So taking the business elements out of it, what is Mark's why as far as your involvement in the fight world and with Fight Book?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: What drives you?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: What motivates you personally, and what do you get out of it?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: What fulfills you?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: I notice a void in the space, frustration, right?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Frustration creates great ideas.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's a lot of great inventions and ideas are as a result of frustration.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: So uh the process of finding opponents frustrates the hell out of me.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: What really frustrates me more than anything are watching my guys go through a training camp, and two or three days before the fight, we find out something happens to the opponent.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: He's injured, his visa.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I really want to solve this issue with uh last minute fights falling apart.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: I really want to have a complete uh list of standby opponents that are ready, willing, and able to jump in at a minute's notice to have all of their medicals complete.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: So we are gonna be doing some something with fighters that may not be able to afford their medicals.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Will Fight Book will pay for their.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Medicals for a year in exchange for something from the fighter.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: We still haven't figured out that component yet, but um obviously we would need to be compensated for the money that we're putting forward for these medicals.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: But the whole reason we're doing that is so we do have these last-minute opponents that are ready.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: So this guy who's gone through a six-week training camp doesn't have to abandon his fight because the guy he was supposed to face was uh injured or overweight or can't compete for whatever reason.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I think uh fight book is gonna solve that problem in addition to helping things just be much more efficient.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of the lie for me.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: As a fight fan, as not only a fight fan, as a guy that does commentary for fights and a podcaster that celebrates the fight community, there is nothing more frustrating than a fight that falls apart 24 to 48 hours before it goes down.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Especially when you have a relationship with a fighter and you see the struggle that these guys go through.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, not this cutting weight is no joke.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: No shit.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: The whole process, the training camp, you know, these guys bust their ass and solving that problem would be huge.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, and maybe you're not gonna solve it 100% of the time, but even 70, 80% improvement is gonna be huge.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, for sure.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, like I said, if you are not yet, if you didn't pause this episode when I told you the first time, I'm gonna tell you a second time.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you follow Fight Book on all social media platforms wherever you find it.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, you're just on Instagram, right?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Instagram and Facebook.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Instagram and Facebook, make sure you give them a follow as this comes to life.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Mark, I'm super excited to collaborate more in the future.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, dude.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: So usually I close with an off-the-wall question, and I want to get your um take on it.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Given everything that you're experiencing right now, the launch of this business and some of the faces and names that you've had the pleasure of working with and just kind of the state of the world today, what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Lead with love, man.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hell yes.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lead with love.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hell yes.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hell yes.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Anything else you want to plug, my friend?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Mike, I appreciate you having me on.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, this is amazing.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's good to know you.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, good to be in the circle, and uh, you know, you can call on me anytime.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: The door's always open for you to be on the podcast for sure.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Mike.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate your time, buddy.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Habibi, the world's a much better place with unit, my friend.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, I want to thank my friend Mark Habibi for joining me on the podcast today.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do me a favor, go to Instagram, follow Fight Book, follow Wise Owlboxing.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, if you find Mark's Instagram profile, follow him as well.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: I plan on working with Mark a lot more in the future.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to see what is to come with this exciting platform.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: While you are being generous with the follows, make sure you are following me at Caught on the Mic on all social media platforms.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Follow my YouTube channel, subscribe to it, visit me, www.caughtonthemic.com, engage with my chat, please.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's a social media algorithm world, and we're just trying to drive this thing forward.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: For all guest inquiries, email me caught on the mic at gmail.com.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate all of you being here.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Michael Clark.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thank you.