Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
7x Mr. Olympia 212 Champion Flex Lewis presents Straight Outta The Lair, the podcast that aims to bring you vital information for your life's ambitions, providing valuable insight from interviews of the many many different faces that walk through our doors at The Dragon's Lair Las Vegas and a few from the man himself.
Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
Fastest Knockout Ever | Uly Diaz | Straight Outta The Lair Podcast ep86
Sitting across from me, Uly Diaz's presence is as commanding as the punches he's thrown to clinch the fastest knockout in combat sports history. Yet today, we're not just recounting tales of physical might; we're unearthing the chapters of a life story that is as inspiring as it is tumultuous. From the sun-drenched streets of Miami to the dark corners of a prison cell, Uly's journey to private jets and philanthropy is a testament to the undeniable force of resilience and the redemptive power of love and discipline.
Our conversation takes an emotional dive into the depths of a father's worst nightmare—his son's battle with osteosarcoma. Uly's candor sheds light on the anguished path from misdiagnosis to the reality of chemotherapy, recounting the moments of despair and the peaks of unwavering support that carried his family through. Beyond the fight for life in hospital wards, we explore the fight within ourselves, to instill the values of empathy and perseverance in our children, drawing parallels with Uly's own transformation from a life shadowed by incarceration to one of leadership and hope.
As the clatter of gloves and the roar of the crowd give way to the tranquility of the studio, Uly and I share our visions for the future. He's not hanging up his gloves just yet, with eyes set on a title eliminator fight in Tampa and aspirations to soar within the bare-knuckle fighting sphere. Join us as we reflect on the importance of cultivating discipline, the serendipity of unexpected film roles, and the excitement of giving back to the community, proving that every ending is just a new beginning in this relentless pursuit of passion and legacy.
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----- Content -----
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:52 - From Troubled Beginnings to Success
00:10:55 - Overcoming Challenges and Finding Purpose
00:22:07 - Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Journey
00:30:20 - Cancer Battle and Life Lessons
00:36:04 - Knockout Legacy and COVID Challenges
00:42:21 - Bare Knuckle Fighting and Motivation
00:52:11 - The Importance of Consistency and Self-Demand
00:58:48 - Incredible Stories and Future Plans
I went from prison to private jets man Straight out the lead.
Speaker 2:Straight out the lead. Join today by my friend and something that's been planned for a long time the fastest knockout in combat history. Oolly monster, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Thank you, my brother, great to see you, man.
Speaker 2:Great to have you here in the gym.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are both. We just talked about what happened yesterday. We bought the nursing Little niggles.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:My knees, your hamstring. Yeah yeah, we played yesterday in the celebrity sweat football game flag football but I think there was more injuries in that game than I think in some professional football there was.
Speaker 1:It was a shit show. Shout out first off. Shout out to celebrity sweat. Shout out to celebrity sweat, amazing cause, amazing people behind the organization. I've been playing with them for the last four years. I actually won MVP two years ago.
Speaker 2:No, way yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:I'm always on team McGrady. Yeah, yesterday, first play of the game, I told McGrady I'm going long 10 steps down the field. I fucking feel such a pop in the back of my leg. Didn't play yet. And yesterday was the first time I actually got to play with Ashley, with my fiance on the team. She did amazing. She looked like a pro football player. She deserved a high. She was snapping yeah, she did great. I'm on a sideline fucking moping man. I feel like an asshole.
Speaker 2:You've done a great job of pulling it off.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:It was really until the second half I started looking at you. You'd be like I think he's done some of this hamstring.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you slowed yourself down a little bit, because there was only so much.
Speaker 1:I think you could front. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But yeah, just talking about the celebrity sweat thing, it was my first year this year and a great organization. Great. There was so many people in the stands there that supported both myself and you. And then the incredible cause of doing it for the Vets. We both had a great experience, even though we're all my nursing and I mean we talk about the injuries before we got on the podcast, but the vent itself was incredible Great experience. As I said, celebrities from all genres.
Speaker 1:From actors yeah, that was better. Djs yeah, and Paulie Dee had his fucking squad out there oh my gosh. Yes.
Speaker 2:So there was something going on. I think they were doing some Jersey Shore yeah they were filming. Paulie Dee had the fat heads out and he had all the kids yelling. I had my own cheer squad there. Unfortunately he was very close to Paulie Dee so they might have been drowned out a little bit.
Speaker 2:But I did hear my people shouting as well, as I heard your people too which you had right actually behind me talking crap about because we were on the pause in teams, which we did mention too. So Uli Ami and I've been friends now for quite some time, when we were living in Florida and obviously you mentioned that you're amazing Fiancé Ashley, who has been a near and dear friend of mine for many of you. I've seen her rise in her path, being a professional wrestler and an incredible wrestler. That too, and when you guys got together, it made me so happy because, again, I've got to know you now more on the personal level and know more about your story, and this is why I'm excited to bring you on the show to talk about that story, because this has been truly earned.
Speaker 2:You have, again, an incredible story from through fighting and everything else, but there's much more to you. You have this incredible look, stature. Scarier times I've seen the bloodied up faces from the wars that you get in. But you have another side that I've been privileged to get to know, which is very gentle, very loving and give insight to, and that, to me, is what separates you from the pack, because we see you in the cage. When you get locked in the cage or bare knuckle which you know are fucking incredible there's a lot of trauma that powers that and again that story is one to be told on this show. But again, we just spoke about the celebrity sweat, but not only that. You just came off another bare knuckle win two weeks ago and it was another bloody show and this guy's fucking Wolverine I see him today. Yeah, you pick up, like you said, you have scars, and then on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, during the fight I had a little headbutt because the guy was, he was a lefty, I'm a righty, so that happens a lot. I had a cut on my head, but thank God, genetics and just I, just I don't know just life man, I take care of myself and he looked very good, thank God.
Speaker 2:Do you heal up like Wolverine? I think that was the next day I seen you. Yeah, you had your you're swelling and stuff, but geez, looking at the fight and then looking at you the next day, it's like what the hell is in this blood. He should we should stop pulling this guy, pulling some vials out of this guy and put him in fucking storage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:And then, what was it? A week later, you run the.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 10 days later I ran a 26.2 miles around my first marathon no training whatsoever, Wow.
Speaker 2:Just three yourself right in.
Speaker 1:Do myself right in.
Speaker 2:So I want to talk about that later in the show because it has a massive meaning to it and an incredible story of that. But talk, tell us about Uli. Excuse me, tell us a story about Uli and the beginnings of childhood.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so well. I take an onion has layers, and sometimes I smell one too after.
Speaker 2:I don't think anybody's going to tell you no different.
Speaker 1:And I want to tell you first thank you so much for this opportunity. You are a legend yourself and it's amazing to be able to do it. It's amazing to call you a brother. So thank you for this opportunity. So, starting at the beginning of my story, born and raised in Miami, raised by a single mom, my mom has worked her ass off, still works her ass off. So, as she worked her ass off to put clothes on my back and a roof over my head, I was a single child trying to figure things out on my own. I never had a male role model and I always tell people I don't say this for a pity trip, for a pat on the back or nothing. I never had an uncle and never had a cousin, never had a dad, never had a stepdad, nothing like that. So I never had a male role model. Tell me hey, kid, look, you're good at this, stay away from this. And I never had that. I had to figure it on my own Along the way my friends became my family. I grew up with these, with certain guys, and they weren't. That's your friend. Oh, that's my brother. You know what I mean. That's my brother. But I always had, I always liked to dabble in the bad stuff. It always called my attention.
Speaker 1:So at a young age I'd get in trouble. I always fought. I was. I like to tell people that this is the truth. I was never a bully. I was never out there picking on people who couldn't fight. My mom worked late hours so I on my bus driver would keep me on the bus till six or seven o'clock at night. So I'd go from elementary school where I was supposed to get dropped off. I'd be picking up middle school kids and high school kids on the bus and I'm picking fights with these grown kids and I was a knucklehead. They chased me out of the bus, stomped me out and beat me up and I was the kid who just kept coming back. I was never scared. I kept coming back and it gets to the point where maybe they weren't scared of me because I know I was a little kid, but they're like this guy is fucking different, don't even fuck with him. He's like he doesn't quit. And I kept. I always had that in me and I was the anti-bullied. If I did see somebody getting bullied in school I'd go pick on the bully. I know I was just growing up in the streets of Miami.
Speaker 1:As I got into middle school and teenage years I dabbled in bagging up a little weed and doing my things in the street. Then in high school you get a little bigger. Fights get a little more serious. I got expelled from high school for fighting. In school I got sent to juvenile detention center.
Speaker 1:There's some time in juvenile detention center as a young man, when I turned 18, a guy who grew up with he had told me hey, man, I'm going to the Coast Guard, we should look into the Coast Guard with me. We'll go together on this buddy program and again, for my friends, he's my family, I'm like you know what, let's do it. So I went from like on the street gang life to the military. I went and joined the buddy program with him, went to Cape May, new Jersey, with the boot camp the trip is for Coast Guard Got through the Coast Guard in Coast in the Coast Guard boot camp.
Speaker 1:There's a million stories there where I got in trouble. They'd call me out. I got sent to this jail in boot camp where they put you with a pink belt and you got a march screaming to the top of your lungs left. And when I graduated from boot camp, all the instructors. They would come to me and they told me Diaz, I knew you could do it. We used to pick on you on purpose, just to fuck with you, but we knew you.
Speaker 2:Trying to break you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, trying to break me, and. But even as a kid I knew the mentality of I know what I'm, I know what I'm stepping into, they're trying to fuck with me. So then I was in the Coast Guard, got in the fight in the street. This isn't what. I was 23 years old, I got sent to prison. So I was as a young man. I went to 2004,. Five and six I was in prison for fighting on the street. Fine, got me into a bunch of trouble, Got me again put in juvenile detention centers. I went to prison as a young man. I came out of prison. I already had two kids, I had a step kid and I had my daughter. Already I come out. I grew up with pit bull that's my brother, still to this day. The rapper, yeah, the singer. Pit bull that's my brother's today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've been. He's been I mean, he's been best friends since we're 11 years old, lived together many times. So in 2006, when I come out, it's like he's on the rise. At that time I got on in May. He comes and sees me and tells me hey, I'll give you, take me to yourself, hang out with the family in June. You're going on the road with me. So I like to tell people I went from prison to private jets man. Yeah, and May 2006,. I came out of prison in June.
Speaker 1:I was in Seoul, south Korea. I was in Antwerp, belgium. I was in Milan, italy. I was in Okinawa, japan. I went through all the United States.
Speaker 1:I was working security quote unquote head of security for my best friend, something I was doing for free my whole life. He's paying me, I'm staying in hotels and there's women all around the world, it's everything. It was a great time. I'm with the man. So I did that for a couple of years, but back then he wasn't what he is now, so the pay wasn't as steady.
Speaker 1:Again, I know I'm trying to raise kids, I'm trying to figure myself out still, and I start dabbling back on the streets. Out of respect for him, I had a meeting and I told him look man, I'm still doing this and he's fucking great brother that he is he's like get out of that shit. I'm telling you we got this opportunity here. I didn't see it. You know what I mean. I didn't see it, and it's hard for people to see somebody else's dream, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So I stayed in the streets. He fucking rocketed it up, and when I go speak to kids, I tell them the stories. I was like look, you got two guys that grew up together. Yeah, one followed his path and he fucking went like this, and I bumped into every wall he could on the way up. Thank God, I was able to turn it around. But to get to the, to where I'm at now, is in 2000, 2016, february 2016,. I was, I had been in Colorado doing as part of the green rush and I was doing my thing there, and then, sorry, what is the green rush?
Speaker 1:growing over there in Colorado. I was part of that over there. And then I come to Miami and I got in. I got caught up in some shit man where I got in trouble down here Miami, and that started. It was a blessing in the skies. At the moment I thought my life was over. That was one by the prison I was looking at a long time. I turned my life around, started. I'm like I got. Now I got scared. Now I'm out on bond. I'm like, fuck, I need to. I can't be doing what I'm doing anymore. I get caught up. It's over, that's it. They're going to fucking melt the key and I'm done.
Speaker 1:Got into boxing. I had been training already. I had always been training. I did amateur boxing as an 18, 19, 20 year old kid. Now I get back into fighting. Come back to Miami and training at Fishtree gym. Shout out to them. They're like family, that's my gym.
Speaker 1:I was in the gym for about six months in November and December 2016. Right before New Year's of 2017. I told my coach hey, man, think I'm ready for a fight, so you sure, okay, who? Three days later, come back. All right, look, your first fight is January 27th 2017. This is fucking three weeks away in Dominican Republic, I was like, oh shit, all right, it's a reality check, and the winter of Dominican Republic fought Got a first round knockout. Man, I remember when I hit this dude and I sit him on his ass and then they come. They raised my hand. I had a couple of my family and friends there and it was just a biggest rush of life, flex, you know man, it was the biggest rush. I'm sure you felt it when you're on stage and they say James flex, lewis is the fucking winner, it's. It's this weird moment where you just like, and that's what I felt. I just felt this elating moment.
Speaker 2:It was your purpose.
Speaker 1:It was like my, it was my purpose. And so I got back to Miami, kept training. I was still 50, 50. I was still on the fence where I was still on the street and still I was still trying to figure it out. But being at the boxing gym may be really accountable, because the days I miss, my coach would call me and be like hey, what's going on with you? And they knew where I was in so they were trying to keep me out of that shit. What are you doing? How come you weren't at the gym today? You're right, everything good, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:And I'm a guy who I'm big on my word. If I give you my word, I'm gonna. I gotta be it. So Got me more in the gym About about a year into it. Now, a year into it, I'm like five and oh, in boxing I'm like you know what it's either this or that. I'm like fuck the streets. I gotta get the fuck out of here for my not only not fuck myself More for my kids. I want to see my kids grow up. I want to give them a good life. I want them. I've been hiding my whole life from my kids, so now I want to give them something to be proud of me about.
Speaker 1:So I left that shit behind and, man, it's been an amazing journey 14 and one, inboxing around 13 knockouts. I am four and two and bear knock what I fought for the world title two times came up short, but I fought some legends. I have the fastest knock on a combat sports history I've got. I'm two and one in MMA Excuse me. And life is amazing, man, I get opportunities like this to talk to you. I'm playing football, celebrity sweat. I'm traveling the world. My fiance is an amazing, beautiful woman. She's an angel. She's been God sent and life has really turned around for me. It's gotten great and it feels like not to get religious, but I do believe in God and I feel like God has really always been telling me man, like, the moment you give all this bullshit up, you're gonna see what your life does. And I gave it all up and it went boom.
Speaker 2:So let's take us back to that pivotal moment where you were 50-50. What things did you change for you to just be all in?
Speaker 1:The most important thing I changed was I stopped answering my phone for everybody, including my mom, including my family. I put my phone away. That was something that there was a source of anxiety for me was my phone, because I'd be training and I'd hear my phone ring and I'm thinking I'm missing out on fucking money or something. I'd be, you know, in the gym or shit. I got it. So first thing I did was leave my phone alone. Stop answering phone calls for any so-called friends or family because, believe it or not, even people who care about you a drag you out of. Drag you out of it. They're not trying to get you to anything bad, but they'll get you out of your zone. So I stopped that maybe, for I want to Say good four to six months I didn't answer fucking anybody's calls that people had to come check on me. My mom, would you okay, okay, yeah, I just I don't want to fuck with nobody. I got a focus. That, to me, was the most important thing.
Speaker 1:Was a hard it was very hard. It was very hard. I was the guy who was always on the streets. I did everything. I was well known on the streets already. So you get that that foam or the fear of missing out. So you're sitting at home, you're not doing shit. Fuck, I wonder what everybody's doing. Then you go on Instagram and you see it. Yeah, and everybody has their proudest moments on Instagram. They, you caught them. Oh, no man, I was fucking, I just took a picture.
Speaker 1:Yeah the rest of the night sucked, but I got over it. I got over it and and again at through this time of training. I'm fighting. I got my my. Now he's 10 years old, but at the time he was a little baby, is four or five, six years old and he's with me. He's so proud of me and I got my nephew to. My nephew is more like my son. He is my nephew.
Speaker 2:You call me son, yeah, come on my son exactly, so he's.
Speaker 1:They're so proud of me. They're in the gym with Mary day. Everybody knows them in my gym Fishery gym is it's world famous man. I got all types of people walking through there. So there it's amazing. Yeah, I got Famous people that know my name and it gives me the sense of being somebody. Being somebody and I don't got to hide who I am no more. And so the most important, back to your question Most important thing to me was just cut myself off from the world, just just focusing on what I needed to do and some of these people you grew up with.
Speaker 2:As you said, you call them family right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, still to this day, man, still to this day I get. They call me all the time, they text me and I don't take back and I send messages through my way. Let them know I love them and cuz I do, I love you and it's no hard feelings, but you're still doing what you do and I got to stay over here, brother, and it's not that I'm afraid I'll go back, cuz I know where I'm at now. I can never look back, but I just do your thing, bro. I don't want to get caught up any phone calls, I want to get a caught up in any conversations, none of that shit. And I'm very happy where I am.
Speaker 1:And Now I've been with. I've been with Ashley now for four years. She's had a lot to do with that, because when she came in, she I want to say, for lack of better words she taught me how to like hey, look, man, you're not better than people, but you're better than that. You got to figure out how to, and she came from a world where she was on TV and she was a star in her own. So she taught me how to, how to handle myself in the right situations such as walk like it on TV or just in general.
Speaker 1:No, in general yeah, in general I, for example, I go out and I hang out with some friends and we'd be out somewhere and I'm public and I'd be drinking or some. She come up. She like she look, you're you like these guys. Nobody knows these guys. Everybody knows you. So you're out there with a fucking taking pictures, with a beer in your hand or a drink in your hand. You're better than that. Let's try to fix these things up. Let's try to clean up and the good thing about that's a brag or nothing like that.
Speaker 1:But the good thing about me is that I can take criticism very well, so I can. I'm a guy who can look in and be like you know what you're fucking, absolutely right. I, I could do better than that. Now. I'm not a guy like what do you mean? Or try to fight it. A lot of people do. No, I'd be like you know what you're fucking. Absolutely I am better than that. I can do better and not only fuck whoever's watching on Instagram. I should.
Speaker 1:I got my kids watching me and I don't need to have a vape in my hand or a fucking drink in my hand because they're little. Kids are like oh, dad, you're. They see me as a Superman athlete. They're like what do you got that? What are you doing with that? You told me that's bad. What are you doing? Slowly but surely, I've gotten to where I'm at now, where I don't drink, I don't smoke, I've. I live a very healthy life I got. I got a great fiance, great, great mom to my kids and just a great foundation, great people around me pushing me up at all times.
Speaker 2:You mentioned faith area. Was that something that grew stronger?
Speaker 1:that definitely grew stronger. So back in 1999, when I've been through my mom and I have have been through every religion me through my mother. I'm Cuban Nationality, so that's a Catholic, that's mostly Catholic. So we started off there. We're going to the church every once in a while Christmas and Easter and stuff. Then we've transitioned through different things and through different religions and then in 1999 I was about 18 years old now. I was getting sitting out of trouble is right before went to the Coast Guard and stuff In our trouble and fighting and getting arrested and getting sent to the juvenile detention center when some lady came to my mom's man. Have you, have you Christianity? If you tried Jesus Christ, honestly, you know what I got in worse return. Let me try this guy Jesus. Let me see what he's all about. From that moment on, my mom's an ordained minister. Now she's a pastor yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me and my mom, we pray at all times. Wow, and it's gotten deeper for me. She's super into it where my mom she's even part of a church. She's, she's huge into it. I don't go into church as much, but I believe I pray every day. I give thanks every day over my food, if it at least it brings bring it to. The least thing I do is thank you Jesus. And I know that where I'm at today has a lot to do with all my mom's prayers. And because it has to be somebody up there that's been driving this car man, because I've seen many people next to me, just like I'm sure you have along the way. A lot of people just fall, man, just fall, either rest in peace, or or they're behind bars, or just Many fucking different stories you know, and mine has. I've been able to chug along. It's been hard. I've crashed into a couple walls, but that's what happens to. That's what happens to God's warriors. He gives them some hard battles and we're here today to talk about.
Speaker 2:I love it. You mentioned in a couple cuz I. Obviously we follow each other, so on your Instagrams and social media You're very open and honest, talking about many different things, faith included. Talking about your failures, which most people only paused. Highlight reels goes back to what we said earlier, but I remember watching something where you said I put my mom through hell and and now obviously the relationship you have is so beautiful. You always talk about your mom. You talk you're a great dad. I got a preface that you always put. Talk about your family and how much motivation that is to you. But obviously your mom being in your corner for everything, even when you were a little bit of an arty boy too right, I'm sure she's so proud now even watching that may. I got a metta yesterday, probably one of the bigger fun clubs you have over there with the kids, but now seeing you in this new party life, I'm sure she's wow. I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 1:She's extremely proud of me over the top proud. But more than anything she's relaxed. Now she's I let her relax. Where before had her on edge? Her? If her phone went off fucking past 10 o'clock at night. She's job bump and she she didn't know what the next call was about. So she's definitely in a great headspace. She's good. She sees Again. I have actually is an angel. She and her, my mom, are like best of friends and my mom and her family, which is our family, has have become best of friends. That's another blessing that everybody just became great.
Speaker 1:I and when I first got what Ashley and I see this is a guy I'm talking to right now, like any parent it was a guy. They Google me, I know, I know my look, which I love about me because I'm an oxymoron, because I know I look a certain way. I have the gold teeth. I had the dreadlocks back then, remember. I got the scars all over my face. I got tattoos everywhere. But I take pride in being the nicest guy you can meet and I go out of my way to be the nicest guy and you can be an asshole and I'll go out of my way to be nice to you now like anybody, we all have the limitations, yeah okay, okay.
Speaker 1:But I go out of my way to be the nicest person to everybody I like to. I take pride in that. So you know once, once we got to meet and everything, and now you know the family, their mom and dad Of course, and her parents are salt of the earth to salt of the amazing people, salt of the earth people. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. We mentioned obviously the kids and being just a massive drive for you, and recently your son just beat cancer and that was one of your massive drives for many different things. Now I did know that your boy was going through this, and as much of you. Poor post, I guess I missed this, but what a warrior, what a worry. Can you talk, tell us about what he went through?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we didn't post any about this shit on Instagram. No, no, go fund me. He's no fucking pray for my kid. No, none of that. We handled it internally through family. Yeah, and he is a warrior, he. The fight he just won is Hasn't fucking nothing compared to anything I've ever been through in my life, and he's only 10 years old. I saw tell you in 2022, the end of it, maybe November, december. My son plays tackle football and he plays basketball. So late in 2022, he was complaining about his quad, like a little like a soreness in his quad. So Again, he plays tackle football. He plays basketball. I'm thinking he got Charlie horse, like you. Somebody hit him, think somebody hit him or something with a knee or something. Gradually got a little worse. I I got to the point where he wouldn't let anybody touch it, resent oh shit, that might be.
Speaker 2:Ouli Ouli's got his alarm on saying we, we prolonged the tears. Maybe you set that alarm.
Speaker 1:I think my phone knew it was coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so late 2022, he had complained about it Again. I thought it was a Charlie horse, I thought it was something to do with his sports Beginning of 2023, he's still complaining about it. He wouldn't let anybody touch it. So I take him to his primary early in 2023. And his primary doctor has been a doctor for almost 40 years. I know the guy for over 20 years, great doctor. So I'm like, hey, doc, this happening, oh no, that's nothing, that's, that's growing pains. Sure, yeah, yeah, it's growing pains. Shit, ok, it's growing pains.
Speaker 1:After that, he's still complaining about it. I take him to another friend that's a physical therapist. My son's dad Don't let him touch it. Wow, and the last thing you're thinking is his cancer. You know what I mean? That's the last thing you're thinking. I'm like, come on, son, let him put some little electrical patches on it. And his dad, please don't let him touch it. I'm like, all right, cool Couple of weeks go by as I'm when I'm dropping my son off at school, he's fucking. Now he's limping out of my car. I called the primary. I told him hey, doc, I need, I need MRIs. He's all know it's not like that. You need X-rays. You know how they get the insurance run around to give you.
Speaker 1:I'm like, you know what Fuck this? I go and I pick him up from school. May I actually pick him up from school. I take him straight to the hospital emergency and I take him to do X-rays. By the time I get him back, so I take him to X-rays. By the time I get him back to school, they send the results over to his primary. His primary calls me and tells me hey, they found a lesion on his femur bone. I need you to take him back to the hospital. I'm like, oh, is it OK? So I pick him up from school.
Speaker 2:Did you know the severity of this? At this point, I had no idea.
Speaker 1:OK, I had no idea. And he tells me to take him to oncology. I didn't know what oncology was. I got a Google and that's a cancer doctor. So I'm like fuck is this? So I take him back. His birthday is March 3rd, so he had his 10th birthday March 3rd. He had a great time with his friends, but it was a pool party. All his friends that they tackle football friends are playing football. He's mostly in the pool and he's just a little bit around.
Speaker 1:So now this is like March 8th or 9th. We take him to the, to the, to the primary tells me I take him back. They tell him OK, we got to, we're going to run scans on him on Monday. So they send me home with a walker. Sunday the 11th. No, I'm sorry, the 12th of March, my the 12th of March is the Sunday. I'm taking him out just to the way. No, just have him get his mind off things. He's on a walker, he hurts himself. He's just walking. Oh, dad, my legs, I got it. I'm in a parking lot. Got to run and get my car. Come, put him in the car. We go back to emergency. We stay in the hospital Sunday, monday the 13th, in the morning they run MRI scans, pet scans and they do a biopsy. The next day, march 14th, that's my birthday. It was my 42nd birthday in the morning. They're like happy birthday.
Speaker 1:Your son has osteosarcoma. It's a cancerous tumor and his femur bone. We need to start chemotherapy immediately. 10 weeks chemotherapy. He has surgery to get to remove his femur bone and then then it's 18 more weeks of chemotherapy after he heals from the surgery. We started that immediately. Man and Nicholas just shot out to Nicholas Children's Hospital, to all the nurses on the sixth floor with the kids. They're freaking amazing man with their angels.
Speaker 1:We started chemotherapy. The first question my son asked the girls explaining to him what's going on and what cancer is in chemo and he's am I going to lose my hair? She's yeah, you're going to lose your hair. It's something that comes with it, he's like. So I had my boy shot at the Zeus too. He came over with my barber and he's in the hospital. We shaved their heads. I shaved my head. I had long hair. I shaved my head. All of us shaved our heads. My coach in boxing shaved his head. Yeah. So we started 10 weeks of chemotherapy.
Speaker 1:Then he did surgery in May of 2023. He had a surgery. This is where they did the surgery. They removed his femur bone.
Speaker 1:Let me go back real quick, before this happened. So the tumor is eating through your femur bone. It makes it brittle. So one day we're at home and his femur it doesn't it breaks. But it doesn't just break, it collapses on itself. Then he's in a cast, called a spica cast, which goes around your waist and all the way down one leg, all the way down your ankle. He had that for six or seven weeks, had to live through that. So then we do surgery where they remove his femur bone. They put a cadaver bone. They took his fibia out. They put his fibia inside the cadaver bone so it would regenerate his DNA faster. They put that. So he has a scar from his hip all the way down to his ankle.
Speaker 1:He hasn't walked in over a year. He's learning how to walk now. We just went to the doctor not too long ago. They said he could put full weight bearing on it. Thank God for that. He's walking a little bit on it. He did 18 more weeks of chemo after that and that's it, man. He rang the bell in November. So he's cancer free. We just did some scans last week we did scans. When he got out he rang the bell he's cancer free. And we did some other scans recently. Cancer free, thank God he's, yeah, man.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, where were you during this time, peter, the fight then Were you having fights on?
Speaker 1:So February of 2023, I fought in London. I was a co-made event for Floyd Mayweather. I fought in London in March is when he gets diagnosed. He had a surgery in May. They had called me to be the co-made event for Floyd Mayweather versus Gotti in Florida. My son had five weeks off from surgery before he started chemo again and the fight landed in that time. So he got the conceiving there. His surgeon came to my fight. We had him off front row ring side, my son, the surgeon, everybody. So I got the fight. That was when Floyd Mayweather and Gotti fought that there was like a huge rumble. It was crazy. Yeah. So I got the fight.
Speaker 1:I fought twice and honestly, I'm going to tell you the truth. Just not too many people know this. The only reason I took that fight was because I hadn't made any money that year except in February. So I'm like I need to make a couple of bucks. This is on the table for me. I took the fight, made a couple of dollars, didn't look good in a fight whatsoever. I shout out to Khalis Karim over in London that was my opponent. He looked great, he did his job. But yeah, man, I got beat up that fight. I took that fight on. I came out of the hospital room, went fought and came back to the hospital. But whatever, we got it done and he got the ring the bell in November and he's cancer free, yeah, so I only took one fight during that time and right after he had the surgery.
Speaker 2:Where would you mind that in that fight, that fight, were you there?
Speaker 1:Honestly, I wasn't man. Honestly I was. That was another time where I was 50, 50. Where I'm in the fight and the fight game somewhere where you got to be present at all times because you're getting punched or not you, but I wasn't in any type of shape. I, I I tell you I'd sleep in the hospital. We're sleeping in a hospital. I wake up at five in the morning, go to my boxing gym, be there about six, get a couple rounds and be back to the hospital by eight in the morning, so that way when my son's waking up, he's not. He's, I'm not missing, he's there. I never missed a beat while he was going through any of his things. I was by his side. Ashley and I were by his side through his whole entire ride. My mom was there and, again, all the nurses on the sixth floor that they that's what they deal with oncology unit and Nicholas Children's Hospital were right there. They were amazing.
Speaker 2:What did you learn from your son during this battle with cancer?
Speaker 1:Man I learned. I never had a doubt in how strong he was, but this is just, this is just. He got battle tested and he came out the other end as a winner. I learned how precious life is, how, again, the day they told me I cancer, the day everything started was my birthday. So imagine we had plans, dinner plans. We had. And it shows you that that life is like that. There's no plans, they're the same. They say you make plans and God laughs. And that's something that ran through my head all the time, because again, we're just planning some dinner for my birthday and this and that and the other. And no, brother, no, no. This is what life is and it it taught me how the closest, most important people around me, how great they are for my family, how they were there every step of the way.
Speaker 1:And again, we handled it. We didn't tell any of our close friends. We didn't tell anybody. We didn't tell anybody, we didn't post any pictures, didn't? Nobody really knew? Until recently, when I won my fight, my son came up and, oh, because I brought another kid that he's battling with cancer for the last three years, brought him out stage and gave him and his family tickets. He's been going through it for three years fighting. Yeah, it's crazy, man, it's crazy. It's crazy when you're you know as life goes, as you go through life, you find out people have cancer. Like fuck, that's crazy, damn. I'll pray for them. What can I do to help? But when it hits close to home, it's holy shit. It's a whole different story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have more, more empathy to hear in other people's news.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's so close to home. My mother obviously went through cancer and it was a wild time. By the way, congratulations are not fucking crying. I thought I thought you were, you were coming close, they the alarm broke. The alarm broke, broke it up. I think you got saved by the bell.
Speaker 1:No pun intended, I started fucking tearing up Right. We started bringing up like oh shit, yeah it goes and that alarm went off.
Speaker 2:I think somebody was listening. He was like, OK, we're going to keep all the match over here.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Apple.
Speaker 2:But in the ring you spoke about that, you brought your son in, you made the announcement and your announcement to the world that your son is no cancer free, and that's the first time I found out about it.
Speaker 1:No, I'm telling you, I had my closest friends, like people I'd I speak to on a daily basis, and I would never tell somebody I'm at the hospital, my kid, I'm going through this, I'm going to nothing, nothing. I just we just handled it. I didn't. I'm a guy that throughout my life I've never. That's why I said at the beginning, when I told you I didn't grow up with any male role model, first thing I said was I don't want a pity trip. I've always been like that, I, but yesterday I fucking blew my hamstring.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm like I didn't say anything, I've just. It's something that's been instilled in me. I don't want the. I don't want the pity trip. I don't want the. I don't know what it is to me. I get some past trauma where I don't want somebody saying, oh, this happened because of that. Yeah, I just never brought it up to anybody. We, we handled it internally. Thank God for insurance and thank God that a far from rich. But I'm going to, I'm going to place where where things can get handled internally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and obviously we got to see him yesterday and talk. He talks some shit to me because I was on the opposing team. Definitely the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. In a nice way, he was very respectful and one thing I will say about this is you obviously had a different upbringing and see, many of your kids have been steered away. I don't think that's the right word, but they know your story. You've been opening on this about them. You don't obviously represent the three or five passionately, hence the T-shirt you're wearing right now. But then there's also a lot of people that as they get in order to who is your dad, they want to get in the click and call how, how are you installing your boys with kind of the knowledge to steer away from some of the temptations that you grew up with?
Speaker 1:I tell them what I went through. I don't hold anything back when it comes to to my life. I tell them what I went through. We go through pictures and I show them pictures of me in prison and they know I had no dad, they know I had no uncle, they know I had no. What they have as me in their life I didn't have any of that. I tell them how I am. My job is to keep them away from everything I did and for them to have a better life and do as do right by them as much as possible. That's my job in life is to do right by them. Keep them out of any danger that I can.
Speaker 1:Of course you want them to figure things out on their own, but you want to school them to what they're going to figure out Like, hey look, this is going to come Like as a recent thing. My son and my son's basically my son and my nephew they had this little friend little kids and little kids and he'll go ahead and he remember they're all young, they're all 10 year old, little kids, but this little kid's kind of disrespectful. So I tell him listen, do my favorite, block them on. Block them on your whatever little social media you have them tick talking on this, block them on that. Block his phone number. Take them off all the little group types that they have, because those are what these little kids do. Take them off. That I go.
Speaker 1:The worst thing you could do to somebody and this is from experience Worst thing I could go beat you up. But then guess what I feel wrong about what I did. But if I go and I beat you up about me being mad about you about it, yeah, okay, I might have won the fight, but I feel bad for what I did. It wasn't something that I'm going to feel good about the way. The worst thing I could do to you is stop being your friend and stop talking to you. So I told him that's what you're going to do. You're going to stop, and the worst thing you do to him is he's going to lose you as a friend for being that way. Yeah, and sure enough, we're the kids feeling it and we're not trying to punish anybody, because the kid is a kid too, but that's one of the lessons I've taught my son Listen, you don't, don't put up with anything, and then, if you feel like you're doing something, the worst thing you could do to somebody is just cut him off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's. Excuse me, there's a lot of life's lessons that I've just had going to be learned from a 10 year old. He's already lived probably hell of a story compared to anybody on many people on this earth going through the battle he's done. Have you seen a change in him now coming out through the other side of this, from Kansa?
Speaker 1:Absolutely my son. The thing about my son he's always been like an older soul. He's. He likes to hold her hip hop music. He's very intelligent, he gets great grades in school. He can hold the conversation like he's an adult. But, yeah, he knows what he went through and it helps when guys like you and Tracy McGready, which he looks up to he's a basketball player, all these guys that they come and they know that he went through this and they're like man, you're a freaking warrior. It's amazing. What you went through the rest of your life compared to what you just went through is gonna be easy. You're only 10 years old. So, yeah, I know he takes that in. It's hard to understand what that means right now, but I know once he gets to 15, 20, 25 he's gonna look back at the time, be like, yeah he's guys are right Absolutely Shift him from one fight to another fastest knockout.
Speaker 2:My guy, I don't remember watching that and I was like shit, it's over already. Talk us through that event and what was different about that fight than any other fight?
Speaker 1:All right, so I'll tell you that was during the COVID year. That was November of 2020. Covid hit actually March 13th. My birthday was a Saturday. That year. March 14th, friday that year, my coach took another fight into Minnesota and it was the first fight that had with no crowd inside an arena. Oh, that's weird. Right, my birthday.
Speaker 1:The next day I was at the beach. Then we were supposed to have a dinner and guys were like, maybe I'm not gonna make it. You heard about this COVID stuff. I'm like what. But then it got serious.
Speaker 1:So I built the whole gym in my backyard. I had a ring, I had bags. By just the coincidence at the time my coach at the time was my back door neighbor, so we literally walk around the block. Yeah, great guys shout out to commander zero. So I was back to training. Everybody saw that they call it three seconds. It was less than two, but it was a lot of training to get to those three second knockouts In 2020.
Speaker 1:I never stopped training, like I said, in my backyard. We trained on a daily basis, got ready. I studied my opponent. He was a taller guy. I noticed that when people would attack him, first thing to do is put a chin in the air and try to put his hands out and I go man, coach, I'm gonna rush this guy and if he does that, I'm gonna knock him out. And man, it came. I'm telling you I have great videos of before the fight. I have a video of Ashley saying they come up to Ashley and I ask you how this? This is the day before the fight. I have a video I would love to show you. I'll send it, maybe put on B-roll.
Speaker 1:I would love it, you'll see it. Go ask you how do you think this fight's gonna go? Because she goes, ding, ding, the bell rings, he comes in, she goes maybe 15, 20 seconds knockout, fastest knockout, he wins, it's over. I beat it by by 12, 15 seconds, but it was amazing man the walkout was fucking.
Speaker 2:You know it's one of your name was fucking longer.
Speaker 1:Uli monster was exactly and that moment in that, that moment in history, was like a lightning strike man. It made my name ring bells around the world. It made me go viral. The next day I had calls from France, russia, japan, everybody, media. I did radio row for a couple months after that because I knock out. I still get recognition, because they knock out, and it's as an athlete or just as anybody in life. I think sometimes you wonder what's gonna be my moment in life. What am I gonna leave? How's my legacy gonna get left behind? And that was my moment. That was my moment where I hit him on the button. Lightning struck and I left my legacy on earth that day.
Speaker 2:I think you need to injure yourself in the in the post celebration. I think you just went.
Speaker 1:You know what to do no, so I was saying I was gonna be on a sports center's top 10 and then sports center's not so top 10, and three seconds later I was knocked myself out jumping over the ring. Yeah, you jumped up and I don't know if you fell over or you caught yourself yeah, my, my feet got caught on the top rope and I flipped right on my face. Wow, and what. I didn't feel it. I was so happy, yeah that door.
Speaker 2:That clip I can remember that happened and watched it live and the next complete week there's probably wasn't a sports channel that didn't highlight that Joe Rogan speaking about it, from ESPN to, fucking hell, cnn Sports, it was everywhere. It was amazing. It must have been a crazy time where shit, just being able to see yourself that knockout over and over again.
Speaker 1:It was amazing. It still. It still goes viral. There's people sending it to me all the time. Have you seen this? Yeah, for they say like a tag, or many somebody tags me on it. But yeah, man, like I said, it was just, it was just my moment in time. It was my moment in time and again, people only see those three seconds. There was a lot of training going behind that. There's a lot of training, there's a lot of studying. There's a lot of work done for that to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you might. I guess when I go back on something you mentioned, covid, how did you stay motivated during that period of time? Because a lot of athletes friends of ours, they got into some deep depressions. They lost their way, they lost their foot in, they couldn't train, some of them couldn't get into gyms. Obviously, conveniently, you had something in the backyard and obviously your coach was backing up to you. But how were you able to stay focused, knowing that nobody had any answers to when the next person was fighting?
Speaker 1:You know what? Look again, blessing my life is Ashley. She's with WW. At the time WW was an essential business, so she was still working. So we're working out every day and it's great when you have a partner that does this. Basically, she's a professional athlete as well, so we're in the same business and it was great. And, like I said, I'm telling you we had a whole gym, we had a boxing ring back there, we had bags, we had I bought a treadmill so we never missed a beat. And having her as a life partner, she's just, she's very motivating and she's somebody that doesn't need a push to do what she does Like.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I have my days where I'm like man, I'm tired, I don't feel like going back there and I see her. She doesn't sit, she's not a peep, Goes out there, gets her little head buds on, goes into trouble, gets her shit. I'm like I can't fucking let her work out there. So I got to get back there and they like anything else. Those days are the best, because then you work out, you get it done, You're like I'm glad I did that. I would have felt like shit if I didn't. So I'm glad I did it.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, we got through COVID and it was the beginning of our relationship. Me and Ashley got together late 2019. So COVID hit early in our relationship. So we really figured out if we wanted to be with each other because we're trapped in the house not going to do it together. And we figured out yeah, we really do love each other. I really love being with you. Probably four months into our relationship, which was like right at the beginning of COVID I remember she was on. She was on one of her WWE runs and I read to her U-Haul, went to her apartment and broke up, packed it up in the U-Haul. She got home. You got a new house Out Out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that's how me and Ashley knew each other from, and I knew each other, but got to see more, much more of one another because she was trained in the gym.
Speaker 1:Right, right. She calls you a big brother and I called my sister.
Speaker 2:In fact I've got a figurine that's in that studio over there. I didn't see that. I'll show you after the podcast, but again, what an inspiration and motivation. And one thing about her she's amazing with her fans, Absolutely amazing, and obviously I know you are too, but you mentioned also that she rubbed off and a lot of these things. These weather is on the fans, whatever else, but nonetheless I've seen her.
Speaker 1:But my fans are nothing compared to her fans. She has international crazy, real fans and she'll stay to the last person to speak to every you've seen it when she was like my daughter yesterday. Her heart doesn't fit in the room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's amazing Is there anything exciting that you're working on right now we can talk about?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I have a fight coming up. I don't know when this will air, but I got a fight coming up April 4th. That's the title eliminator. I'm fighting a Tampa. I'm gonna knock that dude out and then after that I'm fighting for the title and my new promotion. I'm fighting for BYB. Shout. Out to BYB Shout out.
Speaker 1:Those guys are amazing Made me a great deal. I'm also a commentator and ambassador for the promotion, so I'll be at all their fights, even when I'm not fighting, commentating, doing some fighter interviews and stuff like that. So I'm looking forward to winning a title somewhere late in 2024. And then I'm 42. I'll be 43 in a few weeks, I don't know yet, but maybe the fighting side of my career might be coming to a close. Maybe I'll do some. I want to be still involved with the promotion, maybe as fighter president, where I take care of all fighters, anything that has to do with fighters, and I'll bring fighters over to the promotion, doing whatever I can to help. But we'll see. Because I still feel good, man. I feel good, I feel healthy, I'm in great shape, I work out every day. I feel good. You can only take so many hits to the head, brother. You know what I mean and you don't know which one is the one that's going to be the damaging one.
Speaker 2:So I just bare knuckle.
Speaker 1:And it's bare knuckle, yeah, which it saves a lot safer than actually getting hit with gloves, because with a glove you're not getting cut, you're getting pounded in the head a hundred times At least. With burnovers, you get hit, you're going to get a cut. Fight might be over either get knocked out or they'll cut. They'll stop it because they cut. So there's there's data out there saying that that burnover was actually safer.
Speaker 2:Shit, I don't know about that. But yeah you know, because every fight you're in, you're not in, you're not in wars, right being cut up and blood baths.
Speaker 1:And my style of fighting. My style of fighting. I'm prone to that because I'm not a guy who's hopping around the ring, I'm not running away, I'm in your face and we're fighting. Yeah, I'm ready to go to the death. You know what I mean. If my nickname is a monster, I like to say I'm only the monster when I get in the ring and I'm telling you if you're not, if you're not willing to die in there with me, I'm willing to die. You know what I mean. And I know a lot of people say it sounds cliche, sounds over the top, but that's what it is, man. But once I get in there, we're locked in there and until it's over. You know I got to go. I'm going a hundred miles an hour.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about the bare knuckle world, because You're an incredible athlete in combat sports. You've got amazing record and MMA, amazing record and boxing, but what is it that that really pulled you in for bare knuckle? What was that?
Speaker 1:So I had. They had offered me me and bare knuckle, I was originally. I originally fought for BKFC. They had they had resorted to me in 2019. We're trying to work something out. We didn't come to an agreement because, at the end of the day, this is all business. We're all trying to get something out of it. We didn't come to an agreement Early 2020, before COVID. My first one was February for them, so I fought on BKFC 10. I was one of the pioneers for them. First 10, 10 shows I've been watching, yeah.
Speaker 1:And we came to an agreement, fought for them. I fought five times for them, got the fastest knockout, fought for two world titles on that promotion. But back to your question what kept me where there was man? I think it's like grassroots, I think it's a gladiator style. I think it's Romans versus the Greeks to the original fighting style. It's what got me in trouble as a kid a ton of times. I've done this a million times on the streets for free, not even for free, because I had to pay out of pocket a bond out of jail when I did this thing.
Speaker 1:So now I'm getting paid Again. I get the notoriety for it. It's putting me in an amazing position. It's got me this opportunity here and now, like I said, I'm part of a new promotion. I'm part of BYB. They've they've really spotlighted me and I'm trying to help this promotion get to the next level. I think it's a great place to be right now is as a fighter. I think bare knuckle is a great place to be because, just like UFC was at the beginning, where people were saying it was a human cock fighting all this, and now look at all the acquisitions just happened. They're they're multi-billion dollar business. I think that's what's going to happen with bare knuckle and I'm one of the pioneers, so I would love to be part of a great promotion, like I am now, that that gets acquired and I'm along for this big ride, certainly blown up because you're a pro.
Speaker 2:I was watching yourself fight in the single digits. I went to RIP Rumble Johnson. He was one of my boys. Great friend of his yeah, great human, we would go to the bare knuckle, and he was involved with something there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was there for the second knockout also. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So he was one of them guys that was like, hey bro, you've got to come and watch this. This is fucking wild. As if he what he didn't wasn't wild, right, but he's like this is incredible, You've got to get come and watch this. And what it is, with South Florida and back yard fights and bare knuckle that's really the home of bare knuckle in my eyes. Anyway, I don't know if you would agree with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kimball Slice George Mosvidal. Yeah, yeah, I started it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but now to see what that conversation happened when it was obviously as part of it and Rumble talking about all these these bare knuckle fights and they were trying to get sponsors and they were trying to convince people why they should sponsor, to know, right, fighting off was growing exponentially. But you've got guys like yourself who are representing the sport on and off as good pioneers, great pioneers. Sorry, should I say, but there's. There's something to be said now for your legacy, right, and even if you was to retire, I know you'll be still talked about as one of the pioneers in bare knuckle. What is it that gets you still motivated and up in the morning?
Speaker 1:Man man, the story we just talked about my 10 year old son man. He lives with me. I wake up every morning, he's and he's on me. He knows this is what I do for a living Dad the gym. And now, because of where he went through, I'm getting him back in shape. I got him. I got him working out, so he's got in a sense, a workout partner for me.
Speaker 1:And something we touched on in the beginning was the marathon I just ran. I just ran 26.2 miles. I've never trained for it. I actually ran a 10 days after my fight. I fought January 18th, january 28th. I was running in clear water marathon.
Speaker 1:Before that, two years before that, I ran two half marathons. That's 13 miles. So I ran double that this time when I got to mile 17 on this marathon. I got to mile 17 and flex I'm going to tell you right now but I thought my ankles were. I thought I left them a couple miles behind. I don't know what, where my legs were, but I swear to God that the only thing I would think about was I got to mile 17 and I started walking a little bit. That was the first time I walked right and then 26 miles, the first. I got to 17,. I started walking.
Speaker 1:The only thing I would think about was I cannot tell my son that I fucking quit this shit. Here goes with the fucking tears. I cannot go back and tell my son that this hurt and I couldn't fucking finish it. I only kept thinking about that. I kept looking at his face. In my mind I'm like there's no fucking way I can tell this kid would just be cancer. And I was thinking to myself I ran in January 28th this time last year. He was going through his pain. We didn't know he had cancer. So I was like fuck, he was fighting that shit the whole time. I never told anybody, they're no shit, was still playing football, basketball, because we didn't know he had cancer and he didn't complain. I'm like there's no fucking way. So I fucking dug deep, man, I just I ran it, he don't like I just.
Speaker 1:I finished running it. I got the mouth 20, so it's 26.2 miles. I got the mouth 24. I Walked for three quarters of a mile. Then I ran to 25 and then 25 to 26. I told myself I was like there's no fucking way I'm gonna walk past this finish line. I mean, there's no way I can't do my son. I can't tell my son I walk past this finish line. And I got on it, brother, and I fucking I did what I can and I finished it. I finished it. I did five hours and 16 minutes of running, no training. I finished it. I got a metal around my neck and I gotta tell you that 99.9% of the push that I had to finish that was because of my son and because of the battle he just fought. There was no way I could tell him I quit the other point. Zero one percent.
Speaker 1:I gotta give a shout out to my boy, tito. He's ran probably four marathons. Now he's a guy. He called me probably a week before my fight and he was telling me that he was gonna run this marathon. I really have sent me the link, this while I'm on the phone with him. So I'm on the phone. He sent me the link. I Fucking I apply by the marathon. I'm like all right, come on. Yeah, I said yeah, he's the holy shit and he's one of his friends.
Speaker 1:I like to do hard shit. I'm like I like David Goggins, I like what Watson? I like the don't be a pussy mentality that I'm intense like that. I've always been a Tough love. I like that you could tell me don't be a bitch, don't be this, and that kind of pushes me. I try to try to do that to like other people. It doesn't really work. So I love people, I like it. So I like to do hard shit. I actually signed up for another one called the keys 100. It's a hundred mile race. Me and my boy Tito are doing it together. He's doing 50. I'm doing 50. No way. Yeah, you run from key Largo all the way to Key West. It's a hundred miles.
Speaker 2:What is that drive? By the way, that's a couple of a drive.
Speaker 1:It's a four hour drive, or our drive.
Speaker 2:What is I'm gonna?
Speaker 1:take. I'm thinking it'll take us 50, 50 miles, so we could break it up, we could bring it up and we plan to bring it up like 10, 10, 10. We're trying to figure out how both of us cross the finish line at the same time at the end. But I'm thinking it'll take us, fuck, probably almost 24 hours. Probably take us 18, 20 hours, yeah so what's the purpose for this?
Speaker 2:Just to test yourself, just a test myself.
Speaker 1:I just I want to do hard shit. I want to look back when we're older and when we're gray and when I can't do shit like this we're hopefully the long time from now, but not even I know my kids are grown up and just and Tell them look, I did that shit, no, and it wasn't easy, and how did you do it? I just fucking said I was gonna do it. I told myself and I said it out loud so people can hear me, so I could put that pressure on myself, so I could go out there and I could do it. There was no, I need to train and I'm not ready, and this and every excuse in the book that that we've all heard, especially you being in a position. You've been, I'm sure, man. I want to start working out flex, but I got this and I got that.
Speaker 1:Listen, as for me, I do weight training two times a week. I wake up at 3 30. I'm at the gym at 4 am. Why people are like, oh what do you go at 4 am? Because I work out for 4 am, the 6 am, they're not. One person is up now. Now, my phone doesn't even vibrate. I got my shit in the corner over there and I don't have to worry about a fucking phone call because after six, seven in the morning, kids got to go to school, they got any breakfast. Shit's calling and my anxiety gets through the roof and I can't get a workout in because all I'm thinking about is fucking Shit that's happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, shit, that's happening through the day. I need to do a podcast, I need to do this so I get it done nice and early. And again, man, I like to put pressure on myself, I like to do hard shit. And there'll be a day where I'm sitting back Fucking telling stories and I could say I ran a hundred miles, I ran a marathon, I fought, fucking bare-knuckle. I.
Speaker 1:Won the fastest knockout, I'm bare-knuckle champion and and I did it all because I said, because I just fucking put it in my mind and I went to do it. It was like it wasn't anything. There's no outlandish story to tell you of how I got there. I just went and I did it. I woke up one day I said I was tired of my own shit and I got up and I fucking did what I was supposed to do crazy right when you check yourself, Prioritize your goals separate in the bullshit.
Speaker 2:It's incredible what you can do.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. You're like that.
Speaker 2:You're the poster boy for that.
Speaker 1:Thank you. And I tell people, when they ask me they go, what was the change? I tell them I got tired of my own shit. I got tired of my own shit and I, again, I've always liked to be a realist and I speak the truth. And it was a time in life when I wasn't and I felt shame and I felt like shit, and I've turned that all around. I said now, when I say something I want, I gotta do it, I gotta do it, I gotta do it. I mean, no matter how hard it is, I fucking I gotta go out there and do it.
Speaker 2:What advice would you give to some young kid that's watching this podcast? I was like man. That's like me. I'm fucking around the wrong people, I'm getting sucked into the wrong things, but I know I can achieve greatness.
Speaker 1:I always have the same advice for all young people's first off, you got to take the first step in the right direction. What's your? Take the first episode to give you momentum to keep going. You want to go to the gym? Go to the gym one day and I promise you. After that one day you're gonna go a second, third, fourth, fifth to sixth day. And, most important thing to me, the key to everything is consistency. Stay consistent with what you're doing. We're all human, we're all have our off days, but if you stay consistent as much as possible, you're gonna get so everything.
Speaker 1:Whenever you start something whether it's fighting, whether training, bodybuilding, whatever it is, any job it doesn't have to be in a sport the beginning is always hard. It's always how you always try to figure shit out. The beginning is always hard, but then you get to a place where you start figuring things out and things get easy and your heart. They's always behind you. And again, life is life. You might bump into a hard day here, there, but the majority of the time after, after that, it's gonna be very easy, very easy. It's just stay consistent and that's where that's what I've noticed is the key in life to being successful at Anything in life, whether it's if you want to be famous or you just want to be successful in any job. That you do Is to be consistent. Wake up every day, have your routine, put that first step for first foot in front of the other, and just go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I couldn't agree more having a routine, as you mentioned, having that, that schedule, consistency and also a demand for From yourself, because if you don't have a demand from yourself, then it's literally yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's easy to fall off of the path. Even for me in the last several months I've lost a little bit of a strike. Nobody would know. But I know and I Demand now, especially in this last month and a half, I demand the best version of myself and it's crazy, just as I mentioned earlier, how all these other opportunities start trickling in and then you start getting more of it and then you start hoping in more. But one thing I do want to mention before we land the plane, because we've come up to an hour on the podcast, is one of my One of my people says Chris, but I love the movie Den of the.
Speaker 1:Eaps.
Speaker 2:And I. There's a scene on there for every who doesn't know. It's a film that has got bank robberies in it and these guys I just loved I love the Sanjara.
Speaker 1:Are you Scottish?
Speaker 2:Welsh.
Speaker 1:Welsh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have to sorry. I wanted to mention this because I was watching this film for the first time and I don't know if I was in. It was somewhere where I couldn't stop the fucking thing. I was like hold on a minute. I swear Uli is in my favorite scene of the whole movie. How did that come about?
Speaker 1:So talk about that scene real quick. You have a daughter.
Speaker 2:So that's like a perfect scene if you have a daughter. I fucking love that scene.
Speaker 1:We could describe the scene if you want but so my boxing coach is really great friends with Christian Gudegas, who's director for that movie. I met Christian. Me and Christian are great friends right now because of that movie. He was up there, had my first fight coming up. This was January 2017. He goes. They come up to Atlanta. We're filming this movie. I want you to be part of the movie and we'll train up here. I fucking this is at the time where I told you I turned my phone off. I don't want to. I'm not talking to anybody. Flew up to Atlanta was a great opportunity too. He introduced me to the guy Again. At that time I was 225. I was fucking cocked diesel straight muscle.
Speaker 1:He was fucking Ben bro yeah so that guy goes hey, I want you to be an extra of my movie. It was like great, and that scene came about. It was perfect. Man, yeah, if you blink you miss me, but I did.
Speaker 2:No, I make sure that I watch it every fuck day. I've sent that scene to so many my friends, especially who have girls right, yeah, because they made a meme when your daughter starts dating.
Speaker 2:So 50 cents. The scene is 50 cents. His daughter's going to the prom and he got this kind of kid with a little bit of swag he's probably cool in school, right? Let me hold you for a second and he takes this kid who's just about to take his daughter to the prom into his garage where Uli's there. Oh my God, all the goons are training and they scare the shit out of him. And then when the door closes, that scene I go into live in my head when my daughter is in that situation and all you guys then crack up because it was all kind of front right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But again, another fair that you have, one of many Before we finish and land the plane on the podcast. Anything you want to shout out or speak about that we have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just real quick. I want to touch on something that you said, man, that I'm a guy who I use a lot of motivation, motivational speeches, tube things but motivation only lasts a long time. You need discipline to keep it going. So you can use motivation to get you started, but make sure you got the discipline to keep going. Shots out, man. Shout out to you for sure, Love you, brother. Shout out to my wife Ashley I love you, babe. My family, my son, junior Caleb. Shout out to Fish Free Gym. And shout out to all my sponsors. You guys can look on Instagram see all my sponsors. You guys are behind me, a thousand percent AMG and a ton of others. Man. Shout out to Celebrity's for it. Thank you for the opportunity. Yesterday it was amazing to do what we did for the Vets. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be able to do what we do. They take care of us while we're sleeping.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, man. Thank you so much for this opportunity, man. It's been amazing.
Speaker 2:Man, as I said, I love you too. Incredible story. I just wanted to for the viewers here who may know you see you again from the Highlight Reels or even the fucking movie. Now they get to you a story of what created the man that sits in front of me. Mate, and I love people who have been able to change the trajectory of their life. Sit in front of me and talk about their failures as well as the successes, and once you change, that trajectory and the mindset change. I know I've said this since Redunda, but it truly is amazing what you can achieve in life and you are that testimony, and I'm just excited to see what's to come from Uli. There's so many things that you're passionate about We've already mentioned them, but there's so many other things now that you're working on that we'll talk about on a second podcast that I'm blown away and pumped about to see you now entered in these new chapters from Ever then we've spoken about it much more. As I said, if there's nothing else to say, I'm fucking honored to have you here.
Speaker 1:Honours all mine brother. Thank you, man. Thank you, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We will most definitely will be playing each other, hopefully playing on the same team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whenever we have, we are going to talk to Lisa. I got to put us on the same team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we were talking shit. I messaged him when I found out we were going to be competing in the game sorry, playing in the game and then I said listen bro, hopefully we're on the same team, but if we're not, we are my enemy, we're my enemy. We had a little shit talk before and, as I said, off that, there's only, there's only so much.
Speaker 1:I feel like a talk shit to you on that, then he walks off flicking the other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but there was a door that I closed behind me. My guy, I appreciate you, I love you, I love Ashley, and I'm so honored to hear this story and tell all my fans we're going to have you back in the future. We're going to do some stuff, obviously in the gym. We'll do some stuff that we're going to wish you all the very best for your upcoming fight and then seeing you with that title, that strap around your shoulder, is going to happen. A lot of attraction. And one thing nobody can ever knock you on. You know money would and you will accomplish this. It's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much again for the opportunity to be able to tell my story Again. Your family brother. Thank you, man.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1:And this is just the beginning, man. Much more to come.
Speaker 2:Just the beginning from me and the monster. We are out.
