Speaker 1: Approche production from from amateur You went to Sydney Olympics. Yes,
Speaker 1: does I feel when you were going to represent Australia.
Speaker 2: Mate, Yeah? Yeah, it made it so good. Like so
Speaker 2: I was like I went, I won the Ocean of
Speaker 2: Games and you know, to do that was pretty tough.
Speaker 2: You know. I was at the AIS preparing for it,
Speaker 2: you know, with the with the you know, with Australia's
Speaker 2: the lead athletes and these training camps and that, and
Speaker 2: like I got really sick, man, I got really sick
Speaker 2: before that fight. I was it was just really I
Speaker 2: don't know whether it was the weather or what. I
Speaker 2: got sick. And you know, I rang my mom and
Speaker 2: I had my family there. My family loved me. Have
Speaker 2: a lot of Greek family here in Sydney. They're very
Speaker 2: supportive of what I wanted to do. And and you know,
Speaker 2: I used that passion from inside, you know, to dig
Speaker 2: deep and I really wanted you know, I really want
Speaker 2: this real bad and I've learned that you know, if
Speaker 2: you want something more than you want to breathe, You're
Speaker 2: going to achieve it, you know. And I was so
Speaker 2: sick and the guy that so I was in Australian
Speaker 2: b team. I was never the A player to represent
Speaker 2: Australia in the Big Games. I was the B player
Speaker 2: because I lost at the Australian titles to an older
Speaker 2: or more developed fighter. He was twenty eight years of age.
Speaker 2: I was just a kid, you know, eighteen or something
Speaker 2: nineteen at the age at the time. Anyway. So he
Speaker 2: got knocked out or beat by a guy called remeal
Speaker 2: Able but from New Zealand. I'm sick. I've beat my
Speaker 2: guy from Fiji or wherever he was from. And I
Speaker 2: was fighting the guy that beat the guy that beat me,
Speaker 2: you know, And I was like, Mom, I'm so sick.
Speaker 2: You know what am I going to do? And she said, Love,
Speaker 2: you know how much you want this? And you know
Speaker 2: it's got to be now. You know, this is your
Speaker 2: trying to make the change because you don't have to
Speaker 2: dig with him within. You're gonna have to dig deep
Speaker 2: within yourself. Son, You're gonna have to dig within yourself.
Speaker 2: And I said, okay, I'm okay, I know I really
Speaker 2: want this, you know, man, I fucking dig deep. And
Speaker 2: I knocked that fucker out, you know, I fought him
Speaker 2: and I knocked him out. Like I just looked down
Speaker 2: at my family, all my family were there, like all
Speaker 2: the Greek side of my family all there. Man. I
Speaker 2: was like the Olympics. I'm gold to the Olympics, you know,
Speaker 2: and like and the confidence that gives a young guy
Speaker 2: like the age of nineteen and I've got to the
Speaker 2: Olympics and I won the first round of competition. It's
Speaker 2: like You're put up in front of the world. Is
Speaker 2: this great icon? You know? And that helped me build
Speaker 2: a lot of confidence in my life. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it was one of the best moments. I remember being
Speaker 2: at the opening ceremony with it like one of them
Speaker 2: VCR little cameras put the camera on myself on is
Speaker 2: the happiest moment of my life. You know. I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, the superstars around me. Back then we had
Speaker 2: Thorpi on it. It was big.
Speaker 1: Is that when you decided to ten pro after that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh yeah I did. I decided to turn pro.
Speaker 2: Yeah I did. I turned pro and and I won
Speaker 2: the state title. For my first fight, I won the Australian title.
Speaker 2: Back then, I used to fight twelve rounds for the
Speaker 2: Australian title against Danny Wilson. Yeah, Danny Wilson was the
Speaker 2: first fight, yes, yep. And I knocked him out to
Speaker 2: take the title of him. And then I thought James
Speaker 2: Swan for the for the Australian title as well. That
Speaker 2: was twelve rounds, big, big fight because he beat me
Speaker 2: in the amateurs guy and that was another confidence.
Speaker 1: Being amateur for you know, so long for what you did,
Speaker 1: did you s? Did you feel it was a lot
Speaker 1: hard or quicker? And all like that? It was different,
Speaker 1: totally different in the ring.
Speaker 2: It is that there are two different sports. Like the
Speaker 2: professional fight game is the hurt business, you know, like
Speaker 2: in there with a very good and you've got the
Speaker 2: thin gloves that we used that used to use the
Speaker 2: horse hair cleaner rays where you can pull the horse
Speaker 2: hair back and you just got the plass on your hands.
Speaker 2: It's more of a thud, you know. I remember interviewing
Speaker 2: back Rulings a little while ago. She's like a band
Speaker 2: knuckle fighter back Rollings, and and I was like, because
Speaker 2: I did a bit of work with seven plus and
Speaker 2: and and asking her some questions and I wanted to
Speaker 2: know and she said, like, you know, like that, you know,
Speaker 2: the bare knuckle fighting, you know, it hurts more with
Speaker 2: the gloves, you know, with the gloves. It's just more
Speaker 2: of a sting with the knuckles, but hurts small with
Speaker 2: a you know, with the gloves on it, and it's
Speaker 2: in there you can put really put the fear of
Speaker 2: life into a fighter when you fight them. When you've
Speaker 2: got those gloves on, you can really and that that
Speaker 2: worked in my favor. One thing I learned with you
Speaker 2: got to be patient. You've got to be lax and
Speaker 2: be calm under pressure. Yeah, you got to strike when
Speaker 2: the iron's hot. You'd act man at times, right, you do,
Speaker 2: but there's a lot to be said and acting at
Speaker 2: the right time. And because you've got three minutes. It's
Speaker 2: not just back then it was only two minute rounds
Speaker 2: with the amateurs, but these were you know, with three
Speaker 2: minute rounds, and you know, as a professional owner to
Speaker 2: just take my time, take my time, and when you
Speaker 2: had to put the foot down, just put the foot
Speaker 2: down and go.
Speaker 1: You didn't feel like he wanted to do another Olympics
Speaker 1: after this, like yeah, just to go to pro.
Speaker 2: No. I was meant to be a pro. I was
Speaker 2: meant to be a pro. And I think, as you
Speaker 2: can see right now, like we are, we are still
Speaker 2: behind in the level of boxing. That we need to be.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you something that I had a conversation with
Speaker 2: one of the head Cuban coaches and and and I said,
Speaker 2: what do we need to do as Aussie's to be
Speaker 2: better fighters? You know? And he couldn't speak very good English,
Speaker 2: and he didn't want to give us an insult, but
Speaker 2: he goes, he goes Ozzie, he goes to this tough compliment, right,
Speaker 2: but he went, oh, oh, you know because Russia, Cuba,
Speaker 2: Germany goes smart my listening to play play play, he
Speaker 2: goes Aussie, Rassia, Cuba, they play. And that's exactly how
Speaker 2: they do it, you know. Like like you can see
Speaker 2: a lot of these guys when they're going out there
Speaker 2: to fight. They're like they got the whole country behind them,
Speaker 2: you know, and they're like they can't help get that yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, get that drive, you know, which is a
Speaker 2: beautiful thing. But you know when you put that emotion,
Speaker 2: emotion takes away power, takes away energy. You know, it's
Speaker 2: good to have, but you need to have that focus
Speaker 2: and that drive.
Speaker 1: And so after after.
Speaker 3: The Dunny Wilson one, yep, you won the Australian as
Speaker 3: you said to Australian title yep, the wo Asian Pacific Yes,
Speaker 3: and the Ibsan Pacific yes.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: What was the film when you want all them titles?
Speaker 2: Unbelievable, unbelievable?
Speaker 1: Did you have it in your mind? This is what?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, But it was never enough. It was
Speaker 2: never enough. No, no, no, no no. It wasn't until
Speaker 2: I won the world title, until I was walking on
Speaker 2: the boulevard twenty three twenty three wins with twenty one knockouts,
Speaker 2: thinking how great is this on the million dollar paydays,
Speaker 2: and like, how you know? This is great? You know,
Speaker 2: like the worlds at your feet? Then you know, and
Speaker 2: then you sort of and then you're you're left thinking
Speaker 2: to yourself, you know what next? You know what next?
Speaker 2: You know? Then you lose your brother and it's just
Speaker 2: like you, well, just like you just ah yeah, but
Speaker 2: you know you. So I kept fighting instead of coming
Speaker 2: back home and dealing with the trauma, I decided to
Speaker 2: keep on fighting and going for the bigger cash, bigger cash.
Speaker 2: And then my clarity wasn't there. You know, I'm just
Speaker 2: masking my pain consistently, and I think.
Speaker 1: If it would have made your trauma worse coming.
Speaker 2: Back, I could Yeah, I could have been dead by
Speaker 2: now I could have been dead. I could have you know,
Speaker 2: ultimately more money, more money made even more foolish mistakes.
Speaker 2: You know, this feeling of inconvincibility that you have, you know,
Speaker 2: like when you just keep masking the pain, Like I
Speaker 2: made some really stupid decisions. And look, I'll be honest,
Speaker 2: I'm starting again in life. But I'm not doing nothing.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm doing a lot. I'm doing everything I can.
Speaker 2: You know, I've got the you know, I've got the
Speaker 2: great blueprint. You know, I've got the bullet the bulletproof mindset.
Speaker 2: This is the stuff that I'm doing all via my Instagram.
Speaker 2: I'm reaching out. I've been very active. I'm instagram lately.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm grabbing this world with two hands. I've
Speaker 2: got a floring company that I'm involved with. You know,
Speaker 2: I work every given opportunity that I can. You know,
Speaker 2: I work for you know, we're raising houses as well,
Speaker 2: you know, with a couple of mates I went to
Speaker 2: school with in Twin Colin and David Marshall. Like they've
Speaker 2: been so great, Like there's some good people out there
Speaker 2: in this world. And instead of like you know, the underworld,
Speaker 2: like instead of like you know, the guys from where where,
Speaker 2: like you know where, I'm responsible. I'm the one for
Speaker 2: my actions and I'm responsible for who I choose or
Speaker 2: what I choose to do. People people just generally they
Speaker 2: do want to help, whether their intentions are either which way.
Speaker 2: I think people do really just want to help. But
Speaker 2: ultimately it's me that makes the decisions. And you know,
Speaker 2: like now I'm just I just surround myself with positive
Speaker 2: people that are helping me in my career and if
Speaker 2: I can help them, like we work like Colin David
Speaker 2: with Stump, Like I work with them guys, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's such a good thing. And they still support me
Speaker 2: to come down here and do podcasts and and to
Speaker 2: catch up with like Johnny Lewis and like I spent
Speaker 2: like two hours with George Cambosa's today and another two
Speaker 2: hours with him like a couple of days ago. It's
Speaker 2: like it's mad, and you know, I'm going to Melbourne soon,
Speaker 2: Like it's just all these things have always been my fingertims.
Speaker 2: And then you know Baron Michaels and you know, like
Speaker 2: I'm on the phone with Brandon Smith almost every day.
Speaker 2: Even my very first trainer, Mike Beetros back in t
Speaker 2: of these names that you might not even know. But
Speaker 2: these people are really important to me, you know. And
Speaker 2: I'm very fortunate to have the memory and have the
Speaker 2: life that I have and the experience that I have,
Speaker 2: and I can pass on a lot to a lot
Speaker 2: of other people.
Speaker 1: You want to be you would want to be a
Speaker 1: trainer yourself.
Speaker 2: I am a trainer, but like have someone like maybe
Speaker 2: I'll go in the Olympics and ah yeah, yeah, Australian
Speaker 2: trainer for the box. I'm working on it. So at
Speaker 2: the moment, on my offering my services online so so
Speaker 2: I can just get my network out wide to the world.
Speaker 2: So I've got I've got a partner with Marty Cornish's
Speaker 2: my brand manager, so he's unpacked all my knowledge from
Speaker 2: my brain so I can pass on a lot of
Speaker 2: my knowledge to people. So we're doing all recording next
Speaker 2: week so we get these modules together and deliver what
Speaker 2: we say we're going to deliver to people. And I
Speaker 2: really want to help people with what they're doing and
Speaker 2: achieve their very best. But I do have my own
Speaker 2: a couple of guys. I spoke to a young Greek
Speaker 2: guy today in Melbourne. I've been watching him for a while.
Speaker 2: And there's another friend of mine, very very he's super
Speaker 2: freak and I'm telling you, when he comes out, it's
Speaker 2: going to be Australia's next Mike Tyson. You know, this
Speaker 2: guy's name is Tyrex Swan, and make this guy when
Speaker 2: when the time's right, I'll release him. I'll release him.
Speaker 2: But when the it's just you know, he's just waiting.
Speaker 2: But when the time's white, I released him because I
Speaker 2: know when when Michael Kat said this has a fighter
Speaker 2: good and ready, I know that everyone's going they know
Speaker 2: they're going to be in for a fight. But this
Speaker 2: guy is going to be a recoing machine when he
Speaker 2: comes out. And so when the time's right, I'll release him.
Speaker 3: When you've won these titles, we'll go back to when
Speaker 3: you want the WBO and the IBF and like that,
Speaker 3: ye as he said, you know, like you found guilty
Speaker 3: for an assault charge?
Speaker 2: Yes, two thousand, yes, yes.
Speaker 3: Now do you think that this from this point there
Speaker 3: you were starting to spiral or do you think that
Speaker 3: was just out of character?
Speaker 2: I think Look, I was I had a young young kid,
Speaker 2: you know, I was very hot headed, and some guy
Speaker 2: at some puble sleeping with my mates missus and he
Speaker 2: was the manager of the bar. And you can't just
Speaker 2: walk into a bar and knock out the manager, you know,
Speaker 2: you can't do that. And they say they take them,
Speaker 2: eat them biscuits and like them apples, mate, and just
Speaker 2: take off. It doesn't work like that, you know, you can't.
Speaker 2: You know. I was like, you know, I had an
Speaker 2: ego on me, you know, and you know there's like
Speaker 2: a lot of people do. But like people do you
Speaker 2: think people use you because of who you are?
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, can you short this up for me?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, Like like I knew too though, like you know,
Speaker 2: I can't blame anyone else. I think that's on me too,
Speaker 2: Like I have to own my own actions, and you know,
Speaker 2: and that's another mistake I found with a lot of
Speaker 2: people that have been found guilty of their crimes and
Speaker 2: that they don't want to have accountability. I was, you know,
Speaker 2: I was, I was fault, you know, and perhaps if
Speaker 2: I put my hand up belting and say yes, I'm guilty,
Speaker 2: then then you know, I wouldn't have went to jail.
Speaker 2: But I went to jail then. But I was just
Speaker 2: like I don't know how many people do this, But
Speaker 2: like both times I've been in jail. I've sat down,
Speaker 2: I said to myself, how fucking great is this? You know?
Speaker 2: I have gratitude. I'm so thankful because I know that
Speaker 2: I'm going to come out the other end. I just know.
Speaker 2: I just know, no matter what it is, I'm going
Speaker 2: to come out the other end. And just as I
Speaker 2: did with my boxing, this time, I just sat in
Speaker 2: that cell for two years thinking about what I'm going
Speaker 2: to do. How what am I going to do when
Speaker 2: I get out? Yes, And I'm going to help other people,
Speaker 2: Yes I am. Am. I going to use this experience
Speaker 2: to help and better myself and better other people. Yes
Speaker 2: I am. You know, Am I going to make money? Yes?
Speaker 2: Am I going to be a good family man?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: I'm going to keep on building building building building, and
Speaker 2: these things will take time and as part of my purpose,
Speaker 2: part of my mission now. No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 2: So it's just I think. Sobriety has been everything for me.
Speaker 2: It's made a big change. You know, I'm like two
Speaker 2: and a half year is you know, I refuse to
Speaker 2: go into addiction, you know, And I just whereas like
Speaker 2: it used to be, like I could I could people's
Speaker 2: actions and their behaviors. Was normal for me for people
Speaker 2: to be like that. But now I said, well, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not happy with that. You know, you don't seek
Speaker 2: comfortable with some behaviors of certain people, and you just
Speaker 2: know to walk the other direction.
Speaker 1: But did you think it affected you going to jail
Speaker 1: in two thousand.
Speaker 2: And two, But it affects you a lot. No, give shit, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: it's not give a shit. I remember writing letters word
Speaker 2: for word on postcards to America to Robbie Peden in America,
Speaker 2: and he tells me to this day he never received it. Brother,
Speaker 2: I knew he how Florida and address in Florida. I
Speaker 2: was talking on the phone to Brendan Smith every day
Speaker 2: and Mick be Truss, and I got Robbie Peton's address
Speaker 2: in Florida, and I sent a postcard like international mail,
Speaker 2: and I fit same in little words on that little postcard,
Speaker 2: like I just wanted to emulate his career, and I did.
Speaker 2: I wanted to emulate Rocky Rocky from the movie and
Speaker 2: like from the first guy's hands. I shook when I
Speaker 2: landed in America, I say, at the Rissevelt Hotel, walked
Speaker 2: out there was it was a Rocky five premiere Sylvester
Speaker 2: Salone walked out, shook the hands, and I shook his hand.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it was like that was I wanted
Speaker 2: to say to me, I was Rocky. They called me Rocky,
Speaker 2: you know, I was you you know, and you know,
Speaker 2: I wanted to emulate Robbie Peaton's career and I did
Speaker 2: just that. He went over he thought Mark Antonio Berrera,
Speaker 2: and I would always check him with Pete and always
Speaker 2: check him with Pean even now check him with peteen,
Speaker 2: you know. And you know he would say to me,
Speaker 2: you know, like you know, to make mixed day overseas,
Speaker 2: they overseason, all your bills all be paid over season.
Speaker 2: I kept doing that, and you know, I went leaping
Speaker 2: dound just taking the right advice from the right people.
Speaker 2: And you know, like obviously I had to learn the
Speaker 2: lesson the hard way. And now it's my it's my job.
Speaker 2: I feel it's my mission to empower others. And so
Speaker 2: so you know, these young people coming up in the world,
Speaker 2: they look, look, am I going to go this way
Speaker 2: and I'm going to go that way? You know, like
Speaker 2: I can tell them straight now, jail is a fucked place.
Speaker 2: It's a fucked place.