Speaker 1: Caralam. She's the queen of talking. He was man, She's
Speaker 1: only yes, actually got the scoop on on the on side.
Speaker 1: No one can do with clid back Caral Lam, Carola.
Speaker 1: No one can do with cuid Carala is timple, Caroline.
Speaker 1: I am so excited about this episode. I have Michael
Speaker 1: Chandler on today. He is a two time m M,
Speaker 1: a world champion. Not only is he an incredible fighter,
Speaker 1: I've watched him fight and it is insane. I've watched
Speaker 1: him on pay per view, I've watched him on the internet.
Speaker 1: This guy is crazy good. He is such a competitor,
Speaker 1: he is so great, obviously a world champion, and he's
Speaker 1: so positive. We talk all about how he stays motivated
Speaker 1: the importance of self talk, positive self talk, and just
Speaker 1: the power of believing in yourself. He is such an
Speaker 1: inspirational person. I told him he needs to be an
Speaker 1: inspirational speaker in his next life, because this guy is
Speaker 1: the most positive, inspiring person you'll ever meet. Y'all get
Speaker 1: excited Michael Chandler. Okay, I'm so stoked. Michael Chandler is
Speaker 1: in the house, and oh my gosh, I feel a
Speaker 1: little bit overwhelmed because you're a world champion. You are
Speaker 1: a two time world champion of the lightweight division for
Speaker 1: M m m A fighting and oh, we just tell me,
Speaker 1: how did you get into this sport to begin with?
Speaker 1: And it's so layered because people are confused, like someone
Speaker 1: like me, is it boxing? Is a UFC? Is it
Speaker 1: m m A? Is it? What's belatour? There's so many layers,
Speaker 1: there's so many How did you get involved with this sport?
Speaker 1: And now you are sitting at the top of your game.
Speaker 1: So for me, it started out with just wrestling. I
Speaker 1: wrestled in high school, wrestled in college. UM was in
Speaker 1: love with the sport of wrestling. Well, I think for me,
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't a big guy. Was I wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna I wasn't going to excel at football because I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't big and tall and whatever. I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: excel at basketball. Um, wrestling was that perfect kind of
Speaker 1: blue collar work hard and good things are going to happen.
Speaker 1: And it really is the toughest sport in the entire world.
Speaker 1: Everything I think, Yeah, I mean, I think if if
Speaker 1: you talk to anybody who's ever who has wrestled or
Speaker 1: knows wrestlers that they will agree that it's it's that
Speaker 1: grind and it's so hard and it's tough, and it's
Speaker 1: and it's weight cutting, and when you're not weight cutting,
Speaker 1: your training extremely hard. And then you couple them both
Speaker 1: together and it's and it's constant ups and downs, an
Speaker 1: emotional roller coaster. And it's maybe the man that I
Speaker 1: am and the husband I am and the father I
Speaker 1: will be, what did I teach? I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's just the constant stick to itedness and the constant
Speaker 1: just honestly getting beat down and then build build back
Speaker 1: up and beat down and built back up. And it's
Speaker 1: just that constant faith in that constant grounded nous of
Speaker 1: knowing that if I show up every single day and
Speaker 1: I laced my you know, I put my mouth piece in,
Speaker 1: I lace my shoes up, and I go as hard
Speaker 1: as I can I get outside of my carben zone,
Speaker 1: good things are going to happen. And even when bad
Speaker 1: things do happen, it's only a matter of time before
Speaker 1: I'm back on top again or I win again. And
Speaker 1: seeing that proven over and over again through this career
Speaker 1: that you've chosen. Yeah, So so I think there's no
Speaker 1: way that I would be sitting here as a multiple
Speaker 1: time world champion without the sport of wrestling, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's it was great, and I wrestled at wrestling
Speaker 1: in high school and then college wrestled at miszoo. Wrestling
Speaker 1: is obviously different than m m A. Wrestling is not
Speaker 1: quite as intensive m m A. Right, Well, to me,
Speaker 1: it's actually a harder sport. I think. I think if
Speaker 1: you if you watch the wrestling match and you watched
Speaker 1: the m m A fight, you're gonna see, you know, punches, kicks, knees, elbows, cuts, bruising,
Speaker 1: stitches in a m m A fight, knockout submissions. Um.
Speaker 1: But the sport of the sport of wrestling, the amount
Speaker 1: of dedication that it takes to make it to that
Speaker 1: top one per cent, is so much more than than
Speaker 1: the sport of mixed martial arts. But when you talk
Speaker 1: about intensity, when you talk about entertainment and blood and
Speaker 1: guts and and crazy craziness and literally the volatility inside
Speaker 1: of a competition, mixed martial arts is one of the
Speaker 1: most exciting sports in the entire world. So you think
Speaker 1: it's one of the more dangerous sports. Are you ever
Speaker 1: worried about your health, Um, a little bit. I think
Speaker 1: it's I think it's ignorance is bliss type of situation
Speaker 1: where yeah, you know, and I just think I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been called to this sport. God would not have
Speaker 1: called me to this sport. If you have great things
Speaker 1: were going to happen or or harm was going to
Speaker 1: be done. And I've had numerous sets of stitches. I've
Speaker 1: had eyes swollen shut and lips turned inside out, and
Speaker 1: injuries and losses and tears, and and I've been on
Speaker 1: top of the world and I've been down in the dumps,
Speaker 1: and it's been it's been such a crazy, crazy sport.
Speaker 1: But it's you know, I just I truly believe that
Speaker 1: I was I was put on this on this earth
Speaker 1: to be a world champion and and reach people on
Speaker 1: my platform. So I try not to think about it,
Speaker 1: you know. But your calling, Yeah, absolutely, because I am
Speaker 1: very big on callings to I think we all have
Speaker 1: a calling, and I think it's so important to take
Speaker 1: the time to figure out what it is. But you
Speaker 1: found yours fairly quickly right away in high school with wrestling,
Speaker 1: with wrestling and that, so you just fell in love
Speaker 1: with wrestling, and then you became the best at wrestling. Yes,
Speaker 1: well not as not as good as I wanted to be,
Speaker 1: you know, I think, you know, I think I fell
Speaker 1: short in wrestling, and that's what really propelled me to
Speaker 1: having a very successful mm A career. And I was
Speaker 1: extremely extremely blessed. I was. I was the oldest of
Speaker 1: three boys, you know, So I was I was the
Speaker 1: I never had a big brother. But when I came
Speaker 1: into college, I immediately started taking my lumps and getting
Speaker 1: beat up by the upper classmans. And and um, you know,
Speaker 1: there's two guys right now who are world champions in
Speaker 1: other organizations. So I fight for Bellator. There's the welterweight
Speaker 1: champion of the UFC, Tyron Woodley, and there's the welter
Speaker 1: weight champion of one FC, Ben Askerin who I wrestled
Speaker 1: with both of them in college. Wow, So y'all kind
Speaker 1: of rose And so you were telling me earlier Bellator.
Speaker 1: It's like UFC Belotour, breakdown what those are for people
Speaker 1: who might be confused on how it's all divided up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the sport is mixed martial arts. The sport is
Speaker 1: m m A. We fight under the Unified Rules of
Speaker 1: Mixed Martial Arts. And then yeah, so underneath the sport
Speaker 1: of mixed martial arts there are different organizations and the organizations.
Speaker 1: The first one was the UFC. They came in, came
Speaker 1: around and basically started the sport in nine, I believe,
Speaker 1: and then Belletre came around in two thousand and eight. Um,
Speaker 1: there was Strike Forest, there's one FC, there's World Series
Speaker 1: of Fighting. We're all the different organizations, and then under
Speaker 1: those organizations are contracted fighters. So I'm I'm a ten
Speaker 1: ninety nine employee to Bellaturers. So yeah, so I'm I'm
Speaker 1: contracted in Bellotour and there's the guys in the UFC
Speaker 1: and there's the guys in Belletour and NFC. We don't
Speaker 1: cross promote, you know. And whenever my contract is up,
Speaker 1: I either choose to resign a deal with Bellotour and
Speaker 1: continue my services with them, or I sup around, I
Speaker 1: become a free agent. Just like football, just like baseball,
Speaker 1: just like basketball. Okay, there's a lot. It's just it's
Speaker 1: such a powerful platform that you're on because you are
Speaker 1: literally using your body as your instrument to have your platform,
Speaker 1: to have your calling. And so the training, mental physical,
Speaker 1: How do you mentally? Because I feel like so much
Speaker 1: of it has to be mental. So when you're transferring
Speaker 1: from wrestling and getting into m m A, are you
Speaker 1: deciding in your mind then I'm going to be the best.
Speaker 1: How what goes on in the process of you evolving
Speaker 1: into this world ship champion? Well? I think that The
Speaker 1: funny thing about the evolution of my careers is I
Speaker 1: think there's been ups, and there's been downs, and there's
Speaker 1: been There's been times where I have believed to myself,
Speaker 1: and then there's been times where either I got complacent
Speaker 1: with my self belief or I wasn't seeking that self
Speaker 1: belief in that motivation and that and that positive self
Speaker 1: talk that I should have been. And I find myself
Speaker 1: positive self talk crucial. Oh my gosh, it's it's it
Speaker 1: literally is everything I think. I mean in my career,
Speaker 1: I came into the sport Sky High thinking, Okay, Michael,
Speaker 1: you've you were an All American. I was an All
Speaker 1: American and wrestling, which is which is a very small
Speaker 1: percentage of people who can become All Americans at the
Speaker 1: Division one wrestler as at the Division one wrestling UM
Speaker 1: ranks in college. And so when I came into the sport,
Speaker 1: I told myself, Okay, Michael, you've worked harder than all
Speaker 1: these guys. You might not be as skilled, you might
Speaker 1: not be as good on paper, you might not be
Speaker 1: ranked a high, but you can go out there and
Speaker 1: beat him. And literally a year and a half after
Speaker 1: I stepped into the cage, I became world champion and
Speaker 1: ranked the top five in the world. So within twenty
Speaker 1: two months or something, I was world champion right out
Speaker 1: of college. So I found success really quickly. Do you
Speaker 1: think it's because you wanted it? Maybe more because obviously
Speaker 1: you're at this point you all have talent. What separates
Speaker 1: the world champions from the people who are all talented.
Speaker 1: I think it's toughness. I think it's I think it's consistency,
Speaker 1: consistent belief and confident in expectancy of really truly believing
Speaker 1: what you deserve, you know. And I think I think
Speaker 1: in college, I would tell the reporters, or I would
Speaker 1: tell my coach, or I would tell teammates, I want
Speaker 1: to be a national champion. I want to be a
Speaker 1: national champion. And if you watch the way I trained,
Speaker 1: I would train harder than everybody every single day. Yes,
Speaker 1: but mentally, I didn't truly believe that I was going
Speaker 1: to be a national champion. I didn't truly believe that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I wasn't as much back then. I would tell
Speaker 1: other people, but when it when it was just me
Speaker 1: alone in my thoughts, it was the fear of being
Speaker 1: successful or um I would you know. I can remember
Speaker 1: numerous times where I was winning a match and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden I would find a way to lose,
Speaker 1: you know, so we would find way to lose. I
Speaker 1: would sabotage, not on purpose, but I think it's it's
Speaker 1: it's that cognitive dissonance and and it's this is that
Speaker 1: what I've come So let me let me become a
Speaker 1: psychologist really quickly. Uh no, but cognitive dissonance is basically
Speaker 1: what I think, what is happening not truly lining up
Speaker 1: with your beliefs. So so I was about to be
Speaker 1: say a guy named Cepias Later who was ranked top
Speaker 1: three in the country at the time, and I was
Speaker 1: just a freshman sophomore. I wasn't supposed to beat him,
Speaker 1: but I was up by like five or six points.
Speaker 1: So what was happening in real life? I didn't line
Speaker 1: up with my self belief. My self belief was you'll
Speaker 1: never be able to beat later, You're not as good
Speaker 1: as him. You didn't feel like you were ready yet
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, or you just fear of fear of
Speaker 1: being fear of being great because you're not sure what
Speaker 1: is on the other side of greatness, what what that
Speaker 1: entails were, you know? So it's what is happening not
Speaker 1: lining up with what you truly believe, you know. So
Speaker 1: I didn't truly believe it that I could beat him,
Speaker 1: so I would find a way, and I ended up
Speaker 1: finding a way to lose. I got taken down and
Speaker 1: then I got you let me go, and I got
Speaker 1: taken down again, and it's a point system and I lost.
Speaker 1: And after the match, it was kind of like, what
Speaker 1: the heck just happened? How did you lose that match?
Speaker 1: That you had that match? So it's so how do
Speaker 1: you process it? How do you realize that you were
Speaker 1: self sabotaging a little bit? I think I didn't really
Speaker 1: realize it till I didn't really realize that till after
Speaker 1: college and I started fighting, and then I kind of changed.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think, really taking ownership of self belief,
Speaker 1: taking ownership of self talk, taking ownership of of realizing that,
Speaker 1: I mean a couple of generations ago, our parents are grandparents,
Speaker 1: they didn't have YouTube, they didn't have podcasts, they didn't
Speaker 1: have do you realize, I mean yourself, for our listeners
Speaker 1: at home, how easy it is to pick up your
Speaker 1: phone and listen to so much positive stuff. So like
Speaker 1: zig Ziggler was from like the nineteen eighties and nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: and and all of his stuff is still has turned
Speaker 1: in the podcast and into all of these things. And
Speaker 1: you can listen to your favorite sermon you say, your
Speaker 1: favorite pastor, your favorite motivational speaker, YouTube videos. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's so easy to stay built up in the
Speaker 1: year and our generation, you know. So I think it
Speaker 1: was taking ownership of realizing that, Okay, I work harder
Speaker 1: than anybody else at the gym, but what's going to
Speaker 1: happen the other twenty hours of the day? You know,
Speaker 1: what are you going to do? What are you gonna exactly?
Speaker 1: What are you gonna read? What are you gonna say?
Speaker 1: What are you gonna believe? What are you going to watch?
Speaker 1: What are you going to what are you gonna what
Speaker 1: are you going to decide to kind of to really
Speaker 1: dwell on. So you have made it your because you Okay,
Speaker 1: you're like so you are someone who actually has to
Speaker 1: walk the walk and talk to talk because if you
Speaker 1: don't have your mental game in check, you can have
Speaker 1: your physical body at the top of your game, but
Speaker 1: if your mental game is not there, that is just
Speaker 1: as important, so much more important. And a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't have to work on their mental game as
Speaker 1: much as someone like you does because we can skate
Speaker 1: through life and we don't have to really like you know,
Speaker 1: our careers don't depend on the state of our mental being.
Speaker 1: But you have to be tuned up all the time
Speaker 1: in your mind, absolutely, and because it's it's all and
Speaker 1: and really I always say this, I'm not actually going
Speaker 1: out there and getting locked into a cage fighting against
Speaker 1: another man. I'm really fighting against myself, you know. Am
Speaker 1: I going to let myself go out there and perform
Speaker 1: the way that I know I can let yourself? You know?
Speaker 1: And that's what I always say. And I asked myself
Speaker 1: this all the time, Michael. Somebody, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, somebody has to be the best. Why shouldn't
Speaker 1: it be you know, why shouldn't it you have to
Speaker 1: tell yourself that you do deserve that always. And because
Speaker 1: everything I do in the gym live my life right,
Speaker 1: you know what I put into my body, how often
Speaker 1: I sleep, Like every single thing adds up to becoming
Speaker 1: the best fighter of all time. But on the mental
Speaker 1: aspect of it, that's that's the only way that that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen, you know, But that's so important. And visualization
Speaker 1: and and really realizing that that visualizing things the brain.
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of reading or a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of research realizing that the brain doesn't really
Speaker 1: truly know the difference between you know, me picking up
Speaker 1: a pen or me closing my eyes and watching myself
Speaker 1: pick up that pen and pick up that pen, and
Speaker 1: that your brain doesn't quite know the difference between something
Speaker 1: actually happening and something visual like you actually visualizing something happened.
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to say I can you know,
Speaker 1: I can sit here and and you know, say, visualize
Speaker 1: something and it's going to happen like this kind of
Speaker 1: people planned that that can happen if you really focus,
Speaker 1: and it really isn't. And now as I get older
Speaker 1: in my career, I've closed my eyes and I've visualized
Speaker 1: stepping into the cage and the smell of the cage
Speaker 1: and they here, and the sounds of the crowd and
Speaker 1: the lights, and then seeing my opponent in front of
Speaker 1: me and all these things, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I step into the cage and I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: at home. I feel like I've been there. And I
Speaker 1: used to not do that. I used to step into
Speaker 1: the cage and just bite dow the mouthpiece and go
Speaker 1: run and just and it was a crazy fight. And
Speaker 1: now things have slowed down so much more because I've visualized.
Speaker 1: So you go through the fight ahead time, what is
Speaker 1: your morm So say, okay, you just had. Let's get
Speaker 1: to your big fight that you just had, because this
Speaker 1: was huge. You've already won two time world champion lightweight
Speaker 1: of the World for the Bellator division. And so now
Speaker 1: this summer you're you're gearing up again, You're going back
Speaker 1: for three and you're playing at Madison. You're not playing,
Speaker 1: You're fighting at Madison Square Garden. That was That was
Speaker 1: my last fight. That was yeah, that was my last
Speaker 1: one at Madison Square Garden. Yes, So tell me about that,
Speaker 1: and tell me about your process getting ready for it
Speaker 1: and then getting in the fight, and then how dealing
Speaker 1: when dealing with things when they don't go as you
Speaker 1: have visualized. Yeah, so it was the biggest fight of
Speaker 1: my I mean, it's the biggest platform. And I think
Speaker 1: when Madison Square Garden pay per view, I mean people
Speaker 1: are betting probably millions of dollars on this fight. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so when you when you get pressure or do
Speaker 1: you not worry about that? No, I try not to.
Speaker 1: I mean, in the in the unfortunate thing about fighting
Speaker 1: at Madison Square Garden is you don't really truly get
Speaker 1: to experience it or enjoy it because you don't want
Speaker 1: to think about Madison Square Garden. You don't want to
Speaker 1: think about warming up in the same locker room as
Speaker 1: Mike Tyson or walk in the same holes as as
Speaker 1: as George Foreman or Muhammad Ali. You don't want to
Speaker 1: think about those things because with that comes out of pressure.
Speaker 1: Added pressure comes higher heart rate, Yeah, higher heart rate,
Speaker 1: and and and a less less mental stability, you know.
Speaker 1: So so you just kind of focus on the task
Speaker 1: at hand. But it's it was, it was awesome, and
Speaker 1: it was crazy, and it was the biggest platform of
Speaker 1: my career and and uh and it is just it's
Speaker 1: just such a crazy It's another testament to how crazy
Speaker 1: this sport is. That I was better than than my
Speaker 1: opponent on paper, was better than my opponent, and and
Speaker 1: stats was better than my opponent and everything. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, thirty seconds into the fight, I
Speaker 1: rolled my ankle, jammed up and pinched a nerve in
Speaker 1: my ankle. My whole ankle went limp like basically for
Speaker 1: then it looks it looks so bad. It was. It
Speaker 1: was basically just I had no control over it, you know.
Speaker 1: So my brain was telling myself to take a step
Speaker 1: forward and it wasn't working, and what are you thinking? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it was just uh, it was
Speaker 1: just stay calm, you know. And I kept telling myself,
Speaker 1: you're fine, you're gonna get the distance. You're gonna knock
Speaker 1: him out on one foot, and you're just gonna do
Speaker 1: it with one I was, and and I ended up
Speaker 1: the only real punch that landed and landed in the
Speaker 1: entire fight was me on one leg, and I knocked
Speaker 1: him down, and then I over zealously went and chased
Speaker 1: him and my ankle rolled like three other times, and
Speaker 1: then the ref fleg stopped the fight, you know. So
Speaker 1: it was. And then the doctors came in and they
Speaker 1: were feeling around on my ankle and one doctor was
Speaker 1: looking at the other doctor said, I think his ankles broken.
Speaker 1: I think it's to be a fractor and this that
Speaker 1: the other thing that I'm just bleeding with the doctors,
Speaker 1: Please don't stop the fight. I promise it's just an
Speaker 1: ankle cramp. It's it's something. Just let me go back
Speaker 1: out there. I promise you'mnna win this fight. And I
Speaker 1: kind of looked over my opponent and gave him the
Speaker 1: old you better hope that these guys stop the fight
Speaker 1: right now, you know, just kind of playing those those
Speaker 1: mind games and that mental game, and you know it's
Speaker 1: and it's but with that comes this huge letdown. You
Speaker 1: know this, you you I spent nine weeks away from
Speaker 1: my wife. I trained down in Florida. We saw each
Speaker 1: other four days and nine weeks, which you you know
Speaker 1: how that is. We're having a traveling musicians as a husband.
Speaker 1: But it's it's so it's not like with traveling musicians,
Speaker 1: you know, at least like it's not it's not the
Speaker 1: wake up, go to bed, all you eat, sleep and
Speaker 1: breathe is this because when you're preparing for like that,
Speaker 1: you're probably so focused. Yeah, and it's and yeah, it
Speaker 1: consumes you. And my wife is a saint for for
Speaker 1: for dealing with it. Yeah. But but the dieting and
Speaker 1: the sleep schedule, and then you have to weigh a
Speaker 1: certain thing you have to eat. I have to lose
Speaker 1: about thirty pounds right now. I gotta get done. So
Speaker 1: how do you lose weight like that? Diet, exercise and
Speaker 1: then the last ten pounds or so it's just water weight.
Speaker 1: But it's so, do you have a training How long
Speaker 1: is training period? Training camp is eight weeks usually eight
Speaker 1: nine weeks and it's uh so it's about two months
Speaker 1: and U I usually do a twelve week block training camp,
Speaker 1: but the first four weeks, the first four weeks is
Speaker 1: kind of pre camp. And I don't I'm not crazy
Speaker 1: with my diet and I'm not crazy with my sleep schedule,
Speaker 1: not crazy with all that kind of stuff. But um,
Speaker 1: that eight weeks out is go time. So is there
Speaker 1: a fight season? There's not a fight season, so we
Speaker 1: we fight twelve months a year. Um, it just depends
Speaker 1: on each promotion. They they do their schedule for each
Speaker 1: six months probably, and they say, well, hey, like right now,
Speaker 1: I I'm expecting to fight in December, but it's not
Speaker 1: set in stone yet. I'm trying to get the guy
Speaker 1: who has my belt to fight me in December. But
Speaker 1: so you have to get the guy who holding the beat.
Speaker 1: So basically, what if they're too scared to fight you
Speaker 1: because they don't want to give their belt. Do they
Speaker 1: have the ability to say no? They don't have the
Speaker 1: ability to say no person. I mean they do, but
Speaker 1: it's it's in their best it's in their best interest
Speaker 1: to fight. I mean, he we fought in June, so
Speaker 1: this is the Medison Square Garden fight. So you're saying rematch.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't give you a rematch, yeah, well, I
Speaker 1: mean he has to. If he doesn't, he's going to
Speaker 1: get Basically, the promotion is just going to either number
Speaker 1: one stripping with a belt or number two just say okay,
Speaker 1: well we don't like you anymore. Therefore we're going to
Speaker 1: go ahead and go in a different direction, and you
Speaker 1: can just go ahead and sit there and we're going
Speaker 1: to do whatever you want to do. We have to
Speaker 1: give you a rematch because we're all at the world
Speaker 1: is wanting a match because it wasn't you know, you
Speaker 1: didn't get your fair shot. No, yeah, so it was.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting, it's and it's he'll he'll give me that,
Speaker 1: He'll give me the rematch. I'm hoping it's in December.
Speaker 1: But it was just it was such an unfortunate, weird
Speaker 1: set of circumstances. But it's but once again, it's another
Speaker 1: it's another opportunity to let the world see how you
Speaker 1: react to something you know, And it's even though it
Speaker 1: was a bad thing that happened, when I get the
Speaker 1: belt back, and whenever people see the comeback, and then
Speaker 1: whenever they see how the setback set me up for
Speaker 1: the comeback and the way that I the way that
Speaker 1: I reacted to that loss, and that that the biggest
Speaker 1: stage in my life and the biggest opportunity of my
Speaker 1: life that was pretty much taken away from me because
Speaker 1: of a quick, little injury that was completely out of
Speaker 1: my control. The people see that, and they remember how
Speaker 1: you made them feel, and they remember the things that
Speaker 1: you said, and they remember how you carry themselves. And
Speaker 1: and then if it just takes one or two young
Speaker 1: kids who say I want to be like that someday
Speaker 1: or you know, that's that's what we get to do
Speaker 1: as fighters, or as athletes, or as as anybody who's
Speaker 1: in the public eye. So it's it's good and I'm
Speaker 1: excited to get the get the belt back. Do you
Speaker 1: love being a comeback kid? I do, But you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunately to be being a comeback kid means you had
Speaker 1: to come back from something. But but it's it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it is, and I I mean I've had I mean
Speaker 1: I was. I burst onto the scene, like I said,
Speaker 1: and I won. I won the world title within two years,
Speaker 1: a year and a half two years, defended the belt
Speaker 1: numerous times, and I lost three fights in a row.
Speaker 1: So I was twelve and oh to start my career.
Speaker 1: Then I lost three fights in a row. I went
Speaker 1: six days head oh yeah, yeah, so six eight eight
Speaker 1: days without winning a fight, you know, And that's where
Speaker 1: I really grew the most and realized that the stuff
Speaker 1: that I was telling about the visualization and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, how important it is, because you know,
Speaker 1: it's you find yourself making jokes about it, and me
Speaker 1: and my wife would be hanging out and be like, well,
Speaker 1: sometimes you win, sometimes you lose three in a row,
Speaker 1: and you make like these you make, like these dumb
Speaker 1: little jokes and you laugh about them because you're a
Speaker 1: positive person and you're you can make a light light
Speaker 1: of a bad situation. But we don't realize is that
Speaker 1: you really are teaching yourself bad habits and bad self talk,
Speaker 1: and your can tenueing to lower your standards or lower
Speaker 1: your lower your view of yourself by even entertaining those
Speaker 1: kind of jokes. So what have you change? So how
Speaker 1: do you change that self talk? What are the first
Speaker 1: steps you do? Well? I think number one, realizing that
Speaker 1: every single person that you look up to, every single
Speaker 1: person that I look up to, every single person that
Speaker 1: anybody has looked up to, has been a failure at
Speaker 1: one point or another. But realizing that failure is an event,
Speaker 1: not a person, is so huge. And realizing that, I
Speaker 1: mean that you could google celebrities are successful people that
Speaker 1: failed and there's a hundred thousand examples, right, And it's
Speaker 1: but for some reason, whenever you fail, you think, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, I'm the biggest failure ever exactly talking about
Speaker 1: it exactly when when really, if you realize that failure
Speaker 1: is a prerequisite to success, and you know that would right,
Speaker 1: but it really it really is, because I think, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly what I did, was Michael, you've got to
Speaker 1: be perfect, Michael, your world champion. Michael. People are looking
Speaker 1: at you, in your top three in the world, and
Speaker 1: you're expected to perform like this, this, this, and this.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just my fights. It became my workouts.
Speaker 1: And if I got taken down or I got submitted,
Speaker 1: or I I lost a sparring cession, or I lost
Speaker 1: this or I lost that, or I I couldn't lift
Speaker 1: this weight like I thought I could, and it's a
Speaker 1: low and now it's another loss, and it's another loss,
Speaker 1: and it's another loss, when really it's not a loss.
Speaker 1: These are these things are just that. These things are
Speaker 1: just the chain of events that that happened in a
Speaker 1: in a fight camp, or in a career and so
Speaker 1: many every like I said, every single person that we've
Speaker 1: looked up to you, we look at him, we think, man,
Speaker 1: I wish I could be like that. I wish I
Speaker 1: could be like that. But what you don't realize is
Speaker 1: that layer of failures and and shortcomings and setbacks that
Speaker 1: they've had. And I think realizing and it comes with maturity,
Speaker 1: and it comes with it comes with being around the block.
Speaker 1: And you know, but if I if I was sitting
Speaker 1: here and talking to an eighteen year old guy who's
Speaker 1: so excited to fight and become the best fighter in
Speaker 1: the world, he's gonna think I'm a little bit crazy,
Speaker 1: you know, talking about failing and and becoming successful. Um,
Speaker 1: because we think we just have to be successful all
Speaker 1: the time. But you're going to fail. But it's an
Speaker 1: event and it's not a person, and it's that's really
Speaker 1: what it is. And it's I am living proof of that,
Speaker 1: and so I am. I have been the comeback kid
Speaker 1: numerous times. But you know, I think it's just like
Speaker 1: I said, take an extreme ownership, realizing that my brain,
Speaker 1: in my mind, and myself, my self esteem and myself image.
Speaker 1: You could you could sit there and give me all
Speaker 1: the compliments in the world, but if I don't receive them,
Speaker 1: and if I don't truly believe them, if I don't
Speaker 1: truly give them to myself and and and continue to
Speaker 1: grow on my own, in my own head, in my
Speaker 1: own body, of my own spirit, that growth doesn't actually happen,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's really taking ownership of your own
Speaker 1: your own mental um, your own mental warfare, honestly, you know.
Speaker 1: So so tell me what is your motivation? Why do
Speaker 1: you do it? Why do you press on? You know?
Speaker 1: I think motivation continues to change, you know. Um I
Speaker 1: think now it's it's realizing that that I am not
Speaker 1: just a fighter, but I'm a husband and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be a future father. And we don't have children yet,
Speaker 1: but I know I already see their faces. I already
Speaker 1: already yeah, I'm excited and and it's them, but it's
Speaker 1: also me being a great father or trying to become
Speaker 1: a great father, or doing the things that I want
Speaker 1: to do that that adds up to being a great
Speaker 1: father and a great leader and a and a great
Speaker 1: servant to them and my wife. But um, so that
Speaker 1: is part of it now. Um but I think I
Speaker 1: think in the very beginning and it has stayed the same.
Speaker 1: What has stayed the same as realizing that I've been
Speaker 1: given such a great opportunity to be sitting here on
Speaker 1: two capable legs and have two capable arms, to literally
Speaker 1: be able to go out and do something that points
Speaker 1: zero zero zero zero one percent of the world gets
Speaker 1: to do, you know, and to be able to even
Speaker 1: on the days that it's horrible. Even on the days
Speaker 1: that it's painful, even on the days that I want
Speaker 1: to cry, even on the days that i'm ice in
Speaker 1: this or I'm take an eye a profile for that,
Speaker 1: or you know, and you get beat down, even on
Speaker 1: those bad days, there's so many people that would love
Speaker 1: to be in my position, and I have such a
Speaker 1: great opportunity that I've been given in such a platform
Speaker 1: that I have to be able to inspire so many people.
Speaker 1: And so I think it's it's that, and it's not.
Speaker 1: And it's not that I feel that there's an obligation
Speaker 1: or I have to do this because of other people.
Speaker 1: There's still that inner drive and that inner knowing that
Speaker 1: got put me in the sport for a reason. But
Speaker 1: it is realizing that so many people have done so
Speaker 1: much more with what they have. So I've been given
Speaker 1: these gifts, and I'll be darned if I'm gonna squandron,
Speaker 1: you know. So I have been given so many amazing gifts,
Speaker 1: and hopefully I can continue to fight for a really
Speaker 1: long time, but probably just another a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and then we'll sail off into the sunset and figure
Speaker 1: out what the next adventure is. I love, though that
Speaker 1: you take such take your talent so seriously, because I
Speaker 1: feel that if we all could dig into our soul
Speaker 1: and really latch onto our talent and treat it like
Speaker 1: the gift that it is, like how you have done
Speaker 1: with the ears, I feel like the world would be
Speaker 1: such a happier place because people would be fulfilling the
Speaker 1: reason why they're on this earth. And that's and I
Speaker 1: don't know where I read it. I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: it's my quote, but I think, um, but I read
Speaker 1: something that that um kind of disregarding or not fully
Speaker 1: living out that um that purpose in your life is
Speaker 1: a slow as a slow suicide. You get you you
Speaker 1: get so far along and you realize, why didn't I
Speaker 1: take this chance or why didn't I, you know, stop
Speaker 1: this or stop that, or decide to do this or
Speaker 1: decide to do that. You know, and and honestly, for me,
Speaker 1: it's it's easy. And and that's when you know, that's
Speaker 1: when you know it's you're doing what you're called to
Speaker 1: do when it's easy. I was gonna say, how do
Speaker 1: you know when you're on the right path. I think
Speaker 1: it's I don't wake up every morning and like gosh,
Speaker 1: I gotta go to work out again, or gosh, I
Speaker 1: gotta go to this thing again, or gosh, I gotta
Speaker 1: go you know, eat right again. Here is my eggs
Speaker 1: and avocado and spinach. And I just did it for
Speaker 1: the last you know, six months. Blah blah blah. You
Speaker 1: know it's and it's you know, it's You're not mad
Speaker 1: about it, No, no, no, not at all, because I
Speaker 1: realized that it's the means to the end. It's it's
Speaker 1: a means to an end, which, in the end is
Speaker 1: the end. Goal is winning a fight. And each time
Speaker 1: you win a fight, it's a bigger platform. And each
Speaker 1: each bigger platform is more and more people, and more
Speaker 1: and more eyeballs and more and more, um people that
Speaker 1: can hear your name or or hear the words that
Speaker 1: you speak. You know, so um it's it is. It's easy,
Speaker 1: you know. That's when you know you're doing what you're
Speaker 1: called to do. Is when it becomes the routine is
Speaker 1: easy for you, and it's not you. There's no there's
Speaker 1: nothing holding your back, and you just continue to move
Speaker 1: forward in something and the goals get bigger and the
Speaker 1: goals get scarier, but you're not afraid because you know
Speaker 1: you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, so okay,
Speaker 1: and ask you a few like little kind of rapid
Speaker 1: fire questions. They're kind of going to go a little
Speaker 1: deeper because I know you have blessed, which I think
Speaker 1: is awesome that you tapped that on your chest. So
Speaker 1: when you're in the ring, the first thing people are seeing,
Speaker 1: obviously you're gonna go straight to your tattoo is blessed.
Speaker 1: And why is that so important for you to have
Speaker 1: that as your statement piece? I think what I think
Speaker 1: it goes back to realizing how truly blessed I am,
Speaker 1: you know, And and it's not it's not a proclamation
Speaker 1: that hey, look at me, look how blessed I am.
Speaker 1: It's it's me when I look in the mirror and
Speaker 1: I realized that I am so blessed. And I did
Speaker 1: have parents that poured into me and and I had
Speaker 1: a phenomenal childhood, and they did everything they possibly could
Speaker 1: to put me to where I am. And then I
Speaker 1: worked extremely hard, and I had extremely great people in
Speaker 1: my path, and God has put so many perfect people
Speaker 1: in my path for the perfect season that I was
Speaker 1: in to get me to that next level, to get
Speaker 1: me to that that next breakthrough, and then meeting my wife,
Speaker 1: and then and then now we have the next fifties
Speaker 1: sixty seventy years to continue to move forward and meet
Speaker 1: more people. And it's just been I've been so truly
Speaker 1: blessed that it's a concert reminder from me that to
Speaker 1: give anything less than my best every single day really
Speaker 1: is to sacrifice those blessings. And I do it sometimes
Speaker 1: and then but it's a kick in the butt to realize, hey,
Speaker 1: why are you being lazi or hey, why why are
Speaker 1: you not doing what you said you were going to
Speaker 1: do to do? Why are you not giving hunter? Because
Speaker 1: there's gonna be days that are like that, you know,
Speaker 1: but do you realize you know, you just kind of
Speaker 1: acknowledge the time that was that was lost, or you
Speaker 1: acknowledge the day that you were lazy, or you acknowledge
Speaker 1: the bad decision that you made, and you realize that
Speaker 1: the sun really will come up tomorrow morning and yesterday
Speaker 1: really did in last night, and then continue to move forward.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of my that's kind of where the
Speaker 1: blessed tattoo came from, I believe. Okay, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask you if you're rapid questions, fire questions. What is faith?
Speaker 1: If you just you don't have to give a long answer,
Speaker 1: you one word. You can give whatever you feel called
Speaker 1: to you. But what is faith? What does faith? Faith
Speaker 1: is is I think blindly moving forward with something that
Speaker 1: you truly, truly believe, and the conviction that you know
Speaker 1: you know the truth? You know you know? Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess, just the truth. You know like you you know,
Speaker 1: you know what it is, even though you're not sure
Speaker 1: of everything, but you know what it is. That makes sense, Yes, totally.
Speaker 1: What is the point of this life? The point of
Speaker 1: this life I think is um. For me, it's it's
Speaker 1: helping and inspiring as many people as possible, whether it
Speaker 1: be through direct contact or whether it be someone you've
Speaker 1: never even met. Um and truly fully living up to
Speaker 1: your potential. Because if you do truly live up to
Speaker 1: that potential, more and more people are going to be impacted.
Speaker 1: What is the one thing that causes people to get
Speaker 1: in their own way? I think it's the lack of
Speaker 1: self belief. You know, and it's and it's and it
Speaker 1: is so hard. Sorry. I might go a little bit
Speaker 1: longer than than rapid. I might might be a little
Speaker 1: less rapid. But I think I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it's that self, that lack of self belief, and a
Speaker 1: lot of times it's because us we are afraid of
Speaker 1: being cocky, or afraid of being overconfident, or afraid of
Speaker 1: being looked at like better than people. And I think
Speaker 1: I did that and might don't want to act above no.
Speaker 1: And it's and it's so hard because because in order
Speaker 1: to be successful, if you in order to be up here,
Speaker 1: that means there has to be people below you, right,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's there's this weird there's this weird
Speaker 1: being becoming the best at something, whether it's sports or
Speaker 1: this or that or the other thing, there has to
Speaker 1: be people that are still working to try to get
Speaker 1: towards you, and they maybe think that you are better
Speaker 1: than them, but you can't. It's so hard. It's hard
Speaker 1: to me for me to describe. But it's it's that
Speaker 1: it's a cognitive dissonance. It's another cognitive dissonance because I
Speaker 1: saw it. Yeah, and it's and it's and it's trying
Speaker 1: to do your best but doing it in a way
Speaker 1: that people know that you just got there with hard
Speaker 1: work and humility, you know. So it's hard to be
Speaker 1: humble and show humility while also being best, But it
Speaker 1: can be done, you know, and there's so many examples
Speaker 1: of it out there. Is that one of your missions
Speaker 1: is to show that, to expose your humility and hard
Speaker 1: work while being the best. Yeah, because I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, we we see it all over the world.
Speaker 1: We see it in the movies. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the nice guy finishes last, right or um, you know,
Speaker 1: or the the bad guy doesn't care about anything and
Speaker 1: he rubbs so many people the wrong way and he
Speaker 1: does so many the wrong things, but he becomes the
Speaker 1: best because the good people were afraid to achieve that
Speaker 1: because they were good people and they were just plowed
Speaker 1: through exactly. You know. So it's it's so hard, and
Speaker 1: that's but I think this generation, I think our generation
Speaker 1: was called to show that you can be a great
Speaker 1: person and show humility but also be wildly successful and
Speaker 1: wildly whatever whatever it is for you to mean successful
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean money or doesn't necessarily mean fame, but
Speaker 1: it could mean money, and it could be fame, you could.
Speaker 1: You know, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being wildly successful
Speaker 1: and making a ton of and and having a ton
Speaker 1: of people following you and have a huge following and
Speaker 1: sell books and do this and do that. Whatever success
Speaker 1: is for you, there's nothing wrong with being extremely extremely successful,
Speaker 1: because that if you live the lot, if you live
Speaker 1: a life that still shows humility. Do you think God
Speaker 1: prepares people for success by putting them through trials and
Speaker 1: suffering and pain before. Do you think that's part of
Speaker 1: the process to become great? Do you think it's necessary
Speaker 1: and do you think you can avoid that? I think
Speaker 1: I think it's absolutely necessary. It is hard to I mean,
Speaker 1: as as a Christian, it's hard to say. It's hard
Speaker 1: to say that God would have, you know, wanted you know,
Speaker 1: because it's the age old question, Why does God? If
Speaker 1: God is such a loving and forgiving and amazing God,
Speaker 1: why does he let bad things happen to you? Right now?
Speaker 1: Host the food? Why does it happen? And it's and
Speaker 1: I think that's one of those questions that's so deep
Speaker 1: and so layered and so hard to answer. Um so
Speaker 1: along that same vein, I think what we describe or
Speaker 1: what what our definition of bad is might be wrong sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know. So so maybe God did let us go
Speaker 1: down a path that led to a dead end or
Speaker 1: led to a loss, or led to a setback or heartbreak,
Speaker 1: and it was such a bad thing. But if but
Speaker 1: if that bad thing turns into something good, was that
Speaker 1: really a bad thing? You know? So that perception of
Speaker 1: what bad is. I mean, I've had a lot of
Speaker 1: bad things happen in my life, but I can look
Speaker 1: back and say, well, that wasn't so bad. And yeah
Speaker 1: it was bad at the time, but shoot, if this
Speaker 1: happened because of that, I guess it wasn't really a
Speaker 1: bad thing. So it's our perception every single day, and
Speaker 1: it's and it's really is just believing that that believing
Speaker 1: in God's will, you know. I mean the older I get,
Speaker 1: the less I pray for things and I pray and
Speaker 1: I pray that God's will be done right, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's you know, because I think,
Speaker 1: like like we said, you know, if something bad happens,
Speaker 1: that means maybe I was praying for something to happen
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden a bad thing happened.
Speaker 1: Or maybe maybe the bad thing was that not happening
Speaker 1: or that not coming to fruition. But that might just
Speaker 1: be a closed door that's going to lead to another
Speaker 1: open door, right you now, So it's you know, the
Speaker 1: older you get, the more the more you realize that
Speaker 1: you're just trying to make it in this world. You're
Speaker 1: just you're just we're just flying by the seat of
Speaker 1: our pants. And I think I think that's something that
Speaker 1: that if people live live by that as well, that
Speaker 1: realizing that you might look at this person and that
Speaker 1: person realized they got it all, they have it all together,
Speaker 1: think they have it all together, but they're just trying
Speaker 1: to make it in this world where they're just they're
Speaker 1: just flying by the seat of their pants too, And
Speaker 1: you're just living on a women a prayer and and
Speaker 1: just hoping that hoping that good things happen, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's the older I get, the more I kind
Speaker 1: of have that, I guess, carefree kind of mentality. So
Speaker 1: what has marriage taught you? Oh my gosh, Oh man,
Speaker 1: it's it's been the most amazing thing ever. You have
Speaker 1: an incredible life. I have an incredible but I feel
Speaker 1: like y'all have done marriage right. You have the right
Speaker 1: perspective for marriage. Yeah, I think it's it's been tough.
Speaker 1: I mean not tough, it's it's with my career. I mean,
Speaker 1: I long story short, I chased her for like seven years,
Speaker 1: and she didn't. I didn't really chase her, like I
Speaker 1: had an idea of her for about seven years when
Speaker 1: I was in child. She didn't really even know her.
Speaker 1: I knew, I knew her dad, and I knew his reputation.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, yeah, well yeah, A long story, long story, like,
Speaker 1: well was it about her? You love? Well? I I
Speaker 1: just knew there was this idea of what I had
Speaker 1: of her. And then the day that we met, it
Speaker 1: could have been a huge letdown, you know, it could
Speaker 1: have been like, well, shoot, guy, like glad. I wasted
Speaker 1: all that time drinking up thinking about this Bree Willett girl. Um,
Speaker 1: but I went and I got this tooth knocked out
Speaker 1: in college wrestling, and then the University Missouri sent me
Speaker 1: to her dad. He's a dentist, and then here you go. See. Um,
Speaker 1: So he was sitting there and I was looking at
Speaker 1: all these pictures and his family photos, and I'm like, gosh,
Speaker 1: dagn that's a cute. Little little brunette is cute, and
Speaker 1: what if that's his daughter? And then I you know exactly,
Speaker 1: I will never and it's still there. It's I've had
Speaker 1: twenty fights now and this tooth is still sticking in.
Speaker 1: There's still still because some good glue. Um. But and
Speaker 1: then anyways, in a roundabout way, my Bible study leader
Speaker 1: was in a Bible study that he led, and then
Speaker 1: I was in another Bible study that all of her
Speaker 1: friends we're in, and it was just act. I kept
Speaker 1: hearing these little stories about this girl, bree Will, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's that girl, man, that's that girl. And then,
Speaker 1: of course, in our and our in our industry, in
Speaker 1: our in our day and age, in our generation, it's
Speaker 1: so easy to hop on Facebook dot com and then
Speaker 1: you know, type in their name and it's like, wow, okay, cute, cute, cute,
Speaker 1: really really cute. Oh while she likes this well, you know. So,
Speaker 1: so I had this vision of for some reason, I
Speaker 1: had this crush on her, and eventually we finally I
Speaker 1: finally asked her to coffee, and there we are. Fi've
Speaker 1: almost are. We've been married three years now, but it's
Speaker 1: been a little over four years. But the secret to
Speaker 1: marriage is is, I don't know. I think it's just
Speaker 1: constant service, you know, I think it's for us. It's
Speaker 1: I mean, if we're not kind of doing something for
Speaker 1: the other person, not out of not out of um,
Speaker 1: not out of necessity, but just out of love or
Speaker 1: out of just to constantly. That's that's how I show
Speaker 1: her how how much I love her, is is doing
Speaker 1: things for her or reminding her how much I love
Speaker 1: her through you know, there's the love languages and and
Speaker 1: we and we we practice those as much as possible.
Speaker 1: And I think it's just constant service and it's constant humility.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's really what it is. Is you
Speaker 1: never really have to be um. I don't know just
Speaker 1: that that raw like here I am, this is this
Speaker 1: is this is me from head to toe. This is
Speaker 1: who I am, you know. And these are my insecurities,
Speaker 1: and these are my fears, and these are my these
Speaker 1: are my goals, and these are my doubts and these
Speaker 1: are my everything. And and she's been with me when
Speaker 1: I was the world champion, right you know, top three
Speaker 1: in the world, and then all the way down to
Speaker 1: the dumps, losing three fights in a row. Um, and
Speaker 1: we've gone through this together and it's been it's made
Speaker 1: our marriage stronger, and it's and we will be the
Speaker 1: parents that we are going to be because of the
Speaker 1: losses and the time away from each other. You know,
Speaker 1: She's been so awesome through my travel and my training
Speaker 1: camps and my wins and my losses. So I think
Speaker 1: that the secret to marriages is waking up every morning
Speaker 1: and realizing how truly busted you are to have that
Speaker 1: person and that constant service of the humility of I'll
Speaker 1: do anything in the world for you, you know. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of what what we do. I love that
Speaker 1: to Nashville, and we just moved to Nashville, and so
Speaker 1: is it you guys are going to be planning routs
Speaker 1: here and planning roots. Yes, yea. We we got a
Speaker 1: house here, yes, and I'm opening up a gym, okay,
Speaker 1: so we can all come to your gym. What's um
Speaker 1: It is not open yet. It's gonna be a Paramount
Speaker 1: Fitness and it's right across the river in East Nashville,
Speaker 1: the East Side Para Paramount Fitness. Yeah, we're going. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be on Davidson Street right there. We expecting the gym.
Speaker 1: So the gym is going to be UM. Obviously, since
Speaker 1: I'm a fighter, we're gonna My goal is to put
Speaker 1: Nashville on the map as a Mixed Martial Arts city.
Speaker 1: You know what we've We've got a couple of m
Speaker 1: m A gyms here, but no real true blue pro
Speaker 1: fighters that live here. We had two guys that are
Speaker 1: in the UFC right now, Dustin Ortiz and Luke Sanders,
Speaker 1: who are from Nashville or from Franklin that had to
Speaker 1: go to Arizona or California to go get their training
Speaker 1: because there's not a training hub here. So you want
Speaker 1: to that's what I want to build. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is it's such a big city. It's such a not
Speaker 1: it's not a huge city anymore, but it's a growing city.
Speaker 1: But it's a big enough city that we should have
Speaker 1: a phenomenal fight team. You're right now, you know, so
Speaker 1: no doubt that you're going to make this happen. So
Speaker 1: it'll be we'll have a pro fight team, but but
Speaker 1: it would be open to the general public. And if
Speaker 1: we're going to have a fitness group classes and one
Speaker 1: on one training as well as UM adults and children's
Speaker 1: Brazilian jiu jitsu, adult and children's m m A kickboxing
Speaker 1: classes and all that kind of stuff, plus a wrestling club,
Speaker 1: and so we'll have to have a ton of programs
Speaker 1: and hopefully change a bunch of people's lives, get him
Speaker 1: in shape. Yes. Okay, So before we wrap up my
Speaker 1: last question, I like to ask all my guests, well one,
Speaker 1: I really want to know this from you. What is
Speaker 1: some advice you would tell your younger self. Um, I
Speaker 1: think just don't put so much pressure on yourself and
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with being successful, Absolutely nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: being successful. This kind of goes hand in hand with
Speaker 1: my last question, which is leave your light, which is
Speaker 1: leaves some inspiration. How have you been inspired? What is
Speaker 1: it that you want your legacy to be in your
Speaker 1: inspiration to be or how have you been so inspired? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I think it's it continues to go back to
Speaker 1: realizing and counting your blessings and realizing that, um, you've
Speaker 1: been put in a position to be able to do
Speaker 1: to do something great, and every single day that you
Speaker 1: don't give your best is is squandering those gifts that
Speaker 1: you've been given. And constantly remembering that it's not that
Speaker 1: people don't do the right things, is that people don't
Speaker 1: do the right things for long enough? You know that's good,
Speaker 1: that's been you know well, and you're you're just constant
Speaker 1: work in progress. We all are gosh, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: going to fail again, and I'm going to fail again. Um,
Speaker 1: but through all that, I'm going to become a successful person.
Speaker 1: And it's and if you can and if you can
Speaker 1: continue to move forward and continue to fight literally or
Speaker 1: or figuratively for long enough, eventually you're going to continue
Speaker 1: to find success. So it's not that people don't do
Speaker 1: the right things. We can all do the right things
Speaker 1: for a day or a week or a month. But
Speaker 1: it's just that people don't do the right things for
Speaker 1: long enough. And so many of us have have given
Speaker 1: up on a dream or given up um on anything
Speaker 1: or any endeavor just moments before they were about to
Speaker 1: have that breakthrough or moments before they were finally gonna
Speaker 1: shake that one hand that got them to the next level.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think Nashville is a city of that,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's and it's all about who you
Speaker 1: know and constantly grinding and trying to make it and
Speaker 1: scrape to the top, you know. And that's that's really
Speaker 1: what it is. It's not that people don't do the
Speaker 1: right things and that they don't do them for long enough. Heck, yes,
Speaker 1: Michael Chandler, you know what your second half career is. Motivationally,
Speaker 1: you have to walk up. Michael Janser, thank you for
Speaker 1: joining me on my show. You're amazing. Thank you You're
Speaker 1: the best. How inspiring was that episode? I mean, Michael
Speaker 1: Chandler has to be the most inspirational person on the planet. Him,
Speaker 1: Joel Ostein, and Tony Robbins, them together are the most
Speaker 1: inspiring people. He is so uplifting. I feel like I
Speaker 1: just went to church or went to school or learned
Speaker 1: so much by just being around him and hearing what
Speaker 1: he had to say. I know you love that episode.
Speaker 1: Get excited. Next week. I have Jesse Alexander in the house.
Speaker 1: She is one of the most incredible songwriters in Nashville.
Speaker 1: She wrote The Climb for Miley Cyrus. She wrote I
Speaker 1: Drive Your Truck for Lee Bryce. She's written so many songs.
Speaker 1: Her story is so inspirational. I mean there's a theme here.
Speaker 1: I like inspirational people. So get fired up Jesse Alexander
Speaker 1: next week. Se y'all soon