Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Hunting Collective.
Speaker 1: I'm Ben and Brian. Today I am joined by Great
Speaker 1: Chad Mendez. Chad Mendez is a man that you may
Speaker 1: know from his exploits in the fighting game. He's a
Speaker 1: UFC featherweight fighter with a record of eighteen and four.
Speaker 1: He's had some some legendary fight start his career. He's
Speaker 1: currently in the midst of a comeback. He's gonna fight
Speaker 1: in UFC two thirty two Saturday December in Vegas against
Speaker 1: one Alexander Volkanovski. But that's not really the reason I
Speaker 1: sat down with Chad. I met Chad a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago on a Turkey camp at John Dudley's place
Speaker 1: and was was immediately stricken by like just how cool
Speaker 1: a duty was, how much fun we had together, how
Speaker 1: much he really cared about while meat, wild animals, wild places,
Speaker 1: all the things that I and you care about. So
Speaker 1: I figured for all these reasons, he's a great person
Speaker 1: to talk to. Um. He has a good angle on
Speaker 1: being a celebrity outside the hunting space and having to
Speaker 1: deal with speaking about hunting to a broader public, and
Speaker 1: this heighting his awareness around what he says and does
Speaker 1: what his goals are. So, without further ado, Chad Mendez
Speaker 1: from Sacramento, the at his gym, getting ready to punch
Speaker 1: it up UFC two two Enjoy no pressure. Chad Mendes,
Speaker 1: How you doing, sir, I'm doing great, man. I'm here
Speaker 1: in Sacramento. We're about a week and a half out
Speaker 1: from my fight. Yes, the biggest fight of my life.
Speaker 1: And yeah, every fight is the biggest fight of my life.
Speaker 1: But with no small thing to be taking some time
Speaker 1: out to sit with my dumbass and talk about hunting
Speaker 1: different things, Like I could talk about hunting all day.
Speaker 1: That's like, I know you're back fighting. I mean it
Speaker 1: took took a break for a while and you mostly
Speaker 1: just hunted, right, I mean like, yeah, So I started
Speaker 1: a business called Finns and Feathers, and basically what it is,
Speaker 1: we call it like a celebrity outdoor service and we
Speaker 1: take people on different hunting, fishing, crazy trips all over
Speaker 1: the world, Like we go to New Zealand, we do
Speaker 1: stuff in Mexico for fishing, and just all kinds of
Speaker 1: stuff in the United States. Um, and then we have
Speaker 1: like twenty different celebrity pro staff members different UFC fighters.
Speaker 1: You have some PBR guys, pro basketball, baseball, football player,
Speaker 1: just kind of a mix of a different group of people,
Speaker 1: and all of them absolutely love hunting, love fishing, love
Speaker 1: the outdoor. So we'll get a group of people, send
Speaker 1: them on, say like a mule deer hunt in Utah,
Speaker 1: and then we'll put one one or sometimes even two
Speaker 1: of our celebrities on the trip and they're in there
Speaker 1: hunting with all the hanging out and hanging with them
Speaker 1: hanging out. Yeah, it's it's cool, man. So we launched
Speaker 1: that launched that um back in the into two thousand fifteen.
Speaker 1: So it's done well for you, right, what kind of
Speaker 1: fishes that? Yeah, it's been awesome man. Just being able
Speaker 1: to travel and and not only just make money, doing
Speaker 1: something in the outdoors is like a dream of mine,
Speaker 1: but doing it with so many people that share the
Speaker 1: same passions that I share you. So it's it's been awesome.
Speaker 1: I feel very blessed to be able to do it.
Speaker 1: Certainly looks awesome from the outside looking in. What's your next?
Speaker 1: What do you got playing? I mean, your season just
Speaker 1: about over. You get any like after your fight, you're
Speaker 1: you gonna you know you know right back to Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's like a week and a half, two weeks,
Speaker 1: and then I'm straight to Ohio. I usually do a
Speaker 1: late season white till hunt with my buddy Zack Singler
Speaker 1: out there, um, and he leases some farms and he
Speaker 1: actually owns a couple of farms that I mean, the
Speaker 1: guys completely ate up with hunting like we are just
Speaker 1: eats breeze sleeps it like he'll he'll buy a property
Speaker 1: and just completely set it up for hunting. That's it,
Speaker 1: like no house on or anything, you know. And uh,
Speaker 1: I just go out there with him and we'll run
Speaker 1: some cameras and try to hopefully locate some some shooter
Speaker 1: bucks and go out there. I usually go out there
Speaker 1: for like four or five days and then go straight
Speaker 1: to the A T A show. Yeah, go fight somebody
Speaker 1: up and then go and relax. Yeah exactly what. It's
Speaker 1: usually like twenty degrees or colder, so there's not a
Speaker 1: ton of relaxing when you're sitting out there. But that's
Speaker 1: my type of paradise. I'll take it im me too,
Speaker 1: me too. Well. I mean we're in the gym, we're
Speaker 1: in ultimate fitness here in Sacramental gym sneaky old gym. Um.
Speaker 1: You spend a lot of time in here in the
Speaker 1: last you know, training for your last fight and then
Speaker 1: training for this one. What's it like at this I mean,
Speaker 1: this is your ten days out. You've gone through all
Speaker 1: the pay all the motions, You've done this before, You're
Speaker 1: no stranger to this. What's it feel like now? Like,
Speaker 1: what's the what's the feeling right now? At this point
Speaker 1: in my camp, it's it's kind of the home stretch,
Speaker 1: Like the hard work is all done. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: the maintenance mode and kind of recovery mode. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'll do probably one or two more UM relatively
Speaker 1: intense workouts. They're short, but it's just to basically hit
Speaker 1: that red zone a little bit and kind of keep
Speaker 1: my body. UM fine tune as far as staying in
Speaker 1: those zone, but I don't. The stretching is over, like
Speaker 1: pushing my body the limits. That's all done. That's that
Speaker 1: was the last, you know, seven weeks of camp. So
Speaker 1: UM right now, it's like I said, it's just the recovery.
Speaker 1: I feel good. My weights on point using a new
Speaker 1: UM diet system that I haven't used before. UM and
Speaker 1: I've felt unbelievable this entire camp. So what's what's the
Speaker 1: diet system? Um, It's called RP Strength is the company
Speaker 1: that set it up for me. But it's so for me.
Speaker 1: I think what my biggest um, my biggest well, probably
Speaker 1: a thing that sucks for me most as far as
Speaker 1: the fight game goes. I wasn't eating enough. I'm training
Speaker 1: my butt off and I'm working out too, sometimes three
Speaker 1: times a day, but usually one to two times a day. Um.
Speaker 1: And then you know, so you get up in the morning,
Speaker 1: I'm rushing. I'll eat something really small, like a banana
Speaker 1: and maybe a protein shake. I come here, I do
Speaker 1: like an hour and a half two hour hard workout,
Speaker 1: and then I'll you know, drink a protein shake, shower
Speaker 1: or um, go home, eat one big mill usually try
Speaker 1: to take like a nap and rest, and then I
Speaker 1: get up and go straight back to the gym for
Speaker 1: my second workout. UM. And that's usually you know, between
Speaker 1: an hour or two hours long. Go home, I'll eat
Speaker 1: a dinner and it's bedtime. You know. That's what I
Speaker 1: probably had a thousand calories, you know, maybe calories. It
Speaker 1: just wasn't enough food for me. And I always felt
Speaker 1: like that when I when I started getting later into
Speaker 1: the camps, like I could tell my body is just
Speaker 1: like not keeping up. Um. And so I I talked
Speaker 1: to this company, um before this fight, and they start
Speaker 1: they reach out to your eye actually and UM, I
Speaker 1: told him what my issues were, like how I was
Speaker 1: feeling later in the camps, and like we you know,
Speaker 1: we'll set something up for you. So what this diet is,
Speaker 1: I'm eating very clean, Like there's a very strict list
Speaker 1: of stuff that they want you eating, but it's I
Speaker 1: get to decide it. Like what's great about this is
Speaker 1: I can use all my wild game, you know, all
Speaker 1: the stuff that I was Yeah, so I can implement
Speaker 1: all that stuff into the diet. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: my fats are very UM clean fats, you know, avocado,
Speaker 1: olive oil, UM, peanut butter um, natural peanut butter um,
Speaker 1: and then healthy carbs um, all the lean protein obviously
Speaker 1: UM and then uh, fruits and vegetables are mixing there
Speaker 1: as well. But it's all on time schedule. Like right
Speaker 1: before I sat down with you, I was like trying
Speaker 1: to crammel his food in my mouth because I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to eat right at two o'clock UM was the next workout.
Speaker 1: So for me, what that's done is forced me to
Speaker 1: eat all these mills throughout the day. Like if I'm
Speaker 1: going to take a nap, I'm like, I'm gonna eat
Speaker 1: right now. I'm gonna take a quick nap because i
Speaker 1: know I have to eat again soon. So everything is
Speaker 1: just kind of it's it's pretty life consuming. It sucks.
Speaker 1: It's such a regiment you're so locked in. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: felt guilty about like, hey, let's because yeah, you're you're
Speaker 1: so so regimented. And I'm sure it pays off in
Speaker 1: the end, but it's quite the sacrifice. Yeah. And and
Speaker 1: like I said, I've never done it before, so it
Speaker 1: was kind of the thing. I was like, well, let's
Speaker 1: test this out for like a two or three week thing.
Speaker 1: If I'm filing like crap, or you know, my weights
Speaker 1: ballooning up or something like that, then you know, maybe
Speaker 1: I won't do it. But right off the bat, I
Speaker 1: felt unbelievable. My endurance, my strength, speed, everything is like
Speaker 1: on point. I've never eaten this clean and this UM
Speaker 1: schedule throughout any training camp in my fight career. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, you look damn good. Sir, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Um. But when you talk to
Speaker 1: the experts about diet and about health and about eating right,
Speaker 1: does how much does wild game come up to You'd
Speaker 1: be like, that's part of my diet, that's what I do,
Speaker 1: and they say, hell, yeah, that's a great thing to do.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm sure. I mean it seems to obvious
Speaker 1: to me. But yeah, when I sat down this this
Speaker 1: company and I was like, look, there's like chicken, turkey, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, beef, but it's got to be or leaner.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, can I just substitute all this with
Speaker 1: all the wild stuff? And They're like, absolutely, that's actually better.
Speaker 1: So I'm like perfect, And then this is definitely a
Speaker 1: diet that I can give it a venison that your
Speaker 1: elk and it's in um, you know what turkey. We
Speaker 1: just finished our false season here in California. Um uh
Speaker 1: duck goose. Like you mean I can pretty much eat
Speaker 1: all that stuff, Yet how do you usually prepare it?
Speaker 1: And the like how have you prepared to them this diet?
Speaker 1: A lot of this diet, I've done a lot of
Speaker 1: ground stuff because it's the easiest and quickest, you know,
Speaker 1: I throw a pack of ground elk or something. I
Speaker 1: can use that so many different things, and it's easy
Speaker 1: for meal prep um. But we'll do you know, like
Speaker 1: whild turkey breasts. I'll throw it in a slow cooker
Speaker 1: or even a pressure cooker. I'll throw some vegetables in
Speaker 1: a little bit of chicken broth or something there and
Speaker 1: then shred all that up and I can keep that.
Speaker 1: Actually that's what I just had before I came up here.
Speaker 1: But I can keep that for like a you know,
Speaker 1: four or five days and just eating that throughout the
Speaker 1: throughout the days. But um, yeah, I mean the trigger
Speaker 1: I'll throw like sometimes I'll throw a whole elk rows
Speaker 1: on the trigger or something, smoke it and then slice it.
Speaker 1: You got you know, munch meat or whatever. So well,
Speaker 1: it's good to hear. It's good to hear for everybody
Speaker 1: out there listening that that game. That's fair cause you
Speaker 1: want to join the UFC any soon. It's the right
Speaker 1: thing to eat. And usually supplying most of the guys
Speaker 1: on my team. There's only one other guy, Tyler Diamond.
Speaker 1: He actually just walked by, But everybody else hunts only
Speaker 1: me and Tyler and um, I'll usually bring like a
Speaker 1: big box or something to meat, and it's like the
Speaker 1: the giveaway day, Like everyone's like fighting to get it.
Speaker 1: Let me get something to get up. But supply these
Speaker 1: guys you're doing it right, doing it right? Do you do?
Speaker 1: You feel like, um, I know, there's always every time
Speaker 1: I'm you're talking to somebody that is like an athlete,
Speaker 1: professional in the professional sense, or really in any sense,
Speaker 1: you always try to compare hunting to whatever you do.
Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes that's the easy way out. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a weak um way to go about these storylines.
Speaker 1: But there's something to it. I'm sure there's something to
Speaker 1: it for you, the way it balances your life a
Speaker 1: little bit, I'm sure. But explain to people, you know,
Speaker 1: the different the difference in the feelings, and how maybe
Speaker 1: hunting sets you up for fighting, and fighting might such
Speaker 1: up for hunting. Is there what's the relationship with Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's a lot of similar these.
Speaker 1: I mean, for me, one of the biggest things obviously
Speaker 1: being in shape. My job as a fighter is to
Speaker 1: be in shape. So getting in shape for any certain
Speaker 1: hunt is never anything I've ever thought about, you know,
Speaker 1: It's like that's just part of my normal job. So
Speaker 1: that just rolls right over into hunting, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: But as far as like the patients and being disciplined
Speaker 1: and and practicing you know, what you need to practice
Speaker 1: in order to be successful, I think all those things
Speaker 1: are exactly the same. As far as the fight game
Speaker 1: goes and being a successful hunter. Um, you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm not using my bow, I'm not practicing with him,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out there and a either wound something,
Speaker 1: not find it or miss. You know. It's pretty simple
Speaker 1: as that. But um, if I'm not practicing my punch combinations,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go and fight and get knocked out or something.
Speaker 1: You know. So the preparation is definitely key. Um, And
Speaker 1: that's very similar in the two. But um, um patients,
Speaker 1: I mean, being patient in a fight is very very
Speaker 1: very important. I have a lot of emotion and uh rage,
Speaker 1: and I go out there and just try to freaking
Speaker 1: take you guy's head off. That's when a good fighter
Speaker 1: will capitalize and see your mistakes that you're making into
Speaker 1: and punch and finish you. But um, same thing in
Speaker 1: the fight. You gave me a target panic, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're not prepared for that, and if you get
Speaker 1: too excited if you're not patient. I mean, we've all
Speaker 1: been there. I know I've been there quite a bit, um,
Speaker 1: but it's all part of it. So you gather like
Speaker 1: we're just sitting in the sitting in the gym here
Speaker 1: and and dudes are walking bilex up chat like that.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a brotherhood from what you do, Like
Speaker 1: you're training with these guys, you're sweating with them, You're
Speaker 1: doing that stuff that strikes me about what you do.
Speaker 1: And then there's there's a there's a brotherhood and hunting
Speaker 1: the same kind of way, man Like you're walking around
Speaker 1: the A T A and a couple of a month
Speaker 1: or so and it's up. Um talk about that part.
Speaker 1: I mean, is there parallels to to those two things? Is?
Speaker 1: And I think it's something very primitive and primal a
Speaker 1: fighting another human, like two guys to get in the
Speaker 1: cage and beat the crap out of each other, sometimes
Speaker 1: almost near death. I would imagine, um, you know, like
Speaker 1: for me fighting Josie Aldo, this is the prime example.
Speaker 1: There was some beef between us, you know, both of us,
Speaker 1: kind of talking crap and some media before the fight,
Speaker 1: but we got in there and went through an absolute
Speaker 1: war like, hands down the toughest fight I've ever been
Speaker 1: in and probably the hardest thing I've ever done in
Speaker 1: my entire life. And like, I have no choice, and
Speaker 1: I know he feels the same that there's you have
Speaker 1: no choice but to like grow and and feel some
Speaker 1: type of respect for that human after going through that
Speaker 1: feeling that pain. Um. And I think you know the
Speaker 1: same thing with with hunting. I mean the very primitive thing.
Speaker 1: You know, I got a bunch of guys around the
Speaker 1: campfire at night and girls even, um, you know, sharing
Speaker 1: the stories. Everyone has the same passion and love for
Speaker 1: the outdoors, and you know that's something that you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's something we all love. And I think that
Speaker 1: just maybe grow some type of bond that's outside of
Speaker 1: what you would see on the on the streets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a pretty intense. I mean both those two things
Speaker 1: are pretty intense situations and the intensities of what draws
Speaker 1: you close like you can't well. I was I was
Speaker 1: talking on Rogan's podcast yesterday about like the three D
Speaker 1: experience of hunting. Right. You you practice, and you gather
Speaker 1: these skills, and you gather this experience and then you
Speaker 1: put them to work. Um, it's not similar to fighting
Speaker 1: in the way that you're against, but you're you're still against.
Speaker 1: It's you know, yeah, a wild animal at some level. Um,
Speaker 1: But it's a three dimensial experience. Once that, once you
Speaker 1: get that, once the thrill happens and you get the
Speaker 1: exertion of you know, you sling that arrow, then it's
Speaker 1: the three dimensional sperence. You get to feed your family,
Speaker 1: you get to to be closer the people that you're with. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's that's what strikes me about about fighting too.
Speaker 1: There's a similar accountability. Like when you throw a punch,
Speaker 1: your accountable for what happens on the other end of it.
Speaker 1: When you send an arrow, you are accountable for what
Speaker 1: happens in the the other end of it. And that
Speaker 1: accountability like just brings people together. I've never thought of
Speaker 1: it like that, but it's exactly what it is. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well I'm glad I thought nailed it. Um. And you're
Speaker 1: you know, through all this all this crazy stuff in
Speaker 1: your life, you're you're about to have uh your wife
Speaker 1: is pregnant. Yeah. I didn't break any news. No, I
Speaker 1: haven't like posted anything on social She's talked about it
Speaker 1: on social but um, you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: creepy people out there for me just posting that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll probably do it a little bit later, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm still kind of thinking about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a heavy thing. It was heavy for me. It's
Speaker 1: like this is kind of for me for a while.
Speaker 1: Me and my family want to enjoy this. So yeah,
Speaker 1: a little bit of time. How's a feeling right now?
Speaker 1: That's good, man, I mean, knock on wood, everything's been
Speaker 1: very easy so far. I think my biggest fear was heard.
Speaker 1: You know, I hear so many horror stories about the
Speaker 1: women's hormones going nuts and just girls getting out of roll.
Speaker 1: But she's been. It's it's been really easy, and in fact,
Speaker 1: it's weird. She actually has lightened up and like I
Speaker 1: feel like she's very calm and kind of just like
Speaker 1: cool and relax. I'm like, I like this happy a
Speaker 1: lot better. But hey, babe, it's gonna keep you praying
Speaker 1: for right. But no, it's been good. She didn't have
Speaker 1: any morning sickness. Like I'm gonna jinx myself by saying
Speaker 1: all this, but it's been it's been awesome. That's awesome, man.
Speaker 1: I'm happy for it. Uh, thank you. It's a life
Speaker 1: changer and it you know when I when my wife
Speaker 1: is pregning with our son, everybody tries to give you
Speaker 1: advice and tell you their experiences, but really that you can't.
Speaker 1: There's no way to prepare when you just gotta ride
Speaker 1: and it's it's my dad said something to me like, um,
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna get real now son. Yeah here, I'm terrified.
Speaker 1: I'm very excited, but I'm terrified. You know, I have
Speaker 1: a lot of friends that have newborns and have young kids,
Speaker 1: and you know, you're right, you hear the horror stories
Speaker 1: all the time. Um, I'm sure they probably talk about
Speaker 1: that because it's something that sticks in their head a
Speaker 1: lot more. But the good times are everyone says that
Speaker 1: it's well worth it. You know, there's no no matter
Speaker 1: how many hard times you have with it, And there
Speaker 1: are a lot of hard times like the first three
Speaker 1: or four months, or just like being a boot camp
Speaker 1: with your just with your wife and a hole like
Speaker 1: she's like, we can't leave that house. We don't know
Speaker 1: what to do. Poop everywhere, What are we gonna do everywhere?
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do? So but that's that's what
Speaker 1: it's like. But then like the intensity of the love,
Speaker 1: the intensity of like how you see the world through
Speaker 1: their eyes, all of a sudden is that that's there's
Speaker 1: no amount of shitty diapers that match that. It just isn't.
Speaker 1: So everyone says too, if you have a girl that
Speaker 1: you you get soft, and I'm like, I better. I'm
Speaker 1: hoping I have a boy. But I'll be happy either way.
Speaker 1: But man, I gotta make sure I stay tough for
Speaker 1: this fight game while I'm stilling it. Yeah, do you
Speaker 1: think you got some years left in you for the
Speaker 1: for the fight game? I mean you're on a mission
Speaker 1: right now that yeah. Well, um, you know the plan
Speaker 1: for me was always to kind of fight right around
Speaker 1: thirty five. You know, I've been doing this for almost
Speaker 1: eleven years now, and I started wrestling when I was
Speaker 1: five years old and wrestled every single year all the
Speaker 1: way up through college, and then the day after graduate
Speaker 1: college jumped right into the fight game. So you know,
Speaker 1: I've been doing this my entire life. So I don't
Speaker 1: have any any problem with when it's time to call
Speaker 1: it quits. Calling it quits, you know, um, like it's
Speaker 1: I don't have a chip on my shoulder. You know,
Speaker 1: when it's time, it's time. So you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: keep fighting until everything tells me that it's not. Let
Speaker 1: you seem content right now. I mean, with all the
Speaker 1: crazy ships you got going on, it seemed like a
Speaker 1: happy dude to me. I mean, it seems like our
Speaker 1: life is good. Man. I feel really lucky that I
Speaker 1: can come in I can basically make my own scheduled training.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm getting paid to be in shape and get
Speaker 1: in there and compete, you know, being be an athlete,
Speaker 1: which is awesome, you know, and then also of doing
Speaker 1: all this stuff in the outdoor world, which in my
Speaker 1: perfect world that you know, I'm fighting, I'd love to
Speaker 1: finish up my fight career and then kind of make
Speaker 1: a transition into the outdoor world to where I can
Speaker 1: find a way to do something making a living, doing
Speaker 1: what else, you know, something else I absolutely love. So
Speaker 1: right now, just trying to you know, build a name
Speaker 1: in the outdoor world and just do something to get
Speaker 1: that recognition, I guess, and make the transition as you
Speaker 1: do as you build that name. I mean, it comes
Speaker 1: with um the same as being I think the question
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you is you want to make
Speaker 1: a name for yourself in the hunting world, right, UM,
Speaker 1: A lot. You know, you and I both know a
Speaker 1: lot of people that have names in the hunting world
Speaker 1: and have done it for a long time. And it's like,
Speaker 1: how do you hope to craft that? What do you
Speaker 1: What do you think about when you're like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I really have to you know, spend the rest of you.
Speaker 1: You're a young man and if you retired thirty five,
Speaker 1: you could have thirty years in the outdoor space. Like
Speaker 1: how do you think about that? I mean for me?
Speaker 1: And that sounds amazing, you know, It's like I said,
Speaker 1: it's for me. Hunting, being an athlete, competing has been
Speaker 1: something I've done my whole life, and it's it's something
Speaker 1: I absolutely love to do. Um, you know when the
Speaker 1: time is here, you know, the outdoor, outdoor lifestyle, just hunting, fishing,
Speaker 1: just anything in the outdoors is my true passion. I
Speaker 1: absolutely love fighting. Um, I love competing, but my true
Speaker 1: passion is the outdoor. So being able to do that
Speaker 1: for as long as I can, like dream come true
Speaker 1: so many years. Yeah, let's see. You think you're gonna
Speaker 1: keep doing what you're doing now or you gonna try
Speaker 1: to craft something else for you, like to craft another
Speaker 1: corner of the industry for um, you know, I haven't
Speaker 1: thought about a lot trying to get UFC fight and
Speaker 1: get it done. I mean, as far as growing fins
Speaker 1: and feathers, I'd love to keep that going, um, just
Speaker 1: because it's so damn fun, you know, and UM, I
Speaker 1: think grow either growing that a little bit bigger. I
Speaker 1: probably don't want it to get too big because I
Speaker 1: just don't want it to get too much. I don't
Speaker 1: want to turn into work, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like it's perfectly is like if you make good money,
Speaker 1: Like it's not too difficult and it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: So if I could keep that like that and then
Speaker 1: continue working with as many companies I do now in
Speaker 1: the space, UM, you know, my dream would be to
Speaker 1: create content, you know, keep growing my YouTube channel, um,
Speaker 1: keep doing stuff on all social media, and just keep
Speaker 1: moving forward. So yeah, what how's you think about? I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ways to to chop up, like
Speaker 1: how you display your hunting, how you talking to people
Speaker 1: about hunting, how you use your fame from the UFC
Speaker 1: and you turn that into um, you know, a good
Speaker 1: slice of the hunting world for yourself, is there a
Speaker 1: way you want to approach it, like, you know, thoughtful illness,
Speaker 1: and like how how do you see that going? I
Speaker 1: think the teaching is what is what's so um interesting
Speaker 1: to me. Like for me, when I started fencing feathers,
Speaker 1: obviously people knew me as a fighter. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I've been hunting and fishing my entire life. But obviously
Speaker 1: people knew me as a fighter and didn't know that
Speaker 1: that was something that was so passionate about. So after
Speaker 1: following me for a few years and seeing that, you know,
Speaker 1: and especially when we started Fins and Feathers, we got
Speaker 1: hit up by a ton of people asking, you know,
Speaker 1: how do I get into hunting. I've never hunted before.
Speaker 1: I see you hunting, I see you eating all this
Speaker 1: amazing wild game. I want to do this, like I
Speaker 1: want to have a freezer full of meat? How do
Speaker 1: I start? And I think for me, and this is
Speaker 1: kind of something we've talked about, is growing fins and
Speaker 1: Feathers almost into like a little academy like how to
Speaker 1: learn how to hunt, you know. And I have a
Speaker 1: buddy that's actually doing it from field to plate is
Speaker 1: his Instagram. Um, Jeremymon and he's he's I think that's genius.
Speaker 1: Like just taking people and teaching them how to hunt,
Speaker 1: how to process the animal um in the field, how
Speaker 1: to process the animal, to cut it up to create
Speaker 1: the meat, and how you prepare it. Like that's all
Speaker 1: amazing to me. Like being able to teach people that
Speaker 1: and just see the excitement that they have when it comes,
Speaker 1: Like I totally understand what that excited feels like. And
Speaker 1: seeing them for the first time go through that, Like
Speaker 1: I absolutely love that. So if there was a way
Speaker 1: that I could do that, you know, keep growing my
Speaker 1: name and being someone that a lot of these people
Speaker 1: that have never done it before kind of look up to,
Speaker 1: and that I could kind of teach them the ways,
Speaker 1: like I would love to do that. Yeah, And then
Speaker 1: you can do the verse too, right, I mean, with
Speaker 1: your platform and what you've been able to do um
Speaker 1: in your career, you can shine the light on hunting
Speaker 1: in a way that a lot I can't other folks
Speaker 1: can't that come from the industry and are trying to
Speaker 1: grow in just just inside the instry. I mean, you
Speaker 1: bring a whole another subset of people to to bear
Speaker 1: for hunting. I mean is that. Have you had any
Speaker 1: troubles with that trying to to do both things, you know,
Speaker 1: if anybody's come at you, like while you're killing those
Speaker 1: poor animals. I mean, of course, like when I first
Speaker 1: started doing it. I mean I actually when I first
Speaker 1: started fighting, and I I signed with my management team,
Speaker 1: and you know, we're growing the Chad Minda's brand in
Speaker 1: the fight world. You know, I started to dabble a
Speaker 1: little bit with posting the hunting and fishing, and you know,
Speaker 1: people told me I wouldn't do that. You know, it's
Speaker 1: gonna open a big can of worms and can't build
Speaker 1: a brand. At first, I didn't really do it. You know,
Speaker 1: I kind of shot away from it, and I just
Speaker 1: finally got to the point where I'm like, look, this
Speaker 1: is me, Like I absolutely love this, This is who
Speaker 1: I am. I don't want to like hide from it,
Speaker 1: like I'm not embarrassed about it. Like I absolutely love this,
Speaker 1: Like this is something I truly believe in. I'm going
Speaker 1: to start posting it. So I started posting, you know,
Speaker 1: my kills and what I was cooking with it, and
Speaker 1: like you know, all that stuff. And right off the bat,
Speaker 1: of course, you know, people blow up and they don't
Speaker 1: understand it. They've never seen it from me posting it before,
Speaker 1: and it's it's something that's so disgusting to them. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I think over the last probably four or
Speaker 1: five years now, I've just weeded out or even change
Speaker 1: some people's minds. I know that in the beginning, I
Speaker 1: would kind of go back and forth with people trying
Speaker 1: to explain myself, and once I think I explain things
Speaker 1: a little bit better to them, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of people that were like, wow, I've never thought of
Speaker 1: it like that. That's awesome, Okay, I appreciate you explaining it,
Speaker 1: you know, um, And then you still get the occasional
Speaker 1: people that don't care and they just want to hate him.
Speaker 1: But it takes some courage in your position, with all
Speaker 1: you would have to lose if something would go wrong
Speaker 1: with that, you know, like I said, trying to build
Speaker 1: a brand, trying you know, to remain relevant in a
Speaker 1: sport that's you know, that's harsh, and a lot of
Speaker 1: ways in an environment that's harsh, like being having enough
Speaker 1: courage to come out and say this is who I am.
Speaker 1: You know, it sucks that it takes courage to say
Speaker 1: that about hunting. And some of your just sucks not
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense to me, And it sucks, but
Speaker 1: it's real and you can't skip over it. Even in
Speaker 1: this discussion when you started changing people's minds, he really
Speaker 1: wasn't around one portion. I imagined the meat was probably
Speaker 1: the easiest way to exactly, And I think people people
Speaker 1: don't And there's the people that don't understand and they think, oh,
Speaker 1: this is just a hobby, and it's like, no, this
Speaker 1: isn't a hobby for me, Like do I enjoy it? Yes,
Speaker 1: I absolutely enjoy it, but this is how I live
Speaker 1: my life, Like this is a lifestyle for me. Like
Speaker 1: I would rather fill my freezer with a big old
Speaker 1: wild boar then go to a h grocery store and
Speaker 1: buy pork from a package, you know, like I don't
Speaker 1: want that, Like am I against eating it? No, I
Speaker 1: eat it, But I would rather go and fill my
Speaker 1: freezer with a big wild page opportunity exactly. And so
Speaker 1: I think explaining that to people changing some people's mind
Speaker 1: But yeah, cooking the food, you know, when I would
Speaker 1: show the meat hanging like this isn't me just killing
Speaker 1: this pig and leaving it out there, like taking a
Speaker 1: picture with it, hi fiving someone and walking away like
Speaker 1: that's not what I'm doing. I'm butchering this thing, like
Speaker 1: I have a bunch of meat that's coming off of this.
Speaker 1: And then I show, you know, me creating some some
Speaker 1: amazing mills with it, you know, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the pictures of that. And just I put videos of
Speaker 1: me doing like how toos on how to cook certain
Speaker 1: things on my YouTube, and I think people start realizing
Speaker 1: that and they're like, wow, okay, yeah, I get it too,
Speaker 1: I get it. Well, it's all it's it's it's frustrating
Speaker 1: in one way that that you have to do that,
Speaker 1: but it also it also like that descent also forces
Speaker 1: you to do, like it forces you to be more
Speaker 1: aware of what you're up to. You know, if if
Speaker 1: if there wasn't anybody questioning it, you might just post
Speaker 1: a group and grin and go about your day exactly.
Speaker 1: You're like, man, I gotta like I really care about
Speaker 1: this thing. I'm gonna My response is to become more
Speaker 1: positive and to put more good stuff out there and
Speaker 1: to try to convince people even more so. In some ways,
Speaker 1: like it sucks that it it goes down that way,
Speaker 1: but it's good because it forces you to have a better,
Speaker 1: more codified opinion, uh and and way of doing what
Speaker 1: you're doing exactly. And I don't feel bad explaining, like
Speaker 1: some people absolutely hate, Like I have other buddies, like
Speaker 1: why do you even explain yourself? Like you screw them,
Speaker 1: like just ignore them. You have a lot of people
Speaker 1: that will hit me up, like wait, why do you
Speaker 1: even care? Well, I do care. That's the thing, Like
Speaker 1: I want them to understand. Like sometimes you change their mind.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're just too thick headed and they don't want
Speaker 1: to understand. You know, that's their own issue. But if
Speaker 1: I can show somebody that thinks hunting is just absolutely
Speaker 1: horrible and show them why I'm doing it and then
Speaker 1: change their mind, like that means so much to me,
Speaker 1: Like I enjoy doing that, you know, if I can
Speaker 1: explain to them why we do it. You know, obviously,
Speaker 1: like I said, you're gonna still gonna get the people
Speaker 1: that don't care. But like I don't mind informing. And
Speaker 1: I don't mind, you know, I don't I don't mind
Speaker 1: showing these people that just don't understand. And I get
Speaker 1: that there's things that I've thought. I'm so guilty of
Speaker 1: this but even growing up, there's things that I've thought,
Speaker 1: you know, something so horrible, and then when I actually
Speaker 1: learned about it, I'm like, oh, that's not bad at all.
Speaker 1: Why did I ever think that was bad? You know?
Speaker 1: And so I'm guilty of I I totally understand what
Speaker 1: that feels like. So I'm just gonna explain it and
Speaker 1: if if they get it, and hopefully they do, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: If they don't, well, the important thing that I think
Speaker 1: you're getting across here even is that you're not changing
Speaker 1: what you're doing for anybody. You're not going like, oh
Speaker 1: I'll do it differently because you don't like it. You're going, okay, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: how can I explain this better? How can I then
Speaker 1: come to communicate with you a little bit better? So
Speaker 1: you get what I'm talking about here, because obviously there's
Speaker 1: you know, several um big time oxymoronic notions with them
Speaker 1: like I love this thing when I killed it delicious,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's just what we should, you know. So
Speaker 1: what it's almost like to me, it's like I didn't
Speaker 1: really choose it. It just came to me, and it
Speaker 1: was like I can't get out of it now. I'm
Speaker 1: too wrapped up. I love it too much. No, I agree,
Speaker 1: you can't. You usually can't. Do you ever think about
Speaker 1: those like those big why questions with yourself, Like because
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm around the same age and and
Speaker 1: I grew up hunting and came to like at some
Speaker 1: point in my life, I was like, yeah, man, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm gonna do it the way
Speaker 1: I did it yesterday. I don't know if I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, just shoot spikes of my rifle like I
Speaker 1: did when I was a kid. And I started thinking
Speaker 1: a lot about why I do certain things, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people I listen to this podcast, you don't
Speaker 1: know that. That's that's kind of the reason this exists.
Speaker 1: So we can then ask why, like people can learn
Speaker 1: your story and then ask like if you ever ask yourself, hey,
Speaker 1: why do I do this? Why do I really do this? Um?
Speaker 1: Because it's it sounds like people are want to hear
Speaker 1: that from you. They want to hear your why. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I I definitely asked myself that quite a bit.
Speaker 1: You know. There's certain things as far as just hunting
Speaker 1: in itself, you know, and there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: the comments things that I hear from people that sometimes
Speaker 1: make me even second guess myself. I'm like, why, you know,
Speaker 1: why am I doing that? But you know, I choose
Speaker 1: to eat me that bottom line, that's why I do this,
Speaker 1: you know. And for me, it's do I love killing something?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not Like It's not like I I crave murder
Speaker 1: and death. You know, it's not what hunting is about
Speaker 1: at all for me. Um, And I don't think that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think that's what it is for
Speaker 1: most people. But um, you know, being in the outdoor
Speaker 1: sharing memories. Like I was just telling my wife this
Speaker 1: the other day, and I've been in camp, I've been
Speaker 1: my My life is so routine right now. You know.
Speaker 1: I get up in the morning, I eat my food,
Speaker 1: which is you know, I'm cramming down, going to work out,
Speaker 1: come back, eat again, rest, eat again, go to practice,
Speaker 1: come back. You know, it's the same thing every single day.
Speaker 1: I'm just like killing myself very routine. And I was
Speaker 1: telling Abby, I think it was yesterday. I was like,
Speaker 1: I saw commercial. It's funny as the area commercial on TV.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen the new ones, but
Speaker 1: at the end, these guys are like just sitting around
Speaker 1: the cowboys, you know, and they're they got the sun
Speaker 1: setting in the background. I think they're drinking coffee or something.
Speaker 1: They're sitting on a on a fence, and it was
Speaker 1: just absolutely beautiful scene, you know. And I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm craving adventure right now. Like she's like, what do
Speaker 1: you mean. I'm like, I just I crave that, Like
Speaker 1: I want to be somewhere with the sun rising and
Speaker 1: it just being beautiful, like absolutely beautiful, and me sitting
Speaker 1: there listening to nature. Like I'm like to me that
Speaker 1: it's something I'm craving right now. I want to get
Speaker 1: out of this routine, Like I want to go fight
Speaker 1: and beat this guy up and then I'm back in
Speaker 1: the woods, you know. So here's my plan. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: beat the ship out of this guy back in the woods.
Speaker 1: How about the cage back in the woods? Man. Now
Speaker 1: that's a good thing to think about. I mean, I
Speaker 1: always think this is something that we've been talking about
Speaker 1: a lot lately. It's like why what why does killing?
Speaker 1: Why is killing gratifying or why do people think that's
Speaker 1: what it is? Right? Because killing is when you do
Speaker 1: finally achieve the thing that you were after it's a
Speaker 1: task at hand. It's a task at hand, you were successful.
Speaker 1: That's why there's some gratification. A lot of on hers
Speaker 1: show it like you and I move hunting together. Like
Speaker 1: when when something dies, you're like, yeah, dude, congratulations. We
Speaker 1: say congratulations like like it's not something didn't just die.
Speaker 1: So there's this this weird dichotomy that people don't understand.
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I don't. I'm not mad at
Speaker 1: them for not understanding. Kind it's a pretty complicated. It
Speaker 1: is thing very complicated to do. Do you ever think
Speaker 1: about that? Is that's something that you like try to
Speaker 1: you know, when you're on social media or just when
Speaker 1: you're with people that are new to it, Like, how
Speaker 1: do you describe that kind of thing? Yeah, it's tough,
Speaker 1: and that is one of the things it's very hard
Speaker 1: to describe because it's if you don't I guess, if
Speaker 1: you've never done it, it's it's very hard to understand.
Speaker 1: But you're right. We we feel successful, like we we
Speaker 1: harvesting animal, kill an animal. You know, the the goal
Speaker 1: has been achieved, Like we've practiced our butts off. It's
Speaker 1: like me going through an entire training camp. My goal
Speaker 1: is to get in there and beat this guy. And
Speaker 1: when I get in there and I beat the guy,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cell it. I feel good like I just
Speaker 1: worked my butt off. You're not celebrated because his face
Speaker 1: got I just, yeah, I just beat the crap out
Speaker 1: of another human being. And I'm like, yes, you know,
Speaker 1: but I that was the task at hand. I was
Speaker 1: successful at the task at hand. So I feel good
Speaker 1: because I worked hard. And it's the same thing in
Speaker 1: the outdoor world. You know, I'm I'm practicing with my bow,
Speaker 1: I'm practicing with my rifle. You know, I'm learning how
Speaker 1: to be sneaky. I've gone through many, many, many failures,
Speaker 1: many failures, and so when it finally comes together, it's
Speaker 1: the task hand that's the goal. You're successful. You feel good.
Speaker 1: The death part of it, obviously, is not something I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I killed something, you know, it's not That's not the
Speaker 1: part I'm happy about. I'm happy because I'm successful. I'm
Speaker 1: happy because I know now I have something very delicious
Speaker 1: that I can eat like, and I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1: Our turkey hunt. I was just thinking about this on
Speaker 1: the drive over here, like, how awesome was that trip
Speaker 1: at Dudley's like killing wild turkeys. We would process them.
Speaker 1: We've go out fine Morrell mushrooms and create just amazing
Speaker 1: mills drinking some whiskey. Like how awesome was that you
Speaker 1: shot the wall? I did you the all the arrows
Speaker 1: still stuck over there. It's like a trophy for the
Speaker 1: dud dud house. Yeah, man, that's I would. I can
Speaker 1: talk about turkey on all day. It's for turkey anyway.
Speaker 1: I feel like Morrell mushrooms, springtime turkeys, the fucking feeling
Speaker 1: of being out in the woods, like you're you know,
Speaker 1: probably not here inside incremental, but like everywhere else I've lived,
Speaker 1: it's like gets cold and gets shitty, things like come
Speaker 1: alive and you're ready. You're kind of a little bit depressed,
Speaker 1: Like March comes okay, okay, come on can turkeys? Yeah,
Speaker 1: look at three weeks we're coming. Man. It's like that
Speaker 1: happens that and then you get to go experience like
Speaker 1: you know, new life in the woods, like when we
Speaker 1: were doing that. There's these levels and layers to hunting,
Speaker 1: Like one layers like me and you and dud and
Speaker 1: Tursten and all those guys hanging out and having a
Speaker 1: great time connected by this thing that that bonds us all.
Speaker 1: We're all from way different the areas of the world,
Speaker 1: way different upbringings, way different entries into hunting where we're
Speaker 1: a guy from Germany who's only hunted one day in
Speaker 1: his life. It doesn't understand what we're doing. He's awesome,
Speaker 1: we got Dudley is a lifelong guy. Like, we're all
Speaker 1: from different corners, but we come together. It's not it's
Speaker 1: not a problem. There's nobody like, well, let's let's feed
Speaker 1: each other out first. Like you're immediately happy to be there,
Speaker 1: immediately happy to be with each other. And I think
Speaker 1: it's just all that's all interconnected. It's not. It doesn't. Um,
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen like that in other areas. No, No,
Speaker 1: I agree, Like it doesn't happen even right now, because
Speaker 1: if we're not hunting. No, this is like it's not
Speaker 1: the same. Yeah, you walked out there with all my teammates.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, there's no connection at all. It's it's
Speaker 1: just you know, yeah, I'm not gonna have that feeling
Speaker 1: were walking to hunting camp. Everyone's there to do the
Speaker 1: same thing. We're all having a good time. Dude, I've
Speaker 1: been in so many and then you get you know,
Speaker 1: when you and I would you will see each other
Speaker 1: at a trade show or some ship like that, it's
Speaker 1: like the bro hugs just a little bit rock. It
Speaker 1: just comes in harder, you know, Like, man, remember we
Speaker 1: talk when you're like met a guy in head dinner,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's not the same. Good to see you.
Speaker 1: You look nice, that's great with Honey's like, what's up.
Speaker 1: So that's just another thing that that is so much
Speaker 1: different from the inside than it would look from the outside,
Speaker 1: you know. And we had fun in that camp, man,
Speaker 1: We took so much, took some legendary photos of but
Speaker 1: like even those things from the outside looking in, like
Speaker 1: look at those good balls. But because we were enjoying
Speaker 1: each other's company and having a great time, we're eating
Speaker 1: morals out of the tregger smoker and turkey breast. And
Speaker 1: it's like, even though I think it's it should be
Speaker 1: illegal that Dudley can win his own we gotta talk
Speaker 1: about yeah own farm. Yeah he can't, he can't. That's cheating.
Speaker 1: We get there. He clearly is stacked the deck against
Speaker 1: he knows all the biggest toms are hanging out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he keeps taking over you go right over there. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be over here in the go ahold, don't worry,
Speaker 1: there's no big turkey and bam, like it's happen like
Speaker 1: inch and a half spurs. Yeah, it's like fifteen inch
Speaker 1: beerd come on. That's and then he gives himself a
Speaker 1: belt that he purchased. Yeah, and then we know about
Speaker 1: all about John Dudley. I'd like to I might sneak
Speaker 1: in there this year and just scrab tech and like
Speaker 1: show up and pop out from behind the Bible. Do
Speaker 1: you ever feel like um archery hunting? I had. I
Speaker 1: went to this big ran about archery hunting turkeys recently
Speaker 1: about and I was like, man, I just can't. I
Speaker 1: like hunting with a bow, but like turkeys, I just
Speaker 1: there's just so many reasons why not to take a bow.
Speaker 1: Do you ever think about that? Because I have thought
Speaker 1: about that, and I've I've missed quite a bit. In fact,
Speaker 1: I've actually hit them and lost them. Yeah, probably more
Speaker 1: than any animal that I've ever hunted. With it so hard.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like you're shooting melan and then has
Speaker 1: oscillly like moving feathers and you know they're strutting going
Speaker 1: out of strut. You know, it's hard. I mean that
Speaker 1: arrow has to penetrate basically a wall of feathers and
Speaker 1: thin bone to get to the vitals, and the vitals
Speaker 1: are kind of moving around in the in the target
Speaker 1: zone a lot. So yeah, a lot of dudes. We
Speaker 1: are wounding turkeys. And I've gone on several rants on
Speaker 1: this podcast about let's think about that. Let's think about
Speaker 1: that hard. I love archery hunting, but maybe this is
Speaker 1: the time in the face because I don't eat the face.
Speaker 1: It's true. And that's another thing. The only thing that
Speaker 1: sucks with archie unless you use one of the what
Speaker 1: of the guilty cut the head off, you know, it's
Speaker 1: either a complete miss or they're done, which I think
Speaker 1: is genius. The only crappy thing is you've got to
Speaker 1: specifically set them up with the longer arrow and you
Speaker 1: gotta kind of move some stuff around on your bow.
Speaker 1: But you know, it works. It works gruesome activity. But
Speaker 1: so is shooting him with a shotgun and them in
Speaker 1: the head. So whatever, I mean, those things equate to
Speaker 1: each other. But you're right, I mean, that's you know,
Speaker 1: you're shooting up I don't even know what the cutting
Speaker 1: diameters on these, but it's long six five six inches
Speaker 1: that I would imagine. Um, that would be the one
Speaker 1: time where I'm like, that's you're either most cases there
Speaker 1: you're either missing or cutting it right off, cut its
Speaker 1: head off. Um that's you like said, it's not a
Speaker 1: good visual, but it's effective. Nonetheless, doesn't even matter to
Speaker 1: me at that point. They do fly a little different too.
Speaker 1: So my wife, Um, she wanted to kill. She'd her
Speaker 1: archery hunted. She wanted to kill a turkey for her
Speaker 1: first bow kill. So I got a real you know,
Speaker 1: dialed it all in, got it set up like we're
Speaker 1: gonna use one of these, so it's either clean miss
Speaker 1: and I didn't want her wounding it and then you
Speaker 1: know that's not finding it, her being turned off from
Speaker 1: hunting and all that. Yeah, for sure, So I wanted
Speaker 1: you know, we tried shooting that dause she missed I
Speaker 1: think three times at like twelve yards, and I mean
Speaker 1: I I put one of those things on my bow
Speaker 1: and it was shooting all over the place. You know,
Speaker 1: they're not You gotta really fine tune them. You can't
Speaker 1: just screw one of those on like a like a yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's another like another point that I always makes much.
Speaker 1: I love these things and much. I all love archeries
Speaker 1: that there is. You know, it's hard to start hunting
Speaker 1: with a bow. It's working hard, it's not easy. It's
Speaker 1: much easier to like get the killing under your belt.
Speaker 1: You know, I even remember, I'm just getting used to
Speaker 1: the situation. Yeah, um, I remember driving into Turkey camp
Speaker 1: with with old Turst and and um he said something like,
Speaker 1: I wasn't aware in his German acts, I wasn't aware
Speaker 1: that you could wound animals. All I saw on social
Speaker 1: media was guys liked and campaign's killing them. I wasn't
Speaker 1: aware that they got wounded, and I was. I guess
Speaker 1: they's very lucky for him. He was a one shot
Speaker 1: one kill him. That was his first first thing he'd
Speaker 1: ever kill. But he you know, he's a fan of
Speaker 1: Dudley's in a record executive out of New York City
Speaker 1: and you know, an urban night for for lack of
Speaker 1: a better way to describe him, a fucking wonderful dude.
Speaker 1: He's amazing. I wish he was hearing he's amazing. He
Speaker 1: would be, but yeah, I mean his his um. His
Speaker 1: explanation of that was something I brought up and let
Speaker 1: other conversations like I met a guy who was introduced
Speaker 1: primarily by social media to hunting, which is is a
Speaker 1: is a relatively new thing in our generation, Like people
Speaker 1: are learning about hunting through social media. It's a weird
Speaker 1: lens with which of view it. And he had just
Speaker 1: never run into like hey, wounded one never and never
Speaker 1: heard of that. He's on his first hunt and it's
Speaker 1: after he shoots his turkey and it runs off with
Speaker 1: an arrow in him in it. He ends up finding
Speaker 1: it pretty quickly, but it's in the moments between shooting
Speaker 1: it and finding it that he realizes this thing could
Speaker 1: get a waste, think could get away. And it's not
Speaker 1: a cut and dry situation. And this is not he's not.
Speaker 1: This is a very successful human being in many ways,
Speaker 1: Like he's not he's not dense. He but it's just
Speaker 1: how we present hunting and matters. It's crazy. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess I've never thought of it, but yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you've never been around it before and you've only
Speaker 1: seen it on social media, that makes me it could
Speaker 1: distort it a little bit. To see these guys like
Speaker 1: Cam Hanes and Too Good, it's their fault. It's their fault.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I I think I think turkey hunting and
Speaker 1: I think the kind of type of turkey hunting that
Speaker 1: we did just as a as a big group is
Speaker 1: so much fun. It's my favorite thing. If this year,
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna try to kill um, this may be good,
Speaker 1: something good for abby, especially when you might have a
Speaker 1: little one walking around. Um. Sure. My wife keeps buying
Speaker 1: would buy chicken right from the store. She's like, I
Speaker 1: can't just be eating elk meat all all year, you're idiot,
Speaker 1: um white meat. You got to get that white meat.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, okay, like I shot at turkey.
Speaker 1: She's like, yeah, but we ate that in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. Okay, Well how many more turkeys? Thinking of
Speaker 1: my brain, I'm like, how many more turkeys do I
Speaker 1: have to shoot? So we don't have to buy this
Speaker 1: chicken from the store. Not that I don't like Mr Purdue,
Speaker 1: but fuck him for now. Like, I don't try. I'm
Speaker 1: not try to go hume um. And so that's why
Speaker 1: the last two years I've tried it, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: if I killed twelve turkeys, that would be it just
Speaker 1: travel around. Yeah, but you can do it. Yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: you can do. We can kill five here in California. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can kill four in Texas, five in California, kill
Speaker 1: six in Montana if you'd really get down dirty. Um
Speaker 1: So I think this year, I'm really going for it.
Speaker 1: I'm going And I've thought about that too, because yeah,
Speaker 1: I be said the same thing, like we have all
Speaker 1: the red meat that we could ever want, and it's
Speaker 1: the white meat we run out of turkey to my
Speaker 1: favorite thing doing is a slow cooker with it and
Speaker 1: just shredding the rest. But she, um, she's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta get I need chicken, so she'll buy like
Speaker 1: the organic, free range chicken. But that's not cheap dude.
Speaker 1: Nitrates and launch meat like this is just it's like
Speaker 1: it's it led me to gardening and different things like
Speaker 1: that too, because I'm just trying to like hunting has
Speaker 1: led me to be, like I'd like to take what
Speaker 1: hunting is and transfer that eating. Yeah, that's a goal
Speaker 1: of mine. Yeah. Yeah, we just were our houses right now.
Speaker 1: We're in a cul de sac and we're surrounded by
Speaker 1: these huge vintage oaks and there's zero sunlight in my backyard,
Speaker 1: like just shade, like all the time. So we've tried
Speaker 1: growing a garden. Everything gets about, that's all, and doesn't produce.
Speaker 1: It's like done. So I don't know. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: eventually probably gonna move from We both really like Utah.
Speaker 1: I would love to move to Utah. Um, she's from Missouri.
Speaker 1: That's something we've talked about, but I would rather do Utah.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of friends that lived there, were
Speaker 1: friends and well, I mean the men. I moving to
Speaker 1: the west myself being from the East Coast and have
Speaker 1: bounced around a little bit over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: moving around for jobs and stuff. The West was always
Speaker 1: something that I've watched on TV. It was always I
Speaker 1: remember thinking, I'm well, elk, I'll never run Elk, that's foolish.
Speaker 1: You have to get away across the country that never
Speaker 1: be able to afford or I have the time to
Speaker 1: do that. And now I live in a place where
Speaker 1: everywhere and everywhere so everywhere. Just come on out, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm there. I've talked about it. So I went with
Speaker 1: my buddy Max uh he. I was talking about the tinderling.
Speaker 1: Did we did the commas? You get the sheep tag
Speaker 1: elk tag into deer tag I ended up getting a
Speaker 1: dough where I was at like one of the last days,
Speaker 1: Like I missed like a three forty bowl, just a
Speaker 1: big herd bowl. Um Max missed the bowl and we
Speaker 1: were just like tucking our tails between our legs. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I want, I need to bring some meat home. So
Speaker 1: I ended up taking a dough and uh, and that
Speaker 1: was all we got out of three three hunters. So
Speaker 1: it was a pretty tough time, but it was very
Speaker 1: game rich. We just sucked you and me both. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think you get to a point where
Speaker 1: in that state, like the fact that you just said
Speaker 1: I had a sheep tag and ilk tag and hic
Speaker 1: so great. Like to me, I just want to like
Speaker 1: giggle with like a child Christmas morning. And I took
Speaker 1: a lot of breaks from hunting this fault to get
Speaker 1: my family move, to do all that stuff and get
Speaker 1: the new job kicking. But um, I was like, I
Speaker 1: just keep telling people for the next thirty five years,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hunt the West like a madman. There's just
Speaker 1: no this endless. It's endless out there. It's beautiful, man.
Speaker 1: I mean, did the elk population out there? I mean,
Speaker 1: you said you have my bison running th year. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: not far from my front doors. Yellowstone Parks. I mean
Speaker 1: everyone was in a while, and I'll just drive twenty
Speaker 1: minutes and there's we lived right in the mouth of
Speaker 1: uh the Gallatin River runs through the Galaton River Valley
Speaker 1: and then to Custer Galaton National Park or not Custer
Speaker 1: Galton National Forest, and I mean it's it's shifteam mansionary
Speaker 1: door and you're in this like high walled canyon and
Speaker 1: then there's signs like sheet crossing way. Yeah there's a
Speaker 1: uh no, but I have I have yet to like
Speaker 1: I might just go there with sixer, sit there and
Speaker 1: look for sheep because that's my dad. Would you and
Speaker 1: my dad would come and I'd be like that, you
Speaker 1: realize that I live in a place where there's like
Speaker 1: I could walk, I could hike up and find sheep
Speaker 1: whenever I have a minute. It's and it's so I'm
Speaker 1: sure you're like me, It's like you live in a
Speaker 1: place where that isn't the case. You want to be
Speaker 1: there more than not. So I think my wife would
Speaker 1: end up leaving me because I'd just be out there
Speaker 1: doing all that all the time. I've told my wife,
Speaker 1: like we gotta come up with a weekend. What can
Speaker 1: I do? Yeah? What did I do? What can I
Speaker 1: make sure? How can I make sure you're looking happy?
Speaker 1: Get your honey dues in. I'm gonna go play and
Speaker 1: look for sheep. I know. Yeah, I'm taking this six
Speaker 1: pack of PBR and I'm kind to find I'm going
Speaker 1: to look glass up some sheep that I can't kill.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I think I look forward to
Speaker 1: run around the west. Um. And so there's the other
Speaker 1: questions I want to ask you, but a lot of
Speaker 1: them are around those why questions, Like I think that's
Speaker 1: what interests me the most right now, just in this podcast,
Speaker 1: people that listen, it's it's a cross section of everybody,
Speaker 1: and everybody has their own wise and why they do things.
Speaker 1: But you ever think about, you know, we talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, killing is gratifying, right with what's the why? There?
Speaker 1: We know you and I know with the why, but
Speaker 1: it's just kind of letting it out for people. The
Speaker 1: next step to that, and the next question I always
Speaker 1: asked myself is like why do I desire the trophy?
Speaker 1: Like the word trophy gets weapon tis and you certainly
Speaker 1: can't really go out and use it like, Hey, I
Speaker 1: went on the trophy Alcohn. That immediately changes whether you're
Speaker 1: you know, five people that follow you like immediately changes. Um.
Speaker 1: But to me, the trophy isn't just the antlers, it's
Speaker 1: it's the experience, it's the it's the meat. Um. But
Speaker 1: the next level that is me asking myself and asking you, like,
Speaker 1: we desire that, sure if and we desire to show
Speaker 1: people that that we I think that desire could like
Speaker 1: is problematic because a lot of people will say there's
Speaker 1: intrinsic motivations, which is like, just for me, I'm doing
Speaker 1: something because it makes me feel right, And there's extrinsic motivation,
Speaker 1: which is it's it's for other people. I'm doing it
Speaker 1: because other people like to see me or might like
Speaker 1: to have seen it. Um. How do you balance that?
Speaker 1: Because I mean, you have a big social media following,
Speaker 1: you have, you have celebrity and many ways, and you're
Speaker 1: trying to tell your hunting story. How do you balance
Speaker 1: you know that why the desire to to finish off
Speaker 1: with the Yeah, I think that right there is probably
Speaker 1: the hardest thing for people that don't hunt to understand
Speaker 1: the the trophy part of it. Quote unquote trophy part
Speaker 1: and like that term gets used all the time in
Speaker 1: my in my comments, like you're just a trophy hunter.
Speaker 1: Well what does that mean? Like if it means that
Speaker 1: I'm searching for the most mature animal, like, yeah, then
Speaker 1: I'm a trophy hunter because in in this in this world,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not I don't want to go out
Speaker 1: and shoot a one year old or two year old deer.
Speaker 1: A there's less meat, you know. It's I want this
Speaker 1: animal to be able to grow up and become mature
Speaker 1: so that now that thing can spread its seed and
Speaker 1: and keep the population growing. Um. You know, there's quite
Speaker 1: a few things with it, but it is a tough
Speaker 1: one to try to explain to people that don't hunt
Speaker 1: and don't want to understand. But um, for me, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's going out searching for the most mature animal. Um.
Speaker 1: And sometimes that's the bigger animals. Sometimes that's not. I
Speaker 1: mean I've killed you know, I think my six year
Speaker 1: old I killed the Ohio buck last year's like six
Speaker 1: six and a half year old buck, you know, which
Speaker 1: is a mature dear. It was like a hut, Like
Speaker 1: it's not like a giant by any means, but I'm
Speaker 1: happy with it. You know, I killed him with my bow.
Speaker 1: I went out there, I had a couple of days
Speaker 1: to hunt, and I have some amazing meat my freezer
Speaker 1: from it. You know, like that is a trophy hunt
Speaker 1: to me. Yeah, you don't ever feel pressure two. And
Speaker 1: I think this, this would be a question you'll be
Speaker 1: uniquely suited to answer, like pressure to celebrate one more
Speaker 1: than the other one who comes, like celebrating the antlers
Speaker 1: and celebrate the meat. Like do you feel like, well,
Speaker 1: if I just celebrate the meat more people give me
Speaker 1: less shit if I just you know, take one trophy
Speaker 1: photo and like meat meat meat, Like how do you
Speaker 1: balance that messaging and with you know, those motivations are
Speaker 1: are interesting to me because it becomes like how do
Speaker 1: you balance what people want to see and what you
Speaker 1: want to say? I mean, for me, it is, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a balancing act. I mean, I gotta do both.
Speaker 1: I mean I have to show people that if I
Speaker 1: if I only posted a trophy picture of me grabbing
Speaker 1: this deers ant leer and taking a picture with it
Speaker 1: and don't say anything about the meat, that's when I
Speaker 1: get people that are like, oh, I hope you didn't
Speaker 1: just leave that there after you took that photo. You know,
Speaker 1: people that just don't understand, They just don't get it's
Speaker 1: a great hobby you have. Like, okay, so now I
Speaker 1: have to explain to these people, like I'm not just
Speaker 1: killing this animal to take a photo of it and
Speaker 1: then walking off like this is. And so then usually
Speaker 1: I do either a picture of me processing it or
Speaker 1: showing all the meat all processed, like look, this is
Speaker 1: my buck that I just killed. Now this is all
Speaker 1: coming home with me to fill my freezer. And then
Speaker 1: I show me cooking that meat. You know. I think
Speaker 1: the balance between those three things is what makes at
Speaker 1: least for my following, makes people understand, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: why he's doing this, you know. And so there I
Speaker 1: like showing off what I've killed, you know, And this
Speaker 1: is the toughest part to explain. But it's not because
Speaker 1: I'm proud that I killed this thing, like I murdered
Speaker 1: an animal. You know, I'm not proud. I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to say that I'm proud because I was successful. I
Speaker 1: put in the work. This was my task that I
Speaker 1: was trying to succeed at, and I'm successful. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I appreciate it from knowing you is that
Speaker 1: like we have you have fun, you enjoy life, you
Speaker 1: enjoy hunting. It's what drives you in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, there's immense respect for the animal,
Speaker 1: for the people that like representing them in in in
Speaker 1: a way. So, um, I've always appreciated that things, buddy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I it's like I said, outdoor. The outdoor
Speaker 1: lifestyle is my ultimate passion, like absolutely love it. I've
Speaker 1: done it since I was a little kid, falling my
Speaker 1: dad threw the woods, you know, chasing a little blacktail
Speaker 1: bucks up in this this Sierras, you know, and being
Speaker 1: so excited going up for the week end and just
Speaker 1: camping with my dad and my brothers, and you know,
Speaker 1: growing into that type of lifestyle from a little kid
Speaker 1: to where I'm at now, Like that's my life. This
Speaker 1: is what I love to do, you know. And someone
Speaker 1: actually just left the comment the other day and he said, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you just got some money and now you think you're
Speaker 1: a hunter. It's like, and I've been doing this since
Speaker 1: i was a little kid. This is this is my
Speaker 1: lifestyle week as the surface level bullshit, it's crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now you get it. Yeah, that's what I said. People think, Oh,
Speaker 1: now you're famous and you have money, now you get
Speaker 1: to kill being animals Like that is not. No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't tolerate that. It's like, dude, it's it's you
Speaker 1: wouldn't like, yeah, you wouldn't exactly, you'd be like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm good because I've worked hard my whole life. Let's
Speaker 1: say I do a lot of public land hunting too, Like,
Speaker 1: let's not get that confused. I do a lot of
Speaker 1: public land hunting where I go out and ay, I'm
Speaker 1: either skunked or I'm very successful. Like it goes both way.
Speaker 1: We've all been there. We all hunt public lands. Do
Speaker 1: I hunt a lot of private property? Of course? But
Speaker 1: and have I bought tags before? Of course I've worked
Speaker 1: my whole life, killed myself in the gym and in school,
Speaker 1: like I have a college degree, Like I've been through
Speaker 1: all that, Like I know what hard work, what it takes,
Speaker 1: like I've done it. And now because I'm successful and
Speaker 1: I have some money that I can afford that tag, Like,
Speaker 1: of course, I'm gonna know. You're supposed to keep doing
Speaker 1: it like you did it when you're a little kid.
Speaker 1: Ye have it. Yeah, that's the whole point of working hard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's something that's bullshit. Um, I think you have to
Speaker 1: go pretty soon, right, you have to go. Um, you
Speaker 1: got you have a UFC fight, But I feel like
Speaker 1: to finish off your like I want so you're fighting
Speaker 1: a gentleman named Alexander Volkanovski. Correct. Um, I want to
Speaker 1: play Alexander and I want you to talk ship to me. Dude,
Speaker 1: I'm the worst that I just want to be like
Speaker 1: fucking Chad Mendez. I'm gonna punch you in your face,
Speaker 1: all right, listen bad Janowski. Oh oh, I see how
Speaker 1: it is. Don't make me. Uh dude, I'm I'm bad.
Speaker 1: I'm so bad at talking ship, trying to do that
Speaker 1: they do and I hate it. I'm like, I can't
Speaker 1: do it. And they were like, well, we can't really
Speaker 1: sell this fight unless you're they want it, man, they
Speaker 1: want they want the Connor, they want you know they
Speaker 1: I mean, I get it. It's it's selling a fight,
Speaker 1: but it's not me. It's not who I am. I've
Speaker 1: never like being a wrestler. Like my dad's always taught me,
Speaker 1: you be respectful, and like I don't. I don't have
Speaker 1: to be a complete asshole to show that I'm tough,
Speaker 1: Like I know I'm tough. I know what I can do.
Speaker 1: I don't need to show you it and let you
Speaker 1: hear it with my mouth like I'm going to show
Speaker 1: you when we step in the ring, generally show it.
Speaker 1: You generally do the walking less of the talking. I
Speaker 1: thought maybe we would get like fuck you, but he
Speaker 1: came through. Um, well, good luck, dude, Thanks, thank you
Speaker 1: for sitting down with me. Good luck on Saturday. Ninum,
Speaker 1: is it in Vegas? It is Vegas. Yeah, it's at
Speaker 1: the the t Mobiles at New Arena and the New
Speaker 1: Arena and ves Well, wherever I am, I will have
Speaker 1: a drinking hand and I'll screaming at the television when
Speaker 1: you knock out Vaginovski. And after we're gonna get yeah,
Speaker 1: and the Turkey season come down the pipe. Yeah, thanks brother, Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. That is all. Chad Mendez, thank you, my
Speaker 1: friend for taking a short time. He was in between
Speaker 1: um a baby doctor's appointment and then he was going
Speaker 1: to another doctors point for himself. He was training for fights,
Speaker 1: he was doing his meal plans. He was stuffing bagels
Speaker 1: in his mouth. Before we started the podcast, UM, and
Speaker 1: for some reason he felt graceful enough to sit down
Speaker 1: with me in Sacramento, UM at your ry favorite You're
Speaker 1: ry a favors Ultimate Fitness Jim where he's in their team,
Speaker 1: trained and and talk through some of these important subjects.
Speaker 1: So appreciate it. I hope to do this again, uh
Speaker 1: in hunting camp with Chad where he's not so focused
Speaker 1: on the next fight. But I look forward to I
Speaker 1: look forward to watching chat on the big screen. UM
Speaker 1: go up against Volkanovski on the twenty nine of December.
Speaker 1: Good luck, my brother, I know you'll do well. What else?
Speaker 1: What else? I also want to make a note to
Speaker 1: say thank you to everybody who who wrote in and
Speaker 1: who emailed and and d m and called after my
Speaker 1: appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. Joe Rogan get is
Speaker 1: a is a great friend of mine. UM. If you
Speaker 1: haven't listened to it, please go do. UM. It's episode
Speaker 1: I believe twelve sixteen of the Joe Rogan Experience, and
Speaker 1: we talked for three hours about a lot of important things,
Speaker 1: a lot of silly things too, But UM, thank you
Speaker 1: to Joe Rogan for having me on. Thanks to everybody
Speaker 1: for listening. It was. It's always a great experience. Joe
Speaker 1: is an amazing individual and a great friend, and I'm
Speaker 1: very privileged to be a part of his immense and
Speaker 1: men this platform. Um, it's something I never thought would
Speaker 1: be reality, but it is, and I'm thankful, very thankful
Speaker 1: for it. What else You really should go to the media,
Speaker 1: to your dot com? You really should. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you're not doing it, I'm not sure where your priorities are.
Speaker 1: You gotta go there. You gotta sign up for the newsletter.
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Speaker 1: that you do that, and we're also looking forward to
Speaker 1: the next year. The last thing I'll say is we're
Speaker 1: looking forward to next year. Dude. You got a Mediator
Speaker 1: Live podcast tour which I will be a part of
Speaker 1: and some of the stops, but more importantly you can
Speaker 1: see Steve Ornella, Johanni to tell us cal in the
Speaker 1: whole crew in the town near you, So be checking
Speaker 1: out for that. Yeah, I think that's all. That's all
Speaker 1: I have to say. I really appreciate you and we'll
Speaker 1: see you next time. I'm then Collective Podcast