In Search Of Excellence - Sean O'Malley: Becoming the UFC Bantamweight Champion | E97

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

My guest today is Sugar Sean O'Malley, the UFC bantamweight champion of the world with a 17-in-one record, who everybody believes is the next Connor McGregor. He opens up about his meteoric rise from amateur fighter in Helena, Montana to one of the sport's biggest stars, detailing his path from early knockout victories to inking a deal on Dana White's Contender Series and ultimately becoming the champion. Time stamps:01:23 Sean’s background- Grew up in Helena, Montana- His dad was a cop, mom was a nurse- He hated school, loved sports- Wasn’t a popular kid, and never fit in with sports guys- Moving to Arizona and taking care of his family07:39 Buying houses- Wanted to be smart with his money- Bought 6 houses in Arizona- Meeting people on Twitch and moving them into his houses10:22 Sean’s relationship with school- Didn’t like school and wasn’t interested in it- Never understood the setup of school- He was lucky to find a passion- He learned the stuff he benefited from13:48 How did it all start?- A friend called him to check out a fighting gym in Montana- He liked sports but didn’t have good grades to play    - Didn’t get along with the jocks and coaches- The boxing was one-on-one and he wanted to experience that15:55 In the gym for the first time- Started with jujitsu, didn’t like it- Continued with kick box and was very good- Getting his GED- Kickboxing gave him confidence21:15 The lessons he learned from kickboxing- Wanted to be the best fighter in the world- Started learning everything that could help him achieve that- Sleeping well, eating well, taking care of his soul and body23:20 The advice to people who want to be successful- Always wanted to be rich and famous- Hustling form 16    - Making and selling T-shirts- If you want it, you’ll get there27:09 Why did Sean want to be famous?- Maybe coming from some deep insecurity- Being famous is normal for him now30:43 The beginning of his pro career- Never had street fights- It was always a sport for him- Turned pro at 21- His knockout went viral on YouTube- Offered a fight on the Contender series- Snoop Dogg made him popular- Booked his first fight in Vegas- A fight with Andre Soccer- Broke his foot37:10 Is Sean the next Connor McGregor?- Dana Right and UFC- How much has his looks influenced his success- People want to see characters- He is the next Connor McGregor- Who is the biggest star in UFC?- Happiness is a skill- The origin of his nickname42:47 The importance of Extreme Preparation- He likes to have 12 weeks to prepare- Breaks into 4-week blocks, gradually picks up the pace- Fighting is the most exhausting sport in the worldSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

I never really looked at fighting as like a... it's violent. It's a dangerous sport. I just kind of always looked at it as a sport. Like it's like, I'm gonna, you know, go out there and turn this dude's lights off in the most non-violent way. I think put him asleep, end the fight. You know, it's just like it's always been chess to me. It's always been a violent game of chess. It's never been like a aggressive fight. Like I want to hurt this guy because I don't like it. It's never really been like that to me. It's always more of like a sport. Who's going to go out there and who's going to win. Welcome to In Search of Excellence, where we meet entrepreneurs, CEOs, entertainers, athletes, motivational speakers, and trailblazers of excellence with incredible stories from all

walks of life. My name is Randall Kaplan. I'm a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and the host of In Search of Excellence, which I started to motivate and inspire us to achieve excellence in all areas of our lives. My guest today is Sean O'Malley, the UFC bantamweight champion of the world with a 17-1 record, who everybody believes is the next Conor McGregor. Sugar Sean, welcome to In Search of Excellence. Thank you for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me on. I'm glad it worked out in Vegasgas in vegas so i always start my show with our family because i always want to know what kind of values your family instilled in you and what what did they instill in you what were your parents like growing up and what kind of influence did they have on you

uh my dad was a cop he was a detective for 20 years worked as a narcotics officer bounced around in that and then my mom was a nurse i just most of my memories are just sports like going to going to the practice getting picked up from practice going from baseball to soccer practice in the same day so most of my memories looking back are just like we were competitive since i was three four or five years old playing all sorts of sports. Hated school from early on, like elementary school. I was like, I knew I didn't like school. Middle school, hated it.

High school, hated it. Just didn't like school for whatever reason. I don't really know. But yeah, I think I had a pretty normal childhood growing up. Grew up in Helena, Montana, like a mile from the lake. The only problem with that was you could only go to the lake for like two months out of the year because Montana is so cold. And then when it's really hot, there's always fires. So there's always very few times you could actually go out to the lake.

But it was cool. I had a normal childhood, I'd say. But your dad was a cop. Did he go out and do some narcotics work with the undercover did you ever worry about his safety yeah i remember being young worried about it more so that then i got older i mean being a cop in helen montana there's a lot worse places in the united states to be a cop so i was like well it's not too bad but yeah there was definitely times where i was like man that's kind of a dangerous job. But yeah, it was interesting.

You know, I wasn't, you know, didn't drink, didn't smoke until I was, you know, older. And I was like terrified of marijuana because my dad and my mom would basically just say it's like the worst thing ever. So growing up, I was just very terrified of that. Didn't drink until I was 21. So, which I think is a good thing. It got me to from Helena, Montana when I moved moved, I was 19 years old, and I moved to Phoenix. And I'm glad I didn't partake in any of those until I was older. So you said when you were a kid you played a lot of sports.

What kind of sports did you play, and were you good? Did you know you were a good athlete, good hand-eye coordination back then? Yeah, I was fast. I was fast i was fast um played soccer baseball football basketball those four all year round because depending on what season if it's you know cold out snowing it was basketball season um but yeah i played sports my whole i started my both my brothers my sister we all just played sports it was like traveling baseball traveling basketball school basketball um just yeah those four sports all year round non-stop the popular kid i mean you have a great personality not not really definitely

wasn't a popular kid i didn't really fit in with the the jocks the sports guys um i didn't really fit in with the you know the skateboard crew i kind of had my own little clique or our own little group that kind of got along with everybody um we were kind of little you know shitheads but uh what's the shithead back then i don't know kind of class clowny you know i try to make people laugh dude i was never a bad kid but uh yeah i i don't say i was definitely not a popular kid no you get in trouble as a kid at all i mean your parents scold you or ground or ground you at all yeah at school we'd get in trouble or i'd get in trouble a little bit you know maybe having a laser on the teacher

farting in class like a red red laser red laser shit like that you know so i wasn't was never too bad but i was definitely a troublemaker did you ski I mean Helena is a cold cold city cold state Montana some great great skiing there big sky yeah I I snowboard skied a little bit when I was younger um 12 13 14 around maybe that age group and then I stopped not a huge fan of the cold um so ever since I moved to Phoenix I was like I hadn't really gone back definitely on the winter but uh very little bit but i definitely did so you said you have three siblings you guys tight were you tight then tight now um i'd say we were a little bit tighter when we were younger then you get into middle school high school we kind of we're all four years apart so 16 years your parents

had kids yep yep we're all boom, boom, boom, four years apart. So we kind of were close when we were younger. We were all doing our own thing, middle school, high school. You know, it's kind of separated. But now, you know, my brother, both my brothers, my sister, my mom all live in Arizona, which is really cool. Because you moved there? Yeah. I moved there and I was there for probably about seven, eight years by myself trying to get everyone to move down.

My sister was still in high school. My mom and dad were still together. My little brother was going to school there. My older brother was just a complete wreck, like not doing good at all on drugs, just not doing good. So it was just a mess back home. And I finally, you know, was in a position financially to be able to really help everyone out. So now everyone lives down in Phoenix and everyone's doing pretty good. You still help them out financially i mean when someone when someone gets rich and makes a ton of money uh

often a lot of people say i'm going to support my family are you is your family in that position right yeah i definitely don't want to enable them to where it's like you don't i don't they completely rely on me but there's you know my mom works for me what does she do for you she does she's like she she basically she runs my life like as far as making sure all my taxes are you know done sent into the accountant look ran through all my bills are paid i have six houses so she kind of helps me manage all that she does every she just works do anything i need done she's on top of that um my little sister helps out i have a little farm she helps out at the farm i also bought like four houses from her she's a realtor right that worked out nice um my little brother and i did a podcast for a while but he went he's going back to school uh chiropractic school so he's been really busy

doing his thing what age is he now he's 20.. Ooh, that's crazy. 25. Yeah. 25. And my older brother, he's, he's doing, he's doing way better. He's, he's got a son, him and his son live with my mom right now. And they're, you know, they're getting by doing their thing, but yeah, it's nice. Everyone's, everyone's healthy and doing good. I collect shoes and you collect houses. Yeah. So what's with the six houses where are they and why so many yeah they're all in arizona um my the first house i bought was just like i always wanted to be smart with my money i was always my mom was very very stingy when it comes to money like she had four kids she wanted to make sure we have all our everything we had

she wanted to make sure we had everything we needed so i it was like i remember my parents always fighting about money it was always about money i don't know if that's why in my mind when i was younger i want to be rich because i've always i've always wanted to be rich but then when i started making money i was like okay you know you have that urge you get a lot of money you have an urge like i want to buy something nice i want to buy something and for me i was like okay well i put the money into a house and then rent it out and get the mortgage gets paid for at least i spent that money it felt good i felt you know whatever reason feels good to spend money like that but it's also like that money's not just gone it's it's somewhere good so i just kind of like buying houses i met a couple

buddies blake who's my assistant now that you just met i actually met him about two years ago three years ago playing call duty i used to stream i used to play uh stream on twitch like a lot every day there's a certain there's a certain group of people that would be in my chat all the time every time i go live they're in my chat him another buddy schmitty a couple of my other but other buddies were always in there and i bought a house i rented it out to him and moved them all down to arizona so you. So you meet these random guys online. I met them online. You're famous at this point or coming up.

Yep. And you got tons of people coming up to you, right? Too many. You don't know who to trust. Yeah. And so how are you meeting people on Twitch and trying to sort through the madness, right? I feel like you know. You know.

You know. It's just like I invited them. I didn't just invite them out to live here. I invited them out. Had a little, a little, a little hangout session with a bunch of my subscribers. And I liked these kids. In person.

Yeah. Yeah. So you invite them to Arizona. And like these kids, they got along with the group and you know, they're good, good people. I invited them.

I said, I got, you know, I have an extra house. If you guys want to rent it out, four of them moved down for the, you know, they still,

they've lived there for about a year and now he's my assistant. my assistant so we you know he's one of my good buddies and it's it's really cool it's been it's cool a lot i've met a lot of cool people i don't game anymore i quit streaming recently but uh why just like just you know i'm at the top of the game right now i'm at the i'm the champ i got a target on my back it's like those two hours i spend gaming or two hours i can spend with elena who i have a three-year-old princess or you know just recovering you train in the morning recovery you're training in the afternoon streaming takes a lot of energy especially as a high energy streamer i was screaming i was you know playing i was engaging with the chat it was just a lot of energy and i just you know i needed to put that

energy somewhere else let's go back a little bit to school. Education, a lot of people think it's the best investment you can make in yourself. You felt like you were not learning anything and it was a waste of time. Were your parents telling you, hey, Sean, you know, you should stay in school. You should do better. Or you just said, fuck this. I'm done. Yeah, I just, I remember being like third grade, being like, I just, I'm over this.

Third grade. Yeah, I feel like I remember young being like, I don't know. You're 10 years old. Probably, something like that. I was like, I realized you go, you know, you got to go to middle school. You have to go to high school, but you don't have to go to college. I knew for, I knew I wasn't going to college. Right.

Not paying to come go to school. No way. For me, it was, I didn't really enjoy reading or learning because all the stuff i was reading or learning was just something i was just not interested in it at all when i moved to arizona i was 19 like me and tim kind of started reading um books on you know sports psychology and just how to how to train smarter how to how to use your mind and put yourself in in your in the present moment and have intentions going into training session like that stuff was fascinating to me so i'd read i'd be like oh maybe i don't hate reading i just hate reading

shit i don't care about right like that's what i got out of that i didn't like like i just didn't like school because i was like it just doesn't make sense you go to school for eight hours to school for eight hours, you have an hour each class, you have homework on each class, you have a test on each class. How are you guys, you know, some people are very, very smart and can just do that. But for me, I'm like, I can't do eight classes in a day and not remember, remember each different thing and then have a test on all of them and then do homework on everything. I stopped doing homework in like sixth grade. I'm like, yeah, I'm not, I can't do this. But so I just never understood the setup of school. I just don't get it.

Still don't understand. I don't get what, I feel like there's gotta be a better way to educate people. I mean, you're a role model, right? I mean, you know this to tens of millions of people. They look up to you. And a lot of people are sitting out there listening today as well and say, hey man,, Sean, Sugar doesn't like school.

Maybe I really don't like school. What's your advice to the people out there who view you as their champion and you're an example of people who don't go to school? And do you want your three-year-old daughter to be a student and go to college? I feel like I just got lucky I found a passion. I think that's that that's if i didn't have a passion i wouldn't be able to sail like it depends what you're passionate about if you find something you're passionate about that involves like having to go to school to learn and get an educated degree or whatever to get you to that next level then yeah 100 for me i was kickboxing i was knocking people out i don't need to i don't need to go to school for this. I need to go to the gym.

I need to train. I need to hit mitts. I need to learn how to spar. I should be learning about how to eat healthy. I should be learning about how to meditate. I should be learning about how to control my emotions. I should be learning about all this other stuff that actually is going to benefit me for what I want to do. So as far as Elena going to school, I don't know.

I mean, she's three right now she's gonna i think you're learning the abc's learning that account learning all the basic basic stuff's very important obviously um but at a certain level it's like it depends what she's passionate about maybe she's maybe she doesn't have a passion until she's way older like some people don't really know what they're passionate about that's that's tricky i don't have advice for that because i don't know i mean i was lucky enough to find something i'm passionate about so you're on vacation with your family in utah you got a call from somebody and that was sort of the start of it so what was that what was that call like and yeah you're sitting there i mean where were you in utah and and you know what are you thinking hey man this is that's funny bring

that up because i actually forgot i do remember that now that you said that but i forgot but about like that was actually the initial call my buddy mitch foley it was in the summer we were at a campground and he called it like yo you want to check out this uh fighting gym and i was like yeah that sounds cool you know i think i was 15 16 years old at the time going into freshman year sophomore or whatever that age group is like yeah that sounds sweet i was kind of over i still like sports i still like competing but i was over the team sports didn't really get good grades you have to get good grades to play sports didn't really get along with the jocks didn't really get along with the coaches was always rebellious hated taking orders i like boxing the one-on-one you win because you win you lose because

you lose it's like it's your fault either way and I wanted to I wanted to experience that so yeah when checked out a fighting fighting gym in Montana the part you know it's not the most knowledgeable place but it built me as a fighter for sure because I was able to fight so often and uh but yeah that was that was it we went back to montana went and checked out the gym just loved it this episode of in search of excellence is brought to you by sandy.com s-a-n-d-e-e.com we're a yelp for beaches and have created the world's most comprehensive beach resource by cataloging more than 100 categories of information for every beach in

the world. More than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries. Sandy.com provides beach goers around the world with detailed, comprehensive, and easy-to-use information to help them plan their perfect beach getaway at home and abroad and to make sure you're never disappointed by a beach visit again. Plan the perfect beach trip today by visiting sandy.com. That's www.sandee.com. The link is in our show notes. Stay sandy, my friends. So you get in the gym for the first time and you're looking around, there's weights there, there's bags and you don't know what to do right just like like what what did you do you started pumping weights was there someone in there showing you what to do did you have a mentor in there a

trainer it wasn't really weight it was more of just like a fighting gym there wasn't really like a bench press and you know there's bags hanging i think i think the first session i ever did was actually jujitsu which i ended up stopping for like three years because I didn't like it but I was like my first any uh first time training was like doing jujitsu um and then shortly after that we just kickbox we'd spar so basically most of our sessions were sparring and hitting mates and that's what I like to do I was I naturally I was like okay I'm pretty good at this I was athletic I was hard to hit and I was you know able to hit people because I feel like I'm naturally gifted is when it comes to speed I'm very fast at this. I was athletic. I was hard to hit. And I was able to hit people. Because I feel like I'm naturally gifted when it comes to speed. I'm very fast.

And I think that's the number one attribute in fighting is speed. So I naturally was pretty good at it. And I just kind of got addicted to it. I thought chicks would like it. That was a big thing, too. I was like, well, you want to get chicks? You're 16. You're insecure.

Fighting sounds kind of cool. So that was definitely a big part of why I wanted to fight. You went back to get your GED degree. You're in a special school. You get in a fight. You get kicked out. What happened there? Yeah, it's hard to even remember how it all went

because I went to so many different high schools for a little while there. I went to Capitol and then I went to... This is back in Montana. Yep. I went to Capitol is back in montana yep i went to capital and hell i went to capital high in helena then i went to live with my aunt uncle in uh hamilton went there for a little bit ended up kind of fucking around over there my aunt and uncle were like we can't we don't we can't handle him he's sneaking out hanging out with chicks and doing all this stuff

which was true but i was like so they're like just get me out of here so i moved back to helena decided to drop out go to this boot camp montana youth challenge go there for a few weeks maybe a month or so i think it was like a six month program would end up sneaking out of that with a couple buddies doing our own thing eventually got kicked out of that went back home went tried to do my ged i'm like this i just don't really care for that ended up going to this school called pal project of alternative learning so it was like it was just like a alternative high school to where they it was just for people like me it was like people that didn't like school still needed to get a diploma or whatever. So I ended up going to there and then graduated.

And yeah, it's bounced around quite a bit. You just mentioned you were an insecure kid. I think you have so many people who are very successful, including me, were very insecure. I didn't have a lot of friends, stuttered, was bullied, and was really in my own world for a very long time. At what point did you kind of come out of that? I mean, sometimes as a boy or a young man, I think one of the things is, are you too uncool to have a date with a girl? And, you know, that was certainly my take for a very long time. So did you get the girls when you started fighting and winning or

what what was the first success you had there and you're like all right my kickboxing is working um yeah i think i mean i think obviously every kid in high school is insecure you can't i don't think you're gonna find a kid that's not insecure in high school whether you have acne or you don't know if your shirt's nice enough you're wearing the right jeans or you'd be just for me it was a little bit of acne looking back i don't even think it was that bad but i remember just being like yeah your hormones are crazy at 15 16 years old um but yeah so i think you know kickboxing won a couple fights it definitely gained some confidence um talking to chicks was you know a little bit easier for whatever reason maybe just that little bit of confidence you get from knocking someone out

a lot of people don't know that feeling but it's a good feeling uh so yeah i'd say you know it definitely worked so kickboxing i think a lot of people don't know what that is so are you in a square boxing ring and is there a league i mean you're in montana who who are you fighting yeah so they would have kickbox they would just have like a whole fight event so some people would be boxing some people would be kickboxing you had to be 18 to do an mma fight so i was 16 17 years old so i only could kickbox so it's just in a ring head, headgear, sometimes headgear, sometimes not, but shin guards, boxing gloves, and we would just, yeah, kickbox. I think there were three-minute rounds, two-minute rounds.

I remember you'd fight one weekend, take a weekend off, fight again in another city and just kind of travel around Montana fighting. But, yeah, so I did that. I think I did four boxing fights and four kickboxing fights from 16 to 18. Then once I turned 18, I did MMA. Won them all, eight now? Yeah, boxing, kickboxing, won all those as an amateur. Then I did MMA.

I was 12 and 2 as an amateur MMA fighter. Then I turned pro. As a kickboxer, were you just wiping people off the map early on or did it take a while to kind of understand what you were doing no i was just five i was 16 years old fighting other you know 16 17 18 year olds um and uh yeah i was i was knocking them out so you said that when you dropped out of school you weren't learning but you've also learned a lot when you started kickboxing the lessons you learned there were a lot more important life lessons than you would learn in school.

What were the lessons and how have they applied to the rest of your life? I think I just learned I wanted to be like the best. It was more so once I got into MMA and wanted to be the best. When I decided when I was 18 that I want to be considered one of the greatest fighters of all time what does that what does that mean what do I have to do and I was like okay now I have to learn how to eat good so I don't get injured I just learn about my sleep schedule learn about my mind wait perform being able to show up in that moment every single time that's what I feel like I do better than everyone I show up that night what March 9th in Miami I'm going

to show up I know how to show up. I know how to, for 12 weeks, how to create that headspace of where I need to be to show up that night. So I feel like I've learned a lot about, and I learned more so that that doesn't even, that's not just about fighting. That's just in life in general, sleeping good, eating eating good and taking care of your mind and body it's like that's i learned that because i wanted to be the greatest fighter but i i mean i just need that for just everyday life in general so yeah that's what i learned most i think so many of us have dreams as a kid i always knew i want to have my own company grow a company i sold t-shirts in college and that was my thing i remember sophomore year in high school uh econ class we did a tour of Federal Mogul,

which is a Fortune 500 company in Southfield, Michigan. And we did the tour, probably 40 of us in there. And we're in the CEO's place. And he has a huge desk. And the woman who's doing the tour, he's not there. So huge offer. Gosh, this is cool. And I said, can i sit behind his desk just

look at me what what and she thought okay why not i remember feeling how good that felt and i said one day and i i knew even then what i want to do i want to go in business i thought i had to act for it we all have dreams right as kids so how old were you when you actually have the dream uh that you want to be number one champion of the world? And what's your advice to all the people out there who have the same dream and say to themselves, man, that's fucking hard to do. Less than 1% of 1% will be successful. What's the mentality there?

What's the advice you have for all those people? I wanted to be rich and famous before I wanted to be champ, before I wanted to be the best fighter in the world. I wanted to be rich and famous before i wanted to be champ before i wanted to be the best fighter in the world i wanted to be rich and famous when i was really young so i didn't really know how it's going to get there but i remember you know 16 17 years old i started selling t-shirts you know you'd have a fight coming up you'd make a shirt you'd sell it i would get paid ticket sales to get five dollars a ticket so i was hustling 16 17 years old 18 years old as an amateur trying to you know make as much money each fight as I could. You're fighting and before the fight, you're making your own t-shirts and going around to the audience? Or were you doing it after?

Yeah. So if I had a fight coming up and, you know, a month, I would make t-shirts and my dad would help me and sell them to our friends. And, you know, local people in Helena with 20-30 shirts at a time or whatever it was nothing crazy but I remember I wanted to be I wanted to be rich but I didn't know how I was going to be rich and then once I started fighting I'm like okay maybe this could be it because I don't really know what else is what else it's going to be but uh yeah that that's you know 16-17 year olds selling t-shirts and merch and stuff. Now I have my own sugar shop, and it does really well. And I feel like some people just have it.

Some people want it. Some people don't. And I think if you want it and you have it, you'll figure out how to get there. It's like you just got to put in the work. You don't need – you can't have someone – you can't need someone to tell you to do the work. Like I never needed a coach to say, hey, bro, we've got to go train. You've got to go to the gym. I never needed that.

I was in the gym. I was training. I didn't really need someone saying, hey, make sure you try to learn how to eat healthy. Me and Tim, my buddy Tim, we lived together. We kind of started learning all that together. But I didn't need someone to want me to improve. I wanted to improve. And I feel like if you have that like you have

a good shot of being successful whatever you do i also sold t-shirts i uh in college freshman year i saw some other people doing i said oh yeah that's interesting so back then you couldn't go online i mean i'm 55 years old so there's no google to look so you're in the phone book uh yellow pages hey i want to make these t-shirts so i i bought them for six bucks and you know you're taking a risk because you don't know if the shirts are coming in good or bad and uh short sleeves were a dollar more uh i sold this the short sleeves for 12 the long sleeves for uh 18 so better margin on those i went door to door in every dorm i get kicked out of every floor i go back in the back and i literally hit every single door. What shirts were you selling?

Oh, well, okay. So I was selling Just Do It shirts, Nike. Didn't really ask permission, obviously. And I thought I created better Just Do It shirts. I mean, today you could never get away with it. Right, right, right. This was, you know, 1986 through 1990. And, you know, the experience of cold calling and getting

doors shut in your face and getting kicked out was very, very good for me. And I think one of the greatest skills you can have to be successful is cold calling people. So have you ever gone door to door and learn the cold calling skill and the fear and getting over fear of rejection? I mean, it could be selling stuff. It could be going up to a bunch of girls and saying hey will you go out with me and it's hard you know no way um i i did one time i had like a sponsorship right out to where like pay me 800 bucks and you'll have this on your logo this on this and this and i had to go to a couple different sponsors and that was hard for me that was like oh i felt i just felt super super uncomfortable i only did that a few times um but yeah that was very uncomfortable so you're young you want to be famous why the fame i mean the the famous people that i know can't leave their house can't go to

the grocery store have trouble finding people who are true friends what what was it about fame that was interesting to you and is it all yeah is it all that's cracked up to be? It's a good question. I don't know. I've never really been able to sit down and figure out why. I just have pretty vivid memories being young, young, wanting, I don't know if it came from, I used to be obsessed with football

and I used to watch football every Sunday, Monday, whatever NFL total access during the week. Like I watched and just think the football players were famous to me. And I wanted to be in the NFL so bad. I don't know if that's kind of where it stemmed from. I don't know if it's just that deep insecurity of wanting to be liked. I don't know where it came from, but it was from when I was young. And, yeah, I don't know where it came from but it was from when i was young um and uh yeah i don't i don't

i don't mind it's you know what's cool is seeing walk into into a store and and some this happened i'm trying to think of where oh is it the hotel the the room the room the um room service lady i was walking by and she just her eyes got huge she started freaking out screaming that i was walking by screaming yeah like screaming like it was right in front of your face yeah and it was just like that's pretty cool to be able to give someone that experience and again i don't know why that's cool but it feels good it's and you know take a picture with her so that's pretty cool i guess in a sense of being famous and making people feel good but yeah sometimes pain in the ass you want to take a picture with her. So that's pretty cool, I guess, in a sense of being famous and making people feel good. But, yeah, sometimes it's a pain in the ass.

You want to go to the Sprouts, and you don't want to. You're like, God, I want to go to the grocery store and not have to think about being a little paranoid. Because sometimes people you're watching, you can see people's phones, you can see people like. But that's the worst part of my day is having to go to Sprouts and take a picture. My day is pretty good.

So, yeah, it's not too bad. Can you lead a normal life now where you're just going out and taking a stroll or going to the mall or doing things? Are there things you're not doing? Well, it's just normal now. Like, that isn't normal going out and, like, expecting it to be people there. Like, that's just normal now it was a gradual build from get signed to UFC knock a couple people out you know maybe it's one person when I go out and I was two people that was like a couple people so it's it's just now it's normal so it's almost

more weird if I go somewhere and no one says anything uh UFC is now I believe the fourth most popular sport in the world has your recognition what's that it's the number one is number one sport well i think well statistically the number four yeah i think statistically i um interviewed dana white uh at a conference and uh i believe it's it's the number four sport in the world i mean that's that's huge have you seen your recognition go up as a sport has increased over the last few years? Yeah, definitely. I mean, each knockout goes up more and more and more.

So, but yeah, definitely noticed that. Are you looking for your next great gift to surprise a friend, colleague, or loved one? Bliss Beaches makes the perfect gift. This best-selling bright and beautiful coffee table book by Randall Kaplan features stunning drone photography from exotic beach locations around the world. It's the perfect housewarming gift, a great addition to any home or office, and a fun and creative alternative to bringing a bottle of wine to somebody's house for dinner. Bliss Beaches is available for purchase on Amazon, where it has glowing reviews and a five-star rating. Get your next amazing gift and order a copy of Bliss Beaches by clicking

the link in our show notes. So why fight in the first place? I mean, what was the first punch that you threw where it actually felt good? Go back to the first street fight you had. I mean, you punched... I wasn't a street fighter. Well, I'm talking about when you hit someone in high school and got kicked out. Was that your first fight? I never fought outside of the gym i've never really gotten street fights so so the first fight you had was in a gym yeah and what was it what was the first punch feel like i never really looked at fighting it like it's violent it's the dangerous sport i just kind of always looked at it as a sport like it's like i'm gonna you know go out there and turn this dude's lights off in the most non-violent way i think put him put him asleep and the fight you know it's just like it's always been chess to me it's always been a violent game with chess

it's never been like a aggressive fight like i want to hurt this guy because i don't like him it's never really been like that to me um it's always more of like a sport. Who's going to go out there and who's going to win? And that's what it's always been to me. So I think a lot of people don't know how you go from your first fight to where you are today and how many it takes to get there. So can you walk people through the very beginning and who has to be in your corner and say, okay, Sugar's going to get the next fight, he's going to get a big fight, he's moving up on the card up until the main event. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I've done a good job

at managing my career in that aspect from getting signed to UFC and kind of navigating that and dealing with Hunter and Dana directly. What year was that? So take us back to the beginning because I think there's a lot of people who don't know and i think there's a bunch of people who are not ufc fans right now who are listening and watching the show so i'd say i turned pro probably 20 years old something like that rack up five or six wins kind of fighting in montana i'd fight go back to montana fight pro fights um they weren't

the hardest pro fights it was just like i was kind of getting a good record. I think I was 5-0, 6-0. Knock out this dude in North Dakota. Then I get this big fight, an LFA fight, which is a bigger organization. It's a good feeder into the UFC., and it was about to air next year in a couple months or whatever. And I knew if I could go out there and put on a show, I fought this guy named David Nuzzo. If I could go out there and knock this dude out, I pretty much guarantee I can get on. So I'm like 6-0, 6 finishes, whatever my record was. I had a good record. Go out there and knock this dude out.

One of my favorite knockouts still. I throw a head kick into a spinning kick, knock out it goes viral ish like it's on youtube yeah it was my first viral knockout so then they offer me a fight on the contender series snoop dogg's commentating yeah and uh that was that was a big deal having snoop dogg commentate him going oh mally just like 30 times in a row he went crazy went crazy he was posting me on his instagram which blew up my instagram which made me like i was like kind of get addicted to like the likes and stuff like oh shit i can get a good following from this and uh so that that's how that happened got signed to ufc knocked out that dude went hung

out with snoop smoked with snoop hung out with snoop for a little bit big big like a cigar joint around blunts and i was cross-eyed about five minutes in walking out of there like feeling like i'm in a movie just knocked this dude out just got side of the oc just smoked with snoop 21 22 years old and uh so yeah i think that was in like a june or july and then i you know booked my first fight december 1st in vegas and and. And then I, you know, booked my first fight December 1st in Vegas. And I don't know, the Contender Series was my first fight in Vegas. Then my next fight was December 1st, which is my first UFC fight in Vegas. Yeah, win that one.

Didn't win it by knockout or anything. One of the decisions was still a very entertaining fight. One of my favorite fights of myself to go back and watch because it was so entertaining. And there's a lot of flashy things that happened won that book book my next fight and uh in vegas again this one's on a pay-per-view now i fought a kid named andre soccer i called him andre soccer mom now i forget his very real name but i thought i was kidding andre broke my foot in the third round with three minutes left tore the liz fronk it's's the ligaments on top of my foot. And there's three minutes left and it was clearly hurt.

Clearly like couldn't walk on my, or couldn't even stand on it. He took me down, thankfully. I don't know why. He still- One hop now. I'm hopping, punching him in the face, still piecing him up. He took me down. And thankfully he did because i

couldn't i couldn't yeah use that foot um but yeah that was kind of and then after that fight i feel like i gained quite a bit of popularity because of the whole rogan was interviewing me interviewing me on the ground laying there uh the fight was entertaining broke my foot but uh yeah that's kind of got the ball rolling so you're hanging out with snoop you're smoking you wake up the next day and are you saying to yourself man i am living my dream this is so fucking cool what's next i think at that time you know i still live in an apartment and uh where in in uh glendale in arizona. What were you paying him for? Do you remember? Like $800.

And what did you get for the fight? How much were you paid? $10,000, I think, for that one. Or no, was it $5,000? I think it was $5,000. $5,000 or $10,000. I don't remember. But I remember after my first fight, it was like $10,000 and $10,000.

You get $20,000. You pay the gym, pay whatever. It ends up not being a ton but with that money i bought i'm like well let's put a down payment on a house and like move into like nice little shitty house and that was my first house i bought but it was yeah that was a cool experience because you're not really making money fighting until you even once you get in the ufc like the little the first couple fights you're not making a lot of money especially with taxes hate taxes i've had to making a lot of money, especially with taxes.

I hate taxes. I've had to pay a lot this year. It was sad. Very depressing. Makes our world go on. We live in the greatest country on earth, so we pay for our freedom. Yes, I agree. And that's always a good perspective, a good reminder.

I still live on a shitty dirt road, though, so that sucks. Yeah, but that's your choice. I'm sure you could buy whatever house you want at this point. Yeah, it was cool to make money for the first, like actually money fighting is it's it still blows my mind to be honest so does dana way control the destiny your destiny and the destiny of your fighters who's picking the fights and how are they doing it is dana saying man sean is going to be a superstar so i want to make sure he keeps advancing his career and then when someone loses they're going down on the on the pole a little bit and not getting the best fights yeah I mean that would be more of a question for Dana and Sean Shelby and you know

Hunter those guys kind of navigate you know how the UFC runs I uh accept fights and Dana loves you by the way I spent some time with him last night and he says man you're the next big thing yeah i mean he's not wrong i think ufc's you know they're they're business they're a fight business but ultimately they're a business they want to make money and they know how you know i'm the champ now so whatever whatever whatever they did it worked i'm here i won the fights that i needed to win and uh yeah i do believe i'm the next big thing he he believes it too uh i uh interviewed dana he was telling me the story of conor mregor and Conor met the Fertitta

brothers first and they said hey Dana man you got to talk to this guy or I think it was the other way around I'm not sure and you know the guy was very flamboyant said he's gonna be the champ definitely wasn't the champ back then right but how much has your being flamboyant, the purple hair, the tats everywhere, how much has that contributed to your success? Probably a little bit. I think what it comes down to is if you go out and just watch my highlights from when I got in the UFC, even before, like I'm fun to watch. I'm entertaining.

I'm knocking people out in spectacular fashion. It doesn't matter what color my hair is or, like, you know, what kind of car I drive, face tattoos. Like, none of that matters if I'm not knocking people out. And people look past that. People look like, oh, you're popular. You're famous. You're the champ because you have crazy hair.

UFC wants you to be champ. Like, no, I just knocked out Aljamain Sterling, the greatest bad weight of all time. I fought Peter Yan, beat Peter Yan in the fight before that. Like, that's why I'm the champ. But as far as like taking it to the next level i think i think that you know the hair and the the all that extra stuff definitely plays a role people want to see characters people want to see see uh you know that you know or always say all human but people want to see see characters and that's what I think that I've done a good job doing. Conor McGregor,

the most famous UFC fighter ever. And people are saying you're the next Conor McGregor. Yeah. How's that feel? It's funny. It's like people say that in like a negative way. Most people. I'm saying it in a very positive way because I think it's fucking cool.

Yeah. Yeah. But it's funny. I do get that a lot. You're a wannabe Conor. Like, yeah. Fine. Like, how much did he make? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think it's fucking cool. Yeah. Yeah. But it's funny, I do get that a lot. You're a wannabe Conor. I'm like, yeah, fine.

How much did he make? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think he made 30, he made $30 million for his fight with Floyd Mayweather. Yeah.

Floyd made, I think 80 to $100 million. Yeah. So in that sense, yeah, I kind of want to be like Conor. I also want to, it's hard when you get that famous,

that much money. It's like to stay that active. I'd like to stay active. I'd like to continue to fight a lot um but as far as like people ask me if i think i'm the biggest star in the ufc right now and i don't really know how to answer that i think ufc would know analytically like real the real numbers who's the biggest star i don't know i would say i'm definitely up there but when it comes to potential who has the potential to be the biggest star ever i'm definitely the number one guy i believe i could be way bigger than connor and just because connor

hasn't fought in so long he like pre-covid 2000 you know 20 whatever it was the ufc grew almost 50 they almost you know i think danis was like 48 percent in a couple years the ufc grew because of covid like that's that's my prime that's where i'm knocking people out that's where i'm you know on the rise right now i'm the champ right now so i have so much more people to be seen by so and that's the only reason i say that i could be way bigger than connor's because there's more people watching the sport right now. You feel the pressure that people are putting on you? Not really. I don't really feel that pressure, to be honest. I don't really put that much pressure on myself.

It's just kind of like, if this was all gone tomorrow, do I have the skills to be happy? I believe I do. I think it would be a different pace of life different change of life this all went away tomorrow couldn't didn't fight anymore i retired no one gives a fuck about me anymore because i don't fight which is real thing like you quit fighting once you're done it's like these people start to lose interest in you you know you're not getting the brand deal you're not the next big thing could i still figure do i still know how to be happy and i think

happiness is a skill and uh i feel like I could definitely, you know, figure that out and be okay. So I don't really put that much pressure on myself. Like, oh, this is the only way like I can make it. Let's talk about your nickname. Where'd it come from? And do people walk up to you on the street and call you Sean Sugar?

What's that? A lot of people call, well, not as much anymore. But when I first started coming up, it was always Sugar Shane. Snoop still calls me Sugar Shane. Sugar Shane Mosley is like people, Sugar Shane, just kind of rolls. But, yeah, Sugar came from Johnny Aho, who was like one of my first coaches in Montana.

And he said I was just so sweet to watch. So he gave me the nickname Sugar. I kind of took the R off and went more with Sugar. But, yeah, Sugar was kind of like the first one he said, because that's so sweet to watch. One of the things that has made me successful over the years, something called extreme preparation, something I've been teaching and coaching for 20 years. So when someone preps for something for one hour, I'm 30, 40, 50. I know extreme preparation has been a huge part of your success.

Can you explain exactly what that means to you and how preparation is so important being the champ yeah for me it's like i wouldn't take a short notice fight like i don't know i don't know how like a specific date or weeks but i wouldn't i like to have 12 weeks 12 weeks is today which is ironically like 12 weeks from fight is today and what's your next fight to tell people out there march 9th miami. Yeah, preparation. Against Tito. Yep, rematch. That's going to be a big one.

But preparation for me is, you know, I break it down in little blocks, four-week blocks, from 12 to 8, 8 to 4, 4 to fight. Like I have, you know, I gradually pick up the pace, the discipline. Because I can't be too extremely disciplined this far out. And I'm talking dialed in, zero distractions, too far out. It's a balancing game. You got to balance it. So I feel like I've done a very good job balancing that

and really figuring out what to do in those 12 weeks. So, yeah, I like to have a good amount of time to to get my mind right to get physically in shape fighting's the most exhausting sport in the world i'm the champ now so i'm doing five five minute rounds i'm not doing three minute or three fives i'm doing five fives and i gotta train like the fight's gonna go five fives this very well could go 25 minutes with cheetos very very very durable, very tough, very slow, very ugly, but he's good. So, you know, I gotta be prepared to go 25 minutes.