Insight with Chris Van Vliet - UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar on His Legendary MMA Career and Becoming A Pro Wrestler at 39 Years Old

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Stephan Bonnar (@StephanBonnar) is a UFC Hall of Famer and pro wrestler. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his legendary MMA career, his Ultimate Fighter finale match with Forrest Griffin, and how it changed the course of UFC history, he explains his actions in a recent viral Instagram video that he posted, why he got into pro wrestling at age 39, his favorite matches and more! Use the code CVV to get a $25 bonus on your Cypto.com metal Visa card: http://crypto.com/app/cvv If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blaine! Here we go, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet, and oh man, so good to have you back with us for another episode and back with another UFC Hall of Famer. Earlier this year, we did an interview with Chuck Liddell inside his home. Then we had Randy Couture.

Today, Stefan Bonner joins us in the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn, Las Vegas. Oh yeah, another in-person interview. And with how things have been over the last two-ish years, I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of saying in-person interview. Let's hope that as we roll into 2022, maybe all of them can be in person. That's big. I know. Let's say most of them can be impersonation.

and just so excited to have Stefan with us to talk about his legendary UFC career. And you might have seen him on Impact Wrestling not too long ago. He made his debut at 39 years old. And I'm just so excited to have him on here. You can find him on Instagram at Stefan Bonner. That's also his name on Twitter. You can find me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet.

And a big thank you to our fan of the week, Philip D in Poland. He titled this. He's awesome. I'd like to call CVV the goat of wrestling interviews, but he probably doesn't want to go by that because he's such a humble guy. Me and my fellow colleagues from a Polish wrestling site called My Wrestling, get lots of info from Chris's interviews, which we can spread towards our readers,

and we appreciate Chris for that. Keep up the good work, go forward, and don't look back and shout out from Poland, my friend. Well, thank you, my friend. And shout out right back at you. shout out from Los Angeles, California. And I read one review on every single episode. So if you have an iPhone or if you have Apple podcast, leave a few words on there,

leave a few emojis, and we'll shout you out here for free, of course. I'm going to guess, since you're listening to this, that you might be a UFC fan. So you might have heard about this deal between UFC and Crypto.com, $175 million over 10 years. They are UFC's official cryptocurrency platform. And now crypto.com is on all of the fight kits. So crypto.com has not only partnered with the UFC for this, they've also partnered with me and they want you to join the fastest growing cryptocurrency

app that is leading cryptocurrency adoption. They put together a special deal for anybody listening to this right now. If you click on the link in my show notes and use the code CVV, you'll get a $25 bonus on your metal card and 30 days of zero fees on credit and debit buys just for signing up, just for listening to this episode. Crypto.com has every product in the book from buying a dollar in Bitcoin to spending Doge on a metal visa card. And crypto.com is my recommended platform.

And this promo is really the perfect opportunity to get your feet wet with cryptocurrency, and see, especially since they're willing to give you a $25 bonus simply because you clicked on that link and signed up. The code again is CVV. That's super easy. The link is crypto.com slash app slash CVV or just click that link in the show notes to check it out. All right, let's get to this interview from Las Vegas. Please welcome the UFC Hall of Famer, Stefan Bonner. Stefan, thanks so much for coming by. My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Chris. Nice studio here you got. They've done a really good job here with Blue Wire.

And at the wind, I'm sure it's... Well, the wind's a pardon. So it was the wind's idea to, like, partner with Blue Wire, and this is what we've got. And then I take it too. You do a show here and you come in, they give you a room. That is how... I flew in this morning.

I'm doing three interviews today. And I fly out tomorrow. That is the light. I remember doing stuff for the UFC here. right after the show and then giving me a room. And it was, yeah, what a treat. It felt like a star. The rooms here are pretty nice.

Pretty nice. How are you feeling you were limping as you were coming in? Yeah, I am just getting off my deathbed again. Like, I got to keep having these near-death experiences, man. It's fucking killing me. But, yeah, I got severely injured, broken vertebrain, the lumbar spine, a broken wrist and blown out knee. And it was hospitalized for a while.

Staff infection built up around the broken vertebrae. And, yeah, it got really bad. So they wanted to keep me in there 10 weeks, was able to negotiate a five-week stay and then five weeks on the pick line, the antibiotic IV, that they leave the line in your arm. You administer them three times a day. So, yeah, it was probably the most traumatic set of injuries,

I've had. It had all at once. I was so swollen. The staff was so painful. I couldn't move. I couldn't get up and down without help off the toilet without help. It was, it was, uh, I talk about suffering. I'm, I just, I'm thinking, you know, like God, what did I really do to deserve that one? I mean, in the past, I've had my moments, but I've been pretty decent human being these last few years. And how can he laid one on me? So, yeah, it made me re-think my life a little bit. Did you actually feel like you were close to dying when you were in the hospital? Yeah, I went pretty delirious. Like, my mind was like going and was having visions and was wow. It was just really out of it, really loopy. And yeah, I mean, I was kind of scared.

And that's what the doctor said. It's like the stab really bad. And it's like often we see that, you know, it leak to the valves of the heart and then as you to die. That shut me up pretty quick. So the, like when you said you're delirious, is that what we're seeing in these videos? Or is that just you being angry and upset? Yeah, that was me desperate. And then me getting screwed over at the hospital where I, you know, that was another mistake. I should have someone take me there and can't take care of me.

But, no, I dragged myself there and crutched myself in and the broken wrist and waited in the e-Rexam. a few hours and finally got up to the doctor. And, you know, he just treated me like I was lying, you know, and I go, I have the x-rays, broken vertebra, I have broken wrist, like something's wrong. Like, I need treatment. And, you know, well, have you been vaccinated? I'm like, no. Okay, wait over here. He didn't say, oh, we're not going to see you now. And then a couple more hours go by where people keep going back, that came in after me. And I finally called him out on it. And he's like, I did see you. I'm like, he didn't treat me. I didn't. treat you and then I went off you know I just like kind of backed into a corner and uh next thing you know

the security's thrown me out of there and then knocked me over I was crutch not crutch and fast enough and I got a little nudge from behind my crutch went out and I fell and uh I just got up and there was an open door there a bathroom and I locked myself in there and like oh my god like what's going on like I need to document some of this just like so I have the true truth, you know, to show what's going on, you know, because I was afraid they were going to call the cops, I mean, which they did. Did you think you were going to get arrested? I took that video. Yeah, that's why, you know, when I talked to the cops outside, I said,

you know, I want you on video to tell me you're not just waiting for me to get in the car so you can pull me over because the, I didn't have my license on me. The pharmacy accidentally kept it like the day before when I tried to get a prescription. So I was, I told them that. And it was like, and they said, you got my word. We just want you to leave,

but we won't pull you over. And they kept their word. And they didn't. And I went home and went to try to pull the videos down. So I was using those videos to get out of there, really. Like, I'm just trying to go home.

Like, you know, like I didn't want me to slap me with some bullshit like just disturbing the peace or whatever, you know, disorderly conduct charge. That's what I was worried about. So just wanted to document it.

And when I went to try to pull it down, my account was locked up and I'm kind of blanked out. Like my account and it shows nothing and it's like I'm locked out of it. Although they left my account up, I can't get back into it. So I've been locked out of Instagram. Well, somebody needs to help you get an unlock because that is very much a part of your livelihood. I, right? I mean, yeah, I think they're screwing me. Like one of the videos and they pulled that video down was me, you know,

kind of bad mouth in the vaccine because I did. I talked to a lot of the people that came in after me and there were people that were having bad reactions from what they thought was the vaccine. And, you know, I just thought it was bullshit that like, that was the question that kind of made him say, no, they're not going to treat me, that I hadn't been vaccinated and like the irony. All these people are coming in with reactions and you won't see me because I didn't have it. Yet my issue is totally unrelated. Got a broken vertebrae in the wrist. knee, but like I didn't know the staff infection was there at the time. I just knew I needed treatment. Like I was in bad shape. I was really out of it. And after that, too, after that fall

and all that trauma and stress, like I went back and the inflammation got way worse. And the, like the staff kind of really took hold, you know, just all that stress and aggravation on it made it way worse. And a couple days later, I went to another ER, which they took my blood right away and was like, within an hour of being there said, okay, you're going to be staying here for a while. You got something that's really bad that's potentially fatal. And it just really shocked me. And it's all because of pro wrestling. It's a pro wrestling injury. It was weird, though. It wasn't one of those things where, like, I finished the match and I felt all right. And, you know, when I went back to the hotel, showered, crashed out. And when I woke up in the

middle of the night. I felt it. I tried to stand up and I couldn't, you know, like, oh my God. It was like a delayed reaction in my spine there. And yeah, I tried to tough it out. I went to, you know, the orthopedic doctor that I see just to get x-rays to see what's going on. And then I figured, all right, you know, I had a, you know, I cast on my wrist and like you can't really cast the spine. So just tried to tough it out. But little did I know, you know, I had the staff brewing in there around the fraction and the spine. And that's really what got worse and unbearable. And here I am a week later when I finally decided to go to the ER, which I'm way more pain than like the day after the accident. I'm like, this doesn't make sense. Like this doesn't make

sense. This isn't right. I need treatment. Like something's wrong. I didn't know what it was, but I knew something was wrong. And sure enough, it was. Yeah. And just to be treated like that, like I was making it up or just trying to get pain medicine. Yeah. It was just. Did they think you were pill shopping? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that's kind of what I got out of it, you know, like which like blew my mind because I had the proof of, you know, the injuries, you know? Yeah.

The x-rays here, man. Like, you know, like how many people are clutching around on broken lumbar vertebrae. That's, you know. But once you start taking painkillers, that's such a slippery slope,

I feel like because you take one, then you got to take two, and like, you're probably in a lot of pain still right now. Yeah, they're really good, though, about, you know, rationing. It's like the DAs are involved, so they give you a script and, you know, like, there's no way, like, you can get any more than they're prescribing you. And I don't know, I've had a ton of surgeries and a ton of injuries, so. The UFC record for surgeries, is that right? Oh, yeah, I'm up there. Yeah. I think that's what Dana White said.

I said, like, I had the most injuries of anyone. I'm like, no way. Rich Franklin had to have more. No, you got rich. And then when you get my medical records from Dr. Sanders, it's like a Bible. It really is. Can you list off all your surgeries right now? Yeah, I mean, a lot of them are on the knees.

So I had four knee scopes and two reconstructive knee surgeries at a hand, two hand surgeries, elbow surgery, nose surgery. That's 10 already. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's it. Oh, one more in the knee where it was just like, they just cleaned up the bone debris and smooth out the joints and drilled holes to get the bones to bleed a little bit. It was more like a, just like a cleanup operation,

not really repairing injury. It was just arthritis is so unbearable. they went and like reshape the joint and cleaned it out a little. Man, that's a lot of surgeries. Yeah, I've always been really injury prone my whole life. Even growing up, my, my, our family doctor, Dr. Morris would be like, oh my God, kid, I see more than I see my wife. Like, I've never seen anyone who's always breaking bones and like having to get stitches and

what are doing like you're falling off a skateboard or falling out of a tree house or something? My dad would really let me have it. He saw, I've never broken, he was a good athlete. I've never broken a bone in my life. And look at you, you're 10 years old. You've broken five bones. Like, what's wrong with you, Mr. Glass? Yeah, I just, it's amazing that.

Well, then you decided to get into a profession where, you know, Yeah, that I had as long of a career as I did. Yeah, seriously. And then been pro wrestling about five. So, yeah, I, You know, when I think about it after this, I'll lay up in the hospital and all that, like maybe it's God's really trying to tell me to give my body a break. You know?

Well, the crazy thing about it is who starts a pro wrestling career in their late 30s other than Diamond Dallas Page? Yeah, it was almost 40. Yeah. Yeah, when I started. Yeah, you got DDP beat. He was 35. And you know what?

I would have been fine if I just would have stuck to my big, big guy moves, you know? But no, I like start feeling good. I feel like, oh, my God, I'm learning. and I'm getting better. And I just had a great match with Nick Aldous in Minnesota at MAW, like a 20-minute match main event. Like, I was really happy with it.

And then I just, you know, insisted on flying off the top rope. And like, you know, when you're 44, you've got to be a little smarter than that. That's not such a good idea.

But it felt good. It was easy. I did no problem 100 times. Yeah. And then I have one landing where it just, I don't even know what happened. Like, it felt fine.

like I landed it like I normally do. And it just, you know, my bones couldn't handle it. Maybe the ring was a little harder, but, yeah, vertebrae in my back just gave out. So what made you want to start wrestling in your late 30s? Well, I always knew when I growing up as little kid in the 80s, you know, we didn't have the UFC. So we had Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and pro wrestling. and I always saw myself doing it, you know, like me and my brothers would pretend pro- rustle and, you know, take some mattresses out in the yard and, you know, the video camera and, you know, I act like we were the pro-wrestlers. And I always, you know, going through classes as a little kid, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Oh, I wouldn't be a pro wrestler. It was like my dream. And I, you know, I visioned myself doing it. And then, of course, in the 90s when the UFC came out, I totally find. I'll love with that. I'd be daydreaming about that. I just love martial arts. And more than anything was that martial arts fanatic and knew like from UFC 1, but like you got to know everything. You got to know everything. And I had been, you know, wrestling, you know, since I was 10 and I joined the Taekwondo school at 12. So I did those through high school and was actually like, for that era,

was pretty well-rounded, you know, getting in street fights, I had good ground and good striking, looking back on it. Yeah. You know, and that, unfortunately, there's no boxing in northwest Indiana, Monster Indiana, so it wasn't until I moved to Chicago after Purdue that I started going to the, you know, inner city boxing gyms and learning the art of boxing, which, you know, it's just another martial art. And, you know, I fell in love with that and had the, I, you go through these, phases, oh, jiu-jitsu is the shit. It's all about jujitsu and, you know, eat sleep and ship jujitsu. And then you get, you discover the boxing and start doing amateur bouts and smokers and the golden gloves tournament. You win it. Oh, you just love boxing and you record in the ESPN

classic and just learning the sweet science of boxing. And that has this beauty of MMA. It's like, you know, you go on the football field and, you know, what's your vertical job? How fast could you run the 40? A lot of shit's dependent on that. And I was, you know, never really athletic. I was pretty slow and no vertical jump. But like the mixed martial art was the one thing where it was so much more mental. It was more about technique and finding holes in people's games where you didn't need that athletic ability.

And then that time, too, the jiu-jitsu is this big secret. And like, no one really knew it. And there weren't too many jiu-jitsu schools around. So, you know, getting to be a part of a good jujitzy school like the Carlson Gracie school in Chicago from, you know, early on, it just felt like a nice advantage, you know, like I knew stuff. Other people didn't. You could beat guys who were more athletic than you. Like wrestling in high school, I couldn't even qualify for state for my senior year. I wasn't like that good.

And I was a really late bloomer. I was a bean pole. I wrestled at 170 on weight gainers, you know? Like I never thought I'd track 200 pounds. And, you know, in my eighth fight, I fought Brad Lind, who in high school in Illinois, which is usually a tougher school, one state twice, state champion. Here we are in MMA. And I'm able to beat them relatively easy just because of my more well-rounded game.

And like the beauty of MMA is like, you could do whatever you want pretty much. Yeah. There's they call box in the sweet science. But my goodness, you know, you put all the martial arts in the MMA, and it is the sweetest science. It's like chemistry, molecular biology. And that's why I fell in love with. And wrestling as a little kid, I was always like the tall, lanky, late bloomer kid, wrestling the shorter guys who are muscular who'd be in on my legs.

And more than anything, I just wanted to name in the face. And my first match, Brian Ebersoll, 2001, Ironheart, Brown, finally tries to try to. to take me down. I sprawl, cross-face them, and just drill them with a couple knees. And it felt so good. And I eventually... Because you can't do that in Rustling. Yes, I finally got to do that. Oh, I've been wanting to do that for so long. And I choked them out in the next round and it was a four-man tournament. And I go back and the other side of my bracket, one of the guys pulled out. So you had a buy. So they're going to be like, all right, we're going to do the finals next. So, you know, there's a buy in the other side of the bracket so you're going to fight again. I'm like,

oh my God, I just finished fighting. And I went to stand up and those two knees I gave them were right on that cheer drop muscle in my quad. And oh my God, it hurts so bad. I went to take a step and I couldn't. It was like, how am I going to go in there and fight? But once the bow rang and a couple punches started whizzing by my head, that adrenaline set in. Right. And yeah, I was able to pull it off. After you made a name for yourself in UFC, were there opportunities for you to get into pro wrestling at that time? No, I never explored it, really. Did anyone ever reach out to you?

No. That's interesting. Because there were a lot of people from UFC that were going to WWE or Impact or... Back into 05? Well, I mean, Brock Lesnar would be obviously the first one that would... He was kind of the other way around. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I was just getting my, like, UFC career started. And, like, pro wrestling was the farthest thing from my mind. you know um well ken shamrock i guess would be the i had to get sick of mma and fighting and then long retire yeah yeah long like oh my god like you know life's all about uh making making those childhood fantasies come to life you know all those things pictured myself doing as a little kid like you know hitting a badass pose after beating someone's ass and a crowded around you know, like I dream to do in that as a kid. Yeah.

Do you have a favorite photo of you from your time in UFC? Favorite photo, boy. There's always like that great epic iconic photo of every fighter that encapsulates like an amazing moment. I mean, yeah, it's shitty pixelation, but it's on my computer. It was after Second Christoph, right after I stopped him, I got up and looked at the camera. Yeah. Just gave a badass pose.

Yeah. And that's something as a little kid I imagined doing. Yeah. And just seeing it come to life. I heard someone say that's what miracles are. Miracles are when you see your imagination come to life. I love that. It's a beautiful quote.

Yeah. Started using that my stand-up routine. Yeah. That doesn't sound that funny. Well, no, that's just the start. And then you go into like, for example, you know, I love Bruce Lee, right? Like, I wanted to be Bruce Lee. I watched End of the Dragon at least 100 times and thought I was Bruce Lee.

You should see me on the numchucks. I'm amazing. I posted a video on my IG doing it. You could still view my IG. I just can't get in it. We'll figure that out. So I was Bruce Lee. Like, this is it.

Like, fucking, you know, had the black kung fu pants and the sash and a little kung fu. shoes and run around the house with Nunchucks thinking I was Bruce Lee. And then I'm fighting Machita in 2003 in Manus, Brazil. So we fly into Rio. I train there for a few days and fly to Manus, long flight, like six hour flight. We land. I think I'm going to a hotel. No, we go to a boating dot. They're like, yeah, get on the boat. I'm like, what's this? And like, see, you know, a couple hours thick in the Amazon River. And we come up on this ecotourism resort that's built in the middle of the Amazon River. And it was just like, holy shit, man.

Wow. Going to a remote island for a martial arts fighting competition. Like, are you kidding me? You are, Bruce Lee. Like, this is it. This is Enter the Dragon, man. Like, wow, this is a miracle. This is my imagination coming to life.

And then, you know, Machita, he's half Japanese, He's a half Brazilian in the fights going on. And he's got this like open hand style. And he's really elusive. And like I would been boxing for a while. I'm not telegraph in anything. I fire off some punches. He slips my right hand,

cracks me with the counter punch, slips my left hand, gets out of the way. My nose is bleeding. And I'm like, holy shit, this guy's pretty good. And like we start going at it again.

I was able to time one of his kicks. I caught him with a right, a left, a couple good knees. and like I'm like you know really excited like oh I got him some danger and we both fire punches and I just feel the warm blood coming down next you know the referee's lifting up his head and then it just hits me in my head I'm like oh my god I am in answer the dragon but he's grusely I'm stupid john fucking roper bleeding all over my white pasty hairy chest just like roper in the movie

It's a good vet. So that's the imagination coming to life in the stand-up routine. There you go. But I have a bunch of those. So that's part of my

app is I go through a couple examples. I think with the Ultimate Fighter, a lot of people want to immediately talk to you about the Forrest Griffin fight, but I want to take it back before that. What was the audition like and the casting like for the Ultimate Fighter? It was something I heard about, well, last minute in terms of like sending a tape.

And I was at my jiu-jitsu school and guys were talking about it. And just the week before, I went to the contender tryouts at the Windy City Boxing. Frank Stallone was running him. And I went in there with a guy who was all juiced up on Roids, but didn't know how to box. So I beat the shit out of them. And that was like the audition. And like, I was excited. I'm like, I'm going to probably make the show.

I look great in there. And, you know, in Jiu-Jitsu, they're talking about it. And they're like, hey, Bonnie, you think about going out for that show? Ultimate, the one the UFC's having, the ultimate fighter. I'm like, no, no, I tried out for it. You're a mistake. And that's a boxing show called the contenders, Stallone Sugar Rare. No, no, the UFC's doing one.

No way. So go home that night and go to UFC. That's before they even own UFC.com. And that's before I couldn't have done it there at school. It's before phones were that good. Yeah. Yeah. Just look it up there.

And sure enough, they're having a show audition tapes due Friday. And they just won your fights on a tape with, and then a little interview, just like you, a little bio, a little you just telling a two-minute spiel about yourself. So that's what I put together and sent in. And, you know, I looked, it was like Tuesday, tapes were due Friday, so I had overnight it. And this is a VHS tape. VHS, baby. Yep. And that's how I got the original call.

You know, I had a good record. My only loss was to cut to Michita. I think it was like 7-1. And, yeah, I got the call that they're going to have us out for castings week. And that was my first time out to Vegas. They locked us in the palace station for a week. I weren't allowed to leave. You know, I was just looking out the windows every night at all the fun that was going on.

And they took you for, like, all your medicals and the drug test and did a background check. and then, you know, did some on-camera interviews with you. And from there, they had like 40 guys out. And from there, they narrowed it down to the 16 that you saw on the show. Wow. So that was pretty much the whole process of getting on. And then me and Bobby Southworth, we went to do medicals together. And right before that, I still have the poster and the Iron Heart Crown.

I was champion. I was supposed to fight Bobby defend my title. And we had a fight scheduled. while we were on the ultimate fighter. So here we are on the ultimate fighter, getting the medicals done and like not knowing, I'm like, oh, you're Bobby Southworth?

Yeah, we're supposed to fight. Well, fight might not happen if we're on this show. I'm like, well, if we're on the show, the fight might happen. Sure enough. We both got chosen for the show and we had a tough fight at first fight of mine

and I won a close one. And really what I attribute the win to getting a bad staff infection. If I wouldn't have got that staff infection, I wouldn't have won that fight. How does that work? There was an impotigo outbreak.

If you notice, I'm not in the episode at all where everyone got taken out for a night on the town and got drunk and the drama happened between Leibin and Bobby Southworth and Koshchek. I was nowhere to be found that episode. And another episode, too, barely in it. That's because there was a staff outbreak.

and I ended up getting the worst of it. I had an impetigo pretty good. And, you know, they gave me a couple, like, high-powered antibiotic shots and gave me, like, a Z-pack. And they went and locked me up in the Hacienda Hotel over by the Hoover Dam for a couple days. But, like, Randy Coach Gour had overtrained us so bad. Like, I wasn't able to sleep. I was shaking.

I was dog shit. I was so weak. Like, he killed us. Like the amount of volume that guy could handle training is just nothing short of amazing. All of us, a lot of the guys were really beat up and over trained. And, yeah, had I, like, you just had to fight Bobby and continue training those next couple days with the team. Yeah. Like, there's no way I would have been able to pull it off.

So that gave you the rest that you needed. That staff infection gave me a couple days, let my body recover. And I remember coming back and getting under the bench with, like, 135. and it felt like a feather. And I was like, yes. And they're like, oh, my God, Bonner, you won't believe what happened. Oh, gosh, Koshchek and Bobby with Leibon and sprayed him with the hose after we went out and all shot hell broke loose and Leibon smashed up the house.

You have to fight Bobby. You have to break up him and Koshchek. Those two together are the biggest assholes. And it was true, like, either the. those guys on their own. I got along with no problem. But when they were just together, they had this like obnoxious aura that just came out of them that made it hard to deal with. And like, we got to break those two up. We got to get Bobby out of the house. And, um, and I'm like, well, it's not really my fight to fight. But like, I had a, we had a poster made. I was supposed to fight the dude anyway. So he's,

I just looked at him like, he's my guy. Like God wants me to fight him. Yeah. So here we go. Let's do it. So I chose him to fight and, you know, the rest it's history. Did you know when you got on the show that Forrest Griffin was someone to watch out for? No, I didn't know who he was or anything, but yeah, after when you see him training, did you go, oh, wow.

After a couple days, see, Chuck picked Bobby first, so everyone thought Bobby was the most talented. Even Forrest, you kind of, you know, Bobby kind of coached him in a way, like big brother to him. That's kind of Bobby's attitude. So Forrest kind of

didn't realize he was probably better than Bobby, I think. That's how I kind of viewed it. So everyone, he was like the team captain and the first pick. And, you know, it's just the first few days. So, you know, you really don't know yet. So he was really the guy to beat. But I knew, like, just from the first few days, me and for us, we're going at it a little bit. We even got headbutts and I got a cut. So I knew, like, he was no joke, you know? And I knew for his first fight ever, he fought Dan Severn. which I thought, working hilarious, you know?

I'm like, wow, how ballsy? Your first fight ever? Like, wow, a heavyweight? Like, you know, that's impressive. I don't know. Did he win that fight? No, I, like, lost a decision, you know, but, you know, Severn just took him down

and, you know, pretty much. Oh, he outsized him, right? Yeah. It's won with his wrestling. Didn't hurt him or anything. Or it's just played guard. Man. At any point during that epic match with Forrest Griffin,

Did you think that you were going to win that match? Yeah, in the second round, when I almost had him out of there. Like, I really, I remember it so clearly, like, we're in the clinch, and I just and I broke his nose, I landed some good shots, and from the clinch, I just drilled him with the perfect knee, and then a short right hand, and he slumped back towards the cage. And, oh, my God, that was it. I got a little adrenaline best is like, the, burst like, this is it. You got to put them away. You got to knock them out. And I lunged in and

like to do a jumping right hand that just missed. And he was able to tie my arms up. And I remember when I wiggled and got my arms free, I went to punch him again. And it just hit me like, I had nothing left. Like nothing. I couldn't even lift my arms up. I was so dead dog tired. And then from there, I was just running on fumes. So, you know, put it on I thought was coin toss. And looking back on it, though, you know, a lot of people come up to me and try to be nice and say, oh, I thought you won that fight. I thought you won that fight. But the reality of it, the way I look at it is like the right person won that night. That was like the perfect storybook ending. If you remember, you know, when Forrest loses a decision or, you know, he doesn't do too well

with defeat, you know. He's known to run out the octagon crying. Or when he beat Tito the last time, he ran out the octagon throwing a temper tantrum and they had to pull him back in to tell him he won the split decision. So, yeah, had I won that night, like, it might not have been the nice, feel-good storybook ending that we had. And I think that was really important because it was all about putting the sport over and getting the sport to be accepted. And it was. And the ending was perfect. Beautiful. And I wouldn't change it. And so many things happened during the course of that show and that fight that made the UFC blow up from there. You know, it's a spike TV. Reality TV was a big thing at the time. You have this absolute barn burner of a fight that could have gone either way

throughout the fight. And then you guys both end up getting a contract. It's like all these boxes end up getting ticked. Yeah. That's like Dana Wyatt says, you know, like the heavens and stars and everything aligns just perfectly. And it was, what was delivered was exactly what we needed. You know, they were hanging by a thread. And like right after that, they went back and signed for three more seasons. We just totally cemented it. But like in my head, like I was really confident to it was going to be huge success. And I was really confident the fight was going to be a barn burner. Like that was my strategy to make it a barn burner.

And it was. So, UFC sold for as much as it did. I mean, kind of off the back of a fight like that, which led to a bunch of other fights, which led to where it is now. I like what Frank Mears says. He describes it as the BCAD line of MMA, you know, to get out of the Stone Age. and just propelled it for it.

Seriously. It's a legitimate sport. And yeah. See, before that fight, it wasn't really socially acceptable to be a fan. You know, it wasn't something you wanted your boss to know, or, you know, your wife's parents, like that you were really into that stuff. And after that fight, people became proud to be fans. Do you think we're encroaching on that now with what's going on in boxing?

Because there's a lot of people who didn't really care about, boxing until about a year ago and Jake Paul and Logan Paul have made it interesting. That's actually a really good point. Yeah. That's a hell of a point. I didn't think of it like that. Just what they're doing overall for boxing.

Yeah, it's just bringing a lot of eyeballs that normally wouldn't tune into it to it. It's going to turn people into a lot of straight up boxing fans, not just Jake Paul fans. Or just people, I think people are watching Jake Paul's because they don't like Jake Paul. Like he's the ultimate heel.

Yeah. Really people hate him? Like he's got... Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, that just comes with it. Like, you know, but he's got a ton of fans. I'm sure. He does for sure. From YouTube days and all that. And the podcast. Yeah. And the old school fans. So, yeah, but when you get that big, you know, it's just a bunch of people are going to hate you. When you got millions of people judging you, you know, you're going to get hundreds of thousands of haters. Do you think it would be more difficult for you if you were breaking into UFC now with the way it's structured? Yeah, definitely.

Guys have really evolved. The athlete has. And it's like, yeah, I think it would just be harder overall. Probably a lot more money in it now. Like, did you see this crypto.com deal? I'm sure you did. No, with UFC. $175 million.

Sponsorship? Sponsorship for all the fight gear. So for all the walkout stuff, $175 million. Wow, didn't they just go from Reebok to Venom and they're already done with Venom? It's Crypto.com and Venom. So it's Venom closed with Crypto.com on it. And you know, living here in Vegas, you see Crypto.com like everywhere. It's on the side of, it's going to be the name of the Staples Center.

Probably by the time this episode comes out. In L.A.? Yeah. They've renamed the Staple. It's now called the Crypto.com Arena. You're out of here. Yeah. A lot. That's a crazy thing.

But all this is to say there's a lot of money if you were 20 years old and looking to get an MMA. Yeah, that's true. There is, but most of the guys in the UFC aren't getting paid too well. It's just the guys at the top. You know, you fight for the title and that's really what changes everything. You know, usually you get that title fight and you get a boost in pay. if you win the title, forget about it. You know, there's some big paydays right there for that fight and then that fight after.

Even if you lose it like Forrest, those two fights got him, you know, kind of his retirement right there. So comparatively, all those guys that, you know, grind their way up and never really get, you know, up in title contention. Yeah. Yeah, they're not doing too well. It's not like something they could retire on. It's not like other pro sports, not even close, you know. It sounds like it maybe would possibly be changing in the future that maybe there's some sort of a bargaining agreement or something possibly one day. Yeah, or a union.

A union, yeah. Like, yeah, this is the exact same thing that happened to the, you know, baseball and football players before they started unions. You know, they got shitty paydays and the owners took advantage of them. Yeah. You know, just the way it is. I know in most pro sports, between the owners and fighters, it's about 50-50, but the UFC, I know a while back it was like 90-10 or even, you know, a little more than that. So, yeah, that gives you an idea.

But, you know, that's the evolution of the sport. Yeah. I, you know, I equate my career and like back to, you know, when you see the NBA games of the guys wearing the little short shorts. Like, yeah, that's kind of how I feel about my division of MMA. You were one progression past that, I think. I think when you watch Hoist Gracie and fighting in a geese still, I think it's like, that's the BC time. Yeah, that's true.

That's true. But, yeah, I even seen the, when I first started fighting the little fight shorts, I fought in the little speedos, like not speedos, but the little, you know, the tight shorts. shorts like GSP wears. A bicycle shorts. Yeah, everyone wore those. I couldn't even get board shorts.

I, you know, and I sold them. And then, you know, you get the UFC in 04, and it was all the board shorts. And the team shorts were board shorts. And in my whole career, it was board shorts. And I hang it up. And it's like that style, the tight ones is coming back around. And then I go into pro wrestling. And I'm like, man, well, it's back in style.

So I'm going to put the tight ones back on. What was the goal when you went into pro wrestling? wrestling because you went right into impact wrestling at least publicly like that's what people saw yeah was it to go in there and win a championship or was it to just go have some fun it was just to have a new weekend hobby you know like uh i i i just needed to get that adrenaline high and go out there break a sweat and entertain you know i love entertaining uh the fans so like the pro wrestling was it was just like freedom it was um it was um it was um me being able to travel and do something fun that wasn't so serious. And, you know, it's like traveling

for free, even make a little money. You know, I did all right. And merch too. So I'll never forget walking by your merch table. And you had a pre-signed photos, pre-signed by Forrest Griffin. And then you signed the other part. I'm like, that is brilliant. Oh, yes. Those are my best sellers. Of course they are. Take a stack to Forrest with a $100 bill and have them go to work. Everybody listening right now is like, damn, I can buy one of those. Yeah. Yes. Oh, yeah. Stephen Bonner's merch table.

We'll stack at home. So, yeah, the merch, that was always fun for me. In the UFC, I had a company that did their T-shirts, their event t-shirts when they, you know, travel around the country or the world. So that was always fun for me. So it was a chance for me to kind of scratch that adrenaline, itch, go out there and entertain. And it gave me a reason to go to the gym and lift weights, you know. And it was like a nice weekend hobby to have. I've really felt like free doing it, you know, like a sense of freedom.

Who would you train with when you're out there? I went here to FSW to just really just learn the ropes. Is that where Dilo is? Yeah. Yeah. It's the only school here now. I think. I don't know if that, I know Jake the Snake's school closed.

I don't know. There may be another one. But that is. Yeah. The Las Vegas. I don't want to piss anyone off. but FSW, Future Stars of Wrestling was pretty much the main school. When I started, when I wanted to go learn how to do the pro wrestling,

well, just like learn the basics, learn how to take bumps. And that's what you do. You go in there and learn the basics and how to take bumps, but you really learn pro wrestling by doing it, you know, by going out there and doing it and seeing what works and knowing how to engage the crowd and knowing how to put together a good match. And that's all I wanted.

I kind of wanted to learn the art of pro. wrestling, have that sense of freedom. And I felt like I got to that point, like that match with Nick Aldous where it was like just a nice, safe, entertaining, you know, 20-minute match that went smoothly and like, ah, you know, like I could die happy. Because that was the thing I had the problem with. It was, at first it was really easy doing five-minute matches, you know, really easy to remember. But I had the biggest problem with like remembering the match.

and also how to engage the crowd and how to play the crowd and how to slow down a little bit. So that's kind of what I wanted to. Just go in there, new weekend hobby and like, you know, approach it as a martial art. Yeah. And learning the art of pro wrestling. And you never officially retire from pro wrestling, but after, you know, you've a broken vertebrae. Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely on a little hiatus from it. And that was the thing like, you know, I got severely injured here. And, you know, when you think about it, it's kind of God's way of telling me to find a new weekend hobby.

That's the way I'm looking at it. But is it also find a new job? Like, what are you doing these days? Well, I bankrupt my wife's company, Glitter Sparkle Studio. Check that out. GlitterSparkl Studio.com. It's like a crafting website. If you have a daughter or anything like that, check it out.

You make like crafts, earrings, bows, and the bulk of the business is selling dyes. And those are the things you put the fabric over that cuts out the pattern of the bow. So that's the business, a crafting business that specializes in selling dyes for bows, for like, you know, girls' birthday parties and, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So my wife's really brilliant. And, you know, she was a producer at five.

back in the day and then moved here and worked for MGM, but then quit and, you know, was kind of chilling for a while, had my son and all that. And it was like a shame letting that brilliance go away. So like finally she came to me. She's like, I got an idea. And know I could start a business. Give me 10 grand. And it was I was so happy to give her the money to start the business because I knew how smart she was and knew she'd be successful at it. And she was. It's been going for a couple years now and doing really well. So I do that.

I have my Ameritrade account. I have my Coinbase account. I take gigs color commentating. Part owner of Haiteva. It's search, learn, and source cannabis for pickup or delivery. We have the largest video strain review library. which I've written most of those reviews actually. So, but I need a new weekend hobby.

The pro wrestling, I need to give my body a break. Could it be signing autographs with Forrest Griffin? Could that not be a weekend hobby? You probably already do that so much. No, I got it. I got it. Like, I've probably done stand-up comedy at least a dozen times now. And I'm done it enough times to know that something's there.

Yeah. Like in my last, last time I went up and did a set. It was a tough crowd. There were a lot of comics there. And I seen other really experienced comics do pretty bad. And I went up and had a great set. So after getting off the stage, I was like, there's something there, you know? And then, but of course, I had a bunch of pro wrestling gigs lined up and other things going on.

So, you know, I didn't, you know, really go after it. because my life was pretty fulfilled. And I wasn't too hungry for anything. My weekends were scheduled up with pro wrestling. So, you know, that set I was talking about was back in the summer in like July. So, yeah, early September is when I went to the hospital. And, you know, I've had a lot of time to think about it then. And like I said earlier, it's kind of God's way of telling me to find a new weekend

hobby and why not like it's comedy and per capita like Vegas has more comedy clubs than probably any other city you know even chicago's the like number three biggest city and there's just a couple of them and you hear like tv market were like 37 in terms of city size but you look at the opportunities for comedy and not just the comedy clubs but other places that do comedy and have the open mics and how many a lot of bars have them and a lot of comedians here too There's like really not a better city to learn the art of stand-up comedy than Las Vegas. So really when I'm doing my yoga in the morning, that's the only thing that really has a desire to like what I like to learn and develop like skills in.

It's that. So I've been studying it more looking at comics and writing down material. And the hardest thing is getting started. And really like coming on this show and just saying this. right now. It's try the biggest step. It's comparable to before I first started fighting when I signed up for the Iron Heart Crown in 2001, that's when it became real.

That's when it became real. I'm someone who sticks to my word. Just by coming out here and letting this out right now, it's like I am, I have to follow through now. I love this. You've made yourself accountable to this. Stefan Bonner, the stand-up comedian. So, I mean, yeah.

Has any... Have any comics here in Las Vegas kind of taking you under their wing or giving you some pointers? Because there's a lot here. Yeah, Adam Hunter got me started. He let me go up on his shows a couple times at the LA Comedy Club

and then at the Dirty at 1230 at the South Point. And then I hosted at Sophia's Strip Club a comedy night. And those were my first couple gigs. I hope you kept your clothes on for that. Just the ladies did. I did. I did.

So I've done it. enough times that I had like, you know, bad sets and learn from them and like, like my first time ever doing comedy was the Sophia's strip club and the dirty at 1230. And just from the first the second set, I made a ton of improvement. Sure. By, you know, just took him what worked in the first set and sticking to that, trimming the stuff that didn't. And the second set was way better than the first. And then, since then,

I've done some open mics. I want to open my contests with a good number of comics on it. So I know there's something there. And it's something that, you know, I could just, like I did with martial arts.

Like, you know, just want to learn. Yeah. Like the art of stand-up. Yeah. So you're saying right now you're like a white belt in comedy.

Yeah. Right now. You've certainly got the white belt mentality. I'm a white belt mentality. I'm a white. white belt with probably some stripes, you know? Okay. Like a decent white belt.

Yeah. Like I was in Jiu-Jitsu. But one of the best, some of the best advice I got on doing the comedy was from one of my students when I still had my gym and was teaching. He was a comic back east, you know? And he goes, I'm like, oh, I got a gig coming up. My first comedy gig. Give me some pointers, you know? He's like, well, the best thing I could give you is.

you're going to suck for a few years. You got to go through your ropes. You got to suck. You got to have your bad sets. You got to learn the, you know, learn the craft, son. Learn the craft. Log in your hours, 10,000 hours to get that black belt. So that's a good thing.

Like I feel like in the little experience I've had, I've gotten like the super shitty, like those first couple times that were really shitty. So I've gotten that out of my system. So now when I have a shitty set, it'll be more because I'm working on news material. And hopefully it's just less shitty than your shittiest set. Yeah. The shitty level just decreases by an ass wipe or two.

I'm happy. But what a progression. UFC fighter, UFC Hall of Famer, pro wrestler. Now you're a stand-up comedian. Wow. That's scary when you say it like that. That's where you're at. So, time to start hanging out at the comedy clubs.

That's it. Yeah, I started watching that show I'm dying up here. Yeah. You seen it? Yeah. So, yeah, that makes you want to do some comedy. Yeah. Watch just being around it, right?

Like every comedian I've interviewed or any of my friends that are comedians, they're just like, you have to be around it. And you have to get on stage. They're like, it's one thing to be sitting in the stage or sitting in the audience, but you've got to get up. So it sounds like that's what you do. Yeah, that's the plan. That is the plan.

We're putting it out of the world now. Yeah. Yeah, of course. I said, you know, time to start hanging out at comedy clubs. But yes, with the implication that I'm going to go grab the mic and tell some jokes. So, yeah, new weekend hobby, man. How about it? On the show, making it official.

There it is. Probably won't break your back doing that. start off with just find a good mic one a week once a week that's really like when I commit to doing something once a week that that's magical even like you know when you're first learning the new martial arts if I did least do it two days a week like I'd get better so that means you're going to do 52 sets next year step new year's resolution 52 sets next year damn I love it I've loved having you come by. You are a great storyteller, so I can't wait to see how your comedy is going to evolve from here. Well, yeah, that's the thing. Comedy. When I think about it, oh, my God, I'm going up and telling jokes and doing comedy, it's way harder than when I say, oh, I'm just going to tell some of my funny stories. Can you just reach out to Brendan Schaub, are you guys friends? You could just open for him. Right? Yeah, seriously. That'd be a good... Look at the transition he's made.

Yeah. Like, he's... Brendan Schaub. He's really, like, talk about... about going right to the top. Like that kind of scares me. Like his progression was so fast. He has a lot of the right friends. Yeah, he got groomed and he got like his own special right away and like headlighting right away. I want to do like I don't want a headline right away.

I just want to do like 15 minutes sets and help open for people. But just kind of go around the country. Well, learn the ropes here. But just once I, how about this? for my New Year's resolution. I do the 52 sets in Vegas next year, right? And then 2023 tour the country. Bam.

And yeah, just go around open for people and go to, yeah, I mean, fuck, man, see the world, see the world again through the eyes of a comedian. I've seen it through the eyes of a pro wrestler, through the eyes of a mixed martial artists, and also working for the UFC all that time. But now, you have rediscovered the world. you know through the eyes of a comedian love about keeping you young i love it i end every conversation

with the same question so like i'm all i'm all about gratitude i love being able to wake up every day and talk about the things i'm grateful for i list three things every morning what are three things in your life that you're grateful for ah uh gratitude gratitude um i'm thankful uh just to be in a country where you're free. I'm seeing this tyranny go around all over the world, man. Australia is scaring me. And yeah, we have our problems here. But, man, I'm so thankful to be in a country where you could kind of speak your mind

and be yourself. And you just have that kind of freedom that, man, I always thought Australia and Canada, we're pretty free, man. But just stuff that's been going on there, it's tyrannical. And I feel for those guys. And, you know, I stayed and talked about myself a lot, but I really didn't talk about political stuff, you know, about the, you know, COVID and all that and the vaccine and yada, yada.

And I think it's important that, you know, we do, that we address those things, honestly. So don't give the vaccine. to kids, man. That's just evil. All right. I just wanted to get that out. Okay, two more things I'm thankful for. Oh, my car. I love my car. BMW 328. I'm thankful for just my son, my family, right? Yeah. Your son named after Forrest Griffin. Well, named after a moment in history now. Yeah. Don't get there. It wasn't Forrest. No. It's the Bonner Griffin fight. It's true.

Griffin Bonner fight. Yeah. Your name should go first, right? What do you think? Well, his name's Griffin Bonner. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I see where you did. Stefan, thank you so much for coming by. Well, thanks for having me, Chris. It was good. It was good to kind of to get out again, man. I was on my death time for a while. You're not dying anymore.

You're living. I was worried I was going to croak, but I'm alive and well. And, you know, time to reinvent myself. Turn over a new leaf, the new American Psycho. Stefan Bonner, UFC Hall of Fame, or the Game Changer, the face rearranger. Thanks for tuning in. Well, there we go. Thank you so much for being with us inside the Blue Wire Studios at the Win Las Vegas.

And just thank you for being on this ride with us. Want a shout-on on the show? Just leave a review on Apple Podcasts. I read one out on every single episode. Also, big shout out to crypto.com for sponsoring this episode. Click that link in the show notes to get started with a $25 bonus on your metal card and 30 days of zero fees on credit and debit buys. Check them out.

Crypto.com slash app slash CVV. Let us know that you were listening to this episode. Take a screenshot. Tag us. It's just our name. Stefan is at Stefan Bonner. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. You can also find me on TikTok.

if that's more your speed, Chris dot Vamfleet on TikTok. And I'll leave you with the words of John Wooden, who said, don't give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight.

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