Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 454 - Blake "The Beast" McKernan

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

Blake “The Beast” McKernan is a professional boxer with a pro-record of 13-1 (6 being by way of knockout). He is a fighter straight out of Sacramento, CA just in the backyard of the STrongest Gym in the West. McKernan was not a very popular or heavily promoted fighter until he got a call to step in on short notice and fill in on the co-main event of Tyson vs. Jones. Subscribe to the NEW Power Project Newsletter: https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: https://drinklmnt.com/powerproject Purchase 3 boxes and receive one free, plus free shipping! No code required! ➢Freeze Sleeve: https://freezesleeve.com/ Use Code "POWER25" for 25% off plus FREE Shipping on all domestic orders! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Sling Shot: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mark Bell's Power Project podcast. Today's episode of the podcast is brought to you by Piedmontese Beef. Dude, okay, Piedmontese is awesome because I've been seeing a lot of people comment of like how, I want fat in my steak. I need more fat in my steak. I don't like these lean steaks. Those people sound funny. They sound funny, but that's the thing. When you go on Piedmontese's website and you look at the macros on a lot of their steaks, they have a lot of steaks that are low on fat, right? Which is if you're trying to get leaner if you're trying to cut you can get these steaks that are amazing they're tender um and they're low on fat so you're not intaking hella calories but then they also have steaks that have a good amount of fat nothing insane that's gonna just

make you fat just a good amount of fat um so if you're not dieting it's easier like andrew yourself didn't you you just use lower fat steaks uh or cuts of steak when you were dieting? Yeah. So like, um, instead of like taking something out of my diet, all I did was went from like a ribeye to like a Bovet steak. So just, I have some notes down here just that way. I'm not like totally BS and you guys, but like a ribeye has 10 grams of fat and 24 grams of protein per serving. A Bavette has four grams of fat and 25 grams of protein. And of course, you guys know that I absolutely love the flat iron steak. Sorry, let me change the camera. Do that again.

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That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E.com. At checkout, enter promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off your order. Again, check out the higher, fatter cuts of beef. Check out the leaner cuts. Or you can do what we do, which is get the Power Project Deluxe Bundle. Again, that's Piedmontese.com. P-I-E-d-m-o-n-t-e-s-e.com at checkout enter promo code power project for 25 off your order and if your order is 99 more you get free two-day shipping uh we gotta go we got a boxer on the on the show here today the beast hell yeah beast what i need to know right

away uh and you know it's great having you here in sacramento got our own got our own rocky story in our own backyard here um it's great to have you on the show today did you or did you not get a chance to meet snoop dog i did not oh fuck man all right well that concludes today's show thank you guys so much for tuning in you know what sucks man is being that sucks well being at the fight we weren't even allowed to watch each other's fights. Oh, shit. Everybody had their own private dressing room. You were in there with the California State Athletic Commission official.

Nobody was allowed to interact with each other, go in other people's rooms, nothing. So it was very different. You know what I mean? There was a lot of people I wanted to take the opportunity to get a chance to meet. You know, there was a bunch of rappers there, too. There was, you know, YG. There was French Montana. I forget who else.

Then there was Snoop, you know, who was also commentating, which was funny. Yeah. Yeah. He was great. Yeah. Yeah. There was I didn't get to really talk to or meet hardly anybody because right before the fight in my room after the fight, they escort you out as fast as possible

it was it was very weird how long you've been boxing for uh off and on so i was 10 years i mean 10 years old so 33 now so for about 23 years and you probably never had a light shined on you quite like that before right the mike tyson fight no that was the very first time you know I'd fought on TV about 4 or 5 times fought on ESPN but with no live crowd right you know that was very different in itself too man fighting without spectators when you're a

pro athlete you feed off the energy of the crowd so yeah that was very different too I think everything going on in 2020 if it hadn't taught us anything, it's taught, taught us how to pivot and how to adapt. And, uh, I don't know. I mean, it's still kind of hard to pivot and adapt to certain things like that.

You know, was there any extra nerves associated with it? Like, man, I'm on a card with Mike Tyson. I mean, you get the call to, to be on the card in the first place. Uh, like what, what ran through your head when the opportunity started coming your way? So when I first got the opportunity, I was very excited. I was very happy. It was a dream come true, lifetime opportunity that people would have killed for. But it easily got faded out just because I started focusing and thinking about everything I had to do to get prepared for that type of event.

And then on fight night, there was just so many things that transitioned and happened. You know, the couple of last weeks leading up to the fight that really had my mind kind of in a different place. You know, I didn't have a cut, man. That's how I ended up getting a hematoma over my left eye. It was just a whole, you know, scheme of things that kind of really threw me off. At the end of the day, you know, I'll give it to Badu, who was the better man that fight or that night. I definitely feel that I should have won that fight.

You know, I should have just orchestrated, you know, the game plan that we had. But I wasn't I was hesitating. I was thinking too much. You know, as the commentators kept saying, was acting very composed which i was and um a lot of times when you get trapped in your own head sometimes it's hard to get out and uh you know i was just overthinking too much instead of letting my hands go and i definitely feel and think that if i would have been a little bit more busier we definitely would have had a different outcome of that fight were you overthinking something because you got hit with something early on or something like that because i always

wonder that i did a really small amount of boxing so i don't know what it's like to trade punches with another professional boxer but i would imagine that sometimes they like get the better of you and you're like man i got kind of stung from that i should sit back and i should maybe change my game plan up a little bit was there anything like that that happened or absolutely not you know and i'm man enough to admit if i got cracked by somebody i'd be man enough to admit it that I should sit back and I should maybe change my game plan up a little bit. Was there anything like that that happened? Absolutely not. You know, and I'm man enough to admit if I got cracked by somebody, I'd be man enough to admit it. As a lot of people saw, you know, on the fight,

I'm a very determined and strong person physically and mentally, and there's not a lot of things that can hurt me in life. And, you know, I can't even think of right now whether it's been training, sparring, or a fight that I've ever been hit by a punch that's hurt me. You know, after feeling Badu's power, he didn't really have power to me. A lot of it was me just kind of stuck in my own head and not letting my punches go. And just really overthinking combinations or strategizing too much to a certain point to where it held me back from letting my hands go when you're fighting because i'm i'm curious fighters talk about that

like they don't think at all when they're fighting or like there's they try not to have much going on through their head right is that usually how you are or do you usually when you're fighting are usually thinking of what you're going to do next well you know if you guys have you know follow the boxing game at all this is a game of chestnut checkers you know what i mean so this was my very first fight that strategically throughout our training camp in the fight i really had to tell myself and to teach myself with my coaches that you can't fight every opponent the same you know what i mean you just You just can't. People adapt to your style. They'll know your weaknesses.

So we had to kind of strategize a new game plan. That's why I had a lot of footwork this fight. Had the wheels on, man. And we were doing a lot of movement. And the only thing I did wrong was I didn't punch as much as I should have. But, yeah, as you move up in this game, you have to strategize to a certain extent to where there are certain things about you

that you will always do the same. But most importantly, you have to change up your style that you choose to fight people. Because if you don't, a lot of times people will be able to dictate your moves and know how to beat you. This fight was your first loss. What is that doing to you right now?

Being completely honest, you know, it's hurting a little bit. It's stinging. You know, it's definitely hurting the ego a little bit just because for the standpoint, man, like I have a winning mindset. You know what I mean? I don't get into anything in life to lose. And I don't think anybody does. You know, nobody's going to get into any type of career field or opportunity and be like, I can't wait to fail.

You know what I mean? Who the hell does that? I can't wait to get knocked out in front of a bunch of people, right? You know, I'm a man of God, a man of positive affirmations. I always speak my greatness into existence. And I'm just, you know, very motivational, always trying to motivate other people, including myself. And, you know, having this technically a loss on my record, it's a loss and a blemish on my record, but it's not going to, you know, deter me or stop me. It's a loss,

but it was a win. You know, this was an opportunity that even though it didn't really go our way that we had expected, we didn't get the outcome that we were expecting. Now the whole world knows who I am. You know, I'm definitely making a name for myself whoever would have thought a poor kid at 10 years old with no opportunity would be able to have an opportunity like this it was a dream come true man and um you know i'm still now seeing all the fight footage and going back and watching it and now it's finally hitting me when i'm in the fight and getting ready for the fight. It's complete tunnel vision. It's like I don't really get to enjoy none of it.

And then I go back. Here it is a week and a half later, and I'm watching the fight footage and my walkout footage. And I'm like, damn, that shit was dope. But at the end of the day, man, we never lose. We learn. You know what I mean? Everything that happens in life is God's plan. You know, this wasn't

my idea of how i expected things to go um but you know at no means is this going to deter me or stop me from the ultimate goal i will be a world champion my time is coming this is just a big learning lesson right now what did you learn from the fight then things are doing things not to do, you know, with leading up to the fight and things during the fight. Um, most importantly, it was just the, the greatest way to kind of explain what a lot of fighters are pro athletes go through,

especially fighters, because it's just us two in the ring is almost like stage fright, right? A lot of people hate public speaking. You give somebody a speaking, you know, performance, they got to get on stage to speak. They're sweating bullets, man. They don't know what they're doing, right? Boxing is very similar.

You have to be able to be comfortable and withheld the pressure. And for me, being on that big of a scale, i think i wouldn't say that the pressure broke me but it was definitely something on my mind with everything else that i was going through leading up to the fight and again it just had me in a position to where i was really overthinking too many situations um and at the end of the day you just got to be comfortable man think of yourself like you're right back in the gym nothing's different you said you didn't have a cut man did you did you not have any like team with you at all so leading up to this fight you know the uh the rules for boxing is every corner is allowed three three cornermen

uh i believe for a world title fight which i haven't had yet I'm pretty sure you're allowed four. So for this fight and for every fighter, they were only allowing two people. So, you know, there's a lot of stuff to be done from the time that the bell rings by the time you walk back to your corner and they blow the whistle for you to get up for the next round. You technically got about 50 seconds. It's a lot of work to get instruction water cool down breathe get your heart rate down and swell vaseline on it's a lot for two people so long story short you know unfortunately uh the cut man that i've known since i was 10 years old he's been with me pretty much throughout my whole journey since i was a kid he's been involved in boxing for over 40 years richard on net uh he's

he's my cut man. And unfortunately, the week before the fight, his appendix was about to rupture. He had to get rushed to the hospital and get his appendix taken out. So, you know, because he had just come out of surgery, as much as he wanted to be there, he couldn't for health reasons. You know, so I had to get my buddy, Timmy Brooks, you know, ex-former professional fighter as well, very high IQ, but I don't know, man. It was just a big transition of not knowing or really having a game plan of how everybody works in the corner together because that was our first fight.

I would definitely say that the energy was off a little bit. But with that said, I can't put the blame on anybody but myself. I'm the one in the ring fighting. We had a strategic game plan. My defense, the movement, everything was great. The only thing that I did wrong was I didn't let my hands go enough. Did you have a full fight camp-like time's worth to get ready for this fight? Oh, yeah.

So we were supposed to fight, I think it was September 10th or 12th. Then the fight got pushed back to, when did we fight? Shit, I don't even remember. It was just a week and a half ago. What was the date? I think like the 25th or something or 28th. 28th. I think November 28th.

It was right after Thanksgiving. So it's crazy, right? Hey, don't blame me. i can hit my face for a living but uh we don't have an excuse so yeah it was actually a really long training camp you know the training camp went from additional six and a half weeks when i first initially got the offer for the first fight september i think it was 12th then during training camp about three weeks in that got pushed back for marketing purposes to November 28th so I had about four four and a half month training camp you know it was a very long training camp usually a training camp's eight to ten weeks and I'm always training but I was

pushing my body so hard for those four months I don know. I started to feel like during the middle and towards the end of training camp, I started, my body started to break down a little bit. So I had, you know, weeks in the gym with my coaches where we kind of had to taper back a little bit because my body was just breaking down. But yeah, to answer your question, I definitely had a full training camp. And you had normal sparring and things like that were pretty normal. Well, yeah.

The last month leading up to sparring or for the fight, it was hard to get sparring because of this whole stupid COVID thing. I couldn't show one positive test. And we started having guys that wanted to come and spar, but they were sick. We didn't know. I don't really believe in the COVID thing. think it's all hyped up man it's all blown out of proportion but because of the fight we had to be very smart and like hey if you guys are sick please don't come to the gym at all one i couldn't plan or risk getting sick secondly i couldn't risk showing a positive test or i would have lost the opportunity. So the last month leading up to the fight, I was only sparring once or twice a week because everybody was sick. You know, everybody between here, Stockton, the Bay Area that would have assisted us that had a similar style to Badu because that close to the fight, you don't to just spar anybody you want to spar guys that right-handed fighters they fight like your opponent everybody

was sick man so it was that that was another thing that sucked you know going through 2020 in this whole covid situation did you ever have any uh lulls in training at like the beginning of 2020 when the whole covid did start like what happened with your training at that point? Cause I'd assume like maybe you couldn't train as much to them. Right. So, you know, fortunate enough for me,

you know, I have a lot of connections and a lot of friends that own gyms and facilities and people that do kind of contribute and assist me as much as they can. So I was training, you know, at private gyms all the way leading up to that fight. What was crazy was around August, around August, I was supposed to fight a couple times with top rank on ESPN out in Vegas.

Fights ended up not coming through. We didn't get the contracts. And I was training myself like as if I was preparing to get ready for a fight, just always ready ready for that opportunity opportunities kept on kind of slipping away so the end of August I put out a post on social media like hey you guys you know I'm not quitting or walking away from the sport indefinitely but I'm going to take a little break and I my plan was just to take a break for about two two and a half months and to spend the summer with my son. You know, we were going to go out of town every single weekend and just spend time.

Your son Tyson, right? My son's name is Tyson, yep. And then after like a week and a half, two weeks into that, dude, I get the biggest phone call of my life. You know, to be on the Tyson card, I said, well, that didn't last long. I got no break. So I was off for a week and a half, two weeks,

and then got straight back in the training camp. Wow. Got right back to it. Straight back, man. It was actually funny. So when I, that two weeks that I was taking off, I was still working out once a day, but I wasn't doing three day workouts. So I was taking a break, like I'd mentioned, and I was actually working with my buddy for his company just to make some money on the side. And I was actually working with my buddy for his company just to make some money on the side. And I remember we just pulled back up into Sacramento. We were in his van coming back from the Bay Area after doing a job. And I got the phone call.

You know, I told him and he looked at me, my buddy Tron. He's like, dude, there's no fucking way that that just happened. And I'm like, dude, they're sending the contract over tonight. So, you know, it's just amazing, man. I always tell people that everybody crosses paths at certain pivotal points in life for a divine purpose. You know, I'm fortunate enough that I've really had the opportunity of meeting some phenomenal people in my life and my career and along my journey. And, you know, he doesn't want me to give him praise or to mention his name for certain reasons, but there's a certain guy that I crossed paths with early on in my career, very well-connected, and just always establishing

and keeping a good relationship and rapport with this guy. He started off just as a fan, and then he became a good friend. He's ultimately the whole reason I got this opportunity. They were sitting at the round table. Hey, man, who can we find to fight Badu? My boy threw my name out. They called me that exact moment. So, you know, not just to my boy, but to everybody that's ever really supported or contributed to my journey in my career.

I'm just extremely grateful. What's up with all these YouTubers, man? All these YouTubers getting in the fight game. You like it or don't like it? I don't extremely grateful. What's up with all these YouTubers, man? All these YouTubers getting in the fight game. You like it or don't like it? I don't like it. And I feel like it's a big discredit and a slap in the face and very disrespectful. And I don't have anything against YouTubers. You know, I'm one of those people, man, I want to see everybody exceed and do extremely well

in whatever they, you know, want to do, whatever they're pursuing. But what's frustrating to me is you get guys that have a big following and fan base on YouTube, their channel, whatever it is that they're promoting or talking about, don't have really hardly any boxing experience, and then you get these guys that want to transition and be like, oh, I can come into boxing as an amateur and get paid hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, which guys like me aren't even getting paid that. And we've been dedicating our entire lives to this crap, building our name.

And it's like I respect it on the business side. Like, okay, these dudes is breaking bread. I commend them for that because on that business aspect of it who wouldn't do that but again I feel like some of these promoters that do allow that to happen it's a big kind of

slap in the face and discredit to guys like myself that have dedicated their entire lives to this still trying to make a name for themselves still trying to you know get those big paydays. Because, fuck, dude, let's face it. At the end of the day, whatever industry you're in, it's all about getting the most money that you can

and getting the fuck out. You know what I mean? Retiring early. But, you know, being a pro athlete and being a fighter especially, short lifespan. You know, I probably got a good five years of fighting left if I take good care of my body physically and mentally so we'll see what happens but yeah i'm not a big fan of the

youtubers coming into the boxing scene at least not on a pro level i think uh maybe a few years ago a couple guys started to kind of jump in on it and it was like you know youtuber versus youtuber and it was they they would get some boxing training obviously right but it didn't seem like it was anything all that serious and when you saw them fight it kind of showed but now it seems like there's a few guys out there that they look like they're getting professionally trained and it looked like they're taking it pretty serious so you you might have a possible match with is it uh logan paul is that right no j. No, Jake Paul. And look, guys, I'm not even trying to give this dude any credit because it's a pro fight and an amateur. You know what I mean?

You could have hurt him. The only reason that I want to take this fight is this dude did a YouTube video talking shit about me and Badu. First off, look, people can say whatever they want to say about my performance. I did my thing. I should have been a little bit more active. How many people you know at my ranking or at my stage in my career are going to take a big leap and a big jump to jump in the ring with the two-division world champion Olympian? Not a lot of people, let alone a lot of people won't even step in the ring to fight anybody. Let alone a lot of people won't even step in the ring to fight anybody.

So for him to try to, you know, say whatever he was saying to try to discredit myself or Badu. Badu, he was ranked, what, 10th in the world? You know what I mean? This dude was nobody to take lightly. And I went the distance with him. You know what I mean? So Jake Paul, doing what he does on YouTube, decided to put my name in his mouth. I'm like, bro, that's the wrong thing to do. Me fighting you is not even a competition.

But like what we were just talking about, I'll be more than happy to fight you to break some bread and get some money. That's not a good idea for a YouTuber to try to take on an actual boxer. I mean, Mark, do you know that Floyd is about to fight Logan? Yeah, so Floyd Mayweather is going to fight Logan Paul. Publicity stunt, you know, but I get it from a marketing and business standpoint for Floyd. He's going to go and make probably over $100 million for a few minutes of fighting. Hey, man, you got to respect the guy. Listen, a lot of people say whatever they want about Floyd Mayweather.

That guy is one of the most strategic fighters and one of the smartest businessmen in the sport of boxing ever. The guy, I think, just a year or so ago, they rated that he had made over a billion dollars fighting. Nobody has ever done that before that I know of. You know, Floyd Mayweather has an incredible team behind him. And not just that, but the guy, regardless of how people want to judge his style of fighting now compared to how we fought early on in his career,

the guy's a very technical and smart fighter and as well as smart business. You've got to appreciate that he took that fight with Conor McGregor, you know, like that whole thing. And from Conor McGregor's standpoint, that was amazing. He fought one of the greatest fighters of all time. Unbelievable. But we all knew that was a big moneymaker.

Anybody that knows the sport of boxing, I had already known that Floyd was going to take McGregor to the deep rounds and drown him. It was exactly what he did. He waited for him to tire out, throw those big shots, and it was, what, the 10th round, I believe he took him out? Yeah. Just by TKO.

But, you know, Getting back to it, I'm definitely hoping that we can get the contract to fight Jake. I would love the opportunity. He doesn't deserve to be in the ring with somebody like myself. He's fought other YouTube stars. I take my hat off to

the legend himself, Nate Robinson. The guy's a phenomenal athlete. Somebody like Jake Paul getting into the fight, a skilled professional like myself, I think it's just going to be very decisive of which way the fight would go. Boxing is really interesting. I mean, you watch it, and it just kind of looks like two people are punching at each other. But when you actually try it,

um, you know, learn how to throw some punches isn't too hard, but like learning the correct footwork and then learning how to, uh, you know, throw a punch and then be able to move out of the way of another punch and so on.

But what you see them do on TV where they get in close on each other and they're just relaxed and they're leaning on each other, that shit only like a professional can do like that stuff's really hard. You watch it and you're like, what are these guys doing? Are they gassed? How come they're dogging it out there? The fans get restless. They're like, what are they doing?

They're getting frustrated. But I don't think people understand the amount of commitment it takes and how long you have to train to be that comfortable, to be that close to your opponent who's trying to knock your ass out. Absolutely. A lot of people will sit there and watch a fight, whether it's mixed martial arts, kickboxing, boxing, whatever. Oh, I would have done this.

My personal opinion, I think and feel that combative sports are one of the hardest sports in the world because you're not just pushing your mind and your body, but you're using muscles and parts of your body that you've never used before in your entire life. You're like, holy shit, why is this sore? I haven't even really done much. But with that said, you know, a lot of spectators, people will watch a fight and be like, oh, I would do this, I would do that. Yeah, it's easier said than done.

Like, why don't you go and train hours on end like somebody like myself does, four to six hours a day for all the weeks and months leading up to a fight. And it's like it's easy to criticize a fighter, but it's a lot harder to do what they do. Most people don't even have the balls to do what we do. We're in modern day gladiators, warriors, bro. And now, you know, now we got to deal with the people trolling or always having an opinion. And it's like, hey, freedom of speech, feel the way that you feel. But with that said,

give it a shot and come and do what I can. I guarantee you 99.9% of people can't, you know what I mean? And you know, a lot of times, like a lot of people even talk about other pro athletes, they get overpaid. We're, we're entertainers, you know what I mean? And we're sacrificing our minds and bodies to entertain the world. Hell yeah, we should get paid for it, you know? And fighting, we're definitely not getting paid what people think we are. To get money like Floyd Mayweather, this guy has built his entire life and his entire career around this reputation to be able to build it up to make the type of money he's making. Majority of fighters never make that type of money.

You know, this was a decent payday for me, but until I'm making seven figures, man, I don't really have much to brag about. You know what I mean? That's where the money's at. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it, man. I love having this opportunity to pursue my dreams. I'm living a dream right now. But, you know, a lot of people will always have an opinion no matter how good you do or how bad you do. Yeah. How do you handle some of the

internet trolls? Cause I, your Instagram, you're very active. Yeah. Yeah. And then on top of that, the second you do, it's like, Oh, you're a fighter. Like how could you, you know, possibly, you know, clap back at, you know, this, this kid or whatever, but you know, it's know clap back at you know this this kid or whatever but you know it's like how do you like yeah how do you try like hey how the hell do you handle all that honestly it's funny to me it's comical you know i've ever since my last fight which really kind of put me on the map you know i fought on tv a few times but nothing on this scale now everybody knows who i am so it's like i got all different people come from all over the country, all over the world,

just saying the dumbest stuff. And I just, I don't even respond people in this little kids, you know what I mean? I'm like, you guys haven't even experienced life yet. And you're trying to give me insight or knowledge on how to, you know,

chase after my career, what I should have done. I don't even pay attention to it. A lot of the times, if I see it, I just delete it and move forward. You know what I mean? Block, delete, keep on moving forward. I don't even got time to pay attention to the dumb stuff. But, yeah, that has definitely been happening a lot since my last fight just a week and a half ago.

And I don't know, man, I just laugh at most of it. Has anything hurt? and I don't know, man, I just laugh at most of it. Has anything hurt? Has anything like that, you know, the commentator said or anything like after the fight that, you know, someone said where you're like, you know, that got you stirred up, got you pissed off or, you know, sad even, you know? No, you know, I've watched the fight three times now,

and, you know, the biggest thing that gets me, again, I don't get to really understand what's happening because I'm just tunnel vision and focus. I've watched my walkout entrance probably over 100 times. And me just knowing that that's me, but thinking it's like a spectator or a fan, I'm like, that shit is dope. Have you guys seen my walkout? That's cool, man. I don't remember it. I didn't get to see it.

I'll have to show you guys. I have the video. But my walkout was dope, man. I don't remember it. I didn't get to see it. I'll have to show you guys. I have the video. But my walkout was dope, man. And then going into the ring and re-watching the fight, commentator's job is to say things that you may not want to hear, but it's the reality of the situation. I don't feel that, you know, I'm not mad at any of the commentators for the things that they said.

You're also being entertaining, no absolutely i think because nobody has really heard of me before that fighter seen me fight they weren't um maybe familiar with my fighting style or how i fight you know in the early rounds they were saying oh why is the ref stopping this fight i was never hurt i never got hit by any shots, even though I took some shots, was blocking a lot from Badu. He never hit me with anything that hurt me. But the commentators all the way up through the third round were like, how much longer are the ref going to let him take this type of punishment?

I'm like, I was never even hurt. Then you go back and watch the fight from like the fourth round up. You see the commentators talking, and they really start. Sugar Ray Leonard, legend, Hall of Famer. Yeah. He starts giving me a lot of credit, which I appreciate. It was like, oh, man, this dude's showing mad heart. He's dancing.

This, what we're watching right here, is actually from my top rank fight when I fought on ESPN. This isn't it. I'll find it. But, yeah, man, I'm not mad about anything the commentator said. You know, I feel like towards the end of the fight, they really started to say what I think the whole country and the whole world started to see that.

Like I had mentioned earlier, I can't be hurt physically or mentally. Like, I cannot. I'm just a different breed in a sense. see that like i had mentioned earlier i i can't be hurt physically and mentally like i cannot i'm just i'm a different breed in a sense you know a lot of people they even said it during the fight like the type of toughness i was showing a lot of fighters don't even have anymore you know i grew up watching you know guys back in the 80s and 90s and you compare it to the boxing we have now guys were just built different back then if you go back and watch a lot of guys in the 80s and 90s, like their mindset, their bodies, everything was just different. Not saying that a lot of boxers aren't tough,

but a lot of boxers nowadays can't take that type of punishment. They're not sluggers. They want to dance around. You know what I mean? So, you know, again, I took everything that the commentator said and just respected it. Yeah. And at the end of the day, showed people and showed the world that, you know, I'm a very

tough kid and there's nothing that anybody's going to be able to do to get me out. Yeah. And then, sorry, during the fight, I think they barely brushed over it. But when you're shaking your head. Right. Can you explain what that, you know, it's like a tick, right? Like right can you explain uh what that you know it's like a tick right like can you explain what i do so i have a take from the military um as part of my you know ptsd when i came back from my deployment i just got some nerve damage in my

neck so we were seeing explosions a lot and id blasts bombs go off all the time and obviously every time something like that would happen you would blink and turn your head away. After doing that for a whole year, it became like a habit or a tick in a sense where I had some nerve damage in my neck. So when I get anxious or maybe uncomfortable or, you know, a little stiff, it makes it a little bit worse. Gotcha. But, yeah, I think that was something that was definitely catching a lot of people's attention because they were probably wondering, why the hell does this kid keep shaking his head? This dude tweaking out right now, what the hell's wrong with him?

No, because I just think like what you were saying, like the announcer team, they didn't know it, so they thought that you were hurt. Right. But I did know that, so I'm like, no. Then eventually at the end of the fight, they did mention something. Well, yeah, because I think if I remember correctly watching the fight, I didn't even know that people could hear this. But I think it was a six round. They were trying to stop the fight because they're like, do you keep you shaking your head?

Are you OK? I'm like, look, man, it's just PTSD. And I have a tick in my neck from the military. I promise you, I'm good. I'm straight. I never got hit by anything that hurt me. That was the whole reason I had to explain that to the doctor and to

the ref so that way they didn't stop the fight because they were kind of alarmed. At the end of the day, look, Badu Jackson, Mayweather fighter, he needed to beat me to save his career. He had been coming off of a three-fight losing streak. They were probably looking for any type of opportunity to try to give him a TKO to be able to put on his record.

I don't know, but there's a lot of politics involved in boxing, and I wasn't about to let him stop that fight. Where do you think this inner fight came from, this inner drive that come from your childhood? You mentioned growing up poor. You know, did you grow up with a rough childhood, or where do you think some of this came from this inner drive that come from your childhood? You mentioned growing up poor, you know, you grew up with a rough childhood or where do you think some of this came from? Just like every kid, we all look back when we're, when we're younger, right? Every kid has a dream of wanting to be a policeman, a firefighter, a pro athlete. You know, we've all been there for me as a little kid. I never knew what it felt like to have anything nice. I never knew what it felt like to have home cooked meals every night. I never knew what it felt like to have anything nice. I never knew what it felt like to have home-cooked meals every night. I never knew what it was like to even have brand new clothes.

That wasn't my reality. I grew up extremely poor. And even though, you know, my siblings may not like to admit it, it's true. And my entire life, just always growing up as a kid and being extremely poor and turning on the TV back then, it was MTV music videos and everything like that, right? BET. Every time I turned on the TV, man, I just always wanted a better life for myself. And I felt like if these people can do it, why can't I?

And I was thinking like that as a little kid. You know, I had my times where, you know, running the streets, I didn't always make the best decisions. Growing up, it was a big learning experience for me. Grow up here in Sacramento? Yeah, born and raised in Sacramento. And I think for me, I made probably a lot more mistakes throughout my life and my childhood than most people probably would have because I never had any parents around, really. So for me, I was going through life as a young kid, happened to take on the world and learn a lot of things all on my own.

You know, I have my older sister, Kelly, love her to death. Seem that, you know, we butt heads the most because we're so similar. But she is the oldest sibling that I have, my oldest sister. And, you know, she helped raise me in a lot of ways. But, yeah, just going back, man, like I always just wanted to have a better life for myself. And very first time seeing Mike Tyson fight was on a black box. I've said it a few times in interviews, but black box. If you guys don't remember back in like the 90s, it was a way to steal free premium channels.

So I've said it in the past like uh nothing brought my family together more to i won't say her name but my aunt's house that had a black box right that brought us together more than like thanksgiving and christmas it was like oh shit tyson's fighting we got to go to this was back in the 90s it was like the modern day fire stick we got now broken jail broken You was getting everything free. So, you know, 10 years old, very first time seeing Mike Tyson fight Holyfield. I just saw these guys, and I was instantly hooked at that point. 10 years old, I was already getting in fights and suspended all the time

because I never had nice clothes to wear to school. I was getting picked on all the time. I was always hungry at school. I didn't always eat the best meals when I was at home. So I always was, in a sense, having to defend myself at school. I was getting picked on all the time. I was always hungry at school. I didn't always eat the best meals when I was at home. So I always was in a sense, having to defend myself at school. But when I was 10 years old and the very first time I saw Mike Tyson, the Vander Holyfield fight, dude, I was instantly hooked in words I can't even explain. And I just knew at that moment, that was everything I wanted to do with my life. So, you know, you fast forward now, that was everything I wanted to do in my life.

So, you know, you fast forward now, my life has been like a movie, man. You know, I've served my country. I'm proud to say that. You know, that was something I always wanted to do as well. Two things I always wanted to do is be a pro athlete and to serve my country. And, you know, I think after this last fight, even though I'm far from being done

and the best is yet to come, I think you could definitely say that I've achieved my childhood dream without a doubt. What kind of opportunities has this opened up for you post fight? It's like like you said, you're now like your name. Your name is known in a lot of places now. Right. Right. So how soon do you think you might fight again? What does that look like for you?

Well, if we get this fight with Jack Paul or Jake Paul, I apologize. Exactly, though. I don't even know the guy's name he's irrelevant but uh if we get this fight if he sends over the contract february 20th i think is the date i'm all i took a week off i'm already back in the gym as of yesterday you know so i'm ready to go as soon as febru February but you know you never know what's going to happen nothing in this business is ever official until you sign on the dotted line and get that contract you know what I mean so you know I've learned early on in my career I used to get super excited for opportunities and then they would fall through and not happen and I would kind of be bummed out but I did it to myself now I've like learned, like, hey, man, it sounds great, and I hope it happens,

but until I sign the contract, it's not official. Got it. So to answer your question, I'll be ready to go as soon as February. You seem to have a very, like, even personality. Did boxing teach you that? Like, when you were younger, did you just get mad about stuff and fight people or like, cause it doesn't seem like you would be that way now unless somebody really did something crazy.

What do you mean about it? Even personality. It's just seemed like you are pretty mellow. It seemed like you're pretty like relaxed. I'm sure. Yeah. Again, if someone totally disrespected you or did something wild,

then you'd have to take care of business. But you don't see, you don't seem charged up in that way. Were you that way when you were young? Yeah, when I was younger, again, a lot of things that come through our growth is experiences, right? So, you know, growing up, not ever going through things the right way. I had to kind of teach and learn myself. So when I was younger, certain situations would happen or people do something to piss me off and I would get all fired up. I would be that kid. I'm an Aries, man. I'd be that guy.

I wear my emotions on my sleeve. After going through so many different life changing situations or little minor situations, as you mentioned, throughout life in my childhood, I had to train and teach myself like. At the end of the day, when you got that kid that just keeps on poking you, poking you, poking you and you get pissed off, you are now allowing them to win. They're showing that they defeated you. And at the end of the day, it's the game of chestnut checkers. Like if I'm going to get mad, I'm going to get mad inside my head.

I'm not going to let you know that you had the upper hand and pissed me off. So to answer your question, it's just throughout my life I had to really train and teach myself how to not get so overreactive about certain situations. Just channel everything. See everything, but don't always let people know what you're thinking. It was definitely something that took a lot of years of training. You know, I'm one of those people. I love to be the life of the party. I love to see people laugh.

I love to see people succeed as long as they're not in the ring with me. And I just love to see people be happy. You know, we're in a age right now and in life. So many people wake up every single day doing shit that they can't stand doing, right? People are going out here chasing a paycheck because it pays well, but they're unhappy. I never wanted that to be me. So like this demeanor that you guys are seeing is just me training myself over the years

just because I choose to be happy instead of miserable. me training myself over the years just because I choose to be happy instead of miserable. You know, and I heard a saying years ago from a mentor of mine. There's two things that we're always in control of in life. The way that we start our day and the way that we finish our day. All the bullshit that happens in between is completely out of our control. The only thing that we can dictate is how we choose to handle it. But at the end of the day, it's up to us to decide how do we want to start and finish our day? Do we want to start a day bitter? Do we want to end our day bitter? Or do we want to start our day

being motivational, inspirational, having positivity and going to bed the same way? I'm just one of those people. I don't like to go to bed with a lot of envy or a lot of hate on my mind. I'm not one of those people. I feel that everything in life is a learning lesson, whether it's a negative or a positive. You could turn everything into a positive that everything in life is either one of two things that teach you something about yourself or to teach you something about other people. And again, majority of what we go through in life is all about how we respond to it. So my response to most people is just to channel it in myself, laugh about it, and just turn

it into positivity, man. Yeah. And if you're boxing and you're fighting somebody and they get a good shot on you in the stomach, it's not a benefit to you. It's probably a hindrance if you show weakness that it hurt you know if you show that you got really stung by something someone's going to come after you a little bit harder so maybe even some of those lessons were maybe even learned in the ring and then in addition to that maybe boxing pulled some of the uh street fight out of you because you're like well it's it's also just not even fair at a certain point.

I mean, you can just jab somebody and walk away. They're half, they're half dead. Right. You know? Well, I think what it is,

man is, you know, I think boxing without a doubt, definitely saved my life. And, um, I don't know, man,

I just, I really love everything that I'm doing right now. The stage and the platform that I'm on right now, the best is yet to come. You know, I have't know, man. I really love everything that I'm doing right now, the stage and the platform that I'm on right now. The best is yet to come. I have a lot of great things ahead of me. We're just going to sit back and see what happens. Along with that, when you were in the military, did you take anything from the military that's helped you in the ring? Absolutely.

Being in the military reconfigured and strengthened my mind a lot. Going into the military, long story and strengthened my mind a lot going into the military long story short like i had mentioned i grew up without you know my parents really present you know my mom was asleep majority of my life she was addicted to pain medication so that was the biggest memory i have of my mom i was being asleep in bed my dad who was really around i saw him a few days a month. And right when I was 17, turning 18 years old, my dad got sentenced to a consecutive life sentence in prison. At that point, my mom had kicked me out of the house. I dropped out of high school, had a job. I was working at JCPenney's back then. They ended up allowing me to work full time before I was 18, helping me out. I got my first apartment when I was 17.

And after a couple of years went by, you know, when I was 20 years old, my dad had just gotten sentenced. I just felt like everything people had told me my entire life that I was always told because I was always fighting and getting suspended from school that I was never going to amount to be anything when I grew up. I was going to be dead or in prison by the time I was an adult. When I was 20 years old, I had no relationship with my parents whatsoever, even though I didn't really have one growing up.

I had just gotten hit by a drunk driver. I had lost my car. I was working a job at Safeway at that point, not really making the best of money. I was a high school dropout, and I was like, dude, everything that everybody has ever said about me is true right now. I'm not going to allow that to stick. So I made a decision. I ended up at the time getting a good job.

I was working at Albertson's Distribution Center in Roseville. I was making phenomenal money. But a part of me, growing up at a young age, when you're a survivalist, you're always thinking about feeding yourself and making sure that you're taken care of. And, you know, and running the streets or hanging out with people in the street life, it has an expiration date on it. You know, whether I was doing certain things to make money, it wasn't always the smartest thing. And I was just traveling, long story short, traveling down the wrong path. So joining the military really saved my life in a lot of ways. You know, I don't know where I would be right now if I never joined. I don't even know right now if

I would have been able to have the grasp of being able to reel myself back in to pursue boxing on the level that I am now. So joining the military, you know, they always talk about the seven army values. You had loyalty, dignity, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. And I feel that, you know, every single one of those has been embedded into me with the leadership qualities to be able to just go through and take the leadership of my own life. You know, so joining the military, it was a life-changing situation for me but on top of that man i'm glad i did it you know i spent two and a half years stateside i spent a year overseas in iraq how many people you know are going to put their life on the

line the way that i did to be able to protect our freedoms you know but yeah joining the military i'm glad i did it certain times i have flashbacks missing it and then I think of all the bullshit and the dumb shit that we did in the military. I'm like, yeah, definitely don't miss that. But yeah, a lot of who I am today, I have to give credit to the military for. A lot of it is just kind of strengthening my mind. How did it happen? How did you get in?

Like, was it a mentor or a recruiter? How did I get into the military? So if you guys remember back in the 90s man they had the dopest army commercials hey bro they had the sickest army commercials being army of one you know the army strong is something new being army of one all these green braids faces all painted camoed out coming through the forest like they're getting ready to kill some people on tv you have no idea what the hell's about to happen i was like oh shit i want to be just like those guys little kid but uh i had like i said a childhood dream mind two things was always join the military

something i always wanted to do even though you know a lot of people in my family were against it and to be a professional fighter i had no idea at that age when I was younger wanting these things, how my life was going to transition and play out. I had no idea. And everything happened the way that it did, and I'm glad that it did. I don't have no regrets on how my life happened because at the end of the day, I'm proud of who I've become. I'm proud of everything that I've accomplished.

And when it was actually that time came for me to join the military, I was doing some things, you know, running the streets that I shouldn't have been doing. And I woke up the next morning. I said, dude, if I do not change my life right now, I'm going to end up dead or in jail. And I'm like, I definitely don't want either one of those. So that same day I went to the Army recruiting office over here in Orangeville off of Fair

Oaks Boulevard, and it's not even there anymore. Went in and talked to a recruit. I said, hey, man, I need you to help save my life. And the recruiter laughed at me. Remember it. And I told him, I said, no, man, I really need you to help save my life. I don't know if I'm going to be dead or in prison and come next week. He was like, bro, you're for us.

And I'm absolutely. He said, well, what do you want to do? I said, I want't know if I'm going to be dead or in prison and come next week. He was like, bro, you're for us. And I'm absolutely. He said, well, what do you want to do? I said, I want to do the baddest job that you got. He's like, when do you want to leave? I said, today. Within two and a half weeks, I was gone. That same week, he took me. The Army paid for me to get my GED. I believe it was a three-day test. I had a different test

every day for three days. Passed. Two weeks later, I was off the base training. Wow. I find it fascinating about you that this is, like, so much as this is yourself, you know, going and doing this. I think a lot of kids would see a commercial and be like, that is so sick. And they might drive to the recruiter office, but they probably circle around it a couple of times and probably, you know, be like, oh, man, I'm just going to keep living my life the way I am. Did you maybe just feel like you just didn't have a choice anymore almost? I feel like growing up the way that I did, I always had to act on my own. I always, I really, even though I had siblings that obviously loved and cared about me and

family, like nobody was there to do things for me. My parents said, being a father, I always have my son's best interests at heart. I'm always, it's my job to make sure that my son is always taken care of from the day that he starts his day to the day that he lays his head down at night. And it's my job to make sure that I secure a future for him. My parents never did none of that for me. And it's like, it's okay. You know, in this life, there's two things we can't control or dictate who our parents are in the situations that we're brought into. All we can do is pivot and figure out a way to get out of them. And for me, growing up the way that I did, I never had no opportunity. I never had anybody there to be able to make decisions for me. I always had to do

everything myself. So when it came time to join the military, I did what everybody has the power to do, knowing that we're in control of our own lives, but a lot of people don't act on it or understand how much control of their life that they have. And at the end of the day, man, I've always been one of those people is like, what's the worst that can happen? You know? So I took my shot and I said, join the military and do what I've always wanted to do. Have no idea what's to be expected or the outcome or continue doing what I'm doing and know that it's not going to end me up anywhere. Nowhere good. So those were my two options at the point when I signed and I said, I'm going to take the military route. I have no idea what the fuck's about to happen.

Excuse my language, but let's go do it. Yeah. my language, but let's go do it. Yeah. So with, you know, with your upbringing, you kind of touched on it right now. Um, like that's gotta be a huge impact on how you're trying to raise your son. Right. And then on top of that, I believe you're a single parent right now. I am. So, you know, again, I've said it multiple times, you know, not having any parents present for me when I first became a parent, I don't know if you guys got kids, but no matter, I've always loved kids. I've always loved kids my entire life.

I became an uncle when I was like, what, 11 years old. My sister had her first child. I've just, I've been a guy that always loved children. As much as you love kids and how much you think you're prepared or ready to be a parent,

no matter how many articles or books you read, listen, there is no guide to being a good parent you i don't care how much knowledge you have when you get a kid you're like holy shit what am i doing right so do you guys have kids yeah i have i have two kids yeah okay as a kid he's got another one on the way yeah so you guys understand exactly where i'm coming from right you look at that newborn baby like what the fuck do I do with this thing? Holy shit, there's no instructions.

What's so crazy, man, is when my son was born, so I was married to his mother and we had gone in for a routine appointment. She had developed gestational diabetes during her pregnancy, so she was having very high heart rates, which increased the baby's heart rate. So the last two months, they were having us go in once to twice a week for doctor's appointments. We went in, it was about six and a half weeks early before the due date and our high heart rate was so high that they're like, Hey, we don't rush you in for immediate surgery and C-section right now. You and the baby are both going to die. So I'm like,

I went with her to an appointment. I didn't even know the sex and the baby are both gonna die so i'm like i went with her to an appointment i didn't even know the sex of the baby and they're like we got to get your boy i said oh shit i'm having a boy oh dude i was she made me go through the whole pregnancy without finding out so now in a matter of minutes like my life i'm tripping out i'm like holy shit i came here for a doctor's appointment now my son's about to be born. When my son was actually born, he was born in emergency C-section. And he was born six and a half weeks early and came out nine pounds. You know, a baby is the last eight weeks put on the most size. And we said if my son would have went full term, he would have been over 11 pounds.

Crazy, right? I feel sorry for any woman that has to push out a baby that big ladies i take my hat off to you but uh you know when my son was born you know my son actually almost died so when my son was pulled out uh everything was happening so fast they actually had a curtain up um right above uh my ex-wife my son's mother's breast where she couldn't see anything and i just was watching them do the c-section they're pulling out all of her organs above my ex-wife and my son's mother's breast where she couldn't see anything. And I just was watching them do the C-section. They're pulling out all of her organs and everything, just flapping us. They put that shit on the side.

No, they put them on top of her abdomen. After seeing a lot of the stuff I did in Iraq, that's one thing. But seeing it happen to somebody who I cared about at the moment, I was like, holy shit. So all this is happening. They pull my son out. That's one thing. But seeing it happen to somebody who I cared about at the moment, I was like, holy shit. So all this is happening. They pull my son out. And the doctor just comes over and grabs my hand and yanks me over here. He had the scissors on the umbilical cord.

He assisted me cut it. And then this dude runs out of the surgery room with my son like a football, like he's a running back. Oh, dude. So at the moment, I'm tripping tripping out i'm like what the hell is happening right now this kid that i've never even seen before i now love more than anything in the world this dude just bust through the door like he's running through defenders through the double doors i have no idea where he's going so i take off running after him bro i'm running after him cussing him out. And I hear the nurses behind me, sir, Mr. McKernan. Dude, I didn't care what they were saying. I was worried about, like, where the fuck is this dude going with my son?

So he ends up running into the NICU unit. And I'm asking him all these questions. And the nurses, you know, I'm freaking out at this moment. Getting really upset. A couple nurses end up grounding me. They're like, look, this is what happened. Your son swallowed some amniotic fluid. He's not breathing properly.

We've got to pump it out. We've got to keep him in the incubator. Let the doctor do his thing, and I promise you everything is going to be okay. So, you know, my son was in the NICU unit, I believe, for about eight and a half, nine hours. And I sat by his incubator in the NICU room with him every second until he got released. But to fast forward to what we were talking about, man, from that moment, I just knew that everything that I wanted as a kid and never got, I wanted to make sure to give to my son.

You know, like I was mentioned, we have no idea what the hell we're doing when we become parents. We just know that all of a sudden God gifted us with something amazing. Now we love this kid more than anything in the world. I, my honest opinion, please don't everybody get mad at me, but I feel like you don't really understand the true meaning of unconditional

love until you have children. No loving a woman is one thing, but when you have kids like you love this child in ways that you never even thought possible, you know, and I love my son so much, man, that even though I didn't have the greatest upbringing, I want to be able to give my son everything I didn't have. So to get back to the question, like, yeah, I raised my son all on my own. Unfortunately, his mom's not around.

But, you know, I'm not going to be a man of excuses and say something can't be done because I'm only hindering myself and my son. You know, I do whatever I have to, to make sure my son's taken care of and happy, but, um, you know, to really allow myself to be able to be the greatest asset and father to my son. I think for me, what I do a lot is I just think about everything I wanted as a child never got. And I always want to make sure to give those things to my son. And I know something like this may even sound funny, but like my parents rarely ever even told me they loved me. Like I rarely ever even talked to my parents. Every single morning, whether I'm out of town on business training

or home in my room and don't want to get out of bed, every single morning I yell for my son, Tyson, come here. I make sure every single day before i saw my dad i let my son know how much i love him and i just want him to know that without a a blemish or without a doubt that i'll always have his back and be there for him does he watch you fight he does so my son normally walks me out uh for every single fight and um you know needless to say he was a little bit out of shape and mad when he couldn't come with me this last fight. You know, he tries to act like he doesn't enjoy it.

Oh, that dude lights up like a Christmas tree, bro. How many kids you know, my son, he just turned 10, so he's been walking me out for, what, the last four and a half, five years? How many kids you know at six years old get to be in the spotlight with their dad and do something that most kids never even get a seat or be a part of? I've been having him walk me out to the ring ever since my pro debut. I include him in everything I do. Normally I bring him to interviews like this just so that he can kind of see me at work and be a part of what I'm doing because I like to share everything that I'm doing with my son to show.

Most importantly, what I want to show and what I'm teaching my son is that no matter how great or no matter how big your dreams are, you can literally achieve anything that you put your mind to. And a lot of the times people always want to stomp on your dreams because something wasn't capable for them. I always tell my son, I said, look, if you have a dream and a vision, if you work hard and most importantly, you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything that you want. So part of everything I do when it comes to interviews like this, TV interviews, fights, I like to include my son as much as possible so that he's with me in the gym almost every single day.

He sees my hard work and then he sees how things are transpiring doing the interviews and the fights. And I'm just raising him. He always says he wants to be a professional basketball player, and I tell him. I was always told when I wanted to be a pro fighter, people laughed and said, oh, no, that's not likely. You can't do that.

I'll never stomp on nobody's dreams, especially not my son. So he always tells me he wants to be a professional basketball player. All right, man, well, look, you see everything I do. The training starts now. Training ain't going to start years from now. You want to make it to the league? Hey, dog, the training starts now. You see everything I'm doing in the gym?

That's what you need to start doing at 10 years old. You want to make all this money? You want to live in a spotlight like what I'm doing now? This is what you need to start doing. I'm giving you the recipes for success right now. And I'm teaching them that at 10 years old. Now, aside from it, I'm teaching my son about investing. I'm teaching my son at 10 years old. My son already knows how debit cards and credit cards work. And I just think a lot of times, again, thinking back when I was a kid,

I think the school system is so outdated. And the reason I say that is a lot of times they're teaching us about things that aren't going to be fundamental as we get older. Who the hell shouldn't know about investing? You know what I mean? Like these are things that we need to teach our youth and the future leaders of our generation about. And people don't ever do that. So long story short, man, I'm rambling on, but I just always try to give my son recipes for success to teach him things now. That way when he gets to an age, he'll be far past his peers.

What gym specifically are you training out of in Sacramento? Because I think you have tattoos on your arms for Sacramento. We're very much Sacramento ourselves. So, like, when you're talking about... This is Sacramento proud, baby. Yeah, exactly. Born and raised. Like, when they introduced you on the trailer fight or the event,

I was just like, oh, shit, here we go. You know, it's our sack town. It's our boy. Yeah, like, I didn't even know you back then, but it's like, no, that's my boy because he's from Sacramento. Right. So, which gym, like, if you want to give them a shout out specifically, which one you're fighting out of?

So I have a few gyms that I train at. You know, unfortunately, you know, throughout my journey and along my path, you know, there's been certain people that I've trained with that I parted ways with or certain gyms that I used to train at that I'm no longer training at. But right now, you know, I have a gym that I train at out in Roseville, private gyms called S and B elite fitness. And then also have my boxing gym in Elk Grove that I train at, uh, that my buddy Marcus Reeves owns. It's called the UFC gym. It used to be called LA boxing. I believe LA boxing got bought out by UFC.

So it was a transition with the, the name, but, um, those are the two gyms that I train at right now outside of, you know, doing my running and stuff outside. But, you know, who knows what's going to happen right now, man, with all this COVID stuff and all this stuff going on, I think it just needs to be done and over with.

But, you know, I had times during when COVID happened, even my buddies didn't want to open up the gym to me as everybody was afraid of getting fined, you know, all the pressure that they were getting from the from the state um and i had times where i was going to the to the gym to work out we got some we got some bags over here you can come on over here but uh again man i just you know a big shout out to the guys my coaches that are training me now big shout out to everybody that you know has ever trained me in the past and helped contribute to my success man so you know we're just gonna wait and see what happens man but one thing i can tell you guys is i love this shit i love working out every single day i love getting punched i love doing the punching what's your lifting and your

nutrition look like so you lift pretty often lift weights pretty often i used so for a long time until this fight you know my my old conditioning coach who i just recently parted ways with mike johnson a playmakers elite oh no um oh you guys know who he is yeah mike's very well uh connected and known in the community you know he went to uh sac state he was a wide receiver there. His dad played as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys when they won the Super Bowl. So he was very well connected.

Unfortunately, we had parted ways during this training camp. But to answer your question, a lot of the time what I was doing is leading up through most of my fights, I was doing way too much weight training and not enough hit training, which transitions a lot better into what I'm doing way too much weight training and not enough HIIT training, which transitions a lot better into what I'm doing. But I just, for me, having PTSD and dealing with like a lot of the psychological warfare that I do every single day, I love pounding weights. It's like it's counseling and therapy for me. You guys know.

You guys are in it. You come in here. Bro, you take yourself away from the world. I don't give a damn who calls me. Oh, we love it. I'm in here pumping iron and it makes you feel good. You release these endorphins. And no matter what negativity you had coming into the gym, no matter how many days you guys know as well as I do, as much as I love working out, I have days I go to the gym.

I'm like, shit, I don't want to be here. 20, 30 minutes into the workout. Oh, dude, you're running around like a crackhead. I have days I go to the gym. I'm like, shit, I don't want to be here. 20, 30 minutes into the workout. Oh, dude, you're running around like a crackhead. You know what I mean? By the time you leave, you're like, I feel amazing. So I had to teach myself this training camp to get away from doing a lot of slower movements, like doing weight training, because it doesn't transition that well into what I'm doing. It makes you very slow and mechanical. So, you know, now just for the

last few weeks, I finally got myself into a training camp to where I'm lifting weights, super setting for about an hour, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, hitting the whole body. And then Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday doing HIIT training, and then on top of that doing my boxing at night. So that's something that I'm transitioning to now that I've noticed the last three weeks that I really like and I liked how my body performed during it. So that's something I'm going to keep doing here on out. But it took me, damn, I've been pro four and a half years. It took me four and a half years to finally figure that out in my career to figure out what works.

It's probably very time efficient in accordance to all the other training that you do. What about your nutrition? What's your nutrition like? So, you know, fortunately for me, like I've always eaten well, not as well as I should have. But because I have such a fast metabolism, I got my numbers ran like earlier this year. I have the metabolism of a 12 year old.

Dude, I eat so much food and it just, it gets burns off in a matter of hours. But you know, my, my nutrition right now is, um, leading up to this fight. Cause I had to cut so much weight for two and a half, three weeks. I was just eating eggs and egg whites. And then on a liquid diet with blended up protein, protein powder, fruits, vegetables, and peanut butter, trying to get healthy fats, carbs, and protein. And dude, I was miserable. But now, you know, what I usually like to eat,

I'm somebody that pretty much consumes the same stuff every single day. I don't really eat to enjoy my food too much, but a lot of it's just, you know, fish, chicken breast, turkey, fruits. I hate vegetables, so I always got to blend them up. You know, I definitely think my nutrition is something I definitely could work on. You know, and having a kinesiology background, that was what I went to college for after the military. You know so much, but a lot of times there's certain people like yourself that may have extra years in the industry that may know certain things that might work for my body.

Definitely, which I'm always willing to learn. So yeah, my nutrition, I definitely could get a little bit stricter on. Cool. Uh, where can people find you?

So if anybody wants to find me, I'm all over the internet and Facebook, uh, Blake McKernan, um, or they could follow me on IgE at Blake, the beast. Awesome, Blake McKernan, um, or they could follow me on IG at Blake the beast. Awesome, man.

I think, uh, we just kind of like heard from a philosophical boxer. I don't know if that's a, doesn't sound like it should exist, but it apparently does. Great to have you on the show. Amazing. Uh, you know, thanks for sharing your story with us and good luck to you. I hope you, uh, whoop somebody's ass coming up, whoever's in your way next. Uh, yeah, man, I appreciate the,, I appreciate the hospitality and you guys having me on. Even though we took Inela's last fight, it's not going to do anything to really blemish what we're doing.

We've got a lot more to do. Take us on out of here, Andrew. I will. Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. Apologies for everyone on the live stream. The internet did kind of take a dump on me. But anyways, if you're watching right now, I'm going to re-upload so that way you don't miss anything. Here's a shout-out to Pete Montes for sponsoring today's episode.

Check the links in the description of iTunes and YouTube, Facebook, everywhere. And also, check out the new newsletter that's coming out. Sign up for that. You guys can subscribe. Again, links down in the description. Please make sure you're following the podcast at Mark Bell's Power Project on Instagram, at MB Power Project on Twitter. You guys can hit me up on Twitter or Instagram

at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, where can people hit you up? At Seema Inyang on Instagram and YouTube. At Seema Inyang on Twitter. Mark? I'm at Mark Smelly Bell. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength.

Catch you all later.