Modern Wisdom - "They Wanted A Bad Guy, So I Became One" - Ryan Garcia - #1097

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Ryan Garcia is a professional boxer and a WBC interim lightweight champion. What’s it like being the bad boy of boxing? Most people know Ryan Garcia from the chaos of his social media — the outbursts, controversies, and viral moments. But behind the headlines is still an elite fighter operating at the very top of the sport. So who is Ryan Garcia away from the internet? What’s it like living under that level of pressure, fame, and scrutiny whilst trying to remain a world champion? Expect to learn how Ryan grew up and why he started boxing from a very young age, the most memorable moments of Ryan’s career, when Ryan figured out his life trajectory had gone too far the wrong way, if anger really helps you as a boxer, Ryan’s thoughts on Jake Paul, Conor Benn, McGregor and others, if Ryan has fears about future CTE issues and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/deals⁠⁠ Get 160+ lab tests for just $365 and save an extra $25 at https://functionhealth.com/modernwisdom Get a free bottle of D3K2, an AG1 Welcome Kit, and more when you first subscribe at https://ag1.info/modernwisdom Get 15% off your first order of my favourite Non-Alcoholic Brew at https://athleticbrewing.com/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular flavours with your first purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Timestamps: (0:00) Do Boxers Actually Think in the Ring? (0:48) Can Ryan Remember His Fights? (4:10) The Sacrifices You Have to Make to Be the Best (7:44) Why Ryan Started Boxing (10:47) The Biggest Lessons From Ryan’s Career (12:17) When Ryan Realised He Was Crashing Out (18:57) The Story Behind the Bohemian Grove Vision (21:53) What Really Happens at Bohemian Grove? (26:22) Does Anger Make You a Better Fighter? (30:23) Will Ryan Fight Conor Benn? (32:32) Is the Zuffa Deal Good For Boxing? (38:11) The Main Reason Fights Don’t Happen (40:24) How the Ali Act is Changing Boxing (41:20) Is Jake Paul a Legitimate Boxer? (47:39) Are Mayweather and Pacquiao Past It? (51:00) How Ryan Changed His Attitude Towards Money (55:34) Why It’s So Important to Have a Good Team Around You (01:00:41) Could Conor McGregor Make a Comeback? (01:05:37) Is Ryan Worried About the Long-Term Impacts of Boxing? (01:09:35) How Boxers Stay Ready for Anything Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/books⁠⁠ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: ⁠⁠https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom⁠⁠ Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠ #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠ #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠⁠ - Get In Touch: Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/contact⁠⁠ - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm fascinated by you saying that you don't think when you're in the ring. What's happening? I'm just picking up on cues, really. And then kind of like there's these instincts and intuition that are just kind of there. You know, like, oh, me, like you kind of get a feeling where, okay, I need to start putting pressure on this man. Or I need to, you know, move a little bit. It's just like kind of momentum shifts that you're kind of noticing a little by little. And then there's obviously times where I'm thinking.

Like sometimes I'll just have like mantras in my hand. like that I've done in camp, you know, stay focused. Like, my last fight the whole time when I was fighting him, I would just say, like, stay focus, stay focused, stay focused. You know, so it was just like little things that I would say in my mind, but I'm not really necessary thinking. Not thinking, but thinking. But, yeah, of course.

Does that mean when you look back on a fight, how much of it can you remember? The pivotal moments, like my last fight, I remember I started getting comfortable in like the 11th round, just messing with the guy, smacking them, looking at the trainer, and then lowering my hand a little bit, and then, you know, tasting the right hand.

And I was like, don't do that. And then kind of like stabping myself back in. So I remember those moments. I remember, you know, when I dropped them. But, I mean, for the most part, I have to, like, look back at the fight to really recall most of it. And that's strange.

It is weird. It's so strange. So I'm friends with musicians, comedians, sports people, and I do live stuff too, these conversations. Once you get into a flow state and you're not thinking that much and things are just happening,

that's what people want to get to. It's really enjoyable. It's where your performance is at its best. You're moving quickly. Your brain isn't getting in the way of what you're supposed to do. But it's also the thing that kind of robs you of your memory

because you're not thinking and you're just doing. Yeah, you can't remember it. It's so funny. I mean, obviously, your job is not to have a good time. Your job is to win. Yeah. And winning requires you to be in the best state possible.

But it is funny that the mental state that humans perform best in is also the one that they can remember the least. So I wonder how many people that are elite performers, comedians, artists, musicians, sports stars, look back on their career and they go, I'm glad that it was videoed, dude, because I kind of wasn't really there for it all that much. Yeah. I mean, it is interesting. But then also you have, like, guys like, I guess I don't know if it's, like, necessary

a sport, but, you know, chess, guys like Magnus Carlson and just, like, all those top chess players, they could memorize games from, you know, when they were, like, five, and you're like, oh, shit. Like, you know, where does that come from? That's a different kind of sport, maybe, I suppose. It is, it is. I mean, you have to use your brain there. Yeah. Yeah, but I wonder even if in that, you go, okay, you know what the movements were,

but can you tell me what you were thinking, how you were feeling, what you were, what you were wearing? Can you tell me where people were sat? Can you tell me what emotions were coming up? Maybe not. They're just optimized for one very specific thing, which is what are the exact movements on the chessboard? Right, right. It's funny. Yeah, it is funny. Yeah. All I know is I like to win. That's all I, you know, I mean, the joy comes after the fight, right? Well, you've got a job to do. You're a professional. Yeah. I think I like the idea of people treating their pursuits as a professional, even people that aren't doing it in that way.

But, you know, you're... I like the journey of understanding how much the levels there actually is to anything, right? Like, say construction or something that's their profession, but, like, there's levels to it. People that could construct, like, these huge buildings, people are constructing, you know, a little table.

But there's also levels to building a table. Some people make a better table than others. Why is that, you know, That's cool in itself. So I find that the fun part of my job is just like, damn, there's so much more. Even when you think, like, you know, I'm a world champion, but I know there's just even more levels to it. So I just love that part of it. I didn't know that you started at seven years old and got homeschooled so that you could spend more time boxing.

Around like 15, that's when 16 I got. Do you ever resent or regret missing out on a more normal? childhood, do teenage years, teenage experience stuff? Do I regret it? No, but I do think it would have helped me if I went through that, you know, stuff earlier in life, I wouldn't have got into some stupid shit later on, you know what I mean? Because I would already have experienced a little bit of it, you know? It's kind of like a, it helped me get to where I was at, but then I didn't have experience

with things that came with, you know, money, fame and all those other things. You want to make teenage mistakes when you're a teenager, not when you're in your 20s. Exactly, exactly 100%. That's part of where I'm like, ah, maybe that could help me a little bit. Strange the sacrifices that you've got to make in order to get to where you want to be. Yeah. Like that. Yeah.

I mean, everything in life, the greatest thing that came in this world came through a sacrifice, right? I mean, I believe in Jesus. So that to me shows that if you want anything in life, it has to require sacrifice in some way. I don't know for other people. obviously it's different, but for me it was my childhood. It was, um, it was many hours of training as a little kid, running, nonstop, you know, having to go to a bunch of tournaments and just kind of just, my whole life was just all boxing. What was a typical week like for you as a kid?

Uh, just my dad would, you know, have me train the whole week and then fight on the weekend. So that's a 200-something amateur fights. 225 amateur fights. Yeah, so there's a lot of road trips, a lot of a lot of gym sessions, and a lot of road work. Yeah, but to me it was fun. I loved it. Going to the tournaments and hanging out with all the kids, you know, to me that was like the moment I had a little bit of childhood and, you know, fun. It was just those tournaments.

Yeah, exactly. The community of the sport. So that was fun. But yeah, everything requires sacrifice. Everything. I think a lot of young guys did some sort of sport. I did. I was dedicated to cricket, which is the...

Nice. Some may say the elevated form of baseball. But yeah, it's kind of British pastime. And that was my entire life from the age of 10 until the age of 18. I would play sometimes five or six matches a week plus training plus school games and I'd get pulled out of school to then have to go and play and then the only reason I went to university is because I thought that I was going to be able

to play full time when I went there and that like dedication teaches you an awful lot but you do look back and go I wonder what I missed but if it set you up for the rest of life there's very few guys that I know that have ended up with a really great work ethic in later life that didn't have something that they dedicated themselves to as a kid, even if it was academia. Right. Some people just dedicated themselves to school. They wanted to become really good at this thing.

It seems like extremely hard, but I have seen so many people really dedicate themselves to school. And I'm like, dang, how'd you do that? That wasn't your vibe. Oh, no. I mean, I was into math for a little bit and, you know, that was probably the only thing I excelled in. But other than that, I was kind of like, that might think.

Your dad wanted to be boxer, right? My dad was a boxer for a little bit like an amateur fighter. It was my uncle that was kind of more, I guess, I guess, better. He went to the nationals. He was the only one in my family that went to the nationals at that time. And he lost, but he said, you know, somebody in our family is going to come back here. And, you know, he always, he always, oh, I guess it was what he told me. He said that, you know, he would always look for when a kid was born, like, all right, this is going to be the one.

And then he said, no, all the kids came. And, you know, he was like, nope, nope, nope. And then he said, when I was born, he was like, all right, that's the one. That's insane. I know. I know. It doesn't fucking sound real. But that's what he said.

Maybe he's just filling shit in my head so I could think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You were chosen. And prepare, like, you know, propelled me to be like, yeah, I was always that guy. I'm both. Yeah, exactly. But that's what he said. It's a good story.

Yeah. So does it ever feel like pressure to have, you know, the weight of a dad's maybe unfulfilled career and then an uncle's partly fulfilled career? All of this riding on your shoulders. Not only that, but all of the other kids that came and went, it's like, it's not you, it's not you, it's like the hunger games inside of a single family. Yeah, I mean, I still feel pressure, you know, but I think that's why partly I dedicated this last fight to my dad for the, like, you know, my first world title.

I really wanted just to win that for him. My whole reasoning for boxing just evolved over time. I was in love with the game, but then it kind of evolved to more a spiritual journey of where I feel I'm being guided to. And however that is, you know, a lot of it is because of boxing, you know what I mean? And I don't know what the reasoning is,

but I just like to follow that. So ever since I was little, I felt like little nudges here or there, you know what I mean? And I kind of trusted that and always wanted to understand what that is. And why every time I followed it, good things happen. You know what I mean? Even if I don't get it then. So that's kind of where I'm at of why I box.

That's actually the only reason why I box is just because it's always, that's what's in me right now. Maybe it'll take me somewhere else later. But right now it's like, it's where I'm at. There's something pulling you toward it. Yeah, yeah. So, but, you know, I'm happy I won the championship. Yeah. I'll take it.

Of course. Exactly. So, but yeah, I think this was my dad's, I mean, it's everything for my dad. He's so happy. He's excited. And my uncle's probably, you know, he's super thorough. So it's cool. It really is amazing to see how much joy that brings.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, for me, I just think, okay, just continue to stay focused, you know. Don't get too high and don't get too low. Just stay stoic and just keep your... You seem very regulated today. Regulated? Regulated, chill, you know, just in a nice bit of peace.

Yeah. I've seen you varying levels of energy. Oh, I've had that many times. Yeah, yeah. You don't want to get me started. But still like... But, you know, it's... Okay, man, I told you I had to learn a lot.

So what have you learned recently? Been a tumultuous few years for you. Right. I feel like what I've really learned is your body is... literally a temple and what you put in it is just as important as what you put out. You know what I mean? So just that journey of understanding how my body works and what can propel it to be at its best. Because usually, you know, when I was younger, man, I could put obviously anything in my body.

You made of rubber and magic. You can bounce back. Exactly. And I'm just like thinking I'm unstoppable. But God will humble you real quick. Like God or your liver or your brain. Yeah, it comes in many ways. So, yeah, I just didn't like that certain things were taking me so much, like, you know, off course that much.

And it took a while for me to be like, all right, you're not Superman. You just got to, you know, you are Superman when you put the right things in you, right? But you could go down just as quick. Yeah, well, everyone's got their kryptonite, right? Yeah, Superman. Yeah, exactly. You know, you put the wrong oil in the car. I don't care if you have a Ferrari, you know, it's not going to go.

You've said, I'm surprised I'm here right now in the past. Yeah. Was there a specific moment when you realized that you'd gone too far, or did it just creep up over time? I think that when you could no longer, you know, get a hold of yourself and see the decisions you're making that aren't good, and you can't see that anymore, I think that you probably go too far.

You know, there's times where I was moving so fast that, you know, it just didn't seem like anything I was doing was wrong, but it was. What's that mean? I just felt like, I just felt like, even though I'm not a prideful person, it was displaying as pride to myself, you know, not looking back, like, no, that means it was just being prideful.

You know what I mean? Like, it just didn't, it didn't hit me at the time but you know I lost track of of myself and who I really am and then that's when I knew I was like oh shit

this is not this is not good you know and that's why I was surprised like dang I'm still here you know what I mean like did you had one of the roughest runs of form like kid custody problem mom diagnosed with cancer divorce all basically

at the exact same time yeah yeah how does a person even process all that much at once? I didn't. I just kind of shoved it down with alcohol and just acting out, trying to self-destruct anyway. So I'm like, all right, everything's going bad.

Let's sink the whole shit. To make it worse. Yeah, let's just make it all worse, you know? And I just, you know, I had just knocked out a man and beat them so bad while self-destructing is that, all right, I could do whatever. I can do this. Yeah, I can do this.

that's where the humbling came. No, you can't, you know. And, yeah, that was a very rough stretch, and it's something I try not to look back too much because it's like, oh, damn. Not so proud of that. It's hard, no, I'm not. But, well, I think a crashout was coming sooner or later anyways, you know what I mean?

So I'm kind of glad it happened a little earlier. If Haney'd beat me that night, do you think the spiral would have been worse? actually might have just saved you earlier. I have no idea. Isn't that funny to think about it? I know, it's so weird because I should have lost. I know.

There's no way that could ever be replicated. And that's when these young boxes were trying to do that. I'm like, no, man, I'm sorry. It's a high risk strategy. It's not the right one. Don't do it. And to this day, I still don't know how I did it, to be honest. What do you remember of that period?

Like that fight build up and then that day? It's so weird because it's like when you're drinking all the time, the timelines become so. mashed up. Sometimes I think it's the other training cap I was in, like in Dallas. So it's so weird. But I remember, uh, I remember that I was fueled with so much anger. That's what it was. I was so angry at the world and at people and how they seen me as a fighter and how they see me as a person, how even when I wasn't sword on sort crashing out, they still judged me like hard. on everything I do, but other people, there's no judgment.

So it's like, dang, I feel like I'm getting targeted with the ruling stick. And then I just crashed out. And I was, all right, you guys want to see a piece of shit? I'll show you a real piece of shit. I'll drink, I'll smoke, and I'll, you know, talk so much shit. And I was just so angry. I was angry at the boxing community because they never gave me my credit. You know, I've been fighting since I was seven.

And I was looked at some just bummed. that's gonna just get his ass with by this guy. Even though I beat him three times in the amateurs, it's not like, you know, and I was a 15-time national champion. So I just felt really disrespected by people and just life. And I was like, all right, I'm gonna give them what they want. They want a bad dude?

I'll give you a bad dude. And like I said, I let them change me for a time. I let them break me and become a person that I'm not. And I was just fueling anger, and I wanted to hurt them bad. That's all I was thinking in my head. Like when I came with a shirt, murder on my mind, I was dead serious. I wanted to murder that man in the ring. But he also wanted to murder me.

He said it. He said it. He actually was the first one to say it. He was like, we're going to, we're going to. This is the death of Ryan Garcia. And then I just snapped. When he said that, I was like, oh, you want to go death? All right, let's go.

So, yeah, I just remember that time as I was feared with anger. And nothing was going to stop me. I didn't care. I got in fights with my trainer, my dad, everybody. I was just angry. Everyone's getting it. In sparring, like, they were screaming, and I was like, I don't care. Let's keep going.

Like, I was just fueled with anger at that moment. And anger and emotion, I would cry a lot, too. I was crying just so mad about what people were calling me crazy and things like that, you know? And then, you know, a lot of this stuff I was talking about. Okay, yes, a little bit was played into conspiracy and all that, but when it came to like the children and You know children sex trafficking I was dead serious about that like that was been on my mind since I seen a I mean I've always known about this stuff. It's kind of always floated around But then when it's like in your face and then now like now that everybody sees it it's kind of different

But back then it's like if it's a billion dollar industry like where's all the money coming from? You know what I mean? And it was kind of that thing that that I felt like they're within enough said and that there's so many other movements that people get behind. But like kids, like we can't all come together and be like, hey, should probably look into this. It really did upset me. And I was already angry, so all that together,

just kind of one big, you know, boom. And then, yeah. But I don't regret that part. You know, I brought awareness to it, even though it came out of something ugly in my you know how i you know displayed it but a lot of people started looking into it and they're oh shit it's actually kind of true and uh now that i teamed up with like tim tibo and his foundation and we're actually making real steps um i'm happy when were you first exposed to that stuff and uh it's weird man so

again might not be believable but i was like in 2021 after i defeated luke campbell I had a weird vision. I don't know how, but like I seen like, it was like some image playing in my mind, and I just kind of followed it. I don't know why. But it was like a beast or some animal coming out of a sea, and then I seen like pretty much a bridge,

and in my brain, I was like, okay, San Francisco. And then, like, it just showed, like, people in the woods. And then it showed people doing weird things and conjuring up weird things and doing weird things to, like, Are you dreaming or are you white? No, I was awake. I swear, it was so weird. Just the image playing in my brain.

And I looked into like, is there things in the woods in San Francisco? It's like Bohemian Grove and I was like, oh shit. That was a weird thing to see. And then I look it up and there's actually people that come into the woods. That's like a straight coincidence. So I looked into it. And yeah, then that's when you've seen Alex Jones talking about it and all these conspiracy things. But then Ashley was real.

They do meet up in the woods and they sacrifice. I mean, it's fake, right? It's effragege, but sacrifice something to an owl or whatever. So part of it is a little freaky that these politicians and people do meet in the woods. We'll get back to talking in just one second. But first, tell me if this sounds familiar. You train regularly, you eat reasonably well, maybe you even supplement. You feel fine, but you're just kind of going off vibes.

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That's functionhealth.com slash modern wisdom and modern wisdom a checkout. Some of the different stories I've heard, I don't know whether it was Alex Jones's retelling of it or maybe somebody else's that I've listened to. sometimes I see stuff online and I hear stories conspiracism or bad behavior, nasty behavior, immoral behavior, okay, that's someone doing something wrong. And then there's other stories that I hear and it sounds, I can't think of a better word, like cursed, like,

almost forbidden? Yes, yes, yes. You go, okay, that's something else. And the Bohemian Grove story, whether how much of it's true or not is one of those ones where I've just wanted to lean back a little bit further

when I'm listening to it. I really don't like this. I really, really, really, really don't like this I'm too sure why. I feel that, too. At times you're just like, ooh. And it's like, is it all just a distraction? Do we even need to be paying attention to this?

You know what I mean? How much is it even relevant? Like, can we make a difference even if they are doing something crazy wrong, you know? Well, that's how I think of it sometimes. Certainly what seems to be happening at the moment, if you would think about how little disclosure there was about this sort of stuff 15 to 20 years ago compared with now,

and let's say that there is some nasty stuff going on behind the scenes with people that are in power. For the last 200 years, up until 20 years ago, you had a pretty clean run. deny, control the media, do it in different sorts of ways, have people killed off or pay people off or do whatever. That's not as easy to do because everyone's got democratized access to just, hey, I saw this thing and this is really fucking weird and here's some evidence and everybody else can go, that is fucking weird. That is some evidence. And it's, if I was a person in power that

was doing loads of gnarly shit for the last 50 years, I'd be like, okay, we need to change our tactics. We can't do this anymore because things are going to appear. People are going to be able to do research and tie little bits of red string together and realize what this thing's connected to this. No, for sure. And you see how now there's so much access with phones and so much access to like anybody could make a video about anything.

Secret recording devices. It's just so crazy now. Yeah. And I think that, I mean, look at it. You hear talks now. They want to disclose all the UFO knowledge. It's like a lot of knowledge is like, all right, you guys can have it now. Like, but it's going to strange.

We can't keep it. We can't keep it together, yeah. Well, I mean, dude, look at the Trump assassination. Assassination attempt three. Number three. Yeah, exactly. That's crazy. For three Pete.

And then everybody dying too, all the scientists. Is that real? There's definitely NASA scientists that are dying. I don't know what they're working on. I mean, give it a week and a half. I'm sure Rogan's going to have someone on that'll explain it all. So I'll just wait. I'll wait for the Rogan episode to come out.

But I was thinking about the videos that came out of the correspondence in a word, Trump's getting rushed off stage and stuff. Every single different angle of that that you need, someone's got a fuck. I saw this, I don't know that you've seen these two. So there's one where everybody's being rushed out of the room. And there's some old boy looks like he's maybe in his 70s or 80s, just sat in the corner, just finishing his food, doesn't give a single fuck. And then there's another one of some lady.

a nicely dressed lady and everyone's being rushed out of the room and she gets up to sort of go away from her table and before she leaves she goes leans back over and grabs a bottle of champagne she's like I must take the champagne with me before I leave I was like just to have that composition Homeboy's finishing is chowder

and she's I'll take the Verve-Cliko with me before I leave that's going to be important for me later on it's like fair enough man but we've got every single angle we've got the angles of the people still eating their food we've got this so if you're trying to do some secret shit like eventually somebody's going to uncover I mean, do you see the guy that snuck onto Epstein's Island recently? Oh, that was insane.

The vlog? Yeah, the vlog. Got on a jet ski, got on there, there's a drone above. Unreal. That was crazy. I did see that. That's insane. And it's insane that they release it and then take it back.

Yep. Yeah. That's insane too. You said for a good while that you were angry. Yeah. Does anger help you as a boxer? Not necessarily, but you do need an edge. you need some type of grit

and I don't know if that could come through anger or just motivation but you need something that is feeling you but I wouldn't say like rage is not good maybe a little anger can be good but rage blinds you

and then you make mistakes and just you know are not focused but you need some type of like all right motherfucker sharpness yeah yeah a little a little bit of like, yeah, a tad bit anger, but more of aggression.

That's the word I'm looking at. You need aggression a little bit, yeah. What happens if you turn anger into aggression, sorry, if you turn aggression into anger and into rage, what do you lose? Because for most people who don't fight or fight at the level that you do, they might look from the outside and see two people that are trying to hurt each other and think, well, hurt is fueled by rage and anger and aggression. Yeah.

But it seems like you must lose something as you. you move down that line towards sort of greater levels of extreme, extreme aggression? Yeah. To what you lose? Well, what you lose is that, that consciousness of a punch might come back. You know what I mean? Like when you're focused and a little bit of angry, you could still, you know, you could still read a punch. You could still, you know, counteract.

When you get angry and like that it's overtaking you, then you've lost sight of what could come back to you. It's like when you get too raged up and you want to push somebody you didn't see that there's a car about a pass by you just pushed them into a car. You wouldn't necessarily want it to kill them but your anger, rage pushed you

and you didn't even see the car coming. So it's kind of like that. Narrows everything down? Yeah, yeah, too much, you know? And then now you don't see what's coming at you on the other side. You know, I'm mad, boom. It's interesting because you see, I don't know,

the... Do you know Nicky Rod? Do you know who he is? Nikki Rodriguez is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy. I went to CGI, the Craig Jones invitation all year and a half ago. We sponsored it with Newtonic. And it was single, two-weight categories, and the guys just worked up on a bracket-style event

all the way up to the final. And in between each round, most of the fighters were going back to a coach. They're talking tactics, they're getting hydration, they're doing whatever. Nikki just decided to sit in full lotus, like with his. hands like this, like a samurai with his eyes closed. And then they'd ring the bell and need to stand back up and go again. So you've kind of got this. It was kind of a bit of a lot, but it was fucking sick.

It looked sick to see. Nicky Rod's a beast. But did he win? Yeah. And he won a million dollars in one day. That's good sick. It's pretty, oh, in one weekend, sorry. That's nice.

To see that on one side, you think this is the, almost like that samurai energy, very, very, very calm. But it seems like you're saying that there is an edge comes with aggression that's still important and to completely let go of that you're actually losing something there too that there's a middle ground that's good for you yeah yeah i think just like uh if you have a you know a tad bit of that it just gives you uh it keeps you it keeps you i guess in the fight like into it you know i say like if you kind of get too you know too calm and too like peaceful too peaceful then then it's just You lost that bit of you that, you know, I'm a killer, I have a killer instinct.

So it's kind of you lose the killer instinct in you. You do want to hurt this person. Yeah, yeah, of course. You're in a fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's hitting you. It would be nice to try and hurt him. Yeah, it would be nice.

And, yeah, I just, I know, for me it helps a little bit, you know. What's happening with Conner Ben? Talk to me. Oh, yeah. That's, that is being worked on. You know, me and my team, we're trying to, you know, finalize it. make it happen to fight that I really want but there's also other options you know so if it doesn't get done you know we're also looking at roly romero and other you know opponents that we can

fight but that fight I would love to make happen I want that one bad he's been a little too long he actually came in confronted me at an event while I was with my wife and it was just crazy Recently? About a year and a half ago And I still remember that It's like bro, we're all in suits Calm down What are you doing?

Like be professional, buddy This is like It reminded me of the movie South Paul You know when he gets confronted And then she ends up getting a shot Like bro, you need to chill But yeah

I would love to make that happen But it's not done yet What'd you make of him as a fighter? I think he's a good fighter He's too aggressive A little too aggressive How so? He's a little reckless in the ring.

But I do think that he has a lot of tenacity and he makes for a good fight and an entertaining fight every time he steps in the ring. But, yeah, I will show him that there's definitely levels to this. And, yeah. Is he one-frey-five? I mean, he's number one, so he's my mandatory. Right.

But there's so many fucking politics and so much red tape in boxing that the number one contender and the number one title holder, somehow can't make a fight work. You're right. Easily. Yeah.

I mean, that's how it goes. Dude, boxing's so fucking complex. It's so complex. Yeah, it is a little... Does the politics get frustrating? It gets frustrating for me as a fan. Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean...

Like, this guy should fight that guy because it's the coolest fight. It's number one and the world champ, we should do it. You know, I'm... Like I said, I'm all up for it. It's just, there's some things that need to be figured out, but I'm all for it. I'm sure he's all for it.

And I'm sure it's going to happen. I'm pretty positive. What do you make it, does that's a little weird? How so? I don't know exactly what kind of changes they're trying to make to the Aaliyak to benefit Zufa or I don't know what they're trying to do. And I'm not saying I'm against Zofah at all. I just want to give it time before I even like want to acknowledge it too much.

Because I don't know if it's going to make us not get paid. as much. I don't know if it's going to make the sport better. So I kind of wanted to sit back and watch what kind of unfolds there. It is a funny sport from the outside to look at boxing. And I think what's particularly interesting is to see it when compared with other organizations, especially the UFC, but also stuff like one championship, like even BKFC. There seems to be so much, I'd tell you story. So I did a couple of degrees in the UK. and I went to what's called a Russell Group University, which is kind of like Ivy League,

similar to the equivalent of an Ivy League in the US. So these are very long-established old universities. And each time that I graduated, there's graduation ceremony and everyone's parents come and you wear your silly robes and stuff, and you get your little certificate. I remember being there and watching this parade come in, and it was five, ten, ten, fifteen people who were all the different

dean of the university and the vice chancellor and one of them had a mace, like a medieval weapon, like a symbolic version of a medieval, but an actual medieval weapon. They all had to doth their caps to different people in different orders.

I remember looking at it and going, this is what happens when you have a country that's not been invaded for a thousand years, right? Like when you have properly invaded. It's just one culture that's been able to accumulate, loads and loads of weird traditions.

Yeah. And then the second time, which was a master's, was even more weird. There was more people, weirder outfits, more stuff going on. It was like an academic Bohemian Grove. Right, right, right, right. Some type of rituals.

And when I look at boxing and the world of boxing, I do see some of that. It's such an established sport that there are, I mean, the first five minutes of any press conference or the start of any fight is this weird land acknowledgement. We must say thank you to the person from this thing and this thing and that other thing and this person's father and I've got a fucking athlete's foot and I could do with a backrobe and a bub, blah, blah, blah.

And now we can start to talk. And then you look at something which is newer, which doesn't have quite so much of the baggage that's come along with it. And you look at something like a one championship or you look at a UFC, you think, huh, from an audience standpoint, this is a slicker experience. It's quicker, right? You get from the thing that people don't want, which is the bullshit and the credits,

to the movie starting. I just want the movies starting. And I kind of feel the same thing when I hear about we couldn't make the fight work. Like how many, I guess Mayweather Pachia were getting that to be run back. So that's kind of hilarious. But that almost didn't happen.

That was supposed to happen five, ten times. Should have happened when they were younger. Should have happened when they were in their prime. Should have happened. Couldn't make it work. Couldn't make it work. couldn't make it work. You think, how, like, why?

Why can't there be a way? But it's because there's all of these different territories, basically different countries inside of a single sport who are all competing for dominance and one person's got this and one person's got another. It's a wild wild west. You think? Yeah, it is.

Everybody's, like, yes, there's like, like you said, it's very established and it has a rich history and, you know, the major players are the major players. But everyone's pretty much, it's a free-for-all. ways out for themselves. And it's like, hopefully the business makes sense that two entities just come together.

All right, let's do it. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, a bit of it is kind of fun because, like, everybody gets a chance to make something huge happen. But, you know, the sad part is that a lot of the fights don't happen because a lot of these promoters become greedy and they want to get more.

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Is it money disagreements? I would say splits, money and some of these fighters overvalue themselves sometimes or they act like they really want to fight but they really don't

so they hide behind the promoter and say we couldn't make the deal work when secretly I just didn't want to step in the ring so a lot of it's that I do think that boxing could become a little bit more slicker and sleek like you said with the UFC

see, like, we could cut out a lot of the bullshit. You know, there's new ways to promote a fight than the standard. You know? I mean, but I feel like boxing, like, a lot of people were trying to say it was dead and stuff. But, I mean, we've been doing just fine. You know what I mean? Financially was, so, I mean, it must be making some type of money. Because a lot of these boxers are getting paid pretty well.

But shoot, I'm all up for change, but as long as it makes sense, as long as it's like, all right, we're evolving in the right direction and not like, I don't want it to become the UFC. That's what I'm saying. Like, Zufa's cool, but like it looks too much like the UFC that I'm like, uh, not my vibe. And then you can't wear your own shorts. Like, bro, your sponsor's money is going to go away. Yeah, you won't get that out of me yet.

You know, you don't have to, I don't know what you would have to. pay me but I like the style of boxing I like you know shorts I like the walkouts I like the grand entrances that you could do you know UFC is just the guy walking now like I like the whole spectacle I like the entertainment part of it you know it's fun and if they take that away I'm just going to be out there's a difference between getting rid of the bullshit but keeping the heritage yeah respecting the tradition right and you don't need to get rid of everything No. But we can all say...

There could be some fat cut off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't lose what makes boxing boxing. What is the Ali Act? What are the changes? I don't know this. I don't know exactly what changes, but I know that...

I don't know if it's Dana White or... I know Nick Kahn spoke the Congress and Oscar did for Oscar on the side of not changing anything. And then Nick was trying to change things. That's kind of what I got out of it. And then something about how it helps everything be transparent. I know the Allie Act, like they have to show the numbers.

It's a financial decision. Exactly. And then I guess I don't know if they're trying to change it where we don't get it to be disclosed the numbers. I can't, I don't want to speak for it because I don't really necessarily know. Interesting. But that was Oscar's point. Oscar's point was this was made to protect the fighters.

and make sure that everything's just transparent. But who knows? Talking of the money thing, a couple years ago, you said that Jake Paul's not a real boxer. Yeah. Is that changed after his Joshua fight? No, he's definitely a real boxer for sure. He has balls, man.

I mean, the fact that he fought at the New Joshua is pretty fucking insane, knowing that he's not even a heavyweight. So, now, he's definitely earned respect. but I think it did humble him just a little bit. And you jaw shattered, it'll typically humble somebody. Yeah, I mean, a broken jaw would probably be like, all right, maybe I should shut my mouth because I can't even move it. But, dude, I mean, the people who saw that happen and also saw his response,

like say what you want, dude, that was a fucking elite response to having your jaw cracked by a guy who's... What did he say? When he was on the ground. He was like, whoa, that was hard. Yeah, yeah. I fucking bet it was, dude. That is fucking funny. No, Jake's always been that type of dude, man.

He doesn't miss a moment for sure. Yeah, you remember when... He's hyper aware of that, that too. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of like the first assassination attempt for Trump, where immediately he's like, I mean, I have just been shot a little bit, but this is a great opportunity. The same as Jake's like, I think I might have broken my jaw and I'm definitely knocked down, but this is a great opportunity for... Right, right.

This is probably a... You know, a clip farm of them. Yeah, yeah, that awareness is. But I mean, he's got that deal now with Netflix. So money. With his own promotion. Yes. That's pretty sick.

As somebody who's not a boxer. Yeah. Right, to come in and do it. You got to give credit, you know. At the time, obviously people and myself included were just, I was just annoyed how he would always talk shit about me. So, you know, I found my ways to talk shit, you know. But we've always been cool here and there.

And I think now, I think we're. We're on a better page now. It's interesting, right? Because so many people, especially with boxing, I'm not sure whether, what would be an example of a sport that people could do when they could start as an adult? Maybe something like distance running,

endurance racing, triathlons, most skill-based sport, you're not going to start tennis at 20 and become a legitimate professional tennis player. That'll be very hard. I think Deonté Wild has started boxing relatively late. Yeah, he's one of the few. Bernard Hawkins, Sergio Martinez,

those are the ones that come to the top of my head. Realistically, though, it's a sport that you start as a baby kid. Four beer, where they started at three. Yeah. At Tiger Woods with golf at two. Two, yeah. And he actually was hitting the ball. Good.

It's better than me. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah. Combined. Yeah. And I think that there's a, there's a kind of appropriate gatekeeping that happens, right? It's like you don't get to speed run this with clout, that this is a sport that you have. have to earn your stripes in. It's to do with being hurt and that means that and everybody knows that there's ways to piece fights together with fuckery and red tape and weight classes and experience

that allow you to have a wonderful record without actually having done anything that's that impressive. All of that together allows you to create the illusion of being good at it without not. I don't know whether the same thing is true for winning a triathlon. That what are you going to get the entire field of other people to not be that going to even that your pace is compared with somebody else's yeah there's no way you can't do that boxing it's just are you better than that guy and now are you better than the next guy and are you better than the guy and the and the crazy thing is a lot of the casual people can't tell the difference they can't they don't know if jake paul is not a world champion or is he or is he world champion though they they can't they could

only see him beating anderson silver who's not a fighter like he's not a boxer but he's a ufc champs So all they see is Jake Paul is beating these fighters that are names. You know what I mean? He beat Nadea. So it's like, it was a little frustrating because Jake was good at writing that and making it seem like he was like Muhammad Ali and like with Trow like that. But like you said, boxing is one of those things that like you have to be in the game for a long time. And that sacrifice is like only boxers truly not like, fuck.

We had a, you have to go through a lot to even get to that moment. There's also a level of skill, I think, that you wax. from doing it for so long. I mean, you were saying before that you're doing a couple of hours of padwork a week and the rest of it's just,

I want to feel good. Yeah. Because those rhythm grooves, those movement patterns are, you could get like Alzheimer's dementia, everything, you could get set on fire and the thing that would be left in your brain would be

how to dodge your part. Yeah, exactly. You'd still be, that would be the last thing that would go, right? Yeah, yeah. Just because it's been done for so long. Yeah.

You know, more than pretty much anything else. And the question I always had in my mind with Jake was, how much can someone speed run learning skills that usually the time that you need, just like the literal like eras of duration that you need, is longer. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, you know, people, I don't know, because they didn't care that he lost to Tommy Fury.

And Tommy Furry is not even good. You know what I mean? I'm saying, no, sorry for taking a shot. but like he's not like high level at all. So people ignored the fact. So I don't think, you know, he was speed running the fact that he was getting these huge events that were like, can he pay the number, you know, that people don't even dream of and they, you know, work your whole life.

So I think that upset a lot of people. I think that's where it was. Well, people want to sell tickets, right? But you talk about pay-per-view, gate, numbers, rah, rah, rah. There's two ways to get there. One of them is to be really, really good. So good that people want to watch you. And the other is to just have another way

to make people want to watch you. It's like what's that thing, love me or hate me, you're gonna buy it? Exactly, yeah. And I watched all Jake Paul's file. I ain't gonna lie. How many people have come to boxing because of that? Yeah, we don't know, but we do know that people like to watch them.

You know, and that's just the facts of it. And if it was making boxing, you know, bigger in a way, I'm all for it. I love boxing. So if good came from it, all for it. What you make of the Mayweather-Pakea fight? It's ridiculous. It's truly ridiculous. Like, I mean, I don't really want to see that. You know, the first fight was kind of boring. The second fight should be even more boring. You know, they're not even close to their prime.

It's kind of sad. Like, why do they feel like they need to do that? Like, are they broke? You know, there would only be, like, a couple of reasons why they would want to do that. Didn't Pacchio just buy Mayweather's gym and take a photo outside of the sign? Yeah. I don't know if that was. I think he bought his franchise. Right. You know. But. And Pacquiao is essentially royalty. Yeah. Oh, Paco. I mean. So I just don't get the sense that he's broke. I don't think Paciote. I don't think he can go broke because people love him in Philippines. Like they'll always take care of him. Correct. He's essentially the king. Yeah, exactly. Mayweather, I've heard things.

But I don't know if he's... Dude, I've watched a couple of YouTube videos that break down the burn rate that Mayweather's got. I just, I mean, it's really probably his security. I mean, to have... Because I used to have 24 security for like three months, and I've seen the check. I'm like, okay, no.

Absolutely. How much is three months of 24-7 security for somebody like you? I mean, in the six figures. Because it's 24-7. And I was like, bro, this is ridiculous. Because I needed security. I forgot why.

Some shit was just going down. And I was like, all right, I'll pay for it. But then I'm like, I look after the three months. I'm like, no. I look after myself, dude. And I'm like, yeah, I'll just never use security. Like, I'm cool. I'll be okay.

Like, if people want to hurt me, I guess why. I don't know why they would. I don't wear jewelry. I don't fucking walk around crazy. Like young LA Tom. Yeah, exactly. So I'm like, they want to run up all me. I'm like, bro.

You're hitting a little sweetheart. I don't want no problem. You could take my shoes. Yeah. But yeah, so yeah, that could be a reasoning. I mean, he's taking private plan. I know those costs a lot. But then again, like, he always talked about investment, so who knows?

I really don't know if he's... Think in terms of athletes that have generated money, I think that Mayweather must be up there. I mean, would... I don't know who... They told what they said that he made, like, maybe a billion in his group. I don't know whether that's gone to him or whether that's money generated across the board.

But whatever it is, it's lots, right? The number is lots. And I suppose, yeah, you're right. The worst position to be in is to be somebody who has all of the challenges of fame, but not the money to be able to deal with it. So imagine if you needed security, but whatever it was that you were doing that got you loads of attention didn't really pay that well.

You'd be like, oh, fuck. Like, I really could do with being protected from my fame, but my fame didn't make me any money, so I can't pay for the protection. That would really suck. That would. But the next thing is like, well, maybe it's just, you just get this lifestyle inflation. You, I've got an assistant, two assistants, three assistants.

I got a house. I got a holiday home. Aspen, jet, second jet, car, car fleet, car manager, wealth manager. Where's the fucking money got? And before you know it, you're like, Jesus Christ, this is so big and unwieldy. And how do you think about that? How do you think about avoiding getting the financial thing too messy? the team growing too much,

people who don't have your best interests at heart, it's aided by the fact it's a family matter. I got lucky because I had to learn that lesson early. You know what I mean? I got paid a lot of money when I was like 20. I started getting paid. I already made like my first millionaire at like 19 and 20. So I learned quick how fast money can go.

And you're just like, wow, I had a minute. No, I don't. I was like, I swear I had a million. They definitely said that in my account, but now it's gone. Yeah, you just realize taxes is a real thing. And you're like, ah, God, like, I can't really be buying all that. You know what I mean?

I was, like, about every car wanted. And then I realized, this is stupid. And then I went through a little gambling type of thing I like to do. And then I was like, this is even more stupid than the car thing. Yeah. And then you kind of just realized, like, all of it's pretty dumb. Yeah. Yeah, this is a waste of money and nobody really even cares.

And it's just like, it's just like all just like stupid as in the day. It's like all materialistic things that you don't really get anything out of it. You mean, unless you're trying to impress a girl or whatever. That's maybe it. And most girls, like... The ones that are impressed by that stuff are probably... Are you probably not the ones that you want to be around? But yeah, I kind of learned all that quick.

And then I just have a good, good... Good squad, good team around me that occurs and they don't want me to go broke and I don't want to go broke one day. It's too many stories like that. Mike Tyson ran through 100 mil and he ran it back in the 90s. So fuck. Yeah, what's that worth today? It's about 200, 250, something like that. Yeah, so.

Serious money. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to end up like that. So I just kind of, I just know that I have to be focused and keep my head straight and, uh, and just try my best to not make any big financial mistakes anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, again, you know, in some ways, I suppose, learning that lesson, going from lots to not so much on a million,

that's a good lesson to learn where you go, ow, I'm not broke, but I'm like back to basically baseline. Right. After I had a lot. That's a good lesson to learn on a million. Yeah. It's a worst lesson to learn on 100 million. Exactly.

So the same way, as you said, you know, there were some lessons that I missed in my teenage years that I had to learn in my 20s. Well, there's some lessons people learn in the 40s that you managed to learn in your 20s. That's why I feel blessed. I'm like, dude, I learned a lot of all this shit, like pretty early. Like, everything I wanted in life came pretty quick.

Like, I wanted to be a superstar fighter, and it became quick. And I wanted this, and it came quick. But then you're like, oh, shit. Like, I'm actually happy it came quick. Because if it didn't, then, like I said, you would learn it 30, 35 years old, 40 and you're just like with more money with bigger problems with less opportunity to make more too correct yeah i can't fix it in the same can't fix it so i truly am blessed but you know you you could

always make a mistake you know i mean you could always go back down on that road you know your vices could take you there your ego your pride why i got this much money now i could really fuck off before we continue as you're probably aware i'm not a massive drinker at least not anymore but even if you too are not drinking, sometimes you just want something cold, frosty and tasty without the fear of a hangover the next day, which is why I'm such a huge fan of athletic brewing co. Thank you very much.

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or best option. You can get the full variety pack of four flavors shipped right to your door. Right now, get up to 15% off your first online order by going to the link in the description below or heading to athleticbrewing.com slash modern wisdom using the code modern wisdom at checkout. That's athleticbrewing.com slash modern wisdom and modern wisdom at checkout. Near beer, terms and conditions apply. Athletic Brewing Company fit for all times. I'm friends with a couple of guys at the moment who are really trying to get their lives together,

but have a very high level of exposure. And a couple of them are in the same way that you add to your 24-7 security, they basically have 24-7 lifestyle watches to ensure that they don't go off the rails. Imagine like a sponsor, kind of, but they're also a coach, assistant, driver, like just, hey, we need to make sure that you don't fuck up. That's how tight the set of train tracks are that they're on. I mean, it's not bad. You guys do it for a training camp, right?

Yeah, yeah. The whole team there's an intense thing. There's no moment unless you want to be alone, that you are alone. There's always someone to keep, you know, I did a tour around Australia, New Zealand, and Bali doing a live show. And I realized that I was trying to think about people that spend time on the road, the ones that are the happiest and have the best mental health and the ones that are the unhappiest. And I think that you have bands

who have objectively a pretty shitty lifestyle tour bus, sleeping in a tiny bunk, even a really, really good band. If you're on a proper tour, you're going from Dallas to San Antonio to Houston back to back to back with shows. You're in a bus, dude. And there's only so nice that a bus can be.

And if it's a big band, you're in a bus sleeping on top of each other. Like even good big band. So, but they seem to be pretty happy. And then you think next step down might be comedians. And I think that comedians have a little bit more room. They don't need as much crew with them. But the problem is because you don't have as many crew people with you, you're on your own more.

Maybe you've got a warm up. Maybe you've got a tour manager. But, you know, the mid-level good quality comedians, most of the ones that I know that are doing gigs around the US, they're like, I got on a flight at my own. And maybe I'll fly in business. Maybe not, probably in business or whatever. But I'm not flying private. And I'm on my own and I get there and I do my gig and I go back to my hotel. And maybe my warm-ups there and we can hang.

And then the worst one, DJs. The reason that the worst one is to be a DJ, I used to run nightclubs for ages, DJs have the worst lifestyle, I think, one of the worst lifestyles, because they are always on their own, unless they take a tour manager, because you don't get to,

when you get booked at a nightclub, you don't get to say, I'm bringing my warm-up with me. You don't have a sound guy, you don't have a lighting director. You don't need anyone, right? A band needs the roadies and the guitar tech and the drum tech and the lighting director

and all of this stuff. And the DJ just has two USB sticks. And it's... Oh, yeah, true. Later at night, loads of drugs around, loads of alcohol around. True, true. And there's always an after-party, and you can fit these gigs together back to back, to back, to back, to back. I was like, right, okay.

So I'm going to go and do this tour around Australia, New Zealand, Bali. I did North America last year. I'm doing UK-I Island later this year. I was like, I don't need really any... I probably need one tour manager to make sure the venue's okay. but 10 people came because I want to do what the bands do because they seem to have the best mental health they seem to enjoy it the most they're sharing experiences it goes well they

celebrate it goes badly they commiserate exactly and it's the same as being in a camp yeah no I understand I have my whole my whole squad pretty much live with me and yeah honestly that right there it just keeps things you know it just makes things bearable to be honest I mean there's no other way to put it you're with your boys at least you can talk to them

about things or anything hey guys let's play some video it could be anything honestly being by yourself just sucks you know a lot of people say oh you can't be by yourself

they always tell me that and I'm like I don't really want to be by myself like I don't know like I'm cool to be by myself but like why is that a flex you know what I mean

it's like I love companionship I love you know my brothers, I love talking to people, I love conversating, I like picking people's brains, no matter who they are, you know what I mean? I just like, I just love conversation. I love, you know, I love that. It's just because you can do it on your own doesn't mean that you should. Yeah. And it's all the intangibles. Maybe it would be wicker or you wouldn't need to compromise as much. You certainly be fucking cheaper. There's lots of different advantages you can see that are really obvious. But all of the,

The disadvantages that you would miss are like, well, I'm going to be lonely and I'm going to be in my head. And that probably means I'm just going to be scrolling my phone and that's going to fucking suck. Oh, dim scrolling is the worst. If you wake up, start scrolling, I swear that. Days ruined. Day's ruined. You get it. The day is ruined.

Before it started. Like, I need to play my, like, my just like meditation type of sounds before I even get close to the phone because, oh, my God, it'll ruin my day. Because I'm just like this and I'm like, I can't. I've got to myself like, I already told myself. Been in bed for an hour. What is going on here? What is this phone doing to me? Why do I magnetically want to go and do that?

Every time. So weird. Every time. I'm interested in what you think about Connor McGregor's trajectory. You're both guys who fight. You're both guys that have partied and that like to party. What's your perspective on his journey? It's one of those ones that, you know,

Did he learn too late, you know? You know, obviously we were talking about how, like, I'm happy that I learned, you know, as, you know, younger person. It seems that, you know, I want him to be back, though. I want him to be back, but I also know that, like, how old is he? 30, probably five now, something like that. It's a little tougher to rebound, you know. But he's one of those people that, you know, he's an icon to his sport. He's just a fucking G, you know what I mean?

And I want him to really be, like, I want what path he's on to be, like, I want that to be real. Like, if it's, if it's his path with God and if he's found faith, and that's where, you know, he feel like his, his motivation is driving. I hopefully it's real. You know, I want it. I want whatever he's going to do. I want it just to be real. I want him to fight. Keeps on talking about a comeback.

doesn't happen. How long is that being going on for you? Three years, four years, right? I don't know. Longer. It might be, you could tell me it's been five years since he fought. Yeah, I wouldn't know. Yeah.

I can't remember. And it's not as if the last few fights have been exactly drenched in glory either. One stoppage, like injury stoppage or whatever it was. And then Khabib and then, I don't know. It's just. I think Dustin? Yeah, just. I don't know.

It's such a shame, dude. It's such a fucking shame. And the more that I think about it, the more. it's just sometimes I think about different versions of the universe where one thing happened or didn't happen and the version of the universe where McGregor kind of didn't get lost in the source right it's like oh my god more of those Aldo moments of him just being like a like a samurai zen master type thing maybe it happened for him for a reason what if

what if he did do that and he was that guy how much crazier would he maybe yeah yeah and he learns a lesson at 50 right right exactly Um, shit. We'll never know. I just wish the best for that guy. I hope he could make... I want to see him win one more good fight. Yes.

If he just does that, I'm cool. Legacy saved. I agree. I think he's got one fight left on his UFC contract. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, man. I hope it happens. But after a while, there's a little bit of, you know, all of the bravado.

it becomes harder and harder to do the longer since you've fought and the older that you get. You're able to do this because you've still got bags of career ahead of you if you want to. And you can back up... Well, I feel like there should have been an evolution in it. Like, you start off this young guy,

like Connor, bravado, talks a lot of shit. Then you become this, you know, legend. Then you come to this OG, and the OG has to be more con, more stoic, more... don't worry, I got this. Like, I've done this long enough. Watch what I do. You know?

The opposite happened. With the little bit of trash, but then it just kept on going. You know, there shouldn't be some type of evolution there. Well, I guess what actually happened. Because like Mayweather stopped kind of being so. Very true. You know? That's a good point.

Yeah, that is a really, really good point as somebody that was one of the biggest shit talkers. And then it, toward the end of his career was just, I'm going to beat you and you're not going to beat you. You couldn't fucking phase the guy. No, because he already knows the game too much. Like when you know the game too much, it's like, all right. Talk and whatever. Like, he already knows all the entertainment shit.

He's just there to be Floyd Mayweather. I'm going to come. We're a profession. I'm here to do a job. Yeah. Exactly. So I think he missed the evolution. Yeah, yeah, you did.

There was a fucking firmware update. I know, right. The iOS update didn't come. That's something that is kind of scary to see. You know, you were talking about aggression, rage, anger, different components of how a, fighters sort of put together, there is something really fucking terrifying about somebody that just sees you as like a job to be dispatched. Like if you were to look, if you were a plumber

and you were to look on your day and you said, I need to replace this toilet at 11 a.m. You go, okay, you're just the toilet I'm replacing at 11 a.m. This is just a standard day in the office for me. Thank you very much. I'll see you on the other side. I'll see you once the toilet's fitted. That's like, oh my God, I'm just a fucking task. I'm just on the to do list for today. I'm not even an event, really. I'm just like something that I'm moving through. And when you see that with people, you go like, holy fuck. Yeah.

What am I getting myself into? Yeah. Are you worried? Are you conscious around long-term health stuff? We hear a lot about CTE, about TBI, about TBI, about brain health. How much does that factor in? As somebody that's been doing this since seven years old, this talk, I imagine when you were, the C-T talk would have only.

coming in your teens, like to have been really high levels of awareness? Honestly, once it kind of got big with the football, I forgot what year that was. That was kind of the year that everybody started questioning. Oh, shit. Like, we should probably all start thinking about our health. But it's also like, look, man, I've already accepted whatever happens to me. It's okay. I just try my best to not look into that type of future.

But if it happens, I hope that the people that love me take care of me. That's it. You're just happy for that to be a side effect of your chosen career? Yeah, because I try to put all my decisions and let it be guided by God. So if that's just the nature of what I've chosen to do and what I felt like was the right thing to do, that's just what it is. And there's really nothing I could do about it. I mean, but boxing is. Avoid getting hit would be a good start.

Oh, yeah, for sure. And I try my best to, you know what I mean? Obviously, I'm still clean never broke my nose, thank God. You know what I mean? So I'm doing pretty good in that in the aspect. But like I said, if it happens, it happens. But I hope not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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And they offer free shipping in the US. Right now, you can get a free sample pack of elements most popular flavors with your first purchase by going to the link in the description below or heading to drinklmnt.com slash modern wisdom. That's drinklmnt.com slash modern wisdom. Have you ever noticed anything? Has there been any memory loss stuff? No, I just feel like I've always had mental health problems. I don't know if it comes from boxing, but, you know, little anxiety sometimes.

A little bit of, like, bipolarness, but I've always kind of been that way. Like, I don't know. I don't think you get to the level of obsession and focus that you need without having something in that. You mentioned edge. Yeah. That edge comes from somewhere. My edge is that I am an obsessive thinker of, like, situations, positions, or I'm here. Like, I'll study one position and, like, where I'm at for, like, a long period of time because I'm like, all right, I know there's something more here.

You know what I mean? And I'll get to that. But it really is, a lot of it's just with boxing and got, like, I don't really like to obsess over too many things. But, like, boxing for some reason, I could just, like, think about that moment so many times. Like, okay, that's where it was. Okay. He'd do that, but that's, like, I could, you know, if I shift here, fom, I could catch him quick, and he might not notice. Like, there's just a lot of, you know, with my brain with that, it's just like, I love it so much that I just want to study that.

Can you remember a position? Is the one that comes to mind that you spent a long time thinking about that then ended up being an unlock? Is there a particular sequence that you spent a good time on? Yeah, even when I was like young, I remember this, I was sparring this kid, and he kept catching me, kept catching me. And I was like, I remember going back home and just thinking about it for like two hours, three hours. Like, why is he catching me with that? And then I had remembered. I overthought about it so much that I was like, all right, dad.

I called my dad to the room. I said, call him back. Like, I have something for him. Like, let's go. And he goes, are you sure? Like, he was pretty much whooping your ass. Like, let's just wait a little bit. I was like, no, call him the next day.

I figured something out. And it was when he would step forward, he would show his jab. So he would step and then show the jab. So I had caught onto it in my brain when I was replaying it. So I told my dad, every time he makes that move, I'm going to cut to the right and hit him with the right hand. And I guarantee you he won't stop that because he can't stop doing this. So every time he came in a, and I would catch him.

And my dad was like, how do you figure that in a day? I was like, I don't know. I just kept thinking about it. like he kept on catching me with that shot, but there has to be something that, like, I'm doing wrong or I'm not reading or something. And my dad's all, he always thinks about that story. He's like, that's all I knew, like, you're different.

Because I could come back the next day and it'll be a whole different fight. Like, I don't know how, but I just like, the next day, like the guy, if he thinks he got an edge, like, bro, I'm thinking about this all the day. That's why I try to tell my little brother, like, after swarling, you need just think. Like, go in your room and just think, think, think. Like, why did this have?

Why did that happen? Like, what was he doing that was throwing me off? There was a couple instances like that in the ring. It's like, hmm, it has to be something here, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I've learned so much things in boxing, like, just the whole aspect of it. It's almost like music notes. I started learning that like, like, when you're the ring, it's like boom, boom, boom, boom. And then when something feels off, that means because some note was off, you know what I mean?

Like some movement, okay, oh, I read that wrong. read that wrong, that's where it was. Okay, boom. So it's like, it really is like a whole level of just like beautifulness. Like, that's what I said, I really love boxing. There's so much little things in it that like get me excited. It's so fun. Have you been able to do that during any of your fights as a professional or have they been, how often you're surprised by that? You say most of the time, presumably you're studying tape, you're thinking, you're bringing fighters into the gym and the camp that replicate the style that you're probably going to face. The whole game is to not be surprised when you get in there.

But presumably that's what the other guy is doing too, which means that they're trying to come up with something that you don't yet know, which might surprise you, which means that you need to go back and you've got, forget two hours and a day, you've got a minute in the corner to be like, why is that thing happening? Have you ever had that happen as a pro? No, honestly, I haven't. It's been more of so, like, when I'm on point and, like, when, you know, I'm in a good mental space, nothing will surprise me.

Because it's like I've already been thinking about, like, I've been looking at every scenario. Like, the times I've lost, I literally, it comes from a place of, like, self-sabotage. And, like, I wasn't even in the camp. I was just kind of letting the day go by and just kind of like not being there. And I know it probably sounds like an excuse, but that's just what it was. Were they the better fighters at night? For sure. And I always give them credit on that.

But, you know, me at my best is when I'm thinking like this, when I'm paying attention to every day, when I'm, everything is like intentional. When I wake up, how I woke up was intentional. Not on the phone. Not on the phone. And I'm breeding things. I'm letting, you know, that inner wisdom just kind of flow me through the day. You know what I mean?

I'm on track. When it's like that, it's hard to surprise me because I've been paying attention to everything. So, but now when I fight somebody, it's like what's surprising me is like, oh, wow, they're really talented. Like, they're fast. That's cool. You know what I mean? Like, it won't be like a move or like a shot that was surprised me. you'd just be like, oh, this guy, he's on top of his game.

That's cool. You know what I mean? But as far as, like, a technique or anything, it's kind of, it'd be hard to surprise me. But I feel like I've surprised people because a lot of people, they'd be seeing that move. They're like, where do you think come up with that stupid move? I look stupid, but am I getting hit? So I've been thinking about this. I've been, like, Mayweather, he does a shoulder rope.

But he hides behind it a lot. And people think, like, they call me off or turning my. back but I'm just giving them the side and then you can't really hit me on it but everybody makes fun of me on it but I have not got hit once doing it so guys come on you call you called the silly shell they called the silly show right it's all good you're that to do a job dude and if you dispatch someone yet it's so funny to think about um obsession obviously it's it is very much a double-edged sword it's the sort of thing that can cause you to be obsessed with politics or porn or or your ex or drugs or gambling or partying or status or money or how people see you.

Yeah. But it can also, if you direct it in the right angle, be the thing that causes you to completely change your game in the space of two hours as a professional sports star. It's the sort of thing that can cause you to obsess over how well you write or tell stories as a writer. That would be cool. Now that, like I would want to learn how to do that. Like writing for some reason.

It just seems so like, if you could get at a high level where you could make somebody feel something just by a sentence and you know it's going to hit, that's pretty sick. What my housemate at the moment is just finished the first draft of his book, which is going to be amazing. And I'm watching him. All he does every single day is in the spare bedroom and the house that we live in. Every wall is covered in post-it notes, everything.

He's just living and breathing this book. You know, in AI and Chatchip-T and stuff like that, there's an idea of a context window, and it means how big is the sort of world of information about what you're talking about that the AI has reference to? So if you have a real long chat, the context window is super huge. If you start a new chat, the context window is a lot smaller.

His context window for his own book is three galaxies big, right? He's got all of these different stories, and he'll come downstairs and tell me, I just learned this story about Phil Collins and how he wrote like in the air tonight or how he wrote, or how we wrote this song. And it's so fucking cool. And I'm watching, like you did.

I'm watching somebody who is so obsessed. My point being, most people go through their lives without ever getting an obsession that's worth anything. People can reach the end of their lives having either never been obsessed or only being obsessed about stuff that wasn't worth anything.

So if you're the sort of person who has an obsession that's pointing in a positive direction, you really shouldn't waste it. No. It's a fucking wonderful thing. free motivation, it's free discipline. It's not that you as a kid had to be forced to train. You couldn't not train all that you wanted to. It wasn't like someone went into your bedroom

after you lost that fight to that guy, that kid, and said, you need to think about this for two hours. If you told me to go and play video games, I couldn't. I can't not do this thing. That's very true. Free discipline, free motivation. And that doesn't last forever. And what you need is while the tide, while the current with you to sort of ride down. Now, okay, I'm going to do what I'm called to. And I think that's what you were talking about up top. I get little whispers.

Yeah. Sometimes these fleeting thoughts, these nudges that move my life in different directions. I'm going to follow those. Because in future, they might not be there. And you missed them. He missed them. It's like the neon sign.

Kind of just went past it. Like, damn, but what was? I could have seen. What was it? Yeah. It's cool just to see what it was. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And just, you know, kind of see where that goes. But yeah, I always told people my biggest fear in life. Because when they asked me, like, is it death? I was like, no, it's just not reaching my potential and just wasting it. Because I know I have so much. So it's like, that just scares me. Pressure is a privilege, dude. Hey, I appreciate you.

I'm fired up to see what the rest of this year has for you. Thank you. You're the man. Sir. Appreciate you. Until next time. Yeah. Goodbye, everybody.

I'm going to try this. Get it in you. Yes, sir. If you are looking for new reading suggestions, look no further than the modern wisdom reading list. It is 100 books that you should read before you die. The most interesting, life-changing and impactful books I've ever read with descriptions about why I liked them and links to go and buy them. And you can get it right now for free by going to chriswillex.com slash books. That's chriswillx.com slash books.