Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #113 - UFC Heavyweight Tanner Boser

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

Originally from Bonnyville AB Tanner has fought all over the world never backing down from anyone. We discuss his start into MMA, his first pro fight (hilarious) and now being a part of the UFC. Very cool dude who holds nothing back.   Let me know what you think     Text me! 587-217-8500

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He is 29 years old. He holds a pro-M-MA record of 19, 6-1. He signed with the UFC in 2019 and currently fights in the UFC heavyweight division. He is ranked 15th in the world, and since starting in the UFC last year in 2019, He holds a record of three and one in the UFC. So buckle up.

Here we go. Hey, this is Tanner, the Bulldozer-Boser, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Okay, well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Tonight, I'm joined by Tanner Bozer. So first off, man, thanks for hopping on with me. Yeah, bro. Thanks for having me. So let's get right to it.

How much fun are you having right now? It's a lot of work, but I mean, I like my life. It's a fun lifestyle, I suppose. Again, it's a lot of hard work. I train a couple times a day, sometimes three times a day. And yeah, you know, but again, it doesn't, it's hard work, but it doesn't feel like I'm going to work. So I guess that's good. Well, you got a job you like doing.

And when you like doing something, well, that makes it easy to go do, even if it's tough work. Exactly. So I got nothing to complain about it. You know, you've probably told this story a thousand times, so I apologize for asking, but I got to ask anyways, because I find it so intriguing. You fight twice in the last, like, you know, it was like a month span. You fight in Vegas. You come home, you quarantine, then you hop on a plane, and you go down to Abu Dhabi and

fight again. Can you lead us all through that? Because I just have a hard time rabble my brain around it. And hearing you talk about it is just almost mesmerizing because I'm like, God, and to win both of them, like, it's just a cool story. Yeah, okay. Well, I was scheduled to fight Felipe Linz. Actually, I guess I'll go before that.

I was scheduled to fight Jeff Hughes. I think it was March 27th was the date. But because of COVID, that card got pulled. And there was like three cards in a row that all got postponed and they got canceled. So it sucks because I was in training camp starting like January 2nd. I'm in, I've been training hard, I'm in wicked shape. That fight gets pulled, but I just keep training hard through COVID. I'm doing just tons of strength and conditioning because we can't train together

and you can't do kickboxing or jitzy or anything like that. So I just got in really good shape. And then I did have like a good amount of notice like maybe it was six weeks or something. Fight Felipe Linz in June 27th. okay and Felipe Linz had won the 2018 PFL tournament, which was a million dollar tournament. He beat some good guys there and Felipe Linz was a way harder fight, at least on paper than Jeff Hughes. You know, credit where credits do, Jeff Hughes was the LFA champion and stuff, but I was pretty sure that was going to be a walk in the park for me. But I get Felipe Linz, okay, it's going to be a hard fight.

I go to Vegas. We have to do all these COVID tests and quarantine. and stuff like that. Come fight night, everything goes my way, and I knock them out in a couple minutes. Highlight reel, it's viral, it's great. People start thinking I'm cool finally. And then I go home and I have to quarantine for two weeks.

So I eat a lot and drink a bit. I'm not like a heavy drinker, but I mean, it was like Canada Day was in there. and I mean, I do like to mix in a few beers after fights. So a couple weeks of not treating my body the best. And as I'm the morning I get out of quarantine, I'm about to head to the gym. I get a call and hey, do you want to actually,

during quarantine I got a call to fight Marchine Tabura. And it was on Canada Day. I got a call. I'm drunk. And it's like, do you want to fight Marchine to Burra? And it was like in, like, a week. and I'm like I would but I can't leave the country there's no way I'll for sure get arrested if I show up at the airport because I'm under quarantine so that there's no way so UFC said that they were going to try and get that lifted for me but it didn't happen and they ended up going with a different option so then just as I get out of quarantine hey do you want to fight half a L. Pisoa in like a week and a half I'm like okay well I'm going to go to the gym and I want to do it. My body probably really doesn't want me to do it. So I'm going to go to the gym and ask my

coaches. And I know they're both going to say go for it anyways. So I go to the gym and my coach puts me through this horrible, horrible conditioning thing, like just awful. And I did okay. I died after I was puking and just like laying on the ground. My head hurt so bad. Like I laid there for 45 minutes. You know, I couldn't sit up. And he's like, well, you know, your times were fine. You're everything looks okay so if you can go put in 15 minutes like that in in a fight you can die after so go ahead so i i took the fight i had three days in the gym and then i had to fly out on thursday even though the fight was the following saturday so i got three days in the gym it was the worst three days of training of my life it was so bad my coach just put me through the ring or twice a day

just to try and morph my body back into shape because like my body could remember what being in shape was like it was just two weeks ago but i had had two weeks of skip the dishes and beer so i uh it felt like i was giving birth like an alien out of my stomach like my stomach was like twisting it was horrible and then we we go to abu daby first we go to vegas we have to get a coronavirus test there before we can even go to abu daubi so we go there get the coronavirus test quarantine everybody's fine and then we get like a chartered flight top of Abu Dhabi from Vegas, which was awesome. Best flight I'd ever been on in my life.

I had like a sleeping pod and like any food on the menu, which actually had like a really good chef on board, could order anything. It was phenomenal. Get to Abu Dhabi. And I guess the flights were paid for by one of the royal families in Abu Dhabi because there was some, I don't know, princes or sheiks or whatever that were watching the fights live, like right next to the cage.

But there was obviously no audience there because of COVID. true audience, but there was like a few, you know, high status people there. Get to Abu Dhabi. Again, coronavirus test, quarantine. I give some laundry to get done and someone steals my shorts. That's a whole other thing. And then we have the coronavirus test several times throughout the week. Pretty much confined to a sliver of the island.

My corners are going out. And they did, there's a Formula One racetrack that goes through. part of the hotel and my cornerman went and said it was a blast. I didn't really want to do it because it was, I don't like to do stuff like that fight week. I don't know. I like to just kind of stay and stew in my anger and stuff like that and just be bitter about everything. I like to be miserable on fight week. It's just how I function. So I stayed at the hotel and ate for a few days before UFC's PI guys got there. They have Performance Institute people that cook you food kind of tailored. Like if somebody was cutting a bunch of weight,

they would weigh you and do all these tests and give you the food you needed to make weight. I don't have to make weight. So they give me some, just like big meals. A lot of mine had steak, lots of avocado rice and everything. But before the guy got there for a couple days, the hotel was just giving you food. Like you got a few meals a day for free from the hotel. They're pretty good. But I found the menu hilarious because it was like the UFC menu for the fighters.

And there was like, I don't know, probably eight options. It was like falafel burrito. ate a bunch of them, they're delicious. But I mean, if you're one of these little guys cutting weight, there's no way that would fly. There was a burger. I'm like straight up, who's getting this on my meat? There was a fish and veggies one that was actually delicious,

but it was smothered in like a cream sauce. Again, I can get away with this, but I'm putting up guys who are like in the smaller weight classes not being able to eat any of this stuff. There was a Tandori chicken pizza. Again, I ate a couple of them. Great, but it was a hilarious menu. And we can order that throughout the week.

So I did. My cornerman and one of my training partners, Teddy Ash, who wicked fighter as well. He ate, I swear there was a day where he ate like three of those damn pizzas. He at least had a pizza every single day. So he abused that menu a bit. Fight night. Again, everything goes well.

Felt sharp on fight night. Well, on fight day, one of their tests, my cornerman's test came back positive for Corona. they said that it was basically impossible because we were in this safe zone and everybody who comes in and out has to get tested and stuff but there's a false positives happen like quite frequently with it so then they retest them they come back negative but they have to retest them twice before they like allow it to go so and I'm starting to sweat like an hour and a half before I'm supposed to be downstairs getting ready to like go to the arena for the fight I'm like calling my manager and calling UFC and I'm like hey like

we we fighting or not like is what are what's my cornerings deal and if if they can't fight because they're staying in the same room if one of them's test comes back positive and i don't have any corner man is there someone there that can just like give me water in between rounds i guess like i don't know what's going to happen you know uh then no the test comes back negative we're good to go go downstairs we wrap our hands at the uh hotel it was a weird setup you had to wrap our hands there and then they bus us just not very far to their setup for where they were hosting the fights with the octagon there warm up there fight goes my way win by tk o in round two and uh yeah then the next day we go to the beach and drink some beer and um head home on another chartered flight that

was absolutely awesome so yeah it was uh all in all it was a whirlwind of a month filled with quarantines and stuff like that but also filled with uh couple good wins for me. So I got performance of the night and the second one. So that was, you know, a nice paycheck for me. So yeah, man. A healthy chunk of money in, performance of the night, eh? Yeah, it's 50 grand, which of course is awesome. Sounds awesome. When you factor in the fact that you have to pay taxes and your manager off a bit, suddenly it's like half of that. But I mean, that's still, that's still a great bonus for me to get. So yeah, it was pretty sweet. You know, you're a guy that has,

traveled a little bit while the COVID lockdown's been on. You've had to take the COVID test. What, well, are they as uncomfortable as everybody makes them out to be? Is it, I mean, you're the guy who takes, you know. The throat one is mildly uncomfortable and that like you're gagging because they have to swab the back of your throat, but no big deal. The nose one is really uncomfortable, but it lasts for half a second. So I don't, it sucks.

Like, you wouldn't want to do it. it, but I don't know how all these people are making it sound like it's the worst thing in the world. Like, it feels really weird and uncomfortable for half of a second. What have you been doing when you, I mean, like, you're a young guy. You come back. You just want to fight in Vegas. Let's start with bag. Well, either one. It doesn't even matter. You come back to Canada. And then you got to lock yourself in your apartment for two weeks by yourself. Yeah, that's what you got to do, which doesn't make any sense if you ask me, because we have abundant tests here.

Anybody can go get a coronavirus test at any time for any reason. So I don't know why you're not allowed to just go get a test and it come back negative and then you can go rejoin society. You should definitely have to quarantine until you get a test and it comes back negative. But I really don't understand why they can just give you a time out when there's ample tests available. But, you know, where we're at. It is right where we're at right now.

What is the, you know, NHL's in full steam right now with playoffs going on? What has the UFC's bubble been like? Is it been an interesting life once you're, you know, around where you're going to be fighting? You talk about the hotels and the menu. Like, is it, you know, enjoyable or is it just kind of not that big of a deal? Well, so for me, fight weeks never enjoyable anyways. How so? What do you mean? You're like stress or like? Yeah, you got a lot of pressure. You know, you're, you're going to try and fight somebody and try and kill them in a few days. You know, it's not like you're, it's a weird, it's a very weird feeling. And you're conscientious of that. You want to put everything good in your body. So the food is, you know, you can enjoy some food. In Vegas, you can, you could go about, you have to get tested a couple times and you have to get, you have to quarantine when you, you first get there until your test comes back and then you have to get tested after way-ins and

then you have to quarantine until the fight. But you can still get skipped dishes or Uber eats or whatever in Vegas. Abu Dhabi, we were a lot more restricted in what we could do. There was like a portion of Yaz Island that we were allowed to go around on and there's a few things to do, but I didn't really venture outside of the hotel until after the fight because it's super hot and I just, yeah, don't need to be doing anything. You're a polar bear from northern Alberta and you go to Abu Dhabi. Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah, it's hot, but it's, for a bit. And again, after the fight, I don't want to go outside and just get overheated. Everything you're doing on Fight Week, you've got to be really conscious of

if it's going to positively or negatively possibly affect your performance. You know, you talk about the stress of leading up to a fight. You know, MMA fighting or just fighting in general is different compared to all the major sports. Because the major sports, you think of like baseball, you get 162 games. You think of the NHL, you get 82 games, et cetera, et cetera. You know, for a guy yourself, what are you getting in a year? Three to five fights? Five is probably heavy.

Yeah, five is a busy schedule. Four is like a high average and three is I'd say normal. Yeah, two would be low normal. That's not even like odd. So like I get like that you get a couple of opportunities a year to either move up the ranks or fall down the ranks. And you talk about, you know, you get a win and all of a sudden you're everybody's favorite. But we all know the old son, like I mean, all it takes is the one punch to go the wrong way. and now everybody's shitting on you for the next freaking four months.

Oh, yeah. Do you enjoy that stress? Like you talk about your miserable guy for the week. Do you enjoy the lead up or after the fight? It's just nice. Thank God that's over. And we can go back to being in the gym training. And I can drink a beer or two and carry on.

Yeah, yeah. No, it's definitely you hit the nail on the head with after the fight. Like, oh, thank God that's over. Like it's a relief when you win. It's weird. you know you get you get excited later but at the moment you're like oh great like yeah i did it sweet you know uh big weight off your shoulders yeah um i thrive in it i do enjoy the pressure and i enjoy uh i enjoy the competition but at the same time like you know you're you're not upbeat like it's

going to be a fun time you know everybody you know tough part's done bro now it's the fun part give me a fucking break you know it's you're going in there fighting somebody who's trained specifically to try and kill you for a while, you know, kill you within the confines of a rule set and the referee stops it from happening. So, yeah, it's a different sport and you're right. You only get a few times a year. So the old adage, you know, if you're only as good as your last fight. So if you lose horribly, well, guess what? You suck until you go with a one or something. Yeah, it's odd. Plus a lot of stress financially because you're, The MMA pay scale for most guys, you get an amount to show and an amount to win.

And it's usually the same number. So if you make, just for example, if you make 20,000 to show, you make 20,000 extra if you win. Like, you're gambling on yourself a lot of money every single time. So it's a lot of risk financially. I mean, yeah, physically. But I don't think the physical thing is what a lot of guys worry about. The guys that are fighters aren't the guys who are worried about getting hurt. That's not a thing any of us care about.

You don't want to lose. You really don't want to lose for your status, your ranking, your paycheck. Losing affects you bad. And it's not really the physical damage that I think most guys are worried about. Well, hell. And can you imagine if the rest of sports you showed up to a hockey game and you're getting paid, like you say, 20, but you win, you get paid an extra 20? Frick, it would be mayhem out there.

I'd love to see it. I'd love to see it. Wouldn't that be something? I mean, one of the things about an 82 game regular season in the NHL is it just kind of gets boring in the middle, right? Because, I mean, if you're in the playoffs or in the playoffs, if you're not in the playoffs, whoopty-do, you're still making your 12 million, your 8 million, or whatever. Go to the NBA, you're 30 million, right? Like, for you guys, like, that's big incentive.

I hadn't really thought about it. You know, like, yeah, sure, showing up to the fight, you're getting a payday. but you win the fight, you're getting a bigger payday. You get fight of the night, you're getting a real payday. Yeah. How tough is that? You know, like go back to, like, not that many fights for a year. So it's really cool you're in the UFC, but it's not like all of a sudden,

hey, man, here's five million bucks, move down to Vegas, start training down here. Here's a house, blah, blah, blah, blah. It almost kind of feels, and, you know, to bring it back to kind of almost like a CFL feel. And I don't know if that's a good analogy or not. you're working your ass off to try and make it work. It's something you love. But it's not like you're making this huge enough money to where you can just do it full time,

or maybe now you can. Yeah, now I can. And by now I mean only after that second of those two fights we talked about. Because my pay went up after I beat Felipe Lins. I was on a four-fight deal. And I won my first one. I lost my second one. And then I won that one against Lins.

and then I accepted that fight on short notice and UFC asked if I wanted to renew my contract. So basically instead of letting me fight my fourth fight, because if I would have went and beat Pesua like I did, and I would have had like way more negotiating power. So they like to sign you with one fight left, kind of depending on where you're at, unless you're on a skid, maybe they let you fight it out.

But they re-signed me. I got a pretty good pay increase. and I was really happy with it. And only then, only in this last fight, do I feel like I don't need another job? You know, I was working in the clubs for years and years, just as like a bouncer and stuff. I obviously stopped when COVID started and the clubs closed,

but I'm not going to go back now. I don't have to. So now, yeah, now I'm doing it technically professionally where I don't need another job to supplement it, at least at the moment. How many years? and you're what, 29, so you've been going out at eight years, roughly? 21 when you started?

Yeah, coming up on eight years right away. Man, that's putting in your time. I mean, I know you're a young guy in the heavyweight division for sure. But, I mean, still, like eight years, most people would be like, after three, nah, we'll just carry on. I can't make a living at this. Yeah, at the start, it wasn't about making a living. it's just what I wanted to do and what I wanted to try doing, you know?

At the start, yeah, I wasn't making hardly anything at all. When you're fighting your first few fights, you're not making, you're making like a few hundred bucks, you know, for the most part. I did need those paydays as well, like working as a bouncer wouldn't have got me by by itself either. They both needed each other. So, but I mean, I was like, only working as a bouncer because I wanted to be a fighter. Otherwise, I would have done something else.

But yeah, it took a while for anything to really pay off, but it was what I wanted to do and what I wanted to try. And I just wanted to, you know, see how good I could get and stuff. And it's still about that. It's still about, it's still about seeing if I can, you know, get good, get better. But now at least I can see a little bit of financial reward. And yeah, it took a long time. but oh well. No, it's super, it's super cool to see and actually hear you talk about it.

I know from listening to some interviews, like you got a background in karate from when you were young. Like obviously you were into martial arts as a kid. Was this always something you wanted to do? Like growing up, you know, were you watching MMA and where you're like, man, maybe I could try my hand at this?

Or when did that actually become like, yeah maybe I should try this uh I'd say when I was in high school I really started following UFC a lot and I started watching I started watching the fights regularly yeah in high school and at some point there I think it was it was when leotomy did us kind of bursted onto the UFC scene and he started winning and he won the belt he was a karate guy and I was like you know maybe I could do that you know and then yeah I wanted to try it so um took me a little while to get serious about anything after high school, but I eventually gave it a shot.

I've heard you mention too. You pretty much live in a fight camp, and you'd take a fight at any time. What does that mean? I pretty much live in a fight camp. A lot of guys have a fight camp. So if they have a fight in eight weeks, they'll do an eight-week camp or a six-week camp,

and it depends on the fighter. Some guys need it longer. Some guys have a short camp and everything's geared just towards that individual fight. But I train really hard year-round. I train twice a day constantly, and it's pretty rare that I take a day off. I mean, I take Saturdays off every week, but I mean, I train six days a week, and it's rare that I miss a day for anything. So at any given time, I can take a fight.

I'm pretty much always ready to fight. Of course, when I have noticed, it's great, and I'll peek at a certain time, and I can really focus and get in like razor sharp by then. But I'm pretty much good to go whenever. So it's been advantageous for me. I've taken short notice fights a lot. And are you never concerned, you know, we go back to the not many fights in the year.

So on one hand, it's like, I'll take the opportunities that are given to you. On the other hand, it's like if you fuck up the opportunity because you're not prepared. But then again, that's why you live in a constant fight camp, I suppose. Yeah, plus,

plus if your next fight's not booked, it's not guaranteed. What's to say you can't fight, even if something goes wrong, even if you lose, maybe you still fight at the same time you would have anyways. It's still an extra payday in my mind. You have to be more conscientious of that thing. Maybe when you get high up in the rankings or something, but not really something I've had to worry about. So, yeah, it's just, it's not for everybody, I guess,

but it's kind of my style. It's been my MO the whole time, and I'm not about to change it. I've had different professional athletes on and I always enjoy their first pro experience. Do you remember your first pro fight? Barely. Do you remember, like, was there a rush there? You know, the crazy thing is I watch your last two fights and when you win, it's like there's, you know, probably relief like we talked about. But like it's not like you're jumping over the fence.

and I don't even know COVID stipulations, it looks like you can't do a whole hell of a lot. But you're not like losing your mind excited. Is that something that started right from the beginning? Or in the beginning when you got your first win where you like, hell yeah, it's on. When I got my first win, I passed out and got stretched out of the arena.

So like I said, I don't really... What? Yeah, I was, I had no business being in. in my first fight. I was a fat kid. I was 21 years old training with my buddies and thought I knew what I was doing for some reason. And by training with my buddies, I mean, barely. And I fought this guy, he never fought again, but he was enormous. He was just jacked and I was fat. And he beat the shit out of me for two and a half rounds. But he couldn't quite finish me. And he got so tired from beating the shit out of me on the ground.

He would take me down and just wail on me. And I couldn't do anything. But I could survive somehow. I don't know. Like cover up, pull him close, try and get up, not working. I'm just getting my ass kicked. I don't know any grappling at this point. Only a little bit of striking.

And even then, I actually don't. I only think I do. You know, so I just got fucking annihilated. And then in the middle of round three, he was like so exhausted on top of me hitting me that he kind of slowed down and I was able to just sweep him and get on top and sweeps the jiu-jitsu term really what I did was use all of the strength I had left to just muscle him over and get on top of him and then I got mount on him and I sat there dropping pillows

on his face but he was too tired to block anything and I looked at my brother in the corner and my brother just did this and he like made a punching motion and I I hit him one time hard and it he kind of like he kind of made a sound like oh or something like that and the ref said got to defend yourself fighter and I was like oh my fucking god I can win so I just like I used everything hitting him with fucking marshmallows these punches were not doing anything but he couldn't block them and and the in the rules if you're not intelligently defending yourself the ref will stop the fight so the ref's like you got to defend yourself fighter like i'm going to stop the fight i'm going to stop the fight you have to defend yourself he didn't want to but this guy couldn't block he couldn't block anymore

and the ref like looked at his cornerman and he's like i'm sorry and he stopped the fight and and i i got up i put my hands up i walked to my corner and i'm like i can't breathe i can't breathe and my brother is like trying to hold me up and my dad my dad was watching but he came into the ring to help me up because my brother's smaller than me and he couldn't hold me up and then i just passed out i don't remember and they put me on a stretcher and i got wheeled to the back when i woke up i had i vs and me and and i was laying there i hooked up two ivs and so was my my opponent was laying on the floor they were inside and just a fucking mess yeah so that was my first pro fight.

It was like, I won just because I was tough enough and I didn't give up, but I really had no business being in there. So for my second fight, I actually got into okay shape, at least for the time. Like, I thought it was okay shape, nowhere near anything. Good enough like now, obviously not even anywhere in the ballpark. But I got better. I won my second fight pretty well. And then after that, I moved to the city to train with like a,

pro team because I'm like I'm I'm pushing my luck if I keep just fighting out of Bonneville you know so I moved Tedmonton that's a story man that's a great story I can't believe you got you win the fight and you get stretched out that's that's amazing yeah it was actually really stupid but it went and I had my little brother in my corner and he had uh he he it was his only MMA fight but he had Victor Valamaki and Tim Hague who are two former UFC fighters who are pretty big names around the city he had them in his corner and he was going to be this big up and coming heavyweight I actually know the guy he's a good dude he's actually like a buddy of

mine now I met him again years later but yeah he beat the shit out of me for the better part of three rounds I just came out with the wind somehow and got lucky oh you have me in tears over here That's good stuff. You know, you guys, so you're in the profession of fighting. You go around, you hop in the ring, you beat the crap out of somebody. They try and beat the crap out of you. You know, in hockey, you got the guys on ice that drop the mitts.

But they're always nice guys. You know, you're such a, you're an easy guy to talk to. Do you go with any of the other fighters that have you ever gone with guys you fight for beers after? Like, is there anything like that? or is it very much, no, no, we don't, we don't, because at some point we're going to have to throw down again. I don't even know if it's because of like,

at some point you're going to have to throw down again. I would have beers with someone I fought like later, later. Like I said that, like I fought that first time. We've had some beers and like ate sushi and stuff together. He's a good dude. But it would be years later. I wouldn't go for beers right after a fight. Somebody lost.

And you as the winner shouldn't want to, like, rub it in that person's face unless you personally hate them, you know? So I don't know. It would be kind of conceded, in my opinion, for the winner of a fight to, like, try and have a beer with the loser. And it would also be weak of the loser to want to hang out with the winner. They should feel bad. You know, I'm not about this. Some guys like to say, oh, your winner, you learn. You know, it's just a fight.

I don't know, man. It's a little more than that to me. And if your mentality is you win or you learn, you're just giving yourself a cop out. If you can take the glory and the good feeling that comes with a win, then you've got to take the shit that comes with losing. So I would never, I can't think of a scenario where I would want to have. If I bumped into someone I fought, we're both having a beer, you might say, hey, man, good fight and cheers it.

But I'm not going to like go hang out with a guy and have beers with them after a fight, regardless of if I beat him or if I lost. I just don't want to see him after that. Yeah, I don't think I don't think anybody really wants to go sit and have a beer with somebody they fought moments after. I mean, hockey players are pretty weird that way, but I was more meaning out of a...

Hockey is a game, and I get that they're both a sport. But if you beat somebody in a game, it's not the same as if you, like, beat somebody up in front of the whole world. It's not the same thing. Yeah, I'll give you that. I'll give you that. it's so i was just yeah more of like a respect thing but no when you put it that way i get it and you live in a live and die in a sport that uh man you don't have like you talk about you can't learn

from losses well that's because of your oh and 10 you don't got a career right like you you can learn like i'm saying there there's this thing that that fighters like to say it and I guess people and everything like to say it. Like you win or you learn. Like, yeah, you can learn if you lose. You can also still learn if you win. And maybe you learn more from the odd loss and stuff. And you can really, really fix some stuff and come back better.

But it's just a weak mindset is what I'm getting at, though. You win or you learn saying, I hate it. You win or you lose. It's a very new age saying. We, yeah. But I just go back. to you're not in a sport where you get 82 cracks at it where you can lose a bunch and, you know, learn some lessons and carry on. Like, you get, you know, three to five cracks a year

and be way better to be winning and learning then on the losing end over and over again. Hell, you're in the UFC. You lose too much. You're not going to be there very long. Nope. Three is the magic number for most guys. You lose three in a row. You're gone. You lose two in a row. you might be gone. You never know. So yeah, it's pretty cutthroat. It ain't about learning, man. It's about winning. You know, I wanted to ask you, you've, before you're at the UFC, you've traveled a lot of different places and fought a lot of different places. I've heard you talk about Kazakhstan and Russia, Australia, like going and fighting all over the world, it's got to be a pretty cool experience. I was wondering, you know, I played hockey.

in different parts of the world. As far as fighting goes, are the crowds better somewhere? Do you even care about the crowd? Yep, the crowds are better in actually everywhere. Everywhere. Really? Yes. They, of course, when you fight in Russia or something,

they will cheer for the Russian. At no point will most countries defect from their home guy. North Americans are unique and that they might, but everywhere else, just cheers for their guy. But they're respectful. They won't boo you unless you do something like rude, like if you gave the guy the middle finger or something. But they might be quiet when you walk out. You're not going to get booze, though. And in countries like Russia and Kazakhstan that you named, there's no guy in the crowd yelling stupid shit, whereas there's that

guy, there's a hundred of that guy in Canada, the U.S., even Australia. You get that guy like, kick him in the dick, you know, that fucking idiot out in the crowd, and you hear that idiot, man. He thinks he's being funny, but fuck, these guys are so stupid. You know, heaven forbid, you're fucking grappling. It's like, hey, it looks like they're 69. And, you know, you hear that guy scream, you hear that guy, knee, and they're on the ground. Fucking how.

Like, there's these stupid assholes. and they don't seem to exist in most countries. It's a very, you know what? I don't even want to say North American. I bet those guys are in the UK as well. But yeah, in Russia, in Eastern Europe, no. Is it just as you can understand them? No, they're not yelling stuff.

They're not yelling stuff. No, like if they're very encouraging and the respectful, they're like reverent of it, they really appreciate the sport. Same with Asia. In Asia, they're very, I don't want to say they're like educated fans, but maybe because they'll like clap for a guard pass. You know, like they appreciate what's going on and they're not just, they're not just that drunken guy double fisting in the crowd yelling at the rep to stand them up or getting mad when the guys aren't just standing their toe on the line and dropping bombs on each other. So of course that's exciting.

I like to watch that. I mean, I get, I'll love watching a fight if two guys just stand there and bang it out. But you got to understand that that's not the most intelligent way to go about it most of the time. So, yeah, I mean, of course, if I'm fighting in Canada, the crowd's going to be on my side. So, I mean, I don't have to worry about it. But there's always some douchebags in the crowd in any English-speaking countries. Like, the crowds are very different in Eastern Europe and in Asia than they are here. How about the, like, the event center where it happens in those countries?

Have you had like a cool experience where it's like, we're going to fight in there? Like that, that's pretty cool. We, well, I fought in a Manchester, Manchester Arena or Manchester Stadium or whatever the big one is in the UK.

That was like a cool place to fight, you know? Just a really huge, really cool venue. How many people in that venue? It wasn't full, man. It wasn't even close.

I was for ACB. There was like a lot of people in there. I don't know how many its seats, and I couldn't guess for you how many people were in there. But it was just a cool place to fight. The arena in Kazakhstan was pretty cool, but I couldn't tell you what it was. St. Petersburg, I had a pretty decent arena. Yeah, I mean, it's just cool being able to go to a lot of countries and places that I definitely wouldn't have otherwise. been able to go to. I liked experiencing the culture and the food and fighting in foreign places.

I definitely am happy that I got to do those things. Yeah. Well, I mean, to go to so many different places and get to chuck the knots or do what you love, right? Like, I mean, very few people get to experience that. And you've, like I say, you've got to go to several different places. I'm sure everybody around this area is wondering if the UFC is going to bring you home so everybody can watch you in Eminton. I know you're scheduled to and then that kind of fell through right at the start. And now with COVID going on, I mean, who knows if that's going to happen anytime soon. How difficult was it to have your first UFC fight scheduled and then postponed? I was bummed.

It wasn't just like, it wasn't just... like postponed with notice. I was about to weigh in. It was the night before weigh-ins when I got the call that that idiot tested positive for some sort of steroid and that my fight was off. It was too late, too late for them to find an opponent for me. Because, again, the weigh-ins were the following morning. So, yeah, that sucked.

I was really bummed. But UFC was good enough to pay me my show money, at least for that fight. And I got my Reebok money. so I wasn't like broke after because I was worried about it. I really needed that payday. So I got that. And then I ended up fighting in October. So that was like three months later than when I was supposed to fight.

Yeah, it sucked. And I still hate that guy. Oh, well. And what are you going to do? Yeah. As for fighting in Edmonton, I would love to. I would love to fight anywhere in Canada now. I haven't fought in Canada for USC yet because of that one.

I fought Boston. I fought in South Korea. And then I fought in Vegas in the Apex Center with no crowd because of COVID and then in Abu Dhabi. So I'm, I couldn't guess for you when anything is going to go back to normal. I mean, you know how it is. Everybody's really worried about stuff right now. So who knows? Might be yours.

who how how different of an environment is it to have no fans like oh it's different it's it's eerie you walk in i mean you have your walkout music but it's quiet you know people aren't cheering or booing or anything so it's yeah it's weird but i function fine in it i function fine either way. Your brain filters out what you need to hear. You know, sometimes you use the crowd's reaction as to how hard your perceived shot might have been. Sometimes you hit someone in the face and the crowd's reaction is such that you know, maybe, maybe you know it didn't actually hurt that guy that bad, but it must have looked bad. So that's good for the judges, you know, like you, your brain kind of takes these things into account. And I only hear the guys yelling the stupid

stuff for the most part when I'm not fighting, you know, when I'm watching fights or something like that. Your brain might hear it, but it doesn't really affect you, at least not me. With nobody there, though, it's kind of like you're sparring, like the same atmosphere. When you're sparring hard, you're going hard, there's your coaches and a couple training partners watching. So it's reminiscent of that. Either way, I'm, you know, I'm happy to have a crowd, of course, and I'm happy to fight just for, you know, people at home watching on TV. Either way, I'm getting paid and I'm there to fight somebody so that's that's my job well hell there's a lot of people watching there's nothing else right like we can't do anything else but uh it'd be i mean i'm sure for you to have a packed building and

the place just rocking like i assume that's got to be like the best yeah i mean it's uh it's a good feeling i've only fought early on cards for ufc with uh crowd i mean obviously i fought in front of crowds before, but I've never fought in like a packed UFC level crowd. You know, here are in Edmonton for Unified. Our fights would be at like the River Cree or something like that. So it's not a huge venue. And for ECB and M1, fighting in Russia and Kazakhstan, they were in big places with a decent amount of people, but it's still not the same as like a packed UFC stadium or something.

but when I fought in Boston I was the first fight of the night so I mean it was like a half full like no one's there yet you know and in Korea we were a few fights in we weren't right at the start or anything yeah there was a lot of people in Korea and the atmosphere is pretty cool so I mean I guess we'll see maybe sooner or later I'll have a big fight and it'll be on in front of a live crowd at a bigger venue but again that's all up in the air so oh well how about uh you know a good walkout tune everybody enjoys how you pick yours you got a you got a system or is it uh something you've used for a long time or uh i changed my walkout song every fight and it's usually a song that uh for

of all, I like my walk-out music to be kind of calm, kind of slower myself. I get, I get hyped up from weird stuff, but I like the lyrics to pertain somehow to my fight, at least in my mind. It might be very abstract. It might not be cut and dry, but I pick a song that for some reason, to me, lyrically pertains to that individual fight. So what are some of the songs you picked? My last fight I walked out to Motorcycle by Coulter Wall.

Oh, Coulter Wall, man. That's a good pick. Yeah. Time before that, I walked out to Fur by Blitz and Trapper. In Korea, I walked out to from here on out by the killers. And then in Boston, I walked out to Son of Man by Phil Collins. I think. Interesting choices.

Those are some different across the board, I guess. Yeah. Well, we got a segment here, the Crude Master Final Five. It's the last kind of just five, hit them questions. But before we get there, what is next for you? Do you know yet? Yeah, I'm fighting Andre Arlobski, November 7th. And where is that going to be at?

No idea. No idea. They don't tell you where it's, when will you find that on? Well, they usually do, but right now my contract even says, like, in a location to be determined. I don't know when I'll find out. They're still putting together where they can and can't have shows as the COVID regulations change from state to state. Yeah, no kidding. Well, fair enough.

Okay. How about how can people follow you? Social media, that kind of thing. I'm sure you're, well, I know you're on Twitter, but if you're on other things. Yep. Yep, at Bulldozer Bozer on Twitter and Instagram, Tanner, the Bulldozer Bozer on Facebook. Cool. Well, let's get to our Recruitmaster Final Five.

Shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonald, huge supporters of the podcast since the very beginning. Your first one, if you could sit down for a beer, kind of like we're doing with any one of your choice, who would you want? Dude, I suck at stuff like this. I have not given this. Shit, I don't know. You know, if you keep going the way you're going, I wonder if you're going to be sitting. across from Mr. Rogan at some point. That'd be pretty fucking cool to watch.

Sure. I'll answer that with Joe Rogan. I bet he doesn't drink beer. He's pretty health conscious, but I'll have a beard. He can have a joint. That's a lie. I think he has a, fuck, I'm scrambling on that name again, but he had, well, he got high with the one guy and they talked for four hours, and they were drinking Bud Lights.

Yeah. Oh, did he? Yeah. All right. Well, there you go. I'll say Joe Rogan. I'm sorry, I don't have any heroes or anything like that. I bet it. You don't have any heroes? You don't have any like a mentor in fighting? Again, I looked up to Leoto Machito when I was young, but that dude drinks his own piss every

morning, so I don't think I'll sit down a cross room and have a beer. How about this? If you could party with one person, who would you want? Dude, I don't even party. I drink beer. Like, that's what I do. I like play beersby with my buddies. I don't, I don't know. I don't look up. I don't care about celebrity or I don't even know who I think is cool how about I say Colter Wall because I was just talking about his music he seems like a chill dude that'd be uh that'd be

all right he's got a fucking wicked sound man oh yeah I love that guy love his music uh well how about a COVID hobby you've been locked up an awful lot what the hell have you been doing for two weeks at a time to keep your mind uh you know going I play a lot of Pokemon Go Pokemon Go?

Yep. Really? Why Pokemon Go? I've been playing it since I came out. I love Pokemon. I've played every game that ever came out since I was like eight or whatever. That's awesome. Oh, man. Here is the big heavyweight, the bulldozer, and he plays Pokemon. That's sweet. Yeah, man.

What's one place you want to fight at that you haven't been? Japan. Why Japan? Japan is kind of the, it's where a lot of martial arts had their beginnings, not all. You know, wrestling came from other parts of the world, like Greece and stuff, and boxing came from, I guess, the UA, kind of. But a lot of martial arts, many, many martial arts came from Japan. So it's kind of like the home ground for.

for martial arts as we know them. And I think it would be cool to fight there. And, you know, it was kind of karate being my background. It would just be neat. Oh, I got you. I got you. Well, since you're a beer drinker and you just like to have a few beers, for the fifth one, what's maybe your beer of choice or a beer that's surprise you?

Because you've been a ton of different countries, which means you've got to have some fantastic beer from all over the world. What's one that stuck out? A beer that stuck out from somewhere else in the world? You know, they got good beer everywhere, but the thing about Europe is that they have beer from a lot of other countries. So I'm trying to think of, like, where I had a beer that was brewed there. Kazakh beer was pretty good.

Kazakh beer was fine. Obviously, the UK's got good beer. I couldn't tell you the names of the beers I had there. I could tell you the one from Kazakhstan, though. It was called Beer Khan. And it was like Genghis Khan, but Beer Khan. I'll even show you the can. Hold on.

I got that somewhere over here. Yeah. Check that baby. That's friggin sweet, man. Yeah. So that's, I'll go with Kazakhstan just for the novelty of the beer. Well, man, appreciate you hopping on with me. It's been super cool to meet you, hear a little bit of your story. I wish you had nothing but success here in the future. And we'll be watching for your November fight and kick some ass.

Yeah, thanks a lot, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Super cool, man. If you're ever through Lloyd Minster, you make sure you drop me a line. I'd love to get you in the studio and feed you a couple of bariskeys. Yeah, sounds good, man. Thanks. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Can I give a show? Shout out to some sponsors, quick, too. Oh, shit. Yeah, yeah, fire away. Let's do that. My sponsors are Paul Petal Services, PPS.

I've been sponsored me for a long time, so thanks to him. Thanks to Paul. Thanks to BBN Consulting and Premier Build Garages. And also Mealcraft for helping me stay in shape. So thank you to my sponsors. Hey, folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down.

to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time.