Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 44 Amateur Canadian Lightweight Champ - Andrew Mavridis

Episode Date: November 20, 2019

MMA fighter Andrew Mavridis joined me in studio to discuss his upcoming Pro debut this December. He currently is 7-0-0 which has earned him the title of Amateur Canadian Lightweight Champ. He fights out of Lloydminster's Fight Farm operated by Garrett Tepper. We discuss his journey to this point, training and what the future holds.  Best of luck to him.

My name is Andrew Mavridis and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Factory Sports. With senior hockey in full swing now. I know the boys are traveling all over the place. If you need anything, sticks, tape, gloves, wax, skate sharpening, new visors, stop in. Factory Sports, Farnity 9-0-3-49th have downtown Lloyd Minster. They'll get you hooked up.

They're open Monday through Saturday, 9 to 6 p.m. Sundays, now that it's winter in hockey swings and full swing, they're open 10 to 3 p.m. So make sure you stop in and see the boys at factory sports. They'll get you hooked up with whatever you guys need. Should also mention team apparel. I mean, hats, jackets, hoodies, jerseys, socks. They got it all there. Next, fountain tire. Well, what crazy weather we're having right now. Now it's like melting, but on Saturday it was a bloody skating rink. And I just keep thinking, I know there's you guys out there that still got your summer slicks on, haven't got your tires. I just talked to a buddy who was on his way to get his tires changed over.

Well, now's as good a time as anyway. Stop in and see Kent and the boys down at Fountain Tire. They're open Monday through Friday, 7.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday's 9 to 1 p.m. They're closed Sundays. Give them a call, 780875. 62 67. I really appreciate the support from Fountain Tire and Kent. They're helping, you know, they're such a community involved company. They just supported the Holman Rink. Helmonds got

Hockey Day in Saskatchewan coming, which is going to see the North Battleford, North Stars, who are now the number one ranked Junior A team in all of Canada. That is January 18th. They're going to take on the Notre Dame Hounds. And yes, that is helpful. happening in Hillmont, Saskatchewan, at little old Hillmont rink. And thanks Fountain T. Kent Stanoforth for helping all the communities around and being a big supporter. So episodes also brought to you by T-Bar-1 Transport. If you need anything, heavy haul, winch trucks, oversized, tank moving pickers, they got it.

They'd had that fire a few weeks back. They're back up and rolling. I was just talking to the boys today, and they had a logo to Thunder Bay of all. places. So they had to get all the permits and everything done for that. These guys can handle it. If you need anything, move, give them a call. 780, 205, 1709. They'll get you hooked up. All right. Today's guest is Andrew Mavritus. He is currently ranked number one in Canada, amateur men's lightweight division with a record of 7-0-0. He is born and raised here in Lloydminster. He fights out of the fight farm gym under Coach Garrett Tepper.

He has his first pro-MMA fight coming up here in December, December 6th to be exact, in Edmonton at the River Cree. And so sat across from him and just talked a little bit about the upcoming fight, his journey into the sport, his mindset, what he's doing training-wise, had a lot of fun sitting across from him. He is a really cool, unique guy, and so I think you guys are really going to enjoy this one. So without further ado. Welcome to Sean Newman Podcast. I have Andrew Mavridis with me.

He is a current 7-0 amateur national lightweight champion. Sure. Is that about right? And going for your first professional fight here in December 6th. Yes, I am. And I assume you've got to be like jacked up about that. Yeah, I've wanted to make that pro jump for a few fights now. But just got to listen to the coach when the time's ready.

So on this show, we always kind of go back to the beginning. I want to kind of get to know you because honestly, before I trained a very, very short time with Garrett and Fight Farm, I heard your name. But before that, I'd never heard your name before. And for a lot of Lloyd Minster people, I'm going to assume, unless they know you personally or into MMA, have probably never heard anything about you either. Sure. So I thought maybe we'd kind of go back. You're originally from Lloydminster then? Yeah, born and raised, yep.

Born and raised. And have you always been into MMA, Jiu-Jitsu, that kind of thing? Or what did you do in your younger days? Younger days, basically almost ever sport except hockey. I doubt I've ever put a pair of skais on. I couldn't tell you. Okay. Just my dad's from Greece.

Oh, okay. So he came here when he was like 27 years old. Um, hockey was never his, in his realm. It doesn't like the winter. Kind of grew up that way, right? Doesn't like winter. Yeah, he moved to Prairieland, Saskatchewan. And, uh, so I grew up playing soccer.

Um, um, recesses at school, we play like a little more contact soccer. So it was always a little bigger into the contact sport. So then I got to high school and I played football. Soccer in wintertime at recess is the best. contact because you got a little cushion when you call right yeah yeah i'm sure we can not be the only kids who ever did that yeah it's classic game classic schoolyard game and then uh uh dabbled volleyball basketball uh wasn't really ever the best at any of those other sports yeah honestly um a couple of us uh sorry um a couple of us tried to petition for like a wrestling program um at holy

grocery. Oh, okay. But there was a hat, like, maybe three or four of us, so we really didn't get that doing. How many do you need to have in order to get a wrestling program? From what I remember, it wasn't the numbers. It was because there's a lot of weight cutting in wrestling, like you have to fall into certain weight classes. Correct.

And I think that's their excuse why we couldn't have it at a Catholic school. Is weight cutting? Is the weight cutting and, like, the damage it does. Is the excuse they gave? I'm not sure if I'm just pulling it out of my ass or what, but I remember my gym coach, my gym teacher saying that is why we couldn't have a wrestling program. So I just played football.

That seems a bit odd, doesn't it? Yes and no, but the weight cuts, you know, understanding it now, I kind of look back, I'm like, oh, I guess, but I don't know. I don't know if there was no qualification to teach a wrestling program at the school. Did you ever try and go outside of school, like to a program in town? I didn't I wasn't really I wasn't really into karate

Like the other martial arts Yeah yeah Yeah there's just Something missing for me right Like I studied them I grew up watching You know karate Kung Fu

Ninja Turtles All that stuff right Who was you a Bruce Lee fan then It's more of a Jackie Chan Jackie Chan Jackie Chan movies I love I don't think I've ever seen a Bruce Lee movie Honestly

Um Jet Lee I like Jet Lee movies. Oh, yeah, jet lee. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess more, I was thinking, I say Bruce Lee, but I didn't grow up watching Bruce Lee either.

I grew up watching guys portray Bruce Lee. Sure, yeah, yeah, like Enter the Dragon, that kind of thing. Yeah. Mr. Nice guy, Jackie Chan was one of my favorite movies. I like the comedy side of it as well. Yeah. I hate when fight movies are too serious

because it's being now in the fight game, I know none of that stuff really works. Yeah. So it's just the, um, takes me out of the movie a little bit, right? If it's just a comedy, yeah, of course, do a backflip and kick, you know, stuff like that. Can you do a backflip and kick out?

No. Not yet, anyways. There's the kid at my gym. I think he could, actually. So then what, like, at what point does it draw you in then? Like, how do you stumble into or where you're searching out, you talk about, like, in high school, trying to, you know, maybe wrestling program, that kind of thing. So obviously it always appealed to you.

but at some point you find the fight for him then? So I think I was 15 years old. Turned on Spike TV one day and there's these two guys in a cage throwing bones at each other and I haven't stopped watching it since. Really? UFC Unleash. Oh yeah.

So who's your favorite guy right now? Right now? I mean, it depends what you're looking for. Do you want a straight-up brawler? What do you like? What do I like? I like success. I like when fighters achieve greatness.

You like GSP? I like GSP. His mind, his coaching, everything. I liked Connor McGregor's route. He achieved greatness. Ronda Rousey achieved greatness, right? People hate on them. I don't care.

I like it. It inspires me to take what they did, take pieces of that and put it towards my career. Right? I don't care. I don't care. So what piece do you take out of Ronda Rousey? What did she do that sticks out to you? Hmm. Because that's, I mean, a lot of people watched her ascend to great. Ascend and they fall. Yeah, yeah.

So you just don't, I'm not speaking ill of Ronda Rousey. I mean, she could probably kick my butt. I don't like. I'll put you at ease. She could kick my butt pretty easy. I'm not too worried about it. To achieve what she's done. And for me to critique it, that's just nonsense. But, like, I wasn't a fan of when she got knocked out by Holly home, head kicked.

Head kicked. And then just disappeared, right? Nobody likes that. You want to see your fighter bounce back. You want to, like, hockey teams or football teams, if they got their butt kicked, you know, 47-0-n-0-4-0-0-hockey, they don't disappear for a year. They're like, oh, well, we have another game tomorrow. Yeah. Right.

Just get that next fight over with. Just get back on the track. What did Murray McDonnell say on? Had Murray McDonnell. He was instrumental in the rugby program in Lashburn. Okay. And when Lashburn initially started their rugby program, they were going up against the big cities.

So Amundon, I don't know, out in Saskatoon, Regina, etc. And they got spanked. And they got spanked bad. But he didn't call him loss. He called them learnings. Right? And then they went on to beat those teams over and over and over again, Little Town Lashburn, right? So I see what you're saying.

Yeah, I also don't like that term either. No, you don't like learning. Winner you learn? Like, you can learn just as much from winning, right? That's true. Seems, I don't know. It seems like a cop-out to me, right? It's a positive spin on the-

Sure, yeah, I get it, right? Just take your loss, suck it up. I don't think it gets, you can't have a taste in your mouth for losing. You don't ever want to lose. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's a way to get back on the saddle. Cushing the blow. That's right.

It's a very millennial, very millennial term that I'm not fond of. But that's okay. I've never got clasped in with millennials. All right. Interesting. Yeah. So you turn on 15. You see the TV.

You go, this is awesome. But you don't start until you're 24. So what do you do for nine years? I just keep watching the sport. I am from Lloyd so I know the whole tough guy persona that's been around Lloyd and I kind of did my best to avoid that for as much as I could. Being 18, you know, go to the bar, you see all these fights and you just see all these tough guys in their tap out with shirts, their affliction and stuff. And just like, I just don't want to be that guy, right? So it took me a long time to just or it was the evolution of the sport as well.

because that's kind of what the UFC kind of was back then too was the tap out shirt the tough guys you know um so i don't know if i evolved as well as the sport evolved to where now it's kind of like still martial arty right like i think so a lot of respect a lot of bowing a lot of you know touching fist before the rounds um and then yeah just one day i was like i found out garrett had his fight for farm place there and nothing in my martial arts journey has been harder than walking through those doors the first time so and what do you mean by that uh like the the the essentially the balls you have to do to walk into a fight gym um i see why like most people feel intimidated by walking into it because i've had that same intimidation you just think it's a bunch of meatheads

throwing down and just bloody noses and all that stuff right and then you walk in there And there's jokes, there's laughs. It's more of a building up than a beating down environment. So definitely. Well, the nice thing where Garrett always talks about family and doesn't want attitude to get in the way. Yeah. In my time there, there's maybe been a couple tough guys. Like walking through the door, like you can tell a little streetfighter type guys.

Like, oh, I'm tough. And they get humbled pretty quick. like no malice yeah you know but some people are better fighters than them and they don't like that and you don't see them sticking around so well you should know firsthand the longer you're in and around jujitsu specifically because that's one i can speak to when you roll with a newbie like myself yeah i can do much and i'm full of piss and vinegar per se sure but it doesn't amount to much when you're rolling with the couple of times i rolled on the mat with gary and he just, I'm sure he's just laughing in his brain.

I mean, I'm sure fighters don't laugh, but you know what I mean, right? Like, he can just feel what you're trying to do, and he's got 12 different ways to get around everything you're doing and expand no energy. Yeah, and I mean, the only detriment to that or, like, the negative aspect of that is if he's not helping you get better. He's supposed to. Oh, absolutely.

That's what I mean, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you walked into a fight gym and you mop the floor with, Garrett, they'd be like, there's none. There's some fishy here, right? It's not real martial arts. And it's something Garrett used to talk about too because he's been in the game for almost 30 years now, right?

So I've had conversations with him and he's, well, kind of was like me, but with less information. So he would go, he took karate, he took Taekwondo, he took all these different, a little bit of judo, right? trying to find what martial art was the best, right? Because that's what people did back then. And that was kind of a breeding ground for the UFC, right? So see which one is the best.

And then it turns out it's a little bit of everything. Yeah, a little mixture. Yeah. Having a tool belt per se. Sure, yeah. Yeah. Got to keep those tool sharp. So you walk through the doors.

You finally convince yourself to walk through the doors. Yep. You remember the day? Like was it? I just in the summertime. Just said, all right, I'm going. Yep. I'm doing this.

And he told me, he's like, cool, you miss class, come back. I think it was the day after or, you know, a couple days later. Bring him off piece, bring shorts, t-shirt. Yes, sir. So what was your favorite part or all of it? Well, what he asked me? He's like, so what do you want to do? It's like, I want to become a fighter.

It's like, okay. It's like, I want to be an MMA fighter. because back then it was a little more oriented around boxing it was around the time there was a lot of proving grounds a lot of tough men's did you ever do any of those I had to do one I had to do one I had to yes

part of Garrett's curriculum okay he gave me yeah okay he gave me a curriculum he's like you want to how to fight you want him to be an MMA fighter box for a year so I did boxing for a whole year took a tough man up an onion lake won that and then he told me to buy shing guards so I started kickbox

And all this time I'm doing our wrestling classes or jiu-sac classes, right? Not really competing in tournaments. It took me a couple, about over a year, too, maybe, a year and a half before I got my first jiu-suitary tournament. And then I started kickboxing, competing in a couple of kickboxing tournaments, a couple of jihisi tournaments. Can we go back? So you start, you walk in, he says, do boxing for a year. Yes. So you're at the fight for him doing strictly boxing.

For one year, yeah. For one year. Then you roll up north to Onion Lake. Was there a ton of people at the Proving Rounds? Yeah, it was. I think it was in our high school. I think it was. Okay.

Yeah, it was all right. Yeah. I had a few guys from our gym. Do you remember how many, like how many fights you had to do? Just one fight. Just one fight. There's just one fight. One three-round fight.

Each round was one minute long. Okay. And I was just in better shape the guy. Like, guys probably just walked off the street. I'm not lying to you. So. Still, gotta be

adrenaline rolling at that point. Oh, yeah. I was super nervous for that fight. Real nervous. Don't know why. I mean, it's,

yeah. Well, I guess it's still combat, but I don't see it as a fight anymore. It's only, what did you wear in your hands were they,

16-ounce boxing gloves. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I never really fought in shoes before, so that was new to me because I don't have boxing shoes. You have to go buy

boxing shoes? I didn't. I just trained barefoot at the gym, which is what we mostly train in. But for that fight, they're like, you need running shoes or shoes. Or shoes. I was like, really? So that was a new aspect for me.

But, yeah. So after you do that, then you move on to... Then I buy my shin guards and I start kickboxing. Yep. And then you use the tools from the boxing and then solely develop tools for kickboxing and then have my wrestling in jiu-jitsu. So are you constantly going to more competitions in with your kickboxing as well? Um, I've done a few.

I didn't do a lot. I did about three or four. And then, and I was still new to kickboxing, right, even though I had a year of boxing, right? So when you qualify or sign up, I mean, for these tournaments, they ask how long you've been kickboxing, right? So they kind of group you into your experience, a little bit of the weight class, like all this stuff, right? So I think my first kickboxing fight or match tournament, whatever you want to call it, was in Saskatoon. And how did you do on that? I got gold.

You got gold? Yes. So you've been just slowly picking away at these things? I've done well in my kickboxing tournaments because they're like contact. There's like we spar harder in the gym than we do at these tournaments, right? These tournaments are strictly just essentially for fun and just technique, right? there's no real power no real intent in your punches and kicks right so do you get penalized if they're you could yeah and i don't know what that means we you know it's like take a point

away i don't know really know how they judge it anyways it's kind of rough-based judgment yeah um there's a lot of bias um depending on the tournaments you go to we experience that with like a lot of our youth kids when they go to like edmonton or calgary it's a little biased which i personally don't like because it takes away from the kids because you're like they clearly want you know you can see it our kid clearly won and then it goes to the hometown yeah how right so that's a little uh disheartening uh for the kid even as a coach right it's just like well can we get a fair shot sometimes at least so you're coaching that's now as well then i teach two classes yes i help garrett whenever he needs me to i'll fill

in a class but two solo classes i teach a day or a week sorry a week maybe i should ask you about that i had asked you in the questionnaire we did about what your training regiment looks like right now and it is intense maybe and maybe to you it's not but it seems like a lot through the day um can you explain the listeners what you're doing each and every day to prep for this uh uh coming about um so it started out uh just training at nights um i would run in the mornings i'd go to work and then i would just do whatever i could at night train at the five farm um i got a gym pass at fit for less so after the five farm like 10 o'clock at night i'd go lift right just get my lift in excuse me um but uh as of november 1st i was laid off

Where are we working? At relay distributing. Okay. Yeah. And yeah, I took a little too much time off just to get my extra training in. It didn't work with them. I get it, right? It's fine.

So now it's three, four times a day training. I go, me and Garrett, go to the multiplex, do wind sprints. Wind sprints run the stairs for an hour. I'll take a break, get a lift in. And then I spend about three, four hours at the fight farm a night. That's every day. Every day? At the fight farm Monday to Thursday.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday were closed. So Friday, I will go to Saskatoon, train at a gym there. They do MMA sparring. So I'll drive four hours for a 45-minute class, come back. and then I have been in Edmonton as well doing on weekends just getting all the training I can't

man that's all the training I can't it's a full time that's dedication it's my job now yeah I guess I said early I take this very seriously right true I'm not just some Joe Schmo

are you making money doing it yet I will after this I do get my sponsors they support me um all that stuff uh which is cool yeah i couldn't do without them without them honestly yeah and then i will get my first paycheck for fighting after this fight can i ask what you make fighting um not much yeah just enough to get by i don't even know that um uh the only thing i don't like about the fighter's paycheck is uh say you made say say it's a two

thousand dollar contract okay okay i'm not saying this one might um you get half if you make weight right and only half the other half if you win so the loser only gets half their paycheck that's what i don't like about um the state of the of the sport of the payment yeah yeah it's like that at the highest level too i think it's just cool to sit here and listen to what you're doing to prepare for this when you get to the fight there's pretty much nothing more you could do It's not like listening to it. It's not like you're like, oh, I train an hour or night and, you know, do a couple wind sprints and whatever.

It's like that's a pretty full-on job you're doing right now. So when you walk into the ring, and I should point out to the listeners that you're going up a weight class, correct? I am, yes. For the promotion, Garrett-Wameter fight for in this fight, they couldn't find anybody at 155 pounds or even 145 pounds. Right, because you're regularly, lightweight, correct?

It's what I have been in my amateur career, yeah. For people listening, I had, I had, I got them all sitting here, so I'm all to go through them. So you got heavyweight is 265, you got light heavy weight is 205, middle weight at 185, welterweight at 170, lightweight 155, featherweight 145. So you're going up to 170. 165, it's kind of a catch weight. Okay.

I don't know how they made that weight. but yeah so this guy normally fights at well through weight at the 175 170 pound mark so yeah

what I'm guessing is he's he's gonna be cutting at minimum 15 pounds is what I'm thinking so what do you walk around that um I took the fight I was weighing 172

oh okay so you get to walk in and not have to worry about cutting anything that's the best fight camp of a bad yeah right because I mean you're I mean you probably know

I see I assume you've had to make weight before for lower weights when you're fighting for your national championship, right? So how much weight did you have to cut doing that? Again, so I do walk around around the 170 mark, but that's beer, pizza, candy, right? It's not my healthiest, right? So I do, I guess I technically lose about 15 pounds, but I do it through my diet. I go kind of keto-esque for the two months.

So once I sign that contract, weight cut starts. I know guys who wait. To the very end. And then they just sweat it all out. I get it. It's not the way I like to do it to make $1.55. If I do drop a weight class or two, which I've been told by some coaches, to go to 135 or 45.

I'm going to have to sit in the sauna for a bit, put on my plastics and go for a run or something, you know, get that extra weight off. But have it to not cut weight is pretty fantastic. It's pretty fantastic. That's pretty awesome, yeah. I feel strong.

My cardio is insane. So it's not really a problem this time. So we'll see how it pays off. Ah, that's cool. Makes me want to drive up to Ammonton and go watch because it's in Amiton, right? River Cree. River Cree, December 6th.

How can people get tickets that? Is it on the website? I think it is through Ticketmaster, but if you just go to UnifiedMMA.ca, get tickets. As far as I know, they sell it fast. It's the last show of the year.

The biggest show, it's the biggest MMA show in Canada. How many fights they got going on that night? Or do you know? I honestly don't know. But I know the main card. If you just go to their Instagram page, their main card is stacked, like some of Canada's top fighters.

Yeah, which is cool. Yeah, it's going to be a good show. I'm number one. I'm the first fighter at the night, so. I might as well start it off with a win. I know, right? Yeah, win for the home team. You can also stream it too.

Can you stream? On their website, yeah, yeah. What's their website? UnifiedmMA.ca. People should write that down, Unified m.m.m. MMA.ca. Yeah, if you're a fan of MMA, it's a great show. I'm a fan of the local boy.

I'm a fan of local, right? Obviously, the podcast is surrounded by local stories, and I don't know, I could be wrong. Maybe people point this out after I do this, but I can't think of another Lloyd guy who went professional MMA, but maybe there has been. There has been, there's been a few.

There has been a few. Yeah, there used to be at another gym. They took that route. I talked about earlier of the train for three months GoPro. Garrett's philosophy and ideals were the opposite of that.

Yeah, a little more... Hence why I've had eight amateur fights. Yeah. Eight amateur. I thought you're 7-0-0-0-0 for MMA and then I took this kind of unsanctioned fight, I guess. It's called a super boxing fight.

Okay. It's kind of like a kickboxing match with MMM. gloves so it's all stand up um if it went to the ground they stood you back up and if there was no knockout it ended in a draw so did you win that i had a draw you had a draw yeah had a draw but yeah so i don't think i won that fight garrett says i'm eight and oh but it was the draw so but the other guy didn't win the fight either the other guy looked like he was in a fight i didn't so yeah it was a I'd, yeah.

Well, it was really weird, because there's no judging because it wasn't really a sanction. It's not really a martial art. Where did you do that at? In Lethbridge for Rumble in the KHA. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I get it. Like, it'll make you, I guess, want to fight more.

I'm not really sure what the promoters' creation of this was, or like thought process of this. So you just want knockouts, I don't know, right? But I know I don't have clean. one-n-punch knockout power. Not yet, anyways. We'll work on that, I think. So I want to go back, so you did boxing for a year, then he moved you into kickboxing,

and then we hopped to a different tangent. But those two, what did you start in then year-three, year-four? Because you're in year-four now, right? Yes. So did you just transition into jitsu and other things? Or was that constantly going on while you're doing everything else? So I've been training jiu-jitsu and the wrestling

like it's not really one specific thing right we don't really have a jujitsu program that we teach a little bit of wrestling jiu jitsu we have some judo throat like it's just submission grappling I guess you could say

right um so I've been doing that like there was a class there was doing that as well as my boxing and then progressing the kickboxing right just keeping my wrestling away

Yeah, the cauliflower ears. Burned my ears, yeah. Put my time on the nights. Yeah. Pardon the interruption, folks. Here's your I-D innovative question of the week. During this episode, Andrew was going to tell you if there was one guy he'd sit down and have coffee with,

it would be X. So send me the name of the guy he talked about and we'll get you entered 10 times for a bottle of Pink Whitney. You can send your answer to, Sean Newman Podcast at gmail.com, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. All right. Now, back to the show.

Let's talk about the World... Canada Championships. Sure. You just finished that this summer, correct? Early spring, yeah. Early spring. April, yeah. Three fights, three days...

Yes. To win it. Kind of like the old days of the UFC, right? Where it's almost like a tournament style? It was tournament style. the old days of the UFC it all was one night was it all in one night it was all in one night

I think now in hindsight I kind of would have preferred I think but I don't want to have three fights in three days again what was the hardest thing about three fights in three days the three fights in three days how long were the fights

all of them went three rounds five minute rounds in amateur's three three minute rounds Okay. But it went. So, yeah. Anybody who's rolled a minute feels like an hour. So, yeah.

Three minutes is still long, man. Three minutes is a long time. So it was a total of 27 minutes fighting. And then the hardest part of it, like, the underlying part, like, the people that, like, what you don't see in the fight. I had to maintain my weight the whole time. Right? I'd weigh, I think I could weigh six pounds over, 155. Like, they let you.

So what did you have to do? I just didn't eat mostly until weigh-ins, and I got to go eat. And you just keep your weight. So what would you eat after weighing it? Salad chicken, you know. Yeah, nothing. There wasn't anything specific that. Until the championship fight, I weighed in, and then I got to eat a little bit bread.

Right? because I know I blow up once they eat a little bit of carbs. Okay. Right. So got to eat a little bit of bread and more for the soul than the energy or carbs. I love bread. What were you thinking by the time the third fight came around? Because by that and your body has got to be just on fire.

Yes. There's just do or die, right? That was it. That's my belt. The other guy had fought three times as well, right? That would have been his stuff. Yeah, so as far as I know, the second guy I fought had a buy, so he didn't fight the first day. So that was the tough match.

That was the tough match. Why did you get a buy? I don't know if there was an odd amount of people in our group. Did that piss you off? Well. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? He's just like, well.

Do her a deck. Yeah, this guy's coming in fresh. I mean, I didn't take too much damage my first fight. It was kind of shocking. I had to fight a 45-year-old man. Really? In my first fight, yeah? It was just really shocking.

I was like, oh. How did that go, fighting a 45-year-old? You feel the old man's strength. Kind of wild punches, like nothing really technical. But, again, I was just caught off guard. I didn't know if I wanted to hurt the guy. Yeah, so it just kind of threw my game off just a little. little bit um if i'm just being

completely yeah yeah yeah yeah um you're expecting some 22 year old to walk in foaming at the mouth sure or you know somebody i wouldn't feel bad about hurting you know you know this guy was like he's probably got grandkids or something right like what do you do kudos to him because he brought it he brought it that night so it's just a weird little weird thing that happened to me it's like i had to fight a 45-year-old man. And then that second fight, I don't remember.

I've watched it now with Garrett, but I don't know if it was from the first night of fighting where my body just reacted in a certain way. Like it just went full self-defense mode or something. I remember getting my hands taped, making the walk getting the Vaseline,

getting checked, saying goodbye to my coach, and then walking in the cage, and that's all I remember. Until I get back to the dressing room and Garrett's cutting off my gloves, right? I was like, what are you doing?

He's like, you already fought. I was like, what? And then you watched it, and I did take a pretty hard left hook and a head kick, so I wonder if that's what it was, but I still don't remember before the fight. or like before that happened in the fight.

I remember everything we did before getting to the venue. Yeah. And then after leaving the venue. So I'm not sure why I kind of just checked out there. But that was a close, close fight. I was just fighting on instinct, I guess. I have no idea. How did you win it by?

Very split decision. Split decision. Kind of controversial. I still thought I won it, looking at it. But the other corner was. was upset. And I, yeah, I'll take it.

Yeah, what does it matter? I don't know. God bless those judges, you know, yeah. Yeah, you're still, I mean, that's, wins and win is a win, right? Like, I mean, they can't take it from you now. Yep, and then that third fight is, it's pretty dominant.

I'm not going to lie. Yeah. Yeah, I dominated pretty much. Three rounds again. Just worked. And my coach really doesn't. tell me much about my opponents or hasn't I guess in the past

we're doing a lot on this guy coming up fighting but yeah your opponent coming up here is Josh McKenzie we were talking about him before we started because if you go on YouTube you can find Josh McKenzie's first pro fight against it doesn't

matter but I saw his first fight where he comes out and he wins that fight he's same age as you from Nova Scotia and walks around or fights at the Walterway. Yes. Essentially.

Yeah. Right? So he's probably 180 some pounds, essentially is what we're getting in. And he's cutting. What I'm going to guess, yeah, around the 190 mark. 190, I'm cutting to that. Somewhere around there. And before he moved to pro, he was 5 and 0 amateur, and now he's one and one.

He's lost his second fight. Oh, okay. So you know more than I do. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. Yeah.

It doesn't matter. Um. That doesn't matter. I don't know. I just... What do you do mentally? We kind of... You kind of...

We've kind of brushed his side or not brushed his side, but we've kind of grazed it a little bit. But there's a lot... Like, you're going to push yourself because it's three rounds, five minutes, correct? Yes, sir. And you're going to get...

I mean, you could be the guy who goes across, flies in with a flying knee kick, knocks him out in the first five seconds, and does that, right? Sure. But most fights don't happen that way. So chances. are you're going to have to battle

mental fatigue and everything else with what is going on and the situation is going on. What do you do to do that, to train your brain or to work on the mental side of this? So, I have confidence in my training.

Cardio is king. I know I push myself training and my sprints, my sparring, that I'm just not going to get i mean you're going to get you're going to exert yourself i get it's a fight but i'm not going to lose to my cardio if he catches me with a kick right if he catches me a submission that's a different story that's the technical thing we can go back to the drawing board if necessary all this

stuff right yeah yeah but if i lost because i was tired that's on me yeah yeah yeah right so that's number one right then a little confidence comes in um i do a lot of like visualization um i put myself in the worst scenarios possible, right? Getting rocked. Getting in a deep submission. Relaxing, calming down, gutting it out,

coming out victorious, right? That's all it is. I have my playlist, my music, some speeches, stuff I listen to, right?

What's your go to on your plate? What do you like for music? Music, some old school, old school rap. A lot of some metal. Like, what are you talking old school rap? Tupac.

Oh, that. Tupac. Biggie. Um, stuff like that. Um, a little bit of Slayer in there, you know. Stuff like that just gets me jacked up. Sandstorm. Shout up to Sandstorm.

I love that song. Ha, ha, you know. But you mentioned Garrett's been, well, I asked the question of mentors. Yes. And you mentioned Garrett specifically. Sure.

What has been something that Garrett has taught you specifically or brought up or helped you with? Is it the preparation? Is it just the whole process of taking your time to go into, or maybe you could expand on what he's meant to you, I guess? Honestly, it's just the effort he puts in. He sees my effort and dedication, and he matches it, sometimes exceeds it, driving me to my fights. and then telling me what it was like back then. Like he's been in the sport for almost 30 years. He's had his students from Victoria that used to teach make it to the USC.

He's had one student, right? So the guy knows his stuff. And when you feel that confident in somebody who knows his stuff, you just absorb it all. I'm just like a sponge, right? It's just it's his brain that I've learned the most from. I think. He's taught me some skill, you know,

he's got me to where I am skill-wise. I understand that too. But the mental side of it, the extra you have to do, the obsession you need, all that stuff. It's really cool to sit across from you and the obsession I see

in like listening to you, I call it dedication, but obsession is a good word too, on what you're doing just in all aspects right now. Man, I look, I'm glad it's being streamed because the chance of me making it there at this point are probably slim.

But streaming it. Yeah, check it out. That'd be really cool. First fight, nice, nice, easy. And it's also a great card, so don't. Absolutely. Yeah, don't turn it off after my fight. But it would be a great fight.

What, I ask, what's the most memorable lesson you've ever learned? You said, always ask and understand them why. Is that specific to your training right now, or was that something before? It's just something my history teacher always had on his whiteboard. He would just always have the word why with a question mark, and then on another corner of the, it would be just educate yourself. So I don't know if you're just sitting through his class and just those two things subliminally burn their set,

burn themselves into my brain or what? It's a, I got three young kids, got three kids under the door. And I was just saying over the weekend, the thing I'm going to try and instill in them is to always ask why, always question. Because I mean, everybody's seeing it right now. You can't trust one source of anything

because everybody's got a bias, right? Sure. And so you need to be able to question. question everything ask the why do your own research do your own work not just oh yeah I heard this and carry on with you exactly yeah yeah so why is always like why do I have to do this you know why do I why is this supposed to work in martial art you know yeah understand like kind of like the philosophy behind it as well right well it translates very good to what you're doing yes I guess so I think it does yeah yeah

yeah right I'm not sure how many martial artists or fighters ask why i think a lot of them especially in the traditional ones i'm not gonna shit on the traditional martial arts but uh to just take something face value like karate is king nothing else can beat karate is like but why why do you have that certainty is my question you so you uh you uh no longer working right now yes previous to this were you ever worried about about like take a bad kick or bad punch or anything and work side? Yeah, I've shown up to work in my black eyes and my hobbling and I mean, shout out to Relay. They're good sports about it.

They sponsored me. Yeah. They have sponsored me in the past. They're super supportive group of people there. So it was a great. A great job. A great fit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So. After this fight or leading up to this fight once you're done, are you going to have to be back full time working? No, I'm laid off So I Either find a new job Right There's a lot of talk of me moving I'm not too sure where yet

Go do camps Like my training camps Go spend three weeks, four weeks In Coconut Creek Florida Or Las Vegas Or you know Come back here, finish my camp And then fight stuff like that right

So Now that be interesting it's it's just part of the progression yeah honestly I truly would love to say

at the fight farm put it on the map as a viable gym all this stuff we just don't have the team to get there

I have great guys but they're a little more part-timers they're hobbyists right there's a lot of hobbies so I can't intensify my training

because I don't want to they got kids. I don't want to injure these guys, right? Yeah. So I got to hold back a little bit, right? So that's the difference. I have to go somewhere where it's... And I've gone to Saskatoon to Edmondon

where you're around like-minded guys, like-minded fighters. They want that next level. They want, you know, they have that dedication and obsession, whatever, right? So then it's fair game. All right, well, we come to the part where it's the final five brought to you by

crewmaster transport shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonald they've supported the podcast really appreciate their support but essentially we ask you five quick hitter questions before we're through the podcast so we'll have a little bit of fun

if you had a time machine you can take it anywhere where would you go? Ancient Greece Asian Greece? Anything specific? To the Battle of Thermopy. 300. That's specific.

Roots. That's my roots. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. Who's your favorite UFC fighter, all time? All time. Probably Frankie Edgar. Round my size.

Tenacity, tough. It was a huge inspiration to me. Just seeing a guy kind of my size. win the world champ, right? All these guys back then were giants, essentially, to me, right? 6-2, 200-some pounds, whatever, right? But he beat B.J. Penn,

which at the time was labeled the best fighter in the world at the time. He beat him to win the 155-pound championship. So, pound for pound, I think he's my number one. If you could just sit down and have coffee with one person, famous, current, past, alive, dead, doesn't matter. Is there somebody you'd sit down and have a cup of Joe with? Well, that's tough.

One person. I would have to say, Dan Carlin, I think. Interesting choice. Yeah, I think so. I'm kind of a history buff. Can you explain to people? I know exactly who Dan Carlin is, but maybe for the people who don't know Dan Carlin.

He's a historian, probably the most famous or well-known historian. He's got a podcast, Hardcore History. And if you haven't listened to Hardcore, if you like history, that guy is amazing. Yeah, I wouldn't even say if you like history. I mean, like, it's a ride. They are very long podcasts. They're like five hours long. Well, I say you've got to like history somewhat because I think,

think of even when he does I forget what it's called Armagedon when he's talking about World War I is that Armagedon? I can't remember which one. Blueprints for Armagedon or something? Blueprint for Armageddon. World War I is four or five podcasts

at four hours each long and somebody's listening to this is going, oh my God, that's a lot. But if you like to listen to the story, World War I takes that much time to get through and like that first episode, you're like, holy dinah. He does that on, man, he's like fantastic. Yeah, fantastic stuff.

Takes him months to prepare. He fact checks, like, yeah. Yeah. Well, and he's so like, I think I feel like unbiased, right? He even tells you as he's gone. This is my thoughts on it. By no means is that right, but this is the way it kind of looks. And these are what these people said.

This is what the other side said and he kind of mixes it together. He's just the story. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And again, the word obsession comes to mind when I think of him. Yeah. He's obsessed with history. You feel it when he talks, right?

He loves the stuff. So that's why I like him. It would just be really cool to sit down with the guy. Be like, what books do you recommend? You know, stuff like that. That's really cool. I'm kind of a moron, so I need to read more. No, I don't read.

I have Audible. Okay, yeah, so I try to listen to a lot of books. So in the last year of your Audible, what's been one of the better books that stuck out to you? A professor in the cage. Okay. It's a good book. It's kind of like an anthropology book about fighting.

This English professor takes his first MMA fight, understands, like, explains, sorry, why we fight. Like, why is it in our DNA? Like, it's really good. It's kind of like a history book about fighting in a way. It's really good. Why does he say we fight? uh just our DNA why why do monkeys fight why why is making eye contact with somebody so um kind of seen as an aggression sign right staring at somebody for a really long time

um stuff like that this is really really interesting hmm yeah you know that i did not see that come normally when i ask that question it's well no dan carlin's pretty famous that one just i'm uh sorry i graduated the degree in history oh really sorry sorry I really, really enjoy history. Very cool. Yeah. And Dan Carlin is on the podcast playlist. Like that one has got me through some long road trips.

Yeah, me too. Yeah, you learn something after too. Absolutely, yeah. Well, that's the coolest thing about podcast, right? Take a long drive, which we live in Canada, which everything's a long drive. There is no short drive. And it used to be turned on, I don't know, the radio, right?

Or a CD. Kids don't even remember what CDs are anymore. But you know what I mean, right? and now you can put on essentially what we're doing and drive and learn something. And Dan Carlin is a perfect example. Sure, yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Big fan. If you could get in the cage and spar against one guy, just to spark. Is there a guy that sticks out? Is that going back to your favorite or is there somebody that? I mean, it would probably have to be GSP, George St. Pierre. just how mastermind he is at everything I think the only way you could

really appreciate is just get a feel for it it's one of the best fighters to watch I think if you understand martial arts you have appreciation for it just how he would dissect his opponent is really cool final one for you what are your future aspirations

I mean, you went from training, amateur, amateur chant, now your first pro fight, if it continues to trend the right way, where do you want to get to you? UFC World Champ. UFC World Champ. Yes, sir. So is the goal. Again, the goal is, excuse me, the UFC, right?

UFC is the best organization. There are, there's Bellator, kind of like UFC's little brother. excuse me, sorry. No, it's all right. Or I've always ever, like, I grew up watching Pride. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Pride. Yeah, right? So they kind of revamped, I guess, you could say.

There's an organization called One over in Japan. I'm a big fan of Japan. What they see and appreciate martial arts as, I'd go over there. But UFC is number one. Best in the world. But to find Japan would be just more of a bucket list thing, I guess. It would be cool to watch your career continue to evolve. That's the goal, yeah.

Right, like, I mean, we got our, from Lloyd, you got your NHL players, right? You got, you know, X, Y, Z, so to speak. But to have a guy, you know, can you man, I can't imagine, right? Turn on the UFC and there's a guy fighting from Lloyd Minster, Alberta, Saskatchewan. Yeah, would be. That would be pretty cool. It would be all right. Yeah.

Well, I wish you the best luck. Give the dates again on when you're the date you fight. And maybe once again website or how people can, if they're interested, can get down there to see them. December 6th at the River Creek Casino, Edmonton, Alberta. Tickets at UnifiedMMA.ca. Same site to stream it if you want to stream it. Come check it out.

It's going to be an awesome show. I'm going to get that W. Yeah, that's awesome, man. I tell you what, I'm really interested to see how this goes and I love to have you back on at some point and wish you all the best. Anytime, yeah? I like doing this stuff.

Yeah, cool. Well, I'm really, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Yeah. Hey, guys, thanks for tuning in and listening to Andrew and myself. Talk a little bit about his career and his upcoming fight. Once again, December 6th, check him out. really wish him the best of luck and look forward to seeing where he goes he sounds like he's

going to be forced to be reckoned with so i look forward to seeing how he does here in the next couple weeks so thanks again andrew and like you say wish you the best of luck and thanks for tuning in this week guys we'll catch up to you next week