The Sevan Podcast - #149 - Jack Della Maddalena

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

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bras it's gonna be fun and three two one bam holy cow i was thinking today the reason why the 171 pound class is so insane is because imagine if you took like you know they're always talking about the pound for pound best fighters in the world yeah yeah but think about like if they took you and made you 250 50 pounds it would be explosive hey yeah it would be terrifying it would be terrifying whereas you could take like like when i think i mean they're great there's great fighters obviously in all the weight classes. But when I think of taking someone like you and making you that big,

as opposed to like taking someone like Mighty Mouse, you know, like from down there, who's a great fighter. I mean, you're crazy. Ladies and gentlemen, we were starting a few minutes early. This is Jack Della. Don't mess this up, Sebi. Don't mess this up, Sebi. Are you nervous? Don't mess this up. Madalena.

Oh, that was beautiful. Thank you. Jack Della Madalena. Yeah, that's beautiful. Jack Della Madalena. Do it for me one more time. Jack Della Madalena. Jack Della Madalena. Jack Della Maddalena.

Yeah. Where does, which one? Go ahead. You said that perfect. Where does your last name start? With the Della? Basically, my granddad was born in Northern Italy, north of Italy, and he came to Australia at the age of 18

so it's a northern Italy Italian name I mean but do you have a middle name or is Dela your middle name my first name's actually it's not Jack my first name's Giacomo oh so my name you know wow but I don't look like Giacomo Della Mad marolina and this is me yeah and you're and it is you i can't believe it um this story you guys are about to hear is is for some people like me who are just um fairweather mma fans who are just kind of stuck in the UFC scene because we only have five hours a week to dedicate to fighting. That's a lot of hours a week. I know it is, but, but, but with five hours a week, you can still only be smart enough to watch the UFC. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah, of course. Of course. You got to watch all the gossip shows and then you got to watch the fights on Saturday. And then you got to watch, like if you want to get into the Contender Series, or the Ultimate Fighter. You're deep in the MMA world. Or the Ultimate Fighter. Well, I'm not deep in the MMA world. That's what I mean. That's my problem. I'm just deep in the UFC world. I'm not even that deep. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. But I'm trying.

That sounds deep. If you like stories, this story about Jack Della Mandolina is a remarkable story, and now is the time to get on the bandwagon. I am not joking. Get on board. Yes. Get on the bandwagon. This is not a fucking joke. This is the guy. This is a story that you really can't write it's not even

a believable story how where we are in the story wouldn't you say it's crazy it's a cool story and everything seems to have lined up nicely and just the way i envisioned it so it's cool to play it out you know but this is definitely just the beginning of this story yeah it's nuts it's it's it's uh it's it's apps yeah it's absolutely nuts you so i was basically i think you were on the same card mo miller with no which i don't know how i know miller did fight on my card he did okay so that's the thing i was on mo miller's jock so so basically i'm in the crossfit space and i'm trying to become the next great jo Rogan and I want to have the biggest podcast in the world. And I'm so excited. Right. And so I'm trying to break into the UFC space cause I'm a huge UFC fan. And when you do things that you love, it's, it's little to no energy. So I'm like, okay, who are these fighters who are up and coming that I can sucker to come onto my podcast? Right. So I'm like,'m like okay this contender series things these guys must be hungry for attention and for practice to be interviewed i'll start and i and i got on the mo miller bandwagon i've had him on the podcast three

times and through there i'm learning about people like jack yeah right so that's funny because i've actually i used to delve into a bit of crossfit back in the day, and I actually remember you from some of the media stuff in CrossFit. So it was funny to see you pop up. I was like, wow, I remember Siobhan. I love CrossFit. I still do. I like watching it, watch all the documentaries and stuff. So it's cool.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I made my fortunes and cut my teeth and worked my ass off there for 15 years. What an insane experience. What a crazy sport, eh? Yeah. Crazy sport. Yeah. So it's funny because before we got on, I'm like, should I tell people?

Should I let people know what's so crazy about your story? But I don't think we should just start off with just, like, the big bang of, like, where you are. What's the crazy – what story? What's the big story? The story is your professional – Yeah, we end it. Your two losses. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. What you have done is – it's Michael Jordan-esque. Wow. And that's why people need to get on the bandwagon now you don't want to however this story turns out like the people who got on after your first two losses now the cat's out of the fucking bag the people who got on there they must be tripping yeah they must be they're the close people you know they're the friends and family they were on them still on board so yeah no it's awesome it's awesome where we've come full circle which is incredible yeah my my wife started dating me when i was a homeless man eating out of dumpsters and

now we're rich yeah beautiful how crazy is that 25 years later yeah 100 she believed in me yeah that's someone you want to be around for your whole life you know what what was your record in your amateur career i had um two only two amateur fights two okay okay so so i'm gonna before we start and talk about um where where jack was uh born and and how old he is and how much he weighs and how he got into this punching people in the face business, I'll tell you this. Jack lost his first two professional fights. And I don't know what made him say this, but we will get to the bottom of it in this show. He and his coach decided that after he lost his first two fights, that he would win his next 10 fights.

And no shit, he did it. This man you are looking at, his record is 10-2. Yeah, 10-2. And he is dangerous. He is extremely dangerous. Say that again. Sometimes I is dangerous. He is extremely dangerous. Say that again. Sometimes I'm dangerous. I'm not always dangerous.

Cool. When are you not dangerous? When I'm not locked in that cage. You are? You're a good dude outside of the cage? I'm a good person outside of the cage, I think. Good temperament? Good temperament, yeah.

I believe so. How old are you? I'm 25 years old. And who's, and where are you right now, Jack? I'm in hotel quarantine in Sydney, Sydney,

Australia, just me and my coach, Ben Vickers. We are hotel room for two weeks, 14 days, day six, just tick ticked off so we're getting there and and why tell me what's going on first of all i didn't know you were allowed to be in with someone else you're so because he was in the united states with you and you flew back together you guys can quarantine together yeah well i think they they um said they allow family members in

together they said you if you're not family you definitely can't be in together but we sort of we just got into sydney we just told them we are going to do it in the same room and they didn't bat an eyelid they said yeah fine whatever they just chucked us in and so here we are you know it's cool to have some human interaction in here it's it's risky how long some human interaction in here. It's risky. How long has this guy been your coach? Yeah, since the beginning for about,

I joined his gym, Scrappy MMA, when I was probably 15. So 10 years ago, almost. And tell me his name again. Benjamin Vickers. Ben Vickers. The man. man scrappy mma's the gym was he a pro fighter he was a pro fighter professional mma fighter and was they had a extensive boxing career in the army in london in in the australian army or in the british army No, in the British army. So he's a Brit. He's not even an Australian like you.

He's a Brit. He likes to pretend he's an Australian, but he's absolutely a Brit. And someone like me, if I heard him talk, I wouldn't know the difference, but all the Australians know? They can tell the difference? Yeah, there's definitely a British accent going on there. But yeah, I don't know. Maybe you wouldn't know the difference.

Not me. A lot of Americans reckon Australians and Brits sound the same. I barely know the difference between men and women. Well, there is no difference these days, is there? No, not enough. No, there is, of course. Of course there is. Yes.

I don't know what's the right answer let's go back to uh let's go back to your grandfather so your grandfather was full-blooded italian full-blooded italian yeah came over on a boat in australia and do you know why he came i think just the the opportunity you know i think just he heard that. I don't know the exact story, but I think it would have gone something like he heard there was a boat going to Australia and he thought, Australia sounds cool. So he jumped on, I think. Carlo is the man. Rest in peace. Oh, he passed.

Yeah. And when did he pass? About two years ago. Two, pass he passed about two years ago two three uh yeah two years ago sad day but he was a good good man had a good life and he um set up our family in australia so he couldn't be prouder and he met your grandmother and is she what is she an australian woman yep she's an australian woman they met in darwin which is basically the tip on the north of australia and australians are basically uh like real australians are basically brits runaway brits basically yeah criminal brits okay and is that really true we always we always joke around about

that but that that the brits took their prisoners over there and that's what Australia is? Yeah, basically that's it. The Brits took their, that's how they started off, took the prisoners over there and then we made our own little place. Wow. Okay. And then your native people are the Aboriginal people? Aboriginal people, yeah. They were chilling on the island when the prisoners came over? Yeah, they were chilling.

And then, so your granddad and your grandmom hat that's on your dad's side you said yeah that's my dad's side and my mom's side i am basically australians um with i think some scottish background so they've i think at some sent over are your mom and dad still together unfortunately they're not i we had a small uh um yeah this uh about the start of this year they had a little breakup but all is well though everything's okay i'm glad i'm glad times change you know yeah it's great do you it's it's kind of amazing how many people are breaking up during this insanity isn't it yeah yeah it's been a yeah it's i didn't even think about that but yeah i could imagine the numbers on that sort of thing would be extremely high which is sad but crazy

world at the moment isn't it yeah i had two friends get in touch with me this week both basically one guy said hey i, I told my wife yesterday, I can't believe we're still together. Like, and then, and then another one of my friends said, Hey, me and my wife are just together. Oh, and a third one too. And another one of my friends said, Hey, me and my wife are living together, but, but we're not together.

We're just, we're just staying together to, you know, to, to raise the kid. And then another, another one of my friends is in the middle of a breakup. Are you afraid that you and Benjamin, like being trapped in that room for two weeks together, could have a breakup? Yeah. It's possible, but we're doing all right, you know. We're doing all right.

But who knows? We've still got seven days. Someone might die. We're doing fine you know ben is um he's 16 years older than me so what is that 40 41 42 old as dirt does he have gray hair he's he's definitely got a bit of silver in there that's good. He's a good dude. He's a legend. So your parents meet. Do you know where your parents meet?

Do you know that story? I've definitely been told it before. I can't remember. You got punched in the face and that story left. Yeah. Knocked out my ears. And you have siblings. Yeah, i have one older brother josh and he's a fighter he's a fighter through and through and uh and what's it what's his discipline is he mma also yeah he's mma we sort of started same sort of time doing a lot of boxing

boxing we did a lot of we used to like watching wrestling so we were always wrestling and fighting with each other so yeah we just joined a gym at the same sort of time we're each other's main training partners for a long time you know practiced at home when we got home from training both big rugby play or not big but we were rugby unions is that everyone is that every does everyone there play rugby no not necessarily the main sports in australia definitely uh australian rules football if that's not the you you would have seen that maybe the one where they, it's AFL. Basically it's a big oval and they,

you can kick it. You run around as big hits. It's quite a, it's a impressive game to watch. Super athletic guys. I've never even heard of that. Believe it or not. I always just,

when I think of Australia, I think of rugby and cricket. Yeah. Check out Australia. When you, when you get off here, have a look at Australian rules football. Okay. Highlights or something.

Is it the same football that they use? Is it the same football they use in the United States? It's not exactly the same. Similar. Similar looking ball. Do they wear pads? No pads. They wear short shorts and singlets.

Oh, nice. Wow. Wow. And singlets,lets i mean like cut off i don't know if that's yeah like cut off sleeves and short shorts it's a very it's a it's a strategy australian is a game as you'll see and then the pretty much the people that don't play that probably play soccer are the guys who make the most money the guys who play this australian football yeah it's a big game in australia every like the games are massive so the the guys in that make good money play yeah that's a tough tough game similar to uh no obviously not the nfl but in australia it's a very similar sort of thing.

Do the guys go back and forth between the two, between rugby and this IFL? No, not really. No. Most people in Australia play AFL and would support. But for some reason, I got into rugby AFL Australian that's the Australian Football League

so it's the Australian Rules Football is the game so you're you're in school you're into this Australian football you're into just basically

the typical no rugby rugby sorry sorry you're into rugby no no no you're good you're into rugby and then somewhere

you and your brother start turning. How many years older is he than you? Four? He's two years. Two years. Oh, shit, that's close. It's close, yeah.

So we had a good competitive growing upbringing, you know, always competing with each other. And when you said you watched wrestling, what do you mean you watched wrestling? Like WWE shit? WWE. I was fully involved in wwe as a young man invested in the game so jumping off the couch trying to pile drive each other all that shit so yeah suplexes onto the bed jumping off shit onto the bed the whole lot

and um and someone always cried so yeah not necessarily, but most of the time it ended up into a fist fight, which is daily. So a lot of fist fights growing up. Because I had an older sister who was three years older than me, and my parents were divorced, but my mom was always at work. My dad was always at work too. So my sister and I, we'd come home from school and it always started off hey you want to wrestle oh yeah let's wrestle and then it was always me getting just the shit beat out of me and crying but i would war i would war yeah but and did you lose a lot yeah that's similar to me yeah i lost a lot definitely i don't there's no way you should weigh it there's with your big brother yeah but

there was there i think there was definitely times in there he would probably say otherwise that i reckon i may have got the edge were there rules did you punch each other in the face you know there was sort of levels to the fight but there was definitely fights where they were definitely punching each other in the face but not all of them ended up full punching yeah there was definitely a few that ended up where they just crossed that level and it turned into fist fights yeah we had we we didn't really punch each other i mean we would go at it we didn't pull hair we didn't punch each other in the face um but uh i think finally what ended it was i think like in the eighth grade i finally won

i think i did decide hey i'm tired of losing i punched like in the eighth grade, I finally won. I think I did decide, Hey, I'm tired of losing. I punched her in the face. And, uh, and, and, but, but my record was like one in like 700 because as soon as I won fighting was over, it was done. Yeah. It was like, all right, you can't keep beating. Now you can't beat up your sister. Um, okay. So, and then, and then, and then what, and then when do you guys, when does it turn into like something formal, like formal training of wrestling and uh and martial arts i think i at a young age so i was

fully involved in wrestling and then some i can't remember the exact time but i saw like an mma video and at that it was sort of at that point i was a big like click realization in my head that hang on wwe isn't wrestling i had my suspicions early on that it wasn't real but like didn't have like evidence to prove that it wasn't real if that makes sense and then yeah yeah i was back in too yeah i saw and who cares yeah it was like hey that's not real hey what do you mean that's not real i just saw that guy jump in the air and do a flip and land on that other guy that's real enough for me that's real exactly but then i saw this one mma video and i go oh no like maybe maybe it isn't real and then from that point i still liked wrestling but i was

pretty much watching a lot more mma and those wrestling matches that we were having sort of started to turning into more like mma mma matches just sort of mucking around we obviously weren't trying to hurt each other but just practicing different stuff and would you guys literally like like you had no formal training but you're like okay i watch this video and this is an arm bar and so you would do aren't you would start arm barring each other pretty much like pretty much that was it like we were trying to figure out how they did it. We definitely weren't doing it right. But we sort of had the basic idea of how you needed to do it.

So it was good. Then like, yeah, basically just practicing in that regard and then looked around for like a proper gym. Well, actually we joined a boxing gym first because we couldn't find too many MMA gyms around. So we joined a boxing gym just mucking around't find too many mma gyms around so we joined a boxing gym just mucking around learning how to throw some punches properly doing that just to stay fit in the rugby season how old were you when we found it at that stage i was probably about

14 15 so about yeah probably spent two years in the gym probably about 14 maybe a year doing some boxing stuff and then found a MMA gym nearby and then got the sign up and then have been there ever since so what do you do you just say to your your uh you say to your mom you're 14 and your brother's 16 and you're like hey mom we want to just start doing some boxing. She's like, okay, and you look it up on the internet, and then she just drives you over there and starts driving you over there Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 3 p.m. after school, and that's it? It was more at the time it was my dad got me into boxing.

He thought it's a good idea for rugby. So he put us into this boxing gym, said it would get you fitter for rugby he so let's so he put us into this boxing gym said it'll get you fitter for rugby basically learn a new skill and then yeah at that point we found the mma gym and i sort of we as you said like i spoke to mom and dad i was i'm pretty keen to join this gym and they knew they knew straight away they said jim you're going to want to do competitions in that sport. And they weren't into that, obviously. They thought that was just crazy. But obviously stuck at it.

And they just said, all right, go do it. See if you like it. And yeah, at that point, basically, I think I was about 15. So at that time, my brother got his license so there was probably about six months there where mom was dropping us every day and then josh got his license and then we were just every single day we'd drive to the gym after school and practice how to fight were you disciplined already at that age? Not really. I definitely was a bit of an energetic, in a way, like energetic. I didn't like school.

I was okay at school. I was respectful to everyone, but I did just, I don't know, I was a bit bored at school. I liked to do things that were a bit thrilling, which sometimes led to a bit of trouble. But I was reasonably disciplined. I was disciplined enough just to stay in the gym and work pretty hard so it's about me a martial arts definitely i think definitely made me a calmer better person to be honest from from 15 to 24 that's nine years or 14 to let's say 14 to 24

10 years did you have you ever taken any time off like more than a week two weeks uh yeah i have i've had a couple of holidays you know like but i do i normally do train when i'm away so i haven't from activity apart from a couple of injuries here and there i haven't really taken a never like um so you so you never um got into like smoking weed and and in in tons of girls and like you never had that phase you never were like just out drinking every single day or doing drugs or when i was about maybe 19 i definitely i sort of started drinking reckon, at probably a younger age, below the legal limit, as most kids probably do. Of course.

Having parties and stuff at 16. Right. But I sort of just got it out of my system kind of young. By the time I was able to go out and party legally, it wasn't my thing. I was pretty invested in the sport of martial arts, and I'd rather just be fresh and feeling good for training. So, yeah, it was never a big phase in my life, the whole party, drinking thing. Was it like – go ahead. I had conversations with friends, but, yeah, it sort already got it out of my system at a young age.

When I was 30 up and I'm 49 now up until I was 34, I was smoking cigarettes and then I found CrossFit and, and, and, and up until then, like, you know, before then, you know, I would go to the gym and it was basically, you know, just like lap pull down machine and bench press and just, you know, some pull-ups and just hang out in there an hour and look at girls and, and then go out to my car and smoke a cigarette and eat a hamburger. You know what I mean? But then I got into CrossFit and they just didn't work together. But it sounds like you had that experience earlier. You're like, ah, I could drink, but no one wants to go to the gym hung over and get punched in the face. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It was funny when I was about, um, 17, I joined a Crossfit gym and i probably spent

two years there just going every single morning so i was i love crossfit you know i was almost i almost got drawn into the cult but i was pretty much like i was i love crossfit i still like crossfit i watch the crossfit games and whatnot so it was a to be honest crossfit had definitely helped me with my fitness and stuff building my body to what it is now so i actually pay a lot of respect to crossfit how is your engine it's all right you know i was actually i was pretty good at crossfit i i actually joined a mission came third in uh with gym, which is cool. But yeah, it's definitely, it's a different, like CrossFit and MMA, they're different. Like the engine, obviously the energy type is different, but I feel like I've got a decent engine.

Have you ever been in a fight in the ring and you got gassed and there's still more time in the fight? Yeah, my first fight. My first professional fight, I was pretty gassed. I hit that third round and I was just, I felt empty. You know, I was just done. I got the loss, got beaten up pretty nicely. That is good. It was an incredible learning curve basically it seems like the worst

thing that could happen to you in all of sports to be in a ring in the middle of a fight and to run out of energy like but but like normally you see it like with the big guys right like you're like you see like derrick lewis fighting some guy and they both ran out of gas. And you're like, oh, shit. It's like two trains coming at each other really slow. You don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, exactly. It looks so scary. It is a scary place to be, is being in the cage when you are empty.

That is definitely why I train so hard to not be in that position it's a it's an easy motivator because you that is somewhere you don't want to be and there's nowhere to hide it's not like other sports where you know like this australian football or the nfl like you can hide a little bit in some way if you need to in other sports but and there's 10 other guys or 12 other guys or there's just other shit going on yeah there's a way out but in the mma it's sort of there's not much you can do you've just gotta if you get tired you just have to take take the beating that awaits you and so that just happens to you once and never again you're like fuck like

that really left the that left the mark on you. Yeah, definitely. It definitely just gave me that. I realized how much harder I needed to push in training to like exceed that point of exertion. So it was easy motivation just to point and yeah, knowing that it had to work that gas tank how old were you when you had your first about the loss how old were you when you had your first fight

um my first for the professional fight yeah there yeah professional fight i think i was 18 or 19 crazy towards it is that the guy that you um is that the guy that you ended up avenging when you were i think you were seven and two and you fought him again is that yeah who no he was actually my my second not my obviously not my fight that i just had he was the fight before that okay so so you were eight and two and you met him again? Yeah, so it came full circle, which was nice. And I didn't see the fight you lost, but I saw that fight last night. And that guy looks like, even when you fought him when you were 8-2, he looks like a man and you look like a boy in that fight.

And I'm scared for you. I mean, I already knew your record. I already knew your record that you won the fight because I know your record's 10-2. But I'm like, holy shit. He fought this guy before and he's going to fight him again. And you were very confident in the pre-fight interview. But like I was scared for you even though I knew you were going to win him. He looked huge and he looked older.

Yeah, go ahead. He's an older guy. He's a big, strong, strong athletic fit guy who's game and he definitely wanted to win so it was a it's always a good solid test to get in there so so you're you're oh and oh as a pro you fight this guy you're oh and one you lose and then you fight him again when you're eight and two yeah wow that's crazy and did you want that fight again or were you like did you were you like okay i need to i need to get that back yeah for me he's like he was from perth so he lives in perth which is where i'm from and i was doing like i ever since i lost that fight i wanted to get that fight back and it was just we were just waiting

like we tried to get it a couple of times and things just fell through so it was sort of just eating at me knowing that there was someone that lived in my city that could beat me and I'm trying to trying to say that I'm the best well I'm not trying to say but I'm trying to prove that I'm the best well and just to know that there's some guy that lives probably within a 50 kilometer radius of my house that has beaten me was really it hurt me every single day so to get that back was it was just awesome i was so happy to get that fight back and what was his name oh that's right that's right i even have his name uh yeah and you beat him in 72 seconds got the win yeah nice and yeah which is cool yeah that was crazy and and then after you won

you jumped up on the uh fence of the ring and you put your hand up by like this and is this is this like UFC call me? Like I'm ready for the call? Yeah, I think that's what I was thinking. Like call me up. It's time. It's time. It's the first thing that sort of came to my head.

And so is that your biggest victory against Alden Bates? Is that bigger than your contender fight? I think the last victory is always your biggest victory. So my last victory is definitely the biggest one. It was the latest goal and challenge that I had in my head. So, yeah, I'm still just soaking that up. And, yeah, at the moment, that's the biggest victory. And then the next fight, it's the same deal.

Your last fight's the biggest victory, and your next fight's the biggest fight. So in a good spot. I was doing this. I think I'm still doing it. I do this podcast with Matt Fraser. He's the five-time CrossFit Games champion. And I do a podcast with him. I'm a fan of Matt.

Okay, cool. And it's myself and Josh Bridges. Are you familiar with him also? Yeah, absolutely. Josh Bridges is also the man. Okay, so we do this podcast, and we've done 22 episodes. And through there, I've gotten to hear Matt speak on a lot. And one of the stories he shared was that when he took second place at the

CrossFit games, he was like, basically he hated it. Right. And then as a little bit of time went on, I don't know how much time his second place medal, instead of being his most hated metal, it became his favorite metal because it reminded him that he never wanted to

be. That's incredible. That's a pretty cool story. And it just shows the sort of guy he is. It doesn't, that's incredible hey that's a pretty cool story and it just shows the sort of guy he is doesn't it that's a it makes a lot of sense hey for sure so if in your first light if you've in your first light if in your first fight you got winded and that's the lesson there what was what happened in the second fight um No, definitely not excuses. I think that first fight, Alden was definitely the better fighter. So I just took small things away from it.

Definitely work on the gas tank. He was definitely the better fighter at the time. The next fight, I don't even know. The same, I think Darcy Vendee is who I lost to. And he, yeah, same thing. He was just the better fighter, more experienced. And I learned some things from that. Just, I don't think my head was in the game.

I didn't have that, probably didn't have that, like, killer instinct in me at that stage. So I think that's probably why I lost that next fight. And, of course, Dar Darcy he's the better fighter on the day no question um what weight class were you fighting then my first oh the my initial fight was meant to be at 170 which is 77 kilos so that's the welterweight but Alden couldn't make the weight early on in the fight camp so so we changed it to 80 kilos, which is about 180. And then my second fight was 185, which is also, yeah,

it's just not the weight class I was at. In that fight, I was definitely bloated. I was a bit chunky, you would say. I wasn't in fighting fit. So it's just probably not the right weight class for me to be honest is it is it is it um is it rare that a guy would start his career at 171 and 12 fights in still be at 171 rare might not be the right word but it seems like most guys at 18 years old like 171 seems big for an 18 year old fighter right like they you would picture

them starting at 155 and then somewhere they just can't make the weight anymore and they go up to 171 or or you know yeah no i'm not i'm not sure i've sort of i was a small i think when i first had my fight at 170 i was definitely a small welterweight i wasn't like fully grown i was still growing as like a man i feel feel like I'm still growing now. And then that second fight being at 185, yeah, it didn't really make sense. I was definitely not that, but I signed up for it,

so there's no excuse there. But I think 170 is a pretty easy way for me to make. I think that's probably where I'll be for the foreseeable future. You were pretty shredded. Maybe one day. Yeah, I get pretty lean at 170. I try and get as lean as possible so I don't have to do any crazy weight cut

before the weigh-in or anything. So I just get as lean as possible and then just cruise through the weigh-in. How tall are you um about 5 11 just sort of shy of six foot i'd love to have six foot but it'd be a lie so so so 5 11 170 and then what's the heaviest you get heaviest nowadays i probably get to shy of 90 maybe 88 kilos would be heavy for me which is 190 maybe 190 and 195 and is that you being sloppy or is that do you try to actually get big sometimes just to just to feel what it's like and then that's just sort of having zero like just eating whatever i want still training but just eating feeling my body fully and probably

probably being a bit of a pig with the amount i eat as soon as i cut out being a pig with how much i eat i tend to drop quite a bit it's just that extra push what about your upbringing um did your parents what did you what did you learn from them or and what did they instill in you that made it so that you have this discipline that you're able to do this that you're 10 years in and that you just keep getting better i think my mom definitely just instilled in me that you could do whatever you want to do. I think that is something that mum really drilled into me. She didn't want me to follow any rules as such of what I had to do with my life. I had basically a clean sheet of paper and I could do whatever I want.

He was just basically a really hard worker. He leaves the house for work. He started his own business at a young age, and he basically, to this day, leaves the house every morning at 3.30, so he runs every morning and then gets to work and doesn't get home until 2.30. So he's just instilled that if you want to uh if you want to get what you

want to get you've also got to put the solid work in so i think both those things that they gave me together made for basically taught me a lot the the idea that you to do whatever you want you have to put serious hours in and that's pretty much how i feel that my what i'm trying to do at this stage do you have a day job i did i was working with the old man uh up until the start of this year and then sort of just i saved a bit of money working hard training and then just realized that if i want to give this thing a crack i've got to get not just the training right i've got to get the other side of things right like the recovery the sleep good nutrition so yeah i quit the day job and i've just sort of

i'm going to give this a crack for a bit. And at this stage, it's working out. So exciting times. How about things like you're 22 years old and you mentioned your grandfather passed away. How about things like that? Are those things a distraction? Are they a motivation? How do you process?

I was just dinging my phone. Apologies. What happened? how do you how do you process what happened no my phone was just ding I don't know if that's annoying it's your girlfriend no no no no this is my show you can ding away you can ding away

you're not married right that's your girlfriend I'm a fiance fiance I'd like to be married but not married yet okay so those things so you have a grandfather passing away your mom and dad have a relationship that you that you hear about you have your own relationship it seems like the all the how do you um do you have to be really selfish and kind of

keep those things at bay like like how like how does How does someone be a fiancé to a professional athlete? It seems – Yeah, I'm super lucky with my fiancée, Michelle. She is extremely supportive, and she fully believes in me that I will get to where I want to go and reach my goals. So she is awesome, and she doesn't mind fighting. She obviously gets nervous, but she appreciates a good – reach my goals so she is awesome and she she doesn't mind fighting she doesn't she's not too she's obviously gets nervous but she she appreciates a good she appreciates fighting

for what it is so i'm lucky in that regard and she's 100 on the on board the train to get to the top so i'm happy with that how about this though you're 20 you're 24 years old and and i remember what it's like to be 24 kind of and um your your girlfriend's pmsing and she thinks she overheard another girl calling you and we didn't have dms when i was 24 and she's she had a dream that some girl's talking to you in your dms and like like you can't be dealing with that shit, right? Because you have to be like focused on your training. And it's like, you don't want to be an asshole. You're in a relationship with someone, right?

You don't want to be like, hey, shut the fuck up. You're crazy. But like, how do you, I just don't know how you do that. Introducing TD Insurance for Business with customized coverage options for your business. Because at TD Insurance, we understand that your business is unique, so your business insurance should be too.

Whether you're a shop owner, a pet groomer, a contractor, or a consultant, you can get customized coverage for your business. Contact a licensed TD Insurance advisor to learn more. for your business. Contact a licensed TD insurance advisor to learn more. Like when I was talking to Mo Miller, like he's got nothing in his life, right? And I'm like, okay. And like, how do you, like, you can't even, um, I mean, as guys, I feel like we're mostly accused of our women of not being sensitive or being there to address their needs and it's probably true right but like you have like a your train is going from point a to point b and i'm guessing that you can't she but how do you do it she or you don't know how you don't know how she

does it i don't know how i do i think i've just know how I do it. I think I've just – honestly, I reckon I've hit the jackpot. She is not that type of person. Fully trusts that I am, like, a good person, you know. She knows that I am just super lucky. She's not a jealous person at all. She's never going to question what I'm doing. She is 100 supportive me and we've got we have a pretty special we didn't have a special relationship i definitely

wouldn't have i like asked her to marry me so i'm lucky in that regard it's a great point i chucked on it i chucked her ring on it pretty quick because i feel like i've got a um like i'm a lucky man um so that is no issue sort of thing is no problem in my life which is good okay i'm not going to give up let me give you some other things these are like real world things that other 24 year olds deal with you ready for this her her sister's getting married and she wants you to go to the wedding but it's a week before a big fight. She understands you can't go. She 100% under. Awesome.

Sorry. I can't be there. So that's what I'm dealing with. So I'm a lucky man. Yeah. Because if you want to be on the winter train and I've talked about this with a lot of winners, your birthday doesn't matter.

Yeah. Like no one's birthday matters. you're a ufc fighter like you just or get the fuck out of the off the cart right say that again sorry jack go ahead my but i had my birthday basically three days before my fight and yeah it wasn't much of a birthday it was just another day so yeah spot on there like birthdays don't matter these days um even even when i was working at crossfit and i was an executive there it was a it wasn't it So yeah, spot on there. Birthdays don't matter these days. Even when I was working at CrossFit and I was an executive there, I worked 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. And if my kid's birthday fell on an important day of a meeting,

I moved my kid's birthday. I would have my kid's birthday on another day because I just knew like, hey, my work is more important because it's actually what's going to put food on the table and like the birthday is just a day and like he doesn't know he's two years old and like whatever but yeah i can appreciate that you know like it is just a day isn't it you can celebrate a couple of days later you can celebrate a month later it's just it's just another day so and the only person it should really matter to is the woman who had to squat you out. Like, fuck my birthday for me. I should be celebrating my mom.

She's the one who had to birth me, right? Yeah. That's very true. Like, call her up and be like, thank you, mom. Yeah, we didn't have to do much, did we, on the day we were born? We just showed up. Easy day. Come out and get on that tit and start eating

what is um how are how are your parents um dealing with the fact that you're in a career that uh with with a lot of violence a lot of hurt yeah they obviously it's a nerve-wracking thing i would imagine for a parent to watch their son go out and have to throw bones at somebody else and get hit in the process. But they're super supportive. They know the amount of work I put into it, so they are into it 100%. And your brother? Yeah, he's a good fighter, a mad fight fan,

so he's fully supportive. So it's a shame that Josh couldn't come out this time for this fight, but he'll definitely be coming out with all the fights to come. Do you know when your next fight is? We've got solid indication. I can't say anything yet, but I think we've got some solid indication of when and who. So it's exciting times. Can you give me any roughly a time, like a month?

Are you even allowed to talk about that? Yeah, basically it'll be next year, start of next year. Are you good with that or is that too far away? I'm happy with that. It seems to work out well. We'll get home soon. Enjoy getting to the Perth sun. It's fine for me.

I'm happy. I'm happy. As long as next year I can get two, three fights in, I'll be a happy man. Three fights would be awesome. Listen, guys. Listen, listen listen people listen it's jack de la madalena i'm gonna spell it for you jack you know jack and then it's a new word d-e-l-l-a new word m-a-d-d-a-l-e-n-a put that in your google alerts you seriously want to jump on this bandwagon you want to to look them up on Instagram. I'm not saying this. I haven't said this about any of the six or seven other UFC fighters I've had on, although I've loved them all.

This, you really want to watch this thing unfold. This is going to be. Dude, Jack, it is really a crazy story. You seem very confident with this. With what? I appreciate it. Just that you reckon we're going places. Oh, dude.

Dude, it's a bizarre story. It's like Michael Jordan-esque. It's the kid who didn't make the high school basketball team and then all of a sudden is like, fuck you, I'm going to the NBA. You're like, what? Shut the fuck up. You know, but you're a professional athlete. You made it.

The dude you fought on the Contender Series, another scary dude. That guy was fucking scary. He was tough. His eyes were on me the whole time. He was 100% coming to win, and there wasn't much you could do about that except outpoint him. What does that mean well i was trying extremely hard to um knock him out basically try i was trying as hard as i could to get him out of the fight i tried to throw everything i could at him and he basically

wasn't going anywhere he was in that fight until the the ref until the bell went basically so awesome comparing um yeah i reckon i must probably see him down the track one day when you it when when i see my um six-year-old boy and i sorry to reference compare you to my six-year-old boy but you're talking to a guy who got picked after girls in high school um i i was i've i have no skills in any sports i'm fucking pathetic but um when my six-year-old he plays tennis and i see him hit a good shot he watches it and then and then the fucking 10-year-old kid hits one back and he's not in position and he loses you know and when you punch a guy is it and you get a good, is it hard not to admire your work? Is it hard not to celebrate?

No, it was. Definitely when I started out, it was hard not to, but it's a skill that you have to land your shot and then your mind has to switch from that shot to defense mode or your next shot. So you've got to literally be three moves in front. You're not thinking land this punch. See what happens.

You have to think, uh, basically defend, land the shot, defend, get out that sort of thing. So you're thinking three moves in front. So by the time the,

that combination has happened, your shot was a couple of moves ago. So you can't really look at it for too long if that makes sense yes yes yes yes i i i mean i can i can intellectualize it and and let's say you are thinking three three moves ahead um how is is not only are you thinking three moves ahead but how often do you actually do those three moves are they're usually just like to use the football term are they're just constant audibles do you are you just have to be super flexible the whole time too like hey i'm gonna punch and dip right uh nope i'm not dipping right and you see and all of a

sudden you your body makes makes the judgment for you that that to get out not dip right do you know what i'm saying like kind of like you're having an out-of-body experience like your body's like no we're not doing that that's dangerous it's a crazy mix of uh basically reactions obviously a lot of what you do is just reactions from drilling certain movements over and over again and then there's also that mix if you've got to make the right decision at the right time so it's a it's a whirlwind of like when you're in there but i think when you do your best work is when it's simply just reactions and you believe that you basically believe in yourself that you're going to make the right reactions and you just leave it in your subconscious's hands basically in a way another another amazing god i hope i don't fuck this up um you have you have two losses

but of your 10 victories nine of them you finished the fight you didn't leave in the judge's hand yeah this is the first fight i've ever left in the judge's hands and was that weird it was weird it was definitely not the plan, but I was actually upset for the first 20 minutes. I really love a finish. For me, it feels like you just put a stamp on the fight and you know you've done everything it could have taken. You basically won in the most dominant way possible.

So I was a bit upset, but then as it kicked in, I realized that it was probably, for me, it was probably the best case scenario, get three rounds in, which is perfect for experience levels, and then also not having the perfect fight. So there's a lot of stuff we can go back to the drawing board and just work on. So to me, it's a win-win.

The more time goes by i'm actually very happy with how the fight played out yeah uh and just so you know i wasn't saying that you shouldn't be but i just know how you perfectionists are i know that you guys will be really hard on yourself yeah it's incredible so so 10 and 2 with 9 finishes finishes, and you won every round. Yeah, won every round. From every judge, yeah. I mean, it's pretty clean. The more I watch it back, I think it was definitely clean.

I won every round. How is your engine after the fight? Like, as you were going into the final 10 seconds, did you feel good? Yeah, the last, I was actually feeling pretty good to be honest my my lungs were definitely like blown up a bit but i was feeling i was fine i like i was just at that third round i definitely slowed down a little bit but i think that's just because i could tell he was slowing down so i just was just trying to stay having a little bit higher pace than he was probably but yeah no i was happy the gas tank is definitely something that is it's a if that was the negative from the fights to me that's an easy fix um outside of actual performing the martial arts and you know whatever it is wrestling jiu-jitsu boxing what movements are there that someone can that you think are the best for building your engine sprints assault bike burpees like what's is there any like go-to like what have you been

doing in in your hotel room the hotel room we been, we've just got a simple push bike, but I reckon those, to me, I've got, I went out. What's a push bike? Like the assault bike? It's just,

it's not an assault bike. It's literally just like a, what would you call it? Like a ski. It's just like a bike. Okay. A bike with no, you just,

your arms don't do shit. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Just a basic spin bike which has been cool you know i've never really spent much time on it so every like a couple of k's on it which is cool i definitely reckon the um running and i reckon those echo rogue bikes are pretty impressive i probably a year ago bought one of them and it's a bit of like a torture machine

but i think if you want to get if you want to get a hard workout in that is probably the way to do it and then wrestling those two things are probably the hardest do you ever mix them do you ever mix them get on an echo bike for a minute and then wrestle echo bike like yeah echo bike and pads, that sort of thing, just to really get your heart. Obviously, your lungs are burning, the legs. You can't really move too well. And then it's perfect.

It feels exactly how you feel in a fight. So getting off that, then getting into wrestling, getting into pad rounds, it's pretty good at basically emulating a fight. When you look at, do you look at that whole division, that one 71 division in the UFC? Yeah. A hundred percent. That is my division. When I, I, I, I spoke to Mo a couple of days ago ago and and basically though he's such he's so calm did you get a chance to speak with him at all i i did i definitely met mo but i didn't

get to talk to him for too long i only got to show him after the fight but yeah no i didn't speak to him for too long but he seemed like a nice guy. So, so cool. So mellow, never gets wound up, like answers the questions chill. But the second I'll be like, so those guys in the 135 pound division, like, what do you think about the fight between TJ and so-and-so? He's like, I don't give a, he just flips the script. He's basically like, I don't give a shit. And those guys don't even, they're all the same guy to me they're just dudes i'm gonna beat up i mean it's crazy it is

yeah it's just like he doesn't even like i brought up sugar shane he's like yeah whatever it's like he put me he's he's nothing i would just eat him and it's like he's not even like talking shit. It's not even like part of his shtick. Right. But as soon as you bring those guys up, like you could be like, so what'd you have for dinner? And he's like, well, and he's all calm. But the second you bring those guys up, is, is it, do you, do you have that? Like, okay, I'm coming to this division. I can beat all these guys are you like okay i'm like five or six fights away of getting enough experience to like to start thinking about

that or is it already do you already see it no i see i think i'm gonna get in there and i i reckon today i could put a beat i could put on a, solid performance against everybody in the welterweight division. So I'm happy. I also understand the process. You've got to work your way up. So I'm just excited for that. I'm excited for my next fight. Basically, just to everyone that I am,

that I will get to the top of the welterweight division, which is exciting for me. But I understand, yeah, it's just a it's a basically it's a slow process probably a few more fights but we um there's there's also there's also the way of just like you you see these guys like uh like oliveira right They had like eight fights or even El Kukui, Tony Ferguson, that eight or nine fights or whatever many,

and they, and everyone respects them, but they're, but they don't got the hype behind them. Right. They, I mean, now they do,

but it took a long, long, long time where there's other guys. They're like three, like sugar Shane. He's like three fights in and he's just got, you know what I mean? He's,

he's the, he's got all this attention. Yeah. Right. Or, um, or Patty. Patty the baddie. Yeah. Yeah. Patty the baddie.

Is, is there, do you feel an urgent, I mean, you're so young, do you feel an urgency to race to the top? Or is it more like, like when I hear Sugar Shane's strategy is, which I think is kind of a brilliant strategy, just fight the guys you have to fight. Why fucking rock it to the top? Why not get 10 wins under your belt and let the hype train just fucking build? What's the strategy?

Or do you even give a fuck? Am I even asking a question you don't even care about? To a question i don't even give a fuck hey i'm happy whatever they want me to do i would be if they i just want to keep putting on performances i feel like when i get in there i'm going to put on good performances and they're going to give me better guys quickly so if i can if I can rock it to the top I'm 100% willing and ready to do that. God. We'll see what happens

if they I don't I really don't care. I'm just happy to take one fight whoever they tell me to fight next I will sign me up like I'm ready to go.

What is the killer instinct what is it what is it i don't know fuck if i know the killer instinct for me is like after i get off the phone with you going in my backyard and finding snails that are eating my plants and throwing them out into the street that's about as badass as i get but what is what is i don't know what go ahead when i'm in there and i know that somebody else is you're in there with a cage with another person that knows how to fight extremely well and they're trying to basically beat you to almost to death or until the referee comes off so that is enough motivation for me to try and beat them to death until the ref pulls up so it's basically just i know what i'm in for i know what my opponent

wants to do to me so i'm happy to oblige and do the same thing to them sounds brutal but that's basically all if i if there's a at any point in a fight where I feel like I can pull the trigger and beat the person enough that the ref pulls me off, then that is what I would do simply to save myself. You know, Daniel Rodriguez said something interesting. I want to bring up something you just said there too, but do you know who Daniel Rodriguez is? He's in the 171 class. He's won six in a row.

Yeah, I do know that and not personally but i have seen him fight he just beat up kevin lee pretty good yeah i don't yeah i remember that that was nice so he said something in an interview where basically like yeah i like the ufc the fights are basically i'm paraphrasing the fights are safe and the interviewer is like what do you mean he goes well I'm used to fighting in the street I was used to fighting in the streets where like win or lose even if you win a fight you got to worry about someone like coming up behind you and stabbing you I'm like he goes at least in the UFC when the fight's over like the ref's there and there's people there to make sure like you get to go home um yeah and i was like wow that's some that that's

some killer instinct shit but the way you describe the killer so these are the two data points now i have about the way you describe the killer instinct you mentioned maybe in your second fight you didn't have it so that makes me think it's something that maybe has grown in your matured but this other thing the way you described it this second time is that it's dependent on what the other guy is trying to do to you but for some reason i don't believe that i'm believing that you can conjure it up regardless of what he's in there doing i'm guessing you don't need do you like you do you need to see it in him before you before you activate on it yeah that's that's true, to be honest.

I probably don't. If I could sense that I wanted, like, a way out of the fight, I would definitely probably still try and beat him to death. So it makes sense, you know? Like, I don't actually need that. It's just, for me, it's just a way of getting in getting out as safely as possible and that normally means trying to get the finish ah ah so yeah you're right maybe it's not necessarily that i don't need someone else to be trying to hurt me it's just my way of getting

in and getting out and and is that is that new is that um is that something you've cultivated? Is that something that's grown? Do you nurture the killer instinct? I'm not sure. I think from a young age, I've always had a bit of an aggressive streak inside me. When I played rugby, I didn't just want to win. I was always trying to tackle someone extremely hard

and try and be a dominant player in the game and try and win with dominant but maybe it's something that was just in me from a young age from but i'm not sure not sure if it's it definitely must have grown through this sport i think there's this sport definitely grows your killer instinct but I think it was definitely a little flame in there from a young age do they all seem human to you like like someone like Colby Covington who just like you see him just this this like like there's no stop in him you see this beating that Kamaru puts on him and he's still like just like chattering away and do that or do they just all seem human

to you or or some of them you're like what the fuck is going on there is he like on is he on horse tranquilizers like how the fuck i think they are all as much as you see them on tv with like the in the big fights they are all just people you know they have they feel pain just like the next person they bleed just like the next person i think that's why it's such a cool sport and i feel like i'm just lucky because i know i'm a person and i know the kamara oosman and kobe covington i know they're just people and so it's an even playing field and we get to go at it which i can't wait for i'm i'm most i don't know i i'm most impressed um outside of all of his antics and just in just whatever i'm just most impressed of

all the fighters in in your division by colby and maybe it's just maybe it's the crossfitter in me i'm just impressed by his his go yeah no i i'm a big, to be honest. His go is nuts. Yeah, he's an incredible fighter. His gas tank is beyond belief the way he just goes. Yeah, I'm a fan. His style of fighting is pretty impressive to watch. And I don't think anyone's gifted a gas tank, do you? You have to earn that shit, right?

Yeah, I don't, I don't believe that at all, to be honest. Yeah, I agree. I think you, you have to earn that shit. Some people will definitely say,

Oh, he's gifted this, but, but they, those people don't know what that person has done behind the scenes. You know, what, what,

what's the ultimate training partner? Do you, do you have, have you ever met the perfect training partner? To me, for me, my brother, 100%. My brother can go. We have done many, many, many rounds before of trying to punch each other hard. We've never injured each other.

We've never knocked each other out or hurt the other one. I think somehow we just know how to give each other just the improve every single day so and it's your brother so you he obviously wants to get the better of me i want to get the better of him but we as brothers we love each other we don't want to hurt each other so i think i'm blessed in that regard i think i've got the the best training partner in my brother and then of course all the other josh is the perfect training partner for me how much does he weigh he has fought he's very similar to me very similar a little bit taller a little bit taller, a little bit leaner, more of like a lean frame, tall, but he has fought at 185 and has fought at 170. So yeah, similar, perfect size for me, a little bit taller, long, exceptional striker.

And I guess the other, God, I wish I could, I can't even say the guy's name. The other wild card in your class, the real wild card, and there's one in the 55s too. The 171 guy who got COVID and he goes back and forth between 171 and 185. I think he's only been punched twice in three fights. He's the Russian guy. The Russian. Kazmat. Yes.

Kazmat Chameev. Yes. Wow. I'm impressed, Jack. Wow. Jack De La Maddalena. Kazmat. Smash Man.

Yeah. Yeah. No, he's cool. He's cool. He definitely hasn't been tested yet, but I reckon he seems like a strong, powerful, aggressive dude. Yeah. Track one day.

And pretty impressive that he can go between those two weight classes, right? Yeah, it's very impressive. And be dominant in both by the looks of it. Do you do jiu-jitsu? Do do you do jiu-jitsu do you have a jiu-jitsu dojo do you have a like a jiu-jitsu like like a belt like what belt are you yeah i'm a brown belt in brazilian jiu-jitsu we have a um yeah my gym we've got a pretty awesome awesome jiu-jitsu program pablo torielba is the head coach and he's a awesome black belt and and how long have you been doing that i've been doing it's pretty much the day i got into

um and their scrappy mma so yeah 15 16 i got my first guy and have been yeah pretty much consistent pretty much consistent doing jiu-jitsu ever since. And did you climb up the belts from white on up? Yeah, white on up. And did you do jiu-jitsu tournaments? I've done a few. I have done a few. Yeah.

Not a huge array of jiu-jitsu tournaments, but a few. And why not? Is that not the pathway of mma fighters to do jiu-jitsu tournaments no no not at all not not that i have anything against it just sometimes they fall in like times where i probably shouldn't be doing them just because i get injured that sort of thing but no i i think it's awesome to get that competition experience because doing jiu-jitsu in the gym and then doing anything in the gym and then doing it in that environment, it just adds that little bit extra to the art. So, yeah, if I wasn't doing MMA, I'd definitely be doing as many jiu-jitsu tournaments as possible. And do you ever wear your gi anymore? Or is it all no gi?

Majority no gi, but I do still put on the gi occasionally. Like how often? I try to. Once a week or less? At the moment, it's probably once every month. But normally when I have a fight coming up, it's probably once a month. And then when I don't have a fight coming up it's probably once a month and then

when i don't have a fight in the like in the next eight weeks i'll probably get it on once a week i'm new to that whole scene i'm new to that whole scene and once again it's just because i have three little boys and they do jujitsu and we've gone to a couple tournaments but but more and more it's weird it's weird to me the the gi stuff is weird to me and competition jujitsu is weird to me so like just because i'm starting to be suspicious suspicious is a little too strong but i'm starting to become aware of it translating to being useful um in real life do you know what i mean yeah right yeah so so like like you know like um you see someone winning six zero and there's five seconds left and all and they've been

dominating the whole time but then all of a sudden someone gets on top of them and in a couple times and they got eight points in the last 10 seconds and they win and i'm like what the fuck and i'm learning the rules and i'm like and they're like oh that's sportsiu-jitsu. That's what sports jiu-jitsu is. It's just really just all points. So I'm just learning. So that's why I was just curious. From the little bit I would guess, I would guess that once you're an MMA fighter, a professional fighter, you start wearing the gi less and less. Yeah, definitely.

And as you say that, the only competitions I've done in jiu-jitsu weren't those sort of – they were submission only. I've never actually had a Jiu-Jitsu match. Most of the ones that I've ever done around Perth are like submission only. So it makes a bit more sense. There's no submission. There's no winner. And you just try and get the submission. Damn, that sounds like some big boy shit.

No. It makes more sense. I'm not very good with the understanding of the scoring of jiu-jitsu, but I understand how to get submissions and try not to get submitted, so it makes a bit more sense. When did you get a manager? a bit more sense um when did you get a manager after my i got a manager after my just before my last not this far that i've just had before the fight prior to that one i had a manager and who's that he's from perth his name's tim simpson he's from perth he's at paradigm sports

and and he just calls you one day and he's like hey dude you need a manager you're really good uh no not necessarily it was actually a i had a um like a management company reach out sent me just so i didn't have never really spoken to him he sort of just reached out sent me a contract saying, if you want to join the management. And I was sort of like, whoa, interesting, looked at it. And then Tim Simpson, he's based in LA, but he's actually from Perth. So he's from Perth, had a couple of mutual connections,

and he is in the MMA game in LA. And basically having mutual connections and he was he is in the mma game in la and basically having mutual connections with him he was the only person i knew in that space so i just sort of got in touch with him sent him the contract said what did you think and he from that point we built a relationship and scrapped the other contract and we just kept talking and then eventually made sense to get on board and him to help us out and he's been yeah it's been a good move that i've made i believe yeah that that would be scary to sign a contract and if i was your coach benjamin i would be so fucking protective too it would be like yeah the dynamics between fighters and management and coaches always is like it impresses me that

how well it works i guess i don't see if it's not working but it's a it's about it's a balancing act right because you're you're the race car benjamin's the mechanic and this other dude wants to take tell you which races to get in and it's like yeah yeah yeah absolutely yeah no one No one steps on anyone's toes. We're a good, solid team. We're similar. We're all from Perth. I think it's been perfect at this stage where everyone gets along and we've got the same envisions. We've just got to keep doing our part and hopefully we can get to where we need to get to. Let's say next year you were gonna fight am i keeping you too long not at all no i've got six more days i've got nothing but time okay if you need a p-break tell me i i'm i'm interviewing uh davante smith in um 10 hours 7 a.m. my time. Yeah, whenever. I don't know. That might do us in. When do you – you can take a pee break too. When do you – let's say you get three fights next year.

And let's say this fucking – I don't even want to call Australia a country. I'm so disappointed. I'm so disappointed with so many countries, my own but um it's sad yeah oh it's brutal i just saw an amazing thing that the leader of croatia posted today he goes he's the president of croatia he said hey i've been i watch cnn every morning that's our news station here he goes either they're crazy or i'm crazy but i'm gonna go with they're crazy and i'm opening this country up there's no stopping this fucking thing and i was like thank god a fucking leader with balls yeah well we just got off the phone yesterday and ben had a chat with a lady basically just trying to see we're in Sydney now we leave quarantine in

seven days we're just trying to figure out how do we get home to Perth and she basically said Perth isn't letting anyone in at this stage so you'll have to find some you have to find accommodation in Sydney for the foreseeable future and at that point we said ah like we've got family ben has kids in perth we're australian citizens we're in australia we would like to go home but it all got sorted out in the end but to even think that that is a possibility is beyond my wildest beliefs someone's gonna get hurt someone's gonna keep someone from their kids and someone's gonna get hurt i like i'm not talking about australia i'm just talking in the world like someone in general yeah yeah yeah you're gonna put pressure on someone with kids and and okay pressure on the wrong person yeah yeah yeah

they're gonna do something so bad yeah yeah um so um when let's say let's say uh 2022 rolls around and let's say you get a fight early in jan January and let's say for some reason you get three fights. Is that be something you're up to? Three fights in next year? Yeah. Yeah, that'd be all. I would love to get three fights actually would be perfect for me. Okay.

And then so, so then do you, if if this if this shit show in australia which they're saying is going to be over december 11th but it's not you can't believe anything your politicians are telling you um and here's another thing i spoke to another australian um two days ago uh kate gordon she's a uh she's in the crossfit space she basically told me she said and this is a very good point she said that hey when they oh so in the united states this shit's running rampant right everyone has it like i had it last week my wife had it my kids had it everyone's getting it's just fucking everywhere right yeah and yeah and i'm not vaccinated and i just i just don't eat i just take care of myself i just do

crossfit and i don't eat yeah cake and ice cream right yeah so so when they open australia this shit because you guys have done a great job of keeping it out of there it's gonna run fucking rampant and and what happened is they put so much hype behind it's gonna scare people but so i digress but what at what point are you like okay i have three fights in the u.s fuck this shit i'm not coming back and forth i'm grabbing my girl and i'm fucking moving to fucking tim simpson's house in la or i'm moving to florida like when fuck la don't go there by the way i'm in california stay out of california um yeah right like there's got to be a point where you're like hey i'm not going to do quarantine three times next year it's a way it's absolutely nuts i haven't i've tried not to

think about that sort of thing too much you must you must no it's okay i'm thinking about it but i i love earth i love australia i don't want to leave right and i'm hoping that so this is the people hopefully we can just everyone can pull their heads in and just i don't even know what the answer is but i would just love to be able to travel fight and then come back and come back to my home you know and hopefully that is a possibility next year if these um people in charge get their shit together and i'm not understand it's not necessarily their fault but oh it's their fault i can't yeah exactly i can't expect you can't expect an australian to be if they're going out and coming back just sitting

in a hotel room the whole time so who knows what's going to happen but yeah i just want to get three fights in and if that means sitting in a hotel for six weeks next year so i can get my goal it's something that i'm gonna have to just take on the chin but yeah i don't i don't see myself moving anywhere unless of course it gets any worse here then i have to start looking but the plan for me is definitely to stay in australia fight out of australia and fight a lot so someone needs to someone needs to stand up and be like hey um this thing almost exclusively only kills obese people and um it's time to buy an echo bike and stop drinking coca-cola someone just needs to say it like someone like like some leader besides the leader

of croatia like one of these other leaders sorry i don't mean i don't mean i don't mean to make fun of croatia what being fit and healthy is probably the the safest and most effective way out of this thing so it's not extreme about it exercising is not extreme we've got yeah there's obviously mental health issues going around and i also it's a it's a pill that's going to help that as well exercise will help that problem it will help the flu. It will help the flu problem. It will help the COVID problem, the obese problem. I think that is the way out of this, but no one seems to be saying it. Can you – how often do you actually just take a whole day off? Can you remember the last time you didn't sweat during the –

like you went a day without sweating? No, I love sweating. I'm a sweaty man and I'm a happy sweater so yeah i swear i like to sweat every single day me too and if i'm not if i'm not sweating from uh exercise i definitely try and get into the sauna and sweat the lazy way so i love sweating yeah it's nuts i i don't know how people don't exercise every single day i i i seriously would feel unfulfilled like if i don't if it's like 11 o'clock at night and i've been busy all day i still will go out in the garage and make sure i sweat just do something i have a yeah it's for me

it's definitely and obviously for you it's basically it's medicine. Mental health, yes. Yeah, it's the purest medicine you can have is movement, exercise, that whole thing. So to me, yeah, it's absolutely insane that that isn't spoken about more. It's like an oil change, right? Like you're like, hey, I get to drink a gallon of water now because obviously there's a gallon on the floor. Yeah. If you exercise, I feel like it makes food taste better.

As it makes a beer go down nicer after exercise. It makes everything better. So why not more people are interested in it? It's unbelievable. Do you and Ben play any games in the hotel room i mean i mean besides like snapping towels at each other when you guys are naked like do you do any other games like chess or we have to oh i've got we are we actually we've ordered a chess board the chess board should be arriving soon we i wish we ordered it earlier but the only

other game we've got is uh we've got a nintendo switch and we play golf oh you hook it up to the tv yeah we've got the um to be honest we've got the cheap version it's just like a little one that sits in your hand and you just take turns that's still fun you just take turns but definitely if this is going to be the new norm living in having little trips in hotels i think we're gonna have to buy a switch the proper one are there two beds in that room two beds yeah two very comfy beds to be honest so happy with that and you have to pay for that stay in there we we do you do have to pay for but we are lucky. The beautiful company, the UFC, is covering it. Oh, shit.

Wow. Incredible team. Yeah, I'm a proud employee. How did you get the blue checkmark? Tim is a bit of a wizard. Someone in Paradigm Sports is a wizard, and Tim said you should of a wizard. Someone in paradigm sports is a wizard. And Tim said you should get a blue checkmark. And within five minutes, I had a blue tick mark.

So wizards behind the scenes. Do a lot of people know what's going on with Jack? Are a lot of people like freaking out, like even more so than me? No? Like Tim's not freaking out? like even more so than me like no like tim's not freaking out like oh shit i've had a lot of um people reach out and just say they're happy with me and they're proud of me being australian people around the world but no nothing not much the same over here people just a lot of people obviously appreciate some martial arts and that's what i gave him so i think there's some people are happy with that

fuck dude it's a it's a crazy um it's a it's a it's a it's a crazy story and and um you said it's just the beginning but but but i mean i i know you're being pretty humble saying that. I mean, it's clearly nuts. It is really nuts. Have you made any other predictions about what's going to happen in your next 10 fights? No, we haven't yet. We obviously made that solid goal after my second loss. We said I was 0-2 and Ben wasn't actually there at the time. He basically couldn't make it to where the fight was.

But he called me after and he said, don't hang your head, just stay at this. We will get 10-2. Our next goal will get 10 wins. And he sort of just told me then and there, we're going to get 10-2. We stuck at it. We got 10-2 now.

How did he know? Was he drunk when he called you? Was Ben drunk when he said that? He could have been a little drunk at the time, but he must have foreseen something. Nah, he's a sober man these days. He definitely wasn't drunk. He obviously envisioned something,

and he knew that I had more to give. So we both agreed that we were going to get to that 10 wins, two losses. Seems like a crazy, it's a crazy beat 10. My other people that train martial arts, but we just stuck at it and I envisioned it the whole time. So we've got to make a new one.

How about your third fight? How did your third fight go your first my third third fight i was fired up and i got in there and i got a first round knockout and elbow it's quite a wild elbow just it's like an up elbow i just threw it like that and bang it landed but yeah i was very amped up for that fire there was that would i lost there would have really hit hit me hard so that wasn't there is that so there's this move that you did so i watch a lot of ufc i think i watch a lot of ufc i think i watch more than most people but there's probably people who watch a lot more than me there in one of your fights you just reminded me of that spinning elbow is that the one where you caught his leg i had never seen that holy shit had you

so had you ever seen anyone do that before not necessarily i've seen i've had seen that as a move that has been done before anderson silver landed that nice elbow on Tony Frickland in Cage Rage back in the day. And then also Dan Henderson landed a good elbow on Hector Lombard. But it's a pretty dangerous shot. You can get a lot of power throwing your elbow up like that. So it was something that I definitely practiced. I had it in the arsenal and i felt at the time it was the perfect time to unleash it so so for people who are listening who don't know and i'm probably

gonna fuck this up but um jackal on fuck it if i fuck it up someone another guy basically kicked them and usually when you see that in mma when someone kicks someone and you catch their leg you either run towards them and try to lift their leg up and flip them down or you try to sweep their leg or you try punching them just straight across like with a one-two just basically just a jab instead jack starts spinning and drills the guy i think right i think what i did is i i caught his leg and i went to actually throw the punch and it sort of glanced and missed him. So my hand went past his face. And then all I did was basically just come back.

Punch me just with the elbow. So some WWE shit. It was some WWE stuff. Wow. It's funny. I saw my, uh, I saw actually, I saw my kids fighting the other day. I'm like, Hey, don't backhand each other. And he's like, and my son, like you and my son actually said, you have to, if you miss fighting the other day. I'm like, hey, don't backhand each other.

And my son actually said, you have to if you miss with the first one. I'm like, oh, God. It makes sense. They're onto something. Yeah, I got that in my notes. Leg catch to spinning back. So it wasn't necessarily spinning back elbow. I saw it wrong.

That was just me getting excited. No, it wasn't necessarily a spin it was more throw on the punch the punch went across like that and then the elbow came straight back in the same from the same position and that was your third fight third fight that was my first professional win which was nice to get that one yeah shit that shit. Get that goal just kicked off, yeah. That was crazy. I also noticed there's something else you do in your fights. You do this thing where when you breathe, you're going like this. You open your mouth big.

Have you noticed that? You look like a fish, like a fish out of water. Like you do this. That's not conscious? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. No, not really. I just know that it's obviously very important to stay on top of your breathing and not forget to breathe so maybe it's something i

make sure i'm always breathing i think breathing is something that probably the most important thing for like beginners is just to stay on in control of your breathing does ben snore? Ben does not snore Do you snore? Ben doesn't actually Ben do I snore? Um Not Nah

Nah we're being lucky He's not in his nose He said Just stay to my nose I should snore But I don't And Ben doesn't snore So we've actually been

Having some really good sleeps The room in here The beds are comfy And the um Windows completely black out Oh that's cool That's cool Yeah been having some really good sleeps the room in here the beds are comfy and the um windows completely black out oh that's cool that's cool yeah do you know any of the other guys big big names in the scene there have you met um robert robert no i have never met robert i've met um alex volkanovsky okay i've met Alex. He's a nice guy.

And then I've met, I've met, um, yeah, no, that's pretty much, I've met too many. I don't hang around with too many big name fighters. Just sort of met them through being involved in the sport.

Where, where did you meet Alex at? He actually, he commentated a fight of mine. Like, like one of your pro fights. Yeah. Yeah.

And was he the champ when he did that? Um, I think he was either. It was, it was very, it was about three weeks before he fought Max. I don't know if it was the first or the second fight. So I'm not actually sure. I think it may, he was the first or the second fight. So I'm not

actually sure. I think he may have been the champion at that point. It may have been just before his second fight. You think he's going to beat Ortega? Yeah, I think he's going to beat Ortega. Yeah, I'm definitely on board with the Volkanovski train.

Hope he represents Australia proud as I'm sure he will. Yeah, and Max beat up Ortega pretty good as I recall. Yeah, yeah he did. He put a bad beating on him. Max and Alex are both pretty crazy. That division's crazy. That's it, Craig. That is

a, those two, I definitely think Volkanovski won both those fights. They're very tight but yeah, that is as close as competition as I think you'll get I think if they have a third fight down the track it would be close again I think that is a they are pretty much on the same level and and did you see Max fight Calvin yeah that was impressive that was very holy shit some very good boxing skills let me ask your take on um the sugar shane fight with the kid from boston where basically um i think that's the 135 class

yeah you got the get that kid took the fight on like two or three weeks notice and then he got in there and basically just had his face punched in for three rounds straight. Pretty insane. That was a pretty insane. How he stayed up that whole fight was pretty impressive. And it looked like Shane was even telling the ref like, Hey, you got to stop this.

Yeah. Like somewhere in the third round. Yeah, it seemed like they could have stopped it at any point. But then to stop it at that just before the end was a bit sad. I thought they'd let him take the beating and then not give him the – let him get to the decision. It was pretty tough to watch. But, I mean, it's safety first at the end of the day.

But I feel like they could have stopped that a lot earlier but yeah sugar sean is in a pretty impressive fight oh sugar sean i called him sugar shane shit sugar shane sugar shane yeah um he's a legend yeah it's pretty crazy it's gonna be fun watching him uh climb up the ranks. It's going to be interesting. Super interesting. Mo's not convinced he's the real deal. Really? Yeah, that's what he said. Yeah, he's definitely taking it, yeah, as you said,

like taking the smart way, just getting the fights in. I think he's a pretty impressive fighter. I think he's impressive too. But the best guy he's fought he lost to yeah definitely so that that's i mean i know it was a foot injury but he still lost to him but that was like marlin or who was that yeah yeah yeah cheetah very yeah yeah yeah i reckon he yeah yeah he claims he didn't lose that but that was a clear loss in my mind

yeah so i mean he seems to be great super exciting though his style is just fan friendly to the max a beautiful technician speaking of fan friendly dana dana had very nice words to say about you. Did you go back and listen to that? I assume you did. Yeah, we did have a listen, which was cool. Real cool. Yeah, and do you actually, when you're there at the Contender Series, do you actually get to talk to him or shake his hand, or is there any interaction?

A little bit. I saw him. We had our rugby ball. We were just playing our rugby ball in the back, and he so happened to be walking through the hallway, and we had a little chat. I popped him our rugby ball in the back. And he so happened to be walking through the hallway. And we had a little chat. I popped him the rugby ball. I think he didn't like the rugby ball that much.

But he was happy. I think he was stoked with the performance, which was cool. And he gave us a bottle of whiskey, one of his bottles of Howlerhead. Not bad. made from bananas i enjoyed a i enjoyed some of that the other hey so um does everyone get a bottle of that i don't know i've just said i he gave me a bottle but he probably gave all the winners a bottle no let's just say he gave you one. Let's say he just gave you one. And to be honest, he didn't actually give it to me. One of his.

You took it out of his back pocket. So the story is, yeah, it gets watered down a bit. But I left Las Vegas with a bottle of Dana White's whiskey. And that's all that matters. Yes, that is all that matters. Jack. Ten and two. Dana White's whiskey and that's all that matters. Yes, that is all that matters. Jack, 10-2. I really appreciate the 93

minutes you've given me. Actually, 96. This is the only show I started three minutes early. Yeah, nice. I got you in my Google alerts the second they announce uh who you're fighting i'm gonna start bugging you again um normally uh josh does these with me um these shows with you when i yeah when i interview the fighters he'll jump on with me

yeah did you see that did you see his fight a couple days ago? No. He's a wrestler, isn't he? Well, he had his first amateur boxing match in Dubai. What a look. Yeah. So he comes on these shows. I just completely missed that. Yeah, it's just. I would have loved to have.

It's small time. You're big time. It's small time. You're big time. No. If I had have known, I would have 100% watched that. So he had his first fight he fought a guy who was 20 pounds bigger than him and 3 inches taller

it was just an amateur fight it was Jacob Hepner do you know who that is he's a crossfitter also yep I do yeah and they actually they did I think they did in my opinion they did boxing they did it it looked like boxing it didn't look like two girls like flailing

at each other they trained both trained really really hard uh jacob had a good jab going uh josh's footwork looked fucking great his head movement looked great um they fought on that do you know who thor is the guy from game of thrones yeah yeah oh he saw the big guy yeah so he fought and he was the main event and josh and main event, and Josh and Jacob were the co-main event. Wow. Yeah. That's really cool. I'm going to come up.

A little $10 pay-per-view. I think it's probably free now. You can probably just watch it on YouTube. Great. So the next time we get together, hopefully Josh will be on here, but he just got back from Dubai yesterday and I said, Hey dude, you got to meet this guy, Jack. He's like, dude, I need to rest. No, fuck him. He should have been on here meeting Jack.

No, it's been a pleasure to meet you though, Savannah. You're the man. Thank you. Bam. And we're no longer live.