The Sevan Podcast - #179 - Paul Linn

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

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ma'am live live live live on youtube second time today mark bell this morning then what happened then i went to the lighthouse with my kids ate a quesadilla in the rain watched some huge waves crushed crushed crushed watched some huge waves crush the california coastline kids squealed had a blast there came back home nap for an hour boys are off to jujitsu and what do i do to get on a call with Paul Lynn. How did Paul Lynn pop on my radar and where is Paul Lynn and why isn't he on the show? You know, I don't think people know the show is live. Actually,

Paul's probably coming home from work. He, he squeezed this in. I shouldn't, I shouldn't, I shouldn't rag on him for not being here exactly on time. I knew it was going to be tight. How crazy this whole podcast thing is just evolving.

As you guys know, I used to be pretty heavily into arm wrestling. I made this movie called Pooling John about John Brzenk. I developed a bunch of arm wrestlers, including Travis Bajent and John, two people who are super passionate about the sport, involved in it at kind of every level. I mean, definitely Travis is involved in it at every level. And John's been been you know i wonder if john's ever put on a tournament should ask him that but definitely there's there's i i don't know maybe there is somewhere i don't know of a competitor of john brzenk's status in any

sport like i haven't never i haven't in my lifetime there hasn't been one in uh basketball football i don't know hockey like like i mean you know you see these greats come and go the jordans the wayne gretzky's the lebrons the tom brady's the i guess maybe that guy the guy won like switch teams and still won a super bowl but this guy john brzenzezink, is nuts. He is really, really, really, really nuts. And he has the perfect demeanor, character to be that guy. It all makes sense. When you sit down and talk to him, it all makes sense.

The first time you meet him, if you would have met him 30 years ago, and someone said, this is the greatest arm wrestler who ever lived you'd be like wow what a strange demeanor but now that he's been in it for 37 years it all makes sense it's a slow slow burn of power there's no uh there's nothing chaotic there was actually a time i i think when i was making the movie Pulling John, John Brzezinski just started getting into poker. And as I believe, he was a tremendous poker player too. He could basically go into a casino and win. And it's just because he's just a rock. He's just solid.

He's like, there's no tells. He's just, he's like an alligator. He kind of looks like an alligator. Anyway, so why is Paul in on the show? So I, I, I got a chance to talk to kind of rekindle my friendship with John via the podcast a couple of weeks ago. And the reason why is I was tripping because John just popped up on YouTube and was just exploding, exploding. And he's such a mellow dude. He probably had no idea he was going to get that attention. And, uh, he, and then he told me, he said, Hey, I'm back into arm wrestling.

I kind of like took a break in 2015 after beating the great Devin Lorette. And now all of a sudden he said, he said, I'm kind of feeling a little frisky at 57 years old and I'm getting back in the game. And I'm like, wow. And, uh, he told me he was arm wrestling this guy, Paul Lynn. And so I just went on to Instagram and I'm like, let me, let me see what's going through this guy's head. Who's about to arm wrestle the greatest arm wrestler of all time. And maybe one of the greatest sportsmen to a sport of all time. And don't get me wrong. I'm not, other sports have a lot of shit going on.

I mean, basketball is just nuts right all the different movement the ball the shooting the defense the offense it's definitely far far different sport than arm wrestling but at this level the nuances of arm wrestling are pretty wild and uh what i recommend if you want to get into arm wrestling if you want to get excited about this match if you just want like hey i'm curious about this guy john brzenk you just go on youtube and just start googling around and then do the same with paul and you can build kind of your own hype uh reel that's what i did last couple days i started watching a bunch of paul lynn's matches i want to believe that he can win so that when I watch the match this weekend of John versus Paul, I'll think that Paul then has a chance.

I mean, the thing with John, I guess, is just a huge unknown because he's just coming back. He's just coming back. And there he is. You did it. You did it. he's just coming back and there he is paul you gotta um log out and log back in something's wrong okay try one more time close that that window. Come back. Ouch. Did anyone else hear that?

Was that really bad? Was that bad? What was the other three-hour podcast besides Pedigree? I did three hours today with Mark Bell. Is that what you mean? That was nuts. That was nuts. That was nuts. Oh. No bueno. Can you hear me okay? It's almost like water got poured into your microphone. Yeah, that mic. Can you unplug that mic and use the mic on the computer

hey do you have a phone i've never done it with someone on an android we could test that out wow that is crazy should i mute his ass it's so bad brother oh yeah can you try your phone? I'm going to disconnect you here. Can I just remove him? Edit my kick from studio. Kick guest. Bye. That was wild.

What's the deal? Why am I going to ask him about crypto? As long as it's nice, I don't want to set this guy up for anything bad. Does he know a lot about crypto? He looks like he builds crypto farms. No, you said there were two that went three hours. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Those weren't those. Those three hour shows I'm referencing.

Sorry, I should be way more clear we're not um not on my show but when i was a guest on someone else's show i've gone on to other people's shows where they kept me on for three hours and after that i felt i i felt dirty i was just like it was too much I you don't want to be on here when you feel like you're not contributing you don't want to be wasting anyone's time at least I don't I don't think anyone does it's fucking

it's gross and so I felt like when you go past the 90 minute mark you could you could be kind of getting there right oh that's awesome paul are we better man dude you sound like an angel that's okay i apologize dude that podcast you guys did you and gary and travis did and you guys took all the air out of the room i think we're done no one needs to even watch this nobody watches that stuff no one watches uh oh my god i cannot believe how many viewers it has already and how

shitty the quality is but you get four dudes who are just so fired up about arm wrestling and people will watch anything it's crazy it's crazy uh so i i've been out of the scene for a long time and I, I was obviously good. I obviously am friends with Travis and John. I've worked with them a lot. I mean, then I just saw John pop up on YouTube. I'm like, what the fuck is this guy's taking over? Yeah. He's got a million views already in like three weeks.

This guy's videos, half of his videos. He's just kind of fumbling through how to do and talking his way through stuff it's great and they get like 20 000 views and and and devin is like a an international rock star now yes i mean he's up to like what has he got like 400 000 subscribers and he's the same deal everything is on his everything's on his iphone and he just talks into it and says whatever and it gets it's unbelievable they are yeah and they're two guys with integrity and authenticity there's no conor mcgregor stick right it's just that to travis we leave that to travis yeah and you know what um i don't mean to take make a dig at conor mcgregor because i don't think conor mcgregor and and uh and the diaz

brothers i don't think it's a shtick. I think they're just comfortable with who they are. And I think the same with Travis. Like I've been with Travis at the dinner table at his family's house many a time in the past. And that's how he talks to his kids. Right. You want to get smacked up? You want to get smacked up, motherfucker?

Say thank you to your mom. Kid's like, thank you, mom. How crazy is, do you follow Travis's son? Do you see how successful his son is at football yeah you know i played i played in the same conference that he plays in now and they're killing it they're lighting they like lighting my alma mater up so yeah tyson is like tyson is a special special dude and and when travis made the decision i don't want to say travis made the decision tyson made this but they made the decision together to keep him d2 I mean he was definitely a division one kid and his numbers are reflecting the fact that he is a

division one kid playing d2 oh okay that's interesting um it's it's I I knew them when I knew Travis when I probably when Tyson was born or when he was a baby and I would see him every you know a couple times every year and the last time i saw him he was probably i don't know i went to watch him play a basketball game when he was 10 maybe yeah and um for all the dads out there who want um their kids to be good at sports there's really i mean travis spends a shitload of time with his kids or he did and he put in the effort and it's crazy that it's happening it's the roadmap i mean like let's be serious travis is a special athlete as well. Beyond arm wrestling.

He was an athlete prior. So his kids have good genetic ability. But then, you know, Travis got, you know, he's got his own crossfit gym. He trains him himself. He's so hands on. When your dad is that passionate, how do you, how are you average? You know, you're not, you can't be. And his wife is kind of a genetic freak too.

Right. And Travis has a huge ass. And as we all know, I mean, that's the engine room, right? I mean, you got a big ass and there's no stopping you if you want to use it. Yep. Yeah. Tyson is a special, special dude, man. He got a little bit more height too.

I mean, he's up for the Harlan Hill again, which is the D2 Heisman Trophy. So, I mean, he's that good. He was up for it last year? I believe so. I believe he was on the ballot last year. And what is he? Is he a junior, senior? I think he's a senior.

He's a senior, I believe. So this is his big year. If he's not a senior, he's at least a three-year starter. I think he was starting for four years. I think he's a senior. He's a senior, I believe. So this is not a senior. He's at least a three year starter. I think he was starting for four years. I think he's a senior. I remember the last time I saw his stats, too, it was something crazy. Like he had never lost a football game in college or some shit. I mean, it was really crazy. His numbers and Travis posts him every week, like a bad day for Tyson is like 350 yards and one pick.

You know what I mean? Like that's a bad day. His numbers are just absurd. And they are lighting it up. Like Shepard has been a scoring machine since he's been there. It's unbelievable. How old are you, Paul? I'm 40. Oh, shit.

You're no spring chicken. I'm old. I'm wondering how you knew all that. Okay. Yeah, I got in late. I got into the game late. And how tall are you um just under six foot just okay and from listening to that podcast with um travis and john

you've only been doing this five years yeah i got in when i was 35 yeah for people who don't know that is a baby in the sport of arm wrestling yeah uh the the development just takes fucking forever it does it really does and and i you know i rushed as much as i could like i i immediately became obsessed and i treated it the same way as i treated my football career and i trained for it the same way as an athlete would i did it like basically from day one um only problem with that is is when you don't have that conditioning that over training kind of like it took a toll on me and i wound up having some some injuries and tendon issues and and tears and things of that nature but i think because i took that approach early and didn't

have anything catastrophic happen i was able to kind of make make some gains faster than some folks do um did you do anything in your career like some occasionally you'll see these freaks like come out of like you see a freak show on the arm wrestling scene you're like what the fuck they're like only six months and you find out that they they milk cows for a living you know what i mean or they were like a pipe fitter or they or they turn rebar by hand from when they were a baby yeah you don't have anything like that or they pulled fishing nets in africa you're like oh that makes sense you know know what, though? And that's a lot of times when you see these guys come in with these big, grisly, like strong hands. It's because they come from a trade or they did something weird or their farm, you know, farm raised.

Now I was raised in the city and my primary source of income, I sit behind a computer. So I don't do any of that. But I do. I mean, I did have I did play football at a fairly high level. I played at the next level after college. And then I went on to coach football and I run a strength program. So I pretty much live in the gym, whether it's because I want to, or if it's against my will or not, I'm in there for three hours a day.

So it's, it's become part of who I am. I haven't taken more than a week off. I mean, I took up, this is my week off and it's killing me. I don't take time off. So that's just it. Ever since I, ever since I stopped playing football, I just seamlessly transitioned into coaching and strength coaching. So I've just, I've never laid off. You said you played the next level of football after college, but what is that? I played overseas. I mean, I didn't know NFL, NFL Italy. I played over there. Didn't chase it too hard. Finished my master's program did that uh during that time and um and then transitioned into coaching and where were you

born carisburg pennsylvania right where i live now oh no okay cool and you're married i am and kids i have one boy six years old oh i have a six-year-old too isn't that great yeah oh my goodness i've done oh you know everything that's going on right now we got kindergarten i killed him i have held him back for a year so we're going through this crazy transition him like being out of the house and not having me with him at all times uh it's it's awesome to see but man i hate to let him go you know dude i went to my kids first jiu-jitsu tournament a couple months ago. There was another parent there with me. And basically, there's a point where, like, you have to let go of their hand, and they walk parallel to you to the match.

And I'm, like, holding on to them, and my buddy's like, he's like, hey, you got to let go of your kid. I'm like, what do you mean? No, I don't. I'm like, I just hold his hand as we walk. He'll be on one side of the rope. I'll be on the other. He's like, dude, let him go. I'm like, dude, I still get him dressed in the morning.

He's like, yeah, you need to stop that shit too no i'm right with you my son does it my son's uh starting into novice wrestling and jujitsu as well and it's like i love watching him do it but it's it's so hard not to be involved it's so hard to like not be on his ass at all times you know dude i i seriously i i didn't play any sports growing up and so the first time i saw him do jujitsu in that tournament too like right like five minutes after that i seriously thought i was gonna shit my pants like i was having like those belly flops like diarrhea belly flops i was like what the fuck is going on i'm not even doing nothing yeah that's awesome that's awesome i think it's honestly like you know this is my first kid and everything I've coached forever, but they're not my kids, you know? So I am very, I feel, I can sense that my anxiety is going to

be higher for him competing than it is for mine. I'm so used to competing that it's not a big deal, but watching him do anything, my, my asshole puckers up. I had to, uh, the, the, the first, he also plays tennis and the tennis instructors had to come over to me a handful of times and be like hey dude just all kindness and all respect shut the fuck up and I'm not even saying much like hey you want a water

want me to come out there and take your sweater off you okay you know what I mean that's great I'm not even like doing crazy shit like that bitch nothing like that but just like you want to go home now middle of the match want to go get a sandwich um so so you're in harrisburg pennsylvania you're 40 years old you're you're uh you're um are you so i'm getting you're kind of a home did you marry your high school sweetheart no no what she actually went

to the same high school i'm five years older than we met her we met in college she was a freshman when i was doing my grad work was she one of your students no no i was i was getting my i was getting my grad work i was getting my she's on the it happens i i got a friend i got a friend who was a instructor over at buds and he was the strength and conditioning coach at UC Riverside. And he's a pretty famous CrossFitter, Josh Everett. And I'm pretty sure he was a strength and conditioning coach. And he ended up marrying one of the girls on the volleyball team or some shit. You hear it all the time.

You hear it all the time. So you get married. You have a kid. And what is your day job? You said you sit in front of a computer? Yeah, I'm a project manager. I have a bunch of other endeavors too. I got a couple of LLCs.

I'm involved in a cryptocurrency company, a bunch of stuff. But my primary job is a program manager. But you're also a hustler. I'm busy. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm busy. Real estate, rental rental properties things of that

nature yeah right keep it busy right you're not going you don't you don't come home and watch um at uh six o'clock turn on netflix and open a bottle of wine do not yeah i'll rest when i'm dead rest when i'm dead yeah yeah sleep is for for when you're dead yeah does your wife like that about you no she will when you're 70 she will right right that's the idea once it calms down it all pays off and we can reap the rewards and everything but now now she's supportive she's supportive but i mean i'm a pain in the ass so i mean i can i can own that if you're not a if you're not a hustler if you're not like um selling fucking stuffed animals on ebay and

do just doing and fucking with cryptocurrency and just doing everything you can you will not make it in this world moving forward things are moving too fast you better have your hands like in six different cookie jars right and it's good you know using a cryptocurrency stuff as an example like if you if you like the world's not there yet people are just starting to get it you know but if you're not ahead of that curve i mean goodness man i don't trust my retirement i don't trust my 401k at all i gotta get my hand in other in other pots and other cookie jars for sure because i that's the wave of the future things are changing at light speed it's impossible to keep up with wow that opens up a million questions for, but we got to talk a little bit about arm wrestling, but I'd love to circle back to that.

The example I would use also is I used to, and I was telling Mark, do you know who Mark Bell is? I had him on this morning. I did not see it, but I've heard the name. He invented the slingshot. He was in the, his brother did Bigger, Faster, Stronger, the movie 2008. Oh, yeah, yeah. Bigger, Faster, Stronger. His brother did a documentary yes okay awesome yes okay yeah so and and and mark's one of the characters in it okay like like um chris bell's like trying to figure out should i do steroids and mark bell's his brother who did do steroids yes okay awesome movie awesome i watched it i watched it quite some time ago but that was one of the most eye-opening – to date was one of the most eye-opening things that was out mainstream about that topic. Very objective.

Yeah, he's better than – I think he's better than Michael Moore as a documentary filmmaker, Chris Bell. I went back and watched it two days ago. I'm like, wow, this is some fucking great shit. It really is. And both sides. Really balanced. Good shit. Yeah, it was 100% objective.

And, I mean, where do you ever see that? Almost always there is some form of an agenda with every topic that's presented. I thought it was very objective. And his agenda, he just didn't hide it from you. Should I do steroids or shouldn't? Right. Anyway, one of the things I was joking around in there is one of the things I used to do to make money is I would go around and film marijuana grow rooms in California. And then I would put them together on a DVD.

And then I would sell the DVD on eBay for like $20 or $20. And some days I'd sell like $3 and I'd have like $60. I'm like, damn, I'm balling. You know what I mean? And I would just print them out on my little DVD player on my computer. And I would make the movie Pulling John with that money that I, you know, that's how you funded it. I mean, you know, I, a bunch of things, but I had a bunch of hustles, right? A ton of hustles anyway. So then all of a sudden DVDs are gone. Right. And I knew guys who were making $2 million a year selling DVDs and then they're

gone. I worked in a warehouse. I worked in a warehouse when I was right out of college and my good buddy worked there too. And that's what he did. He, he big warehouse, about a thousand employees. And he hustled burnt DVDs that, you know, came out early bootleg or whatever. And he hustled these things and made more than his day job, just selling to the people at the place. And then, like you said, like that, nobody wants them anymore. Gone. Gone. at the place and then like you said like that nobody wants them anymore gone gone yeah and and in my mom's garage i had like you know 5 000 dvds i never sold my old c more buds how to grow weed and i'm just like what am i gonna do with these they're frisbees so so you're working this so your dad with one six-year-old you're working a day job. You got a bunch of other interests. You're an entrepreneur. How does arm and your strength coach, how does arm wrestling enter your consciousness? I mean, at that point, I was just kind of looking for something, you know, like really? Yeah, yeah, I was looking at 35 because there's no competition. Right.

So I'm coaching. So I get a little bit, I get a little bit from coaching. Like, you know, all right, we won this game. You get to watch somebody have success. You get to live vicariously, but it wasn't enough, you know? And here I am in a gym. Um, you know, I just turned 35 years old. I'm beating myself up.

I'm still power cleaning and squatting. I'm hurting myself and stuff. And I'm like, I just want to compete in something. So I'm playing racquetball and these different things and and i and and one of my you know one of my buddies one of my guys i coached with said why don't you arm wrestle you beat people in arm wrestle all the time every time you go to a bar you're beating somebody in arm wrestle i said well i mean is it a real thing and we talked about it and that was right around the time game of arms was going on and i watched game Arms. That was the show on like the reality show?

Okay, TMC. Travis was on it. They were all on it. And I watched it. I remember. It was right around the same time I found this show, and it was like getting great ratings. The first episode did great. I watched it.

I was obsessed. I watched every episode. My wife wanted to kill me. And the whole time through it, I was like, there's no way that I can't beat some of these guys. Did your IQ drop 10 points from watching that i don't know i haven't got it tested no so anyway i mean and then and it was right around that same time where i was like okay arm wrestling is a thing and i just looked up a tournament and went and showed up and what was the first tournament uh it was a little fundraiser tournament, Pittston, PA, run by a guy named Tom Nitro Simcoe,

old school arm wrestler, just like a charity benefit thing. And this would be 2016? Yeah, or the end of 15. I can't remember. But yeah, it was the beginning of 16, I believe. And how much did you know? Did you know the difference between a top roll and a hook?

Did you know about back pressure? You did know about some of those, the fundamentals? Yep. I mean, I watched Pulling John before I ever competed. I started getting obsessed before I competed. Game of Arms started being like, okay. And you learn some stuff in Game of Arms. I looked at some Devin Laird videos before I went, I wasn't like totally clueless on it, but I couldn't execute anything and nor did I train for it.

So it wasn't until after the first one that I, that I got like some training tools and trained a little bit. And it wasn't until the second one. So I actually went to a practice. Okay. So, so maybe you got some captains of crush yeah you had a piece of rope with a string on it like yeah okay devin and michael todd do it can't be that bad right must be doing something right i'm squeezing grippers you know yeah uh you got you tied that you tied the rubber band to the while you're driving to the door yeah do that shit too no i mean early on i did when i was super obsessed i tried to do everything possible god those guys are crazy as you learn you start realizing what you do and don't need um and what what takes priority but early on yeah i bought every single tool my my gym like i have a little

spot in the gym where i work out with the kids and everything that just has like hundreds of tools that i bought because i was so obsessed and i'll use half of them. Right. I know that's my gym too. Not for arm wrestling though. Kid shit. And, and so you, you, did you,

do you win all your matches in your first tournament? I won the, I won it. Yeah. I won the amateur. It was like an amateur one 99 plus. So it was with the big guys. I won both arms and that. And then I went in the pro class and I took third in a super heavyweights.

And so it was another one 99 plus class. So everybody was bigger than me. I'd be a national champion that day, but I didn't feel good about myself because I lost. I wasn't expecting to lose. I was this guy thinking like this arm wrestling is not that hard, you know? And I got a rude awakening because I lost. I fully expected to go there and win and beat everyone, you know? So I had to like rethink, you know, all right, well, this is a real thing. And these guys really know what they're doing. And I might have a gap I need to close before I get good. So I open your hand up. Did I get my hand open from the guy who beat you that day?

What happened? How did he beat you inside? Wow. Boom inside. Like fast. Bam. Bill Runkle. Good puller.

He's a top 10 guy in North America. I don't know that. You know what I mean? I just show up and whatever. But yeah. And I tweet something in my shoulder because I hit like just like I would normally go, you know, real hard. And I actually I actually injured my labrum in my first ever tournament. And so now I can't bench right. And I'm going back home and I'm like, oh, my goodness, I can't bench after my first tournament. So I had to like adjust how i train completely so i took about two months off and and pondered do i want to keep doing this but i kept doing my little training and everything and then i showed up at the pa winter blast uh which is run by sue fisher out on the east coast

another big this is a much bigger tournament and i won that one in the big not a big amateur class with 20 some people in it and there's where I made all my contacts. I'm at Storm. Sorry, Paul. What weight there? What weight there? I pulled the one 98 class there. Okay.

And sorry to go back a second. So when you pulled this at this first tournament you went to, how much did you weigh? How much do you weigh right now? Right now for the John match on two 25. And are you uncomfortable? Yes. Yeah. When I found out about the match, I was hovering between 210 and 215, which is my resting weight.

It's where my body wants to be. That's homeostasis for me. When Travis said, hey, do you want to pull John? I'm like, sure. You know, absolutely. And then the weight came up and I knew John was trying to get down for top eight. I was like, cool, we can do 220. Isn't he going to 209?

And Travis was like, no, no, no. He no he wants he's like he's bigger than that i was like okay let me do 225 at least because i don't think i can get bigger than 225 so we settled on 225 and i think john has a little bit to lose and i'll probably walk in at that that's crazy how big he is hey um what was the what's the heaviest you've ever weighed? I weighed 230, like mid 230s in college, but that was like my job was to get as big as possible. And I sat in, in the, you know, in the, in the cafeteria and I ate my face off for three meals a day until I was uncomfortably sick, you know? And what, what position did you play?

Middle linebacker. And at that point it was still run heavy offenses and I needed to be big. And you, and you smashed dudes. Yeah, it was still run heavy offenses and i needed to be big and you and you smash dudes yeah it was filling on iso's fullbacks you know straight smash mouth stuff back then so it isn't what it is now now you know you can have 210 215 pound linebackers that run you know back then it was downhill johnny agat and did you like that i loved it yeah i don't know i don't know how i don't know how, I don't know how the old post concussion syndrome is treating me nowadays, but the memory is not as good as it used to be, but I loved it in the moment. I'll wait another,

wait another 10 years. I'm 49. Oh man. Getting old is fun. So, so you're, so then you go to your second tournament. Um,

and, and do you know, at this point, just, just so you guys know, so it's this weekend, the match with John is this weekend, right? And we still have no idea how we're going to watch it. Right. John's got to put it on his channel. It's going to be live stream from John's channel. I'm probably going to live stream it from mine. Like there was supposed to be a pay-per-view. It fell through.

That's really hard to organize on a short notice. You know, so when Travis said he was going to do that, I was like, okay, fingers crossed. Hopefully it works, you know. But it will be YouTube live streamed. There's probably going to be a couple channels that have it. Paul, is your Instagram P-A-U-L-L-I-N-N? Yeah, paul.lin717. Paul Lin 717. Oh, shit. say okay paul that's your instagram paul dot

paul lin paul say it again i think it's well let me i guess i gotta look at it uh yeah double check because i'm gonna put it on the screen here okay let me get on there real quick this guy doesn't this this guy doesn't know his own instagram account i don't know how is it going to be john verzing i don't know i don't know is that is that is that why he's going to be john even have an instagram he does he does i i bet you i can find your instagram faster than you you probably can okay paul.lin god i i cannot stand you guys who who are have numbers in your instagram and that people tell me that's like sporting that's way 717 paul.lin.717 that's what i thought but i wasn't sure just want to throw up when i see that just type in paul so paul you so you have a youtube channel

also i do and what is your YouTube channel? Lethal Arms Network. Lethal Arms Network. Lethal Arms Network. And those of you who want to watch this, you need to subscribe to Lethal Arms Network, and you need to subscribe to Jon Brzenk. Yeah, Jon Brzenk. And I know what else is going to happen. I know Devin Lorette is going to then film the live stream and put it to his channel and give his feedback. Feedback. Feedback.

He will do it. You guys are going to want to watch this for a couple reasons it is the greatest arm wrestler of all time who knows how many matches he had left in him and uh and it's going to be fun this shit is intense even if you don't know about arm wrestling do you when do you do you know if you're i mean obviously you know now when did you find out what if you were a top roller or hooker like what is your preferred style i don't even know you know and that's where it's weird like i started out so five years in you still don't know well i mean i'm fast twitch so like if i want to be twitchy on the go like that lends itself to make you want a top roll but my for my weight at my weight class i am probably a better inside puller it took me you're super strong for your weight and you're better inside my arm is stronger more like comparatively

speaking in the 198 class you will find less arms that are stronger than mine and more hands that are stronger than mine okay but i i don't necessarily have full comfort in like i don't i don't lean one where another where i'm i'm one dimensional i i can i can do most everything you're not insecure in the top roll no no nope i can go i can go i can go i can i can comfortably go where my opponent wants to go can you can you show can you show people with your hand like in the center of your chest just to give them an idea of the difference between a top roll and a hook? If I'm top rolling, the best way to think about it is if I'm top rolling, I am retreating my elbow. I'm retreating my shoulder and my elbow. Outside pulling means your shoulder goes outside.

You pull back. You pronate and you cup your wrist as if you're pouring a beer can into your shirt pocket. That is the essence of a top roll. A hook is shoulder commitment, inside pulling, shoulder comes forward, hand supinates, wrist flex really hard. Now you're on the arm. Now you're way on the arm and the hand is less of a component. Obviously the hand is still a component for clamping and rotation, but you're way on the arm and the hand is less and less of a component. Obviously, the hand is still a component for clamping and rotation, but you're more on the arm, the elbow and the shoulder and the large muscle groups. Thank you. Who is your biggest win to date? Probably biggest. I mean, I guess I won the Arnold's.

I beat Dan Mosier, who was at the time the number one guy, 198 in North America. So I guess I would have to say that's my biggest. I've had some good wins on guys outside of my weight class, top 10 super heavyweights and things like that. But I'm currently by the one ranking system has me at the number one at 198. The other one has me in the top five, I believe. But those ranking systems are very, very subjective. So I think that I'm right around there for that weight class.

There was a guy, there were two guys, and I think they're still pulling Rob Vigit and Todd Hutchings. Are they in the 198 class still? Not anymore. I mean, Rob, so Rob, Rob is the current WAL hammer holder. WL has not been active for a couple of years now. Um, and that's world arm wrestling league. Yes. The world arm wrestling league. So I signed a contract with them right before they went under.

I had one match. I had another match scheduled and then, then COVID happened. Um, I was, according to them, I was the number one contender to get a shot at Rob. So what would that have been at? At what weight? That would have been 205. They usually do a 205 or a 210 catch weight. Both Rob and I can make 205 comfortably. So that would have been where it was at. That's the standard weight.

They have fluctuations in there depending on who they put, but they, they kind of forced Todd Hutchings up. They said, Todd, it's time for you to go wrestle the big boys. And, uh, that kind of put Todd into like a bigger walk around weight. Now, I think if somebody told Todd there's 20 grand on the line, he'll be 198, though. Yeah. Yeah. He was I haven't seen or talked to him in years. When I was involved, I think he was sort of just coming on the scene.

He maybe came on the scene the same time I did. I started filming. And man, he was passionate. It's kind of incredible how long some of these guys stay around. Yep. And it's one of my inspirations. He started at 35. I started at 35 and I kind of like, I try to follow his trajectory as much as possible. I really like his style. I really like him. I really like working with him. Um, he's an dude, and he just shows how you can be timeless in the sport. That guy right now. He's smart as shit, too. Oh, my gosh.

Well, I mean, we're just talking about sheer side pressure strength, like hook power. That guy, I would venture to say, and the Eastern Europeans can get mad at me, I don't think anyone in his weight, at his weight class, can beat him inside in a slow rolling hook. If you were to start that match in a hook with no super initiation, there is not a man in that weight that could touch that man. He's lost the guys his weight, Rustam Babaya, but that was all

off of explosion on the go. And even his last match that he lost to Zolovev, Zolovev top rolled him five times. He didn't want anything to do with the hook, and Zola was the hooker. God, Hudgens must have some fucking baseball-sized hemorrhoids. He just had a match.

He had a match last week. He pulled a 400-pound super heavyweight. Wow. Inside puller, it went 3-2. He beat him. It was an unbelievable match. You can just Google and watch that? Yes, that's definitely up.

That's definitely up somewhere. Hey, if you don't know, Todd has a YouTube also. He has not gained any traction. It blows my mind. You can look up Toddzilla on YouTube. Yep. Yep. Crazy.

So, tell me how the match comes about with you and John. So, Gary got back into the sport right you know gary obviously yeah he came back youtube hot and heavy he was killing it and uh you know me and my buddy james reed we we host tournaments um but that's what when i when i started getting bit by the bug i wanted to be involved in everything so i was on my own tournaments so i i met james reed he's great, he's great with the brackets and organization. He's with CNY and North in, in Northern New York. And we've kind of,

do I know him? Has he been around a long time? His wife is Michelle Dugan, who is another WL polar, very high level woman, but he, I don't think he's been around longer than six, seven years.

R E I D. What's that? Reed R James Reed R E I D. Yes yes i'm looking him up on google image is he asian no he's like uh he's like ginger not really is he red he's a redhead kind of kind of look up michelle dude and and he'll probably pop up in a picture in the background look up okay um i'll take your word on it. So you and James Reed are like, hey, we're going to throw some tournaments. Yeah.

So we're throwing tournaments and everything. Boom. We've been doing it for a couple of years now. Picking up Northeast is great for tournaments, everything else. So we had a New York tournament in kind of the middle of COVID. And we did like an underground series. And I had been talking to Gary. And Gary said, hey, I want to sponsor the ROTN.

He wanted the ROTN, R went to the ROTN ruler of the nation, the overall, he structured it where basically the top two guys from each weight class that win the class, they go in a round route. Basically you, you go into, you lose, and then that person is up and you need to get 16 wins or whatever. Wow. So we, we said, sure. I mean, Gary threw like 800 bucks and said, Hey, we're going to pay first, second, third and fourth. I said, absolutely. We'll do that. So that kind of copes me in pulling my own tournament. So I won the 220s and then I got in the ROTN and I think I won, I don't know, like 20 straight matches and won that one.

about doing it again. And then when John and the chance, the John and chance saw match happen, uh, Gary sponsored the ROTN again there. And I was, I went to that one and I, and I didn't realize there was money on the ROTN. I went to,

I went to that tournament just to, to, um, to ref for Travis and I'm, I'm reffing and, and, and I'm, I find out that there's money on the ROTN.

So I basically threw myself into two 42 class. Cause it was light one that, and then I won the ROTN right arm again there. So after John beat Chance, Travis had the idea that, hey, we're going to keep this going if John's willing to keep pulling. And we'll just put John against the ROTN winner. And we'll just say it's the ROTN championship. And he called me up and said, hey, how do you feel about doing this? You know, and he thinking I'm going to say no.

He's like, listen, listen, you might not want to do it i understand and i was like no man i definitely want to do it pump the brakes let's do it you know i'm not gonna say no no way regardless of the outcome if you get that opportunity somebody says hey i need you to go one round with mike tyson some people might say no but i'm going one round i'm gonna try and make it right and so you did it so you've pulled john no not yet i'm pulling okay i'm pulling john this weekend okay i thought at that event then you ended up pulling them john won the winner of the rotn at the tournament would then would then pull john at the next one. So that stands now. So the winner of John and I, the winner of the ROTN that night,

it stands to get the shot next. To pull if you and John want. Yes. Wow. I got lucky. Yeah, what a fun sport. I wasn't even planning on pulling that day either. That's the beauty of it.

I was there to ref, and it just worked out. Travis, in that phone call you had yesterday with Travis and Gary and John, he compared you to – it wasn't a compliment. It's sort of a compliment. What's the guy's name? Fucking great arm wrestler whose mom used to go to all the tournaments with him. Dave. Dave Patton.

Dave Patton. He compared you to Dave Patton in the setup. And obviously Dave Patton was notorious for just, I mean, the setups, the videos of him setting up are just crazy, right? I don't do that. So I don't know that so I don't know what the heck I I arm wrestle with a very similar style to Travis and Dave Travis's style comes from Dave don't let him think it doesn't I mean that's who he trained with yeah styles are similar I am not I first off I'm not savvy enough to do everything that Dave didn't set up I also

I can't negotiate anything but a set grip anyway that's why I thought the whole thing was funny when javis was saying it i'm like i might pull like dave but i don't know all the trickery and everything and i don't fight at all i want to go straight to the setup and just the rest grip and just have it set up you do yeah absolutely i don't like to play around with all that hand stuff and i haven't been around long enough to know how to be good at it i'm five years in the guys who are good at that are the guys who've been arm wrestling forever with the old triple a setup where you got 60 seconds to get your own grip i don't know how to get a good grip on somebody i need the rest grip so we set up even yeah i'll try yeah i'll try and finagle a little bit in that but subtly i don't i mean i pull, if I'm top rolling, I use a similar style to Dave Patton as far as a posting elbow in style, but I'm, I'm not nearly anything. I mean,

it's kind of a compliment to get compared to Dave. Yeah. Right. Right. At first I was like, it's an insult. And I was like, ah, I ain't that good. Do you, do you train? How did you meet Travis? Do you, the way you're referring to him is that you guys may be trained together or you guys have a history? Yeah, I mean, Travis is an hour and a half from me. I mean, I'm in Pennsylvania, but Travis is right down the road. A couple of my first tournaments, the first tournament that I hosted, the second tournament that I hosted was a fundraiser.

And Travis kind of asked me to do it, you know, and I had met him prior. And, you know, he's close enough. I've done seminars with him, gone to his seminars, you know, been out enough i've where i've done seminars with him gone to his seminars you know been been out around with him and everything so we're close enough that i've gone down there and trained with him a bunch of times he's come to morocco's so we got a good relationship morocco dave morocco that guy's still in this scene too yeah that's like my primary that's where i've been that's where i've been prepping for john he's he's he's two hours from me he has a thursday practice that's really good with a bunch of guys that are really good and and dave is my guy like davis that's that's like my mentor you know

do they do they believe you have a chance yes yep i mean call dave and ask him he thinks yeah so i mean he's he's the gauge i i went radio silent i you know, I usually do a podcast with Neil pickup and a couple of different things. And I'm usually all over social media, promoting stuff and having practices and doing stuff. The minute I found out I was having this match, I want to 10, we can't shut my mouth and I went to work. So the only people that know where I'm at is those guys in Maryland. Right. Oh, what do you do with Neil pickup? God, I can't believe if you see,

if you talk to Neil, tell him, I said, hi Neil, tell him I said hi. What a great guy. I will. Yeah, what a great guy. He's unbelievable. You do? Yeah, I usually do a weekly podcast on Neil's channel. Neil's channel is called Supernatural Strength. And we do a podcast weekly called The Fix with Raymond's Light Pinge from Latvia,

Ryan Bowen from Australia, and myself. So it's picked up. And critique people critique people like what do you guys do like you'll play a match and you guys will pause it and talk shit or be like hey it's like it's like a weekly recap it's like you know what happened in the arm wrestling world what is what is trending you know what's coming up what do we need to promote like you know there's a lot of hype going on constantly in this sport now and it's really hard to stay on top of all of it especially internationally so having having ryan from australia and raymond's from from europe we can talk about everything so it's really just about an hour two hour thing where we just talk trash about whatever's happening dude you guys this is

crazy um they're really i mean as far as i know, there's really, Neil Pickup is Mr. Arm Wrestling. Yep. And for Paul to already be in bed with him is nuts. I mean, it gives you a fucking, a ton of street cred. He must think the world of you to have you, I mean, he's everything. He's a historian. He's a coach. He's unbelievable. He's an athlete. Yeah, an athlete. He is arm wrestling. He is remarkable. Is he still pooling? He is not. He is not competitively pooling. I think he'll go to practice here and there.

He'll train people and stuff. He still loves arm wrestling. He's the most passionate dude ever, aside from maybe Aang and Terzi. He's unbelievable. He just hosted Arm Wars again, if you didn't know that I didn't have arm wars. I mean, obviously there was trouble, like certain people, if you're not vaccinated and there was, yeah,

it's like, it was like we have an arm wrestling tournament in a prison. England's a prison. Yeah, he did. No, his arm wars turned out really, really good.

He had all kinds of countries there represented. It was unbelievable. I think I went once and filmed many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years ago. Those were like the first legit looking things that I could find on YouTube. Do you have a plan of attack for the first match? I mean, I guess I got to go with what I know, right? Yeah. So so there so there is a game plan. Yes.

And when you talk to John, it's weird. He's an incredible poker player. He's incredibly sincere. Before you came on, I was explaining that he has the perfect demeanor for someone to be the greatest athlete for any ambassador for any sport. He's been in it 37 years. There's nothing flash in the pan about him. And anyone who's ever asked him to get more aggressive or anything, he doesn't need to. He has his own unique charisma and aura.

But when I'm watching – but I'm not naive to maybe the head games he was playing with you for sure maybe maybe him just being himself is the head game like he the the guy is uh he's a competitor absolutely and he said in in the in the podcast that you did yesterday with gary roberts and travis bajan it's on ARM TV if anyone wants to see it. If you want to know how good the quality is on this podcast, you can watch that one. Sorry, Gary. I couldn't help it. He says he has no gauge for you.

Is he just fucking with you? Yeah. Yeah. I know better than that. Yeah. When he said that, I'm like, just fucking with you yeah yeah i know better than that yeah when he said that i'm like oh god i don't know i'm buying there's a lot of info out there and john's in tune i i he knows what he knows exactly what he's doing he knows exactly what i do he knows exactly what i'm good at um i mean i think when he says he doesn't have a gauge the people who he trains with i've never pulled like there's no real common denominator, but there's plenty of footage out there. And John and I have gotten to meet before, and we did get to pull a little bit left arm, but we've never touched right hands at all.

So, I mean, I think he might be referring to that. And I think John's like one of those dudes where he's so smart and he's so natural that, like, the minute you grab him and grip up with him, he's downloading data from your hand and whatever you do that first time, he is not going to react the same way. So I think in his mind, he's a guy where if he grabs somebody's hand and feels them one time, he's going to be fine. So I think in his mind, he's saying, I don't have the data yet until I grab them. But he knows what i do yeah um it um he's the god he's so analytical and so is travis and so is devin and you see these great guys and when you start talking to him it's kind of weird you're like whoa these guys are like so fucking analytical you have to be so analytical um when you it was a little disconcerting when

when on that podcast that's supposed to be hyping up your match it's your matches on saturday um this saturday evening at what time it is at it will be at 9 30 eastern time 9 30 p.m eastern time okay so 6 30 for those of you who can't do the math, I'll do it for you. That's 6.30 in California. 6.30 p.m. And the YouTube channels are to go to John Brzezinski's YouTube channel or Paul's, which is Lethal Arms. Lethal Arms Network. And I'm sure Gary will have it too. Gary's going to be there.

So, well, one of those three channels is going to be streaming, if not all of them. Why wouldn't Travis just make it so he's the only one who can stream it it's his tournament how's he gonna control it i don't know there'll be somebody in it there'll be somebody in the crowd doing it on there on right right i mean it's it's 500 bucks in views for someone someone get probably make 500 bucks on from youtube okay so so on this podcast they start talking john announces that he's pulling Devin in December. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just like, and Travis said it, like, oh, shit.

Yeah. Paul, that's not, I mean, there's two things, basically. This either turns into a really good training session for John, or you fuck that matchup. Yep. Right? I I mean there's no there's no that's how I saw it as soon as he said that I'm like oh fuck how is Paul how does that affect

you psychologically when you know oh shit he's gonna fucking pull like this guy in December like I know I know what's going on now it doesn't affect me at all if you don't want to be the underdog then then you're not a competitor if you if't want to be the underdog, then you're not a competitor. If you want to be the guy who's favored, then you ain't a competitor and you're not familiar with competition. I'll be

the underdog every day of the week and be happy doing it. There's no pressure. It doesn't mean that I don't want to win. It doesn't mean that I didn't train for 10 weeks to win, but I love it. You know, what do they say in football, you take them one week at a time. You don't start preparing for your opponent two weeks out. If you do that, you're setting yourself up for failure. So it doesn't bother me one bit. It's great news for me. When you beat John on Saturday,

will you let Devin know that you're willing to take his spot in Dubai in December? No, no. That's John. John's the man. John's the man. You're not going to want John. That's the problem. Devin know that you're willing to take his spot in Dubai in December? No. That's John. You're not going to want John. That's the problem. You're going to ruin that fucking match if you beat John. That match is done. No one wants to see that. No, I won't. That's not true. They'll still pay to see that match.

They'll still pay to see that match. There's a million reasons why if I pull the upset off that that could be said why i shouldn't have um john only john's only been pulling for you know what 12 weeks now john hasn't been training the whole time i'd say the story's gonna be he's washed up there's a million reasons but i i don't think that that diminishes that match at all and the way john was talking about wanting to pull Devin and smack him and crack him and everything else that I don't think that this guy is not in the

form right now that he's going to pull me when he would be in eight weeks to pull Devin. I know that, you know what I mean? And, and the only, the thing that is not great for me is that John pulled chance. What like 10 weeks ago, 12 weeks ago then he pulled Dimitri Kachin um and now he pulls me so John has all this the guy who pulled chance is not the guy who's pulling me so I have a bigger task for sure at hand but Devin is going to have twice the task that I have regardless of outcome because John's not going to walk off he's not going to have twice the tasks that I have, regardless of outcome, because John's not going to walk off. He's not going to like he's not going to fade away into, you know, into the sunset.

It's not happening. You could see how passionate he is right now. Dude, I he is not a shit talker. And when he said he's like, hey, I was thinking about just like letting Devin ride die with that loss. He started that fucking little monologue. I was like, Oh fuck. It's like having fucking Mike Tyson talk shit about you. It's like not good.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, fuck Devin got in the ring with half door. I, by the way, I think that there was some,

um, there was some, uh, implicit discussion that, um, maybe it was even explicit that Devin's boxing training would have maybe hurt his arm wrestling. I disagree. I think it helped it. You think? Yeah, here's why.

You have – it's psychological. you have um uh it's like psychological you you after you after you um date the prom queen it's all it's fucking right big game hunter you hunt don't matter how big your nose is how tall you are once you date the prom cream it's fucking just a hunting season for you you got it and like this motherfucker got in there with half door yeah and didn't get knocked out yeah ref stopped it yeah i just think it's the same thing with like when devin was with um special special um special forces in canada he would tell me that when he would deploy he told me that when he would deploy he would come back just a stronger just a better version of himself like it just made him better holding a gun in his hand right being deployed with these fucking animals who were out there

to fucking kill or be killed and i believe that shit you know right i see i mean i mean you know the first time you get punched in the face at school you realize you're not made of glass you're like wow that's not so bad no the first time you crashed on your bike you're like okay yep okay yeah i guess i i wonder you know so so when devin pulled michael todd in dubai and you know more than me if you want to disagree with me but let me have it you know more than me there's there's there's schools of thought and i and i respect your opinion i think it could very well be true and i could think of other reasons why you would think the same thing and his arm is rested right that's that was what i was going to get at he's doing different training he's got cardio he he said that those five weeks he trained for that

match was the first five weeks that he's ever taken off arm wrestling that could be a positive thing that's where that that's where i thought it was going to go the only other thing is he lost a ton of weight so like when he pulled mich Todd, this guy's like 300 pounds. He was enormous. The biggest Devin I've ever seen in my life. Unbelievable. So he went from that to, like, getting down to, like, 260 or 255 to fight Hafthor.

I just wonder how big does he need to be to beat John? How big does he need to be? I mean, can he go in there at the same weight as John? Or, you know, where's John at? And how serious is Devin going to take it? Because I have a feeling John's going to be. I mean, can he go in there at the same weight as John? Where's John at? And how serious is Devin going to take it? Because I have a feeling John's going to be big. Oh, Devin's going to take it serious. He probably knows this is his last chance.

And he's one of those guys, he's not going to be... I don't remember the 2015 match. I'm sure I saw it. But he's also going to try to get in John's head. He's going to fuck with John.'s also going to try to get in john's head right he's gonna fuck with john right he's gonna come full full monty right right i mean how much is that going to affect john do you think he can really get under his skin no i don't but but but it's a different john than 2015 i mean

he's 57 now i mean he's 10 years away from needing a cane that's true and their psyches get there's you know old people there's you know old people you know you know your parents they're getting like ah it's it's too dark to drive now you know what happens i was getting there john you know it john you know it's true you know it's true john don't listen to him um where do you go from here what do you have a plan after this match no no i my plans have gone like when when wal was going on that was where my focus was and it was like you know some people disagree with that you know but like i still pull local like i'll still pull local tournaments but to me at that point that was the thing that made sense.

That was the best production quality, regardless of what your opinion is. The WAL was the coolest thing. So that, you know, we keep, we're keep, we, they're still dangling the carrot. Like it's coming back. It's coming back. We don't know. But to me, that was the thing I liked the most at that time. It was the best thing available.

Who owns that? I don't know anything about it, but it sounds like there's just drama. There's always been drama. It's Steve Kaplan. It's a business, though. They need sponsorship. There's real business reasons why they're not doing it. I don't think I know who that is, by the way, but go on. Sorry. He was involved with Game of Arms, I believe. Loosely related. Travis kind of started WAL. He was involved in the inception of it but anyway it's it it's kind of gone so i don't know you know i'll do i'll do arm wars with neil as long as travel you know gets gets back to normal but i i don't know i mean i'm just waiting

for something really cool to come up um in the meantime i'll just pull local i guess or i don't know it's it's hard like do you like the grittiness of this sport? I love the climb. I love like I absolutely, absolutely loved being no one and going to the tournament and showing up and doing better than people expected. I love the idea of getting better, beating people I shouldn't beat and having people figure out who I am. I love that. Now you get to a point where you have enough clout that you're

getting matches thrown at you all the time. People want you to go everywhere for no, it doesn't make sense. You know what I mean? And it's cool, but it's also like, you know, I'm doing all this other stuff in my life. I turned down so many matches just because I'm not like super motivated for that. Now somebody says, Hey, I need you to pull it down for sake. You get really motivated. So, I mean, this fell on my lap. I don't know where I go from here. You know, I'll win. If I win, I'm sure I'll get more opportunities. If I lose, I'm sure there'll still be opportunities. Um, if I lose, I'll just go back to doing what I've been doing, training hard and pulling local until something cool comes up. go back to doing what i've been doing training hard and pulling local until something cool comes up you bring up something that's like so relevant to every sport we all walk around the world and

we're watching tv right we look at it through here and the information's coming in and it's a it's our own like fucking show we're like whoa whoa yeah and you think like that's interesting what you said about the underdog your whole your whole show changes from conor mcgregor's first fight to like his his last fight like the whole it's not even kind of at that point like the same sport like this other thing like you your first time you arm wrestled i'm assuming like you had butterflies in your stomach and like right loved it you're like oh shit what's going on yeah you're like maybe you looked at your wife or yep and now it's like nothing like that now i mean you still get butterflies i'm gonna have right i have butterflies but like you go to a local tournament it's not the same thing anymore you know and and

and things get weird people are trying to talk to you. You have expectations. They have expectations. Right. Well, that's the other thing. The expectations can be really shitty in arm wrestling because here's the deal. We all lose in arm wrestling. That is the fact of the matter. John is the greatest arm wrestler of all time. He has taken hundreds of losses.

Nobody talks about that. Like John told me one time when I was talking to him the first time I met him, he was talking about being at a tournament, drinking too many many beers and losing to a guy that he can't remember his name this happens in arm wrestling but the minute the minute you get to a status great story yeah he said he can't remember the guy he said this guy beat me in a tournament like and won the tournament and i'm john brzenk and i'm supposed to win it and and i he said that's when i stopped drinking beers at the tournaments and but the reality is you get to a point where people don't expect you to lose. And if you lose, they're like, oh, what are you doing?

That was terrible. And the expectations there take the fun away. Can you explain Bitcoin? From what aspect? What the fuck is Bitcoin? Have I ever held one in my hand can i go get one um can i buy can i can i buy a gallon of milk with it like what the fuck is bitcoin who owns it where does it come from decentralized um so the idea behind cryptocurrency

first give me an example of something else that's decentralized that what is else is decentralized like is oxygen decentralized it's it's a decentralized unregulated currency it is non-fungible okay there is not it's non-tangible item there is nothing it's the same as an mp3 an mp3 plays music it's a file it's online it is It is Bitcoin is to CDs what MP3s are. Okay. So CDs are cash and MP3 is Bitcoin. Yeah. Okay. No longer tangible, not regulated by the federal government.

It's largely a currency that is an idea. And it's all based behind blockchain technology, which is a form of encryption that allows transactions to pass from one person to another. Okay, wait, stop for a second. So encryption means something that I – it's like a safe. Yes. Let's say I want to send you money, right? I want to send you – let's not say Bitcoin because it's cryptocurrency. That's just the most expensive cryptocurrency.

Let's say I want to send you three Litecoins. I make a transaction from my wallet to your wallet, hit transfer. That is encrypted, so it's safe, so that that money goes from my wallet to your wallet. In order for that to come from my wallet to your wallet, that encryption needs to be decoded. And that comes through blockchain technology. And I'm not the best technical person to explain this. that encryption needs to be decoded. And that comes through blockchain technology block. And I'm not super like, so like I am not the best technical person to explain this.

So I'm speaking from my perspective, which is very layman. But that you trust the process or do you understand the process? I both to an extent, to an extent. I understand it enough and I trust it enough because I don't trust where our currency is going in the future. Right. And I've been around it now long enough that I do trust it. Very volatile. But I'm in the mining aspect. I don't buy cryptocurrency. I don't buy or sell it. I mine it. We have an LLC.

We basically buy ASIC miners. We hook them up. We hedge that computing power against the cost of electricity, and we solve the algorithms for the currency to be exchanged. And by solving the algorithms, you're rewarded in coin. And all it really is is the hardware cost and the electricity cost and the maintenance cost. And it's extremely lucrative. and it's extremely lucrative it's funny you see that this guy called me the other day and he said hey i want to make well first he contacted me on instagram and said hey i want to make a movie and i have some extra money i said okay and so we got on a phone call and i go what do you do and he goes i'm involved in bitcoin i go oh i go and I tried to ask and explain it. And he said he doesn't even mine it himself. He builds involved. Four guys, three guys that I played college football with, I stumbled onto the idea of cryptocurrency through kids that I coached because kids are always ahead of us technologically. So I decided, hey, I'm going to tell these guys, why don't we throw some money together and buy some coins? So we decided we bought some coins, whatever, boom, boom, boom, spent a little bit of money.

Coins went up. We were like, OK, this this is awesome let's mine it so we we built we built a mining rig based off of like computer parts and and gaming computer gpus we built a mining rig we bought a couple asic miners and then all what are asic minor what's an asic miner is that software that an asic miner is a miner that's set up to to mine a specific coin a gpu miner has versatility. You build it and it's on the Ethereum platform and it's different. So the ASIC miners, you buy it, it mines that coin. I want to buy in Bitcoin. I buy this thing. It costs me $11,000. I plug it in. It mines Bitcoin. So we bought a couple of different miners and the coin tanked. So when the

coin tanks, people turn their miners off because they're losing money on their electric costs. We didn't turn our miners off. We just let them go and we paid for them. So after the coin came back, we had a nice lump sum of money. So we turned that into more miners and at a lower cost because when the coin tanks, the cost of the mines go down. So we bought a bunch of them at a perfect time. And that really started the process. What's a miner look like?

Is it basically just a computer? It's a box. them at a perfect time. And that really started the process. What's a miner look like? Is it basically just a computer? It's a box. It's a box. It's like a metal box. Is that a screen? No, it is just a metal box. It has a power supply. It has hash boards.

You know, it's, it's just, and it has the fans on either side to ventilate it because it creates a ton of heat. So we, we buy, we buy 70 more of these things and the coin goes up and now we're making, I don't know, we're not, not crazy money. We're making like 15 grand a month on it. And so we start to expand and we use a couple of my rental properties and my buddy really started. So like I rented a house one time and I grew weed in it. You rent a house and put in exhaust and – Yes. You buy one. You buy one or build one or do whatever. Wow.

Yeah. So it's all it is is ventilation. So I bought a house with a big garage in the back, a two-story garage. We got a bunch of – you have to outfit the electricity, so we got to have a 400-watt service and all that stuff. So now my buddy has got – What about solar? Can you have a solar miner? We haven't found a way to make the numbers add up for that. lot service and all that stuff so now my buddy what about solar can you have a solar miner i we haven't find a way like to make the numbers add up for that but in technically you could but

right it's very they take it how about a bunch of how about a crossfit gym in the back and the salt bikes are hooked up to yes that's a good idea i wonder what that would take you'd have to have somebody peddling those suckers because if they're not on yeah but anyway we got ourselves we got ourselves pipelined in where my buddy is basically direct to wholesalers so now we're brokering um which has gotten really really interesting and the arm wrestling community has reached out i had an arm wrestler reach out to me wanting to invest 7.2 million dollars unbelievable unbelievable so so so Unbelievable. Unbelievable. So, so, so.

So happy for you. I love me. I love stories like this. So but let me let me go back to the mining thing. OK. So this. A Bitcoin has like a number. It has its own Social Security number. It has its own. It number? It has its own. There's only so many. There are? There's only so many?

There's a cap. That's why Bitcoin is so valuable. There's a cap. I don't know what the market cap on Bitcoin is, but it's very low, which is why the value of them are very high. So your machine, your miner machine, once they're all fucking mined, one day I'll be like, hey, Paul, eat a

dick you know like i'm done no no no because remember the transactions still have to be decoded so you you you you you will still be rewarded but maybe it's in u.s dollars or another coin the encryption still has to be decrypted so the miners still have to work um so if you send me so if you send me money and i get it if you send me money and I get it, if you send me coins and I get it, someone gets some money from that for decrypting it for me. So whatever those, those transactions are in a block, let's like these all happen. Like, you know, like imagine banking right now, like all the transactions that are going on from banks, like to and from right now in this moment, there's millions and millions every second. So they get blocked together and encrypted together and they get decrypted in that block so once that block is solved they all get released and a lot this stuff can happen like that with the amount of computing computing power that's aimed at these blocks please someone in the

comments fucking tell me you understand what he's saying i don't how come i'm how come i'm so fucking dense how come i cannot fucking understand i bet you gary understands this shit i bet you gary's excited about bitcoin have you heard at all about the the new um the new kick towards nfis which i keep hearing about this term nft i don't even know what that is nfis yeah they're not non nfts i don't honestly don't even know the difference, but they're non fungible things. So it's the idea of ownership of something that is not tangible. A piece of art that is not tangible. It is like the MP3. It's the file of it. So there's artists that are creating art on these NFTs. the value is assigned by what, you know, the demand. And people are like making serious money in this NFT, NFI world. I am afraid of that. I am not ready for that.

I got buddies who are in crypto who tell me to like buy some of this stuff. And I'm just like, I don't understand it yet. Fuck. I got to get my head wrapped around this. Or do I, do I just keep just like raising my kids? I don't know. Sooner or later, sooner or later, cryptocurrency is going to be really, really mainstream. And it's on its way now. I'm waiting for the time where I can purchase things like used items.

I want to buy a used car with cryptocurrency and not have to pay taxes. Why did China ban it? You can't control it, really. So like if everybody wants, let's say your government wants, they want you to pay sales tax. If you can purchase stuff, it's much more popular overseas. So if I want to sell you this pen and I'm willing to ship it to you and you are willing to pay, you know, 0.001 Bitcoin for this, you send it to my wallet, to ship it to you and you are willing to pay, you know, 0.001 Bitcoin for

this. You send it to my wallet. I ship it to you. The government gets no money. If I put this pen on eBay and I sell it to you for 50 cents, the government gets a sales tax. That's why they don't want you to do it. Wow. And in Australia, they don't even want you to walk around. And in the United States, they want you to inject your kids with drugs. Oh, my gosh. Or else they can't go to school. Don't get me started on that. Oh, my gosh.

And they want to tell your kids that boys can get pregnant. I'm telling you, that is not true, people. I'm a hunter. I'm willing to chop my foot off. Yeah. Now, even seahorses can't get pregnant but the dude does carry like a like a little bitch carried a baby's around but i'm okay with that i carry i carry baby around too oh my goodness oh man be careful just make sure you know everybody's pronoun paul don't ever go on a

podcast with gary and travis and john again that like you're you're your own shining star those motherfuckers didn't let you talk enough you're awesome oh no i i don't know you don't like me enough to put me on his so i guess you are you are so awesome yeah all right dude well i will be watching um and i'll be watching your i'll be watching your instagram account anything um uh follow paul.lin.717 um the the match is this saturday at 630 p.m. Pacific Standard Time 930 for those of you on the East Coast and those of you in the middle whatever

and anything you post on your Instagram about it building up to it I will repost so if you get any information about where it's going to you know tickets sale any of that just just so you know yeah i don't think you can give enough information i think people unfortunately people if people like you

and john and travis don't really pump it up it'll slip through the cracks you know what i mean saturday you'll get yeah the tricky part is like the arm wrestling community is getting it through facebook all the time it's the general people who might want to see it who are not pullers are not they're they're not getting that information out there. And there has been some changes and stuff in it that have made it tricky. But for the most part, if you're a puller and you follow anything in the sport, you'll be able to find it very easily. The information's all out there. It's Harvest Gap Brewery in Purcellville, Virginia.

It's going to start at 5.30. The weigh-ins will be there between 2.30 and 5 five 30. If you're interested in competing, please compete. The only way I get paid is based off of a portion of the entry fees. John's a bigger draw than me. So he gets money to show up. So if you want to support, hey, does it cost money to watch or do you, they make money? Cause you, I buy, I go there and I buy beer and food. Are kids welcome? Absolutely. It's very, it's very very family friendly i'll be bringing my boy yeah just so people know for for i can't speak for every arm wrestling tournament but 99 of all the arm wrestling tournaments i've been to it's kind of like crossfit it is very very family friendly everyone's watching

everyone else's kids it is it is good fucking people yeah um last month i transferred four hundred thousand dollars worth of bitcoin from my hot wallet to a cold wallet and the government doesn't know and never will yeah what can what does that even mean i don't know what that means i'm assuming when he says a hot wallet he means one that is not like a um i'm gonna lose the term right now you can have a hard wallet and a soft wallet soft wallet is like one that's less protected hard wallet is like like a physical thing that you can store them on and transfer to and from it's more physical and it's not i mean it is what it is the part of cryptocurrency, and just so you know, it's an idea. Like gender. It's like gender. It's just an idea. It's just my imagination.

It's very fluid. It's not like sex. Sex is like cock and balls and vagina. And Bitcoin is like gender, just like you can just make that shit up. That's a good comparison. It kind of is. You can use that anytime you want. You can use that anytime you want. Yeah. Like if you, but if you lose, if you lose your password to your wallet and you have

50 Bitcoins in there, those Bitcoins are gone into the ether, never to be recovered. So that also adds to the value of Bitcoin. There's only so many of them out there. And I think they estimate like 33% of them are, are into the ether. So save your wallet passwords your login and your key like pennies that like pennies like that like like the titanic just gone yep gone at the bottom of the ocean yep except you could find the titanic you can't find these so if you're getting a crypto please back up your wallet your key and your login. Wow.

Just so people do us all a service, clean up your diet, stop eating added sugar and refined carbohydrates so you don't get type 2 diabetes. And then the wind blows and you die and they make it up and tell us it's some sort of virus. Also, please don't misuse the word gender and sex. Sex is real. When you see a bathroom that says all genders welcome it's always been all genders welcome all genders are welcome everywhere people like me i don't even know what the fucking gender i am and that's okay but i do know what sex i am um and i i have to take a piss and hold my sex in a minute all right paul thank you for coming on thank you it was an honor and