The Sevan Podcast - Mark MacQueen - The Strongest man at ADCC - submission fighting

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

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That's BetterHelp.com. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. I've never used this word to describe another another human being but i've heard other people use the word i think it's a european phrase um you are an absolute unit holy cow dude i've been uh last night i spent an hour on your instagram i am an

instant fan what a freak you are well thank you very much thank you you're absolutely welcome what what you are how you are pushing yourself is just absolutely um incredible dude no thank you um i'm working as hard as i can i'll say that yeah with a great attitude too, right? Yeah, you've got to. I think the thing is that the only thing we truly can actually control is our attitude. So I guess that is the prerequisite to achieving what you want to achieve.

There's a lot I want to get out of you today. The language barrier is going to be tremendous to overcome but i'll try my best to speak english but i think we can bridge the gap there are some important commonalities um mark mcqueen is uh i don't know what you call him uh um strongman powerlifter um and uh martial artist he uh just qualified for adcc that's the abu dhabi combat club and for those of you who don't know i think most of you guys do know but for those of you who don't know there's this thing called the ufc ultimate fighting championships and many years ago it was uh became evident to all the people who want to be the best fighters in the world that they have to have a pretty damn solid foundation in jiu-jitsu and grappling.

And so it's sort of become the cornerstone. I don't want to start an argument, but it's the most important martial art and the best martial arts to learn. And Mark is accomplishing that at the highest level now, and also as one of the strongest people, are you, will you be the strongest guy, um, at ADCC ever?

I think so. I might not feel the strongest on the mat, but I think if, if you, if we were to go into the gym yet, think so so if we were to do like a bench press um your total your bench press your deadlift your overhead press would we would be hard pressed to find someone stronger than you i'd be confident saying that yeah are you the most um serious i'm sure there's other power lifters, uh, who do jujitsu,

tons of them. Um, other strong men who've pivoted to, uh, to, um, the martial arts and jujitsu. But did you,

do you think you took, was it strong man you were doing? Would you say it was strong man you were doing? No, it was powerlifting. Powerlifting. Yeah. It was,

it was purely powerlifting. I was doing. And, and, and powerlifting is deadlift, bench press and squat yes that's correct um uh so if we were to do those three if we were to do a total you can't think of anyone off the top of your head who you're like yep that i ran into that guy in

powerlifting and now he's in jujitsu no um i mean i totaled my best total in competition uh was 920 kilos which is like 2130 pounds maybe like 2100 pounds and that was done uh in the ipf as well um so if you don't know the ipf as ipf uh maybe not anymore but at the time i did that in 2018 um at the time that was drug free i was drug tested um and also it was the the strictest um the the strictest rule set you know the strictest judging um you know you had to walk out your squats it was completely raw you had a non-specialty bar she had to use a power bar for squat bench and deadlift. You know, so, yeah, I would say I think you'd be hard-pushed to fight. I don't even think you'd be hard-pushed. Nobody, I think, would come in with a few hundred kilos of that

that could beat the ADCC. Guys, if you go to his Instagram account, it's at Mark, just like it sounds, and it's McQueen, M-A-C, Queen 2. You will become an instant fan. You do – this is – Mark kind of reminds me of the guy we have on, Jack Magdalena. Do you know who that is, the kid from Australia fighting in the UFC? No.

Okay. He just – do you follow the UFC, Mark? Not too closely, but I do follow it, yeah. Okay. He basically lost his first two UFC fights, or his first two MMA fights. Then he went on to win. Now he's won 12 straight, and he just beat Gilbert Burns. That's amazing.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. He's just a kid out of Australia. He's a stand-up guy. He's not a ground guy, which is crazy that he beat Gilbert because Gilbert's a ground guy. And, uh, he lit Gilbert up and, um, and I, I would put you in the same camp. Anyone who wants to, we're late to the bandwagon, but we're still early because there is kind of no limit. Uh, you're looking at a guy that i think is going to um has no limit totally off subject here have you do you have an agent and no no no i mean look at this um uh look how you look here i mean you this is um as we know conor gregor is uh slow as his start. Look at this. Did you steal this suit from Conor? I mean, you are ready to be in some Russian mobster film.

Look at you. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say, I'd say I'd scrubbed up. Okay. Um, yeah,

not a bad photo of me and my girlfriend. My God. How tall are you are you uh six foot three oh my god but i appreciate the conversions for those of us still under uh living under the king's king's law i appreciate you doing that in uh feet and inches and how much do you weigh um so at adcc i weighed 126, which is about 280 pounds, just under maybe. Wild. I mean, you're made for a movie. If I'm living in Europe and I'm making a student film, I get this guy in my movie because the chance, I mean, there's no limit for you.

because the chance that i mean you there's no limit for you i want to show this uh before we get into the um let me see where if i can find it here easily before we get into the meat and potatoes uh here you are standing on the podium and this was in february yes february the 17th and this was in February? Yes, February the 17th. Yeah, congratulations, man. Thank you. Had you gone against either of these guys before? Yeah, so the guy that was in third place is a guy called Jean Luca. He is from, I think he's from Ireland.

He has an Irish accent, but I think he might have been born somewhere else, but I think he's been brought up in Ireland. He's a lovely guy. I've had one match with him before. Me and him had a match. It was actually a title match, a 10-minute sub only, about one year before this.

And the guy that was in second place, Freddie, I'd never had a match with him before. And actually, Freddie, he's actually pretty famous in Europe, maybe the world, but definitely in Europe, and especially the UK for jiu-jitsu. He's a really big name. I remember when I first started jiu-jitsu, I'd only been training for a few months and i remember hearing about him uh and like just hearing like you know

pretty big deal and then like you know just you know knowing about him and then you know fast forward you know less than five years and i'm literally going up against him in the finals to go to the the o the Olympics of grappling. So, yeah, it's funny how things like that work. He looks like a full-size man version of Paddy Pimlet. You know who that is? Yeah, yeah. He looks like Paddy if he reached full size.

And this other guy next to you, the guy who looks like a Mexican from Ireland, he looks like if you're 6'3", he must be, what is he, 6'6"? I think he's taller. Yeah"? I think he's taller. Yeah, I think he is taller. He's very good. He's very, very good at jiu-jitsu. Both of them are. But I would say he's maybe like an inch or two taller than me.

Yeah. God, absolutely wild. And then I think, right, is this the is this the final match at uh where is this at yeah no that was um that was a grapple fest so that was um almost one year ago that was a grapple fest and that was against a guy called james thompson um so if you're not aware who james thompson is james thompson is actually a bit of a legend in MMA, especially UK MMA. He fought in Pride. So he fought Fedor Emelianenko's brother,

Alexander Emelianenko. So if you watch, you will have seen it. If you type in James Thompson versus Alexander Emelianenko, it's called like the most intense or the scariest face-off ever. He's a really scary dude. Is that the first time you faced him? Yeah, that's the first time.

And Mark, were you scared? Yeah, definitely. Not often. I'm not scared of him i'm scared of i'm scared of like not achieving what i want to achieve and you know feeling like he could prevent prevent that if that makes sense so like you know i have my goals and i have what i want to achieve um and then if i have like a match with somebody, I feel scared that, you know,

they're going to, you know, get in the way of that and prevent that. But I'm not, I wasn't scared. You're not scared. He's going to hurt you. No,

no. Like you did to him. No, um, um, I, I am like scared, but it's more of like, you know, it's, it's more of, like, you know,

it's more of, like, my own expectations. He's going to stop you from your goals. You have goals. Yes, and it's more my expectations of myself and what I want to do. And I'm, like, you know, what I'm scared of is that, you know, he could, you know, I feel like, you know, he could get in the way and he could stop that. But I not scared of um getting hurt no was he the is this guy the um james was he the biggest perceived obstacle that you had up until that point um i wouldn't know

i wouldn't say so no um i'd I'd say up until that point there, my biggest obstacle was against a guy from, well, he's actually from Romania originally, but he lives in America, called Daniel Minasue. He's known in jiu-jitsu as Big Dan from New Wave. I had a match with him three months before that so people that aren't aware of big dan big dan trains at new wave he trains with like gordon ryan uh and under john danaher um and he you know he's won trials um a couple of times already he's already competed at adcc

uh he's you know probably top five in the world um at heavyights. So I had a match with him at Grapple Fest. Unfortunately, that was three months before that. I unfortunately lost that match. But I'd say he was the biggest obstacle. But also, I feel like going into that as well, I also didn't really have anything to lose because, you know, he was already, you know, top five in the world.

And when I'd faced him, I'd only been training for, you know, I'd not even been training for four years yet yet I think I'd been training for about three years and eight months um so didn't really have anything to to lose um you know because if I went out and made a good account of myself and still lost you know it's not it doesn't derail anything and then obviously if I won that would have been great um but that match was James Thompson I think there was more pressure from my side in terms of you know I can't afford to be losing to this guy because if I if I if I lose this guy there's no way I'm going to you know I'm not where I feel I need to be at this stage if that makes sense yeah absolutely I totally hear you if you lost to that guy it's like okay there's uh i'm

still on schedule i can still get to where i want to go if you lose to this guy you're not really supposed to lose to this guy if to be to stay on your schedule but he's good um mark what happens here what i see is he taps and you're looking around for the referee to stop the match but since you don't see him you don't stop yeah so so basically um uh i do loosen up but basically you know in in jiu-jitsu there's there's a thing called a brazilian tap um for people that aren't aware and basically people in competition have like been in a submission and done like a tap um but it's maybe a subtle or whatever and then you let go and then the ref doesn't see it and then they claim they're not tapped and then you know you have to reset um so a general rule

that you know we kind of go by um or my coach tells us to go by um not every comp but in a comp like this where we're both professional athletes we're both getting paid to be there is you don't stop till the referee stops it. So they tap and the referee hasn't stopped it. You know, you have to keep going. Where is he? Why does it take him so – I mean, would you say – I feel like he's a little slow. Would you say he's a little slow?

Yeah, I'd say he was a little slow. So basically, when he tapped, he tapped right as he went unconscious. So then when I'm looking around, I'm not actually squeezing anymore. I'm holding it, but I'm not actually squeezing. So it does look worse than it actually is. So as you can see, that's obviously like 100% effort. And then as I readjust there, he then taps, and then he pretty much goes unconscious there.

As I'm looking around, I like loosen up. So I'm not actually squeezing anymore. I'm just not letting go. So it's not like I was like still squeezing a hundred percent. I like let, I'd let go of the squeeze and just like holding position. But I would say that the ref could have been a little bit, a little bit quicker for sure. Is any part of you afraid to squeeze a man at a hundred percent?

No. Well, like when you start squeezing, no part of you afraid to squeeze a man at a hundred percent? No. Well, like when you start squeezing, no part of you is like, Hey, you probably shouldn't do this to another human. Not in that context. If it was like,

if it was a local competition, like a local competition or a competition where, you know, you pay to enter and the people i'm against aren't professional athletes and they have you know families and day jobs to go to the next day i'm not going to to do that um you know i'm just not but in that context where we're on one of the biggest shows in europe probably the biggest show in europe and we're both getting paid to be there uh i fully expect him to do the same thing to me My son was in a match recently

and the ref came over to see if the person was unconscious and when he picked their arm up and let it down my son thought that it was the referee stopping the match Ah yeah and the kid got out of the choke and my son ended up losing the match yes you see that's the that's one of the things where um you know i've had it happen to me um it was like one of my first competitions ever when i was a white belt i had a guy and uh um and a submission and

he tapped and i let go and the ref never saw it and then he was like no i didn't tap um luckily i i still won that match but um pretty much ever since then i was like, no, I didn't tap. Luckily, I still won that match. But pretty much ever since then, I was like, yeah, if that happens again, I'm going to wait till the ref stops it. Yeah, you learn that lesson once and everyone else pays for it. Yeah. Mark, you're born and raised in Scotland? Yep, in Glasgow. And what year were you born?

1994. Wow. and what year were you born 1994 wow and uh mom and dad um raised you to be an athlete or how does this happen as a young man when do you know that you want to be a a kid who plays sports in his physical yeah good question so we my my mom and dad aren't aren't athletes um my my dad really hasn't really ever trained a day in his life, to be honest. The most hard-working man I've ever met, but that was with his job and business and stuff like that. He was into sports, watching sports, but never really played them.

But I grew up playing sports my whole life, so I grew up playing rugby until about the age of eight or nine. And then stopped that and played football at the same time and then gave up rugby for football. Football is what we call soccer? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

Which in hindsight was probably a stupid decision because I was really, really good at rugby and I wasn't very good at football. But I wanted to play with my friends. And you're so young at that age. And then I played football. And then when I was around 11 years old, I started doing boxing. So I do football and boxing.

And I did boxing competitively. And I would say I was very good at boxing but I would say that I let myself down I was not which is very different to now but I wasn't hard working I didn't really give it very much effort at all I would say I slacked off. And yeah, you know, I kind of feel like I had a lot of, I could have been very good if I'd wanted to be, but I didn't really want to be. And, you know, the results and the efforts showed that. But I continued to competitively box up until I was like 16

and played football. And then when I was 16, I was playing football and I tore the ACL in my left knee. So I fully ruptured my ACL. Were you wearing cleats? Were you wearing cleats? Studs? Yeah.

Studs, yeah, okay. Yeah. Basically, I was running. No one was near me. I turned and the studs got caught in the ground and I turned and the studs got caught in the ground and, you know, I turned, my foot didn't. And fully ruptured my ACL, partially tore my PCL,

tore my meniscus right down the middle and meshed my knee up. So I had to have a knee reconstruction. So in the process, I was like, well, I can't really do boxing anymore. I can't do football. I'm going to start doing weights and I'd always I'd always been obsessed um with uh like really strong men now I know that sounds a little bit dodgy uh but like I just always been so obsessed like and here's a funny story um I was maybe 10 years old and my dad said i was walking down uh we were on hot we're on a family holiday and he was walking down the beach with me and this man walked by and my dad said he was just

like huge like just muscles popping up everywhere and basically just said the way i stared at him like i just like you know like just followed him for miles and he said like you know i was actually a little bit worried about you because he was like you know I was actually a little bit worried about you because he was like you know just the way you were looking at him but I was just like obsessed so started lifting weights and really really up until I started lifting weights I'd never really been good at anything uh if I'm being honest uh I was I was terrible in school. Um, and all of us is my fault, but it's terrible in school. Um,

I had, you know, like really bad speech impediments growing up. Like I couldn't, couldn't really speak. Um, I had really bad delayed speech as a child. Like I would just couldn't,

couldn't speak for, um, like a lot, like a years after you were meant to really bad delayed speech. Then when I did speak, what really bad delayed speech then when i did speak what good when i then when i did learn to speak i couldn't even speak english i basically just spoke you spoke in tongues yeah the only person who could understand me was my mom just spoke just spoken gibberish um and then when i did learn why do you think that is what caused the speech delay

what do you think what do you think caused that so they they don't know so i did have like i had like you know a lot of screenings you know like a lot of screenings for like autism and you know lots of different screenings and stuff and does that just make it worse for you as a kid you're like fuck you i'm not trying that like you're getting kind of pissed. Like, okay, I'll just accept being the dummy. Yeah, exactly. So basically like, you know, and then like had, well, then when I did kind of learn to speak, I had a really bad speech impediment. What did that look like? I don't hear anything in your voice now. You know, sometimes people have speech impediments and then when they're adults, they sound like they're deaf. Yeah. I don't sense anything in you like that. Yeah don't really know i'm i'm really not sure um

i just had a speech impediment and then i had to go to speech therapy and stuff like that um and i think like the saving grace was was like my parents like my mom and dad are phenomenal um i think like if i without them or if i'd had different parents um i think like you know i could have easily gone down a pretty different path. But, yeah. By that, you mean, like, crime and drugs? Yeah. And I was going down that way, to be honest.

Like, you know, as a child, I was terrible. I was so badly behaved. Like, my dad jokes about it now, but, like, you know, I, you know, went to nursery and I got, like, expelled from, like, three nurseries, you know. So that went to nursery and i got like expelled from like three nurseries you know so that's like up to age of four uh and my dad said like every day my mum would phone him floods of tears you'll never guess what mark's done now um and then go to school uh go to primary school and was just terrible just like on top of like not being able to speak properly and having a speech impediment I was just I like I was just I was like so unintelligent I was so stupid like I just

I couldn't under I couldn't do normal things I couldn't understand things so like an example of this it's like I'm like eight years old and like you know my dad's like I couldn't do basic arithmetic and like my dad's at home with me and he's like placed out like you know my dad's like i couldn't do basic arithmetic and like my dad's at home with me and he's like placed out like you know toys around the room and he's like so we've got two toys here and we've got two toys here so we count them up you know that's one two three four he's like so then if we take two toys and two toys and we add them together what does that make and i'd be like 37. I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it.

But what I was really good at is I was really athletically gifted even by that point. Like mom said that I was like walking like ridiculously young. I was running really young. I was like really, really strong. Like I remember when I was like, you know, seven or eight years old, my big brother is just over two years older than me. His friends

would be around. When you're eight years old compared to a 10 years old, that's quite a difference. I'd be arm wrestling them and just playing around with them. I was very good there. They didn't know what was wrong with me. I think there wasn't actually anything wrong with me. They just said there's not anything wrong.

He's just delayed. i actually was just delayed like i i'm not actually stupid you know i'm not actually intelligent i i can speak it just took longer for me i just for whatever reason i just couldn't couldn't really couldn't really do it all do you think all the speech therapy and all that attention you got for that was just a waste of time you think they could have just rolled the dice and just let it go and you know it would have been fine yeah i think fascinating i bet you that's the case in most cases too i i think so but what what what i think is so good is that maybe it was because you know i'm 29 right now so you know that was this was 20 years ago but i feel like you know maybe it was different parents if that was happening now i feel

like i would have been labeled with all these labels like oh he's got ADHD he's got this he's got this he's got this you know and I feel like that can really like define but with me they just kind of left me as far as I can remember just kind of left me to it but I was so stupid in school you know couldn't we understand it and then I feel like as a result of that I kind of was just like well yeah so I'm not going to try and it's like then then you start self-sabotaging so you don't try you just deliberately misbehave you act out you're terrible um so you know a lot of issues in primary school but nothing too terrible um but you know nothing too too like too bad or too dangerous, but just in a lot of fights, in trouble a lot, not particularly well behaved, nothing dreadful. Then go to secondary school.

Let me ask you this, Mark. Do you think that that's – there's two ways to look at it. Do you think on one hand you did those things because you just had energy and it wasn't being funneled anywhere and you know they say um the devil gives idle hands work but also you could think the other psychological component was um to overcompensate right i think it was probably both of them being honest okay um i think you know i definitely was a very high you know very high activity kid um but i think as well i do think like as i've got an order and thought about it i do think like as i've gotten older and thought about it i do think that like you know i was deliberately being like a little ass like a little asshole sometimes um and like acting out and then basically go to secondary school so i'm not sure what the

equivalent is in like in america or stuff like that but secondary school for us is like 13 years old to 17 years old okay i think a junior high in high school for us like seventh grade to 12th grade okay so basically but i i was because i'm born december in 1994 i was i'm young for my year so i went to central at 12 years old um but that's what's even harder which is which is something that's really hard for kids right being yes yeah i was even younger so then went to secondary school and uh that's when things you know went pretty downhill with my behavior and stuff and started like hanging around with people that like you know um where i'm not going to say we're bad influences because i i was probably as bad an

influence if not even worse to them but i would say you know we were all not not doing very good things and you know was fighting and going out at weekends at 12 years old and drinking and you know just you know really stupid stuff and you know no effort in school was you know was terrible in school and then what started to happen is is the only thing I was ever really good at was I was pretty terrible in school and then what started to happen is is the only thing i was ever really good at was i was pretty strong and athletic but then everyone started to hit puberty and i didn't so then i became really small um and like you know i didn't hit puberty honestly until i was like 16 years old you're already a year behind yes okay i'm really small so it got to what i just wasn't,

I was just, I felt like I'm just like, I'm just a complete failure. I'm, you know, I'm not good at school. I'm like, I'm so stupid.

I'm terrible in school. I'm not good at any sports. Were you talking good by 16? What did it just gradually become a better talker or? Yeah. Yeah. So I would say around about kind of um primary you know so i would have been maybe like 10 years old is when i probably started to be able to speak

you know okay but you know that's still still very very late um maybe a little bit maybe maybe 10 stroke 11 but um you know so just started to feel you know like a failure to be honest that's that's the truth just terrible in school not really good at any sports uh i'm really i'm really small like my first ever boxing fight um i was i was 12 12 years old and i weighed in at 47 kilos which is like nine which is like 100 pounds pounds yeah about a hundred pounds i think yeah yeah so tiny and then like wasn't good with girls like you know never had a girlfriend or terrible with girls just wasn't really good at anything and then get to 16 years old and obviously that happens with my knee and and also what happened as well as is that um you know the people that i was hanging around with you know 12 13 14 15 were we're also you know none of us were good for each other not people that i really wanted to you

know one guy steals one pack of cigarettes you're like oh i can do better than that you steal a carton next guy's like hey i'll rob the store you know like just yeah who can throw a ball the furthest it's who can do the craziest shit yeah so i have those friends yeah so we get to fourth year um and i am i'm about 15 i think 15 years old and i'll never forget this i'm not going to say his name um but there's a teacher um and he absolutely he in a way he probably he probably you know um at that point like like maybe this word's far too strong but like kind of saved my life or like put my life in a different trajectory so he basically humiliated me in front of the whole class so what what happened was was i was in his class and this guy was like a big big strong guy you know big strong bald guy, you know, big, strong, bold guy, quite a presence.

And I was just, you know, being like, you know, really badly behaved, misbehaving, giving him hassle, you know, just disrupting his class. And he basically, you know, not exact verbatim, but basically, you know, he stood up and was like, I've had enough. And he just absolutely went, he absolutely just tore me apart. He was like, you know, I see people at you all the time.

He's like, you think you're, you know, you think you're this, you think you're that, you think you're, you know, you're funny, but you're not. He's like, you know, you're going to, if you keep going the way you're going, you're going to achieve nothing. You're going to amount to nothing. You're going to be a failure and you're going to waste your only life on this earth he's like and the sad thing is he's like you're not even stupid he's like there's no he's like you just don't even give

yourself the chance he's like you're not even giving yourself the chance to try and succeed he's like you know you're just you know you're just ruining your check you're just you know you're basically just self-destructing and you're not even giving yourself the opportunity he was like your grades everyone thinks you're stupid and he's like you're not he's like you're basically just self-destructing and you're not even giving yourself the opportunity. He was like, you're great. Everyone thinks you're stupid. And he's like, you're not, he's like, you're just, you know, you're, you're not even giving yourself the opportunity. He's a lot harsher than that, but that was the kind of point he was trying to get across.

In front of the whole classroom of kids. In front of the whole classroom. And he tore me to pieces. Did you cry? No, not, not, not in front of him. I don't remember. Later on the way home. But he tore me to pieces. And I remember thinking, the one thing that stood out was,

he was like, you're not even stupid. He's like, you just won't give yourself the opportunity. And the thing is, nobody had ever really said that to me before. And I never really thought that. So I was like, you know what you're you're right uh and and and and that in fourth year in school you do your your first set of um exams which are really important or you think they're really important so I'm like do you know what I'm going to give everything to this so I stopped hanging around with everyone didn't hang around with anyone, didn't do anything bad in

school, wasn't disruptive, sat myself and I worked so hard and I remember that I was basically the the criteria for the exams, the best I could have done was getting six ones and six exams getting six, six ones and two and six ones and six exams and six threes. So that would basically be like six A's and two C's is the best I could have got with what I was with the exams I was doing. And I ended up getting five ones, a two and two threes. So that's like five A's, a B and two C's. Um, and you know, had you ever seen an a before that never never ever never never even think i'd probably even passed an exam if i'm honestly if i'm being honest i worked so hard like i worked so so so hard for that and i'll never forget this and my dad won't admit this but i remember i phoned him i said hi dad i've got my exam results and he was obviously at work and he was such a

busy man like he was what did he do what did he do mark he was obviously at work and he was such a busy man like he was what did he do Mark what was his job he was a salesman he was an IT salesman he worked in IT he was working like 12 hour days like it was ridiculous how hard he worked so I called him up I said hi dad I got my results and you hear him go

okay this is on a rotary phone maybe or a push button phone still on a maybe it would it would have maybe been a mobile phone but a very one from 14 years ago okay so i could tell him kind of him almost braced himself for it like oh god here we go and i told him so i said i'll actually got the best best examiners i could have got that and like he didn't speak for like 10 seconds genuinely didn't speak for like 10 seconds and i was like hello are you there he's like no i'm there and he was just he was like so shocked you know and he he won't admit that but he

was um i remember thinking like this is the first time i've actually like like like achieved something that's what it felt like this is the first time i've actually achieved something i remember thinking like if i so like i was like remember thinking like i'm not actually stupid like i'm not done i was like i just never applied myself so if i actually apply myself i actually can achieve something and i feel like then things started to turn a little bit um and they went and did like my hires and stuff and did well in them but uh you know academics wasn't something i ever really you know it wasn't what i wanted to do with my life so that takes me to when i'm like 16 and then i rupture my leg my knee and i have to have a knee reconstruction and i start friends think mark sorry what did your friends think when you um

when you kind of pivoted to from hanging out and doing naughty shit to uh school well I didn't really have any friends anymore that was the thing um like I didn't really have any friends and then like the people that I became friends with like I knew I knew them because we would we played for the same football team and like we'd went through all school together but you know they definitely weren't keen on me, you know, and no wonder. Now they all did become like my best friends, you know, over the next couple of years. But like, you know, it was quite isolating. Were you, was it weird that you were in sports? Were you like, man,

were they like, how is this bad kid still in sports? Like, were they, did you kind of bridge two worlds between the naughty kids and the kids who were like focused on sports? No, I'd say like Glasgow, everyone plays football. Okay, okay. Honestly, the people that tend to be pretty not well-behaved tend to be the better people at football anyway. I wasn't very good at football. But yeah, so we get to 16 and that happens with my knee.

And start lifting weights and just just get just get obsessed and like that at 16 years old like you know like that's when i had puberty like my voice my voice dropped um it started to develop and then going into the gym and just got obsessed uh and then started to you know, like just, just like endlessly research, watch stuff on YouTube and, and, and just lift weights and basically things just kind of, kind of spiral from there. And I felt like for like the first time in my life, I was like, this is,

this is what I'm meant to be doing with my life. This is what I want to do in my life. And like, I'm not going to let anything get in the way. And, you know, I want to, you know, if I just, like, was, like, I'm going to just put literally every ounce of my being I'm going to put into powerlifting and lifting weights. And how old did you say you were? 15 stroke 16 no no sorry now

i'm 29 right now so so that's 13 years ago yeah wild and um do girls start coming around after you hit puberty um so when i was about seven seven 16 17 i got a girlfriend for the first time uh and she was like a like a long like a kind of longer term girlfriend like you know like two two years which i suppose at that age is quite long yeah um but hey no i've i've not been somebody that's ever really like you know gone out and really chased girls. I'm being honest. Like I've honestly, ever since the, up until 16 years old,

I never really had the opportunity and you're too young. And then from like 16 onwards, I only cared about training. This guy, Jan Clark. I think Jan is the one who actually showed me your Instagram account. Mark, part of the young team.

What's the young, do you know what the young team is? Yeah. I know i know yeah i know jonathan oh you do know him yeah yeah i know uh so um the a young team is basically like a gang um like in glasgow they call them young teams it's like a gang um so when i was younger like not really not really kind of maybe but not really um if i'm being honest but like you know just terribly behaved when you when you started boxing did one of your parents put you in that were your parents nervous with you doing boxing they did i don't think they wanted me to do it it was all came from me like i wanted to do it and then i kind of like pushed it and i they didn't stop me and they were really supportive but i don't think they wanted me

to do it especially my mom especially my mom um as far as your um conditioning goes which we'll get into which it really i think probably is what sets you apart from most people in in sort of the strongman world powerlifting world your conditioning is like insane um do you think uh that played a huge part of it the fact that you were playing uh soccer and um boxing just because the tremendous demand on your heart I think so yes so like I remember um when I was again maybe 15 or 16 15 years old probably and probably not long before i started lifting weights um my boxing club did a like a 5k like like a 5k chat like run for charity um so 5k is like 3.2 miles um and uh you know no training for it at all we all just turned up uh and um i ran i ran the 5k and it was like 16 minutes and 13 seconds something like that how old were you again 15

wow okay so you just threw caution to the wind and just got on it yeah actually i did a lot of running for like you know we did a lot of running for boxing but like you know we were just running for boxing but yeah basically uh it was like 16 minutes and 13 seconds or 16 minutes and 27 27 it was one of the two and i know they're like 14 seconds apart but it was sub 16 and a half minutes it was a you know pretty fast time i want to share two quick stories with you um uh there's a guy who was the fittest man in the world in 2009 he's now also a brown belt um he wrestles here in um in california his name is jason kalipa yeah and jason um on his graduating day his senior year his principal in front of his entire graduating

class made fun of him and that really stuck with jason like fuck you i'll show you yeah and then another interesting thing is uh nicki rod's been on the show a few times and when i asked him i was like hey man you're young and there's it's got to be just raining pussy on you he goes is it hard to stay away from girls he goes listen real men do not chase women i'm a fucking lion and they fucking come to me and i was like holy shit you know what i mean just the way he said it like it's nothing and i go well you've had a girlfriend for 12 years what if she gets in the way of like your goals he goes i get rid of her then i'm just like god damn like you know what i mean just like ice um so yeah it's interesting to hear, like, you know what I mean? Just like ice. Um, so yeah, it's, it's interesting to hear you have to, you know, there is a, um, a bit of a, a formula to, um, succeeding or, or,

or characteristics of focused men who are on a mission, right? There's, there's these growing up stories that they share and these, these ability to stay away from the biggest distractions in life. Obviously, I don't mean that in a negative way about women at all as a distraction. I just, they're just a really potent force that, that we want to interact with. Yeah.

I think the wrong women are really, really can be very distracted and have a really negative impact. What would a wrong woman be like someone who's trying to control you instead of elevate you, believe in you or like, what would that be woman be like someone who's trying to control you instead of elevate you believe in you or like what would that be yeah i think yeah i just think someone who's maybe not supportive or you know um yeah i just say isn't isn't supportive or isn't uh you know doesn't share share what you want to do with your with your with your life and maybe give some resistance so obviously i've been with my girlfriend for quite a long time uh she's phenomenal like you know that she's you know rachel is like the opposite of a distraction you know she like she's like so helpful like

she flies all around the world to all my competitions with me um you know she helps me with all my food um you know she's you know like i train like 16 17 times a week you know if i'm ever like walking out the door and like it's very obvious that i'm like exhausted or you know not in the mood you know she's up you know rachel's uplifting um you know she's like you know she's the opposite of distraction she she lifts me up and she's like, you know, she's the opposite of distraction. She lifts me up and she is like, you know, she positively benefits what I'm trying to do. You know, she's the complete opposite. But I could totally see how the wrong kind of women could like get in the way.

And I think like, if, you know, you have to be, you know, you have to be disciplined enough to not allow like, you know, the wrong people and that like the wrong women in your life. I always liked this metaphor. I always think of it like this. If you, whether you're a man or a woman, if you want to be with a bird, let's say a bald Eagle. And let's say this bald Eagle has a goal to fly higher than any bird has ever flown. That takes a really fucking special companion yeah

because so many people see a bald eagle and they want to catch it and put it in a cage and with this bald eagle if you want because they want to keep it because it's so wonderful right but with this bald eagle if it if it's if you really want to be a part of this bald eagle's life you have to be constantly not almost like pushing it away like you have to be setting it free and supporting and its goals even though its goals make seem to take you further away. They don't. It just looks like that. And yeah, you're you are a magnificent representation of the male human species on this planet. And you got there because you've surrounded yourself with people who aren't holding you back.

I would assume they believe in you and support you. And if you felt that drag, it would be horrible for you. Yeah, so I would say, honestly, from when I left school at 17 years old, up until, honestly, I was 23, so six years of my life, I don't... I honestly didn't really have like any friends if i'm being like really honest um or girlfriends or anything you know it was it was it was pretty lonely if i'm being like completely honestly i definitely have you know some some

like men that like you know ali you know i had what i've had i'd say i had one friend um his name is Ross who I've been friends with like my whole life like he was very consistently there but also like you know he lived a very very different lifestyle to me um back then so although he was like a really good friend never really saw each other um at all like ever um so I'd say it's like really really lonely I'd say like around the age of like 24 you know I kind of started to meet some people who I'm still obviously really good friends with and who like were kind of doing the same stuff that I'm don't think that was ever like a conscious decision or thought. I just kind of feel like, I don't know, I just kind of isolated myself from everybody. I'm just like, this is what I'm doing.

Fuck everyone. I don't need anybody. That was honestly my attitude. And I don't really know why, but I was kind of like, fuck everyone. Don't want friends. Don't want anything. I'm just going to, that's what I'm going to do. And it's like, almost like, you know, I'm going to, yeah,

I'm going to show all you. I'm going to fucking, you know, I'm going to show all you what I can do. How did you meet Rachel? So she does jujitsu. Oh, okay. Awesome. She does jujitsu. So honestly, I just, I messaged her on Instagram.

Was she doing jiu-jitsu at your club? No, she was at a different club. You know, they kind of intertwined because her coach is a black belt, is a black belt under my coach. So there was some overlapping, but it was at a different club. So there was some overlapping, but it was a different club. How do you, Mark, she's surrounded by just dudes all the time, right? Because she's in jujitsu, right? And there's kind of this, I think most healthy men in the jujitsu scene are very, very courteous with the women, right?

Like if you're one of those dudes who creeps girls out i mean you have to be you have to overcompensate yes you have to because you don't want to make them feel uncomfortable at all because it's such an intimate sport rolling around um so and then on top of that probably every fucking dude in there is probably has asked her out or wants to right it's somehow pushing it down suppressing wanting to date her um how do you do that is is there a special um uh is it like a really special is it a really slow courtship like how do you how do you uh court a girl who rolls around with other men all the time you know what i mean that there's a there's a really fine nuance there everyone knows if one guy creeps out one girl in the studio everyone within a week

knows who that fucking guy is yes so we'd never trained together um and we and we were at different clubs um we'd never actually trained together um we knew of each other but never trained but but honestly it was it was really straightforward i thought she was you know really fucking hot um and i messaged her and then like is that what you said to her hey i think you're really fucking hot um and i messaged her and then like is that what you said to her hey i think you're really fucking hot um and then i messaged her we went out a couple days later um and and that was it it was honestly it was really straightforward um you know i think uh yeah that that was it there was really nothing special or anything that just you know i I think, yeah, that was it. There was really nothing special or anything like that. Just, you know, I messaged her and then the rest is really history.

And it was just on. Yeah, just, we got on great. She's absolutely amazing. And I was just like, yeah, this is what I want. So I went for it. You're 16 years old. You're starting to kind of get your shit together. You've started working out and in the sports that you played were soccer and you were doing, obviously you were a good runner and boxing,

soccer and boxing. When do you stop boxing and when does wrestling come into play? So when I was 16 and I tore the ligaments in my knee, that's when I stopped doing football and boxing. I still was involved in boxing for a few more years, like still kind of training and helping out with coaching and stuff, but was pretty much done uh and didn't really play any football really again uh and just was lifting weights and just fully focused on

lifting weights um and and doing powerlifting and then um and when i was 22 so you know six years later i won the ipf world championships in power powerlifting in the under 120 kilo class. So I became a world champion. And then the year after, I was 23, I moved up a weight class. So I went into the super heavyweight class, which is, you know, there's no limit. And I weighed 152 kilos,

which is like 340 pounds, 350 pounds. And I totaled 920 kilos. And then I started grappling. So I started grappling in May 2019, and I've never done it before. Does it suck being 350 pounds? Someone told me, you may know this guy too, a friend of mine, Travis Bajent, the arm wrestler. I don't know him personally, but I know who you're talking about. He says once you go over 300 pounds,

you have to have moving air on you at all times. Yeah. So he says like you stand by fans. He said you have to set a fan up on your bed. He said once you weigh that much, there always has to be a cool breeze blowing across you you you're too big yeah like life just life sucks life sucks it that way um nothing's enjoyable um and you know you know no energy for anything like literally literally no energy for anything other than the gym uh life sucks you know um you at the time at the time you don't really know because it's kind of

you it's amazing how quickly you get used to what you're doing and it's hard to remember um but once you lose all the weight you're like yeah that that was awful um like you even dread even being one of the strongest men in the world if you're 350 pounds and you're on the couch and you realize you have to go back to the kitchen because you forgot to bring your glass of water with you you're bummed like that yeah and even like even even see see like stupid stuff so like here's like yesterday like yesterday like me me and my girlfriend like you know sunday's the only day i don't train during the week so like we like got up we went like a nice we went like a nice walk to get steps in um drove into town drove into glasgow uh parked car, walked to, like, you know, a restaurant, got some nice food.

Being that way, like, wouldn't have done that. Oh, really? Wow. I wouldn't have wanted to have gone a walk. I would have, but, like, would have hated it. Would have been, you know, my back would have been all pumped, you know. My legs would have been tired. Like, would park as close as I could to the restaurant because you can't be bothered. Yeah. My legs would have been tired, like would park as close as I could to the restaurant.

Yeah. Just like stupid stuff like that. You like you take for granted. Like you're just like, I can't be bored doing that. Yeah. 2019, you start grappling. So what's the what's the thought? Tell me like what the inspiration is.

Why do that? Why you're so good at your sport. Couldn't you have just kind of rested and coasted into old age and been like, okay, I want a world championships. I'm good. Like why, why take on grappling?

Yeah. So basically one, a world championship. And that was like my, my absolute dream. Like basically the only way I could describe it was like, someone said to me, you, you um can win the world championships but you're going to basically get taken outside and you know shot in the back of the head and your life's over or you never won the world

championship but you can live till you're 90 years old what would you choose and it's like i would have been like are you stupid i'll just win the world title like why would i want to live to 90 and not having i've achieved that i'm like are you like and you're not joking either that's the kind of focus and commitment you know no no like like literally like genuinely like yeah like that's the only way i can like explain how much it meant to me like if someone had offered me that i'd be like are you stupid like what kind of deal is that like of course i'm going to take the world title why would i want to live to 90 like are you joking like what what interest if i want to live into 90 having like never won that and being like a

complete failure like what's the point of that um you know god you know something you know most people most of us normal people will never have that kind of conviction for anything like like not even for our i our people say they love their dogs. But if you were like, hey, shoot you or your dog, you're like my dog. You know what I mean? Yeah. So that that was my attitude. And do you think you were crazy?

Is that crazy? Is that focused? Is that is that how do you think that that's a commonality? I mean, that's a great story. You think you have to have like listen kids that's what it takes to be the best unfortunately unfortunately i think it probably is um which i mean i don't think it's unfortunate it's um and it's something that comes with youth like i think if you had kids or when you have kids you'll be like holy shit i can't believe

i ever thought that that thought may even scare you once you have kids the funny thing is is like i was willing to that was my attitude and fast forward i'm now just you know turned 29 a couple months ago and i don't even do powerlifting anymore technically like i still coach and i still obviously lift you know as much every week but like i am fully focused on on grappling um but that was that was honestly my attitude um like it wasn't even up for that so much it meant to me and then i remember i won it so i won the world championships in ipf uh and um the ipf is like the was like at the time in 2017 it was like

the epitome of powerlifting Where was that competition? In Belarus Oh wow and that was quite cool there but I won that and it was the worst day of my life honestly it was the absolute worst day

of my life so I remember the day was just so, it was awful because just so- You got injured? No, no, no, no, no. I just remember I won. And before I know it, I feel like I wasn't ready. I didn't take it in. Before I know it, the medal ceremony had been over.

They played the national anthem I got the gold medals you know everything was over and before I know it I'm back in some apartment in Belarus myself in my room myself you know with no wi-fi or anything I'm just myself and I'm like is that it I mean what have I what I've dedicated like my entire life like is that that's it did you cry Mark? no I didn't when I won the European Championships

I won the European Championships I think three or four months before the World Championships I cried when I won that because when I won that I cried because I was like I can fucking I can do this I know i'm going to win the world championships but when i won the world championships it was like too much i wasn't mature enough to like did you call your mom who did you call from your room did you call anyone no nobody just was

in my room myself um and you know so i won my first film festival and i went to my room afterwards i thought and i cried and i called my mom. I'm like, this is stupid. There's no, they're there. And I don't know which quarterback it is, but there's some quarterback for the, for some, I don't know if it was Tom Brady or someone. I saw it like 10 or 15 years ago on 60 minutes.

And the guy just won a second or third Superbowl. And he said, Hey, I would trade any of these to go fishing with my dad. And it's kind of, it's kind of, you're describing that like you got there and you looked around and there was not like you achieved your goal and there was nothing there right there and there

was just like nothing there and it's like well honestly nothing's nothing's really changed like don't get me wrong like yeah like nothing nothing really changed and then you know i i then i started to become very disillusioned with powerlifting and moved up weight class, moved down to England. So moved down to a place called Leeds in England to do powerlifting with some people there. And I did my best lifting there. You know, I totaled 920 kilos. And I know this doesn't count for much, but like when I, the week that I decided I'm done with powerlifting, doesn't count for much but like when i the week that i decided i'm done with powerlifting i honestly could have told a thousand kilos or very close to like i was like my estimated max was like a thousand kilos and my numbers reflected that i know talk is cheap it doesn't matter i

didn't do it but like i i listen when you someone like you can talk like this it's fine like i was i was honestly like my numbers were at that level um and hated it was miserable and i was i was miserable to be around as well and by this point i did have friends you know like still like some of my like my best friends to this day like i was best friends with them back then and you were with rachel at this no you weren't with Rachel. No. You hadn't started grappling. Okay. No. And then, yeah, like, they were, you know, they tell me now that you were fucking miserable to be at rounds. I was just miserable and then disillusioned. And then basically I was like, I'm done.

I'm going to, you know, I want to coach. I'm going to coach, you know, and that's it. I don't want to compete. You remember making that decision like i was in the gym i was in the i was in the gym it was a tuesday i was in the gym on tuesday doing deadlifts and i worked up to turn and i my i pulled 250 kilos which way back then was like you know over 100 kilos below my max you know so and i pulled that and i just walked out the gym and that was it i'm done just said to my friends i was like i'm done and i just walked out the gym that was it done done just said to

my friends i was like i'm done and that's me i'm not i'm not perfect anymore so went home hey so for you that's like a divorce you know what's crazy so few people will do anything in their life i'm trying to think the only thing i can't think of anything in my life that i would ever have committed to so much that i would have to quit the only thing i can think of is like my wife like i'd have to get a divorce or maybe quitting this podcast but it's so it's so crazy that you had a hobby that was so uh uh and i and maybe i should choose a different word than hobby but you had a practice let's say a practice that was so intertwined with your life that you had to quit it it's like fucking like an addict like the only thing you

quit are like drugs or cigarettes or alcohol or some shit you quit power lifting yeah so and i remember i was i was so scared i was so scared i was so scared to tell people as well um because the problem is is that i feel like and one thing that maybe struggled with a little bit as well back then was like, whenever I saw anybody, you know, I felt like other than my very close friends and like my mum and dad and my brother or sister, for example, other than like, you know, a very small group of people, anyone I ever bumped into that I knew, you know, could never have a normal conversation. It's always like, oh, like, you know, could never have a normal conversation it's always like oh like you know

what's your next competition what what numbers you had I saw you won the world championships like what's next like that's like all they cared about was lifting all they cared about talking was your powerlifting this and it's like it's almost like why can't I just bump into somebody and they're just like how are you what are you doing today you know and it's like and I know that they're just being friendly and polite and actually it's a really nice thing that people are actually like you know even willing to be

invested in like in what you're doing with your life and that's nice but it's like it then becomes like all I am is Mark McQueen the world champion powerlifter like that's who I am that's my identity that, all I am is Mark McQueen, the world champion powerlifter. Like that's who I am. That's my identity. That's all I'm good at. That's all my worth is.

I've not really got anything else. So then quitting was like, I was so scared. Isn't that fascinating? Isn't that fascinating? You went from having no worth and that sucked to have getting focused and having ultimate worth and that was still empty. And so life's a trip right i think that's why so many people turn eventually find god or turn to religion or start establishing

values or right i mean because i remember i remember being i remember being so scared to tell my dad like like terrified to tell my dad and there's no reason for it but like i think it's because i think it's because like would he come to your power lifting meets was he a fan yeah yeah yeah yeah like he like i again like this is as i got older i think i've kind of i didn't really know why i was so scared to tell him back then but as i've gotten older i feel like i kind of understand why so you know my my dad you know was the is like the hardest working person i've ever met um like you know he literally like you know my dad you know was that is like the hardest working person I've ever met um like you know he literally like you know would leave the house at like seven in the morning

get back at seven at night you know my mum would have his dinner on the table for him and then he'd go back out and he'd come to my box and then watch me box take me home he'd take my brother to football take me to football you know he basically be out from seven in the morning till 10 at night go to bed repeat his weekends were like on a saturday you know he'd take me to take gavin to football who's my brother take me on a sunday to rugby or take me to football take me to boxing you know gave his entire life to us basically uh and was just like the hardest working person i'd ever met and i feel like growing up all he'd ever met with from me was just like failure after failure hassle and the police are at his door the police are phoning him

you know the school are phoning him my mom's phoning them just constantly hassled um and i remember like when i kind of started to power thing it's kind of like almost my opportunity to like really like look like i'm actually like not a failure like you know it's almost like this is like was like my opportunity to like impress them or you know even now it's maybe hard to kind of articulate i get it you want you want it um i think we all healthy kids have that you wanted you realized how much effort he put into you and you didn't want to be a shitty painting you're like look your work actually paid off like you owe it you felt some responsibility to him like hey i'm sorry i'm sorry that you're it maybe didn't turn out the way you wanted but look look, you still made a good statue. Yeah, and it's weird because it's like,

I never felt like that with my mum. My mum was like, literally couldn't have had a better mum, the best mum in the world. But I never really thought about impressing her, but maybe it's because it's my mum. Your mum's always going to think you're amazing. You know?

I really wanted to impress my dad, and I remember being so scared to tell him because I felt like, well, then when I stop this this it's back to like i'm now just some average guy that's not good at anything um but i remember i told him and then like you know he was so supportive he was like listen he's like you've got to follow your heart that's not what you want to do you know you don't do that anymore he's like you know you've got your your coaching business he's like you can coach powerlifters you can do that he's like you can remember he was like you want to do. You know, you don't do that anymore. He's like, you know, you've got your coaching business. He's like, you can coach powerlifters. You can do that. He's like, you can, I remember he was like,

you literally can do anything you want. You've proven that. He's like, you can do anything you achieve. You set your mind to it. He's like, so follow your heart. So it was great. So then I was like, well, obviously I need to lose weight. I don't want to be fat anymore.

Don't want to be this weight. Don't want to lose weight. And then my brother at the time lived in australia he was in australia and um he did jujitsu and he was a blue belt in jujitsu so i was like oh i was like you know i think i want to probably do like jujitsu gavin what do you think he was like yeah he's like i think that'd be great he's like i'll like type into this this facebook group and ask where you could go to for where you live and then basically went along and then you know i remember i stopped on the tuesday and i went on the i went on the

saturday and hated it absolutely hated it i was like this is makes no sense i like i'll feel like a fucking idiot how much did you weigh on your first day 152 152 kilos so 350 pounds um i was like i hated it didn't like it but i was like you know i'm down here myself anyway i only know like two or three people here and they all have their own lives and their own jobs and you know i don't really get to see them so i was like i'm gonna do something so just kept going and then uh i came home back home to glasgow so i came back home to glasgow uh and then you only did what you how many classes did you end up doing there maybe two two months okay okay but i've done a lot though i was going like like every, I was going every single day. So this is you at 350 pounds in the lower left-hand corner? Yes.

Damn, you held that well, Jesus. Yeah. And then basically I, what's it called? And then actually, if you go on my Instagram, just out of curiosity, there'll be a photo around about November 2022. There will be a photo of me with abs and pretty ripped.

And you can compare that to the 150. Oh, I went straight to the picture with you and Paul Craig. I think it was November 2022. Around about then, I posted a photo of me with abs and stuff, and that was like, compare that to the 150-odd-kilo one. November 2022. Roughly. I can quickly probably pull it up on my Instagram.

I am at november of 2022 i mean you're lean as fuck even i can tell with the jiu-jitsu shirt on i just don't see you with a shirt off photo let me see let me see uh i can even probably send it to you um or just tell me the date in fact yeah it's crazy it goes from all basically lifting to then just so much jujitsu i will i will quickly send you the photo on your on instagram um just to show the the difference because i think i actually put out my story rather than a post um Where are we? What's the date? Do you see the date? I've sent you that photo on Instagram Messenger.

All right, let me see. Yeah, if that's came through. Oh, yeah. Is that an actual post? Oh, my God. I cannot believe how much you changed your body. Yeah. Wild.

how much you changed your body. Yeah. Wild. Um. Look for new value programs when you shop at Loblaws, like Hit of the Month. So you get the best deals and low prices on amazing products every month. And did you know? PC Optimum members save more.

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Cheers to taking off this summer. More details at aircanada.com. And how long did that take to go from that? 350 to that? Oh, um... A year? So, no, no. Like, that was, would have been november 2022 so honestly that was probably

like four four years honestly of just work yeah just yeah absolutely four years i probably looked like that on the right though like like like a lot like probably maybe after like three two and a half three years i just hadn't really had a photo of that before that um but yeah quite a difference okay so so um you you're you're in uh you're somewhere in the uk and you do jujitsu for two months you're not enjoying it and then you move back to glasgow okay back to glasgow and i joined the gym that i still train at now um with my brother uh because you know with my brother and then the rest is honestly history like i just started um basically started training full-time so obviously i like i basically like i'm a strength and conditioning with that time i was like i don't

only a powerlifting coach um but now like i'm a strength and conditioning coach so i coach power lifters and do strength and conditioning for like grapplers or anyone who wants it and then basically because of that it's all online so i basically was able to train full-time straight away so i was like literally from like you know like literally two months in i was training morning and night um grappling um training you know When did you start liking it? Probably after about six months. And why did you stay those six months? Did you like the training? Did you like the guys?

Did you like the conditioning? Did you, what, anything? It was just like, well, what else am I going to, I've got to do something. Did you drag out, did you dread going into the studio? Do you remember what you didn't? Did you not like it because you weren't good at it? You didn't know what you were doing?

You felt like a fish out of water? It wasn't. No, it wasn't that I wasn't good at it. I just, I don't, I don't, I just, I just wasn't very. Did you not like dealing with the other guys, touching the other guys, rolling with them? Like that part, no, didn't give a shit about that. No, it was nothing to do with that.

I just, I just was like, I don't know if I, I don't know if I like this. But then just as each month went on uh you know like kind of after like five five five months six months i definitely started to like it um but basically just trained full-time uh after since like two months um and then i got my brown belt after three and a half years i know that's crazy. How did you do that? Well, I mean, honestly, after like... Were you scared getting your brown belt? Were you like, no, no, slow it down, guys.

Slow it down, slow it down. Well, because like, so basically my first ever comp at blue belt, I'd only been training for two years. So my first ever comp at blue belt, because I got my blue training for two years. So my first ever competition at Blue Belt because I got my Blue Belt after a year. And then because, and I would have got it sooner, but the reason I did it was because I went to the European Championships,

the IBJJF European Championships as a white belt, which I won, and then got my Blue Belt and then COVID hit, which obviously COVID happened. Now, I luckily, me and my brother which i won and then i got my blue belt and then kovid hit which obviously covered happened um now i luckily me and my brother basically moved home with my mum and dad and they had a garage so me and gavin just trained every day you know multiple times a day so we kept training full time and so i didn't really slow us down and my first comp at blue belt was against black belts i just entered the black belt division uh and um i won so i won you know double gold it was a blue belt was against black belts i just entered the black belt division uh and um i won so i won you know double gold it was a blue belt you were beating black belts already yeah and one

of the guys i beat he was smaller but his name's ross nichols and then he he had uh won adcc trials previously and he had been at adcc you know the adcc so he'd been at the olympics of grappling so he was arguably at that time the best person in the whole of the UK. And the best smaller, he was like 75 kilos. And it was in the open weight division and I beat him. So I then got my purple belt. So I'd only done one blue belt, got my purple belt after two years. And then-

Mark, let me ask you this. Did they have, did they kind kind of were you getting good so quick that and you were so strong and and practicing so much that they basically they couldn't leave you in the lower belts because people would have started complaining like what the fuck um i don't know it's just my coach just said to me there's there's no time to waste i mean i've never heard of anyone getting a brown belt in like four years but i mean clearly clearly you earned it because you qualified for adcc this year i mean so it's like so when i got my so basically i got my purple belt and then like you know i'd only been competing a black belt and like constantly beating all these black belts and

stuff and then i got my blue my brown belt after three and a half years and my coach said to me like i could have gave you this like a year ago um but he's like but you're competing at black belt anyway so it doesn't matter um and then um yeah so basically after three and a half years and then i won trials which obviously like adcc trials is like as the grappling's version of it's the Olympic trials. Won that after like four years and eight months. And yeah, you know, basically going to the Olympics of grappling with like less than five years of training.

It's great. Were you tripping when you saw your name on the ADCC qualifier? Like, I mean, I know you were there and you won it, but it like holy shit yeah it was like you know it is it's weird because um i'd been to two adcc trials previously to this and i had lost to watch or compete oh to compete and i'd lost in both um so both times i went out in the second round but like I knew I know I can win this, both times were just like not taking it away from other people, they beat me fair and square, they deserve to win

but I'm like these people aren't better than me I made a mistake or whatever. And I know that's not fair because, you know, they, they maybe made me make the mistake or they capitalize. But I was like, I know I'm,

I'm as good as these guys. I know it. And then also I went to this trials and I was like, I know for a fact I can win this. Um, and I did. So yeah. How many matches did you have there?

Eh, four, four matches. And you won all four one all four uh any close ones um yeah so the first one uh was pretty pretty one-sided to be honest the guy amazing actually amazing jiu-jitsu but um i'd say like uh you know, I won pretty comfortably. So, you know, I like, you know, in the first regulation, the six minutes, I'd like passed his guard and stuff like that, took him down, passed his guard, pretty dominant.

But unfortunately, I'd done all that before the time, before the points started. So then when points, so he played it well. So then when points started, I wasn't able to score points. So we went to overtime. And then in overtime, took him down, passed his guard. He also got two negatives. I'm not too sure what his two negatives were for pulling guard.

So I beat him like 5-0. Second match was very close. And I knew my second match, I knew that this would have been my hardest match, especially stylistically. This would have been my hardest match, especially stylistically. This would have been my hardest match. And the guy that I had, his name was Frank Coppana. He has won Black Belt World title before.

She's a Black Belt World champion in IBJJF. Enormous, quite a bit heavier than me. Not taller, but quite a bit heavier. And very tactical, very and very tactical very very tactical very smart um and knew that that would be the hardest match but managed to get through him beat him uh and then then but what happened was was i had a nine minute match with him and it was like a war like it was so hard and uh i've had one hour between the last 16 and his match the quarterfinal then basically came off the mat and i was like i cannot like i'm like i beat

him hardest match of the day gone perfect sat down in the stadium next to my girlfriend exhausted and they came up to the went you're back on in five minutes you got semifinals in five minutes and the guy that i was going up against was completely fresh you know he you know he finished his match his his other his match in seconds he he literally won like within like 30 seconds so he's fresh and i'm exhausted and i'm like i remember thinking like how am i how am i going to do this like because it was against the guy that obviously was got the bronze medal. Gene look up. I remember thinking like, he's too good for me to go in this exhausted.

And then I remember my, my girlfriend was just like, like Mark, you've, you've, you've been here before. You beat him before. And like,

you've been tired before, like fucking, you know, very nicely was like like get a fucking grip you're going to be fine so i was like yeah it was it was this giant guy uh the guy yeah the guy on the third place podium um what do you do do you take a shot of espresso or do you take some uh pre-workout or like what do you do to get yourself up so i only had five minutes so nothing just drank water and electrolytes because i was

you know soaking so went into that match and and this is where you even change your clothes do you even change your clothes no no um and i was you know but luckily this is where all the conditioning that i do uh i'm like you know like kissing my lucky star. I'm like, I'm so pleased I put all this effort into that match. And again, that was a hard match. And that went to overtime as well. So that went nine minutes. But again, like I won comfortably. Like I feel like, you know, I took him down like probably like four or five times.

He was very, very good at turtling. So I didn't get the points for it. But I'd say I beat him comfortably. And then... And is this the conditioning you're talking about? This fucking crazy shit? Yeah, yeah. So then I beat him, and then

I was like... What was quite good was I didn't have time to think, because I'm like, before I knew it, I was in the final because I'd beat Franco Panna, who was the hardest match, and then I come against this guy who I've had a match with before, and I'm like like this guy is a world-class black belt and like Inogi belts don't really belts don't matter like honestly but like when I say world-class black belt I mean like he is like world-class and like you know like he is like right up there beat him and I'm like right

I'm in the final now and then I had like two hours between the semi-finals and the finals so I was able to go outside and like rehydrate refuel um and then went into the final and I was up against Freddie Vosgroen and um you know this guy like you know he's a little bit of a celebrity like in the UK and in Europe um and I would say he's better at Jiu Jitsu than I am I'd say, you know, I don't think that's unfair to say, I don't think I'm putting myself down when I say that, I'd say he is probably better at Jiu Jitsu than me but I was like, I know I can beat this guy though

so I went into the match and I knew he wanted to pull guard but in the finals, you're not allowed to pull guard if you pull guard, you'll get a negative but if I take him down in the first four minutes i get no points for it you know so i was like i was like you're not getting to fucking pull guard or i'm not taking you down and giving you what you want and not getting awarded points for it so i was like kind of you know just hand fighting not really playing into his game not taking him down And then what he was doing was he was taking wrestling shots,

but with no intention of finishing the shots. He was just wanting to take a shot so that he could then like legally pull guard off of it. And then he took a shot and then he pulled guard, but he pulled guard too quickly. And I feel like he should have been penalized and got a negative, but he didn't get a negative. But now he's like where he wants and I was like right well fucking

game on and then again I feel it was pretty one-sided to be honest like he didn't do anything to me I was constantly like passing almost passing and then you know he never really did anything and then I was able to eventually get a pass secure the points and then

won trials and like that was like holy fuck like i and one like i knew i could do it but when it happened i was like i cannot believe i just did that and and so now uh it's coming up in august right yes august the 16th and 17th and this only happens every two years? Yeah. And so you and Rachel are flying out to? Vegas. Yeah, we'll be there.

And is that a single elimination tournament? Yeah. So basically, yeah. You go and you lose your first match, you're out. You're toast. Yeah. And how many dudes will be in your division? Do you know? 16.

It's the top 16 in the world. Holy shit. Yeah. Holy shit. division do you know 16 it's the top 16 in the world shit yeah holy shit um it can you get better august is just five months away can you get better between now and then like is oh so much yeah because i think the thing this is and and i've not even been training for five years yet like next month i will have been training for five years yeah i feel and like i am like training full-time like when i say training full-time like i'm like doing like 16 17 sessions a week um you know through six days so you're basically training two to three times three

times a day six days a week yeah yeah um and um like my my entire life is grappling, you know, like, if I'm not doing it, I'm thinking about it. Every session I go into, you know, I'm like, this is what I'm doing this day, this is my goal for this day. You know, I've even, like, you know, seek the help of a guy called Jeremy Skinner. I don't know if you know who he is, but he's an Australian guy. He's been at ADCC before,

but I'm getting, like, kind getting online coaching from him as well. So he's helping me. And I think the thing is that it is great that I'm going in August. And our cool thing is I'm the first person ever from Scotland to go. So I'm the first Scottish person to ever win trials and go. But just going once isn't enough um you know it just isn't enough that's not the goal the goal is not just to be like oh i got to adcc one time and no offense to anyone that had that goal and achieved that but like as michael bisbing said and michael

bisbing said this in his um and on his podcast, it's a mistake he sees in people is there's fighters, they get offered a UFC contract, they sign the contract they're in the UFC and they're like job done, my life goal is complete, I've got to the ADCC and he's like no no no no that's the terrible attitude, he's like

you've now just got an invite to the party he's like now is where it begins and that's what this feels like. And now I'm, you know, not a delusional person. You know, I'm not being like, I'm going to go in August and I'm going to win ADCC. You know, I'm not going to be, you know, it's not putting myself down.

It's not being negative. I'm going to give everything I've got. Do I think I can win a match, some matches? Absolutely. You know, do I think I can win a match, a couple of matches? Absolutely. You know, do I think I can meddle at it? Honestly, maybe I am delusional.

Honestly, yeah, I genuinely believe I can. But the thing is, is that this ADCC isn't what's important. I'm only 29 years old. You know, no injuries,

no nagging, nothing. Like I've got 11 years in front of me in my weight class, you know, like I've got like 11 years, I've got five more, you know, five more ADCCs in front of me. So just getting to the party, that's not what matters. What matters is like constant development and constant evolution and like, you know,

three, four, five adcc's down the line that's what truly matters you know getting there once isn't the goal you know eventually you know three four five adcc's in line i want to be winning winning this hey uh will you be the how many new guys will be there besides yourself do you know um that's a great question in my weight class um i don't know will they if you're the newest guy there would do they put you with the best guy like is it like that so so your first match could be against fucking who knows probably no shit he's going he's He'll go. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, do people freak out in wrestling or when they're grappling and they go flat and then you're still able to pick them up?

Do people underestimate your strength? Do people freak out a little bit? They're like, uh-oh. You put them in positions they've never been in before. That's a good question. I don't know um in the training room though uh i'm like you know honestly pretty night well pretty nicely i don't really um you know i would say like in the training room like i'm very very deliberately uh not like just like using strength like you know because i think as well you can get quite false feedback because if i could do if i you know i i think as well you can get quite false feedback because

if i could do if i you know i could try and do something and if someone's someone's much weaker than me uh i might you know just be able to do it anyway but then if i wouldn't do it against someone in my weight class who's maybe not strong as me but strong enough and then doesn't work i'm then getting like false feedback loops so whereas like i actually really try and be as technical as possible as technical as i can be and like i'm constantly trying to like actually like evolve my game and be more skillful and get better at jiu-jitsu and then um because that is what's going to separate it you know and so in the training room no in competition um maybe yeah maybe maybe i'm not i'm not sure because i've never really asked somebody um

if i'm being honest i've never really asked somebody but i think i mean there's dudes you're going against who they have really good deadlifts that are 400 pounds and they're going against the guy who's pulled 800 and at some point they got to be like something, like they got to experience some weird weightlessness at times that they're like, well, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, I'm trying to think there's a guy that you double leg. I had the video here somewhere. Yeah.

Fucking crazy. That will have been from like November 2022. I think I know exactly what you're talking about I'll quickly I thought I had it tagged here I apologize I'll send that to you as well look at you

and I'm guessing you're conditioning when you go 10 minutes and it goes into overtime are you good uh yeah i'm fine i've i've sent you that video on instagram on your messenger yeah i'm fine like so like for example um at trials there uh my first match went nine minutes second match went nine minutes then i had a five minute break um i had a five minute break I had a five minute break is that at a tournament?

yeah I mean that's like one of those freakish videos that you see like the guys in the Olympics you know who's only 5'2 and they show him jump and he's dunking yeah that looks like CGI the way you fly through the air yeah that guy's really good as well that's paul lukowski he's actually really good um as well um but yeah so oh my god so so i had a a nine minute i had a nine minute match against

um franco pana my second match who is a black belt world champion and is like 130 to 140 kilos and then had a five minute break and another nine minute match with Gene Luca who's like a world class jiu jitsu guy and yeah

fine then done the finals which was eight minutes I'm absolutely fine um yeah i would say like in my weight class i would say like my conditioning is probably one of my my main strong points for sure especially especially my body weight as well well will you go to vegas early like pretty early like five days early a week early how do you do that I want to so as far as I'm aware ADCC pay for

you to basically fly they pay for your flights and accommodation wow yeah so they will fly me over and I don't know if they'll pay for Rachel but I'll you know I'll sort that and she'll be coming the same time as me and they pay they put you in the MGM Grand Arena, I think,

because it's the O2 arena that it's in. And so I think it's probably dependent on when they're wanting to meet, when they will fly me over, but I would want to go over early, yeah, 100%. And get situated. Wow. Yeah. And then will you stay, do you have any plans to stay in uh like train anywhere in the states before you go home or is it come to handle your business and get back

yeah yeah just handle business and then probably have a couple of days after uh in vegas you know because like my brother's going to fly over and a few of my friends are flying over too um so they'll be there and obviously my girlfriend will be there so have a couple of days in vegas after it and then it's get back to business you know have you ever been to the states before uh i've been to texas once uh for the world championships in 2016 but uh i'm i didn't like i literally turned up went to my hotel room didn't leave competed went back to my hotel room flew home um what about um other uh since since you have a boxing background what about doing other forms would you ever do anything else would you ever like after after adccs to try mma or kickboxing or boxing again

no um no and the reason for that is is because like is genuinely like, I've got to unforte to win ADCC. So I've got like a decade or a thousand years in front of me. And I feel like doing anything else would just be a distraction and a distraction from what my goal is. And I feel like if I'm going to do something, if it's not going to be benefiting my goal and it's going to be distracting me from my goal, then why on earth would I be doing that?

So no, it's fully focused on grappling. Mark, a lot of jiu-jitsu tournaments are just complete shit shows, right? I mean, it's just wild between the fans screaming and family, too many people in too small of an area. How is ADCC? Does it run different? Oh, I mean, I've never been to ADCC before,

but yeah, like if never been to the CC before, but yeah. Like if you watch like the one and two, like the last one in 2022 would have been obviously, or 2021, 22. I mean, that was like, yeah. I mean, it literally looked like, you know, like you're like a UFC event. How about the qualifier?

Is the qualifier pretty well organized too? Yeah, the qualifier is organized too. It's not definitely ADCC, but it's a very, very well-run and taken seriously tournament. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, dude. Hey uh great having you on here um i hope to stay in touch with you i am a huge fan uh now i mean i'm so glad i guess it was yon who turned me on to you but i'm so glad that uh i came across your instagram account i'm able to follow you and i'm gonna be rooting for you buddy and and i really do hope

that'll be really what a great opportunity are you chomping at the bit are you hoping Nicky Rod's your first match I'm not singling him out I just think logically like he is probably going to be my first match I could be wrong but like

you know I think just logically it is going to be him and it's like yeah bring it on yeah I bet you seem like the guy who wants to face the absolute hardest challenge yeah I mean and that's I think that's one thing that

maybe kind of I find difficult with like other people is like I've like jumped at every opportunity I've ever taken you know especially grappling wise powerlifting obviously too but in grappling people is like, I've like jumped to every opportunity I've ever, I've ever, I've ever taken, you know, like especially grappling wise, powerlifting obviously too,

but in grappling, um, you know, like I'd only been training for like 18 months and, uh, I had a match with a guy called Owen Livesey, um, who won, but like,

he was like Commonwealth gold medalist in judo, um, missed out on the Olympics by one placing. Um, it's probably like the biggest name in the uk for grappling they kind of jumped that match with him uh jumped to that match was big dan i've like been to every single european trials that i've been able to go to um i've like you know been competing at black belt since i've been a blue belt. Like, yeah, I've literally like jumped every opportunity. And then it's like, you know,

no, um, they've been trying to get matches and it's like, people aren't jumping opportunities. And I'm like, I don't understand. You mean people don't, uh,

aren't jumping at the opportunity to, to, uh, get on the mat with you. Yeah. Yeah. I don't blame him. All right. Uh, Yeah, I don't blame him. All right.

Mark, I hope I get a chance to talk to you when you come to the States and Vegas. Maybe we can catch up again before the event and you can give us an update on what's going on and I'll be bugging you. Feel free to chat with me anytime and WhatsApp, I'll do the same to you. Thank you so much for coming on, man.

No, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. cheers buddy thank you mark mcqueen wow man oh man what's the takeaway there you will not become the best in the world unless you're willing to die for it. I mean, fuck, we heard him say it, right?

Willing to die to win the, uh, powerlifting competition. I mean, and then, yeah, great name, great name.

Only one name would be better. Mark McKinney. I don't even, is that even a name? Is there, I wonder if there is a Mark McKinney, Mark McKKean. I don't even. Is that even a name? Is there. I wonder if there is a Mark McKean. Mark McKean. Nope.

Just Googled it. Didn't even get a Mark McKean. Not a single one. They're all Mark McQueens. Fuck. He could change his name to Mark McKean. Be the first. Holy shit.

I mean. I mean. He looks like. He looks like a guy who would be have a hard time getting a match right holy cow is that true is craig jones not competing at adcc i mean maybe he'll get an invite thanks jody uh great interview what a cool guy yeah really cool guy he got a cool Instagram too he's really light hearted like for as

intense as you might imagine he is and focused he's funny like he has a lot of funny posts he busts people's balls the thought of him putting his arms around you and wanting to do something harmful to you is crazy.

Uh, make seven. There you go. Uh, it's all about, uh, the money. What money?

What do you mean? He's not doing it for the money. He didn't pick the right sports if he's doing it for the money. All right. So listen, tomorrow is going to be wild. Tomorrow morning is going to be crazy. Jake Berman's coming on. And on Wednesday, Jake Berman is going against Colton Mertens

to see who's the best at doing burpees. And they're going to do that on the barbell spin at 4.30 pacific standard time 4 30 p.m pacific standard time i believe on his youtube station and then at 5 30 is when the real show begins that's over at the sebon podcast bring your dollar or two dollar donation we'll be kicking everyone out who doesn't bring a dollar. Bring a dollar. Not really, but... And Tim Murray will be going. The fittest man in the world.

Last year's fittest man in the world. So, Colton Merton... So tomorrow... Yeah, going back to what I was originally saying. So tomorrow, Jake Berman's coming on in the morning. We'll find out. I've never had him on the show before.

Get to know Jake. Find out about being an entrepreneur and then get down to fucking business. Can he really beat Colton Mertens? Can Colton Mertens beat him? Jake Berman, the slow burpee guy. Yeah, I do. Absolutely. Yesterday, Garrett and Colleen from the Glinton Things podcast hosted the show.

I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. I'm excited to give it a listen. I don't know when I'm going to do that. I need a I need a I need a host that can host the show when I'm gone. Like a like a Joan Rivers to Johnny Carson. Is it Jeff Berman? Is it Jeff Berman? No, it's Jake Berman.

Isn't it Jake Berman? Jake Berman. Jake Berman. Don't confuse me. That would suck if I called him Jeff Berman. It's tomorrow, dude. Oh, look, he even got a little post. It's tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, 7 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. I've always wanted to have him on the show. One time I had Noah on the show, and Jake was in the passenger seat. He seemed like a cool dude. I got to chat with him a bit. It's happening. Colton Mertens and Jake Berman will settle it once and for all next Wednesday, April 10th on the Barbell Spin YouTube channel. Who will finish 100 bar-facing burpees the fastest?

So that's kind of like the co-main event. And then the main event will be over on the sebon podcast when we watch tim murray the fittest man in the world do it let's look we better we should go over and see if tim's been training burpees let's go see what the fuck tim's doing tim murray tater tot 1195 let's see he better be his account better be just full of him doing burpees right now this last week let's see um oh shit look here it is first most recent post here we go just a reminder 8 30 p.m eastern standard time on the real seven on podcast i take on 100 bar

facing burpees after colton mertens and jake berman complete their challenge dude dude oh my god this is dope look he even has a little timer down there oh shit let's hey should we let's count these up this is crazy is he gonna go a whole minute here he's doing a test run on this is he fucking nuts dude did someone count oh no so for he did 40 seconds if you can hold that you've got it holy shit holy shit dude Holy shit. Holy shit, dude. Listen, this show is brought to you by CA Peptide.

CA Peptide is giving him a thousand bucks if he fucking beats them. I would love to raise another thousand bucks for him in the chat. That would be cool, right? Thousand people watching watching dollar each no i don't i don't know oh is that a short bar damn he's cruising dude he's got some hang time in the air too damn this fucker's going for it this is so cool see i think he two rep 270 deadlift yeah boy damn tim

it's fucking awesome all right all right All right. All right. What's he doing here? Thank you, Murray Ridge Center, for having me out to be the keynote speaker for the Special Olympics Banquet. I know my grandpa is smiling big right now. Oh, that's cool. Let's see.

What he has to say. I didn't. I know. I think I told Tyler. I don't know if I told Mr. Hatcher this. My grandpa has a big reason that the Special Olympics made its way from Cincinnati across the river into Ohio, or the northern Kentucky. So my grandpa grew up there, my dad grew up with his brother who has cerebral palsy. And my grandpa wanted them, my uncle, to have the same opportunities that my dad and

my other uncle, Kevin, and my aunt Karen had to participate in sports. At that time, it wasn't easy to travel from northern Kentucky to Cincinnati. The Inter75 was, I think, just being built. Oh, the dude has

fuck, of course. Lineage of good people. Sounds like his grandpa was instrumental in the Special Olympics creation in their area. Keynote speaker, Tim Murray, Murray Ridge Center Special Olympics Banquet,

April 1st, 2024. Damn, good job, dude. That's fun. Getting recognized for being a good dude all right he got his podium what the fuck is this this looks dangerous Next. Alright. Alright. Jesus Christ. I'm so had to lower it. Alright. Alright.

Oh, shit. Look at that fucking environment he's training in. Damn. That's a nice little setup right there. Holy shit. Oh, that's cool. He didn't have to worry about low ceilings either, huh? Look at that. Like he, he's cool. He didn't have to worry about low ceilings either, huh? Look at that.

Like, he's not tripping. I'm right at that limit. At 5'5", I can kind of still work out overhead with low ceilings, but sometimes you bump stuff like lights and fixtures and shit. You don't got to worry about any of that. All right, I'm pumped.nesday night's gonna be wild yeah no problem tim going overhead in the basement no he's good he got that uh it's a good preview uh sebon should do 50 bar facing burpees for time against their 100 i should huh oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What about the Vindicate drop seven? That is a great question. Oh, my goodness. This is a – I think this is going to be my new favorite shirt. Let me see if I can go – what happens if I go over to there. I don't see it. Maybe it's not up here yet. Oh, it is up.

Oh, you get the socks and the wristbands together? That's fucking cool. Thanks for asking about this. I need black. Purple. I ain't doing no purple. That purple one will lower my T count. Can't be doing anything.

No tie dye. I like this. Oh my goodness. I really, really hope. That that shirt doesn't. That that shirt fits me nice. God, I hope that shirt fits me nice god i hope that shirt fits me nice can't wait to get the hold of this i'll uh what does this mean athletic or relaxed

athletic means like you have to like look like street horner to wear it and this is like relaxed is like it doesn't touch your uh your handles your love handles am i relaxed dude i'm a relaxed large what is this one no what the fuck is this this one looks dirty you got a dirty one in there in the pictures i'm gonna go with a clean shirt what's the difference between this one and this one oh oh this one's real black okay that's what i want relaxed real black color black shit this is confusing oh look and you can add shit to the cart how do you not have one of these all right yeah those are going to be dope That's a great design Travis killed that

I wonder if that king uses Metuthian Relaxes more vacation fit What's that mean Oh shows off the guns With the athletic Relaxes Bryson No no no

I hope not I'm not doing that I can't do that I can't do uh I can't do Bryson I wonder um Hiller made a commercial for uh CA peptides I wonder if it's loaded in here oh CA peptides with oh why if it's loaded in here. Oh, CA peptides. Oh, why are there two?

Uh-oh. Let me see. Duh. This is called Melanotan 2. Oh, shit. Did you see that? Duh. Is that... Oh, man. All right, cool. All right. Cool. All right.

We got the commercials loaded up for a Wednesday show. I wonder why both those commercials. I need to text those guys. Why are there two Hiller commercials? Why are there two Hiller commercials? We just need the most recent. All right. Tomorrow, Jake Berman. Oh, I guess I'll be back tonight with the Dave Castro Weekend Review.

I guess we could see if he's put that up yet. I doubt he hasn't, right? Someone of you guys would have told me already. Dave's Weekend Review is up. The Dave Castro. No. What's today? Today's April 8th? No.

All right. God, I hope it's a short one one has the needle blurred out yeah that's the one we want thank you yeah we need the one with the needle blurred out uh um uh

oh yeah Caleb already responded keep the needle blurred hide the needle probably right better safe than sorry thank you Caleb I wonder where Caleb is right now

oh my goodness that is a wild picture of um oh you guys want to do something together really quick it looks like pedro's fake news is out let's watch that together that's always fun let's do that um what do i type in oh coffee, coffee. Coffee pods and what? Let's watch it. And then go over and watch it. You know, you got to go over there and watch it by yourself, too, so it gets the view. You know what I mean?

Okay. Here we go. First up, John Young previewed his new Karma Sutra book on Spin this week. I don't think that's a terrible position to come from. Peak 360 proved during team quarterfinals

that their team is close. Like, really close. Like, really, really, like, really close. Toto Maragino posted a story saying teammates who jerk together stay together hashtag jerking with my dog not max please don't involve max john young reacts to team quarterfinals workouts i don't think is that creative abigail domit gets ahead of no that's not right abigail domit gets in a bar fight no that's not right. Abigail Dommett gets in a bar

fight. No, that's not right. I read that one wrong as well. Abigail Dommett smacks herself in the head with a bar. There, that's the one. John Young makes passionate defense of Games Mountain positioning. ...to three spots. The winner is going to be Ricky

and Laura is versus Ricky. And finally, after their partnership during the Open, Talking Leaf Fitness remained true to their words that Rad is the best training shoe to, oh, no, wait, hang on. Sell out with me, oh yeah, sell out with me tonight. If you want real news, you can download the Heat One app, although it hasn't been updated in a while because they're busy preparing for quarterfinals, semifinals, maybe even the games.

Download the Heat One app now in the App Store or Google Play Store. Hey, I do, I do, I do, I do think, God, I need to call Tyler and see if what's going on, if the Heat One app is going to have something special for Taylor Self versus the world for quarterfinals.

That's coming up too. That's going to be wild. We'll start talking about that nonstop. Hopefully we can get Colton on, Dallin on, Jason on, and Taylor on all before that goes down.

Those are going to be crazy shows too. What is up with John? John better have his fucking mic fixed before he comes on this show. that was crazy john young stuttering no shit bitcoin's rocketing up again no shit like how much is how much is rocketing bitcoin wow holy shit wow wow wow Bitcoin. Wow. Holy shit. Wow. Wow. Wow. Why? Why? Why? Why? What's the reason for that? Is there? I mean, that usually happens if there's some sort of like fear that the dollar is going to collapse. Jesus. going to collapse. Jesus. Oh, but look, on March 13th, it was higher than this. So I guess it fell and now it's going back up. Okay.

It's just doing its dance. Damn, dude. Six months ago, I remember it was $27,000 for a Bitcoin. Now it's $71,000 for a Bitcoin. Now it's 71,000. Nuts. Wow.

Five year. Oh, in November. Okay. So it's at an all time high. But I guess in November of 2021, it was pretty high too. Hmm. All right. of 2021 it was pretty high too hmm hmm hmm hmm if you own a bitcoin you done good

you done good Mark McQueen gotta follow that guy gotta follow that guy gotta follow that guy uh did you guys see what's happening over in Brazil by the way with Elon Musk anyone following that story let me just uh bring this up really quick it's worth noting elon deserves uh

elon deserves credit for this i mean let me let me read you some of this uh for those of you don't know uh south america's number one language is portuguese and the reason why it's portuguese is because fucking there's brazil down there and that country is massive i want to say it's as big as the continental uh united states elon musk says x will defy order from brazil supreme court after twitter files the announcement comes in response to twitter files brazil reporting on twitter's internal communications from before Musk's 2022 takeover. Owner of X Corp Elon Musk said on the platform on April 6th that the company had decided to lift all restrictions on Brazilian accounts targeted by an order from the nation's Supreme Court. We are lifting all restrictions.

This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil. X is Twitter. As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our offices there. But principles matter more than profits. Mr. Musk wrote explaining X's decision. So basically, the government there has been telling Twitter or X, hey, you got to pull down these posts. They're misinformation posts. And they're actually posts from Congress people in Brazil.

And Musk is saying, no, we will not censor. We will not censor. City members of Brazil's Congress and journalists were among those named by Brazil's highest court for censoring. Crazy, right? And Musk's saying saying fuck you according to the internal files mr schellenberg shared twitter and brazil was threatened with a thirty thousand dollar fine the company had one hour to remove the congress members post or pay the court for non-compliance what a great brand move right just to fucking stand up to the fucking government of Brazil and be like, fuck you, free speech.

Savon, didn't you pay some guy from Brazil to unlock your IG accounts? It was some guy in Argentina, but I don't think he was Argentinian. But I paid him something crazy. It, um, it was fucked up. What happened? Actually, it was, um, what happened?

I paid him $800 to bring my account back. Then he told me three days later, Hey, you need to pay me another. I don't remember. I'm making up $500. And at which point I said to him, so that's 1300 bucks. At which point I said to him so that's 1300 bucks at which point i said to him hey dude we can do this three ways you can

just tell me you scam me and we'll go our ways that's cool um you give me my money back the 800 bucks or you bring my account back first and then i give you the 500 and he brought my account back so i had it back for like seven days and then it vanished again. Fuck I got fucked. But anyway, whatever. I'm resided to, um,

I'm resigned. I've put the, like there's this whole list of things I have over here that make me cooler than other people. And one of them is, I don't care if my Twitter, my Instagram account goes away like that. That's, i'm i'm just cooler than um i'm just cooler than other people i just can't help it but part of me has this like sick desire to see other people's instagram account go away to see how they react oh you guys want to help me with something?

By the way, I, I, I'm, I've gone back on the Diddy thing. I was like, fuck Diddy didn't do anything to like, like, so what if he's gay? I don't give a fuck to, he did something to now I'm back to like, it's just like the Epstein case. Like, I don't even really know what he did. Like, I don't like, I need Justin. I need to hear someone. I need to hear Justin Bieber come out with Usher and like, say, Hey, he made us lick his asshole,

his cheerio. And if, if I'm not going to hear that, then I, I'm just not like they haven't charged, charged him with anything. I was talking to someone the other day and they're like, dude,

if he was innocent, he would have said he's innocent. And I said, I was thinking, I said back though, but if he was was innocent he would have said he's innocent and i said i was thinking i said back though but if he was guilty he would have said uh they would have charged him something yeah civil right yeah civil suits yeah like blah whatever anyone can be in a civil suit yeah okay thank you for the clarification step okay listen to this i want you guys to listen to this there's something here that i listened to like five times yesterday and I cannot

figure it out. Diddy had an affair with Usher when he was still in his teens. Not that. I know what that means. As a result, he forced a number of young rappers to come out as gay. And why do they bleep out gay? He forced a number of young rappers to come out as gay. I wonder what that even means.

Force someone to come out as gay. Anyway, I don't know what any of this stuff means. Despite Did his best attempts to make it appear natural. There isn't a single situation in which an adult did he should share a bed with a teenager. I agree. Now here it is. Here's the part. Now listen carefully. Listen, did he and Usher shared a bed when Usher was 15? Nope, not that. Sorry, not that. And did he was in his late 20s. According to reports, Usher also acknowledged that when he was 15 years old, he and Diddy went to sell ories, Nope, not that. Sorry, not that. What's that? When he was 15, him and Diddy went to self-ories? And it's illegal in the U.S.?

What's sell-ories? Like, what's sell-ories? Listen again to this. Listen again to this. Bad when Usher was 15 and Diddy was in his late 20s. According to reports, Usher also acknowledged that when he was 15 years old, he and Diddy went to sell ories, which is to sell ories. Him and Diddy went to sell ories. Illegal in the U.S. and many other countries. In wrapping up the tumultuous.

Sell ories. What the fuck is he saying? Here we go again. Late 20s. According to reports, Usher also acknowledged that when he was 15 years old, he and Diddy went to sell oris, which is illegal in the U.S. To sell oris? Any other countries.

In wrapping up the tumultuous narrative surrounding... Sell oris? Listen, I was really hoping... You guys are really pissing me off. Because I was really hoping someone was going to come in the comments and be like, fuck, Sevan really is stupid and old. He doesn't't know what self or he's so you guys don't know either by the way this is all ai generated shit like there's once you fall down this rabbit hole on youtube like they can't say any of the people's names right it's a mess you can tell it's just

all ai shit according to reports usher also acknowledged that when he was 15 years old he and diddy went to sell oris sell oris what the fuck is that sell oris hold on maybe maybe i'm gonna slow it down to 0.75 and see what happens okay here we go teenager diddy and usher shared a bed when usher was 15 and diddy was in his okay here we go his late 20s. According to reports, Usher also acknowledged that when he was 15 years old, he and Diddy went to sell Oris. Sell Oris. Turn the captions on the video, Ding Dong.

Thank you. Finally, someone. Okay, captions. Oh, look it. Fuck, it says sell Oris. God damn it. Which is illegal in the U.S. and many other countries. In wrapping up the tumultuous narrative surrounding Diddy,

What's illegal? 10 years old, he and Diddy went to sell ories, which is illegal in the U.S. and many other countries. In wrapping up the tumultuous... Oh, my God. I'm never going to fucking know. That's why none of this shit matters. That's why... That's why none of this shit matches matters that's why that's why that's why none of this shit it's just all bullshit

i'm giving diddy a pass until further notice like like it's just all bullshit it's just fucking garbage that video was titled uh titled Mike Tyson gives celebrity list of people who took the D from fucking Diddy. And it's 26 minutes of nothing. I watched it at two times speed. So I'm erasing this. I don't even care what sell or ease is. It's slang for touching butthole. Who knows what it is?

Wait till you guys see this. Have you guys seen this? Seattle has a... This is a fucking wild story, dude. Seattle has a public defender named Stephanie Mueller. Stephanie Mueller. Stephanie Mueller. Okay, you ready for this? This is, imagine you get in trouble for something in Seattle.

Stephanie Mueller. And this is the chick that fucking, or dude, I think this is a guy. I mean, obviously it's a guy. This is Seattle's public defender, Stephanie Mueller. Look at this. This is fucking nuts, dude. Check on that. So we were talking to me, 6845?

Yeah. That works for me. All right. Do I need to sign anything? No. I'm just out of here. Do I need to sign anything? No.

My comment about my client? Yeah. I just met her. She's really nice. She's really smart. She sounds like she's got the right idea about things. I really support what she's up to, and I think it's fabulous. How about that?

She's accused of, what is it, criminal trespass? In the first degree, yes. Is she innocent or guilty? She's innocent, of course. She's innocent, okay. She's caught on video being arrested and protesting and allegedly protesting. So I'm trying to get all sides. My client has pled not guilty.

My name is Stephanie Mueller. I'm in the directory for the Washington State Bar Association. You can look me up. Stephanie, thank you for your time. At this point, your client is being arraigned, though. It's all just happened. Her hearing is over. Got it. It's done. All right. Do you know when her next court date is? I do.

I'd like to maybe just keep tabs if there are... Dude. What You just keep tabs if they're... Uh-huh. Dude. What the fuck, dude? I think that's a great idea. Could you tell me when that is? No. Take care.

Thank you, Stephanie. Let me check on that. Yeah, yeah. Should we work on it? Her nipples are 18 inches from her spine. Dude, oh my God. What's funny is my mom was an attorney for the county for a while, and I would just fucking, I would just love to see my mom's expression if she walked into the courthouse and saw this i would just be just be just it's the if you

the thing is is it's so absurd that everyone around them is pressing down like we have. Imagine walking by a tree in the wind blows, right? And you hear cracking or something. Everyone looks up. Anyone with like a healthy sense looks up like there's just situations where you react to things, right? You hear a loud engine coming and you look you look on the street like, you know, fast cars coming. There's just these natural reactions. We have four 17 year old boys are

walking um towards you on the street at night and their pants are sagging you cross the street you know what i mean like you just have these natural instincts when you're around something like that everyone's suppressing all their natural instincts their natural instincts are gonna be like hey are you okay what the fuck's going on with your tits who Who did your makeup? Are you a man? Like, there's a hundred questions flood, even the most non-transphobic, even the most non-homophobic. Like, if you're not having those reactions, you're pushing down your biology. There's no one who walks by that and shouldn't stare. Like, you should be like, what the fuck is that? There's no one who walks by that and shouldn't stare.

Like, you should be like, what the fuck is that? It's like, it's this time of year now where birds are starting to fill up my backyard again. And the other day I saw a bird I had never seen before. Or the other day my kid spotted a peregrine falcon. And you're like, wow, I've never seen that one. Like turkey vultures, you're like, dime a dozen, you see them, you know. We saw a bird the other day soaring with the biggest wingspan we've seen. it had a white head we think it was a bald eagle so we stare i mean this is just this is just i mean this is

how even if let's say you just wanted to let's say you're like i understand okay let's say um if you wanted to be a tranny you would think you'd want let's say let's say I really thought I was a woman and I wanted to assimilate with women. I'd want to slip in under the radar and just kind of assimilate, just be another spot on the Dalmatian's back. Just like, hey, I really feel like a woman, and I really don't want a lot of attention. But this? This isn't trying to fit in anywhere. This isn't trying to fit in anywhere. This is Cirque du Soleil shit.

She might as well have ridden in on a fucking unicycle. Yeah, I just met her. She's really nice. Hey, I would just like to ask the non-transphobic, the non-homophobic. Like, do you leave your kids with this thing? Would you let this thing babysit your kids? This really is, at this point, this really is a thing. I mean...

It's fucking amazing, dude. I would be so bummed if that was defend i guess in seattle you might be stoked that that's defending you especially if you're guilty because no one no one has the balls to push up against that those tits are crazy i don't even think that i'm guessing that maybe those aren't even implants. That's like some sort of like shield thing you're wearing. Damn. You think that like that you think that Stephanie Mueller had like a normal upbringing? You think Stephanie was diddled at a young age? Something fucked up happened to her?

Him? and he was diddled at a young age, something fucked up happened to him. There's nothing wrong with looking at someone and judging whether you want them watching your kids. Like, nothing. That doesn't make you Islamophobic, homophobic, transphobic. Like, if you don't do that, if you don't look at someone and judge them and

let's say there's someone's like i don't know what the situation would be for someone let's say you're picking a babysitter to watch your kids and you're not like assessing every nook and cranny of them to judge them then something's wrong with you you're a shitty parent yeah first of all yeah no one with a dick or ball should be watching your kids anyway for starters fuck man all right is it is it a prank yeah it seems like a prank but it's not it Is it a prank? Yeah, it seems like a prank, but it's not. It is not a prank. It is not a prank.

All right. So many fun. I have so many fun. Okay, well, let's finish here. Oh, I already did the Daniel Brandon's playing chess. Okay, how about this? What's this? We'll finish this.

Something on. Oh, here we go. A few of you sent this to me. Here we go. I'm not a political guy. I can't get in. It's just exhausting to me. It seems like just ugh.

But I have picked up on this. I live in California. If you're a Republican in California, you better keep that to yourself. Oh, wee. They hate Republicans. They don't hate anything more than Republicans in California. Republicans, they're not even real people. They're like these mythical creatures that hide in the bushes.

They'll snatch up your kids and force them to get a job. There's an app in California that tells you if Republicans live in your neighborhood. I feel sorry for Republicans. It's rough for them out there. They can't slip up. They got to hide all the time. They can't say what they mean. They can't one day be with their California friends and be like, you know what? I think life begins at conception. I'm like, what?

What'd you just say? I said I love paying for other people's contraceptives. I'm not a political... So good. It's just fucking 100% true. Alright, see you guys this evening. The Dave Castro Weekend Review. Love you guys.

Bye-bye.