The Shintaro Higashi Show - Chatri Sityodtong - CEO of ONE Championship

Episode Date: April 11, 2023

ONE Championship, a global combat sports titan, is coming to America! In this special mid-week episode, Shintaro sits down with Chatri Sityodtong to discuss ONE's American expansion and his lifelo...ng martial arts journey. Don't miss ONE Championship's first event in America, ONE Fight Night 10: Johnson vs. Moraes 3, taking place at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado on May 5, 2023. Stream it on Amazon Prime! Join our Discord server and start chatting with us and other grapplers by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 All right, welcome, everyone. We want to say a huge welcome to Chachri Sityadong. Did I say that correctly? How do I pronounce it? Yeah, Chachri. For those of you who don't know, he is the CEO of One Championships, one of the biggest fight organizations in the world, and they're set to do their debut on U.S. soil on May 5th, 2023.
Starting point is 00:00:18 Is that right? Yes. Yes. Very exciting stuff. And, you know, me and Chachri have some things in common. We're very're very good looking men and we're lifelong martial artists and grapplers. Right, Chachi? So I want to start off with a little bit about your background. I know you started with Muay Thai, but recently you just got a brown belt from Henzo. Is that right? Yes. Yes. Yes. I've been doing Muay Thai for about 38 years. I still train every day. I was, you know, obviously a student, a competitor, a coach, teacher, et cetera.
Starting point is 00:00:48 And then obviously now CEO. And then Jiu-Jitsu I've been doing about 16 years. Wow, nice. And, yeah, I mean, so it's every city I go to, I have a very heavy travel schedule around the world, but I make sure I train every day no matter where I'm at, you know? Awesome. So that's, you know, it's a big commitment, but it's who I am matter where I'm at you know awesome um so that's uh you know it's
Starting point is 00:01:06 it's a big commitment but I it's it's who I am is what I love you know yeah can you tell me a little bit more about your jiu-jitsu game like are you uh I feel like you're a top heavy half guard guy right take down on top pass right is that true am I right I think yes yes yes. I'm a very traditional, old-school game. Nothing funky, nothing fancy, just basics. And yes, I do like top game better than bottom. And yeah, I don't know how you knew, but that's literally, yeah, is getting the top half guard and pass and pressure,
Starting point is 00:01:41 and then, yeah. Awesome, awesome. Yeah, we shared a little bit of time at Henzo's too because I got my purple from Donahue back in the day right so we might have crossed paths a little bit you know in the blue basement and such right yes that's amazing how about your muay thai style is that something similar to your jujitsu style where you're like the aggressor you like being yeah sort of yeah yeah that's my personality right yes my personality is of course it's a gopher so yes my muay thai style is uh a lot of a lot of leg kicks a lot of punches uh and elbows that's great
Starting point is 00:02:14 and where are you training when you're in new york city henzo's oh and he's still you know he's yeah he's still yeah you know i i'm kind of old school. I'm very loyal that way. And Henzo and I are very, very close. And I still consider him my master. Great. That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:36 So I want to move on a little bit to the 1FC championships, the one championships that's coming up on May 5th, 2023. What I like about the one championships is that they have a Muay Thai division. It's not just pure MMA, right? You do Muay Thai bouts. You do grappling bouts. And so I wanted to ask, like, what are some of the things that distinguishes ONE from some of the other major organizations in the U.S.? So, you know, the dominant player here in the U.S. is obviously the UFC, and they focus solely on martial arts. Yes.
Starting point is 00:03:04 For ONE, we're the world's largest martial arts organization. We showcase the world's greatest athletes across mixed martial arts or Muay Thai, kickboxing. We even had boxing, WBC boxing world title fights in one. Submission grappling as well. And what you're guaranteed at one is the absolute
Starting point is 00:03:27 very, very best martial arts on the planet across multiple disciplines. And here's a fun thing. It's very much like every single card we have across all these different disciplines. So if you love fighting, if you love combat sports,
Starting point is 00:03:43 you get the very best uh whether it's again whether it's grappling or muay thai or kickboxing or boxing or mixed martial arts and that's what i think maybe you know the ethos is because i'm a lifelong martial artist and that's what what one was built on that foundation um you know is celebrating the very best of martial arts but with a true spirit of martial arts. I'll give you an example. Rule set in mixed martial arts doesn't allow for gaming of points,
Starting point is 00:04:13 meaning that here in America, if I, at the end of every round in the last 10 seconds, I do a double leg and I take you down and I lay in prey, three rounds of that, I can win the fight. Yes, absolutely. For me, that's no difference than playing hide and seek or tag with your friends. That's not a fight.
Starting point is 00:04:34 Martial arts equals is to finish a fight. And that's what I was raised on. Like, you know, 5,000 years ago in Asia, martial arts was created because you had to be able to fight in a hand-to-hand combat situation and finish your opponent. It was not about, hey, lend me game, a system, and have points collected. It's literally like, you throw someone, you know, you throw someone, you knock them out, right? And the moment you throw the guy in the face, he's out. There is no such thing as points and so that's yeah i feel like american mixed martial arts has really strayed away from the true essence of martial arts and that's what
Starting point is 00:05:12 why one has exploded all over the world and skyrocketed popularity yeah because you know we have a real finishing mindset and it's and it comes out to a finishing rate you know our finish rate finishing rate is 70 if you look at let's's say, UFC here, they're about 30-40% finish rate. Because there is some gaming of the system, so to speak. Whereas in one, we score
Starting point is 00:05:36 the whole fight as one fight. Meaning that there are no rounds. I mean, there are rounds, but don't score rounds. It's like a street fight. You're watching a street fight and as you're going at it and the last 20 seconds, the guy does a huge double and elbows you in the face a few times.
Starting point is 00:05:55 It's very clear who won the fight. It's not the guy who did lay prey, but got the most damage in a most fight. And that's the equals of one. Gotcha, gotcha. So is why floyd mayweather will never show up on a one championship card i'm kidding i mean i do enjoy watching the box but yeah judo similar right now they penalize everything negative judo if you're not going towards the
Starting point is 00:06:19 epom the one big throw everything is penalizing you're out you know so i think judo's on the right track i like it that you have that you know epa mentality right that's an incredible thing you know i'm a huge fan so thank you for doing what you do right to provide that you know for all of us fans right true fans and it's beautiful you know you get to watch muay thai submission grappling you know you get a lot of it you know unbelievable so any thoughts on the main event that you would like to share with my audience you know uh, that's this new car coming up. So what was crazy for me was back in mid-January, we announced that we're coming to the U.S. for the first time. We did zero marketing and we announced this trilogy between Adriana Moraes and DJ Demetrius Johnson.
Starting point is 00:07:02 Yes. And we didn't, 70% of the tickets sold out. And then, you know, a few weeks ago, we completely sold out. So we sold out seven weeks before the event in May 5th. Now, why is that surprising for me? It's like, I didn't realize that we had a US fan base that was rabid, you know?
Starting point is 00:07:18 For all intents and purposes, we are brand new here in America. No one knows about one, except if you are a hardcore martial artist, a hardcore combat sports fan, then you know about one. But for the most part, it's not a household name. So I didn't expect this to sell out.
Starting point is 00:07:34 But I think there's a lot of intrigue for this trilogy fight because in the first fight, Adriano Moraes did a flying knee KO and knocked out Demetrius Johnson for the very first time of his career. Then in the rematch, Johnson comes back with a flying knee KO and knocked out Demetrius Johnson for the very first time of his career. Then in the rematch, Johnson comes back with a flying knee KO as well and knocks out Adriano. So there's almost one flying knee KO apiece.
Starting point is 00:07:53 Yes. And this trilogy is very, very intriguing to see who the best flyweight is on the planet. Yo, absolutely. You know, it really goes with that mindset of that finishing mentality. It's very appropriate, I think, for what you guys are doing. I'm very excited personally about some of the grappling matchups. We have Mikey Musmeci and Osama coming in, right?
Starting point is 00:08:11 And then we have the Didier Ritter, right? So those guys coming in, Tyra Tolos, so some of the big-name grappling guys. Is that something that you sort of saw and like, oh, man, there's a huge market for submission grappling now in the United States. We want to incorporate that and then really bring that to the forefront of American audiences?
Starting point is 00:08:29 Or how did that come about? Well, yeah, like, you know, I think it's, we just want to showcase the greatest martial artists on the planet. And that's been our ethos since day one. Yeah. And Ty and Cade Rotolo are genuinely amongst the greatest pound for pound grapplers, if not the greatest pound-for-pound grapplers on the planet.
Starting point is 00:08:49 Same as Mikey. Same as Osama. So, you know, it's really showcasing the very best of the best. And I think, again, that's something that, you know, we're on Amazon Prime in prime time, right? It's 8 p.m. Friday, May 5th. And that's something that American fans get a real treat. We're bringing the entire world of martial arts to America for the first time.
Starting point is 00:09:11 So, you know, American fans might be used to a UFC or whatever it is, but they've never seen anything like a one show. And we're bringing it with a lot of flair and a lot of cool matchups. I think we'll excite American fans. Oh, absolutely. I'm so excited. You know, usually if I wanted to watch grappling, I have to go to Foot Flow Grappling. And if I wanted to watch MMA, it's UFC or Old Pride back in the day, and I still watch
Starting point is 00:09:38 some of those fights, right? And then, you know, all these different places, you know, to just go to one place and to be able to watch everything, like Ong Lao or, you know, all these guys that you kind of assembled on this one card. What a treat. You know, there's something a little bit different about watching, you know, eight MMA fights versus watching grappling, watching pure striking, watching MMA. It kind of really feels like a mixed martial arts, you know. I love that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:00 I love that. Yeah. Like, you know, one, again, obviously Asia is the birthplace of martial arts, but one coming from the roots, you know, our base is in Asia. And myself being a lifelong martial artist, I think I'm the only CEO in the world of the top, you know, three global organizations that is a lifelong martial artist and trains every day. You know, whether it's Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu. And I don't train just to train. I train hard, like hard. And it's something very different because I'm very connected to the core philosophy, but I'm very connected to our product.
Starting point is 00:10:37 I'm very connected to our athletes in a way that, and I understand our athletes deeply. And so when I say that our athletes have the highest level of technical excellence, if you strip away the marketing of all the organizations and just say, look, as a lifelong martial artist, which roster has the most technical excellence through and through. And I would put our roster up against anybody's in the world just because I
Starting point is 00:11:00 truly, I know as a lifelong martial artist, we are the best strikers. We're the best grapplers. We're the best mixed martial artists on the planet. And it's now the U.S. is going to, the American factor is finally going to be able to see something completely unique and different than anything that exists here in America. It's a completely fresh perspective of fighting. Yeah, it really is.
Starting point is 00:11:21 It's truly global too. You look at the cards that are coming up on May 5th and man, it's truly global, right? You got Pakistan, United States, Croatia, Sweden, Thailand, all these different countries are represented in all these different martial arts. I really, really like that. It's amazing. ranks sort of like in the united states and such that you have your eyes on like hey man i really want to get this guy or i know gary tonin now train uh competes for you guys right is gordon ryan sort of on the mix coming into this thing or is that something right now right now gordon is signed to flow but uh yeah gordon and i are yeah i should know that gordon and i are friends we've been friends and uh obviously gary does compete in one he's competed both in submission grappling and mixed martial arts. And that's something that's very different.
Starting point is 00:12:07 Shintaro is that our athletes, they love the idea of being able to express themselves in more than one discipline. Yeah. Right. So you, you know, you're a black belt in multiple disciplines. You know, I'm a high level martial artist in multiple disciplines being confined into one discipline. Let's say I'll give you an example. K. Roltollo. Obviously, you know, he won ADCC.
Starting point is 00:12:30 Greatest grappler in his weight class on the planet. He's going to be debuting in mixed martial arts in one this year. This year? Wow. Okay. And he wants to hold, his dream is to hold simultaneous world titles
Starting point is 00:12:44 in grappling and mixed martial arts in one so you see that and then you take one of our superstars Stan Fairtex who's competing on May 5th she's a Muay Thai world champion a kickboxing world champion
Starting point is 00:13:00 and her next dream is to be a martial arts world champion and that is that makes for intriguing storylines. And that also says, if you really want to say who's the greatest combat sports athlete on the planet, well, you've got to win multiple disciplines, not just one discipline and say you're the best, but say under any rules, can you win?
Starting point is 00:13:20 That's very true. Yeah. I mean, look at Ritter, right? He's usually an MMA person, right? He does MMA for you guys, and now he's doing a submission grappling event with Ty, right? I think that's very true yeah i mean look at riddard right he's uh usually an mma person right he does mma for you guys and now he's doing a submission grappling event with ty right but i think that's amazing you know i recently heard like chris weidman who's actually a wrestler with in college you know we wrestled against each other back in the day and you know he kind of had that nasty leg break and now he did a submission grappling event against uh on livesy
Starting point is 00:13:41 you know from right england so it's kind of nice to be able to like kind of preserve your body a little bit and come over to the grappling side a little bit and then go back to that in Mayside. And you're still relevant. You're still in the game. There's fans that would watch. You know, I think that's wonderful. Yeah. Go ahead. No, go ahead. You go ahead.
Starting point is 00:14:00 No, I was going to say, would you ever... American fans are in for a treat. They've never seen anything like one. They're very used to a standard product like UFC. Yes. We have something that's completely different, 180 degrees opposite in its ethos and its DNA. But at the same time, the greatest martial arts on the planet. Yeah, I'm very excited for this too.
Starting point is 00:14:23 And do you think there's going to be, are you planning on having multiple events that come after this already? Or is that something that you want to do a soft launch, see what it looks like first and then do it? What does that look like? Well, our partnership with Amazon is 12 events a year. They would love to have 12 events on ground in the US once a month.
Starting point is 00:14:41 Oh man, that's so exciting. Yeah, so this is not an experiment. This is just the beginning. Oh, man. This is so exciting. Yeah. So this is not an experiment. This is just the beginning. I think it's day one for us. You know, COVID did set us back. We were supposed to come to the U.S. two years ago. But with COVID, it was very hard to do so.
Starting point is 00:14:55 And so this is our coming out party here, you know, in the U.S. You know, people are going to be, again, it's going to be a great, great, great time for American combat sports fans. So for our viewers, do we, with Amazon Prime membership, you could access this event automatically or is it different? Yes. Wow. And remember, in the States alone, Amazon Prime, there's 150 million customers. So you literally just have to know. You better just, May 5th, everybody watching this show, spread the word.
Starting point is 00:15:33 Just go on to Amazon Prime Video. Boom. And you can watch the greatest martial arts in action. Wow. I'm sitting in my studio apartment on the Upper West and I have a TV with Amazon Prime on it. I can just click that and watch this thing? Friday night. wow what a treat that's very very exciting yeah may i ask one thing about the grappling or the grappling side of the things like is there a rule set that's specific to you guys that you know i didn't really read up on that probably should have but
Starting point is 00:15:58 well uh the brazilian jiu-jitsu legend leo vera he's our VP of grappling. And I told him, he first joined, I said, because we only launched our grappling product several months ago. And I said, hey, I want to create the very best rule set possible. Yes. Love that. That encourages finishes.
Starting point is 00:16:22 And there's obviously a lot of different rule sets here in the States grappling. We came up obviously a lot of different rule sets here in the states uh appling we came up with a 10 minute um sub only rule set yeah but it's also determined and i think the most important thing though is you gotta have you have to have the athletes who want to finish meaning that yeah you see yeah even if you have the world's best, but they have won their world title by quote-unquote advantage or 50-50, like, they're not going to be able to promote the sport properly.
Starting point is 00:16:51 But if you get a guy like Cade Rultolo, Ty Rultolo, Mikey Musumichi, you know, Bia Basilio, these are finishers. They come to finish fights. Yes, absolutely, yeah. You put them against folks like Tommy, Tommy Langacker or whatever. That's how you get the fans going because.
Starting point is 00:17:09 Yes, absolutely. Yeah. When Mikey debuted in one and just give you perspective. Okay. Mikey debuted in one versus Imanara, you know, the leg lock. Oh, yeah. I watched that. I watched that.
Starting point is 00:17:19 Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exciting. So, um, his, that video alone, that fight alone, did 100 million views, okay? Wow. The number one most watched match for Gordon Ryan
Starting point is 00:17:30 was like 3 million views. It's not even close. Yeah. And it's a scale magnitude of obviously our platform. We're broadcast live in 180 countries every week, live on Friday every week. But I think it's also the intrigue factor of how Mikey finished
Starting point is 00:17:45 in Minari. And so when you have a finish, people are going to go, wait, wait, what happened? And they press replay and they send it to their friends and say, check this out. Right?
Starting point is 00:17:53 Versus if you have a stalling match, it's it. Yeah. You're killing the sport. I get it. I get it. You know, because I used to love
Starting point is 00:18:01 watching Ben Askren as a wrestler. I was a huge fan of his wrestling style, low risk, snatch singles, all that stuff. But then to translate it over to MMA, he wasn't the most exciting fighter to watch, you know, even though I was a huge fan of his wrestling. So I kind of get that, you know. So anybody else that you see sort of in the grappling world that's like, so there's no
Starting point is 00:18:19 advantages at all when it comes to like. No, there's no advantages. And let's say it's a close fight. So basically it's 10 minutes and the person with the most actual catches and whoever has the last catch wins.
Starting point is 00:18:35 Oh, that's a nice one. Exactly. So you can promote the action. A catch is not just a sloppy heel. It has to be on, completely on, and the hips locked and turning. Or an arm bar has to be fully extended and locked where, you know, you couldn't break the arm. It's not sloppy submission attempts.
Starting point is 00:18:55 It has to be a catch. Okay. So if I have three submission attempts on somebody, right, but the very last one is a tight heel hook that almost gets finished, that person wins the match? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That makes it really exciting. That person wins the match. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Starting point is 00:19:06 That makes it really exciting. Sorry, sorry, sorry. No, no, no, no,
Starting point is 00:19:08 sorry, sorry, sorry. It's only the last person when it's, when it's, let's say tied one, one or two, one.
Starting point is 00:19:14 Let's say, let's say, let's say you're beating me by two, two catches to one catch. And the very last one, I'm the, I get it in the last 10 seconds and it's two, two.
Starting point is 00:19:23 But I got the last, I win. Oh, that's exciting. That's really exciting. So you can't coast. Just because you're ahead, you can't coast. Because if you coast, you risk losing in a close match. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:36 Is there, like, no pulling guard situation in that or no? Yes. No pulling guard unless there's a submission attempt. So you can't pull guard as a takedown technique. It has to go straight to a submission. So you're't pull guard as a takedown technique. It has to go straight to a submission. So you're flying on or something like this, right? Yes. Yes. Nice. What about judo?
Starting point is 00:19:53 You guys ever have any judo guys on there? No, we haven't had any judo yet. We haven't seen any Gi yet, right? I mean, I know Merigali just won BJJ World. You know, Pan Am's in a pretty spectacular fashion. We both know judo's a pretty massively global reach, you know.
Starting point is 00:20:08 I think it's like 170 participating countries or something like that. Is that something that you might be a little bit interested in or not, you know, it's something completely different? I haven't thought of it yet, right? But I've been very open. If you had said to me, you know, three years ago that
Starting point is 00:20:26 you'd have Cade Rulotolo, Chachri, you'd have Ty Rulotolo, you'd have Mikey Musumichi, the greatest grapplers on the planet competing in one, I would have been like, no, I don't think that's going to happen. But that's the direction. We've built this platform. We have events all over the world.
Starting point is 00:20:41 We're broadcast in 180 countries. We're the home of martial arts. And so we, we were constantly adding martial arts, but we want to make sure that it's fan friendly. There's lots of finishes. So if, again,
Starting point is 00:20:54 I don't follow judo very closely, but if there was, well, two competitors who really did a hundred percent that everyone wanted to watch and that definitely knew was going to be a finish, then that would be interesting, you know, but. Yes, for sure. Yeah. I to be a finish, then that would be interesting. Yes, for sure.
Starting point is 00:21:09 I know for a fact, Marius Weiser, the IJF president, is very statistics driven. He was like a casino boss with Romania, so very statistics and data driven. He said, cut the last match, and he really wanted to push the action. And like you said, finishing rate, E-palm rate, someone getting smashed on their head, that's his number one metric when it comes to rule changes and such.
Starting point is 00:21:28 So, you know, perhaps it could be something in the future that could be very exciting for you guys. You know, that's exactly, that's exactly it finishes. That's what I care about most. Yeah. That's really what, you know, people tune in for, right. Knockouts finishes and things like this. Yeah. So any new, like,
Starting point is 00:21:43 do you ever watch american sort of other organizations say hey i really want this guy or that guy or this guy should be with us or do you ever have that kind of a mindset or yeah yeah i mean yes of course i mean you know we have been uh selectively picking out free agents over the years you know uh we We did have Eddie Alvarez. Obviously, we still have DJ Sage Northcutt. Yeah. Yeah, several UFC athletes, you know, in their prime. We recruited them out of the UFC. But in general, we have homegrown talent from around the world.
Starting point is 00:22:21 We just find that a lot richer and a lot better um that then um and and to be frank only demetrius johnson has has done well in in one um even though he also got knocked out um you know it just speaks to the level of of talent at one there are a lot of monsters and killers oh yeah absolutely no um you just can't walk i mean yeah i mean i think there's two organizations that i have a lot of respect for in terms of talent um and i'm speaking purely as a lifelong martial artist i think it's one in ufc and obviously you know ufc is a giant out here in the west yeah but one is the giant in the east you know and uh one day I'd love to see,
Starting point is 00:23:05 you know, one versus UFC, the best of the best. Really amazing. Yeah. A hundred percent tune in for that. Yeah. I think,
Starting point is 00:23:11 you know, the submission grappling is really what, you know, entices me and excites me about the organization because it is something now ADCC and all these wins, who's number one and all these grappling productions are really, you know, coming forward and doing,
Starting point is 00:23:24 because there are eyeballs on it. You know, Jiu Jitsujitsu is for everybody really right a lot of people can do it judo guy in the united states hard to do judo recreation when you're older because the impact on the shoulders and the knees it's all throws yeah yeah no judo it's a much rougher sport for sure judo is a much rougher sport yeah jiu-jitsu you can if you find the right school and the right style for yourself you can do it forever you can't yeah you just can't whereas judo you can't judo little slam oh yeah yeah i'm 38 and i feel like i can't compete in judo but like jiu-jitsu i'm like oh maybe i'll limp into a couple of uh world masters events and such okay so just a couple more questions you know i know you're a very busy guy.
Starting point is 00:24:07 I heard that, you know, flyweight, one of the best flyweight divisions in the world is in one. How do you plan on growing that? Because, well, normally that division doesn't really get that much love, right? Generally, people like heavyweights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I think every division we have is the best or top two, at least, in the world. I'd say the majority of our divisions are the best in the world.
Starting point is 00:24:33 And I'd love, again, like I say, I'd love to see a UFC matchup. Flyweights in particular, you know, we have a very deep division because, you know, out in Asia, Asians are generally smaller in the picture. This is true. So I do think our flyweight division is super stacked. I think it is the best flyweight division on the planet. And that's what has struggled for dominance. Again, he just won the world title versus Adriano Moraes,
Starting point is 00:25:07 and he's going to be defending it for the first time come May 5th. Awesome. Awesome. Do you have any advice to young fighters up and coming right now? Man, this is the greatest time in history to be a fighter, especially if you're starting out.
Starting point is 00:25:24 Because there are tons of opportunities everywhere, and the money is real. So you can make a living as a fighter for the first time, whereas, call it 10 years ago, 20 years ago, you could have been the best fighter in the world, but you're going to earn peanuts. Today, you can genuinely, you know, if you're the best in the world,
Starting point is 00:25:44 compete either in one UFC and retire as a multimillionaire. And it's just, if you love martial arts, this is one of the greatest times. I know, I'm sorry. If you love martial arts, this is the greatest era to be a professional fighter. Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, there's so many resources online, too. You know, you can learn judo from me on YouTube. You know what I mean? The resources are limitless, really. You know, you can learn from some of the very best. You can watch the best organization on Prime, right, at 8 p.m., May 5th, 2023. One last question. What is your biggest takeaway from martial arts? If you were to package it in one neat sentence, like, hey, man, this is why I do martial arts. This is my biggest takeaway from martial arts.
Starting point is 00:26:29 So I believe that martial arts is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, platform to unleash human potential. Through thousands of hours of martial arts training, we inherit, of course, a foundation of values like integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, et cetera. But equally important, if you're a lifelong martial artist, you inherit an unbreakable warrior spirit to conquer adversity in life. And all the lessons, you know, in the dojo, in the gym, on the mats, or whatever, or in the ring, translate. If you really think deeply about what you've learned in martial arts and you apply those same lessons in real life, okay,
Starting point is 00:27:03 whether it's your family life, your professional life, whatever it it is you'll see that there's a lot of parallels uh and i think that's the only one of the only reasons i escaped poverty yeah uh i genuinely attribute to my martial arts background um back then you know i'm a fighter in life i'm a warrior i don't break uh and i think again a lot of people who don't break. And I think, again, a lot of people who don't train in martial arts or haven't had a lifelong training don't necessarily understand the journey
Starting point is 00:27:33 of resilience and grit it takes to be a lifelong martial artist. I go to... I just started Jiu-Jitsu 16 years ago, even though I was already an expert in Muay Thai. Going to Jiu-Jitsu, starting off as a white belt, that whole journey, and I love it. And even now I'm holding a brown belt,
Starting point is 00:27:49 I get smashed by these world-class black belts. Why do I do it? Because it's this commitment, you know, to unleashing my greatness in life. It's this commitment to learning, growing. It's this commitment of staying on that edge of grit and resilience. And these are the things that martial arts
Starting point is 00:28:07 teaches us. And I can no longer do Muay Thai at the level I did it when I was younger. I'm 51 years old. And actually, sorry, 52. I just turned 52 last week. But
Starting point is 00:28:22 jujitsu, as you said, is something you can do. I have lots of aches and pains, Yeah, happy birthday. At the end of the day, if you do martial arts, and that's why, you know, kids all over the world, I really believe kids all over the world should do martial arts. Because if parents enroll, if every kid in America, for example, did martial arts, the number of bullying incidents would drop off a cliff. Yeah, for sure. Because not only will they defend themselves, but they have the confidence to defend themselves. At the same time, if you do martial arts, you're not going to want to bully people because you just have a sense of respect and honor and humility about the martial arts. Again,
Starting point is 00:29:13 I just believe that martial arts is one of the greatest platforms to unleash human potential. Wow. Love that. Man,
Starting point is 00:29:20 who could have said it better than that? Seriously, man. I got chills. I've been doing martial arts my whole life too, man. Wow. Incredible, incredible.
Starting point is 00:29:28 Hey, man, thank you so much. Thank you so much for being on here. I'm going to share it on my YouTube, my podcast, everything. Guys, check it out. May 5th, 2023. It's on Amazon Prime at 8 p.m. One Championships. What is the event name?
Starting point is 00:29:43 It is One Fight Night 10 johnson versus marias three all right thank you very much thank you shinto i appreciate man thank you very much

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