Tom Egan | Ireland's First Ever UFC Fighter | Rise Of Conor McGregor & Irish MMA | Energized Show

Summary

What is up and welcome to the latest Energized Show! On this episode we have Ireland's first ever UFC fighter Tom "The Tank" Egan on the show. The Irish MMA scene is exploding and on this episode with Tom we discuss his UFC debut, the rise of Irish MMA & some funny stories on…

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay what's going on guys welcome to a brand new episode of energized ross introduce the guest man we have ireland's first ever ufc fighter tom the tank eagan tom how are you doing yeah still a tank top i had to double thanks for that uh that intro you know ah you're more than more than welcome tom how are things how was life over in boston um a lot better than what's going on in ireland that's for sure uh you know i mean and i don't mean to rub that in in any way but uh you know things are things are picking up over here now again you know they just uh march first they open the restaurants 100 capacity still with the social distance stuff going on and um but you can just get there's that feeling in the air now people are just kind of you know the vaccines are rolling out um and you know people are trying to get back to normalities it's a beautiful day the last two days here and people are out about you know just kind of getting on my life which is nice so we're um we're starting to reach you know somewhat normality here i don't know if that's exactly the the premise of the question maybe you were looking for there or the answer but i mean in terms of my own personal life things in boston couldn't have been better i'm very blessed um to have you know the journey that i've had to be here in boston um and to have the things that i have going on but uh but i mean i can only imagine that when you're asking how things are in boston you know i mean the big elephant in the room is obviously covered and whatnot so um but yeah no uh life's been great um i'm blessed that i'm able to do well um i'm still i've still been able to work uh throughout this and uh but yeah things are picking back up again uh there's there's signs of all the local mma shows starting to pick up again hopefully um you know jiu-jitsu tournaments here and and muay thai and boxing stuff decided to pick up again uh so april i think you know at least in the northeast northeast of the united states which is where you know a lot of mma and stuff would happen for people who live in boston or train in boston um where all that goes on that's not to pick up now so yeah i mean life's great um just grab her on the other end of this at least over here like i said i don't mean to rub that in about being bad no you know what i'm always happy for people who are you know actually been able to live some form of normality of life well again like i said when i say that it also comes out of a place of a little bit of anger because i i i feel what's going on over there you know my parents my brother in ireland um a lot of my friends and you know it's kind of infuriating infuriating you know when i see that and um you know that that's that's kind of where i was coming from i was that comment was a little bit more towards the kind of i feel that annoyance you know from people don't worry next time next time we come over you can hit rock and hit russell the egg just to let that out you know what i'm gonna imagine but like tom like uh i i just set it off here like um it was paddy's day last week right and then myself and ross we have we planned our stuff like a couple of times a couple of months in advance and we were like right st patrick's day to get tom on perfect it was just like a match made in the irish folklore heaven and then obviously obviously things like we're we knew this would be like a sort of a longer form chat rather than like a just in and out job so we're like here look we want this to be like go out or properly sort of chilled out good bit of crack because even myself and ross i know covered it's been here basically a year now but like ever since like kobe came we went hell for leather with uh getting more and more guests on and then like even on ufc 259 we were we were featured on the uc 259 countdown video so like yeah so like we're we're just like growing and we're just there and we're just making the most of like uh tough times you know that's the way you got to do it look you know when you have something that you can put your mind to and keep you busy that's what's so important with this and you know i was talking to a friend of mine there and i'm an mma fighter there key and kelly we're talking back and forth yesterday been on the show what's that he's been on the show yeah yeah uh you know shout out to kean uh back and forth yesterday and just you know we were just kind of saying how thankful we are to have um the outlets that we have and and and you know the outlets of martial arts giving us that mentality that kind of like you know never give up mentality just to kind of hang in there versus a lot of people don't have it and um it's very apparent now and i see it through social media and talking to my friends and whatnot in ireland on the ground there and you know people are suffering mentally and emotionally and you know i feel for people and i was it's it's tough but um but going back on what uh what you said there uh barry wasn't it about having something that you can you know do and the fact that you guys had this project to get people on get going and it's obviously grown you know i've heard these are pretty big now popular over there so um you know thanks anything it's all right it's all ross man it's not going to be anything anything to put your mind well i mean that you know obviously the whole setup you have is popular but the anything to kind of put your mind to but i feel for people who don't have any of those outlets and who are kind of you know suffering right now without the um without normal life at their at their disposal you know yeah i think the hardest thing ross has been like we used to be in russell's couch every monday and then we used to train with each other like a lot as well and now like any time we see each other in real life it's sort of weird yeah it's called it's weird because when we see each other in real life it's like it's like oh how are you getting on but it feels like you like we talk nearly every day and like we see each other virtually every monday minimum and then you know when you see each other in real life it's almost strange to hang out because we're not like connecting through a device and i'm sure a lot of people feel that yeah it's funny you say that i have a few friends who you know i train with all the time but like we don't hang out outside of that and we might talk i've got i was joking about it the other day what do you mind who i do jiu jitsu wouldn't want to see him in the gym but i never see him in the social settings you know i never see him at the bar or we never go out or whatever but like sometimes we might talk on the phone for like an hour but then i've got friends who i would never ever spend that amount of time on the phone with but then i go to the bar with them it's weird how that works you know that's that's actually so true it's it's made everyone sort of like reassess their lives like i remember i had to like sit down and reassess everything and i was just like what do i want to do with my life and i was like i just want to make long like content with my best mate and just how people aren't interested people and just help grow everyone's sort of platforms like tom like obviously like you're like like you're you're gonna probably get your own statue in in ireland like for being like like the first person to go to ufc like like the amount of people that are now mma fighters or practicing any form of mixed martial arts is unbelievable like myself and also seeing this explosion come and it's just it's like it's actually unfathomable but like tom like you obviously you made your debut in uh on july 28 2007 and then like you went on a four or four win streak and then you went down you were then on ufc dublin uh uc 53 uh 93 i'm sorry excuse me you've seen knight street head over uh rich franklin and dan henderson on january 17 2009 tom like when you got that call like what was that like because you were the first person to ever feel that call from arnold yeah um yeah i mean i can't even explain like yeah no you look at me you're looking stuck yeah you're throwing the dates out then it is mad that like you know i made like my my pro debut on july 28th uh was it 2007 and then i mean that's less than two years later i'm fighting in the ufc that's bizarre you know i'm sorry a little over a little over two years later yeah joey said so no less well let's do this lesson two years later i'm on like ufc 93 and i'll never forget the press conference um it was also the first preliminary uh fight that was uh put on the press conference ever which is really cool um so there's a little bit of history there that i managed to get but i'm sitting on i'm sitting at the press conference and i'm looking over and it's literally like marcus davis uh shogun and then dan our uh dan henderson you've got rich franklin mark coleman chris lydle and then [ __ ] uh dennis ever as well tom you would cross paths again dennis seaver was yeah on the car but not at the press conference but uh yeah i'm just talking about the baby let alone tell a story they're gonna be carried away here we have a legend yeah it's not thanks for that no but yeah i'm sitting at that press conference i'm looking over and i'm like holy [ __ ] i might not swear on this man sorry yeah you can say whatever you want i'm like holy [ __ ] what the [ __ ] going on here and i see my buddy tommy lakes um a good friend of mine who you know started he was the one who started filming all my fights and stuff like that when i started fighting and i'm looking over and he's taking photos of me and i'm just kind of like like that and then in my mind and i still have that photo and you just see all these guys sitting here it was really bizarre but what did i feel i can't really explain it it's actually a bizarre story how i found out uh that i was going to be fighting in ufc and what that story how that went was i was supposed to fight um jesus christ i forget his name um uh he also fought in ufc from donegal uh bill duffy so i was supposed to fight joe duffy in i fought in september of 2008 one in the i got a one in this after the second round um and gone blank on the names of these uh then johnny shields johnny yeah johnny shields a very respected guy that was a good win for me at the time so he wasn't bad at the time of around the world he wasn't the veteran at the time he'd been there he refereed he did a bunch of stuff but um so for him september one and then i was supposed to fight october i believe it was late october early november 2008 against joe duffy and it was a really bizarre um you know set of events i i we showed to the venue uh josie murray was one of the show at the time he was known to be a little a little dodgy at the time you know you know a little kind of i don't know funky or whatever i suppose you could call it we show up to the thing and the weight was supposed to be at 170 or uh what's that kilo 77 and you know we the way we did it was the day before i weighed in in spg at 77 kilo and joe duffy weighed in uh up where i believe the fight was in newry or something like that he weighed in there and that was supposed to be the way it was going to go and we just was kind of like on the honor system take a photo or video on the date time whatever all right it's that way cool so i show up we show up the day before we're sorry we show up on the day of the fight right on the day of the fight we weigh in the day before we send each other picture videos all right no worries show up and joe duffy was a very good fighter at the time as well you know i mean obviously look at what he look at what he accomplished so i showed up to the event on the day and they wanted to do like uh a wayne's like like a weigh-in thing so john's like oh they probably just want to do it for pr get a picture of his face and off so they can show it on the big screen because we were the main event at me and joe duffy of this this event so i get there and we walk in all of a sudden i'm stripping down i'm on the scales but you know on the day of the fight so i'm 81 or i'm 82 kilos now versus 77 kilo you know i'm 82 kilo and uh joe duffy steps on the scales and he's like 80 or 81 kilo and i'm standing there and i'm like i'm like are we posing or like you know and everything's kind of really weird and then um next thing i'm finding myself getting changed and i'm still kind of standing there like in my mind i'm psyched up [ __ ] ready to go you know like i'm ready to go and uh josie murray comes up to me and john kavanagh and goes that he goes tom's a bit heavy isn't he and john kevin was like uh what do you mean and he's like oh geez he's he's a bit heavy you think he could lose a kilo and john kepler goes it's [ __ ] fight day what are you talking about and he was ah geez you know he just seems a bit heavy and i was looking over um and uh and i'm looking over at joe dunphy and his guys and they're just kind of sitting there then i don't like i'm kind of like what the [ __ ] going on here so i i didn't like i didn't like call them over but i was kind of looking over and i'm like is this like what did you send him out like what's going on right now because i guess joe duffy was was josie murray's nephew or some [ __ ] like that i don't know so i'm like what the [ __ ] going on here so um john kevin is like yeah i don't know what the hell you're telling me because he could he could lose a kilo and john kevin's like he's gonna be fighting in a few hours i'm not gonna have my fighter lose a kilo number one that's just not how it goes and number two that that's like that could be detrimental to his health because you know when you dehydrate on the day and you fight like blows to the head or all of a sudden have have more more effect on you because the dehydrated brain you know can take you know it gets uh damaged quicker and easier and uh and more long-term effects so jonathan was like look like i don't know what you're trying to do here we're here to fight we weighed in you know your boy is like not even uh on weight i don't even know what you're trying to get from us right now so we're ready to fight so we go back to the hotel and i'm like starving so we got to eat you know a little like a cabbage lunch or whatever it is uh you know the way they're doing some old pubs and whatnot sitting there and get me meat potatoes and veggies and i'm like [ __ ] i'm just i'm shaking my head i'm like come on we're going here like you know you know when you start getting these like um when you start getting these little interruptions when you're when you're on game game mode game faith it starts to [ __ ] with you a little bit you're like no come on you're still going you're still going because you like when everything's going smooth because then you got that normal like build up climax fight and then boom but when you're building up and you get these in law the fight might not happen you're like this you're like this and you got to keep your mind straight i couldn't picture it we get back to the hotel and we're eating the dinner and i'm like we're all trying to be like what the [ __ ] going on all right whatever so john goes we got there early as well so it was around 1 or 2 p.m and the show wasn't starting to like maybe six or seven so john's like look you have a couple hours go to your room do what you got to do nap stretch whatever you want your fight john said to me goes your [ __ ] fight you keep that in your head i was like yep yep no butter so upstairs in the hotel room laying down and you know you're sitting there going ah you know trying to get trying to get my head in the zone john kevin knocks on the door comes in and he goes they're not fighting i was like what he goes yeah they're pulling out the fight he for whatever reason um doesn't doesn't like that you're like your bosses are too heavy which is unbelievable yeah you know john cavanaugh was just like almost making a joke out of it and then he goes but you're fighting ufc 93 in dublin in january and i was just like what and he just goes yeah we're doing it and i just kind of grab them and suplex them on the bed like [ __ ] joke so it was a kind of like a bittersweet moment um i wasn't gonna get to go out there and fight uh in hindsight that fight would have been great for me it would would it would really give me some you know even though you know i i yeah i didn't fight and i didn't maybe get any potential injuries that could have led to me not even getting to go to the ufc 93 but in hindsight that fight could give me a little bit more wouldn't maybe a little more battle-hardened for ufc 93 itself and given the fact that joe was a very tough guy at the time so um so that's how i found out about it and then and then the the [ __ ] up thing is right so i go to the show i'm not fighting it's really where i'm going there now to support the other lads who would come up who are fighting forgive me i forget the the the people who were on the car with me from spg and we go up there and i'm sitting in the crowd and in the weigh-ins oh sorry not the way it's like i said the meeting out back you know there's always like a little meeting out back the rules meeting and all that kind of stuff josie murray comes out and goes so the main event has been cancelled uh tom egan didn't make weight and uh so the main event's been cancelled and i'm like what the [ __ ] and john kevin is just seeing [ __ ] [ __ ] fumes coming out of his head and he didn't say anything there and then he just said when john gets really mad he just starts smiling and these [ __ ] veins start coming out of his head i think i've seen you once or twice actually you know you nearly mentioned that like john doesn't flip the table like you know and go on a mad one john just kind of sits there smiles and just his eyes that protrude from his face and veins start coming out of his head so um john just girls i'll be back in a minute and i i don't know what happened i guess he went off and i guess he gave [ __ ] jonesing very mouthful somewhere off in the back um so he comes back and he goes all right a big smile on his head the veins and he goes tom if you want you can [ __ ] off into the crowd and just chill out and i i was like you know thinking right i'm going to be a [ __ ] ufc fighter but this this this whole thing is a lot of fun so i go out right and the show is a disaster it's an absolute disaster the matchups are ridiculous uh the refereeing was god awful uh one guy it looked like he was gonna die in there the ref wasn't stopping it just it was just a brutal event um and then and then the call made event comes along i want to say ash daily was fighting on that character i yeah i want to say ashley daney was fighting on the card as well call me an event comes on i think maybe she got pushed up to the main event but before the main event or the co-main event comes out i just remember josie murray get in the middle of the ring making this whole big lousy speech and then saying yeah so the main event isn't on because my joe didn't get to fight tommy because he missed wheat and all this and i'm like what this [ __ ] [ __ ] what who is this guy um and yeah it was like it was just really bizarre and then so i tried to just kind of let it go and and then um and then by the time i got home that week i was like into training camp and what was it like walking out in the ocean at the time obviously three arena now to a home dublin crowd being the first ever irishman to fight in the ufc what was that like it was unbelievable but if i'm gonna be honest i never thought of any of that stuff and like i just said to myself right you're gonna [ __ ] fight here just get out we're gonna get do what needs to be don't just block out everything i actually felt i remember saying after the fight as well and even in the moment i actually felt more relaxed if not kind of you know um you know kind of a little it was kind of suspect how relaxed i was uh in the moment i just kind of was just going with it having having having the crack doing what i needed to do but i just kept telling myself you know i wasn't i wasn't building up the history and i wasn't building up and the significance of what was going on in my head i was just like tom you're going out here to do what you do all the time just get out and get the job done so i felt pretty confident um and if you're re-watching you look when bruce buffer is calling me you kind of see i'm very relaxed in my face now whether that's a good thing or a bad thing i still felt pretty good but maybe i was a little too relaxed in hindsight but um and then [ __ ] john hathaway comes out and he's like he's like a bear uh i was like fighting a bear and uh well in paris he was he's a bit of a strange character because he went like 17-0 or 17-2 in his in his career and like in 2014 he lost to um yeah and then like in 2014 and hasn't fought since so like i don't know what happened he's inactive on everything like we've briefly had a little back and forth here throughout the years just kind of he's a very nice guy he's a great man and uh we've had little exchanges here back and forth actually funny enough friends of my family are good friends with friends of his family you know where it's through golf and whatnot um and uh yeah so i've never really heard too much about but an interesting story behind uh another uh uh kind of fun story uh don't mind the noise in the background with dance just trying to smile throughout his bed um but uh another funny story behind the whole ufc double thing which again i'm not saying that this uh contributed to the reasons why ufc ended up in dublin but i was i was at ufc belfast and um john cavanaugh was cornering rory singer at the time he was on the ultimate fighter and uh and it just so happened that uh the friends of my family who actually know john hathaway's uh family one friend of mine um dwight mccauley's name is a great man he was working for satan to sport at the time and they obviously got the coverage uh for the ufc fights and um so when they got that contract they were getting given tickets to go to the fights in the event so he would just turn around to me and say hey tom i'm not going to make it here here's a couple of vip seats go take you and your friends that's actually how mcgregor ended up getting that photo which chucked it out you know that part of the trip today i took that photo that was at ufc london i brought mcgregor to one of the events there i forget who was fighting on that uh we actually met the diaz brothers at that event which is another really bizarre story i'll share with you after that would have been an epic photo imagine he had like the chocolate mcgregor one if it was him and diaz that would have been so funny well yeah we we bumped into it was a really bizarre kind of mechanic because diaz brothers were kind of just walking around the crowd and conor spotted them out and um and we went up and said hello to them and uh but connor was real standoffish i was the one chatting and it was really it was a really weird interaction and then to think that years later they'd actually [ __ ] have this whole thing but uh so ufc belfast i'm sitting there and uh rampage jackson had just knocked out chuckle won the light heavyweight title forrest griffin was fighting on the card and then it was i believe it was economy versus rich frankfurt was the main event in belfast and um and they brought randy couture over because randy couture i think had just beaten tim sylvia and uh he was like a god at the time and so after the fights you know i'm talking with john kevin john's like right you know back then the ufc used to have uh at their after parties in like the hotel venues uh you know in the lobby of the hotel or the the foyer whatever or the bar the hotel bar over everybody stayed and unlike now obviously fighters have their own sponsors and they do their own shows and clubs or their own after parties and clubs and whatnot so went to this after party that was mad scene you had like forest griffin roger gracie was there uh you know face jackson dana the fatigue brothers joe rogan eddie bravo [ __ ] i mean it was like a who's the party there randy couture was walking around it was just bizarre it was like uh [ __ ] i'll never i never forget walked in the back my buddy brian fury shout out to brian brian's a great man we walked into the bar i [ __ ] because we bumped into bruce buffer at the at the show and he goes boys you made it come on in and he brought us to the bar and grabbed us a drink it was mad so like at one point tonight i'm in this little circle and we're all sh we're all kind of half shit-faced it's me my buddy brian rampage uh eddie bravo joe rogan and there was one from there john calvin oh no john kevin wasn't in the circle but he was kind of off to the side rolling around on the ground john usually does when he's drunk right um so we're in this little circle and joe rogan and eddie bravo are high as [ __ ] they're going in and out of the of the bars smoking hash right because they were trying to get [ __ ] in their little their little dose you know for the night so but it but this is halfway through tonight it's like half two or three in the morning this little circle we're having right now and joe rogan's like you know asking me questions about ireland and mma and hold on one second you're forget for it so um yeah it's half three in the morning we're in this little circle and uh joe rogan's asking me about irish mma and all this kind of stuff and uh and i'm like look listen i'm like belfast is great now but i said it it's it's not it's not really ireland i said you just need to come down and that's not against my belfast i [ __ ] love belfast and look the north i just said to them i said if you just want to get the real [ __ ] crazy [ __ ] going you got to come down to dublin and joe rogan's like kind of high he's like oh yeah yeah he's like eddie you hear this and eddie's like yeah man yeah and i'm like yeah you've got to come down to dublin and i started dropping names like ashley daley i dropped mcgregor's name i started dropping chris fields called kendrick i was like we got a [ __ ] whole host and i've seen they should come down to dublin and i [ __ ] you not in that moment dana and lorenzo and frank frater were squeezing by they were like trying to you know go out i guess they were finishing out tonight and joe just grabs thing goes dad again then come here listen to this isn't it it kind of leaves big fat head and uh he said what's up and uh i grabbed john john get over here and john have been rolling around the ground i said you've got to come to dublin for mma or for the ufc and john's like yep yep listen to this guy like john's funny when he's drunk and uh and then i was like oh yeah and i'm like yeah you gotta come to the thumb i said belfast is great but the roof will blow up if you've come to dublin and dan was like all right yeah yeah we'll think about you you hear that uh frank and frank said yeah yeah cool cool and then they went off but it's just so funny that i ended up fighting on that card after telling them that it was bizarre that is absolutely insane i think that's one of the best stories i've ever heard so that's that's almost like that kind of whole concept of you know what mcgregor used to say uh [ __ ] perceived conceived achievement or whatever the [ __ ] he said uh the whole but it wasn't a rock no i think that was luke was it well yeah michael disney was making fun of him for it but mcgregor used to go on with that as well but if there's some there's obviously truth that you project what you really want and you visualize what you go for because at the time obviously in my mind i was like i'm the [ __ ] guy i'm the [ __ ] guy that's what i was saying to myself the whole time every time i was fighting every time i was in the gym i was like i'm the [ __ ] guy and sure enough you were the guy i was the guy and i got the opportunity to tell the the bigwigs at the time you know uh to cut you know i basically said come down to dublin and who knows maybe if it resonated with him or not maybe maybe maybe somewhere there was like a universal poll saying me just saying that could have had a little trick who knows but anyways it's an interesting story that i ended up fighting on that card after having that conversation with joe rogan [ __ ] rampage [ __ ] kavanagh uh the fritidas it was a maddel scene to be honest and tom obviously at ufc 93 obviously it didn't go your way but didn't you have a four or five deal what happened there so um well kind of much like what just happened recently when they cut alice overeem and they could um junior johnson and they cut like a whole host of guys that you know we wouldn't have heard of the they cut my friend uh another friend of mine who fights out of boston here and um you know there's a whole host of fighters that had you know a losing record that got caught that you know we all maybe wouldn't have heard of the fought on the prelims or fought on the other cars or whatever um so um you know ufc does that over time i i've seen a trend of them doing that they'll they'll uh sign science einstein sign if nothing pulls through you know it's trying to get the next superstar so to speak or maybe you know they catch somebody who they never would have heard of like a mcgregor or you know whoever um and then over time they'd be like all right yeah you know they'll cut and then they'll go on and it usually always happens through certain transitions i do know they're transitioning out of reebok soon enough and they're going to be going into the whole venom thing and they're probably doing a whole a whole bunch of different um things it at my time um they were cutting guys and they were absorbing some of some of the wec guys that they had just they had they had bought and they had taken over and i believe they had bought pride at the time as well or they'd event or pride it eventually dissolved they're buying in those guys so you know they're making cuts to make room for the roster and whatnot so i noticed the trend with uc they do that so in my case yes i signed a four fight deal um but i just didn't make the quote when it came down to what i'm saying all right even who are we getting rid of here and you know it's just it is what it is does that mean you only got paid for the one point or did they pay anything actually they pay you per fight pretty much yeah they wouldn't give you like it's not like you know soccer or the nfl or basketball you get paid you know some money out front of your paper play basically that's what you're right you don't show up to work you don't get paid that's the way they work that's absolutely fair enough and i suppose maybe we'll fast forward a couple of years and obviously 2014 conor mcgregor came in and like took the ufc by storm and then you sort of link back up with him for the dennis everfighter if i'm not mistaken and when he came to boston what was that like or you know were you linking back up with them before that well actually the first time i linked back up with him was um was but we kind of we had kind of been in contact with facebook and stuff again and then you know with his rise throughout um what was the cage warriors at the time and i was competing as well he was competing and um and then yeah um after his ufc debut i was back in ireland at the time and we ended up doing a bit training together a bit of sparring together um and then yeah then then he was set to fight max holloway and then he just announced on on [ __ ] ariel hawaii that i was gonna be in this corner i was like well i didn't even [ __ ] know that all right so then i got a message from then i got a message from kavanaugh and uh connor like the next day or or the following few days saying oh you know can you be in the corner and yeah when he came here i looked after him i had i had like local restaurants cooking from i had them all set up and like you know i got him pretty much got him anything he wanted when he was here i always remember seeing you with conor on your back and then he's like like you're like uh you pretend you're a horse and you're running through the courtyard yeah yeah yeah yeah so that was actually that was for the siever fight well that was for the scene was it but it was that was like yeah that was 2015 that was for the saber fight and yeah because at the time those gypsy call-out videos were getting pretty funny and uh you know your man that simony and simony and [ __ ] uh big joel uh uh joe joyce jr i think his name oh what was his name yeah jojo yeah one of the joe joyce whatever but uh yeah so we were always making fun of that in the in the gym during the camp so it was like i was carrying him on his back he was like oh go on sign me go outside and i'm like like i always remember those times especially because like that's when everyone was just really just like well what is going on here but like like and they're not like obviously you needed to say like conor went on and they made a movie and they wanted like when when you sort of watched that movie did you like like all the old times just like just the floors of memories just go through because that was a special special time not only just for like conor himself but like irish and may as well and even ireland as well i do remember you know you know people in ireland i remember watching even just business owners and you know young entrepreneurs in ireland you know having that extra little bit of confidence saying [ __ ] it you know i just felt like everybody at the time it was good um it was a good energy in the air with people in ireland at that time um you know watching this guy come up and and you know people saying oh you know that's a cool story and getting inspired and watching this guy saying [ __ ] it i'm going to go attack the world and i'm going to get it done and uh yeah it was a really really unbelievable time but you know watching the movie definitely has a movie yeah yeah it's in it's interesting it's interesting do you have a favorite conor mcgregor moment a favorite conor mcgregor moments was it that courtyard one my favorite conor mcgregor moment for me personally geez i don't know there's so many of them [ __ ] that's an interesting one i love the one where we were talking adam schwarzenegger that was [ __ ] brilliant we're in the mac mansion when he showed up that was that was unbelievable i was i was i was sitting there with my phone uh anna's watching i just facetimed my brother he had sent snapchats out to my friends he's a bodybuilder in ireland he was like such a good man like to talk to like he's like zoned in on you when he's talking to you but like he just facetimed my brother he had just sent all these snapchats for me and now i'm like hey listen i really want to show you my back squat and you could take my back squat so i [ __ ] follow girlfriend at the time or his partner who he was seeing i think they're still together uh she was conor's physiotherapist so she came over and she was all right so he came over after his little consultation with his little monk and he's like looking he goes i knew you'd be showing him something like this and and there's just like a funny photo of like arnold critique in my back squat or mcgregor looking over here it wasn't mad that was that was that was pretty much a good time yeah tom you'll see one of the most popular people in boston but all these stories like people must be like shh i'm speaking yeah ah you know i wouldn't i wouldn't go around and you know throw these stories i'll do it for these little moments but i wouldn't be going around and you know trying to live off you know i just try and live off what i do and how i do it you know no i don't even think you will be but i'm sure every time mcgregor comes back around in the mcgregor fight they're like tom tell us another mcgregor story there we go yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah tom could you foresee this because obviously you were in in 2009 we just said and then conor didn't make his debut until 2013. so he's surprised oh sorry 2014 were you surprised that's such a long time for another irishman to go in and then also are you surprised at how big the the ufc and mixed martial arts got and even especially in iran um well i wasn't all that surprised uh with how how big the sport had grown in ireland because i could really feel it after you've seen 93 there was just like i said there was just a big buzz in the air like i could feel there was like you know after i had lost and then that's pretty much when i moved over to boston it's almost like there was like and then i got cut obviously so there was almost like a void there there was almost like a like a power vacuum like you know there was a race to the top so to speak i could feel it and you could see it as well in the gyms all of a sudden the work ethic you know improved a lot more whenever i go home and do a bit of training with some guys i just noticed it's like a work gets it there's an energy there that people were like really wanting to get on this having seen somebody like me come up and and do it um so it was just amazing uh you know seeing that energy and feeling it but um but no i wasn't all that surprised uh to to to see that growth because i could feel and i could see it like i said um and then regarding like the length of time that went by that it was just a necessary amount of time what's up sorry it's just my dog here uh it was just a necessary amount of time um that needed to go by for the sake you know for for the right amount of errors to happen for some wins some losses to learn from all these things so um yeah what was it five years before another irishman went into uc i mean that's a perfect amount of time in my opinion so it was actually a very very good time to come in on it as well because ufc was growing and there was a lot more you know uc was willing to put a little bit more um more effort into these other guys that were coming up you know yeah just a couple more things from yourself before you let you go tom that yeah that dog sounds hungry he's just sitting here can you show something can you show me look at that face it's amazing how like you inspired the man that's inspired like millions of people across the world like myself ross like obviously seeing connor coming through he was the first ever person to walk the walk and talk to talk and walk the walk and like he's definitely inspired like our determination to keep putting out content and have the crack and have people on and listen to their stories but like um that's it's just unbelievable stuff but like looking at the sort of irish mma scene now like have you been like who have you been keeping an eye on or like who sort of excites you like who gets it who gets you uh off your seat uh i'll be honest with you i'm i haven't been in the back i'm usually i'm pretty bad at like keeping themselves even with the ufc like people like oh you hear someone song and i'm like i haven't really like because it's not that i don't have the interest uh when the names pop up or i get to watch these guys i love it um but um you know um you know yeah forgive me i i don't know names right off the bat but i do see like i know like uh chris fields and tom king have a killer gym they've got uh you guys that kind of gym stands out to me right now i'll be excited to watch when things open up again to watch that gym uh thrive because i know they have a lot of good guys obviously spg guys as well um no names in particular i suppose but like you know certain gyms i can see certain gyms are building up some good good fighters and good caliber guys uh guys are getting more well-rounded and i'm obviously always there telling these guys like because i'm friends with obviously calvin is guys i'm friends with you know fields and kings guys um and i'm always like look you want to send boys out get them away send them out to boston uh you know there's a there's a slew of guys out here good guys out here that we can get you going i mean there's a lot of boston guys who've made it to the ufc uh you know you have mike rodriguez another good friend of mine charles rosa charles rose is out here i'm not too friendly with charlotte we know each other i know rob found calvin kater very well um yeah so there's a whole bunch of different guys who've been out here uh randy cost is another one he's in there he's great he's down in florida right now but um he always comes back and forth but uh um you know peter barrett you know he he just got cooked but he's another one who's up there as well um so there's a whole bunch of lads here so i'm always like i'm always telling boys look if you need the help or you need to send anybody out you know we could do with the work and you know i like to keep that good bridge going back and forth they all know that they can come out here yeah ross uh russ tell tom about like what sort of how the irish landscape sort of was what it felt like over here and also who who you think you tom should definitely look out for well i think we're on the verge on on the course of the next wave um you know cage warriors doing incredible things the guys are doing incredible things with battle tour i'm brave now as well um obviously from team kf you have ian gary who uh won a cage wires the weekend and paul uses another one in the featherweight division and he's one to look out for but then there's like a whole host of like clan wars and cage legacies and all the local local fight shows that are really giving these guys a platform to compete and to really grow as a platform and then obviously you know svg and bellator are so well linked with you know james scalar key for crosby et cetera et cetera so it's gonna be very interesting to see how this wave a talent comes on right yeah i mean i'm excited i'm going to keep my eye on it as best i can um i mean in terms of fighters in general who i have my eye and now did you see that kid was that alex hernandez um oh anthony hernandez sorry he fought uh fluffy what's that is it fluffy yeah he thought that brazilian that that piece he choked out dude did you see that fight yeah i was like [ __ ] unbelievable that that for me was that that was one of the best fights i've seen in time in recent times like i was like i i was jumping around the room rooting for this underdog and i was like holy [ __ ] this is on my own uh that's the definition of a fighter you're up against it you're getting tossed around the ring you don't give up you're in he was in horrendous positions were one of the toughest guys in one like a multiple world champion uh jiu jitsu but like 17 times i think i was like i was like [ __ ] hell i was like they didn't do the world 17 the one it was just that it was just a yeah exactly it was just amazing watching a guy break down this this other guy who who who you know i guarantee probably had the mindset because i know uh anthony hernandez had that took that fight like last minute because it was a replacement or something like that and uh i just i just know that that your man forgive me i forget that brazilian guys i think it's like havelfo vadero or something i think yeah yeah that was nice probably came in saying i'm just gonna crush this guy and all of a sudden when the kid's getting back up and he's not submitting and he's getting back in his face oh my god i was like that was very inspirational now for me i have to say yeah well i suppose that's a really irish thing isn't it is it you know the underdog story but um yeah i think um that sort of is almost like the most irish thing of all time to to root for the underdog and i feel like in a lot of things we are the underdog so i think you know we all relate to that and bosnia do you have any last questions for tom yeah tom like um obviously following your stuff online as well you're extremely funny and you you like to put yourself out there it's pretty good you sort of remind me don't you remind me a bit off right don't show the guy on that time square to go with the long hair and the cowboy you're like the boss the bostonian version of that with the hair and everything even the beard cowboy yeah yeah like you're extremely funny and like people should definitely follow we'll let you plug yourself in a sec now i just wanted to say that like um no like it's like we do really appreciate it coming on and it was it was it was like we thought it was gonna be ideal for paddy's day but we wanted to give a longer form format but like obviously when the world reopens a bit more myself and ross will be traveling a bit more around i'm like boston is one place i'd love to go i think ross you've been there before haven't you yeah i i have been it's an absolute beautiful place even went to salem as well yeah where they did the witch trials it is definitely kill spot and we'd love to get there for 49 as well yeah and then tom we'd love to have you on in the build up to conor's next fight as well oh yeah yeah absolutely when is that next fight supposed to happen i think it's minimum july now i think they're looking at ufc 264 at the earliest now um yeah hey look listen thanks a million for having me on fellas it's a real honor to get on with you and uh yeah i'll be around for that moment and if you come to boston i'd love to have you over at the gym [Laughter] drinking [ __ ] but uh yeah um i recommend you get out here in the summertime if you ever get out because it's unbelievable here in the summer yeah we don't i don't have that many winter clothes for the winter yeah good good perfect perfect well like tom for people that want to check out your stuff now like um where where do you want to send them yeah i mean you know uh i i like instagram so at team eagan mma is what my instagram is and then my twitter handle is at tme egan mma as well uh or you can you know add me on facebook tom egan uh yeah i'm always loving to connect with people i like to respond to people talk to them chat to them and you know um yeah get me on that yeah i don't understand a ton but like i think you inspired the guy that inspired a generation a generation yeah which is uh which is unbelievable you've really you've really done something special in this earth but uh tom thanks for coming on the show we really really appreciate it we will definitely have you on again and i look forward to watching rusty on the back squats with you but they're rushed to say before we sign off no guys if you have enjoyed this podcast make sure to like share subscribe and as always stay energized you