Cut Team Cannot Stop A Fight

Summary

Combat Confidential #012 - S2E4 - Jess Isaacson In this episode, we have the privilege of sitting down with the incredible Jess Issacson, a professional Cut Woman who's not only a true pioneer in the world of combat sports but also a key driving force behind, Insideout Care. 🔪…

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Music] [Applause] all right uh before we get into things today I just want to throw a little shout out to a friend of mine Tom I appreciate you tuning in and I hope you enjoy these uh next few episodes so thanks pal appreciate it all right everyone welcome back uh today I have miss you got just Jessica yes Jess okay Jess Isaacson uh inside out inside out or inside out care yeah um cut woman yes a person these days um all right so look uh I'm gonna start kind of a new thing I think as I'm kind of finding out how this podcast is going to work for me um so one of the things one question I want to ask you is how has MMA or Combat Sports or Sports in general I guess how has that changed your life uh well usually hugely it has changed my life um for me I suffer anxiety I don't speak about a huge amount and not a lot of people know now that I suffer anxiety and because of health issues I've had over the years um and it's sort of kept me grounded with the anxiety and because I don't like to take medication I don't like to be restricted so train and and find a martial act again later in life I I did it for a long time as a child ride up till sort of my early twenties and then obviously I had a child and life got in the way and all this stuff that happens and illnesses and stuff and then I I figured that um well my doctors figured I suffered with severe anxiety for a while and then because of that I put on some way um and obviously the the medication I was on for for the illnesses like that excuse me the illnesses I had and and I was suffering more and more and more with the anxiety so um I found martial art again late like in my 30s okay and um ever since I haven't really had any bad bouts in the last probably 15 years which is amazing really yeah so this has definitely helped with your overall anxiety and mental health you know that's a reoccurring theme that uh I keep hearing and I think for a lot of people who aren't part of the sport it's difficult for them to kind of comprehend that and certainly for me um you know what two and a half three years ago if someone were to have told me that I probably would think they're crazy um I see it all the time yeah not even just from from our side of things but with Fighters young and older Fighters and with people working in the background what do you think it is what do you think it is about you know kind of martial arts I think it's a structure okay and more than anything and and I don't think it it really um is any particular martial art I think it's an accumulation of them all and I find Thai works for me I find it that I have to put so much into it and the structure of going to train and every day the week and making sure I turn off no matter you know how my head feels and also the people that idea I find it it's much more family orientated okay and and you're made to feel more um like a family so originally I sat back in Muay Thai but now that I primarily work with MMA and I'm in a lot of MMA gyms I see that as much there as I did in in the Thai when I first started back do you see the kind of like like obviously you would see kind of the same Fighters over and over again like do you see a change in kind of how they're progressing you know like you know maybe the first time you met them or their very first fight you're the one there you know wrapping their hands and everything and then potentially you know you would you could see them up to their Pro debut um yeah on many occasions and like we've been lucky enough to to work with some of the fighters that are on the UFC at the moment and you have them on lfl you have them on hexagon Brave cage Warriors all of these guys 90 of these we will have walked away from Grassroots MMA the very first amateur or novice fight right up to their proud abuse so we've been lucky enough and that's a part of it I I love the most and people can say I want to go to this show and I want to go to that show but for me Grassroots MMA and watching them grow throughout it maybe it's because I'm a mother I don't know and but definitely I love seeing the same people as much as I love going and traveling and seeing other Fighters and again I'm lucky enough that I've done the imaps of the year so I've seen guys come out of all countries and girls who have started their their Journey at the imass and they're now um Pro fighting all over the world and I've seen my through so I've been very very lucky over the years yeah that's a very fortunate position to see you know people kind of learn a skill and then potentially make it you know a career and you know you're watching them you're watching them kind of evolve from you know in in a lot of cases children to you know professional adults and like that's certainly fantastic and I I definitely think um you know you should be proud of that because it's just the kids no um like I I'm working with Dylan who are your program yeah and since you know it's Inception here in Ireland and since it's very for sure and we have seen and lads who came lots and ladies who both came to do the very first Warrior and now they're fighting on a regular basis yes yeah so it shows it can be done by anybody whether it be age or age is really just a number you know until you get to a certain age and then your injuries cause you the problems for the majority of it I see the transition even at the the shelves like Alta um I've seen the guys walking with them I see them online all the time and you can even see the transition online you know the train and that they do from start to finish and and that to me is just as important as the the kids going into Grassroots MMA yeah no okay now tell me how did you get started in you know imagine credit cards um so after what happened was I was training and fighting um Warriors and it was always very difficult for me to get fights because of my size because I'm quite small and I would be Corner in a fight anyway um and then I broke my hand yeah and it wouldn't have been the first time and I was thrown an overhand and SharkBite just before I was prepping for a fight and I was doing shark bait in the Indian in the gym with the guys before the flight probably about 10 days out from the fight yeah and I went and I fought honor in Cork with the broken hand not even thinking it was broken to be honest with you um and then went to the hospital a few days later realized I had a broken hand and then I was out for a couple of weeks and I happened to be at a show corn on someone a few weeks later and um I see in the quantity and and that's sort of how it kicked off I he asked me to like wrap her and wrap a hand and send some videos or pictures which I did and then a week later I was working on a show no that quickly yeah yeah so how long ago was this then uh God now we're at World War 10 10 odd years yeah okay um at this stage so yeah it's sort of it just sort of a rollerball from there and at the time like back in the day there was a huge amount of events on in Ireland and we could have been doing like oh God yeah yeah there were so many events running and you were back to back back to back like so every weekend you'd be doing two or three shells weekend oh wow okay yeah and you might only have one weekend off and then you'll be back to another two shows so it was very regularly regularly it was probably only sort of maybe June and July you were the two months that were most quiet at the time but otherwise you you know you are up and down the country all all the time and then obviously we had a lot of big shows coming to Ireland as well and um and 2016 then I debuted on bam if you remember Bama and I had the first woman to ever walk on TV decide of the world like so Jude Samuels and Bama allowed me to work on that so you know that was amazing because you know technically that was the history in the make and so it's a that's a really proud moment for me and since obviously I've gone on I've walked cage Warriors Brave Bellator everywhere you are yeah good few of the big big shows yeah it's brilliant but I love getting home to our shows at home and Ireland so you know it's there as important to me as the big shows are where um where have you been that has been kind of like the most exciting for you um Bahrain is like our second home okay we spend a huge amount of time out there and we have a really good relationship with the Bahrain Federation and and Mohammed Shahid from Brave and Valeria and fate and and Sam so I suppose going to Bahrain is huge for us because we we do love it and it is like a second home and they've made a feel like that over the last it's good enough yeah I do love that and I'm going out there since I think the first year I went out was 2017 for the IMAX and then obviously I've been probably eight or nine times now at this stage and we spend a lot of time during the pandemic so because we were you know we were doing shelves behind closed doors so we're spending a month or ago nearly there so um there's a whole team of us with detlirkin and his combat commission and then obviously Inside Out care myself and Brian and then we had another guy with us from the team at one stage as well so yeah I think like for me Bahrain is probably the place I love going the most but I think it's because it feels like family when we're out there with them and not just like it work you know that way so that's it's nice to you know it's a job but to feel you know kind of at home and like welcomed like you're not you're not just you know kind of there to work you're you know you're a part of the crew yeah no it's just it feels like being a home gnarly to a degree you know when we're doing the shows here because we know yeah it feels mad it's weird it's it's one of those things I never thought I I would think that would be like that okay it is it's very much it feels like when we go to Bahrain Fields like we're just in Ireland you know in Ireland only much much hotter and we you know get to do whatever we want so and then work a shower as well so you know we get the best of our world so we're lucky enough in that sense it's fantastic so Inside Out care that's your your business yeah my baby yeah I say it's my baby it actually In fairness um it didn't only come for me obviously I I was with the other team and I finished up with them in it was a set of 2017 it was 2017 so it would have been after the imfs and in 2017 and and one or two of the guys from the old team as well he was Brian you know you know Brian obviously Danny you probably haven't met and she took time after have a child so she's from Belfast as well and then what happened was I sort of moved on and it was time to sort of spread our wings a bit and we decided that uh between the three of us we were going to sort it start up inside out I had it was sort of fighter care and safety prior to Inside Out care and I had been running foreign yeah and I think it's just because um it inside okay when I designed the logo the whole reason behind a logo it's not just a logo like to everyone else it's the logo but to me it's not and there was a whole reason to to how the design came about of it but um it was originally a fighter care and safety and as much as I loved that it just didn't really ever sit with me right um because you know we don't just look after Fighters we look after couches we look after everybody inside yeah yeah and it just made sense to change the name but we primarily had started doing uh Thai shows and K1 because obviously that's the background I come from and because at the time the MMA theme up with the other team which is fine so um we did that for a while and then in around about the December we relaunched us inside okay so it was out until about the May and we relaunched in the December early December since the 5th of December I'm gonna say it's our anniversary and at that stage Tommy McCormick had come on with us on board to give us some you know to give us a dig out and but also he has a huge amount of knowledge and he's one of the LG's that cuts in this country oh yeah so to have Tommy there with us um and I had walked with Tommy previously so I knew what I was getting and he'd always been great help to me so when he when he said he would come on board and give us a dig out and saw her to help us you know get our getting to have that kind of experience 100 yeah listen when you're just kind of starting out like I mean certainly you kind of knew what you were doing like just tap someone of that caliber kind of it gives you a bit more credibility even it does and it gives you a huge and boost the confidence boost now on that because I think at that stage I was sort of having a little meltdown and I was like am I going Stadium quarter am I not going to Stadium yes where do I go from here type of thing and between Brian Danny between Brian Danny and Tommy um a lab wore and actually I must give them a shout out of cousin fairness he he is instrumental in a um you know between a lot of them it made sense like and they were saying you know don't be given up it's time to move on find your feet again you know and again I think some of that was down to anxiety as well yeah um so yeah to sort of roll about from there and and we're coming into our is it sixth year sixth year anniversary sound so and and we're flying I'm flying this with a big team we're working every weekend I think we do every show by one in the country yeah so yeah it's crazy like so yeah we have a brilliant team I'm really really blessed like that you know the team we have that worked together we just work amazingly well together it's like a little family you know we're professional but we have a great laugh or more when we're working having a good time it's not I mean it's work but it's it's at work it's fun yeah it's what we love you know it's mad because people do say oh all that blood and days like it and all and we're like well it's sort of like coupon you know you know it's one of those things it is a bit like her porn and for us you know and and I don't mean that rudely but um you know we see that and it's like our eyes light up and it means that you know work yeah yeah it is and like probably like yourself with with this job you know it sort of is more of a hobby than an actual job yeah definitely you have to love it to do it if you do for money then there's no point in doing it because you'll never make money down this job ever okay I hope that's not true I know I know what you mean though but in the states I train to be uh EMT in paramedically so like as far as cup horn is concerned like totally give it to me because you know we would get calls and um you know it's always a medical yeah you know and then you get that one call and it you know it's you know the car it sounds sounds terrible you know it's a car accident you get excited yes you get butterflies yeah like you know almost you know kind of real work you know it it's you get excited because you know the Well in that instance um you get excited because someone else is having a terrible day and you're coming to try and make their day you know a little bit better as much as you can so like that that's where a lot of it comes from and like don't get me wrong I don't ever want to see anybody get hurt ever but if they do get hurt I'm straight in there you know and that's what I mean by you know I I want everyone to go home safe every every single shell we do I want everyone to go home safe because that's someone's you know brother or sister or mother or father or husband or wife child or a child exactly um so I always want everyone to go home but where there is um something happens then you know we are there that's what we are there for we are there to look after you and make sure that we can send you home in the best possible stay what's uh what's the worst you've seen oh god um there's been a lot of bad once yeah like Way open Cuts in the middle of the face forehead almost like Harry Potter and I had a six inch gash on the back of the head and with multiple other quotes uh on a show recently and you become an octopus I was trying to trying to do it and people do think that it's a case we just walk in and do it and and it looks that easy till you're in that predicament no I know the like the cups team doesn't necessarily um as far as like if a wound is too um like the doctor would be the one to call the fight we can't qualify yeah but you do you advise the doctor do you kind of be like hey look oh this isn't really sticking here or you know like like how does that work we're not really supposed to okay but um at home here in Ireland we work with the same Medical Teams whether it be e-fast and cold blue ni Sports Medics up the North and we have a brilliant relationship with the teams that we work with and obviously we've been doing this a long long time so to a degree you know they will ask your opinion on stuff and you know I I'm doing this a long time so there is times I have given my opinion it's not my call you know if I'm asked for my opinion I'll give it if I'm not I don't um but I have been in other countries where the doctors ask my opinion as well because again I've worked with them on numerous shows and numerous events and it just depends we can't qualify no matter what yeah I've explained this everybody asks us the same thing and not because sometimes the fighters are a bit hesitant about when you guys do come in we try to explain that as well and and especially in the world to me no we're not there we like I said um we we will always teach people when we do the course that not to run in where the fight is there because that does freak them out a little bit and takes them out of their Mojo and that's something we don't want to do and if you're combating in the in the cage you know they they do freak a little bit and they're like oh am I all right like are they gonna start the fight type thing and I have been asked by so many fighters and I remember when I when I did an interview before and I remember a comment somebody put underneath uh that interview and they were saying um or something about being a woman rather than a man being in there um and then brought up the situation are you sure you don't even know who your adrenaline is pumping and that's that's [ __ ] really because Fighters do know because Fighters especially professional fighters like I have walked in and the fighter said to me I know uncut is it really bad my ah you know I'm just like yeah it's beautiful it's Grand you're good you know uh nine times out of ten I'd never say War to anybody okay um yeah yeah and because we walk from the side always unless there's a sorry a multitude of of course on the face I will always try to walk on the side so I don't take a coach from the face of the fighter which means they're less worried about what I'm doing okay and more interested in what their coach is saying and doing you know and and it's those little ways to help them not to feel like there's a big reason to why I'm in there yeah for sure um sorry man sorry now um you'd mention comments in the comments you know someone had mentioned because you're a woman has that been like an issue yeah it's a it's a a theme that runs throughout our life yeah is that um like the overall sport would I feel like be pretty welcoming to kind of anybody um obviously you have you know there's always uh outliers oh I'm calling I called them outliers um you know where for whatever reason you know your gender does somehow make a difference you know and like it my my assumption would be far and few between like exactly is that true or what would it be a bit more frequent do you think it's more frequent than I'd like it to be okay but it's less frequent than it used to be that's good yeah so it's certainly improving that yeah yeah it definitely has improved over the years it is much better than it was there is you know certain countries and people who yeah just about to say like what about like you know when trust when you go to the Middle East is it how is that um I have had one or two issues here one or two um but for the majority I I'd say probably out of maybe 15 fights on a card I might have an issue at one okay one and so 95 really don't give a [ __ ] excuse me friends and and then there's always that one person that does like I had one I had a guy recently and he I wrapped his hands out the back and we had a great laugh I even had videos of us having laughs and photos and then he basically said that he didn't want me to walk in his Corner because he's a Muslim okay and it's in his his Bible or Quran or like I don't do that yeah I don't do I don't do politics and I don't do religion my family is Jewish and Catholic and I'm an atheist so I have no interest in religion or politics in any way if he doesn't want me to do his corner you know I'm not happy about it but I'm also not going to cause a fight over yeah no that that seems a bit more reasonable than someone who's just you know well I think it was more to do with um I think it was more to do it he had had a bath or some sort of what yeah yeah or something yeah and the ones that was explained to me it was like yeah killed you know I'm good with that so like I don't have an issue with that I mean I've had people message me and they've not been nice and then message me saying how did yeah oh God yeah how do you get on shows like that uh you're a woman you shouldn't be doing this job that's great like I deleted it and in my experience like I feel like I would prefer a woman anyway because it is it's kind of like the that caring maternally yeah maternal like you get that caring maternal face you know kind of you know you can come and help you like I feel like I would almost prefer that rather than you know like another big dude um you know who's you know you get a lot of Fighters that are like that as well um I had it I had an Irish guy who got k out at a show abroad and I went in he was still out cold when I got in but by the time he woke up I was out I was you know bent over him and the minute he seemed he was like oh God thank God it's you yes yeah type of thing so you get it from both angles and I really don't take I'm there to do a job and that's all I'm dare to do and if I make friends along the way brilliant and if I don't like I'm not everyone's cup of tea let me tell you you know I really haven't but what I will give you no matter whether you like me or dislike me is one million percent care when when I'm in there no matter you know how much we like each other or not you know it's the same everybody get like I want to provide the same standard of care to the big massive shows that we do to our amateur shows and people see that now that the level on the Grassroots here in Ireland that we provide when we've come and walked on big shows with those Fighters yeah because they're so used to that level you know they're now saying like we've come big promoters saying where we didn't realize you did this and you did this and you did this and this is the level and and that's right true from novice all the way up to professional whether it be a first fight or your very last one I I've been to a show before where the cuts team was I was saying it was very um just saying say minimal and like you notice the difference because like I'm confident you probably your team wrapped my hands for my first fight um and then going from that one to another one and it was literally you know it was the bare minimum you know the bare minimum allowed in Ireland basically um and that was an MMA show was it yeah it was yeah it was it just I mean all right I should first of all I don't know what I'm talking about yeah okay um so just the perception that I saw like it looked it looked totally different you know what I mean uh versus uh seeing your team together because you had your hands wrapped yeah you knew how that felt so therefore and I say this to a lot of our amateur Fighters and when you find your hands wrapped by whoever be whether it be here in Ireland whether it be abroad and and you find that that works for you the fighter should always be happy yeah it's not about the court man if I have to call five sets of raps off somebody because they're not happy Uncle fives that's a wraps I don't know if you do them or I get someone else I'm not going to take offense because somebody doesn't like my hand wraps or they don't feel as comfortable and mine as they did in someone else's I'm okay with that I'm you have enough confidence in my skill to know that it's not impersonal and we had a guy recently like you were saying no I could say no yeah exactly never would have had a complaint like that so and that's it and we had a guy recently who'd had like that he had fought on an outer show he'd had his hand wrapped by one of the guys off our team he'd fought on another show and he actually come to us then at the third fight and said to us and I got my hands right back previous show from you is that my first fight my second fight was with somebody else and is this a new way of doing hand wraps and I was like why and he said oh the person that did my hands at the second show they never put any tape in between my Knuckles and I was like what it is one of those things are on fairness like that um maybe that person was new I don't know the situation I don't know that person so I can't I can't answer that question for them but all I do know is that you know you would never send somebody audio tape in between the fingers because that's yeah that's what secures it to your hand the second event that I had went to uh they weren't offering hand wraps basically it was just you're the like the cloth wraps and they were just having someone just tightly wind them and that was seeing the like so the the different levels of you know what it could be offered is that up in Belfast can I ask no that was it was it was here oh is it downstairs no it's just wondering because what you've just said actually resonated with me uh on a different show up the North and someone had said it to me about cloth wraps being used on an MMA show that's why I was wondering because it it's you know something like that there wasn't a lot of um oversight I'll say because some people weren't doing anything you know so I I said I don't know no we commissioned everything we do so we're fully commissioned you know our team fully commissions hand wraps fingernails toenails a shin pads everything they had folks for nails and like there were people at the cage but honestly it almost looked like they kind of like you know someone in the crowd like hey you want to say cave sign yeah you know like I'm not you know discounting the the you know or you know dissing the No No event or anything it was just like it was it was different you know and I I hadn't seen it before and yeah um you know it it's like flying first class first coach you know if your first flight is ever again is first class did you hear that that coach seat yeah yeah now I understand what you're saying is like you know as the years have gone on it has got better worldwide okay thankfully and I mean there's still a lot of catching up to do in certain places even in within Ireland itself and there's still there is a lot of catching up to do um for the safety of the five years and and primarily that is what's Paramount to me is the safety of the fight that's the other thing um that I did again I didn't know before you know kind of participating in the sport was uh how big like safety is like it's taken very seriously yeah um you know and I was a semi I'll call myself like a semi-casual viewer of you know like UFC yeah you know and like you don't you don't really see it they don't you know kind of show them part of it but you know once you kind of get involved with it um you see like fighter safety is taking very seriously and again these levels depending on where you go yeah for sure of how much I mean Ireland has has been voted the last couple of years as these days to fight um thankfully and you know we do we have some great teams like I said Norton's out we have some amazing Medical Teams that we work with so we know what we're getting and and what's going to happen you know and and they're straight in on the back like that there and and that's what you want you know and not every country is as regulated for a body that isn't ready the dark function should I say so like because obviously we're not sanctioned here in Ireland and we are self-regulatory and whereas there's other countries who are fully sanctioned by their governing bodies and and their their medical coverage wouldn't be as high as theirs speaking of that like as much as I think you know being officially sanctioned by the government it's much about benefit as I think that would be is it kind of nice to not have you know kind of government oversight to you know really kind of dictate how things are happening you know because like obviously so it it leaves you know some promotions to kind of do their own thing you know I kind of had just described previously but then you kind of find that that uh how do I want to say it like the I don't the main promotions or the the popular the legitimate one today you know they see that level of standard or that they see a level of care that is required to you know provide to you know the fighters um and they're kind of you know they're doing it on their own like do you yeah like do you think if the government were to step in that maybe you know these promotions might now try to just you know do the minimum that is required or what how do you feel no I don't think so like I said I mean I don't really deal with politics around you that's all just off our governing bodies and I don't think we would ever go back even if you know we got recognition here in Ireland thanked somebody I don't think we would and I don't think any promoters would um stoop back down to the level because in actual fact they provide more than than as required yeah definitely um and have done for a number of years now so I don't think um they would and like I said I already get involved in that side of stuff and I know like when I promote or you know contact me about doing a show I always ask the same question who's the medical team how how many medical personnel are going to be there how many ambulance they're going to be there you know how many officials are going to be there and I will tour in a showdown if there isn't you know enough cover have you had to do that yeah yeah yeah and and you know they've come back later on and we've done the show because they have got a better standard and I think that's sort of um been been it's given us a chance to build MMA to a level that you know a lot of countries can't even touch us with because of the safety and I think it's been everybody it's you know it's been years of obviously it's I'm here at the moment um but I mean it was uh the iepa and it was all the other names prior to that it's been gone on a very long time it's not new to new to us um so I think for for that I don't think they would go back to just a bare minimum safety I would hope they wouldn't and I think like I am outspoken a little bit so I probably would have something to say about that because I wouldn't be comfortable covering a show where the medical team isn't enough and obviously we work for all um sanctioned bodies you know uh equally excuse me and there's different levels like and even with the iska guys over really good um Rapport and really good friendship chips with a lot of dam and I know what they're providing as their standard and and a lot of the times in Ireland are above that standard that's a worldwide for iska shows and so yeah like I think it's just you know you have to stand around a little bit and not like there is there's one or two sanctioned bodies in this country that I will not work with full stop right do they know who they are yes they know who they are and they play them yeah yeah very good and and it's just because I don't want agree with the way they do things um two they don't provide enough medical coverage three they don't know their own rules and regulations and four When someone tells me who's supposed to be head of a federation that if you don't make a hundred grand as a professional fighter no matter how many professional fights you've had you can go back and fight amateur what yeah stuff like that that's how it works yeah it's awesome today in any other world it doesn't work like that but when someone tells me that I'm like I can't agree to do a show where they don't even understand their own rules properly so yeah there's one or two I would never work with but you know that's my own personal preference that doesn't stop the rest of my team or Comfort them if they wanted to that's me personally and the team my team they they walked around shows as much as they do air shows that we have as a team so you know it's totally down to them they're grown ass adults I can't tell them what to do or what not to do you know as long as they tone up and dirty shells that they're asked to do and they do them with professionalism then I'm all good with that and and they do every single time because I have some of the best people in this country working on the team I do uh when I do go to shows and I see that it's your guys there it's not like yeah it's always like okay like no issues are going to be coming from over here you know kind of a thing you know and not thank you I appreciate that not that you know we'll get or that I've seen issues from others I know you guys you do a good job so you know it's just one less thing not even that I have to worry about anything but like one of the things that you know promoter has to worry about yeah and it's it is like we are lucky enough that we have a great relationship with all the promoters we work with and a lot of our promoters will have probably 10 15 fighters on that card so for them they can just hand us their Fighters When we arrive and then they can go on about their business and they don't have to worry about Aunt else which is the reoccurring theme that we get from a lot of the promoters we work with is that you know they can just hand hand us everything when we walk in and they don't have to worry about hand wraps Nails getting them ready on time having them out there in time or anybody in and out with a cage full service and they know exactly what they're going to get yeah exactly like and it's good for it it's great for me because I see how we've evolved in the last six years ourselves you know from when we first started Inside Out care to where we are now and and how much the team has grown you know um every single person that's come on board and it is like a little family you know it's it like I miss them when I don't see them yeah so like we did a course at the weekend and myself and Brian usually teach the course now if it's a big number we'll always have one or two or the other clubs come along where do you teach these courses all over over all over so we did one open Fai and and fight Academy Ireland named Shannon's gym and so it's open to everybody to come and do you don't have to have any experience and I do not certify anybody straight away we have a graduate program if you would like to learn on the job um and I don't do because I over the years and the reason it come about with the graduate program is because I would get often I would get contacted not only me but Brian and Danny and a few and finula and stuff will have been contacted by people who've done cook courses one day or two-day cook courses over the years and once they finish that cook course and I mean I have had people from Brazil on the phone to me about it right and so all over the world and I've gotten from and they've said oh I did a cook course and now I'm a cut man and or a woman or person or whatever you want to call it and I don't know where to get stuck and I don't know how to approach it a promoter and I don't know how to do this and I don't know how to do that and I'm like well you know have you any experience other than a one-day course and they're like well no and I said well you can't really call yourself a cool person then yeah you know and definitely need the experience for sure yeah and you do need somebody who's willing to it's not even a knock at the person it's just it's you need to physically do it you know and it's it is a skill you know especially you know the hand wraps as quickly as some of your folks can do it I think is you know quite amazing because they do a lot of work there oh God yeah it's like an art form and even like we we only had the course on Sunday and I had one of the guys that was at it um on Sunday he messaged me today ordering stock from our supplier and to be sent up dinner to him because he's practicing in the gym I had two of the girls about it both their husbands are Fighters and they were practicing on on them since Sunday night when they got back and I've had a couple of the others on as well saying that they're practicing I have a guy from Serbia who's constantly on the phone to me who although he did the IMF course when I taught it in February which isn't mine I just want to point that out it's not my course I taught it on behalf of imath Fordham um but I have kept in touch with the guys from Serbia um and they have been getting experience in the gym and doing National shows and because they haven't um enough shows like they have been on I have invited them to come here and do some shows with our team and whenever they want to um to gain some experience and stuff like that so I regularly have I have a lot of WhatsApp groups over the years going on of the courses that we've done all over and we might only get maybe two cup people like like out with the longevity of us um on the long like that will stick with it you know we get a lot of people at the beginning like oh yeah I want to come to the graduate program I want to learn on the job and they don't realize how much you have to give to do it um it's not it's not paid work um you turn up I'll supply all your care I'll Supply a T-shirt and I'll even pick it up along the road if I have to as long as you give me your time and we will teach you from the get-go all the skills the necessary skills to get you into that cage it might take you six months it might take you two years everybody is different no two people are the same when it comes to learn how to be a cool person and and that's why I don't give a certificate as as a court person yeah and why we offered a graduate program you have to earn that pretty much through yeah yeah and and I've worked long and hard and so was Brian and Danny and finula and all the senior team that's there and we like Don she was only nine months and she made a senior and then we had Jack who was with us for a long time now fairness Jack was very young when he joined our team and he's also an active fighter okay so he's only just turned um 90 was 19 so he's since he was 13. he's witnessed the first six years he made Senior last year properly and and that really was only because you know he was under 18 prior to that no there is no age restriction okay obviously two more next question yeah no there's no age restriction we don't have an age restriction because and people say oh I'm a paramedic or I'm a doctor so I'm really good at this and in actual fact paramedics translate over it doesn't no because for a nurse or a doctor or paramedic they have the luxury time to assess damage and we don't we have 45 seconds realistically by the time the tax and goes by the time the gate is open by the time you get in sit your fighter down do your work and get out again you're really talking about 45 seconds you know and so we don't have the luxury to be able to assess it and then treat it so we have to adjust tree and and sort of assess as we go it's probably nice to have someone who necessarily doesn't have a like a background because you know they don't have their or what you're teaching them to kind of look for and you know they might need to have all this extra information because the doctor's there and that's well that's that's their job yeah it's not my job like your job is to you know fix them stop the bleeding and what to do yeah and then let them go again and that I think is the thing because in a lot of cool courses throughout the world they'll teach about bone structures they'll teach you about all the muscles and the the veins and the you know the bones in your face and stuff like that and and realistically we don't need to know that you know sure it's helpful but yeah if you want to learn extra about it it's helpful but it's not really in the moment helpful yeah because like realistically we need to know an arterial blade and a vino blade or in the nasal posterior or anterior yes they are very important to know the difference between them absolutely but for the majority of We Can't Stop a fight anyway yeah so even with an arterial blade you know it is a doctor's call we can only advise it's an arterial blade and on the on the flip side of that yeah where would you get an arterial please I've seen them here on the sided ahead yeah yeah you'd be surprised there's one or two um uh going analysis versus she said Oliveira he's fighting on it we use that clip in our course I think I'm gonna say it's gonna Nelson and cowboy Oliveira I'm gonna say that I'm not 100 sure but I know it's definitely gonna yeah and he does have a narratorial arterial bleed and it's working out yeah you can see it all over the place um but I have seen it a couple of times um on the scene uh even on smaller shows where but it's it's in a profile and I've never seen an amateur fight yeah I get all right yeah I suppose especially getting the strong elbows to the face yeah of course like and you know you're you're hitting the temple like which is very soft part of the the skin and the other thing is we we say like we always grease them between rounds because it helps with the skin it keeps the skin nice and soft and supple so the skin will fluctuate rather than hair yeah so if you're less likely and it's been proven over the years that you know Greece and fighters in between rounds does work and it does help there's been less and I AI lacerations because of it and obviously it can't account for bone structure you know bouncer bone structure there's nothing we can do about that but you you learn the different types of bound structure without having to know the name but I will know that in someone from Eastern Europe in Eastern European person because they've got high high cheekbones and high brow bones that they're probably going to tear easier than say you know uh someone from maybe Ireland or something that doesn't have that you know High bound structure so it just really depends and you learn it the more you see the more you work the better you call math spot and stuff like that and you nearly know before they even get caught that they're going to be caught last year where it was the first one here in Ireland yeah yeah and um the main event and the promoter of it he actually what was the promotion um IFC it's called okay um Robbie ronzer he's from Cork and and they have another one coming up soon um I can't think of the date off my head I think it's December some sometime early December I'm not sure but it's somewhere around there but Robbie um boxed for years years and years and years and he had had a couple of uh bkb fights and he was fighting on this and a few of his Cuts oh but his old scar tissue and it looked you know absolutely Mayhem but though I really didn't even need anything to put on them a little bit of cold water and a cold cloth with a bit compression actually stopped it straight away because it was you know old scar tissue that had opened up so there's lots of different ways people are happy to just try a bit of adrenaline and honest sometimes all it needs is a cold compress you know and nothing more uh so you you know there's we've lots of different Hills that we use for those sort and you learn as you go along and that's why we teach about the graduate program because you learn on the job and you see it's all very Visual and that's how you learn better than sitting classroom yeah for sure I remember the the worst um the worst cut I've ever seen it was uh it was Robbie Lawler I don't remember it was UFC fight Robbie lover I don't remember who he was fighting against but his his house yeah his whole lip was just split and just just dangling there that was insane I remember I was at a casino in the states watching that fight and I'm like holy [ __ ] there was someone else because recent I when I I did an interview with um MMA on point last year and they actually showed me a few different um I think they call the court woman debunks something over there anyway but they showed me a few different clips of a few different cuts and and they asked me sort of for my opinion on them and and I get very excited when I see quotes like that um I think there was a good few and I think Robbie's was actually one of those and I think I got first excited by it because I've now had a quote quite as bad as that on the on the Note but um yeah I did like a hugely excited by by the fact that it you know between the very bad quotes um and the the very bad lacerations and this this mocha and I think I said I think there was one similar to his maybe not as bad and I thought it was like you know you'd probably get worse and you fall off a bike you know and busted left but yeah it does I really I do get excited when I see quotes like that and I always think oh my God I'd love to have one as bad as that but you know it's one of those things it's perfect some of the job should I say so you know you sort of you fall in love with every aspect of it so um but yeah it's an amazing quote like I do remember watching it maybe it's healed up very well either he's got a pretty good plastic surgeon do you know what I'm sure it's his plastic surgeon you know we we say all the time with a lot of guys who you know are just so used to getting glued and we always say please get stitched you know it heals better and you have less adhesions under it you have less Scar Tissue um and most of the the guys now especially in Ireland most of our doctors that work to show wood stitch on site really oh God yeah okay and you're not having to wait 18 hours in a e for someone to do it exactly yeah because I could see why some people like might choose the glue root um rather than having to wait for you know several hours I have often put um butterfly stitches on Fighters at shows where I've worked that don't have doctors that Stitch they do have doctors on site but not doctors at Stitch and I have often put cleaned out debride in it and put some butterfly stitches on and told them to go to a e and get stitched up and if it's just a normal straight laceration it's a few stitches if it's got some um angles through it a flat screen yeah and then it needs you know technically a plastic surgeon to do it uh the uncle's Plastics is usually pretty good you know they know what they're up to like but it will heal better you know than the glue so and it's less likely to open if you allow it to heal better and I'm not a doctor so just saying so take my advice at your own Carol if you could tell the public you know kind of one thing about I guess either yourself or Combat Sports um in general like what is it that you would want to kind of get out there get your kids involved yeah yeah for sure a million percent and and not just for the discipline but for their self-confidence and it builds character there's so many dreams in the world and that's that are great with kids and and they start so young it just becomes part of their life yeah and and for like for me you know I wish I had of stayed there because I started very young and like I said as I got older you know I was less attracted to it and had a child worked all the usual stuff and and I do wish I hadn't lost that connection to Combat Sports so for anyone who is Sovereign with mental health in any way shape or form you know don't just um talk like don't just hide away talk to people about it you know try and exercise is a huge and it gives your brain a great balance and it helps to release so many endorphins and it does build confidence but for me primarily like any martial arts well I mean any sport really but for me it will be martial arts you know and and any form whether we box and Muay Thai K1 MMA it doesn't really matter the the strength you're going to get from that and the the friendships you're going to build and the confidence you're going to get you know just especially for kids who are going through like bullying at the moment it kills me to see some of the stuff that I see online and we were aired in a different lifetime to what's going on at the moment even my daughter who's 23 it it is in a different bracket altogether from what I see online like you know 12 11 12 13 year olds and even as young as eight and nine and and mothers and fathers have to you know not be afraid to poke the bear a little bit and find out what's going on you know and and sit down with their kids and like I know working and money and there's a cost to live in crisis and all this sort of stuff is a big issue for families at the moment but you know you have to be there for your kids you really do like and if it is by putting them into a gym if it is by you know spending an extra hour a week just sitting and talking to them no social media no computers no phones and I'm just talking to the play a game Scrabble with them you know just be have that human time together if that helps then I hope it helps somebody um you know I think the internet and how great it is it's uh it's a devil it certainly can be you know and I I feel like I'm fortunate because I was able to I grew up like right when the internet got huge you know like when I got like you know uh with the internet what came around like the late 80s early 90s yeah um but like it blew up especially in America in you know like the early 2000 late 90s early 2000s and you know I didn't really I mean I knew what it was but I didn't really mess with it until I was pretty much an adult you know as myself yeah and uh like you know I would have been like you know 17 18. uh I was more about 23 24 you know I had I had just had a child maybe I was 24 25 before I really had any interest in in in going on the internet and it was more to do what I lived in mayo and my family were in art yeah Dublin same thing like it was communication for me because uh I had I'd moved away um you know for my family and that was you know kind of the key way to for me as well yeah yeah and then when I moved back to Dublin it was a way to keep in in turn my friends in mayo my family and mayo and nisha's family and Mayo so it was you know it was sorted for a long time and now it's sort of just it is our business um yeah so everything's online now and you're kind of like I I certainly have like a slight addiction to it um you know my my wife I think my wife Allison would probably say I have a huge addiction to it um you know it just fair to say from her point of view but uh yeah I know just you know the way you know like this works and you know everything pretty much everything these days is online yeah um and you know it's unfortunately drives me demands that I'm not gonna lie It actually drives me demented like I have become super good at what I do with it yeah but I get to a stage and I just go Brian please take over because I think I'm going to try my phone at the wall or I'm going to end up splitting somebody with my phone because they're annoying me so much you know anyway and In fairness to Brian he is brilliant at our social media and our videos and stuff like that where I'm nowhere near as good yeah no that's something I'm learning at the moment and like it is tough um but what takes him five minutes to do takes me about five hours yeah it's probably probably the same for me as well but we're lucky like all of the team are pretty good at social media so like you know they'll they'll take video videos and photos and then they'll send them on so you know we are looking up we have so much comes in and we we're looking at a lot of the guys that we work with in media take a lot of photos and videos of us like and that does help because for me that's my way of teaching as well because the bigger shows it's very hard unless you're you're really uh know the the production team to get coverage of you working in there because a lot of times they've cut out the court men and but they do have that data you know because it has been recorded so we're lucky enough that if we know them they will send us on some stuff that's cool and it is a lot of the time kind of the same people doing all the events so it is nice and you definitely get to kind of you get to know these folks and yeah I know like I I haven't been to like a ton but just even in the you know the you know the you know half dozen or a dozen that I've you know events that I've been to like you don't have to kind of grown these relations with folks you know with yourself exactly um you know with the you know some of the promoters and the photographers and everything well that's it like they do everybody it's not just the team that's like family everybody on the scene becomes like your family you know like I don't see it a lot like any of the lads and I including when I say Lads I don't generally just mean the team I mean the promoters I mean the fighters I mean the the rest the judges the commentary you know um everybody that cameraman you know the day of you know from fans view Raz from Irish TV Irish MMA TV and Nikki from NC Stewarts Jerry McCarthy you know all of these like I'm somebody algae is that don't be at as many shells anymore when you see them and you haven't seen them for a while it is it's really hard because you want to be over chatting and you want to catch up on everything and then you're trying to do your job as well at the same time like so it is a bit mad in that sense like that you do like our community is so small and because we're small but we have like a mighty impact and not just in Ireland like we do have a huge impact outside of Ireland and and worldwide like where our Fighters both amateur and pro you know and I think that it stands to us as a country and as a nation that you know we provide every level and we we Supply great Fighters great about amateur and pro great coaches great teams cool people media personalities and photographers you know and we are like a family so when we travel to different showers even if we go to a different country like France you know we know we're probably gonna know half of the people there anyway so it doesn't let alone yeah you know yeah in a different country yeah so cool yeah it is brilliant and I love that I love that you know and then the French have become like a little Community with us yeah and the same in Bahrain and how many countries would you say if you've been to sometimes I don't know I don't keep count I wouldn't be um do you have the normal size passport or is yours with the extra pages I have extra pages online and only because I renewed it and but In fairness the majority of countries I go to I don't really need a stamp in and most of them now are electronic Visa so you know they a lot of them don't even stamp it anymore right yeah yeah I've traveled in a long time so uh there's a lot of them that don't and if they're part of the eec they don't even stamp out anymore even though they wouldn't be part of your the European Union to none that way there is still a little kiosk that you can go through yeah and they just scan it on through that way so I don't know whether they put like a migrada or something God knows you know this I'm not having no conspiracy theory so like you know if you're following me on my passport for Tuesday you know type of thing and but uh yeah no I have been lucky enough to go to some amazing places over over the last like 10 years you know or so doing this so I am very fortunate I like that with all the team we try to build a team up so that the rest of the guys can get out of the country and do some some shows what other what other court men and women around the world because like I said they've like some of my team you know will have worked um hundreds of fights now at this stage and like we we do between we do about 100 showers a year and you're talking about most shows are minimum 20 fights on us that's 45 years after a lot of fights when you put it together and it could even be more some years uh and that's over all disciplines so you know the team has really varied in their skill set and some people prefer to tie Some people prefer the MMA but everybody works on all the shows and so by the time they go and walk in another country they're meeting caught men who maybe have never left that country and only worked on maybe one promotion so they might have only done maybe five or ten shows uh 15 fighter show Max And then they realize and actually that you know they can still learn something and they both can learn from each other you know that way so that's what it's all about for me is everybody learning something I take so much for every co-person I work with whether they've been in the game a year or 50 years it doesn't matter how long they've been there's always something that I can learn from somebody like and and then I I can take that home and whether I may not use that whole of what I've got but I might take little bits of it and add it into the stuff I already do and and then put it out there but like I said I do things differently to Brian and Brian does things differently to finula and Don and Gavin and Jack and David and all the team like I don't rap like anybody else and they don't like me but we all have the same sort of skill set as and we have a base structure that we use and after that then everybody has their own system as long as that's in play everybody else does it their way and we all have like Fighters have their own favorite caught men and women that they go go to at every show you know some people that come to me all the time and only want me to rap and some people that go to like I said for Nola or Brian or Don or gav or Jack or whoever Terry whoever's walking the show and everybody is different you know it it really is you know a lucky day when you go so you know that's that's excellent and you know I I wish you continued success thank you um excuse me um I wish you continued success um you know I said whenever I go to an event I'm always looking forward to seeing you and uh seeing you and your crew there so same as us we are always looking forward to catching up with everybody in there and just you know just just having a great time as always like and making sure that although we have to keep everyone safe we have a great time with everybody that's the best part of it for me so well I really appreciate you having me absolutely and you know thank you for your time I had a wonderful chat with you and you know I can't wait for those offline chats and you know Kate's side um exactly uh but yeah so I said I appreciate you coming in and uh again thanks for your time and thank you for having me no problem thank you so much can I give a little shout out to you yeah for State systems they've been looking after the team for years and they supply all our kids so um everything from clothing to uh all our stuff so yeah first aid shop diet yeah what's the best way to if someone wants Inside Out Care at their event what's the best um well we have uh we we're on all the social medias and my mobile number is attached to inside out here I am on Instagram on Tick Tock Facebook you have a website or you just use it we don't have it we use social media mostly um because at the website we had at the beginning sort of the department we didn't we didn't get any traffic through it um most promoters come to me because you know they see me at a show and I'll have a chat with them and have a chat but I'm always available on WhatsApp um so and we have a QR code that's on our if you can find the number and I need a socials if you scroll through the the um the the uploads your finder is a QR code there for scanning and that brings you directly to my WhatsApp as well there's also an email and [Music] courtman1001007 yahoo.com so it's quoteman1007 yahoo.com so you can get me there as well and I'll go I'll throw everything down in the description definitely and like I said I need a social media Pages you can get us on we're on the model or they can go directly to me um and I'm on as well so the majority by Facebook I think I'm a cool woman Jess on so yeah they can get a cedar either way brilliant thank you very much appreciate it [Music] [Applause] thank you