IN DEPTH | EPISODE 11 | ANDREEAS BINDER

Ringkasan

David sits down with pro MMA fighter and rising Irish prospect Andreeas Binder. They talk about Andreeas moving to Ireland from Romania when he was younger, bullies, the highs and lows of the sport he loves, and everything from else MMA. INSTAGRAM |…

Transkrip (youtube_captions)

[Music] okay so i'm here with andrea has been there today and we're going to talk a little bit about his career but we're going to start from the beginning there so when did you move to ireland uh and then how did you find it integrating into the culture and here obviously it was different so um i moved to ireland when i was i think seven or eight so i've been here about 18 years um obviously it was tough at the start because english wasn't my main language but um obviously being a foreigner you know what i mean in in ireland like you're obviously going to be that you know you're always going to be treated differently but it is what it is we just got used to it we've i could say i'm practically irish now at this stage but um yeah it was it was tough at the start especially with bullying but it is what it is um with the bullying is that what then led you into to combat sports that you wanted to defend yourself is that how that came about or did how did you transition into combat sports yeah that was mainly the reason like my dad was all the same well you see my dad was doing choro kang karate back then and he was quite good at it and he was always saying to me like look i didn't i didn't make you to uh to come home getting the head kicked off every day like so i was just getting sick of it like i could stand up for myself but i was kind of like scared to do it kind of way like didn't say like i didn't want to hurt people should i say and then i just one day just clicked in into my head and i was like look i'm sick of this so start whoever started picking on me just started dropping them yeah don't start hitting people guys just saying but yeah you just need to stand up for yourself really and it just kind of like improved my confidence joining a martial arts instead of anything else really you know so i started off with judo to start off then i went into boxing and the rest is history really like this where i am now yeah no one obviously you've got the the secondary black belt in judo you've done boxing you've done so many other sports as well but one thing i want to ask you when you did stand up to the bullies did you find once that happened it stopped because they seem to pick on people who don't stand up for yourself so once you started fighting back did it stop or did it continue or what um it kind of like some some cases it it got worse because like you'd beat someone up so they'd bully you you'd beat them up and then they'll call his older brothers and all that stuff but then in other cases like they were right i'm not gonna mess with him again but uh no it's it kind of like build a name for myself you're like look he can actually stand up for himself so bullying did kind of stop but like yet again people kind of grow out of it as well like you know the older you get people kind of cop onto themselves and be like they don't see the point of bullying anymore like you know but at the start they just wanted to kind of show who's uh who's the man of the house kind of way like you know so um well yeah that's basically it like it's just it got better as as the years went on you know like with that i don't think it's like you said people go over i think kids especially don't understand the effect that that has on on someone at a young age as well um because i know people have gone through bullying and stuff like that and at that age like it does weigh on people so obviously so don't bully people if you are a kid or a teenager because the effect it has but look what it's doing it's made a champion out of you so um moving through uh obviously you've done judo you've done kickback you've done everything basically what made you go to the mma room uh what was it like i was winning everything in judo um i was winning everything like between all irelands international competitions you name it uh then i was doing a lot of k1 as well i was winning a lot of fights in k1 and then my dad kind of came up with the idea he was like uh why don't we try and mix everything up now between your striking your glinch work your ground game and let's try and mix it all up i remember before i even went to the mma i was still training juror and in that right juror club in galway and there was a juror sorry an mma competition in shaolin an intra club and i rang my um my judo coach and i was like look if there's this competition what do you think should i enter it just to see how i get on i remember i had three novice mma fights and i finished them all in the first round by amber and everything i was like oh this is unreal like that kind of like adrenaline rush that i got and it was something different like surreal moment kind of and then benjamin davis my my old mma coach got on to me it was oh i see a lot of potential in you and look let's give it a go so then i started mma and um it's just i seen the progression i was making like i remember i had my first ami amateur fight i was only like 17 and i fought in galway my my first show ever and i was like this is unreal like my mother never approved of me doing mma but i was like look i'm good at it just come down and see how i get on she came down she ended up bringing about half a gallon down with her like it was over in leisureland and um yeah it was just something different i fell in love with that sport then yeah no honestly because i heard you speaking before you always uh when you're fighting regionally you was brought how would you what does it mean to you for friends and family to actually make that journey because you said it's quite special like when you're at the start no it's when you see obviously people get to a certain stage that they're being followed and this and that but at that stage how vital was that to you and and your confidence and what you wanted to do going forward damn coming um look support means the world to me especially like even even regardless if you're a pro if you're a novice if you're amateur it doesn't really matter like when you hear your friends your family kind of like chanting your name especially when you're in [ __ ] situations like you know like you could be getting the hey kicked off here but you hear that crowd cheering your name it just gives you that extra oomph kind of thing like you know just push yourself harder and like train but yeah a lot of people kind of like like i'm lucky enough that i have very very good friends and they've been supporting me since my amateur days and they've been coming literally to france to uk to everywhere supporting me so it means the world in that sense because they see what goes behind closed doors as well kind of like you know with the wake ups with the training camp and everything they don't just see the performance on the night so it's it's nice to it's nice to get that like it's just kind of like it's um it's a different experience it's very hard to explain but it's a different experience to get all that support from everyone you know you know 100 um with your first fight there you talked about being in galway i'll see your phone go away and talk us through how the feelings and all you've gone through by coming up to the amateur i know you had exhibition fights how did it feel or an officer sorry how did it feel actually going out and making that making that walk in go away and what was the feeling was there any nerves anxiety confidence happy excited what was going through your mind the week and then in in the fight um the week so say fight week i was okay i suppose like you know i don't know the training all the hard work was done everything so i was like just go in there and perform but then i remember like my opponent he was 41 or 42 when i was only 17 i was oh this is gonna be like i didn't know i like the experience i was like i'm so scared i was scared i was not gonna lie i'm [ __ ] myself and i was i was hearing him hit pads in the back and i'll say oh my god he's going to spark me clean out like you know all these moments going to your head and i'm like what do i do like and then i remember i went in the cage hearing everyone i i think my heart was pounding about 190 beats per minute at that stage and then i heard everyone kind of screaming my name and um they all had kind of like banners with my name let's go andreas and this that and the order i was like this is mad and um i went in there i remember first exchange i was like right this this feels natural to me now at this stage and it was three rounds back and forth absolutely punching ahead of each other i had no ground game at that stage so every time i got into the ground i was kicking and punching them i was like come on stand up stand up and i was just standing and traded with this old man uh 42 i think it's somewhere up here anyway this one here and it was just mad um it was the best experience of my life you know and then yeah i'm not gonna lie the first five six fights i was always in that zone i'm not i'm so scared i was scared really like yeah nerves kicking into me and yeah it was just precious history really yeah so what what you said the first four or five fights you was getting what then changed what was it the experience i think so you see i started again um k1 fights in between mma fights as well so like a month i could fight maybe one mma fight 2k one fight so just to stay busy and kind of get that ring experience and cage experience just kind of like dealing with people dealing with the crowd and kind of like you know because you're never always gonna fight in your um home backyard so you're you're gonna i most of my fights were in dublin so i was always two and a half hours driving up and um yeah just getting the feel of the atmosphere being in there and fighting i suppose but um yeah once once i got rid of them those butterflies kind of went and i'm like you know what i love this i i kind of like now i see myself in the in the in the back warming up and everything i'm dancing i'm singing because i'm so excited to go in and actually show people what i've been working on the last [ __ ] three four months do you know yeah so you're more relaxed and you see that with a lot of fighters now that they're out the back and they're dancing and that's obviously that's comes through experience and then confidence and like i said you want to show people what you've been working on because they don't see the hard work in the background um you've had quite a decorated arms career you've picked up quite a few best case conflict uh clan wars and you also are the only person to be ian gary as well so you fought him twice well three times i believe isn't it yeah so once in mma k1 and then judo so talks to those and how they went um so i remember he was up-and-coming prospect in ireland um i think he was on a four-win streak or something and he i think was the number one contender fight for the clan wars title so i was like look no one wanted to fight him i was like give him to me i'll fight him at that stage i think it was six and four or five and four something like that amateur but like my four losses they were against go guys and uh experience guys but like that's the thing like people back then they're always kind of like patting records i was like just give me a whoever like i didn't care at that stage i just want to build experience fight perfect example is carmen conway he's fighting every weekend um so yeah we we fought then on clan wars i won on a split decision um i knew he was a decent striker because he came from um a boxing background so i was closing the distance picking them apart with the with the wrestling bouncing them um it was a good fight back and forth then a couple a couple of months later we fought on a k-1 uh k-1 show on crc for the crc belt so i obviously i got agreed and i wanted to be a triple champion of that promotion so i wanted to fight for the k1 title at 82. we fought and i lost that on the decision as well and then we fought juro um throughout the years and i won i won a juror competition i think it was all ireland's or leinster's open i can't remember really but um yeah it was just it was kind of like it was nice to kind of sit up with the top lads in ireland you know what i mean like fight with them and show that i belong at the top of the ranks up here like this was an amateur like so i i didn't think about the pro at that stage at all but thinking of the amateur scene i was like i belong at the top here and being lads and i've i've seen each fight i was fighting i was progressing so i was like right i'm doing something right so yeah yeah with that and then to go to see what he's gone on to now as well must give you some inspiration things like you beat him a couple years ago obviously you're both completely different fighters than you were then but to see him go on does that give you like say well look if he's got there i'm going to eventually get there myself yeah look i'm like that's the thing with me i'll never hold grudges against anyone and that's the way i was raised and that's the way i am um and deliri's doing so well for himself and i hope he continues to do well because at the end of the day ireland's such a small country like the more ufc fighters we have and the more great fighters we have coming out of this small island you know what i mean it's it kind of like it shows that we're grafting like i see the amateurs these days they they could be top pro levels in different countries like easily and um yeah look i'll get there i know for a fact that we're like but everyone's stage and everyone's kind of like journey is different like he just got that route he went to cage warriors route and he got there i'm just gonna keep on grafting pulling my name out there in the european scene like i've been doing and i'll get there eventually more than likely next year that's the plan anyway so we'll go from there yeah we're just going to finish up on you i'm secure because obviously you won best case conflict or clan wars and like what you said obviously you had was a five and four record people like said people tend to pad their records that why did you take the best fighters because you want it once you go pro there's no turning back so like even if you had a 50 50 record going into pro no like to the casual fan unless you really research it no one really cares so like did you learn a lot from those losses in those times 100 like when i finished off my my amateur career i um i was 10 and 5 in in mma and i was 9-1 in k-1 so i had a lot of fights under my belt and i fought great great guys um but it kind of developed me in different aspects not just feinstein but like dealing with a loss more than anything and and kind of like came back to it as well it's just it develops you as a fighter like and at amateur like i was on on the rampage at that stage i remember i had my my three novice wins and then i was three and all i was six and all at that stage i was all i'll fight anyone and whatever and then i remember i had my first loss against glenn irvine um i went up to middleweight i was literally walking around 85 86 and only caught a kilo and then he was coming from about 90 something kilos i was like yeah that didn't go my way but look i'm not gonna lie i hit depression for about a month over it like i was like this is the worst feeling of my life losing obviously when you're such in a in a in a high should i say uh but it's part of the game and then you learn from it and i knew for a fact that i'd get better and better and better and that's what it did you know and then you've you've gone on to the pro scene now as well uh and you've been fighting in europe now but we're going to go back to your very first pro fight tell us the difference of like the no obviously you said you were scared for your amateur what was it like going out for pro because there is a lot of pressure going out for a pro fight um it was you it was a doctor stoppage with a knee injury yeah i dislocated my knee in the first round and i was like i i should be okay i'll just pop in again in the second round and then my knee just went and that was it really like i just dislocated my knee i was doing you know at the back it was grand um obviously there's always gonna be sequences going through your head be like all right there's this involved or this involver like longer rounds and everything but will you train for them especially at the later kind of stages of your amateur career you train to go as a pro so i was kind of ready for the pro the pro ranks at that stage you know what i mean it was all down to my coach really telling me when to go and i did and yeah and then we move on to your second flight obviously with the first one you said you say class is hard but because of the nature of that one i would presume you didn't take it that hard because it was an injury that happens and then you move on then the second one do you want to talk through what happened there as well yeah so the second fight i was um i was fine on clan wars um i was scheduled to fight dermot dermot from team rhino um everything was falling into place with them with the weight course with vicam everything was perfect like we were going in there we obviously were good friends at that stage so it didn't really phase me at all then first round i was taking him down i think it was uh up against the gauge and it was just an accidental elbow at the back of my head so at that stage i don't know i hit a nerve and my right side just went numb and i just got scared i was like that's it i'm paralyzed there's you know everything just goes through your head at that stage like and there was just a lot of con kind of like back and forth online stuff and everything but no one thought that i was stuck in bed for about a week or two weeks you know like trying to get my mobility again in my hand and everything um and physios and everything saying look it was um it was just a blow on a nerve at the back your head so that went out the window um then afterwards we just kind of like talked i took that sour pale kind of thing like you know i was just so angry like i was i trained so hard for this fight just to come down into the first round that that no contest do you know what i mean so we were like i need to get this back we need to fight again and back and forth we fought in after like a couple of months on cage conflict um and i got i got them back for yeah you did indeed um i want to touch on like when that hit you felt that feeling like you said you don't know what's your paradise like and then you're in bed for two weeks and then you have someone like talking about you and going back and forth and saying stuff like like what did that make you feel think like i'm lying in bed here i can i can't move and like he's saying this like how did that like were you not like because you were probably considering am i compared to fight again i would presume yeah that yeah that was the main thing like it wasn't really dermot i was saying all this [ __ ] yeah really like um on social media and stuff it was kind of like more of these fans and stuff like that and other people but um i kind of like played it as in i didn't really care i said i just wanted to get better really um and then like i said after a couple of weeks i i got some kind of mobility in my hands and on my right side anyway and it was grand it was just a nerve damage really but it just took ages to kind of get get me going into training again because i was kind of like hesitant or even going for a takedown or anything really i was kind of like getting scared what if it can happen again or this you know it's always going to be played at the back of your head so yeah i just wanted to get back training again so i was back in training after like four or five weeks um and i was ready to go again really because all the training i was training for this fight i was over in thailand training for two and a half months i was there training hard and so then when people started saying i was trying to get an easy way out or out of it like i wouldn't be traveling to thailand to train my bollocks off spending money you know every day on training camp and diet dieting and everything if i want an easy way out we just missed weight you know what i mean i'm not that type of person you know but um yeah i just kind of i took a i took a lot of it to heart especially at the pro game you just need to kind of like be prepared to fight really like i could be i could be fine next week i was always staying ready um so yeah it's just i kind of took it to heart more than anything but i just wanted him to get to get this fight back and just kind of prove everyone wrong that i wasn't looking for a way out you know you know as as you did and like do you feel now yeah i don't know if any christmas christmas cause your wise you feel now obviously if you're going to be on these big stages do you feel that you're better at handling that now if that comes across your way like oh yeah yeah definitely like i like i said i've done all my mistakes and everything at amateur now you're just kind of like refining your weapons really that you have between mental strength and physical strength and your iq in the game but now i'm just going in there to actually showcase exactly what i learned in training follow the game plan and if the game plan goes out the window i just improvise and we still get to finish you know because after that then you won that fight you went on a rampage then uh finishing everyone and so then talk us through that little one like that that run there where you're finishing everyone uh you picked up titles in case conflict and clan wars yeah you actually wanted to kind of get everyone in ireland but you'll find it hard to get mashed up so talk us through that little run then trying to get matched in ireland to try and get all because you want to get all the best and then go on to europe so if you want to speak on that little part of time so i i remember i fought for so this was my um after the no contest i fought for the liam got on to us and was like right let's let's make this interesting interesting you and dermot fight for the cash conflict title um i'll say yeah let's do it straight away i didn't even care if it was for a title or not i just want to fight the airmen and just that was it um knocked him out in the second round um then after that i went to i fought on clan wars and i remember was drawing covet because i was finding very hard to try and get a fight because it was drawing cover and everything so it was all um pay-per-view links and stuff so then i fought vadim in the main event um sumaida modern amber um after that i defended my cash conflict title uh in falls park i it was that was the best experience of my life it was just like thousands of people outdoor event it was during the failure when michael conlon fought on the wednesday and i think we fought on friday so it was mad scenes loads of supporters up i tk owed him then or knocked him out in the third round oh sorry the first round as well then i fought against janderson for the clown wars title and i was like you know what i'll be the first person on clown wars history to have the amateur title and the profile under my bed like you know because i was like no one has done it and i'm going to do it and i was like jonathan's a great fight because he knocked out um in his last fight i remember we knocked out with that flying knee so i was like right all this is going to be class it's going to be a lethal match he won't be backing down i won't be backing down so it'd be great finished him then in the third round um and then i fought rosten a former ufc fighter former uh cage warriors fighter he was i think all these finishes six fights were all by knockout and i was like i'm gonna knock him out as well and prove a point in in europe knocked him out as well in the second round yeah but uh before i even went kind of like across the pond like fine um finding on big european shows and everything i wanted to fight for the cage cage legacy belt so then i could have all the major promotions in ireland all the belts and i think we were meant i was about to schedule to fight richard kyle but he was he had a a knee injury or shoulder injury i remember so that felt true so i was like well that's not going ahead um then i just had a few fights pulled um then i was we were meant to fight merchants and battle as well but um stuff popped up as well like um but it is what it is then we just went went across and now i'm finding the european scene and i want to kind of cement my name in the european game and just put this little island on big promotions again as you have done actually like you actually have the irish flag and romania flag when you go to shows that was park actually and touch that cause i wasn't at that and i didn't see it like that looked amazing but have you ever before had you ever fought in an outside venue like that no i've never did what happens if it rained well the fighters were covered like as we were kind of on top of the stage and stuff um but i was just so surreal like it was so i don't know i've never experienced that you know what i mean i in my own head i was like i was probably absolutely freezing outside and like we're fighting all that but it was [ __ ] roasting up there like it was so hot like and because i don't know it's just a surreal moment but you know what i mean seeing all my uh all my supporters i think we had about 50 something like that came up from from galway and all wearing my andres judoka top and everything and just supporting me it was just it was unreal but the best moment of that say after i finished them stepping on top of the stepping on top of the cage in front of an open crowd of thousands of people and i was like i've done it it was just something else yeah no i actually i can remember that image because i've seen it and where you run and you and you're just looking out and it's just it's like it's like a festival basically yeah it look it looked unreal and obviously you fought on clown wars as well which is another really good promotion so once you got that belt and you you got that record like how did you feel especially with that fight that was a that was a hell of a fight that was some fight yeah look it was it was a very tough fight but i knew it was going to be a tough fight and i knew janice is a game opponent but um i think it was six months when i uh i was training out of spg charts down at that stage and i just want to show that i improved my striking i've done this and i was doing great on my feet like i wasn't worried obviously i got caught with two spinning elbows the hand i'll never live down uh but um it just shows i have heart and i have a chin there made of granite do you want me like it's you're gonna take a lot more to knock me out and um i showed that i have a lot of heart and it's whoever wanted it more so i think when i ate those shots he hit me with the best shots he had and i showed i was like look you're gonna have to do more than that that kind of like gave me that extra boost and everything and especially like i said having the crowd behind me uh i had about 100 something people come up to see me and that's hearing them shout my name i said right i'm not getting finished i'm going to finish him and i showed i was progressing as each round was gone it's like right just keep on going i have carried for days so i'm not really worried about that um but yeah it was a tough fight and fair play at them like i genuinely hope he does well uh in cage warriors again but um no one's no one was taking that belt away from me like yeah no it was it was some fight when i seen you get hit with the elbow and you kind of dropped i was like oh like it for me it's one of the best fights i've kind of seen since i looked at the regional scene but like like that you got up you persevered you went through and then you obviously got to win and that's the sign of a champion um to be able to go through that so that brings us to your last fight obviously you've been on that streak um you go over on another european promotion just talk us through that fight yeah so i um i fought an inferno fc um there in austria again but um i don't want to be fine excuse me look he was the better man than i thought roberto pastor he's um alexander ratchetch he's he's just signed to the ufc obviously he's um he's he's main head coach bj blackwelt i knew he was going to be a very tough fight like he was 10 and 5 going in i was only i was like five and one i was going into that fight and i knew he'd be a tough fight but i knew what his strong points are is going to be his wrestling and his ground so i was like right that's fine i'll keep him on the feet follow the game plan um but everything just wasn't i don't know everything kind of wasn't falling into place for me like i don't want to find excuses and stuff because that's not how i am but between like missing flights and then delays and this and that in the order like i don't know maybe it was more psychological kind of like messing up my head more than anything and i kind of like focused much more on the striking game than falling back to my roots of wrestling like you know what i mean like focus on my jewelry and focus on my glitch and stuff so it was kind of like i don't know i i just didn't feel comfortable in there should i say like okay he's gonna do this but i knew he was going to do that so it's kind of like playing at his game instead of playing on my own game so kind of like him dictating exactly i kind of let him be on the front foot because i'm always on the front fold i always want to control the center of the cage and be like right i dictate what i'm gonna do from here i'm either gonna knock you out or take you down and finish on the ground but i just kind of get let that get at me so he took me down i remember i rocked him with a left hook in the first round he took me down i got back up and then i i rocked him again with a head kick and he took me down i was like how is this man still standing like what's wrong with him you know it kind of just fell into my head and then i remember he took me down he was holding me down he wasn't doing any damage but he was just waiting for that moment just to kind of like sink in the arm and get the rear naked choke but he had my my right hand trapped and my foot trapped like a kind of dagger stanley cuff but what it was it was kind of like he was playing in my own game because i usually do that as well so i was like what's going on here like i don't do these mistakes in training what's going on here so then i don't know what went through my head i think it was just the pressure got to me and i tried freeing the leg with my arms i just gave it my neck instead of just keep finding the hand because there was nothing there you know that he wasn't doing any damage and afterwards he came up to me he was like that was my game i wasn't going to stand and trade with you i just want to take you down and finish you there like and i just learned so much but fair enough i was going in with a momentum i think i put too much pressure on myself more than anything because i was oh he's finishing everyone he's going to finish him and i kind of look past them kind of way like you know what i mean but um could have sat it on my ass then for a month or whatever and just cry about it or whatever but if i was on the saturday took sunday off and i was back in training on monday i was like i've no no injury so i'm gonna work on them and say so i've been working like i think it was two or three weeks straight just on that little stupid mistake that i've done that i just gave in my neck and now the lads are not doing that in training anymore but i was like why can't i do this in the fight do you know what i mean but it's it's a fighter's mentality like you have to do these you know mistakes and everything in training but obviously my mistake was i don't end the fight and it cost me the fight but it is what it is no one's invincible i know for a fact no one's invincible and everyone's always going to go at some stage you know yeah especially in mma where there's so many different disciplines that come involved and so many different stylistic masters but obviously that it goes to show how you've kind of come full circle from you talked about when you took your first last amateur you were like you were going through depression and stuff for like a month and then your next fight this is where flights back from austria mind you you're back so you're probably fly all flying through the saturday into sunday or the sunday and then you're back so you don't really get a day off and then you're back in training getting ready for the next one so that just shows how your mentality went from one to the other and it shows what those amateur fights done in the early pro fights have done for your mindset so for any amateurs that are going to be watching when you take the loss don't take it as a learning experience because obviously it'll build you to up where the likes of andreas and other professional fighters are now um going forward you have another fight coming up do you want to tell people where it is when it is and yeah who it's for so i'm fine again in five weeks on the ninth of uh september uh i'm fine again in austria because now i'm trying to kind of build that fan base in in austria germany kind of eastern europe um i'm fine on cage fight series again uh i fought i fought on cage fighters when i fire asked them and they wanted me back on because i i bring a crowd i can i can talk to talk and walk the walk and i have an exciting style of fine and it's in vienna um yeah it's going to be myself and jerifying on that show from ireland so there's both of us on the show and what else and it's on ufc fight pass so that's another another fight on ufc fight passing kind of building an explosion being my brand and we go from there and just put on another another performance and find a game opponent is a five and three christian valencia from spain uh fought tall flats but um nothing i can really handle like i'm ready for everything if the fight goes to the ground i'll finish him on the ground if the fight stands up i'll finish him standing up i just there's no shortcuts in this camp at all and i think my last loss was uh it built me i how should i say there's just no more pressure on me but i'm more hungrier than ever really like i just want to prove a point again and get back to those winning ways should i say i'm just winning streak again yeah no and so obviously if you don't have fight pass it's like 12 10 euro months or something so obviously get it to watch energy's fight and as as well as that with that you've so much more content the previous ufc's season it's only 10 or a month actually that's what i want to ask you when you've seen yourself on usc fight pass because obviously you run with the fight i think there was an interview which you were energized when you see like yourself on ufc fight pass like what did that feel like to type in your name and and you pop up on the fight pass um it's it's kind of like part of the journey really like i am look i'm i'm on tv and they started your new c5 pass yeah fair enough but i'm doing all the i'm doing all the work behind the scenes you know to get me to where i need to be so it obviously feels amazing and feels great but still a lot of work to be done to get where i need to get so um yeah it's it's nice to get a bit of recognition and it kind of kind of shows me the work i've been doing throughout the years to get me where i need to be yeah cause a lot of fighters speak that they don't get a lot of recognition and i think he was in the previous zone and then are you happy now that you're getting it and more fighters in ireland are getting it that there's more outlets and stuff for people to speak and how does it feel then when you start getting recognized it feels good yeah yeah look it's about time really we're getting a bit more recognition and everything um especially i i find i get more recognition now because i'm living and training in dublin but uh it's very hard to get any recognition on the west and it's about time really and i'm glad to see it between uh between like podcasts and like uh newspaper articles and everything everyone's actually getting it now and it's it's surreal like it's it's about time really should i say yeah now the scene at the minute is exploding like you said there's some amateurs now that could be like starting a pro that they're better than pro so it just goes to show the level in this country uh and how everything's going um i'm gonna kind i can ask you one or two more questions and then we're gonna wrap it up on roddy uh how is it training with him and and what has he done for you uh since you've been in charlestown um look owen is an absolute beast like he's even now he can come back from retirement and just start sparking people for fun uh no he's he's done so much for me like between aspect of my game and building me as should i say as a man as well just like opening my eyes a bit more and giving me more opportunities and just like little things like that that oh hey give me a text where were you training tonight or you need to work on this and just like little sequences like that but no i developed my game big time and not just saying but like all the lads in the gym um i can see progression every day going into training you know it's in between my striking the striking has definitely developed big time because i had no striking and but um yeah it's just he's a complete mixed martial art coach you know it's not just a striker you see him on the ground he's [ __ ] submitting left right center every single on the lads so uh yeah i get him one day one day one day yeah um i'm gonna ask you a couple questions on your fight so i want you to pick a fight your favorite knockout your favorite fight and then a fight that you learned the most from that could be a win or a loss it doesn't have to be in the last necessarily oh tough one favorite knockout uh will definitely be raw stems because it went far like the lad was on a different planet like he was asleep for about a week um you said submission as well was it uh no favor or favorite performance or fight like a back and forth or favorite fight will definitely have to be against jefferson it was definitely back and forth but i really had to dig deep and get the finish over and i did performance um i'm sorry the next one is uh last is uh that you learned the most from learn the most tough one probably yeah i probably have to be my last fight um i definitely learned more about myself more than anything uh or you know i'd say my my first amateur loss yeah definitely my first amateur loss against claire irvine um yeah i learned a lot from that i really like and some people you see amateur when they when they lose their first fight they could like just hang up their gloves and then fight again or like i said i fell into a very dark place for a couple of months and i just didn't want to be part of mma i didn't want to do anything i just i just i went bad you know what i mean but um yeah that was definitely a turning point in my career should i say it was either like i said sit at home i keep on doing what i'm doing and just get fat and just like go into depression really like or get back into training and then prove a point and uh yeah it was definitely that that was a turning point in my career yeah cause like that help you help your mental health keep you fit healthy and then like that it just shows trust the process because things will turn around eventually so but do you know what it was like i noticed that especially even now a pro or even amateur like everyone wants to be your friend and all that stuff when you're winning uh everyone's messaging oh congrats man you're you're a beast and sharing your stories or this that and the other but then when you lose a fight it's only the close people around you that will actually message you oh hope you're coping okay hope you're doing well hope you are right and then it's quiet do you know what i mean it's it's a it's a tough sport should i say you know what i mean and it's um that's why i'm lucky to have the friends and the family that i have around me because they've been like i said they've been with me since day one but you you kind of open your eyes and you see like everyone's on top here like oh i'm best of luck you're an absolute animal and you're doing this and that and you're like blown smoke up your ass kind of way like but then when you actually do lose a fight you see that who's around you and who's not do you know yeah because it's a very fickle and lonely sport and that's why like you said that what which you're about to bring in half a galway with her and like obviously use your girlfriends your your friends and stuff like that so obviously you probably you always value them but now you see like everything outside that is kind of like white knight like it's it's not that it doesn't matter because you do need support but you don't lean too heavily on what other people think then you're you're close circle yeah exactly yeah it's it's the only way really like it is a long sport um it's it's a team sport in senses that without your team you can't get to where you are but once that cage door closes or you're in the ring or whatever it is or you're on the mat you're alone so like you're gonna get exposed if you didn't put in the work it's that simple like you know it's a it's a tough sport so you just got to put in the work i suppose one more question and then we're going to wrap it up so when your career is finished how would you like to be remembered whether it's like from fighting well from fighting or or as a person um a phrase or a word or something that comes to mind champion mentality really um do you know what it was like i like i said i've always done it i've never done it for the money or whatever like obviously money is great and all that but money comes and goes um it's the little things that i see when i was coaching the kids over in galway like between jewelry and kickboxing i was coaching them and they hit me a message oh congrats coach i can't wait to be one day be like you so seeing little kids like that looking up to me as a role model for them that's what i'd like to see you know and fair enough all the belts and trophies and this is great but i want them to kind of look up as a good person that i am and kind of like be a role model for them and that's you know what i mean like i'm i'm doing this to show that people that were bullied as a kid can evolve and be a better person and that's what i've become so yeah i wanted to look up to me as a role model really you know that's that's 100 and you're doing a good job with it i want to thank you so much for your time it's been an absolute pleasure thank you so much to meet you again thank you and uh we will have talk soon before you fight perfect perfect thank you curious thank you