Andrew Barrett interview

Ringkasan

Andrew Barrett is an experienced amateur MMA fighter making a come back after more than a year out to compete for the super featherweight belt at IUR FC. We talk about him opening his own gym and his comeback this weekend.

Transkrip (youtube_captions)

[Music] okay so I'm here with Mr Andrew Barrett who will be fighting at your Fighting Championship this weekend for the super fedway title against Vladimir stanka it's been a while since we've seen him in the cage I'm really excited to get him back in the meantime he's opened own gym so there's a lot to talk about thank you very much for your time how are you fight week how are you feeling brilliant brilliant uh you know a lot of Fighters they have trouble with way C but when you have a um combat lab on your chest everything's M easy Shane Smith has me eating chocolate and ice cream on the way up to it so uh making weights effortless you know I've gone through hard weight Cuts in the past without him and now it's just smooth sailing the whole way good what is just for people who might not know what is the combat lab and what do they do what does Shane do because people might be interested they might want to take it on board if they're here and you're eating chocolates and ice cream the combat it probably be easier to explain what the combat lab doesn't do than what it does do um Shane is probably one of the most meticulous people I've ever met he gets everything down to a tea um and uh he covers nutrition he covers strength and condition he handles my strength and condition and he particularly while he he works with the general public if they want to lose weight and get in shape um he's particularly well geared towards uh Fighters and athletes um he just knows how to fuel us properly for competition and get us ready for competition which anybody that's been around fighting for any length of time knows it's a little bit more complicated for Fighters because not only do they have to be fueled for performance but they also have to get inside that weight limit uh to be ready to fight so um he's just one of those people like every single time he opens his mouth he has a new piece of information to make the whole process that much smoo are for you um you know he does all the worrying for you so you don't have to do a bit of worrying yourself yeah I've got I know L that are with nutritionist as well and that's what they say one of the biggest uh reliefs is when they have a nutritionist or they might step on the scales they might not be exactly where they want to be and sometimes that happens that there might not be no reasons but that's what the nutrition say just stay on track like that might it might might have been a bad sleep it might have been something but it will come around in the end so how much of a relief is to have someone like that to handle that so you can just concentrate on drilling preparing your for your opponent and just not having to worry about wake up which is in itself is a big relief yeah it's a it's a what's it called a huge relief and for me especially someone who's thinking of longevity like I want to train until I'm 105 even I still want to be kicking kicking 15 year olds 20 year olds around the mat even when I am that old and uh and I want to stay healthy you know and like look fighting it can't take its toll on your health there's no way like completely around that but there is a way to improve these things like when you hear the stories of What fighters were doing in the past it's honestly terrifying and the saddest part is is despite the fact that there's good information out and there's people like Shane out there um Fighters are still doing the crazy way CU they think the tough way the hard way is always the right way and uh for me that just signals that a fighter feels like he needs to prove himself um if you want to find out if Andrew B's tough there's a whole host of YouTube videos to find out that he's tough you I don't need to prove it when I'm at home forcing broccoli down my throat and suffering through it um and Shane's just one of those people that just keeps everything everything on track if you have a question he answers it immediately um I don't worry as much about weight as maybe other athletes do because I am a veteran I've been around this game for a long time I'm comfortable with my body I understand it I trust it um uh boss Shane is one of those people that just take so much weight of uh my back he handles so much of it and he's also one of those people that I think this is Ry he genuinely cares about his athletes um H he's not just looking at us as a product he's one of those people that like you know if I won or I've lost in the past he gets almost more emotional about it than I do and uh and that's something that um you can't replace you can't buy um a person like that yeah no I like you said with the years ago the way they used to wake that's because the information really wasn't out there whereas now like you said you've got AB bundance of information between Google YouTube obviously I wouldn't recommend them I'd recommend going to a professional and there's lots of professionals out there there's so many around now like there's so many that are involved in the fight game so don't do it the hard way because like that's going to affect your performance but in terms of you've been out but we're going to talk about your gym first and then we'll go on to your timeout uh how is your gym going last time we spoke was obviously you were you were planed on the gym how how how was the launch and how was everything gone since fantastic honestly better than I could have imagined um I was I I I think especially if you've ever heard me talk or you have heard me talk about like the mindset I went into the Nationals I'm always one of those people that expects the worst hopes for the best so um I knew I was going to make the gym work but I thought I was going to struggle at the star that was not what happened at all um I had mess and had some of the most incredible people walk through that door almost immediately um I've only been open a few months and we can already see it grow I went from uh two days and two classes a day to three days uh and so now we're doing six classes we're adding in MMA classes as well um and it's just growing more and more and uh and honestly like I live the life and few people do you know I I get to play Ninja and pretend to teach people how to be a ninja uh all day and I somehow I convinced the world to pay me money for it on top of everything uh so I couldn't be happier couldn't be happier with Jim no congratulations obviously on the success and I wish you continued success with the gym and like that it's it's always hard starting off but when you go to areas that might not have those facilities people might flock to it because like sometimes especially in rural areas people might not be able to get them because they most of them are in big cities so um so congratulations on it but with that when we were talking about your opening that we were talking about you may be competing again and maybe not competing again and obviously you've come back now what what what made you make that decision to come back and compete cuz last time I talked you I was unsure if I'd ever see you fight again yeah and honestly I was there with you I you know there was I was being totally honest I was like maybe we'll never do this again or if we do it again it'll be a fight a one fight for a bit a crack a bit of fun I'll enjoy it um but something clicked with me um life just kept getting better and better life kept like honestly I feel like I'm playing this game on easy mode like I'm showing up to training uh and and I'm teaching I'm showing up to training and I'm doing everything that I love all day and Kieran just said to me he's like Andrew you're looking better than you ever have like way way better than you ever have and the truth is and the funny thing is is I said to him and I'm not even trying I'm not even trying to I'm not knuckling down I'm not being the hardest meanest man possible um I'm literally just going in there because I love fighting I love training and I love martial arts more than anything else in the world I do think it's the most beautiful art on the planet and uh and I've been performing well in the gym and kieren sat down with me and he had a very serious talk with me and he just said um you know he said he said that he thinks that I'm at a point where I should go pro he said that I'm honestly looking like on fire and he was not saying that prior to me stepping away from it he told I should actually push a bit further but the way he's seen me perform now he just can't believe it um and uh but he the first question he asked me was he said if you're going to fight why do you want to face um and I think that's a very good question and I think um it just shows the kind of person Kieran is kieran's not just trying to get me into fight to promote his gym that you know they have a pro fighter and he's doing well kieran's looking out for my well-being um and the first thing I said to him was uh I want to fight if it inspires and it helps my people if it helps my gym if it helps grow my gym and it helps give opportunities to my young Lads I have some incredible Lads in there already that are performing better than you could imagine inside four months um so that was that was my main goal when we were stepping back into to fight to have that fight um I said I I said if if it stopped me inspiring my people if it stopped me um training my people I would step away from it um and the funny thing is as along the line like something changed like I don't maybe they don't feel like this maybe they do feel like I'm the one inspiring them but I was watching them show up to training and they were the ones inspiring me like I wanted to train so much harder just because I was watching these hosts of people from different backgrounds come in and work so hard to better themselves every day um you know I uh I have like I have young Lads that are are you know 16 17 they have a you know they have school they have their own part-time work on on top of it they have their own other sports and uh they you know they drag themselves into training and and because they love it so much they can't get away from it um I have you know I have my own mother who like broke her finger in training so she stuck a boxing glove on and trained through it you know the toughness came from somewhere um I I uh I have a mother of three kids who car broke down and she had all the excuse in the world you know sit back be lazy watch some Netflix take life easy so you know what she did she cycled to training every day and didn't M miss a session so when I have people like that performing like that looking up to me how can I not raise myself to that standard you know it's the kind of behavior that makes you want to be a better man a better Coach and a better servant to your people um and uh and I'm so motivated going into this or just in every action I take in life is always to improve and help those people um because I know they have my back so I most certainly have theirs that's good and I like that the fact that you you're not ashamed to say or afraid to say sorry not ashamed but afraid to say that those people have inspired you with those stories like cycling every day like you said for me if my car was gone be like someone give me a lift I'm not I'm not going I'm not cycling to work um but there was something as well that you were talking about when coming back fighting obviously you said you were training better you look the best that you ever have and Kier and obviously noticed it and I like that he asked you the question why would you want to fight because if it wasn't the right answer he wouldn't have let you fight so if it wasn't if it wasn't what it was for but do you think because you said you weren't competing you wanted to focus on the GM do you think you went in and enjoyed it more and it just organically you grew as a person through all these good things happening and it you just got to a stage where there was not that there was no pressure fight but there was no fight in mind it was just you going in and joying it and that's how your skill set improved because I know Kieran does take blocks off with his Fighters for like skill Improvement do you think that was like what you done kind of subconsciously in your head yeah yeah you hit the nail in the head um I took the pressure off my back I um I remove some of the stress in my life I appreciate the things that I have again how many people in the world can say that they do their you know their dream job that they get to teach people what they want to teach they get to train in what they want to train every day all day nothing else um and that's the life that I live and I don't think I truly appreciate it as much as as I as I could and I think a lot of that was me um building and taking on stress that I didn't you know I didn't need to take it wasn't my stress it was other people's stress or other things stress and when I removed myself from that um and I took on more responsibility than I've ever taken on in my life probably six times the responsibility and found it even easier than what I felt like I was doing six seven months ago um you know I I genuinely think there's nobody on this planet that loves martial arts as much as me and I'm sure there's loads of people who would argue with me and I kind of love that you know they should argue with me more people should love it that much um but I do uh I I I did need to take that sit back improve and enjoy and when I was going into this Camp I treated this camp you know me and Kieran talked about what should we do in the camp we did nothing different not a single thing different you don't need to do it different when you have the right formula the right formula is you go in and you love it you love every moment of it you go in enjoying training and uh and that brings you on I would usually coming up to a fight stop my development I would go we just need to you know have hard rounds push the body um I didn't do this this Camp I don't need to do this to Camp I know I'm fit I know I'm strong I got the best people behind me uh supporting me um getting me in shape I don't need to worry about any of those things the only thing I need to worry about is enjoying the sport and when I enjoy the sport I get better and when I get better you're going to see some P for performances for me um and uh and that's definitely what I'm going to show on I this weekend yeah yeah no I can't wait to see you back it's been quite a bit it's been I want to say about 18 months maybe been it's been over a year anyway definitely um I wouldn't know exactly what it is um but yeah it's been over a year and I and I have been dying to get back in the cage um you know I I even accepted going back fighting amateur and we have been trying to get an amateur fight for me on a few cards prior to this um I had a lot of pullouts that didn't want to take the fight or took the fight and then a week later took a different fight and pulled out on me um so I have been trying to come back amateur Bush the prospect of making this a more serious return wasn't on the horizon until later on when they when Kieran saw um so the performance that I'm getting you know every day he says you know don't change whatever you're doing like you know we can see how quickly I'm getting better we can see how quickly we're improving um and uh and you know that's it just enjoying and loving the sport I'm this year I'm planning on traveling and training with loads different gyms I was all ready to see MAAC this this year I loved enjoyed that um uh and and hearing and seeing different people's perspectives on the sport is just incredible especially people you respect so much yeah that's good that obviously because you and CAC have actually a close relationship I know was the last because a lot of you would have fought each other and then you started training together as well and I think that's pivotal and I don't want to say for smaller gyms but gyms that don't have as many bodies as obviously sbgh HQ has loads fight Academy Ireland has loads and like you said it's different if you're with the same training partner you know his Z and his zag whereas if you go against another training partner from another gym he's going to open up different moves different possibilities that potentially could happen in a fight yeah yeah no exactly and uh um honestly you know seac and era grappl and their perspectives on the SP um our our actual techniques and our applications are quite different but our approach to the sport is very similar in that you know you don't see um you know huge egos people pushing each other out um you know when I went up and sped there like I came out this in the same shape I went in and you know where there's other places that uh would you know try to knock your block off they'd hear that you were a champion and then then that was their opportunity to you know get a win um which obviously is you know a little bit dumb you know nobody's going to ever talk about what you did in the gym or anybody that does is a very casual person in this SP um at the end of the day it's what you do Under The Lights it's not what you do in the gym that counts yeah because that that's what they say lose in the gym and win in the cage so there's no there's no point like you said that's just EOS but you're gonna be coming back it's a fantastic show as always he matches it really well do you think the timeout will affect you at all or has your performance been that well like not just but maybe mentally walking back in it will 100% affect me and it will definitely affect me mentally but the the what most people think is it will affect you negatively honestly I think I was going in with uh to my fights with negative uh energy with negative and uh things that were holding me back inside of the fight um the person that you're going to see in the cage is a completely different human being which I think it's going to scare a lot of people because the person you saw in the cage before was a nightmare to fight already um but this Andrew Barrett is a completely different animal um I'm going in to enjoy that fight I'm not going in to fight and survive I going in there to paint on my canvas on my caged canvas um and uh and I cannot wait to do that you know and I'm looking forward to you getting back and it's obviously for tight you're fighting Vladimir Sanka who is a very tough competitor as well that's what you want you want these tough guys you want these hard guys because you get someone that you know you can beat there's no learning in that what you make of Vladimir and and his his style and his game plan because I know I think he's lost he won his last fight and he lost two in a row but he was on a bit of a streak what you make of him as opponent because I think he's a very tough opponent for you and a very good one yeah he's um he's a very physical athlete I think he's a very strong strong athlete um uh he's one of those people that uh makes bad situations good situations you know he drags himself out of you know a lot of times you see him in fights and you think he's out and then he comes back like uh like nothing he's incredibly tough if he he's one of those people who nearly let his arm break making a submission nearly let him go unconscious in a choke um and I respect all that those things I think Vladimir the difference between me and him is that Vladimir is a fighter and I am not a fighter I'm an artist um when you see me in there it's not going to be strength versus strength I have the combat lab behind me if I wanted to do strength versus strength I would still win that battle hands down but um strength versus strength is not what you're going to see in there what you're going to see in there is beautiful beautiful martial arts performed at the highest level and when you see that performance you're going to think to yourself when is this guy G to go pro that's good and I can't wait say so we're going to be looking at a very beautiful technical martial arts performance for me is what you're predicting is going to happen um we're not obviously looking past Vladimir but you said you want to go and do a bit of traveling obviously Vladimir is now he's next not looking P him but do you have like do you think you be going pro after this fight will there be more amateur fights or will it depend on the results of this fight and perance well if he flatlines me in the first round I'll think twice about it I might take a second one um but uh definitely um Pro is on the horizon that's where we're looking towards and again the only reason why I want to go pro I don't want to go pro um to to be an incredible you know martial artist that gets famous I want to go pro because I want to open opportunities for for my people um and if mg Pro is the thing that does that that's what I want to do um the other reason why I want to go pro is because it's going to let me use even more tools than I was using before um uh I've already been training with elbows um I cannot wait step in and and use those techniques um and uh and and that honestly really really excites me like I'm thinking about stepping into the cage and I are this weekend and when it's done I will not cannot wait to get back on the mat so I can start playing with my tools again so I can can start uh playing with those paint brushes playing around with those techniques experimenting with what I can do on the that um and getting myself that much better yeah know and I can't wait to see the performance and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you like that you were at top of the amateurs at the time when you kind of went away uh you're coming back you're back for a title so it's going to be a fantastic fight and a fantastic show in general because the show is always really well matched but I'm going to let you go is there anything you want to say before you go or anyone you want to shout out and I want to thank you very much for your time it's been an absolute pleasure again well thank you so much for having me on and hon hly the interview is one of the things I was looking forward to all week um uh the people I want to shout out um I'll have them hopefully on my t-shirt uh if we get done in time uh combat lab supporting me um with uh nutrition with strength and conditioning keeping me in top tie shape and making the way effortless I want to thank Kieran and uh Jamie I don't think Jamie Gets nearly enough credit uh which she does behind the scenes um helping and supporting us um I want to thank my mother for always being there and always helping me when when it is needed um and I want to thank all my teammates for getting me ready and I want to thank the king's court for inspiring me honestly those people are getting better and better at H day and they're changing and it's not just about martial arts in there you can see people that are going through a lot of hardship in their life and they're getting through it because they have not just a martial arts gym but a community that's supporting each other that's pulling together and taking care of each other um like attracts like you know when one person's leading a group that all he wants to do is help people the people that are coming through the door are people that want to help each other um and it's beautiful seeing it session ends everybody circles up on the mat um and the first thing everybody does is tries to improve each other's life and uh I don't think I could imagine anything more inspiring um than seeing that perfect I love how you articulate stuff and the way you put stuff together that's why I always love having these interviews because I just ask a question and then you can go on and elaborate on it in your own way and that's what I love because you're very unique in that sort of sense so it's always a pleasure it's going to be pleasure again to see you fighting person this weekend and I can't wait for it thank you again you've been an absolute gent thanks so much