IN DEPTH | EPISODE 14 | ANDREW BARRETT

Summary

David sits down with SBG Tullamore fighter Andrew Barrett. Andrew heads to Italy this week to compete at the 2022 European IMMAF Championships and will represent Ireland.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

Kind: captions Language: en foreign [Music] I've got Andrew the king of Hell Barrett we're going to run through his career obviously himself Jordan and Ron and are all going to the Euros at the end of the month um so we want to just go back to the start of your career not even start your career your your entry into MMA like how did you come across it where did you start and why so my first star out in marriage lairs you probably have to go back to what it was like as a kid I think this is one of like the funniest parts about like people are always like oh MMA is not for me MMA is for me I'm sporty so MMA must be for me I'm not I hated Sports the idea of sweating disgusting hard work it was the laziest person going uh but I was smart and I loved I loved chess I love card games and uh one day one of my friends when I was 12 asked me to go to him to a karate class and they started explaining really simple everybody knows it you throw a left hand to fake uh right hand and you distract him with your lead hand and I came back and I was like mesmerized by this like this actually has like gammanship in it this has like tricks to the trade this is not all just about physicality and I love that idea and I got like so attached to karate and I I put more time into it than anybody else and then I started studying different martial arts I was kind of like mixed martial arts before I even know what makes my special ass was and uh I I started coming in with techniques that were outside of karate so I started coming in with like sweeps and takedowns and stuff like that my my karate coach freaking out he's like don't do that that's not karate and I'd be like he's on the floor I achieved the same thing everybody else did why didn't that work that worked for me and uh and I did a course didn't know what MMA was or anything like that but it's more time went on I started studying different martial arts like I started getting more and more fascinated by all like you know the the spectrum of things that you could do and then one day I bought a UFC game it was like second hand it was only like five year or something but it had uh had three fights on it and one of the free fights was Leo Machida beating Rashad Evans and winning by KO and he was a karate guy so I was like my God like I can do this like he he's doing this and uh and then I started like studying more and more and looking at Fighters like Carlos combat and stuff like that and I was like looking at the the way they mixed everything together and the way that there was no restrictions on what you could bring in it was as simple as those at work if it doesn't work don't use it if it does work do use it I love that more and more and I showed the game to my family and I was like oh this is like you know MMA this is UFC and they were like oh and I was like it's a fun game but like never do it like that's [ __ ] crazy and it's like locked in a cage fighting another human being like that's like wild and then more and more time I started getting more and more frustrated with karate I was like they're not letting me like practice different things or ask a question and they can't respond to me like my coach used to say 80 of fights end on the ground and uh and I used to say I said to him one day well if 80 fights end on the ground why do we spend 100 of our time training on the feet and he was like don't get to the ground I said to him well if I wasn't gonna get to the ground I wouldn't have even got into the fight in the first place I would have avoided it and uh and silly things like that where it was like people weren't willing to say I actually don't know Andrew I'll find that out for you and then I heard through a friend that her brother was doing MMA and we traveled down to this gym we weren't here but um I went into Kieran I started talking to him about training and one of the things that stuck with me one of the first things he ever said to me was there was no stupid questions that no matter what I asked about MMA he he would either one have an answer for me or two he'd say I don't have an answer for you but in a week's time I'll come back to you and I'll have an answer for you and that really stuck to me he's like had the humbleness to step down and go I don't actually know now he made a big mistake saying to me there's no stupid questions because I had that guy stoking the jam from like all hours of the night and he was there going Andrew I actually really have to go home or my wife's gonna think I'm cheating on her or something I can't keep answering these questions but I was just obsessed with like learning and learning and the more time it put into martial arts uh the more I realized like MMA really was for me and before I even stepped foot in the gym I told my mother that I was going to be a UFC fighter I was like I just I just know it I know it I was like there's enough ordinary people in the world I'm not one of those people I'm going to be a UFC fighter and uh when I stepped in the gym I told Karen straight off the bat I was like this is something that I wanted to do and whatever it was about me because I was like the nerdiest tiniest little kid he could ever come across Karen was like believe me he was like I think this guy is serious he's not just talking and he's willing to put it in and I was just obsessed with every time I got a chance to come down and train every time I got a chance to do a little bit the gym was an hour away from my mother's place and poor mother driving up and down every day to get me uh to to put that time into me and like that's another important part of that story is is like you know it's not just me there's like there's so many special people in my life that like pieced everything together that actually like brought me to this moment um when I hit 18 I had my first fight and I had a I had an opponents pull out which was like a week before and I got pulled in with another opponent and we Karen didn't it was back Wild West MMA people didn't really know who I was being putting it in against and turned out after the fight I lost by TKO locally the ref seemed to be very aware of like the situations this is a fight that shouldn't have been made yeah afterwards I get told that this guy that I lost to had four Pro K1 fights this is my first MMA fight like first MMA fight ever hit four Pro okay one fights and uh and but still despite all that the negative thoughts still ran through my head I was like you're thinking you're special you're not special this isn't for you you're not actually a fighter you just don't have the materials for it you love martial arts but you just don't have the backbone for it and I beat myself down and I have to say like looking back that's probably one of the things I regret the most is um and if I was to ever tell someone that's coming new to marisolarities don't there's a difference between being critical and hating yourself and hating yourself doesn't lead to any sort of growth and uh I was I was just I put myself down put myself down had the next fight had a bar room brawl showed my hair was able to fight I thought I won it I lost the decision again and again I beat myself down I was like because you know that decision could have gone either way but itoka is my own fault it was like how could that happen again I had another fight and uh put in loads of work dedicated myself and that fight I actually I can openly say I got robbed enough for you it was a terrible decision like it's online you can all go back and watch it I definitely won that one but again still those negative thoughts like jumped back into my head you're not good enough you know you're working as hard as you can you can't work any harder than you are um you know I used to come back from China it'd literally be like shaking I'd be so exhausted at the end of the week I had no energy to do anything else so I was working as hard as possible but I still wasn't getting those results and sometimes especially with the way a fighter is or where heads are sometimes you start your career everything runs smoothly sometimes you start your career you don't have maybe the right things line up for you and everything goes uh wrong but I honestly I'm so glad I had those moments now um not just as a girl as a marriage Cyrus isn't getting better but the growth for myself as a person that I had to I had to be that negative before I could realize to be positive with myself um so I had to pull myself down that far and uh and only now after years and years of hard work of things started to like slot together and I do think this is an important story to tell because I think a lot of times people have hired stars to their career and they give up and they go I'm just not made of whatever still such and such a fighter is made of and that's just not the truth the truth is um if you give yourself time you grow you constantly put the work in your your thoughts will come back to you at the end of the day um so as time has gone on particularly the last like two years or literally since we've opened up from covert I've just been on a tear um and I've been going from success to success and it's all part of the team that we've brought together but also my own personal growth of stuff we've gone through with Kieran have talked caring about uh throughout the years that Karen could see that potential in me boy maybe I wasn't uh realizing that but that was that's my basic story of how I how I started and how I fell in love with it just a question when like you said you were being so freaked did you after the third one did you ever think of any like at one stage I want to quit and if you did what made you change your mind or did you think about quitting I thought quitting all the time all the time I talk about quitting after the first fight it's all about quitting after a second fight talk about quit and after the third fight I even talked about quitting sometimes after winning and as hard as that is to imagine I was I was on a high and then I would go is it worth everything that you're doing because a Fighter's life is the life it's not you know if if you pick up a regular job say you work in the shopping center you work eight hours the rest of those hours are yours the weekends they're yours a Fighter's work is 24 7. is the whole way through the week uh you eat different because you're training you sleep different because you're training you your interactions with people are different you can't even date the same people other people can date because you can't commit the same kind of time or the person that you're dating has to understand what you're going through you can't have as much friends as other people and part of me is the world-based question was it worth giving up that much even if I was getting success from it but I think something that MMA really does bring in is it makes you coat the fat of your life makes it quote the things that like you realize aren't important uh you know I think too often we go through our day and it's just that's okay when you only have a few moments in your day you put everything into what you love you only spend time with the people you really care about you really love you don't spend time with people you think are okay you think are all right and I actually thank MMA for that it taught me that lesson that if if a job was worth doing it was worth doing right if it was worth spending time with someone it was worth spending all of my time with that person uh if it was if it was you were sitting down to a cheat meal you enjoyed that food more than any other person in the entire world did because you didn't get it all the time and sometimes it's the lack of having something that makes you really appreciate something when you do have it um I I've always had those questions in the back of my head uh should you continue with it and to be honest I don't think those questions are ever going to stop I think those are questions probably should always be there um I think after every fight I should ask myself is this worth do I want to continue with there's loads of different routes I can take my life boss those like those like special moments after fights are are truly incredible I think I think this is what we're doing this interview for is we're trying to distill down what those moments actually mean to other people um because I think for for a person you watch nine minutes of a fight and you think that was the nine minutes when for me that's months that's years of my life to still down into one moment and it's a very very special moment and a moment that you'll Replay in your life and I said it's Karen even about me winning Nationals I said that moment can never be taken away from me it exists in history now forever I'm the first national champion at lightweight and nobody else can take that away from me you can't go back erase it it's always going to exist and because of that every moment I worked up to that was worth it it was worth doing it for that that moment is apparent my life for the rest of my life yeah so after the losses your first win comes right so obviously you were down you wanted to quit then you went from the lowest lows was it the highest highs the next yeah my first win was a TKO in um in the core Hotel it was actually only a short way away from the gym so it was home crowd would and I remember I got up and I I always used to think it was like cheesy seeing Fighters do it screaming after fight so you always used to be like that that's just put on you're trying to be like the man yeah and I screamed and it was Primal it was a real real genuine feeling um I and and I it was just it was so much built up emotion it was finally a moment that wasn't constantly telling me that I was I was a failure in the sport I was I was actually winning even though later on I would still have those doubts it was it was it was at least one moment I could hang on to that I I'd had that success and uh but it's funny it's like not actually the moment inside the fights he actually remember the most it's the moments just after the fight that like stick with you you know like running up to my mother afterwards saying like we actually won like and I say we because people act like it's just a fighter it's not just the fire um you know we're we're built by armies of armies of people and uh like even if you look at the Nationals right now like we had to raise seven thousand just to go over it's not government funded and my people have gone come together and we've already raised 5 000 Euro like every single person when I go in and I win a fight has a small part of that win as their win and uh and I hope people realize that that it's it's not just one person it's it's my mother helping me out it's my coach helping me out it's my team it's the people training me the person to put in two Euro uh to get me to that next stage so that next moment that's what truly makes a world worthwhile will that work hard work and that special moment when they do put gold around back yeah and when people like when obviously do the fundraise and stuff people always think I won't put that in that doesn't seem enough like if everyone just put in a fiver to your like you said exactly it would actually build up quicker than the people wanting to put loads in I think a hundred percent I think uh I think Skip a coffee skip one coffee put your coffee money in just one day uh to be part of that moment um don't feel that you have to put in a hundred Euro don't feel that you have to put in a thousand we don't expect that we realize that everybody's under pressure everybody uh needs money for something else um but uh but also it means so much to me as a community that we've like come together and we've raised all this money so far and there's little things we've done uh Jordan's been cleaning cars to raise money uh We've obviously been jumping in and uh helping him we've been doing little of fundraisers and ask and for sponsors and just reaching out to people that we've obviously touched in conversation just true interactions with them to help us out with sponsors but any small amounts the people can give really does mean so much it's small things are all things so it's not about it's not about doing loads for the team it's about doing anything for the team and you know we we follow that through the way we train you know there isn't a detail too small that we can't change to make things better there isn't the amount of money that would be too small that wouldn't help us go that extra little bit to bring us out there and and show not only what me Ronan and Jordan can do out there but also what our community can do out there yeah I know if that's I really like that and then they'll see going forward we're going to move on to the imams later but we'll talk about you fought for your first pass battle arena how did it feel going into a title fight and just just tell me like was it difficult did anything feel different in the lead up to that and getting into the cage or was it just another another walk into the cage that that was one that was a special special moment for me that was a really special known one for me um I remember uh it was like just after covet so so there was I hadn't followed before and uh I walked in to the changing room and I saw all these Fighters around Leon Edwards was there uh training and getting ready uh his uh Fighters and uh I actually got so distracted by the atmosphere that I forgot it was fighting uh I loved it so much I started going to Karen I missed this I didn't realize how much I missed this I missed the tension in the room I missed every fighter looking at each other thinking that they were going to fight the guy that was beside them even though there was a 20 kg difference between them and they were never gonna fight each other um I missed that energy and I missed the way I tried under that pressure as I started getting warmed up um Kier knows that people started pulling away from us it was like it was too much to energy I was given off is too much to for them to even be close to um because I was I was going in there to take someone's head off um I I went into the fight I was just about to walk out and I was with Charlie Ward I was with Keira Nate came over to England to help me out and could hear them cheering for a HomeTown boy that you know that the music was blaring for him and uh Karen said what are you gonna do and I said I'm going to make the entire crowd silent and I said you're going to hear two voices you're going to hear Charlie Ward You're Gonna Hear Kieran davren you're gonna hear nobody else in that room other than those two people and I went out to that fight I knew that my opponent despite having a perfect he had a perfect record he was undefeated he hadn't fought the way I'd fought before he hadn't felt what it was right is and my game plan going out was to let him know this is a fight you can hurt me I can hurt you this can go anyway so I blast him with a hard cake he pressured me down we went through our emotions body lock went out to the back got the submission and again the gears changed and I think this is like something that a lot of people don't realize um once I got that tap my opponent gave up my opponents on the ground he's so upset his hands are in his face and I don't even celebrate I go over I put my hand on his back I said I'm so sorry I get up again don't even realize I've won a belt it doesn't even register in my head they start bringing out the belt uh I started arguing with care and I was like I wanted him to wear the belt I didn't want me to wear the belt and Karen starts arguing me it's funny because back on the video it actually looks like we're getting out into a full-blown argument here in the cage when we're just arguing who's supposed to wear the belt and anyway Kieran convinces me to wear the belt I put it on still haven't registered I won anything uh I go back to the back room and it all hits me like all at once and uh I started laughing like laughing like I just couldn't believe that moment happened for me that I had a belt around my waist that I won that fight that I was back to fighting that I wound in a dominant fashion in the way that I should win fights the way that my hard work should come out and I was so excited and I rang my girlfriend I love her and I rang her and I I just couldn't get words out my mouth once I was done calling her I rang my mother I rang Ronin rang Jordan I was talking to him laugh and couldn't believe it and then I saw my opponent and I went over to him and I pulled myself out of it I was like I know what it's like to lose I don't want this to be about me right now and uh I went over to him and I said I was I said I'm so delighted you're upset and I said I know that sounds like a very strange thing to say to a fighter but I said if you weren't upset right now that you lost I knew you didn't try I knew that you didn't put any work into it the only people that are devastated by losing fights are the people that put their heart and soul into it if you don't put your heart and soul will into your fights you're not going to be affected by these things um so I said I'm delighted you were upset because that means that I beat a fantastic fighter and I can't wait to see the things you do after this and he's had a very cool damage to a career since then picking up a lot of good wins uh but like that moment in encapsulation was so special for me because again it was that moment where it was like I am what I say I am I've I say that I'm a world champion I am world champion I've earned that belt I beat an undefeated fighter I didn't beat a boom to air in the belt um and uh and and that's why that belt's so meaningful to me um even though it's just the belt you know you could give me anything it could mean the same thing but means so much to me because it it represents that day more than uh what it actually is yeah I really I really really like that story actually when we move on in your career then you've already went and that's was run through what it was like winning that because it was the first time it was wrong like I said you're first in history to win it like talking through the little process for the few days because obviously you would have to make way every day yeah like the IMF so obviously that's a good practice going forward so just talked us through the the Nationals yeah so um I think I did an interview with you uh just before I said that I was ready for 27 minutes of hell and that was something that I kept repeating in my mind there's a tendency with people people give up just when they think the finish line is there if I told you that we had to do an exercise for three minutes you'd push through those three minutes but if it turned out that it was actually three minutes 20 seconds those last 20 seconds it hurt you more than anything uh if I told you we had to do the same exercise but I told you we had to do it for four minutes you'd do the four minutes fine it's thinking the fight's gonna go a little bit longer than it should that's what breaks a lot of people and I think that's why you see a lot of fires they go out and they want to they're like I'm gonna knock them out I'm gonna finish him I'm gonna win in one round I'm gonna win and I've had loads of one round uh finishes but then when it doesn't happen that's when it starts affecting a fire's mind and that's why I said 27 minutes of hell as I went into that whole competition expecting every fight to be a dog fight I expected every upon own until he had to fight not to have to fight the day before that I was the only one fighting and that every single day I was gonna have to fight a harder and harder opponent and when I went in with that mindset nothing could affect me nothing could harm me because I was expecting the worst from the get-go but I was still gonna win um going into the first day made way perfectly Shane obviously from combat lab had me like on point um for making weight he meant everything very easy he had me dialed in on what he should be taking um I I went in on the first day weighed in got ready got warmed up and and I took my opponent out in the first round uh by TKO um in the fight I just listened to instructions from Kieran going through the motions I heard Kieran say to me 30 seconds and I was like this is not going to a second round I'm done with this and I locked up that finish just before the bell I went so it was as close to you can have to perfect fight but what people don't realize is even if you win in dominant fashion in a fight you still come out with scrapes and bruises and bangs and my right hand was actually quite bruised up my right knuckle was quite swollen and sour and it was actually quite hard to like put in a hand wrap um the next day despite the fact I had that dominant win next day I went in same thing dialed in ready to go after wins you'll notice this with me there'll be no excitement there'd be no cheering putting my hands up until the last fight the last fight I can appreciate the moment but first fight I almost looked disappointed one rounds okay on to the next day we went in the next day made weight perfectly really nice and easy and I was up against Frank Frank is a tough piece of work that man uh he he's a he's a mean me and player and he was one of those people that would not go away no matter how hard I tried um he came out straight away he hit me with some uppercuts from the color tie caught me a bit by surprise again I've experienced all these things before because of my open down career I know bad I know good these are all things are are not new to me uh so I stayed nice and relaxed I shot underneath one of his kicks I started getting my wrestling going I took his back locked up the rear naked choke and I could literally hear him gargling like he was like half unconscious on his feet but again fair play to him his tough his nails he gritted it out we go on to the next round very same thing tough hired fight and pushing him at work and for those takedowns and then it goes the third round and Kieran comes up to me and he goes do you have one more around in you and I said to him um this isn't as hard as going with Roman Deacon this isn't the hardest going with Jordan Scully and that's no disrespect uh to Frank it does that's me saying my team is on a different level the way they push me is completely different than other Fighters getting up in the morning to spire on a Tuesday morning is one of the most terrifying things I do in a week I know that if I feel a little bit sick a little bit tired I'm a little bit run down from the week the week before the boys are gonna smell it they're gonna smell their know what's open and they're gonna haunt me like prey animals um and I'm gonna do the same thing to them and they're terrified as me as I'm terrified of them we don't hurt each other and train it but we push each other and train it and honestly that's scarier than hurting each other that that push where your lungs are on fire and you still have to drag through and you have to give everything to do that every week is so hard so when I got to that last moment in the Frank fight I was like this is easy let's go again let's go another two rounds no problem I do eight rounds in the gym and I don't do eight rounds like other people do eight rounds I don't do eight plays Byron rounds where I go with one guy and I go with another guy and we mess around a bit I go with eight hard rounds where my team pushed me and I do I never win all the rounds Rona never wins all the rounds Jordan never wins all the rounds we always lose some of the rounds and we're always annoyed the next week how did I lose those rounds I need to take that back that push is so important so when I won that fight I went home here and drove me home I and it's a funny feeling going to bed be open knowing that there's another killer on the other side uh waiting to fight you the next day um and it was Solomon like of all people like someone I've looked up to for a long time I've saw him as this like incredible killer and a sport you know a real veteran a real fighter not someone who talks [ __ ] and uh who just gets down to business and puts the work in and I knew I was fighting him the next day um no fool to Solomon but Solomon didn't have to fight the first day um his opponent pulled out on him that's not for Solomon but to be honest I was delighted with it I said to Kieran when I heard Solomon's opponent pulled out I was like Grace there will be no excuses when this uh this competition is done I had the hardest route to the end uh I had the hardest fights I had the toughest fights I had to push through the most and I still came out the winner so I remember good luck going into the bathroom looking in the mirror seeing my two swollen black eyes my stomach was so upset from the adrenaline that I couldn't even put food down and I'm still eerily cam I don't know what it was that I just knew I'd put in enough work I trained hard enough I was gonna figure out a way to win um another great moment from the Nationals was they made us warm up beside each other and I love that even more where I was like he gets to see everything I'm doing I get to see everything he's doing we know we're gonna go out and hurt each other um but I am it doesn't matter if you know what I'm gonna do you can stop it because I'm too well put together and too well trained I'm trained by the best I train with the best um I I sat down after we I was warmed up uh Karen stood in front of me and he asked me what are you gonna do and I said to him uh I'm willing I'm willing like to do anything in that fight to get the win I'm winning too if he if he knocks me out I'm okay with that if he breaks my limbs I'm okay with that if he tears the flesh off my face I'm okay with that if I give up in this fight I'm not okay with that that was the only thing I'm not okay with the only thing if he kills me I'm okay with that but I'm not okay with giving up that feeling of giving up that moment because I've given up before I could never let myself feel that again um so I went in there and uh and I I put on at the time the performance of a lifetime I look back at it now and I'm a bit embarrassed about some of the mistakes I made in the fight but I put on a a special fight and a fight that I think represents the Irish of mixed martial arts which is Art is Art is emotion there's no way you don't watch Solomon versus Andrew Barrett and you don't feel something there's no way something doesn't store up inside your chest just a little bit no matter who you are you don't go I felt something watching that you know there's loads of fights you can watch you you could have them in the background while you're on your phone and you wouldn't notice them you watch this fight you're gonna feel something um there's a moment there's moments in that fight where I point to the floor I'm defiant against my losses two black eyes I'm a mess of a fire I'm already damaged before I even start the fight when I keep a pace from the whole nine minutes um I work and I work and I work and I wasn't willing to to take my foot off the pedal until the fight uh was done um that is actually how the name came together the king of hell um in the fight I pointed to the floor where I told Solomon that he was not the king I was the king and then after me talking about 27 minutes a hell I just said after the fight I'm the king of hell it was in that moment it was not the nickname I was planning on at keeping but that was a lot of what media started calling me afterwards and and I liked that more rather than choosing something have something naturally come together and the king of hell is not like it's not something that's to intimidate my opponents to scare them to impress them it's to say that I'm a normal man I bleed I hurt I've gone through so much but I grit through everything I grit through everything I represent the person that's work in that like you know nine to five job to keep his family going I'm that person I'm that person that that that no matter how much I get beaten down I still come back I still come back um that was a very special moment for me because that was in my opinion the moment I realized I was I was that good and after the fight I went over to Solomon and I said to him uh that was all the gamesmanship I hope you realize that I have so much respect for you and I really do mean that I looked up to Solomon I told Solomon was like a superhero I thought he was a [ __ ] fantastic fighter and uh and it was an honored step in and fighting and it was an honor to step in and fighting on that stage it would have been a shame if we were fighting on some undercard in the middle of nowhere with no Prestige to the moment the fact that me and him had to fight our way of Truitt tournament we had to meet in the finals for the first national lightweight gold medal that means so much to me that it was poor on that stage okay so obviously you became double champ tell us what that was feeling was like and tell us what it's like to fight a cage conflict cage conflict was a funny one again like people look at nine minutes they think that that's the fight for me that wasn't the fight for me the fight was that I had five pull outs up until this point I went through Camp after Camp after Camp I accepted every fight they put in front of me I said yes to everything that they put in front of me um and everybody pulled out I'll be honest for silly reasons there were obviously Fighters with really legitimate Reasons I'm not trying to throw everybody under the bus but there were some Fighters that literally pulled out for no reason at all not because they were injured um just because it didn't suit them that day that they were taking the fight and honestly I have no respect for that the build up to that fight for that cage conflict belt I was fighting an undefeated fighter again uh that's my history making belts as I fight undefeated Fighters further uh if I fought an undefeated player incredible wrestler with Incredible pace and pressure um I did not spare I did not do strengthening Edition I did not train for that camp whatsoever I was sick every day coming up to that I was sick for the week making the wake up but I pretended to myself I wasn't I told myself I wasn't sick at all I wasn't I didn't feel bad I was a hundred percent uh Kieran asked me he's like do you still want to take the fight like you haven't been into China and it wasn't because he doubted me he just wanted to know where my head was and I said without doubt 100 I want this fight because I want to show to everybody that uh Andrew on half a leg half alive uh without any training without any preparation can scrape themselves together coming against an undefeated fire for the cage conflict belt and still come out with the win and that every fighter that pulled out for no apparent reason because it didn't suit them that day or they didn't have their favorite pair underwear on or they didn't have their favorite meal in the morning uh the those Fighters would feel embarrassed for making those decisions because that's not what a fighter does I'm not saying that a Fighter pulling out sometimes there's a reason to pull out but I think there is a small number of real fighters in this country um they do exist I thought a lot of them I have a lot of respect for the ones that I have for um but for those who are pulling out for no reason I have no respect for those people if you want to fight you're coming in for the right reasons um winning that Bell more than the performance was more word that I pushed through stuff that that nobody else could push through that I was prepared in a way that nobody else was prepared for because I had had it the hard way up so this was just another challenge on the long list of things it wasn't even the opponents in front of me so I gave him uh his first loss in his record I collected at caged conflict belt and and again like I almost I almost passed out after the fight I was so exhausted from it I was still sick I was still still sick days after the fight um but none of that mattered to me um What mattered to me was that I got through it despite that um and honestly I'm glad that I was sick for the fight because if I wasn't I don't think that moment would have meant as much to me because the adversity actually had to come over so that was another one so you got two belts and now after that you're going forward you're going to the the IMs you're going to the Euros how does it make you feel to go out and be represented in the country with with two of your teammates and then with the rest of the team because the whole Squad is fantastic going after yeah no it's an incredible group uh going over um CMAC have been down training wheels uh the last whale thing honestly it was probably nearly the entire Irish team or at least half dollars team uh we're on the mats um and we got a chance to work with some gray fighters from their place um at that moment of like going out there and getting to represent our country is is is such a special moment for me because again I want to I want to represent what we're doing here on a global stage um I wanted to let everybody know that not just Ireland but Tullamore but my small group group can do world-class things on a world-class level and I'm going to act like that when I go out and fight if you've watched my last few opponents I feel every stylistic opponent you could put in front of me I thought the wrestler who fought the striker I thought the submission specialist and generally speaking I've outstruck the striker I've submitted the submission specialist I've out wrestled the wrestler um I've beaten people in their strength and that is a world to lead up and prepare me for this moment to collect that gold medal yeah we can't wait to go and watch you or wait until you go over so we can watch you going over there I'm just going to finish with like two questions one what does Karen diver mean to you I think to to sum up in in a small way like the reason why I chose to to stay with Karen the reason why I chose to train with him is uh I won't name names but uh my first ever MMA fight card I ever went to um there was a very like high level coach a coach that everybody would have wanted to train with at the time uh and I had my eyes glued on him I was like what is he gonna do when they go out and fight and they went out and force and his fighter got knocked out unconscious and uh and he strolled in almost like it was nothing like he was so okay with it it was honestly a little bit disturbing for me I was like is that normal is it normal to be okay with your fighter getting knocked out and uh and I remember myself questioning myself was like you know I get we can get knocked out in this sport but surely your people would care about you enough that they'd be upset about it and then later on that card our Fighters had a few wins and then one of our Fighters was winning the fight he got clipped with an overhand right he got stumbled dropped and it was called a TKO and Kieran stepped in the cage and he was devastated heartbroken and I could literally hear him saying across the room I am so sorry I didn't do enough for you that's the coach I have behind me and that's the reason why I choose him as my coach uh is not because of his technical knowledge which is incredible it's not because of the preparation we do which is incredible it's the fact that he genuinely cares about the people that put time in here if you don't put any time in and training you're just another person if you put hard work and dedication in this gym you're going to be treated like family in here every time I've suffered a loss Karen has been as the deaf as stated as I am after my last loss Kieran went back he stayed up all night re-watching the fights try to fix the problems after my last loss at Jordan and Ronan kept asking themselves what they did wrong what they could have got me closer to that win after my last loss Shane changed around strength and condition and to try to modify it to anything he heard that I had a problem with in the fight me tiring in a certain way he changed it around to get me that bit closer to the wind that's the kind of team we have around us where when one of us Lewis we all lose we all feel it but when one of us win every single one of us feel it and I'm only naming a few of the people in the gym that are like that um but uh honestly uh that atmosphere that feeling uh runs throughout the gym through more than just uh Kieran because he's cultivated that culture inside the gym yeah that's excellent that you seem like such a good team here you're so together I've been here twice now and I've seen these all at shows anyways and you get that fly from you last question if you could be if you want to be remembered or how would you like to be remembered as once you finish fighting well it doesn't have to be a word it could be a phrase or how I'd like to be remembered um after I'm done fighting honestly I don't think has anything directly to do with fighting I think the thing that sticks out to me the most is I want to be remembered as as as someone who inspired others to push through their hardships in life um the when they were down on one knee they went I've been with Andrew that whole time I've seen Andrew push through what they might think is harder their situation might be harder but if they just have that inspiration for me for that moment that they can push through whatever they're going through their life I want that to be the thing that I'm remembered for perfect I want to thank you so much for your time it's been an absolute pleasure thank you thank you