IN DEPTH | EPISODE 01 | MATISS ZAHAROVS

Summary

David sits down with Matiss Zaharovs. Matiss talks about his professional mma career, growing up in Ireland, bullies, family, team and more. INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/mma_in_depth/ TIK TOK | https://www.tiktok.com/@mma_in_depth

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Music] so today i'm here with matisse zahros zahraz yeah in the honey badger academy uh matisse i'll see your pro and brave at the minute so i just want to go through your story with you how you got from there to here so when did you first get into mma and how did you get into it and why so i got into like combat sports back in like 2013 when i was 16 years old mostly because of bullying that's that's the main reason why um i kind of went into that just to learn how to defend myself and how to fight and as i began well it's the first it was the kickboxing in a pee hall i started doing and then i went into an mma club then and a couple of months passed i said about three months or something and i was like i was pretty good like the coach see that was good and it wasn't bad so i decided to pick up some i decided to go for a competition and because i was mostly training my striking coach at time not a jiu-jitsu coach i went into like um a sport called sanda chinese kickboxing i compete uh in this sport a few times before i went down to k1 and obviously i was pretty successful in the standard i won the 60 kg belt in santa and then i went down to k1 because still you know i couldn't just go into amateur mma because i was like 16 at the time 17. so done some k1 fights um i won the isk about under 57 kgs in that and then i was just i was just kind of going on to 18 i think i had about a month or two before i was 18. so i just i was able to have a my first amateur fight then okay so i had that and then kind of amateur career started from there i turned 18 had my second amateur amateur fight and all the way up to 12 fights then and i want to win about uh four belts and i'm in mma mostly all in bantamweight division yeah and that's kind of um amateur mma career had my first professional fight on bama in the tree arena it was a very big stage enough to have my profession first professional fight um that went well i got the tk on the second round um it was over the moon it was the light and i was kind of still kind of in school back then or kind of doing a plc at the time and when i won that fight i was like wait a minute i finally got paid doing something i was just started off started off doing to learn how to defend myself you know me started as a hobby had no interest in turning into my career i believed some sort i thought i was going to be an engineer engineer after school that's literally what i was went to the phd to do thinking i was going to be an engineer and the fact that i won my first professional fight got a thousand or something for a thousand a bit thousand and a half her i was like wow god i'm only here now so i was like okay i'm going to give this a go again and that's like yeah i'm going to start flying professional mma so my next fight was on clan wars against tauman from the north i think i paid as much for that only a couple of hundred quid but it was just experience i went there to get back into it because there's a bit of a layoff between my first professional fight and second one we have a layoff so yeah i won that one first round rear naked choke that was a nice victory i got i got i got connected with tristan kennedy at the time me and him started working towards well sorry he actually helped me for the tall man fight just just on fight week he came on board and he started helping me then i had him for the flyweight fight and he obviously with his help he got me down to flywet which was pretty difficult caught now you know i mean it was a hard cut yeah it was a rough call and obviously i made weight reasonably okay i had my fight then he was he was a good he was a bahrainian guy he was good uh he was kick i i went down the opposite stance you know i mean i didn't go out with my um normal stance and my sopa didn't go out with sopa went down our docks so he kept on kicking my leg obviously um kept on kicking it so because i'm not originally in that stance i know i'd switch back and go back soup which i did he decided he still wanted to kick the same leg because he thought it was hurt which was or it wasn't too hard but like he did land he'd pull a bit of damage on that leg so i switched dancing to my original stance um and obviously it's much easier to check like when all you got to do is lift your leg up with your back leg so i lifted the leg up when he when he was throwing out a full power kick again to my leg i checked the kick boom snapped his leg in half he realized that his leg was snapped he was hopping back on one leg his leg dangling like this his shin bone like it didn't look well um i come up with a nice opaque hook he falls over i finished it off with a nice shot shot on the ground boom in the head referee pushed me off him and that was that then then obviously won the multi-fight contract with brave about five fight contract sixth flight in around there next one was against a wrestler small wrestler bilal i think was nameless that went good that was a tough fight he really pushed me to my limits a lot more i pushed him to his limits and i broke him because i i was i was training so hard between the leg snap and fight and this one like you know i mean extremely carried was working on my conditioning a lot and i basically just brought him in deep bars whenever he took me down i didn't stop none of this like you know i'm gonna constantly moving like like not giving him time to settle to catch a bear he's always hitting them always keeping them you know and every time i keep them like i took a bit out of his gas tank i had to mix it up you know i'm going to kick him an inside leg i keep him go up high always keep him guessing you know i mean i always just bounce around outside and in the tired rounds he was [ __ ] after the first two rounds um in the third round i think i threw one teep and the next one was like almost like a question mark kick got the shin across this to the side of his head boom got him he was wobbly on his feet and then i just put the pressure on him now i was tired as well now it was a fast-paced fight now i'm not saying i wasn't [ __ ] tired but i was able to go through it i was able to push through my tire and simply because the worker was pulling in so i pushed through i just constantly going far and punching them kneading him punching him pointing and punching him and then the referee came in and stopped it just cracking him like he just wasn't defending himself he just [ __ ] like he just wanted out there and that was that won that one yeah and then we go into my other two fights um which are the two losses then we go into my gamzat fight the the dagestani wrestler he's very good in the wrestling aspect i had him on the feet though hadn't had him on stanky legs a few times you know i mean from a heck and a left slip left hand um in the second round i slipped his right hand slipped it boom cracked on my left hand i he he kind of caught a little trip he clicked my ankle like he got a little takedown on me and i decided to go and take his back which is a big mistake like i could have just stepped off and just kept on ground and pounding but i kind of tried to what originally happened was he had the one leg right and i tried to come around but i didn't have my legs out too far so he still kind of had somehow one leg but my other leg was going around and he still had a hold of this leg so as i was trying to come around he stopped me by holding on to my leg so i went for the back if he didn't hold that leg over and passed and i would have kept on hitting him but that didn't go like didn't go with the plan hold on to the leg um i went to try to take his back that failed because just failed then we went into then i just tried to get up got up separated the grips ran away went for the hail mary tried to swing because he was running at me man was running at me so he was still wobbling still running at me tried to go for a big bomb didn't work out and then i just [ __ ] doing what you done for rest if i wrestled me you know i mean and yeah i went to decision yeah that was that fight then i'm gonna go into my serbian fight this is where i was gonna switch to management companies as well um i wasn't happy with the current one due to the long breaks he was okay to let me go which is fair we didn't have a fall now or anything me and paul are still cool we still talk now and then um yeah starting with a new management company fights were getting thrown left right center um and yeah i got the serbian fight then after a few fight after a few guys didn't accept it i had a serbian fight i really wanted to get back i think i wanted to get back too much and i wasn't even like i think i wanted to get back too much without even focusing on my training so much not i was focused on my training but like i almost forget forgot about the work i was putting in in the previous fight i just wanted a fight fight and completely almost forgetting about the training i should be putting in and was pulling in for the last fight just wanted to get back in there so the serbian fight came up with brave so i was like okay i'm going to take it because if i didn't take it that god knows when i'm going to get the next fight if i was if i was to turn down that serbian fight i probably won't fight for another six months due to a um uh brave iron matching their fires so i was like okay i need to fight like you know i mean i [ __ ] i'm ages and i want to fight so i was like okay i'm going to take it so took it it was all soybean all serbians against all like the rest of the world basically yeah yeah because after my gamzat fight i knew i lacked a bit of wrestling um yeah so i don't know i went to a uk i went to ukraine um after after so after the gamza fight i flew to dubai and spent some time there and then i went to ukraine there's this wrestling camp there for about two weeks he trained wrestling just pure wrestling you know what i mean but you didn't need it and it did help me and it definitely showed now in the serbian fight the wrestling i learned you know i mean if you watched the in the serbian fight it was mostly a wrestling match you know i mean multiple takedowns had some control you know i mean a few ground and pound there and there but yeah um learned the wrestling in ukraine which dramatically up my game had the serbian fight basically wrestled him it was close fight the judges gave him all the fights he got all the rounds which is a lot of bollocks he did not get all the rounds i clearly won the first and i obviously won the second second was close 50 50 with the second one judges were all serbian not a different nationality indigenous they're all serbians pure serbians you know i mean there's no other unlike like and this is not and this is not even like if like i fight in bahrain as well yeah look at the fight with brad katona and the hometown bahrainian guy it was a split decision and brad won brad won't because the judges were not all bahrainians if the jews were all bahrainians there's no way would brad win why that's my opinion jesus i think there was an irish church there was a bahrainian jew and there was a judge from a different country all mixed judges you know what i mean yeah one like and and brad got to split decision a fair play to it was a good fight in my case in serbia no no just pure serbians see even seen from the first from the first fight it was robbery like you know i mean the first fight in the card like it's robbery yeah that's all i have to say about that fight now i could have pushed more you know i mean i could have done a little bit more but it is what it is for that fight and now we're here now we're like i haven't had any fights since yeah that's kind of the career yeah um would that be normal that in a country obviously you said bahrain's different you had the different judges would it be normal if you went to different countries um that it's all the same nationality of judges or do they usually try and mix it up obviously due to fairness especially if it's an international show like brave you want full transparency you want fairness um do other countries have that it's all their own nationality or judges or is that was it just that that you've come across i think that's the only one i came across and it probably has happened in the past before as well but normally they should and would have different judges from different countries even especially a big show like brave they would have different judges none of us would be the same nationality um obviously it's not even the same nationality like it was just a show that serbia had it was all serbians like it was literally serbia versus the world yeah this is the show this is the team yeah in bahrain you'll have just like different nationalities yeah yeah this sort but it was just a case where it was an individual country against the world forget me it was it was it was that how it was portrayed in america that's their team that's what they're american now that's what that's what was going on it was serbia just serbians there's no i don't think there was anyone else on serbia's side he wasn't a serbian is fight so just all serbians against the world which is different nationalities yeah and i think that's where the judges came in as being all serbians and when you're sitting out the back and you see the first fight like you said it was a robbery you're sitting out the back waiting for your fight you see that you think [ __ ] we're in for we're in for a night here i need to get the finish or or had or had that even registered with you at the time i was like yeah like even my coach said we need to get to finish in this fight or he i don't even said that he was thinking that a different guy said that i mean a different guy said they came in and says you need to get to finish here like it's not looking good um it's not looking good your mind out there got robbed basically you know what i mean and that kind of set the whole momentum for the whole fight you know i mean if it did go to the decision like and if it was any way close it's more likely gonna go to the other um to the serbians yeah yeah that's that's kind of how it went yeah i want to circle back kind of to the start you said you obviously started a combat sports because you were bullied that seems to be a story with a lot of people within the country why was that obviously you're you're laughing originally you've lived in ireland did the bullying start when you first came here or because you came here i believe at six or is that when the bullying six years old yeah it would have started back then yeah like a foreign guy coming here to ireland you know back then at the end times there would have been a lot of bullying you know i mean even to a lot of foreign guys a lot of foreign kids like even in primary school and the primary school early [ __ ] early um early secondary school there would have been a lot of bullying towards foreign foreigners yeah uh from my experience and just experience of in my school and seeing how stuff was like and even outside school just seeing how things were towards the foreigners at the time it could be different now i don't know what what's it like now um i don't i think this could be a lot different now um there's not so much bullying towards foreigners now because obviously there's so much farmers in the country and like so much for that so many people that are born now you know i mean whose parents are not irish but they were born here now right yeah back then that wasn't the case there wasn't so much um people that are born here that had foreign parents yeah because not as much obviously you know i mean there was but not as much as there is now so now it's all like i think it's um it's being accepted now if that makes sense you know what i mean love um yeah it's been more accepted now if that makes sense so the voting is not happening it's more uh integrated culture now within ireland because we've got polish lithuanians latvians with people from everywhere whereas like you said when you would have came over at the time i've lived in ireland well i would lived in the uk for a while but i came back like they would have been only it would you'd be very rare that you'd see someone from a nationality exactly yeah um unfortunately that bullying did happen to you and that's not a nice thing to that's not a nice thing to go through so that obviously led you to combat sports once you start competing did you see the shifts changed that people people weren't weren't uh so quick to bully you then so what happened is you'd obviously start the combat sports your um your training or whatever and you're like you'd obviously put some stuff on social media or whatever and obviously as you said there when you start coming up to the competitions you have your first competition like it dies down by itself in a way like so like you would have the bullying but then if it slowly would die down die down where there's no combat anymore like they don't they weren't watering anymore or not pester it they're not pestering anymore like they die down and then they'll turn where they want to be your friends the tabs are turned you know what i mean it went from them bullying you were dying down dying down and obviously you're competing now you're beating focal lads in competitions and they know this and then now they know you can fight and obviously confidence as well plays a factor where you got to be confident um your confidence goes up she's not going walking down with your head down like anymore you're not like like someone says something you're not like all [ __ ] quiet and like turn away like stand up chest high you know i mean you have confidence like you know if someone kicked off i'm ready to swing i'm right here to potentially spark this man out if this child like you know when you're younger this kid out um because you obviously have the confidence you build you learn how to throw hands you learn throw punches no you're more confident so if someone did kick off you're ready you're you're in a much better you're much more ready than you were that if you didn't learn how to throw hands yeah or obviously defend yourself you know what i mean so they normally back off since you have the confidence and you you defend yourself you know i mean you're like yeah what's up like it's different you know i mean and if this and it sometimes did kick off when i was younger even though i was learning a dick off it i gave them a much harder time than if i didn't learn how to fight they had a much harder time getting at me and bullying me so they just left me to get me because like there was times where like even though i was fighting i was still getting aroused and and like a hand fighter happened like hands get thrown but like the same scenario before i learned any combat sports it would have been their favor dramatically yeah you get me so they come back and they come back you know what i mean it's bullies play on the weak essentially they don't want people they know they can in a way yeah in a way yeah they would yeah but then like once obviously you give them a going it's different it's much harder for them to come back and i was you're only getting better you're you're going back to combat sports you're going back training you're learning new stuff you're only getting stronger and better you know i mean so it's in the long run it's going to get much harder for them to do anything so they just either stop become your friend like anyone back anyone who was bullying me back then now they're like basically a fan out there my friend like you know i mean like and obviously i don't take any grudges you know i mean i don't when i see them now in the pub or whatever whenever i do go out that time when i see them in the pub they're pretty okay with me and they say hi i say hi back to them you know i mean but like they'll be shy now they're a bit scared like you know i mean their reactions are different now you know i mean compared to back then but it's okay now everything is okay and obviously you're older now and i mean a lot of childish behavior back then was going on you know i mean you know how kids are back then it's a lot different now obviously you're you're you're much more mature now you know when everything's different now and yeah everything's a lot better now you know i mean we combat sports yeah dramatically helped me in life you know no as it does and there seems to be a lot of that within fighters that that is the reason obviously you coming from a foreign country and that happening it must have felt it must be quite hard for you obviously but obviously that helps you grow your confidence and like you talked about you went into kickboxing and then mma talk us through your first time competing in mma obviously because that's what you're you're a pro at now your first time competing as amateur how did the week up feel how did in the backfield and how did walking out into the cage and where was your first fight not amateur yeah amateur it was exciting you know i mean jung was very excited i could not wait to have my first amateur fight you know what i mean and i wasn't still in the secondary school you know i mean because all i wanted to really show them look i'm about to have a mma fight you know and and it was just also like you know to like show them listen i would have my first time fight especially the bullies as well like to show them listen i'm stepping into mma cage this is where they're dying out like literally they would be gone like they weren't going to be bothering me anymore you know i mean and this is kind of the icing on the cake we would have this mma fight you know back then mma was like oh this is mma he does mma you know what i mean like it was kind of like that back then it was like a whoa so yeah the first fight um i was nervous i was excited but then i was nervous when i came up to it i was pretty nervous um the it walk on it was on a show ryo shin like it was back when um i'm sure why ocean the name was the show um i fought a guy um i forgot his name he's from spg i'm also a grappler i had very little grapple experience back then very little um the guy that i was mostly training was the striking coach kev kevin white from kildare mma that's how i done my striking back then yeah so i was mostly with him and a guy called paul he would kind of do the mma stuff with me them too i didn't really train with jiu jitsu back then and all i can do shout out to them the digital classes sound very little jitsu and this guy was a guy so the plan was to go in here and just fight and just not get taken down and i didn't get so walked out scared nervous excited all at once got in there but see like i wasn't i wasn't too nar i was nervous i wasn't too nervous because i found him and sand i remember was competing and standing the chinese kickboxing i fought with that and i absolutely battered him and that so i knew i had the operation in the [ __ ] striking but i didn't i didn't have the operation jiu jitsu so fight went well um the first round just makes him defending the takedown for the whole basically for the whole round defending defending coming down but it got me down near the very end right but he also used a lot of energy getting me down in the second round i just went out put the pressure on him swinging shots kicking just just fighting just throwing hands at him and i got the tko and that victory that victory wow i just turned around because i had like friends there as well a few little fries between my tree and my good friends came to watch me fight and i take out him i just turn around like yeah i mean before you like there's no other feeling no better feeling than that such an amazing feeling then and yeah like it was a great house right so from obviously the feeling of the amateur fight i'm going to fast forward you won a couple of belts amateur you decided there was nothing left for you there there wasn't uh so you went to pro your first show was on barman obviously we briefly touched on that earlier it was a big one tell me the difference and how that felt walking out in the tree arena obviously one of the biggest arenas in the country how did that feel walking now on such a big promotion at the time it felt like over i did feel overwhelming you know with with how big the place how big the arena was like i came from a basketball hall from a big tree arena you know i mean people lots of people there you know it was overwhelming but then i sucked it in you know like wow this is it this is the pro debut this is what this is all about this is why train so hard to do now i'm here now it's time to put on a show get the finish you know and i went in there and i got to finish like it was just a big step up like it was a big step up i didn't crumble under the pressure i didn't crumble under the lights i was nervous much more nervous than normal as you would in such a big um arena and a lot of people in front of a lot of people but this is what i signed up to do and this was wanted to do i always wanted to fight in big crowds and then let that get to me so i went in there and got the tko in the second round yeah yeah so obviously your first four fights they were all finishes so you the 100 finish right i want to go to obviously you went from that you fought dara then you got the brave contract you won the first fight the second fight you always considered the underdog in the fights um with the bilal one i seen the interview said you're going to break down the pressure he was heavily favored that was an absolute cracker fight first two rounds how did it feel to actually when you got to the turn around i kind of when i re-watched the fight i looked and said you can tell he tied how did that feel to actually live you kind of predicted what you were going to do yeah and then what was that feeling what's the feeling like a coming from the underdog where everyone thinks that you're not going to win they're going to win and then getting a win against an opponent like that in the fashion you did because you did break his spirit you could see he wasn't defend himself what was that feeling like like when the second round was up went back to our stools for some i did not feel that tired i could see him over there looking on the ground gasping for here he was he was done so i knew i had to play this one smart and not let him get hold of me so when i went out there the third round full of confidence looking like i'm not even tired went in there because i've seen him tired i just kept on targeting his bread basket which is the belly that the lungs at the tip i kept on hitting his belly boom boom and obviously takes more of him and then boom the heck a glance i i storm them with punches get the tko and then just it was euphoria like i was like wow everyone was like yeah it's like such an amazing feeling and the fact that i was underdog like i was like i told you so i knew i could do it you know what i mean i knew i was able to do it just the people didn't know i was going to do it turns over his underdog and i proved them all wrong you know i mean i did prove them all wrong and that was a good feeling feeling like listen guys look here you go i'm not underdog nor was i underdog for the last two fights and then they come to realize that i wasn't underdog you know i mean and they came to realize that i was the deal you know i mean i was finishing the finishing these guys i wasn't just going and winning my decision like i'm just boring stuff you know i mean i was finishing boys tko and lads breaking lads legs like i'm hurting people you know i mean i'm not just winning i'm not just winning the fight we're okay i go partying and i say i'm hurting people where they're going to the hospital or they're going back to their hotel room and they're not moving you know i mean i'm winning that and then type of ways you know i mean i'm hurting lads um that's why i ca like see what i see some fighters are fighting people who are five and twenty or five yeah five and ten like you know i mean negative records them i cannot them lads won't fight me i would like a fight i'd like to fight a guy who's six in like eight but there's no way he'd fight me because i would hurt him and he knows i would hurt him like that's why i'm only fighting guys who are like one and all or something coming up through my uh career eight and all four sorry eight and one four and one i'm finding good guys because unfortunately guys will take the fights i cannot get these guys who are negative records in their pro career because they probably know i'll hurt them you know what i mean like i'd like i'd like to get a nice finish we want these lats you know i mean like some of these other guys are getting unfortunately that that that's not working out for me you know so i have to fight these [ __ ] and one lads you know what i mean but yeah that's kind of how that one went yeah no obviously in that flight was quite you can hear him it's the same with all irish quotes miss him will peter in your corner you can hear matisse you can do this all day just talk to me a bit about what he's like as a coach for you and what does he mean to you as part of your career because he's a man who wears many hats he's got obviously here the honey badger he's got gamma and he's got fighters like you how influential to your career has he been and how how much when he's in the corner obviously you can hear him like how much of his knowledge do you take in while you're in the corner how beneficial is each year when he's in the corner yeah yeah he's very beneficial to me in the corner because it's like a video game he's very loud you hear him [ __ ] on the other side of the arena like he's a very loud voice so i can hear him in the cage some coaches you can't really hear them they'll be quiet so you can't really hear them i can hear them very loudly she's telling me to do something if i'm in a position and i do it you know i mean i do it and also like i met him back when i um after my first pro fight i met him then and i came and started training with him and he's been there ever since all day from my second pro fight all the up to the one now you know and yeah like he's held my game dramatically in terms of like a lot of wall work and just like mindset obviously as well and obviously with his experience and in a lot of ways you know i mean he has helped me a lot you know yeah helped me dramatically in many ways you know a lot yeah no he's obviously he's he's quite renowned within the country he's very well known he obviously runs gamma yeah so wouldn't go through you talk that you don't like going to decisions for your wins you like the excitement you like to let people know you've been in there with them so with your two losses obviously there were two decision losses one i heard you speaking about briefly that it was when you were in dubai before that fight there wasn't really a wall and that's where most of the fight took place when you lost by decision was that easier or harder to take because you weren't knocked out or was it because it went to the decision you're like oh these guys just obviously the last the serbia fight was it was 50 50. obviously it went the way it did but when it goes to the decision is that harder to take or easier to take when you lose in that in such a manner even the gamsat fight in in bahrain that was also pretty close if you watch that back that was pretty close as well um but it is easier to take because i didn't get battered now i didn't get ko'd um i didn't get really hurt or a badly hurt or anything um i just there's just a few things that i could have worked on more um lack like probably lack of commitment a little bit not even like commitment a little bit of work i just didn't work hard enough i don't think um and i wanted i was rushing too into it yeah like i know where i i reflected on the two losses i look back on them and i'm not going to do the same things i don't for the last ones i'm not going to take any fights until i feel i'm ready so i've been training like i've been over in dubai now since january i'll do it only for three months or so but i was there for like john mitchell's fight for basically his camp for yuri warriors munir the sniper aziz for his ufc fight they're all trained together again ready for their fights you know i mean and their fights are all around the similar dates but they're all in camp and i was training for their camp i was helping them out training with them you know i mean building myself up um and i still have more to build up you know i mean i don't feel like i'm ready to step back in there just yet i soon will be possibly after the summer i'm feeling myself getting there you know what i mean and i'm just not gonna take anything out i'm not gonna pull myself forward for anything until i'm not ready you know i mean i'm gonna first get ready and then go into camp i'm not going to go into camp not not ready you know i mean like because you can't really push yourself let's say for example going to camp not that fit fit but not not not fight fit basically just fit you know i mean yeah i go into camp just fit what happens is to me i tend to burn out because when i'm in camp i push myself and i burn out and i sometimes don't realize it and i didn't really realize it too much um for the last fights i'm not performing in training and i'm getting more tired in in like in like let's say for some sparring sessions or jiu jitsu rounds or [ __ ] or whatever but my heart rate is not on the red zone it's only it's flown just in the zone below but it feels like i'm pushing myself to the red zone but i'm not now i'm able to tell this you know what i mean i'm able to see what the story is why i'm feeling the way i'm feeling during training i'm just taking the i'm taking time off you know i mean i'm not bloody going out it's hard you know i mean i'm giving myself recovery time now and i'm basically building the body up so i'm able to um take on a lot more workload now if i was to go into camp did you get me yeah i'm able to take on a lot more workload i'm not going to burn out you know what i mean you're conditioning your body for the training i'm conditioning my body now for the fight for the fight week not fight week for the fight camp so i'm conditioning my body now for fight camp so if i like it's a whole different ballgame then when fight camp comes when fight camp starts coming that's another level of training you know i mean i'm trying to get myself conditioned now where i can push myself to limits extreme limits you know what i mean so that's what i'm kind of doing now yeah yeah so obviously you're going to be looking for late in the summer i just want to kind of touch off your two losses mma seems to be such a fickle sport we've seen a couple of personalities with an island get a bit of grief over a couple of fights and stuff like that and obviously when people when you're on four fight win streak to all finish is all exciting i'd say there was fans galore did you find did that taper off when you lose you find because i've had a lot of people say to me that when you're winning everyone is with you but when you're losing people seem to jump off the wagon and you fight and how does that make you feel is it because at the end of the day you are a fighter you do things that people won't do but you are a human being at the end of the day what kind of emotions and feelings come with that or have you have you experienced that with after the two losses yeah so with you do obviously you win the fight you get a load of people um congratulating you talking to you whatever but then obviously when you lose you only got the originals message you saying hard look the people that have been there from day one and stuff like that you know i mean you don't get any new people that time you might but like it does die down dramatically when you lose your fights but you still have the people from day one there you have your supporters who are there at the start of your career they're still there you know i mean they're still there you know um but yeah like it does die down you know people people so obviously i don't know what people are talking but probably people do be talking no he's done now that's it he's over i'd say he's not fighting again that i said oh he's not he's doing that that's not a crack that probably does happen but i obviously don't um i don't really think about that too much and again once that if that starts happening he's doing that's it no more but he's not he's not gonna make it now that's it that's going to give me the drive to prove them wrong you get me that's going to lift me up boom i'm going to prove these lads wrong i'm going to prove that proved them wrong just like i was underdog for the first two fights bahrain and the other one i don't know i need to prove people wrong here like you know i mean the obviously lit the fire that that um the drive was there you know i mean because i wanted to prove that and this is going to be part of the case again now for this next fight i'm going to prove people wrong now i'm not done i'm going to come back now next fight i'm going to [ __ ] spark and i slide out and that's it like you know i'm going to be back where i was back to finishing lines you know i mean exactly back where i left finishing guys you know i mean these two losses i'm not going to sit and be upset over there and i analyze the situation i realize what has happened i thought back over it you know i know exactly what happened so i saw like it's on the past like i don't really think back that's gone my memory like i'm looking forward now that's it you know i mean forward next fight and kind of bringing back going back to how i started my appropriate training i was doing knowing the work the the intensity all i was doing like i'm gonna bring all that back as i said but forcing the condition nobody do that but yeah not bad like it i'm gonna prove people wrong you know i'm gonna gonna get back on this you know i'm gonna go back finishing guys you know i mean and i didn't lose against hams like i lost against an eight and one guy and a four and one guy who's five and now and he's actually sparking everyone else out you know i mean lost against good guys decisions could have went either way give or take scenarios you know what i mean um i didn't get battered by someone who's [ __ ] two and two like you know yeah like i lost against good guys and my wings weren't decision winds my winds are not born winds like i finish lads the average person who's watching it doesn't really know too much about the sport they're coming to watch you bother someone they're coming to watch uko someone they don't want to see excitement they want to see mad [ __ ] i can't in a way i bring that you know i mean yeah i really my wings are really go to decision like it finishes people get excited they're like watching all right it's gonna happen boom leg break and people were shocked you know i mean the heck tko like that got people off their feet because like how the fight was going before i know i mean like that gets the adrenaline rush pumping like it's people going like it's good fight nice fast fast-paced fight good shots landing you know i mean people like watching that so i'm gonna bring that back you know i'm gonna bring what i've been doing back you know and yeah i'm gonna bring it back and get back on the bandwagon start winning again yeah no i like what you said there and obviously with the windspeed decision i said it was easier to take you have a lot more footage to learn from that and obviously you've studied that and going forward you don't want it to happen again and in regards to the question i asked about the loss what i really got from what you said there was you only really value your core people who kind of came up with you and they're the only ones who matter because like at the end of the day these people like i i haven't heard anyone say and this is done but obviously they fall off and on like casual fans yeah um that whatever they say you get one win they're all back on your bag so what i've really got there is from uh well your family your friends your coaches you just really value that core people for when you're coming up because at the end of the day they're going to be there win or lose no matter what exactly they would be yeah that's the people like they are probably number one support people who've been there from day one you know i mean like they're your number one supporters they're gonna help you when you're when you're lost or even when you're retired like they will help you or they'll be there for you regardless these people are going to come and go when you're when you're winning like you know i mean like they be gone then when you're losing you get me so i don't i have my people you know i mean and i'm grateful for the people i have you know i mean and yeah like i'm happy you know with the people that i have and the people that are going to help me um progress where i need to progress you know that's it yeah yeah just one more question on ashley before we go is actually because i was supposed to ask that earlier how was your mother when you actually went to combat sports did she like obviously because you were being bullied did she know about the bullying did she accept it or did she take on or you're going to get her and especially when you decided to go pro what was her opinion on her so she don't think she knew so much about the bullying he's not only saying much about the bullying um [Music] yeah i didn't really talk too much about the bullying obviously i kept it in my kept to myself in a way i didn't really talk too much about in terms of her about me competing and all she's kind of 50 50 about my father was more against it than she was she's more 50 50 about um she went to one of my fights one or two of my fights and she was just happy for me she's she's happy for me because i was doing something i was doing something for myself i was doing something i wasn't just doing nothing you know i mean like although i didn't want to go on working i didn't really want to go well not that i didn't want to go i didn't want to go and go to college and all that um see i didn't want to go to college yeah so i need to do something and i was doing something i was doing the martial arts there's training i was doing something you know i mean it'd be a different ballgame if i wasn't doing so if i wasn't doing anything so she was happy that i was doing something and doing something i enjoy you know i mean and she's still happy like i mean she now she sees that i turn professional in a in a sports you know i mean an industry like i became a professional in mma like and she sees that marrying on me so she's okay with it now you know i mean obviously she doesn't doesn't so much like seeing me getting beat up and she doesn't like seeing me losing obviously it's hard for her to see me losing but she's happy she's happy that's what i'm doing mma and i'm pretty doing pretty well at you know she's happy that she's happy yeah no that's good so i say she's probably your number one supporter every loss for you feels like a loss for her that sort of way because uh to you she can probably see how devastated you'd be in a loss and then that translates to her pain then as well exactly yeah exactly she would perfect i can't wait to see fight obviously the boys in the bodies would have been great bodies to work off so i'd say that short space of time you probably learned a lot so i'm really excited to see what's next for you and as soon as the fight gets booked let me know so i can make sure that i'm not working and i can watch it because i really want to see your next flight like i said they're exciting they're to the point so thank you again and uh i can't wait to see your next wipeout welcome perfect thank you very much thank you