IN DEPTH | EPISODE 09 | JEANDERSON CASTRO

Summary

David sits down with pro Mixed Martial artist Jeanderson Castro for a chat about his life and career so far.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Music] so i'm here with jensen the jungle castro and team beyond here in balbregan um he fought recently at cage wars he's fought all over ireland he's fought in multiple different countries um it's a pleasure to actually be here with you um how are you and we're going to how how was your career and how did you start off in your career um fossil fuel thank you for coming down and i really appreciate it uh um samantha it starts a long time ago you know i started with capoeira brazilian massage my dad was a master and that my dad starts with 15 years old and i started when i was nine and then i was gonna play enjoy it and then i just tried to get something more out of there you know so and then came to my diet and said to him like look i want something more i want something more excited i want have like proper contact and then he's like are you sure it's like yeah and then so from there i went boxing jiu jitsu and the muay thai and here i am now you know so you didn't just stick to the one you went into kickboxing muay thai and jit so you you went all over and how did you find those early years did you know you wanted to compete and compete at the level you're competing now when you first started or were you just doing it as something to learn to begin with um well so when i started uh first thing with jiu-jitsu after capoeira i see jiu-jitsu as an amazing sport you know um like in brazil everybody go play soccer also jiu-jitsu like one of the second biggest sports in my country and when i saw it's like a small man stop and big mans you know and i was like wow this is amazing and it starts training and then when it starts raining i said like okay can i can i compete in this and my coach is like absolutely you're good at and then i start competing completing jiu-jitsu and then after gigi2 i said to my coach like uh what's the if we do something like that and i'm a coach like oh we just do jiu-jitsu we can't do this so then from there i actually found myself like because i wasn't good at soccer i wasn't good at anything else and just a lot like martial arts and then i said like okay that's what i want to do i want to go forward and see where i can go and i fell in love man i haven't stopped since yeah now everyone says once they start whether it's cheats kickboxing once they start mustache they get the bug and then they go on so talk me through your amateur career your first fight the feelings leading up to that fight um and how it felt like leading up knowing you're going to compete uh and then what it was like actually stepping into the case what kind of feelings emotions did you have leading up to it um well like the film was was scared to be honest with you um everything started in one way uh our first mma fighter there in the gym was black belt paolo his game and then my coach introduced him to me and thought this is john and he's a good boxer and this and that and it was only a small fight in the gym you know and inspired him and then he looked like me why are you no fighting it's like i don't know i want him but my dad won't let me do it you know he's like i can't get a fight and then he said he can get me fight as soon as i come in and then he's like oh boy you need to sign and like something just say you're allowed to fight from your parents and i was like nah i can't do that so the first person came in my head was my uncle and then when i found out my first fourth fight ever was muay thai i thought this guy was aware about over 10 fights amateur fights and overweight also um then we went and started a toy and on i'm first thing i broke my nose and then i come home my dad was just coming from us i fought and that took me out of the gym for six months because i made my uncle sign that they have the paper there and then after six months i i said to him like i can't be good at anything i want to do this and then it let me go back to the gym and the punishment for me was be the first to run the gym and last one to leave the gym i had to clean the gym every day as a punishment because i lied to my coach as well and be there training i couldn't miss training and then my first mma fights came um i thought this guy was a black belt anti-condo um i stopped the guy in the second round and i was like okay that's what i want that's what i want to do and my first mma fight was a small gloves oh it was therefore yeah for your first fight my first point and i had gear and stream plans on and i was boozing i was i think was the best time ever i could have in there so so then obviously straight after that once you get that winning feeling you want to continue so then you continued on uh had a couple more amateur fights so like just describing what the your amateur career was like for you yeah i said like my amateur career was was great it was great and i tell you it was was one of one of the most moments ever amazing moment ever for me because i was learning and i was meeting people you know people was coming telling me stories about mma about what like how they started and like like in my country i i got only three amounts of fights and then i came here i got a good thing i got two fights two i wanted to fight and then i fought this guy from iceland stopped him in the second round and then uh they offered me james gallagher and then everybody was just telling me oh don't fight this boy he's a dangerous he's a death is it that and that's like okay i won't fight him and then i thought james i literally put james in the hospital because i literally just drove the truck over and he submitted me and the son some position that was not legal in an mma like special amateur i like mma and then i tapped and then my coach was like oh this is not legal this is not for amateur like and what was james gallagher you know people couldn't say no and then when i heard it's like oh he's in the hospital you broke in this broken nut i was like wow and then i called him out again it's like let's do it again let's clean up and was calling him for long so long and never answer and then i turn the pro you know i actually seen that flight that's why like i was watching it and then i was thinking at the time i was like jennison's at this way this is now and james at this like how did that fight ever happen um yeah but yeah i watched it it was it was actually a really good fight like that he just caught it in the turn around and yeah he's got them in the last round yeah and that was it but so when you turn pro your first fight uh was in brazil wasn't it as probably yeah so how did i feel to go back to brazil and make your debut like that i was like again i was scared because i thought the guy was a brazilian champion and jiu-jitsu a black belt a big fella and i didn't think twice i just i took it and the guy just quit gave it up keep it up the like second round he just stopped standing i just kept controlling him in the cage i just stopped and said no more and and i was like wow like from there i could see that like it's two man two different skills and the best moment in the time you know so it's like like i took of the freedom you know i took as a freedom like when i decided to step in the cage most of my times and like like even the people my friends close friends telling me to say man you're a completely different person went inside that thing like i never seen somebody like that so cold you're so excited to watch you seem so happy you seem so and then afterwards you've been so friendly so it's it's like you see 15 minutes and 50 minutes of freedom for me you know because i think everything was inside my heart i live in there so yeah i like that it's like you're two different people because i've talked to you personally outside i didn't see in the cage and then it's like said you want to go in and win but one thing that struck me for is you want to go and you wouldn't hurt people to a point that you win but you don't want to it do serious damage to you because on the human level you're quite kind as well so you want to talk to like your thought process behind that because you see a lot of fighters say i want to do this i want to do that and i know a lot of us talk but you want to go in and you want everyone to go home safe basically exactly exactly it's it's like it's like look it's it's a very is it's a brutal sport you know some like people out there still looking like it's a dangerous sports it's a crazy sport listen i don't want my kids to do that but in the end of the day we get paid to do that we live through that and for me every single fight like when i'm in backstage i put my knees on the ground and now i ask god to protect me and protect my my openings well and protect everybody who's there everybody come in there safe and go home safe that's how i do you know i i fought loads of muay thai fights and then i've been hurt people a lot and then after people go celebrate oh we're gonna celebrate and this and that i can't do that because i know somebody was there inside me with me in there it's not well you know and then like a samson mma you're like oh the guys know okay i can't go and say like oh yeah i just see what i did and i don't feel i'm proud of that you know i if yeah i'm feeling like on certain way like wow like it was great fight was great finish but i'm not feeling happy because the guy's not well and only god knows what's going to happen with him because i think i think forward though i think in the next five ten years you know how how my brain is going to react towards how i gonna feel like when i get those those hits like that you know i don't wish like i'm gonna gonna kill this guy i'm gonna doing this they're gonna do that yeah when i'm here training it's my teammates it's like yeah i'm ready he's gonna fall he's gonna fall but the excited man when they're trying to hit it up because we're training here trying to like dogs you know we're trying to like to help each other we go forward and people don't like thinking like oh yeah the guy's there at jiu-jitsu gym now man like completely wrong you know i have a good grappler here good strikers and pass that door man you're inside the crazy box you know so after as i said to you earlier i passed that door just already thinking like to go home you know it it's the same like when i go fight i think you get into the cage getting saved and get out safe and send my opponent you know so that's what we do yeah because obviously we've seen the bit before it's here everyone's role and it was actually great to come in and we caught a bit footage as well so you're talking that we spoke previously as well you uh because obviously you're saying you want people to go home safe you actually check your you get brain scans quite regularly as well because of the nature of business and so you're really conscientious of your health going forward obviously with the head shots is that something you're still doing at the minute like constantly getting the the head scans every couple of months just to make sure everything's okay yes absolutely absolutely it is it's quite a deal you know for like special like for like our division now at the moment we don't get like serious pay we don't have good money to afford things like that you know like fighters there i still have a job it's still full-time working like like me like you know and but the most important thing is look it's our moment you know like we enjoyed the moment right now but it's going to get some stage we are going to stop we are going to end it up our career and then like i don't wanna die alone man i don't wanna thinking like oh my god like i'm gonna forget about my family my friends who i was all go to bed and have serious headaches and injury hair injury there i don't think like i want to go check and everything yeah every time i go there check my brain and sex everything's okay i'm scared like i'm going there scared it's the moment like i'm being shaken to the time my doctor called me like everything's okay you know it's like for me it's the most important thing so yeah no 100 but then like what you just said and i understand what you said some people might ask you why don't you stop it's impossible it's impossible because as i said like i got some mistakes now in my career like everybody's training hard everybody wants to be with c everybody wants to be there i want to be here i want to make losing money i see i seen this as as a enjoyable enjoyable moment of my life right now you know every time i think to stop it's just my brain talking about it but the feelings come from my heart you know and i was talked to my message the other day and said or like i gonna do one more one more i was like yeah one more you know and then there's no one more i say nah there's no one more okay you know so um like i can't i can't i can't like i tell you i tried i tried um things happened with me years back i tried to stop and basically here i am like you know mma brought me here martial arts brought me here and and today i can tell you that i'm the most strongest person could i ever come across because like i tried to stop i tried to quit and mma didn't let me then my coach didn't let me doing that my family tried to support me to stop but couldn't you know yeah you said something happened years ago would you like to expand on what happened years ago and what what made you want to kind of give up at the time absolutely so um 11 years ago i lost my little brother um was the the most excited person kid like you could come like a cross you know he used to play couple here so well he was actually better than me better than my whole family my dad was couldn't see him playing or singing like my dad sometimes was crying to see him playing and singing you know and i was so excited to come to see him every friday playing teaching adults how the sport was a better and then i was coming back home from from a holiday little holiday i went to my friend to come back home was the last time i saw him he came to me and i said you know today sunday i was like yeah and then tomorrow at monday you have training to go like you have to trying to to to get donuts like yeah i know anyway it's like six o'clock in the morning i was like yeah i know anyway he used to be my little coach you know and then i was like what are you gonna do now he's like i'll go play the next door i was like great and then he's like oh your gym you training gears are waiting for tomorrow it was already there and on my room ready to go and then i said okay be safe and remember i had to be home earlier because i have school he's like yeah i know so then i went to bed and then he's coming back and he wished me good night i said you too have a good night and when i just i just woke up he was running he ran to my room and said john john wake up i said like what's going on he's like what's that noise come from and watch shotgun fire and i said to him was firework you know um and then i said look go to bed there's a firework maybe some football team won the game just go to bed turn off your lights and would sleep and then everything will be okay um sometimes not now but sometimes i used to to blame me for that because if i said to him he just stay here with me and he would be here you know he got back to his room when he's turning up the light and the cop was outside and it just shoot through the windows and catch him in the face and the bullets just come through the face and get out on the back of his head and that's uh then my dad just get up and run to my room and say john get off they kill your brother for me it was like wow i have all the brothers you're younger than me and then i said like luanne he's like no joelle it's my little brother and it's like it's impossible he's in the room that'd like come and see and when i saw his on the floor you know and now what i could do was just carry him and bring him outside with my dad he's trying to survive and breathe in so heavy and and then went to the corpse and said please just try to save my brother you know and he just put the gun on my dad's face and said if you don't step back i will do the same what i did to you son and then the neighbor was right beside us and they said come on come on put him in the car and then we drove to the hospital my brother was alive basically alive uh then we got there at the hospital um i hope the family came in i was overblown and then i was looking myself i couldn't believe it because like it was my little brother's blood on me and then we went to the police station to report them and then they came to the police station and said there wasn't them and then who the investigation started and they just tried to say to them that like my brother tried to go after them like my brother was only 10 years old man my brother was in this school every day my dad was doing community job and there to taking kids out of the street you know i was helping my dad i had my full-time job i had my training never had a problem with the justice and then then all my family were well known on the street all over the place so then the whole investigation is coming out and the bullet they took it off my brother's head was from the cop and then they still free that you know they still work as a cop they still go up and down enjoy them lives and the justice from the man's never come you know and like what one's already done is god once already made it you know like i can't tell you now i now i can talk i can't i can tell people explain people how it works how was because i prepared myself for so long you know i was hiding the whole situation because i was afraid to talk about what people are going to think i was afraid to talk because i could get down depression i was afraid to talk because i didn't want to remember better and i decided like the sport helped me spot put me out of there when did that happen i was two years there back home and training for first two months i tried to forget about everything i was drinking every day i was fighting the street all the time going to football stage and to try to look for fights and stuff to try to end it up with myself at some stage to kill the pain but thanks god nothing happened and then my coach retired is enough you know that's what you got to do that's what you had to do this way you're good at that's what your brother did for you um your brother every time come to the gym to us here training to see you progress and to see you do what you do best i said why should you stop and then i said to him i don't have the love anymore i don't have the passion anymore who's gonna telling me that i have training six o'clock in the morning who's gonna tell me that i gotta go to the gym so it's gone and then the next day i went to work and then i was thinking and then the guy i was working with he said to me bro stick with something are you good at what skill depends you know and was my training was my fighting ah then after that day work i come home i prepared my bag it was tough man it was hard because i was preparing my bag i was thinking about my brother then i got in the gym my coach has a big smile on his face and give me a big hug and say this is your place this is where you belong then i was training was the best day ever i was there trending and i couldn't see i couldn't feeling what i was doing good feeling like my brother was happy in that moment seeing me do what i was there and then i got that fight again and then after two years my family was okay my dad was okay okay but not okay they got back on their feet again um and then i said to my dad i couldn't handle them anymore i couldn't stand in there anymore i need to find somewhere to go and my dad said like aw where you go that's like i'll go i don't know go somewhere yeah i kind of be okay for a while and like man i don't know what so everything happened for a reason and then one day i went to together my brother started to done and then i met this guy come to me and start talking with me and ask me what i was doing and i said about my brother and i said about mma he said like how have you ever heard about ireland i was like no i don't even have a clue where it is he's like i live in there for 15 years and small country mma is getting really good in there i know a gem there i kind of bring here he showed the dude he should come and i started saving money i couldn't speak english in that time i couldn't understand english but the only thing i have in my bag was the fight game and then after after a while i said my dad i'm ready to go my dad sets up to where i was like i'm leaving when i said tomorrow and then i left home and i miss my dad i miss my mom but i don't miss home i don't miss come back and say like hey i'm here to leave again because i had too much thing there like i left too much staying there that's my brother's memory there you know and like like if you ask me where i feel at home inside the cage man that's this that's where my home is first of all i'm really sorry about your brother um like i said at any stage you want to stop we stop um that's so that's actually i didn't realize the story was like that um and this just shows that people talk about the justin system here but when something like that happens and and you've never got justice for your brother that's that's kind of horrendous that's that's that's a horrible story uh i'm i am deeply deeply sorry for what has happened to you um [Music] so obviously you don't want to go back there because uh of is that would that be something that would happen there yes because uh since the memory the memories i have it's like my childhood like you know my brother would see my brothers growing and it's like i'm way stepping forward of everything you know i i decide to i decide to work on forward you know backwards you know um like i love my country i love my home homes always home you know that's what they say but it's like to me to live and do what i'm doing it's fighting i homo would give them give me the opportunity you know like since i came to island i haven't been fighting since i came here i haven't stopped you know and like all the time my mother's called me and say like we have to fight this we have fighting down it's like wow you know like back home like we have 100 fires there for one opportunity the cheapest one take it if you say i give you one thousand another one say i take 50. they go for taking like the small and army small pay and it's like don't get me wrong it's it's like if you have a dream you have a dream about like as i said like again i'm not doing this for the money and doing this for for the passion i have for the freedom i feel like when i'm doing so it's like like i don't know how i can explain like i i have no problem go back home i have no problem with police and i have no problems with justice i'm no problem with anybody so ever yeah but i feeling safe here feeling safe where i go with feeling safe like anywhere you put me but i'm not feeling safe if i go home right now and say to you like oh yeah i'm i'm safe no i'm not sad because my brother was killed inside his only house or like her home you know so as a as a ten-year-old child as well so yeah which is like i said hog and i am so sorry when when you first moved here then you had no english how hard was it for you to adapt and especially carrying that which is did you have many people that helped you when you got here literally i just have one guy a brazilian guy who actually as i said was his 15 years and his english wasn't great but when i was saw him speaking for the first time i was like wow i want to speak like this guy you know and and was was hard was luckily it was hard for me because what i was doing was just keep myself locked up in the room i didn't want to go anywhere and sorry and then i after first month i called my mom and my dad and said like i want to go home and then my dad just looked take this as a fight john stayed there i was like yeah join the fight i said yeah fight then take this as a fight learn one thing every day and you will be fine and then i put my head down it's like let's go you know and especially here like accents is completely different you know so i was like okay come on let's go we can do it we're gonna do it and like every day i learned something different you know still learn and then i know i'm gonna keep learning it to you whatever time is coming you know you know and your english is quite good how long have you been here actually eight years and you're settled here you like living here yeah yeah i like to live here to be honest it's you i i just said i went to china and there's a couple different places and i was out of every time it's like i want to go home and people like on brazil i know ireland and now i call here like home now for me you know so like as i said a building a building life here it didn't like friendships here like good people around me and so i that's what i did you know like as i said like a whole new ways feeling safe you're feeling good with yourself so that's where am i well i'm glad you like it here i'm glad you feel safe here and we are all glad to have you here especially on a human level and on a fighter's level um you spoke briefly about china there you've done something that a lot of fighters probably won't do in their in their lifetime you fought in front in in the stadium 45 000 people yes yeah explain that to me and explain how that felt like that's that's crazy oh man that it was was insane as i literally was insane because like i never fought on the stage and like the way it was and was like when we just come in i saw two like too many chairs in my life like it was just look i was like whoa this is the venue this is like yeah and then it's like i won't be full anyway for what's wrong you know and then we come like a fight week that routine and go here the interview go there talk about this and go here and then taking pictures and then made the ways and then saturday was the flight day and when they're coming back to the stage and and then i was just walking in i was like oh my god like what a death like i mean 45 000 people there and like the only people by your side is your corner man you know and the rest is like everybody goes against you you know um like when i was walking through the ring the zeitgeist was ring wasn't caged um i just felt like they shot and i get shot yo shayo shayyo was like let's go vote in chinese like and then the only thing i could just hear is like shia shia and on my ears and my corona was like nothing there man nothing there is i'll use this unite and like when the company like the state was quiet but when the call guy falls punching like oh the noise they made it i was like jesus christ okay let's go man 40s you know i mean okay that's how we're gonna do we're gonna find like a 40 45 thousand point one mine here we we got this in the pocket um the fight was pretty good first round it was just let myself go and just dominate and second round they're coming back a my third round was completely tired and i didn't know what to do and then the guy got big and kept coming forward but thanks god we got the job done and was when it was over i came out staging and i went to the back room at the changing room and just sit down in the chair i was like this is over you know this is over we're done and my shoulder was completely relaxed because it was over pressure i was fighting like a hometown boy 45 000 people there loads of shine tvs and that was big promotion i was like wow and like it was worth against china like loads of different fires and like man it was was amazing because it was my first fight there i literally felt like a little bit intimidated from the host agent as you would and then the second time i came back in there was like ah nah i'm all right you know so it was great and it's it's like it's a big experience a big experience and like fighting there fighting china all the culture the food and they like the way they treat you like it's completely different there's nothing compared like you know out of here like i literally left on that sunday come over here it was saturday i was like you know i was like well it's sunday saturday i'm back on time and it's like ah look at it it was great it was great for me and like i still like sometimes i just been thinking and i kept back in there and thinking about china and then thinking like would they get back and fight there again yes absolutely about you know for it's just like the way they roll like mma over there it's like every weekend is like two or three different shows you know like i fought in beijing it was three shows and one night in beijing only so it's like you can't be busy there like israel designer and i was watching some interview he was fighting there every month so it's what it is over there you know you know they're real they love their fighting game in japan because there's some super kickboxing fight that they're trying to make now in japan and they reckon it's gonna break all records obviously you won't really hear about it here because they want to push the ufc push that push all the the west and stuff but we obviously we talked before and you said like for that fight i don't know if you're gonna be comfortable you didn't get that much money for that fight did you no no uh look fight fight fight game in china it took me took me a while to understand how they they do things over there they put you in the big show as a big atmosphere the promotion's great everything's great both everything's in turn china okay so i fought in there some of my fights does not even recognize my shared dogs okay okay so then you come fight there they go straight away for you this is great for you if fighting china is going to make loads of money okay and then you're thinking like okay we're going to make all the money we're going to fight all the time so that's great and like they give you 1 000 we'll say a dollar yeah so you did great we went to you again here we go and then you're thinking wait i was fighting like for like 20 000 odd people 45 000 people and that's what we got you know from the whole promotion and stuff and the quality of everything here that's how we got wow that's what you got you can't say no but like as i said you know it's your decision if you say yes yes you say no they're gonna look for somebody else yeah but like i know obviously the money would it would have been nicer if it was better but that experience like like i said no a lot of fighters in ireland won't experience that except it likes the car connors the ian gary stuff like that so that'll always be a memory that you'll always have like that well you'll never forget like 45 000 people and then when you actually finished the fight did you were they just did it go silent yeah no i actually it's like a whole week it's just different thing you know they you actually not sleep yeah they don't give you time to sleep you go to bed we're like in the moment we learn there you have this in one hour it's like man it was like travel all the way through here we go one hour be ready we pick you up we have to go to do this you have to go this you're taking this you have to go like when you go to the time it's like midnight one o'clock in the morning to go to bed and then oh we're gonna pick you up at seven o'clock in the morning you have to do an interview for this so and then you just try we try to sleep try to quit wait try to training but you don't have that time you don't have that time fight week and day if you're training once if you're not trained in your room they bring it to the gym only one time a week in the fight week just one time just one time just to see the gym and then they come and start a video you and then that's it so but for me was it's like it's as i said the culture it's completely this is it's crazy you know you walk in the street and the people come behind you and taking pictures and then looking at you like oh jesus who's this guy you know like they can't believe it like it's some people just there and then sorry italian tele the only thing you see is everything about china you see nothing from out in there everything's just chinese chinese chinese food then they brought me to some school their olympic school and that was about i think it was about 200 kids in the room you know the translator was there and then talking and then when the kids just put hands up and said something and then just he wants to touch your hair that's really weird yeah you know did you let him touch your hair i didn't he's coming he's touching my hair and then when he's touched my hair he touched my hair and then shouting something chinese and the whole room was crazy and then everybody wanted to touch my hair and then that that's so my experience i wouldn't i would i would never forget you know and then take a picture here thank patient there and they come and then offer you this and then it's like oh if there's anyone come talking to you don't talk with them let me talk with them it the fight business over there is huge yeah it's huge it's huge and then you like you it's too many teens you know too many things that you learn like as i said like i wasn't having city the culture is completely different i want to be jeans different words i went to laudi it's absolutely crazy this is like chinese culture i went to shanghai it's different life different everything so it's just the experience thing like you get you know when you're just there so it's just uh i don't know i can't explain i can i won't forget anything every single moment there food training fighting promotions and everything and people i met are there it's like we met this guy was our driver we he we actually gave him a good name let's call him jeffrey uh his english wasn't great and everything what he's doing was using his phone and translator and then everything's come wrong and then we tried to explain him and everything was coming wrong and it's like jeffrey calm down and here it's oh it's amazing it's amazing it sounds amazing i think they've got a real fighting culture and a real humble culture there and obviously you got to experience that it's like you'll never forget so you've had a couple more fights you've had fights in ireland you've had fights in england um and fighter pay seems to be an issue as well throughout but like especially in the regional promotions here they don't really make the money so you said before that you kind of need money to be a fighter and you need sponsors how how much do fighters need sponsors here yes because uh you see uh like we get a fire um let's say you have two months to get ready for one fight and and then you see these two moments you have a cost you know it's like better in your car um your food you're training everything you need that thing like you can't say like a look are gonna get paid for this fight won't even get there or you're gonna spend for who your fight come you know like thanks god my mother german coach here and my whole team like they all behind me like they all support me you know like especially my coach to send me abroad for training you know my coach go looking for sponsors and put this together look john don't worry we're going to get done and they send me over and like we literally forget doing everything and it's like you can't make plans to go say like i'm going to get paid like like like like when they say what's the fight as gay like i don't pay enough like like as a athlete i understand you know and especially them as i could and division above me and they has like a very high level yeah you know athlete that like they go in one way like they can spend like three times or four times more than i do you know but like promotions you'll say no we're not making enough no we're done doing this but look it's one thing i have in my head is there's no promotion who's making the show it's the fire who does make the show you know like people come out of here pay tickets no the common debt to see the promotion and like oh yeah this promotion is great they offer this no i come out here to see this boy i come here to see this fight it's the fighters who's come to put on this show without fires there's no show yeah so like it's hard it's hard but as i said you know everybody have a dream everybody doing this for reasons and so we still do and we keep doing and we're going to keep doing you know yeah i know you're going to keep doing because he said before you don't want to earn loads of money you want to just cover your costs have a little bit extra because you said speed that you're you're at your happiest like that when you're in the cage so that's what you love to do that's why you said said to me oh you might have one more but you know it's going to be more than one more you you love the sport so yeah um go with like you've had a lot of fights to me you're probably the most exciting fighter in the country you fought in different places none of your mma fights have gone to a finish and would i be right in saying only one muay thai or sorry all of them have gone to finish except for one muay thai fight against the number one rank guy in ireland will it be correct yeah absolutely yeah that was that against alex alexander and was literally one of the most amazing muay thai fights i had because like we fought twice i fought him on k1 from the very first time in my life one k1 fight went for five rounds and then they tried to put one extra around and then i said okay like i'm done i'm gonna fight next weekend so i did two fights in one week i fought on an island on sunday getting into the plane on monday got in china tuesday and fall on saturday in china jesus christ so and then i said it's like look we got to do it again and then he's like no man you you literally bet me you have a good like like for him it was hard to make weight i think i found him was six to seven kilos it was hard to make weight i made weight and then i said look alex just keep the belt i i can't go i have a fight next weekend he's like i understand and then but we're going to do it again but then after years i got offered to fight him on muay thai full rose and then my striking coaches sounded like ah easy and then i said nah well let's do it it won't be easy anyway because alex was came from like finishes you know and then we got there it was absolutely battle like it was war like and it was the very first time ever and the one muay thai fight i got my fourth cut i got airborne in the back of my head on the side of my head i got a little cut i started bleeding i was like jesus you know and and then i keep going and he got caught as well and we keep elbow each other like all the way through second round and come in the last round i got cut back the corner inside my coach is like man i can't feel my legs and my code says keep clinching and errable clinching them but i said but the thing is he's you strong as you keep coming and he says you know what jen just try to finish the last round anyway let's see how it goes and then we coming back about as as i said this is my fire a strong fire and then he just keep kicking keep score every time he's coming combination i tried to elbow and his kick and his score it's like in my time more you kick my score so and then he keep scoring and i just keep going and i start showing i was tired i wasn't able to carry on the fight and then fights over and then it comes like if they said we're gonna do one more round i swear to god i take the gloves off and run right here and then he's got the rain they got the win and then after that we became like actually we both of us went to the doctor and then he was there on stage i was there again stage as well and then we both was laughing talk in the moment fight and then he's like man you're tough you're hard that's like dude look what he did with me nobody like actually caught me the way he did you know and he's like man you catch me on this i said oh don't go there again it's like yeah you'll catch me in this i don't go there again too and then it's like i think you should do it again he's like well yeah i think we should you know and then i come back to mma scenario again and and then oh sorry i did one more muay thai fight i first again claire girl i knocked girga on the second round it's been able and then i said like now back to mma and then that's it but look i don't be smart but i've been sleeping thinking about my entire fight and i i i will do something you know i want i want to do some white i fight like i don't know when but like mma now it's going pretty good it's going still exciting and but like when you watch like muay thai fights you know it's it's like a serious thing like you know and make you can't see that thing when you see two strikers go after each other and then one get proper heat and they try to take you down and try to pull down the fight a little bit muay thai you don't see in the more you get hit more you come forward before so we will work on things i'd like to see in white i fight because obviously you can see your love for it through your fighting style spinning elbows elbow elbows is what i call them you get man some of your highlights are unbelievable you've got the tyrone quinn uh knockout uh of the knee uh clan was um there was the fight with being there where you hit him with a kneed and two elbows and i thought to me i thought the fight was over but obviously andrew's a tough dude he got up um so i wouldn't mind seeing in my tie fight and it seems to be picking up in ireland obviously there's there's not really much money in waitai but you can see the love for it so i'd love to actually see your fight so if if something does happen i hope i'll be there to see it see it's like it's like now i'm not saying much because like when you know into muay thai thing you know see but i still get messages here and there like like oh we have a muay thai show would you be interested in you know and then it's like you know the heart starts going fast and it's like so they say yes and then my mother's just like look we got this behind like you know uh but like in mind you see you see a guy there like a great coco like you know it's it's like an awesome striker like i want to go excited guys you can see in this country here fight muay thai i think that's one when i saw him fight for the fight before for the first time i was like wow man this guy's literally animal like you know and but again you know it's just that thing like among things he does he brought your cow here to ireland and then he fought one of the best muay thai fighters in the world on my eye he won that fight but again you fight a legend you know and the legend who's being managed by the promotion you call your cal and ended up he lost and that's why and then i couldn't understand i fought in the same night as well so it's oh look um but the good thing is the good thing is you see uh even in the mma i i still developing things i still bring my muay thai styling to my fights you know my knees my elbows and going if you let me do and i'm going to throw all day all the time my pad work everything we started we finish over there but we start to elbow so just keeping that thing going and like i text one to promote on here irish promoter and then i said to him when are you gonna do muay thai again with mma gloves it's ah it's one of the most amazing thing you could ever see muay thai fights with mma gloves it's completely crazy you see what you see things you see the series knockouts you know because it plays clean knockouts and i would love to do that yeah that would be nice actually the the craig that you talked about is in the grumpy it's going to be emery globes and i think the winner of that gets a contract to one championship yeah one time yeah so yeah yeah that'd be right down your alley yeah so maybe maybe the next time yeah because you see though as a as a flyer you go cc greg like who's the best in this country on the muay thai scenario it doesn't matter what you say what are you thinking about what those guys does i'm seeing as a fighter like that guy had too much skills on his back and his level is one championship level he's those guys out of there compared to him he's at the same level and he thought muay thai would tell me gloves and he got some of this french guy he dropped the french guy easy you know so i look it's a dream it's like you know you're being teased and and i know what's gonna happen i know i know i really do i know i kind of be now gonna be tomorrow i know what i'm gonna do because it's something that i like when i put my brain like on my coach coming behind me and helping me get in there i know it's going to happen you know so you're going to get in there i want to see it happen speaking of dreams we spoke previously cage warriors you you realized that dream unfortunately the result didn't go against you but how did it feel to get that call to go and fight at cage warriors because we talked before previously like behind the scenes or whatever and he said like that was one of your goals like so how did it feel to get that goal a cage was in london in manchester yeah um when uh when i got the phone call i was in italy training i was in italy and then my coach called me and said john i said yeah this game you know how it works i said yeah you got phone call need to be where that's like yeah it's like que juarez one year i was like are you being joking because we did try cage wars before and we were like one step in but they just like look at the moment we're pretty busy in america and when we come back to england we get back to you and but then came in that day like like we completely forgot about it we keep the outing and then they come back to my coach and say john's ready um we have this guy here for him it was a summer wesler american westward who was trained in the new generation next generation sorry with party yeah training with him helping him in the westland side for the previous fight not his last fight previous fight and then we watched the guy because american wrestler top level was a lot we said yes because we see this striking game and lose the gap even him hit the pads the guy was supposed to be his first profile so we said yes and then at the other side was found so sorry because it was getting ready for marching and then the guy coach came and said no straight away no no no him no him no no no no two experience for my guy and then they got this like i said like look the guy said no but we have this guy here who is standing by and the guy no one wants to play against and it's like who's the guy and they sent me the video was the guy from iceland and then oh finland the finland guy and then that's like okay the only thing this guy do is strong kick strong low kicks is the only thing he have so we can't handle and then my striking code sounds like oh yeah you can't handle him easy no worries so we accepted we took it literally it was monday i got the phone call from my coach and then i was training with max who's the melvin victorian striking coach as well i was and then i said coach look this guy is like oh no problem no problem real good no problem no good i said good and then i had to come back to ireland on when on wednesday i came back to ireland and start to get everything done go doctor go here doing this it got done then they flew in and when i saw the guy the guy coming in and said man he's huge and then my coach like john he's not like look is that oh yeah he's huge i was like look anyway if i missed that head i did ten burpees every time i missed that head anyway so then we got there went to the to the gym there we did some pad work and stuff and then the guy came in passing by me and the guy just dropped head down and then i was like hey how's it going man uh good luck and thanks for accepting fights like no thanks to you because no one wants to dance involved no worries we do so then the fight day i even decided to my teammate i was like sorry okay i'm great i'm ready for this then we got in there got in the cage the guy was he didn't want to be there he just was like no come on let's go we did so sorry do you need a drink no no i'm okay yeah so and then we get in there touch the gloves floss around they come back after the first first round my my coach said you're doing good you're very patient keep it doing now when see the moment you take him down it's like great so then i came back and started striking and everything that's like now's the moment i'm gonna take him down keep giving him kicks and stuff then i got the hands you know and got the hands and as i said the sport is is amazing because when you're here you can end it up here yeah any fight you know so then i got the hands and he just got me and then the referee stopped the fight and then everything and i was like why did you stop the fight well there he's like no no you were in there like when he hit the floor away and there was like a where there like you know i hit the floor let the guy come in and finish the job because i might couldn't get back to pull him in the guard or something i don't know but anyway so fights over and then again went into the hospital check everything was okay came back to the hotel the shower went downstairs then the manager the promoter will come and say the bar is absolutely delighted well you see he won't see you again i was like i can't be worried doesn't matter when i can't be ready belfast card whatever he's like yeah belfast guy would be good to have you you excited to watch you dominated the fight whole fight was you was you everywhere and he is actually a hard guy to take it he's always working forward he's always you making him walk him back i'll fight but that lucky punch got you i was like oh don't worry we'll be back better anyway he's like better than that well let's see anyway so then coach looking at me and said here we go this is where you belong this is wherever you are so i i didn't got tired i didn't got i wasn't great it was fresh like you come second round was fresh because i learned so much from my last fight against andreas just got tired i just got too excited they were overdue and then this fight was i was ah look it's nothing to to regret about it i tell you i got short notice and everything but we still have one fight with cage warriors and we have one fight coming up now in october um then we're gonna get this job done i'm gonna get in there in completely different stage of of myself because that's what i'm working now like i came to the gym today i saw a full house and everybody had to see me back and training and i was like how can i stop and doing this you know so you get this job done and by the end of the year so we got back in there again to that cage and i guarantee we're gonna do better for sure no 100 i know you're like i said i love watching your fight your next fight is actually going to be in cyprus isn't it it's it's good how mma has and and white hair and all this has brought you to different places like that you probably never have you been to cyprus i've never been there when you're going to find out and then i'm going to be there to do what i like to do what i love to do you know so we were talking because we got we got i got message from clown wars and then i got back to my manager cycle morris text me he's like no no no i have this for you so and in october the time is great you're on a holiday now after for so long it took a little bit holiday now i got back to work for october you're going to be well prepared because it's very short clear clone wars for show on september so then we get in october we get witty just go there get the job done then we got back to the place again you know so it's i hope i hope not too cold october over there and uh look um it's what's what it is what it is i i i did i did i did got like excited when my mother said like i like you you're gonna be ready for this time and i was like wow okay right so then coming here today and see everybody training and you know everybody have competitions coming out everybody's trying to hurt as you see here like those guys they don't play like you know they don't play if you miss it here they're gonna take your legs you arm your neck or something they're gonna bring it home so with them i try to just go go go you know and in the end we all laugh with each other and medicine it's like it is amazing though you pass that door and see them out like they just come and shake my hands give me a hug and it's like oh man we actually miss you so much you know and like good to see you like you're coming back you know and then here like people can say whatever they want to say about us but they're never going to be like us you know like here this is a team we call team beyond but like we have more clothes than team you know we call each other brothers here you know call brothers you know like john or whatever it's a brother you know brother has to go and then calling me during the week to see how i am and shake on me and i check on them and i couldn't say whatever about us but they never want to be like us you know we're different that's how we are i trained and sold loads of different places i my coach made me progress and then so much different things not just inside the gym outside the gym as well no my teammates here ask me for help of everything i ask them for help of anything nobody say no everybody say yes you know um that says that people want to be around you know like door is always open people comes and goes but the true ones always stay with us you know so that's why that's why today was different different thing you know there's different feelings of when you pass that though so yeah i could i could see it when i came in and everyone wit everyone and then with you because you're back and it looked like a family unit and then i got to see i got got to see a couple of guys roll yourself roll so no i'm glad you're back in training i'm glad you've got the fight booked um once i got to go through towards the end now so towards like once your career obviously you still have more to your career but once your career is said and done what is a word or a phrase you'd like to be remembered by what would you want when people think of you what would you think like a word to be associated with you well it doesn't have to be about fighting it can be on a human level as well man to be honest uh i think it's the way the people already say oh think about it you know he's excited to watch you know i want people to remember that man that guy was so crazy that guy is excited to watch technical and crazy things he used to do his fight and he's got people but outside fights is it's about who i am for them you know those guys they all they all know where i come from you know like teammates mine here go travel fighting and they take the money from the money pockets go pay for confrontations and go there go on holiday before still going places and training you know and and like i'm doing the same like i'm professional fires and then they do exactly the same and a few of them go away they text to me and say john like i'll go into this place oh man it's crazy you know so it's it's for me it's very exciting because like they even if they in there have a good time they still remember like this you excited to tell me how it was because every time i i go away training with different people a different gym i come back here they ask how was how's this you know and it's it's like that's what i wanted to remember about me when this is over you know like that guy's excited that guy is there you know the guy that helped me like every single one here even those girls they have a competition and i train with them exactly the way i travel to the boys i don't give them easy time because they take my foot off you know and then after trying to sit down to them tell them like what to do on the fight they listen you know okay yeah you know great yes they like we all help each other and well it's it's like they know they know outside this gym here i'm them like i'm the friend guy here i'm a giant outside the fight game you know for them and they like that like you know they call me oh we're gonna do this how many times i have even called my teammates here like aaron and say bro i go to the concert this you want to come you know you have to laugh and and we tried making plans and then this and then oh yeah bro come doing this it's what it is like you know yeah no some people seem to forget that especially when you're fighters uh like obviously with what you've been through you're still a human at the end of the day you still you wake up in the morning like everyone else you go do things like everyone else and it's actually really good to see that side talking to you here today and i've seen it with all the fighters but like like you said what we're seeing here looked so close so i was glad i got to see it today it was my pleasure i'm going to give you one more question it's going to be three parts okay yeah yeah it's going to be three fate like tree fights okay a fight your favorite knockout your favorite fight whether it's a back and forth and then a fight you learn from the most okay uh the amazing lookout even people talk about the flying knee but the spinner was was not my favorite one is that when you had the guy in the corner and are you spinning i learned a land there was that one of my favorite one i still watching that knockout as i was yesterday and um my favorite fight having a lot of crazy fights like but andrea's fight was one of the most exciting fights i could ever ever had because andreas is really good fire you know part of being young and being beating people here and there and doing so well and i heard the coaches out of there saying john's crazy why he took that fight you know because they thought like andreas could just take me down handed me on the ground and do what he wants to do it was normal to do with people and then i i was still watching that fight and then yeah wasn't the amazing fight i had and they won the most learning that would start fighting because as i said you know i said to my coach here said to my teammates he can't take me down but i will get back up and his goal actually tastes everything what i have in my bag because he's going through the hardest time ever in his life in this fight i was saying this a whole week my striking coaching telling me and say john he likes to do this i say but i have this john he likes to do yeah but i have this everything we was just putting together together everything was working everything was just on time then my my coach my head coach was telling me john he likes to do this if he's doing this you're doing this you know we have a great grapplers here you know we have a great pop about a great blizzard my coach amazing black belt zero with you give you 10 minutes of hell you know and then they was just looking at me and say we got this but the only part i messed it up with that fight was the excited man when i got too excited i put everything under the table because first round i gave him a good time second round i tried to ended up the party i got tired but his brain was fresh he said to me i never got those hits in my whole life and then we come the second round my teammate said to me aaron back to the basic then my striking coach said exactly the same and then my head coach looking at me and say where we have to go back to i was like what he's like back to the bicycle let's go come on try to finish the last round stunning because you're tired i get off the chair like my legs was bubbling i was literally all over the place i felt like i had like loads of drink uh i wasn't heat i wasn't hot whole fight it was great it was clean i was i had no mark on my face i have no like i tell you one thing i even said to them like after the fight the only thing that saw me is my knees my elbows and my shins because it was just literally put everything there and i got tired because i remember i still remember every time then when we come to the fight i started just taking this the cage take her off the cage was controlling the cage when he started spinning to my to my right hand side i was like okay he's if i swing i know he's gonna just change the level and i'm gonna try to take me down but let's see if this is work because i was thinking about the first round or the second round the spin i was working because i caught him like twice in the spin level and then like he's keep coming he comes keep coming and then i close the distance he's just back to my left and it's going back to my left side spinning when i finished what he did he just changed the level i just spin and just miss it and stuck me down and like i didn't know where in the earth like i tried to breathe from every single place on my body i couldn't get one piece of oxygen in my body and then he just stopped and came to the top and i gave him in the ground pound the river is stopping the flight and then i looked at him and said yeah boy he's not even celebrating this fight because he couldn't he was hot he was pretty hot and then he's coming out and then we went there and the change room and seeing the doctors he's looking at me he's like oh my respect to aaron i said bro there's not even a half of what i can't show you we need to do it again so i learned from there i learned i need to be more calm because my boxing coach said to me when you're relaxing with dangers when you're well it's like when you're just cool relax enjoy the process way more dangerous than a killer and like aspire inspiring this guy called owen duffin he's a professional boxer and like inspired him in boxing and he's his game he's he's a sport he's telling me like now you catch me in their mind catch me when you relax you're very dangerous i get lost and a very very very experienced fight you know so if you're running that fight again it won't be mistake won't be missing we we would do different you know we would do different i would say difference in the skills thing because as i show him and then i said to him my strikers is way above than anybody else here right so um i want to thank you so much for your time and i want to personally dedicate this show to your the memory of your brother okay thank you nobody thank you so much all right thank you thank you thank you