Phuket Prospect: Campbell Symes on transition to MMA, Guinness World Record & Southside MMA

Summary

Campbell Symes is an Australian BJJ black belt based out of Southside MMA.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

download the allstar app make your picks for UFC fights challenge your friends level up and win prizes Link in description get it now hey guys my name is Campbell Sims uh I'm a got a Jiu-Jitsu background I'm transitioning to MMA I'm the head jiu-jitsu instructor here at Southside MMA in Rai Beach puket yeah jiujitsu where I'm from actually in Australia it's a very small town about 8,000 people 8 to 10,000 people maybe and next closest place is 4-Hour driveway so we're a very very remote town and um so I started training Jiu-Jitsu there cuz my brother trained Jiu-Jitsu and you know fames like oh he gets to train this he gets to do this I want to do that like wasn't I didn't even know what jiujitsu was I was just like he gets to do it I want to do it so after a while I started training just just like fomo they call it like like I didn't want to miss out like he gets to do it I want to do it so I started training Jiu-Jitsu in broken Hill which is such a small town it's maybe four people on the map on a busy night like normally it'll be like oneon-one every night will be like a one-on-one and then with a purple belt as well there's no black belts there until until I left the highest rank was a purple belt and we train maybe we'd get four people some nights and everyone would be white belts and eventually like we started traveling doing more Jiu-Jitsu more Jiu-Jitsu comps and I was like [ __ ] I want to I want to make this my life somehow and obviously Danel was America I'm going to go to America I'd write in my book how I'm going to save up and move to America how I'm going to live on a mat somewhere and change ritsu and then uh I made one trip to puket with my coach Mick Maloney who's a very high level black belt in Australia we on a trip to Thailand with him and I was like oh [ __ ] there's Jitsu in Thailand and then shortly after uh 17 years old 16 17 moved moved to pukat and started training here full time yes it wasn't as big but before preco pukat there was mainly two gems like tiger and top team so it wasn't as big because there was less gyms it felt just as big cuz there was two choices like now you've got Bank to you've got Ty you got the lions fight Club Southside here it's but and it's still the same busyness but it's actually is busier because there's 10 options just as busy but because there only used to be like two main options it was still pretty busy on the mat every day cuz yeah it might only 100 Grapplers on the island and not 600 like there is now but cuz them 100 had to split between the two gyms we would still have 50 guys on the mat a day and stuff and good training yeah very emotional yeah my coach flew over from Australia and gave it to me uh the people who know me know I cry over anything so I cry I cry when I give a I've gave a stripe to someone before and started crying so I cry a lot but yeah definitely emotional moment like you worked like 10 years working for one goal kind of like there's other side goals but really everyone wants set black belt and yeah of course it's quite amazing to get it yeah not so much pressure of being a black belt cuz I started I was competing against black belts since I was a blue belt I moved out here I was already winning matches against black belts since I was a blue belt so it wasn't any different in competition but it was just like the kind of stuff up you know what I mean like you got to be like trying to always show your best like if you stuff up as a purple belt or something it's like oh whatever but like black belat now it's like [ __ ] I need to give my my aame every single time funny story the Guinness World Record Co happened it was a hard time for everyone there's a gym RDC in pet Town lots of Tai kids I wanted to raise money for him and the funny thing about the world record is my coach back home Mick Maloney his student held the current world record he h the 24-hour world record so I just called Mick one day like I'm going to break the record I want to raise all this money for RDC let's talk to Obie is his name let's talk to Obie find out how to break the record like get some tips then we called him and he was a little bit upset and then I was like oh [ __ ] I just asked him man how do I break your world record I didn't even think about it that way a week p and he was cool helped so much advice he called me when I hit 24 hours actually during the roll but uh gave a bunch of advice definitely say it was a lot harder than I thought it would be like I thought it'd be hard but like man like had people feeding me massaging me I passed out a couple times it was definitely yeah definitely a hard experience yeah but well worth it hundred hundred of people coming in hundreds of people people stayed all night like yeah so much support Ben Ben Royal owns PJ he was there till 5:00 a.m. in the morning come back people taking shifts like yeah was a lot of people yeah oh everybody's got record for sure yeah so many people involved and yeah we raised I think it was about 300,000 bar kept IDC open and now they're the number one team in Thailand so well the main thing that sparked it it's actually improved a lot now like really a lot like it's almost like not backfired on me cuz I love MMA now I've actually started MMA I'm like this I really enjoy this like it's like I'm learning stuff again like eventually you get to a level in Jiu-Jitsu you kind of stop learning like so like MMA I'm still learning like every day and um but when I was competing jiujitsu here had the level sort of like the competition's like getting very quiet I'd go like the last comp I competed here I had one match to win a double gold like it didn't feel good at all you know what I mean like one match against a friend as well you know what I mean that I knew so I was like now competition's getting busy again and stuff but yeah when I like made the transition the comps were getting very quiet I was showing up the comps have like one or two matches against guys I've already competed against before so I was like um I need something new and MMA is how often am I going to fight the same person M May rarely like only happens if you're a big name and you ask for a rematch you know what I mean like you're not fighting the same guy over and over again so I was like oh I get to fight different people like never trained with him before I don't know him is like that excited me the thing that excites you as well is also the downfall cuz obviously Jiu-Jitsu you sign up oh there's a comp on the fifth you sign up you Shar you're going to fight MMA obviously there's pull outs people saying no people getting injured like it's a lot more like over roller coaster than Jiu-Jitsu like yeah like Jiu-Jitsu if you want to compete five times a year you find the comps you compete compete five times a year MMA you got to find an opponent they got to say yes they got to make it through their whole camp like yeah a lot more goes into that's your struggle then right now yeah struggle like MMA like people are very they want to keep a clean record these days which is fair enough as well but like sometimes it's yeah hard to find fights especially I'm I'm not a big guy but I'm kind of on the edge of the Asian weight limits like I'm kind of a bit heavy for all the Asians in Asia like a lot of guys easy to find fights but for me yeah it's a little bit tougher yeah we got a really good team we got coaches we got Darian price who don't know uh coached oh everyone stoic Matt Brown who has the most knockouts in UFC history uh Sadi Yousef and like oh such high level guys then we got a we got two MMA coaches so we got Darian who's Elite level Striker fought in lini the old lini stadium and all these places then we got DJ Jackson who's eight time world champion like has wins over Gordon Ryan Gary turn and Craig Jones like so to mix them two together like yeah we have the perfect the two perfect coaches really and even training part is like cult that these people are so high level in their like disciplines like cult such a good level wrestler Nats high level mu like we got the guys around it yeah if you're not sure on anything someone will make you make you know you're sure I don't I think it was the the cheapness the lifestyle like and it's weird I said the lifestyle cuz I do not like the beach I probably haven't been to the beach in it a year honestly I probably haven't hopped in the ocean in a year and I and I gyms across the road from a beach I don't Recon like I'm too white I get sunburnt like the beach isn't for me but uh just the lifestyle here the food the the people just yeah how cheap you can afford to leave here it's yeah definitely a good option and the level like I don't think people talk about it enough but like the level here in puket especially for MMA is insane like there's probably like not maybe current but it's probably like 10 current former Champions on the island right now like pfl Champions UFC Champions former X like up at bangau way Lee Brandon's around like the level is extremely high in I've only had three fights so far my M career but I've found a struggle in MMA I've been very calm it's weird very calm in MMA Jiu-Jitsu I guess cuz I'm known as a jiujitsu guy I'd get so nervous like when I had to compete Jiu-Jitsu I'd be 10 times more nervous than when I fight MMA cuz I guess when I was starting MMA there was no expectation on me while Jiu-Jitsu was like oh [ __ ] cell has to go out here and win this match so yeah I used to get very nervous for jiujitsu comps but maybe not as nervous as a white cuz I've done so many hundreds and hundreds of matches but yeah MMA I find a lot I'm a little too calm almost when I step in there for MMA I need to Hype myself up more but yeah I compared a lot of Jiu-Jitsu Pan Pacific titles Asian open titles uh abuabu titles lots of titles but yeah always nervous never never went away amate so I actually never had an amateur fight so I didn't get yes with the black belt very hard to find an amateur fight so I went straight Pro um so I've had three Pro fight the first one was actually valet tudo rules so it was Bear knuckle one 10minute round and um yeah I don't know why I picked that was my first one it was like the first fight I got offered like where someone hadn't declined so I was like [ __ ] I'm taking this fight and then um yeah it was fun I took it to the ground finished him on the ground uh different rules I was throwing knees on the ground and stuff like everything was legal elbow 12 to six elbows like and then um yeah and then my second fight which was my first MMA fight technically technically my first MMA fight I went to B cuz that was like Valley T rules like it's it's on like topology and Shir dog but it doesn't go to your record so the first one I went to Barley and it kind of made me realize people how different MMA is like I was a Jud guy coming to MMA and I like kind of showed up on weight ready there my opponent showed up like 2 hours late cuz he was cutting weight and like couldn't make the weight yet and had like more time to cut and then when I stepped across him I'm like holy [ __ ] this guy's like 85 kilos now for sure he's not 77 no more and I was like 78 I put on like a kilo I was like [ __ ] this is a different sport and then um I got I lost the decision in that fight but uh mainly just from inexperience like my point wasn't any better than me I just didn't know like oh [ __ ] people cut weight and [ __ ] you got this is what you got to do in m and then the next fight I had my second Pro fight in Bangkok the guy had a eight Pro fights as well like both of them had a lot of pro fights so it was similar level but um when I fought this guy I just knew everything had to be dialed in I I cut the 74 stepped in the cage of 82 kilos like I I had everything down like I felt more like an MMA fighter than a Jiu-Jitsu guy trying to fight MMA definitely different cuz like I came back of that with twoo completely closed eyes like fully damaged up face I took a two big knees in the first round both dropped me one of them dropped me at you and I end up in a hill hook I was out I was out to the world and I woke up in a hill hook like my body just got me there and everyone was like why didn't you finish it I was like I didn't even know I was there like I woke up and I was like oh and he escaped I was like out of it just the Instinct from drilling drilling drilling but um but not really that like I didn't mind getting punched in the face that's a big thing I think a lot of people struggle when they come from grappling Sports to MMA they're really scared to get punched in the face and like I doesn't really bother me like it's not nice like I work my defense but it's not the end of the world like I don't mind it next couple years I'd like to like just keep building my record like keep building my record hopefully get to like 4 and one that'd be a nice record and then start looking at like some bigger better fights and slowly make my way to a big promotion yeah I'm St talk to Australia it looks like that would be the it's a better option for me cuz it's bigger bigger bodies you know what I mean America's quite far away from Thailand it's bit bit of a travel to just go America for for a fight so Australia there's big bodies there so it looks like I'll be heading back home yeah thanks everyone who supports me on my training Partners coaches my family my friends uh yeah I'm looking for fights I might not be fighting all the time but trust me I'm here I'm training I'm looking and yeah hopefully we get a few more wins and can start moving up the ladder