How Ed Soares Built the Pipeline to the UFC | Coffeez

0:00The LFA is the number one developmental organization in the world. That's not even me saying it. That's a fact. It's a fact. I mean, Google it. You know what I mean? You can Google it. You could ask ChatGPT. You could ask Gemini. They'll tell you we're the number one developmental organization. Welcome to another episode of Coffees. Today you guys are in for a very special guest. I'm sitting down with the founder and CEO of Legacy Fighting Alliance, an ally of the UFC and a breeding ground for 27 % of all of the current UFC champions. They are breeding the best of the best of the best, and their fight teams are incredible.

0:43Please welcome the founder and CEO of Legacy Fighting Alliance, Ed Soros. Thanks, Ed, for jumping on the show. Oh man, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Coming in hot from Redondo Beach. I appreciate you coming in. It's an absolute pleasure. I myself am a big fighting fan, fan of yours, fan of what you're doing, and a fan of what you're doing to really elevate the fight game. So, you know, God bless. I like to start every show off the same way I start with all my guests. And what's your morning routine, Ed? you know i i wake up uh it depends on the day i don't i don't have like a set routine every day um i just wake up um grab a coffee at the downstairs and then i kind of see what i have to do for the day so i don't really have a set routine if there's if uh if i have time and there's waves i'll go surf if not i i just go right to the office nice okay nothing crazy like these fighters that you're breeding no nothing like that nice so I'm gonna I'm gonna jump right into it uh what was your journey like when you started in the MMA game like what was the vision to start LFA how did that start what year did it start what was the concept that you had that really made it different than you know what existed at the time which is the old school UFC Well, the reality of it is, you know, I started back working in the business back in 2004.

2:13When I got into the business, I got into the business producing a TV show called Passing the Guard. It was a program. It was a TV show, like a magazine show from Brazil. It was called Passa na Guarda in Brazil, which translates to Passing the Guard. and we started broadcasting that in 2004 and then eventually it led into me um my partner and i uh starting our management company which is called tough media and um and then and then we we i managed athletes so we were bringing our our niche was kind of we were bringing athletes from brazil i'm brazilian i was born and raised here in california but um but my mom and dad are brazilian And so I spoke fluent Portuguese and my business partner is from Brazil.

3:03I actually met him when I was like 15 years old. He actually was my next door neighbor in Redondo. And that's when we first met. And he's a legend in the sport. His name is George Guimarães. And everyone knows him as Joãoinha is kind of his nickname. But, you know, he's just been a legend and he's been a pioneer in the sport. As a matter of fact, when Horian Gracie moved here from Brazil in the late 70s, George came with him to spread the word of jiu-jitsu. Wow. I mean, you guys have been pioneering BJJ since its onset here in the U.S. I asked you about the Gracie family. You've known them since they were children.

3:46And you guys never moved. You're all in the same area, the South Bay. Yeah, yeah. I've known Horian, and I actually became really good friends with Hoist. He actually got me into training jiu-jitsu was Hoist. And he's the founder of UFC. No, Horian is the founder of UFC. But Hoist was the Gracie who Horian put in there to prove the efficiency of jiu-jitsu. You know, the UFC was never started to become a sport. Horian created the UFC to prove to the world that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is the most efficient martial art in the world. And he proved that, you know. And, you know, there was other guys that in theory, oh, you know, Hickson was better this.

4:37but they wanted to use hoist because he was the best example of how you didn't have to have size or muscle or anything like that to make jiu-jitsu work. It was all technique. And, you know, hoist was six foot, six foot one, 170 pounds. And he created the ultimate fighting championship to show the efficiency of Gracie jiu-jitsu. And obviously he proved that. And then, you know, the sport kind of, and then the UFC kind of took on a life of its own and developed to what we see today. It's amazing, you know, just to prove the power of leverage. Yes. The power of leverage is so immense. When you go up against a monster and a little guy like Hoyce or Huron or, you know, all the Gracie family who went into the UFC and just mollywhopped everybody at small sizes, people were bewildered by the power of leverage.

5:39Yeah, I mean, jiu-jitsu was unknown. People didn't understand it. And like I said, Horry improved his point. Nowadays, you cannot fight mixed martial arts without knowing jiu-jitsu. If you don't know jiu-jitsu, you're going to get beat. I mean, they had wrestlers, they had grapplers, but nobody bjj just was the supreme but when i asked people like brazilian jiu-jitsu versus japanese jiu-jitsu because brazil got jiu-jitsu from japan right and then they just improved upon it or added more technique to it they modified it more for uh real live combat versus more of the martial art of it i mean obviously it is a martial art but you know the gracies um You know, Helio, Horian's father, was the one who really modified it because he was such a smaller guy.

6:40He had to prove that you didn't have to have size and bulk to be efficient. Yeah, he was a tiny guy. He was. He's still alive. He's like 90, right? No, no. He's passed away, I don't know, maybe 10, 15 years ago. I don't recall the actual date. Yeah. The Gracie family is amazing. It's how they keep jiu-jitsu at every age and how they train their kids at birth, just like very small moves. It is incredible. I mean, like I said, the UFC wouldn't be here today without Horry and Gracie. Now, we fast forward. So when did Legacy start? Well, the way it started was I was the president of the RFA, which stood for Resurrection Fighting Alliance.

7:30And then there was Legacy Fighting Championship based out of Texas, which was owned by a guy named Mick Maynard. Mick Maynard and his wife, Andrea, owned Legacy Fighting Championship. And we were both on AXS TV at the time. So we approximately did about, I don't know, 14 shows a year. Legacy did about 14 to 15 shows a year. And basically the reason we formed the LFA was because we were always constantly trying to negotiate as we would do in business to better our deal with AXS TV. and um and what happened was is every time mick would go to access tv and try to negotiate to get a better deal they would turn around and say well hey if you don't like it i could always give more dates to the rfa and every time we would go negotiate with them um they would say hey if you guys don't like it i could give more dates to legacy and uh what ended up happening is one time I just sat down with Mick and we actually, before we sat down in 2015, Access TV, a lot of people would say, hey, the RFA is better than Legacy.

8:50And some people would say the Legacy is better than the RFA. So I'm a competitive person. So I said, well, then let's see who's better. And what we did is we were the first ones in the United States and North America to do an event that was RFA versus Legacy. And what we did is we did three fights that night that were our guys that fought for RFA versus their guys that fought in Legacy. And then we did one title fight of the RFA, one title fight for Legacy. And then the final fight of the night was our champion versus their champion in the flyweight division. And we created a title called the Access TV title.

9:36There was only one event that had it. There was only one person that won the title. And we did that event in, I believe it was May of 2015. We went in the first three fights, RFA won two of them. Legacy won one. And then they had their title fights. And then the final fight was a guy by the name of Alexander Pantoja who fought for the RFA. And he fought a guy named Demacio Page who was legacy's champion. It was an incredible fight. You know, the first round, I believe Demacio won that round. And then the second round, they got back on the ground. And, you know, they were grappling. You know, they were there.

10:21And then right at like 15 seconds left into the round, you know, Demacia was in Pantoja's guard, and Pantoja threw on a triangle. And then, you know, the 10 seconds, clack, clack, clack, you know, hit. And he kept doing it. And then the bell rang, and as soon as the bell rang, they separated him. And when they separated him, Demacia Page was passed out on top of him. and Pantoja won the fight. And Alexander Pantoja went on and he was a UFC champion. He actually just lost his title because he dislocated his arm 26 seconds into the fight. So they called the fight, but he was on his, I believe he had four title defenses before he lost the fight.

11:10But I don't consider it a loss because he dislocated his arm because he fell wrong. So, yes, on his record, it's a loss, but he'll be back to get his title back here probably by the middle of the year. That's awesome. That's awesome. So what came of that? Yes, the RFA won three fights to one. But what the most that was almost irrelevant at the time. I mean, yeah, it was nice. You know, who doesn't like to win? But the greatest thing we got is that we got along great. Mick and our team and their team got along great. And, you know, once again, creating leverage. So, you know, I was talking to Mick and I said, hey, you know, between you and between the LFA and RFA, we are creating 80 % of the content that AXS TV has on their Friday night fights.

12:04And I said, the best way for us to create leverage for us to get what we want is for us to merge. because if we merge there's no one else out there that can do 30 shows a year um and that's the way that we could switch the table on them and and then basically in the middle of towards the end of 2016 um we announced our merger and um right about two weeks before we announced the merger the UFC asked Mick to become the matchmaker for the UFC. So Mick ended up taking the job at the UFC. We merged the companies and we were partners the first year. So 2017, when the LFA was started, it was started January 13th, 2017.

12:55We were partners. And then in the beginning of 2018, we ended up buying Mick out. And then, and, and the LFA is what it is today. So the LFA started in 2017 and you know, we just did our 226 show a couple of weeks ago. Actually, no. Yeah. Last week, last Friday. Wow. So, so you guys did a merger with another, so you guys almost other than UFC and then LFA, who else is a competitor in the king of the cage not around anymore well i i mean we are the lfa is the number one developmental organization in the world that's that's like that's not even me saying it it's a fact it's not it's a fact i mean google it you know what i mean you could google it you could ask chat gpt you could ask gemini they'll tell you we're the number one developmental organization so the ufc is what they are and and me coming from the management side the reason why I've always wanted to create a developmental organization, which started in 2012 with the RFA, was that I realized that these athletes were fighting in a high school gymnasium in front of 500 people.

14:10And then they'd get the opportunity to fight in the UFC. And next thing you know, they're walking out at Staples Center with 17 ,000 people. And they were a little bit shell-shocked. So I wanted to create an environment so that these guys were a little bit, got used to, you know, having cameras and lights in their face so they weren't so overwhelmed when they stepped into the octagon for the first time so that's why we created a developmental organization and you know at first a lot of people looked at me like i was crazy saying i can remember people telling me uh so you're telling me you're gonna create uh build up this talent and then just give them to the ufc And I said, yeah.

14:51And they'd kind of roll their own and go, yeah, we'll see how that works. And, you know, I kind of had a vision that I knew it was going to work. And it did. And, you know, I'm so grateful for the team that we have around us because obviously, yes, I'm the CEO. And a lot of times I get the credit for creating this. But, you know, I wouldn't have been able to do it without the team of people that I have around me. why not like make it a competitor like pride did like you're right there you already have the best fighters in the world um just is it a matter of like they need to make more money or like what is i'm just not interested in that i like developing talent i like getting talent uh at a young age and developing them to make them flourish and uh the ufc is it's kind of like the NFL you know what I mean like they're to me the UFC is like the NFL it is and there's no there is no competitor so so like they say oh PFL well the PFL is like the Canadian Football League and what we are we're like the NCAA Division One of our of our sport so to me um you know I don't know too many athletes or too many football players that grow up wanting to play football and say, man, one day I want to be a big star in the Canadian Football League.

16:09No, they want to be a big star in the NFL, the same way that these fighters want to be a big star in the UFC. So the way I look at it is I knew we had a niche. I knew we had something that was good, that we developed the talent. And like I said, currently approximately about 40 % of the current UFC roster are LFA alumni. currently 27 percent if Pantoja would have not hurt his arm and and lost that fight we'd be at 36 percent of the current UFC champions would be LFA alumni because he lost that fight we're at 27 percent of the current UFC champions are LFA alumni those are just remarkable statistics how in the world are you getting that sort of conversion out of your your developmental organization because that's just unreal to have that many champions come out of lfa it's almost like they should all start in lfa well i mean like i said we're the number one developmental organization and the reason why i feel that our athletes do so well is that we really put on real fights.

17:19We put on good fights. So, so we prepare like the, the bigger organizations know that if you're winning fights in the LFA, you're actually winning tough fights and you're winning fights. So they know that when they get that opportunity to step onto the big stage, they're prepared to do that. And that's what we do. You know, we, we, we put on tough fights. There's a lot of promotions out there that kind of create these situations for guys to build up wins. You know, oh, I'm 11-0, but they haven't fought anybody. Like if you're 11-0 in the LFA, like - You're a beast. You're a beast. You know what I'm saying?

17:58Versus if you're 11-0 in some of these other organizations - When you're in the hangar at the fair. You could have been fighting the hot dog salesman or an Uber driver or whatever it is, but not in the LFA. I mean, that's why our athletes are battle tested. And so the vetting process is what you basically stand on. It's like your fighters. How do you like find these specific fighters? What's the like the protocol that you go through or the due diligence process to identify that a fighter is worthy to go through the LFA? Well, you know, we try to give everybody opportunities. You know, we have guys who've had their debut with us and fought all the way through guys like Khalil Roundtree.

18:43He fought all his fights before he was in the UFC with the LFA. Mackenzie Dern fought a lot of her fights in the LFA before she went to the UFC. You know, so I would say a lot of the a lot of the managers and a lot of the athletes know that we are the breeding ground. and we are like, we're like the division one of our sport. So it's almost kind of like if you're, if you're Alabama, right? If you're Alabama and you're a division one, you know, football team, like how do you, how do they get their guys? Yeah, they recruit. But at the end of the day, the kids know, Hey man, I want to go to Alabama because I'm going to get the experience, the coaching to prepare me to go to the NFL, or I'm going to go to another big university, or the SEC or wherever you're going to play.

19:33So that's the way I look at it. So fighters know it's in the fight circle that the LFA, that's where you go first before you go to the UFC. Well, it's not always like that. But like I said, look at the numbers. The numbers don't lie. I mean, listen, you had Holly Holmes come through there, Alex Pantoja. I'm like, the best of the best. Alexander Pantoja, Alex Pereira, Valentina Shomenko, Henry Cejudo, Kamaru Usman. And I mean, Carlos Prates, Brandon Marino, Brandon Roival. There's just the list go on and on. Wow. Yeah, it's just remarkable. Now, what's a moment that you feel like really tested you personally and professionally when it came to building the LFA?

20:19Because it started off as a dream. It's not like it started off like what it is now. No, I mean, there's been so many adversities that we've had to overcome from, I mean, it just, it's constantly testing you, you know, as soon as you figure, you think you figured it out, something new comes up that you've never thought about. So it's a constant grind, but, you know, I believe in doing something you love. I love what I do. I love seeing the success of our athletes. I think our athletes, it's almost kind of like if you fight in the LFA, it's almost like a fraternity. It's like, you know, once you've competed for the LFA, we support you all the way, regardless of where you go.

21:00Whether you go to the PFL, whether you go to one championship, whether you go to Ryzen, whether you go to the UFC, we support our athletes and we just want them to do well because their success indirectly is our success. And that means we've done our job right if they're having success. Let me ask you this. How do you spot a champion like a Holly Holmes? What really separates these people early on? I mean, there's different athletes that kind of have different paths. but I think just them going out there and them competing and them overcoming adversities. A lot of these athletes, they'll have great starts to their career.

21:49They'll go out there and they're talented and they go out there and they beat everybody. But where you really see the heart of the champion is when they overcome adversities, when they're going through a rough part or when they're down two rounds and they come back and win in the third round or win in the fourth round. It just kind of happens, you know. And I think that, like I said before, it's just the LFA, the athletes that come out of the LFA that are winning. The grand opening of your neighborhood Midas is here, And this is your grand invitation to experience a new kind of complete auto care.

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23:10What other big organization is there besides the UFC? I mean, you know, there's people, you know, talk about PFL and talk about one and won championship in Asia. And, you know, they talk about Ryzen. But to me, I mean, the big organization is the UFC. I mean, there is no real other. Yeah, everyone else is just like, you know, you didn't go to the UFC. I mean, so Pride's not around anymore? No, Pride got bought by the UFC. Oh, so it's all. Okay. I didn't know that Pride now is UFC. Well, no, it's not that it is UFC. They own that intellectual property of Pride. They bought it. And there was a big, you know, big things behind that because there were so many athletes from Pride that were going to come to the UFC.

23:53And there was so much history in those athletes that when they bought it, really, they bought it for the content. Because, you know, how are you going to promote Vanderlei Silva? How are you going to promote Antonio Rodrigo Noguera or Shogun Hua if you didn't have the content to show who they were? You know what I'm saying? So that was part of the evolution of the sport when they acquired Pride and they started acquiring other organizations strictly for the content. They acquired Strikeforce. That's how they got Luke Rockhold. That's how they got Daniel Cormier because Daniel Cormier was signed to Strikeforce originally.

24:31Yeah, so there's no more Strikeforce or Pride. No, Strikeforce is owned by the UFC. So in lieu of Strikeforce, you're just seeing a smaller UFC fight. And now UFC has BJJ. Yeah, they have BJJ. Yeah, for sure. I mean, if the UFC is not able to make BJJ big, I don't think anyone will be able to. Yeah, I mean, now there's just UFC BJJ. Now it's going to be, you know, at the gym I train at, the youth start their nine. Yeah. Full time. Six hours BJJ training. Yeah. And they don't go to school. They homeschool. Yeah. And I'm like, so what are you going to do? you know we're gonna train ufc we're gonna train jujitsu that's what we're gonna do for a living yeah like well jujitsu has become a big business you know grappling tournaments you can make a significant amount of money grappling now yeah between training they train at like 200 bucks an hour privates and uh and then actually that you know now with ufc and ibj ff yeah you know they're making decent money yeah um and a ton of other grappling tournaments that there are there's Abu Dhabi, there's just so many out there.

25:41And hopefully it catches on. Like I said, if the UFC is not able to make it, I believe that if the UFC is not able to make it become a mainstream sport, I don't think anybody can. Now, there's a lot of people that want to be MMA fighters. What's a common misconception about becoming an MMA fighter that most people get wrong? well I just think a lot of the times people always see their end result they don't see all the hard work and and all the dedication and all the adversities and all the injuries and all the over things you have to overcome to be that you know people see the Alex Pereira as they see the John Jones of the world but they don't really see everything behind the scenes of all the dedication and all the sacrifices you have to make to become successful in this sport.

26:36When you think about it, how many people want to be a UFC fighter? There's only about 600 to 650 athletes signed to the UFC. So to think that out of the whole world, 8 billion people in the world. And everybody's fighting. And everybody's fighting. So 8 billion people in the world, there's only 650 in the UFC. You have to really dedicate yourself and be elite to get there. And then once you're there, to be the elite amongst the elite, that's a whole other level. Yeah. And then to be the champion, there's only five of them. There's only 11 of them. Yeah. In the UFC, there's 11 weight divisions.

27:13And then 12 if you consider the BMF title. Yeah. And then you got guys that hold them in multiple weight divisions. Yeah. Nowadays, they don't allow you to hold titles in two different weight divisions. but they they have been like for instance like alex perera he's mcgregor weight champion he's been the light heavyweight champion um and there's a chance he's going to be going up and and become in fighting for a heavyweight title you've got mcgregor who who actually he was the first one to simultaneously have them because he was the featherweight champ and then he won the lightweight weight title at the same time.

27:53So he, you know, like McGregor's, uh, you know, he, he's an incredible athlete and incredible figure in our sport. I mean, the attention that, uh, Conor McGregor had, has brought into our sport. Uh, I mean, I feel that the biggest names of like people that have brought attention to our sport, one of them is Conor McGregor. The other is, um, um ronda rousey you know ronda rousey was was uh one that really revolutionized uh our sport and you know before ronda rousey dana never saw women fighting in the ufc and um you know ronda rousey was someone that really broke a lot of barriers you know she was uh um in the first time the ufc was mentioned in time magazine was uh because of ronda rousey yeah so ronda rousey has been a a huge staple in the success of the sport also ronda rousey i i feel like john jones daniel cormier these are like yeah yeah but but ronda rousey to me john jones brought some negative heat to the sport too just because you know i think he's a little bit misunderstood john jones is an incredible human being he's a good person yeah he might make some bad choices we all do But everyone has.

29:10And but but to me, I think the people who if you were going to say who revolutionized the sport, I would say, obviously, Hoist Gracie. And then you look at the fight between Forrest Griffin and Stefan Bonner. That was the first ultimate fighter that basically put the UFC on the map. That was a revolutionary moment in our sport. and then you look at athletes like a ronda rousey who who or t's too yeah he's a big political figure they're all political figures but i'm just saying if you're going to really name who the difference i mean there's been a lot of great there's been anderson silva there's been leota machida there's been chuck liddell there's been tito ortiz but i'm talking about like tipping points of of where where things made a difference i would say hoist gracie i would say the fight between um uh between uh forrest griffin and and stephen bonner and then i'd go to like a ronda rousey and then and then i would go to like a conor mcgregor that's brought it to to new to new heights yeah yeah it's amazing to see the evolution of the sport and now it's going to be i mean for my kids generations it's it is like the nfl you know every kid knows every fighter it's very very normalized in every you know every culture yeah yeah i mean it you know dana has said it very you know and a lot of times like fighting is in our dna like if you if you go and if you were to put if you were on a four corners and there was a baseball game going on a football game going on and then there was a fight everyone's going to watch the fight i mean think about it in school when there was a fight everybody would run to go watch the fight people love to watch fights i take dina's uh advice i hear him on podcasts and people ask him like what sport would you put your kids in jiu-jitsu every time so not baseball i mean i put my kids jiu-jitsu is like baseline then it's like baseball football basketball you know i mean i think i think kids playing multiple sports is always good you know i i think that you know i grew up playing a lot of baseball and it's like you know but but I played baseball during baseball season I played football during football season I played basketball so I think it makes the kids very well rounded nowadays with all the specialties and all the things like you could play year-round baseball there wasn't year-round baseball when I played baseball I wish there was but but there isn't but it really you know helps the kids diversify yeah in playing different sports so I think it's important you know and you know living by the beach you know surfing is great you know yeah skiing if you live in the mountains so there's just you know as long as a kid stays active and and i think is important yeah yeah because it just helps with their overall discipline in general and that's what translates into real life anyways 100 um so i'm gonna ask you this what's like the biggest mistake you think you've made in building your organization now the biggest mistake man i i don't um you know i that's a good question i i i don't know what what the biggest mistake would be but it'd be like not i should have signed that fighter or i i wish i got that venue or i I wish I avoided that lawsuit.

32:40Yeah, well, the reality of it is I think everything happens for a reason. And regardless of what it goes, like I tell our athletes sometimes, you see a kid come up and he's doing really well and then he loses. And I always tell him, I said, you know, you don't lose in the LFA. You either win or you learn. So when I look at mistakes, I don't necessarily look at it like a loss or a mistake. I look at it as like it was a learning experience. And sometimes when you lose something, you know, I didn't go to college. So I think, you know, if I made a mistake, like we say, and oh, man, I lost. I just look at it.

33:18Well, that was a semester of college for me. The money I lost, the experience I got, and I'll never make that mistake again. So like I said, even when you make mistakes and you do that, I think what you have to do is you have to learn from them and improve. so I think that's the way we look at it. Well then piggybacking on that, we're not going to call mistakes. You spilt this massive organization that has 27 % of the current champions. What's some of the greatest lessons that you've learned? Well, I mean there's just so many different lessons in so many of it. I mean I just think that you have to keep striving.

34:00Like there is no such thing as a perfect event. There is no such thing. Like, I feel that when you have, when you think you've had a perfect event, you might as well just retire. Because there's always things that you can improve. I'm always looking to improve, no matter how great an event is, no matter how great. And I think that when you look at fighters as champions, like, they may have an incredible fight. But there's always something that they can get better at. So I think that, you know, just stay focused on the goal and be humble and work hard. And I think those are those are the rules, you know, treat people the way you like to be treated.

34:43And I think that's the key to life. I mean, you know, and I think overall, one of the biggest things that I think people need to recognize is having gratitude. You know, gratitude is something that I say this all the time. gratitude doesn't cost you a penny to give people gratitude but to receive gratitude it's priceless and time and time again i think why why don't people have more gratitude it doesn't cost anything to give and for whoever's receiving it it's priceless and just imagine how much better this world would be if people had more gratitude you know one of some of the greatest fighters i met i was just telling you i you know i had got to hang out the you know another ufc fighter giga and some they're just so meek and so humble so thankful some of these fighters are such just genuinely good people you would look at them you're like man he's vicious and you talk to me like and he's so christ-like he is so godly because they just a lot of them are very humble guys you know is there a fighter in mind that you think of when you're like man that guy was just such a good guy i mean there's our girl there's many there's many there's many fighters You know, I mean, one that comes to mind, you know, is like Alex Pereira or Alexander Pantoja.

35:59And those are ones that I have personal relationships with that I that I know the kind of people that they are. And Alex Pereira right now, to me, is the biggest star in mixed martial arts right now. There's no bigger name in our active name that's bigger than him right now. And, you know, he's taught me a lot about, you know, I used to I've had experiences. with other guys that I've worked with where I've seen the money and the fame kind of change them. But what I've realized is that money and fame doesn't change people. It doesn't change people. I used to say, oh, the money and fame changes people.

36:43It doesn't change people. What money and fame does is it magnifies the person that you really are. because a guy like Alex Pereira, with all the money and the success that he's had, it almost seems like he's become a better person. But it's not that he's become a better person. It just magnified the great person that he was. And then when you see someone, you say, oh, man, the money and fame changed him. The money and fame didn't change that person. What happened was is before the guy had the money and fame, he was wearing a mask. He was being fake. He wasn't really being who he really is. And the minute that he gets the money and fame, he can act the way he really is.