Ian Machado Garry: From Window Cleaner to UFC World Title Contender (E425)

0:03Being the next Conor McGregor is not a fucking plan. Wrote down on words on a piece of paper a 16 year old Ian Garry who was sat in bed on his laptop watching highlights. That's what I want to do. I want to do that. I made my UFC debut at MSG when I was 23. It's a bloody beautiful violent sport. Earlier this year, hit kick from Gary. This is going to be a team of covers up in Sean O 'Garry. I'm going to fight Islam Akashem for a world title. When I beat him, it is undeniable that I am great. The future is inevitable. I'm going to say something that I think a lot of people wouldn't expect, but I feel like the 1 % is by doing less.

0:42What do you say to those people that believe that Islam couldn't win?

0:51even in the 90s early 2000s they had no voice so if the media decided you were a certain way or you were a certain person there was no opportunity because the only way to tell a different story was through the media who didn't want to tell a different story there's no social there's no opportunity for whereas now you can like the narrative control an athlete has now i think is so good for you i think that's what the power of social media has brought has brought its control yeah i feel like from from my end and from my experience i've controlled a lot of my my outcomes of my life due to my social media and my presence online being so strong yeah yeah because what i would i have gotten the fights i gotten if i didn't have the name i had what i've gotten, would I have changed my family's life the way I have if I didn't have social media in regards to like pay and outcome and just general online kind of push like in the fans point of view I feel like it's had a massive impact on my life and I hate it I don't use it that much you know what I mean but like I feel like the fans love it, it hypes the fans up for fights there's an element I love about controlling it so that I can control the narrative of what people see.

2:15That's what matters most. Because if I do an interview with someone and it's for a media outlet, they can spin it whatever way they want. They can write the headline, they can control it all because the second I say goodbye, it's out of my control.

2:32On my Instagram, on my social media, I can control everything. I can control what the caption is what I'm saying what I look like what my family looks like and just make sure that I'm giving the most true and honest version of me and nobody can spin that so that's what I love do you think that getting this fight against Islam Makachev do you think you've helped to make that happen aside from just being a great fighter I believe so I know I've earned this fight from fighting but I absolutely know that my online presence has helped funnel fans into the same mindset. Because I've earned it. There's no doubt that I've earned it.

3:16I beat the former champion. My reward for winning this fight means my next fight is a guy I already beat on three weeks' notice. That's my reward. That's my next opponent. Does that make sense? A guy I already beat. After Makachev. After Makachev, when I beat him, my reward is you have to fight a guy again that you already beat on three weeks notice. I've earned the fight. I went in and I beat him by three rounds. Dominated me, couldn't take me down. The whole point of his game was he couldn't take me down. It's a guy who trained with Islam.

3:50So afterwards, I dropped this epic, leaving the octagon, there's a video of it, it's great. I dropped this epic, a guy actually handed me in the stand, he had like a massive leprechaun hat. So I took it off him in the stands, put it on my head. And then I was like, yeah, slam. He couldn't stop me. He couldn't take me down. Went through this whole kind of, I just dropped an epic promo for the fight. I was like, so it's your job, your duty. Show up, fight the best contender in the world and you're looking at him. Ian Machado, Gary. It was wild. It was epic. It's just like, you can control the narrative, which I love.

4:23I think that's epic. I'm going to find that video. I'm looking for it now on YouTube. I want to find it for me. Yeah, have a look. There you go. you can't stop me he couldn't take me down and his man he came to your camp and he couldn't do it so try do it yourself bring that belt bring that record and i will see you wherever you want my friend all the best it's sick leila's hold i'm holding my worst hand she's by my side she's got leo it was just epic it was like perfect but what i find remarkable about that is that you've just come out of a bruising experience right your adrenaline is high and the presence of mind to recognize that moment and then go into promo mode rather than sort of fighting mode is incredible how do you make that switch it's just who i am that i love that element like i thrive off adrenaline i feel like that's where i operate the best is just in that clear calm focused mindset and in that after ahead of a fight you think about the fight you think about the worst things that can possibly happen in the fight because if you don't you don't respect your opponent enough I can think I'm going to fight you now I should think you should be able to do nothing to me but what if he hurts me what if he does that how do I prepare for that mentally because if you're not prepared for it then if it happens if any slight element of your plan comes off the track at any point, you can crumble.

6:02But if I have seen, oh, this is fine. I've thought about this. I know this could happen. It's a fight. This is one of the best guys in the world. Do you know what I mean? So I find when I fight, I think about all of the bad things that could potentially happen so that it pushes me to train even harder so that I'm ready for every single element of that. I feel like I train for the fight to be fluid, just easy, like just completely, like it's a walk in the park. So that from the hardest element to the easiest element I've prepared for. And then you start to think about, well, what do I want next?

6:45Because if I'm not focused on what's next, then I'm not I'm not pushing myself I'm not pushing myself so when I beat Bilal Mohammed in my last fight I was like after this fight I'm going to fight Islam Akashat for the world title so I have to win this fight I have to drive myself to win this fight so that I can get to that next position because when I beat him I lock myself in as the number one contender of the world and next in line to fight the champion so all of those things go through my mind and it's the same And with this fight now, when I'm going in to fight the world champion, I'm already thinking about who do I want to defend against?

7:22So I feel like you have to think about all of those things so that when I get on the mic and someone puts a microphone on my face straight after for the post-fight interview, I'm ready. I've already dreamt, thought, understand what I want to do next, and it's just, it's in me. It's that competitive nature, that competitive spirit that I just, I thrive off. so we've had a few guests on here tom daley's one that spoke about what you've just described of you visualize and then you catastrophize and the combination of both of them makes you powerful so i've never i've never thought about it as catastrophize say it again so you visualize and then you but you also catastrophize what could go wrong i've never heard that but i love it it's basically what i just said yeah yeah but what's the percentage what's the mix of visualize your positive that fluid outcome and the catastrophizing disaster i feel like when i start my when i know who i'm gonna fight i start with the the negative elements what could go wrong what could he do right how where could he try win the fight how could he try win the fight is it going to be by taking me down and holding me down is it going to be by trying to cause chaos and make it a scramble and I have to be smart with my defense and move my feet and get out of the pocket what what are the ways that this person I'm fighting I believe could he try take advantage of to win this fight once he does that I train for all those so that in the fight I know mentally I've done it and the closer to the fight every week that gets closer it's more and more and more and more positive so as I get to a week out from the fight fight week itself I am putting people in body bags when it comes to just their outward that the pace the mindset the freedom of my body being able to move and go because I have gone I've seen how this can play if it's the worst element it can possibly be and I know I'm ready for it and every single second along the way since when I started that, I've been getting closer and closer and closer to perfection.

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10:52What is the worst that you see when you look ahead to Makachev? Being held down for 25 minutes and just having a boring fight. He's a phenomenal wrestler, a phenomenal grappler. And if you allow him the ability to stay on top and utilize his grappling and his wrestling, he can suffocate you and just lie on you like a weighted blanket and you just find it so hard to move. And I'm like, that's not fun for anyone. It's not fun for me. It shouldn't be fun for him. And it's definitely not fun for anyone watching. So I feel like, and he did that, he did exactly that to win the world title fight. And I feel like that's the worst case scenario because the best in the world lose fights by getting knocked out or getting submitted.

11:41In this sport, in MMA, I don't, winning and losing isn't like boxing. it's it's a very recency bias sport they love you they hate you you win you lose oh he won again we all love him again we've forgotten about the loss does that make sense? and I feel like far too many fighters focus on not losing as opposed to winning like just focus on winning that's all you need to do if I go out there in that fight and he outskilled me and he's better than me but I fought him as hard as I could I can leave that octagon proud that I did everything I possibly could to win that fight does that make sense? it's not gonna happen why?

12:24because I'm too good I'm just too good I just I feel like I've been put on this earth to fight and there's just a divine guidance that when I get in that octagon everything just goes my way every time every time I don't know what it is how it works I don't care to question it I just enjoy it I just feel like I'm doing what I love I'm doing what I was put on this earth to do and I've got so much more to do So where does fear sit then? Because I look at Makachev he's had five round title fights he's defended belts he's moved weight classes he's beaten champions you've never fought for a UFC world title.

13:17Nope. This is the guy that's done it all against the guy doing it for the very first time. Yes. There must be fear. I mean, no.

13:31Because it's not fear. I'm not afraid of anything. I don't know how I would word it in regards to fear because it's not fear. what was it Tom Aspinall told us about fear going into a fight can you remember Tom had that I'm pretty sure I've heard Tom say like everybody's afraid it's how you manage fear yeah it's the custom stuff yeah I'm genuinely like I'm not afraid there's nothing I see him doing that I'm afraid of there's nothing I think of him doing that I'm afraid of this I chose to do this sport for a living I chose to get into MMA I wanted to be a world champion I wanted to prove I was one of the best in the world.

14:11And I have to do that by beating some of the best in the world. So for me, there's no fear. There's risk of, well, you could lose, you could be unconscious, you could be X, Y, Z, but without that risk, I'll never achieve the dream. So it's not fear for me. It's part of the process. And as I said, I think about all the things that can happen in a fight so that you're ready for them. I know how good Islam Akchev is. I know how talented he is. He's 29 and 1 in the sport. He's a two-weight division champion. He's the most successful lightweight champion of all time and had the most lightweight defenses of all time.

15:05he is a the current welterweight champion of the world he came up a division and won the title he is tied for the longest consecutive consecutive active win streak in UFC history and if he wins his next fight against me he will break the record for the longest consecutive wins so I have a two weight world champion the number one pound for pound fighter on the planet and the same man is looking to break the record for the most wins consecutively in the UFC and that's the man I get to fight to prove that I'm the best in the world sounds to me though like all of those things are your energy source when I beat him there can be no doubt when I when I beat him it is undeniable that I am great see one quick thing because I think what's interesting is like you say this was always the story.

16:03This was meant to be. This is written in the stars. What I find really interesting is your first shot at being the UFC world champion is not against a fighter where there's any doubts. It's not a fighter that lucked into being the best. It's not against someone where people think he has got things he doesn't deserve. You are fighting the greatest there is to fight right now. I wonder whether that is so important to you because there can be no questions if you beat him. my whole career, I've had a lot of expectations. I've had a lot of pressure from the outside world of the fans and the sport itself to be this star, to live up to the hype that Conor McGregor set, being from Dublin, Ireland.

16:54I've had a lot of comparisons to Conor due to the fact that we're both from Dublin, we're both from Ireland, we both talk to talk, we both walk to walk, but we will fight anyone on the planet and that's nothing to do with me but everything to do with people comparing me to him right I've been very vocal about how I started this sport being a fan of his and being inspired by Conor on his rise to greatness in the sport and completely transcending the entire MMA scale to this entire world. He transcended the sport to a next level. When Conor fought for his first UFC world title, he fought the number one pound-for-pound fighter who hadn't been beaten for a decade, and he knocked him out in 13 seconds.

17:49I cannot wait to step into the octagon against Islam Makashev and beat him because there will be no doubt that I have done it against the best. To be the best, you have to beat the best. And my next opponent right now is regarded by everyone in the world as the number one ranked pound for pound fighter on the planet. Make no excuses. There will be no doubt. After the fight, I just want it to be known that Ian Machado, Gary, is great. I love the compelling nature of what you're telling us, but can I take you back to furthering the process? Take me wherever you want to go. Well, I'm interested in that period where you engage in, what could defeat me?

18:35What are the things that could kill me here? And I'm interested in how you manage that process because that must evoke emotions of sort of wariness, fear, maybe a little bit of hesitancy. Frustration. Frustration. trying to unlock the keys to solve what I believe to be his kryptonite as such but they're all comfortable emotions and I'm interested in how you handle that process to get to where you are now where you've got this compelling confidence that you know you have the keys to the puzzle the life I live is ruthless the sport I'm in takes no prisoners like it's it's a bloody beautiful violent sport yeah and if you don't come in ready then you get thrown to the sharks like when the going gets tough you either swim or you drown um and i feel like putting yourself in a position where you know mentally and physically you have felt that uncomfort gives you the ability to focus and fight through.

19:43And if you don't put yourself in uncomfortable positions, then you're lying to yourself. So tell us about how you do it though. Who's there with you when you watch an opponent and you unpick and go, they're great at that, that could be a threat to me. Me. Just you. When everything is said and done and I retire and my career has unfolded over the next decade, I want it to be abundantly clear that I am one of the most intelligent fighters to ever grace this planet. I have an incredible fight IQ and my eyes see things differently to the rest of the world. That's what separates me from being good and great, but from being great on a different level.

20:30Is that I can see things. I can look in your eyes and I can see what you're going to do before you do it and I love that about me because I can literally during the fight during sparring, during the fight, whatever it is obviously people are unpredictable and people will do things but when I am in my flow state and I am I've separated from the world and my body is just moving I can see your mind and I can see it through your eyes that's why I never take my eyes off your eyes when I fight I'm locked in I put my chin down my chin goes into my chest my shoulders cover my face and I look through my eyebrows and I watch your eyes and I will see your movements through your head because one I've set you up to do them because my movement is beautiful and majestic but also I can see how you're trying to counter these and then I just pick my shots and to get into that place is there a process that you have to go through ahead of the fight?

21:31yeah i think there is i think the way i fight again is i focus on early on in my camp i focus on the negative elements the what could he do to have success i slowly windle that out so that i'm having more and more and more and more success and then it's a let the horse run we often refer to myself as a horse like a racehorse you have to let the horse run and at what stage in the process Before the event. And I feel like about a month out from the fight, we take the reins off. And what does that look like? Letting the horse around? It's so beautiful. When I have my coaches, it gets to the point where my wife starts to scream audible, what?

22:21At Spiral. When my coach is like, damn, baby, that's beautiful. Do it again. Do it. There's just an energy when we get into that flow when we're training. and I have a coach of mine, Coach Strout. He is from America. He is my bad conscience in a fight. That's how I describe him. He's that devil on my shoulder who's going, do this to hurt someone, do that to get him, do it again, do it again. But the way he coaches and corners me, the things that he says, they're just, it's almost like it's a hype man. It's like, so fast, baby, yeah, do it again. He can't touch you, do it again. Oh, like, my favorite moment ever, and I don't think this has ever been clipped up in the UFC, but I hope someday they do it.

23:08I fought a guy called Neil Magny. Neil Magny has the most wins ever in the welterweight division in the UFC. And he's been known as the gatekeeper of this division. Like, when you beat him at the time I beat him, you're deserving of a top 10 spot in the world, which is exactly what happened. But in between the second and third round, I came down, sat down in the corner. He goes, hey, what's up, man? Here you go, take some water. Okay, sweet. And he goes, I was like, what's up? And he goes like, you good? I was like, yeah. He's like, right, see that chair over there? All right, I'm going to sit down, enjoy the show.

23:48What? He's just gone. He just walked out the cage. He's like, I'm just going to sit down, enjoy the show. Now, the confidence that gives a fighter. Yeah. sat on that stool in between rounds two and three. I'm going back out for another five minutes to fight this bloke. And he's like, take your water. See that chair? I'm going to be sat there enjoying the show. And what did that do for you? I just went, sweet. Yeah, I'm on the same page. This guy can't touch me. I'm on a different planet here. And it's like having those when the horse runs free and when I move and when I go and when I've just got all of my cylinders just operating at the highest level, I feel like it's just poetry in motion.

24:31Like it's just beautiful controlled violence. But even in that place, things do still go wrong. You still do get tested and pushed to your limits. When have you been in a fight? In that place? Never. You've never been in flow in a fight and felt you could lose? No. If I get to that place, you're not touching me. since my last fight, I've probably done 12 rounds of sparring. I don't spar a lot outside of a fight. I do other things to mentally get me ready. I've probably done 12 rounds of sparring. So 12 five-minute rounds. I'd say I've been hit. Maybe every one of them got me once, twice. so 12 to 24 times in however 60 minutes of fighting i don't get hit a lot so for me there's no when i'm in that state and when i'm operating people can't touch me but you said you do other things psychologically what are they i put myself in positions when i'm training where we play drills or we do things that force me into where I believe this opponent could have success.

25:49So for example, if I'm fighting a big striker who's sloppy and aggressive, well, I'll probably get people to be sloppy and aggressive and work my defense and feel it and understand it and understand how to move around that and utilize his energy to get out or take advantage of those holds. And you have to see an opening. You're not going to see it in a fight if you've never prepared for it. I'll tell you what, when I was fighting, MVP, Michael Venompage. Michael Venompage has been around the sport a long, long time. I don't know if you guys know about him. He's an English fighter. Phenomenally talented on the feet.

26:21He makes great fighters look like amateurs. And it's an incredible talent to have, but it's a very specific skill set that he has. I have watched fight after fight after fight. People just look dazzled. Like they've never seen anything like this before. When I fought him, I didn't want to fight him. I was ranked eight or seven in the world. He was ranked 15 in the world. I had just come off a win. And I'm like, I want to fight one of the guys up there, not someone behind me. And literally, the fact was, nobody above me would say yes. So I'm like, so you're telling me and I'm speaking to one of the guys high up at the UFC, you're telling me that nobody above me is saying yes.

27:15And he's like, yeah. I'm like, well, that shouldn't be allowed. And he's like, well, I can't control people on what they want to do whether they want to fight someone. I was like, you literally can. That's your job. Your job is to matchmake and put me and him in the fight. Whether he likes it or not, there is no other option for that fight. Does that make sense? You have to fight and that's it. so anyway, I was like, you know what, I'll do it, and the whole point of why I did it was, was because it was on the Conor McGregor fight, Conor McGregor's going to come back, the Irish are meant to be there, it was meant to be me and him, co-main, and it all fell through, his fight fell out, my opponent that was meant to be co-main didn't want to fight and just wouldn't sign the contract and was faffing about, so I was like, you know what, I just want to fight, I want to be active.

28:03I'll fight MVP. I don't really want to do it. I have no interest in doing it. He's not like anybody else in the sport. So there's no benefit moving forward that I see a fight with him giving me. So it's like, all right, sweet. My main sparring partner, the person that I needed most in that fight to help me get ready for that was a 47-year-old. his name was David Kerr and he was from Brazil and he did the first two and a half minutes and the last two and a half minutes because he couldn't do much more at the time he's 47 years of age but he had the best simulation of that movement and I did multiple training sessions with him to understand just his movement and once I understand the pattern of his movement and the way to kind of figure it out I went, right, there you go, I can solve that problem.

28:58And that's how I kind of put myself into a position where I can understand my opponent's strengths and where he might try to place me to be in a position of weakness and eliminate that position. Can I ask you about finding an edge like this? Because you don't know what Islam is doing to prepare for you. I couldn't care less. But you have to know that you're doing more. you have to know you're finding every little edge can we talk about as the fight approaches when you're in camp what finding those one percents actually looks like for you the places that you have to put yourself to be doing more than anybody else i'm going to say something that i think a lot of people wouldn't expect but i feel like the one percent is by doing less rest and recovery and joy joy as a one percent like i enjoy spending time with my wife and my kids i enjoy spending time with my friends and my family i feel better when i'm playing in the garden with my little looking at your watch thinking another hour of sparring and i'll be even fitter even stronger even more prepared i train once a day for maybe five days a week even in camp hard when I show up at those sessions I give it 100 % whatever I'm doing I'm always focusing on something each session that helps me get to where I want to be in this in my in my expectations of myself.

30:33The 1 % for me are nutrition, recovery, sleep, joy, laughter, friendship. Everything you do affects your life. So I can be the best I want to be on the mats. And when I spar, I can be the best in the world but if i'm an arsehole to my wife and i'm not being her best friend then i go into the i go into the cage going oh thank god i'm not like that's not the energy i want i want to be with my friends so you have balance even in camp no fighter i've ever spoken to has balance in camp and you'll know that from your background that's but what you've just said is the problem in camp. This is my life.

31:26There should be no camp. There should be no, oh, I've stopped training, but now I'm getting back in because I've got to fight. This is my life. I'm a professional. Every fighter ever has done that. But I'm a professional. Two of my biggest fights of my life, actually, I'd argue three of the biggest fights of my life have been on short notice. I fought my pro debut the 16th of February 2021 in Cage Warriors Liverpool on seven days notice against an animal I fought arguably the biggest challenge of my career so far on three weeks notice against Shavkat Rakhmanov who was 18-0 and had 18 finishes going into that fight I took him on three notice when everybody else in the world said no.

32:19I was like, yeah, I'll do it. Let's go. I fought straight after that fight. I fought a guy called Carlos Pratches, a Brazilian, a knockout specialist. He had had 11 knockouts in a row prior to that fight. His fight got cancelled. They said, hey, Ian, we need you. Can you fight Carlos Pratches on three weeks notice? Yeah, sweet. I'll see you there. being in a position where you can constantly mentally and physically accept a fight is me being in a position to do what I love most I want to I want to fight I'm livid that I have to wait nine months between my last fight and my next fight I would have fought twice but before twice in between that or at least once at the very bare minimum i want to compete like i want to be active i don't want to spend the best years of my my life inactive yeah and i'm 28 years of age right now thank god i'm young but if i was 34 and i was waiting nine months i'd be livid so over the next decade if i find considering i'm at the top of the sport right now and i plan to dominate this division activity matters for me you have to be a professional you have to live the life you enjoy so you can reap the benefits yeah and if i'm not always look i pig out and i I have no problem with that.

33:58There is things you can do when the time is right. You can sit down, you can eat a massive meal. If you want to have a massive pizza, chuck. Oh, do you know what? I want to go to the cinema. Let's go. I've got all the snacks. Cool.

34:12But, and that's important. It's important to have that in your life because that is mentally letting go and just being present. Balance. It is balance. And if you don't have that, then life will find a flow for you. I'm very happy with, we bought a home in England in October of 2024, I want to say. And the amount of, my wife told me before, I couldn't believe this. I couldn't, I've never bought a home. It was my first time buying a home. And she was like to me, listen, I promise you, it's going to sound ridiculous. But when you buy a home, you will travel more freely. I'm like, that makes no sense.

34:55you were telling me I'm going to invest all of my hard work, all of our time and energy into earning this money to buy a home, and then we're going to be able to leave. I was like, that doesn't make sense. I'm literally going to be like, all of the money we've earned as a couple and everything we've done is into this. I'm not going to want to leave. I've just spent however much money I've spent on this house to be there. And she was like, I promise you. The first year we had our home, we were there for, we were gone traveling the world. for seven months accumulated accumulated accumulated over the the year yeah we'd go for three weeks here we'd go for four weeks there we'd come back for two weeks we'd go again and we we had like I had never understood that but I was like oh it does make sense so what when I travel to Qatar and I come back and I go oh so after my last fight I fought in Qatar absolutely loved it it was a great experience I flew out to Qatar two weeks before the fight to settle in because I was like the heat the humidity i need to make sure i'm ready for this i don't want any upsets so me and my whole camp my whole team we went out there we trained for two weeks we loved it i stayed in guitar after the fight for like three or four days we had a we went to a place called banana island that's a an anantara whole resort that was just made for kids so i was like you know what my kids need to be able to be happy and be free post-fight because all the last two weeks has been daddy's got a fight let's focus daddy's got a fight let's focus like there is things that they necessarily get not neglected on but there's it's less of a focus for you now even though on fight week i'm still bringing my kid to jump jumping centers and kids play areas like i do everything i possibly can to be the best dad because on fight week on fight week have you ever known a fighter not going to camp no i like i like what you're talking about i think if more people did it there would be more athletes that would succeed better.

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39:44some of them have some athletes have said well I don't sacrifice anything because I've chosen to do this whereas some see it that I've had to deny myself some of the pleasures of life to pursue what I want now where do you sit in that debate? I think sacrifice is a massive part of any any human searching to be extraordinary or game-changing because you might not understand what I'm trying to do. And if you don't understand what I'm trying to do, then I don't want to explain it to you. I just have to keep focused. And sacrifice sometimes means

40:32friends, family members, people I love and adore who don't understand what's going on in here and can't comprehend it because they aren't me, I'll see you in 10 years. Because right now I'm on a focus. I'm focused on what I am trying to achieve and I need 100 % energy on that. And this is why I love my wife so much. Because from the second I met my wife, there's never been any conversation about anything else other than what's best to help me get to where I want to be she is my biggest believer sometimes more so than I am like way more than I am like she's like you're better than you think you are and since I've had her in my life there's just been that I talk to her and we go to the moon like we are just we just go together that hence why that tattoo I showed you earlier on.

41:35Yeah, yeah. What is it? It's a tattoo of a kid's book. It's a hat. It's a tattoo of two turtles with hats. It's by an author called John Classen. He has kids books. And one of them is about like, I want my hat back and a bear can't find his hat and he goes and he finds it and it was a rabbit who stole his hat. And then he brought out a sequel and my wife bought it as a present for me to read for my um from my birthday to read for my little boy and i was like oh she knew we loved that we read it every night and stuff like that he'd love it and i remember being in bed and i was just oh i just i got emotional about it this is so beautiful it's about two turtles and they both find a hat but there's two turtles and only one hat the hat looks great on both of them but there's only one hat so we must go they go watch the sunset together they go fall asleep together and the whole time in the story one of the turtles is constantly thinking about the hat and the other one is like we must go now let's keep going we must watch the sunset we must go to sleep and when that turtle goes to sleep in his dreams he's like i have a dream you are there and you have a hat and i am there and i have a hat too we both have hats sometimes living in the fantasy and us both having hats together is better than reality and if we can live in that reality or we can live in that fantasy choose the fantasy yeah because you can create that you can make that happen if you fully believe it so i got that tattooed on me because i was like i never ever ever want to forget that and you really put both leo and leila and leila's other child central to what you're doing i mean i've seen leo at fights yeah i've seen later do you understand how annoyed he would be if i went to fight without him if he found out i went to a fight without him he wouldn't speak to me he's three he would not speak He's not three, he's nearly four as he told me when I met him.

43:48He's like when it's his next birthday he's going to be four. Literally, I said to him, how are you? How are you? And he went, I'm nearly four. That's his name. He's been like, I'm three and when my next birthday happens, I'm going to be four. You walk out to Leila as well. I do. The song. Yeah, Leila Clapton, Leila. Do you ever lay eyes on them during a fight? I hear Leila. Woo! I hear her screams. I hear her. What does that do for you? I don't fight for anyone in this world other than myself. That's what I chose to do. It's my joy. It's my favourite thing. That's what makes my head, my cogs spin in my head.

44:26It's what brings out a beautiful competitive nature that I've had. We could sit here and start playing chess and I'm going to beat you with chess. That's the way my brain is. It's the way I love it. but I have a love and a joy for martial arts that it just completely takes over when I start going so when I enter that octagon and I know that my wife and my child are there I just want to put on a show for them I just want them to be happy and proud look at daddy look at your daddy he's amazing and I just want to make them proud and that's why I sit there and say like no matter what i do in that octagon win lose draw win by knockout get knocked out win by submission get submitted as long as i've done everything in my ability possible to go into that competition go into that octagon and compete against one of the best fighters in the world as long as i've done everything i can i'm proud of myself i know that i've i've left no stone unturned and I know my little boy would be proud of the way I competed.

45:36I know my little boy would be proud of the way I even prepared for the fight. I know my wife doesn't care whether I win or lose. I know my team don't care whether I win or lose. Obviously, we all want the success. But when I entered a rock band, it's all on me to do. Nobody else can do it for me. And I love that. I love that it's all on me. Nobody has higher expectations in this world of me than me. I'm not here to live up to anyone else's expectations. I'm here to live up to mine. And trust me, when I don't finish a fight, there is nobody that is more annoyed than me. When I don't do what I said I was going to do or what I thought of or what I dreamt of, when I don't achieve that in a fight due to someone else's toughness or hard work or correct preparations, I lose sleep over that one.

46:28And it pushes me to be better and better and better. and it excites me. I can see the emotion in you when you talk about Leila and... I love it. I would stop everything tomorrow for both of them. Right now. Yeah, 100%. Everything. Nothing else would matter. I'm a world champion. I'm one of the greatest fighters to ever live. But I don't have my soulmate by my side. I don't have that person I told you who, since I met her, has given me that conscience of, you can do whatever you want. You're the greatest. Go do it. I see how hard you work. Go be that person. Go do it. Go show the world. If you had to tell me that, Ian, okay, you can go and you can have the most legendary career of your life, or you can sit in bed and read a book to your child and hear him talking and giggling and laughing and away, it's not a question for me.

47:38I would choose that all day. But I choose to fight. And one of the beautiful things that my wife has explained to me in these years of being with her is you can do both. You can have your cake and eat it too. you can have like when one door closes two doors can open and if you don't think that way then it won't it won't be that way that must be intoxicating for you to hear that idea that you can have your cake and eat it how does that contrast with the advice that your mum gave you when you first told her you wanted to go down this route my mom was only doing what she believed to be correct as a mother and I cannot fault her for doing what she did.

48:24Which was? Telling me that being the next Conor McGregor is not a fucking plan. Wrote down on words on a piece of paper. It was like a letter to you? I wanted to follow. I was in college. I only went to college to please my mom. She said, Ian, please go to college. Like your sister didn't go. I don't know if your brother's going to go. I was the middle child. Can you please go? Because I want you to go to college. You need to get a degree to succeed in this world. You need to go to college, then get a good job. And it sets you up for the typical nonsense we hear about this world today. Right? It's complete like rubbish, in my opinion.

49:03It's bollocks. It really is. I believe as kids now, take as many of them out of school as physically possible and they will be better. better humans. Instead, they'll turn into robots. They just won't listen, yada, yada, yada.

49:23I decided on my own that I was going to quit college. I didn't ask for anybody else's opinion. I was going to drop out. I didn't ask for anybody else's opinion because it was nobody else's decision to make. And if I go to my mom and my dad and I have this conversation, then manipulation can happen and I didn't want anybody else's thoughts opinions or ideas to make my mind up for me so I didn't tell her I rang my uncle on the way home from doing it I said listen do not tell my mom keep this between me and you I'm going to figure out when is the right time to tell her but I need a job because there's no way I can just be sat at home that'll kill me I was like so listen I need a job can I come clean windows with you he had a window cleaning business that my granddad set up when he was younger and he was like yeah no problem we'll figure it out let me know you can start in a week's time so I'm sat at home keep in mind now very pivotal point to the story i had never trained mma i hadn't trained mma cool i didn't train i wanted to i kept talking about it but i'd never done it

50:53so i quit college and i went and i joined the gym and i said this is what i'm gonna do and I started cleaning windows and I started training and then one day my mum comes in and goes you're meant get up out of it, you're meant to be in college I was like about that and I was like I can tell this is not the right time because she's about to get a train in 20 minutes, she got this 5 past 8 train every morning to go into work and I was like and this is like 25 to 8 she's not going to be happy about this and I was like I dropped out of college and she was like you what you and I was like just she stormed out of the room she couldn't even look at me she was livid fuming so I was like look I am not having you come in here and ruin my morning lock the door put the lock on she literally slid three A4 pages under my door and I remember I read them all and I was like she was like you never finish anything.

52:01You always say you're going to do things, but you quit. You drop out. You never follow through, yada, yada, yada. I'm like, I'm 18 years of age or whatever it is. I've been in basically nappies my whole life because I've been forced to follow a school system that I didn't want to be in in the first place. But I knew that I wouldn't have a roof over my head if I quit school. So I did what I was told to do as a kid because I was a kid. And you're my parents. So long story short, again, this is not short, but the moral of the story is in that letter that she wrote me, the word for words, in quotation marks, being the next Conor McGregor is not a fucking plan.

52:46I made my UFC debut at MSG. I made my UFC debut at MSG when I was 23. and that letter got blasted everywhere. What's your mum there? The next. No, she couldn't fly because it was COVID and I was so happy because of it. Why? Because I was like, you know what? You fucking guys didn't show up when you needed to and give me the love and the support so you shouldn't be there before for the, for the, oh, that's my boy. It's like, no, like you can be that's my boy behind the scenes when it matters, not when, oh yeah, there's the flag, no. But like you say, your mum was just scared for you. It doesn't matter though.

53:27You can be scared for me and support me. Yeah. One thing that I have, and this is again, I don't hold this over my parents, but it irritates me to push me to be the best, if that makes sense. Because I never, and genuinely, to any parent in the world, I feel like if you take this approach towards your kids it will give you a better relationship with your kids because I know I have to do it with mine because of the relationship I've been given with my parents I will be behind you 110 % if you want to be an artist and your art is terrible I will still be behind you because it's not my life it's yours I saw a great line the other day and it was from a psychologist who basically said if I could give parents one piece of advice it's just be a cheerleader he said don't be a coach don't be a teacher don't be a leader just be a cheerleader that's all your job is but we have to also remember you're doing it for the first time your parents were doing it for the first time like all of us and I wish our kids realised this all of us are trying to fucking figure this out Of course we are.

54:50And it's not that easy. But of course we are. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying what she did was wrong. But I take that and I use that as fuel every day because I'm like, I can't. And I wonder whether that's why Leila is so significant in your life because she has arrived as your cheerleader. She's my earth angel. She is my earth angel. She is the person who, when I need guidance, I go to her. and I feel like any smart man in the world should look at his wife and know that that's the person I need to listen to like if the world was run by women we'd all live in a better world like it would all be simpler and easier that's the fact that no matter whether you want to agree with it or not or you think whatever it is if women ruled the world and we just listened to them and let them take over it would be an easier world can I just jump in though because we want to get to your relationship with Layla but I don't want to miss the window cleaning round.

55:46Oh, it was so much fun. I loved it. But what elements of that life did, like, still exist in you now? Like, what did that teach you that no training camp could ever? I loved it. I tell you what, there was one, there was a couple of things about it I hated. And getting a bucket of water, climbing up a freezing ladder to clean windows in the freezing cold winters in Dublin, it's not enjoyable. But like, I don't care what your motivation in life is. You cannot go in that moment, it's going to be worth it. Everything in that moment when you are sat there scraping literal pigeon shit off a window three or four times because it's been dried in by the sun, but now it's freezing cold because it's 6 a.m.

56:43in the morning and the sun hasn't come out and I'm shaking, cleaning the window. It makes you more grateful when you're not doing that for everything else in life. Does that make sense? When I'm cleaning gutters and I've got plastic gloves on and the roofers have made the... I basically put the roof tiles too close to the gutter so that they're getting too full. And I ripped my gloves and I'm nearly gagging in my mouth because my hand is going through moss and wet water and I can feel it and it's in my nails afterwards and I'm looking at them and they're black. And I'm like, I can't wash that out until I get home and soak myself with bleach.

57:34like it feels like it makes me more grateful and what's the tattoo you've got on your arm that you showed me these so no no but the tattoo that says precisely that i've got you you've got the one that says grateful i've got my yeah i've got my grateful on my wrist i just find like when i see the prayer hands it makes me take a second and think about how grateful i am that my life turned out the way it is I believe it's it was meant to be this way but also I can control my faith I can control what I'm going to do tomorrow I can control that I'm not closed into a box I don't have that idea of you must be this and you must do this I can do whatever I want and I can change it up tomorrow because it's very kind of inception vibes.

58:32It's not the way it's meant to be. You can force it to be the way you want it to be. I think you're also a really interesting counterpoint to what we get told a modern man has to look like. With this rise of the manosphere in this conversation about be powerful, impose yourself on people. You know what a real man is? Don't show emotion. What is a real man? A real man is a father, is a husband, is there for his wife and his kids, even if they're not together. It's still there, still shows up. A real man is someone who does the right thing even if he doesn't want to. A real man is sticking to your word.

59:13And I feel like nowadays people's word means nothing. They're... A real man is someone who's able to vocalize his emotion and frustration and talk to people even in the darkest of times. Yeah. Because we should have people that we can talk to. And the reason I think men think they need to be strong and masculine is because it's a warped idea of what masculinity needs to be. and people think, oh, if I express my feelings, my emotions, that's what females are like. Now, I don't know the stats on this unless it's going to go somewhere where I genuinely, I don't know the details on. But I know for a fact more men killed themselves than women.

1:00:09Correct. It's the biggest killer for men of our age. So why? Because I don't feel like I can talk to you about the things I need to talk to you about. because I'm not a real man. Yeah.

1:00:26Community, friendship, love, and joy, I believe are pillars for every human on this planet and things that we all need. And if you don't have them, but you have other things, forget the other things and focus on those things. now love does not have to be a partner it does not have to be someone it does not have to be a wife it can be a sport it can be a friendship it can be I love coming and chatting to you blokes every week and I love when we meet up and we chat because I can express myself in a way that I want to it might mean I love going to the golf course and hitting some hitting some shots on the driving range because I can just be free there's so many ways that it can be done but I feel like you are right in this world there is a an element of toxic masculinity where I need to be strong I need to be the man of the house I cry watching Disney films I just like I am so in touch with my feminine side that I feel like I'm more masculine because of it and I don't care what people think about me I don't care about people's opinions of me or what I do.

1:01:48I love who I am. And I'm constantly trying to be a better human, a better person, a better father, a better husband, and a better fighter every day of my life. If I'm not doing that, then I'm not going the direction I see. I think it's so good. I got a message on Instagram. I talk a lot about men's mental health. I talk a lot about male connection, the challenges of men. I'm not older than you. I'm 48. and at this age there's a real issue of losing connection with other guys um and i had a message from someone on instagram just saying thanks for all the conversations you put out about men male mental health and connection they said they went to a therapist and therapist said to them you do realize that all you're doing with everyone in your life is sharing information you're not actually having a conversation i think this is such an important point i think as guys we just share information how are you i'm good how's life how's work how's your family great connection man is so important i have been steaming in my head lately because i dislike inactivity and there has been times lately where i've just not been a nice friend to leila and i've just not been there because i'm so angry and so annoyed that my career is being put on hold due to the politics of the sport.

1:03:12And as a professional athlete and someone who wants to achieve great things in the sport, I find that incredibly difficult. And she has noticed a trend with when I am in that feeling of other people slowing me down, slowing the horse down and not letting the horse race, that I become a worse friend to her. and I say and act differently than I should to her. And I've started to see that. And the only way that I can stop that is by realizing it and talking about it. And I have to have people that I can talk to about that. Otherwise, the only person I'm going to talk to is her. And then my relationship with her becomes, up and down and you need to do this to be better and you need to listen to me and don't tell me what to do i know what i'm whereas all she wants to do is help me be the best version of me all i want to do is see her smile and see her happy and you need to have people around you that you can talk to so who does that for you a lot of it's to myself to say what am i really annoyed about what's really bugging me and am I being honest with myself then I have to take that to my wife talk to her and then there's a very small amount of people on the planet that I would talk to because I keep my circle very close a lot of the a lot of my male my male friends or a lot of my friends full stop are older than me and I feel like I enjoy spending time around people that are older than me because I learn and you said you're 48 years of age I'm pretty sure if we got a room of 48 year old men and a room of 28 year old men like I am the men and the men will speak differently to each other and you and your mates might be able to say things very differently than the way me and my mates would because enjoy the relationships the people I see the things I do more and more and more because I've realised through my years of living that there are things that matter and things that don't matter most 28 year olds are like I want to be rich I want to be famous I want to have this car to match this girl I want to do this thing I want to have money I want to have this nice watch so when I go up and I pull up at a bar with a watch on she's like oh he has money I'm going to get laid like they couldn't care less I think there's so much less freedom for your generation 100 % Harry and I went out the other day.

1:05:56It was a friend, a young friend, a guy your age, personal trainer. So most of the people there were mid-twenties. And my wife and I went along like 20 years older than most of them. And she nudged me and she said, look around the room. I looked around. She said, what do you see? And I was like, well, I see a lot. You know, in these young people, I was like, well, I have quite a lot of Botox. Quite a lot of lip filler. Yay! And she goes, no, no, no, you're missing the point. She goes, where's the joy? Yeah. Now, when we were 25, do you remember we were doing the conga. We were just, we were just, like we were childish and stupid.

1:06:28These people were sitting there like so, they wanted to be so rigid, so perfect. They were scared. I look cool, look at me. The guys were all like that. Absolutely. And it was like, there's a genuine fear because everything's captured. Everything's shared. Everything's seen. Everything's how I look. The joy, the freedom, the flow. I used to work in my local Gaelic club and we used me and my mate used to work when they had like big events on and I would watch like 50 60 70 year old women dance to their hearts content whether they looked good or not they didn't care and when I see older men and older women they don't care for mine or your opinion of what they look like or what they do because they've realized that there's more in life than what other people think about me.

1:07:30And the reason you see a lot of people today Botoxed and lip fill it all up is because one, there's a very negative element of that that is marketed towards women needing to look a specific way to be pretty, which is so toxic in this world, but not something we need to get onto. but it is insecurity and I find that to be sad you know how long we live for on average number of weeks I don't know 4 ,000 weeks that's wild the chances of being born 400 trillion to one lucky me I won the race so every single one of us is a miracle exactly on average we only get 4 ,000 weeks and we use that time worried about other people's opinions opinions not daring to push the boundaries and you are you to me are the epitome of someone who has taken a look at the world and the world says this is how you have to act if you're a young guy this is how you act if you're at school this is how you act if you're a ufc fighter this is how you act if you're a partner or a dad and you've just questioned every single one of those and look where you've ended up i do want to talk to you about the challenge of your life there's a few things um because you're not scared of an opinion as you've shown you're not scared of controversy there was a hate campaign targeting you and your family for a while that is not something that you can train for so i'm interested in on the cost for you personally of that but also you've mentioned neil magny already who you fought previously he said something absolutely ridiculous in a press conference and i showed damien the video of you not letting it go absurd where you uh and for people that he didn't see it he was kind of yeah i'll explain it you're better explain this i Because I only want to cut you off there because I felt so powerfully emotional about this.

1:09:22So I fought a guy called Neil Magny. Now, Neil Magny, his nickname is the Haitian sensation, and he is a black man in America, right? That's important to the story because I believe a lot of the comments I got were from people in the black community explaining how this is part of the culture. Now listen, I was smacked and hit as a kid. It was part of my upbringing too. Do you know what I mean? I'm sure a lot of the older people in England and Ireland, it was a part of their lifestyle too. Whippings and things at school were still a thing. So it's not like it hasn't happened to me. It has happened to me.

1:10:05It's that I need to teach my kid boundaries so I'm going to smack a kid, right? it's not right if I can change anything in my life that I definitely don't want I'm 28 years of age I still remember the wooden spoon being smacked across my hands I remember turning to my dad and going it doesn't hurt anymore I'm used to it turn it over I shouldn't have fucking should have kept your mouth shut Ian I feel like what we learn from our generation we need to make changes to be better so Neil Magny decided that he was going to at a UFC press conference say and it was it was a stupid sentence that he said his idea was to try and say that he is going to beat me like he's beating a child but they were not his words and his words dug deep under my skin because I had a little boy who couldn't have been much older than a year, if even.

1:11:20I don't even think Leo was one, so I was fuming. And he said, there's two types of ass-whoopings you give people in this world. There's the type of ass-whoopings you give people who talk about your mom at school and then there's the type of ass-whoopings you give your kid. And being a father, I've got accustomed to giving that type of ass-whooping, and I'm going to do that to Ian. His child was two. Now, people spun that, and this is why I dislike American media. Nobody wanted to cover that. We have a masculine man, a fighter, a UFC fighter, an animal inside that cage. just openly talk about how he beats his kid.

1:12:09Now, whether it was meant to be funny or satire commentary, they were not the words that came out of your mouth. So when you say that, and I think about that as a kid, and I think of my past and the fact that I was smacked with a wooden spoon as a kid to be disciplined and punished, and I think about my little boy who was asleep in the bed when I listened to this I was livid and I pulled him up on this and we were at a press conference and he didn't get a word out of his mouth did you see? Yeah I made you sit down you shut your mouth and you think about the words that came out of it because the last time a microphone was put in front of you you said some outrageous things sit down be quiet and I will give you the ass-upping that you deserve on Saturday night and I beat the brakes out of them But that's interesting because you didn't let it go.

1:13:03No, I didn't let it go. I couldn't. But some people would. Some people would think, you know what, I'll do my talking in the ring. I'll let him know in the ring what I think. I know also you said, like, I'm going to make this fight last and you're going to be in pain. I didn't want to finish him. I made sure he fought every single second of that fight. I could have finished him at any point I wanted to, I believe, in that fight. If you watch a fight for a flow state, watch that fight. From the minute one to minute 15, I was basically wiping his arse. It was that easy. It was like, come on, kid, I'll wipe, come on, clean your bum, there you go, come on.

1:13:40It was a walk in the park. I wanted to inflict as much physical pain as possible because he irritated me and he got under my skin with saying something about kids. And that just annoyed me. And as a man, I felt like it was my due diligence to give him an arse-whooping that maybe his kid couldn't. Give him. But we have weight classes for a reason in this sport. Yeah. We have divisions in this sport that mean that I cannot go and fight a 70 kilo man because I'm bigger than that 70 kilo man. So why on earth should a man ever raise his hand to a kid? No, you were totally morally in the right place.

1:14:24But I know that some people would think, you know what, I just, I know it will also bring me heat. and the thing i mentioned about when what's morally right and what's morally wrong there's that if there's a fine line right there's being racist and there's not being racist there is no which one should i be there's only one right there is no right or wrong should i beat my kid or talk about being about my kid or even just bringing a conversation up about beating a kid is morally incorrect, I couldn't let that go. It reminded me, I don't know if you've ever seen the poem by an Irish writer called Dara Fleming.

1:15:05Never. If I ever have boys, they'll be dangerous men. No, I've never heard it. And there's a line in it when Jake showed me the video, it said, no, my boys, it starts with, if I ever have boys, they'll be dangerous men. They'll smile at dogs and children and be a tonic to friends. But there's a line in it that said, they won't stay silent even when it's uncomfortable for them. They'll learn that their actions are more effective than words and they'll use their voices to amplify the unheard. They'll know that love isn't something to perform. They'll see beauty in all its forms. My boys won't grow learning to emotionally hide.

1:15:39There's more to it but if I ever have boys they'll be dangerous men but the danger they'll be won't be the one society meant. That's beautiful. But watching that press conference reminded me of that that emotional intelligence, that willingness to speak up even when it was uncomfortable. What does that cost you though? I got so much backlash off that comment, off calling him up on his own words, and I was baffled, baffled. And I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I'm like, hold on, we have had a man gloat about the fact that he's been accustomed to beating his child. Whether he is joking about it or he is serious, irrelevant.

1:16:34I believe it was full-on serious. And I took, I felt like it was my duty to call him up on that. And I couldn't just sit there and keep my mouth shut. And the cuss to you? Just backlash. people saying negative comments on my Instagram, people responding and sending messages to me, my wife, my team, people who had nothing to do with it. So your message to those people that have an opinion about you? I couldn't give a fuck. I just, I'm sorry I told you I wasn't going to swear on this, I couldn't care less for anyone's opinion of me or my family or what we're doing in our life choices because you don't walk on my shoes you are not in the position where you need to make these decisions and the truth is I think if a lot more people made the decisions that I made they might be better humans.

1:17:36Which brings us really nicely to I suppose the most important question of all as part of our quickfire questions. As you stand on the brink of your first UFC world title fight, what do you say to those people that believe that Islam can win? I've been put on this earth to do what I love and be the most free version of myself. I don't care for what people think. I'm sure there are people that think he can beat me and what I think is all that matters. So when I entered a octagon with him on August 15th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that cage door gets shut afterwards,

1:18:25the future is inevitable. How impressive. we've got a few quickfire questions to finish with I heard the word quickfire when I thought of that question but you can't ask me to answer that one quickly go ahead greatest advice you've ever been given you have more than one option in life do what you love and everything will sort itself out very good what's your biggest strength? my mindset what's your greatest weakness? I don't feel like I have any what other people see as weakness as I see as things that I need to improve on. I don't see it as a weakness. Love that. I just see it as something that I haven't yet had time to change or adapt.

1:19:08What advice would you give to a teenage Gary just starting out?

1:19:14That's why this fight is so fun. Because it's literally a 16-year-old Ian Gary who was sat in bed on his laptop watching highlights of Conor McGregor and John Jones and GSP winning world titles and dominating the sport and I said to myself that's what I want to do I want to do that that's what I want to do with my life

1:19:39follow your dreams and have a lot of fun along the way what is the significance of these?

1:19:48my little my little boy ahead of I beat Carlos Patch and one of the things I negotiated with the UFC was when I win the fight against Carlos Pratches, who is a surging star, right now he is the number two ranked fighter in the world. I beat him. I'm number one. And people are arguing whether he should get a title shot next. I'm like, I beat the bloke. But he's that good and he's that dangerous that people forget about it. So after I beat him, I negotiated into the contract that I would weigh in. two weeks later for a world title fight as a backup. And I gave these to the current champion of the world or the current, the challenger of the world, challenger for the world title, Jack Della Madalena.

1:20:39I gave him these because we read that he liked peanut M &Ms and I just kept putting them. I sent them to his, I found out where he was training. I sent them to his gym. I found out where he was living. I sent them to his hotel. I found out when he would walk in. I knew. I found out on the schedule what time he was having a meeting with you guys I left him there for him to see and I just wanted him to mentally break and try to see if I could force a misway cut so I could have an opportunity to interject and win a world title it was a little bit of mind games a lot of fun I love that the final question your golden rule for living a high performance life love the life you live and live the life you love if you're not loving what you're doing and you're not doing what you want to do and you're not having fun and change everything because we have, as you said, 4 ,000 weeks on this planet.

1:21:31Use them all wisely because they can end tomorrow. Amazing. What an incredible conversation. I look forward to when you're no longer the future champ. It's inevitable. It's just a matter of time. Has been since the day I stepped into the cage and nobody's getting in the way of me winning that belt. Amazing. Ian, thank you so much. Thank you guys, I appreciate it. Have a look at this if you like this. You can keep rolling on this Will.

1:22:23hide wearing masks while they're hurting inside. Now my boys will be dangerous men. They won't stay silent even when it's uncomfortable for them. They'll learn that their actions are more effective than words but they'll use their voices to amplify the unheard. They'll know that love isn't something to perform. They'll see beauty in all of its forms. My boys won't grow learning to emotionally hide. They'll reshape masculinity into something they like make it softer to touch they'll know that who they are is more than enough they'll know that being a man doesn't mean carrying the burden alone they'll learn that an emotional man is a man fully grown they won't settle everything with violent swings they'll live in truth even when that truth stings so yeah if I ever have boys they'll be dangerous men but the danger they'll be won't be the one society meant thank you very much I mean that's absolutely perfect it's beautiful it's correct

1:23:36in so many different contexts. They'll speak up even though it's uncomfortable for them. They're not what, they'll be dangerous but not what society meant. There's so many different, it's a beautiful, beautiful poem that in every single way, shape and form is correct. And I feel like every man should just listen to that and understand it because every element every word will shape men to be better men but not better for us but better for everyone everyone I'm the type of person that I'll get on my knees and talk to a dog before I talk to its owner that's absolutely spot on correct we'll all be better to women if we're better men we'll all be better to kids if we're better men not bottling anger inside but spilling it out we've got so much technology in this world and so much abundance that I feel like we're losing parts of what it is to be human and to have community and people that we love and adore and trust, maybe we need to come back a couple of generations to get better.

1:25:09That's beautiful. Thank you. Yeah, well, good spot. I appreciate it. Thank you. Damien. Jay. Well, I think one of the most remarkable conversations we've had on high performance and a very important conversation to talk to a man who uses his fists to make his living, talking about emotion and love and compassion and empathy and principles. I think that was the most astounding conversation. Yeah, definitely. I think, especially in this age, you know, where people talk about this manosphere and these, like, performative masculinity of showing off your muscles, showing off your wealth, showing off your status, to see somebody that could do all of that and chooses not to.

1:25:54Somebody that chooses to reveal vulnerability, to reveal broader emotions, to reveal kindness lies at the heart of it. love was a constant theme of it i think it was a challenge to that narrative of what people expect masculinity to be and to look like and i was thinking about you actually during the conversation because you grew up in boxing gyms in manchester you spent your life surrounded by boxing i think that's a fighter not of the ilk of the fighters of yesteryear no so different the way that he wears his heart on his sleeve yeah and i did like i don't underestimate the courage it takes to do that you know like a principle is only a principle when it costs you money you know a principle to stand up and call somebody out for what might be a casual remark that the guy might not have meant that he literally hits his kid but then that becomes acceptable that people do think that talking about hitting children is acceptable and so to stand up and call it out and use his platform for good well that that that speaks volumes for me that about the character of Ian.

1:26:57Listen, particularly if you've got a young man in your life, maybe send them this conversation. Let them hear Ian's reaction to that incredible poem. Let them understand what being a man actually should look like in 2026. If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, please follow, please subscribe, please pass it to someone that you think could benefit. We've got loads of amazing conversations with fighters from all different disciplines. But from myself, Damien and the whole team, thanks for watching.

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