Brendan Schaub: I knew what the ending to that movie was like if I stayed in the UFC. Physically, I'm in my prime. I've never been so strong, fit. I'm knowledgeable. I have experience on my side. I have all that. People tell me, "Dude, don't retire yet." Fight a couple more. I get that. Like I said, I know the way this movie ends. Whether I go undefeated and win title or who knows. Up and down. I know exactly the way that road ends. [Music playing] I didn't want that for myself.
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Male Voice: Welcome to the Pirate Life Podcast with your host Tait Fletcher.
Tait Fletcher: Alright. Welcome all you freaks. So glad to have you, man. Down here in Venice, California. Pirate Life Podcast. We have Brendan Schaub on today. Super excited. I just want to thank a little bit of our sponsors first. CavemanCoffee.com. Just sipping on this new saber tooth roast. It's super dark. It's like an electric taste is what I think of it as. IT's fantastic, man. I've had about three cups already so I think I'm ready for this podcast. I've got two pots on brew over here. So CavemanCoffee.com. All your needs. You might have seen on my Instagram, the Fantastic Pirate As Fuck shirt on my friend Rachel. She works at TMZ, crazy enough. Moved from Boston. Followed her dreams. TMZ worker. Anyways, that shirt is on CavemanCoffee.com as well. OnIt.com as well. Just got a big package from my man over there. Super Dope. Elephant Brain. I use it not as prescribed of course because I don't use much as prescribed. But the dream state that I get into and the kind of restfulness that I achieve from kind of five or six of those Elephant Brains at night before I go to bed. It's unreal. I hate to sleep without it. It's almost like, do you want to go to a great movie while you're asleep or don't you? When I don't, it's like I sleep good anyway. I'm a great sleeper. When I do, my mind is on fire. Electric and I'm rested. I feel great in the morning when I get up. Anyway, OnIt.com. Love having those guys. Then my guys down in Torence at the Float Clinic. If you're listening to this, you already know all about isolation tanks and all that. I love those guys. I don't get down there near enough. They're great. If you're looking for a Southern California float tanks. The cleanest, most beautiful, pristine, surroundings ever. Their tanks are awesome. They're all custom built into these private rooms. They're incredible. They're really really great. FloatClinic.com. You can find them on Twitter too. That's about it. I want to go ahead and shout out
Fighter and Kid Podcast of course. Joe Rogan Podcast and my friend Nate Harris who puts these together at the end of the day after I get finished rambling on. He makes sure they're loaded up. All of that. What else is going on? I think that's about it. We'll get into this in the next few minutes. With no further ado, I want to go ahead and give a shout out to my mom too whose been here visiting. I just sent her off to the gym. She's up at Deuce Gym. Deuce is also sponsor of mine. They help me out with all of my training and let me go ahead and use the place for fight training and fight work afterwards for films if I need it. All of my programming and Strong Man work and Crossfit work. Whatever I want to get into here. It's a great space down there on Lincoln Boulevard and Venice. Most grateful to them for all they've down for me. It's been really fantastic. My friend Logan Gelbricht [?], you can find him at Functional Coach. Runs the place. It's a magical joint, man. I hope you all have one in your city. Something similar to that is inspirational and invigorating. Also, Birthfit.com is the last one I want to mention. Not the last one. Second to last. Birthfit. If you know an expectant mother. You are an expectant mother. You want to know a pathway to make you the strongest towards the biggest fight of your life, which will be child birth probably, and get yourself into he best condition to get you to meet that event. Then also afterwards, to recover to the best of and fullest of your abilities after that event. Birthfit.com. Lindsay Matthews is a wonderful doctor friend of mine and she runs that site. It's been her love child for the last few years. They do a postpartum course. All of that. Very knowledgeable folks. Hit that up. Also the Navy Seal Foundation. If you can donate, please do, man. Our government doesn't take care of these guys at all. To the degree that we can come together and help each other. We can succeed as a nation I think. It was troublesome kind of to route through all the stuff, what's the best foundation to give to as far as veterans and all that kind of stuff. The Navy Seal Foundation is fantastic. My friend Andy Stumpf is a big fan and he was a 6 Team guy. They helped my cousin out a lot and all his friends. He's a fella who needed the help and they're there for them. They stand up for the guys. They help the families afterwards. All that stuff. If you can give anything, Navy Seal Foundation is a great way to do it and express your gratitude to those guys that are really in a thankless and anonymous position. That's that. [Music playing] We're going to get into this with Brendan Schaub here. Next.
Tait: Alright, people. Here we are. We just can talk forever it seems like so we're just going to jump right into this. Brendan just got to my place. Great to have him. If you don't know Brendan, I don't know what rock you're under, but I would say to people when they say, "Hey who are you" I would go "You got Google?" [Laughing] Brendan was an elite athlete in the UFC. Is one of the most inspiring in an envisionary kind of way. It emboldens what I'm doing and it makes me feel better about whenever you get doubts or insecurities the tight creep into your life or whatever, and you're like is this the right way or is that the right way? What's the interesting thing, as an ex-fighter myself and going out into this next life, which is what you have to do. You have to ask yourself what's been the hardest questions. I've been at a few points in my life where it's come up. Who are you now? Without the money in your pocket. Without the people looking at you going "Oh he's that guy". Without all that stuff, who are you? Stripped away. What's next? People don't let go of fighting because of that question because it's a terrifying thing to face. I don't know if you haven't walked through it. I'm sure it comes up in different places in life. It's one of the bravest things that you can do when you see it shot through courageously because there are a lot of ways to do it. The default way, I know a lot of guys are like "I'll start a gym". They're not gym owners. They're athletes. They suck at business. That's what happens. Or they're still athletes and they want to beat all their students instead of being a gracious owner. There are all these different things. Really truly I look at the history of mix martial arts and I look at my own life and I look at all the people that have come and gone in mix martial arts. Guys that I think that are killing it, that are like inspirational. It's like in the beginning, coming out in New Mexico; there was a handful of us that kind of paved the road in a way. Then afterwards, what happens? Really, I look at what Tim Kennedy is doing. I look at what Kieth and I are doing. I look at I don't know. Less than 10 guys. I don't know. You're one, man. I look at that stuff and it's a hard choice. Those conversations when that comes up for you, what happened? Can you speak on that?
Brendan: It's a scary choice, right? You've been through it. I think when you're defined as a fighter for so long or a professional athlete for so long, and that's what you identify with. That's what people see you. Like you said, wherever you go, people recognize you for that. It's tough to let that go, man. I think the changing point for
me is like you said. A lot of guys I started with and I've started with, just the best. The best in the world. I'm so blessed with that. The best in the world. I see how those guys who were all older than me, I was just the young buck in the gym at the time, I see how these guys are doing now. Not that they're doing bad. Even some buddies who are still in the UFC.
Tait: It's just not what you would want?
Brendan: It's not what, exactly. For me, you know, I think Rogan put it best. Be the director of your own movie. For me, I knew what the ending for that movie was like if I stayed in the UFC. Physically, I'm in my prime, man. I've never been so fit. I'm not knowledgeable. I have experience on my side. I have all that people tell me to do. Don't retire yet. Fight a couple more. I get that. Like I said, I know the way this movie ends, whether I go undefeated and win the title or if, which knows, up and down. I know exactly the end that the road ends and I didn't want that for myself, man. I felt like there was something more. I'll never forget this. My dad told me when I was young, "The best investment you can make is in yourself." I just remember him telling me that and I was just like "Well, I'd rather bet on myself making it outside the UFC than anyone else". I'd rather control my own destiny with my podcast with Brian Talon, my t-shirt business.
Tait: That's a huge thing. Because you don't even know if that's possible. You know what I mean? It's like, when you're looking at it before you jump into that, you're like, can I really crack the bills open with selling a shirt? That's a huge huge deal. I think what you're saying about how many are left in me? That's exactly. I go, "Oh I could fight for another five years." That's what I was looking at. Then I was like, but probably won't get brought back to the UFC. The smaller shows pay better anyway. Frankly. You don't have the exposure. I was like, "You're not going to fight for a belt, Tait". Not ever in the UFC. You're with the best guys in the world training. Rashad handles your ass. What are you going to do? He's not the belt holder. Keith Jardine, great training partner. Best training partner. Keith would always be like, that's my training partner for my life. I showed up all the time and I was his size.
Brendan: Consistent.
Tait: You're not messing with that. I look at that and I go, "So what's the point?" You grind out a couple more fights and you look at like, if I start this next life later, I'm going to be that much farther behind in five years. What's the payoff monetarily or end of my future. I started thinking about my future. What do you think about that? What I've said to people is, "The first time you start thinking about what's next or what's your future as an athlete like that, you're done already."
Brendan: You're done. You're done. Just yesterday I had Robbie Lawler and Carlos Conda [crosstalk]
Tait: How cool was that? I haven't heard it yet.
Brendan: They're the best. I love those guys.
Tait: I saw them all sitting there and I was like, insane. This is insane.
Brendan: Both at the same time.
Trait: Just the picture. I saw your Instagram.
Brendan: Dude, it's the best. I asked those guys. I already knew the answer before I asked. I said, "So have you guys even thought about maybe what's next?" The thing is, they can't. You're talking about two of the very best in the world.
Tait: Watch a guy get uncomfortable.
Brendan: Robbie was like, "Ahh not really, man. I'm just trying to win this belt, man. I don't know. Might coach kids or something."
Tait: It's almost as crazy a thing like when you're in sixth grade and they're like, "In 5 years where would you like to be?" I'm like, "I'm in fifth grade. What do you mean?"
Brendan: Bitch, give me another leggo. I don't know.
Tait: Yeah. I don't even have a full vocabulary.
Brendan: Like what do you mean? I didn't even want to ask them because I knew the answer, but the interview just went down that way. That's just how you have to be, man, just all in.
Tait: All in.
Brendan: Again, I think that's why people, when an athlete walks in the room, especially a fighter. I've been at these huge SV parties. Whatever. There's every athlete in the world there. No one really gives a fuck if a fighter walks in the room. Every other athlete is like holy shit. They can’t do what we do. They're not risking the same shit that we're risking. And they know. They know.
Tait: At a certain point, if you're out there. I grew up with guys who were great at basketball, great at hockey. Different sports they excelled at, but you're not gonna fuck with a wrestler.
Brendan: No. [laughing]
Tait: You know what I mean? You're not going to be at a party and be like, "You know what, I got three pointers. I'll [inaudible]". In sport, it's all that dominance. Dominate on the court. Especially all that verbiage that goes on with it and it's amazing all the verbiage you'll hear that go with it, like all the little sayings that will come from Boxing, like Muhammad Ali and all that, and get extrapolated onto a Track star. That's not what Ali was probably talking about. [crosstalk] [inaudible] Jumping hurdles. [laughing] Different.
Brendan: Completely different. Yeah, man. I don't blame anyone. But you're right. As soon as you go, "What am I going to do after this"? I think me and my coach were just talking about this the other day. Probably a year and a half ago, maybe even little less, he asked me. We were going through camp, I think it was for Arlovsky [?] or Mitrion [?] I forget. Probably Arlovsky [?]. We were going through camp and it was just a grinder, man. We drove down to San Diego. I sparred with Gus, Brandon Vera, just these killers. I was beat up. I had like a little bit of a mild concussion. We were driving back, traffic for 4 hours. I'm not doing well, man. I'm throwing up. My coach just looks at me and goes, "How long are you going to do this? How long are you going to do this Brendan?" I said, "Probably another 4 years at least." He's like "You think you have 4 years?" I go "100%." 100% four years.
Tait: You got to. You got to think that. Brandon is killing it too. Brandon Vera. He got into Real Estate right away. One of his manners was very smart with him.
Brendan: Yeah. He's still fighting.
Tait: Oh really?
Brendan: He's with he FC 1 whatever it is over there in Japan or some shit. He's fighting in Heavyweight.
Tait: He probable gets good paychecks there too I bet.
Brendan: Yeah. He's always been a draw. Good dude, man
Tait: Yeah. Super nice guy.
Brendan: He came flying on the scene. Remember Vera grabbed the mic and said I'm going to be the first light heavy weight heavy weight champ. Then he has a contract thing with he UFC and he held out for all this crazy money.
Tait: Right
Brendan: Then he got that. Then he was really not the same fighter. When you sign for that certain amount of money. This is what a lot of people don't realize. I was on the taught contract and I was getting tough fights. They were kind of favored me, because I was on the tough contract. You know 8-8, 10-10, 12-12.
Tait: It's like free. It's basically like you're going to fight. From their pocket, but it's already paid for. It's free. It doesn't come.
Brendan: You're just a guy. Let's hope you make it. Then, after I got out of that and I signed a real contact with UFC, then you're getting killers. If we're paying you, you're fighting some monsters. [cross talk]
Tait: That's what I mean. If you even look at it and you're like, I can't even make the belt. There's guys that are just going to be so good. If that is in your head at all, those are the two things, man. What am I going to do next and I'm just a tournament fighter. I'll take the way Leonard gone in the UFC, he was one of the last ones. Yeah, Leonard Garcia. Whereas like a super exciting fighter. Everyone loved to watch him for sure, but it was like, no threat to the belt really. Not going to go there because the ground game was just not there for him. People knew that, but the UFC loved having him because was a great guy and a great draw. He's an exciting fighter to watch.
Brendan: He threw from the hips. He was a gunslinger. As his friend, when Leonard fought, I was like fuck, fuck, man. And also [crosstalk]
Tait: The crowd said that?
Brendan: Yeah.
Tait: Very few times I would spar with light weight guys, but if Leonard was like, "Hey man, everybody dipped out, you want to get a couple rounds in?" Yes. You know you're going to get hit with hammers. 100%. He hits like a heavy weight.
Brendan: He hits like a tank and he goes hard. He's a good dude.
Tait: He's the best.
Brendan: Smiling all the time. You never see him...
Tait: Win or lose. He told me a crazy story one time. He was at Denny’s or some kind of restaurant like that in Texas and he says, "Man I was in this street fight. I didn't want to be. I was with my girlfriend"
Brendan: This was recent?
Tait: Maybe after church. No this was before he had gotten into the UFC.
Brendan: Ok
Tait: He goes, "And I knew some jiu-jitsu". I knew him in maybe, I knew a couple guys from his gym that fought up in Denver, way back in the day when Sven Bean was doing shows up there and all that. The Ring of fire.
Brendan: The Ring of Fire. That's where I started.
Tait: That's where I first met those guys from up at Texas. They were up there. Anyway, he goes " I double-legged a guy and I'm top of him and he's hitting me from the bottom and hitting me in the ribs and trying to hit me in the head." He says, "I'm teeing off on him and I come back to throw one and he hits me in the back. My arm won't come down." He was like "I hear somebody scream, 'There's a knife in you'." So the dude had been stabbing him
Brendan: Good Lord.
Tait: And stuck one in the back and locked his shoulder blade so his arm couldn't come down anymore. He was like, "Dude after that, I just really started to avoid street fights. You never know what's going to happen". [laughing]
Brendan: No shit. Dude, Leonard is a guy where my very first time at Jacksons, I drove down with Elliot Marshall and Cody Donovan. We drove down from Denver, which was T's KO. I knew about Greg obviously. First on the scene. You guys were there. Keith and all you guys were coming to Denver, but this was the first time I went to Jacksons. We went to Albuquerque and we stayed at Donald and Leonard's house. It was just like...
Tait: Mayhem.
Brendan: Mayhem. Like what?
Tait: Was Tom there? Watson?
Brendan: Yes. Tom was there. Leonard. Cowboy. It was just like Animal House. I'm not that guy. Anyone knows me, I'm not that guy. I like to chill. I need my rest. I just want to train, eat good [cross talk]
Tait: Whatever is coming in that house is getting shared.
Brendan: Everything. Everything. [laughter]. What? It was like fucking murder row. I was like Bro, I need to relax. Went and stayed in a hotel two nights later, man. Certain guys, they love that stuff. Slept on bunk beds. Me and Cody slept on bunk beds.
Tait: Isaac Donald stayed there for a while and was like, "It's crazy" It was so crazy.
Brendan: Another level.
Tait: It's like a three-bedroom house, one bathroom, six guys or something like that. It was like Ohhh no thanks.
Brendan: Think of Animal House on steroids. Think of Animal House times 10.
Tait: With uber athletes, they're not going to school. They're going to punch each other and strange each other for half the day. Then go eat. Go go-karting. Go pick up girls. Then do it again. That's the whole life.
Brendan: That's the whole life.
Tait: The dream is not the UFC. The dream is that life. The dream is you can do that and you're not bouncing at a bar anymore. Then you've arrived. As a fighter that's all I ever wanted.
Tait: The dream is not the UFC. The dream is that life. The dream is you can do that and you're not bouncing at a bar anymore. Then you've arrived. As a fighter that's all I ever wanted.
Brendan: I agree. I look back on those days and it was so fun. I really wasn't stressed. I was fighting in the local shows. I didn't have the pressure and the media of the UFC. Those Animal House days, we left from that. Like you said, we just wanted to make enough where we could do that. I'll train. Girls.
Tait: That was the dream. Train. Girls. Eat. Do it all over again.100%
Brendan: We went from working at a place called Wish where the security was Cody Donovan, Elliot Marshall, Brandon Thatch, and myself. It was the 4 of us and we showed up, we had fun. Nothing really ever happened. But we were up until 4 in the morning probably. But I remember, as soon as all of us could quit that and just do the Don Seroni [?] lifestyle...man we made it.
Tait: That's the ideal job. I got into working in the nightclubs because I'm like, I'm capable, I'm big. Whatever. You think that's the reason it's the ideal job. I left the more lucrative job for that job because that's the job that allowed me to train in the daytime. 4 o clock in the morning was cool because there was a training at 10am and there was another at 5. Those are the training sessions that my partners would be at. It's not like they work around your schedule. Everybody is just like how do I do this? How do I do that? Well you have to change your life to do that. Why live in Des Moines or wherever I lived? Then you should move. I really want to be a fighter. If you're not willing to move to one of the best places in the world to train, then you're not, it's cool, but you don't want to do that.
Brendan: Yeah, it's how bad do you want it?
Tait: And all that stuff about "can't". I can't do that because I live here, I've got this. That doesn't exist. You have to change the diction to go "I won't". That's the truth. The truth is you can. You're free in America. You can do whatever. I don't care if you got kids. I don't care about whatever. You can make it work. Anything can happen. It's more empowering. This thing that runs through us when we get used to saying "I can't.
That's a negative thing. It grows in us because it becomes an easy excuse when the thing is, I won't. I won't do that to do that.
Brendan: It's more of comfort zones. People want to stay in this comfort safe zone. Like you said. For me, the comfort safe zone is to continue to fight in the UFC.
Tait: Right.
Brendan: To get out of that is [crosstalk] it's uncomfortable.
Tait: It's the most regular paycheck that you've had in years was the UFC, right? It's like whatever becomes consistent, you're like, well the odds of that check coming are better than the odds of the check equaling it from podcasting or whatever when you start looking at that. You were in a super fortunate place. I already built the podcast up which is just fun goof that I was doing with my friend Brian. Then this actually paid me money. Wow. It's awesome, but still not easy to do and be like, "huh". I think whenever anybody says, "Well what do you want to do?" That's a huge point. Just fun thing you're doing with your pal Brian.
Brendan: It was fun. Both of us were passionate about it. Imagine if you looked at it and you started going, "Well this is the next job." I'm going to see if I can [inaudible] [crosstalk]
Tait: It wouldn't have happened.
Brendan: I look back on certain moments where again I invested in myself. So my last fight and the fight before that, you'll notice I'm wearing The Avid Kenny [?] Fight club tee with a Fight and kid on the back. I turned down a good amount of money, this was before Reebok. I turned down good sums of money to just wear my own stuff. On the banner again, for the top spot, usually we put a sponsor, I put Fight of the Kid podcast. I was thinking subconsciously doing this because I knew it was the next step. I was never like, oh this is how I'm going to make a living. Never. I could subconsciously, I cared about it. I looked back on certain moments where they'd say, "Hey this company wants to give you 30 grand to wear their shirt.
Tait: I'd never do it.
Brendan: Nah. I'm good. I'd rather just rock my own.
Tait: I would never ever put on a Reebok shirt. I would never. Even now. Just as a civilian.
Brendan: You can't. Just for what it stands for.
Tait: There's no way, man. For me, that's a cancer brand. It's crazy. When you look at things like that and you're used to looking at it. I remember tearing up a jiu-jitsu circuit and going, "Man if Adidas combat gis wanted to sponsor me, how cool would that be?" I remember when some years, the first time I saw Mask, and he says "Hey here's a t-shirt, kid." I was like, " Awesome."
Brendan: For sure.
Tait: Him giving me a 12-dollar t-shirt was I'm sponsored by TapOut. That meant something.
Brendan: You rocked it all the time.
Tait: Always
Brendan: The thing is, with Reebok. We talked a little bit off air and I've said this fucking so many times, but recently with their whole Ireland thing that they did and taking down the fight kits.
Tait: What's the Ireland thing?
Brendan: They for UFC Dublin, they came out with the Ireland shirt, like protect your territory. They left out Northern Ireland. They cut off Northern Ireland.
Tait: Oh my Lord.
Brendan: So they had to pull it down because you can't do that. You sure as fuck can't do that.
Tait: That's like terrorism kind of.
Brendan: Yeah. Exactly. They were getting death threats. Crazy shit.
Tait: They should have.
Brendan: Yeah. So they had to take it down and apologize. It's like, at what point do we all realize that this isn't working? This relationship isn't working. I've said this until I'm fucking blue in the face. I'm sick of Reebok. It's just the current state of our sport, so we have to talk about it. People can smell bullshit. It started with the kits. Everyone was like, well that look like some Power Ranger bullshit. For sure spend more time. Then they found out how much we're getting paid and fans were like, oh no. No no no. What you don't realize is we don't want to represent Reebok in the UFC. We want to represent the fighters who risk it all in there. People miss the boat on this. We don't give a fuck about a UFC shirt or Reebok shirt.
Tait: When they came out when it was Ronda's fight in Brasil, and someone showed me, Oh look at what they made here. Even Ronda was like 12 grand or 15 grand. Something. I was like, "Huh". I was like that's ridiculous. Most of them are like 2 grand or something like that. These are the highest-level professional athletes. This is embarrassing.
Brendan: For Ronda and I think for 10 or 12 other fighters, they have a separate deal
Tait: What I don't like about that, I knew when I saw Ronda's price on that. She has 3 times than the lowest or 5 times the lowest paid. That's not true. I know that there's a secret check that goes to here. I know. Nobody's a dummy. You look at this. Yeah, all that. The Super Duper Heroine. She accepted this? No way. There's no way. Even if she did and Dana goes, "You have to accept this, love. Just do that." I bet she would and Dana goes, "Here's a check for 250 that's personal." You know how it works.
Brendan: You know how it works. Like come on guys. It's tough, man. They're in a weird spot.
Tait: I think that, for me and myself when I say that I won't wear that now. I look at it in such a fortunate way because the only stuff I'll wear is people that I love. Not just friends but guys that I really care about. If there's something on my t-shirt, it's because I love that guy that made that. That thought of the idea. That made that graphic. What a cool place to be in life where it's like, now I'm at this place where it was nothing for a long time and now I'm like, I get to be amongst all these fantastic people that are doing fantastic things and they're coloring people's lives in beautiful way. To have this group, this nucleus of people that's spreading this goodness. It's cool to be able to have that. Then I get tweets about it and people are like, it's cool because then I know who to root for kind of because I believe in you. That's that thing. That authentic too. People crave that. Oh. Tait doesn't really give a shit to say. He'll embarrass himself to not beyond whatever is the cool kid's team if he thinks it's bullshit.
Brendan: I told you this before we started the show. The reason are drawn to you Tait is because people are sick of the cookie cutter stuff. They're sick of the man. They're sick of the machine. They're sick of all that stuff. Reebok represents that. Other companies represent that. For you to be an outlier and this outlaw who is like, "Nah man. I'm not going to go in that direction. I'm going to do this. That's not right. A lot of people have no choice. That's why they're drawn to a person who can educate themselves and take a stand and not just follow the leader.
Tait: I really believe that those without a choice per say are it's like they don't know how to circumvent their fears. I think a lot about why podcasts and why different broadcasts that are authentic like that are important because it shows how to remove those obstacles. It's easy to look at you or me and go, "It's easy for you guys. You guys are in great shape. You guys are the most handsome man I ever looked at." You know. Whatever the thing is. You don't get to see the beginning years of what that is or you don't get to see about the daily struggle of diet or working out when I don't feel like it. Eating. You know what I mean? It's easy to see the results and be like, I had a 14 year old and they were like, "How did you get into acting and stuff like that?" I go, "It's been a long road of this and that and this kind of sacrifice." I said, "You're just going to have to go out and try it. Why don't you just dip your toe in the water? Get in your high school and whatever." She's like, "It's just easy for you. It's easy for you to do."
Brendan: That's a slap in the face.
Tait: Well like, from a kid, I was like, I get it. When you hear that from adults and you're like, that’s the most diminishing and insulting thing that you could really offer me right now is to say that.
Brendan: It really is man. It really is.
Tait: That means that you haven't been about shit. You haven't done anything. You're a spectator in life. You write the comments on the YouTube channel.
Brendan: That gives them the pass though. If they do that, that gives them a pass because they're not doing shit. They're like, "Oh you're fortunate. You got lucky."
Tait: Right.
Brendan: Huh? I got, dude. Trust me. I've had fighters and even Fox has tried this before where they want to duplicate the success of Fight in the Kid, so they put a Fighter and a Comic together.
Tait: Wow.
Brendan: A lot of people are trying it. It's not that. It has nothing to do with fighting and the comedian. It's two best friends and we speak a similar language.
Tait: And how horrible for the guys that they're pushing to try to do that.
Brendan: It's tough.
Tait: Hey, here's what we want to do. Then those guys are studying you. Ok I need to be more like that. Kid, you've already lost. You already lost. It's over
Brendan: The beginning of the conversation. You're trying to duplicate something. You don't want to do what everyone else is doing. You can do it similar, but go a different route.
Tait: That's the problem.
Brendan: Do your own thing.
Tait: I think that we as a people, we don't want homogenized, everything kind of tastes the same. Let those guys have their own flavor. Go out and do it. Anything is possible. When you take the limits off of stuff and you go really producer, no really, anything....
Brendan: Well, look at the way of digital now. You look at Netflix, HuluPlus, YouTube, Facebook is doing their own streaming now, so it takes out the middleman of YouTube. If you're posting a video, it's YouTube to Facebook. It's a YouTube link on Facebook. Facebook said, nah we're good. We're going to take that out and you can stream your own stuff. So it's all that streaming.
Tait: Periscope.
Brendan: Periscope. People can literally do whatever they want. You have a show concept and you don't want to sign on with this huge corporation. You can produce your own stuff, man. We're in a great time right now. It's a dope time. You don't have to watch all these bullshit commercials. You don't have to wait until every Wednesday to watch your favorite show. You know what I'm saying?
Tait: Yeah
Brendan: It's dope, man.
Tait: That's what I'm really seeing too. Hanging out with comics years ago when I first got introduced to all those guys. I saw the similarities between that and fights. Between those guys and what they did. They don't know where their paycheck is coming from either. They have to go out and risk it on stage. That's like being naked in a cage and going, "Here's all my haters, my lovers, my mom, people waiting for me to fall. Everybody. And I'm about to do the most primal thing we can do legally in the states.
Brendan: Yepp.
Tait: I'm in my underwear and here's another guy. When I saw the first open mic'ers bomb, I'm like, that's what fighting feels like. That's all the stuff you're scared of when you go into fight. It's right here. God bless that little fella. I would love seeing those guys.
Brendan: We do the Fighting Kid live now. We have a West Coast tour coming up in January.
Tait: I know.
Brendan: We had our first-
Tait: You're next ones in Tempe?
Brendan: Tempe, yeah. Then Ontario. Then yeah. We haven't announced the West Coast yet.
Tait: That's Ontario in Orange County, not Ontario in Canada.
Brendan: That's correct. Correct sir. So the first 8-10 minutes is me on stage by myself. Basically doing some standup.
Tait: Have you written some stuff out or you just wrote concepts of stories that you want to bring up?
Brendan: Yepp. Yeah. Talon thought I was going to be more scared, but my experience in the cage and in the octagon and being in front of people all the time [crosstalk]
Tait: You're like, I know how to look comfortable here.
Brendan: Like dude, there's no curveballs here. When I'm in a fight, if I'm fighting Arlovsky, dude, I'm expecting some, but I have no idea. There's all sorts of things that can go wrong that I didn't plan for. In stand up and this alive shows, I control the tempo. There's nothing that, I'm the one who dictate the way this thing goes. It's not that I was nervous. I was prepared obviously
Tait: That's so cool.
Brendan: I take my training.
Tait: 8-10 minutes is a long ass time.
Brendan: It's a long time for your first time.
Tait: To give people a scope on that, what I'm talking about, what I referred to see open mic'ers bomb or whatever, 90 seconds. They give guys 90 seconds or 3 minutes would be a long time. Ok you got 3 minutes. Go make us laugh. Dude, to be under lights. I've stood on those stages. You're under lights. You don't get to see the crowd.
Brendan: No. It's so bright.
Tait: You can't see anybody. If there's three people or three hundred, you don't know. Everything, you're hearing everything. Your spidey senses. Like, you're in this state where everything is amplified. 8-10 minutes is a long time bro.
Brendan: You know what, the podcast, the live podcast we've done before at the UFC expo, Sportscenter, where I co-hosted Sports center where it's live, man, so you can't mess up. These certain steps in your life. I look at this moments. They lead you to this. It's so weird.
Tait: I'm an expert. I'm a black belt.
Brendan: I'm good. Yeah. It's not that I'm nervous. I'm more excited. We're in the back and Talon is like, "Dude I can't believe how excited you are." I'm like, "Yeah man. This is so cool o me. This is dope."
Tait: Now, you've only done this one so far live?
Brendan: Once, yeah.
Tait: Ok Ok. I've been wanting to go to Tempe, but I can't go. That date is the 12th right?
Brendan: The 12th and then there's another one in Ontario the 25th I think.
Tait: I might be able to go to that.
Brendan: Let me know.
Tait: Ok. That thing, I was like, You know what? Fuck it. I'm going to drive. It's like 6 hours or whatever. I'm like I'll drive to Phoenix.
Brendan: That'll be fun, man.
Tait: But we got our same Concrete Cowboy in Austin. We got our year anniversary and it's my boy Rico Taylor who is like a co-owner of that. He runs the one in Dallas. His birthday. So I have to bet here for that. If it was anything else except that I'd be there.
Brendan: The West Coast tour, I can't release it yet. They're finalizing like two other dates. You'll for sure make one of those.
Tait: This is something you cannot see online. I heard you were [inaudible] [laughing] about it.
Brendan: [inaudible]
Tait: Man's got a way to talk you into stuff. In the moment, you're kind of like, maybe like, I guess he knows I'll do it and then you're like ahh
Brendan: Rogan's like, Rogan knew that I was strong on my point not to air them. And he's like, we'll talk after. After I just told him like I'm not doing it. I know this is how you do things. I like to keep my shit exclusive. And people are like, oh Schaub just doesn't want people to see his standup. I'm saying see it live.
Tait: I don't know why you wouldn't want to see it.
Brendan: Something special for that live crowd.
Tait: I think in a year or something, to have all these archived and release them in a box set or something.
Brendan: Yes, eventually. Trust me, I have a plan.
Tait: I believe that. I just think that, people are going to come see it anyway, that's not the reason not to do it. It's like, you're going to buy Judas Priest album anyway, even if you saw them live.
Brenda: For sure.
Tait: You're going to want to see both. I'll buy the box set too. Go ahead and give me Dr. Dre when he toured with Xibit. I liked that.
Brendan: 100%. I made the mistake, obviously I'm new to this business. I called it a live podcast. It's not a podcast. It's a live Fighting Kid show. It's show. It's like an experience. It's not a podcast.
Tait: I can't wait, man. Is it current events?
Brendan: Yep. It's current events. It's me and Brian Ripken. There's fan questions.
Tait: Does he drop knowledge?
Brendan: We have a band there. We have dropping knowledge.
Tait: This is like, what do they call that back in the day? A burlesque show kind of thing without the titties
Brendan: For sure.
Tait: It's like
Brendan: You might see a dick if we drink enough. I don't know/
Tait: Awesome. I love it.
Brendan: Awesome, you like that? [laughing] Will that be in Tempe?
Tait: If you can guarantee where the dicks will be, in Philly, we're dropping dicks on you guys? Bring it on
Brendan: Philly, get ready. Dicks are coming.
Tait: Dropping dongs.
Brendan: Dropping dicks with Brian and Brendan
Tait: Hashtag Dong life. That's so cool. That's the thing. People are like, "How do you do it?" Just watch. Listen to all of the podcasts. It's all laid out. Here is the path. The path is this. If you didn't pick up what the path was just from that about the live show. The path is, do what's fun, what's next.
Brendan: Do what you like.
Tait: Here's the next thing that's fun. That was the thing with anything. With OnIt or with Caveman or with Fighter and the Kid, it's like here's a product I'd like to see out there. Let's go ahead and make that product instead of going " I wish that product was there". These guys, I don't know if you're familiar with Tempest Freerunning. They're like the best free runners in the world. They got Tempest South Bay. They're like Parkour guys.
Brendan: What do you mean "free runners"?
Tait: Like Parkour.
Brendan: Oh Ok
Tait: Like flips and tricking and kind of martial arts.
Brendan: We're too big for that shit.
Tait: Oh dude. We could go down and flip. It would be awesome.
Brendan: We're too big though?
Tait: No. We can go down and do it. They've got floors down there that you can bounce on.
Brendan: I'm saying like go downtown and you and I try to flip.
Tait: You don't want to do that. Nah. Not trying to do that. Nah.
Brendan: We're too old.
Tait: There's so many reasons not to. [laughing] These guys, their careers are like Thai Fighters. Where Thai Fighters are done at 14 years old. They're like, "I've had 300 fights and I'm just about to turn 15 or whatever. Those guys, when they're 23/24, it's getting time to look at what the next thing is for those guys.
Brendan: Why?
Tait: They take some tough spills
Brendan: I would assume so many broken ankles, wrist, elbow, whatever.
Tait: Flexibility. And to get the same elasticity in your jumps and stuff. You'll see guys, my friend Jeremy Marinas, he'll do standing back flips all days and gainers off of cement. A lot of guys can do that. I don’t know all of the names to really speak to the majesty that kid moves in. Like Lucy Romberg, she just went to Greece and she just won the Women's Free Running thing. They set these courses up. It's like a lot of like flare, I think goes into it a lot.
Brendan: 100%. Must be entertaining.
Tait: So you have to have guys that really know what they're looking at to judge this kind of stuff.
Brendan: I love it.
Tait: It's amazing.
Brendan: They're smaller I'm assuming.
Tait: Yeah.
Brendan: The rest of the world is smaller. You're not seeing me and you big ass dudes [crosstalk]
Tait: There's one guy Jesse LaFlare, I want to say maybe he's 6'1, but he's like 145 pounds. Know what I meant? It's like that kind of thing.
Brendan: I did gymnastics for probably a year and half in training camps.
Tait: The best.
Brendan: St. Pierre, I did it with him in Montreal, and then when I cam back to Denver, Nate Marcourt and myself started to do it like every Wednesday. It was fun man. It was cool. Like all I wanted to do was jump into the foam pit and do backflips.
Tait: Yeah.
Brendan: They wanted us to tumble and all this stuff.
Tait: Nate Marcourt, one of the best athletes you ever train with?
Brendan: Hands down
Tait: Tell me about work ethic.
Brendan: When Nate was in his prime, he's probably, I can't think of anyone better. He could have been like a big brother little brother thing because he was kind of like the captain of the team. We brought the best, I'm not even going to call these guys out, but we had the best in the world come through and he fucked dudes up. It would be a superstar would walk in the gym, and everybody would be like "I can't wait to see Nate go at this dude" and Nate would tear everybody up. Again, Nate's like still fighting.
Tait: I know. And also I want to say King of Pancreas at 19.
Brendan: He started fighting when he was 17. King of Pancreas 19.
Tait: I mean, that's amazing. That's like a Diego Sanchez career. Diego's gotta be one of the longest running guys in the UFC right now, right?
Brendan: Shit, from Tough 1. Is there anyone left from Tough 1 besides Diego?
Tait: I mean, guys I think are still fighting, but I don't think in the UFC.
Brendan: Not in the UFC right?
Tait: No.
Brendan: Force is done.
Tait: I can't think of anyone.
Brendan: Diego is my only...
Tait: He's amazing. His mind is always the most amazing. That's his best attribute.
Brendan: 100%
Tait: His doggedness and his belief. If you asked even any other athlete I think, even John Jones, if you asked any other athlete pound for pound, and guys would be like, "Oh Anderson, Weedman, John Jones, or whomever" Jon Dodson. You'd look at guys and people would name guys, but they'd look and you ask Diego that and I bet Diego's answer is "Diego".
Brendan: Probably.
Tait: That guys believes [crosstalk]
Brendan: Diego for the long time was a motherfucker.
Tait: Badass. So badass.
Brendan: I remember going to Jacksons and he was cutting weight.
Tait: He wanted al the heavy weights.
Brendan: Dude. We're grappling, straight up jiu-jitsu wrestling shit, and we're grappling, and he comes to me and I'm like, what are you doing man? I'll go with John or Arlovsky and he's like Oh no, I'm good. We'll go. And he was a motherfucker.
Tait: A motherfucker.
Brendan: I was like "ooo"
Tait: Yeah, can't control your body. Watch your feet.
Brendan: He's a monster. Now he's fighting at 145.
Tait: Yeah. That kind of thing, man. That's commendable. That's like a plaque worthy thing. He's been around that long.
Brendan: There's just certain guys that are just different. Nate was that guy. Diego was that guy. Keith was that guy. I remember Keith was the first. Nate was a super nice guy, but Keith was the first guy I met where there was never an ego from Keith.
Tait: There was never a quieter, humbler guy.
Brendan: I thought at first, does Keith hate me? Nope. He's just kind of quiet. He's just a really good dude. Great guy. I remember coming off the ultimate fighter, he helped me train to get ready for Roy Nelson, so it was the finale, my first fight in the UFC was against Roy Nelson in the finale. Obviously lost that fight. I was in shambles in the back. Keith came up to me and he said, "There's nothing I can tell you that's going to make you feel better. All I can tell you is I feel bad for the next guy you're going to fight." Then he just walked away. He was 100% correct. I beat the brakes off this guy in 47 seconds. You go from Roy Nelson, which you can say is your first fight, but that's still the finale. That's tough.
Tait: He had 6 or 7 seven fights. He had a lot of fights before he went there.
Brendan: He had 24 or 27 fights and he was a former World Champ. He fought Arlovsky and Ben Rosswell,
Tait: That's not even, he's got hammers for sure.
Brendan: Nightmare.
Tait: His jiu--jitsu man was exceptional.
Brendan: We saw it in his last fight. He took Barnett down like four or five times.
Tait: That's what I thought. I bet his jiu-jitsu has slipped. I bet he's let it go. He has done it very much. I bet he just works on his hands. Then when I saw that, I was like, Oh my God. He' s the truth.
Brendan: To take Barnett down that many times, it's insane.
Tait: I couldn't believe it.
Brendan: Anyone that's heard stories about Barnett, he's a monster.
Tait: A monster. Everybody I ever talked to, Barnett's not much bigger than me, but anybody I ever talked to, and guys that were bigger and stronger than me, they're like, he touches you and it's a different kind of power.
Brendan: When I first came to California, I didn't know anyone. I knew Mark Munoz. Everyone, I was trying to put this super camp together. He didn't want to train with me. He thought we were going to fight. We actually were supposed to fight and then it fell through. I was trying to put this super camp together. Verden was out. I came here. That guy was out. I was like oh Barnett. Every single person was like, "Don't train with Barnette. Especially if you have potential to fight him." Just because he goes so hard in training. Every single person I've met goes, Barnette in training is a monster, man. Especially if you have the potential to fight him, don't train with him. We never trained together.
Tait: Guys would hit me up and ask like, hey you want to come? He's getting ready for his next fight. I'm like, I'm on a show. Then I thought about it. Even if I wasn't on a show, that doesn't seem like fun at all.
Brendan: Fuck that man.
Tait: I want to relax. I'm not trying to be in a fight with him like that.
Brendan: I agree. I have guys call me now. Oh I need your help with this.
Tait: Good luck.
Brendan: Dude. Nah. I'm A) Too busy. B) It's not my game anymore.
Tait: To be done and really mean it. I think that's why so many guys take another fight when a goddamn sneaky promoter will be like, well hey do I have a deal for you. Or Whatever. I went back once, I was on I think Transcendence, and there were guys who were on their film that wanted to go, they were fight fans. I go, well we can go down to Gregg and Winks if you want.
Brendan: Shooting in Albuquerque?
Tait: Yeah, shooting in Albuquerque. I hadn't been to the gym in I don't know, maybe 9 months or something. I hadn't gone back. After I was done, I went and Keith was still fighting. I'd go and be a training partner to him. I got shook one time. I was like, what are you doing Tait? You're taking a lot of time to do this and you're taking damage. This is not going to benefit you. I was clear about it. It's for my friend. When this camp is over, I'm not going to do this anymore.
Brendan: Sure.
Tait: It's too intense. The training, it's just what it is. I went down and I watched guys spar. I was itching to put gloves on so bad. I was sitting with my friends Darin and Wade. I never went back. I don't even want to be in room. The smell of it, it turns me on in a way. All that.
Brendan: It hits some nerves. It hits some buttons.
Tait: It's weird, man. I don't want to get in the water like that again. It calls you so much and it's so not good for you at that level. I'm not trying to tell anybody don't go to a jiu-jitsu gym, but at that level, where I was, I'm like to go in there and do that. I wonder if boxers, when they're done boxing, I bet they never go in unless that's their gig.
Brendan: It's probably tough, man. I agree. It's tough. It's super tough.
Tait: How do you feel about it now, in training in regards to that?
Brendan: It's tough. I don't want to say there's ill feelings. There's just kind of this...
Tait: There's a cloud a little bit.
Brendan: 100%. Even now, my head coach Tony Jeffries owns Box and Burn. I go in there now. I don't train with any of the trainers. I put my headphones on. I do my same thing. I go in there and I don't know. It's almost like when you walk in, it's almost this feeling of not regret, but there's a cloud. I've always thought this. I'll put my headphones on and I'm thinking people are like, "There's Schaub. There's that guy. Oh man." You know. Negative stuff.
Tait: Whatever they might be thinking that you're projecting.
Brendan: It's weird, man.
Tait: And then I feel like there's a sense of I want to apologize and go. Because I'm not suited up and I'm letting these guys down because I'm not here to help.
Brendan: I usually work at a time when the gym is empty on purpose. I worked out there and there happened to be a kid's class. 3 or 4 kids go "Oh when is the next fight". They don't know. They don't follow this crap.
Tait: Thankfully they're not on Facebook.
Brendan: I just go, " I don't know, little buddy. I don't know, little man." It's heartbreaking. Or, the other day. Henner Gracie and I trained at 7am on Saturdays because I know no one is going to be there. Then he goes, "Hey man, can't do 7am. Let's do 9:30. There's the class." I was like, I'm not going to come, man. He's like why? It's almost like I don't wan to face everybody. I don't want to take all the questions. It's weird to say, but I almost feel like I let them down. I'm almost ashamed.
Tait: I know. I think for me anyway and it sounds like for you, one of the biggest honors for me really. It wasn't about money, it wasn't about any of that in a way. It was about, here's guys that I don't know if people know how thanklessly guys like Amali Steward or Greg Jackson or Mike Winklejon, Brennan Gibson, all these guys give their time. Really freely. There's some money to it, I guess right now.
Brendan: Not really.
Tait: It's not like whatever. You know?
Brendan: It's tough.
Tait: To honor them and go "I'm going to compete as your athlete." That's the thing I'm talking about when I hear "I feel like I'm letting them down". Then even in a regular jiu-jitsu class, it's like I'm the competitor. I'm the guy that's out there carrying the flag. What happens when you're not carrying the flag into battle anymore? Now what place are you on the team.
Brendan: I agree
Tait: It's weird, man.
Brendan: I haven't been able to get over it. Actually I just talked to Trevor Whitman. Trevor Whitman was my first [cross talk]
Tait: One of the best striking coaches in the world.
Brendan: Ever. We had assembled the crazy, at the time, literally the best team in the world at Grudge with Shane Carlin, my self, it was GSP, Rashad, Elliot,
Tait: All the Jackson boys would go up regularly because of the training.
Brendan: Oh my God. It was hybrid of monsters. Say what you want, but everyone got a little famous, money started flowing, sponsors started coming. The team broke up. We all went our separate ways. Ala Snow Gear. I left. Shane retired. Elliot retired. Cody went in a different direction. Everyone went their separate ways. For the longest time, time it was Trevor Whitman, Shane Carlin, and myself. I couldn't afford to pay Trevor, so Shane took out a loan and paid for both of us. It was just the three of us. Every night. Shane and I would do a private. This was the schedule Monday-Friday. Shane and I would do a private with Trevor at 6pm for an hour. After that we would do jiu-jitsu with Christian Allen for an hour. After that we would do an MMA class for an hour. That was our training. Me and Shane. For the longest. Trevor would watch and stay for all of it. We were like a group of brothers. I was talking to Trevor the other day. Trevor and I haven't talked in probably three years. We had our falling out. Haven't talked in three years. When I announced my retirement like a week ago, he text and said, "Hey man. Want you to know that I'm thinking of you. I hope everything is good. I listen to your podcast all the time. It feels like we're still brothers. Just want you to know that I love you, man"
Tait: God bless him.
Brendan: I get chills talking about it.
Tait: Makes me want to cry.
Brendan: Yeah. I text him and I said- yeah me too. Goddammit Tait. I text him and I said, " Hey brother. I miss you so much. One thing I can say is you, Shane, and I we did do it right. We did care about each other. Our only goal was to be world champions and we got fucking close, my man. I love you." He just wrote, "Let's talk sometime". We're actually supposed to talk later this afternoon.
Tait: That's crazy.
Brendan: Crazy right?
Tait: That's the thing, man. When people are like.. I remember the first time my mom saw one of my fights and she was like, "Are you mad at that guy?" And I go, "no it's not like that for me." I thought about it. I am trying to smash my knee into his face, but I'm not trying to hurt him.
Brendan: No, it's not a mean thing ever.
Tait: I can't say that more clearly. Here's what looks like the most savage, violent act and I'm not trying to hurt him. I regard him highly.
Brendan: It's a dance.
Tait: I want to win. I want to see if I can exact what my coaches have given me in this high tense arena when it counts under the lights. That's not what the fight is about. The fight is not about, I'm a savage and I'm out there killing. For me, the fight is, it's like what you just said about T and about you and Shane. Thanklessly in a gym for hours. The brotherhood of that. Fuck for me, man, that's what it is.
Brendan: That's what I'll miss most.
Tait: Thank you to all the guys that I ever slapped hands with to teach me how to be me.
Brendan: Yeah, man. It's just crazy to think that. It wasn't even about the opponent. My opponent barely even crossed my mind. It was about making sure I didn't let anyone down.
Tait: I didn't want to let anyone down.
Brendan: I've never admitted this and I told Trevor this in text. When our team broke up, nothing was ever the same. You could have wrote a date on when the team, when all of us fell out of love with MMA. It was when Shane, Trevor, and I, the three of us parted ways. To me, it was never about fighting. It was never about money. It was never fame. It was about the three of us doing this goal and boy did we work hard. Oh my God. You're talking about on a Saturday morning, me and Shane and these giant heavy weights running 8 miles.
Tait: You have to fall in love with suffering.
Brendan: What? Me at the time, not having money. Shane buying me Chipotle all the time. Me telling him, I promise when I make it, I'll be buying Chipotle. When I do make it, I buy Shane Chipotle. Every time we go to Chipotle from then on, he's like "You're buying". Damn right I'm buying.
Tait: Awesome.
Brendan: Yeah man. There's certain, there's just that experience, man, it's priceless. It's not about winning or losses.
Tait: Priceless.
Brendan: It's those experiences and the brotherhood, the guys that I've met. What? It's insane. You talk about the coaches. No coach goes into it and says, I'm going to get famous and money from this. They don't make that much money. They really don't.
Tait: No.
Brendan: Some of them are well off. The real famous ones. In general, none of them are Freddy Roach. He's an outlier. Or Greg Jackson. Those are outliers.
Tait: Not even Greg. Freddy is like that because I'm sure he's television deals. Greg's not like that. You know what I mean? When we say "well off" we're like a guy that owns his business maybe. You're like 80 or 120 a year. No one is making 600, 800, a million dollars. No. Freddy Roach is an outlier. Freddy Roach is the one guy that maybe that is.
Brendan: A story about Greg. I didn't train with Greg until about my third or fourth fight. I was fighting in the W something in Fairfax, Virginia. I was set up. I was fighting this guy. He was on the Olympic team. Wrestler, Johnnie Curtis. John Dodson was on the fight card. He was the main event, and I was like, the co-main event or whatever. Greg was there for John. My corner was gone. I was getting called up. Obviously I knew who Greg was. He was like God.
Tait: The man.
Brendan: The man. He walked in the room and you were like, "Oh shit. There's Greg Jackson". I really didn't talk to him a bunch. Right before that fight he goes, "Who are you fighting?" I tell him he's a wrestler. A really good wrestler we just found out. They told me the guy was a high school wrestler. He's actually on the Olympic team, National Champion. This one is going to be tough. Greg goes, "No. You're going to be fine. You're way more athletic. Let's go walk." No one has ever done this with me. We don't know each other. He doesn't know my name.
Tait: Let's go walk over to the cage.
Brendan: Let's go walk over to the cage. This was my first time dealing with visualization. He goes, "Let's walk over to the cage". And I go, "I don't think you can go out there yet". He goes, "Just follow me". Go to the cage. Greg walks me around the cage. He's talking in my ear. Right away I'm like holy shit. I can do anything. Go back, won the fight. I even asked Greg. What do I owe you man? He's like, nothing. Even all the times I've trained with Greg, I'm like what do I owe you. We'll figure it out. He's always been that guy, man.
Tait: He's a beauty. He's a guy, Chris Lattell, Mike Winklejon, it's like, it's not even what they say. IT's how they walk. To have the blessing to have guys like that. You mention Elliot Marshall and he's another guy that's winning. His beautiful little boys and his wife who's like the loveliest woman. They're just fantastic. It's that kind of stuff too. Train with Elliot a while in like 2000, 2001 up in Boulder. On and off because I always had connections with Amal and Elliot for years and then after that they would always come down to Jackson's when he was fighting. We don't see each other for years. When I see him, it's just like there's no time at all.
Brendan: It's a close brotherhood.
Tait: I can't wait.
Brendan: You're not going to meet anyone, Tait.
Tait: I can sleep in his house. His wife cares about me and we've only had a couple hours of conversations if you put them all together.
Brendan: I'll even give you my girlfriend if you come to the house. [laughter] I'm just kidding. I was just trying to make you laugh. The thing is if you walk outside these doors, you're not going to meet anyone who has gone through he same experience we have. It's such a brotherhood. Even guys I've fought. People thing I have this animosity towards Travis Brown or Arlovsky or Ben Rothwell. Not at all. We've shared something no one else in the world can. I went through something they went through and they passed the test, I passed the test. Yeah, we punched each other in the face and did some brain damage or whatever, but there's a certain bond there hat you can never replace man.
Tait: I remember the first time I did a stick fight that was kind of under pressure in the fight in the arena. Afterwards a dude came up and asked me some questions after about "What's that like" or "What’s the experience like"? I go, "It's a trip. It's like slapping hands. You clack sticks. Then it's on." I said, "The sticks wasn't by your head, it's almost like another entity is formed. There's this energy. Maybe he's a positive and you're a negative electrical charge. They come together. There's another energy that's formed." Maybe that's the experience. That's God. Maybe that's whatever. There's something else that happens when you do that with somebody. Not mad at those guys. Thankful that they were there because I couldn't have done that without them.
Brendan: Dude, I remember there was a period in time, really forever, even if me and Shane trained now, he would beat the shit out of me, but we would do jiu-jitsu and he would always start on top. Isn't fair. Shane is 300 pounds. I was like 230 at the time. I was maybe a purple belt. Shane doesn't have a belt. He has a belt in destroying anybody.
Tait: Ass-kicking.
Brendan: Black belts. It does not matter. Shane is so big and strong. Nothing ever worked on the guy. For an hour he just stayed on top and destroyed me. Forever. Weeks went by and I never complained. Finally I just asked him and in sparring he would beat the shit out of me. I asked him, "What are you doing man? I don't feel like I'm getting better". He goes Oh no. He's dead serious. His voice broke a little and he goes, "I do this because I love you. The reason I do this is because I love you, because when you get in the fight, it's going to be easy."
Tait: Nobody is going to be like this on you.
Brendan: That's what he says. "I'm doing this to help you. I promise. Just trust me.
Tait: Frank Mir gets on top of you. No worries.
Brendan: He goes "Trust the process. I realize you're getting frustrated. I'm doing this because you don't have the experience and this is building what you need to get better. Just trust me". Ok Shane. I'm just going to let you beat my ass everyday. That's what we did.
Tait: Crazy. I wish he would have worked on his back more.
Brendan: Yeah. He was a guy where-
Tait: It's hard thing to do to ask a guy that's so dominant in one position.
Brendan: No one could hold him down, really. You know?
Tait: Hard for a heavy weight, that's that big, a real heavy weight, that's a 260 pounder or something like that,
Brendan: Cutting at 265
Tait: A guy that big, he doesn't get the experience of having a 400-pound guy on him.
Brendan: World Class Wrestler too. You have to remember, no one really took him down. The only guy that took him down was Gonzaga and then he got up and knocked him out with jab. The other thing with Shane too is Shane was on a time constraint. People forget Shane was older. Shane started when he was 36, 35, 37. He's older. So it's like Ok. You're a phenomenal wrestler. You don't have a ton of striking. You have great jiu-jitsu defense. What's the priority here? Should we work off your back? Probably not. We're going to work on your cardio. We're going to work on your hand skills. And then you're going to wrestler high-level guys. That's what our focus was. Shane was so talented and powerful. I think bar none the hardest hitter to ever walk through Octagon. I guarantee you he is. Shane was so strong, when he fought Frank Mir
Tait: OHHHH!
Brendan: Shane maybe hit mitts three times, four times. This is not a joke. He was dealing with some personal issues. Some work issues. He was sick. His back was fucked up. Barely made wait. Look what he did. What?
Tait: Yeah. Savage.
Brendan: Never seen anything like it.
Tait: Frank's been through some wars with guys that are just like that. Like too big and dangerous and hit like other people don't hit. You can't get hit like that by a regular person.
Brendan: Frank and me both. Both of us. We've gone through some shit. Frank moreso. Frank to me was kind of the guy I always looked up to. He has always been my favorite heavy weight. Think about how long Frank has been in the UFC and been a draw.
Tait: I'm sorry. I messed up when I said that about Diego. Frank Mir. Longest running UFC athlete there is, right?
Brendan: Hands down.
Tait: Gotta be. That's the sad part of the UFC.
Brendan: Heavy weight.
Tait: The sad sad sad part, I remember going with Rogan, we're at the Spur with Rhino [?] and it's like Phil Baroni, Frank Mir, I don't know, somebody else that was in the UFC, Frank's the UFC champion, heavy weight champion, checking ID's at the door of the Spur with Rhino [?]
Brendan: How long ago was that? That was a while ago?
Tait: Are you not embarrassed, Dana White? Are you not embarrassed. Oh yeah. Years.
Brendan: I think Roy Nelson worked there too.
Tait: Yeah.
Brendan: I'm pretty sure Roy met his wife there.
Tait: Good for you, Roy.
Brendan: Yeah. She's dime piece. And they have a kid together.
Tait: Awesome. You know what I want to do with Roy. I even called up Scrape and was like, "You know Roy" because I don't know him at all. I want to start like a Ketagenic supplement company. Proteins and stuff. I want to take him to 205 and he can maybe win a belt there. I don't care if he does. I want to video it all. I want to have a whole show on it. Him going to 205. Have 2-3 fights there. Then go to 185. I believe you can get him to 170 over the course of a couple years, three years.
Brendan: You think?
Tait: The reason I want to do it is because then you have this transformation that you've marked, videoed, chronicled.
Brendan: Oh, it'd be epic.
Tait: Here's your supplement company, Roy that you sale into the sunset with. There's your UFC welfare.
Brendan: I like that.
Tait: Unless you are on UFC welfare, like Ladell got a job, Forest, Matthews. There's less than handful.
Brendan: Well, they're all hall of famers.
Tait: Even the hall of famers. Mark Hallman is not killing it. [laughing] Dan Severn is probably selling tractors in Michigan.
Brendan: That's an understatement.
Tait: Yeah. Unless you're one of those fortunate guys, great. Nice it's happening, but there's not an exit plan. There's a story. That guy is a story
Brendan: I love the idea. I feel like Roy would have done it by now, unless he's doing to now. Because where does he go, you know what I'm saying?
Tait: Beautiful movement. I think that's the thing too with heavy weight. I think when you start to drop weights like that. Keith said to me the other day. We were on a movie together. We did like Christopher Lloyd, I think that's his name. Christopher Gus. That's it. They did Best in Show. We're on movie and we do a fight, me and him, and he goes, "Dude, you should have fought in heavy weight. What is wrong?" The thing is, you're talking about Shane, like real heavy weights like guys that are real real. There's not a lot of them. Guys that are real light heavy weights. They get to shine in the real heavy weight division.
Brendan: 100% Yeah.
Tait: As you drop down 205, that's a tougher division. 185, that's a tougher division.
Brendan: Murderer's Row.
Tait: You know what I mean.
Brendan: 170? 171-155. Black belts in everything. Best in the world.
Tait: Black belts in dynamists, It's like stuff that you don't think correlates. Ask the guys at 205 to do a back flip. Ask the guys at 155 and 80% of the 155ers will do it and there will be maybe 1 guy that does it. The athleticism, the body that you can have, the way that you can move your body at 155 versus 205, it's just different.
Brendan: It's almost a different sport.
Tait: You know who I saw that was like that? Kane Velasquez. When I saw his first fight I think, it wasn't against Rothwell.
Brendan: You saying in the UFC?
Tait: Yeah in the UFC.
Brendan: He fought Congo. He fought a Russian cat. He fought Olgara.
Tait: It's one of those Iowa boys I think. Anyway, hands a flurry. Take down off the fence. Guy gets up. Take down again. Guy gets up. Take down again. Stripping him and moving like a light weight.
Brendan: He fights like a 205'er
Tait: Looked like a light weight fighting and I was like, if he keeps up, there will be nobody that can keep up with him in that division
Brendan: That’s what makes him so good. Nobody.
Tait: I was like oh shit. That's over for heavy weights.
Brendan: Kane was kind of the first kind of hybrid.
Tait: He's small. That's the other thing too. That's the other thing about fighting. The first time you really get stung and you hurt yourself and then you're second-guessing like am I safe to shoot a double on this leg right now? I just had that knee done. 100%. You have to make the shot.
Brendan: Well his style was always that kind of grinding style. He got knocked out by JDS. Then that second fight.
Tait: Then he was like I'm taking distance away from everybody.
Brendan: Yepp. Guys either get better or they get gun shy.
Tait: That's the thing about that gun-shy stuff. I think when you talked about Shane having to run for the belt and it's a shorter time because of his age. Geez it's also getting your head right in there. The hard part It think about guys you see in the UFC for so long is to keep their confidence right. To keep their commitment to their punches, their shots. If you don't have commitment to that, it's not going to happen.
Brendan: That's what I said to Lawler and Conda. I said, " I gotta ask you guys. You've been fighting way longer than me. How the fuck have you been doing it for so long? How do you wake up with the motivation? Where does this come from?" Me, with my 7-8 year career, there was days where I was like, even in football there was days where I was like I don't know man. I don't know if this is for me, but those guys. Carlos admitted. He was like there were times were I was like I don't know man. I just stuck with it. and Robbie is saying he needs it in his life. He needs that routine.
Tait: Robbie is another guy though that's been in the UFC. He wasn't always in the UFC, but fighting from when he fought Joe Rigs or whatever way back in the day.
Brendan: He took years off from sparring. He watched guys spar instead of tape. And then still fight. They were both saying how now they're not sparring as much. That's the trend of the sport. We had wars. I remember Keith would come down to Denver. Me and Shane would shark tank him. He'd stay in there and we'd beat him, just try to knock his head off.
Tait: Yepp
Brendan: That's a bad idea.
Tait: Yepp.
Brendan: What's Keith going to get tougher from that?
Tait: Well, guys asked too. "Hey, when you guys go, are you going 100%?" I just smile at the guy. Some interview guy. We're not turning it over. My intention isn't to knock him out, but we're full speed. We're going. It's a war. When I was slapping gloves with Keith, it was like, "Alright". It's real. You have all the nerves. It's not like I'm going in for some easy rounds.
Brendan: No.
Tait: That's the thing too, when I think about going in or what you feel when you go to Box and Burn or whatever and all that kind of stuff is I for sure don't want to train with a guy getting ready for a fight or a young guy coming up through the ranks. I know how I would look at that. If you walked into our gym and you're like "I'm a fighter. I come from Nebraska." We're going to see.
Brendan: Oh I'm going to embarrass you.
Tait: We're going to find out and I'm going to show you where you're at.
Brendan: 100%. I'm going to embarrass you. There's egos.
Tait: I know the deal. I'm not walking. It would be disrespectful almost in a way.
Brendan: Don't get it twisted. If those young guys, I did do a class and I see them come in after ya and they know your name, they come in after ya, I realize, and I have too much of an ego within myself. I train Monday through Saturday still. The only day I take off is Sunday.
Tait: Good for you.
Brendan: For that exact reason. Just incase some shit breaks off.
Tait: I feel like right now, I'm like, you think it's more dangerous or less dangerous. Now that there's something else. I'm maybe not as well trained as I was. So I'm going to be way more savage.
Brendan: Yeah, man. Yeah.
Tait: My mind is not in a place where I'm like "Oh I'll just polar bear [?] it. Whatever happens is cool". I'm not like that anymore.
Brendan: No. Well, yeah. Because if I had a fight coming up, like I'm getting ready for Arlovsky, you tap me, it's whatever. I don't know what the fuck I'd do now.
Tait: [inaudible cross talk]
Brendan: There's none of that now. None of that. I can't help you out now. Be like, Schaub really let himself go, man.
Tait: Doing really good against Brendan.
Brendan: "I threw the shit out of him twice." Never. Never.
Tait: That's so funny man. That's funny. I love it. When you go forward now where you're headed, do you have any definitive stuff with that with all of your projects coming up?
Brendan: You mean as far as contracts?
Tait: Yeah
Brendan: Yeah, I signed a 2 year deal with Fox Sports as far as Fight of the Kid, so that includes the podcast, the digital video series. We have to produce twelve of them, which those will start dropping in December. We start shooting in November.
Tait: That will be a televised Fight of the Kid show?
Brendan: Yeah. It's called the Fight of the Kid 3D. It doesn't even make sense. Dude, the reason we call it 3D is because it made me laugh. We're in the creative room and Mitch, our director, who worked with Steven Colbert, he's a such a beast, a genius. We're like "What should we call it?"
Tait: Triple Dong
Brendan: Someone goes, "Call it the Fight the Kid Experience" and I'm like, well no. There's Joe Rogan Experience. You don't want to confuse everyone. Because Joe and I work together all the time. Mitch goes, "Fight of the Kid 3D". I burst out laughing. It doesn't even make sense man. He goes, "I know."
Tait: [laughing]
Brendan: I actually like it. It doesn't make 0 sense. There's no 3D. We start dropping those in December. They're all story boarded out. There's a whole team. We have the guys from Funny or Die and Mitch from Steven Colbert. It's an All Star team. The cool thing is, Brian and I go the 4 on the team. They go, "Here's the budget. Do what you want to do." It's this dream team, man.
Tait: Brian knew a lot of those guys. He knew who to ask and stuff.
Brendan: Brian is the one who brought on Mitch. They've worked together on stuff before. He goes, "Dude I'm telling you." We were either going to do Mitch or Will Sassel. Will is a good buddy go ours. He does tons of sketch comedy.
Tait: He's hilarious.
Brendan: He's hilarious. He's going to be featured on his own, but Will's super busy. For this, Mitch is perfect
Tait: What a cool vehicle, man. That's dope. That's so fun, man. That'll just be a digital project or Fox is wanting to put that on [crosstalk]
Brendan: Both. What I want to do, especially for our fans and being the podcast world, is we're going to relearnt them digitally on the Fox channel Facebook, YouTube, all that stuff. TFatJ.com, our website. Release it digitally. There's going to be two a month. The first and third week of every month new episode drops. The second and fourth week of the month are going to be the out takes, which will probably be funnier than the episode
Tait: That's going to be awesome. Man that's fun
Brendan: Yeah, man. We're excited. Me and Brian spent so much time writing these things man.
Tait: So you've tripled or quadrupled your income since you've announced retirement.
Brendan: I mean it's not even close. I don't sit down, yeah it's not even close. Different level. Even fighting is not consistent. It's like a lump here, lump here, lump here.
Tait: Oh I'm a one percenter, oh I'm not a one percenter.
Brendan: Yepp. Boom boom, you know. Now it's like clockwork.
Tait: This is going to come in. Maybe forever. When did that change for you? I'm assuming you felt like I felt, which is maybe not true. Where even if things started going well for a while, it was like the other shoe is probably going to drop and this will not last.
Brendan: Every day.
Tait: You're talking about a switch of consciousness where you go into a realm where, you go, this might just get better and better and better. Was that the courage to go "You know what, I'm committed to being down with fighting. I'm going on and these things blossom
Brendan: It was kind of happening at the same time. It was almost the perfect storm. UFC sent me this email and I received calls from certain UFC executive that I need I need to sign my name and likeness to Reebok. Then the drug test and they wanted to be able to hit me up whenever they wanted, which I don't do drugs or anything like that, so it didn't matter, but it was just this perfect storm. I was dealing with the contract negotiations, which is Fox and all these other sponsors. This other deal came along. It was like this perfect storm where the Universe was like, we can't make this any clearer you idiot. Go do this. Now, as far as, do I wake up and think this might fall through? Every morning.
Tait: Sure.
Brendan: That's where the work ethic comes from. Ask Talon, man. I'm relentless. Those guys will get emails, texts, 2-3 in the morning. I'm constantly thinking about it. Whether it's merchandise, branding, the Live Tour posters, Cities, the show. Everything. I always feel like it's going to fall through. I always felt like that.
Tait: I think it's a neat thing. It wasn't until recently, the last couple of years where they started to build a base. I was like invested in a lot of different outlets and a couple of those started. I was like, I only really need one of these to work and three of them are working right now, or whatever. This could be good. It's a real freedom in that way. It's the same thing. You get up. They're like, when do you take a, I would love to go sit on a beach or something.
Brendan: There's no 9-5 here for us.
Tait: Even right now for me that would be work. I'd be working from whatever beach I was on. Right now, the way I'm feeling. I would be compiling footage and stuff for zip lining through the jungle or whatever it is.
Brendan: Even in the UFC I always felt that win or lose I always felt like the war was over. They were going to cut me. After crow cop [?] we had this war, knockout of the night. I even asked my coach, "What do you think?" He's like "What do you mean what do you think?" I'm like dude, do you think they're going to release me because I didn't knock him out earlier? No. I've always been that way. I always thought the road was going to end right away.
Tait: Being an actor is the same kind of way. As soon as I sign on to a job and I know I have that job, I'm like "I'm already unemployed." I don't know if it's a predatory gene in me or something, but I'm always like an electric eye. Like where's the next thing because I have to ensure my future. I have to give these guys a solid 100%, but in my spidey sense, I guess I'm giving out this energy that I need the other thing to draw in.
Brendan: I'm just learning this, so I can't announce what show it is and people ask me all the time, but I got this entertainment gig with a big network. I thought it was a done deal. Got the gig. Contract in hand. I'm like cool, when do I start? Pan three months later, we're still under contract negotiations. There's little ins and outs that go into it, man. It's a beast. Entertainment is a different animal. A completely different animal. A lot of times it's out of your control. As far was the podcast goes and with Fox, I can handle that. The other stuff, it's impossible. Entertainment is a different fucking animal. There's so many moving parts. When I told Brian, he was the first person I called. I knew he'd be so proud. Bro, that gig I auditioned for 4 months where we didn't think I had a shot, I got it. Brian is screaming, yelling, yelling, screaming. Brian goes oh yeah I'll call you right back. Hangs up. Calls back like an hour later. You know, Brian. He's like, hey man. I've been in this business a long time. Don't count your eggs before they hatch. I'm telling you entertainment is a beast. He's right.
Tait: He's right.
Brendan: Here we are later; I'm still waiting on it. I'm not relying on it.
Tait: No.
Brendan: If it happens, great. That's entertainment.
Tait: That's the thing. These production companies are like; "Oh we're interested in doing this with you or that with or whatever." To do a show or something like that. Like cool. That's great, but I'm going to continue on and make my own stuff until you guys get your stuff together because that might be never. That's always the thing. You know what I learned at first when I started looking at myself, it was a long time ago. Looking at resentment and looking at anger and diffusing that in myself. How do you succeed as a human and as a loving, kind, spiritual entity that moves through life instead of fear based and anger driven? Where’s the shift in that happen? For me, it was like; it has to do with accountability. It has to do with owning everything and being the master of your own ship kind of thing. Being your own hero. Throwback to that Joe line. I look at it and I go, as long as you're my problem, like Brendan doesn't treat me very good. He's the reason I didn't get that goddamn job. As long as you're my problem, even if it's legitimate, even if you are that guy, it doesn't matter. If I have to wait for you to be nice or get better to have an epiphany, I might never get better. There's nothing in my way to get better. There's nothing anybody's way to get better. There's no other person or other thing. It's me getting out of my own way was the first thing that allowed me to do that.
Brendan: Yeah 100% correct. It's funny you touch on this. Especially when I was balls deep in UFC, competing, training 3 times a day, seeking that title, there was some guys who I held resentment against for whatever reason. They were other fighters, guys in the gym, ex girlfriends, whatever it is. Someone asked me about a girl I used to date the other day, you know her.
Tait: Sure.
Brendan: They asked me if it bothers me or anything like that. I said, "No. I'll always love that girl. There's no resentment at all. We didn't work out" As far as hate or jealousy; you can't have that, man. On any facet. You're focusing on the wrong things. Nothing good comes from jealousy.
Tait: There's no money in that.
Brendan: There's no money in that. I looked at a guy again, I've had these two guys in Joe Rogan was taking me under his wing and you look at Rogan. Rogan is as competitive as they get. He's always a guy who is pushing other people up. If anyone knows me, ever dealt with me, ex girlfriends, guys I've fought, friends, they need anything, they can call me, it's yours. Whatever is mine is yours. Besides my Porsche, whatever is mine is yours. Know what I'm saying?
Tait: People ask me the wrong questions. They say, "Hey, if you have the time or something, I'd like to call". I never have the time. I don't ever have any extra time. There's no free time. But I'll always the time. Just tell me what you need. I'll make that work in. That's exactly where I'm at with it. I'm 100% booked, busy, but I will make time for you. That's the beautiful thing about that stuff. We're all busy productive people, but let's go ahead and carve out a thing. We can make that happen. We're not in the business of "I can't." It's "Let's get it done."
Brendan: I think what's good, I've had other guys ask me on other podcasts how they can help me. When I first started, that's the athlete in me. I'm not helping you. Hell no you're not getting my info. No I can't help you with teachers. No I can't help you with marketing. Now, shoot.
Tait: Whatever, whatever.
Brendan: Whatever. Whatever you need.
Tait: Dudes are like, you gotta write a book or this or that. Those are the kinds of things that I don't know. Like there's stuff that I know, but it's just stuff that guys have told me along the way. You have to get free of this. I think what I've been messing with lately, when stuff comes up, when it's negative, I just think of it in a different way of what I would call denial. I go; you can only think one thought in your head at a time. It can be positive or negative. The more negative thoughts you have in your head that you entertain. Whatever pops in your head, that's not on you. If you entertain it, that's on you. The more I entertain it, the more time I spent doing that, the worse my life is. The more negative my life is. The sadder my thoughts are. The frown that comes.
Brendan: It's a waste of energy.
Tait: The more positive, the better things are, the brighter. Wow. So if I've done something wrong or hurt somebody, I take care of that right away. I don't want that lingering. If I feel like there's something lingering between us, I'm like hey man, I want you to know that this is how I feel and if you feel weird, like I want to clear up whatever it is. I refuse to. If there's something that people are like, "Well what do you think about this?" I don't think about that. I don't click that link. I don't know that that happens. It doesn't exist in my life. It did not happen. People are like, "You should know everything". My brain is not strong enough to do it. To be able to compartmentalize. I edge it out. There's only so much time. It's kind of like you're training for a fight and people are like gi or no gi. If you're thing is to fight with no gi then I think you should fight with no gi all the time. If you're looking to have fun, have fun however that is. There's only so much time and I want to be happy in that time. It's very important and especially later in life because I think the thing is to show other people how to do what is done.
Brendan: It's experience. At 25 if you asked me this, I'm like get the fuck out of here. I see as I'm getting older and in a happier place, you can't step back and kind of think like that. It's tough to do man.
Tait: The drugs in your body. All the hormones that guide us and rule us, how strong they are as a young guy. It's incredible in that way. I was trying to tell, I guess, my mom's here now and we were driving around and she was talking about the prevalence of date rape and all that stuff and things that happen and come up.
Brendan: Cosby show?
Tait: Not even that. Like young kids. Like oh there's a 15-year-old girl and she's like I was date raped by my 14-year-old boyfriend.
Brendan: Jesus.
Tait: Then you're like, that could look like all kinds of things. There's no more aggressive human on Earth probably than a 14 year old with a boner.
Brendan: Oh I agree.
Tait: It's like...
Brendan: Or more dangerous than a 21 year old without goals or ambitions.
Tait: It's all that stuff. It's like you need experience to temper all those things inside you as a dude in that way. People are like, how do you live an exciting life without this or that. Say yes all the time. Always say yes. Make that your rule. Always say yes. You'll go and do it. Those 21 year olds that are like that turn in to 50 year olds that are like that. That's the saddest thing because then you have guys that are talking about real experiences and then you got that guy going, "Oh yeah well I know about that because I read that in this book and...". No motherfucker. You got no experiences. Why don't you just listen and learn. When I was a younger dude and it was like, I know I know I know. Like no. You couldn't possible know. You've only been experiencing for a short time.
Brendan: There's a big difference between being educated through experiences and then regurgitating what you read in books.
Tait: Huge
Brendan: I'd rather talk to the guy who's been through the fire than the guy who has read about the fire. Know what I'm saying?
Tait: I'd rather talk to the illiterate guy who [crosstalk]
Brendan: I'd rather talk to the guy who has been through the fucking shit than the guy who's like I read about the shit. Guy, I don't care. Just regurgitating what someone else did, man. I'm about to piss my pants.
Tait: Go ahead. Cool. This is handled. We got to wrap things up. Gotta go see mom and you gotta get on with the rest of your day. Tell people where they can find you and all that stuff.
Brendan: Anything Fire Kid related or TFatK.com. That's all the episodes, merchandise, everything man. That's @BrendanSchaub. You know the deal, my man.
Tait: Cool, man. Find all your caffeine at Caveman.com
Brendan: The best.
Tait: I'm @TaitFletcher on Instagram. Brendan is just @BrendanSchaub on Instagram. Fighter and the Kids spelled out on Instagram.
Brendan: The Fighter and the Kid.
Tait: The Fighter and the Kid. [Music playing] We'll see y'all soon. Hope you enjoyed it and have a lovely, lovely day.
[End Transcription]
Brendan Schaub–ufc athlete, fashion designer, entrepreneur, co-host of FATK Pcast, and quickly becoming one of my favorite people. He is literally carving a pathway that illustrates how athletes can move powerfully into their next incarnation. He’s a true example of #PirateLife. Enjoy this. It’s important.