June 4, 2025 • 37 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Jay goes deep in the jungle of Phuket Thailand for a real raw conversation with UFC Legend Mike Swick. Swick opens up about his insane battle with stage 4 cancer which he ultimately beat by pushing his body to crazy extremes, fasting for two weeks, starving the cancer to death. Given 1 year at most to live Mike took the fight of his life into his own hands!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
build you from the inside out.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now here's Jay Glacier. Welcome into Unbreakable Mental Wealth Podcast
with Jay Glazier. I'm Jay Glazer and man, I'm so
excited to have my next guest on. This is a
brother mine, somebody who continues to inspire me every day.
And if you're a fan of the UFC, you know
who he is. He was on the very first season
of The Ultimate Fighter. His name is Mike Swick. Mike
(00:32):
Quick Swick, Ato, brother.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
How you doing. That's so good to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Last time I saw you, you were beating up my trainers
here in Thailand.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So not only has Mike had a very prolific UFC
career mix Marshal Art's career, but he also opened the
most prolific training center in the world aka Thailand. Folks.
I got to first of all, I got to go
out there and train when I went on my Mind, Body,
Spirit journey a few years ago, and Mike, I don't
know if you know this, one of the reasons I
picked Thailand to go to for thirty five days in
(01:03):
this journey was because of you.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Oh wow. Ye.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I was in a. I was in a dark, really
bad place, and I wanted to go somewhere were so
different than what I was doing here in America. And
I was looking at Bali, and I was looking a
couple of other places in Thailand, and because you were there,
I was in such a weird paranoid Stay. If anything
goes down, at least I have a friend here.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Man. That means a lot to me. It really does.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
It's pretty cool, man. And it's funny too, because of
that time, I only told three other people I was
going out there. I told the Rock because that fucker
has a plane that could reach us, and then Brandy
Gatour and Jay Huran because those crazy bastards, those expendables
will get on that plane to go save my ass.
So Mike, you know, Mike is obviously is a fighter,
(01:47):
but he's a fighter in a much different way as well.
And you know, when I was out in Thailand the
first time, he told me what he did to overcome
what he got hit with. And it's you know, happens since.
But I want Mike to explain this, and look, I
usually the show by asking our guest, give me your
unbreakable moment, moment that should have broken. You could have
and didn't, and as a result, you came from the
other side of this tone was stronger forever. But Mike's
(02:09):
last several years have been unbreakable moment after unbreakable moment
after unbreakable moment, and Mike, I'm gonna let you lead
into us. Mike is a cancer survivor now several times over.
Like I said, he's a fighter, and he took a
different fight to cancer.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I mean I have a lot of unbreakable moments in
my life, but uh, I think the most would be
definitely when the doctor diagnosed me with cancer and I
heard that stage four come out of his mouth. That's
that when the hair stand up on the back of
your neck a little bit and you're just kind of.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Like, wow, that's a lot for one day.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
What kind of cancer was it?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I had lymphoma, lymphoblastic lymphoma.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, and it was the most aggressive kind, the same
one that got Rumble Johnson. And uh, you know the
thing is is it's like my brain works in such
crazy ways. It's like I don't I never see an end.
I never see a no, I never see a you
can't do. I never see you're gonna die. I never
see I can't. I can't. I can never see that end,
you know, because I'm programmed to find an answer to everything.
(03:07):
So it's like it was like shock, and I was
scared and like, you know, I didn't want to have
cancer and all that, and it was gonna be a
big pain in the ass to deal with. But like
you know, they they they ended up saying I have
probably based on like the chemo and how much of
cancer it kills, about a year. So if you know,
everything is about what they expect and there's options and
all this kind of stuff. So basically I had like
(03:28):
a year I could guarantee I could live and all that.
But like for me, it's like I had a fight,
you know, and then you know, so if you give
me a fight, you know, it's not like I died
instantly from a car accident or something like that.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So I assumed I was pretty lucky right from the start.
You know. It's like I have a fight here and
my opponent's in my body. You know.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It's like it's not like I can make my my
In the UFC, I was fighting guys at their best,
you know, they were they were like, you know, completely
nourished and like trained, and like I can actually affect
my opponent in my body. So I was thinking, like,
you know, what can I do to make cancer weak?
And I was looking at the holistic, you know, evidence
of people who were research and evidence of like what
they were doing and how they were how they were
(04:07):
fighting cancer, and then the medical side with the chemo
and and just doing medical and people that did the
mix of both, and I just kind of formulated my
own planks. I don't listen to anyone and follow everyone's
different and like, I want to be the owner of
my life and the boss of my life, and so
if something happens, I wanted to be my fault. If
I die, I want to be my fault. If I
(04:28):
make a mistake, I want my fault. I don't want
to die because somebody else made a mistake, or or
somebody else was trying to make money, or somebody else
was trying to do whatever. So I had to like
put all this information I was gathering together, and I
just I remember I asked, I said before, but I
remember I.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Asked the doctor.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I was just like, so I know I know cancer.
I know enough about cancer to know that cancer is
like a broken cell. It's not a healthy cell. It's broken, right,
So it's not as strong as your good cells, which
is why when you do chemo, it kills those cells,
but it doesn't kill your good cells. So I'm like,
I'm fight then a weaker opponent already, and I'm like,
so in my fate and my life depends on how
(05:05):
much of this cancer I can kill with the chemo.
So like in my head, I'm like, the weaker I
can make this cancer, the more it's gonna die, the
more I'm gonna live. Right, So I was like, have
you ever you know if At first, I said, if
if I was to start myself to death and die, like,
what would would technically would the cancer die before me?
(05:26):
Or would I, you know what, I die at the
same time as the cancer or would it matter? And
He's like, well, technically, you know, theoretically the cancer cells
would die before you would die. So then from that
point on, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's where your mind went through read.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well, from that point on, it was like there was
no doubt in my mind I was going to beat
it because it was just like I will literally starve
myself to that point if I have to to get
my life back.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You know, we're talking about your life. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's not like a gamble with like some money or
like a job. It's like to live in, you know,
on this earth. So I told the doctor, said, well,
I'll just starve myself and then week in the cancer
and then when the chemo comes, we'll just blast it out.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You know. Of course, this is how I talk, you know,
and the doctors.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
You're doctor's like, who the fuck is this guy?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Absolutely not. He's like, you've never done chemo before, and
he says.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You don't even know what the hell you're getting yourself into.
And he's like, you know me before, Doc, you don't
know who you who?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Can't for getting the.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Coming and try to fast a couple of days and
you know, do all this kind of stuff, and like
you're gonna fast and not not you know, feed yourself
for a few days, and like, you know, coming to chemo,
it's gonna have a strong effect on you because you
don't have.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
No healthy body. You know, your body's gonna be not.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Healthy and you're gonna be weak, and you might not
even survive a month more or less a year. So
I don't advise like a twenty four to forty eight
or seventy two hour fast at all.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And I'm like, no, no, I'm talking about like a
two week fast, Like I'm I'm gonna damage it.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I mean, I know you can go like a month
without food, So I'm thinking about going like, you know,
like really damaging it, like not starving myself like I said,
like to death, but like almost, but like you know,
making making some progress and and and and making sure
because if I eat these certain foods that they always say,
like cancer doesn't eat this food, and this is alkaline,
and you know you can have natural sugars and not
(07:10):
regular sugars and and and you know alkaline diet. But
at the end of the day, cancer does eat a
little bit of everything. So in order for me to
really hurt cancer, I really had to not eat nothing.
Like that's the only way I could really one hundred
percent guarantee cancer is going to be getting, you know, weaker.
And so he said, you know, not to do it,
and made me promise I wouldn't. And I was like
(07:30):
ninety eight kilograms and it was like a one hundred ninety
five pounds something like that. And I said Okay, cool,
let me just go home, he said, I need to
start right away, but chemo was covered in my neck.
You know, you can see that tweet that I made
at the time, and I said, let me see, I
have a couple of weeks and talk to my family,
get things organized, everything straight, and I'll be back.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And then I just went home and.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Just didn't eat for two straight weeks, and and like,
I was like, just that alone, to be honest with you,
was like hard, I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, of course I.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Never asked it for even a day before.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I've never in fasted half a day, and like and
not eating for for for.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Two weeks, I lost twenty five kilograms.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Over twenty five kilograms, I lost, uh fifty by the time,
well because I got sick in the hospital because the
chembo poison my stomach, and then because we'll get into that.
But either way, my lowest weight was one hundred and
forty five pounds of six foot one, so I didn't
weigh that much except when I was like maybe fifteen
years old or something like that, and I was I
was forty five or no, no, no, sorry, I was.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Like three years ago. So I was like forty two UC.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Of seventy right, so you would cut from whatever. So yeah,
you were right.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
That's why I see these guys now that missweigh by
a pound and give up their purse and I'm just like, what, dude,
I lost like sixty pounds.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Almm, come on bro, So yeah, I showed back up
before you.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Get before you enter this. I mean, I can't imagine
not eating for two weeks. I when you see me
right now, I can't imagine not eating for two hours.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
But the picture on my Instagram if you want to
see what a bubblehead looks like, because it before and
after on my Asteragram, you can see how big my
head really is.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
How hard was that fight of the inner fight of
man you starve and just just have one meal as
opposed to no, we're not doing anything. We're beating this
for two weeks.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Oh, there was no doubt. I'll tell you where the
mental part came in.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
But it wasn't because of that when it comes down
to find for my life, like I didn't care, like
there was no there was dealing with the pain because
you get to a point where you just can't sleep
and you're just like your organs feel like there. I
don't know for sure what was happening, because you know,
when you don't eat, all kinds of things happen. But
I felt like my organs were kind of like sort
of shutting down a little bit or something pains all
(09:39):
in my not even externally, but like internally pains, and
like I was getting a little scared, you know, but
it already jumped out of the plane, you know, as
we say, we skydiving, and you have a parishue like
once you're out, it's like there's nothing you can do.
You might as well enjoy the ride and hope your
shoot open. So to me, it was like, you know,
I was in control. I felt good about that, you know,
I'm doing what I wanted to do, what I made
my mind to do, and what my brain told with
(10:00):
me was the best option. But then it was getting
to a point where it's like, man, I may this
may be it, you know, because I am pretty weak,
and I may I may have like build up more
than I can chew doing this. I knew I was
gonna kill the cancer. I just didn't know if I
was gonna make it too. And so I showed up
for the doctor and for my appointment two weeks later,
and I was like sixty eight kilograms from ninety eight,
(10:24):
and then the doctors just paniced. They thought the cancer
was killing me because it had aggressive cancer, so they
were freaking out and they were like trying to rush
me into the thing. I'm like, no, no, I start myself,
you know I did. This is not the cancer, this
is me. And I thought that was pretty crazy. And
I got in there and I still didn't eat until
after the first day of chemo. So I wanted the
chemo to be the first thing in my body instead
(10:46):
of food, so that the cancer would just be like
so hungry.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
It's like, ah, something's in my body, but it's like poison.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
And unfortunately that works against me because my body, my
stomach was completely empty and like I had nothing in there.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
So the chemo's acidic.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I started eating the lining of my stomach and so
I got really sick, and it started like it caused
like all kinds of like problems to my organs and
my my stomach. And so the first week of chemo,
I got you know, I was losing more. I lost
another like five six seven eight pounds something like that,
because I was just like, yeah, it was brutal, but
I started myself. For the first day of chemo, I
did vegetarian. The second day, which was your off date,
(11:23):
and then this is one day I'm on one day off,
and then for the next chemo day, I starved, vegetarian, star, vegetarian, star,
vegetarian star.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
For the first week.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
By day eight, I had no symptoms of cancer all
my all my lips were not swollen. And now now
the doctors are like bringing other doctors into the room
to like my neck and like look at my blood results,
and they can't believe the results, you know, like then
how much cancer I killed? And then as it turned out,
I started eating normal after the first week and the
next three weeks. You know, it was still tough getting
(11:53):
myself back because I've never done I've never been a
vegetarian either, you know, and so I was like, that
wasn't fun.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I don't like vegetable.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And so then after that, apparently after the first month,
I killed ninety five percent of the cancer.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So it worked and I survived something. That's good, right, Yeah,
that's good.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, So tell me the during that again, because if
you have no food, you also have no food to
your brain.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I wasn't thinking, like with the most clarity.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, after you, how were you whose name? Was it
getting bad? When you, you know, have an argument for yourself.
How are the crazy roomans in your head and dealing
with that?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah? That was pretty crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
It affects you where you don't need for two weeks,
and then it affects you with the chemotes too. So
when you're not eating for two weeks and then you
go through chemo and you're still kind of starving yourself
off and on, I would say I would highly not
recommend that for anyone. But at the same time, it's
like it did save my life, you know. So it's like,
you know, it's it is what it is, you know,
Like I cannot a doctor. I'm i gonna ever tell
people what to do. But it's like I will say that,
(12:55):
you know, from what the doctors. I guess the best
thing I can look at, factual and the legit is
how the doctors acted because they were in shock. So
I surprised the doctors and their reaction told me I
did the right thing. And so I can't say everyone
can do that, and maybe they can do less, maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
They can do whatever. I'm not sixty seven. They're you know,
seventy eighty.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Like some of these patients and they can't handle that
kind of you know, situation. But I would say and
also in my opinion, I think I learned that I
think there's a lot of people dining in cancer because
of they're not doing kind of what I did. They're
not preparing for chemo and preparing for a battle and
actually you know, fighting hard. You know that I'm fighting
hard enough, and the doctors aren't helping them because the
(13:41):
doctors don't tell you none of this stuff. The doctors
are feeding sugar and like you know, they want you
to you know, these guys were.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Just charitable, trying to help you.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
They'd be helping people and like helping children, you know,
starving families and like in Africa, like doing water wells.
These guys are they're making money. They went to school
to make money. You know, they're they're looking at you
as a number. So their job is to scare you
and then tell you what to do, and then you
do it. Because it costs a ton of money, Like
the chemo was like for my insurance, I think a
(14:10):
lot of stuff was covered, but the chemo, it'll only
cover like ten percent.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah, really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
It's it's a sad situation to know. It's like I
don't even think it anymore. I know for a fact,
because as you said, I kept getting it back. But
it was like they would let me do chemo until
it would show up on the test that's clear. But
I would have micro sales in my body. So if
I did one more chemo session, I would have been okay.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
But they didn't let me do it. They said, you're clear,
we'll check in three months. And of course it came back.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So they knew I was a young, strong guy that
can handle it, and they wanted to keep me in
this chemo cycle. This this pendulum, you know, this is
you know, osculating back and forth, you know, thing as
long as they possibly could get money out of me.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
So it sucks when you figure that out.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And and and then you know the fight from there,
I had to like start tricking the doctors and seeming
worse than I was. They would keep the chemo stronger
because they mixed the chemo right, so they make it
weaker throughout as you as you need it less to
keep it from like doing the damage that they should
be doing. And it's pretty it's pretty sad. But yeah,
I told him I was way worse than I was.
(15:15):
I was like, yeah, I tried to make it yeah,
because at first I was like, yeah, I'm strong, I'm good,
because I wanted to convince them that I'm like, you know,
beating it and I'm doing good and like and then
I'm like, well, this isn't going to work like psychologically
with these guys. They want this kind of like you know,
added so they want to see that I'm strong and
they can do like ten more chemos on me and
stuff you have. I think I've done like almost six
(15:35):
hundred hours so far of chemo. Six hundred hours of chemo.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, for sure. It was just under I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
So then I figured out I've started playing like a
little bit worse off and and and then they made
the chemo a little bit stronger, and then I think
they accidentally beat it so here here the last time
I went, they were telling me I had to do
like three more times in stem cell therapy to ensure
and I played it off so well on that last chemo,
(16:03):
like I've had no, no, nothing, come back since then,
So I feel very confident since since my my cancer
is very aggressive, it would have definitely had signs by now.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So I feel pretty confident. I'm in a good state
right now.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Plus I'm like over one hundred kilograms and like working
out and like feeling gray.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So that so that.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Was a several years ago, but it has come back since.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
You because yeah, this recently it came back, and so
I had to. I'm just coming off another chema like
a few months ago, and where are we now, the
first time that has stayed away one hundred percent? Like
where I feel the most confident that I really beat
it and I'm good. Worst case, I always have stim
cell to kill it for sure, but that's like a
big obligation, you know, hospital for six weeks, and like
(16:43):
you know, I'm working hard at aka time. I'm building
all this stuff and I'm doing so much stuff. It's
like being gone for that long as like a last resort,
especially since it's so it's such a slow growing thing
and it's not a high priority. Where I'm at right now,
my blood works perfect, my health is perfect. I know
everything about my body now because of all these tests
they ran so it's like I'm actually really healthy for
(17:04):
my age compared to most people, especially someone that's never
been tested for anything.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
So I feel very confident.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
How do you keep so you get a scan again
and man, the test show cancers back. How do you
Because I know beating a lot of beating, this is
is staying positive ya right, So how do you how
that intermountabile you stay positive when it's such a gut
punch that it comes back.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, you know, like I just found positive things in
my life. So it's like ak Tiland's been a big help.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
You know. I built that from scratch, from like a jungle,
so it's like a lego. It's like, uh, We're gonna.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Talk about that a little bit because I want people
know about this pledge. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So it's like to start from a jungle and then
to be able to walk through two acres of this
place just completely build and and it all came from
my head, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I drew everything and built everything.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
So it's like I could just walk through that place
and I do it every day, and it's just like
that is like a real posit thing. And like as
of right now, like you know, since uh, you know,
since having the cancer. It's been such a success. It's
like I knew either way, you know, I had, I
had my my legacy to live on, to my family,
to my kids too. They can see what I did,
(18:15):
you know, and like, you know, it's helped a lot
of people. It's created a lot of success for people.
People love it. They come from all over the world,
and so it's like, it's great to be able to
have done something where I can open up my creativity
and visual vision and uh and be able to build
and create something that's also you know, successful for other
people as well successful for myself.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Give me something else about that flank dem you haven't
told me and we may not know about that was like,
oh man, this was whatn't expecting this.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Do you mean like a physical or do you mean
like that just about oh oh oh, the well the
mental side you think you're talking about. Oddly enough, the
mental side was when I was doing the best because
at the end to what happened was you do you
stay in the hospital for the first month and you
do chemo every of the day, and if I get
sick because my my my white blood cells is so low.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Where where where's the hospital? Which country?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Bang Cock because they have really good they have really
good dogs.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
That yeah, and uh and and so three weeks in
my my girlfriend at the time you met her, My
girlfriend at the time had left to come back, you know,
to go get some things from the house and come back.
And so three weeks. And it takes three weeks for
your hair to start falling out. And then now you're
feeling like some real like like your body is like
so skinny, and the key most taking effect. So you're
(19:31):
feeling the worst. Your body's feeling the worst. Your hair's
falling out, like you know, this is like the worst
like feeling and look of you, of yourself and my my,
my girl came back and she was in the room,
and we were in the room for like a while,
and she just kept complaining about being sick. So I
called the nurses in and they checked on her and
she had COVID, so she brought COVID into the hospital
to my room. I would have died if I got COVID,
(19:53):
so luckily they tested her and got her out of
the room immediately, and I didn't get COVID. So I
spent my last week and in the hospital in Bangkok
by myself so I don't want anybody else seeing me
in the state or whatever, you know, except her. And
so when I would get up in the mornings, just
like I was already beating it. You know, doctors had
already been so surprised I had no symptoms of cancer.
You know, I was doing fantastics, and my progress was great.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
The hair the hair was falling.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Out because of the chemo, the way it was gone
because of me, you know, and my body was aching
because of the chemo.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Nothing was really from the cancer.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
But every morning when I when I walked into the
bathroom and turned the light on and I saw myself,
it was like I was looking at a skeleton like death,
you know, like it was like even though you know
you're okay, in fact, you should be happy because like
you know, it's looking like you're going to beat this thing.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
It was so tough to just from that point on
to continue because you've been there for three weeks already,
and now I had to go out of the bathroom
for seeing myself and then just you know, live with
that feeling in my mind, and I'm stuck in this room,
just going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
Like a like a cell, you know, like a prison cell.
It's kind of like I have a private room, but
it's like it's only so big, and all you can
really do is think, you know, there's not much else
(21:00):
to do.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And yeah, that was the that was the part that
was like it was like really it was putting me
at like rock bottom, I think, like mentally.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
But by the time I went home, I was like,
I don't think I could have taken too many more
days of that, to be honest, it was tough. I
was hurt really bad, and like, yeah I was, I
wasn't doing so good.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Do you think that because you have a background fighting
it allowed you to fight more?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I think because I like, I have this part of
myself that's kind of can turn on that savage side,
and that made me the fighter who I am. So
it's not the fighting itself, it's just kind of like
that side of me. I lost my father when I
was young, and then due to all these different circumstances
that happened I as a kid, I got this like
real savage side of me that like, you know, I
don't see nose and I don't see you know, when
(21:47):
I put myself on the line, and I'm trying to
negotiate or do things, or gamble or achieve something. I
put my life on the line every single time. I'm
not afraid to gamble everything all the time, every time,
and people can't match that wage.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
So I went all the time. And that's how I
built that k Thailand.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
If you think I came to Thailand and built what
Thailand voted as the number one movie ties school in
time for the last four years, being a Texas boy
with no movie timee fights, you can imagine how many
battles I had.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Coming up.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
You imagine how many people didn't want me to have
the best movie high school in Thailand and get this
kind of like exposure that I'm getting. So I've had
a lot of battles, but nobody has been able to
match that that kind of wager that I'm willing to
do each and every time I step up to the plate.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
And so I think that's what helped me.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
So now since I've been at ak Thailand, you've built
it up more described Herry real quick one. You describe
exactly how big it is, how just it's such a
profound place. It's incredible. But then I want you to
kind of take it through some of the business lessons
you've learned along the way, then you could have now
taught Mike Swick that was first starting this journey.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well, I was building business when I was a kid,
so I mean I started out like with a landscaping
and then like a pressure watching business in high school.
I've always worked for myself, so like I was always
doing business, and then I've built a seven figure business
when I was in the UFC. Before I got in
the UFC, and then during my UFC career, I was
running a print shop and I turned into one of
the largest print shops in northern California.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
So really I was failing.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I always say I was failing through my way, you know,
through my career because like you fail to learn, right,
So I was getting all my failures out of the
way early so that I could win when it mattered,
which is now at the end of my life when
I'm like, you know, I need to enjoy and sit
back and coast and not have anyone tell me what
to do, not have any boss, not anybody anything, and
then have a free you know, freedom and a free
(23:39):
schedule to be able to go.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Do what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
When I want to do it and not have to
ask permission or be told, you know, what to do.
So I was building business back then, and then all
through the UFC it was like it was just I
knew that was a stepping stone for me to help
me get into circles I needed, because I've been coming
to time for over twenty years, and I knew if
I wanted to do anything entirely and I have to
be inside with some very serious circles here to have
(24:01):
the connections to be able to survive. And I knew
that if I was a fighter, that's one way. If
you're an Alpha mel you know, if you're a fighter,
if you're a military guy, I know you support the
military troops too. You know, you can get into circles
real easy and that in that regard if people know
you from fighting and stuff like that. And I knew
that from doing overseas military support tours during my UFC career,
I did the most of anyone I think in the world.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
I did like over twenty.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Overseas tours, including two tours in Iraq, two tours in Afghanistan, Djibouti,
Africa got kicked out of Actually I'm banned from Jibouti.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Big deal.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But wait, hold on, hold on, why are you band
from Jibouti.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Because I filmed too much.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It was before we got Osama and like they were
like they attacked our van and they were like they
were how Osama bin Latin Shirs and all this crazy stuff,
and like some French foreign legions came to like rescue us,
and then all we had on the base in Jibouti
was like these these Puerto Ricans that were like representing
in the US.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
And so it was like the French.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Foreign legion and Puerto Rican American like soldiers and they
were coming and they rescued us, and I feel all
this stuff and like put on YouTube and like they
got the country got really pissed off.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah, and so and I was in.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Ramstein in Germany with the Wood of Warriors and I've
been to Walter Reed and Washington multiple times the Booted Wars.
I never support war, you know, but I supported the
troops because these guys are Yeah. I came from Texas
and I was a poor, poor Texas kid growing up,
and it's like all my friends were like looking for
adventure and looking.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
For this, like see the world, get a free education.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
You know, and they sign up and then now they're
doing convoys and like I can get their rights blown
off and stuff. So I'm like, they thought we were
cool because we were fighters. So it's like, man, if
I can go and inspire these guys and spend my
time with them. So between every UFC fight, they did
sometimes maybe two three tours of two weeks each, multiple camps.
These time, I did over twenty two, like over twenty
(25:46):
I think it was twenty two overseas military support tours.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
So yeah, it was uh so.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Go back to that way to go back though, we're
talking about when you describe ak A Thailand, describe it to everybody,
tell us how how many.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
It's so what I did, I don't do anything the
same as everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I don't do anything the same as everybody else because
I found, you know, if I want to do something
different and be different and do something incredible, it's never
like something that everybody else does. So I've always been
different my ideas. I was always the crazy guy with
the crazy ideas. So what I did was I basically
when I was built Akay Thailand, I wanted to come
to Thailand and build a fight gym. But it's like
everybody just naturally thinks if you build a fight gym,
(26:25):
you have to build a fight gym for fighters because
it's a fight gem. But a lot of people want
to they watch fighting, they're into fighting, they love fighting,
they're enthusiasts, and they want to come come to train
with fighters too.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
But who wants to really train with fighters if they're
not a fighter, right, So.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I wanted to open that door, and I wanted to
create the first fight gem not for fighters, and so
I built it specifically high high class, high level and
the largest in the world and resort style. But it's
basically the most exclusive sports combat resort, fight fight resort
in the world, and it was built for non fighters.
But we do have fighters, and we do have you know, basically,
(27:00):
we do havelf a fight team.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
And what I do now is I just took me
three years and to set this up because Fight Club,
the movie really inspired me for this.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I know how savage people can be that aren't fighters,
like Carpenter's businessmen entrepreneurs. So I set up the scene
called fight Club Experience. And what we do now is
we have a program where you can sign up and
come to my gym and like, no matter who you are,
as long as you haven't fought before, I guarantee you
that you come to our gym, you get trained that
you can do it in a month, two months, however
long you want. And then we put you on a
(27:29):
broadcast live across the world on my own broadcast Aktalan
dot tv and then my app in the app store,
Apple and Google, and so we broadcast the fight live.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
And you actually get a fight.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
In front of a pack ti stadium in a movie
time match as a real match. It gains a real person,
you know, similarly experiencing you. And so these guys get
to come to my gym. Now we've had so many
we just posted on Instagram the other day. And so
these guys are like working in these offices, you know,
cubicles and stuff, and like you know there maybe their
kids don't look up to them like savages and stuff
off and like they're coming to Thailand and they're fighting
(28:02):
and they're winning. If you look at our website, they're
winning every time. Like they're they're knocking people out and
like they're savage. You know, I've always said you're not
a fighter because you say you're a fighter, you know,
saying you're a fighter because you're either a fighter.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Or you're not, you know. And so it's like you
can't just call yourself a fighter and be a fighter,
you know, you have to have it in you.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And there's a lot of guys that do regular jobs
that are just as savage as fighters, and so I
love watching these guys come to Thailand.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
But we have carpenters. We had, like I said, we have.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Also I want to explain this, how many rings do
you have?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Well, in my wood Tide Jim is the largest in
the world, so we have the largest indoor of matic
uh climb control. How we have two oversized seven point
two meters rings and seven thousand square foot stadium sized
multi area surrounded by jungle that I've built.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
So basically there's.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
How many cakes, like the whole area to more than
it was like, no.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
No, there's not two rings, but we have all the
bags everywhere else.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
And then we have another MMA facility, We have a
way ages facility, we have a restaurant. The whole thing
is a school as well. Then we have the pool
side now that I built. So basically I built an
underwater pool underwater fight gym. So I built a ten
meter by twelve and a half meter by ten meter
pool saltwater.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
It's like two thousand and.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Six hundred square square feet and it was all hand
painted in three D by artists in Thailand. Took them
forty five days to paint it to look like an
underwater sunk in fight gym at the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
We even even.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Posters and like the wood, the doors and the like,
all this stuff like this, and then we filled up
with water. We trained in that and then we would
white sand around it as like a cafe, like we
got bamboo furniture.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
We got an alpha tower, which I just created.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
What I was saying, towers like a you know, Ninja warrior.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
The towers like an alpha tower.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
So it's basically when I got cancer, I wanted to
build a flagpole, and they allowed me to put the
flag only a certain hype, so I had to put
on top of a facility.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
And so I said, okay, what if I built a tower.
So I built the tower as high as I could.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
They would let me build the tower, and then I
put my flag as highs with let me put on
top of the tower because I wanted everybody that doubted
me and to try to stop me in Thailand to
see this flax. I wanted to be as high as
humanly possible. It's like twelve feet long and like so
when I was in the hospital with cancer, I designed
this one of a kind, like because I wanted the
most attention to go to this flagpole and see my flag.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
I designed this. It's a staircase. It's like a staircase that's.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Going up, you know, fifty four feet eighty eight stairs,
and it's it's for running, you know, for exercise.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
We have also pulled up bars that go along the side.
We've got ropes to go up the side so we
can do circuits on it. Plus it's also a viewing platform.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
It's ocean view so you can see all the islands
and the ocean and all that. And then we also
have it's a nice place to sheet to the basketball court.
We got a custom basketball court. We do trick shots
from the top into the basketball who.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
At one point you're gonna put like lodging there. Have
you done that yet?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I'm gonna do lodging because this is like my master
It's a two acre of property, and I wanted just
to be covered in just awesome facilities, facilities or one
of a kind that don't make sense. The pool is
one of a kind in every way, basketball courtse even
one of the kind.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
The ice pass one of a kind.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Everything that I've done, having my podcast studio there as well.
And that's it's two acres full like it's like a campus,
the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I mean, it takes a while to watch, as you know.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I want people to get this too, because so I
went out there. It's about ninety eight degrees and one
hundred percent humidity and it's brutal. So training and that
is that's training. That's different. Your lung's gonna get used
to it. Mike and I were gonna, you know, he's
gonna put me to his coaches. We'red to train a
little bit. And he and he realized you used to say, Jay,
do you want to do like what everybody else does,
which is it's just too human here, just we'll do
we'll look good for cameras. What fuck you, Mike? Am
(31:36):
I doing that? We're doing fucking three minute rounds. He's like,
it's hard, man, I ain't gonna lie it it's hard,
but it was no way I wouldn't fucking do it.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
It's it didn't know you were gonna be all NFL
to training like hell, you know, like you stocking me
out there like after it man, So I was like,
all right, cool, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, if you're gonna be out there, you gotta fucking
do it.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Since we since we built the gym to the higher
standard for everybody where the as he gets the celebrities
and there's a lot of celebrities that wanted to and
weskleafand posted a video from Aka time and he got
more views than like his last six months on most
of his reels because people want to see a different
side of some of these celebrities being like alpha and stuff.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
So we just had sense she'll see there.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
We had Riis Kalifa, the now Boys, you know, a
bunch of guys that were coming through there and uh
so dealing with those guys, you know, we yeah, I
usually Steve Aoki was just there for a couple of
weeks or I'm sorry, for a couple of days, and
he was doing the same thing. He had his first
moos High session with us and with all the celebrities.
I'm like, you know, you know, we can make you
look good and unless you trained a few you know,
(32:37):
a few rounds, a few minutes or something like that,
if you don't want to go hard because it is hot,
it is humid, and most of the time these celebrities
go hard and with I know you know firsthand because
you train.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Him as well seven years.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
This guy can fight, man, This guy.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Seriously can seriously not only training.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
I'm saying, this dude can fight like I want. I want.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I want to get him in like an actual stadium
fight like. This dude can seriously fight.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I've told people like I've traveled Randy get Her for
you know, fifteen years whatever, never hurt me in the body,
Chuck Oddell fifteen years, never hurt me in the body.
Whis Khalifa hurt me to the body. You gotta be
fucking kidding me. The way he turns his hips and
I don't know what it is about him. He's got
me twice now, I'm like, motherfucker, but he you know,
I think Wiz has guys like that. We've trained a
(33:21):
lot of these, you know, performers. They have no ego
in it because yeah, I think they're choreography. They were
able to put six, seven, eight steps together. We're not.
We're usually I Max had three or four and I'm
trying to you know, I'm trying to fucking go for
broken on a lot of it. They could see things
and put together all the pieces together way better than
we can. If you take your ego out of it.
(33:41):
It's like a golfer who's trying to hit the ball
way too hard. It doesn't but if you just let
your technique go, you're gonna swing through the ball. That's
what makes them different. But Whiz is different than all
of them.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
No, He's amazing and is a great guy.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And the thing is, that's why we went a lot
of the fights, like I told you about, from these
average people, because.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Like they're students of the game. And I felt same thing.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Like when I was fighting in the UFC, I was
a striker and when I had to start learning jiu jitsu,
I didn't want to be in the white belt class.
You know, I already had like multiple MMA fights and
all this and I'm sitting there with white belt on,
you know, trying to work my way up.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Tick.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I finally got, you know more more rank, but it
was like, it's the same thing with all fighters. They
don't they don't want to stand learning the basics and
and and go through the process, whereas everybody else, including celebrities,
like with especially, they're taking it in and soaking it
up and they're learning the basics and then when they
get in the ring, it works shockingly enough. Like could
be a great example, could be you've never seen Kabe
do like a complex move in his life, Like he's
(34:33):
never done a flying arm bar, He's never done like
some crazy move. He sticks to the basics and he's
an absolute master at it, you know, and you can't
stop them. And so yeah, it's that's that's the difference
of regular people, I think and the celebrities that come
through there, and they trained so hard, and it's so
good for me because it's like I spent half my
career with fighters, and like you know, hearing about how
(34:54):
they're going to be in the UFC or asking me
about my UFC career. It's great coming to work every
day and being able to be around people that are
like all different and from different jobs and different like
areas and network differently and all these different people and it's.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Really cool to like, you know, for a postfight like life.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I couldn't have a better life than being a beautiful island,
living a beautiful villa.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Go to my gym here, it's like this is great
for me.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Well, I'm gonna come out back out there and see
you here.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Definitely a few months ago, I guess you posted a
video again Savagery right there.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
I love the place. But like I said, man, I'm
proudy man, I appreciate you being my brother. Yeah, I
want to tell you that. I know I never told
you that you're the reason why I went out there,
and that place saved my life, like Thailand saved my life.
Being able to learn from these time monks. I I
how to love myself up and you know, gratitude lists
and breath work and meditation got me back with my
now wife Rosie. From place saved my life. So I
(35:45):
appreciate you brother.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Well, I want to say too, like honestly, like I
know you won't believe this because you think I'm just
giving this back to you right now, but like I
actually thought about you because we talked a lot, you
know about that your book and then the box and
all this stuff and and the people you affected, you
know when you get conversation about it. But you know,
we talked about and when I was going through my
rock bottom times as well, like like you thinking about
(36:06):
what you you know, seeing how happy you are and
how how professional you are and how how good you
do your job. And then especially the people that we
talked about and how they do their jobs and what
they do and the things they went through. It really
did actually believe it or not give me some inspiration
help me keep going, because.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
I'm like, I'm not the only one, you know, like
you know, I.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Might be in a different circumstance, a different situation, but
like you know, don't give up mentally, like you know, don't,
don't you You're too fucking strong to Like can I
say that you're too strong?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Thing you're talking to? Of course?
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Okay, you look in the mirror and see the stuff,
and you've been through all this to let yourself you know,
you know, this talk we had entirely I meant a
lot more than you think.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Man, it really did.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
And so I returned the gesture to you because you
definitely got me to that next level as well, and
it could have had a huge effect on me.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Finding this cancer.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I appreciate that. That is the coolest thing I could hear. Man.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
You took the step. Man, you know, you took the step.
You wrote the book.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
You you were an advocate and came out and like
you did a lot of things that a lot of
us haven't done. And the impact that has is huge,
you know, like you know, And so it's like I think,
I don't think you realize and that's why I told you,
but I don't think you realize how much of an
impact that that that is to to especially with our
talks and everything that you were very inspiring for me
and helped me out a lot.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
To hear that from a brother, man, that's everything, and
that's where people were afraid to open up about this.
Like by opening up and talking, it turns friendships into brotherhoods.
Mike Slick literally the ultimate fighter. I appreciate you joining us, brother.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Thank you so much. I've been waiting to be on
your ship for so long.
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
build you from the inside out.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now here's Jay Glacier. Welcome into Unbreakable Mental Wealth Podcast
with Jay Glazier. I'm Jay Glazer and man, I'm so
excited to have my next guest on. This is a
brother mine, somebody who continues to inspire me every day.
And if you're a fan of the UFC, you know
who he is. He was on the very first season
of The Ultimate Fighter. His name is Mike Swick. Mike
(00:32):
Quick Swick, Ato, brother.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
How you doing. That's so good to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Last time I saw you, you were beating up my trainers
here in Thailand.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So not only has Mike had a very prolific UFC
career mix Marshal Art's career, but he also opened the
most prolific training center in the world aka Thailand. Folks.
I got to first of all, I got to go
out there and train when I went on my Mind, Body,
Spirit journey a few years ago, and Mike, I don't
know if you know this, one of the reasons I
picked Thailand to go to for thirty five days in
(01:03):
this journey was because of you.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Oh wow. Ye.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I was in a. I was in a dark, really
bad place, and I wanted to go somewhere were so
different than what I was doing here in America. And
I was looking at Bali, and I was looking a
couple of other places in Thailand, and because you were there,
I was in such a weird paranoid Stay. If anything
goes down, at least I have a friend here.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Man. That means a lot to me. It really does.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
It's pretty cool, man. And it's funny too, because of
that time, I only told three other people I was
going out there. I told the Rock because that fucker
has a plane that could reach us, and then Brandy
Gatour and Jay Huran because those crazy bastards, those expendables
will get on that plane to go save my ass.
So Mike, you know, Mike is obviously is a fighter,
(01:47):
but he's a fighter in a much different way as well.
And you know, when I was out in Thailand the
first time, he told me what he did to overcome
what he got hit with. And it's you know, happens since.
But I want Mike to explain this, and look, I
usually the show by asking our guest, give me your
unbreakable moment, moment that should have broken. You could have
and didn't, and as a result, you came from the
other side of this tone was stronger forever. But Mike's
(02:09):
last several years have been unbreakable moment after unbreakable moment
after unbreakable moment, and Mike, I'm gonna let you lead
into us. Mike is a cancer survivor now several times over.
Like I said, he's a fighter, and he took a
different fight to cancer.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I mean I have a lot of unbreakable moments in
my life, but uh, I think the most would be
definitely when the doctor diagnosed me with cancer and I
heard that stage four come out of his mouth. That's
that when the hair stand up on the back of
your neck a little bit and you're just kind of.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Like, wow, that's a lot for one day.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
What kind of cancer was it?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I had lymphoma, lymphoblastic lymphoma.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, and it was the most aggressive kind, the same
one that got Rumble Johnson. And uh, you know the
thing is is it's like my brain works in such
crazy ways. It's like I don't I never see an end.
I never see a no, I never see a you
can't do. I never see you're gonna die. I never
see I can't. I can't. I can never see that end,
you know, because I'm programmed to find an answer to everything.
(03:07):
So it's like it was like shock, and I was
scared and like, you know, I didn't want to have
cancer and all that, and it was gonna be a
big pain in the ass to deal with. But like
you know, they they they ended up saying I have
probably based on like the chemo and how much of
cancer it kills, about a year. So if you know,
everything is about what they expect and there's options and
all this kind of stuff. So basically I had like
(03:28):
a year I could guarantee I could live and all that.
But like for me, it's like I had a fight,
you know, and then you know, so if you give
me a fight, you know, it's not like I died
instantly from a car accident or something like that.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So I assumed I was pretty lucky right from the start.
You know. It's like I have a fight here and
my opponent's in my body. You know.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It's like it's not like I can make my my
In the UFC, I was fighting guys at their best,
you know, they were they were like, you know, completely
nourished and like trained, and like I can actually affect
my opponent in my body. So I was thinking, like,
you know, what can I do to make cancer weak?
And I was looking at the holistic, you know, evidence
of people who were research and evidence of like what
they were doing and how they were how they were
(04:07):
fighting cancer, and then the medical side with the chemo
and and just doing medical and people that did the
mix of both, and I just kind of formulated my
own planks. I don't listen to anyone and follow everyone's
different and like, I want to be the owner of
my life and the boss of my life, and so
if something happens, I wanted to be my fault. If
I die, I want to be my fault. If I
(04:28):
make a mistake, I want my fault. I don't want
to die because somebody else made a mistake, or or
somebody else was trying to make money, or somebody else
was trying to do whatever. So I had to like
put all this information I was gathering together, and I
just I remember I asked, I said before, but I
remember I.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Asked the doctor.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I was just like, so I know I know cancer.
I know enough about cancer to know that cancer is
like a broken cell. It's not a healthy cell. It's broken, right,
So it's not as strong as your good cells, which
is why when you do chemo, it kills those cells,
but it doesn't kill your good cells. So I'm like,
I'm fight then a weaker opponent already, and I'm like,
so in my fate and my life depends on how
(05:05):
much of this cancer I can kill with the chemo.
So like in my head, I'm like, the weaker I
can make this cancer, the more it's gonna die, the
more I'm gonna live. Right, So I was like, have
you ever you know if At first, I said, if
if I was to start myself to death and die, like,
what would would technically would the cancer die before me?
(05:26):
Or would I, you know what, I die at the
same time as the cancer or would it matter? And
He's like, well, technically, you know, theoretically the cancer cells
would die before you would die. So then from that
point on, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's where your mind went through read.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well, from that point on, it was like there was
no doubt in my mind I was going to beat
it because it was just like I will literally starve
myself to that point if I have to to get
my life back.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You know, we're talking about your life. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's not like a gamble with like some money or
like a job. It's like to live in, you know,
on this earth. So I told the doctor, said, well,
I'll just starve myself and then week in the cancer
and then when the chemo comes, we'll just blast it out.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You know. Of course, this is how I talk, you know,
and the doctors.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
You're doctor's like, who the fuck is this guy?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Absolutely not. He's like, you've never done chemo before, and
he says.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You don't even know what the hell you're getting yourself into.
And he's like, you know me before, Doc, you don't
know who you who?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Can't for getting the.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Coming and try to fast a couple of days and
you know, do all this kind of stuff, and like
you're gonna fast and not not you know, feed yourself
for a few days, and like, you know, coming to chemo,
it's gonna have a strong effect on you because you
don't have.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
No healthy body. You know, your body's gonna be not.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Healthy and you're gonna be weak, and you might not
even survive a month more or less a year. So
I don't advise like a twenty four to forty eight
or seventy two hour fast at all.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And I'm like, no, no, I'm talking about like a
two week fast, Like I'm I'm gonna damage it.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I mean, I know you can go like a month
without food, So I'm thinking about going like, you know,
like really damaging it, like not starving myself like I said,
like to death, but like almost, but like you know,
making making some progress and and and and making sure
because if I eat these certain foods that they always say,
like cancer doesn't eat this food, and this is alkaline,
and you know you can have natural sugars and not
(07:10):
regular sugars and and and you know alkaline diet. But
at the end of the day, cancer does eat a
little bit of everything. So in order for me to
really hurt cancer, I really had to not eat nothing.
Like that's the only way I could really one hundred
percent guarantee cancer is going to be getting, you know, weaker.
And so he said, you know, not to do it,
and made me promise I wouldn't. And I was like
(07:30):
ninety eight kilograms and it was like a one hundred ninety
five pounds something like that. And I said Okay, cool,
let me just go home, he said, I need to
start right away, but chemo was covered in my neck.
You know, you can see that tweet that I made
at the time, and I said, let me see, I
have a couple of weeks and talk to my family,
get things organized, everything straight, and I'll be back.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And then I just went home and.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Just didn't eat for two straight weeks, and and like,
I was like, just that alone, to be honest with you,
was like hard, I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, of course I.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Never asked it for even a day before.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I've never in fasted half a day, and like and
not eating for for for.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Two weeks, I lost twenty five kilograms.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Over twenty five kilograms, I lost, uh fifty by the time,
well because I got sick in the hospital because the
chembo poison my stomach, and then because we'll get into that.
But either way, my lowest weight was one hundred and
forty five pounds of six foot one, so I didn't
weigh that much except when I was like maybe fifteen
years old or something like that, and I was I
was forty five or no, no, no, sorry, I was.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Like three years ago. So I was like forty two UC.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Of seventy right, so you would cut from whatever. So yeah,
you were right.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
That's why I see these guys now that missweigh by
a pound and give up their purse and I'm just like, what, dude,
I lost like sixty pounds.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Almm, come on bro, So yeah, I showed back up
before you.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Get before you enter this. I mean, I can't imagine
not eating for two weeks. I when you see me
right now, I can't imagine not eating for two hours.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
But the picture on my Instagram if you want to
see what a bubblehead looks like, because it before and
after on my Asteragram, you can see how big my
head really is.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
How hard was that fight of the inner fight of
man you starve and just just have one meal as
opposed to no, we're not doing anything. We're beating this
for two weeks.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Oh, there was no doubt. I'll tell you where the
mental part came in.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
But it wasn't because of that when it comes down
to find for my life, like I didn't care, like
there was no there was dealing with the pain because
you get to a point where you just can't sleep
and you're just like your organs feel like there. I
don't know for sure what was happening, because you know,
when you don't eat, all kinds of things happen. But
I felt like my organs were kind of like sort
of shutting down a little bit or something pains all
(09:39):
in my not even externally, but like internally pains, and
like I was getting a little scared, you know, but
it already jumped out of the plane, you know, as
we say, we skydiving, and you have a parishue like
once you're out, it's like there's nothing you can do.
You might as well enjoy the ride and hope your
shoot open. So to me, it was like, you know,
I was in control. I felt good about that, you know,
I'm doing what I wanted to do, what I made
my mind to do, and what my brain told with
(10:00):
me was the best option. But then it was getting
to a point where it's like, man, I may this
may be it, you know, because I am pretty weak,
and I may I may have like build up more
than I can chew doing this. I knew I was
gonna kill the cancer. I just didn't know if I
was gonna make it too. And so I showed up
for the doctor and for my appointment two weeks later,
and I was like sixty eight kilograms from ninety eight,
(10:24):
and then the doctors just paniced. They thought the cancer
was killing me because it had aggressive cancer, so they
were freaking out and they were like trying to rush
me into the thing. I'm like, no, no, I start myself,
you know I did. This is not the cancer, this
is me. And I thought that was pretty crazy. And
I got in there and I still didn't eat until
after the first day of chemo. So I wanted the
chemo to be the first thing in my body instead
(10:46):
of food, so that the cancer would just be like
so hungry.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
It's like, ah, something's in my body, but it's like poison.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
And unfortunately that works against me because my body, my
stomach was completely empty and like I had nothing in there.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
So the chemo's acidic.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I started eating the lining of my stomach and so
I got really sick, and it started like it caused
like all kinds of like problems to my organs and
my my stomach. And so the first week of chemo,
I got you know, I was losing more. I lost
another like five six seven eight pounds something like that,
because I was just like, yeah, it was brutal, but
I started myself. For the first day of chemo, I
did vegetarian. The second day, which was your off date,
(11:23):
and then this is one day I'm on one day off,
and then for the next chemo day, I starved, vegetarian, star, vegetarian, star,
vegetarian star.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
For the first week.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
By day eight, I had no symptoms of cancer all
my all my lips were not swollen. And now now
the doctors are like bringing other doctors into the room
to like my neck and like look at my blood results,
and they can't believe the results, you know, like then
how much cancer I killed? And then as it turned out,
I started eating normal after the first week and the
next three weeks. You know, it was still tough getting
(11:53):
myself back because I've never done I've never been a
vegetarian either, you know, and so I was like, that
wasn't fun.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I don't like vegetable.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And so then after that, apparently after the first month,
I killed ninety five percent of the cancer.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So it worked and I survived something. That's good, right, Yeah,
that's good.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, So tell me the during that again, because if
you have no food, you also have no food to
your brain.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I wasn't thinking, like with the most clarity.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, after you, how were you whose name? Was it
getting bad? When you, you know, have an argument for yourself.
How are the crazy roomans in your head and dealing
with that?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah? That was pretty crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
It affects you where you don't need for two weeks,
and then it affects you with the chemotes too. So
when you're not eating for two weeks and then you
go through chemo and you're still kind of starving yourself
off and on, I would say I would highly not
recommend that for anyone. But at the same time, it's
like it did save my life, you know. So it's like,
you know, it's it is what it is, you know,
Like I cannot a doctor. I'm i gonna ever tell
people what to do. But it's like I will say that,
(12:55):
you know, from what the doctors. I guess the best
thing I can look at, factual and the legit is
how the doctors acted because they were in shock. So
I surprised the doctors and their reaction told me I
did the right thing. And so I can't say everyone
can do that, and maybe they can do less, maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
They can do whatever. I'm not sixty seven. They're you know,
seventy eighty.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Like some of these patients and they can't handle that
kind of you know, situation. But I would say and
also in my opinion, I think I learned that I
think there's a lot of people dining in cancer because
of they're not doing kind of what I did. They're
not preparing for chemo and preparing for a battle and
actually you know, fighting hard. You know that I'm fighting
hard enough, and the doctors aren't helping them because the
(13:41):
doctors don't tell you none of this stuff. The doctors
are feeding sugar and like you know, they want you
to you know, these guys were.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Just charitable, trying to help you.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
They'd be helping people and like helping children, you know,
starving families and like in Africa, like doing water wells.
These guys are they're making money. They went to school
to make money. You know, they're they're looking at you
as a number. So their job is to scare you
and then tell you what to do, and then you
do it. Because it costs a ton of money, Like
the chemo was like for my insurance, I think a
(14:10):
lot of stuff was covered, but the chemo, it'll only
cover like ten percent.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah, really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
It's it's a sad situation to know. It's like I
don't even think it anymore. I know for a fact,
because as you said, I kept getting it back. But
it was like they would let me do chemo until
it would show up on the test that's clear. But
I would have micro sales in my body. So if
I did one more chemo session, I would have been okay.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
But they didn't let me do it. They said, you're clear,
we'll check in three months. And of course it came back.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So they knew I was a young, strong guy that
can handle it, and they wanted to keep me in
this chemo cycle. This this pendulum, you know, this is
you know, osculating back and forth, you know, thing as
long as they possibly could get money out of me.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
So it sucks when you figure that out.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And and and then you know the fight from there,
I had to like start tricking the doctors and seeming
worse than I was. They would keep the chemo stronger
because they mixed the chemo right, so they make it
weaker throughout as you as you need it less to
keep it from like doing the damage that they should
be doing. And it's pretty it's pretty sad. But yeah,
I told him I was way worse than I was.
(15:15):
I was like, yeah, I tried to make it yeah,
because at first I was like, yeah, I'm strong, I'm good,
because I wanted to convince them that I'm like, you know,
beating it and I'm doing good and like and then
I'm like, well, this isn't going to work like psychologically
with these guys. They want this kind of like you know,
added so they want to see that I'm strong and
they can do like ten more chemos on me and
stuff you have. I think I've done like almost six
(15:35):
hundred hours so far of chemo. Six hundred hours of chemo.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, for sure. It was just under I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
So then I figured out I've started playing like a
little bit worse off and and and then they made
the chemo a little bit stronger, and then I think
they accidentally beat it so here here the last time
I went, they were telling me I had to do
like three more times in stem cell therapy to ensure
and I played it off so well on that last chemo,
(16:03):
like I've had no, no, nothing, come back since then,
So I feel very confident since since my my cancer
is very aggressive, it would have definitely had signs by now.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So I feel pretty confident. I'm in a good state
right now.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Plus I'm like over one hundred kilograms and like working
out and like feeling gray.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So that so that.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Was a several years ago, but it has come back since.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
You because yeah, this recently it came back, and so
I had to. I'm just coming off another chema like
a few months ago, and where are we now, the
first time that has stayed away one hundred percent? Like
where I feel the most confident that I really beat
it and I'm good. Worst case, I always have stim
cell to kill it for sure, but that's like a
big obligation, you know, hospital for six weeks, and like
(16:43):
you know, I'm working hard at aka time. I'm building
all this stuff and I'm doing so much stuff. It's
like being gone for that long as like a last resort,
especially since it's so it's such a slow growing thing
and it's not a high priority. Where I'm at right now,
my blood works perfect, my health is perfect. I know
everything about my body now because of all these tests
they ran so it's like I'm actually really healthy for
(17:04):
my age compared to most people, especially someone that's never
been tested for anything.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
So I feel very confident.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
How do you keep so you get a scan again
and man, the test show cancers back. How do you
Because I know beating a lot of beating, this is
is staying positive ya right, So how do you how
that intermountabile you stay positive when it's such a gut
punch that it comes back.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, you know, like I just found positive things in
my life. So it's like ak Tiland's been a big help.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
You know. I built that from scratch, from like a jungle,
so it's like a lego. It's like, uh, We're gonna.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Talk about that a little bit because I want people
know about this pledge. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So it's like to start from a jungle and then
to be able to walk through two acres of this
place just completely build and and it all came from
my head, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I drew everything and built everything.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
So it's like I could just walk through that place
and I do it every day, and it's just like
that is like a real posit thing. And like as
of right now, like you know, since uh, you know,
since having the cancer. It's been such a success. It's
like I knew either way, you know, I had, I
had my my legacy to live on, to my family,
to my kids too. They can see what I did,
(18:15):
you know, and like, you know, it's helped a lot
of people. It's created a lot of success for people.
People love it. They come from all over the world,
and so it's like, it's great to be able to
have done something where I can open up my creativity
and visual vision and uh and be able to build
and create something that's also you know, successful for other
people as well successful for myself.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Give me something else about that flank dem you haven't
told me and we may not know about that was like,
oh man, this was whatn't expecting this.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Do you mean like a physical or do you mean
like that just about oh oh oh, the well the
mental side you think you're talking about. Oddly enough, the
mental side was when I was doing the best because
at the end to what happened was you do you
stay in the hospital for the first month and you
do chemo every of the day, and if I get
sick because my my my white blood cells is so low.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Where where where's the hospital? Which country?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Bang Cock because they have really good they have really
good dogs.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
That yeah, and uh and and so three weeks in
my my girlfriend at the time you met her, My
girlfriend at the time had left to come back, you know,
to go get some things from the house and come back.
And so three weeks. And it takes three weeks for
your hair to start falling out. And then now you're
feeling like some real like like your body is like
so skinny, and the key most taking effect. So you're
(19:31):
feeling the worst. Your body's feeling the worst. Your hair's
falling out, like you know, this is like the worst
like feeling and look of you, of yourself and my my,
my girl came back and she was in the room,
and we were in the room for like a while,
and she just kept complaining about being sick. So I
called the nurses in and they checked on her and
she had COVID, so she brought COVID into the hospital
to my room. I would have died if I got COVID,
(19:53):
so luckily they tested her and got her out of
the room immediately, and I didn't get COVID. So I
spent my last week and in the hospital in Bangkok
by myself so I don't want anybody else seeing me
in the state or whatever, you know, except her. And
so when I would get up in the mornings, just
like I was already beating it. You know, doctors had
already been so surprised I had no symptoms of cancer.
You know, I was doing fantastics, and my progress was great.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
The hair the hair was falling.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Out because of the chemo, the way it was gone
because of me, you know, and my body was aching
because of the chemo.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Nothing was really from the cancer.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
But every morning when I when I walked into the
bathroom and turned the light on and I saw myself,
it was like I was looking at a skeleton like death,
you know, like it was like even though you know
you're okay, in fact, you should be happy because like
you know, it's looking like you're going to beat this thing.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
It was so tough to just from that point on
to continue because you've been there for three weeks already,
and now I had to go out of the bathroom
for seeing myself and then just you know, live with
that feeling in my mind, and I'm stuck in this room,
just going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
Like a like a cell, you know, like a prison cell.
It's kind of like I have a private room, but
it's like it's only so big, and all you can
really do is think, you know, there's not much else
(21:00):
to do.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And yeah, that was the that was the part that
was like it was like really it was putting me
at like rock bottom, I think, like mentally.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
But by the time I went home, I was like,
I don't think I could have taken too many more
days of that, to be honest, it was tough. I
was hurt really bad, and like, yeah I was, I
wasn't doing so good.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Do you think that because you have a background fighting
it allowed you to fight more?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I think because I like, I have this part of
myself that's kind of can turn on that savage side,
and that made me the fighter who I am. So
it's not the fighting itself, it's just kind of like
that side of me. I lost my father when I
was young, and then due to all these different circumstances
that happened I as a kid, I got this like
real savage side of me that like, you know, I
don't see nose and I don't see you know, when
(21:47):
I put myself on the line, and I'm trying to
negotiate or do things, or gamble or achieve something. I
put my life on the line every single time. I'm
not afraid to gamble everything all the time, every time,
and people can't match that wage.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
So I went all the time. And that's how I
built that k Thailand.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
If you think I came to Thailand and built what
Thailand voted as the number one movie ties school in
time for the last four years, being a Texas boy
with no movie timee fights, you can imagine how many
battles I had.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Coming up.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
You imagine how many people didn't want me to have
the best movie high school in Thailand and get this
kind of like exposure that I'm getting. So I've had
a lot of battles, but nobody has been able to
match that that kind of wager that I'm willing to
do each and every time I step up to the plate.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
And so I think that's what helped me.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
So now since I've been at ak Thailand, you've built
it up more described Herry real quick one. You describe
exactly how big it is, how just it's such a
profound place. It's incredible. But then I want you to
kind of take it through some of the business lessons
you've learned along the way, then you could have now
taught Mike Swick that was first starting this journey.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well, I was building business when I was a kid,
so I mean I started out like with a landscaping
and then like a pressure watching business in high school.
I've always worked for myself, so like I was always
doing business, and then I've built a seven figure business
when I was in the UFC. Before I got in
the UFC, and then during my UFC career, I was
running a print shop and I turned into one of
the largest print shops in northern California.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
So really I was failing.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I always say I was failing through my way, you know,
through my career because like you fail to learn, right,
So I was getting all my failures out of the
way early so that I could win when it mattered,
which is now at the end of my life when
I'm like, you know, I need to enjoy and sit
back and coast and not have anyone tell me what
to do, not have any boss, not anybody anything, and
then have a free you know, freedom and a free
(23:39):
schedule to be able to go.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Do what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
When I want to do it and not have to
ask permission or be told, you know, what to do.
So I was building business back then, and then all
through the UFC it was like it was just I
knew that was a stepping stone for me to help
me get into circles I needed, because I've been coming
to time for over twenty years, and I knew if
I wanted to do anything entirely and I have to
be inside with some very serious circles here to have
(24:01):
the connections to be able to survive. And I knew
that if I was a fighter, that's one way. If
you're an Alpha mel you know, if you're a fighter,
if you're a military guy, I know you support the
military troops too. You know, you can get into circles
real easy and that in that regard if people know
you from fighting and stuff like that. And I knew
that from doing overseas military support tours during my UFC career,
I did the most of anyone I think in the world.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
I did like over twenty.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Overseas tours, including two tours in Iraq, two tours in Afghanistan, Djibouti,
Africa got kicked out of Actually I'm banned from Jibouti.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Big deal.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But wait, hold on, hold on, why are you band
from Jibouti.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Because I filmed too much.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It was before we got Osama and like they were
like they attacked our van and they were like they
were how Osama bin Latin Shirs and all this crazy stuff,
and like some French foreign legions came to like rescue us,
and then all we had on the base in Jibouti
was like these these Puerto Ricans that were like representing
in the US.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
And so it was like the French.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Foreign legion and Puerto Rican American like soldiers and they
were coming and they rescued us, and I feel all
this stuff and like put on YouTube and like they
got the country got really pissed off.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah, and so and I was in.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Ramstein in Germany with the Wood of Warriors and I've
been to Walter Reed and Washington multiple times the Booted Wars.
I never support war, you know, but I supported the
troops because these guys are Yeah. I came from Texas
and I was a poor, poor Texas kid growing up,
and it's like all my friends were like looking for
adventure and looking.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
For this, like see the world, get a free education.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
You know, and they sign up and then now they're
doing convoys and like I can get their rights blown
off and stuff. So I'm like, they thought we were
cool because we were fighters. So it's like, man, if
I can go and inspire these guys and spend my
time with them. So between every UFC fight, they did
sometimes maybe two three tours of two weeks each, multiple camps.
These time, I did over twenty two, like over twenty
(25:46):
I think it was twenty two overseas military support tours.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
So yeah, it was uh so.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Go back to that way to go back though, we're
talking about when you describe ak A Thailand, describe it to everybody,
tell us how how many.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
It's so what I did, I don't do anything the
same as everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I don't do anything the same as everybody else because
I found, you know, if I want to do something
different and be different and do something incredible, it's never
like something that everybody else does. So I've always been
different my ideas. I was always the crazy guy with
the crazy ideas. So what I did was I basically
when I was built Akay Thailand, I wanted to come
to Thailand and build a fight gym. But it's like
everybody just naturally thinks if you build a fight gym,
(26:25):
you have to build a fight gym for fighters because
it's a fight gem. But a lot of people want
to they watch fighting, they're into fighting, they love fighting,
they're enthusiasts, and they want to come come to train
with fighters too.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
But who wants to really train with fighters if they're
not a fighter, right, So.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I wanted to open that door, and I wanted to
create the first fight gem not for fighters, and so
I built it specifically high high class, high level and
the largest in the world and resort style. But it's
basically the most exclusive sports combat resort, fight fight resort
in the world, and it was built for non fighters.
But we do have fighters, and we do have you know, basically,
(27:00):
we do havelf a fight team.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
And what I do now is I just took me
three years and to set this up because Fight Club,
the movie really inspired me for this.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I know how savage people can be that aren't fighters,
like Carpenter's businessmen entrepreneurs. So I set up the scene
called fight Club Experience. And what we do now is
we have a program where you can sign up and
come to my gym and like, no matter who you are,
as long as you haven't fought before, I guarantee you
that you come to our gym, you get trained that
you can do it in a month, two months, however
long you want. And then we put you on a
(27:29):
broadcast live across the world on my own broadcast Aktalan
dot tv and then my app in the app store,
Apple and Google, and so we broadcast the fight live.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
And you actually get a fight.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
In front of a pack ti stadium in a movie
time match as a real match. It gains a real person,
you know, similarly experiencing you. And so these guys get
to come to my gym. Now we've had so many
we just posted on Instagram the other day. And so
these guys are like working in these offices, you know,
cubicles and stuff, and like you know there maybe their
kids don't look up to them like savages and stuff
off and like they're coming to Thailand and they're fighting
(28:02):
and they're winning. If you look at our website, they're
winning every time. Like they're they're knocking people out and
like they're savage. You know, I've always said you're not
a fighter because you say you're a fighter, you know,
saying you're a fighter because you're either a fighter.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Or you're not, you know. And so it's like you
can't just call yourself a fighter and be a fighter,
you know, you have to have it in you.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And there's a lot of guys that do regular jobs
that are just as savage as fighters, and so I
love watching these guys come to Thailand.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
But we have carpenters. We had, like I said, we have.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Also I want to explain this, how many rings do
you have?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Well, in my wood Tide Jim is the largest in
the world, so we have the largest indoor of matic
uh climb control. How we have two oversized seven point
two meters rings and seven thousand square foot stadium sized
multi area surrounded by jungle that I've built.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
So basically there's.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
How many cakes, like the whole area to more than
it was like, no.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
No, there's not two rings, but we have all the
bags everywhere else.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
And then we have another MMA facility, We have a
way ages facility, we have a restaurant. The whole thing
is a school as well. Then we have the pool
side now that I built. So basically I built an
underwater pool underwater fight gym. So I built a ten
meter by twelve and a half meter by ten meter
pool saltwater.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
It's like two thousand and.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Six hundred square square feet and it was all hand
painted in three D by artists in Thailand. Took them
forty five days to paint it to look like an
underwater sunk in fight gym at the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
We even even.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Posters and like the wood, the doors and the like,
all this stuff like this, and then we filled up
with water. We trained in that and then we would
white sand around it as like a cafe, like we
got bamboo furniture.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
We got an alpha tower, which I just created.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
What I was saying, towers like a you know, Ninja warrior.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
The towers like an alpha tower.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
So it's basically when I got cancer, I wanted to
build a flagpole, and they allowed me to put the
flag only a certain hype, so I had to put
on top of a facility.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
And so I said, okay, what if I built a tower.
So I built the tower as high as I could.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
They would let me build the tower, and then I
put my flag as highs with let me put on
top of the tower because I wanted everybody that doubted
me and to try to stop me in Thailand to
see this flax. I wanted to be as high as
humanly possible. It's like twelve feet long and like so
when I was in the hospital with cancer, I designed
this one of a kind, like because I wanted the
most attention to go to this flagpole and see my flag.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
I designed this. It's a staircase. It's like a staircase that's.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Going up, you know, fifty four feet eighty eight stairs,
and it's it's for running, you know, for exercise.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
We have also pulled up bars that go along the side.
We've got ropes to go up the side so we
can do circuits on it. Plus it's also a viewing platform.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
It's ocean view so you can see all the islands
and the ocean and all that. And then we also
have it's a nice place to sheet to the basketball court.
We got a custom basketball court. We do trick shots
from the top into the basketball who.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
At one point you're gonna put like lodging there. Have
you done that yet?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I'm gonna do lodging because this is like my master
It's a two acre of property, and I wanted just
to be covered in just awesome facilities, facilities or one
of a kind that don't make sense. The pool is
one of a kind in every way, basketball courtse even
one of the kind.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
The ice pass one of a kind.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Everything that I've done, having my podcast studio there as well.
And that's it's two acres full like it's like a campus,
the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I mean, it takes a while to watch, as you know.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I want people to get this too, because so I
went out there. It's about ninety eight degrees and one
hundred percent humidity and it's brutal. So training and that
is that's training. That's different. Your lung's gonna get used
to it. Mike and I were gonna, you know, he's
gonna put me to his coaches. We'red to train a
little bit. And he and he realized you used to say, Jay,
do you want to do like what everybody else does,
which is it's just too human here, just we'll do
we'll look good for cameras. What fuck you, Mike? Am
(31:36):
I doing that? We're doing fucking three minute rounds. He's like,
it's hard, man, I ain't gonna lie it it's hard,
but it was no way I wouldn't fucking do it.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
It's it didn't know you were gonna be all NFL
to training like hell, you know, like you stocking me
out there like after it man, So I was like,
all right, cool, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, if you're gonna be out there, you gotta fucking
do it.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Since we since we built the gym to the higher
standard for everybody where the as he gets the celebrities
and there's a lot of celebrities that wanted to and
weskleafand posted a video from Aka time and he got
more views than like his last six months on most
of his reels because people want to see a different
side of some of these celebrities being like alpha and stuff.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
So we just had sense she'll see there.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
We had Riis Kalifa, the now Boys, you know, a
bunch of guys that were coming through there and uh
so dealing with those guys, you know, we yeah, I
usually Steve Aoki was just there for a couple of
weeks or I'm sorry, for a couple of days, and
he was doing the same thing. He had his first
moos High session with us and with all the celebrities.
I'm like, you know, you know, we can make you
look good and unless you trained a few you know,
(32:37):
a few rounds, a few minutes or something like that,
if you don't want to go hard because it is hot,
it is humid, and most of the time these celebrities
go hard and with I know you know firsthand because
you train.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Him as well seven years.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
This guy can fight, man, This guy.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Seriously can seriously not only training.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
I'm saying, this dude can fight like I want. I want.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I want to get him in like an actual stadium
fight like. This dude can seriously fight.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I've told people like I've traveled Randy get Her for
you know, fifteen years whatever, never hurt me in the body,
Chuck Oddell fifteen years, never hurt me in the body.
Whis Khalifa hurt me to the body. You gotta be
fucking kidding me. The way he turns his hips and
I don't know what it is about him. He's got
me twice now, I'm like, motherfucker, but he you know,
I think Wiz has guys like that. We've trained a
(33:21):
lot of these, you know, performers. They have no ego
in it because yeah, I think they're choreography. They were
able to put six, seven, eight steps together. We're not.
We're usually I Max had three or four and I'm
trying to you know, I'm trying to fucking go for
broken on a lot of it. They could see things
and put together all the pieces together way better than
we can. If you take your ego out of it.
(33:41):
It's like a golfer who's trying to hit the ball
way too hard. It doesn't but if you just let
your technique go, you're gonna swing through the ball. That's
what makes them different. But Whiz is different than all
of them.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
No, He's amazing and is a great guy.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And the thing is, that's why we went a lot
of the fights, like I told you about, from these
average people, because.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Like they're students of the game. And I felt same thing.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Like when I was fighting in the UFC, I was
a striker and when I had to start learning jiu jitsu,
I didn't want to be in the white belt class.
You know, I already had like multiple MMA fights and
all this and I'm sitting there with white belt on,
you know, trying to work my way up.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Tick.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I finally got, you know more more rank, but it
was like, it's the same thing with all fighters. They
don't they don't want to stand learning the basics and
and and go through the process, whereas everybody else, including celebrities,
like with especially, they're taking it in and soaking it
up and they're learning the basics and then when they
get in the ring, it works shockingly enough. Like could
be a great example, could be you've never seen Kabe
do like a complex move in his life, Like he's
(34:33):
never done a flying arm bar, He's never done like
some crazy move. He sticks to the basics and he's
an absolute master at it, you know, and you can't
stop them. And so yeah, it's that's that's the difference
of regular people, I think and the celebrities that come
through there, and they trained so hard, and it's so
good for me because it's like I spent half my
career with fighters, and like you know, hearing about how
(34:54):
they're going to be in the UFC or asking me
about my UFC career. It's great coming to work every
day and being able to be around people that are
like all different and from different jobs and different like
areas and network differently and all these different people and it's.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Really cool to like, you know, for a postfight like life.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I couldn't have a better life than being a beautiful island,
living a beautiful villa.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Go to my gym here, it's like this is great
for me.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Well, I'm gonna come out back out there and see
you here.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Definitely a few months ago, I guess you posted a
video again Savagery right there.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
I love the place. But like I said, man, I'm
proudy man, I appreciate you being my brother. Yeah, I
want to tell you that. I know I never told
you that you're the reason why I went out there,
and that place saved my life, like Thailand saved my life.
Being able to learn from these time monks. I I
how to love myself up and you know, gratitude lists
and breath work and meditation got me back with my
now wife Rosie. From place saved my life. So I
(35:45):
appreciate you brother.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Well, I want to say too, like honestly, like I
know you won't believe this because you think I'm just
giving this back to you right now, but like I
actually thought about you because we talked a lot, you
know about that your book and then the box and
all this stuff and and the people you affected, you
know when you get conversation about it. But you know,
we talked about and when I was going through my
rock bottom times as well, like like you thinking about
(36:06):
what you you know, seeing how happy you are and
how how professional you are and how how good you
do your job. And then especially the people that we
talked about and how they do their jobs and what
they do and the things they went through. It really
did actually believe it or not give me some inspiration
help me keep going, because.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
I'm like, I'm not the only one, you know, like
you know, I.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Might be in a different circumstance, a different situation, but
like you know, don't give up mentally, like you know, don't,
don't you You're too fucking strong to Like can I
say that you're too strong?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Thing you're talking to? Of course?
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Okay, you look in the mirror and see the stuff,
and you've been through all this to let yourself you know,
you know, this talk we had entirely I meant a
lot more than you think.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Man, it really did.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
And so I returned the gesture to you because you
definitely got me to that next level as well, and
it could have had a huge effect on me.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Finding this cancer.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I appreciate that. That is the coolest thing I could hear. Man.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
You took the step. Man, you know, you took the step.
You wrote the book.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
You you were an advocate and came out and like
you did a lot of things that a lot of
us haven't done. And the impact that has is huge,
you know, like you know, And so it's like I think,
I don't think you realize and that's why I told you,
but I don't think you realize how much of an
impact that that that is to to especially with our
talks and everything that you were very inspiring for me
and helped me out a lot.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
To hear that from a brother, man, that's everything, and
that's where people were afraid to open up about this.
Like by opening up and talking, it turns friendships into brotherhoods.
Mike Slick literally the ultimate fighter. I appreciate you joining us, brother.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Thank you so much. I've been waiting to be on
your ship for so long.
Host
Jay Glazer
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