#228- Stuart Warren Dansby- Talking the Fight | Overcoming Obstacles and Becoming a Champion

This week, I had a powerful conversation with Stuart Warren Dansby. He is a 56-year-old kickboxer who defied expectations and proved that age is no barrier to pursuing your dreams. Stuart’s journey is the subject of a documentary that chronicles his preparation for an actual fight, not just training and sparring, but stepping into the ring to compete with some of the best.

Here’s what we have talked about:

• His decision to start kickboxing at a later age and why he chose to take on the challenge of an actual fight.
• The mental and physical hurdles he faced, from his body’s natural limitations to the doubts and skepticism from others.
• How the documentary came to be and the nine-year journey it took to create.
• The powerful mindset that kept him going, even when faced with external pressures and self-doubt.
• Life lessons Stuart learned throughout this journey that go beyond kickboxing, touching on perseverance, strength, and the importance of silencing the negative voices around you.
• The unwavering support from his wife and the balance between pushing limits and taking care of yourself.

Stuart’s story is a true testament to the fact that it’s never too late to take on challenges, face fears, and redefine what's possible, no matter your age.

Make sure to listen to the whole podcast to hear how he overcame obstacles and proved what’s possible with the right mindset.

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Watch Documentary Here! Stuart Dansby – Taking the Fight Website

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We all have a fight. We all do, man.

(00:02):
And that's why you got to be kind to everybody you talk to,
because everybody's going through something.
And we all within that have things that hold us back from what our dreams really are.
And we all go through that moment of doubt where you say,
well, I can't open a business because I don't have financial resources.
I can't be a CEO because I'm not as smart as that girl.

(00:23):
I can't be a good parent because I had lousy parents.
So why would I ever have kids, man?
I my parents were horrible. We all have those things that just hold us back from what those dreams are.
Welcome to Not in a Huff with Jackson Huff, where we interview newsmakers,
storytellers and all around interesting people.
Sit back, relax, unless you're driving and enjoy the show.

(00:47):
Here's Jackson.
Hello, hello, hello. I am Jackson Huff. This is Not in a Huff.
Thanks so much for joining me. As always, really appreciate it.
This week, speak with Stuart Warren Dansby.
Now, Stuart is the subject of a documentary that I have the pleasure of watching.
And that documentary talks about his preparation for being a kickboxer at the age of 56.

(01:14):
You know, he had, you know, he had been in kickboxing for several years.
He still started at a much later age, but he decided that, hey, he wanted to take a fight.
He wanted to actually get in the ring and not just train, not just spar in his gym,
but actually take a fight. So he had a documentary built around him becoming a fighter,

(01:38):
becoming somebody who is able to compete with the best of them at, you know, at an older age.
And I think what you'll find from listening to Stuart here, listening to the documentary
and watching it, should you do that, is that it's about more than just the boxing.
It's about more than the kickboxing. It's about kind of just persevering over

(02:02):
things in your head, external forces telling you that you can't do things.
And he does a really good job of kind of quieting that noise.
And the noise is coming from everywhere. It's coming from his body that, you know,
is older than most other kickboxers. It's coming from people out there that are saying
that he can't do it, you know, in his late 50s. And it was even coming from his wife who was,

(02:24):
you know, not thinking that he couldn't do it. She was very much in his corner, but thinking that,
man, I don't want you to hurt yourself. You know, I want to make sure that you're
feeling good for years to come. So it's a really, really awesome conversation.
Stuart's a really great guy. He's going to talk about what made him decide to get into this world,

(02:44):
how the documentary happened. It took over nine years to create from start to finish.
He's going to talk kind of just about life lessons that he learned and things that you
can take away from that. But I think you're really, really going to enjoy this one.
Here is Stuart Warren Dansby. Dansby, how are you?
I am perfect, Jackson. How are you?

(03:05):
I'm good. I'm good. I really appreciate you being here. I want to kind of just
jump right in. Let you do kind of the heavy lifting. Just introduce yourself if you would.
Sure. I'm Stuart Warren Dansby. I have a documentary streaming nationally and
internationally on four major platforms called Taking the Fight. And Taking the Fight follows

(03:29):
my journey, taking my first fight at the age of 56 in a ring against a 26 year old. And it follows
me for six years on that journey, finally having an opportunity to fight for a championship at the
age of 62 against a guy half my age. And I do these things with a right knee that medically,
I'm not supposed to be able to walk on, no ACL, grade four arthritis, left knee with grade four

(03:53):
arthritis, surgically repaired ACL, degenerative disc in my neck, asthma, and a questionable
amount of brain cells left as well. But Taking the Fight isn't a fighting documentary, Jackson,
any more than Rocky is a boxing movie, right? Everybody's watched Rocky. Not everybody watches
boxing because it's about the story, right? And what Taking the Fight really is about is

(04:19):
we all have things that hold us back from what our dreams really are, right? And it's
how do you get out of your own head? And how do you deny what society tells you you shouldn't do,
friends tell you can't do? How do you get past that and put that, I call it that I want it more
than I want to breathe energy into this world. Because when you do and you do it consistently,
then you attract the people and the resources that you need to achieve your, I use the words dream

(04:45):
and goal, just interchangeably, right? You can call it whatever you want, but that thing that
you're trying to achieve that you think in the back of your mind, I can't even bring that to life
because people will laugh at me or I'm not capable. Yeah, you are. And that's really what the
documentary is about is how do you actually come and achieve that? Yeah, no, absolutely. I want to

(05:06):
unpack most of what you just mentioned, but I want to kind of start before we get to the documentary,
before we get you to 56 year old, we got to get you to maybe six years old because you, I believe,
kind of grew up in a military family. You were moving around a lot. I feel like just that the
people, I've talked to a lot of people and the people that grew up, you know, moving around a

(05:28):
lot, they just always seem built a little bit differently. I want to talk about your, I guess,
your childhood a little bit and talk a little bit about kind of how that shaped you. Yeah, that's
an interesting observation. Yeah, I grew up with a depression era parents, the greatest generation,
if you will. My father was a World War II veteran, 30 year military man and conservative folks.

(05:54):
And we, you know, I was born in Japan, we moved to Greece and you're right on that because I think
when you are uprooted every couple of years, first off as a kid, you don't know anything
different. So you're like, okay, we're going to move again. Where are we going this time? Right?
And, you know, your parents would always like, Hey, we're going here, you know, try and sell you
a little bit. So you got excited. And as a little kid, what any place you were going would be exciting.

(06:17):
But it builds in you a couple of things. I think it builds in you a resilience to adapt wherever you
are. Number one, right. And I think it also builds in you a cultural awareness. Listen, I live in Miami,
Florida. My friends refer to me as gringo, right? Because my friends are all of Hispanic descent,

(06:39):
or Caribbean descent here in Miami. I'm a minority here, but I love this city. I love the culture,
right. And I love that energy. But I think, had I not had the background that I did,
I wouldn't be adaptive because I've seen a lot of people move here from Midwestern cities like I did
in the mid 80s. I moved here from Denver, right. And they just are like, no, this is not me. This

(07:02):
is not cool. So I think that military background and having moved around really makes you adaptive,
both as a human, because you can be miserable, or you can adapt, right. And go, hey, there's
something cool here. So for me, that was always a remarkable upbringing that I'm grateful for.
And then I think the other part of the upbringing that gets asked a lot is, well, why do you like

(07:26):
fighting? And if I look back as a kid, I always got in a lot of fights. And back when I was a kid,
getting in a fight at school wasn't grounds for being expelled. We weren't so sensitive about
terrorism and violence. And I'm not saying we shouldn't be, okay. There's crazy things

(07:48):
going on in this world, but you got in a fight, you got in a fight. Maybe you got sent to the
principal's office, that was it. But if you got in a fight and it was on the football field,
or you're playing basketball or whatever, it was just a fight between kids. And I always,
that moment, I always kind of, when it happened, cherished. And I blame it all on my mom,
because my mom said to me when I was a little kid, and I was little, I had allergies and asthma,

(08:11):
so I wasn't a big kid at all. And she said, you're little, so you're going to get picked on.
If anybody hits you, make sure you hit them back. And that was, man, I don't know, that was kind of
like giving me a get out of jail free card, right? Because not that I would go pick a fight, but if
something popped up, it was like, all right, mom's going to be okay with this, let's go, right?

(08:36):
So that kind of also, I think, shaped me in a way that I, that adrenaline rush when you were
fighting, there were just kids fist fighting, man, it wasn't a big deal. But that adrenaline rush,
I think, fueled me and was always there. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I feel like I'm kind of holding you back from talking about, you know, the passions

(08:56):
behind the documentary, but one more question before we get into that. And that is just, again,
we've got you as a child, we're going to talk kind of what happened after 56. What, I mean, what, I
guess, what did you do in life in the documentary? Very briefly, it looks like you maybe were some
kind of management level in a nutrition type company. What was Stuart doing outside the ring?

(09:21):
Well, I still am. I still, someone, I had this discussion with somebody today and they said,
you know, when do you think you'll retire? And my response was, at what age should I stop growing?
At what age should I stop improving? And at what age should I stop contributing to others?
Because if you can tell me that age, then I'll retire, right?

(09:42):
So I am with a sports nutrition company. I work what's called partnerships. So like Nike will have
sponsored athletes, right? We have sponsored athletes across football, tennis, beach volleyball,
bodybuilding, everything else. So I do a lot with partnerships and also partnerships with
organizations that we sponsor. So I work for the largest health sports nutrition company in the

(10:06):
world. It's globally traded and has six brands under it. I've been in the business for a while,
16 years now. And I love it because I've always been into fitness and we make the most high quality
products that there are. And we have our own factories and the quality control is very high.
We make very safe products and we don't make a lot of crazy claims. So if you can believe in what

(10:27):
you do, both the people and the products, and you can be about passionate about that, then I've
always said you won't burn out, right? So I've always been in the business for a long time.
So I started with them, like I said, 16 years ago. And prior to that, I'd spent about the same
amount of time in the fitness industry, both running gyms, multiple gyms, owning and operating

(10:51):
my own personal training center. So fitness has been kind of the center of my life since
call it my mid twenties. And I still do it today and I'm blessed to manage a team of about 30 to
35 athletes and to actually probably be the oldest sponsored athlete on the planet too. One of the

(11:12):
brands sponsors me as an athlete. So that's another blessing as well. I love that for sure. And you
mentioned it in your intro, but I want to give you a little bit of an opportunity to speak more
about it. And you talked about it in the beginning of the documentary as well. And that is, yes,
the documentary is about your journey in boxing, but it's more about everyone's journey and

(11:37):
everyone's kind of struggled to overcome things. I want you to talk a little bit about that because
the large bulk of people listening aren't boxers. They're not anything remotely like that, but
everyone does have a struggle. Everyone has something that they're just trying to get past.
And I think that your story is powerful when it comes to that. So talk a little bit about that.

(11:58):
Thank you, man. We worked really hard to edit this so that it didn't come across as a kickboxing or
a fighting documentary per se. That if anybody watched this, if they're a soccer mom, if they're
a grandparent, if they're 22 and just getting out of college, wherever they are in life,

(12:21):
we all have a fight. We all do, man. That's why you got to be kind to everybody you talk to,
because everybody's going through something. And we all within that have things that hold us back
from what our dreams really are. And we all go through that moment of doubt where you say, well,

(12:42):
I can't open a business because I don't have financial resources. I can't be a CEO because
I'm not as smart as that girl. I can't be a good parent because I had lousy parents. So why would
I ever have kids, man? My parents were horrible. We all have those things that just hold us back
from what those dreams are. And a lot of us, like I said, I kind of refer to it, it hangs in the back

(13:03):
of your head where you got that thing and you might not want to even verbalize it to the closest
people because you're thinking that they're going to think that's stupid. Like why would they think
I could run a business, for example, right? And so within that, when we all view this, what we set
out to do with the documentary, I'll back up a step. When I first started doing this, people were

(13:27):
walking up to me and saying, you're inspiring me. And honestly, Jackson, I looked at him in disbelief
and I remember saying to a dude, dude, I'm trying to knock a mofo out and not get knocked out.
I don't know what the F you're talking about. Like that was my response, but it kept happening.
And after my first fight, guys were coming out of the stands that I didn't know, grown men,

(13:51):
grabbing me, holding me, telling me crazy things. And I had done a television show with my wife
about eight or nine years prior to that. The production company had always said, hey,
if you want to do another project, let us know. We'd love to work with you again.
And I went back to the owner of the company, this guy's name is Carlos, who became my partner in

(14:11):
this. And I said, I want to tell a story. There's a story here. God blessed me with a journey I
shouldn't have. I have two of the highest grade coaches you could have in the sport. One is a
three time world WBCA Muay Thai champion. The other one is in the Florida state MMA hall of fame.

(14:32):
These are opposing coaches. They only see each other on the opposite side of the ring of the
cage. They come together at one moment to fight, but they're not fighting. They're fighting.
They come together at one moment to corner me. How did I get that? How do I have this
legion of professional mixed martial artists that are my teammates that literally kicked my ass
with love and will scream at me and drop me and say, get back up and come at me, come at me,

(14:54):
keep fighting. And within that, I just had a moment where I said, I shouldn't have this journey. God
blessed me with this for a reason. I want to pay it forward. I want to show people that there is a
way to achieve it, but you got to give it that energy, man. You've got to give it that I want it
more than I want to breathe energy. And guess what? You got to get up tomorrow and do it with

(15:18):
more energy, right? Because you will start to attract those people and those resources. And if
they're the right people and you give them that energy, they're going to give you more back.
And now everybody has to be accountable. Now they gave me more than when I first started training
in my coach and I would pay for the session for the hour and we trained for 90 minutes and he'd

(15:38):
keep pushing me and pushing me. And I'm like, okay, this isn't normal, right? Now I got to come super
prepared. I can't come to the session and give him, he doesn't care how many conference calls I did.
He doesn't care how tired I am. He is there to give me everything he has. I have to absorb it.
I have to listen. I have to set my ego aside in order to achieve my dreams and give him more.

(16:00):
And then he realizes the same and the whole team rises, right? And I am not,
you've seen the documentary, I am not the, by any means, the best fighter at Freedom Fighters MMA
or KOZ, not even close, but what I can lead with is attitude and work ethic, right? Does that make

(16:21):
sense? For sure. For sure. Yeah. And I guess, you know, we've already talked a little bit about
the successes you've had, but I want to ask you just in the beginning, what made you decide to
go to that first session? What made you decide that kickboxing was something that you were interested
in? Yeah. How'd you get down that stumbling, violent road, right? I had always, like I think

(16:48):
a lot of guys do, like I always wondered, you know, can I box? Can I box? A lot of guys I think
wonder, you know, how would I do? How could I fare? I couldn't find anybody to teach me boxing. So a
friend of mine said, Hey, I got a buddy of mine that's a pro kickboxer. And I'm like, I don't like
kickbox. That's stupid, but I'll go. So I did one session with him and I remember at the end of the
session, he literally, he said, okay, I'm going to stand here and I'm going to give you 30 seconds

(17:13):
and I want you to hit me. And at this point I realized how good he was. And I'm like, I don't
want to do that. And he's like, no, no, no, I'm not going to hit you back. And I'm like, no, I don't.
He's like, no, I want you to just hit me. I'm not going to hit you back. And Jackson for 30 seconds,
I couldn't touch him. He stood right in front of me, blocked everything. And I'm standing there going
down here exhausted after probably 20 seconds. And it humbled me so much. It was the most difficult

(17:39):
thing I've ever done. And I consider myself an athlete. I played sports all through my teen years.
And at this moment I'm like, I am not an athlete. This guy could do anything he wants to me right
now and I can't do anything about it. And then I started training with my, another friend of mine
who was trained under my coach in Cuba. And again, it was just, I was horrible. I was like a

(18:05):
rock and sock and robot. I had no flexibility. I wasn't explosive. I was awful. And it just lit a
fire inside of me. Every time I would come to train, I would be horribly uncomfortable. And I
knew that there would be a mental overload and trying to understand technique. There'd be a
physical overload that I was being driven further than I ever had. And I just said to myself, man,

(18:30):
this thing can't beat me. It can't. I have to be good at it. So I would tell you that there was a
passion that was ignited in me from that first time, but it wasn't because I got on here and
people, you know, like you jump on a surfboard and you go, that guy's a prodigy. Look at it. No,
it was the opposite. If you saw me back then, you'd have gone, that guy's never going anywhere at

(18:52):
this sport, much less he's never going to take a fight. He's horrible, right? But like everything
in life, that's what makes it worthwhile, right? When you're living outside your comfort zone,
that's where your growth is. And I know that's a cliche, but it's the truth. There's no more true
cliche in this world. You know, comfort is beautiful. You got to enjoy it, but you got to

(19:12):
enjoy it for those moments because all your growth in this world comes outside of that comfort zone.
So that's really what got me into it. And I was training for a number of years and then
Jim that I train at, the gentleman that owns it said, hey, we're going to start training
belt testing and kickboxing. So I went through that for a few years and then he walked up to me,

(19:36):
guy's name is Diego. And he said, Hey, it's time to test for your black belt. And I was training
with my coach, Greg Chaplin, and I walked over to Greg and I was Jackson. I was probably searching
for a compliment. And I said to Greg, I said, man, Diego wants me to test for a black belt.
I don't think I'm ready yet. And Greg looks at me and like any good coach, right? They know how

(20:00):
to climb in your head. And he says, well, I have a different take on it. And I said, what? He goes,
I don't think it can be a black belt until you've taken a fight. And Jackson, he turns and he walks
away. And I remember standing there staring at the back of his head. And in my head, I'm saying,
you mother, you just called me out. You just called me out. And I knew he would never bring it up

(20:23):
again. It's not Greg style. He would never go, ah, I saw you. Just not who he is. He just said it.
And he walked away and he left me there. And at that moment, it went through my head. And I said,
okay, you fantasized about this in your head. You think you can beat me? You think you can beat me?
I said, okay, you fantasized about this in your head. You think you can do this? This is your

(20:47):
moment of truth. Greg will never bring it up again. You can let it go, or you can step into the fire.
But if you step into this fire, you better be ready for it. You better commit your soul to it. Right.
And so I waited about a week. I knew at that moment what I was going to do, but I had to kind of
internalize it. I had to come to grips with living that Spartan life, training six days a week,

(21:11):
training twice a day, literally getting beat up constantly. I'd sparred enough and trained enough
to know how miserable that was going to be. And I waited about a week and I walked up to him. I said,
okay, I want to do this. And then he does the takeaway. He goes, yeah, you probably don't.

(21:32):
I'm going to France for a couple of weeks. I'll be back in three weeks. We'll talk about it.
Then comes back from France. I've dropped like 30 pounds already, not 30, probably 20. And he looks
and he's saying, okay, you're serious. And I said, yeah. And this is the only argument because you
know, you can never win an argument with your coach. I have a better chance of winning an

(21:52):
argument with my wife. Flip a coin. But I won this one argument with my coach. He looked at me and he
said, okay, we'll do this. Here's what you got to do. You're going to be serious. Boom, boom, boom.
But he said, I'll get you a guy in their fifties. And I said, no, you won't. And it rolls his eyes.
And he's like, all right, look, let me, I get you a guy in your forties. And I'm like, nope.

(22:17):
He said, I'll get you a guy in your thirties. And I'm like, Greg, let me be clear. You will get me a
first or second time fighter like anybody else. And if he wins, it ain't because he's 22. And if
I win it ain't because I'm 55. I will win or lose because I'm the better fighter. And if you don't
get me that, I am not going to show up. And it was the only time Jackson, he said, okay, done.

(22:42):
Right. And that's how it started. I, I love that. And I guess I, I want to ask,
because I always try to find, I guess the, the pluses and negatives in anything. And it's easy
to, to kind of guess and surmise what the negatives could be when it comes to taking a fight with
somebody who is, is so much younger and obviously just has less wear on their body. You've already

(23:09):
talked about some of the, you know, some of the, the injuries that you've sustained. What are some
of the things that you think that you bring into, to that world? That's a positive because you're
somebody that's I guess a little bit more mature than they are.
That was, that was so eloquently worded on your part. And I, and I talk about this in the

(23:33):
documentary, so you got to forgive me because I know you watched it. Some of this is repetitive,
but all my life, I've always said to myself, you got three things, right? You're not the smartest
guy in the room. You're not the most resourced. You don't have the best head of hair. Like you got
three things. And these are the three things that I bring to the table every day, which is

(23:54):
you can't outwork me. I won't let you. If I see you working harder than me, I'm going to ramp it
up. If I see you staying after practice to do an extra round on the heavy bag, I'm going to do two.
You can't outwork me. You can't walk in daily with a stronger desire to learn. I am there every day
to grow as a human being. Right. So you can't outwork me. You can't have a stronger desire to

(24:20):
learn and you can't walk in every day with a more positive energized attitude to me. That's what I'm
going to bring to the table. And that's probably why my teammates give me so much appreciation and
respect. Again, it ain't because I've got the best spinning back kick in the house. It's because they
know I'm going to work that hard. I'm going to work as hard as them. I'm going to push them.

(24:42):
So if they say, Stuart, it's the sixth round, give me a round and I've got a fight coming up six
weeks from now. My job, no matter how tired I am, is to give them the best round I can, even if I
don't beat them. It's to give them the best round that I can and beat yesterday's version of Stuart
Dansby because that's going to make them better and make me better. So the three things again,

(25:04):
you can't outwork me. You can't have a more positive attitude to me and you can't have a
stronger desire to learn. And if you can bring those three things to the table every day,
your potential is unlimited. And I'm not talking about fighting right now. I'm talking about your
life. I'm talking about your career. Bring those three things every day. No one can stop you.

(25:26):
There might be somebody that brings the same three things. You'll both rise. But that to me is the
biggest thing. And the other thing, and I didn't probably realize this until later, until after I
won my championship. I'm delusional, man. I really am. I believed I could do this. My guys were

(25:48):
walking up to me, fighters going, do you understand what you're doing, dude? Taking a fight against
the guy that's young at this age. And I'm like, no, I don't. I'm just fighting a guy that's got a
first or second fight. No, I am delusional in that I have this, I have as many moments of doubt as
any human. We all do. We all have negative thoughts that run through our head. I have many moments of
doubt, but I still, I believe I can improve every day. I am still improving as a fighter, and I will

(26:16):
be 66 two weeks from now. And I believe that. Now, somebody might say, no, you're not, but I believe
I am. And I'm still working to get better. I'm still improving as a husband. I'm still trying to
improve in every aspect. But I'm a little bit delusional in that I believe I can accomplish
what I set out to as long as I apply those three things and as long as I do it with love.

(26:44):
I love that. And I want you now, every time I talk to anyone who, you know, kind of has a theme of
whether it's helping people achieve their goals or their dreams, or even people that talk about
being more successful and all that kind of stuff, I always like to kind of play devil's advocate a
little bit. And that is talk to the person who is, you're listening to this podcast, driving to work.

(27:08):
You know, they work at a factory 12 hours a day. They come home, they've got kids, and they don't
have a moment to even think about their own dreams because hey, they're all they're trying to do is
get by and make sure that the bills are not the bills are fed, the kids are fed and the bills are
paid. And they think, you know, this all sounds great, but I don't, you know, I don't, I don't have

(27:30):
that luxury. Talk, talk about that. Um, that's a really good question. And having spent my life in
fitness, I'll kind of take it back to that because I would often talk to people as a personal trainer
that say, listen, I don't have time to be in shape. I don't have time to work out, right.

(27:53):
It comes down to what's important in your life. So the first thing you have to do is identify what
you want. And once you identify what you want, how many people do I see every day? And we'll use
fitness as an example right now that are in great shape, that are working career moms that have two
and three kids that have careers that are executives, directors, vice presidents, and they're in

(28:18):
shape because they choose to make fitness important to them. And they understand that being fit and
being healthy is how they can take better care of their children and better care of their career.
Right. So it comes down to, you will always say, I don't have time for something when it's not
important to you. Right. I was talking to my son a couple of weeks back and he said, Hey, sorry,

(28:42):
man, I didn't text you back because I was busy. And I said, no, you didn't text me back because
the text wasn't important. If you needed to borrow money, you would have text me back.
And he laughed. He gave me the same face. It's like, all right, you're right. I'm busted. It
wasn't important. I could have made the time. You're right. And that's what we have to understand is

(29:04):
I'm not telling you it's easy. If success was easy at anything, everyone would be successful. And
success is your own definition. Right. So I'm not necessarily talking about being an athlete,
certainly not talking about being a fighter, but of anything, what you have to do is say, okay,
what's important to you in your life? If you're doing that. And man, I work with those guys that

(29:28):
work in factories. I have so much respect for them when I go in their factories, because those people
are just grinding every day. So you go to that, you have kids and you have a limited X amount of
money coming in. You got to pay the bills. Like you said, you got to feed the kids. Okay. What do
you want to achieve in this life? And that's the first thing you've got to identify. You got to be,
you got to spend some time with honestly understanding what that is. And if it's getting

(29:52):
in shape so you can play, be there as a grandparent, so you can be healthy, so you can,
you can throw the football with your kids, then you simply carve out three hours a week and you can
do it. Anybody can. If it is, man, I want to get out of this job. I had two years of college. I want
to finish my degree. Then you save enough money. You get an online course. You do it at night. It

(30:18):
isn't going to be easy. It's not supposed to be easy. Right? It's not, man. That's what makes it
worthwhile. So it's about how bad do you want it? And then you carve out the time. And for most of
us, we can find that. And you're going to find single parents that are working two jobs that
don't have that now. But then you work to get yourself to where you can. Or maybe it's only,

(30:45):
man, I got three or four hours I can carve out on a Sunday to achieve my dreams. But you have to take
that first baby step and it's got to be a solid commitment that no matter what happens, I'm going
to achieve my dream. It really comes down to, we live in a society today that glorifies instant
gratification and a society that seeks instant gratification more than ever in the history of

(31:10):
the world. And that's what, listen, I'm on social media. I've drive messages on social media every
day, but that's what social media has done. And it's created this thing where I can be insta famous
and all I have to do is go viral. Right? And so we're looking for that shortcut and human nature
is always, we're looking for that shortcut. Right? It's more prevalent now, but you sit down and you

(31:33):
have a conversation with anybody you know that's successful at anything. You talk to the most,
the most wise professor at your college, right? That the person that's most revered, you talk to
a high level athlete, you talk to a CEO or a vice president or somebody that's raised

(31:57):
four or five of three great kids. Right? And you just look at, you know, I talked to my sister,
it comes to mind because she lives in the mountains of Colorado and she has raised an amazing
four children that are remarkable. But you talk to anybody that's achieved any level of success
and sit down and listen to them and say, tell me about your struggle. Tell me about your journey.

(32:22):
You're going to be shocked at the amount of adversity, of the amount of problems, of the
amount of obstacles that came to them. And if, if they told you it from a certain perspective,
you would just be like, wow, you should have quit. You should have walked away. You could,
how did you get past that? If they just told you all everything that came at them. But if you listen,

(32:43):
you'll hear how they turn those things into challenges. And that's what I always say is the
difference between stress and challenges. One word. So they switched the perspective and they said,
okay, these are challenges. So how do I overcome them? But you'll find nobody that's got a level
of success that's consistently stayed successful that hasn't gone through that and stayed with that.

(33:05):
Does that make sense?
For sure. And I, I like the, the, the part on, on time and, and prioritizing time. I think it's been
probably six months since I mentioned this, so I can, I can mention it again here. And that is,
you talked to me before we started about what I teach. I have taught some, some success skills

(33:26):
classes before, and we talk about prioritizing time. And the example I always like to give there,
and this is the one that I've shared on the podcast before is, you know, if I said next week,
give me, I need you to carve out six hours for me. Almost everyone in the world is going to be like,
I don't have six hours to carve out. I'm busy. I'm, I go to school. I do all this other stuff. I don't

(33:47):
have six hours to give you, but on Tuesday, if the water heater were to break and it's overflowing
everywhere into the basement, somehow that six hours opens up. So it's just a matter of how you
prioritize that time. So I like that a lot. And your, your example is, I guess, a little bit more
personal, a little more gut wrenching to your, to your son, right?
Yeah. But you're, you're right. We make time for what's important. And, and, but if you said to

(34:11):
those same people, okay, you're going to give me six hours this week, I'll give you a thousand
dollars. Okay. Yeah. I got six hours. So the question is, do you have six hours? It's what is
it worth to you? Right. And that's kind of what I, what I said to my son, like, and fortunately,

(34:32):
he's not on the stage anymore where he calls me up and says, Hey man, I need you to carve out six
hours. I need money. Which is, that's why I could joke with him about it. But that's the example.
You know, I used to use this when I was in the fitness business and I used to say to people,
especially people who didn't, I don't have time to work out. I can't work out. I don't want to
work out. And I said, okay, I'm going to give you a magic pill. If you take this magic pill,

(34:58):
you're going to have more energy. You're going to look better. You're going to live longer.
Mentally, you'll be sharper. Your stress will go down. You're going to avoid colds and flus more.
And when you do get them, you're going to be easier to get through them. Every single aspect,
including your mental outlook of your life will improve. If I give you this pill, would you want

(35:19):
it? There's no side effects. The answer is always yes. No side effects. Yes. Okay. You can't afford
it, but you got to work three hours of overtime at your job every week. If you work those three
hours of overtime at your job every week, you can afford the pill. Would you work it? Yeah, of course.
Okay. It's in the gym. Get your happy ass in the gym for three hours a week. Get yourself in shape.

(35:45):
You'll have more energy. You'll look better. You'll feel better. You'll live longer. All the proven
science is there. And that was the analogy I gave people where all of a sudden the eyes would open
and go, all right, I'm making excuses. Right? And the reality is three things happen every day,
Matt. Excuses, apologies, and results. And only one of them matters. Absolutely. And you're talking

(36:09):
about working out. Let's talk about working you out. And that is, I guess in a moment of levity,
when I'm watching the documentary, the only thing that kind of just makes me wince is you get kicked
in the stomach a whole lot, even kind of planking and people just kicking you. Does that hurt as bad
as it looks? I'm sure it does. Yeah. I get asked about that and I get asked a lot about the

(36:34):
needles, the nine gauge needles going in my knee at the doctor's office. That don't look too
comfortable either. I have a good friend of mine who played nine years of football at the NFL,
a guy named Clay Harbor. And I watched it with him and Clay had like 13 surgeries. And when that
scene came on where they're sticking the nine gauge needle in my knee, Clay literally went,

(36:57):
and I'm like, you were a tight end for nine years. You had 13. No, I can't watch. I can't watch.
Right? It does. It does. But it is, and we don't do that a ton, but what it does prepare you for
is to mentally block that pain out. Fighting is a fascinating sport because in any other sport,

(37:18):
if you get hit in football, you get hurt. What do you get to do? Timeout, timeout, Jackson's hurt.
If you get, if you try and take a timeout in fighting, you lose the fight. Worse is you get
kicked and you show it, right? You show it on your face. Two things. Number one, your opponent knows

(37:40):
you have weakness. And the other thing is at that moment, what are you thinking about? You're
thinking about the pain. Now, if I'm thinking about the pain, I can't think about how to beat
my opponent. I'm focusing on the pain. One of the other things you learn is how to control your
breathing. Because if you're like this and you're like, I can't breathe. You're right. You can't

(38:00):
breathe. You're focusing on, I can't breathe. Of course you can't breathe. What if I can go,
all right, I have energy, step back. Let me regain my breath. Let me control my breathing.
Then that mental aspect of it, and it's all mental, right? Puts you in a good position as a fighter.
And it's the same thing with taking hits. You're going to get caught when those hits are better

(38:21):
because I know they're coming. It's when you get caught with a kick or a punch and you don't know
what's coming. How do you react to that? So the purpose of that training is to get you mentally
where when you do get kicked and you think, okay, I just got kicked in the liver. He knows it landed.
He's going to want it again. Now I'm focusing on how am I going to, okay, I'm going to make you

(38:43):
think you have it. Go ahead, throw that liver kick. Because when you do, here's my counter.
So now instead of a problem, I turned it into a challenge and I'm focusing my energy on how to
overcome that challenge. But definitively to answer your question, yeah, it hurts.
You just get used to it and you get used to blocking it out at least to an extent, right?

(39:09):
But again, this is the most humbling sport I've ever done. I can't tell you how many times I've
been dropped with a liver shot in sparring. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten rocked
where including as you saw in the documentary during the fight where you're kind of there,
but you're looking around, it's a surreal feeling like you don't really know where you are.

(39:30):
I've had so many black eyes and cuts and had my head split open from a knee.
But these are the sacrifices you choose to make when you go into the sport. And anything you
accomplish in this life, you're going to have struggle and you're going to have sacrifices.
And for me, I embrace those things, right? I embrace that challenge, that opportunity
and with anything, again, you want to open your own business, know that you're going to have hits

(39:53):
coming at you that you didn't see coming, right? And you look at that and you say, all right,
good. There's a lesson I can learn here. There's something I can get positive out of this and I
can be stronger if that makes sense to you. No, absolutely. And in watching the documentary,
I have no problem kind of exploring my ignorance about certain things. And let's talk about

(40:18):
another scene in the documentary and that is in your first fight, you're talking about
making sure you're breathing. As your coaches are, you're training your coaches,
as your coaches are, you're in your corner, as your coaches are telling you, you know,
breathe, breathe, breathe. They're also, and this is, there's probably a reason for this.
They're also picking your legs up. I'm thinking, are they going to, this poor guy's in his corner,

(40:40):
are they going to flip him upside down? Why are they lifting you up like that?
No, man, ask all the questions you want. At that moment, as you saw, I got rocked. If that fight
was stopped in the first round, I wouldn't have much of an argument because I was, my eyes were
open, but I was out on my feet. I remember I got a standing eight count and I remember the ref

(41:06):
standing in front of me and giving me a standing eight, right? Like one, but in my mind, it was
like this one, two, like, because I was so out of it. I remember looking at him. And then again,
it felt like it came from the back of my brain. I said to myself, holy crap, he's given you a

(41:26):
standing eight. He's going to count you out if you don't say something. I remember looking at him
saying, I can fight, get the fuck out of my way. And that was exactly what came out of my mouth.
And he went, okay. But I came back to that corner. And if you, if you, when you see that,
you'll see my eyes are glazed and I was breathing heavy because I'd taken a lot of shots and all

(41:50):
they were trying to do is elevate my legs to help my breathing come down more to get the blood flow
back up here. And that's a technique they use that just, if we elevate here, he can breathe easier.
So it's a faster recovery. And that was all it was for. It's funny because I had asked Greg after

(42:10):
that, I'd never been in that position. And I said the same thing. Why'd you do that? He said it helps
you recover faster, right? To get your breathing under control. And the more you can get your
breathing under control, the blood flow is going to be better. And then you can get this, this brain
thing back, right? To where you actually know where you are and you know what you're doing.
Yeah. Well, that, that makes sense. Then I, I, I'm, I knew it was something, but I wanted to ask you

(42:35):
for sure. And I want to kind of, I want to ask about the documentary and the, you know, the,
the behind the scenes of it. But before we get to that, I want to ask you, I guess your,
your wife's perspective and all this, she was in the documentary. She mentioned sometimes kind of
her, her distaste for you taking fights. She was happy with you, your training, but actually

(42:55):
taking them, maybe it wasn't always so happy. So what's her role in all this talking about,
you know, you getting beat up, having all of these injuries. She's thinking, you know, you're,
maybe she's not thinking this. She's been with you long enough. She probably knows that passion
behind you, but finally he's getting a little older. We're going to kick back. And then you

(43:16):
start getting the crap beat out of you. Yeah. That's a, that is a great question. My wife is
literally, as you saw in my corner, when I fight and think about it from the opposite,
your wife is afraid of what you're doing or she doesn't come to the fight or she's afraid. And

(43:38):
she's sitting in the audience and she's like, baby, don't please be safe. Be safe. If you think about
it from that aspect, how would that affect you? That wouldn't help you be a better fighter. Cause
you'd be worried about her, but truly as any wife would, right? I didn't start this when we were

(43:59):
first together. I started this about six years after we started and it started slowly and then
it built as she talks about, you know, it was cool that he was sparring and everything, but I could
see he was getting better, but I thought, you're never going to really want to fight, right?
But my wife has been there through so much of it. She's, I've been in sparring sessions

(44:20):
and this is what I love about her. And I come to the corner and Stella looks at me and she's like,
that guy's killing you with his jab. Why aren't you doing something about it? Like every time
he throws his jab, he's landing. You know, I look at her and I'm like, do you want to go see if you
can stop his jab? Right. But I love that because she's that into it. She's that much both in my

(44:42):
ass, so to speak, and in my corner. So she's always been there and she's a vital part of it.
And are you married Jackson? I am. Yes. Okay. Then you'll, you'll know as, as a husband,
some of your most profound moments are when you have a coconut smile and shut the F out, right?
When you don't speak just before my first fight, she walks up to me and I remember she was standing

(45:08):
behind me and she said, baby, can I be in your, can I be in your corner? And in my head, like,
damn, Greg Chaplin, three time WBC world champion, I have Manolo Lopez. What are you possibly going
to say that's going to be better than my coach? Like you think you can out coach them, right? But

(45:29):
I don't say a word Jackson. I keep my mouth shut. It's going through my head and I turn and I look
at Stella and she clearly read it. She went not to tell you how to fight. She might've had a dumb
ass on the end of that. I'm not sure. She said, I want to be there for your spiritual strength.

(45:50):
I want to be there to give you the love and the support to ground you. I want to be there to be
with you and inside of you when you're in that fight. And that was remarkable. And from that
moment on, she always was. And so it was super powerful for her to be there for me. And you see

(46:14):
her at the end of that first fight. And when I chose to fight for the last time, I could tell,
I didn't ask. I don't ask permission. I just said, Hey, I'm taking this fight. Here's where I'm
fighting. Here's what I'm doing. Here's my opponent. And I could tell she wasn't all in a training
camp and training camps are brutal. They're typically about six weeks long, maybe five.

(46:38):
Sometimes as long as eight, you're training twice a day and you're getting beat up and you're
cutting weight. You're obsessing about the fight. And I could tell all through training camp,
because she wasn't saying questions like, how was sparring today? How are you doing today?
She was kind of detached. But like any good husband, I avoided having that
conversation. It's like, all right, I got to do my thing. And then she came up to me

(47:04):
and she said, it was the day that I was going down for promotion day when we were going to
shoot videos and they're going to interview for the promotion and all that stuff. And she said,
why do you want to do this? She said, you put your health at risk. I see you when you come home and
your knees are so swollen. You literally crawl up the stairs on all fours because you can't bend

(47:30):
them enough to walk up the stairs. I see you come home with black eyes, so swollen, you can't see
out of it. And you're sparring again in two days. I see all the injuries. I see how we have to keep
canceling so many dinner plans on a Saturday night because you sparred on Saturday and you can't even
move. You're so exhausted. She said, these training camps, I'm with you in them. They take a

(47:51):
toll on me. And why do you want to risk everything we have? We have a great life. Why do you want to
risk your health? And I really didn't know how to answer that. So I just poured my heart out and said,
I really didn't know how to answer that. So I just poured my heart out and said, it's what I love.
And when I'm pushing myself, and check this, when I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone

(48:19):
to be the best that I can be at something I love, it literally makes me better at everything else.
I'm more grounded, I'm more thoughtful, I'm more present. I become a better husband, a better father,
a better business person. My whole life has clarity and improves in those moments. And it's

(48:44):
something that I absolutely love to do. And that moment that I am in that cage or that ring,
as scary as it is, and it is scary. There's no place else in the world I'd rather be than
right there. Because when you stand across the ring or the cage of another human being,
look at them and say, that man has the skill, the malice, and the desire to render me unconscious.

(49:07):
Those are the moments that you get to define who you are as a human being.
Some days you don't like it. So you come back for another day. And I explained that to her.
Right? And I explained that to her. She didn't say anything. She walked away and I was getting my
clothes getting ready. And I started to go down to the promotion and she looked at me and she said,

(49:28):
you're going down for promotion day? And I said, yeah. She said, do you want company?
And that's what I knew. That she was saying, I'm with you. I got this. We're going to do this
together. Right? But that strength that she has is what carries me. That strength and the love that

(49:51):
she has. My very first fight, I remember stepping out there and I had a moment where I'm like,
what the hell am I doing? Like you just have this moment where it's overwhelming. Like,
what am I doing? This is crazy. It's like a millisecond of doubt, but that doubt is a cancer.

(50:15):
And if you let it grow, it will turn into a giant tumor and it will take you over. And I looked over
my shoulder and I saw Stella and I saw Greg and I saw Manolo. And the crowd at that moment,
and I'm not making this up, was chanting my name. And I heard it. I heard Stu word. And I heard

(50:39):
it. And I said to myself, I can't lose, man. I can't lose because they are inside of me. Their
energy, their love is inside of me. And I remember looking at my opponent just saying,
I'm going to snap your spine. I'm going to take your soul. You can't beat me because they are

(51:00):
inside of me and I have their power and their strength and their love. And that might sound a
little nuts, man, but it's the truth and that's the power of love and what it can do for you.
Make sense? Absolutely. And you talked about kind of this story before your last fight.

(51:20):
Was your last fight the second fight that we saw or was there something after that?
Yes. Yeah. It was the second fight you saw in the documentary where I was blessed to fight for a
championship. Well, I'm going to give you the opportunity, I think, to say the right thing
here. And that is with the question. You just mentioned how it took her a little while to

(51:42):
understand why you wanted to do it again, but she did get on board and was in your corner. Do you
think you would have been able to win that championship if she wouldn't have gotten on board?
I've never thought of it that way. I could tell you this. I wouldn't have had the success in my
fighting career if she wasn't always in my corner. That's for sure. If I think about it,

(52:08):
it would have caused me great stress if she would have said something like,
I'm not coming. I can't do this. It would have caused me great stress. And because of that,
you see this with athletes a lot where maybe their father dies before a game or a boxing match or
the mother dies. And they come in and they're like, okay, I'm going to dedicate this to my dad who

(52:31):
died or something. And a lot of times they have a bad game. And it's just because it's so heavy on
them. And it would have been heavy on me. It would have been hard. And if I did win, the joy wouldn't
have been there without her. Because again, she is literally and figuratively, she is always in my

(52:56):
corner and she is my strength and my rock. I want to get to the actual nuts and bolts of the
documentary. I forgot to ask you beforehand. I always want to be cognizant of time. Do you
have a few more minutes? Yeah, I'm golden, man. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And I know

(53:16):
that so the documentary, I want to kind of ask you, what made you decide to film it? You already
talked about how people were coming up to you and saying that you were inspiring them, which
makes it easy to say, hey, I want to inspire more people and make this documentary. But I also know
that I believe it took kind of nine years for the entire process to play out. So talk about kind of

(53:40):
why you decided to make it and then I guess why it took so long. Yeah, that's a great question.
My motivation to make this has been from day one. My partner, Carlos gets sometimes annoyed with me
when I say this, because it's never been to make money. It's been to change lives. And that was my
motivation. It was my driving motivation from the beginning. And after that fight, I went and met

(54:04):
with Carlos and I sat with Carlos, who owns Roar Post Productions. Roar Post is who produced this.
And I poured my heart out. Like I kind of like I am with you is that the same passion of this is
what I've been doing for the last couple of years. This is what I want to do. And he listened intently.
And I remember saying to him, listen, listen, man, I'll fund this out of my own pocket.

(54:27):
And he looked at me, he's like, okay, you got a quarter million dollars in your pocket. And I
looked at him and I said, I won't fund this out of my own pocket. And I said, but you're still
talking to me. You didn't say no. He said, no, I didn't. But what you're talking about, the feature
length documentary with what you're talking about, that's probably the price tag. And he said, here's

(54:52):
what we'll do. We will partner on this. But my guys will work only when I don't have work for them
that's paying them. That's how I keep this place open. So when my guys are free, you will get it.
So we started off strong and we agreed to that. And we filmed the first couple of segments.

(55:17):
This is going to sound strange, but it's not a movie. It's a documentary. So you kind of also,
you don't know, in this case, where it's going to go. We didn't have it fully figured out.
I wasn't even planning at that point to fight more. So probably a year later, I picked up the
phone and I said, hey, man, I'm going to fight again. And I actually said it this way. I'm like,

(55:40):
you don't want to film it, do you? And if you think about why I would say that is you think
about the pressure of fighting, then this was going to be my first fight in a ring.
You think about all your friends coming, there's the pressure of this. Again, the hardest thing
I've ever done in my life, a lot of years on this planet is fight and the training for fighting.

(56:03):
But that pressure is immense. Then you think, okay, I'm going to add cameras to it. And those
cameras are there specifically for me. And they're going to reach out to my opponent,
say, hey, can we get an image release? And my opponent says, absolutely you can. But I am not
but I am not giving you the ending you want to your documentary. So I actually worded like,

(56:26):
you don't want to film it, do you? And he's like, yes, we do. So we filmed that one.
And that one, as you know, that fight was like a rocky fight. It was a pretty epic fight.
And we thought, okay, we've got what we need here. And we struggled for a couple years because it
wasn't financed. And we had an editor working on it that we went through, I think, six or seven

(56:53):
different editors. They all kept flaking. We didn't have money. So then I decided to fight again. And
that's when Carlos did want to come and film it. We couldn't because it was actually being
pay-per-viewed and it's already had cameras. But they agreed the promotion was 100% behind it.

(57:16):
And they actually said in the interviews, Stuart's going to film his documentary as part of this. So
they gave us all the footage. And what happened after that is after I won my title, my wife set
me down and she said, okay, you know what happens next, right? Because I came home, hey, I'm going

(57:37):
to defend this title. And she said, they're going to send killers for you. You're the champion.
They're going to send killers. And you know how this ends. At some point, you know how it ends.
And again, you're married, so you can appreciate this. Your wife has an ability to ask you questions
that leave you dumbfounded that you don't have an answer for. And she said to me,

(57:58):
hey, look what you've accomplished. Look at how, and this is her words, not mine, how much respect
and admiration you have in the community. Look what you've done that people don't do. She's like,
what else do you have to prove? What haven't you proven? And she said, I'm never going to ask you

(58:24):
to stop training and stop sparring. I know you love this, but I'm asking you not to fight again,
because I want a long life with you and you have so many injuries as it is. If you choose not to,
if you choose to fight again, I will be there. But for the first time ever, I'm asking you not
to be there, not to fight again. I didn't give an answer. I waited a couple of days and I thought,

(58:50):
okay, you've been this guy talking about this documentary now for, at that point, I think it
was seven years and you haven't finished it. So take that energy and take some money, pony up the
money and bring this thing home. If you're really serious about it, you're going to be this guy who

(59:10):
talks about it that we all know, hey, I'm going to go to Hollywood and be a movie star. Hey,
I'm going to open a business and be like, you're becoming that guy. So I took that energy and that
passion and said, we're going to finish this now. Now we have the story. Now we have the beginning

(59:31):
where I lose, where I get my ass kicked. Now we have the middle. Now we have an actual story.
Truthfully, I know people will laugh at this. I don't think it was me, man. I think it was God's
journey going. It's not time yet, dude. If this is your mission, it's not time. You're not finished
with this story. It's not time. And then when it was time, when I took that last fight, it was like,

(59:55):
all right, now the story is complete. So Carlos and I agreed, put some of our own money into this.
We started putting money into it, went through a couple more editors, finally found a great one who
knew me for the last 15 years, knew Stella who stepped up. He works with Carlos. He's a cameraman.
He said, dude, I know Stuart, give this to me. I know you have never edited a full length feature

(01:00:18):
film, but I can do this. And he edited it. And we went through another,
that took about another six months. And then we started entering into film festivals. And
as I've shared with you, we were screened in 26 different film festivals, domestically and
internationally. And that was over a year period. And that was our goal is to build the credibility.

(01:00:42):
Right. You create this baby, if you will, right, that you've put so much care in and you think it's
amazing, but you don't know how the world is going to look at it. And that was the next test was,
if we can build it in the film festivals, then they'll want it in distribution.
And we were blessed because out of those film festivals, we won over 30 awards,

(01:01:06):
including best feature documentary, best inspirational, best sports, best editing,
best direction. And my partner's son, Nico, came in and Nico writes music and he's in music studies.
And as we were finishing the film and we were going to get copywritten music that we paid for,

(01:01:28):
he comes into Carlos and he said, let me have this, Carlos. Carlos is like, you don't know how to
write this. You write hip hop. And he said, dad, you had me watch this film. I understand this film
is about living outside your comfort zone and doing something that you don't think you're capable
of doing. Give it to me. I know Stuart. I've known him for all these years. I know this story. Give

(01:01:53):
it to me. Carlos gives him 10 minutes of film says, go here, literally thought like, get out of my
office. Comes back three hours later, says, listen, this is what I did. Bottom line is he won four
awards for best original music score, a 16 year old kid. And he got a scholarship to one of the
premier, um, performing arts schools in the United States. And a lot of that was based on the fact

(01:02:21):
that as a 16 year old, he was able to, um, to write this, the music for this. And, and that tells
you that the message works, right? That tells you there's somebody that went and applied himself
that had never done a music score and only did hip hop, but he applied himself to this. So
that took us about another year. And then we finally, um, wow, this time last year,

(01:02:45):
we started exploring distribution. Uh, we were blessed to have a substantial amount of offers and
we waded through those. And then by the time we got it on the platforms was August of this year
of 2024. And June had been, had marked the nine year anniversary from the, for the moment I got
that silly idea, but making of the documentary parallels the exact same journey of fighting

(01:03:11):
all of the obstacles, all of the problems. I hate those words. I really don't use them. I'm only
using this as examples. Everything is a challenge. All those things that came up that you never
thought it would, where's it going to go? How's it going to happen? And you just had to believe in
the gym and keep recalibrating. Okay. What do I have to do different? What do I have to give more
of in this case? It was more energy and candidly more money, right? I've got to invest my own

(01:03:38):
personal money if I really want this to come to life. Um, so it was, it really paralleled that
and it proved that this, this concept works not just in fighting, but it works in the NECO winning
world's awards. It works in getting this documentary, a little independent film to now four major

(01:04:00):
platforms, uh, nationally and 36 countries internationally. Well, congratulations on all
those awards. I'm, I'm glad to see that, you know, the recognition there. So if people that,
that want to, to check out the documentary, they've listened to this podcast, they've,
they've heard, they've heard all about, you know, you, you getting kicked, you're, you're beginning,

(01:04:21):
you're almost being flipped upside down and in your, your corner. How can people, uh, how can
people check out the documentary? And I'm really good at not, uh, you know, promoting something
without ever saying the names over and over, but it's got taking the fight. So how can people,
how can people, uh, watch taking the fight? Thank you so much for asking that it is on Amazon Prime,

(01:04:43):
iTunes, which is also Apple TV. So if you have Apple TV on your Roku or whatever,
and it's also on Google play, which is YouTube, but it's the pay YouTube version. Right. So any
four of those platforms, if it's outside of the United States, it's probably more easily accessed

(01:05:04):
on iTunes. Um, that's where the most of the, most of the countries it's in, or, you know,
if you forget that taking the fight.com is the website you go on there, there's a, where to watch
tab, just click on that. It'll take you directly. Just click on any of those and it'll take you
directly to where the film is on any of those. Yeah. Taking the fight.com that will be in the

(01:05:27):
show notes for people to, uh, to check out the documentary in wrapping things up. You know, you,
you've achieved a lot, but you've already talked about not wanting to retire. So you don't seem
like the guy that's just going to be like, eh, I've, I've achieved a lot and I'm just going to
kick back now. So what's the future hold for you? Uh, thank you for asking. Um, you're right. I am,

(01:05:50):
I am, I'm not that guy. I think we've got one life and I want to maximize it. Right. And I think when
you retire, you see people age quickly because when you lose your passion for life, when you,
when you're not learning something new, when you're not accomplishing something,
you slow down really quickly and you always have to have that perk, that, that purpose, if you will.

(01:06:11):
So right now I've, I've started to kick off a public speaking tour to, uh, deliver the same
message. I did a keynote speech a couple of months ago, um, and really applied these lessons into
the corporate world. And how does, how do these things, these, these moments come to you, these
learning moments in the corporate world? Cause they're not going to come when you expect them.

(01:06:34):
They're not going to come as, Hey, here I am. I'm a big opportunity for you to learn and grow.
They're going to come as adversity. They're going to come as problems. And how do you recognize that?
And how do you embrace that? So that is all also to drive people to watch the documentary. Cause this
message I am so passionate about. If you woke me up at three in the morning and said, can you,

(01:06:56):
and you asked me these same questions, I'd probably first say, what the hell are you doing
in my bedroom Jackson? But other than that, I'd give you the same answers, right? With that same
passion, because it's authentic. It's who I am. So I'm continuing to drive that. Um,
we have some discussions about a SQL concept right now to the documentary and sharing other

(01:07:17):
people's journeys of their fight. So those are things we're in discussion with right now.
But I just keep pushing that same on the low and pushing those speaking engagements to reach as
many people as I can with this message and show them how they can create whatever life they want
to create. And other than that, uh, I'm teaching down at freedom fighters MMA here in Miami, which

(01:07:39):
is in the documentary. And I'm still training six days a week. And I still spar every Saturday
against professional mixed martial artists. And I'm still trying to get better at everything in
this life, including being a fighter, because we all do have that fight, whether it's literal or
figurative. I love it. And I really, really appreciate your time today. All of your information

(01:07:59):
will be in the show notes for people to, to check things out and follow along with you. That way
they can see what that next journey is. So I really appreciate you. Thanks so much. Oh,
truly my, my privilege and my pleasure, Jackson. Thank you. So Stuart Warren Gansby,
really appreciate him being here. Learned a 10 this week. You know, I'm not a big

(01:08:19):
boxing fan of a kickboxing fan, but I am a fan of people that, uh, strive to accomplish their goals.
And that's certainly what Stuart did. I think, uh, there's a lot to be said just on the,
the realness of, of how he gave his story. You know, he shared his experience. I think that,
you know, life hasn't always easy. That's, that's for sure. And, uh, just him talking about

(01:08:42):
perseverance and, and those types of things is really powerful. Talking about just how important
it was to have his wife and his, his friends and family in his corner with all of this. Um,
I urge you to check out the documentary. The documentary is called taking the fight.
I think you'll really, really enjoy that one. Um, the links will be in the show notes to, uh,

(01:09:03):
to check that out. Uh, really, really appreciate Stuart being here. Really appreciate you being
here. If this is your first time listening or you haven't already go, uh, follow along or
subscribe depending on whether you're listening on Apple or Spotify or, or somewhere else.
I'll leave that five star rating on Apple and on Spotify. That helps a ton. Leave a written
review on Apple helps even more. Go follow along on Instagram, on TikTok, not enough podcast,

(01:09:27):
go follow along on Facebook, not enough for Jackson. Now lots of places to follow along
over 250 guests at this point, everything from gold medal athletes to award winning actresses to
true crime subjects. So tons of, tons of really amazing guests. I think there'll be
other ones that you're interested in. So go check those out, follow along so you don't miss a future

(01:09:51):
guest, but we'll see you next week. Take it away, Chris. This has been not in a huff with Jackson
huff. Thank you for listening. Be sure to join us next time where we will interview another amazing
guest who is sure to make you laugh or make you think, or pay maybe even both, but until then,
keep being awesome.