Offstage With Dan "Hendo" Henderson

In this episode of Offstage America, Michael Ray sits down with UFC and Pride legend Dan Henderson at Hendo’s Barrel House in Temecula for a raw, unfiltered conversation about the journey from small-town wrestling to the global stage.

Henderson breaks down his path to the Olympics, the grind it took to get there, and how that foundation carried him into the early days of mixed martial arts where fights were unpredictable and survival meant adapting fast. From competing in Russia during political chaos to fighting multiple times in one night, he shares stories that define what toughness really looks like.

They also dive into the evolution of MMA, the explosion of the sport into the mainstream, and what it took to stay competitive across decades at the highest level. Beyond fighting, Henderson opens up about life after the cage and building Hendo’s Barrel House into something bigger than just a business.

This episode is about discipline, resilience, and what it takes to keep showing up when the odds are stacked against you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Hey, what's up, guys? It's Michael Ray. Welcome to Offstage America. Little different atmosphere. Today we're at Hendo's Barrel House. Our guest is one of my very dear friends, um, Dan Henderson, the UFC legend, pride legend. Um, we're here at in his office right now. Uh, and we got fighting on one side and uh wings and drinks being served on the other side. So how you been, buddy? Good, good. How you been? Good, man. Thanks for doing this for us. No problem. We came, we were here, um, came here, played a show a couple days ago, uh, and uh it's my first time having a having a show here, but things have been popping off, man, with Hindo's barrel house.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

It's technically your second time having a show here.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Oh, true. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, yeah. Good opening.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Thank you for for being uh the grand opening. We got our uh one-year anniversary coming up in a couple months. That's crazy. So might have to have you come back for that one. Let's do it. We'll make it an annual thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

It was me and Tyler Farr. Yeah, for sure. Man, dude, I've saw the whole process of this whole place being built before we get into like all the fighting stuff, man. I think it's really interesting seeing this place grow from you taking me through here when it was nothing on this side, you know, just a hey man, I think we're gonna do this restaurant, you know. I think I want to do this. And and you and Rachel are always hosting and doing big charity stuff at your house and always having parties and get together, so it all makes sense, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

But whenever you what what made you decide like to turn this spot into the Hendo's barrel house and and I don't know, I think living in Temecula with all the wineries, you know, it's it's inevitable that breweries start popping up. So that was my idea was just to have a brewery and and uh go from there. Then I, you know, needed I felt like uh a restaurant added on to the brewery would have been a good idea, and and then I added on a distillery to it and and uh and the restaurant got the whole thing got a lot bigger than I first anticipated, and and uh it turned into this. And it, you know, it it's I'm pretty proud of what it's turned into. So it's uh starting to get some traction and you know, and and everybody loves coming here.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Hey, we got here right before it opened. There's people lined up to get in at 11 Saturday morning. Yeah, yeah. It's awesome. Food's great. The wings, dude. If y'all come out here, you gotta get the wings. Those wings were incredible, man.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

Yeah, no, that was one thing I made sure that we we did good was wings. I mean, everywhere I go, I I make really good wings on my Traeger at home, and and every time I go out, nothing compares. So I just never order wings anywhere anymore. And then they they did a great job doing my style of wings here.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah, they're they're some of the best wings I've ever had. They're it's great. I want to go back for a second to where it all started. Growing up, man, in my world, I've told you this. It was mixed martial arts. We grew up watching, you know, that was by my family, didn't my dad and his buddies wasn't really like, oh, my football team is this, you know, my football team is that. It was Dan Henderson, Randy Couture, you know, it was we were watching Ghee tournaments, we were watching uh Moy Thai Tour, like that's what we watched all the time. So when Ultimate Fighter came out, when you know UFC was putting out when you y'all's generation of it was what we grew up watching, you know, and seeing seeing you guys and and and my dad just being such a huge fan of you and and Randy and all the memories that we have, dude, sitting at the house and fight nights and freaking 50 people slammed in my dad or my uncle's living room, you know, and everybody just you know acting like we know what we're talking about, you know. His head's open, you know, his sides open, head over, you know, like we're like we're not we're not getting punched in the face at the time, so it's way easier to yell at a TV. But I I know your story, but I think it's really interesting, man, to go back to it all started for you with your dad. Right?

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Well, yeah, with wrestling.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

With wrestling and and his love for it. Was he was was your father built was he a wrestler?

SPEAKER_03 4:16

Yeah, he wrestled uh you know through college and I think he uh or through junior college and then transferred to you know four-year university to wrestle there, like Cal State Long Beach, I believe, and and uh and they dropped the wrestling program, so he just stayed, finished school, and and you know, he I think he already had two kids at that point, and uh and I I guess I was one of them. Yeah. And and you know, he couldn't just transfer and change his life around. And so he got his teaching credential and then started teaching, and we eventually moved up to Apple Valley. And uh there's really not much to do up there other than sports and and wrestle each other. Yeah, so we had a great wrestling team up there.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

So his passion was wrestling.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Yeah, I I started wrestling when I was five. Yeah, and then uh my last wrestling tournament um was probably the in 2001, I think. So that I would have been 31 years old. I was fighting and wrestling at the same time, and and that was was the uh world team trials that year. Oh yeah. So and they they moved the worlds. I only did that that year just because the worlds were supposed to be in New York and and uh uh 9-11 happened and it all got canceled anyway. So um, but that was the last year that I that I wrestled.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Your your brother, is he old is he older than you?

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Yeah, he's a year and a half older than me.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah. So I was reading your book, man. It was like I'd learned, even though you're like family, I'd know so much of your story. It was like I learned a lot reading your book about your dad, and what really stood out was the the van.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

The yellow van.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

The yellow van, you know, and like all those stories, and we were here for your father's service, and so many memories for so many of you guys, you know, was that yellow van, and right, and and what it just seemed like was your father instilled in you hard work, show up, yeah, fight through whatever it is, you know, and all of that is ways of life, which makes sense of why you've been so successful through your career and your personal life, is because we got someone knocking, I think. Someone coming. We guess we got another guest, no, I'm just kidding. Um But d during th during those years, man, was there was or let me go back for a second. We we can edit that, right? Man over here flexing. Trying to come off over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People don't understand the hours of the edit. It's like people that these these uh um like track guys that do that we write songs with and stuff, you know, they like they're on their asses. Like, hey man, when you go get that track, it's like, dude, they're building a song tracking everything like damn near every day because they're writing five days a week. Oh, yeah. You know, so the people are the songwriters like on their I didn't get that track back. I'm like, bro.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

That's what I used to do.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Easy on the guy, dude. Yeah, used to make music. Yeah. Oh, so you know, yeah, you yeah. So they're all on your ass. Um, all right, let me go back there. So yeah, the yellow van stood out because it just seemed like that made such an impact of you and your friends and your brother and your family and what your dad instilled with you guys in that van driving y'all to tournaments, you know, it was like Yeah, there was a lot of lot of wrestlers that that had driven a lot of miles in that yellow van. Yeah. How did he do all the how did he fit all he did?

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Well, he was a school teacher, so he was kind of on the same schedule as all of us. Oh, okay, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

So I guess summers were off for him, or like well, he he would teach summer school, and and there was a little less wrestling in the summer, but we still wrestled most of the year around, especially when we got older. Um, but being younger during the summer, my dad would have a list of tours and stuff we have to do around the house, and it needed to be done before he got home from summer school. Yeah. And yeah, that was every day, just a and it was a big list. Yeah, no, there was no days off.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

When when you started wrestling, man, I in the book, you know, it says how you were you it you had to w work hard at it for the first little bit, right? Like really find your way in it, like anything with anybody, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

Right, yeah. I was I wasn't like spectacular in any way, and you know, and I started really tweaking moves that you'd learn to kind of fit my style a little better, and I was really good at doing that and and thinking outside the box a little bit. Um, I think that's what kind of started making me start winning more matches, just doing things a little different, but still still effective.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

What do you think of the new the RAF? The RAF, the new wrestling.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Well, I think it's great. I I think uh Yeah, I think that I think there's uh a lot of uh good wrestlers that that are out there that they don't get any recognition at all, and and that wrestling is is one of those sports you don't get paid hardly any to do.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

That's what was crazy. Well, you told me that man, I never really even really thought about that. And I I've got to know Nick Hogan um through DJ Silver and them, and and they live out in Tampa. And uh Nick was telling me about RAF before like as I I read about it and seen it, you know, but when we were down there, I think it was right before the first big match or the first big showing of it or whatever. Um and I was telling him, I was like, Man, I said, Hint I said I never really thought about it, but like, yeah, there's nothing for collegiate wrestlers after college, really, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:10

I mean Olympics and then Yeah, the the Olympic team and and you know, trying to make the Olympic team, but college is a different style. We're the only country in the world that does the collegiate style wrestling, and and I think if we did freestyle and greco in college, we would own the world every year. Freestyle and Greco. Yeah, yeah. It's just you don't kids don't focus on that, or wrestlers don't focus on freestyle or greco until after college, most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Well, what what's the what is the difference between collegiate and then if you have a greco and freestyle?

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Uh well, it's it's very similar in some ways to freestyle as far as takedowns go, but the scoring's different. Oh, okay. Uh, you know, and you're you're on on top or bottom a lot more. Uh and in freestyle, you're mostly on your feet, they'll stand you up quite a bit. They don't do that in collegium. You get more you you get an extra point if you can hold on to the guy an extra minute more than he held on to you, which I think just slows down the wrestling match and makes it boring.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah. You think you're gonna see you in some tights at RAF, dude? Yeah, get hidden out of retirement, man. Slave some slave some people.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

If they threw a Greco Greco side on that, maybe you never know, but definitely not freestyle.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

How was uh with with an organization like that, do you think it's bringing more eyes to to wrestling, like bringing more awareness to it? Like you think maybe future?

SPEAKER_03 11:39

I think so. I think uh MMA also really I think helped wrestling out uh in a lot of ways, and then some ways I think it hurt it, you know. I think some of these really good wrestlers that could get a world medal or an Olympic medal, I I think stop short in the wrestling world and go to make money in the MMA world. Uh, you know, so I think in that way it hurts wrestling a little bit, but um, for the most part, it really brings a lot of attention to hey, you should wrestle because the wrestlers are typically the ones that beat everybody up in the MMA.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yeah, they just take them freaking take them right down to the ground so you can't do it shit.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

How was it when you were uh I you gotta tell the story, bro. Would you all wear it? Was it Russia? When you were which story? When you were uh it's in the book, whatever you had the uh when I was stuck there, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Yeah, there was a trip that um we were taking for it was four months long. And was it like a school that you it was it was their national tr team where they trained, we trained with their national team, and we had some sponsors that were paying for our coaching. There was five of us wrestlers that went, and uh, you know, they were supposed to get the Russians were supposed to get paid monthly for us to be there. How old are you at this time? Uh I turned 21 on that trip. So I was 20 when I got there.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

You turned 21 in Russia?

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

So I think I turned 21 right after I got there on that trip. We went beginning of August through December into December. I think we got home right before Christmas, thankfully. But we got there the day of the the Soviet Union breakup. Like we didn't see anything. We got on our flight. We had a layover in in Amsterdam and and we got off our flight and waiting for the next flight that takes us to Russia. And you see all this stuff on the news, all these tanks in in Moscow, and you know, it's a big big thing. And so we we weren't sure if we should get on our next flight, but we we'd went anyway, and we didn't see anything. It wasn't a big deal. I think all of it was for show for the media in the Red Square, and and uh we were we went to Moscow and then straight down to uh way down south by the Black Sea in the Crimea Crimea area, and uh you know, we did that's where I turned 21 down there, and then four months later, you know, when we're supposed to be thinking about getting home, you know, I I guess we didn't know, but our our sponsor kind of quit paying the Russian coaches, and they were owed like two months fees, and they weren't gonna let us go home until they got paid. And we didn't know anything about it until you know we kind of started, and this is pre-cell phone, pre, you know, this is yeah, they know internet on the phone that you're picking up.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

This was in mowing someone some cash, dude.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

This was in 1991. So yeah, there was none of that. And and I had a credit card that had a limit of five hundred dollars on it, and it was back when that you give somebody a credit card and they swipe it through the thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, and and then they get a carbon copy of it and turn it into the credit card company to get paid. So yeah, I ran up a huge bill on that, making making phone calls home and and you know, talking to my dad, and and my dad, some of us didn't even have flights home. So he we we got word that the the Russian coaches were gonna be all going to some pro wrestling thing in in South Africa, and they were gonna be gone for like a week. So we arranged to uh get our visas renewed somehow. One of our one of our coaches was a Russian that that knew somebody in in the immigration to kind of our our visas had expired, and we can't do anything without getting a new visa. And none of this we knew. Yeah. So my dad bought us flights home. We went I went to the the airport to talk to the the immigration guys to get get our visas renewed, and and that day I used my credit card to pay for them, but that day it it doubled in price, you know, to go home. Oh yeah. And and I had to buy them a carton of cigarettes and a couple bottles of vodka, and they're they're doing shots in the in the back of the airport with me.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

The rushing people at the airport, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

No way. That's amazing. And I'm not sure what, you know, and then two days later we were we were back home. So we we got on a flight and you know got out of there and and yeah, they weren't real happy that we we got out of there, but they ended up getting their money eventually.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

I was gonna say, did they give my can you go to Russia now?

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Or do you want to be in Russia? They really they got paid because uh I I came home and a few months later made the Olympic team and they put sanctions against me because Russia has quite a bit of pull in the International Wrestling Federation, and they had to get paid before they would let me wrestle in the Olympics.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

I didn't know that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

So I did a lot of fundraisers in my in my hometown and paid the whole 20-something grand that we owed them.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

So you raising money to pay for all the other yeah to that's crazy. I didn't know that. What's it like training with those guys over there? Was it training?

SPEAKER_03 17:30

The training was awesome. Uh you know, the it was a total different style of practice, you know. In in America, the coach will show a bunch of moves and then and then you go try each move, you know, and then maybe at the end you kind of go live. This is you got almost every wrestler has their own coach there watching them, some of these better national team wrestlers. And uh you go and you kind of go fairly hard, but you're not you're not drilling, but you're you're kind of not it's a uh hard drilling, you know, it's hard kind of hard to under explain, but you don't go a hundred percent, but you're trying to do moves and not defend with a hundred percent, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

You know, because you gotta practice like you're in a fight, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:20

And then if the coach sees something wrong, he'll point it out right away and you kind of change it and and you go on, and then and then you do real hard matches. Yeah. And again, the coach is just watching and and correcting you if you do something wrong, but their practices were 50 minutes long, and that was it. I mean, that included warm-up. It was every minute was accounted for. Yeah. You're gonna do six-minute match, eleven minute, you know, lighter match, six-minute hard match, lighter, you know, and then a lighter match. Every minute was accounted for. And and they do they would do three trainings a day. Some of them one of them was like a weight training. Um every morning that they they line up on the track first thing and and kind of do a couple laps and and wrestle around a little pummel a little bit, and uh you know, and then and then you go and eat breakfast after that, and then you a couple hours later you got your first practice big practice, and and they line you up and you gotta you pair up with a partner, and that's your partner for the day. So that's who you're you're working with all the time. So you don't have to yeah. And you're getting your ass kicked by the same same guy all day.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Did you think some of that helped you when you went to the Olympics right after? Like some of that different training of your road of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

Yeah, I mean and like I said, they they would point out things that when you when you'd mess up, they'd point it out right there and you'd fix it. Yeah. And and yeah, I mean, I I came and got made the Olympic team without even being anywhere close to the top ten in the country before that. So and I went up, I went up a weight class from my previous time. And what were you before? I was wrestling 163, and then when I made the team, it was 180.5.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:17

So yeah, I was uh and I I cut quite a bit of weight even to get to 180.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Yeah. That'd be a cool thing for your dad. You know, when you talk about that, I think about like my dad, my and my sword is like, you know, my family's band, and my dad was a lead singer of our family's band, and you know, he had kids and you know, small town and all that stuff, so you know, he couldn't just up and route and go to Nashville, you know. So when I started doing it, it's kind of like he got to live vicariously through you know, his son, you know, and I could just imagine like the pride that your dad had, like your your dad being this badass wrestler, and now his son's in the Olympics, you know, like wrestling.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

That's a no, it definitely was a proud moment for him. And and I, you know, my wrestling coach that I had that coached with my dad uh most of my life since I was fifth grade. I think I started with his name was Bob Anderson.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Oh, yeah, you talk about him in the book.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

Yeah, yeah. The two of them kind of shaped me and you know, made me mentally tough. They kind of had they were very similar in in in their attitude, and and you know, they didn't take shit for from any wrestlers or any, you know, and you're gonna work hard. Yeah. Uh and the two of them is what really made me who I am.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

When you were when you were after so after the well, take us to the Olympics, right? So what what is that process like to even get like you were saying you weren't in the top ten yet, but you so you is there matches that you're doing to qualify for?

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Uh yeah, I mean you they that year when I made the Olympic team was back then they it was a lot harder to to do coming from the bottom. So they they take you you wrestle at nationals, uh and the top six maybe qualified for the Olympic trials, and then they also had regional championships that the top uh one, I think, would qualify. So there wasn't very many wrestlers that were in the Olympic trials. But this time they they or this year in 1992 to make the team, there was a little mini tournament which may maybe 10 guys. We're in. You had to win that. And then I had to wrestle, which I did. I won that. Then I had to wrestle the number three guy from Nationals two out of three. So, and I lost my very first match of that. And then I beat him twice in a row. So I won that one. Then I had to wrestle the number two guy from Nationals two out of three. The next day.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

The next day?

SPEAKER_03 22:48

Yeah, these were the mini tournament was the first day, then the third third place guy, second place guy, and then I had to wrestle the first place guy two out of three. I beat all those guys. I had to make wait four days in a row, which was tough. And ten days later, they had they had it set up to where whoever won that the ne the trials had to wrestle the number one guy from the year before in an in another two out of three match. So I went out and uh beat beat that guy that he was on the previous Olympic team also. And I think he'd placed fifth or seventh in the worlds the year before or that year.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

And uh what year was that in the Olympic?

SPEAKER_03 23:35

1992.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Where was it? Where were they held at?

SPEAKER_03 23:38

Oh, there was in Barcelona.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

So I beat him and made the team, and uh yeah, that and and it's rare that somebody goes from the very bottom and and goes up the ladder. Yeah. And they don't do that anymore. It it's and there's only one way in now. It's a lot easier. Yeah. I say easier, but it it's less difficult, I should say. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Well, I mean, all goes back to your dad, you know, that mindset, right? Of what you, you know, pushing through. And I, you know, a lot of people in that time frame will probably look at it and go, Well, shit, I've had a good run. I'm not ranked yet. You know, I'm I'm gonna have to fight five of the best, you know, within a week of each, you know. Yeah, and and that's that's uh when you're facing those type of odds, it's like you're a lot of people don't have the the the balls are you know it's it's scary, dude. You know what I mean? When you're looking at that, you gotta climb your way up that ladder, you know, and it all goes back to your dad at Yellow Van and you know, but pushing pushing that mindset to you. But after the Olympics, what would you think, okay, that I'm I'm done, you know, I'm gonna retire.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

No, I mean I my goal was to to be an Olympic champion. So I mean I I didn't I took like 10th place in the Olympics, um got my eyes open to a few things that that you know not everybody's the Olympics doesn't mean that everybody's uh uh a good sportsman, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

The guy that won't won the Olympics when I wrestled him that that in the Olympics, he was all oiled up and and you know, really made it difficult to to for me to grip since my hands were all oily. And you know, that I think that cost me winning that match. Yeah, but you never know. Yeah. Um you know, and and four years later I made the Olympic team again, wrestling the brother of the guy that I beat four years before. Was that when we were in Georgia? Yeah, in Atlanta. Is that you? So yeah, I I had beat uh the guy's brother that I beat, you know, four years earlier.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

What's that like in that moment, the Olympics? I mean, that's the biggest for an athlete, right? I mean, you don't don't get any bigger.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

I mean, the opening ceremonies in Barcelona was unbelievable. I was and that was the first year they had the dream team there.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

And I remember walking out, I was like in the middle of the middle of the US team when we're walking in out, you know, for the opening ceremonies, and and I'm I'm looking up at everything and I'm walking so slow that I ended up being in the back of the line of the US team. And uh and they had had the the dream team kind of fill in right before we walked out, but they were at the in the back of the US group, and uh I ended up turning turning around, you know, Scotty Pippinson and way up in there, and I'm like, oh, how's it going? Yeah. But yeah, it was it was a cool experience. Uh four years later in in Atlanta, I didn't go to the opening ceremonies because I I weighed in that day and had to wrestle the first day of the Olympics. So um I but I went to the closing ceremonies for that one. I didn't I didn't go to closing ceremonies in in Atlanta or in Barcelona.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Being able to be there represent your country, man.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

That's no, yeah. The and in Atlanta being you know, home home country. Um and I was the I think the first American wrestler to to go out and wrestle. Um so everyone was waiting for an American to come out, and when I came out, it was it was it pumped me up quite a bit.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

That's awesome, man. That's so sick. I I was thinking about those moments, man. But like when you're uh when you've worked hard your whole life to to achieve something, and anytime it's a passion thing, you know, whether it's you know, sports or music or whatever, you know, it's hard, man. It's hard to go you're up against everybody in the world that's trying to also get there's only you know a handful of those spots in the Olympics or you know, UFC or whatever, you know. And then you get to those moments and you're like, how the hell do or we did it? You know, like you're looking around like like when I first played the opera, you know, it's like you're looking around, you're like, Holy cow, we're doing it. You know, like those those moments are are surreal moments in life. During that time, is that when you met Randy?

SPEAKER_03 28:06

Uh I met yeah, Randy um in the 90s, I think it was 1992. Um, I no, it was the 96. No, it was the 92 final trials when I had to wrestle the number one guy from the year before.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:27

He uh you know, he was wrestling to make the team also uh in the finals. And you don't really have a lot of your teammates there, so you didn't have much to people to warm up with. And so him and I warmed up together, and that's kind of where we met. Then he came to Barcelona as he lost, so he didn't make the team, but he came to Barcelona as a a training partner for the team. Um so we really started training together after that. And for Greco, you know, we kind of made it, we went back and forth. My coach kind of took him in and and was his coach now also. So it was uh it was pretty good. I mean, it's hard to find really good training partners in Greco. So you know that that's kind of when we met, and then I made the 96 team also, and he missed it barely again, and and uh we're still trying to wrestle, but after that is when we both started fighting in 97. Because he he kind of told me so so was he did he kind of figure out like hey dude, we're doing these there's these guys that'll pay you to go get in the ring and fight, you know, like uh well we obviously the the UFC was on TV and we saw it on the and you know we're like um you know that'd be fun to do, but I don't think I want to go against that the big 350 pounders, you know, you know and uh you know, coming from wrestling when there's a lot of weight classes, we we didn't I didn't feel but so he unbeknownst to me put in an application to the fight in the UFC and he got denied, and I guess he really wanted to start fighting. So uh somebody he knew that was in that world, you know that there was a a fight down in Brazil that had a it was a tournament style. There was a heavyweight tournament and then a lightweight, and the lightweight tournament was like 175-ish and below. So he signed up to do the heavyweight tournament and called me up and said, Do you want to do the this lighter weight tournament? I'm like, sure. And this is like in two weeks, you know. What does it say?

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Y'all talk about it, bro. Like, I'll keep over here, Brandon's over here helping us. Uh you talk about like he just did a basketball game. You know what I mean? Like, I just gotta go in real quick, pop in a basketball game in two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Well, as a wrestler, right? You know you're already gonna have uh, you know, in a good wrestler, we were already gonna be kind of dominant over positioning, right? But a lot of wrestlers, especially at that time when nobody knew how to defend submissions, you know, a lot of them get triangled and armbarred because they didn't know how, you know, by the the ground guys. And uh and yeah, so I I I went and I said, sure. And you know, that my toughest thing was making the weight class. I made 175 and you know, and in the meantime, when before we even went down to Brazil, Randy got a call from the UFC saying somebody got hurt. Do you want to fill in and fight in this tournament? So he said, Yeah. So he he didn't go down to Brazil anymore. I I did with so you end up going. Yeah, but but we fought our first fights within a week of each other. Yeah. I don't know who was first, him or me, I don't remember, but yeah, it it was uh and he he had two fights in a night and and beat them both, and and I had two fights in a night and and beat both of them too.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

So yeah, that's what I don't think people realize that. Like so when you say tournaments, like you're fighting one, it's like it's a uh what do they call it? Like you fight a guy, and then whoever wins your fight fights the guy whoever won the other fight, right?

SPEAKER_03 32:06

It's like a bracket, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Bracket, yeah, yeah. And you so you're fighting multiple fights in a day.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

Yeah, basically a four-man bracket. You know, there's four guys in there, the winners fight in the finals. Yeah. Um I've done I did that in Brazil, and then I fought in the UFC next and did that in the UFC, two fights and won that. And then I went down to Japan and fought in a 32-man tournament. Unlimited unlimited weight class.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

And uh so when you say unlimited weight class, like you could be going up with Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

The the biggest guy I fought might have been Big Dog or or Bob Lou at the time. Yeah. He was like 250-ish.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

I might have fought a bigger guy, I don't know, but when you look back at that era, man, it's like when you were talking about the dream team too, and like you guys, like you're telling me, you're talking to me about like, you know, when you met Randy, and it's like now being able to look back on that, it's like you two guys are two of the guys that put MMA, UFC and Pride and all that on the map, you know, and then that era of basketball, Jordan Pippin, you know, Shaq. It's like that whole era of the 90s into the early 2000s was just a different, you know, and it's like you guys are who established the MMA world, you know, like you and Randy, like you two just college kids, like or young, you know, young 20s, like, hey dude, let's let's train together, you know, and then like that leads into uh what decades of friendships and then two of the most biggest names in an MMA. I mean, like I said, some of my biggest favorite memories of my family is watching you guys fight, you know, like all of us. I always say everything, I've told you a million times, I always tell everybody, I'm like, the day you knocked out Bisbig, and we'll get to that. But that was why I've never seen my I can literally see my dad still sitting in the recliner when that happened. I think it was like one of his proudest moments. It's like like you grew up with him, you know what I mean? Like but uh, but those that that time frame of of fighting in those tournaments was there did you so you went to UFC before Pride?

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Uh yeah. Yeah, I fought in in the UFC my own. What card would have that been? Or what it was UFC 17, I think. Wow. I think Randy fought uh his first UFC was the 13, and then I think I think he fought on the UFC 15 card.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Is it crazy for you guys to see kind of where it's gone now?

SPEAKER_03 34:26

I mean well, yeah, I don't know, I guess a little bit, but we were fighting and and a part of the ride and and and seeing it change and adapt and and we had to adapt as wrestlers to kind of learn how to do everything that you need to be a good MMA guy. You know, we had to learn how to strike, learn how to do that. I was gonna ask you that question.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

You being a wrestler was uh how was the striking part of that for you?

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Like uh I mean it was pretty good. I mean, I I I hit hard, I guess, from yeah, you didn't know. Back then I didn't know that. I you know, but but everyone would say, oh, you hit hard, but putting it in the right place was was a little bit more difficult. Yeah, you know, and and setting up your punches and kind of making it to where you could land them quite a bit more and and get those knockouts or or knock somebody down or or knock them silly, whatever it is. Yeah. And it wasn't until I really got better technically with striking and and and kind of integrated in with my wrestling and kind of set up striking using my wrestling, that's when I started really knocking people around a little more. And that's why most of my fights towards the end, uh, you know, I wasn't taking people down very often. I was trying to try to knock them out.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Yeah, it was like anytime you saw Dan Henderson's name on a car, you're like, someone's going to sleep. So yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be a brutal day for the other guys, it's not good.

SPEAKER_03 35:52

Yeah, I mean, regardless of whether I knocked somebody out or, you know, yeah, or it was just a a fight back and forth, it was gonna be a tough fight for me no matter what.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

So when you went to Japan, how was that the first time like going over there?

SPEAKER_03 36:08

It was a little different. I mean, uh the crowd is a lot more subdued and and they don't really scream and yell until something happens and everybody at the same time go, ooh, or oh that's how it is when you play shows over there.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Yeah, like when you play shows over in these other countries, dude, it's like quiet while you're singing.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

They're waiting for you to hit a good note. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Very good, Mike. Very good. But it is a weird thing. You're used to the festivals down here, you know, or in America where everybody's hammered drunk and girls are on dude's shoulders, you know, and everybody's chugging beers, and over there they're paying attention to everything. I remember you telling me that.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

They're a lot more respectful to what they're watching.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Yeah. Did you lean more on the wrestling side when you first started your first early matches of it?

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah, I mean, I had to. I I didn't know, you know, I mean, how to punch very well. Um, you know, but taking guys down and and I really focused a lot on learning how to not get submitted.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

Is is the biggest thing. And and there was a lot of I think when I fought Big Nog in in Pride one time at uh and which was the second time I fought him. I beat him the first time, but uh it was pretty I got out of a lot of submissions. Uh yeah. He ended up submitting me though, but uh at the end of the fight, but I was I took that fight on like 10 days' notice. Yeah and he was a heavyweight champ at the time. And when someone was about like when you do you do you know, like right when you're like shit, he got me on this one, like right before, like Yeah, I you know I just kind of ran out of gas and and kind of relaxed, and then he ended up taking me down and and uh I you know I made a mistake and he got got an arm bar on me.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Yeah. Because you I mean at that at that level, I mean all of y'all are the best of the best, right? So you're just trying to catch you catch somebody in a loose spot, right? Like yeah. How how so take take take back to you go Japan? Was that where Pride was? Yeah. Japan?

SPEAKER_03 38:06

Yep. And then when that were you with part of the with the exception of two times they came to Vegas.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Oh, okay. So it was a Japanese-based organization.

SPEAKER_03 38:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

And then how long were you there for? How long?

SPEAKER_03 38:20

I would go there uh just about a week at a time for I'd I'd get there about six days early, acclimate to the time time zone, and then uh come home. So I wasn't I wasn't living there, but I I fought six or seven years over there. About I'd I'd go over there three or four about three times a year, probably.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

What what were you when you used to when you talk about uh having to cut weight? I don't think a lot of people don't know what goes into that, right? Like the Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Well, I didn't have to cut weight in pride.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

But they're used to that's what yeah, you were saying like you what were you finding? 205?

SPEAKER_03 38:55

They didn't have weight classes at first, and then when they did start their belts, it was 205. Yeah. But I weighed about 200, 202.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Naturally, so you didn't have to really have to do any weight in because it could be dangerous, right? I mean, some of those dudes that are dropping, like they say like Patty Pimwitt drops like I mean, he gets like gains a bunch of weight and then he'll drop like 40 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

He's a big dude and wrestles or fights at 155.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

So he's over 200 for sure.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Do do you think that gives like guys like him an advantage on a weight class if they have to uh I don't think it's an advantage at all.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

I at some point it it it hurts you to cut too much weight, yeah, and you can't perform the way you would. Some of these dudes are dropping 20. It just zaps your energy a lot of times, and and you know, but some guys uh can handle it just fine, some guys don't perform as well.

SPEAKER_01 39:45

It's it's kind of more that it probably helped you like in your fight so you didn't have to cut all that weight, right? Because it's the day before you weigh in, right? Is that what it is? Yeah. The day before, so you're drained. I mean, there I've talked to some dudes that are like, man, yeah, we've been in saunas with the sweatsuits on, and I you see these dudes having to like be pulled out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 40:04

The Yeah, I know it's it's cutting weight is is makes it a little bit difficult to perform to your best. Yeah. If you cut too much weight. So I even when I cut down to 185, it wasn't that bad of a cut. A couple times, you know, it wasn't a good cut, but um you know, for the most part, I I I and I preferred to fight 205. I didn't mind fighting the bigger guys. Yeah. It was all about to me, it was all about positioning. If you if if you get in the right position and you're not you're making the guy kind of carry your weight and and you know make wear him out, you're a little quicker, and and uh you know, plus I I hit just as hard as the big dudes.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Yeah, yeah. And UFC bought Pride, right? Yeah. And so whatever that whenever they got bought, then your contract you you negotiate a new contract with UFC or did they bring every They they brought everybody over, but we had they had to negotiate one with me. Yeah. Who's your first fight UFC?

SPEAKER_03 41:05

First well after the after they bought PUD. It was uh Anderson Silva. I had uh I had two two belts in prize. That's right. I had the 180 they there it was 183, but I had that belt and the and the 205 belt that I took from Vanderle.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Oh yeah. Those are some y'all y'all had some battles.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Yeah. Yeah, the first one that was my first pride fight was against him, and then Chuck Norris? And then he was my last pride fight.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Chuck Norris, was that that?

SPEAKER_03 41:39

Yeah, he was at my second one, not the first one.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

That was my last pride fight, and my first pride fight was Vandalay Silva.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Really? I didn't I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 41:49

I didn't really put it together until just now.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Is it as it I mean during the so I remember when we went, you were there uh when Bader fought uh Fedor and uh Ryan Bader fought Fedor in LA for Belletword. During the day, you know, I'm like, that was my first time, like, because I met uh when we became friends, you had retired, you had already retired, you know, so I didn't like been to one of your fights. So it was the first time like going to a friend of mine's fight, you know. During the day, it's like you I know in the music world, you know, you got your shit that you gotta do. And I'm like, oh, he's gotta be, you know, I'm just going on stage. No one's trying to knock me out or submit me. You know what I mean? So but you sell your stuff to do. And I remember like I texted Bader, I was like, hey man, uh, we're here. I'll get, you know, hit up Daisy, his wife, you know, get together, I'm assuming he's busy. And he's like, oh, dude, we're hanging out in the lobby of the hotel, dude. Just come on down. And I'm like, You're just chilling in the lobby, like the day you fight in like, you know, eight hours, you know. But to you guys, it's what you do. You know what I mean? It's like what it's no different than going on stage for us or whatever. But what was that day like for you?

SPEAKER_03 42:47

Like the fight day was well, the bit the worst thing that someone could do is just have spend a lot of nervous energy kind of worried about what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Thinking about what's gonna happen, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

Uh one, it's you don't want to have any negative thoughts, and two, it uses a lot of energy that you would need for your fight. So that's true. For me, I always just relaxed, and and uh in pride, they would always have us go over way early. So I would always just bring a pillow from my hotel room, and when I'd get there, I'd just take a nap and chill and just relax and I'd wake up from my nap and you know, and then it was time to get get ready to go, get my hands wrapped and and then uh warm up. Once I, you know, when I was warming up, I warm up hard. And you know, so when I my my training partners didn't really like warming up with me, but the one guy that usually I take over and that would warm up with me would bring in bring a headgear. Because no, he wouldn't bring a headgear, and then he started bringing one, you know, and I was like, okay, because cause I end up hitting him a little bit harder than you know normal. Yeah. And he they wouldn't be going as hard against me, obviously, because I'm about to fight. But I remember he he brought this headgear for a while, and then all of a sudden he wasn't had didn't have the headgear on after that. He's like, I'm like, where's the headgear? He's like, uh, yeah, no, I don't think that was a good idea because all it did was make you hit me harder. He's protected. He's like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

out there buzzing he's rocked before before you go out to fight your trading partner see it see a bird one of my corner guys one fight that I was warming up for I hit him with a a liver liver shot you know and and dropped him and and he was a kind of a jujitsu guy that I was warming up with and and and I'm like he was sitting there you know and we filmed it too we got on film but when it when I hit him he was like and he just kept moaning on the ground and I'm like can you drag him out of the way and somebody else get in here yeah Dan just got his training partners just laid out in the corner over there just yeah his liver hits they just drop you drop right there it it it it ceases you up you know for for a little bit I remember watching like getting the wind knocked out you but with a lot of pain yeah instead of not just being able to breathe and that's not a good feeling yeah add add excruciating pain to that too and Dan liked that guy he like that was a guy that he liked you know how was what what do you think like when you're I guess Vanderlei who was like any other like uh people that you look back on your career and go that was a because what what what do you call them when they're like uh trilogies or whatever right like when I like uh was there anybody that when you were you were fine you look back on and it was like that that you go what am I trying to ask like one of your favorite trilogies of you and somebody else fight like you like with Van der Leigh or well I mean Vanderlei we we we didn't have a a third match but we we were one and one we could have done that big nog we you know same thing I I I beat him the first time and and lost to him the second time.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Yeah um you know but and Shogun I be I beat him twice but I don't know I think all those guys are are you know I I think they're they were great ambassadors of the sport and really helped build the sport you know same as me so you know I I I respect all of them. Yeah that first time that cage locks what's that feeling like because pride was a ring right pride was well yeah I mean my very very first fight down in Brazil that that I went to and I was they were telling me stories about other fights down in Brazil that had happened and you know against two different gangs kind of thing what you know the wrestlers against the strikers type of thing and and or the jiu jitsu guys versus the strikers and somebody you know was in a clin they were in a clinch against the cage and somebody on the outside stabs them you know and I'm I'm hearing these stories and then I go down then you know it's my fight time they go in and they shut the cage and I'm like oh fuck what I what did I get myself into and I was like oh and the my very first fight was a guy against a guy that was a a a black belt in jujitsu Carlson Gracie black belt. Okay and you know I didn't know very you know I wasn't very good at I had two weeks notice so I I didn't really train much other than getting out of arm bars and triangles or trying not to get in them type of thing. So I went out there and you know it was we were flopping around a little bit more than you know when I look back I'm like holy shit I sucked but but you know it was a learning curve for everybody everybody was learning they didn't know how to wrestle either you know so I I ended up getting on top and it was right when in the US they were they were kicked off of regular pay-per-view direct TV it was the only way to get it right so off a cable they got kicked off and they were really trying to clean up the sport so this Brazilian organization had had told the referee if there was like five unanswered punches to the face you know stop the fight and they're not used to that in Brazil right that they you know to the death almost you know and uh I remember being on top of him and just punching him I kind of had him stuck in a spot but most of the punches were glancing or not even hitting him in the face they you know I kind of wasn't hitting him or he's walking the with his hands he wasn't he was hurt but not that bad. Right right they they should have let the fight go but they stopped it and then everybody just started throwing shit into the cage and trying to get into the cage and luckily the cage was like you know most of like the UC cage is like six foot high. Yeah yeah this was like 10 foot high. Oh okay and I was like thank God you know and you see video of the guy like holding the cage door shut you know and people punching him trying to get in. Oh my god I'm like holy shit I'm gonna die you know and and they finally got everything calmed down and and then there was a big standstill for a while that and then they offered to restart the fight to the guy because I don't know and and the guy was you know pretty respectful and and said no we need to respect the referee he he stopped the fight right right and you know we need to respect that and uh you know so he didn't he opted not to restart it and I'm sitting there because I cut a lot of weight for that one 175 it's the longest I've been in years and and I'm sitting there cramping and and you know sitting on the floor of the cage not knowing what's going on because it's in Portuguese and I I had no idea what was happening. Oh that's right yeah you don't you can you don't even know what they're saying. So I just know people people stopped throwing shit at me. I knew that yeah uh so that that was my first fight and and you know and then 45 minutes later I had my second fight in the same in there I guess an American wrestler that he he had beat a stand up like a Mui Thai guy and and that that fight was pretty quick. He shot a double egg on me and I guillotine choked him and when he was standing up with holding on to me. So and he first round and he fell backwards like 20 seconds.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

Oh shit yeah that's crazy so that was my my first fight event how was I like when you wait when you're fighting over there like you said like you do there language barriers there's all this you know like does that come in I mean because you're not really talking to the dude when you're fighting right so I would I wrestled internationally so I mean I was used to that I I wrestled all over different countries in Europe most of the time.

SPEAKER_03 51:06

Yeah uh so that wasn't the competition and the prep for competition mentally I was good at I mean because I had competed most of these guys that fought MMA they didn't come from 20 some years of competition and and at the highest level at the you know with the Olympics I already knew how to compete and and prep get prepped for that so I I definitely had a big mental head start from anybody you know it takes a lot of experience in the one or a lot of fights to kind of maybe start doing that or having that for these guys but I kind of had a head start with that.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

Before you got to that right yeah how how was how was um whenever because I I was thinking back at that time like we were saying earlier like that era of athletes whether it be baseball it was like even you know baseball you had Mark McGuire Sammy so you know all these like the home run derby Barry Bonds all that it was like basketball just elite athletes MMA starts blowing up and then when Spike TV came out with the ultimate fighter came out it was like that's when all of a sudden it was like I grew up watching you you know I remember watching VHS of like you know UFC two you know I remember whatever um back when there was no rules to it you know and there was there was three rules was that no eye gouging no eye gouging no fish hooking okay no but no kick in the nuts or no you could do that you could kick in the balls back then yeah oh that could uh that'd have been my go-to it was like no no headbutts were legal uh there was no eye gouging no fish hooking and there was one more I don't know that's that's insane when I started there was more rules yeah yeah they they got rid of the well no the first fight I did you could headbutt when you when you're on a clinch with somebody like that like are you are you like digging your head in or someone like or when you're down when someone takes you down or if you took when you took somebody down uh you know sometimes you push with your head but dude my my very first fight in Brazil against the jiu jitsu guy I was on top of him one time and he wrapped his arms grabbed his elbows around my head stuck his chin in my eye and I couldn't get away and I'm like holy shit that hurts yeah fucking pushing in my eyeball yeah no so yeah it does suck but I didn't I didn't do that you know but you wrestling you you kind of grow up if you grew up wrestling you always used your head for offense and defense kind of blocking things and and put putting the other guy in a kind of a bad uncomfortable position.

SPEAKER_03 53:58

Did y'all see when when all that when it was really started popping off it was like right when strike or uh uh spike tv and then ultimate fighter pops up that's when like it went everywhere dude it was like you couldn't go into a sports bar and not see half the dudes and tap out gear you know what I mean or like it was it just exploded what was that like for you guys I mean seeing that it was pretty cool I mean watching the explosion of it yeah um you know and and I I kind of had a little bit of fame I guess you would call it from just being on the Olympic team but that was only in the wrestling world and maybe my hometown people knew who I was um but after I started fighting in in in pride especially then you know that that really upped it was a lot of people that watched MMA and and it just as soon as Ultimate Fighter started that really catapulted a lot a lot more eyes on on the sport not just UFC but on the sport yeah yeah in general when it was pride when when ultimate fighter started was pride still an organization or had UFC yeah yeah no uh the UFC didn't buy Pride until uh I don't know I don't know it might have been 2008 maybe I don't know oh okay so it was a little later on. I don't know exactly when it was but what was that yeah but it was uh so yeah I was still going on for a long time with the Ultimate Fighter and and every time I'd go to a UFC or sometimes Dana and them would they would get me rooms and and you know fly me out even to to watch some of the fights or if I'm cornering Randy or or something like that in the UFC they would always want to have a sit-down talk with me and sit see where I'll get you see where I'm at with my contract. And you know is they'd always say you know let us know when your contract ends and we'll you know but Pride was always paying a lot more so I was getting paid better in in Japan than I I would have in the UFC and then that that kind of started to to shift when when there was some political issues with pride losing a bunch of sponsors and stuff so that's ultimately what led to the UFC purchasing pride and then led you to do your deal I was back in the UFC yeah when would when when so when was your first fight back to the UFC? That's what I'm trying to remember. Um maybe maybe it was 2007 yeah Brandon's looking it up I feel like uh what's Joe Rogan's dude's name the guy that Jamie I feel like we got Jamie over here Jamie pull it up Jamie see what we got pull it up Brandon Brandon Rampage was my first one oh Anderson Siv was my second one so yeah it was Rampage and literally my youngest daughter who's 18 right now was supposed to be born and I had to bump up the date of when she was born a couple days because I was leaving or had to leave to go to fight Rampage and they wouldn't change the date I should have just called Rampage and say hey tell them you can't do this until you know later I'm having a kid yeah uh but yeah I uh it was it was a it was a C section it was it was scheduled I just bumped it up about five days. So y'all have a little Danny and then go to yeah so I fight yeah I had I had um my youngest daughter and then two days later I left to go fight in in and that one was in England. Oh okay what the O2 arena in in the oh yeah I've played that place that place is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

Wait what did you did you train with Rampage? Did you know Rampage before y'all fought across paths?

SPEAKER_03 58:02

I trained with him a number of times. Yeah because I lived in Huntington like uh when I wrestled uh and then when I started first started fighting I lived in Huntington so I would go and train with those guys a little bit uh it was before he he was in anything I think he was just fighting in King of the Cage because he was in pride too right he was in pride before I was yeah okay yeah yeah um I think but yeah he uh he was fighting in like King of the Cage. I train with Tito occasionally and some of the other guys in there uh in Huntington. So that's kind of where I started training a little bit other than up in Oregon with Randy. Because now that we were doing wrestling and MMA at the same time both of us were trying to make that that 2000 Olympic team still oh okay and uh so we were uh doing both together we'd do a wrestling practice here and there and you know and and make sure that we're kind of keeping up with that and then just MMA practices did he corner for you some yeah he cornered for me quite a bit yeah when you when when y'all are a corner for somebody what's what what what is kind of your position there for them when you're cornering somebody um mostly just you know say hey you you need to be doing more of this less of this or you know kind of just a little bit more strategy put them out of yeah it the same thing in in a wrestling match hey you need to do this more do that more yeah we were used to you know kind of coaching guys in cornering from you know between rounds yes depend or during the in in wrestling sometimes sometimes it was only one one five minute round instead of you know two three minute rounds or something like that um is it weird is it when you fight like fighting somebody that you trained with do you have like a little bit of an advantage there because you kind of is it like uh it depends I mean it could be a disadvantage depends on your style uh true and how they match up you know um but it it didn't matter I didn't train with Rampage that much to where he knew and everybody knew at that point that you know I hit hard and I it was my right hand you gotta watch out for but I would still hit people with it. Uh you know it's one of those things hey watch out for that and and you're you're focused on watching out for it and it hits you in the face. Yeah yeah yeah you end up thinking too much about it ends up connecting yeah I remember one fight uh another American fighter that in pride had fought this guy that I'm this Japanese guy that I was supposed to be fighting and uh he's like hey watch out he throws an overhand right and you know and that's about the only thing he's got and we go out there and I'm fighting and all of a sudden you know I'm I'm on my back and he's punching down at me. I got hit with an overhand right and got knocked silly and and and then I got up and and then beat his ass the rest of the time but he knocked me silly I was in I was in survival mode and you know I'm waking up because he's over top of me trying to trying to finish me.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

And you got to pull your blitz together in that moment.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:17

You know kicking up at him and move you know using my feet well but I had no idea what was happening until like a couple seconds later what what was the fight was it Vanderlee you were telling me about that like there was like parts of that you won the fight.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

I think it's a Hall of Fame fight right that was Shogun Shogun Shogun that's right not Vanderleigh was that the one you were telling me where it was like he like you like you don't really even remember some of that round yeah the first round yeah that was the second fight um with him and that was down in Brazil and I remember um after the fight in the in the hotel bar lobby bar or whatever you know the referee was in there and and you know he's talking to me about my fight and and he's like man yeah I almost stopped the fight you know right at the end of you know I was like huh I guess I gotta go home and watch that again because I don't I don't remember that happening.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:16

I don't remember being hurt that bad but yeah no I was I was in in in autopilot that's crazy man and not knowing what was going on for you know a good 10 seconds probably he dropped me and you know I got back up but you know I it was I had no clue that it was that bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

That's crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:34

What is that moment and then he didn't stop the fight and then second round I got dropped again and you know because I really didn't recover. But I knew what everything was going on in the second round and and had just held on to him and I was thinking to myself I gotta it was a five round fight so I you know I told myself I gotta win the next three rounds. Yes. So I I got up and finished him in the third.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:56

That's it I I remember watching that fight. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:58

That one was a lot tougher for me than the first one. The first one was a five round war but I beat him up for three rounds and and then ran out of gas a little bit. Yeah uh that was the first time they they were doing uh the five rounds for a main event.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

Was that title? Was it a no it wasn't a title fight just a main event fight that was the fight before I was I was supposed to fight John Jones uh and that one got cancelled because my knee yeah is that a fight you like if you look back on like people you wish you could have like yeah I was so ready for that fight and and ready for a real long as a fan dude that would have been such a crazy fight man that would have been awesome yeah how how with um with the with the we were talking about the fighter pay stuff that's such a big topic now with UFC yeah and all that stuff you were saying earlier how pride was paying more but back then like I mean I remember you telling me like your first fight well you made uh my first fight down in Brazil I think I made like two or three thousand dollars just to show up another five if I won my first fight.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:16

Right. I think I made 12 grand winning two fights winning the tournament yeah you're like I guess that's a lot of money. Well for sure especially a wrestler that that doesn't get paid anything. Yeah you know my dad was uh kind of supporting me a little bit and you know so yeah I I made like I think I made 12 grand for two fights and then when I fought in the UFC at tournament I think I made 20 20 grand for two fights it was like you know three or four grand to show up and then a little bit to win the first one a little more to win the second one.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:51

Yeah but people don't I don't think people realize like when y'all are fighting like you you still have to pay your corner like there's a lot it's like in the music business it's like okay you might book so and so for we'll just for easy math say 100 grand or whatever right but like 45% of that has gone to commissions of management other stuff you know and then you got to pay your band and your bus and all that stuff. So it's not like you're walking out you know with hey it was a hundred thousand dollars you know you're you're walking you're getting paid good but it's not a lot's going coming out of that you know what I mean so for you guys there's no y'all don't have health insurance right on any of that stuff so you don't have and you're paying for your cruise flight your corner you know your hotels oh they did they pay for travel for you and your corners oh okay I didn't know depends on on your contract gotcha most of the time it's there and I had and pride pride was flying me business class first class or business class and and flying an extra like uh three corners instead of UFC just does two usually uh two corners yeah what do you mean by that what coaches are oh coaches oh okay yeah yeah um and and then I would get a lot more tickets in the for the in the stands for my people so I would get ten six front row and four right behind there something like that a second row type of thing and and uh they would mostly UFC fighters didn't even get tickets or they would get two at the most.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:24

So That carried over with my contract of when when UFC bought Pride, I'm like, no, that that stays the same. Stays, yeah. Yeah. So I had some bigger perks coming from Pride than a lot of the guys did in UFC.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

What was those after parties like after y'all won? That's what I'm jealous I missed out on with the Hendo after party of a they're they're always fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:47

I could only imagine. You know, win or lose, they're always fun. But yeah, obviously you're you're more a little more in the celebratory mood when when you win.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:57

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the uh whenever uh what was that it was Vegas like one of your favorite places to fight or win?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:04

Uh it was yeah, it was probably one of them. I I didn't fight in Vegas that often, you know. I think less than I fought twice in Pride there and maybe twice only twice in the UFC.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:15

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:16

I guess I just assumed that they were Bisbang and uh and DC, I think might have been the only two that I fought there in the UFC. And then uh Vitor Belfort and Vanderleigh and Pride.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:34

Oh Van oh okay, yeah. Vitor was Pride too, yeah. Yeah. That's right. So do you think, I mean, with the way that the fighter pay stuff is now, like what do you how do you feel on that stuff with I honestly I don't even know how much they're getting paid now.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:48

Yeah. It was kind of hard to know back in the day. It was always, you know, you're not supposed to talk about it. Right. Because they didn't want other people to get, you know, know that certain somebody's getting paid more than they are. I I I think it should be out there publicly. Yeah. And and fighters can either ask for this or or whatever they they want, knowing what everybody else is getting paid. Uh you know, but the UFC didn't want that.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:19

Yeah, yeah. It's uh they some of the MVP, the new, like Jake Paul and them just started that new organization, you know, and uh uh Francis Nagana's fighting and Ronda Rousey fighting, they just announced Nate Diaz and Mike Perry on it. You think that has like a And that's an MMA, right? Yeah. Oh, did you? Oh, you did? Oh, that was in LA? Oh, I didn't know how was that? Yeah. That's awesome. Do you think I mean I th I feel like it's healthy like to have like it's kind of like with WWE and AEW wrestling, you know, it's like having that competition. Like we grew up, it was Monday Night Wars, you know, WCW and WWE, UFC's kind of been the the I mean they own the whole field, right? I mean, like there's really no competition with the people.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:02

They really haven't I I think I think for the last 10 years, they haven't really done much in the way of really building up certain guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:12

Um yeah, because I was saying by that, I want to say like because when I look back on like watching you guys fight you and Randy and and you know, Chuck and Rampage and that era, it was like I sometimes I'm like, am I did I hit the age now where I'm like my generation was better? You know what I mean? But then but when I look at like there really isn't that I mean, y'all, I mean you you can name multiple Hall of Famers in your generation, you know, multiple people that were household names from mixed martial arts, you know. And now I don't know if it's just gotten bit bigger, you know, because now there's a fight every weekend.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:45

Before it was like it's definitely watered down.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:48

Once every yeah, yeah, it's like there's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:50

And and most weekends I don't recognize any names on the card. Yeah, same. You know, so which is you know kind of hard for me to predict anything. Right, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody's coming. And I I've been trying to watch more fights now than and I do watch a lot more fights than I I had prior to opening this restaurant, but now we're kind of a sports bar, so I'm I'm I've been watching a lot more fights.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:14

Yeah, y'all show the fights here, right? Yeah. Every fight. Yeah. So if you if you're in Tamakla, California, come to Hendo's Barrel House fight night. You got to watch a UFC fight with a UFC legend. Yeah. And get some great wings on top of that. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:27

Yep, for sure. It's fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:29

How so are y'all got any plans for the year anniversary of this place?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:33

Uh, we we're trying to figure that out now, what we're doing. Um, definitely need to get uh you know somebody singing in here.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:43

Give me and Bobby Pence in and run Tyler's crazy ass back through here.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:48

Yeah. Might have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:50

That'd be fun. Over now, what what's cool about this place too is like upstairs, the glass where you can see into the gym, which is where the Octagon is and where we all host the fight nights.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:59

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:59

How many are you do fight night every about every two and a half months now?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:03

Two and a half months. Five times a year. So we've been on uh this next one next month is gonna be uh the 23rd time that we've done it. So it's uh it's pretty cool. We we get quite a quite a bit of people in here, about about 800 people in the city.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:22

Yeah, it's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:23

And some of them are in the VIP, which is upstairs, that overlooks that's right above the cage. So the view is really good.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:30

And and everybody like so if you get is that like a VIP ticket people buy?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:35

Yeah, you get a VIP ticket for upstairs. We do yeah, we do, you know, there's tables you can get as well, and and uh and then we have you know about 500 chairs downstairs.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:49

What I love watching those fights, man, is it's like it's it's the it's the people trying to, you know, they're they're trying to make their name, dude. And these people come out banging. There they go, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:58

Yeah, I mean ready to freaking a lot of them, you know, they're they're they're they're green a little bit. So their their defense isn't the best there or their offense, but because the guy's defense isn't, you know, they there's a lot more action in these amateur fights. Yeah. And we do a kids' show too, a kid's MMA fight, kind of is like an undercard, usually eight to ten kid fights, which they have a little bit different rules. It's it's no striking to the head at all. Right. And they have gear on it. Yeah, they have headgear anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And certain submissions aren't allowed. They wear shingles and you know, so but those are pretty entertaining as well. Yeah. And then right after that, the amateur starts. And uh, yeah, they there's some been some really good knockouts and good fights on there. We and we stream that as well. A lot of the family.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:49

Where can people watch it stream wise?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:51

Uh people can watch that at combat sports.com.

unknown 1:12:57

Now.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:57

Oh combat now?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:59

Combat sports now. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:01

Combatsports now.com.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

Yeah, this place is a special place, man. It's it's awesome. How uh anything else, man? Any any new?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:11

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. I did start uh foundation. I've been doing a charity event for two or three years, but I was picking charities and using their 501c3 to to raise money for them. Uh now I just to make everything life a lot easier, I started my own foundation and then uh I'm gonna be doing the same thing, supporting two different charities at our annual pig roast and golf tournament. Uh and throughout the year, I'm also getting uh companies to sponsor uh at-risk and low-income kids and to come into my gym for for a year. Uh and then we're also doing a veterans program to where you know some of these vets that that come back sometimes that they don't have much money, they can't afford a gym membership. And or they they just need need that kind of community to support, yeah, help them mentally and physically just to to to kind of give them another purpose of doing something and and and a family type atmosphere that that helps lift them up and instead of just being lonely at home and then you know that's that's why the suicide rate's been so high with with them. That they they just need more support.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:32

Yeah, yeah. They come back over here and just feel like what do I do now? You know, and all the all the bad things.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:37

So that's what what I'm went through. The the two biggest things with the foundation is is you know, uh helping vets and first responders, and then um, you know, just uh trying to put a kid either we're gonna focus more 12 to 20 year old kids. Uh you know, they they come come to a point in their life where they could go this way or that way, and you know, trying to help them kind of give them a choice to go the the right way, yeah. And and really to help them make better choices and and you know, hopefully maybe even make a career out of MMA or whatever it is, but just make them a better person.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:19

Yeah, I mean you see you so people don't I don't think a lot of people that might not watch MMA or might not grow up around it or whatever. They people don't realize like the what it does for somebody training, and like you said, bringing a community of people together, you know, and you're you're you're you're facing a fear, you know. I mean, like fighting is a no matter how good you are at it or whatever, you're still in a fight. You know, it's still a there's still something there, and you're go you're testing yourself and you push yourself past your limit, you know, past your what your brain tells you, I gotta stop. And it it teaches kids, it gives them a purpose, like you were saying, it teaches them perseverance, it teaches them to work through hard things in life, you know, they're gonna be thrown at you and gives them that that purpose to to keep fighting, even if it's not in a cage, you know, keep fighting in life. If something throw you know, something happens, you know, if a family member or disease happens or something, it's like these the mental the the the mental that that that it builds for these kids, I'm sure is is huge. And you probably see a big difference in those kids that stick to it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:18

Yeah, absolutely. And I've had kids like that come into my gym throughout the years and and really made a a difference in their life. And I I'd hear from them years later. Even even wrestlers that that that I've coached a long time ago just it's it made an impact on their life to really give them a sense of you know uh setting goals and trying to reach them, yeah, not just in MMA or wrestling, but outside of the gym, being able to to have have an ambition to do something in life.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:53

Yeah, give them a purpose to to to push forward on stuff. Where where did you where because you and I do a lot of work with veterans and you were saying with your with your your foundation, where did that pride and that patriotic pride that you have for veterans in our country, where did that come from?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:07

Your father Bill and I think the fact that I I traveled around the world to a lot of places that weren't so great to be at. Uh and then you'd come home and see how great we have it here in America, and then making an Olympic team and listening to the national anthem played.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:30

Listening to that gives me chills just like you say. That's freaking awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:34

Well, and I I remember distinctly a a guy named Kevin Jackson was was wrestling at freestyle final match against the Russians, and and the match was real close. It was a tide score, and uh they ended up giving Kevin Jackson some points on on a thing that was a little bit questionable, but I don't think it was questionable at all. Like they they thought they went out of bounds, but he didn't, type of thing, and got the points to win, like a sudden death type thing. Okay. So he won the gold medal, and the guy was protesting, wouldn't wouldn't shake his hand after the match. And that back and I think they probably still do it right after the match, is is when they do the the medal s ceremony. I think they they wrestle one match and then they do the medal ceremony for the the match right before. So when he was going to get his medal, the Russians started singing their national anthem. And all the Americans, and this is in Barcelona, so all the Americans that were there overpowered that with our national anthem when they're playing it when he's getting his medal. So and and every time I hear the national anthem, it it brings back that memory. Yeah. And and you know, just the uh the patriotism that that's there. And in me, they it kind of helped grow it in me being a part of representing our country in in the Olympics.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:12

Yeah, you I tell people all the time, man, when you when you travel around, like you were saying, you really see how other countries are and how good we have it over here, you know, like no place is perfect, but I'd rather be here than anywhere else, you know. And then those men and women that lace up boots to go and and give us uh a country where we can pursue happiness, where we can, you know, hop in a yellow van and go and pursue a wrestling career, make a career out of something that is your passion. You know, you're not we get to do that because those men and women, and you and I've been fortunate enough to meet a lot of those men and women.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:44

That's a huge sacrifice that they give. Hear their stories, whether it's whether it's their you know, giving up family time, yeah, not watching their kids grow up because they're always gone, you know, having not the best relationship because they're always gone. And and you know, and then even the ones that don't make it back, you know, the that's the ultimate sacrifice. And and somebody needs to be there to kind of support them. And the ones that do make it back, some of them really need a lot of support. Some of them are are good to go, but some of them a lot of them do need a lot more support than they're given.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:18

Yeah, I mean, you know, a lot those guys, those men and women, they see they see hell firsthand, you know, and then and then come home, and there's no way you're the same person coming back. You know, there there's no way that you you see those things and have those you know, pe people shooting at you or constantly trying to, you know, every day you're going, is this right, you know, could this be the day? You know, it's oh for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:40

Yeah, so I'm I'm very patriotic and I know our country is the best country in the world, and it's because of our military.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:49

Yeah. When what uh what charities do you do you know what your charities are for this year's?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:55

Yeah, this year it's uh one's it's called Vets Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions. Uh it's it's kind of more of a psychedelic uh ayahuasca type thing that that they send these guys to. Their success rate on the first time going has been about eighty percent. Wow. A lot of these veterans are are like I said, this the suicide rate is unbelievable. And just for them to be eighty percent cure rate or or I don't want to say the word cure, but success rate we'll call it. And then the second time it's in the yeah, if they go twice, it's in the ninety percent uh success rate as far as you know, changing people's lives and and you know, I think it's a a newer type of uh treatment that some of these guys are just getting a lot of uh benefit from. So and then the the other charity that we're doing is uh Vets for Child Rescue. So it's these veterans a team of veterans go and they they locate kids that have been taken or child trafficking, go out and locate them and do a an operation to bring the kid back, and also they have a hundred percent arrest rate on on the people that did do the the kidnapping or taking the kids. They work with the local law enforcement and they go around all the around the world to do this, and and you know, so that's the the second charity that we're supporting this year. Is the golf tournament filled up already, or can people still uh the golf tournament we just put it out there for people to start uh purchasing it. So I'm I'm guessing it'll be gone within a couple weeks. Yeah, it'll fill up real fast.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:41

Well, this episode will be out, so y'all get on if you're a golfer. Where where's it gonna be at this year?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:46

Uh it's gonna it's in Temecula. It's called Temecula Creek Inn uh this year. So it's uh it's a great course in in Temecula.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:55

So and then the next day.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:57

And then yeah, the next day. That's on a on Friday of Labor Day weekend, and then Saturday of Labor Day weekend is is a pig gross, and that's at my house. Yeah. This might be the last year at my house. I think we're we're is it? We might be outgrowing it, and and and the wife is uh the wife, the wife might be done with it being there.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:16

Yeah. Well, but a lot of people don't know this is also where they got married.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:20

We got married at my pigros, yes. Uh, and that was 11 now almost 12 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:27

D did you think, I mean, was it some when you started it? Was it some was it somebody you're like, hey, let's do this annually and bring charities in and give back? Because you give up, you do a lot of charity work and and give back a lot of charity.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:37

Yeah, you know, it's this is the third year of the golf tournament, fourth year of the pig rest being a charity event. Uh for at least a few years before that, I was I was thinking about turning my pig rust into a charity event. Because, you know, I I would usually just pay for everything and and and it would be just a party my friends and and uh family and and and other people would come to. Yeah. And uh then I'm like, you know, I'm just I'll start charging money and just turn it into a charity event and and you know, kind of do some good with with a fun time. Yeah. So that's what started it. And and the first year we did we I supported Randy's uh GI foundation. Okay. Uh and you know, we raised like 10 grand, which was not bad, but we didn't and when we did the golf tournament, that that really brought in a lot more money and a lot more people to come. So uh the golf tournament year, we the first year of the golf tournament we I think we raised uh 65k for that charity. Yeah, yeah, and then last year we did uh almost doubled that. So like 60 and like 125k or something like that we raised for two different charities. So this year we're hoping to double that again.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:06

Yeah, man. That's that's incredible. And and uh saying the pig rose party only invitation if pretty much you know you or if you're part of the golf tournament, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:16

Yeah, I mean it's it's you you've had to uh basically been to the pig rest before. Yeah, and you get another invite, or be at the golf tournament. And sometimes you don't get an invite to the pig rest if if you came from the golf tournament and you're not golfing that year, so you kind of have to be on my list. Yeah, yeah. Or or on the golfing tournament. So and it's Labor Day weekend, Labor Day weekend, yeah. It's Friday, Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Sunday is my favorite day of the of the weekend.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:50

That's a hydration day. That's a hydration. Yeah, it's been two days of just debauchery and hanging out and golfing, and then Sunday, everybody's just lined up on Hendo's couch.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:04

For sure. Yeah, it's a fun time.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:07

All right, before we wrap this up, just because I just I know people always talk about it, man. Whenever you you got over here, I don't know if people can see it, but is that is that from your season of Ultimate Fighter?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:17

Yeah. When you were coaching, yeah, that's when I was coaching against Bisbang.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:22

So with you and Bisbang and that that feud, was there was was some of that put on for ticket sales, or was there a no, uh you mean during the ultimate fighter?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:34

Yeah, yeah. I I think he was that kind of guy that um might say more shit to to but he was just an asshole in general, kind of more of a douchebag. And and and I do respect that out of uh about him. Like he doesn't put on a a show for the cameras, right? Yeah, he's just that guy all the time. So you gotta respect that. Like he it wasn't like a John Jones that prays after a fight and says great, you know, and then goes out and does a bunch of blows and triple jokes. So you know, and yeah, he was Bisbing was who he was, no matter what. So you gotta respect that, and and I do, you know, and and but he was still to me, he was kind of a douchebag, and and just a you know, whined about everything, and you know, and yeah, so it was real. But I when we went to fight, it wasn't like I was mad at him or right. It was uh it wasn't it was just business to me, and yeah, you know, it he's he's kind of a douchebag, and there's a lot of people out there that are douchebags. Yeah. And and and I didn't hit him that extra time just because he was an asshole. Right, right. I hit him, I would have I I did that the when I fought Vanderlei when I knocked him out. I I did the same exact thing, I just didn't get as airborne, yeah. Uh with with that follow-up punch.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:02

Now your logos, it's like the Air Jordan logo for Michael Jordan. Yeah, it's the Air Hindo logo, that's what they call it.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:10

Um so yeah, that that and and he I I've heard he was he was kind of upset about that logo, but I'm like, he he's not even in it.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:19

Yeah, he's not on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:19

Yeah, it was just me in there.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:21

Yeah. We do a fish and tournament, or I guess it's not a tournament, we do offensive fish. Feathers was just Clay Wida and Chad Mendez's uh out outdoor organ stores. Yeah, Chad Mendez, yeah. And uh so we go do these fishing trips. Bluefin tuna trips are awesome, they're a lot of fun. If you're a fisherman, look up Finns and Feathers and hop on one of these uh uh charter trips. And we did there's a theme night one night on the boat where everybody dresses up, and Chad is setting everybody up, and he's like, Hey man, we're gonna do Dan Dan Henderson, Dan Henderson theme night. And I'm like, Does Dan know about this? He goes, No, he's not. And so Sierra's daughter has this incredible costume of Dan, or she was she dresses up like Dan. You've seen it, people've seen it. We probably got a photo we might be able to throw up on there. And so we're on the fence of I go, I go, what the heck? So we I'm in a Bisbean shirt or whatever. I had the black eye patch. Sierra came out to Dan's walkout song with the flag. It was you one of your shorts, like a pair of your real shorts, wouldn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:20

Yeah, and then I she had my I think her my real belt too.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:24

Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah. She brought the real belt. It was a fun time, man. Well, dude, thanks for doing this for me, man. I really appreciate it. No worries, thanks for having me up. Any uh anything else we need to push?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:34

Anything that coming up with the restaurant or yeah, so we did a raffle last year, and and you were in part of that too. So the winner of the raffle would get to golf. I I would join their team for for so many holes, and and and you were on that as well last year. Yeah. I I think I did sell more raffle tickets than you.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:51

Well, you did, yeah. Yeah, that's your your name's on it. You gotta keep friends that humble you, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:57

Uh but we are doing it on and we're offering that online this year, so people can buy those early and and and get the raffle.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:05

Where do where do they go for that?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:06

Do we hinds uh Hindos Golf Turnip?

unknown 1:30:08

Charity Golf.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:09

Hindoscharity Golf.com.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:11

Yeah, Hindos Charity Golf.com. Uh one we're giving away one foursome in a raffle, and I'm gonna golf so many holes with them. Uh how many holes? I'm gonna golf nine holes with the raffle winner. And so it's a foursome and up to fifteen hundred dollars worth of travel. Oh, that's awesome. So, yeah, I mean it's uh that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:35

That's great, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:36

I didn't know we were doing that, so that's pretty uh badass.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:39

Anything um trying to thank Book. If y'all haven't read his book, Amazon.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:44

Yeah, it's called Hindo, it's on Amazon and uh uh Barnesandnoble.com, I think. Okay. Uh yeah, and it's it's just called Hendo, the the American athlete.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:55

Anybody that's seen uh the first few episodes of of uh Offstage America, we filmed in my living room at my house, and I got your book in the background. So if you see it in there, that's a book. Y'all gotta get it. Make sure you read it. It's great. I've been one of my best butts for a long time, and I learned a lot of stuff reading the book, you know. But um, I try to wrap this up with with a with something positive, man. I feel like, you know, the world's all negative, so much division and everything on here. So ending it with something that we all we will us, we we hope that we leave the next generation something, you know. We're all standing on the shoulders of the generation before us, you know, and and what we leave um is is the legacy of of who we were, you know, and and our mark on it. Any advice that you would give or anything that that that you would leave for anybody right now that that oh I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:42

I mean just my biggest thing is is uh people just need to respect other people. And that that's one of the I think the biggest things that's lacking is just respect for other people. And and uh you know, it could be your wife, it could be your you know, your your business partner or whatever it is. Just be more respectful and and you know, be a good person.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:09

Yeah, awesome, man. Well, thank you, brother. I love you, man. Appreciate you doing this. B thank you, dude, for setting all this up for us last minute. We were was it the night of the show when I came up to it. I was like, hey, dude, I think we could throw this together up here. But uh, if you're in Tamaica, come see Hendo's Barrel House, catch a fight night. Um, when is the next one?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:27

You're uh April 25th.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:28

April 25th is the next one. Get tickets. Hendo's Fight Night.com, uh golf charity, Labor Day weekend. What's the site Hendo Hendo Foundation the Hendo Foundation.com. And uh y'all come see us here in Tamaico, man. Temaico's a great little town, really cool spot. Uh, but Hendo's Barrel House is where you want to go. So thank you guys. Love y'all.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:48

Let's go, buddy. Peace out.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:50

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:51

It actually worked out perfect.