All Roads Lead to King of the Streets

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You're listening to the Away Days podcast on the ground outside reporting from the underbelly with me, Jake Hanrahan.

To watch away days documentaries, go to youtube.com slash at awaydays TV.

This is part one.

No rules is no rules.

Episode 4.

This podcast is a production of H11 Studio and CoolZone Media.

Since we first met Joey in episode 1 when he fought Bash in Hastings, he's been having a bit of a hard time getting fights.

He tried to sign up to go at it in just about every fight club or bare knuckle event there is, but he's been having no luck.

He's eager, a decent fighter, and completely dedicated to violence and raising his own profile in the underground.

Still though, something wasn't hitting.

Personally, I think it might be his flamboyant character and attitude.

As I've mentioned before, Joey is really quite different from most of the clandestine fighters out there.

He's loud as fuck, he dyes his beard, he wears neon colours and lives with his heart on his sleeve at all times.

Joey is about as stoic as a Jerry Springer contestant.

He cannot help but shout loudly about what he thinks and who he is.

Joey, whether you like him or not, is a one of one.

I think it's great, however I'm unsure the scene as a whole is quite ready for someone like him.

Generally there's a hardcore tough guy element to underground fight clubs as you can obviously imagine.

Joey running in with his neon pink trainers and three different haircuts all bleached dyed different ways doesn't quite fit the mold.

The whole point of clandestine fighting though is that it's a counterculture outside of society.

Anyone taking part has to exit from the norm and prepare for a wild west in every way possible even if you're just in attendance watching.

There's one King of the Streets video for example where someone in the crowd grabs onto a fighter through a corrugated fence literally trying to limit his movement so his opponent can get the upper hand.

God knows what he was thinking but let it be known that no rules only applies to what's happening inside the fight.

Everyone else better behave.

In the video, the mysterious boss man of cots instantly spots the grabbing and leaps over the fence like a gazelle.

Several other hype crew members follow him, and a fight breaks out in the crowd.

The edit then cuts to a be right back technical difficulties card for a second before the fight is back on.

I have it on good authority from someone who was there that day that the lad who grabbed the fighter got beaten up, knocked out and dragged out of the venue.

I was told he's banned for life from all COTS events.

There's even a rumour he was kicked out of the hooligan firm he was a part of for embarrassing everybody involved with his antics.

No rules is not a game, it's not a sport.

That's just one specific example that was caught on video.

There are many more that are yet to be seen, like when the police raided a COTS fight and hundreds of people inside had to escape and attempted to run away before the cops arrested them or when fights broke out between rival hooligan firms close to the event.

So Joey spent months trying to fight people on the concrete.

Every so often he'd have an opponent ready only for them to drop out at the last minute.

If it wasn't that it was personal health issues of his own.

I won't go into too much detail other than what Joey has already said publicly but basically he has a fairly serious heart condition that flared up recently putting a pause on his training and fighting.

Down, out and unwell, I could sense Joey was becoming depressed.

He called me up for no real reason talking about how his fights had fallen apart, how he needs to get operated on, how he's basically sick of sitting around.

He'd be sat at home in Wales with his mind ticking over double time.

Fighting men are not attuned to bedrest.

It's not in their DNA, it's not in their makeup.

They feel lethargic, puffy and even out of control.

The discipline of the gym, the ring and the concrete is where they most feel relaxed.

One time I saw on Joey's Instagram stories that he was taking a rest from training for a bit due to injury.

But within hours, he posted a story of him jogging topless in the moors whilst eating a full red onion raw, like an apple.

Why?

I don't know, but that's what he was up to that's the kind of person he is trying to get joey to rest for anything is obviously going to be very difficult

as you can imagine when joey got the confirmation he'd be fighting on king of the streets he was over the moon he went instantly from the sofa to the tarmac hitting weights hitting the bags and consuming as many steroids as possible After a few weeks, Joey is ready.

He's even asked the cots bosses if I'd be allowed to come and film his fight but they said no, security issues.

It is what it is.

Instead I'm headed out to Spain to meet Joey a few days before the fight.

I won't get to see it but I'll see him before and after.

I land in Spain.

We'll keep the city undisclosed but it's busy, it's hot and the traffic is bonkers.

Joey arrived yesterday.

He was flown out by hype crew, all expenses paid and is currently held up in a hotel on the outskirts of the city.

The fight is in 24 hours.

There's a rumour going round that the location for this event will be the most extravagant in the history of COTS.

Generally the fights are held in warehouses or empty multi-story car parks but now and then a wildcard location is used for the fights.

One time they held an event in an ice rink with the floor covered, another on top of a roof of a very high building.

It's like Tekken.

The one that's planned for Spain is apparently unlike anything else.

I call Joey.

He's full of energy as usual.

He tells me to come through, so I'll hop in a taxi and head out to meet him and his mate.

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This is Jonas Knox from Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.

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He's there, man.

He's there with his top off.

Saturday, mate.

Fucking size on him.

What's happening?

How you doing, man?

Saturday, bro.

How you feeling?

Fucking top and fire back.

Yeah, good man.

You're looking happy.

You made it, man.

Joey is easily half a stone heavier than when I'd last seen him.

He's put on a ton of muscle.

He's got his shirt off and his hair slicked back and he's practically vibrating on the spot.

He's just throwing out sentences without me even asking anything.

In the midst of this madness, he starts to explain how he finally got onto cots.

After all Joey's efforts to get the attention of hype crew and king of the streets, all it took in the end was messaging a previous fighter who was friendly.

As Joey said, some Polish lad who'd fought on COTS before gave him the contact for the right people.

He sent them footage of his previous fights and they said, yep, okay, you can fight at COTS.

Joey will be fighting Alex,

a man we spoke about briefly in episode 1.

He's the guy who got half his ear bitten off by Bash and continued to fight an even win by a brutal double eye gouge.

Alex is a serious fighter with a lot more experience than Joey.

Joey though genuinely does not seem anything but excited.

No nerves, just excitement.

we walk through a feel of dusty barren land as he sporadically jumps about whooping and shadow boxing he's like a kid in a sweet shop

looking down at me telling me yeah what this is like this is like a big thinking this is what you've been aiming for though innit?

What is it about the king of the streets that like mate you want to be on the street?

The scenery and all that is fucking hell.

It's like a movie innit.

Eclipse they have on YouTube, right?

It's like a fucking

film that you've been watching for an hour long, like 50 fucking odd minutes long.

And I just thought, fuck out, you know, he looks nasty as fuck, do you know what I mean?

What's the worst can happen?

Obviously, yes, a lot of things, but you know, certain men don't think like I don't know what I mean.

You don't think like that.

Whilst Joey, as you can hear, is a bit of a madman in person, there's something almost endearing about him.

He's a young man from South Wales where there is honestly not much opportunity.

The idea that he'll soon be taking part in the world's most serious underground fight club is exhilarating for him.

Hate it or love it, this is the biggest prospect of Joey's life so far.

It means a lot to him.

I'm just waiting for that.

Like, you know, going on to this King of the Sea Fight, there's nothing more harder or better, is it?

Do you not feel any nerves at all?

No, I don't do I.

It's what I want.

Do you know what I mean?

I don't see...

I'm not a bad person.

Do you know what I mean?

I'm doing this out of what I want to do.

I'm practicing.

I'm fucking getting more better.

And I just want to...

Well, I obviously want to smack someone too, like, but, you know, that's their fault anyway, because they want to do it as well.

So if you, you know, you both want to be men, let's go for it.

But no, no, no, don't get worried or shy or nervous or fuck all that.

Something that often comes up when I tell people I've been filming underground Norweg's fight clubs like the one Joey's about to take part in is the idea that everyone involved must be some kind of lunatic.

Their lives must have been hard.

They're probably nasty pieces of work.

Blah blah blah.

Now that's definitely true for some fighters but most of the people I've met in the two years I've been working on my no rules project are totally normal other than the fighting.

Most of them are really nice even.

Joey, for example, is a family man who's very close with his mum and dad still.

It's something he talks about often.

haven't been through nothing to fucking get myself that way.

I'm just happy and excited.

That's the thing, a lot of people are like, oh,

you must have something wrong with you, there must be something in your childhood.

What is it?

Yeah, fuck all that.

I got raised up fucking perfect by my parents.

Like, literally, I was the best ever, ever.

I had everything I ever wanted.

Catholic primary school, Catholic fucking comp school.

You know, I weren't allowed out late at night.

I weren't fucking, you know, I never got into no trouble and that.

So, dunno, maybe unless it's because I'm at this age now and I can't have my parents can't tell me.

I think, yeah.

You just like fighting?

Yeah, it's just that like yeah.

What have you uh what your mum and dad said about it?

Do they know?

Yeah, my mum doesn't know about this.

You know, she don't know about this again.

Like, but my dad's like, I told him, he goes, well, fucking hell, Joe, because it's not much I can say about it anymore.

You know, you want to do it, I can't tell you anymore.

So

yeah, it probably is why I'm doing it as well because I'm able to do stuff now without my parents fucking telling me.

The thing with Cox is it's more than just the fighting.

The whole thing is an experience, a counterculture, a door into a different world that is closed for 99% of the population anywhere.

For Joey, he's not only fighting on a massive platform, he's been flown out to somewhere new, he gets paid to fight and he gets treated differently to what he would back home.

I think this is a big appeal for many fighters involved in the counterculture of no rules clandestine fighting.

I've always always wanted to get flew out to a different country, not towards the UK, and fucking another fight like Turning.

And that doesn't matter if it was for free or if it was fucking 10 grand or fucking million pounds.

Like, money don't matter to me.

No, it doesn't make a difference.

Doing it, is that?

You know, this is you have money, but you spend this gone.

If you're doing it something, you have the memory of it all.

So, many years and matches, I guess, is a free night out with the missus and a fucking, yeah, whatever else.

Like,

do you remember, like, do you remember like your first fight?

Like a street fight?

Yeah.

My first street fight, though, see, must have been when I was younger.

And that when, obviously just sticking up for my brother, because people used, you know, used to get a little bit of a little idiot, and that he was a little bit, you know, he'd get in trouble, like, so I'd be his brother, so I'd stick up for him.

And yeah, yeah, remember them, it was kind of always just one massive bang, and then he'd be down, and I was like, oh, fuck it out, wow, this is mad.

So I mean, I never fought anything from it, though, always thought I was tough, until I'd done my first ever fight, boxing fight, and then I was like, whoa.

I leave Joey to shadow box in the dust and concrete, preparing for his fight tomorrow.

Now, I'm not allowed to see the fight in person but I can watch it in real time.

COTS has a live pay-per-view link on their website so I sit back in my Airbnb and get ready to see if Joey has what it takes to be part of King of the Streets history.

I stay glued to my laptop for the countdown.

The pay-per-view starts.

Rumours are true.

This is by far the most extravagant COTS location to date.

They're fighting in a bullring.

They've even got someone dressed up as a matador to lead the event.

It's incredible.

The fighters are preparing in the paddocks where the bull would go.

Old broken wooden gates separate the fighters from the hard dusty floor of the bull ring.

A chain is unlatched on the paddock gate at each end and two fighters emerge.

Joey and Alex are up.

Joey raises his hand to the sky and Alex moves forward confidently.

His long hair is tied in a bun.

He's covered in tattoos, bearded, tall and stocky.

He looks ready but relaxed.

Joey is fully dialed in.

You can tell he's raring to go.

The two fighters meet in the middle and at the last few steps Joey randomly breaks out into a short sprint towards Alex before leaping into the air and throwing a short fly kick.

Alex shifts out the way but it catches him in the hip.

It looks painful.

Joey lunges for him and throws two badly timed haymakers.

They miss, thrown into midair.

The third he throws connects with the side of Alex's head.

He looks a bit flustered, but he's fine.

Alex grapples with Joey.

Joey shifts his weight, throws a headbutt, pulls Alex downward, throws a knee into his face.

Alex looks dazed.

Joey goes for him again, with no guard whatsoever.

He's like a wild animal.

Alex straightens up and throws a perfectly timed left hook into Joey's jaw.

Joey goes down heavy.

He hits the dirt.

All 81 kilos of him.

The dust rises.

I wonder, is he done for?

Nope.

Within less than a second, Joey leaps back up onto his feet.

Alex tries to boot him but misses.

The two circle each other for a second.

Alex drops another stiff left hook into Joey's chin.

This time Joey just grins, flashing the white of his gumshield.

Joey jabs Alex in the face and the two grapple.

Alex tries to lift Joey up but fails.

The two are locked together now on the floor in the dirt.

Joey is choking Alex out.

The two scuffle for a while on their knees till Alex lifts Joey, throws him over and lands on top of him.

I can't see how Joey can get out of this one, but he manages to hold on, headlocking Alex by the neck.

The two are a tangle of bloody limbs and sweat.

Dirt sticks to them as they do battle on the ground.

Face pushed against face, both are in a perfect position to bite the other, but they don't.

There's some unspoken understanding in this fight as there are with many of cots.

Just because you can do whatever you want in no rules doesn't mean you have to.

Alex frees himself from Joey's grip and is now kneeled over him.

He starts punching Joey in the face but somehow Joey manages to spin around and stand up.

The two men part for a few seconds.

Both are visibly exhausted.

They pant hard and take a few steps trying to catch their breath.

The pair step forward both throwing a right cross at the same time.

Both fighters land a punch into each other's head, their necks snap back for a second and blood is visible on both.

They then swing wildly at each other until Alex drops to the ground from pure exhaustion.

Joey jumps on top of him and grabs his hair, pounding his fists into Alex's face and head.

Alex covers up and lets out a growl as Joey continues to rain down fists.

Alex is no longer fighting back.

The boss man at COTS moves in and pulls Joey off of him.

I can't believe it.

Joey has won the fight.

His hand is held up in the air and all the other other fighters cheer him on from the stands of the Matador Stadium.

It's just what Joey wanted.

Alex is back up on his feet, beaten, bloodied, but generally okay.

He's also clapping.

The two men embrace in a show of good sportsmanship and they're led back to the paddocks to be seen to by a makeshift medical team.

It was a brawl, very scrappy, but honestly, what an entertaining fight that was to watch.

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Velveeta breakfast biscuits are a convenient and tasty breakfast option when paired with low-fat yogurt and fruit that gives you steady energy all morning long.

Need a pick-me-up?

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And Belveta Energy Snack Bites are a great pick-me-up for a quick mid-morning break.

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This is Jonas Knox from Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.

And on Fox One, now you can stream your favorite live sports so you can be there live for the biggest moments.

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Later that day, I meet Joey in another dusty field nearby.

How you doing, man?

Fucking congrats, man.

Fucking amazing.

How are you, lad?

Good to see you, bro.

Apparently, you're doing amazing, man.

You look all right, you look alright.

Would you call your parents, did you?

Oh yeah, straight away.

I mean, I only really need to ring the missus and my parents and my brother.

Yeah.

That's it.

What'd they say?

Yeah, they were loving it.

Like, I think my parents were out having a drink at the moment, but then I rang him and he's like, yeah, well done.

You know, see, he fucking, yeah.

We just have this family thing going on, innit?

Like, you know, because my grandpa obviously passed away when I was younger, and that was my dad's dad, and that was the last fucking feeling he had.

And yeah, because everything they've done for me and bloody bloody just fucking makes it a feeling for me.

And yeah, that's all I need, you know.

Some people obviously, like you say, some fighters are fucking nutters, they're in and out of jail, fucking bad people, but then you know, some just do it for the fucking all heart and spirits and stuff, you know,

you know, he is, like, yeah, he said it fucking two years ago.

He always said, You'll never be as mad as me, Joe.

I was fucking mad I was, but yeah, two years since now, and he said, Right, yeah, I'm just letting you know, Joe, you can calm down.

You've

I was like, Dad, Dad's the best medal I've never fucking have in, like, you know what I mean?

Yeah, it's fucking, I'm over the moon, like, to be honest, I can, you know, it's pleasant.

I can see it.

You look so happy.

I always am happy.

So Joey won and he'll go on to fight more in the underground scene.

He's happy.

I'm not happy though.

Not with Joey, but with Access.

I was so close to King of the Streets, yet so far.

I felt as if I'd failed.

Rarely have I tried to get access to a story and not managed it.

But as I said earlier in the series, where there's a will, there is a way.

what I haven't mentioned so far in the away days podcast because it will be covered thoroughly in the Norwegs documentary I'm making is my work filming with a highly respected cotz fighter that you'll see in the film when it's released he'll be a main feature of the documentary which will eventually be published at youtube.com slash at away days tv be sure to subscribe if you can't find it that way just search away days jake hanrahan in youtube now this cotz fighter was wary of me for a while because I'm a journalist but eventually he began to understand the scope of my film and he started to help me with access, introducing me to the right people.

To cut a long story short, I got a call a few weeks after I'd returned from Spain.

Turns out, after two years traveling back and forth to various No Rules fight clubs across Europe, I'd finally been granted permission to come and film at King of the Streets, the place that started it all.

They trusted that my intentions were good and that I was not fucking around or trying to do some kind of expose on them.

People have tried in the past to do that, mostly due to the COTS apolitical rule.

Basically, anyone from any political background can fight at King of the Streets.

Due to this, there have been, surprise, neo-Nazi fighters brawling at COTS.

A few disingenuous mainstream reporters decided to single that out and act as if COTS is some kind of far-right training ground.

That is simply not true.

COTS has fighters from all different backgrounds, including several anti-fascist hooligans, some of which have literally screamed anti-far at the top of their lungs after winning.

There are dozens of fighters from all different racial and religious backgrounds.

Some of the main heads in Hype Crew even are black and Arab.

So for COTS to be a white supremacist breeding ground, they're off to a bad start.

Now, sure, would the environment of COTS scare away your average liberal or conservative mainstream reporter and make them very upset due to what they're seeing?

Yes, but what wouldn't these days?

Basically, everyone from far left to far right and back again can fight at COTS if they've got the metal to do so.

Politics at the fight club is simply irrelevant.

Now you might not like that, but I dare say the people at the fight clubs don't care.

So king of the streets.

I jumped on a plane and headed out to an undisclosed country in Europe.

I've been trying to get access to cots for a very long time,

but I didn't even know if I'd be allowed in till the very second I was through the door.

Even then it was just to meet the boss man and hear what he had to say.

If he didn't like what I had to say, he would have kicked me out there and then.

At the location, a warehouse, I was thoroughly searched and briefly interrogated.

Once the boss man had decided I am who I said I am and I'm trying to film a genuine documentary about this wild counterculture he'd created, he decided I was okay.

Then that was it, off we went.

We were free to film whatever we wanted as the fights took place.

Now due to the nature of the agreements we have for the access, I'm not going to go into detail here about the event.

You will see it all though when our documentary is released.

What I can say though is that the atmosphere at COTS was unlike anything I have experienced in my 10 10 plus years as a journalist.

They are the most notorious fight club for a reason.

So, this first part of the Away Days podcast has been a journey through recreational ultra-violence on which an entire counterculture is growing rapidly.

I've tried to be as frank and as open as possible.

Away Days is not for the faint of heart, I want to make journalism that has none of the edges edges rounded smooth.

After all of this, you might think that No Rules underground fighting is horrible, brutal or barbaric even.

Most people do, but that's almost the point of it.

It is not for everyone.

It's actually barely for anyone at all.

Even most professional fighters wouldn't get involved.

That's completely understandable.

Most people don't want to risk having their head smashed off of a concrete floor or their eye gouged out or their skin bitten off.

I certainly would not.

That is totally normal.

One thing though that I often see brought up in regards to no rules fighting is the morality of it.

This I think is one of the most interesting elements of the scene.

People who are outraged by it can simply look away, but they won't.

Two people fighting in private, hidden from the rest of of the world is no one's business but their own and yet still the biggest detractors of no rules want to act as if they are above the violence.

They're not, no one is.

Violence is part of our DNA, it is all around us but it's been sanitised and repackaged to seem acceptable if the quote unquote correct people are doing it.

Now I don't want to come across as some boring political philosopher but I do think there's a point to be made.

Put it this way, if you have ever cheered on a politician, you have almost definitely promoted, whether you liked it or not, extreme violence.

From left to right, politicians are involved in dropping bombs on the heads of people all across the world.

This is not a partisan issue.

I've seen it firsthand myself on my many reporting trips to various front lines across the world.

Heads get blown open, brains pour onto pavements, limbs are torn from bodies, skin burns off of the bones of innocent people.

War is far more violent than anything you will ever see in a no-rules fight.

And you can call clandestine fighters thugs and criminals if you want, but they've never sent $17 billion worth of military aid to a country in the throes of a televised genocide.

You might think this is a straw man argument and that's fine, maybe it is.

But consider this, the people who dictate what level of decorum is and isn't allowed in our society are the very same people who facilitate some of the most deadly violence in history.

My final point is to say that many people are obsessed with violence or will simply excuse it.

They just don't realize it.

At least with no rules fighting, everyone there knows who they are.

So that was part one of the away days podcast.

No rules is no rules.

Next week, we'll be starting part two of the podcast, where we'll take you on a journey through a deadly favela in Brazil to see what life is like when a gang takes on the role of a government.

Remember, if you want to watch our away days documentaries, go to youtube.com/slash at awaydays TV.

You've been listening to the Away Days podcast.

Next week, part two.

To watch independent away days documentaries, subscribe to our channel at youtube.com slash at awaydays TV.

The Away Days Podcast is a production of H11 Studio for CoolZone Media.

Reporting, producing, writing, editing and research by me, Jake Hanrahan.

Co-producing by Sophie Lichterman.

Music by Sam Black.

Sound mix by Splicing Block.

Photography by Johnny Pickup and Louis Hollis.

Graphic design by Laura Adamson and Casey Highfield.

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My favorite thing about ship since I signed up for Target Circle 360, no price markups when I order same-day delivery from tons of local stores.

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