The Rise of PowerSlap's New Champion: Brandon Bardot | Branden the Butcher DSH #1271

We're just sitting there, you know, waiting for it.

And the next thing you know, I start seeing these bear crocs that's coming in and you start seeing it for the first time in person.

Holy shit, this is wild.

You know, they got bait barrels down there and stuff like that. Well, you know, actually, when we were climbing up into the stand, I climb it up in front of my dad.
And I get up there and there's a damn bone from the bone bearer from the from the barrel sitting right on the tree stand. All right, guys, Brandon Bordeaux here, aka The Butcher and new champ of Power Slap.
Let's go, man. Congrats.
Thank you for having me. Yeah, what a fight last night.
Yeah, it was amazing. Main event and KO, right? Yeah, yeah.
First round, I called it. You know, I said it was going to be one and done.
It was one and done. I said, well, he won the coin toss.
So I said I was going to eat that first shot and put it out one and done. It's nice to speak it into existence and then go out there and make it happen.
Do you like going first or second usually? Actually, either way is kind of fine with me. I would personally rather go first and not have to take a shot if you don't have to.
I'm plenty confident in my chin to where if I have to take the shot like I did last night i'm plenty confident that i can do it turn around return fire and put them out in one shot good shit man have you trained your chin or is it natural yeah well i've trained i i think sometimes it comes down to you know being able to have a you know natural chin as well yeah but i also do train a lot like you know i do a lot of neck exercises i do a lot of a lot of jaw exercises i got these jaws are sizes I chew on. I've seen those.
Yep, they keep your jaw strong. Those actually work? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you can tell the more I've done them, your jaw muscles almost form into like a golf ball. Damn.
That's what it really feels like. And then the neck workouts and stuff that I do, I do four or five different variations of neck work.
And we're hitting those three days a week. Holy crap.
Yeah, so I from from december 6th so i knew when i'll let the situation early stoppage kind of a bad stoppage on december 6th i knew that night that that this march 7th you know was was coming up so i uh i got with a new personal trainer you know i mean and really hit things hard and we really focused on we did eight weeks of just strength training and then we did four weeks of strength training and striking training So we really buckled down and really hit things hard this time, and it was nice to go out there and put the stamp on it like I did. That's impressive, man.
Yeah, I've seen studies on how our jaws are much weaker now because of processed foods. Yeah.
People don't eat the gamey meat or whatever. Yep, yep.
Yeah, I've heard that a lot. I mean, that's where that jawsercise comes in, you know what I mean? Or like you said, you know what I mean? People have gone to eat a lot more soft foods and stuff like that.

So your jaw is not as naturally strong as what it should be.

As, you know, back in the times when they're chewing on meat

or they're chewing on bones or whatever it is, you know,

you got a nice strong jaw.

But like you said, with those soft foods and stuff nowadays,

people, you know, your jaw is nowhere near as strong as what it should be.

So using devices and stuff like that, you know what I mean?

It helps things and helps, you know, be nice and strong right there, which obviously helps being able to take the shot as well. Yeah.
I need to get one of those jaws or sizes. Yeah.
Yeah. Right.
Wow. Yeah.
It's just a good company. You know what I mean? They've done a great job with how they've manufactured and made things.
And, you know, I firmly believe in it because, you know, I've been using it for the last couple of years. And actually from December, what I try to do is I try to do a thousand reps of that.
Damn. I do it per night.
Holy crap. know what I mean? So I like to try to get in seven days a week.
Sometimes, obviously, you miss it. You know what I mean? I like to at least try to get in five days a week.
So you're trying to do about 5,000 reps of that jaw exercise per week. You know what I mean? That adds up pretty quick.
I think I did from the December 6th match up until this March match, I think I did over 50,000 reps with that thing with my jaw. Wow.
You know what I mean? And that all just plays in the factor of being able to eat those shots. That on top of the neck strength training that I did, it definitely helps for sure.
That's nuts, man. Going last, were you nervous because you had to watch all the other fights first? Yeah, I wouldn't really say nervous.
I'm comfortable in these positions. The last one was a co-main event.
That helped get a little bit more familiar with it. I thrive in these types of situations, It's one was a co-main event so you know i mean i that helped get you know a little bit more familiar with it but you know i thrive in these these type of situations more of a high pressure situation or or under the bright light situations that's when i really thrive so i was more than comfortable i'm more than comfortable out there and i also believe the more comfortable you are in something the better you're going to perform right i mean if you're uptight you know what i mean you're nervous and your nerves get to you it's good it's gonna be a lot harder so i'm able to keep myself relaxed out there and have fun with everything do you pay attention to outside stuff like who's in the crowd what noises are going on yeah i i do now actually you know i mean because i am so comfortable up there they're like i said there's people who get up there and kind of freeze under the lights right they can't look out to the crowd because it makes them nervous but you know i mean i've gotten to the point now where i am so comfortable with that and it's from the from the upbringing that i've been in i've come from you know deep wrestling roots and a really good wrestling school that we were in out of the state finals and stuff every year and we wrestled in front of huge crowds and same thing with mma i was in mma before all of this and i fought in front of bigger crowds and stuff so that helped mold me to what i am and you know to who i am now and being able to go out there and get the crowd involved in all of it.
It's all part of the game in there too.

Bringing them all in, feeding off their energy. When I walk out and I see that crowd and the

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Have fun with it too. Yeah, I feel like the best fighters do that.
Yeah, and that's important. You need to have fun with it as well.
You're not having fun with it, then why do it? Yeah, it's an interesting sport, man. Yeah, yeah.
What a transition. I know you transitioned because of your back injury.
You were a fighter, right? Yeah, yeah. So I was an MMA.
So I was 5-0. I was an undefeated prospect, actually.
And I had taken a couple of years off. Me and my wife, we had our first couple of kids.
You know what I mean? And at that time, it was kind of the wild, wild west days in Michigan for MMA. So there wasn't a lot of money and stuff involved.
So I had a family. I had to start concentrating on that.
And so I started working for a few few years and then once we were kind of in a better position, I was like, you know what, maybe it's time for me to, you know, I still have dreams and stuff that I want to achieve while I'm still younger. You know, maybe it's time for me to, you know, try to make a run, come back and try to make a run at this.
And, uh, just as I was training to get ready to come back, I broke my back at work. Damn.
Yeah. I was lifting a really heavy front quarter of beef and, uh, I went to swing it up on the table i've done it many other times you know lift with your legs turn your turn yourself around well this time it was so heavy and i was just you know maybe in a rush and i just kind of heaved it and i twisted it my bottom vertebrae my l5s1 vertebrae just holy pop forward so yeah so i had to deal with that i mean i had to live with that for over a whole year before I could even have surgery.

Jeez.

And then once I had the surgery, yeah. So now I got a plastic spacer in between my L5S1 and I got four screws in my spine.
Two that go up and two that go down. Oh my gosh.
So when all that happened, you know, the MMA dreams, you know, out of the picture because how hard it is on your body. I mean, there's only certain movements and certain things that I can do that my back allows without, you know, excruciating pain.
So when that all happened, it ends up, sometimes when things happen, you don't understand why they're happening then. But years down the road, you're like, oh, that's kind of making sense now.
Yeah, it sucked that I went through the injury, but ultimately I think it kind of led me to where I am now. When that injury happened, when myself and my brother kind of decided to branch out and do our own thing.
And then when I was recovering from surgery is when I'd seen the power slap stuff had started. I was actually recovering from surgery when season one of the show had started.
And I'm sitting there watching. I'm like, hey, you know what? This might be something that I could probably do when I'm fully healed and still be able to work for Dana, still be involved in those situations you know because the goal was to be the UFC be around all that you know so so when I had that opportunity you know what I mean one thing led to another and here we are two years later and I'm the world champion it's crazy it's crazy you know I mean how fast things happen you know I mean I've really dedicated myself to this I take this very seriously I'm not not one of those people try to just roll off the couch and do this you know I, I mean, I do take it very, very, very seriously.
I'm a true professional when it comes to it. And, you know, I'm in the gym five days a week.
And, you know, strength training, technique training, you know, we don't have to do, no, we don't have to do the cardio and stuff that, you know, is like MMA and stuff like that. So, you know what I mean? But I do work my ass off to get to the point.
And my matches, I've spoke for themselves. I mean, you go back and watch when I first came into this to where I'm at now you know the difference in the difference in myself is night and day difference you feel like you've gotten a lot better way better way better and I've improved between every match I mean ever and a lot of people have seen it too I mean if you if you followed my career you see how much you know progressively I get better each time and and that's what I did from December to March you know what I? I knew that I was putting the improvements on and I knew who I was going against wasn't, you know what I mean? He had a really good year last year.
You know, he kind of ran through, he ran through the division pretty easily until he ran into me at the end of the year. And he kind of had the wrong mindset going into this one.
They asked him what he did differently this time around. He said, well, I didn't do anything differently this time around.
I went 4-0 last year.

I'm going to keep doing the same thing.

That's the wrong mindset to have, man.

When you're champion, you constantly have contenders.

You know what I mean?

Wanting what you have.

You constantly have a target on your back.

And if you're not constantly improving or trying to widen that gap in the competition,

somebody's going to catch you.

Yeah.

What's up, guys?

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I'm about to try a flavor I've never had before vanilla cream Let's see what we got here Hmm not solid hello vanilla. It's my favorite ice cream flavor Definitely check them out guys rxsugar Always working right and now that i'm at the top of the mountain now now i'm challenging all these other guys too if you think you're gonna beat me you're gonna have to outwork me first and i promise you you ain't ever outworking me i love that it's impressive because you got a full-time job back home yeah and you're balancing this with that so yeah absolutely and actually um come january i i kind of stepped back from my job oh yeah yeah so i my luckily my you know what I mean? He stepped up and kind of really took care of things the last couple months for us.
And I told him, you know, we all knew what I was chasing. We all knew what I was after.
So, you know, I said, I'm going to kind of take a step back a little bit and put a little bit more on his shoulders. I mean, so like I said, shout out to him for being able to take care of all that stuff so I could concentrate on what I needed to concentrate on.
And now it paid off. Let's go.
Here we are as world champion. And you want to be a two-division champ, so do you want to go up or down in weight? I mean, personally, I would like to go up.
I am the type that I will want to clear out 185 first. You know what I mean? I always want the next baddest motherfucker is what I said.
You know, whether that's the trilogy with the guy I just went against or whether that's the next person whatever it is line the contenders up i'll knock them all down i'll clear out that division and then after the possibility to let me go up and go after something up there that'd be amazing because going up's way harder than going down right yeah yeah yeah i just don't think for like myself i don't know if i could go down to 170 you know i mean yeah yeah i keep myself like i keep my weight maintained so i try to stay within you know 10 pounds when I stay really disciplined. If there's times where I have some time off, I will get up to like 215, 217.
Damn. Yeah.
So, you know what I mean? I don't like making that cut from 215 to 185. So, you know, this time around, like I said, after December 6th, I knew what was coming in March.
So I kept my weight within 10 pounds. I mean, a week and a half, two weeks out, I was already on weight, which benefits me because you get some of these guys who come in there and they kind of water cut everything.
Well, this is the wrong sport to water cut in. Really? You know, the first thing, you know, when you start dehydrating your body, the first thing that loses water is your brain.
You know, in the last organ to regain water is your brain, but you're going to get hit in this sport, right? You're there, you know, we don't have a defense. We can't move around like that.
So you're going to take a shot to the head the head well if you're a little bit dehydrated at all you know i mean that water's not full in your brain you're going to end up taking one of those shots and put you out because you decided to cut you know you just had to cut weight wrong so that's where i like to stay disciplined or i start you know a couple months ahead of time to where i get on a good diet and i pull the fat off my body and then i keep my body well hydrated interesting and it's it's, you know, worked out real well for me. Are you doing anything for your brain health? Yeah.
So there's, there's all kinds of products, you know what I mean? There's, or well not all kinds, but there's more and more products now that are coming out, you know, that are, have, you know, tendencies to help with CTE and help, help with, you know, repairing the brain and stuff like that. So, you know, I'm always open to trying all those products, you know, for the things that we do in any kind of combat sport like that.
Yeah. Have you tried the hyperbaric yet? Yeah.
Yeah. That stuff's really good.
Yeah. I had a TBI.
Oh, did you? Yeah. I don't know from what, but I just got a brain scan and had it.
And the hyperbaric helped a lot. Yeah.
No, those things are really nice. Yeah.
A lot of fighters actually use them. Yep.
Yep. Yeah.
A lot of recovery. You know, your recovery, and that's what I said when it comes to working out and stuff like that, your recovery is just as important as the workouts and stuff like that.
Because you got kind of messed up right now, right? Yeah, yeah. He got me, you know, that first shot, he won the toss last night.
That first shot, he hit me high. Looks like it.
Yeah, you go back and watch the film. It should have 100% been called the clubbing.
You know, it should have been called clubbing. So, yeah, he got me in the nose and broke my nose a little bit damn but hey uh i'll take a broken nose for a world title anyway i didn't know you broke it yeah yeah yeah i think it's broke a little bit they were gonna they're gonna have me run through some x-rays when i get back home but i you know i can just kind of tell i can kind of feel it in there and stuff but but like i said i'll trade over i'll take i'll take a broken nose or a world title i love that mindset which is not you know what i mean i some people you know i mean if they go out there get hit in the nose their nose breaks like that you know they might mentally quit and that goes back to what we were talking about earlier you know the mental resiliency from you know the sports and stuff that i came up in you know i mean he was he broke my nose and i'm sitting there just itching waiting for the doctors to get off me so i can go over there and get my shot you know i mean they're sitting there wiping down my nose i'm just like all right come on you know give me my shot you know part of me was a little bit worried when you know the blood wouldn't stop and i'm like don't you guys stop this again please let me i knew all i needed was one shot let me get my one shot off and they let me get my one shot off and now here we are oh you wouldn't stop bleeding world champion no yeah i wouldn't stop leading damn and then and they said something up there like they can't they can't put super glue on it like while you're up on stage so they basically just had to let it go so they like wiped me down they held it real quick all right go so i got, alright, go.
So I got out there and went, so you don't know what I mean. If the match doesn't get finished on that shot, I don't know what happens because that nose doesn't just stop bleeding.
I even asked them over up there because sometimes in wrestling, if you get a bloody nose or a busted nose, we'll shove cotton balls up there and then we'll just tape around it. So I asked them over, I was like, can you just tape it? Just tape my whole tape right around my nose.
I don't care, I'll keep going. Like, no, we can't do that because of the rules.
But I mean, I wasn't letting a little bit of a little blood or a broken nose stop me from winning that world title. That wasn't, you know.
I said, you know, a few months ago, his head is the only thing that's in the way of me in a world title. You know what I mean? So I break my nose.
That's fine. I'm going to come take your head off.
And I took my world title. Love that mindset, dude.
Thank you. Yeah, I had Hawaiian on yesterday.
Man, a missed hit can mess you up. He lost a tooth over a missed hit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that was at Power Slap 8, I want to say, back in June.
I remember him saying something about that. Yeah.
Yeah, I took a shot and ripped his tooth right out of there. You guys are hitting hard.
It's not like it's a... I mean, it is a slap, but it's still really hard.
Oh, yeah. I mean, it feels like...
I can tell you right now, it doesn't feel like a slap. You know what I mean? When you get hit, and you get hit with a good shot.
You know what I mean? Yeah, because everyone's got a button, they say. Yes, everybody has a button, and it's just about finding that button.
And that's what, to me, like, yeah, power is huge, obviously. But to me, I think accuracy is bigger than all of it, right? Because you can carry a lot of power, but if I don't hit somebody in the right spot, you might not necessarily knock them out, or you carry a lot of power, and you hit them in the wrong spot you club.
And then you knock them out and you club them. Well, now you just lost by DQ because, you know what I mean? You fouled and knocked them out.
So, you know, it's very important. The accuracy.
Accuracy is killer in this sport. How many clubs do you get? Is it two? So you get in a three round fight, you would get two.
You get two offensive fouls. And then in a five round title fight, you technically get three offensive fouls.
Damn. Have you ever clubbed out? No, I never have.
So I only have one foul in power slap in all six of my matches. Damn, so you're accurate.
Very. And it was in my third match.
A little bit of a questionable club. I mean, I've seen worse not get called.
You know what I mean? But hey, it is what it is. You go through six matches, you only have one foul.
Yeah. No, that's impressive because Hawaiian was in a match where I think he clubbed like a couple times.
And it happens, you know what I mean? But I pride myself on being clean, being accurate, you know what I mean? No fouls, no stepping, no clubbing, you know what I mean? Stuff like that. How do you train yourself to stop flinching? Because that's such a natural response.
So, you know, everybody's natural instinct when something's coming towards your faces, right? Is to move, to block, to do stuff like that. thing that we found out was we'll take a pool noodle.
You cut them down to short and you sit there with your hands behind your back. And then you just have somebody do like, if they're going on three, we'll motion one, two, and a third one hit you with it.
Because the pool noodle is not going to do anything to mess up your head or mess up your face. But you're getting used to that motion coming towards your face.
So it trains you to flinch wow so you're literally practicing yeah not to flinch yep yep exactly and then the fact the fact of if you flinch you got to get hit again that's the number one thing i've had people ask me like how do you not flinch i was like well if i flinch i got to get hit again i said so that's the last thing i want to happen so i'm gonna hold still on that first one and let you you know let you get your shot off i'm gonna eat that shot and going to return fire and take care of business. Yeah.
You talk shit during the matches too, right? Oh, yeah. Of course.
You know what I mean? You got to play that mental game with them. You know what I mean? A little bit.
Let them, you know, feed it back to them. You know, when somebody's got their hands behind their back and you hit them as hard as you possibly can and then they're just laughing at you or they're taunting you, you're kind of in your head.
You're like, oh, shit. You know what I mean? Messes with you.
Right, right. What do I got to do to this guy? You know what I mean? He just had his hands behind his back.
I just hit him as hard as I possibly could. Now here he is laughing at me or screaming in my face or, you know, whatever is making a mockery of me.
So, you know, yeah, it's important up there to play that mental warfare. And it's also important to do it, to show the judges, you know what I mean? Because they're judging off, you know, damage or effectiveness of the strikes.
Right. So hit you and you step out of the box.
Well, that makes it look like their strike hit you and pushed you out of the box. Well, now I go to hit you, right? And you stay right where you are and say you taught me.
Now you didn't move out of that box or anything. So more than likely you won that round just because I stepped out of that box and it made it look like, you know what I mean? Your strike pushed me out of that box and did more damage to me.
So there's a game within, within you know there's a game within the game when you're up there you know i mean that's what i tell some of these new guys and stuff that are coming in or anybody that i'm coaching if you're rocked you got to play it off as you're not rock you know i mean if somebody catches you and you're really rock you just stay right there give them a little bit of a taunt bring yourself back stick keep your feet in that box and then after you've made your gestures then you take yourself and walk out of that box don't make it look like their strike pushed you out of that box makes sense have you ever been like dizzy and you just played it off no well so in december uh the second round isaiah caught me with it you know he caught me with a probably his his best shot you know the same shot that he's flatlined you know put put quite a few people out with and uh you know i i kind of had a lull in judgment and on my defense i kind of slipped up i was standing a little too tall you know i mean i was kind of pulling back a little bit when he hit me yeah and i think that kind of helped me you know fall back on my ass and stuff like that but i hit the ground i was back on my feet within like three or four seconds which could have been a mistake too you know i mean sometimes when you get dropped like that i tell you to roll over take the knee you know i mean wait till you hear six seven eight and then recover more yeah well it all happened you know i mean with with it being the first time in my career it all happens so fast right you know i mean next thing you know you're hitting your ass your natural instincts just to pop right up you know i popped right up looked right at the raft i gave him a thumbs up and i even looked over at the catchers like if i was messed up i wouldn't be like looking at other people i seen him i seen one of the catchers that i knew from the reality show so i looked right over at him and he told me to walk and i went to walk and my foot had just barely caught the mat so i did just the slightest little stumble and then they go and wave it off like that you know and it's this is a world title fight man you know i mean i i completely get if i'm going to walk towards you and i fall on top of you or you know i mean if i'm falling i can't at all. I completely understand stopping it then.
When you're in a title fight and you have just the slightest little, you know, especially when we've had far worse not be stopped, you know what I mean? And then you go and stop a title fight like that. It just left not only in my mouth, but in a lot of, you know, a lot of the fans are in there.
It just left a sour taste in everybody's mouth. And I think a lot of people left December 6th disappointed with how that match ended.
You know, there's a lot of booze that arena was pretty pissed i remember that yeah yeah that's the thing with reffing though a lot of it's subjective depends on the person depends on the night right yeah exactly it depends on every ref is different every person's different you know they all kind of call things differently so so you know sometimes it is difficult it's you know based on kind of who's up there and what calls they're gonna make yeah that's's why boxing refs get so much hate because the scores are so different on each one.

It's crazy.

Each ref's different.

Each person's different.

You pumped for UFC tonight?

Yeah.

I love watching the UFC fights.

That's what I mean.

I grew up watching the UFC and everything like that.

I follow it all very, very, very close.

I love it.

I know everything that's going on in there.

To watch Pereira tonight and Ankaliev, that's going to be fun so to watch prayer tonight and you know ankle i have is gonna that's gonna be fun you think if prayer wins tonight he's in the goat conversation man he's got to be i mean he's got to be getting close right i mean he's just that man's just been unstoppable i kind of think you know in my opinion john jones has kind of cemented that down i think so that man's resume is just absolutely insane i mean you can say whatever you want to say about him you know what i mean but his But his legacy speaks for itself. I mean, look at that man's resume.
You put that man's resume against anybody else's resume, and it's just the legends that he's beat, the title holders that he's beat. I mean, he's beat the who's, and for how long he's been doing it.
Two divisions. Honestly, the hardest two divisions, in my opinion, too, like heavyweight and heavyweight.
I mean, competition. And then to go in there and dominate like he does.

I mean, yeah, he had a couple close ones,

but he's also dominated the hell out of these guys.

Champs, too, like DC.

He's a different breed.

You know what I mean?

We've heard Dana talk about it.

To be the type of fighter that Jon Jones is,

you have to be a different person.

You know what I mean?

And that's what Jon is,

and that's the reason why he's the greatest of all time,

in my opinion.

Yeah.

Your style was wrestling, right?

Yeah.

Yep. Yep.
I grew up wrestling. You know, I started wrestling about uh eight nine years old damn um yeah I come from you know I come from a high school where we were in and out of the team state finals every year you know we always had three four five state champions on our team every year so was that a public school or project yeah it was a public school actually and we were a small school we're a division four so in Michigan for wrestling you have divisions one two three and four um so there's actually kind of a lot of schools packed in there but we were a Division 4 school.
So we were a small school we were division four so in michigan for wrestling you have divisions one two three and four um so there's actually kind of a lot of schools packed in there but we were division four school so we were a small school um i think we only had a couple hundred kids in our graduating class maybe and uh so we're division four school us division four kids are so good that we're beating the division one the division one kids damn you know a kid that got a couple thousand kids in their class and we got a couple hundred and we're out there whooping their ass but it's because the background that we come from and the the dedication that we had put into the sport the the extra work that we had put into the sport you know summer camps you know wrestling year round you know when you get to when you get to that point you're competing at those high levels it isn't just a seasonal thing anymore you know even even down to the little kids nowadays it isn't just a seasonal thing anymore because i coach youth sports i coach now year round. So with these kids, you know what I mean? If they want to be, you know, you want to be above and beyond good, you know, this has to be a year round thing.
So the way the competition is getting and everything nowadays is, you know, it's great. I love it.
When did you get in the butcher stuff? So I got into the butchering about eight years ago. I grew up on a dairy farm and stuff our whole lives.
We grew up in 4-H. So we're very, very familiar with all of that stuff.
And yeah, I actually kind of accidentally fell into a meat department job. I was just working at a, I was young and just working at a grocery store as a cashier at the time.
And they needed some help in the meat department. And I was like, hey, I'd like to try try that out i went back there i ended up really liking it and you know i started out just like grinding hamburger and then just you know wrapping the packages and then i started cutting meat and you know it kind of worked my way up the ladder well then i was done with the grocery store stuff i wanted to learn how to do everything from you know a whole animal down to the last steak so i went and uh worked at a usdi slaughterhouse for like four years.
That's where I ended up breaking my back and stuff. But I ended up learning so much from being there.
So that's why we were able to branch out and have our own thing going on. Wow, that's cool, man.
Slaughterhouse. That's interesting.
Yeah, it's an interesting job for sure. It's not something that's for everybody.
It that could be pretty gory i feel like you can make or break people oh for sure absolutely and we had and i don't want to say the turnover rate was terrible but you know i mean i don't think some people knew what they'd get themselves into yeah we would we would hire somebody at that you know we worked at the slaughterhouse and uh we had kill our kill days would be like monday wednesday so you go out on you go out on the kill floor i mean that's just blood and damn it's just you know it could be pretty gory well you get you would hire some of these people and they go out on the kill floor and they'd be working for about 30 minutes they'd be like i go to the bathroom you look out you look out in the parking lot and their vehicle's gone gone yeah they're just like oh yeah so you know it takes you know it takes a special breed to be able to do that and i think that myself being able to do those kind of things also helps implement into my mentality which leads into you know the things that i do with this sport in my all you know all the sports that i have done were you hunting before so you're kind of desensitized dead animals yeah yeah yeah we grew up hunting and stuff our whole lives you know i mean so it wasn't it wasn't anything that was a stranger to us and like i said growing up doing 4-h you know we would have times where we showed you know steers and uh you know you have those projects for like a year. I mean, you're hands on with these projects.
You got, you know, you're teaching them to halter train them, to walk them around, do all this stuff. And then you have to sell them at your county fair and then you sell them at their county fair.
Then they go to a slaughterhouse. So we were taught, you know, from a very, very young age, you know, five, six, seven years old and on that, you know what I mean? We would raise these animals, you know what I mean? Show them at the fair and then we would sell them.
They would go to slaughter. So we learned very young, you know what six seven years old and on that you know i mean we would raise these animals you know i mean show them at the fair and then we would sell them they would go to slaughter so we learned very young you know i mean where they're going wow that is a super young age to know yeah yeah yeah yep and and you know i mean like i said i think it i think you know kind of helped who i am you know today and stuff like that i mean because there's a lot of people out there who don't grow up seeing those things you know what i mean and they have a different mindset different mindset.
And I mean, that's the kind of stuff I've been around my whole life. So to me, that's normal.
Yeah. Any crazy hunting stories? Yeah.
I mean, we were talking a little bit earlier, but I've been up to Canada. I went bear hunting up there with my dad and my uncle when I was in middle school, about seventh grade.
You know what I mean? That was a crazy cool experience. At that time, I'd never even really seen a bear in person.
How big was it? The one I shot was like 320 pounds. Holy crap.
Yeah, so it was a good size one. Well, we had gotten up there and I was a young, anxious kid.
And there's certain times where you go out towards dusk and stuff like that. And my dad was like, I was nagging him one day.
I was like, let's go out there. Let's go out.
So we went out like two o'clock. We went out like way too early.
So we're just sitting there waiting waiting for it and the next thing you know i start seeing these bear bear carts that's coming in and you start seeing it for the first time in person holy shit this is wild you know they got bait barrels down there and stuff like that well they you know actually when we were climbing up into the stand i i climb it up in front of my dad and i get up there and there's a damn bone from the bone bear from the from the barrel sitting right on the tree stand whoa so i'm like that's my instant my first thing was like uh i grabbed the bone looked at my dad said uh because they're grabbing that bait and they're running up that tree and then they're sitting they're eating it so we're sitting in this tree and i'm looking over and you can see like there's like bear shit like on the tree and you can see like the greasy paws like where they're walking on these limbs and stuff and they're walking all over this tree stand so when that first bear comes walking in you could see it kind of looking up out of the corner of its eye at us and i'm like the damn bear knows we're here wow it's all i mean so i'm just a kid you know i mean i'm a middle school kid thinking kind of shit in my pants a little bit because i'm like this thing's gonna you know it's gonna take something out of the bone barrel and come running up this tree uh my dad has had him and his buddies used to go up there every year well one of his buddies had a situation where a bear did it come come running right up into the tree right under his tree stand you know i mean so here i am as a kid thinking that's what's going to happen with you know i was kind of shitting my pants but luckily that first one that came in was a really good sized bear so and they kind of judge it off like how tall the back is to the barrel they say they say if the you know the the bear's back reached the top of the barrel that's probably around a 300 pound bear so damn as that one come in my dad kind of gave me you know kind of tapped me and said go ahead and take that one headshot so uh no i shot shot it right in the heart you know what i mean and at that time the uh bear do what they call like this death moan and at that time as a kid i had never heard it you know i mean so i shot this bear and it kind of went it only went like 20 yards or so well they do this death moan where they literally like moan for a few minutes so you're just like oh you know kind of trips you out a little bit yeah that's true you know trip trips you out a little bit as a kid but you know it's it was all the experience you know i mean and being around it and being out there and you know it was just more more life lessons really being out there and being able to experience a trip like that it was a lot of fun i didn't know they were climbing trees like that that's pretty wild. That throws you off a little bit.
Yeah, because you think you're safe in a tree and then you see it climbing at you. Yeah, and actually, you know, they're coming running up next to you.
You're like, holy shit, you know. Yeah, I've seen people have, you know, kind of some crazy interaction with them.
I'm pissed off. Bears come running up the tree.
Oh my gosh. That's the last thing, you know.
I don't want no bears swiping at me or trying to bite me or, you know. Nope, I'm good.
You know, like you said, you think you're safe in that tree and then next thing you know, they're up, yeah was that a black bear you shot yeah black bear yeah because the brown ones are extinct right uh so like more like grizzlies and stuff like that you know that so those there is some like around canada just where we were at they were there wasn't any brown bear there um but those are those are a whole different one you go after them them grizzlies and shit those. Those things are, you know.
I heard. They're man-eaters.

I've seen broken talk about it.

Grizzlies and polar bears.

Yeah, polar bears.

Yep.

Polar bears strictly eat meat.

You know what I mean?

So when you're up there, they really will be hunting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've never been around anything like that.

No, I'll pass on that.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm good at it too.

But I've heard, you know, I've heard so many stories about like, you know, people who are walking through the mountains in Wyoming and stuff like that.

And next thing you know, they're getting mauled by a grizzly. You know what I mean? Yeah.
I mean, I've seen a few stories a few years ago of a guy that was walking through the mountains in Wyoming and stuff like that. Next thing you know, they're getting mauled by a grizzly.

I've seen a few stories a few years ago of a guy that was walking through there and he got attacked.

Luckily, he lived, but the damn grizzly had ripped all of his skin off his head and was hanging.

He was really lucky to be alive, but they're so damn territorial.

When you walk into their spot at all, especially if you come across one that has cubs, it's game over. They're going to kill you.
It ain't going to be nothing. It's a scary situation.
You've gone hog hunting too, right? Wild hogs? Yeah, I've done hog hunting and I've actually shot a wild goat before as well. These ones were in like a, I guess I shouldn't say wild, but they were in like a pen, but it was like hundreds, hundreds of acres.
And that was another hunting trip we took as a kid. And that one was pretty cool.
When I shot, when I shot the goat, actually, I had to, I think I was only like 10, 12 years old. Well, I had to like sneak up on an army crawl.
We had to stop this thing for a few different times and I'd go to get close and I was just a kid. So I would make a mistake and boom, I would spook it and they'd take off and we'd have to track them back down.
Finally, I got close enough one time, crawled i dressed all up in white my dad because it was snowing yeah my dad dressed me all up in white and he said you know when we get to the point just just army crawl up there you know until you get to a right spot and i got right up there and shot this goat and that was that that was cool you know because being that young you kind of got to do like a spot and stalk you got to stalk it and everything it and everything. Your dad started to eat young, man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We sure did, yeah.

I used to love eating goat.

Yeah, no, it's good meat.

Goat's a great meat.

Yep.

And Indian food, too.

Nice and lean.

Goat curry.

Yep, yep.

Not real fatty or anything like that.

Yeah, I like some venison, too.

Yeah, yeah.

Venison's great.

Elk's good.

Anything like that, you know, that real lean meat is all really good for you.

Yeah.

Doesn't have a ton of fat and stuff like that in it.

And, you know, they say wild game is some of the best meat that you can possibly get. Because it's so natural really good for you.
Yeah. It doesn't have a ton of fat and stuff like that in it.
And, you know,

they say,

they say wild game is some of the best meat that you can possibly get.

Cause it's so natural.

I feel like,

like they're eating what's in nature.

That's like,

that's what I try to tell.

That's what we try to explain people with,

with our slaughtering stuff like that.

And just,

there's a,

there's a big difference between buying meat in a grocery store and then

slaughtering or raising your own animals and slaughtering them out that way. You know what I mean? At a grocery store, you don't know what that animal's been fed.
You don't know how it's been raised. You don't know the stress it's been through because when you stress some of these animals out, like even just shipping them to a slaughterhouse, you know what I mean? You stress them out and when they stress out, they release stress hormones into their meat, which will make their meat and stuff tougher.
So with our business, it's, come right out to the you know we'll come right out to the farm these animals are right in their pen it's one shot done there's no stress or anything that goes into it it's whereas like i said you go to a slaughterhouse trying just trying to load them into a trailer is extremely stressful you get them into a trailer then they're stressing out there and then you put them i get them to a slaughterhouse into a foreign area they're stressing out there and now they're getting beaten on pushing into you know trying to push them into shoots and stuff like that to get get them out there. And then you put them, I get them to a slaughterhouse into a foreign area.
They're stressing out there and now they're getting beaten on, pushing into, you know, trying to push them into shoots and stuff like that to get them up there. And these animals are just stressing out like crazy.
So that's where we come in beneficial to show up to the farm. Like I said, they'll just be in their pens, moseying around and boom, lights are out, done, good, one shot, do everything as humane as possible.
You know what I mean? You don't, you, we, we take all that stuff very seriously. I love it, man.
what's next you got fights coming up this year anything else yeah so uh i just won that title last night so we'll see what happens here in the next couple months um i think rumors might be right now that the next event might be in may um i think i'll probably be out you know i probably be a couple months before i come back here but i don't know if we'll be like you know mid-s, maybe late summer, somewhere in there. But yeah, now it's time to defend.
We just went from challenger to defending now. So I'm embracing the target on my back.
I like the target on my back. I like people chasing me because I just like to keep widening that gap.
Like I said earlier, I work my ass off for all of this. And when I go to the gym, I take pride in widening the gap on the competition so you know i think i've got a bit of a gap on them now and i'm just going to keep widening it and like i said earlier if anybody thinks they're going to beat me first you're going to have to outwork me and not going to fucking outwork me i'm not going to let that happen i love that man we'll link uh power slap in the video below for you guys to watch it's a really cool sport yeah and try to go in person if you're watching this because it hits different in person definitely it's definitely it's different person and that's what i've asked a lot of people mike my wife was out here for the first time i had 15 or 20 people fly out from michigan for the first time i had a couple people flying from florida i had a couple people flying from texas about the squad yeah yeah we brought a big squad this time and actually only my parents my brother and his friends so actually only four of them had ever been to an event before so i was telling all these guys i said just wait until you see this in person and they were saying that too it is a completely different show in person like it's entertaining it's fun to watch on tv yeah but the atmosphere and everything when you're in there it's just a completely different story when you're there so yeah if you haven't been there in person you got to buy a ticket and get there yeah it's amazing found blue's gonna they're gonna need a new venue i think yeah so many people coming off you just keep out growing it you know i mean things get bigger and bigger every card you know the next card is just bigger and bigger Blue's going to, they're going to need a new venue, I think.
Yeah. So many people coming now.
You just keep outgrowing it.

You know what I mean?

Things get bigger and bigger.

Every card, you know, the next card is just bigger and bigger and bigger.

And the way they're growing things and the way Dana's got things going, the crew that

he has and Frank and Erica there, you know, that they really know what they're doing.

And they really built this into, you know, a powerhouse, you know, and the world of social

media, you know, has made this thing absolutely huge.

And when you got the right business people running the things, it's very successful.

Absolutely.

Shout out to Dana.

Shout out to PowerSlot.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Absolutely, man.

Thanks for having me.

Check them out, guys, in the description.

See you next time.