Sean O'Malley: Becoming the UFC Bantamweight Champion | E97
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I never really looked at fighting as like a... it's violent. It's a dangerous sport.

I just kind of always looked at it as a sport. Like it's like, I'm gonna go out there and turn this dude's lights off in the most non-violent way. I think put him asleep, end the fight. You know, it's just like, it's always been chess to me. It's always been a violent game with chess. It's never been like a aggressive fight. Like I want to hurt this guy because I don't like him. It's never really been like that to me. It's always more of like a sport. Who's going to go out there and who's going to win?

Welcome to In Search of Excellence, where we meet entrepreneurs, CEOs, entertainers, athletes, motivational speakers, and trailblazers of excellence with incredible stories from all walks of life.

My name is Randall Kaplan. I'm a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and the host of In Search of Excellence, which I started to motivate and inspire us to achieve excellence in all areas of our lives. My guest today is Sean O'Malley, the UFC bantamweight champion of the world with a 17-1 record, who everybody believes is the next Conor McGregor.

Sugar Sean, welcome to In Search of Excellence. Thank you for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me on. I'm glad it worked out in Vegas. In Vegas. So I always start my show with our family because I always want to know...

What kind of values your family instilled in you and what did they instill in you? What were your parents like growing up and what kind of influence did they have on you? My dad was a cop. He was a detective for 20 years, worked as a narcotics officer, bounced around in that. And then my mom was a nurse. Most of my memories are just sports, like going to the practice, getting picked up from practice, going from baseball to soccer practice in the same day. So most of my memories looking back are just like

we were competitive since I was three, four, five years old playing all sorts of sports. Hated school from early on, like elementary school. I was like, I knew I didn't like school. Middle school, hated it. High school, hated it. Just didn't like school for whatever reason. I don't really know. But yeah, I think, I feel like I had a pretty normal childhood growing up. Grew up in Helena, Montana, like a mile from the lake.

The only problem with that was you could only go to the lake for like two months out of the year because Montana is so cold. And then when it's really hot, there's always fires. So there's always very few times you could actually go out to the lake. But it was cool. I had a normal childhood, I'd say. But your dad was a cop. Did he go out and do some narcotics work? Was he undercover? Did you ever worry about his safety? Yeah, I remember being young.

worried about it more so than I got older. I mean, being a cop in Helen, Montana, there's a lot worse places in the United States to be a cop. So I was like, well, it's not too bad. But yeah, there was definitely times where I was like, man, that's kind of a dangerous job.

But yeah, it was interesting. I didn't drink, didn't smoke until I was older. I was terrified of marijuana because my dad and my mom would basically just say it's the worst thing ever. So growing up, I was just very terrified of that. Didn't drink until I was 21, which I think is a good thing. It got me to from Helena, Montana. When I moved, I was 19 years old. I moved to Phoenix.

And I was, you know, I'm glad I didn't partake in any of those until I was older. But yeah. - So you said when you were a kid, you played a lot of sports. What kind of sports did you play? And were you good? Did you know you were a good athlete? Good hand-eye coordination back then? - Yeah, I was fast. I was the most fast. Played soccer, baseball, football, basketball. Those four all year round. 'Cause depending on what season, if it's, you know, cold out, snowing, it was basketball season.

But yeah, I played sports my whole life. So did both my brothers, my sister. We all just played sports. It was like traveling baseball, traveling basketball, school basketball. Just, yeah, those four sports all year round, nonstop. A popular kid? I mean, you have a great personality. No, not really. Definitely wasn't a popular kid. I didn't really fit in with the jocks, the sports guys. I didn't really fit in with the...

you know, the skateboard crew. I kind of had my own little clique or our own little group that kind of got along with everybody. We were kind of little, you know, shitheads, but... What's a shithead back then? I don't know. Kind of class clowny, you know, try to make people laugh. Dude, I was never a bad kid, but...

Yeah, I don't say I was definitely not a popular kid. No. You get in trouble as a kid at all. I mean, your parents scold you or ground you at all. Yeah, at school we'd get in trouble or I'd get in trouble a little bit, you know, maybe having a laser on the teacher or farting in class. Like a red laser? Yeah, red laser. Shit like that, you know, so I was never too bad, but I was definitely a troublemaker.

Did you ski? I mean, Helena is a cold city, cold state, Montana. Some great, great skiing there. Big sky. Yeah, I snowboard skied a little bit when I was younger, 12, 13, 14, around maybe that age group. And then I stopped. Not a huge fan of the cold. So ever since I moved to Phoenix, I was like, I hadn't really gone back. Definitely not in the winter, but very little bit, but I definitely did.

So you said you have three siblings. You guys tight? Were you tight then, tight now? I'd say we were a little bit tighter when we were younger. Then you get into middle school, high school, we kind of, we were all four years apart. So 16 years your parents had kids? Yep, yep. We're all boom, boom, boom, four years apart. So we kind of were closer when we were younger. We were all doing our own thing, middle school, high school.

You know, it's kind of separated. But now, you know, my brother, both my brothers, my sister, my mom all live in Arizona, which is really cool. So because you moved there. Yeah, I moved there and I was there for probably about seven, eight years by myself.

trying to get everyone to move down my sister was still in high school my mom and dad were still together my little brother was going to school there my older brother was just a complete wreck like not doing good at all on drugs just not doing good so it was just a mess back home and I finally you know was in a position financially to be able to really help everyone out so now everyone lives down in Phoenix and uh everyone's doing pretty good you still help them out financially I mean when someone when someone gets rich and makes a ton of money

uh often a lot of people say i'm going to support my family are you as your family in that position right yeah i definitely don't want to enable them to where it's like you know i don't they just completely rely on me but there's you know my mom works for me what does she do for you she does she's like she she basically she runs my life like as far as making sure all my taxes are you know done sent into the accountant look ran through all my bills are paid

I have six houses, so she kind of helps me manage all that. She does everything. She just works, do anything I need done. She's on top of that. My little sister helps out. I have a little farm. She helps out at the farm. I also bought like four houses from her. She's a realtor. Right. So that worked out nice. Um,

my little brother and i did a podcast for a while but he went he's going back to school uh chiropractic school so he's been really busy doing his thing what age is he now he's 20 oh that's crazy 25 yeah 25. then my older brother he's he's doing he's doing way better he's he's got a son him and his son live with my mom right now and they're uh you know they're getting by doing their thing but yeah it's nice everyone's everyone's healthy and doing good

I collect shoes and you collect houses. Yeah. So what's with the six houses? Where are they and why so many? Yeah, they're all in Arizona. The first house I bought was just like, I always wanted to be smart with my money. I was always, my mom was very, very stingy when it comes to money. Like she had four kids. She wanted to make sure we have all our, everything we had. She wanted to make sure we had everything we needed.

So it was like, I remember my parents always fighting about money. It was always about money. I don't know if that's why in my mind when I was younger, I was like, I want to be rich because I've always wanted to be rich. But then when I started making money, I was like, okay, you know, you have that urge, you get a lot of money, you have an urge, like, I want to buy something nice. I want to buy something. And for me, I was like, okay, well, if I put the money into a house and then rent it out and get the mortgage gets paid for, at least I spent that money. It felt good. I felt, you know, whatever reason feels good to spend money like that would have

But it's also like that money's not just gone. It's somewhere good. So I just kind of like buying houses. I met a couple of buddies, Blake, who's my assistant now that you just met. I actually met him about two years ago, three years ago, playing Call of Duty. I used to stream. I used to stream on Twitch like a lot every day. There's a certain group of people that would be in my chat.

Every time I go live there in my chat, him, another buddy, Schmidty, a couple of my other buddies were always in there. And I bought a house, I rented it out to them and moved them all down to Arizona. - So you meet these random guys online. - I met them online. - You're famous at this point or coming up. And you got tons of people coming up to you, right? Too many, don't know who to trust. And so how are you meeting people on Twitch and trying to sort through the madness, right? - I feel like you know, you know.

It's just like I invited him. I didn't just invite him out to live here. I invited him out, had a little...

a little hangout session with a bunch of my subscribers. And I like these kids. In person? Yeah, yeah. So you invite them to Arizona? And these kids, they got along with the group. And they're good people. I invited them. I said, I have an extra house if you guys want to rent it out. Four of them moved down. They still live there for about a year. And now he's my assistant. So he's one of my good buddies. And it's really cool. It's been...

It's cool. I met a lot of cool people. I don't game anymore. I quit streaming recently, but... Why? Just like...

You know, I'm at the top of the game right now. I'm the champ. I got a target on my back. It's like those two hours I spend gaming or two hours I can spend with Elena, who I have a three-year-old princess, or, you know, just recovering. You train in the morning, recover. You got training in the afternoon, streaming. It takes a lot of energy, especially as a high-energy streamer. I was screaming. I was, you know, playing. I was engaging with the chat. It was just a lot of energy. And I just, you know, I needed to put that energy somewhere else. Let's go back a little bit to school. Oh.

Education, a lot of people think it's the best investment you can make in yourself. You felt like you were not learning anything and it was a waste of time. Were your parents telling you, hey, Sean, you should stay in school. You should do better. Or you just said, fuck this. I'm done. Yeah. I remember being like third grade, being like, I'm over this. Third grade? Yeah. I feel like I remember young being like... You're 10 years old. Probably. Something like that. I was like...

I realized you got to go to middle school. You have to go to high school, but you don't have to go to college. I knew I wasn't going to college. Not paying to come go to school. No way. For me, I didn't really enjoy reading or learning because all the stuff I was reading or learning was just something I was not interested in at all. When I moved to Arizona, I was 19. Me and Tim kind of started reading books on sports, psychology, and just...

How to train smarter, how to use your mind and put yourself in the present moment and have intentions going into training session. Like that stuff was fascinating to me. So I'd read. I'd be like, oh, maybe I don't hate reading. I just hate reading shit I don't care about. Like that's what I got out of that. I didn't like – like I just didn't like school because I was like – it just doesn't make sense. You go to school for eight hours. You have an hour each class. You have homework on each class. You have a test on each class. How do you guys –

You know, some people are very, very smart and can just do that. But for me, I'm like, I can't do eight classes in a day and not remember each different thing and then have a test on all of them and then do homework on everything. I stopped doing homework in like sixth grade. I'm like, yeah, I'm not, I can't do this. But so I just never understood the setup of school. I just don't get it. Still don't understand. I don't get why. I feel like there's got to be a better way to

you know, educate people. I mean, you're a role model, right? I mean, you know, there's tens of millions of people. They look up to you. And a lot of people are sitting out there listening today as well and say, hey, man, Sean, Suga doesn't like school. Maybe I really don't need school. What's your advice to the people out there who view you as their champion and your example of people who don't go to school? And do you want your three-year-old daughter to be a student and go to college?

I feel like I just got lucky I found a passion. I think that's just... If I didn't have a passion, I wouldn't be able to sail. It depends what you're passionate about. If you find something you're passionate about that involves having to go to school to learn and get a degree or whatever to get you to that next level, then yeah, 100%. For me, I was kickboxing. I was knocking people out. I don't need to go to school for this. I need to go to the gym. I need to train. I need to hit mitts. I need to learn how to spar. I should be learning about how to eat healthy. I should be learning about how to...

meditate i should be learning about how to control my emotions i should be learning about all this other stuff that actually is going to benefit me for what i want to do so as far as elena going to school i don't know i mean she's three right now she's gonna i think you're learning the abc's learning that account learning all the basic basic stuff's very important obviously um but at a certain level it's like it depends what she's passionate about maybe she's maybe she doesn't have a passion until she's way older like some people don't really know what they're passionate about that's

That's tricky. I don't have advice for that because I don't know. I mean, I was lucky enough to find something I'm passionate about. So you're on vacation with your family in Utah. You get a call from somebody and that was sort of the start of it. So what was that call like? And you're sitting there. I mean, where were you in Utah? And what are you thinking? Hey, man, this is... That's funny you bring that up because I actually forgot. I do remember that now that you said that, but I forgot about like that was actually the initial call. My buddy Mitch Foley...

It was in the summer. We were at a campground and he called it like, yo, you want to check out this fighting gym? And I was like, yeah, that sounds cool. You know, I think I was 15, 16 years old at the time going into freshman year, sophomore year, whatever that age group is.

like yeah that sounds sweet i was kind of over i still like sports i still like competing but i was over the team sports didn't really get good grades you have to get good grades to play sports didn't really get along with the jocks didn't really get along with the coaches was always rebellious hated taking orders i like boxing the one-on-one you win because you win you lose because you lose it's like it's your fault either way and i wanted to i wanted to experience that so yeah when checked out a fighting fighting gym in montana that we're

you know, it's not the most knowledgeable place, but it built me as a fighter for sure because

I was able to fight so often. But yeah, that was it. We went back to Montana, went and checked out the gym. Just loved it. This episode of In Search of Excellence is brought to you by Sandy.com. S-A-N-D-E-E.com. We're a Yelp for beaches and have created the world's most comprehensive beach resource by cataloging more than 100 categories of information for every beach in the world. More than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries.

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So you get in a gym for the first time and you're looking around, there's weights there, there's bags and you don't know what to do, right? Just like, like what, what did you do? You started pumping weights. Was there someone in there showing you what to do? Did you have a mentor in there or trainer? It wasn't really weight. It was more of just like a fighting gym. There wasn't really like a bench press and you know, there's bags hanging. I think it,

I think the first session I ever did was actually jujitsu, which I ended up stopping for like three years because I didn't like it. But that was like my first time training was like doing jujitsu. And then shortly after that, we just kickboxed. We'd spar. So basically, most of our sessions were sparring and hitting mates. And that's what I like to do. Naturally, I was like, okay, I'm pretty good at this. I was athletic. I was hard to hit. And I was able to hit people.

Because I feel like I'm naturally gifted when it comes to speed. I'm very fast and I think that's the number one attribute in fighting is speed. So I naturally was pretty good at it and just kind of got addicted to it. Thought chicks would like it. That was a big thing too. Like, well, you want to get chicks? You're 16, you're insecure. Fighting sounds kind of cool. So that was definitely a big part of why I wanted to fight. You went back to get your GED degree. You're in a special school. You get in a fight. You get kicked out. What happened there?

Yeah, it's hard to even remember how it all went because I went to so many different high schools for a little while there. I went to, I went to Capitol and then I went to. This is back in Montana. Yep. I went to Capitol and Helena. I went to Capitol High in Helena. Then I went to live with my aunt and uncle in Hamilton. Went there for a little bit.

Ended up kind of fucking around over there. My aunt and uncle were like, we can't handle him. He's sneaking out, hanging out with chicks and doing all this stuff, which was true. But I was like, so they're like, just get me out of here. So I moved back to Helena, decided to drop out, go to this boot camp, Montana Youth Challenge, go there for a few weeks, maybe a month or so. I think it was like a six month program. Would end up sneaking out of that with a couple of buddies doing our own thing. Eventually got kicked out of that.

Went back home, went and tried to do my GED. I'm like, I just don't really care for that. Then ended up going to this school called PAL, Project of Alternative Learning. So it was just like an alternative high school to where it was just for people like me. It was like people that didn't like school still needed to get a diploma or whatever. So I ended up going to there and then graduated. And yeah, it's bounced around quite a bit.

You just mentioned you were an insecure kid. I think so many people who are very successful, including me, was very insecure. I didn't have a lot of friends, stuttered, was bullied, and was really in my own world for a very long time. At what point did you kind of come out of that? I mean, sometimes as a boy or a young man, I think one of the things is, are you too uncool to have a date with a girl? And that was certainly my...

my take for a very long time. So did you get the girls when you started fighting and winning? What was the first success you had there? And you're like, all right, my kickboxing is working. It's working.

Yeah, I think, I mean, I think obviously every kid in high school is insecure. You can't, I don't think you're gonna find a kid that's not insecure in high school, whether you have acne or you don't know if your shirt's nice enough or you're wearing the right jeans or you'd be just, for me, it was a little bit of acne. Looking back, I don't even think it was that bad, but I remember just being like, yeah, your hormones are crazy at 15, 16 years old. But yeah, so I think, you know, kickboxing won a couple of fights. It definitely gained some confidence, but

Talking to chicks was a little bit easier for whatever reason. Maybe just that little bit of confidence you get from knocking someone out. A lot of people don't know that feeling, but it's a good feeling. So, yeah. I'd say it definitely...

worked. So kickboxing, I think a lot of people don't know what that is. So are you in a square boxing ring and is there a league? I mean, you're in Montana. Who are you fighting? Yeah. So they would have kickbox. They would just have like a whole fight event. So some people would be boxing. Some people would be kickboxing. You had to be 18 to do an MMA fight. So I was 16, 17 years old. So I only could kickbox. So it's just in a ring, headgear, shin or head, sometimes headgear, sometimes not, but shin guards, boxing gloves.

And we would just, yeah, kickbox. I think there were three minute rounds, two minute rounds. I remember, you know, you'd fight one weekend, take a weekend off, fight again in another city and just kind of travel around Montana fighting. But yeah, so I did that. I think I did four boxing fights and four kickboxing fights from 16 to 18. Then once I turned 18, I did MMA.

Won them all, eight and oh? Yeah, boxing, kickboxing, won all those as an amateur. And then I did MMA. I was 12 and two as an amateur MMA fighter. Then I turned pro. As a kickboxer, were you just wiping people off the map early on or did it take a while to kind of understand what you were doing? No, I was just fighting. I was 16 years old, fighting other, you know, 16, 17, 18 year olds. And yeah, I was knocking them out. So you said that

When you dropped out of school, you weren't learning, but you've also learned a lot when you started kickboxing. The lessons you learned there were a lot more important life lessons than you would learn in school. What were the lessons and how have they applied to the rest of your life? I think I just learned I wanted to be like the best. It was more so once I got into MMA and wanted to be the best. When I decided when I was 18 that I want to be

consider one of the greatest fighters of all time what does that what does that mean what do i have to do and i was like okay now i have to learn how to eat good so i don't get injured i just learn about my sleep schedule

learn about my mind wait perform being able to show up in that moment every single time that's what I feel like I do better than everyone I show up that night what March 9th in Miami I'm going to show up I know how to show up I know how to I know how to for 12 weeks how to create that headspace of where I need to be to show up that night so I feel like I've learned a lot about

And I learned more so that that's not just about fighting. That's just in life in general, sleeping good, eating good, and taking care of your mind and body. I learned that because I wanted to be the greatest fighter.

But I mean, I just need that for just everyday life in general. So yeah, that's what I learned most. - I think so many of us have dreams as a kid. I always knew I wanted to have my own company, grow a company. I sold t-shirts in college and that was my thing. I remember sophomore year in high school, econ class, we did a tour of Federal Mogul, which is a Fortune 500 company in Southfield, Michigan.

And we did the tour, probably 40 of us in there. And we're in the CEO's place. And he has a huge desk. And the woman who's doing the tour, he's not there. So huge office. Gosh, this is cool. And I said, can I sit behind his desk? Just look at me.

What, what? And she thought, okay, why not? And I remember feeling how good that felt. And I said, one day, and I knew even then what I want to do. I want to go in business. I thought I had to act for it. We all have dreams, right? As kids. So how old were you when you actually had the dream that you want to be number one champion of the world? And what's your advice to all the people out there who have the same dream and say to themselves, man, that's fucking hard to do. Less than 1% of 1%.

You will be successful, but what's the mentality there? What's the advice you have for all those people? Yeah, I wanted to be rich and famous before I wanted to be champ, before I wanted to be the best fighter in the world. I wanted to be rich and famous when I was really young. So I didn't really know how it's going to get there. But I remember, you know, 16, 17 years old, I started selling t-shirts. You know, you'd have a fight coming up. You'd make a shirt, you'd sell it. I would get paid ticket sales too. You'd get $5 a ticket. So I was hustling 16, 17 years old, 18 years old as an amateur fighter.

trying to, you know, make as much money each fight as I could. You're fighting and before the fight, you're making your own t-shirts and going around to the audience? Or are you doing it after? Yeah, so if I had a fight coming up and, you know, a month, I would, you know, make t-shirts and my dad would help me and sell them to our friends and, you know, local people in Helena would 20, 30 shirts at a time or whatever it was. Nothing crazy. But I remember I wanted to be...

I wanted to be rich, but I didn't know how I was going to be rich. And then once I started fighting, I'm like, okay, maybe this could be it because I don't really know what else it's going to be. But yeah, that's 16, 17-year-olds selling T-shirts and merch and stuff. Now I have my own sugar shop and it does really well. And I feel like some people just have it. Some people want it. Some people don't. And I think if you want it and you have it, you'll figure out how to get there. It's like you just got to put in the work. You don't need... You can't have someone...

You can't need someone to tell you to do the work. Like I never needed a coach to say, hey, bro, you got to go train. You got to go to the gym. I never needed that. I was in the gym. I was training. And I didn't really need someone saying, hey, make sure you try to learn how to eat healthy. Like me and Tim, my buddy Tim, we lived together. We kind of started learning all that together. But I didn't need someone to like want me to improve. I wanted to improve. And I feel like if you have that, like you have a good shot of being successful, whatever you do.

I also sold t-shirts. In college, freshman year, I saw some other people doing it. I said, oh, yeah, that's interesting. So back then, you couldn't go online. I mean, I'm 55 years old, so there's no Google to look. So you're in the phone book, yellow pages. Hey, I want to make these t-shirts. So I bought them for six bucks. And you're taking a risk because you don't know if

if the shirts are coming in good or bad. And short sleeves were a dollar more. I sold the short sleeves for 12, the long sleeves for 18. So better margin on those. I went door to door in every dorm. I get kicked out of every floor. I go back in, the back end. I literally hit every single dorm. What shirts were you selling? Well, okay. So I was selling...

Just Do It shirts, Nike. Didn't really ask permission, obviously. And I thought I created better Just Do It shirts. I mean, today you could never get away with it. This was, you know, 1986 through 1990. And, you know, the experience of cold calling and getting doors shut in your face and getting kicked out was...

very, very good for me. And I think one of the greatest skills you can have to be successful is cold calling people. So have you ever gone door to door and learned the cold calling skill and the fear and getting over fear of rejection? I mean, it could be selling stuff. It could be going up to a bunch of girls and saying, hey, will you go out with me? That's hard. You know, no way. I did one time. I had like a sponsorship ride out to where like,

pay me 800 bucks and you'll have this on your logo, this on this and this. And I had to go to a couple of different sponsors and that was hard for me. That was like, oh, I felt, I just felt super, super uncomfortable. I only did that a few times. But yeah, that was very uncomfortable.

So you're young and you want to be famous. Why the fame? I mean, the famous people that I know can't leave their house, can't go to the grocery store, have trouble finding people who are true friends. What was it about fame that was interesting to you? And is it all that's cracked up to be? It's a good question. I don't know. I've never really been able to sit down and figure out why. I just have pretty vivid memories being young, young, wanting to...

I don't know if it came from, I used to be obsessed with football and I used to watch football every Sunday, Monday, whatever NFL total access during the week. Like I watched and, and just like the football players were famous to me and I wanted, I'm like, I wanted to be in the NFL so bad. I don't know if that's kind of where it stemmed from. I don't know if it's just that, that deep insecurity of wanting to be liked. I don't know where it came from, but it was from when I was young and, uh,

yeah i don't know i don't i don't mind it's you know what's cool is seeing walk into into a store and and some this happened to i'm trying to think of where

i was at the hotel the the room the room the um room service lady i was walking by and she just her eyes got huge she started freaking out screaming that i was walking by screaming yeah like screaming like it was right in front of your face yeah and it was just like that's pretty cool to be able to give someone that experience and

Again, I don't know why that's cool but it feels good. It's... And you know, take a picture with her. So that's pretty cool, I guess, in a sense of being famous and making people feel good. But yeah, sometimes it's a pain in the ass. You want to go to the Sprouts and you don't want to... You're like, God. It's like, I want to go to the grocery store and not have to think about, you know, being a little paranoid. Because sometimes people you're watching, you can see people's phones, you can see people like... But that's the worst part of my day is having to go to Sprouts and take a picture. Like, the day's pretty good. So...

- It's not, yeah, it's not too bad. - Can you lead a normal life now where you're just going out and taking the stroll or going to the mall or doing things? Are there things you're not doing? - Well, it's just normal now. That isn't normal going out and expecting it to be people there. That's just normal now. It was a gradual build from,

get signed to the UFC, knock a couple people out. You know, maybe it's one person. When I go out and I was two people, that was like a couple people. So it's just now it's normal. So it's almost more weird if I go somewhere and no one says anything. Yeah.

UFC is now, I believe, the fourth most popular sport in the world. Has your recognition... What's that? It's the number one. It's number one sport? Well, I think... Statistically, it's the number four. Yeah, I think statistically. I interviewed Dana White at a conference, and I believe it's the number four sport in the world. I mean, that's huge. Have you seen your recognition go up as a sport has increased over the last few years?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, each knockout goes up more and more and more. So, but yeah, definitely noticed that. Are you looking for your next great gift to surprise a friend, colleague, or loved one? Bliss Beaches makes the perfect gift. This best-selling bright and beautiful coffee table book by Randall Kaplan features starlight,

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So why fight in the first place? I mean, what was the first punch that you threw where it actually felt good? Go back to the first street fight you had. I mean, you punched. I wasn't a street fighter. Well, I'm talking about when you hit someone in high school and got kicked out. Was that your first fight? I never fought outside of the gym. I've never really gotten street fights. So the first fight you had was in a gym. Yeah. And what was it?

What was the first punch feel like? I never really looked at fighting as like a... It's violent. It's a dangerous sport. I just kind of always looked at it as a sport. Like, it's like, I'm going to, you know, go out there and turn this dude's lights off in the most non-violent way. I think put him asleep and the fight. You know, it's just like, it's always been chess to me. It's always been a violent game with chess. It's never been like an aggressive fight. Like, I want to hurt this guy because I don't like him. It's never really been like that to me. Yeah.

It's always more of like a sport. Who's going to go out there and who's going to win? And that's what it's always been to me. So I think a lot of people don't know how you go from your first fight to where you are today and how many it takes to get there. So can you walk people through the very beginning and who has to be in your corner and say, okay, Shugo's going to get the next fight. He's going to get a big fight. He's moving up on the card. Mm-hmm.

Up until the main event. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I've done a good job at managing my career in that aspect from getting signed to UFC and kind of navigating that and dealing with Hunter and Dana directly. What year was that? So take us back to the beginning because I think there's a lot of people who don't know and I think there's a bunch of people who are not UFC fans right now who are listening and watching the show. So I'd say I turned pro probably 20 years old, something like that. Rack up.

five or six wins fighting in Montana. I'd fight, go back to Montana, fight pro fights. They weren't the hardest pro fights. It was just like, I was kind of getting a good record. I think I was 5-0, 6-0. Knock out this dude in North Dakota.

Then I get this big fight, an LFA fight, which is a bigger organization. It's a good feeder into the UFC. I believe I was 6-0 at the time. Dana White's Contender Series was the new thing. It was about to air next year in a couple months or whatever. I knew if I could go out there and put on a show, I fought this guy named David Nuzzo. If I could go out there and knock this dude out, I would.

pretty much guarantee I can get on. So I'm like 6-0, six finishes, whatever my record was. I had a good record. Go out there and knock this dude out and just, one of my favorite knockouts still. I throw a head kick into a spinning kick, knock him out. It goes viral-ish. It's on YouTube. Yeah. It was my first viral knockout.

So then they offer me a fight on the contender series. Snoop Dogg's commentating. Yeah. And that was a big deal, having Snoop Dogg commentate. Him going, oh, Mally, just like 30 times in a row. He went crazy. Went crazy. He was posting me on his Instagram, which blew up my Instagram, which made me kind of get addicted to the likes and stuff. I was like, oh, shit, I can get a good following from this.

And so that's how that happened. Got signed to the UFC, knocked out that dude. Went and hung out with Snoop, smoked with Snoop, hung out with Snoop for a little bit. Big, big, like a cigar joint. Just passing around blunts and I was cross-eyed about five minutes in, walking out of there, like feeling like I'm in a movie. Just knocked this dude out. Just got signed to the UFC. Just smoked with Snoop. 21, 22 years old.

And so, yeah, I think that was in like a June or July. And then I, you know, booked my first fight December 1st in Vegas. And I don't know, the contender series was my first fight in Vegas. Then my next fight was December 1st, which is my first UFC fight in Vegas. Yeah, win that one. Didn't win it by knockout or anything. One of the decision was still a very entertaining fight. One of my favorite fights myself to go back and watch because it was so entertaining. And there's a lot of flashy things that happened. Won that.

Booked my next fight and in Vegas again, this one's on a pay-per-view now. I fought a kid named Andre Sacher. I called him Andre Sacher, now I forget his real name. But I fought this kid named Andre, broke my foot in the third round with three minutes left, tore the lisp fronk, it's the ligaments on top of my foot. And there's three minutes left and he was clearly hurt, clearly like couldn't walk on my, or couldn't even stand on it. He took me down.

thankfully I don't know why he's still on one hop now you're you're I'm hopping punching him in the face still piecing him up he took me down and uh thankfully he did because I couldn't I couldn't yeah use that foot but yeah that was kind of and then after that fight I feel like I gained quite a bit of popularity because of the whole Rogan was interviewing me interviewing me on the ground laying there uh the fight was entertaining broke my foot but uh yeah that's kind of got the ball rolling

So you're hanging out with Snoop, you're smoking, you wake up the next day and are you saying to yourself, "Man, I am living my dream. This is so fucking cool. What's next?"

I think at that time, you know, I was still living in an apartment. Where? In Glendale, in Arizona. What were you paying him for? Do you remember? Like $800. And what did you get for the fight? How much did you pay? $10,000, I think, for that one. Or no, was it $5,000? I think it was $5,000. $5,000 or $10,000. I don't remember. Okay.

But I remember after my first fight, it was like 10 and 10. You get $20,000. You pay the gym, pay whatever. It ends up not being a ton. But with that money, I bought it. I'm like, well, let's put a down payment on a house and move into a nice little shitty house. And that was my first house I bought. But yeah, that was a cool experience because you're not really making money fighting until you – even once you get in the UFC. The first couple of fights, you're not making a lot of money, especially with taxes.

Hate taxes. I've had to pay a lot this year. It was sad. Very depressing. Makes our world go on. We live in the greatest country on earth, so we pay for our freedom. Yes, I agree. And that's always a good perspective and good reminder.

uh i still live on a shitty dirt road though so that sucks but um yeah but that's your choice i'm sure you i'm sure you could buy whatever house you want at this point um but yeah it was cool to make money for the first like actually make money fighting is it's it still blows my mind to be honest so does dana white control the destiny your destiny and the destiny of your fighters who's picking the fights and how are they doing it is dana saying man sean

is going to be a superstar, so I want to make sure he keeps advancing his career. And then when someone loses, they're going down on the pole a little bit and not getting the best fights. Yeah, I mean, that would be more of a question for Dana and Sean Shelby and Hunter. Those guys kind of navigate

you know how the ufc runs i uh accept fights and dana loves you by the way i spent some time with him last night and he says man you're the next big thing yeah i mean he's not wrong i think ufc's you know they're they're a business they're a fight business but ultimately they're a business they want to make money and they know how you know dana saw it when he saw me fight alfred he said i have that thing and uh that it thing and here we are what so 2017

So, you know, I'm the champ now. So whatever they did, it worked. I'm here. I won the fights that I needed to win. And, yeah, I do believe I'm the next big thing.

He believes it too. I interviewed Dana. He was telling me the story of Conor McGregor and Conor met the Fertitta brothers first and they said, hey, Dana, man, you got to talk to this guy. Or I think it was the other way around. I'm not sure. And, you know, the guy was very flamboyant, said he's going to be the champ. Definitely wasn't the champ back then. But how much has your...

being flamboyant, the purple hair, the tats everywhere. How much does that contribute to your success? Probably a little bit. I think what it comes down to is if you go out and just watch my highlights from when I got in the UFC, even before, like...

i'm fun to watch i'm entertaining i'm knocking people out in spectacular fashion it doesn't matter what color my hair is or like you know what kind of car i drive face tattoos like none of that matters if i'm not knocking people out and people look past that people look like oh you're popular you're famous you're the champ because you have crazy hair ufc wants you to be champ like no i just knocked out al jamae sterling the greatest band of all time i fought peter young beat peter young the fight before that like that's why i'm the champ

But as far as like taking it to the next level, I think that the hair and all that extra stuff definitely plays a role. People want to see characters. People want to see, you know, or obviously all human, but people want to see characters. And that's what I think that I've done a good job doing. Conor McGregor, the most famous UFC fighter ever. And people are saying you're the next Conor McGregor. How does that feel?

It's funny. It's like people say that in like a negative way. Most people. I'm saying it in a very positive way because I think it's fucking cool. Yeah. But it's funny. I do get that a lot. You're a wannabe Connor. Like,

Yeah. How much did he make? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think he made $30 million for his fight with Floyd Mayweather. Yeah. Floyd made, I think 80 to a hundred million dollars. Yeah. So in that sense, yeah, I kind of want to be like Connor. I also want to, it's hard when you get that famous, that much money, it's like to stay that active. I'd like to stay active. I'd like to continue to fight a lot. Um,

But as far as people asking me if I think I'm the biggest star in the UFC right now, I don't really know how to answer that. I think UFC would know analytically. The real numbers, who's the biggest star? I don't know. I would say I'm definitely up there. But when it comes to potential, who has the potential to be the biggest star ever? I'm definitely the number one guy. I believe I could be way bigger than Conor. And just because Conor hasn't fought in so long. Pre-COVID, yeah.

2020, whatever it was, the UFC grew almost 50%. They almost, you know, I think Dana says like 48% in a couple of years, the UFC grew because of COVID. Like that's, that's my prime. That's where I'm knocking people out. That's where I'm, you know, on the rise right now. I'm the champ right now. So I have so much more people to be seen by. So, and that's the only reason I say that I could be way bigger than Conor's because there's more people watching the sport right now. You feel the pressure that people are putting on you?

Not really. I never... I don't really feel that pressure, to be honest. I don't really put that much pressure on myself. It's just kind of like... If this was all gone tomorrow...

do I have the skills to be happy? Like, I believe I do. I think, you know, it'd be a different pace of life, a different change of life. This all went away tomorrow. Didn't fight anymore. I retired. No one gives a fuck about me anymore because I don't fight, which is a real thing. Like, you quit fighting once you're done. It's like these people start to lose interest in you. You know, you're not getting the brand deal. You're not the next big thing.

Could I still figure, do I still know how to be happy? And I think happiness is a skill. And I feel like I could definitely, you know, figure that out and be okay. So I don't really put that much pressure on myself. Like, oh, this is the only way like I can make it.

Let's talk about your nickname. Where did it come from? And people walk up to you on the street and call you Sean, Suga. What's that? A lot of people call, well, not as much anymore. But when I first started coming up, it was always Suga Shane. Snoop still calls me Suga Shane. Suga Shane Mosley is like people, Suga Shane just kind of rolls. But yeah, Suga came from Johnny Aho, who was like one of my first coaches in Montana.

And he said I was just so sweet to watch. So he gave me the nickname Sugar. I kind of took the R off and went more with Sugar. But yeah, Sugar was kind of like the first one he said because I was so sweet to watch. One of the things that's made me successful over the years is something called extreme preparation. Something I've been teaching and coaching for 20 years. So when someone preps for something for one hour, I'm 30, 40, 50. I know extreme preparation has been a huge part of your success. Can you explain exactly what that means to you and how preparation is so important to being the champ?

Yeah, for me, it's like I wouldn't take a short notice fight. Like, I don't know. I don't know how like a specific date or weeks, but I wouldn't. I like to have 12 weeks. 12 weeks is today, which is ironically like 12 weeks from fight is today. And what's your next fight to tell people out there? March 9th, Miami. Yeah, preparation. Against? Cheeto. Yep, rematch. That's going to be a big one. But preparation.

For me, I break it down in little blocks, four-week blocks, 12 to 8, 8 to 4, 4 to fight. I gradually pick up the pace, the discipline. I can't be too extremely disciplined this far out. I'm talking dialed in, zero distractions, too far out. It's a balancing game. You've got to balance it. I feel like I've done a very good job balancing that and really figuring out what to do in those 12 weeks.

So yeah, I like to have a good amount of time to get my mind right, to get physically in shape. Fighting is the most exhausting sport in the world. I'm the champ now, so I'm doing five, five-minute rounds. I'm not doing three-minute or three fives. I'm doing five fives. And I got to train like the fight's going to go five fives. This very well could go 25 minutes with Cheetos. Very, very, very durable, very tough, very slow, very ugly, but he's good. So, you know, I got to be prepared to go 25 minutes.