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Farrah Pets. We were made for this.
I'm Mike Boris, and this is Straight Talk.
One of the greatest records in terms of the vocabulary.
The best game of any Australian ever.
Take your mind off the possibly 100,000 people that you're competing in front of.
The bell rings, and then it's go time now.
My whole life, I just wanted to be a fighter.
John Wayne Potter fought.
You will learn more about the romance of the fight game.
I wanted to be that guy that came in and saved the day
while protecting my family and my parents.
I remember being a little kid living on horse farms,
isolated, being an only child,
and Dad told me that he had two amateur boxers,
and I just thought he was a superhero.
Just out of the blue, Dad goes,
let's jump in the car, son.
We'll go buy some boxing gloves.
We pushed the chairs out of the lounge room,
and that became our new sparring room.
Just as I was about to start winning,
Dad announced your retirement.
You're doing well. You keep at it.
So that just kept me on that path then.
I don't want to have the story where I could have and I didn't.
The only thing that mattered to me was becoming a world champion.
So all up, what have you got, 150?
Okay, 149 bouts. That's crazy.
I wish I had 149 more.
Oh, I miss it so bad.
That's the hardest part about being retired,
because for 35 years, I've only had one focus,
and then all of a sudden, that whole goal and that whole dream,
It's an absolute honour to be a martial artist for the last 35 years.
Yeah, it's so hard.
I feel as though then the next phase of your life
is about inspiring and motivating others.
Yeah, with my kids,
it makes me so proud to see them achieve their own martial arts dream.
I'm really excited about this.
John Wayne Parr, welcome to Straight Talk, mate.
Thank you so much.
This is an absolute pleasure to be here.
It's so surreal to be in the studio and face-to-face.
It's surreal for me as a fight fan, but a mad fight fan,
but it's probably, from my point of view,
it's more surreal for me to be sitting in front of
probably one of Australia's greatest exponents of the fight game,
whether it be boxing, particularly Muay Thai, kickboxing, etc.
I mean, most people don't know, which kills me,
which is why I want to talk to you.
That you probably would hold one of the greatest records
in terms of the fight game of any Australian ever.
And no one ever talks about it.
So, let's just, first and foremost,
were you always a Queenslander?
I was actually born on the border in Albury.
So, my parents were horse trainers.
So, my mum was a jockey, my dad was a jockey.
My dad was a leading jockey in Albury at the time when I was born.
And then I remember being a little kid living on horse farms,
isolated, being an only child.
And dad told me that he had two amateur boxing fights
and I just thought he was a superhero.
My dad was a real, I didn't see him compete,
but just the fact that he told me he boxed, it's like, wow.
And then being influenced by the TV and seeing Monkey Magic
and I remember when I was a bit younger,
the movie Karate Kid came out.
Because I moved a lot as a kid,
I ended up going to 11 different schools growing up.
And then the story of the Karate Kid was the kids starting school
and being isolated and having to start fresh.
And then I could relate to him because I was always a new kid
going to all these different new schools.
And then martial arts was his saviour to give him,
keep him a direction.
So, yeah, I could definitely relate.
And then my whole life, I just wanted to be a fighter of some sort.
Whether it be boxing, karate, taekwondo,
I just wanted to fight.
Rock and roll wrestling, Hulk Hogan,
as long as I was competing,
that's all I wanted to do.
And then I would move around, move around, move around.
And then at the age of 11, we finally moved to Brisbane
and we were sort of in the suburbia.
And then a friend of us told us there was a taekwondo school near our house.
It was walking distance.
And it was a little bit late at night.
My parents gave me the permission to go out at night
and go four streets down the road to the karate hall.
And then, yeah, that's when the obsession began.
Walking to the...
I started when I was 11.
11 years of age, you were going down to a taekwondo place, a gym?
And Brisbane's a pretty safe joint, relatively speaking,
especially back then.
What year was that now?
I would have been 87, actually.
It was right before Expo.
Do you remember Expo?
Yeah, I do remember that, before the Brisbane Expo.
So here's a kid sort of excited about the sort of romance of what TV shows are showing,
I guess, about fighting,
but as opposed to having to learn to fight.
Because it's not as if...
What you're saying to me, I guess,
is that you weren't a kid who was living on the streets
who had to learn how to defend himself.
You're not like Mark Hunt, for example,
who's got to defend for his life.
I mean, dreadful upbringing.
You were more about the romance of the fight game.
Yeah, the idea of seeing people that weren't strong enough,
and having that protector.
I wanted to be that guy that came in and saved the day if anything went wrong,
or protecting my family and my parents.
I always thought martial arts was a way of being that guy that stood out from the crowd.
Yeah, like you said, the romance with being a fighter.
Yeah, it was very cool.
I remember walking into the hall for the first time
and seeing everyone in their gis,
and they're all punching and counting in Korean.
Oh, this is real.
And then we did our first class,
and I was out the back just swinging around,
just trying to be somebody.
And then, yeah, from the first class,
this is me, I'm done.
I want to do this forever.
And then about two or three sessions in,
mum and dad seen that I had a passion for it,
so I got my first gi.
And then the idea of staying in front of the class
and hearing the gi snap when you did it,
And you got through all the belts,
because taekwondo is very formulated.
You know, you've got to do these 10 moves,
and you get your yellow belt,
then you do these 10 moves,
you get your blah, blah, blah.
Did you go through all that process?
I went through about three gradings.
Did you think to yourself that,
what the fuck is going on here?
Did you end up sparring with that?
I went into one competition for the Queensland titles
And then it was at the...
No, sorry, 11, sorry.
So I had to have three fights in one day.
I won my first two, got to the final.
I fought a kid that was a little bit older than me.
I just got beat, but I got a silver medal.
And then I remember just putting him around my neck,
just saying, I've made it.
I've got a silver.
Went home and I...
So at the end of the day,
they had like a grading and people were breaking boards.
And then that just even blew my mind even more.
So I thought, oh.
And then I watched him break all his boards.
And then the trainer called me up.
And then he said, you want to have a go?
I said, I don't think I can.
And he talked me into it.
Just put positive mindset.
I punched through the board.
So I did the one, two, three, and I broke through it.
I thought, oh, this is awesome.
So I took half of the board home with me.
And then I got home and I said to dad, dad, hold this board.
And then not knowing that there's a certain design for the board.
So it does held it.
And I've gone through the same motions.
One, two, and I'll try to...
And I think I ended up breaking my knuckles more.
But yeah, I thought I was a man.
But yeah, that quickly brought me back to rally.
So it's not as if you're a kid getting picked on
because you're a middleweight.
You fought as a boxing bottomweight.
I was small growing up.
Yeah, but always a new kid.
Every time I'd just get a set of friends,
mum and dad would sit me down.
Oh, it's time to move again.
Time to go interstate.
I was always going interstate and always the new kid.
So yeah, just started to get a group of guys.
Then it was time to go.
So I think that's what helped me later on in life
when I had moved overseas to Thailand
because I was always new and able to make friends easily
and customised to different locations.
And it was just...
Yeah, I could stay there for long term
without having to get homesick
because I didn't have a home.
Yeah, you weren't used to it.
Having to have one place.
Can you take me to the part
where you moved away from taekwondo, for example,
and started doing, say, kickboxing, muay thai.
What was the next step in your career, chase,
the thing you chased?
Yeah, so we did taekwondo for about a year and a half
and I was just set this was going to be my life from here on in.
And then unfortunately, the taekwondo school numbers
started to drop down
and they couldn't afford the rent anymore.
So eventually we went in.
I was in the class one night
and the instructors said, got us all to sit down.
So now, unfortunately, this is our last class.
Yeah, we have to move to a different location.
And then I was devastated
because I didn't know what I was going to do.
And I'm lucky for me,
kickboxing ended up moving into the same hall
a few months after the taekwondo left.
And I thought, oh, it's not taekwondo.
I'll do this as an activity
until I find another taekwondo school.
And then, yeah, we did that first kickboxing class
and now all of a sudden the guys are in shorts and singlets.
And they're wearing boxing gloves and they're hitting pads.
Because in taekwondo, we're just punching in the air.
We never had any contact really.
And then the idea of sparring, it's like, whoa.
And then, yeah, that just completely changed my mindset.
And I said, all right, I want to be a kickboxer now.
And then just so happened,
the movie Kickboxer with Van Damme came out
right at the same time as I started kickboxing.
I thought, how good is this?
Because being in taekwondo, I wanted to go to Korea.
And now Van Damme's going to Thailand.
And he's fighting the most scariest guys.
I'm like, this is me.
I want to go to Thailand.
I want to be this guy.
And then for the next 20 years, Van Damme was my go-to.
Every time I got stuck, what would Van Damme do?
He'd stay the course.
So that just kept me on that path then.
And then I always wanted to tell myself, no distractions.
I was working in kitchens, trying to get by in high school
And you'd always hear the different chefs and waiters
and stuff always say, oh, I could have been this,
but I got so far.
And then I stopped because of the wife or the job
So I don't want to be one of you guys.
I don't want to have the story where I could have
I'm not going to let work, girlfriends, any locations
stop me from achieving what I want to achieve.
And that was my mindset from like 11.
So yeah, I'm very lucky to stick to it
and accomplish what I want to accomplish.
So when you said you don't want to let anything distract you
from achieving what you want to achieve,
did you actually have in your mind,
I want to become a world champion?
I mean, what did you want to achieve?
What did you want to become in the movies?
Yes, a world champion.
The only thing that mattered to me was becoming a world champ.
So my mom forgets this conversation.
But when I was about, I don't know,
two or three weeks into the kickboxing,
I was sparring and I was sparring the adults
when I was a kid.
And I was holding my own.
And at the end of the class, I come home to see mom.
And she's in bed, getting ready to sleep.
Mom, I did really well.
I think I can go.
I think I can be a world champion one day.
You got a dream and just mocked me.
And then she didn't know, but I held it to her
in like, oh, like 20 years.
And then when I finally did win my first world title,
I said, see, mom, I told you.
And she goes, I have no idea what you're talking about.
But I had this grudge all this, all the time.
And she didn't even know.
But she inspired you.
She was motivated.
Every time, I'm going to prove you wrong.
Can you tell me the first time you went to do Muay Thai in Thailand
and you moved to Thailand?
Can you talk me through that?
Yeah, it was terrifying.
So I was a 19-year-old kid.
I'd won about five fights in a row in Australia.
I won my first Australian title at 17.
And then I won the South Pacific title at 19.
And then the South Pacific title was really tough.
I got dropped in the second round with leg kicks.
And then I held on super tight for the round three and four.
And then the last round, I needed to knock out the win.
And I have a Thai sponsor that's got a restaurant in Broadbeach
And then he came up in the corner and grabbed me
by the top of the head.
And he said, come on.
You need to knock this guy out.
You're going to lose.
And internally, I started crying emotionally, going, oh, god.
I don't want to let Richard down.
He's helped me so much.
And then I ended up going out in the last round
and scoring the knockout with 30 seconds to go.
I won the South Pacific title.
And then the next day, I took the belt down to the restaurant.
Richard, we did it.
We did it without your help.
Thank you so much for everything you've done for me.
And then he goes, last night.
Last night, you showed a lot of heart.
I believe you have the potential to go all the way.
How would you like to go to Thailand
and learn from the best?
I'd love to go to Thailand.
He said, I'll tell you what I'll do.
If you can organize your passport, I'll do the rest.
So I went down to the post office,
sent away for the passport.
Passport comes about a week later.
I go down to the shop.
Hey, Richard, my passport came.
He grabs me by the hand.
We walk down another couple hundred meters
from the shop to the travel agent.
I want a six-month ticket to Thailand, please.
You got to promise me six months.
If you can last six months in Thailand,
you'll make me very proud.
If you go for one week, one month, you'll get there trained.
But then it's not going to really sink in.
So if you go six months long term,
then you'll create muscle memory.
And then you'll be able to bring that technique back.
Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure.
So Richard's family was leaving at the same time.
So I went with his brother, his wife, and their daughter.
So I flew to Thailand.
We drove to where Richard's brother was staying.
I introduced everyone.
And then the family, they said, oh, we're going to go now.
So I'm left with all these strangers.
And they can't speak English.
I can't speak Thai.
And then we go upstairs.
And the brother, he shows me the double bed.
He said, oh, we share?
So for three months, I had to share this double bed
with this Richard's brother, who couldn't speak English.
So we had everything was hand signals, so hungry, sleepy,
So I ended up staying at a gym called
and then trained there for ages.
Whereabouts in Thailand?
This was Pattaya.
So the only thing was, it was a very Westernized gym.
They had no gyms in Thailand really
wanted to accept foreigners back in the 90s,
because they were worried that the Westerners would come in,
learn their sport, then start beating them at their own game.
And then Thais are very proud of their Muay Thai
and their heritage.
So all the camp's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
But I see Yutong had open arms.
So I went there, trained, trained, trained.
But the only thing was, there was like, say, 40 Westerners.
And then it was like a factory.
So everyone would go for a week, come through.
A week later, they'd leave, and the new Westerners come.
So you weren't getting any sort of love from the trainers.
Everyone was just like a factory.
Take three rounds on the bag for 25 rounds, and then you're done.
It's like, I could do this at home.
So they finally gave me a fight about three months in.
It was very tough.
Ended up winning by a knockout in the fourth.
And then I was like, oh my god.
And then the superstar of Thailand at the time, his name was Sang Tin Noi, which means
the small candlelight flame.
He came to Australia to fight, and he met my sponsor.
And then- Richard.
Richard met Sang Tin.
And then Richard begged them, can John Wayne come and train with you guys, please?
He's not very happy where he is, and we don't want Westerners, we don't want Westerners.
And then Richard begged them so much that they finally accepted and said, all right,
So when they got back to Thailand, they came and picked me up.
They took me to the camp.
And now I'm in Bangkok, and now everything's changed.
So now, imagine all of Brisbane, and you're the only white guy.
It was like, wow.
And then they take me to the camp, and then we don't have a ... He showed me the toilet.
There's no toilet.
It's just a squat toilet, a porcelain squat toilet.
And there's no toilet paper, so there's a big basin with a blue tub sitting on top of
And you use the tub to pour in the water, and you handle up your bottom.
And then there's no shower.
So you use that same blue tub.
The sand on the concrete, wet your body, lather up on soap, then you use it to rinse off.
And then with the same blue tub, you use that to pour water in your mouth after you brush
And you share in that one blue tub with 10 different boxes in the room, and they're all
brushing their teeth, pooping, showering.
And then we go upstairs, and it's just an empty room.
And then you sleep side by side on the wooden floor next to the other fighters.
I sleep next to the ball, so I've only got one guy beside me instead of having two guys
So I sleep beside the wall, and then no table or chairs for food, so we've got to sit cross-legged
on the wooden floor to have our rice and have our meals.
Say when the food comes out, you get four or five different dishes in the center.
Everyone gets a plate of rice, and then everyone goes one spoonful at a time, so a little spoonful
And then it's like a community sharing.
You can't just pick out and say, this is mine, this is mine.
And then no girls either, so it's 10 dudes, 24-7, just waking up.
And then you go to bed.
And then you go to bed.
And then you go to bed.
And then you go to bed.
And then you go to bed.
And then you go to bed.
And then you go to bed.
And then you go to bed.
And then you wake up, training, eating, a little nap during the day, training again.
And then after your fight, you're allowed seven days off.
So you jump on a bus, go to Pattaya for a three-hour bus ride, be a westerner for seven days,
speak English, might have a hamburger, sneaky little hamburger, and then jump back on the
bus and be a Thai again.
So yeah, it was such a life-changing opportunity.
And then my Thai training said, I don't want to teach you Thai boxing.
I want to teach you to be Thai.
Our culture, our everything.
So learning how to be polite and how the older generation is very important, always be respectful,
always why first, and always instigate first, helping people.
And during my career, I was very lucky.
People were always commenting, you're so polite.
Why are you so polite?
Because I lived in a country where everyone was a killer.
So you've got to be very polite.
You definitely use your please and thank yous when you know every single person can knock you out.
What is it about Mu Thai?
Culturally, it's very important in Thailand.
Can you share with me perhaps why it's so culturally important?
I mean, it's not just a sport.
It's more than that.
I mean, I've been to them, and it's rituals, and people just love it.
It's not like if I go to a boxing match, you know, the Blake Knicks, you might know a couple
of people, and you watch a couple of fighters, and you might know.
But there, it's like lifestyle.
It's extraordinarily important.
It's a bit like sumo in Japan, nearly.
What is that about?
I mean, how does it fit into the Thai life?
It's a national sport.
So we play football and rugby, and over there, they're Thai box.
So there's stadiums all over the country.
They've got massive stadiums in Bangkok, and they've got the smaller stadiums on the outskirts.
They've got temple events.
And then it's an opportunity.
It's an opportunity for people to survive.
So in our camp, for instance, we'd be resting during the day, hear a knock on the gate,
and there'd be parents with a seven-year-old son.
And then the manager would come out, and the parents would plead their case.
Oh, look, we've got five kids.
We can't afford to keep them all.
Would you please accept our son into your camp to be a fighter?
And then the trainer will look him up and down and feel his little arms.
Okay, yeah, sure, he can be one of us.
So then the parents will hand him his little backpack, and he'll give his parents a wire, a little hug.
And then the parents will walk away, and the next minute, that seven-year-old becomes property of the camp from here on in.
And then from that moment, the fighters become his family.
So then the first week, he'll cry his eyes out because he's separation from his parents.
And we've got to try and calm him down.
It's okay, little buddy.
We're your family now.
And then we've got to show him how to run, how to hold his hands up, and show him how to hit the pads.
And then he's got to become a man from that moment forward.
And now he has to fight to make prize money to survive off whatever he can make.
So within, say, a month or so, he's competing for the first time, and that fear of having to compete.
And then if he becomes a superstar, he can make 10 times the average wage compared to someone working on a regular job.
So the potential there to make a lifestyle is up to the child.
And once they start, everyone has a passion for it.
They start collecting the magazines, and they start putting the posters on the wall, start having heroes to emulate.
And it's really cool that violence is the answer.
So on the flip side, though, if you're a girl, yeah, boys go to fighting.
The girls go to the other side, the dark side.
And it's so much better to be a boy in Thailand than it is to be a girl.
Does Muay Thai go for girls?
But what can I say?
The girls were considered not equal.
And there'd even be signs at the stadiums, please, no females, lean against the ring, because they were scared that they'd give the bad juju.
The guys were cut from elbows and stuff because the girls had touched the ring and infected it with their...
Girls couldn't fight whatsoever.
They couldn't lean against the ring.
No ring card girls.
And it's only from about the year 2000 that they...
They started going, okay, there's an interest here.
So instead of having the one ring, we'll have two rings.
So one ring for the boys, one ring for the girls.
And then eventually they say, well, we can't do that.
That's unethical.
So we'll have the boys fight first and the girls fight last in case the girls infect the ring.
And then they go to the stage where it's like, oh, no one's getting...
So we'll just make it a normal part.
Now the females are more popular than the males.
It's so bizarre how the whole country's turned a leaf.
But yeah, for a while there, though.
It was so sexist and everything else.
I remember many, many years ago, the first time I went to a Muay Thai competition in Bangkok.
It wasn't just the fighters.
They had young kids, little boy it was, a young boy, 10, 11, 12, charming a snake,
like a cobra in the middle of the ring between fights.
Like it's a full entertainment thing.
And it's nearly a religious experience.
Like, you know, the way everybody, you know, they wear the band around their head.
They dress each other, like fully well-mannered and respectful.
It's nearly like...
It's nearly ritualistic in a lot of ways, just including the way you dress.
I mean, what's that all about?
So the headpiece is called a monkon.
And then we have our parpojets, which go on the arm.
And then there was a gentleman that got captured by the Cambodians, I think it was.
They captured him.
And then, yeah, they make people fight to the death.
And they end up having a knife.
And he won all nine.
And then the king said, I'm going to allow you your freedom.
And when he came back to Thailand again, he was considered a hero.
And then the sport of Muay Thai was suddenly...
The kings suggested that we're going to change our army, our police, our all over.
And to learn this art to protect the country.
And then when he was faced with death,
he put the monkon on like a sacred piece, probably from his family or something.
And then he's asking for permission from the gods.
So I was always taught to ask for permission from the earth, the wind, the fire, the water and your god of choice.
And then you do three bows.
The first one is for the gods.
And the second one is for your family, your mother, father, past relatives.
And then the third one is for your training partners, pad holders, sparring.
Everyone that's helped you get to that right moment in time.
Without them, you wouldn't be there.
So you're asking for permission from them.
And then you start like the dance.
You dance as a stretch and a warm up.
And so take your mind off the possibly 100,000 people that you're competing in front of.
And then when you sort of come out of your trance, all right, it's go time now.
You're ready to rock and roll.
And then the bell rings and then off you go.
So hopefully the little dances give you some good protection in between.
Do you remember your first fight, Muay Thai fight?
Oh, yes, for sure.
I was 14 years old.
So I had my first Taekwondo fight at 11.
And then, yeah, my first kickboxing fight.
I was in year 10.
And it was on a Thursday night.
So it was a super tough fight.
I got leg kicked to death.
Went to a very close point.
But the next I had at school, and a little black eye and a bruised leg.
And I remember hobbling around school.
What's wrong with you?
Oh, I had a kickboxing fight.
And then watching everyone's expression of me change.
All of a sudden, I was the new kid, and always the bit of a loner.
All of a sudden, I had respect from the older kids.
And even the teacher was like, oh.
You've become a man now, almost, overnight.
And I just always been the new kid.
All of a sudden, I had this, oh, shit, people respect me now.
This is, I like this.
And then even though I lost, I told mom that night when I got home,
I want to be a fighter forever.
I just loved everything about it.
Even though I lost the walkout, the crossing the ropes.
So even though I lost the fight, I've come out of the ring.
And I was walking back towards the dressing room.
And someone in the crowd goes, way to go.
And the whole crowd gave me like an ovation.
And I felt like I was walking in a cloud back to the ..
And that was that moment.
That's what got me, was that part of being
accepted by the whole room.
And it's just like, I felt like I'm just special.
It sounds like to me, especially in the early days,
probably the later days too, but it
sounds like the fight game energized you.
Like it gave you.
Yeah, acceptance.
And it gave you a massive sort of energy and nearly a gratitude
towards what it provided you.
And then having my dad there as well, that was a big part of it.
So when I first started kickboxing, so it had been about a year or so.
And one weekend, just out of the blue, they goes, let's jump in the car, son.
We'll go buy some boxing gloves.
So we jump in the car.
We go to like a Sporty's.
We get two pairs of 10s.
No mouthpiece or nothing.
We get back to home.
We push the chairs out of the lounge room.
And that became our new sparring room.
So mom would be the referee.
Mom would count the time.
And then dad used to punch the shit out of me.
And every time he'd punch, give me a little jab.
Stop bleeding with the head, son.
Stop bleeding with the head.
And then so he was, I had no idea what I was doing.
And then after about a year or so, eventually I just started getting on top of dad.
And then it was just as about to start winning that dad really announced your retirement.
It's like, come on.
I'm just like, no, I'm done.
You're doing well.
You're doing good.
So Richard has sent you off to a camp.
And you've been finally accepted to go into a Thai camp.
And you're living there.
And you did your stint there.
You had your first Mu Thai fight.
I tried to look through your record.
Like it goes for pages and pages and pages.
How many professional Thai fights did you have?
Oh, no, sorry, sorry.
And I had 14 pro boxing.
So we'll just, we'll park the boxing for a moment.
Just put that over the side there because you fought one of my mates.
We'll just put boxing aside for a bit.
But in Mu Thai, you had 135 fights.
How many world titles did John Wayne Parr achieve?
And how many times did you defend your world titles?
I had only defended one.
That was in Japan.
This is Mu Thai world titles?
And you fought in Japan?
So you achieved 10 Mu Thai world champions.
World championship.
They're in different weight divisions?
Between 70 and 72 and a half.
So, and then can we just flip over to kickboxing?
So I don't think you've got a world title for kickboxing.
You got in the finals.
You're very close to world title.
So just take me on to kickboxing.
What did you do there?
There's a massive, massive organization in Tokyo.
So yeah, I fought an eliminator in Melbourne.
It was an eight-man tournament.
I had the fight three times in one night.
So I fought a gentleman.
I knocked out my first two opponents.
And then in the final, I fought a gentleman called Michael Zambides.
He was a Greek superstar.
He was a household name.
He was coming to Australia regularly, beating all our guys.
He lives in Greece now.
He was on Dancing with the Stars in Greece.
And that really lifted his profile to superstar level.
So you're the same weight as Zambides?
I mean, have you seen him lately?
He looks, he's unbelievably cut.
He looks, I've seen him on Back of Boats and stuff like that.
I follow him on Instagram.
But like, so you fought, like he was a legend.
We've had some great Australians fight there in K-1.
I think Peter Graham.
I think Chief Mark Hunt.
I think Adam Watt.
I've seen Adam Watt fight in Vegas as well.
The other K-1 in Vegas, like they're watching TV live.
And I'm not sure either one or two of those might have won the world title.
I think Adam might have won the world title.
So you fought kickboxing.
So you've, I don't know how many fights you had in kickboxing.
How many fights do you remember?
Oh yeah, about maybe 10-ish.
And you had 14 pro fights, boxing fights here in Australia.
So all up, what have you got 150 bouts?
I wish I had 149 more.
You would like to?
Oh, I miss it so bad.
What's one of your greatest battles?
In Muay Thai, in the world title.
So can you just, because you had some very famous ones, the names of the people who are
Thai guys, which I can never pronounce or remember, but just take me through some of
them that sit in your memory.
My two greatest ones are my Thailand world titles.
To go to Thailand and compete in Muay Thai against the Thai in front of a Thai crowd
was absolutely mind blowing.
So my first one is the promotion called the King's Birthday, King of Thailand Celebration.
It's an open, ah, have you ever seen the movie Kickboxer with Van Damme?
So at the very start, they're hitting pads and these, hey, and they're in a park.
So it was that very park that everyone-
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When it comes to celebrating the King's birthday,
where they have 100,000 people come to this,
and we sing the birthday song, and fireworks going off, and all these festivities.
And then, yeah, I fought on it, 97 and 99.
So, 97, I fought on the King's birthday.
And then, I lost because I'd never fought on 100,000 people before.
And just a little bit too anxious, and gassed out a little bit in the last round.
Can I stop you there for a sec?
Because that's really important.
I'd like to know a little bit about that from your point of view.
Maybe explain to the listeners the significance of what that means.
I mean, when there's a crowd of 100,000 people, which you're not used to,
and your adrenaline starts to go hard, especially before the fight starts,
how that affects your gas tank, how that affects your tank.
I mean, when you say you gassed out, I mean, it's not that you're not fit.
You would have been super fit.
But maybe explain what the adrenaline does to you,
and the effect it has on you in terms of making you gas.
So, 97, I'd just been picked up by the number one promoter in Thailand.
So my first fight was in front of 40,000 people in an open park outside of Bangkok.
And then my second fight was in front of 60,000.
So I thought I had the crowd down to, I thought I could handle the pressure.
And then when I got invited to the fight on the King's birthday,
we'd have to park the car half an hour from the park
and walk through the crowd of shoulder to shoulder for what seemed like an hour.
And then finally get to the tent.
And like I said, I've never seen so many people in one place before.
And then when it was time to go to the ring,
we had to get a police escort to get us through the crowd to try and push people out of the way.
And that in itself was like terrifying.
And then being in the white guy, going through the crowd and get them to the ring
and then to look out and it was an ocean.
As far as you could see, it was just people, 360, wherever you looked.
And what does it do to you?
My legs went, because when you do the, starting the dance, my legs went weak.
It's like, oh no, this isn't a good time for this to happen.
And then I started the fight a little bit too fast.
So, and then by the time I got to the fifth round,
just that little bit fatigued and fell over a few times, just cost me points.
So, and then the second time that I got invited to the fight in 99,
I was supposed to fight 98 as well, but so, okay.
you stay at one camp for so many fights, they own you.
And then once you start building a name,
if someone comes along and they want to buy the rights,
so let's say I'm John Wayne Boonshu and you come along,
you're John Wayne, you want me to change my name to Kmart,
John Wayne Kmart, I'll give you a million baht
if you change your last name so you represent us.
It's like a transfer fee.
Yeah, like a transfer.
So I was at this camp for so long and then we had a big falling out
and I ran away and went to a different camp.
And then the owner of that camp, the day of the fight in 98,
he went on the national news saying if John Wayne Par fights tonight,
I'm going to take the promoter to court because he can't allow him to fight
without my permission first.
So then as I'm taking my shirt off the fight,
all right, John Wayne, don't worry about taking your shirt off,
you're not competing.
So yeah, so I missed out in 98.
And then 99, because I remember walking out that first time
and pooping my pants, so this time I'm going to visually just get myself
in the zone so I'm going to walk out.
So as I walk out, they've got a stage now,
so you walk up on top of the stage and now you can see 100,000 people.
And then just trying to tell myself, take a big breath, absorb it all.
How many times do you get to do this in your life?
And then walking down the runway and then doing the dance
and looking out into the crowd in between, it was just, yeah, it was magical.
And then I ended up having the greatest fight ever.
So another little story.
So Richard's brother had only just,
had only just died of AIDS like a week before my fight.
So that was the main reason I was there, since I was there,
to go to the funeral and be part of the, yeah, all that part.
I said, well, since I'm here, can I fight on the King's birthday?
They said, yeah, of course.
So I ended up doing that, ended up winning, having a great fight.
And then I believe the spirit of Richard's brother helped me that night
because I asked him when I was doing my dance, oh, please, this is my time.
If you can, I've come all this way.
Can you please give me a little bit of protection during my fight?
And then having a great fight.
So then the next year I got invited back again.
And this is when I was just supposed to fight a normal Thai.
And then I was supposed to fight an Orthodox fighter.
So I get to the weigh-in and then Song Chai, the promoter, he's like,
oh, look, bit of bad news.
We've got this Masato who was supposed to fight for the world title tomorrow,
Japanese versus the Thai champion.
And he doesn't want to fight the Thai because he's scared the Thai has hepatitis.
Since he doesn't want to fight him, do you want to fight for the world title?
Do you want to fight for the world title tomorrow instead?
And I already fought this guy once before.
He was a Southpaw.
And he was the most painfulest fighter I've ever fought.
He cut me 21 stitches, two cuts.
And training for six weeks for an Orthodox fighter
and the change to a Southpaw and 24 hours notice.
I was like, ah, sorry, my trainer.
He goes, this is perfect.
What an opportunity.
I've got a game plan.
I'll tell you tomorrow.
I'll let you sleep tonight and then we'll work on the game plan in the morning.
He's like, ah, sure.
So we go to sleep that night.
Don't want to fight this guy.
I'm pooping my pants.
And I wake up in the morning and I see the trainer.
He's like, Sengten, what's this magical game plan?
So because he's Southpaw, I think you should fight Southpaw tomorrow.
Oh, you changed stance?
He wanted me to change stance.
It's like, no, no, you don't understand.
Do you want to do a demo?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So if you stand orthodox and if I stand orthodox and he throws a Southpaw, the elbow's going
to go straight to the seat.
But if I stand Southpaw and all of a sudden my lean hand's going to be ticked from that
side where he's going to attack me from, ah, that makes sense.
But yeah, it's so scary.
That would have confused him too because he probably used to fight in Southpaws.
So I got out there and I said, I was just having this massive war with myself for the
whole time after that going, I don't know if I can do this.
And then, yeah, I got out there and I thought, I'll stay Southpaw the first round, see how
And then if it's no good, I'll just change my orth.
And then the first round came and went and I was winning.
The second round, I'm winning.
And then I ended up winning all five rounds.
And then I took his world title off him in front of 100,000 people live on Thai TV.
Yeah, it was such a magical moment.
And then, yeah, I got back to Australia and then, oh no, sorry, I got presented the belt
in front of all the people.
I get back to the change room and then one of the workers from the promotion comes up,
hey, I've come to grab that belt.
And then my trainer had to explain, hey, if you want the belt, you've got to order it.
They put your name on it, but you've got to pay for it yourself.
That's just a presentation belt.
But I ended up ordering one, so that was okay.
And then that was 2000.
And then 2004, I get an email from the promoter.
At this stage, I'm back in Australia.
I've opened my own gym.
This is the one on the Gold Coast.
Yeah, I'm married.
I've got a little kid now.
I've got little Jasmine.
And then the opportunity, another, this is an eight-man tournament.
It's a world title, a million baht, which is about 40,000 Australian, and a trophy from
the prime minister of Thailand.
And then the deal was you get 100,000 baht into the competition.
And if you win, it's a million baht.
Oh, that sounds amazing.
So I went to Thailand four weeks before the event, trained right up.
And then they had the fight, my wife and my baby.
And Jasmine arrived to come and cheer me from the stadium.
And then the first fight, I fought a Russian, where I beat him on points.
The second fight, I fought a gentleman from France, who was a superstar at the time.
And I was lucky to stop him in the third.
And then in the final, it was a Thai that had previously beat me three times in a row.
I've never beaten this guy.
And then here he was again.
It's, ah, not this guy.
And he was a Southpaw, too.
And then, yeah, this is...
But this time, for some reason, luck was on my side.
And I outworked him, outpaced him.
And then I beat him every round as well.
So I ended up winning the million baht, the trophy from the prime minister.
And because it was live on Thai TV, and it was the biggest prize money ever given at that stage,
the next day, walking through Bangkok, I had taxis, like, screeching towards, stop to jump out and ask for photos.
Tuk-tuk drivers to be accepted by the Thais as a champion for the first time.
It was just simply...
In my head, I was like, this is the dream.
I've actually achieved the whole purpose of being here.
And it's finally happening.
So, yeah, it took eight years to get there.
But I finally went from fighting for $30 in the small out stadiums to all the way to winning a million baht and getting a world title.
So it was definitely the cherry on top of all the experiences.
And can I just take you to your decision to go and box, pro boxing?
And what was that like?
So what drove that decision here in Australia, for example?
So in 98, I just got back from Thailand.
And then a friend of mine, Brad Vacali, who's a big referee here in Australia, he rang me up saying,
hey, there's a boxing promotion in a week's time.
They're looking for someone your weight.
I know you haven't boxed before, but they're offering 100 a round.
So four rounds is 400 bucks.
So I went in there and then put the shoes on for the first time.
I've done lots of boxing sparring in Muay Thai, but never professionally.
And then the first round, I think it was going to be similar.
Yeah, it was completely different.
My opponent, Jimmy Shannon, he was up on his toes and he's bouncing around.
He's popping me with jabs and he's moving or using the whole ring.
And I'm sort of floating around and trying to chase him and I couldn't hit him.
And then I come back into the first round of my training.
He's like, what are you doing?
And then once he said that, that changed the whole thing.
And then I just went there and ended up stopping him.
Halfway through the second.
And then about a week later, Brad Vaccaro rings me again.
Hey, there's a boxing event in another week's time.
400 a round once again.
100 a round once again.
Another 400 bucks.
Went out there and then took that same mindset and knocked the guy out in the first round.
And this gave me, now I've got 800 bucks.
So that gave me another spending money to go back to Thailand for another 12 months.
So I lived off that 800 for...
And lived off my prize money once I arrived in Thailand.
So then I didn't think of boxing as a career at all.
It was mainly just to make money so I'd get to Thailand.
And then 2001, I formed a pretty special relationship with a gentleman called Paul Briggs.
He was Muay Thai guy first.
He was a world champion in Muay Thai and a hero of mine growing up.
And then he went to boxing.
And then watching him achieve so many things.
Here I was, Thailand, and I couldn't get a sponsor.
I couldn't get...
No one had any interest in Muay Thai whatsoever.
And then my friend Paul, all of a sudden he had guys giving him cars to drive.
And here's this and here's a wage.
I'll put you on a...
And it's like, what?
Yeah, yeah, boxing.
Sidney Blake, Paul Briggs, wasn't he?
No, he's Brisbane.
Brisbane boy, yeah.
But yeah, just the opportunities that he was given just because he was doing a different form of fighting.
I want what he's having.
If he's getting all this stuff, I can do this.
So I ended up joining him with Redwater House.
And then I got picked up by a boxing fighter called Bill Morty, who was doing the Fox Sports shows back at the time.
And then once he signed me, I ended up having like nine fights in a year, all on Fox Sports.
He really pumped my profile really fast.
And by my seventh fight, I won the Australian title.
And then that's when I fought Nader.
So you were fighting middleweight, were you?
Super middleweight or middleweight?
Between the two, both.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And of course, Jeff Enick was Nader's coach.
So this is the crazy one.
So I was supposed to fight a gentleman from Pakistan, Abdul Rashid.
So I fly on down to Sidney to fight a six rounder.
So I get to the Sidney airport, and then one of the gentlemen from promotions there to pick me up.
So a bit of bad, I get this a lot, bit of bad news.
And Nader Hamden's opponent's pulled out.
So instead of fighting Abdul tomorrow, do you want, instead of fighting six rounds,
do you want to fight 12 rounds for the IBF Pan Pacific title against Nader?
We'll offer you, I was supposed to make 4,000.
We'll give you five.
And then, yeah, this is crazy.
I've never made, most I've ever made was like 1,500.
So I had to make five grand.
Like this was, this was crazy.
So I've accepted the 12 rounds.
I trust in my cardio.
And then, yeah, the first six rounds was pretty competitive.
Nader was probably a little bit on top.
And then just a couple of rounds, I was switching my stance a little bit here and there.
And then I sat down for the end of the six.
And everyone said, go Southport.
You see, every time you go Southport, you see the confusing effect a little bit.
So I think, I think it's more better if you go Southport.
So for the next six rounds, the last six, I went Southport.
And then I believe I was just getting a little bit more of an edge every round.
And then at the end of the 12 rounds, they've ordinated the decision.
And then Andy Raymond come over to interview us both.
So he interviewed Nader first.
And in a tough fight, there's about 3,000 people there.
And then the crowd booed Nader so bad when he was trying to give an acceptance speech.
I felt really bad for him.
And then, and then Andy came over to me.
And then the crowd is standing ovation, just roaring.
And I'm trying to do my interview.
And I can't hear myself over the speakers.
The crowd was so ruckus.
So even though I lost the fight, I couldn't help but feel like I won the war, like for the crowd.
And there was live on Fox Sports too.
So for the next month, everywhere I went for the next month, I'd be at the bookstore looking at a magazine.
I'd get a tablet and shout out, you won that fight, mate.
I'd be down at the coffee shop, get a tablet.
And I was almost going to change my name though.
You won that fight.
So wherever I went, that's all I was getting.
It was, it was very, it was very cool.
I told Nader you were coming in there.
He said hello, by the way.
He's a good dude.
So can I ask you a question?
And this is a question that, you know, this, this question is probably is the genesis of how UFC came about.
Like you've boxed.
You've done kickboxing.
You've boxed in a boxing, proper boxing sense.
And you've done a Muay Thai.
Which is the more lethal?
Oh, Muay Thai, for sure.
And explain that to me.
Because, I mean, we watch UFC and, you know, everyone watches UFC, of course, MMA.
And they all end up wrestling on the ground, which is what your son's doing now.
He's doing jujitsu.
Because I've seen him compete a bit.
And dad's very proud of him.
And you've got three kids, haven't you?
Yeah, you've got three kids.
And, and you're a great family man.
But if you just, you know, you've spent a long time in the fight game and you've done all of them.
And you've achieved at very high levels, at the highest levels.
Why do you say Muay Thai is the more effective?
Well, I've done 12 rounds boxing for the, one of the titles.
So I was good for 12 threes.
And then about two or three weeks later, the opportunity to do a five-round Muay Thai fight come up.
In my head, I'm thinking, I've just done 12 rounds.
I'm fit as a fiddle.
And then when I did the Muay Thai fight, when you incorporate the clenching in the knees and throwing legs,
the amount of energy and cardio that it takes to throw a hard kick compared to a hard punch.
When you're tired in boxing, you can get that second one.
We can keep driving.
And I discovered when you get tired in Muay Thai, you just hit the wall.
And then your body just stops.
So, and it's not a good place for it to stop when someone's trying to take your head off.
And then boxing, you have the luxury of fighting with padded fists.
Whereas kickboxing is shins, knees, bare elbows.
Not as much brain trauma, but more body trauma.
So broken ribs and broken knuckles.
fighting with elbows, I've had 350 stitches in my face from all the trauma.
Yeah, it's just, yeah, so, so different to boxing.
Boxing, yes, it's hard.
Yeah, it's an all body fight instead of just the arm fight.
Only as an observer, because I've never done Muay Thai.
I don't know about it, but I've watched it a lot.
And just one of the things that sort of looks across my mind is that in boxing, you're right.
If you've got ring craft, you can sort of buy yourself a rest.
You can move around a little bit, stay away, you know, if you want to.
It looks like in Muay Thai, you can't.
Because if your opponent sees you're doing that, as you say, they'll jump all over you.
And you can't jump all over someone with boxing.
It's a bit harder.
Plus you've got the big gloves when you can't grab them and you can't pull them around the joint.
Whereas Muay Thai, you know, as you say, you're going to get cocked knees, elbows, wherever.
Is that why you think it's one of the reasons you think it's more dangerous as a sport?
But in Thailand too, you're also scored for walking forward.
So you have two guys that will stand right in front of each other and just trade.
So I have to believe in my skills that if you throw a kick, then I can bring my check up without having to try to retreat.
And then I'm in fighting range to counter and strike as well.
So you just can stand there and you can both just bounce off each other, just trading nonstop.
It's like boxing is a science of not getting hit.
Whereas Muay Thai.
I want to show you that I'm a caveman and I can take more punishment than you can take.
It seems more brutal.
Definitely more brutal.
Because you have to be prepared to cop the punishment.
But if you watch boxing, something like Mayweather, undefeated, people are going to think I'm a heretic.
But I used to find him boring to watch because he was such a defensive fighter.
But he just didn't get hit.
But he'd still win.
He'd win, but he'd get hit a lot less than anybody else.
And it seems to me that in Muay Thai.
In Muay Thai, you have to be, maybe it's how you get brought up, like living and sleeping
on the ground and all that stuff.
I mean, you've got to be tougher, mentally tougher.
That's my gut feel.
Is that one of the reasons why coming out of Thailand, you see a lot of ... They come
here to Australia to fight our fighters.
They might not be as skilled in boxing, but they're always tough.
They can cop a lot of punches.
Do you think that's the reason?
Also, Thailand taught me the poker face.
What's that mean?
To show no emotion.
No matter how bad you hit, how bad you cut, how much agony you're in, as soon as you give
the slightest indication that you're hurting, your opponent will feed off it, and they'll
try and finish their job.
So, yeah, you can't ... Zero expression.
That's the hardest part.
And then when you come back to Australia and you fight other Westerners, it's easy to pull
That's important.
And so, you now live in the Gold Coast.
You're back living on the Gold Coast.
What's the name of your gym?
And now, what type of gym is it?
Is it all disciplines, or just Muay Thai?
So, recently, in the last three years, we've incorporated jiu-jitsu, MMA, boxing.
I've done boxing before, but more set now, more regular.
You can't just survive one martial art anymore.
This day and age, with MMA, everyone wants to broaden their martial art experience.
So, I had a big fight against Anthony Mundine, and that gave me enough money.
And that gave me enough money to buy some jiu-jitsu mats and to deck out the gym.
And then we have a Brazilian jiu-jitsu trainer.
He's been such a big influence on my children and our classes.
He's such a nice guy.
And he's like the kid whisperer.
We have four-year-olds in kids' classes, and everyone pays attention.
And then when he calls stop to the round, everyone's like, yep, yes, sir, no, sir.
It's really cool.
It's really cool to see.
Could you ... I've got grandkids.
I was trying to talk to someone about it the other day.
And typically in Australia, if you've got kids, in the summer they're doing surf club
down at the beach, nippers and whatever.
And then in the winter, they're either playing rugby league soccer or rugby union or something
But then if you're ... my oldest grandson, he's not really interested in those things.
And I was thinking about, well, what could he do?
And I thought to myself, his mother's anti-violence, which is fair enough.
She sees footy as violent.
And I thought to myself, what am I going to do?
I thought to myself, what about if I pay for him to go learn jujitsu?
That's not really a violent sport.
I mean, especially if they're all starting on the ground and stuff like that.
I mean, you have kids going to your gym.
What are the benefits of something like that?
I mean, because Australia ... you know, you guys have brought a lot of evolution in terms
of how Australians view the fight game.
Once upon a time, it was just boxers.
Then it became Muay Thai.
Now it's UFC, et cetera.
But really for kids, jujitsu is ...
... a pretty cool sport to do.
What do you reckon about it?
Because your son is competing in jujitsu now, but you must have put him in at a young
And my daughter, she's nine, and she's in the gym every day.
So every time I pick up the kids from three, we get home, we change our clothes, we're
in the car by 3.30.
And my kids are ... not one of them ever complained they never wanted to train.
They've got their little community with their own little kids their age, and they're excited
to train every single afternoon.
So in that respect, I'm very blessed.
So it's good socializing.
For sure, and get someone with the same passion as you, too makes it more fun.
And then you're feeding off each other, the harder you train, the harder I want to train
to match your enthusiasm.
But what do you think of the physical benefits of it all?
I think with the boys, especially, and the girls, kids are tough.
Kids like wrestling.
Kids like having a little bit of competition.
Kids are ... And then Nicole and I, we were doing a little bit of a training session ...
controlled environment with padded mats and got the soft bags and the soft pads
uh and then just getting a sweat and having having fun and then uh trying to express yourself like
you might do a like uh at rolling you might pull off the move that the instructor told you what
that special move for that day was and just having that that feeling of reward of being able to
achieve um and then and then not getting hurt too and then the best part is having the confidence
i have a skill now that i know if i'm ever in trouble that i can i can use that to protect
myself um not that i want to use it unintentionally or on a bad manner but i want to know that i can
have confidence that if i someone tries to take my wallet i can i can defend myself or until someone
calls me at least um yeah i think it teaches kids not to fight because you learn early that it hurts
yeah um it's like i'm in a control environment i know if i don't tap that's going to be in
my position so um so yeah i know for a fact that i don't want to fight i'm learning to fight so i
don't have to fight yeah and that makes a lot of sense and it's not physically it's good too for
coordination and stuff like that you've made it you've lived your life as a fighter um apart from
your achievements it's it's actually helped you live a live a life like uh you're relatively
speaking young man still you've got a young family you've got your gym um i see you've got
your monstertution on there i mean i i saw you in perth
a couple about a year ago or so a monster they look after you they i mean they they they take
they send you places and uh lucky and i've been watching some of the stuff like you had you had
a lot of traveling was it last year maybe this year this year a lot of traveling and uh where
you're sort of sponsored to do things um how important is it has that been to you and how do
you build relationships with these organizations i mean how do you do that oh i'm very blessed
my gentleman called hans mollenkamp from america um i had a
competition in um uh california i was going to go and compete and then 2015 he sent me a message
hey um i want to i want to help you with this event uh how would you like to be sponsored by
monster like wow that'd be so cool so i thought it was just going to be a one-off gig and then
um since then we've built a relationship and then uh i just resigned for another two years
10 years of the company 10 years 10 years with monster energy um they've been so good to me uh
special events like the ufc and um the the
the Grand Prix in the racing car,
and then working with Cam Waters,
going on, like, what is it when they do those track days?
Cam's so cool as well.
But you get to meet other people too,
because they sponsor young Ryan.
But I think he was over there in Perth.
And he's Sydney too.
Yeah, well, you meet cool people.
Interesting people.
Well, it strikes me, you're still the same kid,
but, you know, an older body, but still the same kid.
And it's just been a wonderful ride for you.
Oh, it's so amazing.
I'm so lucky I have martial arts in my life.
It's just kept me sane, like I was saying,
being the only child and always being,
I've always had martial arts as my focus.
I've had, it's one direction my whole,
that's the hardest part about being retired,
because for 35 years I've only had one focus,
next fight, next fight, next fight.
And then that's always kept me away from, like,
And things like I've always had, I can't go here,
I can't go to that party, or I can't get involved
with these people because-
Can't drink because of training.
There's a direction I want to go,
and I don't want to jeopardize that by shooting myself
in the foot and getting too loose.
So, and then you retire.
And then all of a sudden that whole focus
and that whole goal and that whole dream,
And then, yeah, it's so hard.
But do you feel as though then the next phase of your life
is about inspiring and motivating others,
to live or experience a life that you've experienced?
With my kids, it makes me so proud to see them achieve
their own martial arts dreams.
With Jazzy going to the boxing and Jesse doing jiu-jitsu,
like, even though it's martial arts,
it's a completely different world and different community
to what I was brought up with.
So, yeah, it, yeah, it's just, they're my main goal now.
To have, to be the man for so long and then to have it,
just put the handbrake on, it's like, it's done.
You think all of it, do you think it happened a bit too sudden?
No, I knew it was coming.
And then I got to that stage where I was 45 now,
had my last fight at 45 years old.
And I knew I was getting long in the tooth.
And then when you start seeing other older gentlemen,
you think, oh, come on, mate, time to give it away.
And then all of a sudden I'm that guy now.
It's like, ah, no, what happened then?
I remember being the guy chasing the dream, chasing the champ.
Everyone chasing me.
And then, yeah, you're in the magazines, you're on the TV.
And then all the international adventures as well,
fighting overseas and, oh, you're fighting in Italy,
you're fighting in Jamaica, you're fighting in Japan.
And then all of a sudden it's like, oop, the handbrake goes on.
Well, I don't know.
It's funny you should say it, but I do know when I saw you in Perth,
and I think I saw you in Sydney too, Sydney UFC,
everybody still, as John Wayne Park, like everybody effectively,
stopping, you get an autograph and stuff like that.
So there is still a relevance there.
I mean, I guess you enjoy it.
Otherwise, you wouldn't put yourself in that environment.
You wouldn't put yourself in the public environment.
But you enjoy being friendly towards people.
I mean, that's the thing that struck me.
This guy's so friendly.
He's a friendly dude.
Like, do you put that down to the discipline that you learnt in Thailand
when you were, as you say, sleeping on the boards and, you know?
So when I was younger, I just got back from Thailand for my first six months.
And I remember being at the fights, and I seen a famous guy.
His name was Ian Jacobs.
He was like a hero to me.
And then we sparred a few times.
So I had him up on a pedestal.
And then I remember him walking past the crowd,
and I've jumped off of my seat, and I've given him a wave.
And he's giving me the look.
And then he just kept walking without any acknowledgement.
And I just sat back there in my chair, and it's like, oh.
I just felt heartbroken.
And I thought, oh, I never want to be that guy.
I never want to not say hello to someone and make them feel like they're in fear.
So now I go out of my way.
If someone comes up, whether it be young or old,
I always go out of my way and give them like five minutes.
I say, g'day, have a handshake, get a picture.
And then they got that.
Because it only takes one person to tell 20 people that you're a dickhead.
But if you're nice to that person, they tell 20 people,
hey, he was a really nice guy.
So, yeah, I learned that definitely early in my career,
just from what happened to me.
So, yeah, it's that experience.
Well, John Wayne Parr, it's been a great pleasure.
To talk to you today.
I have to tell you, you're one of the most infectiously likable people
that I've ever met.
And particularly on the other side of it,
you're one of the most accomplished fighters Australia has ever produced, ever.
And in that regard, from my point of view and for our audience,
it's been a great honor, mate.
Mate, thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
From the first time we met, I just felt like you were,
I tell everyone to this day, you're like the long lost uncle.
And then every time we've seen each other at the hotel,
I just felt like we had a connection.
I'm so humbled that I got the invitation to come and have a chat.
I'm so glad to be here.
It's so important for us.
And it's important for me to put great Australians
out in front of the rest of the audience.
And you're one of them.
Oh, no, thank you so much.
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