Lukasz Wieczorek is a Los Angeles based Video Game Creator who has several podcasts on martial arts, design and technology including @noise.podcast. He is also the creator of @martialartsunleashed, a popular Instagram channel filled with martial arts content.
Transcript:
Lukasz Wieczorek: Pretty good. How are you good good? How are things you’re in LA that is that right, I am in LA yeah. How are things there with the corona epidemics, guys freaking yeah, you know it’s! It’S it’s one of those weird things where it’s like you can’t you don’t really know many people. We did get one from that, got it. So it’s one of those things where it hasn’t quite like hit. I have a feeling it’s gon na be kind of crazy, especially considering like what’s happening in Italy in China and all that stuff to you. So it’s like one of those things where you’re, like you kind of, don’t want to downplay it. You know, but at the same time, like not many people, you know I’ve been touched by it, so we’re not really freaking out we’re just being real estate or roommates. On the other hand, those guys are crazy, so who’s in yeah like same here we’re and I’m in Nova, Scotia, Canada so hasn’t hit. Yet but like people are freaking out, everyone’s got their stuff, they locked in their houses, yeah going out and whatnot, but they like closed all the bars and all the restaurants and everything so and it’s kind of part of the reason why I started this. I’M like bored out of my mind all day I work, but after that it’s like can’t give up with friends. I can’t make plans, so you know it like, since there are no sports on like I’m, a huge soccer fan, huge hockey fan every night, and since none of that’s all on, I may as well use this small platform. I have of 500 followers and try to data. You know connect with people and uh, as you know, talk about MMA or whatever comes up really there’s no strict protocol or anything it’s just whatever we end up talking about. We end up talking about and which I, which is awesome. I got two podcasts, so I have one that I wrong kind of just like on it’s. It’S totally like you just talk about whatever you talk about and other ones like super hyper structured. So, like the design one, it’s like very hyper structured. We have like set questions and then honestly, I, like the one. That’S a little bit more freeform, where you can kind of just like talk, is go. You don’t really have like any kind of like agenda. You just kind of chat about what you like a lot, it’s more Joe Rogan than it is yeah yeah, that’s kind of like I’m like getting this from it’s like it’s a podcast. I mainly listen to so and – and I kind of like the way it flows where it’s one minute, they’re talking about anime and next we’re talking about hunting and then smoking weed and it’s just like over the place. So I kind of I like that, but obviously the platform I have is made in the MMA. So I was like you know what let’s start there and whatever yeah whatever comes with that comes with that excellent yeah. So like what I guess, what are your thoughts on like how long do you think I had John on yesterday, and we were talking about how long we expected this to be, and he said he still thinks some of the events are going to happen. It’S just gon na be obviously no no fans in attendance, and he thinks it’s gon na be even narrowed down where, instead of having a full card, they may just do the main or the main card. Five fights. What like? What are your thoughts? Do you think? That’S something that could be done or do you think you really need a structured 12 fights in order to make that event worth it honestly, I don’t. I just started watching a lot of like the UFC stuff. I’Ve been a little bit more old school, so I’ve honestly like so I started martial arts Unleashed, which is like the Instagram Twitter. All that stuff I kind of we. We have people writing articles for it and whatnot, but I started that to learn a little bit more about like more MMA kind of world and more of the martial arts world outside of karate, because Evan knew in karate. Since I was like 16, I started martial arts when I was like 5 or 6, or something like that, but I’ve been very insular, so I don’t know as much about like the MMA side. I dunno. The main thing that Dana White is doing is he’s kind of gon na. Have it like isolated that people are only gon na, be fighting, you know just them from what I understand so far. What he’s talking about so I wish I could talk more about that. I try to stay away from things. I don’t really know too much about. You know I’m as far as like the structures of the fights and things like that to you, but are we actually rolling right now, yep, just jumping right into it. Yeah, like cutoff stairs stuff afterwards, but yeah we’re rolling right into it. Okay, cool rock and roll yeah, just wan na make sure but yeah. As far as the card itself goes. You know I don’t I don’t know a whole like ton about it, but but what do you think? What are your thoughts on it? Well, I mean I’m kind of in the same boat. Where I mean I I’m obsessed with UFC and whatnot, but I don’t understand the business side of things when it comes to the UFC like I don’t. As far as I know, I think a lot of their income comes from fans and attendance all right. So if you don’t have people in the seats, how are you gon na? I mean everyone’s gon na watch it at home and stuff, but is it worth renting out a 10,000 seat arena and not have people in there? I’M not sure how much they’d lose, whether it’s worth it and and whatnot, and they can’t even do it at the performance Institute, which is a UFC facility because of yeah. Yet there’s restrictions now in California, so they can’t begin to in there and in Nevada. So I have no idea how they’re gon na restructure it or or whatnot. I don’t know I’ve just. I hope they find something because yeah I’m obsessed and I have nothing else to my free time, so yeah yeah one thing. One thing that I do think is gon na be really good for this is, I think that everybody’s, like kind of locked in – and they can’t do anything other than like watch these sports and stuff and like everything’s, getting cancelled. So the fact that they’re still going through with it, I think it’s super smart, because I think this is gon na be kind of like a test run of like how much a brand have you built for, like the actual, like fights and stuff like that, to You because realistically people are gon na watch that, whether they’re in attendance, like in person or watching over over, like an app or whatever, and my hunch is actually they make a lot more money from from like the apps and subscriptions and all the peripherals. Because that’s where I’ve been trying to like kind of build out my brand as well, and I’m trying to figure out like how to make money off of it and a lot of people are like throwing. You know sponsorships and stuff at me and I’ve been denying almost every single one of them. I probably get like a few a week where people offering me money to repost, but I’m trying to like kind of stay away from that, but where I want to maybe like start thinking about making money is like things like Tim Ferriss. Do you know Tim Paris’s? Oh he’s awesome he’s really really great amazing, like podcaster and like writer, and he does like all these amazing books like gosh. Was it the four four four or five hour workweek kind of blanking on exactly the name of it, but I kind of like blast it to audiobook wise. But what what he does is a lot of his money kind of comes from his peripherals. He doesn’t really make money from the podcast itself from what I understand. I think he still has like sponsors and stuff like that to you, but um kind of like building around like what your brand is. I think is like a really really smart idea like you. Can make a little bit of money like through it itself, but sometimes it feels a little bit like it depends on who you are and how you’re doing it. But it can feel a little like pleasee, where you’re like, like there’s like sponsorships everywhere, and you feel like you’re being sold to and that’s the model that people are kind of going away from right now to is they’re trying to make everything a lot more affordable. Because I work in the tech space, so I design apps and video games, and so people are trying to go for more, like like a wider reach kind of thing right where, where you can reach a lot more people simultaneously through these apps, then you can, like Actual in the in attendance stuff, so I bet if you looked up the numbers, I bet the money that they make from like, like the streams and all this other stuff from you know like their clothing from all the merch that they sell. They probably make way more than yeah, and they do you like actually selling that tickets themselves. So I, in my opinion, I think it’s great because it’s gon na be a test run of like how much people are actually gon na be interested. If there’s not like the energy of people all around them, you know, and maybe they start coming in okay, it’s also gon na bring in like, for example, like if I were to like, if you have seized on but there’s also boxing or there’s baseball or there’s Football those options aren’t there anymore. So if it’s the only thing on TV, it’s gon na bring in people who wouldn’t usually watch it. So, for example, like I watch hockey – and there are times where I’m like yeah I’ll – be flipping back and forth throughout the channels watching UFC and then back to hockey. But if there’s no hockey on I’m still watching FC, I was watching k2 workers last night and I’ve never watched a Cage Warriors card, but it’s the only event on so I was I was watching it and I feel, like a lot of other people, would be Doing the exact same yeah, yeah yeah, I think I think it’s a good move on his part till I continue, because you don’t really need a lot of people for for these events right, you just need the. I mean how many judges, usually there’s like what two or three judges for you and then there’s three judges. There’S you know the two fighters and there’s a rough so like. Realistically, that’s not a lot of people you need versus, like you know, basketball or football game like you’re. Getting all these people together and – and that’s already like technically, I think, banned in a lot of places where you just can’t have that many people period together. So I mean the fact that, like the nature of the sport is so like intimate, I think that’s super smart that they’re continuing with it so it’ll be interesting to see where it goes and if they like release any numbers on that stuff yeah. Because in the limit now is 50 people per per thing right, you can’t have 150 people together and that’s like what one football team, so it’s even lower in California. I think it might be alike. Actually, I don’t think you’re even allowed together and like more than ten people or something crazy like that, like they keep lowering it so who knows, might even be lower than that yeah it’s! Well! That’S that’s crazy! Yeah! I don’t mean to talk to me a little bit about your karate background, like it you’ve been doing it since you were 16. You said yes, I started well when I was SuperDuper young. I started in Taekwondo because of one of my buds did and I saw him break a board. You know it was like yeah like I wan na break some boards. That looks all you know. As kids Joe Joe Rogan got started in Taekwondo right. Yeah he’s amazing. Actually so, when you watch his videos with George st. Pierre Judy’s teaching him that that spin back kick and you’re like hold on what is really good and his accuracy and technique is like yeah yeah like at first, I was like. Oh it’s just the fear factor. Guy, like that’s, how I always remember yeah, I didn’t realize he had this legit background in martial arts, but yeah nice kicks impressive and I think that’s the the one thing about Taekwondo is they say like it’s, not the most useful if you were to transition to Mma, what the kicks are, what separate them from all other martial arts yeah. Well, I’m like at all dudes you so when, when I go spar with people like people, don’t know what to do with me because I like I can reach them. You know double the distance, what a lot of people can and you get that rich and you know if you got your splits and like you can reach out even further. So you get this like crazy reach, and this, like you, learned a lot from karate. I’M not like a huge fan of karate point sparring. I think it’s kind of [ _ ], like it’s going yeah, because it’s it’s a lot of like in and out you get a point. Then you stop and so teaches you a lot of bad habits, but the thing that it is good at is it teaches you to get in and then get out, so you’re really good at closing the gap. So if you mix those two like your kicks and being able to close the gap, man, it’s like it’s pretty brutal, and then you put some Muay Thai and some pjj on top of that and like yeah, some of those yeah have you watched much of Stephen Wonderboy Thompson: oh yeah, yeah yeah. I really I I mean he’s one of my favorite fighters simply because his style is so unique. It just keeps people untrained. His hands are down. He really gets caught. He got caught against Pettis, but outside of that like she doesn’t it doesn’t really get hit. I I did a little tiny bit of kickboxing when I was younger, took one body shot and called it quits, but I did jujitsu for a little bit last year. A lot of transition back into that, but I don’t have a martial arts upbringing, so I have no idea how I got hooked on it, but I don’t know I watched rampage versus Rashad and ever since I saw rampage tear apart a door. I was like this. This is something I can, I feel it. I feei feel exactly what he’s feeling you do that lizard part of your brain. Like fires, you know limbic system and it just like makes a weird like animalistic connection and you’re, just like Stokes there’s something about it that just resonated yeah. I have no idea why. I don’t know if it’s it’s it’s weird, but I know I it’s one of the few sports that I really get behind that in soccer and hockey or the three that I’m obsessed with everything else is like yeah whatever. But what it is for me think for, like the martial arts is it’s the most honest like sport. In my opinion, because I’ve played a lot of different sports, I played like basketball. I’Ve had a little bit of hockey. I’Ve done all these different sports and to me it’s like the most real, because it’s it’s you’re, basically like naked on this stage, where everybody sees every time I mean you’ll, be a clipped once or twice, and it is just like Twitter, just like you know, like Somebody just gets like Connor gets clipped by something or khabib gets clipped by something just Twitter just blows up, and so it’s it’s one of those things where you’d like you can’t hide it right. Basketball, you trip, there’s you know ten other people. People are watching your eyes are like jutting, back and forth all over same with hockey same with football right, you’re kind of all over the place, but man you mess up in MMA, because it’s the nature of the sport is so intimate that, like there’s just no Getting around it so to me, that’s that’s! What’S so exciting about it to me is like you can’t. You can’t lie on that stage like the second you get on there. It’S like it’s just the purest and most like true form of yourself, because you get these guys that that are in the gym, they’re, like monsters in the gym, and then you put them in like a real fight and they suck. And it’s weird cuz. That pressure gets put on you because I had a few friends that I would spar in the gym and I’m like man, I’m kind of scared of you in the gym and then you go into a competition and they just fold like paper. It’S crazy, and so that’s it kind of like to me. It’S I’m not gon na name names, but it’s one of those things that kind of like exposes what your nature is right like like. How are you gon na how you gon na act under real actual pressure right? That’S what you get these guys, that are black belts and then they get in a street fight and they get knocked out cold right. I watch these videos and i have a thing called daily dose streets, which I kind of been relaxed on lately. Cuz I’ve been kind of focusing on other things, but I post a lot of street fights on there and it’s basically me just trying to understand like what really happens on the street right like like these guys that are actually trained like what actually it goes on. You can tell some of them are try and rayon. Your Instagram got like 118 thousand thousand followers, something like that. Yeah yeah, it’s really impressive. I was watching a did. You end up watching it was the Brazilian black belt. She was in the UFC and she got mugged by some guy in Brazil. She put him in a chokehold for 20 minutes until the cops show yeah yep yeah. It’S. I love those videos where you know you. It just shows you the difference between someone, who’s trained and someone who’s not – and I like even one of the I rolled with this, this girl she’s like 1516, something like that and I’m 24, I’m relatively young too, but I was rolling with her and she’s a Lot smaller than I am and I got rag-dolled I was like what is this: what is this um? So you don’t really like until you train with someone who knows what they’re doing it’s, you can act, tough, you can think you’re tough, but you’re, not honey per se. Oh yeah! That happened to me in karate, when I was first starting to like sparring get like outside of just karate world, because I was just I was just rolling people in karate, like people couldn’t touch me for a little while right and there was there some like the Upper belts they were like, you know they could and they’re, probably holding back a lot, but it was like for the most part like I was doing really well and then this dude came in and he was actually I’m I’m a fighter, and so he kind of Knew like where to position, you were to put you in certain places and dude. He just rolled me like every Tom. I just didn’t really understand what was happening. It was so funny to me where it’s like. I got so immediately humbled or, like the other guys. I just knew that they had like years and years of experience, whereas this guy he was he’s pretty fresh right instant. He was just training like the right stuff for, like the right amount of time at the right intensity, where he just like. He knew where, to put you and that just kind of opened my eyes I was like oh man. I got to really actually start learning like the real stuff and how to train like properly and correctly, because, if you don’t, you know you get put under that pressure and somebody sweeps your leg or you know, does a thigh kick and all of a sudden. You can’t use your leg, you know what are you gon na do yeah? Have you have you done any grappling like wrestling? I haven’t done jiu-jitsu or BJJ and none of that stuff, but I do old-school karate, so I trained with Tadashi Omashu de I don’t know. If you know who he is, but you ever seen the movie doctor gone way back in the day, I did okay he’s he’s in a bunch of like really old school kind of cheesy movies. Back in the day they weren’t cheesy cuz. It was like kind of the style wait he’s like the black star ninja. You can like see him in the movie and stuff, and you trained a bunch of people. He’S I mean the stuff he’s done is is crazy. Like some of the stuff I’d, I can’t even share because it’s like one of those like did that actually happen. Cause like you hear. The story is, and you’re like holy crap like one time I know for sure, for this is like real story, because there’s actually like a like a newspaper article on it and he was in India in Indiana, and this guy came up and apparently one of their Like group of friends was like flirting with one of these guys and he was like gangbanger and just pulled out his gun and just shot and killed the guy and the guy ran out the guy with the gun, ran out and so they’re all like scrambling, like What the hell happened what’s going on or whatever, and then the guy comes back in and he goes walks up to my sense of it and he’s like mm-hmm and he tries to pull the gun, and this is one of those stories where, like this is got Ta be [ _ ], but it’s not because so many people have like we’re actually there and saw this happened. He went up to the guy knocked the gun out of his hand, grabbed it and pistol-whipped him. You’Re like and put him in the hospital. This guy and I think another guy in the hospital too, and there was like I don’t know this like there’s such crazy stuff like that – that this guy is done and like the past and like the people that he’s trained like he started like. I think he did the pilot to the Power Rangers and it was like the reason why, like the Power Rangers or even like a thing, and then he ended up not doing it like after that, but like there’s all these like really random crazy things that he’s Done back in the day, but he’s a beast man, I think he stopped doing film because he’s kind of started losing like people respect him as much because of that and stuff too. So he kind of started like staying away from yeah. I find that, like a lot of like martial artists that are in films, lose a lot of their like credibility. Almost like people don’t realize Chuck Norris, for example, is as legit as they come, and martial arts same as Bruce Lee Steven Seagal’s. I mean he’s done, he’s done some stuff that you’re like okay, whatever but he’s yeah he’s legitimate, but because they’re in movies you discredit their martial arts abilities, see, I don’t know about Chuck Norris and Seagal like I hear that a lot, but I’m not getting Vince Because, like I watch their technique and I’m kind of like like, and maybe they like once I’m like tournaments or something and they’re like pretty alright, but some of the people that like what’s-his-name Van Damme like that guy, was actually really good. Hey John, he actually yeah. He competed at a very high level, and so like people like him, I’m like okay, yeah like and his techniques good too right, where’d, you watch some of those other guys and you’re kind of like maybe an Aikido is one of those things that I’m like almost Borderline I’m like dude, like some of this stuff, is legit, but some of it like that, okay, just like literally like flips around, and they just allow you to like toss them around and I’ve taken some of you Aikido classes, and I’m like this. Isn’T this isn’t realistic? Cuz I’ve actually had situations where people have like grabbed my wrist, and you know I’ve tried some of these moves and sometimes some of them just don’t work. Somebody can just strong-arm you and all sudden. It’S like that technique. Just 100 % does not work right. That’S why I like doing old-school karate, because it’s a lot of just they do have a lot of the grappling and stuff like that to you sorry. I started talking about this, but I kind of digressed over to we do like old-school karate, where they have a lot of like grappling, and they have a lot of ground technique. They have a lot of like arm bars. Things like that too, and we also training, so you can do which has a lot of almost it’s. It’S like half grappling half like striking kind of stuff, so you might, you know, grab somebody’s arm and kind of go underneath and do like a break or whatever. So there’s a lot of that kind of stuff as well too, that we train. So a lot of that in like modern karate, has been lost, so you don’t get as much of it, and so people think that you know karate doesn’t really have that grappling and all those things and that’s kind of honestly where it originated from what I understand. Okay, I guess we can talk a little bit about like what can you, for example, like upcoming fights? Is there anyone in particular you’re, like ecstatic for looking forward to obviously khabib versus tony is right. There yeah? Is there another fight? That’S like I mean any anyone. Anyone who’s interest in the UFC is like could be Tony, but is there any other fight out there that you’re, like he loved, to see, even if it’s not overly realistic like one of the ones I wants to eat its GSP versus this could be? I think that would be one of the fights that the guys who possibly has a chance against cookie because he can match him in wrestling. I do just like freakin a rock that guy’s so crazy, like you look at him and like the fact that he’s that shredded and still that mobile, like just blows my mind, I’m like I don’t. I don’t really understand the physiological like response of his body of how he can actually do a lot of the stuff that he can but yeah. That would be a really interesting fight only because they’re so like they’re so close to each other and like weirdness of fighting, you know what I mean like Habib’s got his like. You don’t know. If he’s gon na take you down or like do this weird, like hook, punch or the, I was trying to like analyze a lot of his stuff and just kind of go through it like slow-mo, because I don’t really know a lot about these fighters. So I’ve been trying to go through, like just re-watch a lot of their fights and and with him, and I’m probably getting a wrong read on it, but just cuz I don’t know like a whole ton of it, but it’s like he has this weird technique where, Like you, don’t really know, if he’s gon na do that shoot or he’s gon na hit you or he’s gon na, like you know, uppercut you or he’s gon na do a shovel yeah hook kick or not hook kick but hook punch. So he’s got this weird. Very like nebulous style, and then you have GSP, which is kind of like wild and out. There he’s think that Ferguson versus khabib is actually gon na be more interesting than GSP. I want to see GSP vs. could be more only because they’re just both monsters, but I think the the the first ones are gon na be more interesting only because they have such weird styles like he just goes in and well. He just doesn’t give a [ _ ] at all, he’s gon na like do it like a cat roll until like grabbing your leg and then do like a leg but like it’s like the weirdest [ _ ] that you just wouldn’t expect right or is like Kaboom is like also kind of like that, so that meeting head to head is gon na, be a really interesting fight. What I think it’s gon na be very interesting is like to be is used to taking guys down and Donnelly sure tony has no issue being on his back. He’Ll stare noble in he’ll, start kneeing, he’ll start doing whatever like culture, and I think that’s gon na be the first time where it can be take someone down and realize is like I’m getting elbowed like what is this? You know what I mean: he’s not gon na be able to control Tony. That being said, I find Tony tends to get rocked a lot like. I watch the fight against panada the fight against Pettis. He was sure, and I don’t think against the guy. Like khabib, you can get rocked getting put away, but I have no idea how that fight is gon na play out, and I don’t even know we don’t even know if it’s gon na happen. So it sounds like it is. It sounds like it is for sure. Right, like did it Dana’s saying yes, but they don’t have a venue right. That’S because it can’t happen in the States so, but it has to happen like if it’s gon na happen, I’m sure they can find a venue somewhere right like if there’s no one in attendance, it doesn’t need to be a 10,000 seat arena right. You can do it some random little venue, I’m sure so. I’Ve been islanded middle of the ocean right someone’s bound to sanction that someone was about to do it. I can see it happening here in Saudi Arabia or something yeah, but who knows, I honestly, I hope it happens because we have one month without UFC, so hopefully it yeah yeah. Hopefully they can make something happen. There is there any other fights you’re looking forward to or any yeah. I wish I knew more about like that world, so I’m just starting to like I’m also so busy that it’s it’s hard for me to find time and sit down and like watch these fights. So, typically, when I watch the fights they’re like highlights or like I’m just watching portions, where it’s you know, people are like here’s where the most interesting parts happen and I like watch them in slow motion to try to analyze them. So there’s I don’t have as much time to like sit down and watch a full flight with commercials and all that stuff to you. So it gets a little tricky for me to kind of like go in and actually do it. But I know I know I need to because these are some of the most like real actual, like applicable techniques out. There know right because they’re finding all the best martial arts in the world, they’re mixing all this martial arts right. So you can do grappling. You can do punching it’s like. Basically what a street fight is like, so it’s it’s one of those things where I just need to make more time for it. But, like I mean honestly, I like run to podcasts. I have like the martial arts only stuff. I have like a few interns underneath me. I also have a full-time job getting married this year. It’S like so many crazy things, I’m starting a weapon company with like one of my buds, I’m starting like a bunch of like graphic design company. So I have like all these, like hundreds of different projects, so it’s like man, it’s one of those things where it’s like one of the loves of my life, but it’s it’s so hard to find time for it yeah. I feel that like even with with this, it was like do I have time, and I was like you know what I’ll just throw it in at the end of my day and a half hour, and if I can get someone on great. If I can’t then no big deal like, I have Mike Rodriguez who’s, a UFC light heavyweight he’s coming on on Monday, which awesome, which is awesome, third, third, podcast and say UFC fighter, which is pretty cool excellent. But but I mean yeah, it’s just like a side project until, but I I don’t know it’s it’s hard to find time. You’Re absolutely right like I do, have all cheering as well. You know saving animals, I’m a skip with that. I was like the dish’s driver like so there’s always something going on, but know that, like UFC for me has always been like my one true passion, so I’ve always I’ve always managed to somehow find time. For it tell me what the animal stuff that’s gon na random seems a little left-field from unrelated podcast completely. So essentially it’s just if there’s an injured animal in the neighborhood. It’S like the entire province, there’s an injured animal that will post it, and I think, there’s about 200 of us that volunteer and we just go and pick them up. Usually it’s like a they got hit by a car. It’S got a broken wing. If it’s a bird I had one two days ago, it was a raccoon that was hit by a car. By the time I showed up it was, it was dead, but usually usually we managed to save them. There give them a second chance at life. In some cases they can’t get it ready enough to like go out in the wild, so they’ll just shake care of it there and have it going. People do to see and whatnot yeah. So I just gon na do that for for fun, doesn’t don’t get paid to do it, but it’s super rewarding when you actually get to save one, not as you pick up a dead one but yeah, imagine yeah so, but yeah all right man. I think that was you got ta get going here soon, don’t you or I do yeah? I got some other stuff, unfortunately, but yeah dude. It was great talking to you. It was really you and if you ever want me on your podcast man, I’m always down. Okay, excellent yeah, appreciate you taking the time yeah you too brother, take it easy. They say: peace,
