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Welcome back to Fitz Nation! My special guest is none other than the one-and-only Bryce Mitchell. This episode reveals Bryce's life from being a small-town boy to being on the cusp of a significant fight against Dan Ige.
Bryce's life outside the octagon is just as fascinating. At the age of 21, he started a farm and expanded it to 16 acres, a testament to his dedication and commitment. On our chat, Bryce discusses the importance of self-sustainability and the rebellious spirit it represents.
Moving on to the crossroads of Bryce's fighting career and his faith, prepare to be inspired as Bryce opens about his unwavering passion for the sport and his mission in mixed martial arts. The faith he holds in God is unshakeable and plays a significant role in his fighting career, even if his prayer warrior mother disapproves. Hear all about his respect for Dan Ige and the love for Hawaii. This episode is a testament to Bryce's strength, determination, and faith... can't wait for you to listen!
Fitz Nation on YouTube
Fitz Nation on UFC Fight Pass
Fitz Nation merch
Welcome back to Fitz Nation! My special guest is none other than the one-and-only Bryce Mitchell. This episode reveals Bryce's life from being a small-town boy to being on the cusp of a significant fight against Dan Ige.
Bryce's life outside the octagon is just as fascinating. At the age of 21, he started a farm and expanded it to 16 acres, a testament to his dedication and commitment. On our chat, Bryce discusses the importance of self-sustainability and the rebellious spirit it represents.
Moving on to the crossroads of Bryce's fighting career and his faith, prepare to be inspired as Bryce opens about his unwavering passion for the sport and his mission in mixed martial arts. The faith he holds in God is unshakeable and plays a significant role in his fighting career, even if his prayer warrior mother disapproves. Hear all about his respect for Dan Ige and the love for Hawaii. This episode is a testament to Bryce's strength, determination, and faith... can't wait for you to listen!
Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Fitz Nation. Thanks, as always, for checking it out, and you're in for a treat on this one, because a couple of days ago I caught up with Bryce Mitchell in person out here in Las Vegas ahead of his big fight against Dan E Gay coming up this Saturday, if you're listening on his fight week. Before we get to the interview, I just want to tell a quick story about Bryce and Dan E Gay and why this matchup kind of means a lot to me. So Bryce Mitchell is from Cabot, arkansas. I went to Cabot High School and, as it turns out, my brother-in-law who's listening to this one I don't know if he listens to any other podcast that I do, but he's listening to this one he was stationed in the military in the Little Rock area and he found his way to live in Cabot Arkansas. So I had been to Cabot out in the country. It's about a half hour outside of Little Rock and when Bryce Mitchell starts coming on the scene on the ultimate fighter and he has some success there and he's the character that he is on that show and he's from Cabot Arkansas Well obviously my ears perked up. I know exactly where that is. I've been to Cabot, arkansas. So then Bryce makes his way to the ultimate fighter finale and wins the featherweight division of that show. And I remember talking to him that fight week and we just had a connection right away because obviously I could speak his language a little bit as far as where he's from.
Speaker 1:And then Dan Ige, as many of you know, is from Hawaii and my wife is from Hawaii, but not just Hawaii. They are both from the town of Hala Eva on the North Shore of Oahu. And not only that, dan Ige has in-laws that live on the street that my wife grew up on. That I still have family on. So when we go back to visit I'll oftentimes run into his brother in Los Skylar who is in his corner all the time. And so obviously, this matchup you have Dan Ige from Hala Eva, hawaii, and you have Bryce Mitchell, who I've had a connection with for years from Cabot Arkansas. This is one of those matchups where I wish they could both win, but obviously that's not how our sport works.
Speaker 1:With Bryce it was great to talk to him again, great to see him in person. Obviously he makes headlines with things that he says all the time. He's a character that is unlike any other. We talk about the fact that he has found Christianity during this UFC run. He wasn't all that religious when he started in the UFC, but he is now a very devout Christian, as you may have heard. He also talks about Dan Ige and what he feels about him, because, if you remember, a couple of years ago these guys went back and forth on Twitter. They were nasty to each other, they've wanted this fight for years and here it is, in September of 2023.
Speaker 1:It'll go down, but I hope you enjoy this episode and my thanks to Bryce Mitchell and my thanks to his former college roommate, kid Cannon, who's now a camera guy for our mentioned UFC originals team shoots a lot of embedded and Bryce came out to stay with his good friend, kid before the fight. Kid, let me know he said come on over to the house, bryce is going to be there. You could do a podcast at my kitchen table and that's exactly what we did. Enjoy how you doing, bryce. Oh, I'm doing great. I'm doing absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's great to run into you. We're out here in Las Vegas. It's almost fight week for you. What have you been up to since last December, since last we saw you against Ilya Toporya, and you're one of those guys that when you go away and you're not fighting, you kind of keep to yourself and you're not out there. What you've been up to?
Speaker 2:Well, the main thing, I've got to apologize to all these fans for pulling out of that last fight. You know I had a fight booked after that. I was training really, really hard and Something set my back off. I can't even remember what it was, but I just remember being in extreme pain. Yeah, I remember my back was set off. It was either running, running, does it like if I do hard sprints.
Speaker 2:I got to be real careful and all that, but Something set my back off and I had to pull out of that last fight with. Everloft. But other than that, you know I just been farming and Running my businesses. You know I do rentals on the side so that keeps me busy. I'm building a house. You know I'm Shoot. I'm getting married. You know I'm moving out of my 30 foot trailer.
Speaker 1:Oh, you are, yeah, I got.
Speaker 2:I live in a camper or trailer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some old lady, we ain't got a closet. We put all our clothes, we stack all our clothes up in a damn pile. Yeah, she's so sick of it. So I'm building a house. I've you know, I never built the house before. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I'm building and here's the thing about Bryce that I love, that I love about you and that a lot of fans love about you when you say you're building a house, you are actually building the house. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:I have built the house, the house you built the house. Now I can't do no electrics, because that would be a shocking experience, and I can't do no, no serious plumb. I can do plumbing more like I can do plumbing repairs.
Speaker 1:Got it Okay sure.
Speaker 2:I can do plumbing repairs, but I went ahead and hired a plumber to do the whole plumber.
Speaker 1:But you framed it.
Speaker 2:I framed the whole house.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I framed the whole house. I actually cut the boards up myself. I didn't go to Home Depot by the wood because the woods overpriced because of the inflation in this economy. Right you know. So I went to the sawmill and bought the, bought the rough cuts and I made the. I made each board and then I built the house out of them boards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're moving on up and you're moving into a house. The legend of Bryce Mitchell in the trailer was a fun. It was a fun ride.
Speaker 2:It was a great time and I think if my wife gets mad at me, I'm gonna go right back to the trailer and now did you build the house on the same property?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's right, it's right. So what have you learned, though, about living simply?
Speaker 2:Um, that it's amazing and that all of these fools with their hundred thousand dollar cars and their hundred thousand dollar gold chains and Multiple nefarious women, their fools. And I need a trailer, I need a wife, I need God and I need to grow as much of my own food as I can and that's what makes me happy and that's all I need if I have God, my wife, our food and our animals. Like I'm so content. And Of course, I'm always trying to take it one step further get more animals, get produce more crop, make the house nicer, make, you know, build a pole barn, this or that. So I'm not saying I'm like I'm also pursuing things, but it's not worldly things, you know. I mean it's, it's it's necessities to run a farm.
Speaker 2:And people ask me all the time how much money you make on a farm? Zero, I spend all my money on the farm. I want to tell you this didn't know what make any money on the Ark? Probably not. He spent every damn thing he had making that Ark and one day it paid off. And I'm telling you, I farm for the same reason that Noah built the Ark. There is a disaster coming. I'm ready to feed the Lord's army. That's why I farm to feed the Lord's army. Yeah, people don't understand that. We're gonna have to form a rebellion. We're gonna have to fight. They're gonna take all our freedoms, brother, we're gonna have. The Lord is gonna have to have an army, and that army is gonna have to eat, and that's where people like me come Into play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but like from a self-sustaining point of view, that you eat your own food and all that stuff, oh yeah. So it's like, how much do you make farming? It's like, well, I don't have to spend because I can. You know, homestead, basically, right yourself sustaining in that right.
Speaker 2:Right, right and as it goes, like if you're starting up the farm from nothing, especially with zero knowledge, like I did 20 years old, maybe 21 I got into this and I poured everything I had into it and there's a learning curve and it's it's. If I had to graph it out like it would be like that would be your productivity right, because at first you're actually it's gonna go down Mars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure you're gonna be negative in production, and then you're gonna slowly, and then, but one of these days, dude, I'm gonna spike, I'm gonna figure it out once. I get my infrastructure, I don't even have my infrastructure. And so, as much as I've expanded, I'm not even close to maximum, not even close to maximizing my production. Yeah, not even close. How many acres do you have? Well, I stay on 16 16 acres.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a lot of land. Well, it's you know, I mean well relative to some people in Arkansas, it's not a lot of land, right, it's enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly it depends what you're doing. If you're doing beef cows, it's, it's not a lot and that's what I got into doing.
Speaker 1:That's what oh, you got cows.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely you know, and all my cattle is for beef. Of course I could milk them if I wanted to, but they're not specifically milk cows. So there's there's some cows that produce a lot more milk than others like a Jersey cow that's in my area. The most popular ones are Jersey, I think. The other ones are Holstein.
Speaker 1:I'm saying that, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Holstein. That's right, that's one, because the black and white spots there you go.
Speaker 1:Those are the classic ones.
Speaker 2:I'm getting a Holstein after this fight, bro, I'm getting you're gonna get the whole thing.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:Did you know that pasteurized milk is just poison, dude, it's just terrible for you has all the new treat. All the nutritional value of milk is lost during the pasteuration.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't have to tell me twice. I mean I believe all of it like that's why didn't they outlaw raw milk? They did and then there's a lot of people that pull up and they're just like here I'm gonna sell you raw milk and you know we're gonna have to right because the government is working against us.
Speaker 2:That's what people got to realize. If they're making a law for our safety, it's not really for our safety. And there's nothing wrong with raw milk. I've drank it. I'll suck that milk straight out the cow's tip, dude, I don't care. That's the best way to get it fresh that day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in terms of your spirituality, I feel like earlier in your UFC run you're probably had faith and Christian and religious, but you seem to be more so now. Did something happen in the last few years where you've gotten more into your spirituality and your faith and your religion?
Speaker 2:Well, I wasn't a Christian when I first started USC.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought. And then I remember your post-fight and you were talking about donating to charity, the children's charity, when I donated to charity.
Speaker 2:That was the first fight that I actually fully believed in Jesus Christ, and was what happened. Well, I felt the presence and the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ as I was casting out a demon.
Speaker 1:And how are you doing that? Exorcisms are real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like what happened? Well, I was in an argument with a person who was possessed by demons and I didn't know what to do and I can't, you know. I won't get too specific, but I was arguing with a possessed person, and it's very clear when somebody's possessed In my case they were talking to a wall, they were whispering to a wall, and I felt it in my stomach. You know, when you go up on the top of a hill and then you drop down at hill and your stomach drops, I felt this dark presence and I felt my stomach drop and I felt something I never felt before, and I knew that my sin had led me to this path and that there was no way out. I could not get this possessed person out of my home. I had invited this person into my home and they were destroying it and they were possessed and I was witnessing a full-blown possession, something that I never believed in, and I instantly reverted back to my roots.
Speaker 2:I was raised by my mother, who always taught me the word of Jesus, the word of Jesus, the power of Jesus, and so in that moment, the first thing that came to mind is the word of Jesus and I said in the name of Jesus Christ, I command all evil to leave. And it was just like that. The possessed person was gone. They walked right out the door and this is what happened before. That was about two hours arguing and my stuff getting broken and my house was getting trashed, and I spoke the name of Jesus and instantly this demon was gone and from that day I have dedicated my life to Jesus.
Speaker 2:I owe him everything, and what makes me so upset about it is that I spent the years prior to that making fun of people who were religious, saying that this stuff is bad for us, and I'm telling you right now, religion is the only thing that's going to save us. I'm sorry. Not religion, not religion, I'm sorry. Jesus Christ is the only thing that's going to save our country from collapsing. It's the only thing that's going to save our souls from total destruction, and all tongues will confess and every knee will bow. I have felt the presence of Jesus Christ. I don't believe. I know. I know the power of Jesus Christ. I spoke it, I saw it, I felt it. I felt the Holy Spirit for the first time in my life, because I genuinely needed Jesus and I called upon him and he was there when I needed him.
Speaker 1:In feeling that? Do you feel like a release of pressure, like a surrender of, like you don't have to worry about anything anymore?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I still do struggle with worrying about a bunch of stuff. But I shouldn't, because I should have the ultimate faith in Jesus Christ. But every day I'm worried about something. I'm praying Jesus, help me. Jesus help me with this. But in the grand scheme of things, my soul is protected, my family is going to be protected, and that's all in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that surrender is known as like a bad word or, like you know, a giving up type of word, but I think it's very valuable, no matter whatever you believe in. If you just kind of surrender that the universe is going to support whatever you want, I think there's power to that. Takes a lot of pressure, a lot of stress off your plate.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm surrendered to a much more powerful, a much more righteous and much more holy person than myself. I'm trusting them with that. You know, when you look at the Bible and all the prophecies that have come true from it, and so if there's any atheists out there that are just saying I don't know, that Bible is all a bunch of crap, well, look at Sodom and Gomorrah. They just unburied it. Have you seen that?
Speaker 2:They just unburied Sodom and Gomorrah. They found the actual town, Sodom and Gomorrah. There's balls of sulfur in the ground. There's molten, there's pottery and bronze. With so much heat that hit one side of it so only one side of it got hot, you know what I mean. But there's bronze artifacts, pottery that scorched on one side, just like the Bible says. You know, God took that place out, just like that Noah's Ark. You know, go watch Graham Hancock and Richard what's his name? I can't remember Graham Hancock's one of them, Randall Carlson. Okay, these are two scientists that are completely. They have all the evidence to prove that there was a world flood and before these guys said it, there was a book that said that there was a world flood. You know what I mean. So the Bible is slowly being confirmed scientifically. And there's a firmament, Just like Genesis says. There's a firmament, there's a dome around the earth. That's what I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 2:There's no man that's been to space, no man's been to the moon. That's what I'm trying to tell you and this science is gonna reveal itself and that's gonna prove the Bible correct even more. Another thing you know the most current prophecy that we're going through. That's very blatant, that you cannot deny. You can make up any other excuse you want to. You can say, oh, the Bible's wrong, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Or the Bible got lucky. But you cannot say that Euphrates River ain't dry.
Speaker 2:Revelation 16-12,. The six angel poured upon his bowl, upon Euphrates, and it ran dry so the kings from the east could make way. There's gonna be an army cross that dry Euphrates River to go destroy the Holy Land, just like the Bible says. Now a guy wrote that 1,900 years ago when there were 200 million people on the planet. He predicted an army of 200 million would walk across that Euphrates when it was dried. You know they thought John was a nut when he wrote that 1,900 years ago, because there wasn't 200 million people on the planet, the Euphrates River was raging. Now it's dry and there's an army of 200 million to the east, just like the Bible said 1,900 years ago. So I've been chosen by God to talk about this stuff and save as many people as I can. I'm sorry I don't save anybody. Jesus Christ saves them, but I've been led to tell them the truth. Proclaim the righteousness of Jesus Christ and he chose me to do that, and I know we do.
Speaker 1:How do you? Because I think you would be able to acknowledge that a lot of people don't believe what you say. Right, a lot of people disagree.
Speaker 2:I know they don't believe and that's why I love them, because they genuinely don't believe what I'm saying. I love them.
Speaker 1:I understand.
Speaker 2:I was one of them. I was lost. I didn't believe in the name of. Jesus Christ. I spoke it and watched a demon leave my presence. I know the power of Jesus Christ and I know what they're feeling because I lived it for 10 years. I used to make fun of the Bible, Right, right so it doesn't make you upset.
Speaker 1:No, you seem to be very gracious about but you seem to be very secure in what you believe and that it doesn't make you upset that other people might think you're a little crazy or that you believe this stuff. That's like pie in the sky. You seem to be very it's. Whatever it is, it's okay with you.
Speaker 2:It's just fine with me and those are my people. Brother, that's who I've been called to save Right.
Speaker 1:That's who I've been called to live, because you were one of them, not alone I was one of them.
Speaker 2:That's why. That's why I believe that God let me so God, let me walk down that path of darkness for so long, because when I was, when I returned to the light. Now I can see other people living in darkness. I know what they're missing because I was them, and so a lot of Christians. They've never experienced the darkness that I've experienced. They've never been either face-to-face with a possessed person or have any type of demonic experiences like I've had, and they don't have the sympathy that I have for these other people. They look at them and say, oh yeah, well they're, they deserve to go to hell.
Speaker 2:And that's not how I think, man. I want to. I want to tell people that that Jesus can save them. But you know, I can't do nothing. All I can do is tell you that the Bible is true and prove it. I can prove that the Bible is true, that I can prove that you've prayed is as dry. I can prove there was a flood, a world flood. I can prove there was a town called Sodom and Gomorrah and God's sending up the flames, you know. But that's what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to save those people that are lost just like I was. I don't judge them. I love them.
Speaker 1:What is the challenge for you to live day to day, knowing like what you believe and then knowing what's out there, because I think I think when a lot of people kind of make that crusade, like you're on, there's a lot that can make you upset right, because there's a lot of wrongdoing in the world, there's a lot of negativity in the world and it's in our faces all the time with how the media culture is. What's it like for you, day to day, to try to get out of the world? What's it like for you, day to day, to try to live happy? Do you try to live happy?
Speaker 2:I try to brother and I'm that's probably my number one sin is just being consumed with anger sometimes.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's like when I get angry, I have this wrath. It's just uncontrollable. I like to punch doors, I like to punch walls, I like to headbutt stuff, I like to curse, make a total fool out of myself and I'm very guilty of being consumed by anger, and God's helping me with that.
Speaker 1:How do you bring yourself back though?
Speaker 2:So prayer has been helping a lot. I mean, that's really the answer is prayer, of course, the word of God, the word of God and prayer, and those are the most powerful things. When you catch yourself being negative, absolutely. My wife will catch me being negative.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes it takes people outside of us and I know I'm being mad, but then she'll call me out on it and I'm like, okay, god, now everybody's seeing how mad I am, you know. And so I got to just work through these anger problems. But, yeah, dude, I get mad and in a lot of my frustration, it is just what you said it is the world. I might be mad at this or that, and it's a little thing. It might seem like it's a little thing, but I'm mad at the world, bro. I hate the way that the world is going. I absolutely hate it. This tyranny, this destruction of our freedom, this trafficking of children. I'm so mad at all this stuff. Yeah, and, but you got to trust in God that he's gonna do the right thing.
Speaker 2:And here's the thing is like I hear a lot of people are turned away from God because because I try to talk to everybody about God, now you know. And so they say, well, yeah, if there's a God, he's not doing very good. He's not doing very good because there's children being trafficked, there's people born with genetic mutations that can't live a normal life, there's people get raped, people get murdered. We know this. Okay. Now let me tell you why that happens. That's because of sin, not because of God. If God would have made us to where we were 100% obedient and didn't have the choice to sin, our love for God would mean nothing. It would mean nothing to him. God gave us the option to love each other or hate each other. And you can look at the world and most of it's hate, okay, but it's the easier emotion to get right, right, right, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it takes a lot of reasoning to love thy neighbor. You know what I mean, Instead of be jealous of thy neighbor and want what they have and want to take from them. That's a kind of a survival instinct. But God's all about love thy neighbor. In fact, matthew 27 is the most important thing. This is Christianity, right here. It's love your God with all your heart and love thy neighbor with all your heart, like you do yourself. Yeah, and so that's what Christianity is all about Now, with that being said, god gives us the option to hate each other. God gives us the option to kill, traffic, murder, rape, all of that stuff. I said, kill and murder, that's the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, sure.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. Yeah, god gives us the option to do bad. Don't blame God because there's murder, rape and all this sin in the world. If he doesn't want puppets, he wants free people. God gives us freedom. He created us in his image and gave, gives us freedom to act upon however we want, and most people do turn to hate, most people do turn to darkness. It doesn't matter. Those are still people that we can. We can bring back to the line.
Speaker 1:Knowing all that, and like the mission and the passion that you have for something greater than all of us, how do you approach your career? How do you approach your fighting career? Put God first. Yeah, glorify the king. Like how important is fighting to you.
Speaker 2:It's up there, you know it's, it's, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Top five, right, but how you manage that, like, how do you, you know, when you have the perspective that you do of the bigger world, because a lot of times to be successful in a sport like mixed martial arts you got to be tunnel vision, laser focused. It's so challenging. How do you manage farming, all the different things your passion, your faith, your spirituality with a sport that's just really really tough to do, even if that's your only thing that you're into.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess it starts with a passion for the sport. For whatever reason, I just still have it. I love. Yes, I still love. And really I heard Sean Strickland say this. He said he loves to train more and he loves to fight. That's kind of me. Training was therapeutical for me. It is therapeutical for me. That's before I started fighting. I just always loved training. You know, in martial arts I started taekwondo when I was a kid. I didn't think I was gonna do UFC, I just liked taekwondo.
Speaker 2:You know, I liked wrestling in high school, I liked doing jiu-jitsu tournaments, and then one day I figured out that my purpose from God was to fight to the best of my ability to praise God in front of everybody that was watching, because there's nothing I could do and have more eyes on me.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say it's quite a platform.
Speaker 2:It's almost like it was intended, like I have a purpose from God, ain't it? It's almost like it's not a coincidence. Yeah, you know I have a purpose. I know I do. My mom always told me and I didn't believe her for a long time, and now I know she's right. Mama don't lie, yeah.
Speaker 1:Does she watch? She don't. She don't watch none.
Speaker 2:She hates it yeah she hates it.
Speaker 1:Does she still call it MAA?
Speaker 2:She calls it MAA man. She says it's a devil, thank God, she don't like it. Yeah, but you know, she's just a prayer warrior man. She's praying for my health right now. She's just, she's a warrior, I'm a warrior.
Speaker 1:There you go. You see what I mean. I got you you certainly are what's been the focus of this training camp as you get back in there for the first time in a while.
Speaker 2:Make it to the fight, Not embarrass myself, Bring shame to my family by having to pull out. You know I've been praying for my health. I've been training really smart. I think the good Lord is going to heal me I don't know that but I have a good sense that I'm actually going to make it to the fight and I have to pull out and look like a coward this time. You know, I just really didn't like having a sign of the contract saying I'd be there and then not be in there. That bothered me. So this fight. I'm just praying for my health and did I make it to the fight?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know in the past. So you took 2021 completely off, but you fought twice a year, pretty much every other year since you've been in the UFC. But what I have heard from from kid is like you like to become a different version of yourself every time I do. What is the next version of you, if you care to tell it? I mean, I don't want to get your game plan, but like, how would you describe your evolution as a fighter?
Speaker 2:Man, I mean, I'm just always adding in technical stuff. I mean it just it would come down to like I've worked on my wrestling Jiu-Jitsu, my boxing.
Speaker 1:Worked on everything.
Speaker 2:I've worked on everything and it's like to get into specifics. It's like I know how much better I am at different things, but it's just like it's hard to explain these intricacies. But you know, I'm better at jabbing, I'm better at not getting jabbed.
Speaker 1:You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean I'm going to fight more efficiently, and things like that. You know, it's just really hard to explain all that stuff and it's hard to even think like how have I gotten better? But it'd take a while because I'd have to recap all my training. But yeah, I'm working on my speed, my strength, I mean all of it. I think for all of us.
Speaker 1:It's tough to see how far we've come without some measure of like specific results, right, you know? It's like how much better of an announcer am I this year compared to last year? I don't know, I just keep showing up and doing the job, but you know you're probably better.
Speaker 2:Probably better yeah.
Speaker 1:Not getting yelled at.
Speaker 2:Yeah right right, right.
Speaker 1:So it's one of those things, the matchup with Dan Ige. So you guys have obviously had like some social media history and you went back and forth on Twitter. That was a few years ago and I feel like it died down and he's also a man of faith to the highest degree. What are your thoughts on Dan Ige before you get ready to kind of stare him down and go fight him?
Speaker 2:I love that guy man. I love that guy. I love Hawaii. I'm sorry for what's going on over there. There's a Satan right there. You know that fire wasn't no accident. I don't want to get you centered.
Speaker 2:I don't want to get you banned, but I'm just going to tell you that fire was pure evil. Okay, there's evil forces at play here in the world, and I love Dan Ige. I respect him. I really love his coach too. I respect his coach. I have nothing bad to say about him. I can look at him and tell he probably hits pretty hard. He's a good fighter. I'm going to watch my mouth.
Speaker 1:It's a great fight. I think a lot of fans are going to love to see you guys just purely compete instead of the extracurricular.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have nothing bad to say about him. I just really really like the guy, respect the guy because he's always giving the glory to God. He's just like me. My heart's out for him. I've been praying for him because of these fires in Hawaii. I don't know if he has any family over there in Hawaii, but I bet he has friends or people that are like that.
Speaker 1:He's from a different island. I know that because my wife is from Hawaii. I'm not sure his connections to Maui, but I'm sure he knows people that were caught up and affected somehow. Exactly, I've been to Maui and so, yeah, it's been too bad. Everybody dealing with that, anything else, bryce, what do we miss? It seemed like you're in a good place. I got to ask you. The world is on fire about the fruit trees, bro. You put out that video and it just caused such an uproar. I think a lot of fans are. You know they want to support you and so I'm trying to pass that. They already have, bro.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting here today. I have the fruit trees because of the fans.
Speaker 2:If it wasn't for the fans, if it wasn't for the USC, if it wasn't for all these people supporting me, I wouldn't have no damn fruit trees. So, man, I'm taking care of it, and I wish I probably shouldn't have announced it. That goes back to my anger. I was so angry when this happened and I was worried that something worse was going to happen, and maybe I shouldn't have told the world that my place got vandalized and broke into. I was kind of worried that my animals are going to get attacked next, my family's going to get attacked next, and so I know putting that post out just alerted all my neighbors to pray for me. I know my neighbors are praying for me and that's probably the one good thing that came out of that post is all the prayers, and all my neighbors are on high alert now.
Speaker 2:But maybe I shouldn't have even told everybody about that personal stuff. I don't know. I've never had somebody break into my house and start destroying stuff like that. But hey, man, when you tamper with darkness, you're going to pay the price. Don't tamper with darkness, turn to the light. Okay, when you tamper with darkness, it might be three years later, you're still going to pay the price because you tampered with darkness and I'm up to light now. I worship God, but I'm still going to have to pay for my sins from three years ago. So that's what I'm dealing with and shoot. Thanks for everybody who's praying for me and cares about me.
Speaker 1:Well, I know a lot of the MMA fans and UFC fans out there wish nothing but the best for you. They're big fans of yours and they're ready to watch your fight again, and so am I.
Speaker 2:Dude, I'm ready to do it.
Speaker 1:I'll have a headset on. I'll be on the side of the octagon.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:I like Danny Gay a lot. I'm glad to hear that you like Danny Gay a lot, and I love the fight.
Speaker 2:If you see anything he's throwing like, let me know, say it, that's not my job, that'll be Dom Cruise.
Speaker 1:Dom Cruise is good at that, not me. Thank you very much for sitting with me this week.
Speaker 2:This thing I always love seeing your Bryce. Yeah, that was great. I'm so glad.
Speaker 1:My favorite characters on the whole planet.
Speaker 2:Thank you, brother, there you go.
Speaker 1:Bryce Mitchell on Fits Nation.
Speaker 2:The honor is mine.
Speaker 1:Huge thanks to the one and only Bryce Thug, nasty Mitchell, for sitting down with me out here in Las Vegas. It's always great to see him and it should be a great fight when he takes on Dan Eagate. Huge thanks to you for checking out the podcast, whether you watched or listened. I hope you check out other episodes on UFC Fight Pass. I do interviews like this with UFC fighters that I believe are pretty unique compared to a lot of the other interviews that are out there. So check out Fits Nation on UFC Fight Pass and all the other great stuff they have there. You can check out Fits Nation in audio form. Just search for my name wherever you listen to podcasts, and also check out some behind the scenes content on my YouTube channel. Just search my name, brennan Fitzgerald. I'll have another one of these coming out very soon. So thanks again for listening and I'll talk to you next time.