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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Righto, welcome back to another episode of the Alpha Blokes podcast. We're here to give the everyday battler a voice and delete head noise one laugh at a time. If you're having a beer, make it a better beer, jogging a can, winning a tin, the athlete's choice. Now, talking about athletes, we've got an athlete on this morning and we're fucking pumped to talk with him.
If you've been in the combat scene in Australia, whether it's, you know, boxing, IBC of late, you'd know Isaac, the head splitter, Hardman. Thanks for joining us, mate.
Mate, I'm so stoked to be here. Like, I'm just grateful to be here. Like I said yesterday, just having a crack every now and again gets you around some cool people every once in a while. So I'm fucking stoked.
Well, mate, even just, yeah, it's one of those things like I'm a big fan of boxing, UFC, all that stuff, right? So I've, you know, started to watch a lot more press conferences and really get involved with the sport and trying to get to know people in the game. And ever since you sort of broke on the scene, I just felt like you spoke our language.
Like people around here, you speak the same and it's just something about it when you see someone on a level that's a decent one and they speak the same sort of way that you do and throw the same lip around. You can't help but like them. No, that's right. Right? Well, look at IBC. The only man in Australia to turn a fight win into a real estate yarn. Yeah, and not make it awkward. That's right.
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Chapter 2: What are Issac Hardman's early life experiences?
I'd be like... could I get a plus one to the party? Who are you bringing? Isaac. Oh, no, he ain't coming. That's Bullfrog's brother. So fucking I'm not Bullfrog. Just let me come to the party. He's a bit rogue. I'm sweet, you know. And he would be like, he'd maybe brush past some kind of Bullfrog there. He would always be beefing with the Islanders.
You know, there was a fucking 4510 was a fucking Caboolture, like,
Oh, right.
Gang group. And then the Islanders and whatever. Bullfrog wouldn't fucking shy. You know, he'd be ripping in. And, you know, I got lumped in with that, but I was terrified. But always was back my brother. Yeah, yeah. I was in a fight out of fear. And then... Yeah, then I learnt how to actually fight, you know, in the caboolture. But, yeah, so, sorry, that's where I was going with it.
I'll probably get sidetracked a little bit. You'll find me. I was going into this gym and the people I told, they're like, fuck, yeah, you know how to do it. But I was terrified to go into this gym because... I knew how to fight on the street, but in the boxing gym or the MMA gym, I was vulnerable as fuck.
So to take that step and be vulnerable and put yourself in a position to learn, have to learn how to get beaten was fucking tricky for me, especially being a 17-year-old full of fucking tests. Pretty humbling sort of thing. Yeah, very humbling. And I got pumped. I got fucking pumped by people that play Game Boys. They're fucking nerds, you know, jiu-jitsu nerds. I thought, oh, smash you.
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Chapter 3: How did Issac transition from rugby league to combat sports?
What are you doing laying on the ground? Fucking... My arm's broken.
You're tapping out.
You're tapping out, yeah. And I was just hooked from that and the competitiveness in me. Are you going to be here tomorrow? Yeah, I'm here. I'll be here tomorrow to beat you tomorrow. And I just kept turning up wanting to fucking win and beat and then I started winning and beating cunts on the mat and I thought, fuck, I'm all right at this.
And just through being competitive, not wanting to lose, I kept turning up. Just my ego, I guess, got the better of me. I'm coming back tomorrow. I used to catch a train from Caboolture to Jibung. I used to just jump the train because I had no money to pay for my ticket, you know. Yeah. And I didn't have a job. You know, I was on, what was it?
Ab study or youth study or something and I had to be like in a course and they'd pay me my allowance. Oh, yeah. And I just used my allowance for my gym fees. I never went to the fucking university to do my fucking ticket. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I just did that. Like it was fucking awesome. And from the first day I went into the MMA gym, I was hooked and that's all I wanted to do. Yeah.
Through 18, 19, 20, 21, all the way to 22, I was just fucking living and breathing and fighting it. I had a few amateur fights. Got onto a TV show, the crew TV show. Have you heard of that?
No.
It was Richie Vass, Richie Facilip, which was a UFC fighter. His best mate, Kid Mack and Mark Matthews, a big wave surfer. They're the bra boys.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We had Richie on early days.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Issac face after his father's death?
So they were the Bra Boys and they had this concept where the crew TV show, yeah, like one's a surfer, one's a muso and one's the fighter and they would mentor three youths in those genres.
Oh, yeah? Yeah. That's a good idea.
Yeah, it was mad. I was actually on my first train trip to Thailand and someone sent it to me. They were like, you should try this out. Yeah, there it is, season two. I was on that. Yeah, cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, and they're like, you should try out for this. And the first trip to Thailand I went for a month and I used to fucking like just sit in my room all day because I was almost like autistic and didn't have the communications skills I do now. So I would just go train, go sit in my room. I don't know if I'll try it for this. So I sent in my thing and I got picked, you know.
So I was fucking on the TV show with Richie Vass.
What was that experience like, bro?
Fucking awesome. Like it was ā and we got to go back to Thailand. So like all just through from having a crack, you get these cool opportunities. That's cool, eh? So I had a few amateur fights and I was still amateur there. And then I had to fight Jamie Malarkey to decide who the winner was of the fighters. Yeah. And he was a pro at the time. Yeah. He was 6-0 as a pro. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's in the UFC now. Yeah. And he was a way better grappler than me. Yeah. And I fancy myself in a fucking on the feet with most men, you know. So I just thought, fuck, if he gets me to the ground, I'm going to lose. And it was the first time I went from three-minute rounds to five-minute rounds and I only found that information out on the night. They're like, this is a five-minute.
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Chapter 5: How did Issac's fighting career begin?
I just got hooked. And then one fight, and then Adrian was just, he didn't try and protect me. And especially with MMA, they have a bit of a different culture. It doesn't matter if you lose a fight. And I was just fortunate enough, I blew through the scene 9-0, and I was the hottest ticket in town, you know. And some of these guys, like, can't awfully. He's in the UFC now.
And I fucking pumped that cunt. That's crazy. Yeah, I gave it to him. Even George Ryan, Glenn Pettigrew was like, that was like, here's a welterweight, he's a big cunt. And they said, oh, I couldn't get a fight at my weight, so I'll fight him. So we met at like 75 kilos. Sean Lee Garukic, he's a black belt. I fucking knocked that cunt out in 40 seconds or something.
Puma 2E4, Damian Brown, who was in the UFC. I remember after I stopped him in the third round, He was like, mate, that's the hardest fight I've ever had. And he had fought Damien, who at that time was in the UFC. Yeah. And I thought, fuck, yeah, I'm on track to be in the UFC. Yeah, right. Kieran Joblin was the most avoided guy in, like, Australasia, like, Australia, New Zealand.
No one would fight him. I fought him in my seventh fight. Fucking beat him on my eighth fight. Yeah, and then Rob Hill, I chinned him. So it was... Right. Yeah. It was just awesome.
What a run. So, mate, that run right, like you said before, you're beating good guys and you're doing it well. You're knocking them in.
You're knocking cunts out.
Which is like a lot of the time sometimes to get in you sort of need to make a statement because how many guys are winning by decision? Yeah, heaps. Yeah, which is fucking, bro, that's fine. But it's like run me through how this run and dominant run like that in MMA, what started the crossover to go boxing, bro?
Well, I didn't give a fuck about boxing. When Pacquiao fought Jeff Horn in Brisbane, I don't know when they fought. It would have been towards 2017, 2018 or something because I remember the Sporting Globe just ā Just opened up in Chermside. Everyone was going down to watch it.
July 2nd, 2017.
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Chapter 6: How does Issac plan to leverage his fighting career in real estate?
I fucking love it.
Yeah, yeah.
300 grand real estate, small change.
And that's all I want to make. It depends how you build your own profile, right?
Yeah, and that's the whole thing with the IBC, leverage my fight career into my real estate. You know, we go to auction and I just bid kind of on Mike Chinya. You know, that's it.
But, yeah, like we said earlier, man, that was like your last one that we were at that we put the vlog out on. Fucking, yeah, in the post-fight thing, pumping up the real estate. And the way you did it, though. Got me first open home tomorrow.
Yeah, first auction sale announced at auction. You better bid or I might chin you.
Yeah, yeah.
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Chapter 7: What are the challenges faced by fighters after their careers?
It works well. It works well. I'm happy now. Finally, after two years leaving the gym, early life crisis, I've got a vision now and it's a clear vision.
It's good. And you hear it a lot. You hear it a lot, not just whatever professional sports, but if someone hasn't thought about anything other than their career and they've done it from 15, getting told when to eat, when to train, do all this stuff, and then they get to like late 40s.
with no other skill other than either fighting, footy, whatever it is, and then you're meant to... Like, you've still got to work for 20 years.
Yeah, that's it. Because, like, especially maybe in America, but us fighters in Australia, we don't make the money that could support your family for the next 30 years of life.
Yeah.
Well, you probably... Like an old boxer's 36. You know, you've still got fucking 40 years of living, 50 years of living if you're healthy. That's a lot of fucking living to do.
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Chapter 8: What are Issac's thoughts on the IBC and its impact on combat sports?
And boxing, unless you're in the top 2%, like the Crawfords, Canellas, you're not getting paid enough money to put your kids through school, this, that, and the other. I want to send my daughter to a good school. That's going to cost a lot of money. So fighting ain't going to provide that. So when you're done fighting, you've still got to pay the bills.
So I just look at a lot of fighters now, boxers on no-limit cards, and think, fuck, what are you going to do when this ain't going on? isn't going to blend in. And you look at people and you're not in that top 2% where you're making a life change of money.
Well, the other thing is too, man, it's like, you know, you see the footy players, you know, all the goats, you know, get a crack on the broadcast and they start to do it. But some people, like some boxers and fighters and that, they aren't great at talking and shit. So it's like if they don't have that persona, then that option's off the table too.
Yeah, it's a hard fucking make in combat sports in Australia. Yeah. And some people do it well.
I feel like it's starting to get to a point though where, you know, there's more opportunities or there's more eyes on boxes and stuff.
Yeah, I think like not having ā Like, No Limit have all the shows and monopolise the sport. There's more opportunities for different promotions and different things.
Well, mate, even the Tasman stuff.
Tasman's going on.
There's been, like, that Taramawana. And, fucking, bro, that bloke is a beast. Yeah, that's scary.
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