Rebel Girl

taken over the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. It is David Gascon right here courtesy of her Fox Sports Radio Studios here in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, and with Ben out and I come in, I get to plan the sandbox. I do so with the female companion. She's a member of the UFC. Ashley Evans Smith is in the house. Ashley, thanks for having me on. I know it was. It was kind of wild. We uh

a little bit of background we uh. We connect did through a mutual colleague, and I had a conversation just about boxing and the UFC and mixed martial arts and all these things combined with with the way that the entertainment world is and it's one of the natures of the beast. With the UFC, they they have been really progressive and aggressive in terms of getting back out there and getting in front of fans, albeit without frands in the stands or fans and attendance. But they're doing so

with events that are going on right now. And I thought it was fitting when a mutual contact of ours decided to introduce us and UH and he had some great things, some candid things to say about you, So it was great to obviously connect and then to have you on UM. I get to break the cardinal sin of a man to a woman here, so I get to do this with with a quick rundown. Because you are a fighter, you do compete in the UFC, So

I get ask a couple of different things. We need the skin in the background on you because weight classes obviously you're involvement with the UFC, and then background wise, can you can you will sitting on the gaps a little bit? Yeah, I mean that's a pretty loaded question, but I'll try to make it short and suite. I originally from Northern California, wrestled on a boys tum high school, got a scholarship and wrestled for four years in the

Bay Area at Menlo College. Was a part time All American there and from there I got into m M A and uh, I just loved it. You know, I had wrestled forever and it was the closest thing to wrestling, so I just took off with it. I was fighting like left and right as an amateur. Moved from the Bay Area down to Orange County I think two thousands, and like twelve or thirteens from around there went pro

around that time. You know, um moved down to Orange County by myself, so had to really do the whole like struggle and make it on your own, make and meat type thing. But you know, I got a job and a little apartment and all that, and a thousand and fourteen, I got a last minute call, short notice call from the UFC to fill in for It was Holly Home at the time, and it was getting point, which is one thirty five and I was a flyweight

in all managers. Sorry, I was a featherweight in all my amateur fights all through high school, all through college, and that's one forty five. So they called me and they're like, you know, basically ten pounds lighter but when the UFC calls me, don't say no. So I had racked up a record at that point of three, you know, as a professional, and I'm you know, nine amateur fights, which is not that much when you get into the UFC.

We need, you know, get to the top level. You want to have you know a solid amount of professional fights so you feel nice and ready. But like I said, before the UFC calls, you don't say no and still cut the weight. And I've been fighting for the UFC ever since since to plus fourteen. And some stories when you when you got the call to was that from an agent or was that from the UFC directly? And when you received the call, did you think it was

a prank? No, I knew it was real because I had done a some pretty cool things in the M M A world that last year. I had decided to take a high risk, high rewards fight out in Miami, and uh, you know, everyone that I was gonna lose. I end up winning when a title out there, and

so I kind of knew that call was coming. Not to be cocky, but um my name got put on the map with that fight, and so I knew it was gonna come I didn't know it was going to come so quickly after the fight, but yeah, I got the call from my manager who would lay the message, and I was really overweight at the time, but you know, I got on the treadmill and made the Wait. Yeah, when when you mentioned the the wrestling aspect of your backgrounds, it's fascinating to me because you always looked to to

what got an individual involved in combat training. So was there anything or anybody that kind of pointed you in the direction of of wrestling back in the day when you were young in or was it just instinct on your own behalf that you want to compete and you wanted to to to wrestle against another individual, male or female. It was very unique in rare situation. I'm super lucky

and grateful because no one asked me. I just took it as a Basically, my little brother who's a year younger than me, his friends, we were I was always a tomboy. I was always being up on, you know, him and his friends. And then one kid went away to military camp, came back and just like doubling you know me really hard. And I was like, you know, what is this And he was like, oh, don't worry. I wrestled now, but girls can't wrestle. And I'm like fifteen years old, and at that age, you know, you

think you know everything. And I was like, I can wrestle. I'll show you. So I went out and joined the boys high school team and I got my ask beat for quite a while. But you know, I think it was my stubbornness that kept me in the sport. And then after I got my first ten, don't never forget. It was like a drug. I was like, oh, I want more of that, and I stuck with it and end up being a three time try state champion Washington, Oregon, California UM in high school, which led me to get

a scholarship to go to Menlo College. And you know, it was like a drug after that. It was my favorite ing. I've never really had any other hobbies as a kid. I'm kind of just like a like a likeum be kind of from the little Girl. Really, I was gonna say, because you're from Yukayah, correct, Yeah, small town in northern California. Yeah, that was the next question. I was gonna ask you, like, where the fund is Yukaia because you find it you look at you look

at a map and it's northern boots of California. So for you to come from Yukaya all the way down to Orange County, you know, you think about some of the UFC finds there different outskirts of the country. But yeah, Yukaiah is up in BFC in California. As those are parties. Yeah, they're trying to find out a map. Don't look too hard.

Nothing special. You know, it's a great place if you're old or young, super young or super old, but you know, it's not a place to want to, you know, go to if you're in your early teens, thirty something like that. You know, I I'm grateful that I wasn't in some kind of like metropolitan area because I probably would have gotten in more trouble. Because I actually got into quite a bit of trouble in my small town. So I'm imagining if I was somewhere, you know, with more trouble,

I probably would have got more trouble. But yeah, here I am now in Orange County. You've been here for you know, a little under ten years or something like that, and you know, I love it. I love my family up in northern California. But as far as locations wise, I'm much rather to live in Orange County. Yeah, no doubt. What's the what's the thought process behind when you're engaged in talking to people about what you do as a career, do you feel that you empower women and men look

down upon you or vice versa? No, you know, Um, I really I don't really know too much. Like I don't really know how I effect a specific individual or a specific group of people until they tell me. Um, And you don't really think about it. But then randomly you'll get a message, whether it's from a kid or

a woman or even a man. And I've had everything, you know, all across the board, from a little kid that's like wow looking up to me, or a woman who's you know, I've given her um strength to pursue self defense because she felt she felt weak or something like that. Um. But what I actually I have not gone is I've never been told by a man that he looks down upon me for this. Um. I mean,

I'm sure they're out there, you know. Misogyny is a thing, but I've been fortunate in the sense that the types of trolls and backlash I get are more so, you know, for it's not even backlash, it's like creepy guys like I want feat pictures or something like. That's pretty damn good. Well we'll get to that too, because there's some really

interesting stuff that you're doing right now. Besides fine that, well, we'll definitely jump into Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio. I'm kind of curious just on your thought process because we've had people made statements in the past about men fighting women, whether it's boxing or mixed martial arts um based on your weight class. Would you

ever consider doing that? No, you know, I wrestled in high school against boys only because there was no girls team. I didn't think to myself, I'm better than any of these boys. I'm fully aware that men and women are built differentely, biologically, and that's just affects science, you know. So I'm not saying that women can't do the same types of things that man can. But I definitely don't want to go against a man because I'm putting myself at a disadvantage and I wouldn't want any other woman

to do that as well. Um, if old man and a woman both agree that that's what they want to do, all right, what are to you? Good? Luckily? You know, But I think I'll stick to finding my own gender. Have you ever been stuck on the streets and been called upon to use any of your training? Stuck is not the right word. What it's like, I said. When I was younger, I got into a lot of trouble frights and stuff like that. I grew up in like a punk rock community where you go to these like,

you know, crazy small venues that everyone's stuffed inside. It's all sweaty and stinky, and you know, the band starts playing. The whole mosh pit goes around and you're pushing each other and someone gets pushed and they have got an ego and then also a fight breaks out and you're like, bro, it's you know, it's lushing, you know, come down. And So I got into a lot of fifth fights as a as a teenager, and um, I loved it. That

adrenaline rush was really it was really fun. You know, I didn't I never thought I could make a career out of it. Um So I defin really loved him that since I've been doing what I loved for a long time, but I've never go ahead and I've never you know, when you say stuck. Um, Now that I'm older, I think got I'm a lot smarter. When you're younger, you know, you get put in a situation where you're like, oh, I gotta fight this person. But when you're younger, you

put your ego aside. You got more to lose, you know, pretty much after eighteen, you're an adult, so people compress charges all that. So you got to educate. You gotta be smart. Um, if you're a kid, you gotta be smart too, but there's less potential to be um get in trouble, I guess. Yeah. I mean, especially in today's day and age, where you got social media platforms. You get everyone with a cell phone and a camera. You make one bad decision, you're you're kind of game over. Yeah.

Speaking as social media, we had a chat earlier in the week about just the impact of it and uh,

with our our past crossing. You know, one of the things that you have been uh, correct me if I'm wrong, I think enamored with is the way that that social media is, especially in the podcasting world, Uh, you have a background in journalism, and you actually have veered off the beaten path a little bit with with the UFC and fighting, and you've kind of crafted your own podcast, asked if you will that has specific things you like to discuss. Um, we're gonna get into that a little bit,

so can you elaborate a bit more? Yeah, so, you know, as you know, I'm known for I think my mark has been made as far as being a fighter, and not a lot of people do know that I have a degree in journalism. I love being on camera, you know, not like, oh, the spotlight is on me, but more so I enjoy doing what you're doing right now. I enjoy interviewing people people, I enjoy getting to know someone, listening to all the different stories and all that. And

podcasting is really big right now. It's been pretty big for the last few years. Um, you know, the whole Joe Rogat, you know, Spotify buying JeOS podcast is like really open to everybody's eyes because how much money he's making in the next few years. But um, I've known it's been a growing medium for quite a while. But at the same time, I never thought I really had anything special, Meaning you know, what what was I going

to do? Was I gonna talk about fighting? Well, there's so many mm A podcasts, what was gonna set me apart? And so I kind of combined two things that I love and that's uh, you know, m m A. And then the other topic would be dating relationships, sex and so the podcast is called Sex and Violence with Rebel Girl. Rebel Girls my fight nickname, so if you guys don't know, but uh yeah, second violence is Revel Girl as a

podcast where I interview top level mm A fighters. So far in all UFC fighters UM either active or retired. UM today later today will be my third episode with a couple, so it'll be my first time interviewing two fighters at once. And we just talked about everything across the board. UM that untail's love, dating, relationships, romance and even sex and so it could be pretty pgs. You know. I had a Sam Alvie, he's a current actor light

heavyweight fighter in the UFC. He talked about his marriage, he talked about adopting his kids, and you know, I tried to dig deep for the dirt, but sometimes it's

just not there. But the first episode, we had former UFC fighter hyweight Ian McCall uncle Creepy and if his nickname doesn't explain how the podcast episode went, then you gotta listen to it because he's just an interesting man who you know, talked about mushrooms for about half an hour before we got into three sums with Chuck the Bell. So you're gonna get everything across the board. You're gonna get the married guy, and then you're gonna get a

single guy. You're gonna get the you know, the couple that's going to be on this episode. And it's just for me, in my opinion, a way to humanize the fighters. You know, when you get to a certain notoriety or uh popularity level, right, whether it's fighters or I mean, maybe you'd be experience this right your a podcast host. Um, people tend to be humanize you and think that they can say whatever they want, things that they would never say in public peer faith, especially an average person to

a professional fighter. But I guess in my my hopes of doing this, you know, A got many hopes. You know, I love doing this, but number one, number two, I think it's great to give the fighters like myself and my colleagues another platform to express who they are. And lastly, to help you know, regular people, the listeners, the fans of followers, humanize these fighters and know that we all

came from the same place at one point. We've all got some awkward loss of our virginity story, We've all got some weird dating catfish story and or you know, something along those lines. And I'm really hoping that it catches fire because I think that sometimes people are just seen as like a like fighters, like dance monkey dance, like monkey in the cage kind of right, But in all actuality, we're all humans and we're all the same. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller

Show weekdays at two am eastern pm Pacific. I had a question for you, and it totally was thrown off by what you just said. Um, what was your awkward way of losing your virginity? Oh man, my host, total like technical statutory rape, total awkward. It was like I was fifteen and this guy I never forget, like you know those guys he was nineteen fifteen, nineteen, not good

but or a statory rape probably yeah, yeah, good story. Okay, so little forget this guy because I was like I had such a crush on him at the time, when you're fifteen, you look at this guy like he's nineteen. He's like smoking cigarettes, and he's like he's one of those like BMX guys, like total dirtbags, such a dirt bag. And I just lost it in like a shitty like uncomfortable, like I even cried afterwards. It was not a good story. Oh my gosh. Yeah, not a good story. Not a

good start to my my sex life. Yeah. I mean so after the end, did you did you go to the authorities? Did you go to any friends any? No? No, it wasn't like it wasn't like a thing that I didn't want, you know. I think unfortunately young girls and young guys they don't see the potential harm in being

sexual with someone far past their own age. You know, you just see you look, you look to older people as like, oh like this, you know this, you know, almost like godlike figure, you know, an older guy or a guys sometimes like an older woman, but in all actuality, it's creepy as hell. You know, the older person needs to know that that's wrong, and they don't always do that. Obviously it's not a perfect world, but um, I wasn't

upset about it. I just I cried in the sense that it was like, you know, fifteen year old girls awkward and you're like, oh, this is not what I expected. And then and then after that was a game on for you once you hit Once you got into college, Uh, it was like sporadic, like I have like a boyfriend here, boyfriend there, you know, and college was actually I was.

I was a really good girl in college. I m partied so hard from like fourteen fifteen, sixteen seventeen, UM, gone to a lot of trouble, went to Jusie when I was seventeen, almost lost my scholarship to wrestle. Because I know, it sounds crazy. Stabbed the guy when I was drinking with some friends. You stabbed the guy. Hold on, hold on, where the fund did you stab him? And where were you guys for you to stab him? I know, just so weird. I got a weird little background story,

but it all. You know, it sounds so corny, But I'm happy that these things happened when I was younger, because if they happened later in life, like I just talked about, like past eighteen, I could have been some serious time. And then the whole course of my life. I wouldn't have went to college. I wouldn't have been a good girl in college because of this. But I'll get to the story. I know you want to hear it. So what happened was seventeens, a couple of months before graduation.

We're all drinking and party and all this little punk rockers. Um. I got a pocket knife in my pocket because I'd gone into a fight with this girl a couple of weeks before, and because like, oh, she's out there, she's gonna stab you. She's telling people she's going to find you and stab you. Someone gave me a pocket knife and I was like, I don't need to use this. Well. Fast forward. We're drinking, I'm blacked out drunk. It's you know,

not a good not a good scene. I end up into a fight with a girl and as I'm getting pulled off, um of this girl that I'm fighting, I guess, you know, I don't recall, but it was told later that I end up stabbing the person that was trying to help the situation, try to pull me off, and you know, um, he survived. You know, I stabbed him in the side kind of like a little love handle. Area, and maybe that's what saved him because he only had

to get butterfly stitches. He was fine, and I went to Julie for a few months, almost off my scholarship, but the judge was really great. She let me out with a continuency situation where I had to return home and serve the remainder of my time on my Thanksgiving and Christmas break. So my first year of college not the smoothest, but um, never the less. That's why I was sober. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m. Pacific.

What uh, well, I mean, obviously you've you've definitely matured, as they would say, um from there on. But when and you get involved in something like that, obviously you're scared shitless and now obviously you're trying to redeem yourself when you got into college. But um, are you now? Are you married or you have a boyfriend, or are you involved with anybody now? Because you talk about what you're doing outside the scope of the cage, talking about

like sex and fighting and whatnot. So I'm curious as to if you're having that conversation with a significant other now about sex and things that you've done, or things that you want to do, or things that you want to go and do, things of that nature. Well, I mean, I've always been a very open person. So if I whoever I was dating at the time, I had no problem talking about communicating, you know, what I wanted or

what I wanted to do or didn't want to do. Um. And when I started this podcast, when I first had the idea of the podcast, I was single. This is probably like, um, you know, six seven months ago something like that. And I thought to myself, oh, man, I've got such a pressora of embarrassing, awkward, ridiculously funny dating stories through my you know, I'm thirty two, so I lost my Virginia at fifteen. You know, I've got all

those years of dating, you know, all those stories. And then I thought to myself, this is gonna be great. I'm going to interview these people. I'm going to relate to them, and I tell a little bit about my experiences. And then I then I got into a relationship. And you know, not to sound completely corny, but the relationship I'm in right now is by far the healthiest relationship I've ever been in and before I started the podcast,

I had that conversation with him. I'm like, look, it's not your average job, but I'm not a stripper, I'm not a prosecute but I am going to be talking to people about, you know, sex and these subjects that are not talked about in society regularly. But he's a great guy. He understands that, you know, just because I'm talking about sex doesn't mean I'm doing sex with these people. And um, yeah, it just it's a job, you know, And um, I still am going to relate to these people.

I'm still going to throw in little tidbits of my past life and stuff like that. So nothing really changed except I'm not a single woman, and I won't be able to like, let's say, if I'm interviewing you and you're single, I'll be like, yeah, me too. I'll be like, oh, well, I'm in a relationship right now. But that's not going to take away from anything. I don't think. Do you feel like, with your experience in the dating world and the environment that you're in, that you're kind of desensitized

to two stories nowadays? No, not at all. I think that I've heard a lot of different stories, you know. I mean, I'm actually a listener of quote unquote sex podcasts. The podcast that gave me the idea for my podcast is called sex Um. It's called Guys the Funk, and it's uh, it's a podcast were two comedians, Christina Hutchinson and Corin Fisher, their New York comedians. They bring on different people, whether it's a psychologist or another comedian friend

and they interview them. And obviously it's funny if there's their comedians, there's other comedians that are on there. But it's really informative as well. So I'm always kind of like listening about like sexual education and like dating and keeping myself up to date with these types of things. I do not consider myself any type of expert um by any means, And I'm not I'm not saying like, oh,

I listened to all these podcasts so I'm Joe smart. No, no, no, no, I'm just saying that, like, um, I listened to a lot of different stories, and I try to kind of keep myself educated on you know, the new what's new in dating and relationships and sexual education, and so when I hear stories, I think sometimes like I become descentral tized,

but I really haven't, you know. I talked to Ian mcaul the other day and boom me through throughout how he was having sex with other other men's wives because they asked him too, And I'm just like, wha, oh, yeah, I know that's the thing. But it's still when you hear it, it never gets less shocking. You're like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's the thing you forgot. What's the wildest thing you've ever done? The last thing I've ever done? That's a

switch through the memories here. One question I asked some of the guests I've had so far is like, you know, where's the craziest place in public that you've had sex? And I realized with myself, like I haven't even really had sex in like a crazy public place or anything. Um wildest thing, you know, you know, it's not super crazy, But I went to a sex club one time, and I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.

I just moved out of southern California as pretty knew kind of like um nor cal kind of red nicky. Still like still haven't Like I wasn't really into the Orange County culture or anything like that. And a brand new friend, and I made said, hey, come to this party, and that's all he said. He just said, dress sexy. And I thought that was weird. You know, Okay, don't I dress sexy when I go out anyway? And he's like, look as dressed as sexy as you can, and you'll

still be the most dressed person. I'm the most overdressed person. And I thought to myself, well, that's weird. But I didn't know what he meant. And I show up to this warehouse and he walks me inside and there's just naked people, you know, half naked people. There's rooms upstairs where people are having sex. And I'm just like, oh, this is not the party I expected. And that just being there was an experience in itself, and now it's

pretty wild. That is crazy. I have a I have a good buddy of mine that I don't know if you've heard of this place, but he would, you'd be a frequent visitor of two places in this world, Las Vegas and Amsterdam and uh. And he told me about a place that he would frequently visit called the Green Door and the Green Doors in in Las Vegas, and basically it's a it's a club kind of like how you described the warehouse where you'll go in and people

men and women will watch other people have sex. They Yeah, I've actually heard of that. I was talking. I was at the h the uf c P. I actually was getting some work on my shoulder. Um, we were just kind of chopping it up in the rehab the center, and I don't know how it got brought up, you know, like you know, I'm always talking about interesting things, so

I might have had something to do with it. But they brought up the Green Door, and I, you know, I don't live there, but I travel out there periodically. And I was like, is that really a thing or is it a myth? And everyone was like, no, it's a thing. And also you've been there, Like no, I'm like, okay, well until I know someone up actually been there, you know, because how do you know? Right? That's exactly so. Yeah, I've heard of that. Fox Sports Radio has the best

sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. Have you been to Amsterdam? I have not. I would love to go sometimes, you know, I went. I went a year ago to go visit a buddy of mine who was celebrating his fortieth birthday and he he lives out in Europe, but was not able to visit us when we were in Amsterdam. So another buddy of mine who was out there already, he was visiting some some

family in Croatia. Um I was in France for middles in Paris. We just said, hey, let's let's meet up and let's go to Amsterdam. So we spent three days in Amsterdam. And my buddy's loose. He's very loose, he's very open. He just kind of does kind of goes to the flow. And I don't want to say I'm Morgan's servative, but I guess I'm a little more cautious. Um. But we both air on the set of cautions. So

it's not like for Cavalier with anything. But he's he's definitely an influence for me as much as I'm an influence for him. But it takes one to get the other one going. Um. But he's definitely a guy that likes to to dab a little bit. And uh, he's a big, big beer guy. So you know, when we got to Amsterdam, we were trying out like a bunch of different beers and going to a few different places. But um, when we were renting out airbnb s or hostiles.

The hostile that he actually rented out for us was on the on the cusp of the red light district, So we had no idea. He didn't know, I didn't know, and you know, you hear stories about the red light district. And then the first night that we got there, we walked around and and I could not, like, you know, being in Los Angeles, for being in Orange County, or being in southern California for that matter, You're around beautiful people all the time, women, men, whoever it may be,

with your preference. But I was completely floored by the way that these women look because they were like, there's no such thing as attended, my opinion, but goddamn, everyone looked like a nine, a nine and a half at nine point nine. It was absolutely wild. And a couple of the nights that we were there, it started raining a little bit, and how everyone was in their little I don't want to say shack, but they're obviously display windows.

God forbid you got underneath the awning and try to cover yourself from the rain because they be banging on the window and like telling you get the funk out of the way, and like move and move and move, and yeah, that's wild. It's like a straight up business and it is you know, from night today it is

completely different. But um, you ever get the chance to to head out there, I would deathly recommend to, uh to soak up as much as you can with Amsterdam because the scene is great all the way around from sixty degrees. So that's awesome. I thought in Germany in Hamburg and there was this place called the Rooper Bob

and we went out drinking after my fight. It was a really good fight and we're all happy and on my coaches and you know, we were told we didn't see much, um, but we were told that like women weren't allowed to go down certain streets and those streets were where prostitutes were, and like the for some reason, like the men that were buying the prostitutes didn't want

to see regular women or something like that. And I was like, all right, interesting, like alright, couch of different countries, like different strokes for different countries, you know, but uh, yeah, to reach their own that's interesting. Now, different parts of Europe have you been to or is it just you've been to Hamburg and that's it. I've do uh seven different countries in Europe, but not well not I went to seven different countries in Europe this past year for

a military tour. But that was like like wham bamdbanking man like fly in, like teach to the troops from the mats to do some signings, watched the fights with them, and then boom here to the next country. So it was like Norway, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Romania, Kosovo, oh Man one more. Um, I'm forgetting one Romania anyway. But they were all great places, but I didn't get it was like, you know, we had a what's it called, like somebody kind of like on us the whole time, like watching

a babysitter basically like a military babysitter. So we didn't really get to see the city or anything like that. Um, but I could tell that certain countries, I mean, like you know, probably won't be going back to Kosovo anytime so in the party, but I would love to go back to Greece, in Italy and even Turkey was pretty awesome. Have you been to any of the Asian markets? At all, China, Japan, Philippines,

nothing like that. Actually, know what about let's go back a little bit because I know you said something interesting with the way that your experience has been. But now you're you're currently in the most uh, You're in the healthiest relationship you've ever been in. Um. What makes that relationship healthy? I'd say like two things. Communication and the ability to put your ego aside. And you know that

that's gonna need to take place on both sides. If you have one side doing that, then it's just a dominant the missive type relationship where one person probably always but you know, taking one for the team, biting their lip or you know whatever. UM. And then if you have both, then that's where a really good symbiotic relationship happens, where if something comes up, some kind of argument, some kind of dispute, you know, you can talk about it

and communicate and both put your ego aside. Because me, one of my biggest downfalls that I'm quick to get angry, quick to defend myself, and and that's not good because especially with your partner, they obviously love you or you know, you know, if you're not into at that stage, what they care about you, and they want the best. So if you have that ability to just stay calm not get heated, which is something I'm personally just now. You know, it's not like all my relationships in the past were

bad because of them. I'm taking a lot of responsibility as well. Take me a long time to self reflect and realize that, you know, a lot of the things in my life that have gone wrong most likely were my own fault. And so now that I have that kind of like newfound mindset, I've met a partner who also has that mindset, and I'm just like, oh, thank you, Bever, Jerry's was fine, little like because I just was tired

of the fighting and tired of the nonsense. And you know, you know, I'm thirty two, so young in life, maybe old sort of a fighter, but I'm tool for that ship, that's for sure. How old do you think you'll be when you retire. I've definitely got another solid, you know, three to five years, and me, I don't think i'll be you know, punching faces at forty. But you never know. I've never had surgery, never had any major injuries. I've

had to pull out of two fights. Unfortunately, Um I like had a torn mc L and then I had a torrent recently the last year, I did a an armspin wrestling move and toward my upper pack and shoulder area. But no surgeries. I got stem cells and any other one just needed a lot of rehab. So you know, from fifteen years old wrestling on a high school team, college wrestling to professional fighting, that's pretty good if those

are the only major injuries and still no surgeries. So I'm saying, you know, I can see myself at most another five years. But I've been in the sport for quite a while and I'm feeling really good now. Like I said, with my new found kind of mindset, nothing physically has changed. It's my mindset. But as we don't know for our eight percent mental or seventy year or

whatever I say. Right, So, when you can like hone in on your on your mental game and your emotional game, I think especially for women, that's when you really start to see, you know, everything I said before synergy where everything starts to come together, because you can be the best athlete physically, but if your mind's not right, you're

not going to go far at all. And this past here a lot of things have changed for me mentally, and so now I can't wait to start, you know, fighting um consistently because you know my mind's right and you know, you know I am in the later stages of my career. So it's like, all right, it's now we're never bit a vote. Yeah, you said back when you first started wrestling that it was like a drug, it was a rush. Um. Does it feel the same for you now when you get into the cage? Oh?

Even more so. Wrestling was great, don't get me wrong, like teammates and and all that, and you know all you know, ashly Evan Smith's on Evan Smith in the hole.

But with fighting, like, you'll never understand the amazing feeling it is to fight on a professional level until you've been backstage in your hands are apped, until you've made that walk through the tunnel and here at the crowd sheering and the stand shaking, until you've walked out and the lights are shining and you're the fall you pick is playing full blast in the arena and it's like, you know, yeah, I mean, I don't know if all the listeners have gotten high, but you're kind of high.

It's just like there's kind of like feeling of like serenity but also like your heart is racing as fast as it can go, and so it's serene, but it's also scary as sucking hell, and that's adrenaline, you know. So you get to the cage and you're scared, but you're but you're excited and and then you start fighting. You know, for me, all that goes away as soon

as the first punch is thrown. And then I kind of think into that you know, the zone or whatever you want to you know, um that that that's comfortable, familiar, you know, you know kind of treating that I do every single day, day and day out for years and

years and years. So it's hard to explain, but you know, I'm going to be heartbroken the day I quote on foot like hang up my globes or retire or whatever, because yeah, I would love to go into media, whether it's on camera or podcasting and all these other different things on doing movies now small roles. Um, it's never

gonna be like fiving. Yeah, I remember, it wasn't fortunate like you to to compete at the professional level, but I I the aspirations of of competing at the professional level as a football player, and so I grew up in a small town and went to an extremely small high school. I think like the graduating class that I was in was like seventy two kids, but oh wow, you beat me. Yeah, I felt like it was a

big fish in a small pond. But I didn't get the type of exposure that that kids do now with social media and the different networks covering high school sports. So I had to go to a junior college to get any kind of opportunity to get any kind of looks and so kind of going back to you and having your your hands wrapped. I was always nervous. It didn't matter, Like I felt like when I compete at the high school level, I was the best player in

the field. And then when I got to the college level, I felt like I was still not the best, but I knew like I was going up against the best. So I had to be like an a a level all the time. And you know, despite your wearing pads in a helmet and having speed or or muscle or whatever, like I was always I was always nervous, Like getting at islands to the field, you hear the crowd, you know what's at stake. You see someone that's barreling down on you that's like six two or six three and

two pounds. But then after I absorbed the first hit, then it's game on. It's like everything just gets sucked into that vacuum and then you get focused like a like a horse going down the track. You know, you have those those blinders on. You just think about, this is my objective. And that was the I know you're not there now, but for me, that has always stuck

in me because I always have flashbacks to certain plays. Well, there was a big hit, a good catch, a nice tackle, and but that engagement of competing, because that's the ultimate testament to not only you as an individual, but the work and the prep and the training that you and your camp put in. And and I was like that on the football field. And you know they always say that practices should be harder than the games, and and

they certainly were. And you know, once that goes from you, like, you can never get that kind of a rush back. And so I yeah, I mean you you said, you know, three or four or five years away from retiring, it's it's great that you know that that's there. And at the same time, you had that sense of urgency, not pressured to make sure you put your foot on the gas now and not and not hold anything back because you never know when that last fight is going to

be your last fight. Yeah, they're right, and you know, I'm I'm not happy with my my record. I'm sixing for it right now, and I'm definitely not happy with the amount of fights I fight per year. And it seems like as soon as I get my shipped together,

something happens. And you know, COVID nineteen is a perfect example of how like I said, this year with my mentality being on point, and then like you know, I'm literally in London about to fight and they tell me to come home and then yeah, so it's just like I feel like life's been kind of asshole to me in in a few ways. But at the same time, I have to be extremely grateful for the opportunities that

I have. Like, obviously I will fight it, and you know, I'm right now it's tentative end of July, but with everything going on, COVID still it's kind of up in the air. But you know, yeah, it's pedals in the metal time. It's time to focus in the only thing that matters to me is winning my fight, in securing my future. You mentioned July what happens, if what happens, if you fight on July nine, Uh, then that would be awesome. But I do I feel like fortunately, I'm

I do very very well under pressure. So you know, July nine is my birthday and I happen to do. It's your birthday too, So if I was to fight, I think that would just be one more you know, not a lot of pressure, but just you know, one more thing that would would make it. Um, you know, I would want to win for one more reason, right, and so yeah, bring it on. I would fight on my birthday. It would fight on Christmas. I don't care, no kidding, right, Yeah, It's it's funny we we share

the same birthday, July nine. We also share it with a couple other people. One of them is Tom Hanks, which is our which is the one that we're proud of. The other one's O J sibsence. So it's kind kind of wild, right, get thee from from both ends with that kind of bipolar dynamic with the birthdate. Um, do you haven't regret? Do you have any regrets as a fighter? Like anything? That you have or haven't done that you just like eats at you internally as a fighter. Yeah, no,

not really. I used to a couple of years ago, I had this mentality. I don't know what you would call it, but me and Rhonda Rousey were on the same amateur card in Las Vegas, and then, you know, I look at my career and then look at her career, and so I was kind of like comparing myself to her, you know, like, damn, you know, how come I couldn't

have done this or this or this or this? But like I wiped all that a way, because you know, you can never compare yourself to someone Else's a journey, right. I don't know how many people were helping her. I

know how many people weren't helping me. So instead of looking at her life and comparing my life and going, oh, I could have could have could have look at my own life, and instead of comparing myself to someone else, I think of that little girl in Yukaiah who little like dumpy girl just started wrestling and then now here I am. So that's a way better comparison. You start feeling a lot better about yourself, and it's a positive mindset. So I don't regret anything because there's no there's no

no benefits in regrets. Right, you can learn lessons and you can say, you know what, I see what I did. There molple smartists and I've got plenty of those, But I have no regrets, absolutely not one. Well that being said, do you think why do you think people were helping

her and not helping you? Um, I don't know, you know, I mean she had maybe a different, um family financial situation, you know, Um, I have no parents, had no you know, I had to put myself through college and um we were wouldn't have the most money and when I was growing up as a kid, and so I've take take care of myself completely financially, especially since you know college, um and even in my kind of in my high school years as well. So I mean that could have

been a factor, you know what I mean. She made it to the Olympic team before she got into in the may, so she had that kind of notoriety behind her. And when people hear that, they want to help someone because they keep potential and rightfully, so, um, I just kind of had a little bit of wrestling background and was tenacious, so it doesn't really matter, but there's there's definitely people have their own paths in different journeys and

and I'm I think I never once. I think the only time I ever said anything bad about Rhonda was when she was a real cour sport to Misia Tate, just because you know, I'm not saying I'm the best role model, um, but I mean shake, shake the woman's hand, you know what I mean, Like, don't flip her off in the cave either, though I don't know. It was just you know, And now she's in w w E, and I think that's smart. I think she made a

great move. We can't fight forever, and that's you know, her body probably thinks they're not saying it's easy over there, but I think she'll probably have a lot more longevity um during WWE than than the A. Do you think she's a fraud fraud in what sense? Well, I think the I think the perception is is that when she got the notary that she did through the UFC, she wasn't fighting the best the best, and you know, she didn't fight Cyborg and not until Holly Holm got the

better herd did she suffered defeat. And that was when people felt like she finally competed against someone that was to her level. Um, and then no, definitely not no. I mean if you're if you're talking in terms of competition level, I think she's not fraud. She she went out there, she did her things, She won fights. The great thing about en them a compared to w w E Z No, it's not stage. She went in there and she thought those girls that she won, and she

beat them. She won. Whether it was by seventeen armbar you know, or or whatever, doesn't, it doesn't matter. She beat those girls. Um, you know, I don't. I don't think that she you know, I don't think she was going to be side works and I don't obviously you know, Holly took her out and all that. But I would

I definite wouldn't call her a fraud. I know she also gets the last fruit me because she went over to w w E. But why, you know, why would you take someone's career choice apart when the sport that we do is so physically taxing on her body and her brain? You know, I mean the girl, the girl probably just doesn't want to have fergusons when she's older. You know, it takes a toll on us and so, um,

you know, I don't think she's a fraud. I think there's definitely things she could have done better, um once she was in the spotlight. But we've all made mistakes, right, you have no doubt about it. Uh. Speaking of mistakes, we're trying to make any on social media. But you know, for the listeners out there that do want to follow you your journey, things that you do and maybe even dip into the dark side of your podcast, Um, where

can they find you on social media? Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, whatever? Maybe? Yeah, my personal page is Ashley m m A and Ashley A s h L E. M m A. And my podcast, which I know you are all dying to listen to because you all are probably naughty. Sex and Violence with Rebel Girls kind of a long name. It's all spelt out Sex and Violence with Rebel Girl. And that's a that that Instagram account has a link to the podcast

in the bio so you can clip there. But we're also on Apple, on Spotify already, um, and a couple other major ones we're working on, you know, being on all the major platforms. But pretty proud of myself were only having two episodes and recording a third one tonight, nice. Nice. Now, is that your goal to do something at least once a week or do some thing maybe four or five times a month, like, what's your what's your idea behind it? Now? Since the since we still got the coronavirus, the goal

definitely set you off. The goal definitely is I'd say two we could be ideal, just because I feel like there are so many interesting stories out there, but for sure, what one a week as as long as I'm you know, competing in m M A. Because as we all know, you can be a jack of all trades and a master of none, and that's not what I want to do. My first goal, person of foremost will always be my

training and my fight. So, you know, unfortunately, let's say I have a fight books in late July, you know, not unfortunately for me, but unfortunate, let's say for the listeners, I won't be able to put out you know, like boom boom boom boom boom. So I'm going to try. You know, my producer, Rick Lee and I have talked about kind of stacking the episodes, you know, doing a couple back to back episodes and then releasing them, um weekly if that makes sense, um, and so, so that's

the goal right now, always have one a week. But in the future, let's say, you know, in a couple of years, when these podcast is making a baizalion dollars and I'm not fighting, then maybe maybe more two or three, who knows, But I know that for for me personally, the podcast that I love to listen to, I listen to it weekly and then I'm like, oh man, I wish there was another episode, you know, I look forward to it every week and I'm just like, why can't

there be a mid week episode? Right? That's exactly yeah, you know what, And just kind of a little little tip for you with best practices, you know, more often than not, like we've found, like Ben and I have found really good success on releasing our podcast at six o'clock in the morning Pacific nine o'clock Eastern, because that's the highest volume that we've received for for downloads each

and every day. So um, really, yeah, it's it's it's a nice thing, but you also have to stay consistent and true to how you release these things because our audience, you know, whether they like us, hate us, love us, whatever it may be there always at that time, consistently the expectations have been set. And so once we set those, people know, hey, this is what these guys are doing,

and it becomes available and like accessible. That's that's the biggest thing too, is if if you're not accessible on multiple platforms, then you kind of ship out of luck. And that's kind of the fortunate thing that we have behind I Heart Radio and and Fox Sports Radio and Apple iTunes and things that nature. So, um, you know, power the cell phone or if you're on a PC

or Mac whatever it may be. If if you've got a links and that sucker out and make sure you tag it on Twitter and Instagram and anything else that you're using for for connecting with the masses. Yeah, thank you for the chip. I agree, and I think that it is something that you can say across the board that consistency is key, right, whether it's your podcast, your training,

or your relationships and all that. Yeah, no doubt about it. Um. Actually, I know I could talk to you prior for hours, but I know I don't have that much time that I can dedicate to you because you've got to do I training yourself, and uh, I'm got a fun filled day. But listen, we'd love to have you back on the on the show. Um, and you know I'd love to come back. Yeah, So we'd love to to bring you back.

And if you ever need to, if you need to drag me or the big guy Ben on over to the dark side of what you guys do, please feel free to to send out send out an invite. I know I could drag the big guy along. So yeah. Honestly, I was thinking very small minded with the podcast, and Rick Lee, the producer, our mutual friend, was the one that was like, look, let's think you know, well, let's not think big peanuts, let's think big picture. And I'm like,

what do you mean? And He's like, right now we're interviewing m M A fighters, but what if this podcast takes off? Why not musicians and actors? And I'm like, yeah, I would love that. So, UM, I think we're hopefully let me get a few more episodes, you know on the books and the books, and um, I would love to have you and and Ben on it. That would be I think you guys have a really good dichotomy. I listened to your podcast, um, the one you sent me, and you guys are just kind of poking fun at

each other. And I love that relationship that you know, you guys have, so I would love to have you guys on Saturday. Yeah. It's uh, it's definitely what they call like a relationship, but it's uh, it's it's in progress. It's constantly evolving and developing and at times, uh, it's kind of collapsing. But you know, we we've worked together for a while and you know, I think I think we can tell you know, that's that's the kind of

relationship we've had. So actually, like I, like I said when we first talked, um pleasure obviously connecting, but more importantly, best luck to you and uh, I definitely look forward to to talking to you in the future and connecting down the road. Thank you so much for having me on and talk to you guys soon.