Get everyone Sam here. Hope you having a beautiful week I from a personal note, am just coming down on a still coming down from a beautiful high from the weekend which it was Father's Day, which not really big believer in Father's Day, but don't think it's a bit of a marketing thing. But it was just so beautiful to be spoilt rotten by my five amazing girls this weekend. It's always those little homemade gifts that do it for
me rather than the rather than the bought stuff. And some interesting necklaces and bracelets that I'll be rocking in the next few weeks if you keep an eye out. But truly truly spoilt, And yeah, what a beautiful day
I had with my girls. And I'm pretty excited actually because we have someone in today that I don't know very well, but I love the sport that this person is from, and I've always been so intrigued and had such admiration for the mental state in which these men and women can put themselves through before they go into battle. It is Australia's number one middleweight boxer who's about to
fight for the middleweight championship of the world. It is none other than Michael's rough I can't wait to just dig into that mind and see what makes a boxer tick. How can they be so focused? How can they have such that I will win mindset? You know, I think there's a lot for us every day people be included to learn from an elite athlete at the peak of their game who puts themselves through such a tough sport. I'm really really looking forward to digging into that. And
then later on we're going to talk spring. We're going to talk spring, spring has sprung? How do we get into shape in this beautiful month as the weather's getting a bit warmer. I'm going to dig into all of that and so much more. Here's the Woodlife. I'm Sam Wood. Let's get into it. We're joining the studio today by
an incredibly fit looking specimen. He is none other than Australia's number one middleweight boxer who is about to head overseas and fight for the middleweight championship of the world. How good to say that. I feel like I need to be Bruce Buffer and really really ramped this up. Mike was a rafa. Welcome to the Woodline. Thanks for other things, haven't we so mate, I love boxing. I'd box for my own fitness, but I wouldn't say I'm
jumping in the ring anytime soon. But I just admire it so much from a fitness perspective, and probably more so from a mental toughness perspective. How do you going into a fight where it's such a physical war, have have no doubt in your mind that you are going to win.
I just truly believe in my ability. You know, in the gym, that's where you work. You know, twelve weeks will working day and day out, you know, two three sessions a day working for that for that thirty six minutes when it comes fight time. So I just make sure I tick all the boxes. And once all the boxes a tick, there's not much more you can do, you know. I leave it in God's hands. I just
tell myself it is what it is. You know, may the best man win, If it's meant to be, it'll be the guy going in there the Wednesday night or the Thursday. I was going to be the same guy waking up the next morning, you know, So I take that pressure. I take that pressure right off me and and just say it is what it is. You know, as long as I can leave that ring no one. I've given a one hundred and ten percent. The rest
is in God's hands. And I don't put this extra pressure where you know, I have to win and I've got to do this and I've got to do that, because then you start putting holes in your ship, and too many holes the ship sinks, you know.
So for me, I just say, you know, all the hard work's done.
You know, I'm going in this fight empty minded and giving them my apps a little and then may the best man win.
Yeah. So there's no there's no room for that stuff in your head. There's a real calmness about you where overthinking it will just add an unnecessary pressure. Have you always been that calm or is that something that has come through experience?
Definitely experience.
Like I just tell myself like if you think of the if you think of the future, you give yourself anxiety. If you think of the past, you give you start being depressed and think of the what if you know, I just be present in this moment, like given in the back rooms, people say like, how are you so relaxed? Like aren't you nervous? I just say I got two options. I'm going out of the regardless, you know. So I'd rather be happy and go out there than be nervous
and scared and go out there. The end result is I've got to go out there. So I just try to convince myself that it is what it is, like, I just go out there and have fun, you know. And I know it's hard to say how fun you're about to go punch on for thirty six minutes, but you know, I feel like I was just born for this.
And the mindset when you see the other guy across the ring and you see he wants to get his hand come wait to get his hands on your and you say myself, you know what, like, who's this man? You know he's got two arms in her head bleeds red. And it just comes down to who wants it more? And I guarantee every time I step in between those ropes, man like, I want it more than any anybody.
But you've you've wanted this, or you know, you've wanted to be world champion since you were seven years old. So what did you used to say to yourself as a seven year old that you still say to yourself now.
I'm going to be a world champion, literally I said to.
My parents, So you were you were that clear, you were that direct, there was no ambiguity around it.
I remember watching boxing, I forget it.
I it might have been Roy James Junior or someone's fighting, and I just said I can beat these guys, like it was crazy.
At seven years old, I thought I could be Roy James Jr. You know.
And I just remember watching it saying like all it is is a bit of dedication, bit of discipline. I can do that, you know, And I can make millions and be a world champion, you know, like that's what I'll do. And I said to my parents, I want to I want to want a box that's I want to be a world champion. And you know, like yeah, cool, you know, And then I just kept I literally was wagging primary school to go training my my boxing trainer back then, and I never looked back. My first pair
of gloves I put it on. I said, this is it, you know, this is this is where I want to be.
It was home for me.
And it's so weird every time I walk into a boxing gym, like the worst things could have happened to me, and you know, I could have the worst news, but as soon as I walk into a boxing gym, It's like, there's no problems.
My life's are the best part of it can possibly be.
And I never looked back. It was inevitable. I said, I'm going to be a world champion.
So just for our listeners, I mean, this guy is the real deal. You don't get a world title shot, in fact, most people don't get one.
Ever.
You have to beat the best of the best even to get to this position. So you've beaten Jeff Horn, and you've beaten Anthony Mundine, You've beaten every Aussie that's come your way, and now it's who are you fighting when you're head overseas?
So I'm fighting the number one Brazilian foul color who's very tough. He's a south poor thirty fights, thirty wins, with twenty four knockouts.
Thirty fights, thirty wins.
Yeah, he's never never tasted defeat, and I feel like I always say, if you've never lost, you haven't fought anybody. So he doesn't know what it feels like to be on that end of losing. So I already know going to that fight, I want it more than him. You know, he's never lost.
Where I have.
I just know that when it comes to five time, I always arise, you know, and even if I have lost, which I have in the past, it's not because of anything. It's just, you know, he was just better on the You know, sometimes you can give two hundred percent and lose. You know, he just gave two hundred and one. So for me looking at this guy, I'm confident. I'm mentally, physically, emotionally switched on. I can't wait to get out there and win it and wrap that toler on my waist.
A lot of our Woodlife listeners are not necessarily going to be boxing tragics, but that doesn't matter because it's very rare that you speak to someone who has such belief. My point here is, whether it's Mary out there who wants to lose ten kirlos or Bob who wants to train and be able to run five k for the first time in his life, Whether you think you can
or you think you can't, you're right correct. If you had even half Michael's level of self belief and confidence and conviction and dedication, I think you would blow your mind to what you could achieve. And we're talking today about someone at the absolute peak of their powers, at the top of their game in the most physically demanding sport in the world. And it's this is the very very point to end. But the principles don't change.
What people do wrong is they focus on everybody else and what they're doing. And what I do well is I don't really care what everyone else is doing and just focus on myself, whether it's a big goal or a small goal. And I just tell everybody when I say, hell, do you get all that, I to say, well, it's just like driving. If you have to worry about everybody else on the road, you'd go insane. When you're in
the car, you don't even think about it. You just do you you're playing with your radio, listening to music, and you just know where you're driving. You don't even think about it. You just subconsciously do it. And that's what I do when I'm in the ring. I'm driving
my own vehicle. You know, these other people that want to do a business or want to be a successful athlete, they're trying to compare with everybody else and trying to trying to get somewhere in one year instead of taking the right time and doing it over five years, and you know, people want to be successful overnight and that's just not the case.
You know, it took me.
Thirty years to be thirty. It's taken me fifteen years to get where I'm at now. I didn't wake up and you know I'm this number two in the world and I won in Australia, you know, and great things take time. And you know the keys are just focused on yourself, No, just drive your own cool.
I love that. So you said before you know this this mindset towards the training and the believing, which to a point, I absolutely agree with that. I think, you know, we are born with a certain mindset, but I also have seen a lot of people shift their mindset or their attitude. And I know you've probably got it very naturally instilled in you by the sounds of things. But how much do you do from a mental perspective?
It's all mental. The one tells the body what to do. As soon as the mind goes the body, everything else follows. And for me, early in my career, I was like, nah, nah, nah. I thought it was weaker and to see a sports psychologist and I didn't believe in it. I was like, how can this guy tell me to do this and that, and all of a sudden it works. But then I hung up the phone call and ended the zoom, and then I started actually trying it. He goes, when you're
in the shower, you know, like feel the water. What does it feel like when I'm driving? He's like, you know, feel the steering wheel. When you're at a plaza, Like you know, when you're at a plazi sitting down and you can hear every I'm talking, He goes, try to just focus on one conversation.
See if you can hear one conversation.
So when I'm out in the plaza or when I'm sitting down eating stuff, like for that five minutes, I'll do it, and you start mentally getting stronger. And then when you can hear things, you can also block things out. And that's what like fear, self doubt and all this stuff that plays in your head before moments before you have a big tournament or a big open day or something. You know, I just flick that Switech and just say, all right, this is where I'm at.
Now.
I'm putting on my gloves. I feel the inside of the silk and side the gloves, and you know, I can feel the water in the back of my throat.
And when you're.
Doing this, you're not thinking about fear, You're not thinking about self doubt, You're not thinking about how I'm going to lose. You know, you're just going through the motions and just being present. Because you start thinking, you know, half an hour before you go that you start thinking about round six. You might get knocked down in the first Roundhile you think about round six, you know, you're
giving yourself anxiety. And I tell that to everybody. If you think about a meeting next week, you start planning in your head, whatever do our stuff up? Whatever did this that?
You know? Donart giving yourself anxiety. The key is being present.
And it was so hard to to get into that mindset of just being where we are right now, which is so hard for me and the things that I have to do. I have to literally train myself to get in that rhythm. And now when I fight, I do I take that in the ring, you know, like I feel the inside of my gloves while they're announcing me, and I'm not even caring about what's going on.
I'm feeling inside of my gloves and telling them.
I was like Oh yeah, that feels nice, And that's how I become present and it's huge.
It's it's the it's the key to being great. That's the difference between good and great is the.
Mindset, and people that want to do something great, it's start doing it as of they hear this podcast moving forward because it is a huge game changer.
It sounds so simple, but what a underrated skill in today's world of bombarded with information. And you know, even you often see people lose the fight before the fight has even started. They're nowhere, it's.
Tell on their face and they're warm up.
They're like, I'll be in the ring and if I lose focus, I'll look at the sweat dripping off his chest and I'm just watching that drip, or you know, I'll see something on his face and I'll just stare at that and just really focus on that, and then you become present again.
Yeah, so you've got a way to recalibrate it because.
You can't always stay switch off for thirty six minutes. It's hard.
So what about what about pushing through the pain from a physical perspective. So this is kind of this undeniable connection between the mental and the physical because you know, you and I could be training together and we're hurting just as much, but you can keep going round after round, And I'm like, I can't. It hurts too much. I got to stop, but I can't push through and you just keep going. Like how how much of that is
you were born with? You think? And how much of that has been trained into you?
Yeah?
Look, I think you gotta have it in you as well, like I've always had it in emitted, Like let's just keep pushing. I just tell myself pain is temporary, Like why quit when you're mid mid rounds?
You're already in pain?
Like get a reward out of it, you know, I mean, don't just stop now, you tell you. So, if I've got two options, the easy way will always be there. It sounds cringy and stuff, but literally, in anything in life, you'll always have two options, you know, the easy way or the option the hard way. For me, if you're twenty minutes into a workout, you can quit. You could have quitted ten minutes ago, but you've pushed to twenty minutes, so why not push the thirty minutes?
You know what I mean?
And I just always tell myself one more one more, one more, and I'll always want to be the first in, last out. But that's just my mindset. Your biggest critic needs to be yourself. You know, My biggest opponent is myself when I look in the mirror, and that's what you should be. You should always be competing with yourself and nobody else. You know, people, Oh he's faster and I'm training with this guy, how come he can last longer?
And I say, just focus on you. Just do what you got to do.
Don'try about how big his muscles are, and don't worry about how fit his tank is. You keep working on you, just move forward and eventually you'll get to where you want to get.
So, do you like training with other people in a gym camp? Or you're actually like, I mean, you've obviously got to have someone holding the pads to spar with and all that kind of stuff, But do you just prefer it to be about you?
It's weird, man, because I can walk into a gym with fifty people and there's no one in there. Right, My mind said, is I just it's just me man? I only exist to me in the boxing ring, you know, Like so.
But you can be sparring with someone and they're they're almost faceless to you.
Correct, Yeah, it's literally, yeah, just there's no one in there, and I control my breathing.
And yeah.
You have your days where you feel pretty crappy and you didn't enough sleep, or you know, the night before you had a bit of junk food or whatever it may be. So the body is not feelings as up for it as your mind might. But for me, I just block everything out and I just yeah, Like I walk into the gym and there's fifty people, but it's only me in there.
So you've obviously been training and thinking about this moment. What dates you fight?
So it's late November, early December, waiting for fight can fight to happen on the seventeenth of September, which basically they vacate that title and then me and Folcal have been ordered to fight for the ibfl's idol.
Obviously, this has been the moment that you've been waiting for. If you win this well or when you win this world title, is that success to you? Is that? Because that's what you've been saying since you were seven years old? Will you be?
Do you?
Do?
You take time to stop and smell the roses or I mean you said always pushing forward, always pushing forward? Does that never end?
Never?
Man?
And look, it's been hard mentally, and you know I was in I've been in some dark places before because my whole life has just been boxing.
I've never had a holiday. I've never had a day whoa whoa whoa never never never, You've never.
Had a holiday never? Oh my god.
You know when we when I go away to like day trips, you know, like that recently we went up just to locally Lawn just to get away, and I was in the gym just you know, twenty four hours. I ran twenty five kilometers. You know, I just I can't stop right, you know, And I just had.
A day off.
What are your attitude? Is what? That's what retirement's for.
I just I don't believe in days off and I don't believe in holidays. I feel like I'm not where I want to be yet. These people are like, oh, it's I'm tired. I need a holiday.
It's like, are you where you want to be in life?
Sure?
And it's nothing bad, you know, people just aren't there yet and they're like, oh I'm not.
I'm like so why are you rewarding yourself with the holiday?
What about burnout and recovery? And like, do people say to your bab sho over doing it?
Yeah, they say, look, you overtrained sometimes, and I just I believe a lot in lighter sessions, but I don't believe in days off.
I won't go, you know, full.
Throttle every single day, sure, but I will never take a day off. And you know, going back to the question where you were saying, you know, like have I reached my goal? And am I successful? For me, it was never about the money. It was always about that world title. Once I win that world title wor world champion, my book is complete. Now that chapter, I could close
that chapter and open a new one onto something else. Saul, I've reached that goal, but I don't think I can walk away from the spot without a few total defenses.
And so again relating this back to our listeners, this is a man who believed it at seven and has actually been working towards And the reason I bring it up is a lot of people going, oh, an eight week challenge, it's so long.
That's what they do wrong. See, Like a lot of people, even people that listen to this. You know, you run a camp, the first thing they say is an eight week camp.
Think about week one.
That's you know, if someone's it's out or mentally and strong. If I say, hey, Sam, today we're doing a twenty k round, You're like, what a twenty k run?
Yeah? Game over?
That's its lost.
Yeah.
If you said we're doing twenty cal, them like, yeah, sweet.
That's cool. One to get it done. Yeah, let's do.
Forty you know what I mean. That's when people say were only doing six rounds today, and people are like, yes, yeah, right for me, I'm like only six rounds? Yeah, I want your ten rounds today.
Man.
That that's the difference.
And people always again worry about week eight, What about the seven before it?
You know what I mean?
Like set yourself a weekly challenge, set yourself a day challenge. You get through day one, then day two, I love it, you know what I mean?
Day by day.
So you were scheduled to fight Tim Zu earlier this year, yeah yeah, and then COVID and a bunch of things happened and the fight didn't go. Yeah, so you got a bit of backlash.
About a huge backlash over that. I went through a really dark place.
Say, did it get to you or is it water products? Back right?
No, Look, you know I was getting death threats.
I was getting so much hate and for being the king for not to go ahead with the It wasn't even me and that was the thing, and people read the media.
It wasn't even from COVID.
It was just you know, the contracts will promised, A, B and C and certain things weren't delivered.
And there's a lot of politics for there's a whole lot of games and politics.
And huge and that was because it's the biggest fight in Australian boxing Zarafavizu still to this day, and it will happen. It was out of my control and I copped all the all the heat. But now it's made for a bigger fight. Everything's happened for a reason. And you know, I truly believe with his last name, that's the only reason why he's where he is.
You know, imagine my dad was Mike Tyson.
You know, like credit to him and he's seen they're doing great things and the fight needs to happen. But you know, there was days here I didn't even want to get up. I didn't know what to do, but I kept training.
You never let that beat you. Yeah, I don't know. I mean as a weakness. I just mean you never let it interfere with your training or not not really training at your OPTIMUMY.
I just walked in the gym and just put a smile on my face and just pretend like everything was all good.
But you did say it's your happy places. It's you say it is.
You know I felt good walking in there.
You know, I was like, even to this day, you know I will get a bad phone call, I'll get something, I gotta go a train man, like this is what I need to do. You know, it's my place to just it's all I know. It's all I've done my whole life. You know I've I didn't really do anything else. I haven't done anything else. I haven't experienced life. You know,
all I've done is box. But you know, like after beating Jeff Horn and being the king of Australian boxing and you know, walking out of my front door and everyone being on the news and Herald's son and being all over the media and getting nothing but you know, good reviews, to then waking up one morning getting death threats and something that was out of my control. You know I had I had no say it was out of my control. But you're just gonna tell yourself, you know,
you get the last laugh no matter what. You know, a tough time doesn't last. A bad day can only last for twenty four hours. And I tell myself that I wake up, it's a ship day.
Twenty four hours.
Mix's organ last. Tomorrow is another day. You wake up, it's another shit day. No, it's not twenty four hours.
I just I just loved the determination in your voice. You know, I just sort of finished for saying you can tell you know it's a game of basketball, it's a match of tennis, and it's a boxing fight for a reason, it's a fight, and you you have fight in the ring. You also can tell by listening to you have fight outside of the ring. And I think I think that's the power that our listeners will get out today. They may know who you are. They may not know who you are because they may not be
boxing fans. And if they don't know who you are now, I'm sure they know who you are in a few months time. But just what you can take out of an elite athlete in such a physically demanding and mentally demanding sport. I just think is really inspiring and really motivating for our listeners. And thanks so much for coming on a good lights and you'd luck in late November, early December, we'll be watching.
Thanks so much, can't wait. Appreciate it.
So I really didn't know what to expect before interviewing Michael, but what a what a great guy. I think the thing that dawned on me while I was chatting to him is how often do we tell ourselves we can't and when it's put in perspective When you hear about what he's doing on a daily basis, whether it's through the physical or a mental perspective, getting in the ring, someone wants to smash your head off, whatever it is,
it just puts things in perspective. And I think we always make our own situation bigger and harder and worse than perhaps it really is. And I just know when I do my next workout, which will be tomorrow morning, I'll be thinking to myself, don't be such a silk, get it done, And it's really not as tough as you're telling yourself it is. Next up, we're going to change things up a little bit Spring has sprung and
it's time to get ourselves moving. So normally, after our incredible guests, we answer some questions from our wonderful wood Life listeners, but I'm going to keep you on on hold for a week as we've just hit spring. I think it's a really really well not I think. I know, it's a really really powerful time of year. And my gym is busiest in September October than it would be in any other month with new people coming through the doors. My twenty eight program gets flooded with people going, oh
my god, I've got to get myself into shape. And there's a number of reasons for it. There's the first of all, I think we all tend to go backwards a bit in winter. We tend to hibernate a little bit, either literally or metaphorically, have we and to put it, we stay inside, We don't exercise out doors as much. We tend to eat heavier foods. In a nutshell, we
definitely tend to move less, eat more. Now, it's not everybody, but I think across across the masses, that would be the trend that most of us would be either experiencing for ourselves or seeing in others. So spring comes along, and there's something really powerful about it. The sun comes out, the weather gets warmer, the days get longer. We start to eat different foods, you know, lighter salads and lots of fresh fruit and all of this kind of stuff,
and it's a really really powerful thing. I was thinking to say, what are my best three tips about getting yourself into shape in spring? And the first is harness that motivation. Actually use it to your advantage. Don't let the window shut, don't let the moment pass, don't fob it off that it's just another month, because it's actually not. There's something really powerful about September and really powerful about
the first month of spring. So actually harness that, leverage it, use it as a catapult to kick start your health routine. So the second tip is make the most of the longer days. It sounds so simple, but it's almost like you get extra hours in your day when spring comes along all of a sudden. If you're not a morning person, the sun streams through the bedroom window half an hour earlier,
up to an hour earlier. Use that time to your advantage, whether it's waking up earlier through that sunlight and doing a workout inside or getting up, going to the gym, or getting out for a walk. I absolutely encourage you to get extra incidental exercise in at this time of year. Get out in the sun, get the fresh air, get the vitamin D, and whether it's at the start of the day or the end of the day, use those extra hours. And the third tip is eat seasonal produce.
The food at this time of year, in my opinion, just gets better. It's easier to cook on the barbecue, put a salad with it, eat fresh fruit, eat fresh produce, get to the markets. It's a really really motivating time of year when it comes to food inspiration. So again, harness that, embrace that and make September the kickstart to you getting in better shape. So just to wrap up, get yourself back in shape in spring by harnessing this
magic seasonal motivational window that we're all gifted with. Secondly, exercising more by taking advantage of the longer days, more sunlight, whether it's with incidental activity or just getting your workouts in earlier or getting your workouts in later, but getting your workouts in more often. And thirdly, embrace that delicious seasonal produce. Now. I know I answer my own question, David. As always, please please please send me in your questions,
send them into the woodlife inbox. I love hearing them, I love answering them, and there's a link in the bio where you can do that. I'll be back Monday, of course for another motivational moment, and have a great week and get yourself moving