The Gro Diaries Podcast

Episode 7: Ben Mahoney - The pro boxer talks Aussie boxers, Jake Paul, mental health, training and his personal hair loss journey.

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Up and coming Gold Coast based professional boxer, Ben Mahoney, joined us for a good old chin wag about boxing, training, mental health, hair loss and much more.
Benny is currently 13-0, #2 rank in his weight division in Australia (only behind to Tim Tszyu) and is chasing a well deserved world title fight.
We're a proud supporter of Benny and we were delighted when he came to us for help with his hair loss. Not just to be able to help him personally but also because it he has used his platform to open up the conversation between his friends and his followers. Normalising the conversation around hair loss and helping to remove the stigma.
We also talk about the highs and lows of life and coming back from the lows.
Jump on this knockout out of an episode with this legend and let us know what you think.

Follow Benny @bennymahoneyboxing

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Introduction to Ben Mahoney

Hello everybody and welcome to the Gro Diary podcast where we will take you on a journey breaking down stigmas, myths and misconceptions of all things hair loss. We'll have some discussions with people in the industry as well as clients and we'll share their experiences and journeys of hair loss, leading you to the ultimate destination of hair regrowth. Hi everybody and welcome to the Gro Diaries podcast it's Andy Spratt here and here as always with

Marc Kinvig and we're joined by a special guest today, Benny! Benny Mahoney. How are we? How are we brother? I'm good - I'm very good. 

I've known Benny for a long time, coffee drinker, seasoned professional. What do you do Benny? Tell

the world a little bit about who you are. What do I do? I am a professional boxer from the Gold Coast. I'm an ex-professional Thai boxer now. I did that for about 10 years professionally, traveled around the world, got to a high point there and then did the crossover about four years ago and chasing a world title in this profession. It's kind of all I get up to. I drink coffee, I train, much of muchness.

Your haircut looks good. Yeah, thank you. Tell me, I mean, the last few years have been a bit hectic for probably a lot of people in your industry, you know, with COVID first and stuff like that. How has it been for you yourself? How have you found sort of dealing with what's been going on?

Overcoming Challenges from COVID Lockdowns

I feel like everyone was kind of in the same boat. So it wasn't too bad originally. When the COVID originally hit, it was like everything was shut down. And that was, you know, as far as our state, we had it pretty good compared to a lot, you know, you look at Melbourne and whatnot how hectic it was down that way But yeah, there was no fights. It was hard to train the gyms were shut But just kind of did what I could do still ran suited road running had the old like backyard jail workouts Rocky Rocky's yeah, yeah, and rusty weights in the rain And then yeah just kind of kept on keeping on and did what I could until the world opened back up again. And, yeah, since it's opened back up, it's still been kind of slow, obviously, with promoters and whatnot amongst it, trying to get on certain cards and roadblocks and whatnot. But it's good to be moving again, and it's good to have the world send me back to normal.

Yeah. Do you think you're at a disadvantage being somewhere like the Gold Coast? Do you think that it matters where you are when you're trying to achieve your dreams?

Like yeah, I definitely think if you were in America and you were born and raised around specific people, certain gyms or you had a certain team, it definitely does help along the road. But I'm a big believer if you put your mind to it and you put a lot of work into it, you can make anything happen. I don't think that your environment limits you. I think that you limit yourself. You see some guys that are world champions in any sport or in anything or successful businessmen have come from nothing. A lot of them have come from nothing and that's what's given them the drive to get to the top, you know what I mean, not be complacent. The Gold Coast is awesome. It's beautiful. I think, biased, best place in the world.

I'm going to say it.

I agree.

Clear shade. You know, everything here is amazing. It's fit, it's healthy, the weather's great, great people. So yeah, I feel blessed to be here.

Career Roadblocks

Yeah, I think that roadblocks are those things that if you choose to smash through them, they're definitely the things that end up defining how successful you are more than anything else. I think the people who fret about why they come up, they're the ones that get lost, right? You're someone who definitely has his eyes on the prize and you know where you want to get to and I think it's awesome to see hopefully 2023 is the year that you absolutely kill it. And then like with Australia and you know Marc mentioning there about do you think being on the Gold Coast is a disadvantage Australian boxers in fact like there's a lot coming through now more than what I can remember and there's a lot getting big fights now and things like that. Do you think that's only beneficial, only going to be beneficial to you and going forward? Obviously Matt Turner and Eddie Hearn coming over here and doing a fight recently and everything going forward, do you think you'll benefit from this kind

of era of fighters in Australia? Yeah, yeah, 100%. I think like, rewind a few years when Geoff Horn won that world title here in that controversial fight against Mini Pak. Yeah, that was huge. When he won that world title, it kind of like opened up the floodgates to, yo, Australians can box, Australians can do it, and, you know, it doesn't matter about how talented you are, the hardest worker in the room will get it kind of thing. And we've had so many champions. We had George Cambosis come through and win all the belts. We got Liam Parrow, who's looking at a mandatory. We got Eberny Bridges, who's a world champion. You got Tim Tszyu, who's looking to unify. You got just names on names on names you got promoters coming here like Eddie Hearn as you said Australia's starting to be well and truly on the map we're starting to have multiple world champions, mandatories. I think that's with fighters across the board right not just boxing like you look at UFC and how many you know trans-tasman fighters there are and they're just killing it. Yeah it's such a good job. Volks, pound for pound, best in the world, man. Crazy, crazy. So yeah, I think it's in a really good, healthy place. I think, you know, COVID was a massive rattle, but it's bounced back well and truly. Would you take a UFC fight? Yeah, I'd do it. If they said, look, we need you in Perth, I would say, can you get me a strike? I know no one that's going to tackle me. I'll do stand up and I would have a kickboxing fight on that for sure.

Yeah.

For sure.

Maybe that's where you're going to go, get Jake Paul and an octagon or something.

Oh man, I'd do anything.

Yeah.

What do you think about him?

Is Boxing Scripted?

I, like, there's a lot of people with mixed opinions and they're like, oh, the YouTubers and they're making more money and whatever, it's bad on the sport. I don't necessarily think, I think at the end of the day, if he main events a card, regardless of if he's great or if he's not, he had millions of followers and was making millions before he came to boxing. So of course, when he comes over, he's going to bring his platform and he's going to make more on pay-per-views and all that kind of stuff. I think that if you can get him as a main event and you put three or four really good elite boxers before him, people are going to tune in an hour prior to make sure they don't miss it. They're going to see these ridiculous fights. If you can keep 200,000 of a million viewers as fans because of those fights, boxing wins. The fighters win. The money wins. You know what I mean? I think it's great what they're doing. And Jake is promoting athletes to sign as well, and he's paying them well. He's looking after them. He's a menace, but I love it. I rate it. Do you think that professional boxers would happily go and be an undercard for someone like Jake Paul?

Like elite athletes go and put their belts on the line as an undercard to Jake Paul?

I think that the ego and the pride side of it bites there. Of course there would be that sense of, I shouldn't be on this undercard. But if you look at the pros of, all right, I'm making way more money, I've got way more exposure, I've got a big fight that's being covered, why not? Like, when you first started you weren't fighting on main events, and what someone like Jake Paul, that can give you that exposure, goes oh fight on my undercard, and you go, nah. I don't want millions, I don't want exposure, I don't want to do it because whatever reason. Right, right, true speaking. Exactly. So nah, I mean, I get there's a sense of it, but for me, I wouldn't care. I still think, like looking

at his fights, they're kind of like good contests still.

It's not like some of the, it's not like Paul Gallen and you know, Benny, like it's you know. I've been saying this though, like you look, go find me a fighter, any boxer in the world right now who's at 5-0 or whatever, that have fought, like I know they're not boxers and I know whatever, but go find me a guy with five fights that have fought the level of competition he's fought. Yes, I know Ben Askren, I do not rate him at all as a striker, but you look at guys like Torin Woodley, Anderson Silva, those guys would still belt 80% of the guys, 90% of the guys in the world with five fights. 100%. Everyone's like, oh, he's fighting MMA fighters. Yeah, but you at 5-0 wouldn't have beaten those guys. And in a street fight, you would have picked the MMA fighter every day of the week. 100% I mean I think he's well and truly At a good level for where he is in his career probably above and I think that just because he's not fighting Specific boxers mate look at half of the records that are built, but they're fighting no one's anyway You know I mean I'm I'm team Paul. I rate him. Yeah, he's great. I must admit

the whole kind of Circus that was around him was kind of growing on me a little bit from, I guess like you said, from the point of promoting boxing and any publicity is good publicity, right? Yeah, I mean you're a little bit younger than I am, but there's something like really 90s about the way he markets that I just love, right? He's kind of like a 90s WWF wrestler, right? Just going about his business, like shaking stuff up and you think you know you couldn't script it much better than the way he's doing it, and I know that's what I love about it. It's entertainment You can tell you you can tell you night is eighties kid because he's just called it WWF

Yeah, I mean that got your hat thing like I'm pretty sure within like Five minutes of him doing that there was merch released. I'm like so I'm pretty sure that was all pre-planned like yeah someone to buy dance for me father

I have found out that wrestling wasn't

Now but you're probably right. It's probably all planned. I mean like for him to release x amount of hats and shirts and merch I've got your hat Instantly after that and make bank off that like he's just so Smart and ahead of everything I'd like you can't like even though he's a menace and some stuff is questionable you can't knock what he's doing you can't you just cannot you can't hate on it Yeah, if you do That's a self problem because he's killing it

Do you think that some of it comes from then that people not knowing what's real and what's not? Because of what we just talked about right if he can get merch out like that and maybe that bit scripted then is the fight Scripted or you know I think that that's where the biggest questions in people's mind comes from is that when they're not sure if something's legit

Or not and this is a thing and it's hard because when you don't Know what a punch feels like and you haven't been in there And you haven't seen the way the body mechanics react when you get hit like people go that Torin would be knockout was fake He hit him at a hundred miles per hour There was spray across the room, and he pin dived I like you can't you can't fake it like that. You know what I mean? I'm sure in a movie you could but There's a lot of questionable knockouts in in history and people go It's it's fake unless like even from for me the picture if someone said to me I'll pay you $500,000 take a dive tomorrow. I wouldn't do it unless they were like we're gonna give you Ten million dollars and you never have to fight again or whatever like even then I I don't think my pride or ego could ever do that. And especially guys that are on the verge of a world title and their whole career relies on them being winning or being at the top. A guy like Tyrone Woodley, especially being a former UFC world champion, he's not going to go and take a dive.

No.

And they don't want to get beat by... No.

They don't want to... And you know, for anyone out there, me and Andy have both taken punches from Benny and I stood up to it but Andy folded like a book.

I did hit him a little bit. He was the photographer. You got him good.

So why are we associated? I think that that's an important question for people to know is that you're obviously here on the Gro podcast. What's going on with you? What does that look like?

Ben Mahoney Talks About Receding Hairlines

Nothing man. Nah, look, you know, from about 20 odd years old, maybe a little bit younger, I'd notice like my hairline going back a little bit. I actually had a mate at the gym and we were like really sweaty after a session and we were in the mirror and his hair was slicked back and I was like, yeah, I think you're receding and he's like, oh, yours is worse than mine and we laughed and I was like no no no and I went up to the mirror and I slicked my hair back and I was like oh my god it is worse kind of thing and then I think from that day I came a little bit like self-conscious from it and I was going god I'm receding and as the years have gone up it's just kind of gotten worse and worse and worse and obviously we've got in touch we've known each other for a long time and we started to work together and obviously we started the medications, you know, the Finasteride and whatnot, and to try and obviously promote the hair that I do have and eliminate the fact of losing more. And, you know, because whether it's running down in Burleigh Beach with the wind blowing your hair, I've always got a cap on, swimming, you know what I mean, when your hair's six packets, it's always like flossing forward, a strong wind, you know what I mean? Like, so it's just, again, it's just become more and more noticeable to me. And a lot of my mates at my age, mid to late 20s, you never really thought about it until you notice it. And then a lot of guys are going through the same thing. I would just say a good 60, 70% of my mates all kind of have high hairlines. And since I've been speaking to them about it, a lot of other friends have noticed as well. So yeah, obviously down the track, I'd love to get a hair transplant to neaten up the front of my hairline and obviously get it out there that the stigma towards this isn't or it shouldn't be to be insecure or worried about it, it should be a normalised thing because it happens to everyone. You know what I mean? There's a big percentage of the males, especially young men, that it happens to.

How Easy Is It For Men to Discuss Mental Health?

Are all your mates and your group of friends, do they openly talk about it now, I guess more than you may used to have? And what's that conversation like with them? Is there still that, like everyone else, there's still a bit of banter that goes around, but is it a bit more serious now and a bit more kind of, we've got the mental health issues that also come along with guys sometimes losing their hair. Do you think that's helped your friendships with your group of friends?

Definitely, definitely. Honestly, since it started, there was a lot of banter. It was always like a laugh point, kind of like have a joke with your friends and kind of thing. But like obviously, since we've started working together, it's become quite a serious thing for me and it's become more than just a joke. It's like, alright, this is a serious thing upon young men. I've spoken to a lot of my mates and I've got four, five, six mates that want to get one as well since I've been speaking to them about it. We always laugh and we're like, we want that Drake hairline, we want that fade straight across. It's become a really normalised thing and I think there's a lot of guys, I've had a lot of guys reach out and message me throughout the times I've been putting up posts and stories and stuff like that, that have said that they didn't even realise I had a high hairline obviously because I fluff it forward and grow it out, kind of got the bowl cut rocking at the moment. And I'll send them photos, I'll just stick it back and I'll send them to them and I'll say, man, it's so sweet, it's so normal, it's not bad to jump on the medication, it's not bad to want to fix it, it's not bad to want to talk about it either. Do you enjoy that? Do you enjoy the people messaging you and you being able to help them? Massively, massively. Because unless you didn't know, you don't know unless you talk about it. There's so many people that just sit there and they kind of grow their hair out or they just don't mention it and then they just let it go and let it go and you get to a certain age and it gets to a certain point where it's kind of unfixable I guess. Yeah, there's no coming back. Yeah, yeah and I think that while you're young and whatnot it's not going to hurt to jump on top of it and what Matty said the other day on his post he's like if you got you know a rotten tooth or you got a feeling and you need to get your teeth fixed you just get it fixed. It's not, no one laughs at that, no one is too sad about that. It's just you do something that you want to do for your health and for your mental health and for your image and whatnot. So it's no difference to the hair as well.

Talking Openly About Hair Loss

Yeah, it's amazing I think that, you know, touching on what you said there is that once you outwardly say that hair loss is something I want to deal with, you've kind of become like an ambassador for hair loss. You kind of feel like you have a responsibility to help people. Do you find that you're that way inclined for all things that come across like your mental health space in life? Like for me, I think we've talked about it before, but like I probably didn't think that way until I went through what I went through with having premature kids and my whole kind of mindset around mental health changed massively. For you, is that something you've always been conscious of or is there things that have

kind of happened along the way that make you kind of more aware of it? Just in life in general, really. Obviously, everyone's gone through their hard times. No one else's is worse than the others inside their own head. When I was growing up, I had a lot of dramas, hard times, and I think that as you get through things and you keep charging, you just learn little lessons along life that helps everything tie together down the track. A hundred percent, whether it's I've got mates that are going through anything that I can relate to. I feel like I'm a walking tape player, like a motivational speech sometimes. I feel like I'm a broken record. But yeah, I do think it's important because no one would learn anything, no one would get through anything and you wouldn't be able to help other people that have mental health issues if you weren't in a good place and you hadn't been through that as well. So yeah, I definitely think, especially with the hair loss stuff as well, anyone that I've spoken to about it or enquires, just make them feel normal. Have a chat with them, make them feel like other people are going through it because they do. You know what I mean? Yeah.

The Role of Hair Growth & Self-Confidence

Yeah. And obviously in your profession in boxing, self-confidence and belief in yourself is number one. You've got to believe that you're going to go and beat that person in the ring. So do you think that plays a massive part in, obviously you're a guy that looks after yourself and takes pride in their appearance and that kind of thing. Do you think that plays a part in the

hair loss, on your hair loss as well?

Yeah, 100%. I mean, some people don't mind, some people do, but for myself, it's all about, not all about, there's a big thing about the image. When you go out, you want to look crisp. I make sure I want to tick all the boxes, even with physique, with competing. I don't want to go in there looking sloppy. I want to make sure that I'm eating the best I can, I'm training the best I can, my head space is the best I can. I can do absolutely everything to give myself the best edge I can in this. Like we said before, when I get sweaty and my hair gets wet and it's thick, sometimes obviously the high arches kind of come out. I want to go to the US. I fight on television and whatnot. Of course, I want to have a clean hairline. I've always wanted a buzz cut. I've always wanted one of those fade up high with a little bit of a marine kind of style haircut and I've never been able to do it. You know what I mean? To be able to go to America or to be able to go and fight on televised shows and to feel comfortable and confident with the way I look and my whole image is one, I guess, while I'm competing, I think that's a massive thing, yeah, for sure. Do you think it matters to anyone else other than you? I think individual, not really. I think at the end of the day, this is all what you want to do. I don't have a big thing about, I don't really, it sounds rude to say, but I don't really care about what people think of me. Yeah. As long as I'm doing the right thing and I'm helping people, I'm not pulling anyone down and being a bad person in a sense, but for me, to have that would make me feel comfortable, would make me feel good. I don't think anyone else would care. Not many people even really know because of the hair I've got, you know what I mean? So I think everyone should be able to do what they want to do, whether it's hair, whether it's teeth, whether it's tattoos, whether it's, you know what I mean? Let bygones be bygones.

Yeah, at the end of the day, those little one percents that you look after, that you take care of, there's nobody else that's going to do that for you in the ring. It's not like a team sport. If I rock up and play a football game, if I'm not feeling fit, if I can slack off a bit because someone else might cover me, you do that in the ring and you get knocked out.

So you've got to like, you can't rely on anybody else, can you? No, 100%. It's the small little things that just make you feel whole. It's like saying you should exercise daily, you should eat healthy, you should get sunlight. It's all these things that make you feel good and at the end of the day, you only have you to help. And I think that whether, like I said before, it doesn't matter what it is, as long as it makes you happy and you want that for yourself, go for it.

Being The Best Version of Yourself In The Business World

But a huge amount of what you do as well is like the boxing at the end of it is a small part of all the lead up. You know, when you get to that sort of elite level, so much of it is interviews and advertising. You see yourself on a billboard, right? You want to see the best version of yourself on that billboard or on that big card on the TV, right? We experience it a lot, like the amount of people that have come to us post-COVID that have spent, like who spent two or three years looking at themselves, you know, in a Zoom chat, right? They never spent that much time physically looking at themselves and people would tell us, like, oh, you know, I had to hide myself. Like I'd tape the corner of my computer so I couldn't see myself when I was in those conversations because they just got tired of like looking at looking at themselves. So it is important to

The Importance of Having A Game Plan

people. 100% it's self-confidence and if you don't have self-confidence whether it be in your job or whether it be in your relationship whether it be in your fitness goals it's going to be a fast track to darker times and it's not going to help you know what I mean. Make your bed in the morning, wash your clothes, keep your house clean. You sound like my wife. Yeah, but all that stuff adds up, you know what I mean? Like, all of it adds up. Yeah, it does, it does. So, you know, you're talking about how, I guess, you're an ambassador now, you like to help people. What are your, who helps you, what does that look like? When Benny's not at his best, what is it that brings you back up? Just as far as training or just life in general? Oh, just life in general, because obviously there are those little things, you know, if you're there to support other people and and for them to lean on you that in itself you know becomes a not a burden, but yeah Oh, I'll get you you know you got to fill up your cup every now and again Yeah, you're always poor and you can never you can never get that replenish, and I get that Look, I I love what I do. I enjoy training. I enjoy Music I enjoy the sunshine. I enjoy quality time with family and friends and my partner, and I just soak that up outside, you know what I mean? I think it's definitely important to have good people around you, such as you guys, such as all my sponsors, such as all my friends and family. I think if you're ever struggling, it's important to reach out regardless of any thought, anything that's going on, nothing's too much, and you know what I mean? People do want to hear and people do want to help the ones that matter and the ones that do care. So, you know what I mean, if I'm ever feeling like, about, oh god, two or three months ago when I had a lot of stuff going on through the fight world, I felt like I couldn't have a fight, I wasn't having money, there was heaps going on and I was so strung out, like I can't even express how strung out I was. And I had a day where I got home from the States and I just went into the room and I just sooked. Like, I'm talking, had a tear, had a bit of a meltdown, had a bit of a reset. And then my partner was there for that, which was amazing, can't thank her enough. And the next day I kind of woke up and went, all right, I've kind of processed it, I felt it, how do we move forward? And I didn't sit in what the drama was, because if you just sit there, nothing's ever going to get better. So I kind of just made a bit of a roadmap, made a game plan, wrote it all down and got myself back to the gym the next day and just kept on carrying on. There's no point in stopping and letting everything swarm. You just keep on putting one foot in front of the other and everything is actually, within two or three months, everything's just down to 180. The world's opened up for myself in that aspect. There's a lot of politics I was stuck in that I'm now out of. We've got some opportunities overseas next year. I've had some great connections later in the end half of the year too and I just had another fight last weekend so my coach and Nick Atkins from Affliction, they ended up getting something put together for me when nothing else was happening and got another tick over and so yeah it's all moving forward but I think the biggest thing is just to not stop. I think when times get hard, don't, it's okay to feel it, it's okay to process it. You need a day, have a day, you know what I mean? Talk to your loved ones, do what you need to do, but process, game plan and move forward. Keep moving.

Filtering Out The Social Media Noise

Yeah, because you've got to also ignore a lot of outside noise too, right? When you're in your kind of position and people are commenting and giving their opinion based on I guess the little window that they're looking through and not the big picture Yeah, I think that that's something that most people don't have to deal with in their life, right? Yeah, I make a decision. I don't have 18,000 people or something or having an opinion on it, you know

I didn't see that side to like People will see me doing whatever and I don't have a massive following compared to Couldn't imagine some of those guys are the top top level with millions of people and message them daily.

They just don't answer it, do they?

Yeah, 100%. They just turn it off. I've turned off my message requests. I'll leave the comments up and stuff, but you look on some of the Australian boxing pages because that last fight that I had, I actually got a bit of flack from because it was the only thing I could get because of the politics that I was stuck in at the time. We got a guy that still has a positive record, so it wasn't like I was fighting someone that never had a fight. And we ticked over and you go on the Australian boxing websites and, mate, people are just rinsing me. Rinsing me. They say, ah, he's fighting bums. He's doing this. He's doing this. He should be doing... Like, the amount of gnarly stuff they're saying, but again, I've said this before, you can't feed that. You can't read into it. And at the end of the day, whether it's good or bad, if you rely on people's confidence or you rely on people's hate and negativity, that's just going to consume you. It's kind of what you let in. Like you said, they're looking through a really small window. They don't understand... They've got no idea about... Anything. Oh, mate. Again, maybe I'll do a One Day Tell All or something, but some of the stories I could tell, unbelievable, and people just want to sit on their couch doing absolutely nothing, throwing hate around other people. Don't focus on it. It's not worth even thinking about or reading. After the fight, I went through and had a bit of a look because there was a post. I read a couple, probably read about 15 or 20 of them, and I just went, this is whack. I literally just turned it off and went, oh, well, that's the last time I check that page. Yeah, it's shitty. It's shitty. It's okay, man. I think that the love much outweighs that too. I've got so many friends, so many supporters, so many sponsors, so many people that actually want to see me win. I think that's what you've got to focus on at the end of the day. If you focus on the negativity, more of that will come.

But it's just so hard for people to understand that your destiny is not in your own hands. You're relying on promoters and then other promoters that promote other people and then FIKE, like there's a whole, it's not like, oh you know, I wanted to be, you know, managing director and it didn't happen here so I'm going to go down there and work and get another job or apply for it. You can't just apply for another boxing job, you know, oh I didn't get on that card, I'll just go and apply over there and you know, you're relying on so many people.

Why Ben Mahoney Went To America

So that's it man, but that's kind of why I went to America too, like that's kind of why I was, I was, our game, we're lucky we met people over there really quick and we got looked after really well so we're grateful of that, but like, literally me and my partner went over, no game plan, no idea of any, like didn't know anyone, my game plan I literally said to her is I'm going to walk into the gyms and just ask to spar and fight people until someone shakes my hand. That was literally, and it's hectic over there, it is hectic, like some gyms you walk into and you do not feel welcome kind of thing. So I was just like I'm just going to go in and just fight people because this is what I'm doing and this is what I want to make it in and someone's going to notice me. That's what's going to happen and that's what happens, you know what I mean? There's a lot of aspects of yes you've got to rely on promoters and management and this and that, but if you sit there and you wait for something to come to you, it's not going to come, you have to go out and get it. And I think that's kind of coming off what you said we were just like Sitting around no fights were happening those fights pulling out left right and center I had a really good fight then they moved it and then I had to get my backs flight week when I was cutting so That fight fell through and all this other stuff happened. I'm like let's get on the plane and just go and Was that the fight where you supposed to go to Newcastle was yes? Yeah, so I was supposed to be here, and then they moved the fight three weeks out They messaged me and said well, we're just announcing that the fight's been moved today to Sydney. And I was like, all right, I'll call my coach. So neither of my coaches at the time could come on the short notice because of obviously through COVID, through their jobs and all that kind of stuff, get time off. So the game plan was pretty much, I hadn't had my vaxes, the way the timeframe would have worked, I was going to weigh in Friday night and I would have had to have got my vax on the Wednesday or Thursday. So if I was cutting weight, cutting seven or eight odd kilos, had no adverse reaction, I was in Sydney by myself. I was like, this is a bit too much, I'll just kind of recoup. I wanted the rematch and nothing ever came of it. I wanted that fight to be pushed back and never really got a response from it, so I just kind of left it.

In hindsight, would you have gone?

I mean, I feel like there's so many things that I could and couldn't do. When I was doing Thai boxing, quick story, years and years and years ago, I had a short notice opportunity pop up against a guy called Yod Koon Poon, who was number three in the world at the time in China. They're like, his fight's just pulled out, he needs a replacement, you're on his list, do you want to take it? No one could come for me, none of my coaches back when I was doing Thai boxing. So I had to, I was like, yeah, I'll take it, I'll go by myself, but I would like a corner man. So I called one of my mates, Jamie, who was a fighter, Jamie Stamp, and I said, do you want to come to China with me this week? And he was like, yeah, bro, I'll just ask the lady. And then he calls me back five minutes later and goes, did you say China? And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He goes, all right, I'll call you back. And he goes, yeah, sweet, we're good to go. So we got our flights covered and that, but we went to the embassy, we got our express visas done and all that stuff. We went over there and literally we were sitting in the bus with our opponent behind us and he knocked out like 30 or 40 dudes with his left hook. He was just like a killer. And we're on the bus on the way to the venue and Jamie goes, should we come up with a game plan? And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it. So we started like YouTubing this dude's fights when he was behind us and he goes, ah, just don't get hit with the left hook and you'll be sweet. You'll be so sweet. I was like, done. First round I was in there and I won the first round. I got back to the corner and it was so funny. Jamie goes We're winning He was shocked and we were losing it. We were like giddy-ass. Yes second round I got hit with the left hook And I was like I got through the fight, but I lost on points And again, like that was one of the last fights that kind of made me want to go to boxing because I won't Disclose amounts, but I got paid well They covered the flights and they were good and all that but I got paid terribly and I got my nose Like my septum deviated that still buggered to today Apparently like I didn't drink at all But apparently we went had this after presentation and we did all this stuff and then I don't remember anything After that night, but I don't remember anything until going to the airport the next week the next day like I copped a lot of head noise from that fight and That's I went in the week's notice I went without a team I'd like it was it was silly it was crazy in Muay Thai you fight the best you beat the best you get respect in boxing you lose you're back at the bottom of the barrel and you know they've had a lot of fights that Eddie Hurt and Kava they were offering me they offered me a fight at middleweight and I've done it a lot I did it even earlier in the year but I'm very on the wavelength of I need to start standing on my own two feet and saying, well look, I'm super well to wait. If someone can come down to my weight, I'll do it. But I've got to stop compromising my potential future just to get something, you know what I mean? Again, the States, I just went, look, there's been so many roadblocks, there's been so many things happen. Let's just make a move and just do something.

Did you ever, during that period, did you ever think that you were going to have to move, like move away from Australia, move to the States, move to the UK or somewhere

like that where you might get a bit more of a break. Back in the day doing Thai boxing, I wanted to do kickboxing. I wanted to cross over to K1 and I wanted to move to Amsterdam. That was going to happen. There was a big gym over there with a few big names fought out of and they were fighting on glory. I was like, yep, that's what I'm going to do. Then six months later, I'm like, yep, I'm all in on this, you know what I mean? Like I'm only, yeah, like I'm young now, I'm not going to be young forever and it'll go quick and if I don't do it now, I'm just going to regret it and I know that and I couldn't live with myself knowing that, like I just, I don't give everything I want a go, like I have to give this everything I got because it's what I want to do. You know what I mean? I love this, I'm passionate about it. I've given my whole life to it. Stopping now would just be ridiculous, you know what I mean?

So you mentioned before that you wanted to get out of Thai boxing because it was punishing. Are the blows worse in Thai boxing, much worse?

How Thai Kickboxing Is Different from Boxing

Nah, nah. Nah, same. Honestly, all the Thai boxing community will be like, whatever. But, it's, boxing's way harder man, like way harder. Like harder on your body or? Yeah, I mean Thai boxing hurts more when it comes to like, your ankles get teed up, your shins, your knees, like I've got a floating bone in both of my elbows, like I've just got weird breaks everywhere, like I'm pretty banged up from it. But like, I've had three face surgeries now and I've had more in boxing in 13 fights than I have in 40 Thai fights. You know what I mean? Like, when you look at Muay Thai, you're probably striking about 30 strikes a round. You know what I mean? Like, and some's on the legs, some's knees, some's punches. It's the love spread, you know what I mean? You come to boxing, you're looking between 60 and 100 or 60 and 120 for a high volume puncher around and it's only your torso and head. So the volume of getting hit is a lot more. There's a lot of lighter shot set ups and stuff but you're getting hit a lot more and it's only spread throughout your brain and your organs, you know what I mean? So I feel like the sparring with boxing too, you have wars in the gym, you do that two or three times a week up to fights. I think that the damage on your head is a lot worse. Don't get me wrong, my toes suck too. Like, I was very banged up, but yeah, they're just much of the same, but very different.

I saw, I don't know if it was this weekend, or Tyson Fury, he was talking recently, and he said that he came back, you know, he retired allegedly, and he came back anyway. He said he came back because his mental health was suffering because he wasn't boxing and boxing was the only thing that keeps him going. And you know he spoke previously about wanting to get out before it did too much damage to him and then in his recent interview was talking about how you know he can see why all the greats are completely gone mentally because they just can't stop. Do you think that you'll get to a point where you'll be

able to stop? Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. Now look, honestly, I will always be in the fitness industry. I'll always keep myself... Training keeps my mental state solid. I think that that's so important. I think eating clean, training, regardless of if I was competing competing or not, I would always be doing this. It is a life's soul, whether it's running, weights, calisthenics, however you want to train, whatever you want to do, yeah, it's very important for your mental state and for just your general well-being. I've spoken to Blake, my S&C coach, like I would love, depending on how my body is, if everything works out, post-fighting career, I'd love to do tries or go into Iron Man or something and do top end to push myself in something else. I think that...

Something where you're not getting hit back.

Yes, that would be nice. That would be nice after my whole life of it.

He's a legend. He looks like he had a big impact on you.

The Importance of Setting Goals

Massive, yeah. Yeah, for sure. He's a special human. He's very on the same wavelength too. Oh retiring It's not something that I'm worried about like oh, I've got a goal. I want and I will win a world title I will set my family up and my family's family and I will do what I want to do as a career. You know what I mean. There's no negotiating with myself there, but You know what I mean. I feel like when you people start losing Tyson Fury. He's winning. He's not losing fights Yeah, bashing people and making statements of course. It's easy to stay fighting. I'm not easy, but of course he's staying at the top. Say if you go and you get knocked out and you come back and then you lose again and you maybe have a win against a lower scalp and you have another one and you get knocked out, there's a point where you've got to draw the line and say, this isn't worth my health. People die in this sport. People get seriously hurt and injured. I want to have kids with my partner. I want to raise them. I want to be switched on. I want to get into business and live my life after this. All of my life and goals is into this. Like I said, I'm all in but once I do that and hit my goal, there's more. There'll be another goal.

Yeah, there'll be another goal.

There's more love and I think that's the thing. It's not going to be, oh, I'm retiring from fighting. I'm just going to sit at home with money and scroll on TikTok. I'm going to move the goalposts. I think that's just that mentality. But I'm the same, I told my wife, you know, we'll sell the businesses, we've kind of ticked it off our list, and wind down, and then I end up just going as hard as I can to something else, you know? But that's a mindset thing. I think that if that's who you wanna be, that you're always gonna find something else to go full tilt on, you know? Yeah, for sure, it's healthy, man. I think that's the way it's supposed to be and it never keeps you stagnant Yeah, it lets you sit never lets you dwell. You're just always Pushing to be better 1% somewhere, you know what I mean? I think it's massive. It's a healthy drive Yeah, healthy drive to achieve things the hardest thing. I think I mean, I don't know you must have good time management Yeah, would you say that you have good? I have the worst So bad I'm the kind of guy that's like, I'll leave an hour and a half early for something and sit in my car and then I'll be late for something super simple when I have all the time in the world. I'm shocking. But like, yeah, I over-cram my days. I'll train, I'll do like five clients and then I'll over-push those clients and I'll race home, have a quick shower, eat in the car, race in here and then I'll go somewhere

else and I'm always over the place. I'm always just I was expecting you to tell me that you're extremely Detailed because I remember when we first met you working at Topgolf. Yeah, and so you were Topgolf Starting to be a professional boxer. Yeah training like I thought this guy must be so regimented Like I make it to work and if I get back like it's a good day

A Lifechanging Moment for Ben Mahoney

Yeah

I feel like I was doing like I was working at trades during the days and then I was doing Top Golf at night and trying to train in the minutes in between and getting up at 3 or 4 a.m. to run. It was so scattered. This is where Blakey came in. Blakey actually said to me one day, he goes, I was in the gym and I was so flat. I was sitting there and I was just cooked. I couldn't even get through the session. And then he goes, let's stop. Let's just have a chat. Let's just pull it up for a second. You're cooked. You need to relax. And then he kind of said, what's going on? And I said, oh, I'm just snowed under, I'm just exhausted, I don't have any energy, I'm not eating enough, I'm not recovering, I'm just under the pump kind of thing. And he goes, well, you do clients, he goes, how many clients, what's your outgoings? How many clients could you do a week? What's your maximum kind of income you could make? And at the time it wasn't much, you know what I mean? Like I wasn't making much at all. And he goes, have a week off work, put in a week sick leave or whatever, or holiday leave, he goes.

He definitely took sick leave, didn't he?

Yeah, I did.

I got paid anyway. But, and he goes, do every client you can do. He goes, sell your soul to the PTs, and he goes, just smash yourself, see how much you earn, and see what the gap is between what your minimum is and then if you can do it, quit your job, train, and then do what you need to do to be happy kind of thing. And I went, sweet, so the next day I put in my leave and I booked in every client I could find in my books from ever, you know what I mean? And I made about three or 400 bucks more than what I needed to make to live comfortably kind of thing at that time. And the next day I quit. That was it. I've been full-time training for myself for just over two years now, I'd say. And then, yeah, just train, do clients, train, do clients. I'm still working super hard. I'm still training two or three times a day. I'm still doing four or five hours of work a day as well in between that. I'm trying to get my recovery and then all your other stuff. But yeah, that's where Blakey came in. That changed my life that week. That was like, I can do this by myself kind of thing. Then that stressful Top Golf work mindset, I feel like I just carried that over. I need to keep working this hard. I know I've got more in the tank. I can make more money. I can train more. I can do this.

But even just the drive there and back.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, hour or something right yeah, I mean I was working on the Mudgee highway for a while So it's like an hour and a half It was starting at 6 and then we do that for 10 hours, and I'd come home Like building the highway yeah, I was still I was like Rocky

Well, I mean we'll put an electrical one

electrical pits in the in the highway, and it was just like Just the worst is horrible. I know this is crazy

I don't know.

It's just crazy. It's a hard job. And then, well, I was coming home and then having like an hour, like a shower, an hour break and then going to Topgolf and then working from like 7 p.m. till 3 a.m. and then waking up, having two or three hours, four hours sleep, getting up, running and training and then going back to work. Like it was the most hectic two-year period ever. And then just like overnight, just had one conversation with someone who actually was willing to have a chat with me and I just flipped it all around kind of thing. It was crazy, crazy. Shout out to Blake.

He's a good boy. He's a good lad. Really good boy. Alright, well mate, we appreciate your time. If you want to leave our listeners with something, what would it be? Come on. I've got to ask you one thing before. Oh, here we go. You keep talking to things. How did you feel when you were on, you know, not you weren't on you personally

How Ben Found Out He Was Featured on Joe Rogan

yourself on the Joe Rogan's podcast? Mate, it was... How did you find out? At the time I was getting like, I don't know what it was, if it was just like something in the air, I was getting hits with like weird messages, like in my message requests, like I won't say what they were, but it was to the point where I was like, I'm just going to turn my message requests off. And then one night, one morning I woke up and I had like a blurred photo in my message requests and I've had enough of it. I was so sick of seeing things. He goes, hey bro, you made the Joe Rogan podcast. Have you seen this? And I was like, if I accept this and it's like his butt hole or something, I'm going to be so off it. And I was like, oh, and I clicked it. And then, yeah, sure enough, it came up, and I clicked the link, and yeah, I got a little mention. It was epic. It was really cool. Surreal, you know what I mean? To be noticed by one of the biggest names that goes around in the world.

I mean, second best podcast going after.

Yeah, maybe we'll get him on one day.

Get him in here.

He might be past our help, I think, from a hair point of view.

I'm not sure, you know.

Toupee for that.

Maybe.

Not from our side, but it was pretty amazing. Yeah.

It was pretty cool. It was a cool moment. And yeah, it's just a bit getting your name out there, eh? It was just one of those bucket list things. Even if I don't get on there, my name's been on there, so I'm happy. But yeah, no, it was really cool. Very surreal. Have you ever spoke to that guy since the jaw oh yeah we've had a couple of chats he's just yeah he's just sudden beef and stuff still I still talking Robert he was for a while and then we had this like online thing where like online chat where like people look before the fight thing and then they like invite people on and then everyone just has like a chat and I got sucked into it and he was on there with another guy that I fought and he was just like, the second I got on he was just going at me and going at me and going at me. And I was just like, oh my god. I roasted him and then I got off. And then it just went on for ages. But yeah, I don't hold any hard bit feelings or anything like that. Did he ask you for a rematch? Yeah, he's been trying for ages but he had like a six run win streak and was doing really good And then the guy that I beat in April just stopped him so again like he's not even on a on a right to the bottom Yeah, it's not not on the radar for me, but like I said, I'm I don't hold any hard feelings I would I've never I haven't spoken about him or to him. It's just been a lot of arrows shot through the internet, but that doesn't really matter no and that's probably him just trying to salvage something from a situation right? Yeah

Final Thoughts

So what are you leaving us with?

Oh don't do it to me, I don't know I don't know, what do I say here? Leave you with something. Yeah, something amazing

Probably left us with some nuggets in there. Yeah, there's some epic stuff, but I think that You know he's got something big in him I actually have nothing you put me on this body

We can edit as much as this as we need to until we yeah That's a hard one did you do that to everyone you know, they're not clearly it marks brings it on everybody yeah how does everyone handle it does everyone just freeze out no some people do some people usually it's like around a hair transplant or something so it's kind of like easy to kind of you know I just do it you know like here's where it is but you know are you ready to shave your head? What is that going to look like? I don't even care. I'm so, like, after we've been chatting, I've been so pumped to do it. It's been very like, I'm training, I can't have that month off, I can't do it then, I can't do it then, and then after I had that fight, I'm like, alright, I had another fight, it's been two fights this year, I'm not going to fight until probably March next year, I've got time over Christmas and I'm very all, even in the new year or whatever, I'm like, there's going to be a gap somewhere in there where I could look into it. I'm pumped. It's literally a month recovery of your life and you'll get some confidence that you've kind of always wanted since you've noticed it. I'm happy to get a swollen head and wear a bucket hat and Chill out for a month. I'm cool with that. Yeah, I'm so good stay out of the Sun. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, I mean, all right. Well, we won't we won't make you leave us with anything else. I've literally had nothing Yeah, not like you know, I'm looking for like, you know, it's like a butterfly and sing like I've got heaps of random little quotes I mean I could read you something off my arm or something.

Nah, it's been a pleasure. It's always a pleasure.

Yeah, thanks for joining us, mate.

I appreciate it.

Thank you guys so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gro Diaries podcast, brought to you by Gro Prescription Hair Care. If you would like any more information on hair loss or anything discussed in this podcast, please visit groclinics.com.au for all your hair regrowth needs.