Lion Counseling Podcast

🎙️ Episode 55 – Dan Severn Would Fight Royce Gracie Again at 67… On the White House UFC Card?

In this episode of the Lion Counseling Podcast, Mark Odland sits down with UFC Hall of Famer Dan “The Beast” Severn, one of the original pioneers of mixed martial arts.

During the conversation, Mark asks Dan a wild hypothetical question:

If the White House UFC card this summer needed a fight… would he come out of retirement to face Royce Gracie again?
Dan’s answer?

“Without hesitation.”

With the recently announced White House UFC event coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the United States, fans have been debating the lineup—especially after noticing the absence of major stars like Jon Jones and Conor McGregor.
That raises an interesting question:

What if two of the original pioneers of the UFC stepped back into the arena?

A Dan Severn vs Royce Gracie rematch would revive one of the most iconic rivalries from the earliest days of the sport.
But this episode goes far deeper than fight talk.
Mark and Dan explore the psychology of competition, the mindset required to become a champion, and how a man balances intense ambition with family, leadership, and legacy.
What you’ll learn in this episode
  • The mental warfare behind early UFC competition
  • How growing up on a farm built Dan Severn’s legendary work ethic
  • The psychological edge that separates elite competitors from everyone else
  • How Dan balanced life as “The Beast” in the cage and a father at home
  • Why modern men struggle with motivation and responsibility
  • The surprising mindset behind Dan’s longevity and discipline at 67 years old
This conversation is about more than fighting.
It’s about identity, masculinity, responsibility, and what it means to become the man you were created to be.

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https://escapethecagenow.com/call/

Click here to watch a video of this episode.’
💬 Comment below:
Would you watch Dan Severn vs Royce Gracie II on the White House UFC card?
About the Lion Counseling Podcast

The Lion Counseling Podcast helps men break free, heal deep, and become the lions God created them to be.
Hosted by Mark Odland, licensed marriage and family therapist and certified EMDR therapist, the show explores psychology, masculinity, trauma healing, faith, leadership, and purpose for high-achieving men.
New episodes drop every week.

Creators and Guests

Host
Mark Odland
Founder of Lion Counseling, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified EMDR Therapist

What is Lion Counseling Podcast?

The Lion Counseling Podcast helps men escape the cages that hold them back and become the Lions they were created to be. It exists to help men obtain success, purpose, happiness, and peace in their career and personal lives. The podcast is hosted by the founder of Lion Counseling, Mark Odland (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified EMDR Therapist), and Zack Carter (Counselor and Coach with Lion Counseling). In their podcasts, they address a variety of topics relevant to men, including: mental health, relationships, masculinity, faith, success, business, and self-improvement.

Mark Odland:

I I I have one one crazy question. I think I know the answer to, Dan.

Dan Severn:

Okay.

Mark Odland:

But if you got a call today, you pick up the phone, and I'm not gonna try to do the impression, but if it's like, is this Dan Severn? This is president Donald Trump. Mhmm. And and if he said, you know this White House card we're doing in the summer? We want a rematch between either you and Gracie or you and Shamrock.

Mark Odland:

Would you come out of retirement at 67?

Dan Severn:

What without without hesitation. Without hesitation.

Mark Odland:

Are you serious?

Dan Severn:

Without hesitation. I want us I I want I want us both drug tested to know that Dan Severn will finish out his career clean as a whistle.

Mark Odland:

What are you trying to say? Are you saying Gracie's doped up? Kidding. I'm kidding.

Dan Severn:

No. No. Not you. He he did pop. Oh.

Dan Severn:

At one time, he did pop. He did? Okay. Yeah. Wow.

Dan Severn:

I I I kept I kept thinking it must be some of the worst steroids ever, but he did pop. Welcome

Mark Odland:

to the Lion Counseling Podcast, where we help men to break free, to heal deep, and become the lions God created them to be. I'm Mark Odland, licensed marriage and family therapist and certified EMDR therapist. And today, I have the honor, absolute honor, of talking to Dan Severn, a man who spent much of his life stepping into arenas where most people would freeze with fear. He's a UFC Hall of Famer, a world class wrestler, and one of the pioneers of mixed martial arts. What fascinates me most about Dan is not just the fights, although they are amazing to watch and to talk about.

Mark Odland:

But it's something that he hinted at in previous interviews. Because for Dan, mixed martial arts wasn't just about the strength and the skill. It was about psychological warfare. And so as a therapist who spends a lot of time thinking about the human mind, that idea immediately resonated with me. It got my attention.

Mark Odland:

Because when you think about it, the fight starts far before you step into the cage. Right? It's inside the mind long before the fight even starts. But what also intrigues me is the other side of the story. Right?

Mark Odland:

What does it take psychologically to be the man who comes home to his family and then, in another moment, flips the switch and becomes the competitor known as the beast who walks into the combat? Right? How does a man carry both of those identities, not only in the course of a day, but over the course of a lifetime? And so today, I am excited, honored to to interview the great Dan Severn, to ask him about how he used psychology to become one of the most respected fighters in UFC history. But I'm also excited to explore how he balanced that with being a husband, being a father, and how his identity evolved from those early days in the UFC to today.

Mark Odland:

Alright. Let's get into it.

Mark Odland:

All right. Dan Severn, welcome to the Lion Counseling Podcast. It's an honor to have you. I appreciate you making the time today.

Dan Severn:

The name of your program, the Lion Counsel, actually I found rather intriguing.

Mark Odland:

Well I wondered, you know, I mean it's interesting. The tagline for the podcast and for my counseling practice is, break free, heal deep, and become the lions you were created to be. And I just thought today, hey, a lion is kind of a beast. And

Dan Severn:

Well, it's it's it's the king of beasts.

Mark Odland:

Come on. The king of the king of beasts. Right? And and you are you have been tagged the the beast, Dan the beast, Severn. So Yeah.

Dan Severn:

I'll tell people that just just on that note alone, though, that I didn't come up with my my little ring name or cage name, however you wanna refer to it as. I basically it was bestowed upon me by the legendary NFL hall of famer Jim Brown.

Mark Odland:

Really?

Dan Severn:

He was he was one of the play by play commentators early on because the UFC, you know, wasn't doing all that well in the beginning. Yeah. And so they wanted to bring on someone that that, you know, had that football persona, you know, one of the toughest running backs ever in in the history of the game. And so that's kind of what what they brought him on. So but in in his words, he goes he goes when he when he first met me, he said, Danny, goes, I did not even know you're you were one of the fighters because when I showed up to the press conference, I had already worked for two different universities, Arizona State University and Michigan State University.

Dan Severn:

So proper protocol when I showed up to a press conference would be wear a sport jacket, a tie, and I was wearing my glasses. I could see up close, but I need glasses for distance. Sure. Sure. And so everybody thought I was somebody's agent.

Dan Severn:

And then then then I had Al Sarven, aka, you know, the professional wrestler. And as, my corner guy there, he's all in the, the tank top, muscle garb, stuff like that. They all thought he was the fighter. I'm the manager. And then when they said, all fighters are front, and, then they're like, well, who's this guy?

Dan Severn:

And, you know, that kind of thing.

Mark Odland:

Wow. It's it's crazy how those you know, you could have 10 different guys try to give you a nickname, but just the one the one right one is gonna is gonna be the

Dan Severn:

one that sticks. And it it Yeah.

Mark Odland:

It it stuck. That's amazing. That's amazing. Well, I'm just I'm so excited to talk with you, Dan, because I mean, obviously, anyone who watches your fights, they see the talent. They see the strength.

Mark Odland:

They see the power, the skill. But I have this hunch that it was your psychology. Was your mental toughness. It was your mental edge that really set you apart because there's other big tough guys, not with the wrestling pedigree that you have, but there are other big tough guys that you faced. And so I'm just curious if, is that something that you started those seeds were planted go growing up on the farm?

Mark Odland:

Or, like, where where did you think that that mental toughness came from?

Dan Severn:

I would say that that's where the foundation was laid. The foundation. The fact that I I grew up on a 120 acre farm. Yep. My father was not a farmer by trade.

Dan Severn:

I mean, it was something that his grandfather oh, alright. Let's back up a little more. My father was the baby of 12 living children. Wow. I put it like that because back in those days, you did not go to the hospital to have your to bear children.

Dan Severn:

You basically had a midwife, and and they were, born at home. And on, the same Severn farm is still in the Severn name three generations later. Wow. There's there's a there's a few bodies that are buried on there that, you know, just did not make at the time. But that was, again, that's still the era.

Dan Severn:

I I remember even going to my grandparents' home, and we always referred to because I, you know, had two different sets of grandparents. Sure. And the one set of grandparents I always referred to as the goose grandma grandma grandpa because they had all these geese. K. And geese are mean, and they would chase us about the yard.

Dan Severn:

And, it but it was, what a wonderful place to grow up. You should be knew that, you know, as my father would simply say, son, how often do you like to eat? And I'm like, well, I like eating quite a bit. It goes so do the animals twice a day. Once in the morning before you go to school, and then once at night, no matter how late it is, come back home from school because, you know, a lot of people think, well, gosh.

Dan Severn:

That's not so bad coming home right after school. But if you're if you are participating in sports Yep. I always tell people I had three different families. I had my in the fall, my football family, in the wintertime, my wrestling family, and in the springtime, the track and field family. But I had to deal with the track coach that if there was a Saturday track meet and there was a Saturday wrestling meet, he was probably not gonna see me at the track meet, which kind of upset him because I I could score points in shot, discus, high low hurdles, and even the pole vault.

Dan Severn:

Know? So but, you know, I simply knew that having seven other siblings, second on the pole vault that asking mom or dad for money never entered my mind. And how do I do it on my own? And I I thought, well, I started to have some some, coaches starting to approach me as a sophomore in high school. Yep.

Dan Severn:

And that's how I I'll say the seed was planted. I go, well, maybe I can use athletics as my vehicle to go to college and, not have a crazy debt to pay that will hang over my head for the next thirty, forty years of my life.

Mark Odland:

Wow. Okay. So A long

Dan Severn:

I I know a long answer to one question.

Mark Odland:

It's a great answer. I mean, growing up in a big family, and it sounds like part of the way that your parents showed love was giving you enough structure where you had to kind of dig a little deeper for that self reliance. It wasn't, you know, there was the food on the table and then there was that love of family. But there was also the sense if I, that for you, you had to kind of make this happen yourself and athletics was the way to kind

Mark Odland:

of get there. Is that right?

Dan Severn:

And again, that's where we're, you know, a lot of people kinda follow me more and more now just because, well, I'll say they do to social media. Maybe they they caught one little clip or something like that there. And now that I go in, they're doing a little bit more in-depth type of research. Here because I I've been around for quite a few different decades. You know, my first seed recipient is my amateur wrestling background, but then amateur wrestling, we are the only country that does what is called folk style wrestling in our Mhmm.

Dan Severn:

Junior high, high school, youth programs. And it even changes. By the time you get to college, it changes to this more this collegiate style. I hate to say this, but it's a it's a it's a hardcore fact. It's boring.

Dan Severn:

Yeah. Watching college wrestling is so boring because no one is looking for the pin. They're the the the the the they're getting maybe a takedown, and then they do the same called writing time where it it does there is a skill set there, but it's not as exciting. And they've even tried to, they've been at the end stage tried to help improve it by giving an additional point to the takedown. But, you know, to me, they're going, why don't you motivate people for the pin?

Dan Severn:

Because that is

Mark Odland:

Yeah.

Dan Severn:

One of the most exciting things that happens when you think think about professional wrestling. The show is is part of it. Right? All matches end on the pin. So it's like going that that's that's a a distinction that a lot of, I'll say fans, professionally

Mark Odland:

Sure.

Dan Severn:

Wrestlers understand, and then they also understand the disqualification or whatever else have you there. But Yeah. I'll I'll just say that I enjoyed athletics. Love football more than I did wrestling, but I knew that I could put all my eggs into wrestling. The the the definition of wrestling, it's a team sport based upon individual performances.

Dan Severn:

The team can lose. Right. And I can still carve out my niche, and I can still move on. And that's why, again, I I choose the sport of wrestling or that individuality of of it all.

Mark Odland:

Well, yeah, I mean, it seems like as as great as team sports are, there's something about you kind of being the master of your own destiny. Like, no one to blame, no one to to to it's just you. It's all on you. Yep. And, sounds like you wouldn't have it any other way.

Dan Severn:

Well, no. Again, I get because I I'm you know, at 67, I look back now. It's kinda going, well, would I do anything different? Nope. I wouldn't.

Mark Odland:

Dang. Wow.

Dan Severn:

Because because I I would not I would not be here today. I would not be here speaking to you. So it's you know, people always say, well, if you could go back in time well, first off, I don't have that time machine. As far as I know, it it doesn't exist here yet. But if I did go back and change, how would how would it affect my trajectory, and where would I be at today?

Mark Odland:

Well, that's right. I mean and I know a lot of our listeners, they think back on their lives and have a similar question. Right? I mean, you can you can have regrets, you can think, wish I would have done this differently, but then you might not have met this person. You might not have had this experience.

Mark Odland:

And then now you have this life. And it's like you undo this one you pull this one thread and undo that piece of the timeline, and everything else could unravel in a way you can't predict. Right?

Dan Severn:

Yeah. Exactly. Because, again, because I I always look at people. I have I have children. I have grandchildren.

Dan Severn:

And, you know what? It's, there's so many different things factors and and just, you know, all the the different life experiences. It's, in my kind I I get kind of, the fact that I've been to every single state inside The United States, and couple of them that are hard to get to, like Alaska and Hawaii, those two are a little bit more difficult to get to. You had to have been to both of them half a dozen different times So over the I do enjoy traveling. I do enjoy seeing other countries, other cultures, and

Mark Odland:

so on. Wonderful. That's wonderful. You know, it made me wonder when you were talking about this, know, this self reliance and work ethic. Did you have a hero growing up?

Mark Odland:

Was there a name, a person that stood out to you, either whether it be a celebrity, an athlete, someone in your family? Who who would you say you looked up to, if anybody?

Dan Severn:

Well, I mean, for all, like, you know, you know, the the easy answer on that onto that is, I mean, first off, you're you're you're two of my my heroes, though they're gone, are my parents. Yeah. I mean, because I because I always reflect back. I go, eight kids. What is that?

Dan Severn:

You know? Because they're like, kids. You know? I'm I'm, you know, second on the totem pole. There's five males.

Dan Severn:

There's three females, and there's, there's a lot of undertaking there and, work. But we never you know, at the same token, it was like I always tell people, I remember going to the Salvation Army. I remember going to the goodwill, buying clothes, stuff like that there. Might not have been new, but it was new to me. Yeah.

Dan Severn:

So you and and you learned we had two we actually had two laundry baskets full of socks. One that had all white socks in it and one that had all darker colored socks, but they're not exactly all the same darkness of color. So, yeah, they kinda look through there and kinda we we drew it. So it you you learned again, you learned Sharon. I mean, it's like Yeah.

Dan Severn:

We the house itself, I I I shared a bedroom with with my brother right up until he finally went to college. And again and then then, like, a year later, I'm sharing a bedroom with them again yet again because I'm in college share sharing an apartment, and and we're we're two of us are in the same room. So Wow. It's like, I I had one one little breather for, you know, a year and then right back at it again.

Mark Odland:

Wow. Yeah. You'd have to learn how to share in a big family like that. That's a

Dan Severn:

Again, I I think that's that's where a lot of people went because, you know, most people, they're lucky, because, I'll say the family has really shrunk, the size inside The United States. And Yeah. I think standard, if people are lucky if they have a couple children, max.

Mark Odland:

Well, you know, these days, even if you didn't have all your fighting accolades, just having your all your kids and grandkids, I mean, that is something to hang your hat on right there, the fact that you have this beautiful family you've created and this legacy continues. Right? I mean, that's amazing.

Dan Severn:

My my children, they watch because one, I again, they're they're all back in Michigan, and I'm speaking to you from Arizona. Yeah. So when I'm back in Michigan and my and my grandkids know that I'm there when they they step by. They all wanna come out and play with grandpa. Mhmm.

Dan Severn:

Because because, because my you know, though they come out there, and I've got all kinds of I've got soccer drills. I've got balloon drills. I've got hula hoops. They're doing forward rolls. They're standing on their head.

Dan Severn:

They're doing all kinds of stuff. And and grandpa is leading by example. So it's like I'm out there I'm I'm I'm out there doing all the same stuff there with them, and my kids are starting to watch me and and they're like going, okay, pops. What are you up to? Because I go I'm, like, going, well, I go, I'm building memories for my grandchildren.

Dan Severn:

I go because I guarantee it, and there's not too many of the grandparents or, like, grandpas that are out there standing on their head, doing forward rolls, doing bear cross, crab cross, hooping. And and and I I go I go, but you're right. Your diabolical dad here is building the alpha male and females of the future where all their peers only have this action. They got two thumbs that can go a 100 miles an hour. I go, your kids have the ability of doing so much more.

Dan Severn:

I go, and I just might save you about a $100,000 somewhere down the road on a full scholarship to go to college. So would you like your father to continue playing with his grandchildren? And they're like, they're all yours, pops.

Mark Odland:

I love that. That is amazing. I mean, and you might also save them tens of thousands of dollars in therapy bills seeing some guy like me trying to trying to figure out why why am I screwed up? I I I play video games ten hours a day. What's what's the problem?

Mark Odland:

Right?

Dan Severn:

Well, that's okay. Even even on that note, I always tell people, you might be surprised if you just set that electronic device down and you put a little sweat equity into some, some projects. Because I I I again, having a training facility on my property back in Coldwater, Michigan Yeah. I would have some of the predominantly, I had almost I'd I'd say almost a 100% male population. I'd have a a few token females that would come in to professional wrestling training or even, as amateur wrestling training progressed more, more and more females were were were were being invited.

Dan Severn:

Now it's you you've got the same opportunities across the board. It's, I would have some athletes that start to get behind in their monthly dupes. Uh-oh. And I would be like, you know, they they they're they're all giving me that that sad woe is me type story. I go, well, Mark, no problem.

Dan Severn:

I go, I happen to be home this coming weekend. Why don't you come on by, and we'll just do some good old fashioned sweat equity? I've got some stuff that things that need need to be trimmed up, leaves to be raked on up, you know, some wood that could be chopped up on, stuff like that. I go, stuff that I'm gonna be doing anyway. And then they're like, oh, that sounds great.

Dan Severn:

They come over and they're on their cell phone every five minutes. I go, are you allowed to do this at work? And they're like, well, no. I go then, why are you doing it here? You're you're at work here right now.

Dan Severn:

Yeah. I go, the only reason you're here is because you owe me back dues as up here right now. Right. And then you know, it but I you know, there's they know where the restrooms are and stuff like that. They might have to ask me for permission to go to restroom you know, go to restrooms, go get a drink of water.

Dan Severn:

I I even had lunch or and stuff like that for them. And then but towards kinda towards the end of the day, they're kinda like going, you know, the the they're like, you know, Dan? They're like, I think I'd rather pay you. And I would say, Mark, based upon your work ethic, I would rather you paid me too because your work ethic sucks. And no wonder you may be in the trouble that you are today for owing me some dues or maybe some other things that might be happened at your own real job that you're at working.

Dan Severn:

Because I I kinda poo poo on professional. Seen that poo poo on the fight world and that because I always tell people that you have to invest a lot of time and energy to train to become the professional wrestler, to train to become the fighter. And I and I go and and and as far as I know, no one's gonna let you do it for free. They're gonna they're gonna be attached to you at one point to where if if if if it's even part of your winning set that they're looking to to take in that. But, you know, there's there's is no such thing as a free ride in life.

Mark Odland:

No. No. I mean, gal, what a bunch of lucky grandkids to have you. I mean, the

Dan Severn:

You you basically it it it it it it it's it's both. It's a a double edged sword because they simply know that again, I tried to engage him all in a fun type of way, but there that it's like this coming spring. I'm looking at one of the oldest grandchild children now. He's old enough to where he can come off on his own, and I'm looking at well, okay. Maybe I'll I'll be inviting him to go over to I I have a unique little summer cottage on the lake, and I might bring them over for a weekend to spend with grandpa knowing that it's gonna be a combination.

Dan Severn:

We're gonna be spending time, but we're gonna be raking up leaves. We're gonna have little campfires over there, but there's branches that have fallen down over the winter months so that you wanna clean up all the debris. Plus there'll be a few different geese that will have nest here or swans that would have nest there. There you know, if there's eggs in their inner nest net, I will leave them alone. We'll let them do their thing, and then eventually they they move on.

Dan Severn:

Otherwise, we're we're gonna be there cleaning up the property.

Mark Odland:

Oh, that's that's so good. I can't get out of my head now now, Dan, with you doing shoulder rolls with the grandkids. I mean, I'm the old guy at my jujitsu gym, and I took a break from shoulder rolls. I don't think I have an excuse anymore because I'm twenty years younger than you. How can I I've got nothing to stand on?

Dan Severn:

Well, you know, being what? Stand on your head. That'd awesome. What what what one of the things I do at a lot of my, seminars, I I take them through just a quick little, warm up and stretch.

Mark Odland:

Yeah.

Dan Severn:

And and then I'll I'll simply say that the first order of businesses to stand on your head, they are I start looking around. They start looking at each other, like, standing on your head. Like, what does that got to do with today? I go I go I said the the how how many of you have never stood on your head? And you'd be surprised out of a class of, let's say, 40.

Dan Severn:

Yep. Yep. Over half have never stood on their head, period. And then I will show them. I said, not not just tell them to do it.

Dan Severn:

I I show them how to do it and how I do it, and then I lead by example. And then, they they do they start laughing and stuff like that. I go it's it's a way I go, it's it's my icebreaker, but it's also what I tell them. I go, you're going to learn things a little bit differently. I have a little bit different mindset of how I approach things because I always tell people, I've never been in a single fight in my entire life, but I have been a competitor my entire life, and that's a whole different animal.

Dan Severn:

I'm calculating Yes. Because I know ahead of time who I'm going against. It's not like this is just a free for all, you know, random type of thing right now. I should be no. I I was given a name and stuff like that.

Dan Severn:

Well, in today's world, you got the, you got all kinds of the Internet here now. Back, when when the UFC first began, you had nothing. You had to sippy. Oh, who is this guy? Where is he from?

Dan Severn:

How? Because there's no weight classes, no time period. Yeah. So you try to find out whatever you could as quick as you could. It's it's a eight man tournament.

Dan Severn:

So if you were out there, you try to you try to take care of your opponent as quickly and as efficiently as as you possibly could. And then it's not like you're back to relaxing. You're out there watching the next match because you know you're gonna get the winner of those two guys. Oh my gosh. So a different mindset where where where a lot of young people, they don't they can't comprehend this stuff.

Mark Odland:

Yeah. That's so true. I mean, that that's such a important value to teach the next generation is I mean, you've mentioned work ethic. You've mentioned personal responsibility. You've mentioned sharing.

Mark Odland:

You mentioned appreciation, gratitude for your family. These these are four beautiful principles.

Dan Severn:

Where where where am I speaking to you today from? I'm out here in Arizona. Yeah. I'm wearing shorts and a short sleeve type of shirt because it's it's it's it's beautiful out. I mean Yeah.

Dan Severn:

True Arizonians are wearing jackets, hoodies, stuff like that today. But, you know, being from the from the Midwest, this is beautiful because I could be back I could be back in, snow and probably a a whopping temperature of maybe 20 or 30 degrees. Yeah.

Mark Odland:

Don't rub it in, Dan. Come on. I'm in Duluth, Minnesota right now. Are you trying to do to me?

Dan Severn:

Exactly. Exactly.

Mark Odland:

Oh, man. Well, okay. So this, my audience is gonna is gonna love this this this interview because I work almost mostly with, like, almost exclusively with guys. Some athletes, but most of

Dan Severn:

Same here.

Mark Odland:

Right? Yeah. And most of them are are business guys. Right? They're entrepreneurs, CEOs Mhmm.

Mark Odland:

Doctors. You know, they're just professional hardworking guys. Okay. But they are wrestling with these questions. Right?

Mark Odland:

The calculation Well

Dan Severn:

Such as?

Mark Odland:

Such as how do I stay motivated to do my job well? How do I outcompete my competition?

Dan Severn:

Let me let me stop on that motivation, plain alone. I always I I still have it, but I I don't have it accessible with me right now to show it to you. Yeah. One of the last things I would ever do would I I looked at the picture of my family.

Mark Odland:

Really?

Dan Severn:

This is what why I'm doing what I'm doing. Mhmm. Even in in the very beginning when I was doing things, I did not tell I did not tell my wife. The only first thing I went up to was a tough man competition. Yes.

Dan Severn:

I needed a thousand dollars. First prize was a thousand dollars. I had never raised my fist to my fellow man. And I'm not certain if you know what tough man is because it it it no longer exists. But tough man was it it kinda was like a boxing type of thing, but more like a brawling type of thing because there's only two different weight classes, a hundred ninety pounds and under and then anything over.

Dan Severn:

And I happened and this was up in Battle Creek, Michigan. And I I I drove up to Battle Creek, Michigan, and I got there early. And I'm watching what they're set up, and they're actually they're setting up a professional wrestling ring. I had just started my professional wrestling training just a couple weeks prior to it. I know the dynamics of this ring and how to utilize it to my benefit.

Dan Severn:

And, again, two weight classes. Yeah. And and I'm out there with big old hawkses. My first match, you know, the the referee, you know, you know, commences to to to start action. He starts throwing a couple big old haymakers at me.

Dan Severn:

I'm thinking, holy crap. What to do? Uh-oh. I need to I need to cut the distance down. I don't I don't wanna be on that receiving end of one of these big old loopy type of bunches.

Dan Severn:

So I I should be I ran right into him, hitting him in the chest with with both gloves. I've got him backpedaling, and we're aiming and I'm aiming to make towards the middle of the rope knowing that that there's gonna be this rubber band reaction. It's gonna go wonk. And then at no simple thing, a nurse is gonna come back at me there. And as I feel come back, I locked it right my hands right out on his body, and I threw him in a belly to belly.

Dan Severn:

And the crowd exposed because, I mean, he goes flying through the air. He hits hitting on his face and chest up like that, and he is literally just discombobulated upon impact. The crowd erupts, and, the owner of, Toughman was a gentleman by the name of Art Door. Looked like wolf man Jack had this big mop of of gray hair, gray beard, tuxedo type seat. He jumps out of his seat.

Dan Severn:

He's got the microphone in his hand. He's looking around. He hears a crowd. I looked down at him. He looks up at me, and as he hears a crowd, he goes, well, throw them again.

Dan Severn:

I go, game on. I can do this. And, again, and and that's where and and that match happened on a Friday night. And then Saturday, when I went to either it was either three or four more matches to, like, on Friday night, you just do one match. And then everything else is done on Saturday night because that's a two night event.

Dan Severn:

They they milk the crowd twice for two different, you know, entrance fees and things of that nature. So I I come back. So it's Saturday night afterwards. And so he's paying me my thousand bucks. He goes he goes, son, he goes, you don't know what you did for my crowd.

Dan Severn:

He said, last night, Friday, he go, it was a so so crowd. He goes, tonight, he goes, you sold my place out. He goes, everybody came in there to see they wanna see this wild hillbilly kid who's not throwing a single punch. He's throwing people all around the the place. And and and but he's throwing people way bigger than what he's at.

Dan Severn:

And then and then, again, he just he just thanked me for saying, did I did I get any extra money? No. But No.

Mark Odland:

You put on a show, though, man. That's a

Dan Severn:

Yep. Yeah. But it wasn't that I was trying to put on a show. I had to use what was in my wheelhouse. I was a I was a good amateur wrestler, but I also had my two international styles of freestyle and Greco.

Dan Severn:

And Greco Roman's often a waste of big time throws. Freestyle has some really big time throws into it as well. So it's things that you can do both of in freestyle Greco that you cannot do in high school or on a collegiate level because they would be ruled illegal.

Mark Odland:

Exactly. Exactly. Well, you know, it's interesting because now that makes me think of another question my guys ask Shoot away. Is how to balance work life with family life. And I was when I was researching for our interview, Dan, I was looking at, back to the the whole beast thing and that, you know, your fight with with, with Hoist Gracie and just knowing inside that if you would have unleashed, it could have been a much different outcome.

Mark Odland:

You somehow you kinda had to make peace with Yeah. You know, that you had your you had your own internal code of honor, but you had to kind of eventually adapt to this is a new these are new rules in this space, and I can operate with these new rules in this space if I let but then you somehow had to switch that off. Yeah. And so it's like, is is the be did the beast come home, or did the beast just stay in the cage? How did that work?

Dan Severn:

Well, again, it was easy in the beginning because the Internet net did not exist.

Mark Odland:

Right.

Dan Severn:

So I didn't have to worry about that that type of thing. Today's world, I mean, it's again, because most of the people I speak to are the young males. I always have to, again, go back to that line of, you you have to be careful because a moment a moment of indiscretion, a lifetime on the Internet. So you have to be careful about that. You know, you you asked about this balance of family life, Danette.

Dan Severn:

I again, there there was not a balance for me. During during the work during the work week, this would be this is my standard. During the work week, in the morning, I did what I called the daddy deal. I'm waking the kids up. I'm down there.

Dan Severn:

I'm making the breakfast. It's my golden little forty five minutes to an hour, and then I either they grab the bus or I take them to school if if their breakfast went a little bit too long or something like that. So that was my time with them knowing when they get home, my first kid's class is taking place.

Mark Odland:

Right.

Dan Severn:

And my my, children did participate in some of the different kid's classes, but I had to treat them like all the other kids because I can't show favoritism because, you know, other kids will get, jealous of that type of thing. So and and even my kids, they were my janitors. So that when when, you know, they would be I still like my my daughter. She's wearing the the yellow, rubber gloves. She's got the toilet brush in her hand.

Dan Severn:

And then she go ahead and she she like that she's like dad, and she's shaking the brush at me. She goes, you tell you tell them boys to stay a little bit closer to that toilet. She goes, she could she get tired of cleaning up the floor because they're they're the peanut, you know, peanut on the floor. So I was like going and I go and said, my daughter, would you like to address them? She goes, don't think I wouldn't.

Dan Severn:

And I go I go I said, that's the that's the kind of spirit I want you to have to know that to stand up for yourself. I love where I've I've had even when my my oldest son at the time, he's like, dad, he goes, when will I start receiving an allowance? Go, son, explain this term to me allowance. And what and what does this mean? Right.

Dan Severn:

He says, well, he says, my some of my my buddies, they get paid, because they they pick up their room or they make their bed or they bring their dirty laundry down. And I'm going well, I go, son, right now you live in my house. Part of the rules of you living in my house is the fact that, you will make your bed in in the morning. Sure. And then, you will bring your dirty clothes down because if mom or dad had to co op to find your dirty clothes, you may, be a little thin on a wardrobe that day.

Dan Severn:

So if you want your clothes clean, you're not gonna you're not gonna do the laundry here right now, but I go, rest assured, later on in life, you will start to learn these skill sets because as you get closer to leave the nest, we wanna make sure that you are efficient in other areas so that Yes. When the bird finally leaves the nest, we don't want you to come right back to the nest there either. So Wow. That you have these survival skills. So, again, it it just it all depends on how you paint the picture with them.

Dan Severn:

And then I'd be like, but, son, if we go if you want to talk about other stuff of things that you could do around the yard or or or inside my trailer facility, a paint job here or that, I go, I have no problem paying you an allowance.

Mark Odland:

I love it. I love it. Well, I mean, it sounds like from what you're saying that I think it's almost trendy in a way now to talk about balance. Because sometimes that's the conversation that comes up with the guys I work with is, oh, I I feel guilty all the time because I don't have the right balance. And what I'm getting from what you're saying is to be great at what you do for your job, whether it be a CEO or a fighter, you kinda have to have some boundaries around when you're training, you're training.

Mark Odland:

When you're doing your thing, you're doing your thing. Yeah. But then you find these times and spaces to give your attention to your family and even kinda pull them into your world a little bit, like, within the kids class, like, when you can. Is is that fair?

Dan Severn:

Well, we're getting involved. I I each each one of my kids at one point in time or another have taken what I call the road trip from hell with dad Uh-oh. To where I want them to understand because all they know is that dad's gone. So I would take them on, you know, again, if I could take them as an individual because I wanted them to simply it it it was all about them being with me. But knowing that you're gonna be sitting in a car a long time because we're driving a long way down the road.

Dan Severn:

I mean, I could tell you right now from my from Fountain Hills, Arizona to, Coldwater, Michigan, it's basically 1,850 miles. Now 1,850 miles corn, basically is roughly around forty hour driving time frame. Pending traffic, pending weather, pending road construction. Or and the fourth factor is whatever time that you hit a may hit a major cities a major city because if it's morning drive in to work, oh, you could be It's bad. You could be in an hour and a half to two hour bogged down type of thing.

Dan Severn:

Or even at the end of the day, people are getting out of work another from that 05:30, 06:00 time frame. And there's times when I'm so used to it now that if I'm going in, I'm realized I'm hitting Chicago, and and it's it's a it's a nightmare. I I should be get on an exit. I'll pull into some hotel parking spot, or I'll I'll pull into, well, again, it'd be easy if if if there was just a, you know, a a rest stop or something like that. I just pull in there and I tip my seat back, and I and I I'll take in that for an hour and half to two hours to where I've recharged my batteries.

Dan Severn:

I'm gonna sit for the next hour and a half to two hours in traffic. Right. So might as well just pull off someplace, recharge my batteries, get wake up, and I'm I'm I'm gone. That's smart. So but I I had to learn some of those lessons, the heart rate, because I sit inside that traffic and I'm I'm

Mark Odland:

I'm out

Dan Severn:

of nowhere.

Mark Odland:

Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So recharging the batteries. That's good.

Mark Odland:

Now you've had what? Seven years?

Dan Severn:

Well, because see but but but each of these kids taking these road trips from hell because I want them to understand. Yes. Because they're they're my copilot. So, again, it it's like really? Okay.

Dan Severn:

I realized the, the the Internet error is not all that good, so they might be still I keep even in my car still to this day, I keep a Road Atlas in there.

Mark Odland:

Nice.

Dan Severn:

Now do I use it anymore? No. But to me, it's nostalgic because when I was not of the age to drive, my older brother was the driver, and I was GPS. I pulled off the Road Atlas, and I'm and I'm looking at the state of Michigan, and I'm more heading you know, it's it's like a three hour hour driveway, I'm looking at, okay, one inch one inch equals 50 miles. And so I'm doing a quick little calculation.

Dan Severn:

We got about a 120 miles to go, and and, these are our exit. It's like, I I I know how to read a map. How many kids even know what a map is, let alone be able to read a map? You know? So I I get nostalgia.

Dan Severn:

I well, I I use GPS now, and that but it's, even I'm I'm gonna I I'm now going going off in a couple different tangents. And I I told it might might be hard to believe this, but I actually had to take two different speech classes.

Mark Odland:

Really?

Dan Severn:

In my by my senior year in high school, and not not that I was unable to speak, I did not the microphone was being pushed in my face. So, like, how are you able to do this? How are you able to do that? And I'm like, wrestle me wrestle. I want to wrestle.

Dan Severn:

It's like but I I did not want the microphones. And that continued to my my senior because I I just I did some pretty unique type of things, through my high school career. And then things continue right on through my, my freshman, year at Arizona State, and and just all kind of media just kept coming down. How are you able to keep continue going out there and just pinning people after people after people in that. And, and so I I had to take a few different speech classes to where now I'm getting in front of getting up there in front of, classes and and and doing these impromptu type speeches to where now it's hard to get me to shut up.

Dan Severn:

So

Mark Odland:

Well, you've got good stories to tell. So I mean, that that's probably good if you don't shut up too much. People have got a lot to learn, is good.

Dan Severn:

That's all I am as a storyteller anymore.

Mark Odland:

Well, you have built a lot of memories and there's there's a lot to be said for that and you get to enjoy them now. That's beautiful. And I have one one crazy question. I think I know the answer to Dan.

Dan Severn:

Okay.

Mark Odland:

But if you got a call today. You pick up the phone, and I'm not gonna try to do the impression, but if it's like, is this Dan Severn? This is president Donald Trump. Mhmm. And and if he said, you know this White House card we're doing in the summer?

Mark Odland:

We wanna rematch between either you and Gracie or you and Shamrock. Would you come out of retirement at 67?

Dan Severn:

What without without hesitation. Without hesitation.

Mark Odland:

Are you serious?

Dan Severn:

Without hesitation. I want us I I want I want us both drug tested to know that Dan Severn will finish out his career clean as a whistle.

Mark Odland:

What are you trying to say? Are you saying Gracie's doped up? I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Dan Severn:

No. No. Not you. He he did pop. Oh.

Dan Severn:

At one time he did pop. He did. Okay. Yeah.

Mark Odland:

Wow. I I

Dan Severn:

I kept I kept thinking it must be some of the worst steroids ever, but he did pop.

Mark Odland:

I I had no idea. Well, I'm I'm actually a little surprised. I shouldn't be surprised. You're an ultra competitor. But, like, I think, oh, you're you're you're your retirement, the shoulder rolls with the grandkids, and here you are without hesitation.

Mark Odland:

The answer is yes, president Trump.

Dan Severn:

Yeah. I I I'm I'm just glad that my better half is not within ear sight.

Mark Odland:

Well, I mean, that would be a different

Dan Severn:

be saying, oh, no. You're not. My bank oh, okay. Kinda kinda tough with the Internet era now to keep that one under wraps.

Mark Odland:

Well, and she's I mean, this is probably one you can't get away with not telling her. Right? It probably would leak out.

Dan Severn:

Well, Yeah. I guess, see, that's what I'm So social media is it's too far advanced here right now to where she's she knows more things about me than I probably want her to know.

Mark Odland:

Now now would it be one of those two? It wouldn't be a Tank Abbott refight.

Dan Severn:

No. No. No. I mean, it it it it would really only make sense if it really was one of those two. I I I only did a tank at Abbott match, and and, I always tell people that that match, I I went out there with an agenda.

Dan Severn:

That's right. It's, you know, you you had to be pegged correctly. Like, I I always tell people that I only did what I had to do in a very limited type form with most of my points. I really was very hesitant about I just couldn't ship it. Just do a hammer fist and just put it right down in dead center of your face there because it's kinda going, I I know how much you're getting paid.

Dan Severn:

You're not getting paid enough tonight. You you come Monday morning, you gotta go back to work. Right. You can't go back to work if if you're if you're if your wings are twisted and torn up and stuff like that. You gotta, you know, some big split over your your foreheads of like that.

Dan Severn:

And I always tell people, go watch the first 30, forties, 60 matches of my career, and you'll see I did I did a scarf choke on most of my opponents to where it did not hurt you. Basically, you just realize I can no longer breathe. I see darkness starting to come on in.

Mark Odland:

Yeah.

Dan Severn:

I better I better I better tap before I go night night. But that's that's the worst that's gonna happen to you is you're just gonna go night night. Right. And, you know, like I said, Tank Abbott, the only person that I went out there with an agenda knowing that it's the first time I knew it's a set amount of time, twenty minutes. Yeah.

Dan Severn:

And my whole goal was and I told my corner guy, I go, keep yelling time backwards. Meaning that yell nineteen minutes are left. Eighteen minutes are left. Seventeen. Just one minute on on one minute increments, and and I'll do some little thumbs up or something like that so I know that I I heard you.

Dan Severn:

I go, but then we get down to the last couple minutes. Give me the thirty second intervals because a lot can happen in thirty seconds. I know what I wanted to do in in that match. I wanted to embarrass him for, like, eighteen and a half to nineteen minutes. And then in the final minute, I was gonna allow him to get up to his feet.

Dan Severn:

I've got some more knee shots into the sciatic nerve so he he wouldn't have any legs underneath him. And then in the final thirty seconds, I was going to attempt a belly to back suplex because I just wanna know that I just beat him like a redheaded stepchild there for, you know, nineteen and a half minutes. And then I my credenza, the Symbos was doing the belly back knowing that would it have hurt him? Nah. He would have probably bounced twice, got up, and start swinging on me again.

Dan Severn:

He just he's just one of those nightmares at a bar.

Mark Odland:

Yes. Yes.

Dan Severn:

Bar barroom brawler.

Mark Odland:

That's right. That's right. Oh, man. Well, I'm so enjoying this conversation, Dan. And I could literally talk with you for hours and maybe we'll have another one in the cards somewhere down the road.

Mark Odland:

I know I can't end today without letting our audience know about the cool stuff you're doing now, the things the ways that people can connect with you. I hear you're doing seminars, this this feast with the beast thing. I I'm curious I'm curious about that. Let's hear

Dan Severn:

it. I do a lot of different things. I mean, I always tell people that if someone is interested in just connecting to me, my email address, dan@dansevern.com is the best way to reach me. I have other social medias, but so many different things come in on Facebook and, Instagram, the whole nine year. Do I get a chance to see all of them?

Dan Severn:

No. Yeah. I do see my emails because they come in, and I get a lot of them. So, again, it's Dan@DanSevernSevern, spelled s e, v like Victor, e r n. Dan@DanSevern.com.

Dan Severn:

K. It's one of the best ways of of getting in contact me. But I do, well, I still teach amateur wrestling clinics and seminars because that's my first love. That's the first thing I started teaching. And then it just kinda spiraled into just other stuff that that involves the the submission graph world has grown a great deal.

Dan Severn:

So I do stuff with geek work, nongeek work.

Mark Odland:

Sure.

Dan Severn:

I work with I work in law enforcement corrections, air marshal, border patrol, military. I've never been any of the above, but they have a ground combatives program, and I work with all of the different the areas I I talked about. I I would tell people, put me in your uniform. Give me all the duty belt equipment that you would normally wear. I go, if I can't build you a better widget, you owe me nothing, but they're always blowing away of all the stuff I can come up with and how simple and how efficient it seems to be.

Dan Severn:

I go and and if if even if the worst case scenario, if I'm only able to hold on you knowing that most people most people's cardiovascular flighting capabilities is probably thirty seconds or less, and their cardiovascular will be depleted. Unless they're on crack and a few other things, got some extra spike in their energy. That's all.

Mark Odland:

Love it. That's amazing. Wow. So lots of opportunities and it sounds

Dan Severn:

like Yeah, the feast with the beast type thing that you asked about there, that's just something I do just as I travel here or there. And then, like, I I'm I'm in Arizona right now, so I'm trying to line up a couple things with Don Fry to do that. And all kinds of people wanna do that, and it's but Don lives about two hours south of me, so I have to kinda set that at different times. I travel almost every weekend somewhere doing something. So I do this always on the fly as I'm driving.

Mark Odland:

I love it.

Mark Odland:

I love it.

Dan Severn:

But that's just a chance for you sit down for an hour and a half to two hours probably max. You break bread. I always tell people it's like, come feast with the beast where utensils are optional. So

Mark Odland:

Well, you have a standing invite, Dan. If you're ever up in the Duluth, Minnesota area, I'd love to take you out for a steak dinner on me and and unofficial feast for the beast with the beast. And maybe we maybe we can make it a beast feast too on top of it. But thank you. Thank you so much for the stories.

Mark Odland:

Thank you for sharing your wisdom, your humor, your, again, the mental edge that is so uncommon today and the values that you're trying to instill in your fans, in your kids, your grandkids. Truly an honor, Dan. I appreciate The

Dan Severn:

new audience is the senior citizen because I my new moniker is I'm senior citizen, Dan, and I'm doing what I can. I mean, it's it's a little rhyme y type of thing, but but I always tell people that, you know, at 67, I'm well into my senior citizen age. AARP was right there with that, you know, welcome to the senior citizen token. And but it's kinda going lots of seniors, they they should be doing things, just about how how to get up it get get up out of chairs alone.

Mark Odland:

Yeah.

Dan Severn:

There's, all kinds of routines of of doing things because most seniors are sedentary. Yeah. And, yeah, the inevitability, they're going to stand up on one day. They're gonna lose their balance, and they're gonna fall down. And as they fall down, they're going to break something.

Dan Severn:

Yeah. Whether that's a wrist, an arm, a hip, something, and they don't mend as well as what they would have done in their youth. So Wow. Knowing, just just, how to exercise. And you and I would tell people you don't have to go to the gym.

Dan Severn:

I'm out here right now to where, even later today, I'll be out there. I'll I'll be doing some Reiki, picking up, pruning of of some different things, cleaning out the pool basket and that. And then, I'll lay down on the ground here, and I'll do some some stretches in that. Love it. I'll I'll do my own little chair exercise up and down.

Dan Severn:

Mhmm. So I always tell people, I don't just simply just preach it. I still You do. I still do it.

Mark Odland:

You do it. Wow. Well, thank you again, Dan. I really, really appreciate your time and it was just a pleasure having this conversation with you.

Dan Severn:

Well, again, if any of you really want to watch or want to follow back up with me, dandanssevern dot com.

Mark Odland:

Alright. Well, hey. God bless you, Dan, and thank you for being on the Lion Counseling Podcast. Ironically, you'll this you'll find this funny. My website is called escapethecagenow.com.

Dan Severn:

Well, there you go.

Mark Odland:

But that's like all the guys trying to escape you. So Yeah. Well

Dan Severn:

Well but then I always I but I always say, think outside the box. So so it kinda goes hand in hand there right now on all that.

Mark Odland:

I love it. Alright. On that note, bye, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. Until time.