The Few Will Hunt Show

World Champion. Entrepreneur. Husband. Father. One of The Few. On this episode, Joey and Drew sit down with Eddie Alvarez, “The Underground King”. Eddie tells his journey from a kid on the rough streets of Philly to a World Champion fighter in the UFC and Bellator Octagons. He covers his foundations of faith and family, how thoughts become things, and the importance of doing uncommon work, and much more. Do not miss this episode. 

The official podcast of Few Will Hunt, the world’s largest community of hard workers and Made in the USA apparel brand. Family-owned and operated and headquartered in Philadelphia. We’re on a mission to restore the dignity of hard work and help others live The Rules of The Few to strengthen ourselves and strengthen society. No entitlement or excuses are allowed here.

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Creators & Guests

Host
Drew Beech
Drew Beech is an entrepreneur and cofounder of Few Will Hunt. He spent several years in the sales and marketing industry, grossing over several million dollars in sales. But his love for the entrepreneurial journey and desire to escape the rate race started with his personal training business in college. Today, Drew leads the Few Will Hunt community alongside his cousin and cofounder, Joey in their mission to restore the dignity of hard work through the highest-quality American-made apparel.
Host
Joey Bowen
Joey Bowen is co-founder of Few Will Hunt.

What is The Few Will Hunt Show?

The official podcast of Few Will Hunt, the world’s largest community of hard workers and 100% Made in the USA apparel brand. We’re on a mission to restore the dignity of hard work and help others live The Rules of The Few to strengthen ourselves and strengthen society. No entitlement or excuses are allowed here.

Eddie Alvarez:

You need to know yourself. Mhmm. What do you like? And then kinda go from there. But, like, the best way to get there, I tell my kids is try in the beginning, try a bunch of shit.

Eddie Alvarez:

Don't don't be afraid to try stuff and fall on your face because it's in that journey where you'll find out, oh, this is what I love to do. Mhmm. Tried everything else. I I had the courage to go after everything else. This is what I really like.

Joey Rosen:

Welcome to the Fuel Hunt Show. What's going on, Eagles? I'm Joey, and welcome to the Fuel Hunt Show. As always, I'm here with my cousin and cofounder, Drew. And today, we have a very special guest.

Joey Rosen:

World champion fighter, in my opinion, greatest lightweight of all time, husband, father, one of the few Eddie Alvarez.

Eddie Alvarez:

Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, man.

Joey Rosen:

For yeah. First and foremost, thank you for coming in, taking time out of your schedule spend it with us. And even beyond that, thank you for believing in what we're doing and always repping a few. Like, whenever I see you, whether it's you're doing something local or you're doing something national or you're on the world stage, you always have

Eddie Alvarez:

some We're talking a few.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. So, I appreciate that very much, man.

Eddie Alvarez:

Well, you you guys are excellent what you do too, and I I appreciate you guys because, some companies don't get it. Even companies, and and, I mean, just to get it out there, we've never exchanged money ever. I've I wear your clothes because I love them. I love the quality of them. I love what you guys do.

Eddie Alvarez:

You care about the clothes that people are wearing. We've never exchanged money at all. I've wore companies. They pay me, and then they send me, like, 2 shirts. And I'm like, what?

Eddie Alvarez:

Do they not get it? The more clothes you give me, the more likely I am to grab these things

Joey Rosen:

and wear

Eddie Alvarez:

them, like, on a whim where where I'm going, especially if it's good good good quality clothing. So, like, you guys always keep me fitted, always send me boxes, and I appreciate that. It's clothes I wanna wear. So Yeah. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

It's funny how that works out because it goes back to our core value of give first. It's like when we when I first connected with Eddie, he was like, he was very he was you could tell you're a little, like, just, like, skeptical. Right? Like, it's another guy, like, just trying to, like, use me for my like, what I've built. You know what I mean?

Drew Beech:

And I we always just came with that giving hand. And I remember saying, like, dude, like, we have a Philly legend, like, someone that walks, eats, sleeps, and breathes our mantra. Like, we have to make sure that we take care of him. So we and we're on a budget at first too. So, like, we we just could only send gears.

Drew Beech:

We send as much gear as we possibly could.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I get that. Either way, you can.

Joey Rosen:

You can feel you can feel the Philly in our clothing.

Drew Beech:

Like, I

Joey Rosen:

say that a lot to the community. Like, you can feel Philadelphia in our clothing, like, what we're about, you know. And we always say, like, Fuel Hunt, the idea for Fuel Hunt, the community was born on the streets of Philly because literally we had the idea when we were driving. I was driving in Frankfurt, you were driving in Northeast, it came up on the phone, You know what I mean? And, like, that grit, like, you can feel it in our clothing.

Joey Rosen:

You know what I mean?

Eddie Alvarez:

I love it, man. Yeah. I love it. Keep it going. I'm proud I'm proud of you guys just as as long as you as far as you came, as long as you can.

Eddie Alvarez:

I could be a small part of that. That's

Joey Rosen:

that's all I want, baby. Yeah. I appreciate that, bro.

Eddie Alvarez:

I love to see I love to see Philly guys win.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. Likewise. Likewise. Likewise. So our community, the Fuahong community as a whole, right, they have great admiration and respect for you, what you've done, what you've built.

Joey Rosen:

Right? But they know what you've done. What they're really interested in is how you did it. Right? So that's, like, your your come up story.

Joey Rosen:

Like, that's what they want to hear from you. How you went from, you know, a kid in Kensington to a world champion, like the real life Rocky. Like, that's what they wanna hear, from you. So this may be different than some of the other shows that, you've done maybe. We're not gonna talk about recent bouts or anything like that.

Joey Rosen:

We're gonna talk about, like, the come up as long as you're cool with that. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. Yeah. That's great, man.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

When look. So when you talk about the few, like, the few, like, I picture and think about something, like, unique something unique that was unique to me as a kid growing up. And, a lot of a lot of that was, 1, it's not unique if you live in Philadelphia to grow up in a tough area or grow up, like, with not a lot of money. That's kinda not unique. But what what what I did have that I felt, like, there was a competitiveness about me.

Eddie Alvarez:

I was 3rd born, and I didn't get picked for a lot of games. So I was a small small little maybe run of a kid, and I didn't get picked to play a lot. My my the kids on the block were a little bit taller, a little bit bigger, a little bit older. So, like, I think what was unique about me is my, just wanting to play. I didn't care failure was, like, the least of my worries.

Eddie Alvarez:

It was I was so excited about getting a play. Yeah. Like, if you just let me in the game, I'll be that's enough that's enough for me, and I had gratitude for that. It wasn't like, will I win? Will I lose?

Eddie Alvarez:

I just want to play. So, like, for me, that was probably my biggest driving factor, and, winning became a really important part after I got into the game. Like, man, I'll get I'll get even more love if I win at the game too. So, like, that was, that was something unique when I was smaller for sure.

Joey Rosen:

So what was what was life like? We were talking before the show started that, you know, I'm from Fronten, Ontario, you know, not too far from where you grew up. Right?

Eddie Alvarez:

Mhmm.

Joey Rosen:

What was life like on the block? You mentioned the block and the other kids. Like, what was life like on the block? Like, I'm curious how similar it was to mine or different. What What was the typical day like?

Joey Rosen:

Come out on the stoop and then what happens?

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. So, crazy amount of kids on my block growing up, and in I was born 84. So between 84 and 95, like, that them 10 years of my life, it was epic. Like, real blue collar neighborhood. Everybody worked, came home.

Eddie Alvarez:

You hear parents yell out on the block. My mom mom yelled all of our names. Hey. Come for dinner. Go up for dinner.

Eddie Alvarez:

But like a lot of kids, we played freedom. We played 2 and Touch. We played tackle football. Yeah. Tons of kids.

Eddie Alvarez:

So, like, Kensington was like that. And, there wasn't it wasn't, like, crime ridden. It was really nice area. Real really nice area to live. And then up until about about right around 10 years old, that's when things got just changed completely.

Eddie Alvarez:

Like, it went dark. It went from, like, the nicest place ever to live to just started seeing drugs come. You started seeing, section 8. I say I say moreover, section 8 killed every beautiful neighborhood inside of Philadelphia. The the idea of section 8 housing kind of crushed what was going on.

Eddie Alvarez:

You you they started giving, people stuff for free. Now that was a problem. Get given housing for free, giving they started giving handouts for free and not making people earn them and feel proud about what they're getting. So, like, that was a that was a problem, and now it destroyed the neighborhood. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

And it made it dangerous, and it made it not a good place to live. But as a kid, man, it was amazing.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. I I had that same too. I was I was there for a little less time than you were, and then we moved to Juniata, actually, like, right up from Hunting Park Ave, like, right up from, North.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. And I went to Holy Innocence. So I went from Ascension to Holy Innocence.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yep.

Joey Rosen:

Because it did seem like things flipped quicker than one would believe they could in the neighborhood as far as, like, you know, safety and the family fabric and things like that, you know, it changed quickly.

Eddie Alvarez:

Real fast.

Joey Rosen:

Especially on

Eddie Alvarez:

the block. Yeah.

Joey Rosen:

Oh, yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

On my block in particular, like, there there was there was, I think Jamaicans came in and started selling. That that was the first that was the first thing, and then there was a war between the Jamaicans and the guys who were originally there selling Yeah. Drugs. So then it went from selling drugs was the worst thing. Now people are murdering each other

Joey Rosen:

Over that. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Right on the smaller blocks where, you know, you can do things and get an and but my block, luckily, was a little bigger. A lot of kids on it. There wasn't a lot of drug activity on my particular block, but just all the surrounding blocks were then you got robberies. Yeah. Just it all just kinda is a domino effect.

Joey Rosen:

Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

Just manifest itself terribly. And, like Yeah. The best thing for me is that my parents, I kept with a foundation of faith. Mhmm. I always I was a Catholic growing up.

Eddie Alvarez:

Well, actually, we were Baptist and, where we sing and dance and do all that, and then we went from Baptist to to Catholic. I got baptized when I was probably, like, around 8 years old, something like that. Oh, okay. And then, we I went to Catholic school my entire life. So, like, I I think, one important thing, like, being in a neighborhood like that, even though you're surrounded by crime, surrounded by a lot of bed, giving a young kid a foundation of faith, like, something you call we want, Allah, the Lord, God.

Eddie Alvarez:

Everyone has their own different thing, but just the foundation of faith, which most of them have the same principles. Mhmm. Super important in a dangerous world to have faith and belief, like, for a child so so he can feel safe.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. Rules to live by. Principles to live by.

Eddie Alvarez:

That helped. That helped for me.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. And, you know, a vision of what things could be like. You know what I mean? Yeah. Everybody live by these principles and these rules, you know, despite what's surrounding you.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

And another thing was, I would leave I would leave Kensington. That was kinda a little bit dangerous. This and that. And, like, a lot of times, I would either I would run the school or I would get on my roller blades, and I would rollerblade the school. And I roller blade or ran, to, Port Richmond, which was all the way on rich Richmond Street, to Saint George.

Eddie Alvarez:

Saint George School. It was about 3 miles.

Joey Rosen:

Says a couple of miles.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. About 3 miles from my original house, but I ran track. And my dad was like, hey. If you wanna get better at track, then you're gonna run. So I started waking up, put my backpack on.

Eddie Alvarez:

I will run to school or I've rollerblade the school if I had felt like running.

Joey Rosen:

You gotta wear a uniform now at Saint George. Right?

Eddie Alvarez:

Yes. But I didn't. I put my uniform in my bag, and then I would, my clothes would be sweaty, and I would get changed in the alley right by the kindergarten area.

Drew Beech:

Oh my god.

Eddie Alvarez:

And this is me as a a 10 year old a 10 year old kid.

Joey Rosen:

You gotta be the only kid doing that.

Drew Beech:

Every day.

Eddie Alvarez:

One of the few, baby.

Drew Beech:

Every day?

Eddie Alvarez:

And not every day, but, I have I just remember my book bag sometimes I have too many books, and it would just be smacking me in the back. And I will have big red mark on my back by the time I got to school. But I would go in, alley. I get there a little early, go in alley, and then, I would get changed, into my school uniform and then go to school. But, like, track wise and, like, to I just knew I was I know it was unique because people, like, you fucking ran me or 2.

Eddie Alvarez:

So I knew. And then the more unique it was, maybe I got attention for it as a kid, and I'm like, you know what? Fuck it. I don't wanna be like everyone else. I'm probably getting more attention being myself or doing, you know, doing this thing that kinda is odd and a little bit weird, but I'm getting more attention from that than trying to fit in.

Eddie Alvarez:

So, like, I I just, just that's what I did.

Joey Rosen:

And it was a positive thing. You know what I mean? Not only was it keeping you in shape, but there was feeding the other things that you were trying to do. Because you were boxing at the time. Right?

Eddie Alvarez:

I was, no. I I was like maltese where I played as a young kid, I just did football, basketball, track and field. Okay. I didn't wrestle till later on in my life, but, like, them, 3 sports were were my main sports all the way up until, like, yeah, like, all the way up until high school. Okay.

Eddie Alvarez:

I didn't start wrestling in the high school.

Joey Rosen:

How about boxing? When did you when did you start? Were you in a club when you were

Eddie Alvarez:

Boxing. I want the Front Street boxing gym. Okay. There was there was a year in my life where all my parents couldn't afford the tuition, and they were like, hey. You know, you guys wanna, one of you guys wanna basically volunteer to not go to Catholic school this year.

Eddie Alvarez:

I'm like, yeah. I'm I'm good. I'll do it. So I went to Conwell in 5th grade. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

And that it was weird because I all my friends I grew up were in Saint George, but I'm like, I'll go to Commonwealth. So I went to Commonwealth, and Front Street Boxing Gym was right down the street. So I begged my dad, like, that kinda box, and he didn't really want me to end up but then he's I he signed a paper, gave me the release, and, I started boxing a front street boxing gym, 5th grade. That had to be, like, it's probably, like, 10, something like that. Maybe 10 years old.

Eddie Alvarez:

I remember I used to I used to write on the thing. Used to write your weight. It was I wrote £85. So I was £85 when I that was that's when I it was my first trip to the boxing gym.

Joey Rosen:

That's amazing. Well, I was gonna ask you about running the school. I'm glad you brought that up, because in some of the shows that I've I've seen you do or the interviews that I've heard, I think you mentioned that, like, from that activity of running the school and you hit on it. It it kind of began a formula for you for life, which is to, like, you know, do the uncommon work, like, be different. Right?

Joey Rosen:

And I'm assuming that that's a theme that you've kept with, you know, your, training, your fight camps, everything. Like, do more work, do the uncommon work, be different. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. That honestly easy formula easier, like, said than done. Right? So, like, everyone says it. Right?

Eddie Alvarez:

But then you wake up and the work's there to be done, and you don't feel it. Right? You're like, damn. I really don't feel it. And I think at a really young age, I had a unique ability to ignore my feelings and, do what I felt was the right thing.

Eddie Alvarez:

And at a really young age, I started to separate myself from my feelings. Amen. And, wrestling further did that to me. Gave me a better, practice and separate myself from my feelings. And by the time I started my fight career, I was completely void of feelings.

Joey Rosen:

It was the effort.

Drew Beech:

It was

Eddie Alvarez:

the effort, not the emotion. I knew what I had to do and how I felt was the last thing, I was worried about. So, when I started my fight career off, I didn't do a fucking thing I wanted to do. Anything I wanted to do didn't matter. I put myself last, my feelings last, and I knew I had a job that had to get done.

Eddie Alvarez:

I knew I I needed to be relentless. I needed to, I needed to do a lot of things that I wasn't gonna feel good about that it wasn't gonna be comfortable. Mhmm. And I just went deep into it. I I probably went a little too deep into it, to be honest with you.

Eddie Alvarez:

I I became voided of films, like like and even other people's films.

Joey Rosen:

Yep.

Eddie Alvarez:

I had trouble being empathetic and sympathetic toward people because I'm, like, because I was so mean to myself, maybe. And, man, I was so I was so I didn't give myself room to make an excuse, and I didn't allow anybody around me. So I wasn't really a good friend. I I need to work on that.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah.

Drew Beech:

And I feel that's a common trait amongst the few where entrepreneurs and people that are striving for to do great and different things is that we tend to be a little selfish, especially, like, when we're building businesses. You're building your name in the fight game and also businesses. But you really just think about you wake up and think about the work that has to be done. You don't think about normal people things. Right?

Drew Beech:

Yep. I heard you say in a prior interview that you were working, in cement cement work or concrete. Right?

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah.

Drew Beech:

And that like, at what point did you know that you were, like, I need to get out of here and and do something meaningful or great with my life?

Eddie Alvarez:

It wasn't like a light bulb moment. It was, you know, it was my, when I was 18, I was 18 years old, and I was still live we're still living in Kensington. Me and Jamie, we've been together since we're 15 years old. She was with her father. I was mostly at her house, but we're back and forth, in Kensington.

Eddie Alvarez:

And, my parents moved away when I was 18. They moved to Florida. And so it was me Wow. And my siblings, and we were splitting the bills.

Joey Rosen:

And the bills. You and your siblings had the bills.

Eddie Alvarez:

We were just splitting the bills in Kensington, and that was gonna be my life. And that was scary for me because, like, I'm a competitor. I'm coming fresh out of, North Catholic, ranked top in wrestling. And I'm gonna go from that to my life is about to become, hey. You're a concrete worker, and that's it.

Eddie Alvarez:

And that the idea of me working concrete for a guy and just being monotonous and mundane, no excitement, It really scared the shit out of it scared me to no end that that idea. I remember writing Jamie, some letters when I was younger about how much it scared me. And, that fear kinda gripped me to the point where I'm like, I need to I need to be competitive again, and I need to find a gym. And, whatever that meant, whether it was for money or not money, I just need to be competitive. So I just went I I got to the nearest local gym of guys who were training, and I started to fight.

Eddie Alvarez:

I was fighting every weekend anyway. So, like

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

I'm like, this is all I know. I did great at wrestling. I'd always loved combat sports. I always loved to be competitive. So, like, I started doing that, and, that just started snowballing.

Eddie Alvarez:

As I got deeper into combat and fighting and and that, going to my job became like it was like a place that I went to that got in the way of what I really wanted to do. Yep. Yep. Mhmm. And then it became almost exhausting to go to work because I'm like, you're wasting your time here.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. You gotta figure a way out of here so you can just do what you wanna do. Mhmm. So, like, that that fear and that anxiety of staying at concrete kinda drove me crazy. Yep.

Eddie Alvarez:

It drove me wild to train at a different level.

Drew Beech:

It's crazy to think that you're also a side hustle entrepreneur. Right? Like, you are a fighter by by trade and business, but, realistically, you experience the same pain that Joey and I felt in business. Like, we were at our day jobs, and we were just like, get us the fuck out of here. Like, we we know what we're called to do

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah.

Drew Beech:

And we wanted to do it as soon as possible.

Joey Rosen:

And what

Eddie Alvarez:

were you guys doing before this?

Drew Beech:

I was in sales, and Joe was in tech.

Joey Rosen:

I was in tech. Tech. Okay. The the fear of staying the same was was fucking terrifying

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah.

Joey Rosen:

Compared to the fear of the risk that it takes to build something like this.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. Maybe that's a character trait because I like I have siblings, and they're totally fine with their jobs. And that's like, I I'm like, hey. Everyone's different. So, like, if you're good with a job, great.

Eddie Alvarez:

We need you guys need the workers. Right? Yeah. Yeah. But, like, not everyone can be that.

Eddie Alvarez:

Not everyone has that temperament or that is that risk adverse. But, like, something in certain people, won't allow him to do that, and that's we need it.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. The one quote Joey always always likes to say is to risk is to live, and it's almost even when I was in sales, I just love living life knowing I could either be great or I could fail on the next day. And, like, that energy and that thrill, like, kinda, like, drives my life still to this day. But one thing that stays common through the the few is to get through it, we grow through it. And I know you mentioned Jamie's been with you forever almost.

Drew Beech:

Was there any times in your journey that were really dark and hard for you that you, like, maybe almost felt like giving up and you guys got through it, like, any certain way that you would like to share?

Eddie Alvarez:

Oh, man. Giving up plenty of times. Plenty of times. Any dark times, Jing? That's right.

Eddie Alvarez:

I'm like shit, man. It's still full of dark times. So, like, and that's why that's why it comes back to our beginning of our conversation was, as a young kid, the best gift I could've got given myself or given from my parents was a foundation of faith because there's gonna be a dark times all the time, especially in a journey of, like, this uncertain. And you need something something to believe in when there's all darkness. So you need to be able to search for light, like, even the tiniest bit, and then just focus on that light and say, hey, man.

Eddie Alvarez:

I know it's bad, but that teeny bit of light, just keep your eye on it because that's that's what you wanna aim for. So, like, we've had dark times. Like I said, me and Jamie met when we were 15 years old, like like, we had Eddie when we had my my firstborn son when we were 20 years old, and I'm chasing I'm we're not even established yet. Yeah. We were together.

Eddie Alvarez:

We met each other 5 years back. We have our first child. I didn't wanna have a child in anyone else's house, So me and Jamie got our first little home, 800 square foot home, probably a mile from here.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

And, we started our family. So I started I started started my family, a 20 year old man, with a concrete job and a dream of fist fighting. I mean, it doesn't get too much darker. Yeah. I'm like, man, like, this if if someone could bet, hey.

Eddie Alvarez:

This is gonna go well. They I mean, it could be like, come on, man. You did you guys are up against some serious odds here? But, what's what was what was unique in in our relationship was we knew each other already. 5 years, we met when we were 15, and my wife believed in me, like, almost believed in me in a delusional way that that I believed in myself.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. Like, almost like, hey. No one else in this room, they're gonna laugh at you guys. So you 2 over there who are believing in this thing you're gonna do, you're out of your freaking mind. But my wife believed in me that way.

Eddie Alvarez:

And I think if if you find a woman who can do that for you, a man will will figure a way out. They'll figure a way to get it done. And then once you begin to have a family and your kids believe in you that way, then it just goes to a whole another level. Like, I gotta get this done. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

So, like, that was what I had, that kind of energy and that kind of force and that kind of support at 20 years old. Yeah. So it was like at 20, I'm like, I gotta get this done. This ain't this can't be a dream. We have to manifest this, and I need to take it that serious.

Eddie Alvarez:

So we I took it. Yeah. The sport the sport, no one was main air in the sport.

Drew Beech:

But that's

Eddie Alvarez:

also a good that's a really

Drew Beech:

good point. Like, it wasn't fighting wasn't wasn't what it is today.

Joey Rosen:

When you say you were training, right, like, you're training in a basement. Like, you're doing, like, basement MMA with, like, 4 guys.

Eddie Alvarez:

Right? Like,

Joey Rosen:

you're not at a a school, right, at this point?

Eddie Alvarez:

No. My first introduction was I walked, right around Frankfurt. I walked in, the cellars that walked down. And I walked down and I walked down the cellar, and who's there is, Steve Hague, my very first coach. This guy Pierre, he was a kickboxer.

Eddie Alvarez:

And Big Joe Pfeiffer, Joe Pfeiffer's father, who Joe talks very highly about. And Big Joe Pfeiffer was a boxer, very good boxer back in the day. And them 3 were in there, and I'm like, okay. So what are we gonna do here?

Joey Rosen:

Alright. So I know the There's a ton of Like the Bilco doors, you open

Eddie Alvarez:

up and you walk down. Open them up. Saw it down and concrete floor? Concrete floor. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

That's it. They had, you know, the foldable mats?

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

They might have had, like, 3 of them.

Drew Beech:

Kids gymnastics mats?

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. We might have had a total of, like, a 8 by 8. Yeah. Yeah. And we're like, okay.

Eddie Alvarez:

And I remember I I was a wrestler at the time from North Catholic, and I'm okay. So this is what I'll bring to the table wrestling. This guy boxes. He's a pro boxer. This guy kickboxes.

Eddie Alvarez:

And Steve Hegg did Brazilian jiu jitsu. It says between the 4 of us

Joey Rosen:

We can put something together.

Eddie Alvarez:

We're we could be a badass guy. So we we popped in, VHS tapes.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

We watched instructionals of the the top guys. Marcelo Garcia was great at the time. Mhmm. You name it. Gracie's, we watched the old UFCs.

Eddie Alvarez:

We watched them because we didn't there wasn't any resource to go to

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

For MMA. There wasn't a ATT or a kill cliff to say, let's go here and and train at the highest level.

Joey Rosen:

Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

It was us watching tape, and then most of us had, you know, grew up in gritty neighborhoods and been in fights. And that was it. That was the extent of fighting in 2 in 2001, 2002 Yeah. When I began training.

Joey Rosen:

So you're bringing you you're bringing something that we can't just, like, gloss over as you're bringing different skill sets, all the guys in that basement, but you're also bringing your grit to it. Where's Pierre from?

Eddie Alvarez:

Pierre was, he moved around. He was, he was in the military. And I think he was stationed in London for a while, but he was back here. And Steve Haig met him. Very good kickboxer.

Eddie Alvarez:

He fought on a bulldog card with me. So did Steve Haig, fought on a bulldog card with me. Big Joe Pfeiffer was a low he was probably the older of all of us. Okay. But, that was kinda dude, that was the start of what's Fight Factory, which was one of the first MMA schools or teams here in Philadelphia.

Joey Rosen:

Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

Fight fight factory, and that was Steve Haag and and the found was sort of the founder that us just kinda getting together. Yeah. He's figuring it out.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. I mean, that's an amazing story. Amazing story. So you're you're 20. You're building a family.

Joey Rosen:

You're building a career as a fighter. Right? When was your pro debut? Was that before your son was born or after?

Eddie Alvarez:

Before.

Joey Rosen:

Before. I

Eddie Alvarez:

was 19 when I had my pro debut. I was 19 years old. Yeah. And that was in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Okay.

Joey Rosen:

Up to Turnpike?

Eddie Alvarez:

Right up to Turnpike in Elizabeth, for Ring of Combat. And I took the fight on, like, 4 months of training. I've trained, like, 4 months, and I'm like, hey. I wanna fight.

Joey Rosen:

Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

I'm I'm doing concrete. I've already I'm fighting every weekend.

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

When my friends getting in fights, getting in trouble, I'm like, I wanna fight. And they're like, hey. You just gotta get your medical. So I got my medicals done. It cost me $500 to get my medicals done.

Eddie Alvarez:

I sold about 200, $300 in tickets. So I was in the hole of 200

Joey Rosen:

bucks in

Eddie Alvarez:

my first flight.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. Didn't even break even.

Eddie Alvarez:

I didn't break even. Luckily, I think we got about 75 people there. We sold some t shirts. Yeah. Okay.

Eddie Alvarez:

And everybody came up from Philadelphia on a cheese bus, And we put a keg on the cheese bus, and everybody came up.

Drew Beech:

Philly, man.

Eddie Alvarez:

And, we drank drank the whole way all the way up to Elizabeth, got off the bus, and, boom. It was, like, in a, on a basketball court. Like a Indirect one. Like a wrecked basketball court. They put some stands up, and we rumbled right there.

Eddie Alvarez:

I went against a Matt Sarah purple belt. Mhmm. And Matt Sarah was cornering him. Yeah. And, we I I I knocked him out in, like, 3 minutes, and he he didn't get up, like, for a while.

Eddie Alvarez:

And I thought I killed the first guy foot. That would be great. I was I got excited Yeah. And I went from excited to to concerned to holy shit. I killed this guy.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. And it's my very first fight.

Joey Rosen:

So he was down for he was down for a minute.

Eddie Alvarez:

The smell and salt and everything he wasn't getting. Oh, no. No. They cut the camera. They cut it again.

Eddie Alvarez:

And when they cut the camera, like, the 3rd time, the guy guy got up. Yeah. And I was like, holy shit. This is wild.

Drew Beech:

Was that first, stadium experience or or they'd like to experience any things, in comparison to wrestling at the pit and North Catholic?

Eddie Alvarez:

Or Dude, the pit got me prepared for this. Yeah. So, like, the pit oh, I own my skills at the pit. That's the real that was the real foundation of me competing competing in front of my friends, dealing with the fear, the anxiety, the nervousness, and being able to go out there and just put on at another level. And, the crowd always did that for me, but I got the support.

Eddie Alvarez:

All them people from the pit, all the people from the the out out the bars in Philadelphia, all of them just gathered and was like, that kid Eddie's fighting. And and, we all seen him fight in the neighborhood or we all seen him wrestle at the pit. Let's go watch him wherever he's gone. And, that was the kinda it just grew, man. It grew very fast.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. 75 people at your first and now I know you didn't break even, but 75 people at your first at your debut is good. Like, that's solid. Right? I mean, in my opinion, that's that's pretty damn solid.

Eddie Alvarez:

More, but there was a thunder a a snowstorm.

Joey Rosen:

Snowstorm. Snowstorm. Okay.

Drew Beech:

So That's the funny part about Philly too is they might doubt you at first when you when you seem crazy, but you're having these big dreams. But then when you start to actually put it together and and start to show some proof of work, they'll really come out and support you.

Joey Rosen:

Respect the work in Philly. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You just can't fuck up because it's been on Yeah. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Back though. Exactly. That's

Drew Beech:

no balls. Exactly. That's what

Joey Rosen:

I'm saying. There's a snowstorm, so you were actually it was you were liable to snowballs in your current debut.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah, man. So, like, yeah, that was sort of the the birth of it. And then once, I mean, once once I had my first knock at it, it was like and I I didn't get paid. But at the time, the UFC was, I think, negotiating the tough deal. They didn't go on tough yet.

Eddie Alvarez:

Mhmm. So people were on TV and getting attention. There was just not a lot of money in this sport at all. So there was like, as I'm doing it, I'm like, what am I doing? Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Like, this is is this a dead end? Is there a path here? And, I just kept doing what I enjoyed doing. I was competing. It gave me an outlet to compete, an outlet to exercise, an outlet to live a healthier life per se.

Eddie Alvarez:

And, so I just went I went after it. And the rest of, like, what Dana White was doing with the UFC, they were working to build it at the same time. So, like, by the time my 3rd fight came around, the UFC, they had the ultimate fighter on TV Mhmm. And then they really broke and kind of started to make some money.

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

And and you started to see a path to make a living through fighting. Mhmm.

Joey Rosen:

And

Eddie Alvarez:

that was probably, like, my 2nd year into fighting where I'm like, holy shit. I I could just fight. Like, I don't I don't have to do concrete work, come home, train twice a day, go to sleep, and, then do concrete work again, rinse, repeat. I could just fly. And the idea of that was so, like, it was so that becoming a a dream and and becoming a reality, I live there.

Eddie Alvarez:

I lived in that reality. Mhmm.

Joey Rosen:

And

Eddie Alvarez:

then this reality that I was in became so unacceptable that I'm like, I gotta be there. I gotta go there. I have to go because now it's it's an opportunity. And I'm gonna blow I'm gonna put it on myself to get there. You know?

Eddie Alvarez:

Mhmm. So so we did that. And you said it

Joey Rosen:

grew quickly. Like, after that pro debut, it started growing quickly. So now you're 2 years in, and now you're pursuing full time fighting, right, basically?

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. 2 years in, 2 years, 3 years, year 4. I we would pray on this. Hey, Lord, please, if you just give me opportunity to, to to just quit my job, just not be and just and just be make enough money to be able to train full time. I promise you, I will treat this like a job.

Eddie Alvarez:

I'll stay accountable. I'll never ever take this for granted and boom. By year 4, I've ran I've ran to Jamie. We were in on Mill North Street. It's like I said, we're living at 800 Square Foot House.

Eddie Alvarez:

We have little Eddie, and I ran upstairs, and I said

Joey Rosen:

You're here. You're here. Right here. Yeah. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Literally, half mile from here. Yeah. And I said, that's it. I'm done. I'm never working.

Eddie Alvarez:

Bodog Mhmm. Offered me a 4 fight deal for $30,000 a fight. So 4 fights at that point in my career, I was fighting 5 times a year. So that would be a a $120 for 4 fights. I think we were making $40 a year, the concrete work.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. Yeah. The all year. Yeah. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

And, I was a saver. I was frugal. So I had money in the bank, and I said, alright. Let's this is it. This is everything I prayed for.

Eddie Alvarez:

This is everything I was dreaming about and thinking of, and boom, we got we got our first opportunity through Bodog to, make this a life, make it a career. And god did I go I went on fire then. Yeah. I went on fire.

Joey Rosen:

Well, you're you you had a you had a full tank, man, and you had a promise to fulfill.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. It was like, hey. You said you you said you would do this. I'm giving it to you.

Joey Rosen:

Yep. Time to deliver.

Eddie Alvarez:

What you gonna do now? It's like, alright. Now it's time to earn it.

Drew Beech:

When you sign that deal, do you get the the whole lump sum up at once? Or, like, is it is it, like, life changing like that where, like, oh my god. We have, like, a $120,000 in the bank? Or is it No. Is there over time?

Drew Beech:

Okay.

Eddie Alvarez:

No. It's, so it's still it's still like if I get injured. Right? Yeah. Then if I don't fight, then, I don't get paid.

Eddie Alvarez:

Right? But for 30000 hours of flight when you're 20, 20, 21 years old, it's like oh, no. No. No. At the time, I was 22 or 23.

Eddie Alvarez:

It's like, shit. I'm fighting. I don't care what's wrong. So And we had Anthony on the way. Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

We're at 2,008. Yeah. Alpha on the way at this time. Yeah. My second my second born.

Eddie Alvarez:

So that's around yeah. Around 2,008. So now it's time to deliver. What what's funny is, I wrote something on my Instagram not long ago, and it was like, I I basically wanted this in my life. Right?

Eddie Alvarez:

I want it to be free. I didn't want a boss. I didn't wanna be told what to do. I wanted to be I wanted to wake up when I wanted to wake up, and that was why I wanted to, work for myself and have my own thing. Right?

Eddie Alvarez:

Mhmm. So that was a big part of the reason, the freedom that comes with working for yourself. Right? So when I did concrete, I had to wake up at 5:30. I had a boss at 6 o'clock telling me do this, do that, do this.

Eddie Alvarez:

If it was a weekend, he was saying, hey, you gotta work. This and so my first day, I opened my eyes. I'm from a free man. I don't have a job. What time is it?

Eddie Alvarez:

5:30, dude. Yeah. 5:30. By the time I get to the gym, my coach is yawning me telling me what to do. I said not a damn thing changed, but not a damn thing changed.

Eddie Alvarez:

But I was getting to do what I loved. I was getting to pursue something I loved. That's right. And I would get the benefits of it if it turned out good, and I was okay with that. Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

But you're not any freer. Freedom is up here.

Joey Rosen:

It's in

Eddie Alvarez:

your mind. Yeah. But Yes. You will get the benefits of your hard work versus your boss getting the benefits of your hard work. That was what changed.

Drew Beech:

You're speaking my language, the freedom. Like, that's what drove me to want to be an entrepreneur so much. But the freeing part is that you you know you're doing it for yourself, so you don't mind the work. The the work you know it's all going to you. So you're okay with putting out every day.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. There's different levels of freedom. Like, everybody consolidates it into just one word, but there's, like, financial freedom. There's time freedom. There's freedom of relationships.

Joey Rosen:

Like, what you're describing is what we talk about all the time, which is freedom of purpose. Like, you know, you know, at that point, you knew why you were on this planet. You knew your purpose. You know what you needed to do and now you are free to pursue it. Yeah.

Joey Rosen:

You know what I mean? That's it's beautiful thing.

Drew Beech:

It's almost the the cliche quote is do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. And I always say cliche quotes sound cliche until they actually make sense in your in your real life.

Eddie Alvarez:

Until you're living.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. Exactly.

Eddie Alvarez:

Living it. Yeah. I I I say all the time. Yeah. It was I haven't worked since I was 23, 24 years old.

Eddie Alvarez:

We joke about it.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

My my family will be like, Ed, you know, what time you got work tomorrow? It's a it's a joke. Yeah. But it's dead serious to me. I I hold myself just as accountable as my boss said.

Eddie Alvarez:

My if my boss is gonna say, hey. Be there at 6:30 and I'll show up, then you're damn sure I'm a show up for myself.

Drew Beech:

Yep.

Eddie Alvarez:

So when when it was my time to put my schedule together, nobody fucked with my schedule. Yep. My schedule is 6:30, be here. I'm gonna be home. I was training 3 times a day.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. I had no more freedom than I had. I probably had less. Yeah. But I knew I was on I was a man on fire.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yep. Now I I I took the ceiling and I ripped it off, and I went, hey. I'm I'm headed to this I'm headed to the moon. Yep. So, like, that's how I felt.

Eddie Alvarez:

And it was all up to me now. And I was okay with taking that on taking on that responsibility. Sure.

Joey Rosen:

So man on fire. Man on fire goes to be a world champion the first to be a world champion in both Bellator and UFC. Right? Pretty sure?

Eddie Alvarez:

Yes. No. There is no other. I don't believe. K.

Eddie Alvarez:

There's no other man to do that.

Joey Rosen:

And then you're that's you.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. I'm the guy. You're the guy. You're the guy. You're

Joey Rosen:

the guy. So we won't get into we won't get into everything. Right? All your bouts. My question for you is maybe Drew has a question too.

Joey Rosen:

Of all your bouts, right, which one taught you the most about yourself, whether it was a win loss or no contest? Like, of of all your fights, which one taught you the most about yourself or taught you the most about life? You know, an important lesson.

Eddie Alvarez:

My god. So, like, I have notes. I have notes. So after I'm mostly notes after all my losses. All my major losses, I have notes that I, that I write down.

Eddie Alvarez:

And I think that's, like, an important, part of taking big losses is, kind of reflecting, critiquing, and then more importantly, forgiving yourself for it. And then writing a map on how you're gonna move forward and not do it again type thing. And that it's a way to help forgive yourself and move on as an athlete. So, like, I have I have tons of notes and lessons, but, like, I think my biggest win, and I think it had more to do with where I was at in my life, what was on the line at the time, and overcoming what was in front of me was the second, fight with Mike Chandler. We were not in a great we weren't in a great spot.

Eddie Alvarez:

We moved from Philadelphia out to Florida because a manager basically was supporting me for a little bit for a couple months. We were low low on money, and the promotion was suing me. Me and Bellator were in a lawsuit, and, they were trying to get me to go bankrupt so I can cooperate with them and re sign with them. So it was a very odd spot. I was at war with the promotion that I fought for.

Eddie Alvarez:

I was at war with my boss.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

And my boss wanted me to devalue me. He wanted me to not win so I could resign and be broke and do what he wants me to do. So, like, really weird spot. Not a lot of money, not in our, not at home, not in Philadelphia. We're away from our house.

Eddie Alvarez:

Me and my wife are renting a house for the first time. We're like, we're renting a place. We have our own home at home. Yeah. We're renting.

Eddie Alvarez:

We're just trying to chase what's there in Florida, the opportunity that's there in Florida. And, I just remember making a decision that I won't lose. I made that decision before the camp even started. And I was gonna do I was gonna be relentless in my approach to win. So I made that decision, and I found out things about myself, like, where I can go not just physically, but spiritually if I just decide.

Eddie Alvarez:

If I just decide and I'm willing to do whatever it takes that I felt like I could manifest. I can make whatever I want to happen, and that was, like, eye opening for me. And I went there. I went to a crazy place getting ready for this fight because I made a decision to win, and I and I wasn't going to let anything else happen. And that was a crazy fight.

Eddie Alvarez:

I knew it was gonna be a crazy fight. I knew how deep I was gonna have to dig Mhmm. Because I was fighting a a guy, very, very tough opponent who can take damage, give damage, and stay in there. And, that second fight was like it got spiritual inside there. Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

And I prepared in a way that, that I just wasn't willing to lose. And that was, I I learned a ton from the camp, from the training camp. And even the aftermath of the flight, I learned a ton about myself. And I left I left it all with a like, basically, a big fuck you to my boss that he's not gonna he's not gonna control me. He's not gonna tell me what to do no matter what evil he's trying to do to me or try to beat me down.

Eddie Alvarez:

I'm the boss of myself, and I I took complete accountability for what I had to do and, and went after it full full force.

Joey Rosen:

Sound like you you sound like you had to win a fight before the fight. Like

Eddie Alvarez:

Oh, it would

Joey Rosen:

before you even went into the fight, you had to win a fight.

Eddie Alvarez:

We're up against everybody. Yeah. Everybody. The opponent was the smallest of of the where it's it was the promotion. K.

Eddie Alvarez:

Trying to fuck with me, trying to fuck with my family, our our resources, our money. The it was Yeah. It was a bad spot. And all while, it's just me, Jamie, and the kids. We didn't we weren't we're in a foreign place in Florida Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

Trying to meet new people. Yeah. So it's basically us against the world.

Drew Beech:

It's that's I'm finding so many like, even feeling more connected to you after this conversation because there's so many mindset similarities. I mean, I know we we do different things for work, but I always tell people the way Joey and I got here because everyone's starting at apparel right nowadays. Everyone's starting a business in 2020 4. But the thing that separated us from everyone else is that we had a relentless refusal to quit, and, like, we were ready to die doing this. Mhmm.

Drew Beech:

My question for you, though, we have a lot like I said, a lot of, like, side hustle entrepreneurs or people chasing big dreams alongside of their main jobs. So is there any advice you would give to someone who's chasing a bigger dream or goal that, you would like to give them for people at home listening?

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. There was a fighter recently. I'm not gonna say his name. I'm not gonna say his name, that was on in he was on Instagram. I've seen he was doing I know he fights, but then he got into one thing, and then he got into another thing.

Eddie Alvarez:

And then, I just text him, and I was like, hey, man. So you said you're not doing the fighting anymore? And he goes, no. No. I'm still fighting.

Eddie Alvarez:

And I said, well, you're either a fighter or you're this. You can't be both. So, you gotta commit to what you're doing. And if you're doing anything else, that just tells me you don't truly believe in the thing that's in front of you because you wouldn't do anything else. So, like, if you really have a dream, you need to commit full to the dream because your competition isn't fucking doing real estate.

Eddie Alvarez:

They're not dabbling in other things. Your competition is psychotic about what they do. Mhmm. And they're obsessed about it, and they love it. And that there's nothing more that they want than to crush you and everyone around them.

Eddie Alvarez:

So, like, that needs to be your approach. It needs to be burn the ships, inflate the boats, kill everyone, and your approach needs to be that. It can't be anything else. You will get murdered if it's anything else. So my biggest advice would be is just commit wholeheartedly or do the other thing.

Joey Rosen:

Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

But don't do both. You'll just be kinda shitty at both. Do the one and become great at it. And if you're you are bringing something else in and dabbling in that, then then this ain't for you because you don't believe in it. So, like, that's that would be my only advice.

Eddie Alvarez:

And the the biggest people the best people that I connect with and and love aren't the most successful. It's just the ones who, like, unapologetically don't give a fuck Yeah. And go after it. It's like Yeah. Look at this dude.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. Look at what he he don't care if he wins or loses, but at least he's fully committed. Yeah. And you could be an asshole. I like guys who are assholes who are fully committed to being it.

Eddie Alvarez:

So I'm like, this guy is a fool on it. But I kinda like it because, like, he's wholeheartedly 1.

Joey Rosen:

Yep.

Eddie Alvarez:

That's what I connect with is someone who's all in, and don't don't really, you know, have a second, 3rd, 4th thing where they're just kinda, I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. And that that would be my biggest advice is, you commit and then sell the people around you as good as you can for them to jump on board with you and also commit the way you are. Hey.

Eddie Alvarez:

Sell them in a way where they don't wanna do anything else either.

Joey Rosen:

Yep. They can see the vision.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah.

Joey Rosen:

Just as clear as you can. Yeah. I think that it's it's not only the biggest advice, it's probably the best advice you could give somebody. I'm gonna go run through the through

Drew Beech:

the Yeah. Seriously.

Eddie Alvarez:

Or we're just gonna run through

Joey Rosen:

a brick wall. No. I mean, I I feel like that's that's the best advice, and we see that a lot now, especially in the entrepreneur space. Like, as soon as things get hard and it requires that next level of commitment, they switch to something else. Mhmm.

Joey Rosen:

You know what I mean? And then they start rebuilding again instead of being able to to double, triple down, quadruple down like you've done in your life over and over again. Like, that's a consistent theme with you. Right? I mean, adversity has shown up in different ways, and you've said plan's not changing.

Joey Rosen:

0 options. Like, you tore the ceiling off, you saw the light, and you're going, and that's it. Yeah. You know?

Eddie Alvarez:

That that kind of commitment, that that that's all it has to be. There is no other way. If someone tries to say, oh, try it this way.

Joey Rosen:

Try So there's no shortcut or magic pill or hack to to get there?

Eddie Alvarez:

No. Of course not. Absolutely not. Of course not. Full commitment, and you take full responsibility, everything.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. If you won, you won. If you lost, you lost. And that's the kind of accountability that needs it needs to happen. So it's like Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

Getting involved in other things is just I'll tell you, I I spend so many plates, and, I've had so many opportunities. I have people to ask me to start a gym a 1000000 times throughout my career. 20 years of my career, started gyms, do this, do that. I could have easily started a gym. I could have had a gym for a decade now and then having a gym that I'm making a half a 1000000 quarter $1,000,000 a year on.

Eddie Alvarez:

It'd have been a really safe route, but I I knew. I know a 100% the the kind of person I am.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

I would not be able to fully commit to the main thing that gave me everything that that we have is and that's that's fighting.

Drew Beech:

And, Joey, I it's so funny. Joey, I've been just talking about this before the show. It's everyone thinks discipline is getting up and running and eating well and and training hard. But, realistically, another side of discipline that everyone doesn't see is saying no to opportunities and and shiny objects. Right?

Drew Beech:

Like, that's maybe even harder than than doing because we love training. We love beating our ourselves up, But saying no is sometimes the hardest part.

Eddie Alvarez:

Mhmm. That bro, it's so funny you say that. Because I thought I I think someone could write a book on on the idea of that today. Mhmm. The idea of saying no.

Eddie Alvarez:

Because back in the day when you were training, I would ask I would ask a guy, hey. What should I do? And they would go, alright. Well, you're gonna run a couple miles, you're gonna go to the gym, you're gonna skip some rope, and then you're gonna do some and you can actually write a book today. I I will go up to people and say, hey.

Eddie Alvarez:

What should I not do? Because we're in a we're in a place where we have so abundant of resources. You could do anything.

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Like, there's nothing that's not available to me that's the same thing isn't available to anybody anywhere. We have the same amount of information. We could probably go to the same gyms. It's all there for you. There's the the big play is in what what you're saying no to.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Are you saying no to the party? Are you saying no to the drinks? Are you saying no to all the all them other things that kinda get in the way, that interrupt or disrupt you on your path to your goal.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. And they might the note would could potentially even take you further than, like, the training does. Like, if you just skip the drinks or the parties, you might be a better fighter or, realistically, you will be a better fighter on Monday than you

Eddie Alvarez:

would be if you did.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. That's the that's the problem with society. Like, information and access is so freely available, you can do anything, and then a whole lot of people end up doing nothing. Mhmm. Yeah.

Joey Rosen:

You know what I mean? Because they're trying to do everything.

Eddie Alvarez:

There's too many options.

Joey Rosen:

There's too many options.

Eddie Alvarez:

And no nobody's fully committed. You got a guy who's selling Amazon, and he's like, you know what? I wanna I want and it's like, what do you what do you you need to know yourself. Mhmm. What do you like?

Eddie Alvarez:

And then kinda go from there. But, like, the best way to get there, I tell my kids is try in the beginning, try a bunch of shit. Don't don't be afraid to try stuff and fall on your face because it's in that journey where you'll find out, oh, this is what I love to do. Mhmm. Tried everything else.

Eddie Alvarez:

I I had the courage to go after everything else. This is what I really like.

Joey Rosen:

Yeah. You know?

Drew Beech:

It's hard to teach nowadays too because with everything in today's society, you press a button and it's there. Right? You press DoorDash, and it's at your front door. In building a business and building your dreams like you did, it takes 10 years multiple years of fucking grinding and sacrifice and sweat and blood before you see any amount of results. And we're so conditioned in today's society to just have the results immediately that it's hard to be like, oh, you won't result in this, though?

Drew Beech:

You're gonna have to wait a while.

Joey Rosen:

There's no You can't microwave these type of results, the results that we're after. You know what I mean? Just can't Yeah. And and

Eddie Alvarez:

I, I I've shown shown not long ago. You you almost have to live here because, like you're saying, you're gonna work your asses off. You're gonna work your tail off. You're gonna do this. You're gonna do everything right, and then nothing will manifest.

Eddie Alvarez:

In fact, you may feel like you're completely found. Yep. So if you're looking at reality, it's bleak. It's it's like dark. So you can't live in reality.

Eddie Alvarez:

You have to be delusional in a way and live in your dreams. You have to stay there because everyone's gonna come and go, dude, are you kidding me? You ain't got this ain't working. That ain't working. Your friends are gonna come.

Eddie Alvarez:

Your parents, it's not working out for you. You have to live in your dream and you gotta ignore the nonsense of reality. And in a way, you have to be delusional. You you have to be. It's an it's actually an important trait of entrepreneurs.

Eddie Alvarez:

And in my world, you have to be delusional because, like, fighting is there's nothing too super great about like, I wanna get hit and punched and suffer most of the day all for a dream of a world title or It's like,

Drew Beech:

I just posted on a few months' Instagram that I'd rather be obsessed than the average. Yep. Like, you can call me all you want.

Joey Rosen:

You you said delusional earlier, and I'm glad it came back up because I agree with you. It is a necessary component, like, delusional self belief. And if you have someone else in your corner, your figurative corner or your literal corner that has that delusional self belief in you, that's a multiplier too. That's like a 10 x, 100 x multiplier for your work. Work hard and have delusional self belief in what you're doing.

Joey Rosen:

You know the outcome.

Eddie Alvarez:

It's it's a thing of beauty. I mean, like, me and me and Jamie used to, drive around the neighborhood where we live now. I we lived in a shit box. I was I was shithole, but, like,

Joey Rosen:

we were,

Eddie Alvarez:

like, 20 is what I could afford when I was 20.

Drew Beech:

Yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. It was a smallest little house. Probably, you know, band aided pieces, drop ceiling, dry like, not a very nice house, but, like, it's what we could afford. It's what we had. But we never lived in that reality.

Eddie Alvarez:

We always lived in what we could achieve, what we could have.

Joey Rosen:

In your vision.

Eddie Alvarez:

We lived in it so much, we go look at it. Hey. Go check this neighborhood out. We drive off, man. What if we live here?

Eddie Alvarez:

This would be a freaking awesome Mhmm. You know? And that them kinda trips kinda it allows you to get the excitement to go for that. Do you

Joey Rosen:

know what I mean?

Drew Beech:

You're speaking my language with the with the manifestation and the visualization. Like, it does sound woo woo, but it works. So it does you could see it play out in your life specifically. And I do agree that having someone in your life, your life partner, be someone that's always cheering for you. Like, I could go home and tell Amanda we're gonna be billionaires in the next 2 years, and she'll be like, alright.

Drew Beech:

Let me know when we're there. Like and and Same. She's on the ride. Like, that's it.

Joey Rosen:

You're you're one thing that a lot of people don't it sounds woo woo so they don't admit it, but your thoughts become things.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah.

Joey Rosen:

Thoughts become things. Right? And, like, if somebody's having a shitty time, they're in a winter, they're having a bad time in life, if they have the awareness to detach and reflect on their thoughts Mhmm. I guarantee that the overwhelming majority of our thoughts are negative. They're not seeing themselves in a better place than they are right now.

Joey Rosen:

You know what I mean? But if you have that awareness and that vision to do what you just did and have let's take a ride and let's take a look at where we wanna live. Imagine how that feels.

Eddie Alvarez:

The focus is just off.

Drew Beech:

That's a powerful story though. The fact that you guys would literally drive to the neighborhood.

Eddie Alvarez:

Oh, we drove we whatever we wherever we want it, collectively, we just want to go look at it. Yep. Sometimes you just gotta see it.

Joey Rosen:

Go to the deal go to the dealership, sit in the car. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Or cut the pictures out of the magazine, glue

Eddie Alvarez:

them on the board.

Joey Rosen:

You know what I mean?

Eddie Alvarez:

The 19, 20 years old, I had a I made my own vision board. Mhmm. And it I don't have it. I wish I did. But by the time I was 33 years old, 33.

Eddie Alvarez:

So what? It took 14 years. Within 14 years, I had everything on that board and more. And, like, every single thing and more. And I tell people the only thing I regret is that I didn't fucking ask for more.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. Because because if I knew I was gonna get everything that I wanted, I would have fucking asked

Joey Rosen:

for you. You would have shot.

Eddie Alvarez:

I only even know what it is different.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. Your big goals were almost too small.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. They were too small.

Joey Rosen:

But Big

Eddie Alvarez:

goals. So, like, even, like, with my kids, I'm like, did they ask for it? You're gonna get if if you want it, you know, this is a reciprocal world. If if you if you're willing to give a little bit, you'll get back. If you wanna go for it Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

And don't don't ask. Whatever you're thinking about, you want, double it. Triple it. Because it'll give to you what you want. It'll give to you what you asked for.

Joey Rosen:

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Eddie Alvarez:

If you put the work in.

Drew Beech:

Oh, yeah.

Joey Rosen:

That's the thing. You had that. You had that. You had the work ethic and the refusal to quit. Yeah.

Joey Rosen:

You know what I mean? Yeah. So let's talk. We can sit here and talk for hours.

Drew Beech:

I don't even

Joey Rosen:

know how far we're in. Let's talk about, so we're talking about vision. Let's talk about what's next, like, what you're working on now, any projects that you wanna highlight or tell our community about, specifically, you know, our community that's in Philadelphia? Yeah. So suburbs?

Eddie Alvarez:

Some big things in big things in Philly, Bucks County. Number 1 is, we wanna bring BKFC to Philadelphia. Mhmm. That's the next step. Right?

Eddie Alvarez:

So we're gonna bring get it sanctioned here in Philadelphia, and we wanna do a big, BKFC event at the Wells Fargo or one of these big arenas in Philadelphia. Kinda blow it up here. Blow the sport up here. It's a fight. Philadelphia is the best fight in town on earth.

Eddie Alvarez:

So, like, to bring something like that here, I think we'd sell out to Wells Fargo or sell out the Lea Chorus or one of these one

Drew Beech:

of these Absolutely.

Eddie Alvarez:

Absolutely will.

Drew Beech:

Oh, wow.

Eddie Alvarez:

Yeah. Yeah.

Drew Beech:

All Philly will be there then.

Eddie Alvarez:

Also, kinda blow that up. And, number 2 is, we are I'm partnering with, Jim Jim Worthington of the new town athletic club. Mhmm. And we're working on it's actually cleared out, and we already started mocking up, like, the build out of a that's about a 20,000 square foot combat arena. Oh, that's scary.

Eddie Alvarez:

We're gonna have some partners in that to build out this arena.

Joey Rosen:

Mhmm.

Eddie Alvarez:

And it's gonna be on the lines of, like, a state of the art combat center recovery, like college level, strength and conditioning, turf, track, probably about 8,000 square foot of mat space, cage, boxing area. So, like, I wanna build out what I would have wanted as a 19, 20 year old kid to get ready for fights, the best possible place I can get ready. And my job is to bring in the best resources, the best coaches around to train and and make the next UFC world champion next to me make the next world champions that are, you know, our next future group coming.

Joey Rosen:

I love that, dude. I love that. Where you got a partner in us if you need somebody for apparel. Yeah. Fight where you got an apparel apparel partner in us for for that.

Joey Rosen:

Dude, I can't I literally can't thank you enough. I knew this conversation was gonna be great, but it was actually electric, like,

Eddie Alvarez:

a 100 times.

Joey Rosen:

Yep. A 100 times the electricity that I thought, you were gonna bring. So thank you again. That's awesome. Thank you, brother.

Joey Rosen:

Thank you. You guys. Thank you.

Eddie Alvarez:

Thank you, guys.

Joey Rosen:

And, you know, you have an open invite to HQ, you know, anytime. Anytime, call. Me now. I'm going through. I love I'm going through.

Drew Beech:

Yeah. We train on our 5 by 5 minutes. Okay?

Eddie Alvarez:

So we

Joey Rosen:

got so we got a little bit of, pre fight factory map. Yeah. Where I roll with my dummy. It's a 10 by 10. So There you go.

Joey Rosen:

Well, you know, you gotta start somewhere.

Eddie Alvarez:

Oh, you need a is space and opportunity.

Joey Rosen:

Exactly. Ain't that ain't that

Eddie Alvarez:

the truth? Ourselves.

Joey Rosen:

Ain't that the truth? Alright. I'm gonna leave this here with something. Always choose hard work over handouts. Always choose effort over entitlement.

Joey Rosen:

No one owns you. No one owes you. You're one of the few. Let's hunt.