All Episodes
Previous Next
March 1, 2021 - Epoch Times
31:23
Tito Ortiz: Former UFC Champion Elected California Mayor Pro Tem
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
So you just ran for the city council in Huntington Beach and you got the most vote in the history of the city.
We're going to talk to you about how you ended up getting into politics.
We went downtown on June 6th and helped board up the buildings and we stood on PCH and our city didn't get burnt down.
That day, Los Angeles got burnt down, but Huntington Beach stood strong.
I took a seat back and I was like, okay, how else can I help my city?
And it made me actually sit back and look at the infrastructure of what they're doing.
And Tido, you had your background, you had a rough upbringing.
Tell me about that.
How was it growing up?
Very challenging, but it was a great learning experience.
I wouldn't take anything back.
And my friends were just working circles around me.
I'm like, man, how are you guys working so hard?
I'm like, here, try some of this.
Methamphetamine.
I'm 6'3", 235 pounds right now.
I was 6'3", 185 pounds.
Sucked up, black circles under my eyes, pimples all over my face.
I was turning to my father.
And I didn't realize it because I didn't recognize it.
Do you recommend more people to get involved?
100%.
Get involved in the community, especially when you have children.
That's why I say when you have skin in the game, I think that's the difference.
Be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.
Do the right thing at the end of the day and that's what's important.
Question yourself and always question others.
If you don't do that, you're going to be lost.
California residents are getting more involved in local politics to address the issues in their communities.
My guest today is Tito Ortiz.
He's the mayor pro-tam of Huntington Beach and former UFC world champion and Hall of Famer.
Today he shares with us his childhood growing up in Huntington Beach and how the civil unrest in 2020 influenced him to run for the city council.
Welcome to California Insider.
Tito, it's great to have you on.
Welcome.
Thank you so much for having me on.
I appreciate it.
So you just ran for the city council in Huntington Beach, and you got the most vote in the history of the city.
I want to talk to you about how you ended up getting into politics.
Tell me the story.
So it started off in 2020, Black Lives Matter, came to Huntington Beach, and they had their peaceful protest, which I want no part of it.
You got your right, you got your First Amendment, go ahead, that's fine.
And at that time, Los Angeles was being burnt down.
A few of my friends who were police officers were telling me situations that were going on.
And I called one of my friends, who's a sheriff for Los Angeles Police Department, came to my home, brought me a bulletproof vest.
And when they said they're going to burn down our city, I said, it's not going to happen in Huntington.
No way.
Called four of my special force friends and about 30 of my friends who live in Huntington.
And we went downtown on June 6th and helped board up the buildings.
And we stood on PCH. I spoke to one of my friends who was a police officer at Huntington Beach Police Department.
And I asked him how they're going to do the situation and how they're going to keep people from walking down.
And he goes, well, we can't stop them from walking down.
I go, but can we stop them from walking downtown?
I go, we can't stop them from walking downtown.
So I kind of got the hint of what he was trying to tell me.
And...
After we got done helping and putting up the boards on the windows, we stood right on PCH in Main Street.
And I put my back to the wall.
I had my buddies with me.
We made a t-shirt that said HB Strong on it.
I told my friend who's a police officer in the Beach Police Department that all the guys that will be with me will have these shirts on so you can know the difference.
We're only there to protect the buildings.
And it started out from...
500 people to 1,000 people to 3,000 people to 5,000 people and then it was like split right down the middle and all the locals from Huntington stood on PCH and Main Street side and then all the guys from Black Lives Matter and They have their voices, and that's fine.
I have no problem with that.
But when you say you're going to burn my building down, I got to have defensive mode.
And we stood there, and they're on the other side.
And there was one opportunity they tried to push, and we stopped them from pushing.
A fight broke out.
And I remember when I gave my guys the shirts, I told them, I don't care if the guy's spit in your face.
I don't care if they talk about your mom or anything.
Just let them walk and do their talking, and that's fine.
Well, when a fight broke out, a few of my guys tried to rush it, and I go, stop, we're here for the buildings.
And as we backed off, I looked to the left of me, and there's 15 guys all dressed in black, and they're trying to flank us.
I looked at them, I go, no, no, no, you guys are on the wrong side.
Go walk back to the other side.
They're like, what are you talking about?
You can't tell us what to do.
I go, listen, man, you're in the wrong city.
I go, can't do this here.
You need to go back on the other side.
And one of the guys recognized me, I go, oh, that's Tito Ortiz.
And they kind of talked to a second and then they walked away.
And we stood there.
The police officers broke up to fight.
They arrested a couple of the guys, which was fine.
I'm...
At that point, I mean, I stood on my feet for 10 hours.
No restroom break.
And our city didn't get burned down.
That day, Los Angeles got burned down.
Garden Grove got burned down.
Santa Ana got burned down.
Long Beach got burned down.
But Huntington Beach stood strong.
And I was happy about that.
And that wasn't really the step of getting into politics.
I think that was a step of Acknowledging that I defended the city, and I know a lot of the residents from Huntington Beach were happy that I did that, and my friends helped, and most of the residents that came down and helped us, we stood our ground.
So I thought, maybe I could be a police officer.
Yeah, this would sound pretty fun.
So I went on Martha McAllen's show on Fox, and I talked to her about it, and I said, yeah, I'm going to meet with a couple of my other friends who are police officers, and I think this will be the next step.
I think this will be great for me.
You know, I'm just getting at the end of my fight career, after a fight for 23 years, and my phone's blowing up in my pocket as I'm telling her this, and I'm like, why does my phone not stop going off?
I get out of the interview.
I look at my phone and I have 25 messages on my friends saying, no Tito, don't do it.
You don't want to be a police officer.
You don't want to be a police officer.
Your hands are going to be handcuffed literally by, you got to listen to the chief, you got to listen to the captain.
You can only do what they tell you.
So it really kind of crushed me a little bit where I was like, but I want to.
Tito, you're not going to be able to do much.
You got to do what the police tell you, the senior officers tell you to do.
I Took a seat back and I was like, okay, how else can I help my city?
Homeless situation has grown.
It's a crisis that has grown hugely in Orange County.
It's grown in Huntington Beach.
Well, I mean, now it's a lot better.
Safety in Huntington Beach.
We went from being 1993, 1994, 1995, being the safest city in America.
As of October of 2020, we're 50th in the state.
From being number one in the United States to 50 in the state, what's going on?
What's happening to the infrastructure in Huntington Beach?
And it made me actually sit back and kind of look at the infrastructure of what they're doing, and they're being ran over.
When I was in college, Golden West Junior College, went to the state championship up in San Francisco.
And after the tournament was over, I went downtown, and this was back in 95.
I went downtown.
It's beautiful.
Amazing place.
The scenery was amazing.
It was like a beautiful beach community with the city.
I went back there in 2014.
It looked like a bomb dropped off in there.
The homelessness was just, it's a crisis.
It's scary.
You see needles on the floor, feces on the ground, people Defecating in the corner.
It was just something I never really would realize that could happen to our Just that city in general.
Then I look at Santa Monica, same thing happening.
Watching Los Angeles, same thing is happening.
And it grown worse and worse and worse.
So I don't want this to happen to Huntington Beach.
So how can I help to make this not happen?
Run for city council.
I was like, you know what?
I want to be mayor of Huntington Beach.
I think I could be mayor.
I think I do a great job.
I am not a politician.
I'm not a career politician.
I'm not politically correct.
And when I ran my campaign was to make HB safe again.
How do I make that happen?
And I ran my campaign for three months.
Um, I took four days off in those three months and we visit from district to the district, uh, because of this COVID, you know, you can't go to every door, knock on every door.
So we would just do little campaign parties at people's homes.
There'd be from 15 to 50 people.
And it seemed like it grew more and more the more I did.
Um, But I just spoke from the heart.
I spoke of what I believe in, you know, of the American dream of working hard and doing the honest and right thing.
And as I've got into politics, I still don't want to be a politician.
I don't want to be a politician.
Yeah, how is it?
It's hard.
It's hard because you've got to...
Have an open mind, but you got to believe what they tell you.
And I'm not a person to believe what someone tells me.
I got to research what someone tells me.
And I got to trust my instincts.
I got to have common sense and just do the right thing at the end of the day.
Not just for me, but for my constituents.
I think it's important.
And that's why they voted me in.
I got the most votes of over 42,000 people who voted for me.
I mean, we're 220,000 people in Huntington Beach.
So, to have that many votes, I mean, there was 15 people that ran, and there was only three seats.
I spoke as the resident from Huntington.
I spoke as a patriot for this country.
It showed that the hard work paid off, but it was just the beginning.
It was just something that got me started where I got to start understanding the political sides of things.
And once again, I'm not politically correct, so I make mistakes, but this is America.
You're supposed to make a mistake and you learn from it.
You make a mistake twice and you made that a decision.
It shouldn't be like that.
And Tido, you had your background, you grew up in a rough, you had a rough upbringing.
Tell me about that.
How was it growing up?
Growing up was...
Very challenging, but it was a great learning experience.
I wouldn't take anything back.
You know, life was pretty normal until about six years old, seven years old.
My father was a carpenter.
My mother was a stay-at-home mom.
I have three older brothers, Marty, Mike, Jim.
Things changed when I was about six and a half, seven.
My father had a hernia.
He went to the hospital.
They took the hernia out.
They put him on morphine.
He came out and he still had pain.
And his brother turned him on to heroin.
Life spiraled down after that.
My three brothers stayed in Huntington Beach.
I stayed with my mom and my dad.
We moved to Santa Ana.
We lived in motels, cars, people's homes.
Ended up at my grandma's home.
But I've seen a lot of stuff at a very young age that was very challenging, and I thought that was normal life to me because that's all I understood.
I mean, we were poor.
I mean, we lived on government cheese.
I remember cutting the green off the cheese to make grilled cheese sandwiches, powdered milk, food stamps, and being embarrassed to go to school because I was wearing the same clothes that I wore the year before.
I mean, I would make my pants that I grew out of to shorts.
I never wanted to be broke.
I never wanted to have to live in candlelight with no electricity.
Boil water because we didn't have any gas.
It was challenging.
It was very challenging as a kid growing up, but that's what I've seen that was normal.
So as I, my mom got sober when I was 13 and I went through that six years and it was very challenging, like I say, but my mom got away from my father.
My father's still used to this day and my mom got sober and she's been sober since.
And I'm very thankful she gave me an opportunity.
My true name is Jacob.
And in the Bible, Jacob wrestled against an angel.
The angel beat him and saved his life.
My freshman year, when I went to Huntington Beach High, I was a big fan of professional wrestling.
I watched Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Tito Santana, and I always looked up to those guys.
I want to be like those guys.
And then I watched boxing on Muhammad Ali and stuff.
I was like, oh, that's pretty cool.
Walked to the wrestling room at Hunting Beach High, and I was like, where's the ring?
Coach laughed at me, he's like, ring?
Yeah, you know, like on WWF, body slamming people.
He's like, no, this is amateur wrestling.
This is college wrestling.
This is Olympic wrestling.
I go, okay, but I can still slam a guy in his head.
He goes, actually, if you slam a guy, you get points for it.
I'm like, okay, I'm all in.
And literally, I was all in.
I would go to every practice.
I started varsity my first year because I did extra work.
I worked hard.
And I found something that I was intrigued of, not only the support from the other wrestlers' parents, but the support that I got from my friends of saying, dude, you're really good.
You're getting better and better and better.
And that's what a child needs is...
Support.
A child needs reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement.
And that's what I think I survived on, was a positive reinforcement because my whole life I was always trying to survive.
And I got to a point where I lived in a home that was a normal home.
My stepfather, Mike, was taking care of my mother, taking care of me.
I remember every morning he'd give me two dollars for lunch.
And I was happy.
I was like, I got two bucks for lunch.
I was stoked.
I was able to have a Diet Coke and a bagel in the morning for lunch.
You know, we got a sandwich.
I was happy because I was able to feed myself.
But then when practice came about, I pushed myself as hard as possible.
Well, then, to be able to wrestle, you've got to have good grades.
Well, my freshman year, I had a 1.74, I think it was.
I wasn't going to be eligible to wrestle.
And my coach goes, Tito, you better work harder in school.
So I got to a point, and I was like, okay, I've got to start working harder.
I got my grade all the way up to a 2.5, and I was able, because you've got to have a 2.0 to be able to wrestle.
And I was like, okay, this is cool.
I worked harder in wrestling, maybe work harder in school.
And then things started becoming a little bit easier.
School started becoming a little easier.
Wrestling started becoming a little easier because I would do extra work.
I wrestled the four years at Huntington Beach High School and graduated with a 3.75.
And I thought I'd be a big man on campus.
I was like, you know what?
I could take care of this world.
I could take care of myself.
I'm going to conquer the world.
I told my mom, Mom, I'm moving out.
She goes, what do you mean you're moving out?
I go, I'm moving out.
I was 18 years old.
I couldn't live in another man's home, and I was my stepfather.
I just couldn't, I didn't want to listen to his rules.
And I thought life would be normal.
And I went out, got an apartment.
I got a job at Allied Movement Services.
I was working 16-hour days, six days a week.
And I just got about a month into it, and it was super, super hard.
I was like, guys, this is challenging.
And my friends are just working circles around me.
They're like, dude, hurry up, come on, come on, go, go, go, go.
I'm like, man, how are you guys working so hard?
They're like, here, try some of this.
Methamphetamine.
I was doing an amazing job.
I was killing it.
I'm catching right up to them.
Like, now we're working.
And I was making okay money to support myself.
But I didn't realize what was happening internally to me.
It was a night at one of the clubs in Huntington Beach.
It was a weekend, a Saturday night.
One of the coaches that I knew from Golden West College came up to me.
He's all, Tito?
I'm like, hey, what's up, Coach Roll?
I'm like, you doing all right, man?
I'm like, yeah, I'm doing fine.
I'm 6'3", 235 pounds right now.
I was 6'3", 185 pounds.
Wow.
Sucked up, black circles under my eyes, pimples all over my face.
I was turned into my father.
And I didn't realize it because I didn't recognize it.
And he said, you ever thought about coming back and wrestling?
I go, yeah, coach, I would love to, but I just, I... I don't have no family.
I take care of myself.
I'm like, I have my mom, but I mean, I'm on my own.
He's all, you're Mexican, right?
I go, well, I'm half Mexican, yes.
He's all, we can get you fire in Chile.
He goes, but you've got to make the first step.
And I was like, okay.
It sounded good.
It sounded fun.
I love wrestling.
So I was like, it sounds okay.
Partied that whole night with my buddies.
Got home like at two o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday.
Went to go brush my teeth and shower.
I looked in the mirror and it scared me.
Didn't recognize myself.
I was losing myself.
I was turning to my father.
And I promised myself I would never do that.
I brushed my teeth.
I remember going to bed.
And I woke up in the morning to call my work.
And I said, you know what?
I can't come in today.
What do you mean you can't come in today?
I go, I want to see about this school program.
Possibly getting back into college.
And he said, if you don't show up, you're fired.
And I'm not a person to quit.
And I said, well, you know what?
I guess I quit.
Hung the phone up.
Got dressed, walked into the coach's office with a big smile on his face.
He's like, hmm, didn't think you were going to come.
I go, coach, I don't want to turn to my father.
I go, I recognize what you told me.
And he goes, you're a great man to do what you're doing because not many people would do that.
You took the first step.
He goes, no, let's get you in school.
Let's get you signed up.
I got financial aid.
They paid for my school.
They paid for my books.
My life was changed because I made that decision.
I made that choice when I looked in the mirror that I didn't want to become my father.
Won the state title that year.
The sport of mixed martial arts was just becoming famous.
I trained with a guy, Tank Abbott, who fought in the UFC. And I said, you know, maybe I can give this a try on this.
They have a weight class, 199 pounds.
I wrestled 190s in college.
I was like, let's give it a try.
May 30th, 1997, I gave my first try at UFC and I fought for free because I was on scholarship.
First person in UFC history to ever fight for free.
No one's ever done it.
And I did it because I want to challenge myself.
I want to see how good an athlete I truly can be.
I stopped the first guy in 22 seconds.
I was in the finals.
I was beating the guy.
They separated us to put us back on our feet.
He threw a punch.
I went to go shoot.
He caught me in this mission.
I had to tap.
But I was hooked as I was in wrestling.
I was hooked because I got the attention I was always dying for as a child.
How do I continue this?
And I couldn't realize I was in school at the time.
I want to be a wrestling coach coming from a wrestling background.
I want to be a wrestling coach.
I want to be a special education teacher.
That's how my minor in.
I want to help out with children.
I want to help out with kids in the wrestling room.
If I could take a kid off of the streets and get them out of gangs, get them off of drugs and get them into school and get them in the wrestling room.
Those are the toughest kids.
Those are the kids that have starved to survive or fought to survive.
And that was me.
And that's how I wanted to give back.
So when I realized that I could make a difference in the fight world of helping Over 100,000 kids, possibly, instead of just helping 30 kids in the wrestling room.
I thought it would be a better call.
I went back to college, got my A degree at Golden West.
I got a full ride to Cal State Bakersfield.
I was doing well.
I had a record of 19-7, 19-8, which is not a great record in Division I wrestling.
But all the matches I would lose, I would lose by a couple points, a point, four points at the most.
I got pinned by a national champ, but still it was something I worked really, really hard on.
I was trying to prevail, and I was trying, and I was trying, but the coach Didn't like me because I was always pushed against the grain.
I was always saying, you know, we should do a little extra of this.
We do some of this.
And he picked me out because I was the older kid on the team.
And he always picked on me.
He picked on my best friend, David Ofoa, because he had a stuttering problem.
And he'll always be like, as a coach, you shouldn't do that.
As a coach, you should uplift your team, not try to drag them down.
Got to a point where I said, enough's enough.
I got injured at the end of the year.
I had anterior compressive syndrome on my leg.
He made me run on it.
He made me wrestle on it.
And I got to a point where I could barely walk.
And I went to the health office at Cal State Bakersfield.
They told me I need to go to the emergency room.
I went to the emergency room.
The doctor says, if you be coming in here a day later, you'll be chopping your foot off.
It scared me.
I went back home.
I was in bed for 30 days with medication they gave me.
It got healed.
The coach never called me once to see how I was doing.
The season was over and it showed that he had no respect for me.
So I got to a point in my life that it was either the right or the left side.
Either I go down the right way and think about my future or I continue on the abuse and stay there.
And as a child growing up, I was able to always go the right way, so I made a decision.
I packed up all my stuff, put it in a U-Haul truck, grabbed my warm-up, I put it on his desk, and I said, you know what?
You lost one of your best wrestlers.
Walked out the door, walked into the wrestling room, told everybody on the team, guys, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Coach Pope, I appreciate you.
Jason Ramstetter, I appreciate you.
Thank you guys so much for being great coaches.
I'm out.
Drove back to Huntington Beach.
I got a job at Spanky's Adult Novelty Store.
But I was making $15 an hour, 15% commission.
And I would train during the day, I would work at night.
I would train during the day, work at night.
So I was paying for my apartment, I was paying for my cell phone bill, paying for my food.
And I got an opportunity to fight again.
And my first match back Was against Jerry Bolander.
I stopped him in 10 minutes.
Then I got a rematch with Guy Metzger, the one who beat me the first time we fought.
I beat him in 14 minutes.
Then I fought Frank Shamrock, who's the world champion, five-time world champion, amazing man.
I was beat him for Three and a half rounds.
And at the end of that fourth round, he caught me in a position and I remember telling my ex-wife, girlfriend at the time, that if I ever got caught in a position that I couldn't fight out of or I couldn't defend myself, that I would tap.
And he punched me in the back of the head and everything went.
I was almost out, so I said, you know what, I don't want to get hurt.
I tapped and started to fight another day.
I lost the master Frank Shamrock.
I went back to work and the owner says, Tito, we need to have a conversation.
I go, yes sir.
He goes, I need you to come to my office.
I was like, what's going on right now?
I sat down, I go, yes.
He goes, I don't think this job's for you.
I go, whoa, I need this job.
I go, this is paying for my rent, this is paying for my food, this is paying for my cell phone bill.
I go, I need this job.
He goes, Tito, calm down.
I go, sir, I'm always on time.
I work overtime.
I do a graveyard shift.
Anybody has a day off, I'm always working on it.
He goes, I know that.
He goes, but this job's in your way.
He goes, I watched your fight against Frank Shamrock.
He goes, you're an amazing athlete.
This job's in your way.
You need to focus on being the world champion because you can be a world champion.
Okay, but I have to pay my bills.
Here's the hitch.
You put Spanky's triple X on the back of your shorts.
I'll pay for your apartment.
I'll pay for your cell phone bill.
I'll pay for your food.
I'm going to sponsor you.
I almost started crying.
I was like, I give him a big hug.
And I mean, he was an angel above looking over me or something.
And you think in the sweat business, things like that don't happen.
Well, this happens because that guy had a heart and he believed in me.
I was so happy because I was able to train.
I was able to sleep.
I was able to train.
I mean, I trained.
Ten hours a day.
I'd sleep 12 hours.
Ten hours.
I mean, that was how my normal training was and I got an opportunity to sleep now.
Won my next fight.
It was against Vandele Silva for the world title.
I beat him.
Became a world champion.
And life just went up from there.
I became a millionaire.
I'm able to buy my own home by the time I was 23 years old.
It was just, I'm not even going to say crazy, I think it was just meant to be.
Of the hard work that I put into it and to be an honest man was able to get me to where I am today.
And I look back and that was 22 years ago.
I mean, I've been fighting now for 20, this will be 24 this year because I'll compete again this year.
But it's a mindset.
It's what I believe of being honest, being a hardworking, Father now, not just a man.
Being a hard-working father, having respect for myself, having respect for my peers, having respect for my friends, my family.
Treat others the way I want to be treated.
Never step on anybody, get ahead, and be an honest man.
And that's what got me to this point.
I've had people say that you're lucky or, you know, that just happens because you're lucky.
No.
Happens because I'm a good guy.
Happens because I do the right, honest thing.
You know, if I feel like I did something wrong, I'm gonna confess.
And there's been situations I did things that weren't right, and I've never made it a decision.
I made it a mistake.
I never did that mistake twice.
Because when you do a mistake twice, it becomes a decision.
I've done it once, I learned that from that mistake, and I corrected it to positively enforce my life in the future.
And I've got to that point.
It makes me an honest man.
Living here in America, people don't understand how much freedom we truly have here.
And people need to leave this country to go.
And not leave to leave forever, but go to other countries and see how they have it.
See how they live.
And this American dream is still alive.
It is.
I'm living proof that it's still alive.
But we can't lose that.
And that's what I try to teach to my children is love our country, stand for our flag, respect our troops, respect our police, respect all first responders.
It's important because these are the people that take care of this country.
And we can't lose it.
And we're at a tipping point right now in this country that we have a chance of losing our freedoms.
And if people can't see it written on the wall, either they're blind or they're ignorant to seeing the facts, of seeing what is happening.
And I try to teach my children, like I say, to love this country because it's only one.
And before we know it, I don't want to lose what's happening here.
I don't want it to turn into a China.
And people will, how can you say China?
Well, go visit China and see how it is.
Go visit Beijing and see how it is.
We're doing retina scan to see in and out of your home to go buy stuff.
I mean, they don't have currency.
They use their cell phone to pay for everything.
That's government control.
Government overreach.
And I never understood the ideas behind Democrats and Republicans.
What I understood was just being an American, of caring for this country and I suppose being a conservative.
Yes, I had to put an R next to my name when I ran as a Republican, but I see that there's rhinos that are a total, total left, or excuse me, total, total right, and then the Democrats are total, total left.
But then there's people in the middle that are kind of cushiony who can have an argument and make it to a discussion and agree to disagree, but walk away from each other fine.
But then you've got complete hardcore right and the hardcore left that will battle and battle and hate and hate and hate and hate.
Well, now you're building division that is happening now.
And division is a mentality of what someone's trying to show what they want.
Their agenda of what they want.
And this is something that I'm still learning.
The great thing is I'm not politically correct, and I will never be politically correct.
I'm going to say it how it is, and if I hurt someone's feelings, I apologize.
But once again, don't believe what I tell you.
Research what I tell you.
And then you come back and say, no, you're wrong here.
Oh, damn, you were right here.
And I see things happening right now that it scares me that they're trying to turn this country to a communist country.
People are going, you're reaching way too far.
Number one, you take away our first amendment.
There's your first step.
Now they're trying to attack our second amendment.
Take away everybody's guns.
I think they did the same thing in Germany.
If we can't learn from our history, ignorance is bliss and people won't understand it.
But I refuse to do that.
I will fight.
I will fight.
You know, making $900 a month being city council, I'm losing money.
But hopefully I'm able to Awake a lot of people to understand that politics should be discussed in families.
You should be able to discuss politics with your family to make them understand what's happening in your community.
Not just your community, but your state.
What's happening in your country.
Do you have any other thoughts for our audience?
Other thoughts for our audience?
Get involved in your community.
Get involved in your community, especially when you have children.
That's why I say when you have skin in the game, I think that's the difference.
Don't sit back and just let it think it's going to fall in place.
Nothing's going to fall in place.
There's an agenda happening right now that they talked about in 1984, that Reagan tried to talk about in 1984, and it's happening right now.
And it's scary.
I really want to protect the future of my children, protect the future of my community, of my country, our country.
And I think people need to step up and be a part of it.
Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.
That's important.
And the diversity that is happening in our country right now, that's a way to keep people from being unite, is to keep them away from each other.
And another thing I try to teach myself, and I teach my children, is there's no color.
I don't see a black guy.
I don't see a brown guy, an Asian.
What I see is an American who's, if his character Is the right thing for this country?
That's who he is.
That's what's important.
Do the right thing at the end of the day and that's what's important.
Question yourself and always question others.
Ask questions.
Understand it.
Education.
It's important.
Because if you don't do that, you're going to be lost.
And as the movie in The Matrix, do you want to take the red pill or do you want to take the blue pill?
Your life will be changed from this point out on.
I choose to take that red pill to question everything instead of going on of how life just should be with the white picket fence, the happy family, and you have your nine-to-five job, and that's all you do, and you just raise your family.
No.
Do something beyond that.
Live this American dream for as fully that you can have it because we're only here for...
If we're lucky, 80 years, life is short.
I'm 46 years old and it's gone by.
It's crazy because I watch my children grow up so fast and that's how quick life is going.
But it's what type of statement am I leaving for my legacy?
Yes, it's being a former world champion.
Yes, as being a businessman.
Yes, as being a city council member, mayor pro tem.
But my legacy is in my children.
What I leave behind, once again, a mirror of myself is through my children.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, man.
I appreciate it.
▲
Export Selection