Dec. 15, 2023 - The Tucker Carlson Show
13:59
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Bryce Mitchell of Arkansas is one of the best MMA fighters in the world, and also, we can say, since he's a friend, a great person. | ||
| A lot of drama in his life this week. | ||
| He's been called up last minute to fight at UFC 296 this weekend in Vegas. | ||
| It's a fight that will define the rest of his career. | ||
| He is in Las Vegas now, where we join him, training in progress. | ||
| Bryce Mitchell, ladies and gentlemen, how are you feeling about this? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Brother, I'm so blessed beyond belief. | |
| It's such an honor to be here on the show. | ||
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| And Tucker, I've got to share a story with you. | ||
| I really think it's going to flatter you. | ||
| So it starts with about four years ago, me being a broken, lost person who needed guidance and needed wisdom, and I turned my life to Christ. | ||
| Okay, so the first thing I did when I turned my life to Christ is I prayed for a wife basically every day. | ||
| And it... | ||
| It was months and months and months, maybe even a year went by. | ||
| And it was just, I could not find the right woman that I clicked with. | ||
| And I'm kind of crazy, so it takes that right woman, you know what I mean? | ||
| I know the feeling. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I go on your show. | |
| Well, check this out, Tucker. | ||
| I go onto your show, okay, get millions of views. | ||
| The most exposure I've ever had in my life. | ||
| And this really good-looking woman from Pennsylvania messages me on the internet, and she says, hey. | ||
| I said, hey. | ||
| We start talking, and we really bonded over our hatred of the government. | ||
| And now that woman is my wife. | ||
| Now she is pregnant. | ||
| I'll be having a kid in four months, the first kid. | ||
| And now here's where the story gets even better. | ||
| We were arguing over what to name the kid, and he's going to be a boy. | ||
| It's a boy. | ||
| We couldn't pick a name, and she said to me, what do you think about the name Tucker? | ||
| I said, I love that name. | ||
| So my first boy's name will be Tucker. | ||
| His middle name will be James after my papaw. | ||
| So he'll be Tucker James Mitchell. | ||
| I love that. | ||
| TJM, get ready for the monogram. | ||
| You know the good news? | ||
| Well, first of all, congratulations. | ||
| Amazing. | ||
| When he's in fifth grade and all the other boys realize what his first name rhymes with, that's the moment where he's going to become a tough little dude. | ||
|
unidentified
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Oh, brother, he's going to be tough. | |
| He's not going to go to school. | ||
| He's going to be homeschooled, brother. | ||
| And that just brings us to a great point here because I'm going to completely homeschool him. | ||
| I'm going to raise him against this culture because this culture is destructive. | ||
| It's demonic. | ||
| It's satanic. | ||
| And he will be homeschooled. | ||
| The government will not corrupt my child. | ||
| He'll be unvaccinated. | ||
| And he's going to learn my way of life. | ||
| What a blessed kid. | ||
| If you'd said that to me 10 years ago, I would have thought to myself, this Bryce Mitchell's a little off-grid, and now I'm thinking you're on the leading edge of what will be obvious to everybody in five years, which is this is not good, and don't expose your kids to it. | ||
| That's incredible. | ||
| So four months from now, she gives birth to your first son. | ||
| Are you ready? | ||
|
unidentified
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I'm ready. | |
| That's just unbelievable. | ||
| So I hope you'll pass on our congratulations to her. | ||
| Was she there? | ||
| Was your wife there at your last fight? | ||
|
unidentified
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She was, yes, sir. | |
| Now, that one was hard for her to watch. | ||
| I got my face busted up pretty good on that one. | ||
| So what does she think of that? | ||
| I mean, to see her man, but now the father of her son, you know, getting pounded in public, I mean, can she handle that? | ||
|
unidentified
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It actually bothers my mom more. | |
| My mom can't stand it. | ||
| She can't watch for nothing. | ||
| My wife don't really like it. | ||
| But she also knows that's how that son is going to have a great life. | ||
| That's how she's going to have a great life. | ||
| And for my family, there's just not a... | ||
| Unless if I win the lottery, there's not a foreseeable way out of poverty. | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
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Other than fighting. | |
| I remember we were having dinner once and you said to me... | ||
| We were talking about how you get your head in the right place to fight. | ||
| And it's a whole process. | ||
| I thought it was really interesting. | ||
| But one of the things you said was, the woman you're with... | ||
| Really makes a difference. | ||
| And you've seen fighters basically become weak inside because the woman they're with and then just get crushed. | ||
| How has your marriage changed your fighting? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's just inspired me and motivated me every single day. | |
| She pushes me to new limits that I didn't even know that I was capable of. | ||
| And she holds me to a higher standard. | ||
| She won't allow me to be lazy. | ||
| This relates to that, too. | ||
| I think that the toughest opponent any male fighter will ever have is women and alcohol. | ||
| I promise you. | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
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They've defeated more male fighters than any other person combined. | |
| Yes, that is 100% true. | ||
| You're not a drinker, but you started this as a single man, and now you're a married man. | ||
| And you think it's been a net plus for your fighting. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely, brother. | |
| I mean, she cooks my food, and so I can go do more stuff and not have to worry about cooking food. | ||
| She just organizes my life for me, just makes everything easier. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, there's really nothing better than a good woman, I will say, since I'm married to one. | ||
| I know. | ||
| Sue, at the end of your last fight, you held the Bible aloft. | ||
| That was, I mean, the fight was amazing. | ||
| The statement that you made after the fight was every bit as amazing. | ||
| Tell us what you said and why you said it. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, I held up the Bible and I yelled freedom. | |
| And the reason I did that is because nothing has set me free like Jesus Christ. | ||
| And I know that sounds like a contradiction to people who do not worship Jesus Christ because you look at Christianity and you say, okay, well, now these people, these Christians, they have to live by rules. | ||
| And you would think that the rules make you enslaved. | ||
| But let me tell you the truth. | ||
| Your sin... | ||
| Is what you are a slave to. | ||
| Your sin will enslave you. | ||
| And only Jesus Christ, focusing on something much more important than yourself, will set you free from that sin. | ||
| And of course, Jesus has a list of rules that you need to live by. | ||
| But those rules lead to your prosperity. | ||
| They will give you the freedom if you live by those rules. | ||
| And so I wanted to let people know that Christianity has set me free. | ||
| How did you come to this? | ||
| What was the moment when you realized that was true? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I basically instantly realized it when I became a Christian. | |
| Now, when I decided I was going to hold up the Bible, that was because I took a really bad loss, and I was deep in prayer, and I was telling God, I said to God, I said, I trust you. | ||
| I don't know why I just took that loss. | ||
| I don't know why. | ||
| And it was a miserable loss. | ||
| I looked pathetic out there. | ||
| I just didn't fight good. | ||
| I was sick, didn't fight good. | ||
| Anyways, I'll get to redeem myself. | ||
| But the point is, As I talked to God and I said, God, how can I show these people off of a lost that I trust you more? | ||
| And God said, you could hold up the Bible. | ||
| That would let them know. | ||
| Yes! | ||
| And you followed the order. | ||
|
unidentified
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I did, brother. | |
| And I watched a lot of Braveheart, so I had to yell freedom. | ||
| Is prayer part of your training? | ||
|
unidentified
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Prayer's a huge part of the training. | |
| Tucker, I've been praying all night that I don't come on here and say anything stupid. | ||
| I've been praying all morning I don't come on here and say anything stupid. | ||
| I've been praying since I sat down in this chair, brother, that I have wisdom, discernment, patience, truth, and love. | ||
| You know, I pray that that is what comes out of me, that people see the Holy Spirit and the Lord shining through me. | ||
| I've been praying since I sat down in this chair. | ||
| You are a great advertisement for the faith. | ||
| Wisdom, discernment, I feel like God is definitely helping guide me, and there's just no other explanation for how I get in this chair in the first place other than giving my life to Christ. | ||
|
unidentified
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After I gave my life to Christ, these opportunities started presenting themselves. | |
| Well, you have a really unusual spirit that comes off you, and I think even through a TV screen, it's very, very obvious. | ||
| So I think that says something. | ||
| So tell us about the fight that you're about to have in Vegas on Saturday. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Man, it's going to be a good one. | |
| If y'all are bored on Saturday, you need to check it out. | ||
| I'll be free on the prelims, and it's going to be awesome. | ||
| I'm fighting the hardest hitter in the 145 division. | ||
| But, hey, I'm a country boy. | ||
| I ain't scared of a guy who hits hard. | ||
| I can take hard hits. | ||
| So who is this man? | ||
|
unidentified
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His name is Josh Emmett. | |
| He's an absolute monster. | ||
| He's a little bit on the older side, but that means that he's got a lot of experience. | ||
| It's going to be a very tough fight. | ||
| How do you feel as you step into the ring? | ||
| I assume you've got to be afraid. | ||
| Who wouldn't be afraid? | ||
| But how afraid? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, brother, personally, I've been praying to the Lord. | |
| That's one of my number one... | ||
| Number one prayers is that I have no fear and that I fight fearless and that I'm free in that octagon and I don't let any fear freeze me up. | ||
| And I personally don't think I'll be afraid. | ||
| Really? | ||
| You're stepping in with a guy who's got a long record of knockouts in public in a huge arena in Vegas. | ||
| You can get hurt for real and you're not, you don't expect to be afraid at all. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I pray for the fear to be gone, and at the end of the day, my fear is always of the Lord, and I feel like the Lord has called me. | |
| I'm sorry, I know that the Lord has called me to do this fight. | ||
| I need it, my family needs it, and I'm not going to let my selfish fear, my selfish weak fear, rob my family of their freedom. | ||
| I will fight for my freedom, and I will have no fear. | ||
| I will go forward, and I don't care who the opponent is. | ||
| When you, and I, because I know you, and I know that you're not just putting on some persona for TV, that you're likens in person completely. | ||
| You're the same on camera as you are off. | ||
| That's my read anyway. | ||
| So I know that you talk like this in the gym when you're practicing and with, you know, your fellow fighters outside the octagon. | ||
| How do they respond? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, everybody's a little bit different, but when I'm in the gym with fighters, and really anybody in the gym, because actually when you go to MMA gym, there's more non-fighters than there are fighters. | |
| And my goal going into an MMA gym is always to make these people not realize that I'm a fighter. | ||
| I don't want them to even think that guy's a fighter. | ||
| I want to behave so friendly to these people and so loving to these people that they imagine, how could that guy go into a cage and hurt somebody? | ||
| That's what I really liked to do when I met gyms, and I very rarely had any problems in the gym, and all the problems that I've had in the gyms, I think, are to other people's fault. | ||
| I believe you. | ||
| So, I'm not going to ask you to predict whether you're going to win or lose. | ||
| We'll be watching, obviously. | ||
| But I have just a really small question. | ||
| I've just always been interested. | ||
| So, this fight's coming up in just a few days. | ||
| What are you eating? | ||
| If you're about to put everything on the line in an MMA bout, what are you putting in your body right now? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have four raw eggs today and three, what is it, bottles of water. | |
| Three bottles of water, four raw eggs. | ||
| You know, little bits of beef, stuff like that, but not really a lot of carbs. | ||
| Now, the bad thing for fighters, especially in the UFC, not particularly boxers as much, UFC fighters have to cut a lot of weight. | ||
| And so that's why I'm down to just raw eggs, cutting out the carbs, drinking a lot of water. | ||
| If I don't drink like three bottles of water every hour or two hours when I go to dehydrate to make my weight... | ||
| There's not going to be any water there to pull from. | ||
| So that's why I'm doing this. | ||
| No carbs in a lot of water. | ||
| So how much do you have to drop in weight? | ||
|
unidentified
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I have to lose 15 pounds for this fight. | |
| And how close are you to that? | ||
|
unidentified
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I got two days. | |
| You have two days to lose 15? | ||
| How do you lose 15? | ||
| Just asking for a friend, Bryce. | ||
|
unidentified
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How do you lose 15 pounds in two days? | |
| You starve yourself to the point of exhaustion, and then you dehydrate yourself to the point of near death, and then you have 24 hours to replenish before a fight. | ||
| And I know if you've never done the MMA, it sounds really stupid. | ||
| Why would you do that before a fight? | ||
| Well, the reason is because if I don't do that, then I have to fight a guy who's literally 20 pounds bigger than me. | ||
| Right. | ||
| So I've done that, and it's not fun. | ||
| And so I'm reduced here to cutting the weight. | ||
| Amazing. | ||
| I can't tell you how much we're rooting for you, both in the octagon and in life. | ||
| And it's just great to see you. | ||
| And I'm really flattered by the name of your son. | ||
| And congratulations to you, Bryce Mitchell. | ||
| We are 100% on your side. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, thank you so much, brother. | |
| And if you and everybody watching would just pray for my health, pray for my opponent's health, pray for all these fighters' health. | ||
| I know we might bruise each other up a bunch, but if y'all would just pray that nobody dies in there, nobody... | ||
| Nobody gets their face broken and things like that. | ||
| Those prayers really mean a lot to me. | ||
| And that's all I want is I want prayers for health. | ||
| Amen. | ||
| That is absolutely the thing to pray for. | ||
| Bryce Mitchell, thank you very much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
God bless you, brother. | |
| I love you so much, man. | ||
| God bless. |
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