Jeff Curran: [00:00:00] And. He hits me. I remember the feeling of being hit, like my teeth, like caving in and my, and like my gums kind of like swelling and the blood from my nose. And I just hit the ground
Riley: Today we have my friend Jeff Curran on here. I am super jacked to be able to visit with you, Jeff. Um, Jeff and I are both part of, uh, oh, jut the jujitsu world.
So, uh, part of the Pedro Sauer Association where we, we know each other from there [00:01:00] and have gotten a chance to visit here recently up in Park City at a, at a JIUJITSU event up there. And I invited Jeff on to the podcast at that point. Um. Jeff has had a wild MMA career. He's a current school owner for a Juujitsu Academy and he has several other business ventures going. Um, and so we wanted to have him on here because he's, man, he's, he's had a life of fitness. He's had a life, life of, of training and fighting. And then also, uh, you know, he is a smart businessman. And so Jeff, welcome to the show, my man.
Jeff Curran: Thanks for having me. Uh, I'm glad we finally got this, uh, technology to work
Riley: Yeah, man. Well, tell us about yourself. Dude, I, I, uh, brought up that you, you had a, a pretty high level MMA career man up in the tippy top, so that, that world and, uh, tell us your story. Where'd you grow, where'd you grow up, and what, what took you there?
Jeff Curran: Oh man. I'll, I'll try to give the short version because it's still. [00:02:00] Somewhat long, uh, but I started, I, I grew, I was born and raised in this little town, um, just south of the Wisconsin border in Illinois called Wonder Lake. And it's just like a little lake, lake, lake town. There's an east side and a west side.
And, you know, typical like little subdivisions. But, so I had lots of friends with money that lived on the lake and, you know, were. Had all the toys and then you had people like me who were one block in, which felt like the other side of the tracks where, you know, we grew up poor and had no money and there was a lot of, um, like section eight type housing and a lot of alcohol and drugs that just kind of like ruled the town.
That's kind of where I grew up and, um, my family was. All floor installers, like carpet installers, and I was third generation of that. So [00:03:00] my dad's or my mom's dad taught. My dad and my other uncle and his son, which is my mom's brother. And then they all taught me and my brother and it just kind of trickled down.
And I think they have like a, with, with my, my uncle's grandkids now we got like fourth generation coming up. But, so flooring was our trade. We were all just kind of, um, like it was a blue collar kind of life. And, uh. I started in, in that around seven years old going on my first job where I was just being like, yelled at and told to go work.
So like I had my own tools by the time I was 10 and um, I just never wanted that to be my life. But because we had no money, I was always kind of like doing these little park district karate programs where it'd be like $30 for. Eight weeks, and then after that you don't get to do karate again. [00:04:00] But sometime around, sometime around maybe like fifth, sixth grade, I was able to kind of convince my dad, my parents were, were, were divorced.
My dad was actually really, really sick with diabetes and, um, heart disease and different things. Um, so he kind of had a. A lot of interest in helping me, like do things I wanted to do, considering the way my home life was with my mom and my stepdad and stuff like that. So I finally got into a karate program and one of my good friends there got kicked out and he, he located this place where they were doing like Groundfighting and that was, um, a town over.
So I went to this like eight o'clock class, maybe nine, nine o'clock class when I was 14 years old. And it was like groundfighting. Uh, from whatever the guy had learned, the guy, Adam Miller, you know Adam Miller, I believe at the [00:05:00] time I didn't know him, so I'll just say like, this guy was teaching basic jujitsu.
And I went there and I went to one class. My dad drove me, and I was like, all right, only Wednesday nights. The rest of the week, between now and next Wednesday, I gotta get with my friend and we're gonna practice everything that he showed us. And then we bought a bunch of magazines and there wasn't a whole lot going on, you know, in the jujitsu world.
So eventually it led me to a jujitsu seminar with Megaton and, uh, Wellington Diaz. I drove a couple hours, went into that seminar, and then I just became like this fanatic where. I started going to Arizona to train with him, and in the course of high school, I took over 20 trips, maybe 25, 26 trips to Arizona, back and forth.
Um, I mean, I. I could maybe, I could maybe be 18 to 20, but I went a lot. I, I just didn't track. [00:06:00] Life was just so busy and I was just, my girlfriend's mom worked at the school, so she would call me, call in, call me in, and then she would get my homework. And, you know, thankfully she wasn't some like scholar. So she, her grades were similar to what mine probably would've been.
You know, um, it just kind of worked and I would just go train all the time and, uh, then I'd come back home and I would teach what I was learning to my friends in the wrestling room at the high school. And it just became one of those things where like my mom didn't let me box by the way, I started boxing with my, my grandpa when I was a young.
And then I was gonna go do the silver gloves and my mom was like, no, you're not doing that. So then she said, and you can join wrestling though. So I joined wrestling and wrestled for three, three years. Um, couple years before that, I did like some camps, fourth and fifth grade. And then the summer before freshman year, I found Jiujitsu.
And that was when I just like, okay, this is all in. And [00:07:00] then about a two years after that. Gracie fought. And when I saw that, I was like, whoa, wait a minute. This guy does what I do. What I've been practicing, what me and my friends have been doing. And we had heard about the Gracie's and we heard about that, but not in that level.
And then we see this like explosion of, of Jiujitsu and, and I was like, I gotta find a way to get in a cage like that.
Riley: Yeah.
Jeff Curran: So my research brought me to, um, filling out like a resume for Extreme Challenge owned by Monty Cox, who was the first full-time manager in MMA. And, um, I got on the phone with him and he's like, look, I got your resume.
One of the most impressive things that I see is like, you're a blue belt in Brazilian juujitsu. It's like, yeah, you know, I'm, you know. So that was when I was, I [00:08:00] don't know, I had to have been, when I had that conversation with him, I probably didn't fight for about a year and a half later. But he said he is gonna be putting together a, a little bit more of a show, and he was gonna have an eight man tournament.
And eventually, I, I did this eight man tournament when I, after I turned 20, I turned 20 September. Well, it would've been September of 1997, September 2nd, and I fought November, and that was my first time ever getting a ring or a cage for a competition. Like even though I boxed a lot and I'd been in like a boxing ring to like spar a couple times, I was like, whoa.
So I did eight fight or I did an eight man tournament, three fights in one night. I won that and uh, I was off. Never stopped after that.
Riley: That, um, you, you mentioned being a blue belt, right? And that was, that was impressive then. So what year was this? It would've been you, well, [00:09:00] that you said 1993, which was when
Jeff Curran: 97 is when I fought. 1997 is when I, and 97 is when I had my first fight. Um, and I, I met Pedro Sauer when I was 18, so I met him. Yeah, my dad died when my dad died when I was 18, and that was in 90 January of 96. And uh, my first fight was November of 97, so about a year and a half later and right after my dad passed away, I met Pedro Sour and um, I stopped training with.
Uh, the people I was training with and, uh, which is a, a longer, more dragged out political story, so I don't want to get into that as much, but I just wasn't being taken care of at all. So I wanted to be under a black belt. And, uh, [00:10:00] I met Pedro and I said, oh, this is it. So he kind of took me under his wing and that kind of changed everything.
I regrouped my whole, uh. Regroup. My whole focus on juujitsu and like my whole, um, outlook on everything, you know?
Riley: So you go into this, this fight world. Um. That starts in obviously amateur MMA, right?
Jeff Curran: Mm-hmm.
Riley: that world look like? Because
Jeff Curran: Well, it was all.
Riley: seeing UFC and we're the big show, but what's the, what's the little show look like?
Jeff Curran: Well then it was just all called NHB was the acronym was no holds Barred. So everything was called NHB and the World MMA, the, the, the term of MMA didn't even start like being used that I could remember till maybe the early two thousands, you know? And. I mean, I wasn't on [00:11:00] internet at all. I don't think I barely had an email or anything like that.
Um, so it was just no holds barred. And you get, you have to have a rules meeting every show so you can know whether you can wear gloves or not wear gloves. Um, I remember one time the argument being about groin strikes. I'm like, come on guys, like, you know. Do you really want, are you really gonna fight for that one?
You know, so bad. Like, because you want it to be, people wanted it to be raw, like raw as possible. And like mouth guards are optional and it's like the weirdest thing. Um, so it was, it was, uh, scary when the sport became, um, more organized as the years went by and Dana made the unified rules. It wasn't scary to me anymore.
You knew what to expect. You knew you're fighting somebody in your weight class. This, the fear was different. The fear wasn't like, who's this dude? This guy gonna kick [00:12:00] my ass? Like, what does he know that I don't know. But once you start getting the sport organized, you know? Okay. At the, at least he can't soccer kick me when I'm on my stomach and, you know, break my skull like that.
Like at least he can't elbow me in the spine. And you know what? Off a double leg and maybe cripple me. Like there's things that are like you just. Those rough guy I like. One time I fought this guy, I always tell this story 'cause like I think it was my second fight after the tournament. So I did the three fights and then I went to Extreme Challenge and I got like pro fights.
So now I got paid like $200 and I, I fought at this show. It was one of the only times I fought, well not one of the only, but one of the only times I fought for Extreme Challenge where they didn't film, they didn't have a camera guy. Well. I'm standing across. I'm [00:13:00] like this like pasty, soft like kid, you know?
And I'm, I was game and I was, I felt like I was tough, but I'm standing across from this dude, Mike, Mike Hall, him, and he was this like burly, muscle bound, just shredded up man. Like he, I was still a like a boy. He's 20 years old and he's probably 25 years old and just, I don't know, just maybe 30, just strong dude.
And. He hits me. I remember the feeling of being hit, like my teeth, like caving in and my, and like my gums kind of like swelling and the blood from my nose. And I just hit the ground and next thing you know, I'm in the locker room and I'm like, or the bathroom and I'm like checking all my cuts and I'm like, what the fuck happened?
And um, somebody comes in and goes. Dude, that was awesome, man. Great fight. I'm like, oh, I guess better next time. I, I had no [00:14:00] idea that I caught him in a triangle and put him, made him tap or put him to sleep or whatever. They're like, no, he hit you and you threw a choke on him with your legs. And it's like, oh man.
Instincts, thank God. Like I thought I was unconscious. Like I thought that I just got hit once and the fight once or twice and the fight was over. But apparently I choked the guy and, uh. It was just crazy. I, I was like, can we see the tape? I wanna see what happened. They're like, no, you don't. I don't think you wanna see the tape.
It was bad the way you fell and you got hit, but you just threw your legs up and locked the triangle. So,
Riley: So you,
Jeff Curran: wild man.
Riley: mostly unconscious for that, it sounds like, huh?
Jeff Curran: Yeah. It was just like the, the, what do you call it, like the knee jerk or the instinctive reaction? Your bo My body was still working, but my brain was off.
Riley: Oh, that is wild, man. Yeah. I hadn't heard that story. So you're, uh. It's just crazy. You got my wheels turning [00:15:00] now. 'cause we see that stuff once in a while. Right? Where,
Jeff Curran: Yeah,
Riley: gets kind of knocked out but then he's ends up tackling the ref. 'cause he doesn't, he's still going, but the brain's not
Jeff Curran: yeah,
Riley: all the way.
Right.
Jeff Curran: yeah. I was like, I'm, I'm good. I'm good. Like, no, you're not. I'm not your opponent. Oh, sorry. Wrong guy.
Riley: . So your nickname Big Frog, man. Can you tell, tell me where'd that come from?
Jeff Curran: Well, the nickname was just kind of, I had of a tattoo of a frog in my back, just unrelated. Um, and then when I was 18. My friend Mica, he owns Mika gr uh, juujitsu, what is it? Las Vegas. He was out in, he was out in uh, park City. Remember he taught, taught a class. Him and Pedro's nephew Rodrigo were calling Meson and all the time and said, 'cause I did a [00:16:00] warmup and I guess I was doing frog hops or something.
And they said that I looked like a big frog. So.
Riley: came from. Huh?
Jeff Curran: A couple years later, um, I was asked for a full contact fighter magazine. Joel Gold was doing an interview with me for the actual physical magazine, said, Hey, do for your profile, do you have a nickname? I said, uh, no. And then I thought about it. I go, actually, you know, yeah, I go, some of my friends call me, which is Portuguese for Big Frog, and he's like, oh, okay.
So he put Sapone in the profile. And I said, Hey, you gotta change that. Like, I'm not Brazilian, I'm just telling you what they call me if you're gonna call me. So they changed it to Big Frog
Riley: Man,
Jeff Curran: then I was like, damn it. I should maybe, uh, think of a better story than that, but I ha
Riley: right? I,
Jeff Curran: that's the story. Yeah.
But I have the, I have the tattoo on my back because when I was a, when I was a kid. [00:17:00] Growing up, we have a creek that runs from our lake through our town, and we spent a lot of time down there. Um, I spent a lot of time down there catching frogs, so me and my friends, we would go 'cause they're hard to catch, you know?
And so that's kind of the more, the, probably the better story is like, they're just really hard to catch and I feel like I'm hard to submit. So like, but we would catch them and we'd catch tadpoles, then we'd throw 'em in these aquariums and any kind of. Bin that we had in my one friend's garage. And at one point we, I swear we had hundreds of frogs and that garage would just be croaking.
And his mom like, you guys gotta get these goddamn frogs outta here. So we'd carry 'em back to the pond and we'd drop 'em in this one pond, and then we'd go back to the pond and hunt them and there'd just be frogs everywhere. So we just kinda, I don't know, it was just a pastime. Things we did once in a while.
So that's why I have the frog tattoo, [00:18:00] which led to the,
Riley: came from, different
Jeff Curran: yeah, I just always liked, I liked frogs. Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. Uh, Mika Mika said he'd come on the podcast. We're gonna get that set up here pretty soon, so I'm
Jeff Curran: Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah,
Riley: I'll have to ask him about his side of the story, giving you that nickname.
Jeff Curran: yeah. He'll tell, he'll tell you. I remember the day they said it. I said, I said, what are you guys calling me? I's like, oh, same. You look like a big frog. Interesting.
Riley: it.
Jeff Curran: It's a first.
Riley: Sauer, when you met, you met him just prior to, to starting fighting. Is that what.
Jeff Curran: Mm-hmm.
Riley: That what you said?
Jeff Curran: Yeah. Um, I was looking, man, I was training with Carlson Gracie Jr. And I loved it. I loved training with Junior and Pedro and Daniel Vienna. They were a couple purple belts, this guy Polo Bazaara. Um. You know, Pete, the Greek,
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Curran: I don't know if you've heard of Pete, the Greek, [00:19:00] um, Pete Lessos. He, so Pete, Pete had signed up, so now he was a part of the crew.
This guy Carlos, um, man, there's a good group. Nick Spek, Jeff Neil. There's a whole group of guys. However, there was only one black belt and that was Carlson Jr. So when Junior. One day I went and I said, and oh, then there was this brown belt. Hey, Diago Hay is in California now. Hay is a black belt, obviously higher rank than I am.
He's, uh, got a good academy there and, but he. Hay was like my mentor. I would go teach kids with him and he would gimme private class in exchange for the help. So I'd leave work early, drive an hour and a half down to the city, train, teach, and then I would come home at 10, 11 o'clock at night, wake up five in the morning, go back to laying carpet and like just my rotation was like that.
I drove a 1979 van that just kept breaking down. I had to [00:20:00] put like gallons and gallons of antifreeze in it every day and uh, 'cause they didn't have enough money to. Uh, get a new radiator. I couldn't take the time off to fix it, like all the things. So when Junior, one day I went in and Junior wasn't there, and I said, where is he?
And they said, oh, he's, he's, uh, moved to Cincinnati or something and we haven't been in touch. I was like, what? Okay. I think he moved with Pete. I don't know exactly, but they went to Cincinnati and I was like, I. So I went back and forth for a, you know, a couple, maybe a couple more weeks, not knowing is there is junior coming back.
And then Hay had moved out west and it was just me and, uh, the purple belts and a couple other blue belts. And I was like, eh. I'm gonna, [00:21:00] I have to get on the lookout. 'cause at that point I had experienced good black belts and I knew like, it's probably best I come up under a black belt, you know? So I started looking around for seminars and in that process I was also training in G Kund do with, uh, my friend Tom and this other guy, Randy.
And they said, Hey, this guy Frank Coochie is coming to, um. Do a seminar in Chicago. He's a former Navy seal. He's a certified in UND do under um, Dan Asanto and he's a tie boxing guy under Sea Chi csu. And I'm like looking up all his credentials like, oh this is great 'cause you know me training to be a fighter I need.
Better tie boxing and I need guidance, so I'm gonna go see this guy. So I went and did this tie boxing seminar on a gym floor. So it said to wear tennis shoes. And I got [00:22:00] there and uh, Frank was like, Hey man, are you the Juujitsu guy? I heard you, you, you juujitsu, or something like that. I said, yeah, I said, told him my story really quickly.
And he's like. Hey man, let me show you this. What do you think about this position? And we got down and he showed me like some cross body stuff on the gym floor. And the seminar was being delayed. 'cause we were down on the mat, not on the mat, but on the hard floor talking about moves. And I was like, no, I like that.
But I was also kind of critical because I was like. I trained with Megaton and, and I put Megaton way up here. And then when I met Junior, I was like, oh. And then I trained with Junior and I, I put them both way up and um, he's like, Hey man, you gotta come out to Virginia Beach and you gotta meet this. The guy that I trained under, he's a Hicks and Gracie Black Belt, his name is, um, and I had known who Hickson was at this point, and he's, uh.
And he trains under Hickson, who's one of, uh, [00:23:00] ALO Gracie's sons. And I was like, okay, yeah, his name's Pedro Sauer. So, man, I went to Vir, I drove to Virginia Beach and um, I was at the same hotel as Pedro. So Frank was like, Hey, do you mind grabbing Pedro and bringing him into the, and Pedro used to do like week long seminars.
They were not like weekend things. They were like, got there on Monday and he'd leave on Sunday. And that was kind of my first experience is Peter was teaching a lot of classes. Throughout the week and I was able to do private classes with him every day. So I went and knocked on his door all excited, like, 'cause I'd learned how to surf, go into Virginia Beach, you know, I was like, Hey, wanna go surf?
He's like, no, but I'll go eat. Like I'll go eat lunch. I was like, all right, let's go eat lunch. So we went to lunch and uh, he kind of started giving me some guidance and we went to, uh. We went back to the gym and we did a private class and I told him I just wanted to roll. I wanted to see how I do against him.
And he was just like, [00:24:00] that's an expensive hour, you know, if you wanna do it. Like, so we went about five minutes and he just kept tapping me out with everything he could. And, um. Taunting me along the way. Like, come on, what are you gonna do now? And he grabbed my collar and then he arm bar me. And then he just caught me in all the basics.
Every mistake you can make is a beginner. I made them, even though I was three years in, you know, so maybe more, maybe four years in at that point, almost four years. So that was it. I stopped and I said, alright, teach me. I'm ready. And he is like, all right, first of all, when you're in somebody's guard, you know, and he started giving me some specifics and I did another private class.
To close out that trip. Um, there a couple more private classes to close out that trip. And then I started going on the road to air to, uh, Utah and I started going on the [00:25:00] road to, I'd go to Minnesota every so often and I would go to Atlanta every so often, and then I would go to Virginia Beach all the time.
And then I was planning to move there, so my plan was to move, but my dad had passed away. Although my parents were divorced, they were, they became good friends again. And I had my little sister and my brother had moved away. So I thought to myself, I, I, I remember crying and I said, professor, I can't, I can't move to Utah.
I can't go, you know? And he's like, don't worry, stay back. Take care of your family. Just put some mats down and I'll endorse you. So I was like, his third or fourth affiliate, something like that. And, uh. The rest is history. And he knew I wanted to fight. He strongly discouraged me from it all the time. He said I had nothing to prove that the Gracie's have already done that.
Um, but if you're gonna do it, you have to know this. So he always talked to me [00:26:00] in the frame of mind of fighting. Remember if the guy's trying to hit you, you have to, you know, it wasn't just sporty stuff, it was all functional. And that was how. I started going out and being successful because here I am on my back where most people are getting pulverized.
Even good juujitsu guys, supposedly good juujitsu guys were getting beat up, but I was like, I know I'm gonna be on my back. Because the guys that are, especially in the Midwest, bro, they're all wrestling, right? And I wasn't gonna catch up to them with my wrestling for a while, so I had to like. Assume I was gonna spend a lot of time on my back and I just mastered, like, punch block defense and like, uh, not getting hit, not taking damage.
Uh, I didn't even care about getups, I just worried about sweeps and submissions and it just, my, my game just was [00:27:00] up. 'cause if I could do that, when someone's trying to murder me from the top, then when I'm just grappling against guys. I can be as creative as I want and not have to worry about getting hit is like taking the donut off the bat in a sense.
You know, it's everything moved quicker. Everything moved, like with ease.
Riley: You. Um, it's fascinating to me because, you know, we're, again, necessarily on here to talk jujitsu, but what you just said about. It's easier when you're confident in that position. You know, you can be on your back and, and know you're gonna block the punches and so that frees you up to do other things because you're not afraid of going there. Is that, um, use that phrase taking the donut off the bat, which is funny 'cause I haven't even thought about those little weighted donuts. You stick on the bat and swing extra weight and then when you take it off you can swing [00:28:00] faster. And, I haven't thought about those in a long time, but. Just in the, in the world that we live in, there's so many times we go into something where we're hesitant because we're afraid of something. Right. And, and so we, we we're of a little gingerly about going into it, but man, when you just carry more weight, you do hard things on a regular basis, all these things tend to be easier.
Jeff Curran: For sure. I mean, that's how business is, right? That's, that's where like, I don't know, I was talking with one of my friends and it's like, you know, they're, they're maybe more nine to five or they're getting into their own space, having their own business, and they're just like some, unless you're selling, like when you're not selling a product, when you don't be like, Hey, here's.
This for that, or a service where you're going in like I did and I laid [00:29:00] carpet and I put down floors, and they give you money in exchange for your service. Like when you start creating business out of the thin air and you start creating a living out of that, like they're going, oh people, they wanna learn this.
I remember starting my jujitsu school at eight, at 19 years old. My rent was $350 a month and I was charging like 60 bucks a month to train, and I got up to almost 120 students before I went like, okay, if I wanna do this, it's pretty easy, but for now I'm gonna close down my kids program. And I just literally on a Saturday afternoon, just put a sign on my door and said, Hey everybody, I only.
As all you guys know, I'm trying to fight and it takes a lot of energy from me, so I'm done teaching kids. I only wanna train people who are serious and wanna work really hard. Here's my address. The [00:30:00] mats will be in my garage Monday at six o'clock, and
Riley: Oh.
Jeff Curran: a whole bunch of people, 40, 50 people show up in my house.
[00:31:00]
Jeff Curran: I say, okay, well we're training here and then everybody just left their GI in my house. Porch and on my railing in my, in my, on my staircase inside and there's juujitsu, VHS tapes everywhere and everybody just kind of sat around watching old fights and instructionals and it, like, we weren't wild people.
We were just into juujitsu. And I had got so many people that like catch this bug. Uh, but uh, back to that like. Business is like I, okay now I don't have any overhead. Now I got 30, 40 students, you know, paying whatever. They were paying 65, 85 bucks a month by then. And then I lived with a couple of my students who were blue belts and they were, you know, basically a rank behind me because I'd been training them since I started training.
I was just pursuing it more and, um. So they would [00:32:00] cover classes and I would get on a plane and I would go and I would work as much as I could when I was home. And I would get on a plane and I would go train, and then I would learn and I would train. I would compete, and I would fly home and I would teach class to go back to work.
I save more money. And eventually somebody was like, Hey. You gotta, one of my students was like, can we have a conversation? You know, where can we talk? I'm like, come in my room. So me and this guy, me and this guy Chad, this big guy, we sit down on my bed, I'm like, what's up bro? You know, it's um, we're in my bedroom.
He's like, we, I guess we can have this meeting here. I'm like sitting on the edge of the bed with him. 'cause I had no other chairs in my house, you know? He is like, I just hiked through three different backyards in a front yard to get to your house, parking in the snow, and uh, walking through a foot of snow.
And I got yelled at by neighbors and chased by a dog. And I just wanna know, I love training with you, but like any plans, I'm getting [00:33:00] another place again. Or is it just gonna stay here? I said, yeah, you're right. It's been a year or so. I should probably find a place. So that's when I kind of like started trying to elevate.
Back to having a business business.
Riley: Yeah. Well you had, you had talked about off air, you used the term your mega gym. Um, is that when you started that?
Jeff Curran: No, that was years later. Um, I started, I moved into like a, so I've moved my gym a total of 10 times if you count my move to my house. So my first gym, my house. Then powerhouse gym. So they had a multipurpose room and this guy let me pay like $600 a month and put mats down and I, I was in my room, locker rooms and weight room and everybody had everything they needed.
But then I kind of outgrew that. It's like, okay, this [00:34:00] little space is not big enough. So I got a unit down the, down the way from him in that plaza. But that was really offset. I couldn't afford that space there, so I moved again and again, I kept growing and then I had like a landlord issue where they weren't fixing anything and we were getting a lot of water and I kept emailing these guys and asking 'em to come and repair the roof.
And I had this, I like 14,000 square feet. My ring, my cage, weight room, full weights, showers. Wasn't perfect, but it was everything you needed. And that's when my team was like growing and I was starting to make a big dent and I was in the top 10 and the, and just like kind of killing it. Um, so I'm like, all right, I gotta go buy a building, which I'll need a few hours to tell you that story.
But I found a building. We bought a 24,000 square foot place, [00:35:00] renovated the whole thing. The dorm rooms there slept like 12 people. Um, I had an office with an en suite, my own kitchen, my own bathroom, my own, my office was connected to my bedroom. We had multipurpose room, indoor track, um, like a 25 yard sprint track with four lanes.
We had a wrestling room, full size universal circle, like 20 heavy bags around the mat, or mat space was 50 by 85. That's gives you an idea how big our mat was. Everything we had there was just amazing, but, and we got up to like five hundred and fifty, five hundred seventy five members and then the recession hit and in a matter of couple months, I remember getting, looking at my monthly statement and I go, wait, wait.
Why are we at 112 117 students? That was the number. My front desk guy was like, bro, [00:36:00] families are leaving. They're losing jobs. They're moving. They're moving outta state to move in with their parents to move in with their siblings. They're the. They're just outta work. I'm like, 'cause that was the problem with having such a big family environment, you know, with these martial arts schools is like, you lose one, you're probably gonna lose two or three more with them.
Um, so that was, that was a real thing. And with the way my mortgage was, I was like, I had to let the building go. You know, and then I went through a series of other struggles to get, to get me to where I am with COVID and everything, and a couple other, um, forced moves that brought me to where I am right now.
And, um, I'm on my 28th year and I look back to the first struggle going, man, probably could have just called it a day then, you know, and, and probably lived a little bit more of a peaceful life. But, uh. [00:37:00] I wouldn't change it.
Riley: Yeah, man, that's, um, you said about 10 things there that I, I'd love to dig into. You know, we don't have, we don't have all day, but you, uh, you mentioned. Families, right? So you have this, this business model that caters to families, but you're right, when you lose one person, you lose the whole family. And so it could be 2, 3, 4, 5 people in one. One shebang. Um, you know, I, in my other business, I, I that thing specifically to have a whole bunch of customers versus a couple of big ones, you know? and I get a lot of flack for that, but that's the reason I did that is because, you know, in, if I lost any 10 of my customers in one week, I'd barely feel it because they all, you know, basically occupy such a small part of the pie.
Jeff Curran: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: That's, uh, got me really thinking there, man. Um, then you went. [00:38:00] Pro, like the, lower level pros, but then you went into the big time, man, you went in into the UFC world and talk about that a little bit.
Jeff Curran: Yeah, I was, uh, I never wanted to fight in, in, in the 19 and a half years to be technical. I feel like it was long. Like I, I started training for my first fight from the time I started training till the time I had, I had my first fight. It was 20 years, but start to finish. Fight wise, it was 19 and a half.
Um, all I ever wanted to do is fight people that were gonna give me, like, the respect that's gonna get me to the next respectful fight. And. Later that became like, I want, of course I wanted money, but I wanted the big fight. I wanted the fight that was gonna make the world go, man, he's legit. He's not just faking it, you know, [00:39:00] or whatever.
So I had a, I was on this like mission and it was like, I would call my manager literally every day and I'd like Monty, I'm like, anything. He's like, I'm talking to this guy, you know, in Montreal. Um, there's this guy and that guy. I am like, well, why whi which one do you think? He said, well, this is the easier fight and I think you should do it.
I said, no, no, I want that fight. I want the other one. Like, get me the one, you know, in Montreal, get me the one, um, here or there. And I would press, I didn't just wait for the call. I just pressed, I pressed on and I was very, um, aggressive with getting fights. And then I got a call one day and I was like.
Hey, did you hear the news? And I was like, no, what, what news? Like you're in the top 10, you're like the first American in the top 10 as a featherweight or something like that.
Riley: wow.
Jeff Curran: And I was like,[00:40:00]
that's an odd stat. I didn't even know there was rankings. You know, like he, oh, oh no. There's rankings, there's a world rankings and there's sured dog rankings here in the top 10 in both of them.
And everyone else was Brazilian. I shouldn't say that. There, there was um, Cole Esto, but Cole was kind of, uh, you know, they put a mound as like Native American, you know, obviously American born here before our ancestors came here. But like, I was the first like white kid, right? I was the first white kid basically on, on, um, in the top 10.
And, um, everyone was Brazilian. Everybody was Japanese. So I said, how do I look this up? And he told me about like a website. And I went to Shirt dog and I went to like MMA underground, like, and I started looking and I'm like, oh, wow. And I'm like, well, I wanna fight one of those guys that are ahead of me.
Why am I [00:41:00] fighting guy? I don't wanna fight anybody that's below me. He's like, well, they're signed with Shooto and they're signed with these other shows. And I'm like, well, whatever we do gotta do to get those shows, if this guy's in King of the Cage, then I'll fight for King of the Cage and fight whoever they want me to fight to get that fight with that guy.
So it became this like obsession where I wasn't settling. I, I, I was always anxious and it very much just consumed me. And the harder the fight or the bigger the show, or the bigger stage. The more obsessed I became with like finding the next guy. And it'd be like, well, just so wanted to let you know. Like they got Dan Henderson on that card, so they're not paying anybody else.
They're paying him or whatever. [00:42:00] And I'm like, I don't care what I'm getting paid. I wanna just fight on that card, or whatever the case might be. So I, I was just, I was, it was wild because I didn't know there was rankings. And then I found out, and then once I found out, then that became like my strategy.
Like what couldn't I do to fight the best guys? I don't, I'm not here to fake this. I wanna be recognized as one of the bigger guys. And then on top of that, I had fighters that were under me now with my gym, like with, within. Three, or within probably three or four months of my first fight, one of my students had their first fight where I was a coach, and I was now on the other side going, Hey, trust me, don't be nervous.
I know you're gonna be nervous trying to give my opinions on what to do. Even though I was not that experienced, I [00:43:00] was getting all my experience firsthand as well. Um, but I had, although like I had my good friend Tom behind me, um, everybody, my, my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife, so Sarah was like her mom, and her and my mom and my sister and my brother, and everybody that I trained with was all just like, okay, you, you fought once.
Now be done with it. Like you got to experience it now stop. And I was like, Hmm. Four broken ribs and a broken orbital and a broken septum and a broken hand. And all in 12, 13 minutes, like not stopping me. So didn't stop me. So why is that gonna stop me? Um, I was just de determined and eventually they all kind of went, okay, now I get it.
Now we have to get behind you. Not that they weren't behind me, but now we gotta get more like excited about your [00:44:00] future because you're actually, um, you're doing what you said you're gonna do. And I was from that little town I told you about, which growing up had probably a thousand people on it now has probably 7,000 people.
Um, all my old bike trails, all my old like dirt bike trails and, and every everything's built on now. It's all, all the corn fields are built on, everything's built on. So there's a lot more people, but back then it was just like. I'm just some loser kid from some loser town. Really? You know, some, some kid from some like unfortunate lifestyle like living situation where I was dealing with all that, you know, the, the things that come with drugs and alcohol and abuse and poverty and all that.
So I just wanted out man. I was just like, I don't get the hell outta here and [00:45:00] I'm gonna fight my way outta here if I have to. And that's basically what I ended up doing. And still to this day, every year I do like a food drive for my town and we, you know, we, we. We have big years and small years, but we, we always bring a bunch of food to the food pantry.
The church where my mom got married at twice, you know, that little town where it's like, I'm gonna bring it to the church and drop it off at the food pantry and like, you know, go there once or twice a year for whatever reason. I go back to my town. It's only like 20 minutes away. But it's a whole nother world when you drive into it.
And it's just like, there's a lot of money there now and people are trying to build it up. And I feel like being a part of it, but at the same time I worked so hard to get outta there, you know? And, um, that was my motivation. It was to not end up like my parents. Um, you know, my dad died when I was 18. My mom's, my, my stepdad was, was, you know, pretty [00:46:00] much a piece of shit.
They eventually got divorced, my mom went through her struggles. Um, everyone's. Now minus my dad and, uh, my sister's dad, my stepdad, he's not doing well, but he lives out of, he lives downstate, so I don't ever see him and we're all just kind of doing our best. But yeah, I just wanted out, man. So I was willing to fight anybody anywhere and, uh, at any time.
And, um, I would double, triple book fights. I'd be like, okay, fight in May, June and July.
You know,
Riley: Yeah.
Jeff Curran: tell the promoters because
Riley: Yeah.
Jeff Curran: get hurt in May and not be able to do the next two. But I would book 'em, you know, it was very active six to eight times a year. Sometimes I was fighting, so I just racked him up and then I was so ready to sign, like talking about the big shows.
Um. Uriah favor had this television show out, like this TV [00:47:00] show out, which was like, um, warrior Nation or something like that, where he was on one of the episodes. And I was like, who's this fucking guy? I was so like, why are these guys from the west? I was so jealous. Chip on my shoulder, whatever you call it.
Like, why are these guys from out west getting all these opportunities when I'm like doing the same shit here? And I'm like going nowhere. And you know, Jens Pulver, right? Little evil. So Jens was managed by my manager, and when it came to lightweight fighters, he was priority. He was signed first and he was, he fought in the UFC and he, uh, knocked out, uh, John Lewis, and he ended up winning the title.
And then he ended up fighting BJ and he fought, you know, he fought all the big names. And so Jens was this like. Brand that I was like up against, even with my own manager trying to get my [00:48:00] shot. And I'd be like, dude, I'll fight Jens any day of the week. And I'd get all like, no, no, it's not that. You know, like it's just Jens is here, you're there.
And like, he kind of make me feel like I was second, second to him. And I never felt that. And it wasn't the case, but that was the, what the, the competition that was like driving me was like, I'm not getting any opportunity. So I started pressing like, I wanna fight this kid, Uriah Faber. I wanted that fight.
I wanted to see what, what happens when I go against a kid like this. And, um, I was fighting in Pride and my, my fight in Pride, my fight contract with Pride was like three fights or whatever. And then Zfa bought Pride. UFC bought Pride closed it fired 250 people. I think they bought it for like 65 million or some big number, small number compared to what the UFC sold for.
But [00:49:00] that's to me, what they did. Unless it was, they bought it for 250 million and fired 65 people. But I think it's the other way around. And I was like, okay, well now what? So now they own my contract. And because I was not a lightweight and they didn't have featherweight, then I ended up in the WEC
Riley: Hmm.
Jeff Curran: and we had to push for that a little bit, you know.
But we got made sure that I wasn't just gonna be like, oh, released, like, why would you release me? I'm doing all these things. So they kept me and I went to the WC and I won my first fight there. And then I went and fought Uriah for the title and supposed to be like the biggest moment in my life. And that was probably the one that.
State spiraled me downward for the rest of my career was the choices I made after that fight. Um, although I had [00:50:00] good moments and good fights after that, I did not have the level of success I had leading into it. Um, so that was kind of the, the thing. It was like I finally got to where I needed to be and it's like I couldn't, I started getting to the point where I couldn't buy myself a win, you know, but didn't stop me.
You kept going,
Riley: Jeff, when you say choices you made after that fight, what? What are you referring to?
Jeff Curran: well,
reckless, um, that's a time in your life where you're going, alright, you got. In my eyes, I lost this huge fight. So I thought that the ramifications for that were gonna be just as monumental as the success that would've came with the win. Not knowing that like, [00:51:00] okay, you, you both go here and you fight for a title.
You win, you go here. I thought if you lose, you go here out of the picture. Really. If you win, you go here. If you lose, you go here. But in my mind, I didn't know that. So they said, Hey, the, the WC matchmaker, Sean Shelby was like, Hey, you know, got this guy. Um, he's gonna be, I, I think we should, I think after that fight with, um, Uriah.
You know, you should. And he gave me options for fights. I said, no, no. Who, who do you have your eye on for being the next challenger for Uriah? Well, we got this guy, Mike. Um, I'm drawing a blank now.
American top team.[00:52:00]
Mike Brown. Sorry, Mikey. So, dude, I was like losing my mind. So Mike Brown was the champion in Bodog at 55, and he had just signed with the WEC to fight at 45. And I was like, well, get me him. And they're like, uh, you don't need to fight him. Like he's, he's gonna fight and then he's gonna fight. He's gonna come in and he'll fight somebody and then he'll pro.
If he wins, he'll get Uriah. You'll fight somebody and if you win, you'll get the winner. That, and it was kind of like. It wasn't like a, for anybody watching that follows the UFC, they don't sit down and go, here's our plan with you and we're gonna do all these things. It's all like subtle and like, well we can't promise you that.
But what I can say is like the winner, that fight's gonna need somebody to fight. You know? Like it's always like [00:53:00] hidden. So we knew from communicating with them, and my manager especially knew, he was like, dude, look, you beat him. You're gonna get, I'll get you that fight, you know, we'll, we'll press and get that fight.
So I was like, I just wanna bypass this rebuilding stage while he's training and getting, or while he's getting ready to come to the UFC. Let me welcome him to the WEC and remember UFC owned WEC. So it was all the same staff, all the same process. Meanwhile, I'm cornering my fighters in the UFC, so like I'm playing both sides.
Um, it was pretty wild though, but that, what I meant by the derailing me is like, or spiraling downward, is that I was so, remember I was so obsessed. And then when I lost that fight, I was like, no fucking way. No fucking way. I gotta fight this guy, Mike Brown. [00:54:00] So I pressed and I got that fight, and then I lost a close decision to that fight.
Um, my man, my, my boxing coach was so mad at me because I was winning the standup and I took a shot on him that put me on the bottom. And as a grappler, like he took me down. I wanted to try to take him down. It was a bad shot. I was winning to stand up. I was, you know, it was just. He was so good. Mike was so tough, and you know, he didn't have many holes.
Um, in the grappling side. He was also a black belt. Um, so after that fight, I was just like, okay. I felt outgunned with size and I pressed and said, I wanna fight. I wanna fight. Um, down at 1 35, I wanna fight at Banham weight. My weight cuts are so easy. I feel so small out there sometimes with these guys.
And I had just watched Jose, Aldo just made his debut too, and the WC that night, and I was like, [00:55:00] I walked by him. I'm like, holy shit, he's a monster compared to me. You know, big feet, big hands, big traps, taller. I'm like, why do I, and I, in my mind, I was looking for something like, what is the, what is the reason?
And remember, I don't really have any, a mentor to take me through this because I'm the pioneer, especially in my area. I'm the one paving the way. Pedro Sauer had bare knuckle challenge fights that I can't relate to, but he couldn't relate to what I was in, uh, from the same level of like in, you know, just in the difference of, of style styles and stuff like that.
So I was like, who do I go to? My manager, he'd suggest things and I said, yeah, I wanna do opposite. Let's fight. Let's get me in there. So they got me in this like match with [00:56:00] Joseph Betas, who was 10 and oh. Even though they had other fights for me, could have fought somebody else. Probably less chance of becoming a top 10 guy like Joseph Beez was, who was a pre, like a, a coming up under Uriah Faber, and I lost this, I lost this like a, a decision to him in Chicago and it, it killed me.
I was like, what? I, I couldn't believe it. I'm like, what is happening? I just lost three fights in a row. Like, so then the next fight, so then they tell me that they're gonna, they're gonna cut me. The UF C's gonna, the w C's gonna let me go. And I'm like, you let people go when the fights are boring. You let people go when they're getting their ass kicked.
I'm losing like close decisions. Arguably whether they're just unanimous or split. Some of them could go the other way. [00:57:00] They're close fights and then they call me and go, Hey, it's your lucky day. We're gonna put you against Aya Mizuki, who just arguably beat Miguel Torres, who's the champ when they were in Chicago.
And the loser basically walks. I was like, do it. So I went all in on that one wound, like a top for four months just, and then I went out and lost a split decision in a fight that I clearly won, like, and I just like, like I got done and I ran over the cage and I yelled to the matchmaker and I said, that's how winning's done.
I was all amped up and then they raised his hand. I was like, what? So it was just this like. Downward thing. And then, so I got dropped, I got cut from [00:58:00] them and man, I, it was a long journey. I, I can tell you like minute by minute how it went, but like I basically ended up fighting five more fights and getting called back to the UFC.
And when I got called back to the UFCI was given the same choices. An entry level UFC fight on a prelim or a top 10 spot on the main card. Which one? So UFC 1 37 Pay-per-view. BJ pen. GSPI want on the main. I wanna fight GSP, I wanna fight, uh, Scott Jorgenson. I don't wanna fight the no-name guy. Nobody knows.
That's just coming to the u to the UFC. I could fight him at another show down the street. Why would I wanna fight him in the UFC? So, and then I lost that decision and I was just like, God damnit, what is going on? But I know what was going on physically in my life. [00:59:00] Then, um, I had a broken, uh, I had a grade two shoulder separation, and I broke both, uh, tore ligaments in both of my hands and a broken bone.
In this one I had back to back surgeries. I could barely grab a, a barbell. I couldn't spar hard. I had a plate that I had removed from my arm from a broken bone, so I couldn't take impact. So my training was all altered and it was hard. I couldn't get like those grinding rounds. So it just began this like, like I said, this spiral man.
I could, like I said, I could talk about it all night long, but.
Riley: It's, it's
Jeff Curran: Ultimately, it's just,
Riley: as I'm hearing you, because I, I know sometimes I've heard Dave Ramsey talk a lot. I, I listen to his, his podcast and he'll say this thing every once in a while where he says, you know, when we have momentum, we we're better than we are. But when we, when things are going the other way, when we get hit [01:00:00] and we, you know, walking with a limp a little bit, we think we're worse than we are.
There's like this, the momentum really helps us kind of build. But then you, you have a setback and it's almost like you start feeling like a failure. Even though, like you said, you're winning by or losing by close decisions, you're still competing with the best guys
in the world, but you're
Jeff Curran: yeah,
Riley: narrow
Jeff Curran: I, agree with,
Riley: feels terrible, right?
[01:01:00]
Jeff Curran: I agree with what he's saying, uh, but I also. Can like explain it and from my point of view in, in a way that like when you're feeling not as good as you are, those should be indicators to step back. Those should be indicators to go. Okay. Because I have a couple times in my life where I'm like, all right, I'll fight the guy who's 20 and 19 record fought good guys and beat them.
Lost to some not so good guys had good days and bad. Like I'll fight that guy. 'cause my stats measure up against him and it's more in my favor. I'm not gonna fight the guy who's o and eight. You know, like I never fought a guy [01:02:00] with like a losing record like that. But like I've had to fight guys at times not, but when I'm down, I wanna fight the best guy.
When I'm, when I'm up, I wanna fight the best guy. So the balance needs to be when you're down and you can't. The wins aren't going your way. You need, like, as a coach, I was great at it. Hey, fuck that. Let's fight this dude. Okay? You have to beat him. If you don't beat him, you don't belong to be there, like, I was more realistic with, with my fighters as a coach and as a manager than I was for myself.
Because for myself, I was like, you deserve, you deserve to be up here with everything you're doing. You know you can be, 'cause you've been there. Don't waste your time down here. What I needed to do is go, okay, when I'm down and out, there's a reason. Dial back, regroup, strengthen, and fix the things you [01:03:00] can fix and come back stronger.
And the times in my, my remember, I had a pretty long career. Uh. Undocumented are a lot of them, but over a hundred fights. I think my, the number I came up with is like 107, so 105, somewhere in there. And some of them were modified rules and like pan creation style things, but they, to me, they were all fights.
I was in a ring, I was in a cage, I was throwing punches, I was trying to submit them, but I had, I had a lot of things where like a lot of time in that, those 20 years where I did dial back, I did dial back and go regroup. And that's what I took to business because my business was, oh, business is tough. I know the problem.
We need to buy a $2 million building that's 24,000 square feet and have a $16,000 mortgage and hire 10 people and we have to go as big as possible. [01:04:00] That's the problem. When the right choice would've been. That's one of my, I don't even think that was a bad choice. It became a bad choice when the, when the economy shifted.
But it was a little reckless for where I was, because I didn't have money to back it. I didn't have, I couldn't stoke the fire in a sense, you know, and I think our careers, regardless of business or professional or, or, uh, your professional life, or even your personal life, but, um, from an athlete standpoint or from a fighter standpoint, sometimes you just gotta go, Hey, I gotta, I have to get a win.
Like, I went, I lost at the time, I was like number two or three in the world when this happened, and I ended up losing seven things in a row. I lost in the course of like a year's time. I [01:05:00] couldn't win. I lost to Kid Yamamoto and Matt, Sarah, two big MMA fights, which were like, oh yeah, but do this. Matts Yeah, I know.
I wanted to beat him. I know Kid Yamamoto, but I wanted to beat him. I lost three amateur boxing fights by decision because I fought tall, long, experienced guys who had probably 150 amateurs, a hundred plus, and I was on maybe match 10. It was, I was not feeling any pressure from them. I was, I felt like I was out boxing them, but they were throwing flurries and that's what amateur boxing is.
And then I had, um, two grappling matches. One was like in the Arnold Classic for the Helsing Gracie [01:06:00] Nationals or something. I did a super fight with this guy, Daniel Maraz, and he took me down and held me. He took me down and scored two points and held me for nine and a half minutes to the point where when he was holding me down, I literally gave him my back and he wouldn't put hooks in, he just stayed away.
Like he just literally stalled. And I was like, okay, whatever. And then I fought this guy John Stutzman in a Naga super fight who I beat in the finals as purple belts at, at the Gracie Nationals. I submitted him and now he's a black belt. I'm a black belt, and we did a super fight. We did 10 minutes, zero, zero, and then we go into overtime and he reversed the take down about three, four minutes in.
And I was about, I I and he, they gave miss two points and that was a sudden death scoring. So, and they weren't big, like, I didn't [01:07:00] feel like defeated. I felt like, man, like what am I missing? To not go that little extra. And
I called my manager and I said, Monty, you know, we had this idea. Oh, and then I did, I did a tag team fight in Japan, MMA style, you know, and I, that's when I got my arm broken and I got this plate put in. I was like paralyzed. I could barely, like, it was, it affected me for many, many years. So I had it removed 'cause my, my nerve got wrapped around it.
My ulnar nerve, well, so I'm going off nothing but defeat for a year. Maybe a little more great contest, but defeat. I had the idea that like, Hey, I gotta build my team up. I can't do it 'cause there's no shows, like I'm gonna start a show. So I came up with concept of the XFO and the extreme fighting [01:08:00] organization and he said, let's do it.
So we started promoting and I said, for XFO one, I'll fight a main event, but I wanna fight somebody good. And he's like, dude, have you learned nothing? You know, we'll get, we gotta get a guy. That's good. 'cause you're you, you're in the top 10, but you don't need to fight a guy who's in the top 15. You can fight a guy who wants to fight a guy in the top 10 and deserves it because he's done well.
So he kind of coached me through it. I'm like, let me know who you find. And he's like, oh, I got this kid Dan Swift, you know, he's a golden, he, he won the golden gloves as a boxer or something like that. He's. Does jujitsu, he's a brown belt or a purple belt. He's, um, and he had a big record. He had like 50 fights, 40 fights, big lots of experience.
He had good wins. I'm like, all right, well he's been [01:09:00] submitted and he, I go, he hasn't knocked a lot of guys out. I feel like it's a good match. You know, I'm gonna be fighting in front of my town. And I, so, and I had like three or four guys fight that night, right? So I go out and I beat on him for two, for two rounds.
'cause I was always playing guard. So I made it my thing to be on top and I just hammered him and bloodied him up. And then he shot it on me in the third round and I triangled him and I was like, I could not contain myself. I ran down to the locker room to celebrate and to be with my team, and they were already at the bar and they all went like.
Yeah, Jeff won. We did our thing in the ring and I'm like, I'm, I start heading down, I'm talking, I get down in the locker room, I'm taking my gloves off and I'm by myself and I'm like, where is everybody? And this wasn't like cell phones back then, like where you're texting everything, you know? So I just sat in that [01:10:00] locker room and I cried.
I probably cried for 30 minutes, like happiness, but also just like I finally broke the streak. And then that fight and the next 15 after is what brought me into like that upper echelon of fights. I didn't, I didn't go backwards from that point. For a long time it was all climbing and it was just like I needed to, like, you have to break that seal, you know?
You gotta break that, that barrier, I should say. And, uh, that did it. And that was when you start going, okay, I do belong here, because I just beat the shit out of a really good upper mid-level guy, so I don't belong here. I belong above him. Now I have to figure out how to beat all those other guys. Then that was the, that was it.
I beat multiple black belts that were undefeated. [01:11:00] Antonio Carvallo was nine in, oh, uh, Wagni Fabiano. He was less of A-A-M-M-A experience, but a jujitsu champion. And he was four. Oh. Um, um, Raphael au. So him, and there's a fourth one. It'll come to me. Uh, but man, I was beating 'em all and, and I was like, I was just moving, I was moving through it and it, it clicked, it clicked whatever was going on prior to that.
It clicked and when it clicked, I said, I'm not going back till the end of my career. Of course,
Riley: There's a lot there. You just
as far as listening to your
Jeff Curran: I mean, I, yeah, it's hard to talk about fighting, but once I get going, I, I, I really just go back to the moment and I remember all of it.
Riley: Yeah. I mean, there's, there's, there's just so much wisdom there, man. Like I said, listen to your coach for one, which, what started [01:12:00] that turnaround, right? It's like, hey,
maybe he's right and know,
Jeff Curran: Well, my manager. yeah,
Riley: you do the same thing right as a coach.
Jeff Curran: yeah,
Riley: Um.
Jeff Curran: yeah.
Riley: It's amazing,
Jeff Curran: I had to think more. What, what would I, I should have stopped sometimes and thought like, what would you tell yourself? But, uh, weirdly, I never did because there's always such this like separation of where I was compared to my fighters, and all I did was work to bring them.
To where I was.
And once they got there, I still felt very responsible for getting them there. Um, but I yet, I didn't trust my own, my own opinions to myself. I felt like I was on a different path than they were because of not having a full-time coach and not having somebody tell me what to do and not having somebody, [01:13:00] you know, guide me through it.
I was their guide. So it was hard to be my own guide.
Riley: Yeah.
Jeff Curran: So I would sometimes just be like, okay, I have to regroup and get myself back on the line with those guys. But all in all, you know, it was a hard, hard thing to give up. Um, fighting, but for the best because it's very consuming. I don't take, uh, I think it's a profession that, you know, really requires.
A hundred percent attention or these days are you're just gonna get hurt, permanently hurt. I just read a story about a girl. She's been boxing for two months and she died after sparring. She took a, you know, she's like a 19-year-old girl or something like that, decided to take a boxing or coach had her spar.
She took some hits, they kept pushing her and she was like, I'm out clean. You know, it's like [01:14:00] I'm out clean, I should zip it up. But
Riley: Do you, uh, you talk about that coaching role, man, do you, do you keep somebody in, in that position in your business life? Do you have somebody there that can counsel you and talk you up the ledge Some when you're, when you're down?
Jeff Curran: if I ever wanna like be. Told not to do something. 'cause I feel it, like I'll bring it to my wife to be the first one to say, don't, no, no, been there. You know, like she's very much the regulator in that like, um, I'm the risk taker and she's not. Um, so sometimes when I'm feeling iffy about things, that's, that's pretty much the advice I'll take because Sarah's always gonna kinda keep me from going too far, um, with that.
But I [01:15:00] don't have a bi, I don't really have a business mentor. Uh, I talked with my, my later in my life I became good friends with Brian Butler, who owned Sucker Punch Entertainment, and he became my manager as far as sponsorships go. And then some of the last. Fights in my career. He was kind of instrumental in getting me the shot too.
Um, the, the opportunities, so Brian, he's very successful and I bounce a lot of my ideas off with him. I got a couple of my other affiliates that are friends of mine, the Sky John, and my, my, my buddy Andy. And I run things by them like, but it's just a, most of the time it's us just rapping about stuff. But, um, I, when it comes to business, most everything I do is pretty much non mentor.
I, not that I didn't have it for many years, I had trusted, I talked to my uncle. My uncle kind of taught me business in [01:16:00] general, my uncle from the carpet store. And, um, I had a lot of people that were there, but kind of sadly now I don't know who to ask stuff because I. I don't know. I wanna ask somebody who's been in my shoes, I wanna ask somebody who's been kicked in the teeth, you know, been knocked down a million times and has to get through it, not somebody who's riding a different safe path kind of thing.
You know, I, it's, it's different. So I end up being more of the, uh, kind of like I was as a coach. I end up being more of the advice giver than the advice receiver, and I'm okay with that. I just internalize and I process things and, uh, you know, maybe watch a podcast or something and get inspired about something that gives me direction [01:17:00] away from maybe the path that I was on or something.
But
Riley: Uh, this is a
Jeff Curran: I don't read books, man.
It is, it is. Unfortunately, I can't get past a chapter or two on a book, so I listen to books, but even then I get a, I get something out of it that I like and I shut it off. 'cause I don't wanna forget it.
You know, like,
Riley: book, mark.
Jeff Curran: I'll end here.
Riley: that thought.
Jeff Curran: Yeah.
Come back to this if I ever need that again.
Riley: Well, let's, uh, I want you to talk about Jeff the, 'cause you've got things going. You, you own a school, but more than a school, you own an association. You've got your own
your
Jeff Curran: Hmm.
Riley: which means multiple schools that look to you for mentorship and training. Um, also run, which is fairly recent, the, the Jeff Curran Invitational Tournament. Which I watched that by the way. I was on there live. That was amazing. are good [01:18:00] fights. Um, and then you travel a ton doing seminars. You're, you're teaching all around the country and probably other countries too, I'd assume. talk about just juggling all that man. 'cause that's, that's a load. How do you handle it?
Jeff Curran: Well, thankfully I've just always multitasked. Um, and I've been traveling for Jiujitsu since I was 14 years old. So traveling is nothing new to me. Uh, I try to, anything less than 14 or 15 hours I drive if it's 15 or plus, I make the decision whether I'm gonna fly. Um. The reason for that is I try to get more work along the way because I feel like sometimes, you know, I can multiply my opportunities to work and make money and spread juujitsu in a week than if I just fly out for one seminar for three, four [01:19:00] days.
Um, I've reached more people so that this tour concept has become a thing that I'm pretty privy to. You know, I like, I like to, uh, and then when I drive, I process I think a lot. You know, I make calls, I say, Hey, you know, um, well, I guess calls these days are like this. You're just talking. But, you know, the sim the universal sign for make a call, but
what the, not hang loose, but, so I just, I multitask because I don't do well in idle state.
Um. Lately, I've been waking up a lot at like 3, 3 30 in the morning, and I cannot go back to bed. And then about four in the morning I'll check my phone and then I really can't go back to bed. And I'm like, oh, the guy from Gracie Magazine just wrote me, I gotta write him back. Oh, the person about my rash guard from Vietnam emailed me.
So I'll email her back. So I end up communicating [01:20:00] with people overseas when I am up at late, late hours. So it's a, it, I like being busy. I like being busy to the point where when it's time for bed, I'm just done. I crash out because if I feel unfulfilled in a day, I like toss and turn in my head feeling really guilty.
Like, what could I have done? Why didn't I, why didn't I get that done today? Like, and it's just a weird thing with me. Um, but. It's, I think it's a trait that's allowed me to be successful in, in like a, in a self-employed lifestyle. Um, and I built such a good staff that like, I could probably live outta state and come here once a month and this place would run without a hitch, you know, as long as I was running the, the books and stuff like that.
But, [01:21:00] um, I enjoy juujitsu, but I also get burned out from it. I'm 34 years in and I've, unfortunately, I've had to teach fortunately and unfortunately I've had to teach it since I started it. You know, I've had to show everybody that's in my life what I'm learning every day for me to, to retain it and to spread it.
So I've never not been a teacher. So sometimes I'm just like, man, I don't feel like giving today. And I don't think that's a bad thing. I got all these other guys here that want to, so I'll say, Hey, I'm gonna take two days off and work in my house and get some stuff done and I'll pop in and I'll see everybody, but I'm gonna stay home and it's okay now.
Whereas like back in the day, it's like, what? Jeff's not here. I got a big fight coming up. You know, all these things. So the pressure's different now because I'm not bringing that into my life. Uh, my association kind of runs itself. My buddy Andy, uh, you know, Andy Bryant, he helps me a little bit on like the billing side of things.
And I [01:22:00] have think like, I don't know, nine, 10 affiliates and these guys are also loyal. And so, um, appreciative of my time. I go, I could probably make a business plan to have a hundred affiliates. It's like Pedro Sauer, but he grew that over time, organically. And I feel like, um, there's still a lot of work for me to be done with Pedro Sauer Association.
So I don't need to grow mine. I actually can grow mine within his association, by mentoring people that come into the association without leadership and their, you know, and on the mat and things like that. So, you know, I do, going back to the beginning when we were talking about, you know, Pedro Sauer, like, I don't want a job from him, but I, I will always have his back and I'll always be pushing to, um, make sure his association is [01:23:00] successful and, you know, should there come a time where that it's essential that I step in.
That's a different story. Um, but I hope we're many years away from that, you know? Um, while, while he's still here, it's. I'm just supporting him and he is my teacher. So I have a lot of, I wear a lot of hats. Um, look at that. Literally figuratively, nothing but hats in my life. But it's, um,
Riley: Love it.
Jeff Curran: like I said, it keeps me, keeps him busy.
And, uh, my, my invitational has got my attention now. Uh, this idea of juujitsu being connected to all of this trash talk, all of this, um,
frat boy mentality, you see Craig [01:24:00] Jones snorting cocaine on the toilet and then walking out and drinking tequila.
Then you see Chill sa and walking out on whatever it was, three days notice, and he gets on the mic and he starts talking shit. It, it's just stupid to me. It's like that's not happening in an NFL.
Right? You look at sports, you can't be unsportsmanlike, you get fined, penalized. You lose you, you, you lose gain for your team in whatever sport it is. You lose momentum for your team when you break that un sportsman like rule. And I get that in MMAA little bit 'cause you're fighting and you gotta psych yourself out a little differently.
But Juujitsu one of the martial arts that is prominent in making M-M-A-M-M-A, the martial art that made it what it is. [01:25:00] There's gotta be a level of respect. But then I think, well, all the Brazilians that brought jujitsu to America, they weren't all respectful either. They all, you know, whether it was out in public or behind backs, they talk shit.
So it's, it's a nature of the, the business in a way. And I wanna make sure that I could be opposite of that.
Riley: Yeah.
Jeff Curran: I want, like,
I want people's jujitsu to do the talking. Nobody likes a big banter and a shitty match. You'd be humble and it's exciting. It's a totally different experience because the, the fight never lives up to the hype.
Rarely, rarely ever does a fight live up to the hype. So let's not. Sell something that we're not, that we aren't. Let's just sell good technical juujitsu. Everyone's aggressive looking for submissions. And I know that goes against some of the philosophies of Jiujitsu, [01:26:00] but if you want Juujitsu to spread to millions and millions and millions and be a spectator sport, a spectator martial art, it's gotta be exciting.
We gotta find a rule set that allows people to come out and they go, okay, I better step it up. And that's what my rule set does, um, with the JCI. But man, we have, I think, I think in our first 30 days after our show, we had over 750,000 impressions between all of our social and interactions and stuff like that.
It's still on the uptick.
And now with the next one coming up, Jan,
that was number one that was starting from zero followers
everywhere.
Riley: Right.
Jeff Curran: Like I started the, I think I started the Instagram page a couple months before and we got up to like four or 500 followers. 'cause I asked my [01:27:00] followers to follow it.
And then now we're over a thousand. But the impressions is up. Everyone's liking sharing, you know, I got some good stuff in the works. I got, got some advertisements, I got some stories coming out, some interviews and articles I'm doing with different big websites like Gracie Magazine and BCJ, Eastern Europe and, you know, they're, they're getting behind it and I'm like, look, this is not a regional thing.
I'm just holding it in my town so I don't have to travel the event itself,
Riley: Yeah.
Jeff Curran: you know, I will travel when, when it, when it's time to do that, you know, when it's time to shift up the market. But what's, what's cool about the UFC and I, I think that. Promoters should learn from them. Instead, they, they just wanna have the lights and the, the, the excitement of the UFC.
But really what makes the UFC cool is like, they don't go, oh, we're go every once in a [01:28:00] while, like, employees retirement fight. Okay, have that in New Orleans, but they're not doing it for ticket sales. You know what I mean? They're selling tickets in Europe without even having a European fighter on the card.
They're selling out at, uh, I at the arena this weekend for the Aspenal show, without having anybody from Abu Dhabi on the card. I mean, they might have a guy, but it's not the focus of the show. You know? It's not like, Hey. We gotta make the whole main card. And that's what I had to do with the XFOA lot when I pro promoted MMA, it was like, you know, the expense with the athletic commission was through the roof.
So you have to be very instrumental in that. You gotta sell all these tickets. Well, I've got good sponsorship behind my show and yes, I wanna sell tickets and yet, but I'm not trying to do 10,000 people, [01:29:00] 20,000 people in an arena. If I could do 500 and everybody gets to come see some matches, and 300 of them are local people watching their fan, their, their, their, the people they're fans of or their, their family of, then so be it.
But I want the production value to be there. You know, I want, I want the world to see it. So that's why, you know, I'm pressing with the, the bigger sites to go, Hey, this is not. I got media in my local area, you know, I got like the paper doing stuff on it, right? It looks good. And it's, it's out there. And I got local press because I wanna, I think it's good for all the gyms involved and it's good for the local sponsors and all that, and it sells the tickets.
But man, I want this to be a world stage. And it wasn't my original plan. My original plan was to appease [01:30:00] my kids and do one show and have fun with it. And then as I got working out, I'm like, this is why I don't do things. They're like, why? I says, 'cause now I'm in, now I'm gonna try to make it as big as we can and, but I am learning my lesson by bi, by big.
I'm not gonna go rent out the to 12,000 seat arena down in the closer to the city. I'm gonna stay local, I'm gonna stay small, but I'm gonna make the production worldwide big. You know? I think that's me learning that lesson that I didn't learn when I was fighting. You don't have to, you don't have to go to the top right away.
You know, we can make our statement little by little. So that's what we're doing. Little base hits, couple big, big ones, and, um, seems to be going well.
Riley: Base hits. That's a good term for what you just said. I, I think that's a, going for the grand Slam. We're going for base hits. Let's just make [01:31:00] progress. Boom. Boom.
Jeff Curran: And think about three base hits. You know, even a walk, a layup once in a while, just going, yeah, you know what, I'll take it. I gotta get on base for my team. I gotta be successful for my staff. I gotta be successful for my family. I gotta be successful for the people who rely on me. It can't just be me, me, me.
And when I was [01:32:00] fighting, it was that. It was like, what do I want? It wasn't like, yeah, but man, wouldn't it be nice to double your money and win the fight rather than just go put everything on red, you know, and throw down everything on one hand. So the base hits concept is like walks base, hits baseball.
You get, it's a strategy. If you can just get on base, man. Oh, you get on base, got no outs. Walk someone else, walk a run, kiss some momentum. Oh, now you got your cleanup hitter coming up. All right, no outs. Swing for the fences. Now we got three batters to try to knock in all you guys, you know? And that's more of how I think now, you know, and go, going through my career, I didn't think like that very often.
I only thought like that for my, for my fighters. And, um. Some of them were more successful than I was at, at certain things, you know? Um, [01:33:00] because I didn't have somebody dialing me back, the ones that tried, like my wife and my manager, I said, no, you're just doing that 'cause you care about me. You don't, you're not looking at the big picture of what I could do if I win, what if I win?
You know, what if I don't lose the fight? You are looking at all the like safe. I don't like safe. Now I'm learning to like safe, starting to learn how to like safe
Riley: Well, that's safe ish, right?
Jeff Curran: self-defense. I'm finally learning it
Riley: There you go. Punch
Jeff Curran: self in from my financial offense. That happens to you?
Yeah.
Riley: Oh man. You dropped some golden nuggets
there, Jeff. Um, can we switch gears
a
Jeff Curran: Oh man.
Riley: some finish up questions, some lighter, lighter
Jeff Curran: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: talk about. Jeff, when you hear the, the Go Earn your SALT podcast, do you hear that term go earn your salt? What does it mean to you?
Jeff Curran: To me, it earns, [01:34:00] or to me it means, um, like I kind of had this thing, I I, it's funny, unrelated to your product, of course, but I had a thing where like when I was in my cheat weeks during fighting, like, okay, if I'm gonna go out and have a beer, I'm, for every beer I had, I ran a mile. You know what I mean?
That was me earning my salt. Like if I wanna have, if I wanna have fun, I go, I better like work my ass off for it, you know? And kind of to your point of your products tagline, like, man, you gotta go put in the work. Then you can reward yourself with the hydration and all the things that make your body recover and get ready for the next time you go work hard, [01:35:00] you know?
But I, I use it, I use the analogy with like eating and drinking. Because when you're a weight cut sport, you're binging a lot. You're going, okay, I got two weeks. I'm gonna go to this restaurant, I'm gonna go to that restaurant, I'm gonna go to that party. Okay, cool. I actually get to go to a wedding. That'll be fun.
I can eat and drink and you know, things like that. But when I'm in that frame of mind that I'm still a fighter, I can't go a day without waking up and going, if I'm gonna do that over again, I gotta go kill myself today. I gotta run, I gotta put in the work. So in a very weird indirect way, I kind of relate it to that like you.
You're gonna put this, you're gonna drink and absorb this product and this, these electrolytes. So go make it count. You know, [01:36:00] go bust your ass and work hard because we got your back. You know what I mean? You're gonna, you're gonna be replenished and you, you should do that. And I did it a lot out of guilt because I wanted to enjoy two weeks off, you know?
And um, but yeah, that's kind of how I see it. I don't know how accurate that is to the, your vision with your quote, but, um, that's how I see it.
Riley: that's that's really interesting. It's funny 'cause I, I, I will get people to message me once in a while and they're just like, Hey, is it okay to drink this if I haven't worked out? You know, it's basically what you're saying. You know, can I drink it if I haven't
earned it? It's like, Yeah.
you can. It's
Jeff Curran: Yeah.
Riley: uh, you
Jeff Curran: You can't because it,
Riley: in
Jeff Curran: this is a healthy choice.
Yeah, it's a healthy choice. You can, the the point is like, now, now go, go make room for it.
Riley: That's right.
Jeff Curran: Right? Go make room, go,
go put in the work because we, we can replenish you. And that's so true [01:37:00] because I remember getting, I would go get like a lot of blood work done and try to keep an eye on my things and I'd be like, you're, you're sodium deficient.
I'm like, well, all I do is sweat all day. Like, what do you want me to do? Like, well, marathon runners get it a lot. And they'd be like, you know, you could maybe eat some pretzels or drink some, have some soup, or you can eat, drink a coke, and all these things. And it's just like, there wasn't like that whole idea of what you have with, with the salt.
It's just like, just put it in your water and get it, get it there with all the right way, without all the extra calories, without all the extra bullshit. Um. You know, so I'm glad it's, I'm glad it's going. Good for you, man. I mean, hopefully it's on the uptick for you and doing what it's supposed to do, and I know people here that buy it.
Love it. Um, [01:38:00] I hope you can get me some more samples for the retreat
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. I
Jeff Curran: coming up in February.
Riley: after we're done. But, um, Jeff, what's your favorite pastime outside of the jujitsu world?
Jeff Curran: Hmm. Man, I don't, I just like being with my family. I like being with my kids and, uh, man, I don't know. These days I don't have much downtime and when I do, I'm pretty much relaxing. I don't have a lot of out, like, outside hobbies that I do. Um, yeah, it's kind of sad. I used to play hockey so that e even after retiring from like regular.
Or, uh, organized hockey. I still played men's leagues and summer leagues and night nighttime leagues and stuff, but now I don't play hockey anymore. Um, I work on my businesses. I work on things. I watch tv. I [01:39:00] like to eat. Unfortunately, that's a bad hobby. Dave Porter always says he's a foodie with a jujitsu problem or something like that.
Um, it's kind of me. Geez, man. I don't have many, many hobbies. I like to travel. I do like to be, um, on the move a lot.
Riley: Uh, you know, every time I've been around you, when you're in a crowd of people, especially, it's always been juujitsu folks, but yeah, you always seem to be in your element, man.
Jeff Curran: I, I like a different audience. And you know, when you teach every day at the same place, sometimes, uh, I'll tell the guys here like, man, I feel like I'm giving you gold coins and you're acting like I'm giving you pennies. Like I, I'm giving you good stuff. And they're all just blank. Sterling, are we gonna roll?
You know, can we roll now? You know, like, okay.
Riley: it's, uh, it's [01:40:00] funny. It was, uh, realize that I, I remember there were days when Keith Owen would teach stuff, you know, and I'm like, man, I've seen this one before. And, you know, it wasn't till after he passed away and I look back and go, man, he was dropping gold
every day. And just,
Jeff Curran: Mm-hmm.
Riley: was numb to it. And I, that irritates me now,
Jeff Curran: That's why I think.
Riley: of it.
Jeff Curran: But that's why it's important for like, when people have to travel outta state or you know, if there's a seminar going on down the street. I used to be like, no, don't go. But I'm like, go, go learn from him. Go, go train when you're in that state or that state, because 99 out of a hundred times everybody comes back and goes, man, how'd you do update?
I did great. Uh, did you learn anything? Yeah, a little bit, but just we're spoiled. We're spoiled. And they, they realize like, but when you're born and raised on my mat and you never leave it and you have all, you're on Instagram and you're seeing all [01:41:00] these things and you're seeing all your friends that you become friends with.
Friends, they, oh man, how different could it be if Jeff did this? And what if we had this? What if we had that? It's just like, oh, you go be a part of that. You understand? That's like, it's like watching tv. You're watching a post on Instagram. Go train at that place. And not only that, train with them for a week, train with them for two weeks.
Don't train when they're trying to get you to be a member. Train with them after they got you as a member, and then see what that becomes. So it's, it's always a good thing to just encourage pe people to go and, and train with other people. I say don't go train with the guy down the street and then become their social media person, you know, making posts and tags and promoting their business.
That's, you could just go train and be a body for them and they could be a body for you and let it be what it is. You don't have to make it a whole thing because then you are messing with business and it's a different story. But, you know, [01:42:00] there's a lot of people out there who poach
Riley: Oh
Jeff Curran: and, um, sometimes they win, sometimes they get, get the, they get the guy or get the girl.
And I've just been learned to go, let it go. Go find your way and we will be here. Should you realize it was the bad move.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's always a contention in any business, right? There is that customer contention there. So, um, favorite band.
Jeff Curran: Oh man. Oh, I, I'm into, I'm into country music. Um, the two people I listen to the most, I wouldn't know if they're my ultimate, ultimate favorite because I kind of drift back and forth, but for the longest time was Garth Brooks. But since this music is so hard to come by digitally, you know, it's sometimes outta sight outta mind.
But Kenny Cheney and Jimmy Buffet, that's more my style.
Riley: Nice.
Jeff Curran: Like I [01:43:00] Morgan Wallen, but I listen to those two man, like my wife's like, change it.
Riley: Okay. You
Jeff Curran: Oh, okay.
Riley: with a jiujitsu problem. What's favorite food?
Jeff Curran: I just love Asian food. I like, I love Thai food. I love Chinese food, Japanese food, um, sushi, anything with rice really. And second to that would be Mexican. It's nothing specific, but genre wise, that's
that's where I'm at.
Riley: Yeah, I hear you there, man. I think I'm in the same boat. I might flip those two, but yeah. Yeah, I hear you. Um, moment of your life. I.
Jeff Curran: Hmm. Man, I've had a number of scary moments, but when I was 17, I was working all night, all day, all night, [01:44:00] trying to earn money to go to the First World Championships in 96. And I was going to, uh, it was the winter and I was saving up money and I fell asleep in the wheel. Driving my girlfriend's dad's van that I borrowed.
I had to take all the seats out 'cause mine was in the shop. And I crashed about 50 miles an hour into a tree with no seatbelt. I was hanging my head out the window to get some air to wake, keep me awake. 'cause like four in the morning. And I whacked. I saw the tree come and granted that was like a knockout.
You don't remember, I wake up, but I had broken forearms and my ankle was broken and I had cuts everywhere and I had carpet glue on me and I had to climb through the glass. And I fell to the, I fell like 10 feet 'cause it was like a ditch. And the, there's a ditch. And the truck was like this. So I fell like all the way down, way down.
There was only one way out. And I climbed up into the road with my elbows up this ditch. And I remember thinking, I'm gonna fucking [01:45:00] die here. And I was laying there in the cold and my, I tried to get out this like cell phone I had and I wouldn't, I couldn't dial it. And it was freezing cold and the snow was coming and then.
Way down the ways I see a car coming and I'm like, oh, cool, they're gonna stop. And then they pass me and then the next one passed me. I'm like, what the hell that is? I'm laying in the side of the road and people are driving right by me.
That was scary.
Riley: Hmm.
Jeff Curran: And then this guy pulled over,
pulled me into his Camaro.
I said, I'm pouring blood. You know, I, my, my, I had, I guess I had 15, they said I had 15,000 fractures to my face,
Riley: Oh my
Jeff Curran: like spider fracture.
my
whole skull was fractured. I like whacked the steering wheel like this. So everything broke. They reconstructed my nose and reset my orbitals and my, all my bones and then, uh, put me in a face gas.
And um, I thought I was gonna die [01:46:00] 'cause I was bleeding so much. And then this guy put me in his car and I said, I'm gonna bleed in your car. He said, don't worry, it's my friends. And he dropped me off at my girlfriend's door. Rang the doorbell and left, and we have no idea who took me home.
Riley: Wow.
Jeff Curran: felt like it was an, like a guardian angel.
I said that it was a gray Camaro, probably like a, you know, a 95, 96 brand new. It was nice. I went up to the auto shop, the gas station. I went up to everybody, nobody, when I was better, nobody knew the car. I looked around everywhere. Well, whoever's car that is is covered in blood. That's a, and they didn't seem to care,
Riley: Wow, man.
Jeff Curran: they also knew where I was going, which was weird,
unless I was somewhere phased out and told 'em.
But I remember just passing out and never, and waking up like in the entryway of the, of their house. And they said that, that somebody rang the doorbell and I was laying on the [01:47:00] front step. So wild times. But that was a, that was a pretty scary moment. For sure. Um, I've had other short moments where it's like you're freaked out for a second.
You know, it's things like that, but
not worth getting into.
Riley: That is wild man. Uh, Jeff, what's the best advice you've ever been given?
Jeff Curran: And
my dad told me when I was seventh grade and he picked me up from my friend's house and he'd known I was drinking. And it was like the first night I'd ever tried drinking and I didn't drink after that till I was 21. Like that was the moment, that was the night where I thought, okay, all the guys are doing it.
My dad could knowingly knew that I was drunk and I was sick. [01:48:00] And, um. He made me go to work. I said, what? Why are you passing the house? Take me home. So now you're working with me today. And he'd yell at me like, stop it. You're going. I'm crying. I'm like, go to a payphone and I gotta call mom. We get home. And it was like, or we get to the job and I'm crying.
I'm yelling at him like, not yelling, but you know why? He's like, listen to me. I know what you did last night. I was like, okay, so am I in trouble? He is like, no, but if you're gonna go out and party, like you're gonna wake up and work like one. And I'm like, just, he goes, don't ever forget that. Or you'll never go anywhere in life, kind of thing, you know?
And it was like you could go out and party like you're a man, but you better be willing to wake up and work like one. And it's like it stuck with me. So that's where I came into that mentality of like. Okay. I was in my twenties [01:49:00] now and I'm fighting. I'm doing pretty good. I'm at my friend's house do.
They're like, you want a beer? I'm like, I don't really drink. I'm like, all right, I'll have one. And then I have one and I'm like, that was good. I'll have a second. And I say, okay, Jeff, that's two miles tomorrow. And that's how I gauged my, my life. And to, to top that off, I was always running like three miles.
So if I add two to that, it's five. But then if I skip, so if I wake up the next day on a Sunday where I'm not supposed to run, 'cause I took my day off, oh, I'll run my two or three miles. But if I don't, 'cause I'm like hungover. 'cause I drank maybe five drinks. Then on Monday I have to add that five to my other three.
Riley: Yeah, now you're going
Jeff Curran: So I,
Riley: you
Jeff Curran: I had put myself through hell, so I held myself accountable. So it was that kind of thinking that got me through many years and it wasn't a perfect formula, but it, [01:50:00] it, it probably kept me in line for the better part 20 years. You know, just, dude,
go earn your SALT.
Riley: Amazing.
Jeff Curran: Go earn your, go. Earn your uds, right?
Go earn your uds. That's how I thought. I just, and I also was guilty, man. I was like, dude, I'll never make weight if I don't stay ahead of this. Like, I know I'm not in camp, but like, I got in two weeks I could put on a weight if I'm not careful. So I was just so, like, I might as well have been in the model the way I, like, the way I live my life.
I, I just felt like, oh, I can't eat that. I can't look at that. I'll have that, but if I'm gonna eat that, I'm gonna have to go work out. And man, there was no way to live. I'm not for it. I strongly advise against it. There's a better way. And I was learning that as I went through my career and, you know, as our, the old school generations, like nine, as we got further along and there was more knowledge and technology, we, we realized there's a better way.[01:51:00]
And, you know, we all start making adjustments and things like that. But still to this day, I'd never used a bath to cut weight. I tried it once and I hated it. I always use a sauna. I always bundle up. I go for a run, I get my sweat and I jump in the sauna. If it's not moving, I bring a bike in there, you know, and I just, I work it off.
I just, sooner the better rather than sit there and burn my whole core temperature in a hot tub, you know, or in a, in a tub with whatever it is. Epsom salt.
Riley: Man, Jeff, uh. Favorite book of all time. He said You only make it a quarter of the way through, but favorite book of all time.
Jeff Curran: Um. One of the more memorable books that I have is, uh, that I had read, you know, a good amount. I wouldn't say half, but I tried to listen to the other half later on. But, um, was the tipping point. And that book was, I like business books. I like [01:52:00] books like that I that talk about like, you know, making the stars align for your success and things that like, are required to make things tip over the edge to become successful.
But they could also tip over the edge in the other way that that's kind of like an epidemic or a successful company. They have the same traits, you know, um, there's like, I don't know that, that had some wild stories that really hit me. Um, like that. And then I read a book, forget the name of it. But it was a business book and it was this guy talking about, you know, that really put me in mind business-wise was like, good is good enough.
'cause I was a perfectionist and I spent a lot of money, a lot of stress and a lot of time trying to make every little aspect of every little thing perfect. You know, you get, I get folders [01:53:00] made for handouts for all my students and then come back with the wrong shade of blue. So I'd complain, but they'd be like, you approved it.
I'm like, no, this does not look good. I need to see a different, so I'd eat the cost of $2,500 and reorder saying it's not my brand. 'cause I was told by someone else that branding is everything and color matters and everyone else is going, dude, I think it looks good. Like, I like that blue actually is change of pace.
I was like, no, we're not doing it. I go, everything has to be like this, but in this book, this guy's like, you know, good is good enough mentality after he had spent many years of perfection. You know, seeking and costing the companies lots of money, trying to rerun things. So that's another book is, uh, I forget the name of it, but I could probably figure it out.
Uh, if I were to do a little reading,
Riley: That's great. Jeff, what's next man? What's, where are you going from here?[01:54:00]
Jeff Curran: um, man, I was just offered a super fight. I did one in May. So ironically, this one is for the same show in May again. Um, it'd be a year apart. I'm meant to do the worlds this year, but I injured my finger and I injured my toe really bad again, and I just like didn't feel like being annoyed. Um, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna hopefully compete next year, either for another organization or possibly for, uh, for mine.
If I can get the bugs worked out on this second show, then JCI three, maybe I'll compete there. But my second invitation right now, I'm, I'm all in hands on, like we got 25, 26 matches. I've got such good sponsorship support. We're gonna be streaming live on YouTube, so, um, that's alive and free on YouTube.
I'm gonna just try to get that audience huge and, and make sure the sponsors are happy [01:55:00] and, uh, just keep it free and, you know, um, that's my goal is to build that and, and crown some more champions and create my database, uh, that's gonna help me with my ranking system and the whole deal.
Riley: It's amazing. That's amazing. Well,
Jeff Curran: Yeah,
Riley: us, uh, tell the audience where you can be found.
Jeff Curran: you could find me on Instagram at Big Frog bjj. Or at Jeff Curran? Well, the Jeff Curran Invitational Instagram. Um, I don't run that, but I do check on it daily. Um, but I don't manage it. If you're in Crystal Lake, Illinois or Chicago area, the metric comes right here. You're welcome to visit and train anytime.
And if you train juujitsu and you want to have one of the best vacation weekends of your life training bjj retreats.com, we have over 200 people every year at my retreat in Cocoa Beach, Florida. And the next [01:56:00] one is February 5th through the eighth, 2026. So that's all on the line. And, um, if you follow me on Instagram, you'll get to see, um, like my, my seminar schedule and things like that.
So that's it. Yeah.
Yeah, bro.
Yeah, it was great. Awesome man. It was great to see you in Park City, man. And um, hope everybody in Meridian there is doing well and you know, the school's doing good and all that, so I'm sure I'll be out that way again someday,
hopefully Florida. Yeah, right.[01:57:00]
Thanks brother, appreciate it. See you guys.