“Uncle Creepy” Ian McCall appeared on the Jasta Show this week in an interview originally recorded in June, and had a lot to say. From Reebok to sponsorship, to a surprising revelation about his youth, “Uncle Creepy” was candid, and had some fantastic quotes.
When asked about Reebok and sponsorship early on, McCall pulled no punches.
“We are all, I’m doing finger quotes, Reebok sponsored athletes; we’re gonna get paid dog shit.”
“They have a handful of people that they sponsor outside of the cage, but like with me I’ve got Rockwell watches, I’ve got this boot company I’m wearing Broken Home, Ourcaste this lifestyle company, so I get free shit. Maybe one day I’ll have an actual paying fucking sponsor, but product sponsors will only pay you when you’re getting ready for a fight.”
Ian McCall – “We were bad ass, we beat everyone up, and it was unfair”
When it came time to talk about growing up, Ian dropped what many of us would find to be a surprising tidbit: He was at one point militantly anti-drug.
“I was in this little straight edge crew when I was a kid. They ended up calling us a gang and we were douchebags — yes. It started out as bullies and then we became the bullies because we beat up everyone else and then we just wanted to fuck everyone’s girlfriend and beat people up and do stupid shit, then we all got arrested. It just shows you how that mentality can get ahold of you and just turn you into an asshole. We were little hardcore kids, just looking for trouble and obviously the straight edge thing went out the window. Splice in some drugs there with kids that just have too much money, plus we all trained. We all trained mixed martial arts; I was a star wrestler. Out of all of my friends from that original crew, at least half of us have pro fights. This was ’99-2000 and we were all trained, fighting other high school kids that were untrained. Me, Robert Emerson, Shane del Rosario, Josh Smith and those were all people that have fought in the WEC, UFC and Bellator. We were bad ass and we beat everyone up and it was totally unfair.”
Ian didn’t stray from the honest path when it came time to talk about fighting, and about wannabe tough guys.
“If you want to think you’re tough, first go to a gym — a good gym. I come from a very prestigious gym, if someone comes in with attitude, my coach just looks at us like, ‘alright, put your sh-t on,’ and just look at them and says, ‘f-ck this dude up.'”
“I’ve had my ass kicked on national T.V. a couple times, I understand it takes you down a little bit. And I’m a grown ass man, I’m old, I’m a dad. I regret stupid things I did as a kid, but it’s stuff I did and maybe I’ll be forgiven for it one day. It’s what young boys do. And now, there’s a weird tattle-tale, everyone gets in trouble for fighting thing in society today, we’re just such pussies.”
“As a man, you need to know what it’s like getting punched in the face. Whether it’s over a girl, a parking spot, food, I don’t know, I just think it’s something society’s taking from our youth.”
“If you’re [fighting in the streets], make it fair. Don’t pull a knife or a gun. Get in a fist fight, then buy the person a beer after. Or even a soda if you’re a kid.”
He also was unafraid to look at one of the least-discussed but most important barriers to kids getting involved in MMA, that being cost.
“It’s about the athlete now. It’s not about the fighter or the martial artist; it’s about the athlete. So you get these super athletes, again I come from the one percent. I am guilty. I grew up on the beach, I drive a Prius, like I’m that guy, but when your parents can afford nice things for you and high end training and all this stuff, where you look at boxing it’s very archaic and the training methods are different and stupid breeds stupid. I guess MMA is a smarter sport. Like I said back to the super athlete, but it just hasn’t translated to the poorer classes. Maybe with the influence of everything being in Mexico more, you do have your super black athletes that come in, but maybe in bigger cities they are turning to boxing more, because it’s more readily accessible and they can afford a membership. I don’t know. People always say, ‘that seems kind of weird and race related’ and I think it is.”
You can listen to the full interview that “Uncle Creepy” did for Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta’s podcast below.
