It’s been a little while since I’ve done this, as the majority of my MMA content throughout the years has been in Video or Audio format, but I wanted to write a short piece to intro this new piece of content, writes Andrew McGahon.

I’ve found it too difficult to really bring out what I want to get out of people that I interview when you are doing your typical pre or post fight interview, you have to cover a certain time frame of events, within a certain time frame itself. So tangents aren’t the best thing, but sometimes a tangent is what brings out the best conversation between two people.

So with that, I bring you the On The Mat Podcast here on TheMacLife.com. Some of the most insightful conversations I’ve ever had in my life have been on the mat, I’ve left a gym too many times thinking to myself, imagine if that had just been recorded. Fighters are gracious to give time to video interviews, standing around doing an interview is tiring and unnatural to people. Imagine two people sitting down on the mat after a training session and having a chat about their martial arts experiences, fight experiences and life experiences without the worry of what is my left hand doing on a camera.

We have Episode 1 in the bank with Gunnar Nelson that is below, it was a pilot but he had some funny stories about competing in major grappling competitions after having a few beers the night before.

We also have one with John Phillips, who I interviewed before his UFC Debut next week in London. John and I sat down and you have to hear the story of him and a ground of friends, breaking into what they thought was an abandoned warehouse to break windows, only to find out it was a boxing gym, and the price they had to pay for the damage was to spar.

Enjoy.