00:00:00:27 – 00:00:22:18

Ola Akande

What’s happening Fight Week Show fans, we show people what is going on. My word. Look what we have here in front of us. We have broken it. A little tired from one championship over here. Thank you so much for joining us, Boca. This is incredible. Thank you for joining us and gracing of your presence today.

 

00:00:24:02 – 00:00:29:15

Bokang Masunyane

Thank you for having me, brother. I really appreciate that. Yeah, it’s an honor to be here.

 

00:00:29:24 – 00:00:55:21

Ola Akande

Oh, I’m so you know, I’ve been a big fan of your for for quite some time. As you know, we follow you. I watched all of the incredible stuff that you post on your socials, all your fights, you know, since you’ve been since you’ve been with one. But for the people that do know you because I admire a little bit about you, you know, I mean, but for the people that know you, my audience, that don’t know you, that don’t know about you.

 

00:00:55:29 – 00:01:03:19

Ola Akande

Can you tell us a little bit about, you know, yourself, your upbringing on how you how you came to make.

 

00:01:04:13 – 00:01:40:18

Bokang Masunyane

Okay. Yeah. So those that know me, my name is become known as Little Giant. And basically I started before before actually my journey with me. I started my journey at the orphanage where I lived in an orphanage from the age of six and I started actually before anything else. I started by wrestling, which was actually crazy because I got in a fight with one of the kids, you know, and he was messing with one of my friends.

 

00:01:40:18 – 00:02:04:25

Bokang Masunyane

So I threw him off the jungle gym and I just jumped on him and I started throwing punches. And, you know, they called us in and, you know, they punished us. And my cousin was like, Hey, man, you should come do wrestling. You’re quite strong, you quite good. Come try it out and see if you like it. And that’s when I started joining wrestling and I realized I’m actually getting good at it.

 

00:02:05:03 – 00:02:31:05

Bokang Masunyane

And from then I had a guy called Albert Ventura, and he would help me out with my future, you know, And that’s what I did. So I did the move. I went to live with him. You got people to come. I talked me to live with them and very lovely family. And they adopted me, you know, And I think that was the best thing that has happened in my life.

 

00:02:32:28 – 00:02:33:08

Ola Akande

Oh.

 

00:02:34:04 – 00:03:01:12

Bokang Masunyane

And I actually wanted to take this thing serious. You know, I wanted to become a world champion. I want to become a Olympian. And unfortunately, with circumstances, my wrestling coach had to leave, you know, and it was a very dark time for my life then. But I still tried carrying on, addressing, and I realized I’m real, real so very hard to make money, you know, out of wrestling or to make a living with wrestling.

 

00:03:01:12 – 00:03:31:21

Bokang Masunyane

You know, there’s some places around the world where you can actually make a living out of Olympic sports, but wrestling’s not very big in South Africa. So yeah, I decided to go into teaching, actually. So, wow, become a teacher and to to help out with physicality and P.E. and then to become an art teacher. And after a year, I decided, you know, I still I still had something in me.

 

00:03:31:21 – 00:04:11:14

Bokang Masunyane

You know, I’d like to try out this MDMA thing. I really enjoy, you know, being physical, and I just enjoy martial arts in general. And so I took that chance and I went up to Joburg to to one of the best coaches in Africa named Richard Cohen. He’s coached multiple international fighters like the likes of Don Madge, the likes of Ted Hanekom, Cris Cyborg and all of the great guys that he’s coached that are actually making waves in Africa and so I decided to train with them.

 

00:04:11:14 – 00:04:16:26

Bokang Masunyane

So yeah, in South Africa we’ve got loadshedding right now where, yes, it’s power grids.

 

00:04:17:08 – 00:04:22:28

Ola Akande

Yeah, I just actually told me because I was supposed to speak to just today. Just Mohammed. Yeah, I guess.

 

00:04:23:14 – 00:04:23:27

Bokang Masunyane

Yes.

 

00:04:24:14 – 00:04:27:02

Ola Akande

Yes. Anybody loadshedding today?

 

00:04:27:24 – 00:04:36:23

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. It’s a very big problem in South Africa. So even if you have good network or anything, it’s very hard to stay connected. But I’ll just do my best as we go.

 

00:04:36:23 – 00:04:41:07

Ola Akande

No, we we understand. We totally understand. So the idea is to continue.

 

00:04:42:00 – 00:05:18:09

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. And so Richard Cohen was the guy that actually improved my in my fighting game. My style of fighting my wrestling got better with him and he actually got me into a championship and after about a year or two in one championship, I decided to move. There was after the lockdown, I decided to move back to Cape Town where I could train, had met with MMI with Don Madge, who fights at the PSL right now and with a boxing coach called Met.

 

00:05:18:09 – 00:05:32:04

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah, and I’ve been doing my email there since then and got a few wins. Made it to the number two ranked and hopefully fight for the title soon and yeah yeah that’s my story you know.

 

00:05:32:05 – 00:05:59:00

Ola Akande

That’s what’s, that’s what’s broken and that’s what’s up. That’s awesome. Let’s go back a little bit to like where you where you was just coming up growing up, you know, from the orphanage. I wanted to ask you, do you think that period of time in your life growing up in such conditions, do you think it helps build character and inner strength, at least, you know, depending on the person?

 

00:05:59:00 – 00:06:20:24

Ola Akande

But in your case, I did help you overcome that mental side of the, you know, the poverty that you have you have to go through. Because I can imagine I’m from I’m from Africa myself, I’m from Nigeria myself. So I know how hard things are over there. How did I help you get over things mentally?

 

00:06:22:17 – 00:07:05:16

Bokang Masunyane

Yes. Look, in South Africa, there’s a very big difference between we with we, the first world country and with a third world country. So there’s a level of poverty and there’s a very big level of wealth. Yes. So I was born in the poverty side. And, you know, honestly, in my in from what I grew up from, it was very hard for me to see it as a disadvantage, You know, I was around people with the same amount of poverty as me, you know, and the best thing was to stay positive and look forward to the opportunities that we were granted.

 

00:07:05:16 – 00:07:36:17

Bokang Masunyane

You know, as much as I remember, there’s so much talented kids that should have changed their mental state. On how, you know, to better themselves. And I think that really played a very important role, having that mentality of being grateful for every single moment that happens in your life, you know, and not trying to blame yourself and make yourself a what do you call you don’t victimize yourself.

 

00:07:36:23 – 00:07:37:23

Ola Akande

Yes. So much.

 

00:07:37:23 – 00:08:11:05

Bokang Masunyane

So everything else that happens in your life, then you just keep breaking yourself down. So that was, I think, a very important role for me. You know, the secret for became and the how to work towards something that Lucky became in life and I am forever grateful for that, you know, and the fact that I’m right where I am in my career or in my life, I have no reason to stop, you know, I have no reason to to victimize myself anymore, but to be more grateful and to look forward to what the future holds.

 

00:08:11:09 – 00:08:30:19

Ola Akande

Fantastic, fantastic book. And fantastic. I mean, I want to say, you know, over here in the UK, we love you. You know, I mean, we’re so powerful. What you do with Will over there, you know, where you made a post about your South Africa final? I know you go first, like in the UK.

 

00:08:31:07 – 00:08:32:12

Bokang Masunyane

So thank you.

 

00:08:32:22 – 00:08:53:11

Ola Akande

And we love you over here. We love what you do. And for me, what you do on a daily basis is one of the most practical things that I see on a daily basis on Instagram, where I wake up and I go, I have to go and check your story and see how crazy it is. Booking up to today.

 

00:08:53:20 – 00:09:22:16

Ola Akande

I mean, is and I’m talking precision stuff like precision, violence, precision, you know, just being an athlete with precision, you’re one of the best that I’ve seen. I think we’ve we’ve got no stunts. No, no, nothing. Just you doing what you do is incredible. What wisdom have you have you learned through Rush, through position, violence, like being precise in your craft?

 

00:09:22:25 – 00:09:28:29

Ola Akande

What is the wisdom that comes with that? How did you how did you, you know, put all of that together? Please tell us.

 

00:09:29:20 – 00:09:54:28

Bokang Masunyane

Is so, you know, the the biggest thing is, is having that discipline also having not to care about what other people think. You know you wanna make a decision and you want to stick to it. And I remember the day I told my dad that the parent that adopted me didn’t want to actually switch from teaching into mixed martial arts.

 

00:09:55:05 – 00:09:55:20

Ola Akande

Wow.

 

00:09:55:23 – 00:10:19:05

Bokang Masunyane

And he said, That’s a very big risk I’m taking. You know, I really have a safe job and everything else. And I told him, look, this is something I like to do. And if I fail at this, I’m going to be I’m going to be fine. You know, with the level of with whatever else that comes wide. I had no second I have no I had no plan to for that for before that.

 

00:10:19:25 – 00:10:37:16

Bokang Masunyane

So I decided to just try it out state discipline as much as I could. And, you know, also it’s the people that you find yourself with that makes it very big difference. You know, I’m surrounded with killers. Then, you know, the guys from.

 

00:10:37:28 – 00:10:38:08

Ola Akande

Oh, yeah.

 

00:10:38:09 – 00:11:10:22

Bokang Masunyane

Richard Cohen in Jo’burg, those guys are just killers and they very disciplined, very respectful guys, you know, and those are guys to look up to. And I was lucky enough when I moved back to Cape Town to find Method, maybe I could train with Dawn and I could train with Matt, which is very nice and, you know, like sometimes or not, sometimes every day I wake up, I drove to the gym with dawn every single day.

 

00:11:10:22 – 00:11:35:21

Bokang Masunyane

We at the gym these days where I don’t feel like going to train with. Some days it’s just too hard. But, you know, you see guys that I discipline like the likes of of Dawn and all the other guys I train with, you know, funny story, actually. Yeah. Speaking of surrounding yourself with guys that forces you to improve, you know, this morning, last night, I was struggling to sleep.

 

00:11:35:21 – 00:12:02:05

Bokang Masunyane

You know, I had probably had like three or 4 hours of sleep and a message done this morning telling me I’m not going to be able to make it to the gym. I mean, there’s still I’m I’m tired. It’s like, yeah, but it’s sparring day today, you know, all that. And like, within 10 minutes I got myself so I was like, you know, I went to the spa, is still feeling a bit tired, but.

 

00:12:03:15 – 00:12:03:24

Ola Akande

It does.

 

00:12:03:29 – 00:12:29:03

Bokang Masunyane

It was my best sparring because I was able to push myself a bit further than how tired I felt. And crazy enough, it was the best part. And like I said, you don’t have the guys like that around you, you know? Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s very hard, man, and I’m grateful for that. As much as you feel like when it’s happening, like, Oh man, this sucks.

 

00:12:29:10 – 00:12:52:02

Bokang Masunyane

This sucks. But then at the end of the day, I’m so glad that I actually ended up waking up, taking a quick shower and heading to the gym and go spa, you know? So I believe it’s very important to have the right people around you if, if, if you’re not if you’re not happy within the space you’re at the best thing to do for you to move to where you think you might find the right people.

 

00:12:52:22 – 00:12:53:02

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah.

 

00:12:53:24 – 00:13:16:15

Ola Akande

The percent of the percent. I agree with you when I ask you. I mean, I think you’ve already told us anyways, but let me see. Maybe this. Maybe this might prompt a different answer from you. If you weren’t doing me with the passion that you’re doing it with, what would you really be doing if it wasn’t doing made?

 

00:13:16:15 – 00:13:18:27

Ola Akande

Would it be teaching or would it be something totally different?

 

00:13:20:03 – 00:13:47:14

Bokang Masunyane

To be honest, I would have probably drifted around and have done other stuff. I don’t know. I have a passion for teaching, transferring knowledge, and I have a very big passion for art, so I would have probably turned my direction more into just thinking to art and just trying to become an artist or trying to teach art. But yeah, honestly, it’s very hard to see myself as doing anything else.

 

00:13:47:14 – 00:13:47:28

Ola Akande

Anything.

 

00:13:47:28 – 00:14:04:29

Bokang Masunyane

I remember when I stopped teaching, when I stopped being involved with teaching, I had no other plans. I just took my stuff and I drove to the gym, lived in the gym, and that’s all I did, you know, no plan B.

 

00:14:06:04 – 00:14:06:26

Ola Akande

I thought Plan.

 

00:14:06:26 – 00:14:12:25

Bokang Masunyane

B took my stuff, went to the gym. I think I only had a thousand grand in.

 

00:14:13:00 – 00:14:13:10

Ola Akande

LA.

 

00:14:13:24 – 00:14:28:15

Bokang Masunyane

In my bank account. And I just thought, okay, this is a this is a fresh start. And I guess this is how it is, you know, just jump in the deep waters and swim.

 

00:14:28:15 – 00:14:59:25

Ola Akande

Oh, good. I mean, what a story. I mean, if nothing people if you’re listening, if nothing else inspires you, just listen to the story of this man. If there’s a dream, a dream of yours, and it’s something that you really want to do, the follow your dream, follow your dream. Don’t look back and put discipline towards it. You’re more than likely going to achieve that dream and that’s the message that that book is spreading today.

 

00:14:59:25 – 00:15:22:15

Ola Akande

And thank you so much for that. Thank you so much for giving the knowledge to our viewers today. You took your first pro loss against Derek Bruce at one 156. Can you tell us what was going through your mind and is there any adjustments that you would have made now in hindsight? I’ve been through through that through that experience we’ve without Bruce.

 

00:15:23:05 – 00:15:55:00

Bokang Masunyane

Oh, yes, definitely. I’ve actually made a few adjustments, which is quite a great one, of course, coming up, you know, Right. Going into that fight as much as I knew it was, it was a it was going to be a tough fight for me. I think the fact that I’m like going up the rankings and going up to fighting runs so quick with the different ways of how they they test your hydration and everything before you get on the scale at one championship.

 

00:15:55:13 – 00:16:13:17

Bokang Masunyane

So I just I honestly I never had to diet. I never had to no fix how I eat or anything. So I just trained and I just for to know without really making a proper plan for the fight, you know, every now and then I’ll see how the guy fights and then I’ll just try to adjust those small things.

 

00:16:13:17 – 00:16:39:06

Bokang Masunyane

And that was it, you know, And I honestly, I have no excuses for that loss, but I feel like I could have done so much better by preparing earlier or just asking for more time to prepare for the fight properly. Because I took the fight straight after COVID. Yeah. And I was busy shooting a I was part of the stunt team for a movie.

 

00:16:39:28 – 00:16:54:07

Bokang Masunyane

So it was it seemed at that those times that I was not training on active and not eating as healthy. So it was it was a whole lot of things that happened and taking no excuses to see Gerard breaks his phenomenal.

 

00:16:54:07 – 00:16:55:04

Ola Akande

Oh, no, no, no.

 

00:16:55:04 – 00:17:04:11

Bokang Masunyane

He’s amazing. He’s a champ for a reason. And yeah, so I’ve started taking my my diet much more professionally, you know.

 

00:17:04:23 – 00:17:05:01

Ola Akande

Yep.

 

00:17:06:18 – 00:17:33:28

Bokang Masunyane

Keeping up the, the, the heart training, you know, trying not to take time off so I can literally training for the last year and a half now nonstop which is very good because of that period of time of COVID took a long time off. So I’m quite glad to see that I’m active now in the gym and hopefully one championship will offer me a fight soon again.

 

00:17:33:29 – 00:18:05:17

Ola Akande

And I want to say, especially when you talk about, you know, your your nutrition with the discipline and the adjustments that you’ve made. Every time that I see you, you know, in a picture or doing one of your stuff or even sparring, we’ve done much because it’s like your best friend in the world for your role together all the time, like everywhere with where there’s little jagged margins that every time you see.

 

00:18:05:17 – 00:18:11:20

Ola Akande

And that’s incredible. And you know, we’ve noticed that all the way over here from the UK. We notice we see all these It’s.

 

00:18:11:20 – 00:18:12:09

Bokang Masunyane

Amazing.

 

00:18:14:05 – 00:18:36:08

Ola Akande

For you, you know, I mean, like you’re side by side all the time and, you know, some of that, some of those the some of those pictures, I mean, the physique that you’re carrying that goes through your nutrition, like you said, you know, not, not, you know, feeding, going, going for the right way and feeding properly. You know, we’ve we’ve got with with your physique as well.

 

00:18:36:28 – 00:19:01:14

Ola Akande

I’m putting the work in just just to stay radial stitch up all the time is incredible. So those are those are fantastic adjustments that we’ve seen that you’ve put together on. Hopefully, should the issue help you in good stead for getting back into the into the cage? But I wanted to ask you, you six times in under a year, in under one calendar year, you want to see fights.

 

00:19:02:00 – 00:19:03:00

Bokang Masunyane

Street fights.

 

00:19:03:00 – 00:19:22:01

Ola Akande

Capturing two regional belts along the way. What can you credit that to? What what what can you say really made that happen? Is it like work, work ethic or and domination that you put on display? What would you say made that happen?

 

00:19:22:01 – 00:19:57:06

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah, I think that those those early years of of of my fight career were very important. You know, cause I what I did is I lived for a gym for two years straight. And I think the time that I was in the gym probably put me another four or five years ahead of the game, you know, because I’m now only seven years or six years into the MMO game and which is I feel like I made it into a championship in a very short space of time.

 

00:19:57:06 – 00:20:17:21

Bokang Masunyane

So I made all those wins in a very short space of time. And I think it was that work ethic that I had put in that standard that I set for myself, you know, and deciding to live in the gym and just grind it out. You know, those does the boring stuff that most people don’t like doing, you know?

 

00:20:18:05 – 00:20:45:09

Bokang Masunyane

And I think that helped me a lot, you know, And I always say as much as the sport is a one man sport, I believe that people around you are very important. And yeah, that’s what happened. I think the guys around me saw. So my goal, so my dream and it was easier for for them to help me out, you know, to reach to reach my potential.

 

00:20:45:18 – 00:21:13:06

Bokang Masunyane

And I could see what I was planning. And that’s what I liked about oh, I still like about Coach Carr. And, you know, he every every one of his fights, they’re all different. We are all we all have different styles. And he always finds a way to to, to work into our fighting style and to implement that into our game plan, which is quite amazing, you know.

 

00:21:13:06 – 00:21:44:15

Bokang Masunyane

So I think it was that must the mastermind of rejection and the hard work and determination that I’ve put in in those years and actually led me to win six fights in a row with two titles and which was incredible, you know, And every time it just got harder and harder. But I can I can see myself, if I look back from the way I was punching the bag, the way I was hitting the pads, it’s it’s like two different guys.

 

00:21:44:15 – 00:22:21:12

Bokang Masunyane

And yeah, I think that it’s so important that hard work and just, just being patient, you know, I think what what we’ve lost in this generation, especially guys our age, is that we want instant gratification. You know, sometimes I fall into that trap, but then I look back from what I’ve been doing to where I am, and it took time and just patience and yeah, so I hope the everyone listening, I hope we all remember that it just doesn’t happen in, in a day.

 

00:22:21:12 – 00:22:33:00

Bokang Masunyane

You know, it didn’t take a day to go through, you know. So we just need to keep working hard and stay patient. And yeah, I believe the, the, the harder you work, the luckier you get.

 

00:22:34:01 – 00:23:03:03

Ola Akande

Fantastic. Fantastic. I love a gem. I love a diamond drop by booking himself on this interview. Let me ask you, you did an interview with Brooke before that fire and things got very, very heated. I mean, people that see that interview and they’re watching, you know, they’ll think is two different people, you know, will come with a demon over there.

 

00:23:03:03 – 00:23:21:29

Ola Akande

During that interview, it got very, very heated. But I wanted to ask you, what is the importance of trash talking and the psychological side of it going into a fight or preparing for a fight? What what what is the what’s the importance of of that trash talk to get that psychological edge?

 

00:23:22:25 – 00:23:47:17

Bokang Masunyane

Oh, yes. I think just to talk is also part of society. You know, it’s like, okay, I beat you at this. I feel really have you now, you know, now the next thing is to win the fight. And it’s the biggest thing I’ve learned. Well, I was just talking, Jerod Briggs is to stay to your true self. You know, people do that trust because they know us most of the time.

 

00:23:48:01 – 00:24:19:24

Bokang Masunyane

But you have to also, like, show that you’re not scared of that, you know, because they’re trying to implement the nose onto you or they’re trying to it’s to show that they’re also scared. Oh, and I try to stay true to myself, you know, like, as much as angry as I felt, this is about fighting. If they, you know, so my blood boiling and it’s very important, you know, it’s still good.

 

00:24:19:24 – 00:24:41:11

Bokang Masunyane

You need to just stand your ground so that you as a man, you know, that’s the guy you want to fight. That’s the guy you’re going to beat the next day. But it’s very important psychologically because you go into a fight knowing that this guy A it’s evil, this guy to be ugly, he’s immoral.

 

00:24:41:21 – 00:24:42:01

Ola Akande

Yeah.

 

00:24:42:27 – 00:25:06:10

Bokang Masunyane

How how am I going to react on the next day of fights? You know, So I think it’s it’s very important, you know, as much as as much as I hate to just talk, it’s very important to always stand your ground already. Then you you must really be ready for the fight soon as it just looks like you guys are no more friends until that fight is over.

 

00:25:06:10 – 00:25:08:29

Bokang Masunyane

Then you can become friends and become friends again.

 

00:25:09:19 – 00:25:09:28

Ola Akande

Yeah.

 

00:25:10:06 – 00:25:11:07

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. Yes.

 

00:25:11:29 – 00:25:38:28

Ola Akande

So I want. I want to take you back a little bit to something you said earlier on that you know, that I stuck to. So obviously leading into into that fight we’ve we’ve done You said it was, you know, you was involved in some some stunts with a movie. Can you tell us more about, you know, your role, what movie it was?

 

00:25:39:11 – 00:25:48:01

Ola Akande

And I have to tell the viewers a little bit more about that. We want to know a bit more about your acting prowess. Tell us about.

 

00:25:49:07 – 00:26:04:01

Bokang Masunyane

It. To me, if you look carefully at the movie, you might see me like one, two, twice in the background. So. Right. The movie has been released. It was released last year, September. So the the movie his name was Woman King.

 

00:26:04:01 – 00:26:04:24

Ola Akande

The woman king.

 

00:26:05:08 – 00:26:21:25

Bokang Masunyane

The woman king. Yes. Yes. So it was one of the biggest movie that came out last year, September of last year, towards the end of the And I actually played one of the roles as the good Warriors of Warriors.

 

00:26:22:01 – 00:26:22:08

Ola Akande

Yeah.

 

00:26:22:08 – 00:26:34:06

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. I was part of the Warrior clan and all that and none. I do not I don’t know my status. I was part of the the Me Warriors, The.

 

00:26:34:06 – 00:26:34:12

Ola Akande

Whole.

 

00:26:34:26 – 00:26:35:19

Bokang Masunyane

Thing is.

 

00:26:36:07 – 00:26:38:14

Ola Akande

You for that. For that, yes.

 

00:26:38:14 – 00:27:03:29

Bokang Masunyane

Is that a foot hand in hand with that gorgeous end? Yeah. Yeah. And so one of the ladies offered me to be to go to the movie, see if I enjoyed the stunt work and everything. So they needed someone that’s good with the wrestling and all that. And I actually had fun with it. You know, I think some guys got surprised of the things that I could do, you know, the.

 

00:27:04:08 – 00:27:04:12

Ola Akande

The.

 

00:27:04:12 – 00:27:08:14

Bokang Masunyane

Movement and the agility. So which is quite fun playing around with that.

 

00:27:08:19 – 00:27:10:00

Ola Akande

And I was.

 

00:27:10:03 – 00:27:10:14

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah.

 

00:27:11:17 – 00:27:34:17

Ola Akande

I see. I’ve seen I’ve seen that movie. I’ve seen that movie like five times. You know, I have seen that movie like five stars. I’ve watched it time and time again. And every time you learn something new from every scene, you think you missed something. And then you pick something else up from another scene and maybe some of the fights and something you didn’t notice before.

 

00:27:35:00 – 00:28:01:06

Ola Akande

And then all of a sudden he’s right there. I have to say, obviously, I saw some of your some of your scenes on that incredible, incredible fight sequences. You know, fight, fight, fight scenes that you guys put together. Fantastic movie if you haven’t seen it, The woman king. And we’ve got a very old bull come up in the doing all kind of crazy shit, you know, I mean so good And what if you haven’t seen it?

 

00:28:01:17 – 00:28:21:02

Ola Akande

Go on, watch it. The woman king is right out there. He’s been released, like you said, since last September. Fantastic, fantastic movie. So how long did it take from from from, you know, shooting to like the completion where you had to have had to go home and be done with the movie?

 

00:28:22:12 – 00:28:29:03

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. So I should think up on half. I came into the second half of the movie.

 

00:28:29:15 – 00:28:29:25

Ola Akande

Right.

 

00:28:29:25 – 00:28:57:22

Bokang Masunyane

Got to the end. Yeah. So that that took about two months and yeah, it was, it was long hours. You know, sometimes you woke up as early as 5 a.m. and literally work all the way through till 2 a.m. the next morning. Wow. And I have to do it over and over again. So it was long hours, but like, it was so much fun, you know, meeting different people outside fighting.

 

00:28:58:09 – 00:29:07:04

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing. Having different connections from other people from around the world and from other regions. So it was very nice to see.

 

00:29:07:09 – 00:29:08:07

Ola Akande

Yeah. I mean.

 

00:29:08:20 – 00:29:36:01

Bokang Masunyane

And yeah, literally while I was still in the, in the movie, while I was still busy doing stunts, but a cultural one saying, hey, we’ve got a fight over here. And I basically had to leave a few days before the, the day they finished the final action scenes. Yeah, yeah, I was, I was my blood doesn’t stay like, Oh, I should.

 

00:29:36:03 – 00:29:37:09

Ola Akande

I was still here.

 

00:29:37:13 – 00:30:01:19

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. So I just drive home and go back to the gym. Were happening now, you know. But yeah, it felt like great news because it was during the lockdown time, you know, like, I was thinking, Jeez. Am I even going to get a fight? You know, I’m vaccinated, I’ve got everything sorted. And back then, you know, in Africa, they were they were like there were very strict on Africans on flying to any other country.

 

00:30:01:29 – 00:30:09:22

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. And yeah, like me, one was able to give me that opportunity at that time.

 

00:30:09:22 – 00:30:40:17

Ola Akande

I just wanted to just want to switch gears a little bit and thank you so much for your time. I know we like those going over time a little bit, so please bear with us. I hope you can give us a few more minutes just to get some more questions in. Thank you so much. Your kale, your finish in one of our rented Catalan is one of the most vicious and beautiful is vicious is violence is beautiful.

 

00:30:40:17 – 00:31:00:00

Ola Akande

Everything all wrapped up in one head kick that I’ve seen of all time. That’s a head kick from out this. How long did it take you to put that sequence together? And is this something that you always train knowing that you was going to execute it in that fight?

 

00:31:00:00 – 00:31:39:07

Bokang Masunyane

So for that fight, yes, I trained a train that left kick, so I usually use a kick, the left kick to the body. But that was like I just use it to enter for my wrestling. And so I was working with a muay Thai guy called Wade, hammered and with my training partner we because we so we were we were working out that I can set up my instead of just setting up my my wrestling with strikes why don’t I set up my strikes with wrestling this time?

 

00:31:39:07 – 00:32:03:06

Bokang Masunyane

So now instead of just throwing punches to enter, to wrestle, I can throw punches and try to wrestle. And as soon as they break out from that instead of me following them, I’m trying to wrestle them again. Why don’t I throw a punch right? Then I throw a kick. And so we tried figuring out what’s the best weapon for me, and we figured out that the left kick is actually my left kick is not bad at all.

 

00:32:03:27 – 00:32:38:01

Bokang Masunyane

And so we started working on that, that I must just clinch, try to throw strikes so I can clinch. And then as soon as they break off, I throw I throw that kick. Or if not, I just throw punches. And we knew very well the guy was fighting really. Catalan is a very good stand up fighter. And so we decided instead of just standing with them, why till we clinch, fight with them, and which actually worked out with the football because I tried it.

 

00:32:38:02 – 00:33:04:23

Bokang Masunyane

I tried it the first time and I just just missed them. I could feel my toe touch him. And I knew like, okay, you know what? I must just do it. And yeah, getting there and I did it again and then boom, it worked out perfect. So we, we really worked it. We worked the day in, day out, which was very nice, you know, to execute at the end of the day.

 

00:33:04:23 – 00:33:14:08

Ola Akande

Fantastic. Let me put this to you. Finish is like that. First of all, this is a two part question finishes like that.

 

00:33:14:08 – 00:33:15:16

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. Yeah.

 

00:33:15:27 – 00:33:31:06

Ola Akande

How how does it make your coaches. Because forget you, your coaches, they put this plan together and when something you put together in practice, in training, come off like that in a competitive match.

 

00:33:32:03 – 00:33:32:14

Bokang Masunyane

Or.

 

00:33:32:20 – 00:33:59:16

Ola Akande

How does it make them feel this? And the second part to the question is, does a viral finish like that finish? That’s so crazy. So crazy like that? Does it change your approach into, say, like your future fight? I want you to you know, does it add pressure to want to finish more fights in that way, or does every fight have his own sort of story and ending, please?

 

00:34:00:04 – 00:34:28:26

Bokang Masunyane

Okay, so I’ll start by saying my coaches were very proud, you know, soon as they saw that they like, yeah, that’s that’s the best thing. You know, listen to your coaches. You know them sometimes, not sometimes every time. It’s very important to listen to your coach. You know, sometimes I’ve seen other fighters that do very talented fighters, but when they get to the fights, they they hits just lose.

 

00:34:28:26 – 00:35:02:10

Bokang Masunyane

They just lose, lose their heads. They don’t listen to their coaches. And that’s what leads up to loses and not just failure. And secondly, it actually gave me more excitement, you know, to like want to anti knock multiple out. You know, it made me like now people know I’m not just a wrestler now they understand that means I can have good good ass then for this.

 

00:35:03:09 – 00:35:32:18

Bokang Masunyane

So it makes it very difficult for people not to start reading my style of fight, especially my opponent. So that that viral video actually gave my opponent or give me paying attention to my opponents. Now they were I had not just worried about my wrestling, they worried about my strength, which is lovely for me. I was like, it gives me more ground to play around whether I’m going to wrestle with them when the strike with them, which is quite nice.

 

00:35:32:27 – 00:35:33:09

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah.

 

00:35:34:17 – 00:35:37:22

Ola Akande

They never know what’s coming. You keep them guessing, right? Yeah.

 

00:35:38:26 – 00:35:42:10

Bokang Masunyane

That’s the best part of it is it’s beautiful.

 

00:35:42:10 – 00:35:52:20

Ola Akande

It’s beautiful. If you could fight any current UFC fighter, who would it be and why? Please.

 

00:35:53:12 – 00:35:54:11

Bokang Masunyane

Any current.

 

00:35:54:25 – 00:36:01:22

Ola Akande

Fighter. Any current UFC fighter allowed.

 

00:36:01:24 – 00:36:23:21

Bokang Masunyane

Honestly, he’s. I’ve never thought of that. I’ll probably still stick with the guys in the lower division. I want to fight. David Figueredo because he’s he’s he’s very good. You know, he’s I think he’s the interim champ or one of the guys as the interim temp there.

 

00:36:24:07 – 00:36:38:27

Ola Akande

That Brandon Brenner the interim and Figueiredo is is the main is the main champ. He’s the undisputed champ they actually fighting tonight. I’m going to ask you about that cut out tonight, if I can. Yeah, I’m going to cut.

 

00:36:39:13 – 00:36:49:15

Bokang Masunyane

That that that’s the guys I’d like to fight, actually, because I’m entertaining and I also like to test my skill sets against them, you know, see where I actually stand.

 

00:36:51:09 – 00:37:09:22

Ola Akande

And and at one point, you know, Mighty Mouse, Demetrius Johnson, you know, it was with your promotion, the dude. Did you have any interactions with him at all while well, did you did you cross anything?

 

00:37:10:13 – 00:37:31:12

Bokang Masunyane

Yes. With the terror groups fighting? Actually, I was I got to to meet him. That was just before the fight. And I’m such a lovely guy, man. You know, I remember when I started mixed martial arts, someone was like, Yeah, you’re not kimmich’s. You like him, You know, He’s got those skill sets. And then I took that guy out.

 

00:37:31:12 – 00:37:58:25

Bokang Masunyane

I was like, He’s this guy’s amazing. Know, he was one of the pinnacle points that made me want to become a martial artist just because of his skill sets and just how he carries himself. That allowed me to also be myself with my skills as much as possible. And you look at that guy, he’s he’s the goat. He’s the goat of mixed martial arts.

 

00:37:58:25 – 00:38:12:20

Bokang Masunyane

And that’s something most of us, though, I believe all the athletes aspire to be, you know. Yeah. To be authentically like him or not like him, but authentically themselves and be able to become the goat of mixed martial arts.

 

00:38:13:16 – 00:38:32:16

Ola Akande

It would be. It would be great to see you. Be great to see. I’m you know, we have big, big respect for Mickey Mouse, the Mitchell Johnson over here. He’s right up there. You know, when when we’re talking this MJ fighter of of all the time you got, you know, I mean, depending on what divisions you’re looking at.

 

00:38:32:16 – 00:38:39:25

Ola Akande

But for me, as far as your division goes, one, two, five one, three, five for me is the greatest is is number one.

 

00:38:40:12 – 00:38:41:04

Bokang Masunyane

Is that good?

 

00:38:41:13 – 00:38:55:19

Ola Akande

The Mitchell Johnson fantastic fantastic fire And everybody always said what you said the way he carries himself. Very, very humble. Very, very nice. Comes across well to everyone until they lock you in the cage River. Yeah. Yeah.

 

00:38:55:19 – 00:38:57:14

Bokang Masunyane

Different person, a different animal.

 

00:38:58:06 – 00:39:20:20

Ola Akande

There is a month 111 final thing here. Chaos, submission, dominance, belts, bells from start to finish. Which one? Which one would. Which one do you prefer To which one’s your poison. Which one do you like the most? So that’s.

 

00:39:20:25 – 00:39:50:11

Bokang Masunyane

My favorite. One of my favorite is the minutes from start to finish. You know, sometimes you can be like, Oh, it was a lucky shot. You know, you just just hit me submission. You can be like, Oh, I slept in the club. Me, I just, I could have done this. But if someone dominates you for three rounds straight and you have no answer for defeating that person, you know that that person could have killed you anytime soon.

 

00:39:50:11 – 00:40:24:03

Bokang Masunyane

If the fight carried on. That means the guy would have dominated you till your last breath. And I love the domination started, you know, I love it. If you can be dominant, I think then you’re put it knows that they had no chance of beating you You know look as soulful for the viewers calls are amazing It’s the best thing you know to show I run the world and it’s nice to have the kale fights, you know, like kill, punch or kill power.

 

00:40:24:03 – 00:40:47:18

Bokang Masunyane

Yeah. And, you know, with my last video, I got viral because of the kale note of my dominance. But I believe that as a mixed martial artist and you look at the fights and you watch the dominant fight, it’s the fights for you. Like, Oh, jeez, that guy couldn’t do anything and he could dominated for all five or three rounds or however rounds that is.

 

00:40:47:21 – 00:40:54:06

Bokang Masunyane

That guy had no chance of actually winning best fight. And I think domination overall.

 

00:40:55:02 – 00:41:17:04

Ola Akande

Fantastic. Fantastic. Oh, man. Thank you so, so much, man. I And before we get out of here, before I let you leave, is there is there anybody that you know that that that you like to thank? You know what you got coming up? Do you have a fight coming up soon? Can you tell us more about that? You have one.

 

00:41:17:17 – 00:41:22:03

Ola Akande

You want to thank your coaches, your sponsors, all that good stuff. Please. The floor is.

 

00:41:22:08 – 00:41:50:15

Bokang Masunyane

Yours. Yeah. So firstly, I’d like to thank my sponsors Silver. So a technology labor law that’s been looking out for me for very long, I forgot to mention IP. So there’s been really they had my back for very long and recently come to our calendar May 11. He’s been, he’s been hooking me out quite a lot. So I’m really, really grateful for that.

 

00:41:51:01 – 00:42:13:06

Bokang Masunyane

And you know, I’m always grateful for Richie Quan, my my main coach. You know, he’s really got me to where I am. And that’s because of him. And, you know, he’s he’s just the mastermind, you know, here. I’m forever grateful for him. And the fact that I was able to move to Cape Town and found a home for myself.

 

00:42:14:05 – 00:42:34:23

Bokang Masunyane

I would like to thank Don and Matt, their owners of the gym and as you know, Don is my training partner, Wade Wade, because the Wade Hammett, there’s a lot of guys that I’d like to mention, but two of my training partners, families and all my friends in the UK. Man Yeah. Wow.

 

00:42:34:24 – 00:42:35:14

Ola Akande

Yes, it.

 

00:42:35:14 – 00:42:56:03

Bokang Masunyane

Is like, I believe there’s this amazing on my side. I really appreciate that. Big time guys. So my friend, my friends back here at home, I really appreciate you guys. And the last news I have is that I might have the fight in South Africa and we take fights in South Africa. Oh.

 

00:42:56:20 – 00:42:56:25

Ola Akande

Yeah.

 

00:42:57:00 – 00:43:21:09

Bokang Masunyane

So we’re still in negotiations of of getting fights and organizing everything. And as soon as that is officially sorted, who will be able to to announce it? And we’ll be able to announce the card and who I’m going to be fighting and so forth. And so I’m grateful for that opportunity. I’m still going to be fighting in London.

 

00:43:21:16 – 00:43:31:24

Bokang Masunyane

But while I’m waiting to get a fight line, I’ve got a chance to to actually fight for my first Muay Thai fight in South Africa, which is quite nice. I will be fighting in Cape Town.

 

00:43:32:07 – 00:43:44:27

Ola Akande

That’s going to be incredible. Man. Is there is there a way that that could be televised or streamed so we can watch you and support you? You know, when this happened? You know, eventually when it happens, I believe I think some.

 

00:43:45:07 – 00:43:47:21

Bokang Masunyane

Might be streamed, right?

 

00:43:47:23 – 00:44:06:26

Ola Akande

That’s right. So you’ll posting the link on your socials and all that. We’re we’re we’re going to do everything we can to make sure we help you promote and push that fight as well. So wherever we can to help to promote it so you can get more eyeballs on it. We’re going to do that from India as well over here in the UK.

 

00:44:08:07 – 00:44:23:29

Bokang Masunyane

Awesome. Thank you so much. Really appreciate that. Appreciate you. Get him into the studio. You know, the event on his mind. I never knew I had friends in the UK. So this is for me. This is new for me. So I love this man.

 

00:44:24:13 – 00:44:45:03

Ola Akande

Yeah, man, You do. You do. I’m, you know, from from, from this interview, even more people, even, you know, even even more, more of our followers, they you know, they’re going to know more about you know more about your story. And I’ll be with you. And, you know, and hopefully from then you gather more funds, more eyeballs, more support from over here in the UK.

 

00:44:45:03 – 00:45:05:03

Ola Akande

And we’re going to make sure that we do our part to make sure that your voice is heard. And you get that you get that support over here from from from the UK and across the world. So, yeah, I want to thank you so much as well for accepting our invitation. It’s been a long time coming, but we got here in the end because I know how busy you are.

 

00:45:05:10 – 00:45:14:24

Ola Akande

You’re a very, very busy man, very, you know, you’re a man in demand. And yeah, I want to thank you so, so much for for for sharing your time with us on our platform.

 

00:45:16:07 – 00:45:19:12

Bokang Masunyane

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it, brother.

 

00:45:19:19 – 00:45:29:06

Ola Akande

Yeah, man. And hopefully down the line in not too far, we’re going to be able to bring you back on the channel, you know, to to talk more maybe with me if that’s all right with you.

 

00:45:29:14 – 00:45:36:03

Bokang Masunyane

Oh, yes. That would be very nice with me. So I’m more than welcome, you know. You know where to find me and just where.

 

00:45:36:03 – 00:45:36:22

Ola Akande

To find him.

 

00:45:37:03 – 00:45:38:06

Bokang Masunyane

Sometimes. Yes.

 

00:45:38:28 – 00:46:03:09

Ola Akande

Fantastic. Fantastic. Okay, you guys, we’re 47 minutes in. And you? I’ve been listening to Bo Kang a.k.a Little Giants. Go and check out your solution. We’re going to have your socials on the screen. We’re going to have in the description below. Go and follow Buchanan on his Instagram, on his social. Go over there and support whatever it is that he’s got going on.

 

00:46:03:21 – 00:46:17:04

Ola Akande

E is a special I athlete. All you have to do is just go over there and check out some of the stuff that he’s doing. And yeah, up until our next video, I sell advice to people wear out.