Daniel Puder on My Life My Power, Kurt Angle and Leaving MMA Undefeated

Fred: I’m joined by a very special guest: former WWE star, winner of the Million Dollar Tough Enough and former MMA fighter, most notably for Strikeforce. He’s doing bigger and better things outside the ring and the cage. He’s Daniel Puder. Daniel, how you doing?

Daniel Puder: Perfect, bro. Thanks for having me on today. I appreciate it.

Fred: You’re out of the ring and out of the cage, but you’ve got bigger things to conquer.

Daniel Puder: I’ve been working across the country, and we just launched this last year in Canada and the UK with the My Life My Power program. We’re taking kids from where they are to where they want to go, but we’re really stopping bullying, drugs and alcohol, gang violence and a bunch of different challenges out there. It’s been awesome.

Fred: What made you take on this cause? A lot of people put their name to a foundation without really putting in the work, but you’ve been doing almost everything under the sun.

Daniel Puder: I was asked on Facebook what I thought about kids committing suicide because they were being bullied, and I looked back at when I was a kid. I was picked on because I was in special ed. I just learned differently than everybody else. I had a learning disability and was teased for it, because I couldn’t read right in class or I had to go to that special room. It wasn’t cool, so I really stepped up for these kids who were being picked on, and I had adults saying, “I wish you were at my school to protect me when I was a kid.” I looked at the situation, and there was really no solution out there. A lot of people are talking about bullying with flyers, posters or speakers, but bullying isn’t necessarily the problem. It’s a symptom, not the root cause. So we broke it down and created a program that, instead of telling kids “don’t” all the time, asks them what their thought patterns are, gets them on the right track and gives them an opportunity and a plan to do it. We’re in 32 states, and I’d love for anybody watching to go through the program or come out and mentor kids.

Fred: You’ve got a big event on Oct. 25 involving the Dallas Mavericks.

Daniel Puder: We partnered with the Dallas Mavericks for a pre-event, and then the kids get to stay for the whole basketball game. We have about 2,000 kids coming for an hourlong personal branding conference with about six speakers, so it’s going to be a rocking event. Kenton Duty from Disney’s “Shake It Up” is flying out for it.

Fred: So you’ve had a lot of support from fellow celebrities.

Daniel Puder: We’ve filmed over 350 celebrities and pro athletes in the last couple of years. When I talk to a lot of celebrities, they say they want to stop bullying, and some want to help put laws into place, and I always ask, “Do you want to stop bullying, or do you want to just talk about bullying?” A lot of them are out there talking about it, but they don’t know how to stop it, and that’s where we’ve created a solution. For instance, WWE’s anti-bullying campaign is talking about bullying again, but it’s not really solving the problem. We want to give other organizations, celebrities and pro athletes the ability to attach their name to something that’s really going to make a difference in the community.

Fred: Before you started this organization, you were undefeated in MMA, a star during MMA’s big boom, when the UFC exploded on Spike, Showtime picked up Strikeforce and Bellator was rising. Why did you choose to leave MMA?

Daniel Puder: I really loved pro wrestling and wanted to do that for a while, but I’d been in MMA since I was 16. I started training with Frank Shamrock at American Kickboxing Academy, did some amateur fights and had my first pro fight in Japan. Then I went to WWE, went back to MMA, had a few more fights and wrestled in Japan a little more. Then My Life My Power came around, and I really thought to myself, “Am I going to leave this world making a difference as a fighter for maybe another 10 or 20 fights, or am I going to leave this world changing lives, with each of those people remembering me for years and then mentoring other kids?” That’s why I said, “Let’s really make a change in this world instead of just fighting.” There are a lot of other fighters out there, like Cain Velasquez, who I trained with, and they’re all superstars, so they’re still doing it.

Fred: Frank Shamrock is a guy with an incredible story, who overcame so many odds to be a positive influence on so many people. What did he teach you about respect in martial arts, and how are you applying that today?

Daniel Puder: When I was 16, he said he’d train me for free if I didn’t do three things: no fighting on the street, no drinking and no drugs. I said, “Sure, sign me up.” I was getting into a little trouble at 16. A couple of months before I met him, I’d gotten into a fight on the street. He really trained my mind to think about how to make proper decisions. It’s interesting how you can control your mind however you want it to go. He also pushed me physically, and I became a great athlete. I figured, why stick around until I lose a fight someday? Everybody does. Fedor, Cain, everybody’s lost a fight. Why not go out undefeated? I learned a lot from him, and I’ve been applying it to My Life My Power.

Fred: You said you love pro wrestling. Was it your first love before martial arts?

Daniel Puder: I did a lot of amateur wrestling before martial arts, and as a really young kid, I loved baseball, too. I don’t know if you know Kyle Kingsbury from the UFC, but we watched pro wrestling as kids. He was more into it than I was, but I enjoyed it at his house, and it was a good time.

Fred: You entered the Million Dollar Tough Enough. If you’d told me The Miz, who was the runner-up, would eventually be known as a champion, I would have laughed. Is it still mind-boggling that after just a year under contract, WWE said, “Daniel, we’re moving in a different direction”? MMA was starting to come up, you had a great look and physique, and that whole thing with Kurt Angle was getting buzz. What happened?

Daniel Puder: Did you hear about Hardcore Holly’s book? I heard about it from somebody. He came out and said I was talking crap about him, which is interesting, and it’s the challenge they have. On the first day of WWE, I went out to the ring and asked the guys on my own if I could help build the ring. I walked up to Al Snow and asked, and Al made all eight guys on Tough Enough help build the ring, and after I won Tough Enough, I kept doing that. I trained with Hardcore Holly every single day for a while, and he would literally smash me into the ground. I took it. I didn’t complain one time, and I wanted more, because he was teaching me something. That’s exactly the same mentality I had with Frank Shamrock. Then eight years later, he comes out with a book saying I was talking crap, and I wasn’t whatsoever. I said nothing negative about him, only positive things, because I wanted him to be my mentor and my coach. He was like another Frank to me. It’s messed up that other people will go to someone like that, and it ends up in a book without being verified. In the world of WWE, you have to deal with issues other people have with you, maybe because you’re doing really well or getting paid more than them. It’s crazy.

Fred: I talked to Dan Severn once, and with no disrespect to the pro wrestling business, he’s a lot like you. He’ll shake a guy’s hand, look him in the eye and tell him something straight up, and in pro wrestling, that’s not always the case.

Daniel Puder: Correct, and that’s the problem, because they have a lot of really good talent. Some people do really well, and for some it won’t go well, and I think WWE could make a lot more money if they helped them out more. It was crazy to hear about that a few weeks ago. I was completely shocked.

Fred: On the bright side, you got to be on Raw and SmackDown and appear in the Royal Rumble, which a lot of people can’t say. You had a nice little run in OVW, and I believe you worked with a guy by the name of Paul Heyman. What was that like?

Daniel Puder: Paul’s amazing. He was one of my favorite coaches. Danny Davis down at OVW, Paul, Lance and Al Snow were all great guys, and I was probably closest with Paul and Al. Al gave me a very unique piece of advice once: It’s better to be respected and not liked than liked and not respected. It’s interesting, because there were a lot of guys in WWE I wouldn’t respect who were talking crap about me, but they were nice to my face. Paul is a unique guy. He was all over the MMA thing and loved it. He helped me with promos, gave me advice and took me out to lunch. We definitely bonded, and he helped me a lot. I’m thankful for it.

Fred: So you’re officially a Paul Heyman guy.

Daniel Puder: Yes, I am.

Fred: For younger fans who may not know about your incident with Kurt Angle: Back in late 2004 on SmackDown, during the Million Dollar Tough Enough, Angle had an amateur wrestling challenge and dominated the contestants. When you were up, he took you down and tried to hurt you, and you instinctively locked in a Kimura and almost broke his arm, until referee Jimmy Korderas counted one, two, three, even though your shoulders weren’t down. What was that like in the heat of the moment?

Daniel Puder: When I got done trying to snap his arm off, I think he was just stunned. He didn’t know what to say or do, because he’d just gotten caught. He’s definitely stronger than me. He pushed me against the ropes and got behind me, and I keylocked him and pulled him into a Kimura. I just wanted to tap him out. OK, maybe I wanted to snap his arm. A few minutes before, he wrestled Chris Nawrocki, one of my buddies on Tough Enough, and broke three of his ribs. We’d done up-downs and sprints, and they picked Chris because they said to get “the blond guy” out. We were both blond, so I went out. He wrestled Chris, but he knew I had really won, so when he asked, “Anybody else?” I raised my hand. I think that’s the day all the other contestants started rooting against me. It was interesting to see how fast people can turn on you. They were out partying all the time, and I was trying to get my rest, get my workouts in and eat the right food.

Fred: You and Angle had beef for a long time. Is it true Dana White tried to book you against Kurt Angle around 2006 or 2007?

Daniel Puder: The first time, I’d just won Tough Enough, and they called me the UFC guy. Dana called Bob, or Bob called Dana, I forget, and said they wanted me on the first reality show. They offered me about 500 bucks a week, and I said, “You guys are crazy. I’m being guaranteed 5,000 a week here.” I did seriously consider it, but I stuck with WWE, because I loved it, I was having fun, and it was good money. The second time, after my WWE contract was up, they flew us out to Vegas and offered another deal, and we turned that down, too, and I went to Strikeforce.

Fred: You had a chance to become a big star in WWE, which didn’t pan out, and you left MMA on your own accord. Was there ever a time you wondered why the breaks weren’t going your way?

Daniel Puder: If you really saw the contracts and everything, my career was very unique. I like how it ended up, let’s put it that way. I got a good run out of it, I had really good guys around me for most of it, and I’m in an awesome position now, and I love it. I talk to a lot of kids across the country about having that first career in sports, and then what’s your second and your third. I really like how I’ve designed and built my second career, and I’m very happy.

Fred: When you see guys who’ve stayed too long in MMA and pro wrestling, are you thankful you can walk without a limp and are essentially pain-free?

Daniel Puder: That’s the best thing. The problem after most sports is that you’re so beat up every day, so I’m very thankful for that. Once in a while my back starts hurting, but not that often, so I’m pretty happy.

Fred: You mentioned Bob, Bob Cook. You trained at American Kickboxing Academy, home of former Olympian and former Strikeforce champ Daniel Cormier, current UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, Luke Rockhold, Cung Le and a ton of other killers. What was it like training there? I’d imagine the sparring was pretty damn good.

Daniel Puder: The best part about getting beat up every day by the best guys in the world is that when you get into the cage against somebody else, nobody’s even going to be close to you. You just have to make sure they don’t hit you and hurt you. I walked into every single fight wondering why I’m a fighter. That’s one of the questions I asked Bob. But then I went after the guy in every fight, and I did really well. I was challenged in a couple of fights, but I was definitely growing. I had eight pro fights, and I’m very happy with them and the momentum I got. Those guys are tough. With Cain, the first five minutes of training go just as hard as the 20- to 25-minute mark. He’s a freaking rock star.

Fred: He takes on Junior dos Santos next month at UFC 166, where Cormier faces Roy Nelson. Could you ever conceivably see two guys from AKA fighting each other?

Daniel Puder: We used to talk about that, because we had so many guys at the top level. It’s crazy to think about. Once you’ve trained with somebody, it’s a different mindset, because you’re used to not hurting them. You want to take care of them. It’ll be interesting.

Fred: Did it catch you off guard when Josh Koscheck left AKA, since he’d been such a staple of the camp?

Daniel Puder: He’s a very unique individual. We used to be buddies, so no, it didn’t surprise me. Who he’s turned out to be is different than what I thought it was going to be.

Fred: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give young athletes, particularly pro wrestlers and fighters who don’t have a pension plan or always have a backup plan, about moving on to that next career?

Daniel Puder: Three things. First, build relationships. If you’re a pro wrestler or an MMA fighter, go to local companies and build relationships with businesses and CEOs while you’re in the sport. A lot of executives and managers love the athlete deal, so invite them to your events. Second, find great mentors everywhere you can, in the sport and outside it. Third, build your brand really strong: your online presence, who you are and your name value. If you do those three things, you’ll become more successful than you would have ever been. I did a lot of that when I was fighting, and if I’d known then what I know today, I would have been even more successful. And if any pro wrestlers or MMA fighters want to pick up the My Life My Power program for the kids in their gyms, I’m telling you, instead of being mentored, mentor kids, and you’ll learn 10 times more about yourself. It’s not all about bullying and drugs and alcohol. It’s about the steps you need to get from where you are today to where you want to go, and we help people plan out their lives.

Fred: One last fan question, asked by a number of people: Did TNA ever approach you, and were you ever close to signing?

Daniel Puder: I was actually very close to signing with TNA, but the deal wasn’t what I wanted it to be, so I didn’t do it. I fought on Dec. 8, I forget which year, and I was supposed to go a day or two later, but it wasn’t a good deal. I would have loved to wrestle for TNA, and I’d still like to work with them. They’re a great group of guys. I went out there, met with everybody and had a lot of fun.

Fred: Did everybody include Kurt Angle, or are you still not on speaking terms? Are you at the point where you’d want to squash the beef?

Daniel Puder: I would definitely consider it. He could be a great role model for a lot of people in this world. Maybe we should get some lunch. Maybe I’ll shoot him a call.

Fred: Maybe we’ll get you guys on here. Before you go, let everybody know where they can find you online.

Daniel Puder: You can find us on Facebook, Google Plus and MySpace, you name it, under either My Life My Power or Daniel Puder. If you want to come out to the Oct. 25 event, I’d love to give some free tickets away. Go to the contact section at MyLifeMyPower.org and shoot me an email, and I’ll pick a few people to come out.