In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Mike Mahaffey connect a month of far-right imagery in combat sports: Nazi salutes and a swastika flag at a kickboxing event in Orlando, an ADCC finalist with a history of posting Nazi salutes, and a Tatami gi pulled over SS-style lightning bolts. They argue this keeps happening because the sport keeps making excuses for it, and that fans can change that by being deliberate about who gets their money.

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👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj

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🧠 Topics Discussed:
- Nazi salutes at a Paul Miller kickboxing fight
- Josh Saunders' ADCC final loss to Victor Hugo
- Tatami's Autsiders gi and its SS-style bolts
- Turning Point USA on the UFC BJJ mat
- Fuji BJJ's event conduct policy
- Voting with your dollars in jiu-jitsu
- Buying local in a K-shaped economy

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📖 Chapters:
00:00 — A month of hate in fight sports
04:10 — Paul Miller's kickboxing salute
06:37 — Josh Saunders in the ADCC final
08:26 — Tatami's Autsiders gi controversy
14:46 — Josh Saunders' coaching business
17:29 — Voting with your wallet in BJJ
20:14 — Sports have always been political
23:02 — Turning Point USA on UFC BJJ mats
27:39 — Fuji BJJ's event conduct policy
34:53 — How the far right gets normalized
37:47 — Finding ethical jiu-jitsu coaches
40:10 — Far-right versus far-left threats
42:14 — The mood on the ground in the US
45:45 — Fascism and incompetent loyalists
50:39 — Local spending, K-shaped economy

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Stephan Kesting talk through the Canada-US trade war from the Canadian side of the border. They explain why this was never about tariffs, and why Americans are not hearing how much of their own economy runs on Canadian lumber, oil, electricity, and potash, the base ingredient in most fertilizer. Canadian boycotts have already done damage that dropping the tariffs will not undo.

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🔗 Links Mentioned:
- FULL SPEECH | Carney explains why Canada suspended trade talks with U.S. — CBC News — https://youtu.be/l-WgOxbWUHk

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👥 Featuring:
- Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com
- Stephan Kesting — https://grapplearts.com

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🧠 Topics Discussed:
- What the US demanded in the talks
- French labeling and Canadian culture
- 51st state rhetoric and sovereignty
- Alberta separatism as a wedge
- Potash, lumber, and US dependence
- The odds of a hot war with Canada
- Boycotts as the real pressure

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📖 Chapters:
00:00 — Two Canadians on the trade war
01:15 — The Welland Canal fake story
03:26 — What American media leaves out
05:49 — This started in January 2025
08:32 — The real reason talks collapsed
10:16 — Quebec and the French language
16:23 — Trump signed the USMCA himself
19:12 — Trust that takes decades to fix
25:10 — Hostile posts are policy now
29:50 — Could this become a shooting war
31:46 — Why Canada can hurt America
35:55 — Potash, lumber, and toilet paper
39:45 — Loyalty picked over competence
47:02 — Where are the American protests
51:33 — Boycotts and voting with dollars
55:10 — A Canadian insurgency and NATO

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Jeff Shaw and Jesse Walker are joined by Jose Fernandez, a health economist and purple belt who chairs the economics department at the University of Louisville. He explains who pays for tariffs, why 70% of the world's gis coming out of one country matters for your gear budget, and what gym owners should do about prices and leases while their students are getting squeezed.

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👥 Featuring:
- Jeff Shaw — https://bellinghambjj.com
- Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com
- Jose Fernandez — https://louisville.edu/faculty/jmfern02

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🧠 Topics Discussed:
- The tight labor market and consumer sentiment
- Gym pricing, leases, and rate freezes
- Politics in the gym and local elections
- Tariffs on gis and rash guards
- The AI bubble and robot labor
- The federal debt and taxing the rich
- Insurance paperwork and doctor hours

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📖 Chapters:
00:00:00 — Introducing Jose Fernandez
00:03:57 — The indicators and the debt
00:06:47 — White belt signups slow down
00:08:51 — Leases, rent, and expansion
00:11:48 — Why you shouldn't cut prices
00:13:38 — Family discounts and freezes
00:19:05 — Politics in the jiu-jitsu gym
00:20:29 — Vote in your local elections
00:25:09 — Who pays the tariff on your gi
00:28:23 — Trade deals without tariffs
00:32:31 — Why the stock market climbs
00:38:00 — Robots replacing human labor
00:47:54 — AI, drones, and modern warfare
00:54:12 — Cheap gas and the oil reserves
01:00:03 — The debt and the sacred cows
01:11:24 — Insurers waste doctor hours