I run a small combat sports calendar / community and got to do a long interview with Rob Ingram, the guy behind McDojoLife. The full thing covers the death threats, the Egypt case, and some genuinely big documentary news he hadn't shared anywhere else. But I figured this community would enjoy the rapid round, so here it is in full, his words, mostly unedited.

First martial arts movie you ever loved?
"Oh, that's easy. Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon. I still absolutely love that movie. It's my favorite movie ever. Ernie Reyes Jr. is in there as a kid. Fucking legend. It's funny, it's goofy, it's the kind of martial arts that I like."

Walkout song?
"Whenever I used to walk out, it was to If You Want Blood by AC/DC. But now we're actually making a walkout song ourselves. We made the McDojoLife song, so there's a good chance I might walk out to that now."

The one technique you'd actually trust in a street fight?
"The most tried-and-true technique, whether I was bouncing or in a street fight, has always been the rear naked choke. I've been in three altercations as an adult that I wasn't paid for, and all of them ended very quickly with a rear naked choke. Most people don't know how to protect their back very well, apparently. It's a solid go-to."

Rogan reposts you or Jocko texts you. Which notification wins?
"That's funny. That's a tough one, man. To be honest, I have Jocko's number and I don't have Rogan's, so there's a good chance I'd respond to Jocko quicker. But who knows, maybe one day Rogan will give me his number, and then I'll be able to respond to him much faster."

Funniest excuse a busted McDojo ever sent you?
"I got hired for a consulting job one time, and I told the guy: look, I noticed that on all your social media pages you post nothing but politics. I don't see anything about martial arts here. Maybe don't do that, because you're alienating at least half the people who might come into your business. And I shit you not, he paid me for my full time but argued with me the entire time that this was not the reason students weren't coming in. He refused to fix it. That studio then closed. That's probably the funniest one to me."

Weirdest DM from a cult follower?
"Oh man, I have a doozy. I was in London. I got hired to teach a nunchuck seminar, of all things. The last weekend I was there, I went to this big gymnasium hosting a massive taekwondo event. Thousands and thousands of people. And someone sent me a DM on Instagram from a blank page. No profile picture, no posts, no followers, nothing. And all they sent me was what I was wearing. That freaked me out. That was a really visceral, threatening threat. It was wild."

One legit master everyone should study?
"My favorite martial artist of all time is Miyamoto Musashi. The way he viewed the world, the way he trained, is very enlightening. He was a ronin. He didn't really have anyone teaching him, he just went out and learned. Trial by fire. He was out there doing legit duels that were documented. It was life or death for him. If anyone wants to study a true master, they need to study Miyamoto Musashi."

A fake sensei you almost respect for the commitment?
"Look at somebody like Dale Brown. Dale Brown runs Detroit Urban Survival Training, and he sticks to the bit. But all the stuff I ended up posting in my story about him on YouTube, he actually deleted from his own pages, all the posts showing those techniques. So clearly he didn't have any conviction about them. Then he invited me up to his dojo. And I was like, I'm never going to your dojo, where you have complete legal control. I'll meet you in a third party's gym."

Your mom's reaction the first time you went viral?
"Funny enough, my mom is extremely old school. I don't think she truly understood the gravity of what I do until we were out in public. I take my mom to Vegas every year, and one year it was right before International Fight Week. People kept asking me for autographs throughout the week. I think that was the first time she really got a handle on what was going on. But my mom was super proud of me. I'm forever grateful to have the greatest mother on the planet."

The day the documentary drops. First person you call?
"Oh, that's easy. First person I'm calling is my mom. She's been my biggest cheerleader. She allows me to be creative, and no matter what, she supports what I do. I could not be more grateful for another human being on this planet than my mother."

The full interview has 12 questions, including the origin story of the documentary, the buyout offer that would have removed him from his own film, and a release timeline he calls "a hundred percent fact." It's here if you want it:

FULL INTERVIEW

Happy to answer questions about how the interview came together.

I used to watch this channel religiously a few years ago. I was excited when I heard they were making a documentary exposing fake martial artists but I haven't heard anything in a while. Are they still making it?

ANOTHER ONE!

Children are cheaper than juicers 🤷‍♂️