Ian Heinisch BK Ice Wars President talks ESPN news and more!

Hey, what's going on welcome back to another bkfc reddit ask me anything special bare knuckle is wars edition We got one of my good friends. Mr. Ian and Ian heinrich. How you doing, sir? I'm doing good, man yeah, just got back from a trip and Just ready to hit the ground running exciting news. We're dropping and more to come Did you do any fishing on this trip? I was in the Colorado Mountains and I did a little bit of trout fishing but deep ocean fishing is my thing So not too much, but I was fishing in Texas right before I went to Colorado Would you ever go noodling? There's a the noodling became illegal up here in Wisconsin. I've been before I was trying to get big Ben Rothwell and he's like absolutely not I'll never do that There's a guy up here that's been pulling out 50-pound like flathead, you know catfish Is that something that I could convince you to go do with me? Yeah, I'll do it for sure It's such a rush, you know what I mean? And I was like, bro, you're an ogre Like what are you afraid of and everybody's always afraid of turtles like turtles or leeches or it's bizarre Yeah, I know I'd have no problem doing that. It'd be fun All right, so you got to go back to Colorado. I mean wasn't to see family. Was it for anything fun in particular? Yeah, it was just my cousin's wedding and we do like a yearly family reunion. So it was it was a good time, man all right Charlie came on the other day announced ESPN deal Like how when you get the call like hey ESPN the Ocho they want to team up and they want to you know Broadcast ice wars like what's that feeling like? It's a good feeling, you know to have the biggest sports Broadcasting Network, you know reach out to you and You know, obviously the Ocho it's a fun show to watch But you know, I think Obviously we were on their radar you know if we move the needle if we bring the numbers that we believe we can bring in the interest that we we Have behind ice wars, you know, I'm really hoping that this turns into a broadcasting deal especially with how big hockey's been this year with the Olympics and and Just you know hockey has just become one of the most talked about sport just like soccer came out of nowhere, too Right, like everybody's talking about soccer all of a sudden I'm seeing all these Americans and before when I lived in England now is the talk of the town But you ask anyone in America and I saw and I'm seeing the same thing with hockey So when you have a network like ESPN reach out, obviously, they're scouting us. They have their eye on us They they like what they see. It's new. It's interesting and it's exciting. So It's a great feeling to get to showcase, you know what we're about in August It's gonna be a great show and I'm hoping that you know, eventually I'm feeling that it could turn into something bigger You know if you watch the Four Nations Cup, I'm I'm big on hockey I love hockey But if you talk to me and you talk about like oh that Four Nations the first thing they talk about is those three big Fights to start the game people love fighting and listen hockey is a great sport But the one thing that makes the NHL so much better than some of the other leagues is they allow fighting people want to see the fighting Yeah that there's so many Instagram reels and and it's it's no it's no Secret like I wasn't a big hockey guy before this but I know the fight game and I know the entertainment and and the fights I've always loved in hockey and to see reels like That where we get the national anthem getting booed and then these guys they like like there was so many Cool clips of them just throwing the gloves off They scrapped right away and it threw the team off a little bit kind of kind of took their momentum away and America won that that that game so Yeah, it's you know, people love it. People love hockey But people love hockey fights and that's what we bring 8-8 the the card airs on the Ocho. It's a little bit later at night. But listen, it's one of those things like Just to be on ESPN's great is this is this network deal I mean how how often can we expect to see fights on ESPN or ESPN the the Ocho like what what's going forward? What's gonna be kind of the lineup you guys like to maintain? so as we like to tell everyone we do business with and It's just part of the fight game We are in the prove-it business So when ESPN Ocho asks us to come on they want us to prove that we can bring the numbers bring the excitement They want to see the metric. So, um, you know, it's gonna be on it's gonna be on there They're their channels for quite a while after the show I don't know if I'm allowed to disclose that but you know plan on if you miss it you could see it You know, what? What is ESPN on ESPN plus Disney plus so you're gonna be able to watch that but You know, I think this will turn into something bigger than that and we're hoping for a distribution deal We would love to go exclusive with ESPN, you know, kind of like the PFL did and and other you know fight promotions but we think that This is something new and fresh for them. So I think this is our prove-it moment. We have a incredible product We made a great production for the a8 What you're gonna get to watch on ESPN Ocho and I think it's gonna turn some heads and I think I You know, I think they're just gonna be I can't say for sure because remember we're in the prove-it business so we want to go out there and prove that we're a legit new sport and Earn ourselves that that spot on ESPN The one thing that Charlie's really been hitting home is there's a lot of people that are love the BKC They love the UFC and they're like, oh, it's a hockey fight But ice Wars isn't isn't like a combat sport ice Wars is legit Just hockey fighters and people don't seem to realize that they can't seem to separate that but I'm really hoping as more and more You know hardcore NHL fans see it and they go. Wow. This is really for me because there's a lot of guys Who don't like the MMA? They don't want to watch somebody roll around and and some people will say oh the BKC is too bloody But listen two dudes who you know one minute, you know and three minute rounds in Three one-minute rounds, you know, I mean that's perfect for the your average viewer who loves hockey. Yeah, it's fast-paced. It's exciting And yeah, we don't even want to classify ourself as a combat sport because that's such a broad Thing to classify it. We are classified as a new sport Hockey fights right like you so many how many hockey fights happen around the country every single day There are hundreds of fights happen So we just take out the hockey and we just give you guys the straight fights on the ice so, you know, we're really it's just the evolution of hockey in a way and Yeah, like it's like like Charlie says we are a new sport and we are purely hockey fights It's different than then MMA then boxing then all that other stuff This is a new sport and this is hockey fighting. I had been hearing rumblings about the SPN deal coming forward How long did you guys heard about listen? There was a lot of fans are like, oh it's taken too long and what's going on and people don't realize that there's so many cogs behind that you have to like Contract there's so many companies out there who announced like oh We're gonna be doing this and then the contract falls apart before it's signed And I mean like how long had you known about it and how difficult was it to keep it quiet? Yeah, so this has been in the works for man. It seems like a while probably three months It's been in the works maybe four So, you know, it's it's not easy to hold back when you have something so exciting and in business, man what I've really learned is there's so much back and forth with contracts and you you don't want to be the Promotion that over promises and under delivers So and plus when you're in a contract like the one we are in with ESPN Ocho You can't you can't leak this stuff, right? you got to do your best, but it was tricky because we had that fight in Edmonton and We we could have put on a show and not televised it at all Well, everybody had to sign NDAs right that was a difficult thing and we had it we had to take out the four Best fights from that card So we figured why not put on a fight for the fans Live audience gets to see everything and then we will handpick the four best fights that we think represent our company the best We'll put them on the Ocho show and then we'll air the other eight seven eight fights I think one dropped off so that's why a lot of people were like really confused that it was a taped recording on our last fight and Also people were confused that why there wasn't you know The normal 10 to 12 fight card because we had to pull some off We had a fight drop out and that's just a fight game. But we we definitely had to be tricky It was it was tricky even with production because we had we had a production for you know Fight Network and then we had a production for ESPN Ocho. So there's so many moving parts in a business like this That's why like I look back and I see the videos of Dana White laugh at people when they say they're gonna start a fight Promotion because it's not easy especially starting not even a fight promotion a whole new sport You're you have to you have to pave the way you have to make procedures and processes That that work for your company and then there's so much behind the scenes and to be honest A lot of people are BS er so you have to kind of you got to sift through all that and find the real people and make those real connections and you were we were ecstatic that ESPN reach out to us and You know, it just shows that we're making waves we're turning heads and Yeah, there was a lot that went behind that but we got two shows out of one and now we can kind of go back to our regular live programming and Yeah, it'll be exciting to see the traction we build up from August and then we'll have another fight September 5th September 5th is coming along. I've already had fighters reaching out to me Hey, I'm on the card. And again, like here's what sucks about being media I know all this stuff and it's like, oh man, I would love to announce it, but you can't ruin anything So fighters are already reaching out. You guys are going back. It seems like you know out there at the River Cree It's gonna kind of be your guys's home base for now How how great is it working with the River Cree? Like I said, it seems like anything you want They kind of get you guys and it seems like to really be I I can see this kind of being let though You know like Vegas is on base for UFC Yeah, when you're when you're growing a fight promotion like this and you build a relationship like we have with River Cree Those guys are amazing over there and they want to help us grow this sport So, you know, that's incredible and it's good to have fights I know some people are like, oh, it's the same place But when you have fights and you build a strong community in River Cree, it takes a life of its own I feel like BK FC has that here at the Hard Rock Casino Every time they come here that thing's sold out because they have that fan base And then we are excited to start scaling and coming back to America coming back to Florida We've had multiple arenas reach out from all different states that are super excited to bring this New sport to their city. So we have big plans, but it's nice to have a home at River Cree You know to have the icebox set up to get the production team right there and You know just so many moving parts It's able we're able to build synergy with the team so that when we do go state to state You know We have that team and everybody knows what they're supposed to do and it's just plug and play and we can put on great shows All across the country and all over Canada. I think you're gonna be seeing some big news I think we're gonna be everywhere soon But you got to build that core fan base and you got to work with people that are Willing to work with you and want to help and see you grow Alright, there's some young guy out there and he really wants to be a fighter Like how does one get on an Ice Wars car? Like is there like I mean do you send in an application do you send you or or Charlie one of your fight tapes? Like how does somebody who really wants to become a part of Ice Wars and fight for the brand get get on Ice Wars? Yeah, it's simple you go to our website You know BK ice wars calm and there is a place where you are able to fill out your credentials and and and put in You know exactly who you are fill out a little bio of yourself It helps a lot when you put a video when you put your Instagram handle, you know We're looking for the best hockey fighters in the world And we have so many people submitting stuff If you want to submit something do something that stands out because if you just put your name and say I want to fight You know, you're probably not gonna get a phone call But if you put your Instagram you put a video you tell us who you are those are the type of people we're looking for so do something that stands out and Yeah, we're looking to find the best hockey fighters. Our rosters growing every single day We're signing new fighters and I think after this ESPN program after the Ocho You're gonna see even more and if you're a female fighter, we are looking for the next opponent for Valerie Valerie Rooley You know, that's been a challenge as well because she's so dominant But we want to keep showcasing her and we're looking for the next we're looking for stars we already have a couple that we think are gonna rise up but uh You know come be a star in a new sport and you could change your life If you were gonna give you know a couple pieces of advice like the one thing I see is there's so many people that they want to be super famous, but they Are they want that exposure, but they don't go hard with the social media right now Listen, you can be great with your fist, but if you don't post on social media, you're not gonna succeed I'm seeing that a lot with the bare knuckles. Somebody's like how come I'm not getting fights with this guy over here is getting fights You know every other month it's because that guy posts every day you you might post once a month but if you were gonna kind of give some of these guys who are up-and-coming and they really want to get noticed and they Really want to be taken serious. Like what kind of information would you give them man? You got to realize that this is the entertainment business This is something where if you're gonna be really successful at this You have to have the whole package first and foremost. You got to be easy to work with we don't want Pain in ass fighters who think they're Conor McGregor when they haven't proved themselves Once again, this is the proof of business. If you keep proving it you move the needle you grow a fan base we're gonna grow with you we're gonna accommodate you want to take care of you and Most the time those guys are the guys who just love the sport and love to fight and aren't thinking What can I get out of it, but just thinking about putting on a show? Secondly most important for your business and brand, you know, you have to be somebody stand out do something original Don't just be the same old cookie cutter fighter. It's crazy now that I'm on this side There was there would be so many things that would have changed I still stood out as a fighter But man when you look at it from the business side of things They want you guys to put on a show even in the UFC you see these guys fighting on camera and talking all the smack They're probably going in the same elevator in the hotel and shaking hands. Like it's just part of the business. It's entertainment It's the fight game. Of course, there's real bad blood But at the end of the day we understand we're going in there to put on a show get a paycheck and change our family's life, so you have to be consistently on The Instagram posting videos do fun stuff hire an editor get an intern find someone from the school and Just start talking man be yourself amplify your personality I'm not telling people to be fake be easy to work with that's gonna help you a lot in this and then Lastly and Probably equally as important go back up what you say and put on exciting fights, right? Because that's what makes it so hard. That's why it's so few and far between to see stars like Conor McGregor to see stars like You know Floyd Mayweather in the boxing world because you have to have the full package and just if you're a good fighter But you have no socials. That's tough. You're a good fighter or you have good socials, but you're an asshole No one's to work with you that's no good be easy to work with have social media presence build your brand because your brand is is Your your whole business and then train hard and go put on exciting fights And get your damn passport, you know many times I've talked to a fighter and they go Oh, I was offered this fight, but it's in another country and I don't have a passport like listen be available You know what? I mean, and it doesn't hurt to say yes, like look don't take bad fights But if you don't say yes, and if you don't put yourself out there, you're never gonna succeed Yeah, absolutely I mean this is part of the fighter spirit the coolest thing about being a fighter is get to travel the world and Fight and train with some of the highest level people. I always thought that was some of the coolest thing That's why I went to Thailand. I wrestled in Russia. I fought in England. I fought in Argentina and that's what made me stand out to the UFC I was in the top ten and three fights in the UFC who's who's number nine in the world off three fights It's it takes someone special or stupid because they're accepting every single fight and I didn't turn down fights and you know It was at the smartest thing for my career probably not but it was my journey and Yeah, get your passport bro. Like don't don't be the guy who never leaves your town This is an exciting opportunity part of the fun of the fight game is going to see the world Beating someone up getting a paycheck and you're laughing and looking at your life saying man Thank you Jesus because this is a fun life to live Alright, I told people that I was coming on with you today and a good friend of ours coach Jake He sent in a question to ask you he said, you know what? He said it's kind of an inside joke, but he said ask him who's got the best shoulder movement when it comes to shadow boxing coach Jake Man it's it's an inside joke because like Gertz will be in Genesis and we'll and we'll kind of you know Just be shadow box looking in the mirror and my wife does this impression and it just cracks everyone up So she probably has the best shoulder movement and she makes fun of us for you know Kind of looking at the biceps and just doing a little shadow boxing and shout out to Genesis fight team If you're a bare knuckle boxer, you better be at that gym coach Jake just opened the most insane gym that I have ever seen. It's right next to the old grudge training center So so much history there. It's got boxing bare knuckle boy tie MMA wrestling jiu-jitsu If you're ever in Denver, bro, you got to go see this gym because I honestly haven't seen a nicer gym Anywhere and congrats to him. So thanks for that question. Okay, one of my favorite things is like, you know, like Somebody's got a big fight coming up and they're from Montana and they say where should I go and I go go talk to Jake You know get some rounds and but and they go, holy crap, you know He worked with me and just working with me a session or two Like I've changed this and I've learned so much and like I said, there is few people that know as much as Jake Oh, absolutely. I mean this dudes in OG him and Trevor were running grudge training center when you know, you had Nate Mark or you have Brendan Brendan Shaw I think I said his name wrong, but I'm talking about job yeah, all the OG's like of the sport from Colorado and Now Jake has his own gym You know, he coaches Rose Nama Eunice I mean he coaches probably the most BK FC from BK FC and the other bare knuckle promotion He probably coaches the most champs out of any gym So if you want good boxing wrestling any of that stuff coach Jake is one of the coolest coaches I've ever Trained with and and one of the few coaches who puts the fighter first One of the things I know that you're super passionate about is fighter safety. I really like the helmets, you know, like Do you think we're good with that concept that you have now for the fighter helmets? Do you see like an improvement? I was I was hearing some fighters say they like to go to more of like a traditional hockey helmet Like what what is gonna be the progression for the the fighter safety? You know, the progression will always continue to progress as we get more information So I can't I can't predict the future on that but right now the helmets that we have are great first off We want to protect fighters hands. You're throwing bare knuckles if you're punching half hard plastic half face That's a recipe for a broken hand Secondly because they are thick and full in the soft foam You know if a fighter does, you know get rocked or get slept, you know that's gonna protect his head from getting like a double concussion and and you know, we think these helmets are We've improved the straps. So the straps aren't coming off and you know We we think we have a great product right now that is both safe for the fighters heads and also safe for the the hands so You know will it continue to progress? We're not guys who pretend like we know it all as we get more information our first priority is protecting these fighters brains and Secondly to protect their hands so they can continue to fight and make money and support their families All right. Will there be any new changes in the upcoming show? I mean like it seems like you guys kind of got a you know, like whittled down to like where it's about perfect I I do love that you have the clear glass now And I guess I mean is will we see some kind of medic stuff or do you think you guys got it? Basically said how you like it from now on. Oh, no, we're we're always trying to improve man Look, it costs a lot of money to put on these fights if we wanted to do everything That we if we did everything we wanted to do right now We'd be looking at half a million dollar production, but we're not there yet. So we have to continually scale We want to get helmet cams for the refs so we can get those 4k 8k slow-motion shots Just to help ramp up our Social media and clipping because you know when these fighters Land these big shots our refs are so good They get close but they block the jib or they sometimes they block the camera So we want to see what those refs are seeing up close and then you know, we want to build our characters we want to get to know these fighters want the fans to know these fighters and Our productions just going to continue to ramp up And something big that I really want to do for these fighters I don't know if it will happen end of this year But if not I think latest next year now that these fighters were starting to get some fights and get some wins losses under their belts We want to come out with Championship, we don't know if it's gonna be belts yet We haven't fully decided as a team, but we want to start crowning some champions in our organization No, you got people like will report, you know, he knew I was coming out with he's like make sure you mention the body bag I'm the only one that's three, you know and then and these guys that they're really putting that they you know a lot of like I Should be the champion and I should be fighting for a belt or a crown or whatever that you know golden gloves who knows but I mean if you You were a fighter like you love having that thing to chase it and I feel like that is a natural progression with the next Couple fights, you know Yeah. Yeah, we want to Want to do our championship fights maybe in Florida or somewhere in the u.s. Like I said, we have a lot of options right now We're negotiating. There's a lot of states that want us to come and bring ice wars to Their state. So yeah, of course, we want to give these fighters a chance to be the champion like you said Fighters want that goal. They want that belt. They want that trophy They want that, you know, whatever whatever we decide they want to hold that title because you know, that's just that's just part of fight fighters nature they they strive to be the best and With a title like that. They can truly say they are the baddest man at their weight or baddest woman at their weight So that's all coming soon. We want to continue to put out consistent fights I'm really loving the how you know, we had our fight and then you know, it was a little bit of a break But now we're gonna have August September maybe skip one month We want to keep things consistently going consistencies key in this business and that's what we're striving to do Yeah, I mean, it's great. You have a date, you know the Ocho it's gonna be huge and then September 5th You know like I mean and to hear okay. Yeah, Charlie said you guys are already two or three kind of you know, like Fight cards kind of just stacking them up and and I think consistency is gonna be the key and you guys are pretty open and Honest with the fan base and you guys you know, like that's the one thing I think you guys do a good job is kind of you know saying like hey look We got to take a little break because we're retooling this and now like now as we're rolling into the busy season I you know, it's gonna be ramping up and I think people are gonna be excited to get a full follow fight Absolutely. I can't wait to be able to you know, maybe next year it happens where we put out fights for the next six to eight months, so You know, there's a lot of processes and procedures. There's a lot of back-end paperwork There's so much stuff to start a fight promotion, but we're getting things nailed down we're getting the right team behind this and you know, we're gonna continue to improve we're gonna continue to grow and We think this ESPN ocho opportunity is going to be a major catapult to you know Push us forward and hopefully land us a big distribution deal. That will Absolutely change our organization and get us really playing with the big boys soon All right, Ian. Is there any message you want to get out there before we call it an afternoon? No, man tune in to ESPN ocho August 8th, and it's gonna be a killer show it's it's quick It's it's 30-minute program So, you know, it's not gonna take up your whole night tune in if you want to see some action some history Just the whole history of the sport and who we are. I think it really embodies that and then obviously Fighters continue to submit your applications stand out work on your social medias. We'll be announcing the fight card very soon We're just getting everybody papered up. And then yeah, it's gonna be a fun year It's gonna be a fun opportunity and I can't wait to see You know how fast we can grow this to be one of the biggest sports in the world All right, man, you and Charlie have always been so great to me. I appreciate it so much. I can't wait I can't wait to watch on the ocho and then like I said I'm just gonna start lining up fighters and getting them on the show because listen the one thing that I really like about these Hockey guys, they show up and they're on time and you know, they're not assholes. They're not divas. They're nice guys It's not like oh, you know, I need 20 more minutes, you know, they show up and on time They're they're like blue collar guys, and I think it's fantastic Yeah. Yeah, these these are the blue collar guys that fight and eventually man I want I want ice wars to support their lives and to be career fighters in this and we think we can do this. So Yeah, I love the hockey fighter vibe it's totally different than MMA or boxing or everything so We want the fans to get to know these fighters more and that's our next mission to really tell their stories All right, Ian. Hi. This is the president of BK ice war. Thank you so much, sir. Have a great night. Thank you, Jason Appreciate it