#87: Living to Fight with Ognjen Topic
JAYSON WALLER UNLEASHED
Jayson Waller
4.4 • 649 Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ognjen Topic is a Serbian-born American Muay Thai kickboxer. He was born into an ethnic Serb family in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His family fled the Bosnian War, first finding refuge in Serbia. The family emigrated to the United States when Ognjen was nine years old. He has been training at North Jersey Muay Thai (NJMT) since 2005. In 2008, Ognjen began training and fighting out of Eminent Air Gym in Bangkok, Thailand. Eminent Air is ranked one of the 10 best gyms in the country. Ognjen has divided his time primarily training at NJMT while spending months each year at Eminent Air. There, he can gain a competitive advantage while preparing to compete on large televised promotions such as MAX Muay Thai, Ch. 8 (Highest rated show in Thailand). He has also fought in Lumpini, Radjadamnern, Aswindam, Jitmuangnon, Theprasit and many more stadiums, including one in China.
Back in the USA, Ognjen is a full-time instructor who holds class while training for big fights, such as on the Lion Fight show. Ognjen Topic is a three-time world champion in Muay Thai. Topic is also a former Lion Fight World Champion, having earned the title in 2013. He was named "Professional Rookie of the Year" at the Muay Thai Authority Awards in 2011. He is also a World Boxing Council (WBC) North American Super Featherweight Champion and World Kickboxing Association (WKA) North American Lightweight Champion. Ranked No. 1 in the USA (Super Featherweight Division)
He is The Current WKA North American Champion (Lightweight Division) and The Current WBC North American Champion (Super Featherweight Division). He was voted 2011 North American professional rookie of the year by Muay Thai Authority and 2011 professional fighter of the month by the WKA (World Kickboxing Association) and 2011 Breakthrough fighter of the year by Muay Thai is Life website. He was awarded New Jersey Martial Arts Hall of Fame 2012 Fighter of the Year and The Most “Fight of the Night” by Friday Night Fights in its history He is also The LogoLounge Award Winner & featured in books 9, 11 & 12 and is the winner of GD USA Magazine Award and The Davey Award.
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Mentioned In The Episode:
Website: https://www.topicfight.com/
https://topiccreative.com/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/topicfight/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/topicfight
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TopicFight/
Timestamps:
01:48- What was it like to escape Bosnia?
02:39 - Life Lessons from Ognjen's Father.
03:50 - Ognjen's Design Career.
06:42 - What makes Ognjen different from the rest?
11:40 - Biggest Life lessons learnt as a fighter.
16:49 - How to deal with losses?
19:40 - Mindset of a Champion.
22:09 - How can new Talented fighters get noticed?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jason Waller here, True Underdog podcast and YouTube channel. |
| 0:04.7 | Listen, make sure you subscribe today. |
| 0:06.7 | You can go to IHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcast. |
| 0:10.4 | You can go to our YouTube channel, True Underdog, |
| 0:12.2 | or you can visit True Underdog.com and subscribe to all of it. |
| 0:16.3 | Damn, damn, true underdog. |
| 0:19.2 | Damn, unleash the power with him. Damn, damn. Damn. Unleash the power with me. |
| 0:22.3 | Damn. |
| 0:22.9 | Damn. |
| 0:23.6 | Jason Waller here. |
| 0:29.6 | True underdog. |
| 0:30.3 | Top three entrepreneur motivational podcast right now. |
| 0:34.5 | And here's what we've got today. |
| 0:36.1 | We're going to kick some ass. |
| 0:38.5 | No pun intended. |
| 0:44.4 | Today's guest is a professional multi-athlethout, with over 50 professional fights and has fought the best from Thailand. His relentlessness was bred into him by his early childhood, |
| 0:48.5 | fleeing in the middle of the night from Bosnia to reach safely in Serbia before immigrating |
| 0:52.9 | the United States at the age of nine. |
| 0:54.8 | He followed his father's creation of opportunity and pursued his passion for fighting, |
| 0:59.5 | as well as becoming an award-winning graphic designer while smashing his opponents. |
| 1:04.4 | European-born, Thailand-bred, an American-free to live to tell us tale today. |
| 1:08.5 | With 37 wins, 23 losses, and two draws, please give it up for our guest, Ogden Topich. How are you doing, my man? How's it going, Jason? Thank you so much for having me on. Hey, I'm excited. So, listen, I mean, you're a badass dude. I mean, this is what you do. You go in, you kick ass, you ask questions later. I was watching some of the YouTube skits on some of your fights. That's the real deal. I wish I could learn to fight a little bit like that, but this is what you do for your life. This is what you're passionate about. But I want to start with your childhood, right? Escaping Bosnia. So what was that like? You know, the Bosnia War in 1992 and you fled with your family to Serbia where you lived till 95. |
... |
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