Ep6: Lolo Heimuli (Part 2): What it takes to be a Champion in the ring & in life

In Part Two of our interview with legendary coach Lolo Heimuli, we explore his wisdom gained over decades of training world champions and inspiring future fighters. From reflections on consistency as the key to success, to stories of iconic matches, Lolo opens up about his journey, his influences, and the values that drive his coaching philosophy.

This episode has a combo of laughs, wisdom, and some great behind-the-scenes stories from Lolo’s personal life and honourable career..

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Shannon

Lolo, I'm going to ask some out of the box questions. If you got to sit down and have dinner with three people, passed away or alive, who would those three people be?

Lolo

I've never been asked this question before. I've been asked a lot of questions. Yeah, probably my Dad. I had two Dads. And so a lot of things that you never really tell them. You never really tell them how much you love them and stuff like that. I had a lot of people that died but I had more than three, know what I mean? those that passed, that you never really had a conversation to really show you how much you love them.

But, you know, I would like to pick Bruce Lee's brain. I'm pretty sure Terry will probably tell you the same thing. If you ever pick somebody to talk to in past, probably Bruce Lee.

Shannon

Yeah, So Ray, Ray's the president of, what is it, P? P?

Lolo

PPL is Professional Fighting League I don't know what they say about the president, but he's still in the executive committee. But when they started, Ray was the president. He was the face of the associations. He done alright flying around on the private jet. I say Ray, when you get a private jet, take us for a ride

Shannon

Lolo, you've trained many champions, world champions. What do you think are some important things that make up a champion?

Lolo

You know, of course you got to have the talent. But consistency probably beats the odds more than talent. But of course you got to have talent. You can't win consistently with talent, but you can't win without it. I mean, when you have a guy that's consistent, plus the talent... They become make a star. Like I counted Ray's missing out training one year and it was not just Ray but a few guys there because they were inspiring each other back at the old gym. And I think Ray only missed out three training class the whole year. And so he deserved all the achievement that he got from the sport because he worked so hard for it.

Guys like Jayson Vemoa who end up winning the world title. But at the beginning he was, I mean he was talented, but the consistency was what took him there. I always tell the story to the guys at the gym. It took Jayson Vemoa nearly two months just to learn how to skip properly.

You know, little kids will pick up how to skip in two minutes.

Shannon

Hey, sorry Jayson, if you're watching I'm not laughing at you, bro.

Lolo

This is not mocking Jayson. It's only to inspire other people, you know. That if you're consistent and you keep training consistently, there's so many people that, talented people that fail because of their lack of consistency.

So many genius' have failed because of lack of consistency. So many smart people are not going anywhere because they're not consistent. A lot of people that are not consistent, then their marriage doesn't work out. So to me, consistency is probably the key to everything. There's something that we never really look at.

Shannon

yeah so you are you Tongan Tongan Lolo yep you would have probably known Rick Kulu

Lolo

Yes. Yes, and I recall. He fought Ray Sefo We took there and invited him to Sydney, and Rick Kulu is a tough Tongan you know? Yeah, he's tough. But Ray really outboxed Rick Kulu and he's more like a boxer. I always get our guys to spar with a lot of boxers here, and And Ray really, outboxed Rick, Rick Kulu was very impressed with, you know, with Ray and the weight of encouragement that he gave Ray after the fight helped Ray to build more and more confidence because Rick Kulu was training with Alex Tui Alex Tui is a cousin of mine.

Shannon

He is your cousin?

Lolo

Yeah, yeah, we were here with Alex before Alex went to Australia.

Shannon

Oh right. This is another out of the box question, Lolo. If you could choose two celebrities to fight each other. So you're probably like me, Lolo. I don't watch much TV. I'm not really up with who the current ones are, but you might know some. So if you could get two celebrities to fight each other, who would they be?

Lolo

I will probably get Donald Trump to fight Jim Walsh. You know, the American, the guy, the opposition in the Democratic Party.

Shannon

Jim Walsh. Okay, yeah. Which one would you train?

Lolo

I know it's such a... It's a fight, you don't want to be a trainer, you want to watch. I train neither of them. In fact, I hope we can give them half a dozen of tooheys so they can drink before the fight. That'll be my coaching.

Shannon

What's the best award that you have ever received and who gave it to you?

Lolo

Yes, I can answer it very, very quickly. I have a lot of awards, and I'm not bragging about it. I've got awards including Hall of Fame award. But the one that I received recently, I get recognized by the community and the police for working with the kids. But it means so much to me because I probably did that long way before it was recognized as a thing to do, because most of guys come to the gym, they would just walk in on the street or sometimes, you know, bring his own mates and A lot of them come from gang family. We never judge anybody. And a lot of them, end up being fighters. Where do you think I get all the fighters right? But a lot of them, they... I wasn't doing it for recognition, but they gave me something that I've been doing anyway, something that I enjoy doing anyway, which means a lot to me.

Shannon

So if there's some young ones watching, they're into the kickboxing or even like nowadays because the UFC is the big thing, they might wanna one day get to the UFC. What's some advice that you've got for the younger ones watching?

Lolo

Yeah, well it's one is that you have to associate with people that, you know, like a couple of my guys that want to do MMA, you know, recently, and we don't have the facility for that. But I know they're talented enough to make UFC. I advise them to go to CKB and then train with Eugene and them, you know. But my favorite advice to people is what I already told you, just go in there and just be consistent in what you do. Yes, you set a goal and stuff, but you just need to...be consistent and keep to it. You never know. I  was doing the kickboxing and fighting coach because I enjoyed doing it and I've always been consistent in what I do. I've never stopped learning. Even today, I'm still one to learn. And I pray to the Holy Spirit every day to give me, just to give me more knowledge and wisdom, but consistency, you have to stay consistent on what you do. And it was like a long sleep and you wake up, because time flies very fast when you're always busy, okay? You you ask me how old I am, you know, like I said, I'm 64, but I don't feel like 64. I don't know whether I convinced myself to say that. When you had so much fun, the time flies, and then I look back and until people are talking, they say, I wish to go there on their bucket list like, listen, and I realize I've been around most of the globe with the fight games. And that's a bonus that comes with it. I wouldn't want to go to Eastern Europe on a regular tour when I used to work with Alexey Ignachov

I would never be able to afford it. I would never be to go to Japan and stay in five-star hotels and all this. I would never, you know, I'm, you know, I'm average guy. don't, you know, have much money, you know, but I found myself, you know, because of staying consistent of what I do.

Shannon

Lolo, what do you do to develop good character in your fighters? How do you develop that?

Lolo

I can't remember who said it, but I borrowed this because somebody mentioned it on a martial art show, a martial art book that I read. That the discipline and the people, they found themselves at the gym, and the discipline and rules of the gym became a character that taught all those young, rough guys. And before they realized it, they become their friends, you know? Because if you hang around with the right people and make the right decision, then the chances are you're gonna end up act like them. But if you hang around with the wrong people that do things that not very good, then the chances are you gonna end up like that,

And this is supposed to be for human, but they reckon that if you put a two grandfather clock, you know, like different beat, they reckon it's next to each other in about two years, they're gonna synchronize, you know.

Shannon

Okay Lolo, Is there something that You wish somebody had asked you but nobody had ever asked before?

Lolo

Some of the questions that a lot of people ask me is who was your most naturally talented fighter that you ever coached? And they expect me to say somebody like Ray Sefo, Mark Hunt. You know, Jason Suttie, A lot of the kids that, you I'm going to go back to that consistency. A lot of the kids they walk in there with amazing talents, way better than some of the guys that they see on TV now to become legend, but they never hang around long enough to, look, I've got so many kids that, you know, you look in, kids they walk in the gym, can see them. When you get them throw a round kick, you never throw one before in your life. You can hear the bag smash and when they crack the bag of pads with just rough punches, all the timing is correct. Then after about three weeks later, you don't see them. They are the one that I'm talking about. To mention the name of some of the big names that I work with, some of these kids never hang around long enough. I know why a lot of my guys now have become like a household name because they work so hard for it. Some of the kids, they're so super talented, but sadly don't hang around long enough, you know? I'm pretty sure if you've seen some of them, you know what I'm talking about anyway.

Shannon

Yeah, also, did you, did you train Mark Hunt?

Lolo

I worked with Mark Hunt with when he was later years at the UFC. But I knew Mark Hunt before anyway. In fact, when he was fighting Nathan Briggs, told his story. He talked about that story in his book. And Lucy Tui came up to me and said can you come and do Mark's hands and can you help him in the corner? And I said, yeah, sure. And the fight was, you know, of course Nathan had a better kick, better reach and better Muay Thai skills and he was smashing Mark's leg and I said, Mark, Mark, gotta do something about that leg kick, you know? But what I mean was to check it. And if you read the book, you know, there was, because it was a modified Muay Thai, was not elbow, things like that. It was a guy that used to run the WKA in Brisbane.

Shannon

Jimmy Cass. Yeah

Lolo

Jimmy Cass yeah, yeah. And Jimmy Cass always have a lot of Bikies followers then. All of a sudden, Mark on a corner let rip with a big, downwards elbow.

Lolo

and everybody jumped in there. I had my little girl, her name is Petrina, she's only about 50, 45, or 50, 45 kg. I jumped in there with Petrina and Lucy, and then Paul Briggs and Dave and them, but lucky that I know each other, we know each other, and calm down and I said, Mark, what's wrong with you bro, And he said, you told me to do something, I said check the kick! You got a bad math, man! Look at that. Me and two. Yeah, look at all 1500 bikers around here!

Shannon

Far out. Yeah, yeah. I'll have to read that book.

Lolo

Yeah, yeah. So, and he talk about it in the book, you know. And I remember when he came back, and Lucy Tui was talking about this guy, And I've seen Mark fight, you know, like, Nathan cracked him with a shin kick to the head. And without a blink. And he was keep going for it. I could see that the power was Mark and his body rhythm. And I said to Lucy, why the other guys yes he might be good but why don't you focus on Mark? I didn't realize that Mark was listening, so he put it in the book too. became the K-1 star.

Shannon

Yeah, wow, what about, who is some, people you looked up to in boxing or kickboxing that you met, like in your travels around the place? Yeah, so like that were like stars, stars for you or that you really like to meet?

Lolo

yeah, I like Bernard Hopkins was one come to mind. I've never met him, but I would have loved to, you because he did something that a lot of boxers don't do. Other boxer have their own coach and sometimes their coach pass on what they know, Bernard Hopkins learnt his skill in jail. And he was in some, sometimes we do thing that we think it's good habit, but in a modern game, it's probably bad habit then. And he was only training and practice what made sense to him. And he become the oldest boxer, you know, even at 50 was still beating young guys.

So he's doing something correct, and I saw him, you know, like, it's a shame, because he spent a lot of his time earlier years in jail, you know? But I look at the way how he execute his hand position, his balance, you know, like if he bring his punch he throws it. And it was almost like a flawless performance, you know, like he doesn't have all the, the stuff that you see with the fancy moves that you see a lot of people do. Bernard Hopkins was, he was very tidy. And then was one of the reasons why he was still beating young guys in his 50s. that's something to be studied.

I met Benny the Jet I met Pete Cunningham I had dinner with Diesel Noi and Sumart and all those legends.

Shannon

Yeah. Last question, Lolo. Have there been any moments in your career where you faced self doubt and how did you deal with that?

Lolo

All the time, all the time. And some people who aren't Christians probably won't agree, but if you don't, just try it. I always ask God, because doubt is the devil's weapon against us. I always ask God to take the worries away.

I do it before, you know, the fights. know, I always take the worries away. You know, can I give it to you? You know? So, and then that's how I deal with it. I mean, it's, of course, other people have different, young guys, you know, put the earphone on, have the heavy music distract their mind. That will probably work for them too. you know, for me, I just ask God to take away my worries. That's all.

Shannon

Yeah. Thank you for your time, Lolo.

Lolo

All good bro. Thank you so much bro.