Podbit · The Mel Robbins Podcast
In 2007, Shelly-Ann was the 6th reserve at the World Championships in Osaka — so low on the depth chart she cried when they asked her to run. A year later, she was Olympic champion. The turning point wasn't a new coach or a new body. It was a single decision: she wanted to win or lose for herself alone.
Where this was said
At 17:00 · chapter starts 13:15
This chapter contains one of the most powerful narrative arcs in the episode. In 2007, Shelly-Ann traveled to Osaka not to compete but just to be there — small-minded, as she puts it herself, with small confidence and small dreams. When the coach told her she was running the relay, she cried: not from nerves but from fear of letting down the three other women whose race depended on her baton. She ran the heats successfully, didn't run the finals, and came home carrying one burning revelation: she wanted to be responsible for her own win [1] — Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce "In 2007, Shelly-Ann was the 6th reserve at the World Championships in Osaka — so low on the depth chart she cried when they asked her to ru…" 17:00 . From that moment, she changed everything — her diet, her gym work, her discipline, her commitment to showing up at 5 AM not a minute late. A year later in Beijing, that same woman was at the Olympic final, smiling, hearing no one else, running the race she had already visualized dozens of times. She won, became the first Caribbean woman to win Olympic gold in the 100 meters, and then did the exact thing she had told herself she would do: jump, scream, fall to the floor. Consistency, decision, and the refusal to lose for anyone else — that's the year compressed.
Shelly-Ann went from being the 6th reserve (last on the relay) at the 2007 Osaka World Championships to winning Olympic gold in 2008 — all by changing her mindset and becoming consistent.
Thomas's wife deferred her CrossFit career — she's in the global top 1% of athletes — to put him through law school debt-free. He wants her to chase the dream now; she wants the emergency fund and house down payment first. On a $200K lawyer income with no debt, the opportunity cost is just a few months of slower saving.
Underground calisthenics battles are exactly like UFC meets a rap battle — 150 people crowded around a circle, fighters walking out with masks and chains, nicknames like 'Extra Money' vs 'Calisthenics the Prince,' and people throwing money and betting. The battle set: 100 burpees, 50 muscle-ups, 75 dips, 75 squats with a 65-pound dumbbell. This is the next big spectator sport.
Rico Verhoeven controlled the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion for approximately 10 rounds — and had his appeal upheld when officials admitted the fight was stopped after the bell. The result was never overturned. Rogan calls it either incompetence or corruption, and argues the money behind Usyk made an upset politically inconvenient.
Rogan lays out a blunt case: boxing's 3-judge system is structurally broken, and the judges know who the promoter wants to win. Glory's 5-judge format is the right model. Corruption doesn't have to be conscious — just knowing Usyk is the cash cow is enough to tilt the scales.
With the Usyk-Wilder fight stalling and Fury-Joshua coming too late, the real fight the world wants is the rematch. Rico is a free agent. Usyk vacated his belts. The story is unfinished and both Rogan and Rico know it. His Excellency Turki Alasheikh already called for it ringside — the question is money.
Rico texted Jason Statham during the Canelo-Crawford fight. Statham showed Rico's highlight videos to promoters. Two days later, Rico was on a call about fighting Anthony Joshua. When Joshua pulled out, Rico pitched Usyk himself — Undisputed vs. Undisputed. Usyk said yes in two weeks. The whole thing started with one text.
Every heavyweight who faced Usyk tried to move to the right — straight into his power hand. Rico and Peter Fury identified the obvious solution: move left, away from the left hand, and smother him with size. It sounds simple. Nobody had done it. That one adjustment was the foundation of 10 dominant rounds.
MMA fans boo when fights go to the ground. They love stand-up. Kickboxing is pure stand-up. Yet it barely exists in America while boxing and MMA are enormous. Rogan's diagnosis: no promotion machine. If the UFC got behind kickboxing the way they've built MMA, it would explode. The talent is there — the storytelling machine is not.
A nation of 17 million people gave the world Ramon Deckers, Peter Aerts, Badr Hari, Melvin Manhoef, Rob Kamen, Ernesto Hoost, and Rico Verhoeven. Rico's theory: the country is so small that every gym shares knowledge freely. In the US, you need a flight. In Holland, you drive 40 minutes and spar the national champion.
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