This week on the Combat Base Podcast we are honored to be joined by Chris' first black belt and founder to Straight Blast Gym Matt Thornton! Matt founded Straight Blast Gym in 1992 with a mission to learn, teach, develop, and train in true hand to hand combat. Matt is interested and dedicated to the learning and development of true fighting with a foundation in the think street, train sport, practice art philosophy. The SBG epistemology has impacted many successful professional MMA fighters and coaches as well as countless everyday humans. In the early days of MMA Randy Couture, Forrest Griffin, and Dan Henderson trained with SBG. John Kavanagh and Connor McGreggor proudly fly the flag of SBG in Ireland. SBG is an international organization with a thriving culture focused on benefiting its people. On the pod we discuss Matt's history with Chris, philosophy, culture, a deeper understanding of what it really means to learn how to fight, and we hit some Q's from the internet. Enjoy the epic pod!