Danny Castillo Q&A: Favorite Fights, Chad Mendes’ Heavy Hands, Sales and Marketing Career

Tony Reid – If you could choose one fight from your career that every MMA fan should see, which fight would you choose and why?

Danny Castillo – “I have a few. Definitely the Edson Barboza fight because I got 50 G’s for it even though I lost. I like the Joe Stevenson fight. That was my first UFC fight. There was a lot riding on that one. I guess my fight against Will Kerr. It was on the last WEC card. It was basically win the fight and get a UFC contract. Either win and go to the big show or lose and go fight your way back up through the smaller shows. There was a lot of pressure on me for that one and I won by first round knockout.”

Tony Reid – If you could have fought anyone in any weight class who would you have chosen to fight and why?

Danny Castillo – “I would like to fight Fedor. He is a legend in the sport. I really look up to him. A fight with him at 155 would be awesome!”

Tony Reid – Who has the heaviest hands of anybody you have fought or trained with?

Danny Castillo – “Chad Mendes for sure.”

Tony Reid – You were senior account exec at an internet based company in San Francisco. You are a few credits short of a degree in mass communications. If you weren’t a professional mixed martial artist what would you be doing for a living right now?

Danny Castillo – “I am a people person. I would be involved in sales and marketing in some capacity. I excelled in that realm and I didn’t really have any experience at the time. I did fairly well the first four years in my career in that field.”

Tony Reid – Who are your favorite fighters to watch and why?

Danny Castillo – “As a fan one of my favorite fighters to watch is Joseph Benavidez. I like watching Nick Diaz fight as well. Outside of the cage I was a Julio Cesar Chavez boxing fan and also a big Diego Corrales fan. He’s from Sacramento, he passed away but he was a great boxer as well.”

Tony Reid – I read that your start in wrestling because the vice principal at your high school was also the wrestling coach and he told you if you joined the team he wouldn’t call your mom and tell her about the trouble you were getting into. Is that true?

Danny Castillo – “That is 100% true. I owe so much to that guy. My mom had sent me to a private high school my first year of high school. I guess you could say I was from a bad part of town and I sent to this rich, predominantly white school. I just didn’t fit in and I ended up starting a bunch of trouble there. That was probably the third or fourth time I got in trouble that month. He told me he was calling my mom. I pleaded and begged him and he said I needed to learn some kind of discipline so he made me go to wrestling practice. In my head I was thinking well, I played tackle football in the school yard so I don’t care about this wrestling stuff. Ok, done I’ll be there. I went there and got the crap beat out of me by a bunch of seniors and juniors and they just took turns beating the crap out of me. For some strange reason I was attracted to it and I fell in love with it that day and I haven’t stopped wrestling since. I have been wrestling for over 20 years and I still wrestle to this day.”

Tony Reid

In July of 2008 Tony Reid launched an MMA inspired clothing line that he named Reid Fight Wear. He saw a need in the MMA clothing market for a more classic, clean and timeless design and less of the dated styles seen then. In the process of major life changes, Tony cashed out his 401(k), emptied his bank account and put his heart and soul into building the brand. In August 2009 Tony began writing for TapouT and MMA Worldwide Magazines. There he created Rattling the Cage, an MMA specific news site and home for all of his work. In May of 2012 Reid began writing for Ultimate MMA Magazine, launching an MMA Legends and MMA Officials Series. Also in May of the same year he started appearing regularly on ESPN 92.3 WVSL as the MMA Insider. In early August of 2012 Reid was named General Manager of UFC Fighter Tim Boetsch’s Barbarian Combat Sports in Sunbury, PA. By December 2012 Reid started contributing to Fighters Only Magazine. "The World's Leading MMA and Lifestyle Magazine" is sold in over 30 countries around the world and has the largest reach of any international magazine of its type. In May of 2013 Reid became a monthly segment host on Sirius XM Radio. Appearing the first Thursday of every month on TapouT Radio on SiriusXM (Sirius 92 XM 208) in a segment he created called "On Blast!" where he puts people in the MMA world on notice. In June of 2013 Reid began writing for the UK based MMA Uncaged Magazine. In August of 2013, Reid launched "Rattling the Cage with Tony Reid" a talk radio show he hosted on ESPN 92.3 WVSL "The Valley's Sports Leader". The show aired over 100 episodes and featured some of the biggest and brightest stars in the world of combat sports. It was one of the most successful shows in the station's history. In May of 2016 Reid became a feature writer for FloCombat. In September of the same year Reid began writing for ONE Championship, Asia’s largest global sports media property in history. Reid is happy to now join the team at MyMMANews as a contributor.

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