Brett Cooper — "Toxic" Masculinity Saved This Flight

- So are UFC fighters, the modern vigilante for our society. I personally would argue yes, and I would also argue that that is objectively a very good thing for our culture. But of course, millions of people around the world still see them and their supporters as being harmful and toxic. Now if you remember last week I did an episode about Dana White talking about masculinity and mental health in his Time Magazine profile.

And in that same article he talks about this toxic masculinity and he says, what is toxic masculinity? Who has it? Who's too masculine? The author then suggested that when this attitude begets unjustified violence, then you can call it toxic. No. And then Dana White responded and said, then you're just a douche bag. There's a difference between being a douche bag and being masculine. Now on a frontier flight on Sunday evening, the difference between being a douche bag and being a masculine man was very obviously on display.

And this also points to a broader trend of MMA and UFC fighters stepping in when the world needed them. Now, before you dive into this story, make sure that you like this video. Subscribe to the channel if you not already. And of course, ring the notification bell if you wanna stay up to date on everything we're doing here on the Red Cooper Show. Alright, so on this frontier flight that was going from Miami to Puerto Rico on Sunday night, a 50-year-old man named Juan Rays, hopefully I'm saying his last name correctly, started freaking out.

Now according to this report from Fox News Police said that this man allegedly attempted to open the aircraft to exit doors in midair before he assaulted another passenger on the flight. A flight attendant also told authorities that they heard him say that he wanted to get off the plane Following multiple alleged attempts to open the flight deck door, they said that he sat down in a seat that was not assigned to him and attacked a 33-year-old off-duty flight attendant who was seated nearby.

According to court documents, witnesses told police that raised lunged at the flight, attendant grabbed him by the head and choked him, which prompted passengers and another flight attendant to restrain rays with flex cuffs and seatbelt extenders. Before we dive into the masculine part of the story, I just do have to ask like, was this man originally booked on a Spirit airline slide before they shut down? Because this does feel like Spirit Airlines behaviour Now, okay, all jokes aside, I do have to come clean here.

Two of the best flights that Alex and I have taken over the last two years were on spirit. The cleanest, the nicest, happiest people, easiest travel day from point A to point B, no delays. Maybe I should shut my trap about Spirit Airlines and start grieving. And I do also have to say that I've never flown on Frontier because it seems like it has even worse of a reputation. So maybe this is all just par for the course on a frontier flight.

Anyway, back to the point. This is where our story gets more interesting and exciting for the ladies out there. The article goes on and says, rays allegedly broke free from the restraints multiple times until a passenger stepped in to contain him. Video of the confrontation showed passengers working to restrain him. Oh, a passenger. A passenger. Okay, well guys, it was not just any passenger, it's an MA fighter, a Brazilian Juujitsu black belt who set women on the internet ablaze.

Just watch this video that went viral of the entire event. - Yes, it's right there. Chill out bro. Put it off. Okay. I need this hand, I need this hands behind his back. Behind his back. Yeah, so he doesn't untie his, okay, take you got you gotta turn around like this. He's, he's strapped too tight. He strap too tight. Okay, we'll just put it in the front again. Okay, we'll in the front again, let's just see him. - Alright, I have to pause for a second because this is just like the perfect embodiment of our country right now.

You have this one man who's trying to restrain a drunken guy that's trying to, you know, kill everybody on the flight, jump out of the flight through the exit door. He's holding him down, his veins are pumping, he's calm, cool, collected and he's like, lady, we gotta, you know, we gotta do it this way. And then into frame comes a fat woman wearing a mask in 2026. It's like, oh my God. It's like you have this, you have the toxic masculine man, the MMA fighter, and then you have, I don't even know what to call it.

I mean it's just so perfect. Anyway, I'll, I'll let the video continue. - You're - Not - Gonna die another, - Alright, so that two minute video went viral. It racked up millions of views. It was the first video that came out of this incident. You know, it was the firsthand witness account way before Fox News was writing about it. Or people knew that this man had then been arrested, you know, was facing 50 years in prison, whatever it is.

But people more or less interested in what actually happened on the aircraft and they were more interested in knowing about the other man in the video. The man chewing the gum calmly wearing a jiujitsu t-shirt. And I mean, who can blame the internet? Like that is the embodiment of masculinity. You know, calm, cool, collected, strong, stepping in when people need help and possibly even better happy. Like look at this photo that came out after the fact.

This is him after restraining this ridiculously drunk, awful man. He's sitting there thumbs up, smiling like, who does not love a happy warrior? That is like the best thing. And shockingly not shockingly at all, women online ate it up. One woman commented and said, sir, I'm being difficult over here too. Another person said, I was just wondering why my wife bought me a Juujitsu shirt and asked me to chew gum last night.

Love a cool, confident, strong man who can take control of any situation while chewing his gum casually and calmly. The woman said, is this a service provided by the airline? And then this one was just hilarious. This girl said as a nurse, I am salivating over this and then showed a picture of his veins. But you guys get the point. I don't need to read all these comments. There are literally 10,000 of them and 95% of them are thirsty.

They are feral for this man. Now following the video, people online were debating who this man was. They had a couple of different like juujitsu guys, MMA guys that they were like, I think it's Justin this, no, I think it's Alex, this, whatever it was. But not to worry because the man made a TikTok account after seeing that video go viral and he posted a response. So just watch. This is him. His name is Josh Long. Good.

- Hi everyone. I just wanted to take a moment, say thank you for all the kind messages and comments that you've been sending me today. It's been a very overwhelming social media day, but I honestly wasn't expecting things to get this much attention, but I do truly appreciate all the support more than anything. I'm grateful was in the right place at the right time and able to handle the situation without anybody getting injured.

So for those of you that don't know me, I'm Josh Long good. I'm a jujitsu black belt and I train out of Alco BJJ in Chicago. So if you're in the Chicago area, feel free to stop by and train with me sometime. Thanks again for all the love and support. It means a lot to me. - I just think it's so funny, like this man is obviously so sweet, he's like captivated by all of this. I love that. At the top of the video he's like, I've seen all the nice messages and comments like they're not nice messages and comments.

It's like thirsty women being like, please like who is this man? But obviously he's not gonna be like, I see all of you sex breaks out there trying to get my attention. Sorry, should have put a warning. Anyway, after that video, women were once again on hands and knees crawling into his gaad section. Like one girl a Amanda said, oh hi, louder than everybody else. And then right after that a girl commented and said hi, louder than Amanda, somebody else said I could be in the Chicago area to go trade at his jujitsu gym.

And then another woman said, I'm in California. I've never done jiujitsu nor have I ever been to Chicago, but you bet your ass. I am on my way now and I love this for so many reasons, number one, because it seems like a good guy who's being celebrated for doing a great thing. I love that he's getting this kind of attention. But it's also interesting and like perfectly hysterical to me because for so long, and you guys know this, but MMA fighters, UFC fighters, they have had to push through for years, like over a decade now all of these screeching accusations about them being toxically masculine and they're contributing to harmful stereotypes about women and the patriarchy.

Well like whatever the problem was that you know, some journalists created on a or on a random Wednesday, like for example years ago Bloomberg said that MMA was quote, testosterone fueled in a haven for misogynistic behaviour. Another example of this is from a report that was done on MA and UFC's fandom and it said that the sports embedded racism and toxic masculinity appealed to white supremacist fascist groups. So if you are a fan of UFC and MMA, you are a white supremacist fascist, don't forget it.

And then even more recently, I think this was published like last week, a sub stacker connected all of these fighters and the UFC back to Trump arguing that one could use MMA and what represents MMA to define the second Trump administration because of how awful they both are. So in this article, the man said MMA is a perfect expression of the world that they want it to be AKA conservatives Republicans trump admin. They say they want it to be brutal exploitative built on the nexus between masculinity and violence.

And then he goes on and he says that the attraction to MMA also makes it a place where men upset about social change can find a temporary haven in a world where just being a man doesn't deliver the benefits they think it should. And when they turn on the UFC, they can revel in a world where physical strength and the capacity for violence rule, the liberals may run the rest of popular culture, but this is one corner they will never control.

So all of that to say that is how they see the sport. They see it as violent and toxic and fascist, even that it represents a Republican president. I do wanna be fair here because sub sucker did throw the fighters a bone. He admitted that yes, it was a demanding sport. They are elite athletes, he gets that, but he obviously could not hide his disdain for what they represent. But all that aside, yes they are elite athletes.

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Again, that is code Brett for an exclusive 20% off. And if you see a post-purchase survey mentioned that you heard about Cosy Earth right here on the Brett Cooper Show. Alright, now back to the story. And this is where things really get fun. For me. This is like the hope core part of the episode. But interestingly, not interestingly, it's not surprising at all. But there are so many stories, just like the one that we talked about today, where these men who have been trained to fight, trained to beat each other within an inch of death, who people see as being violent and toxic and harmful and dangerous to society, are actually the ones who step in time and time again to save innocent people.

Men like Kevin Holland for example, who back in 2022 was dining at a sushi restaurant with his training partner when a man opened fire into the ceiling. And so Kevin and his training partner, without skipping a beat, they rushed at the man. Kevin choked him unconscious, he got the gun taken away from him, he secured him until the police could arrive. He did that within like two minutes. But that wasn't Kevin's only heroic effort because before that, I think it was only like three months earlier, Kevin stopped and attempted carjacking in his neighbourhood in the same way.

Chased the guy down, choked him out, but yeah, yeah, so dangerous. So toxically masculine and obviously an awful white supremacist. I mean, come on. Now in story, just to further the argument here, another fighter by the name of Mark Coleman, he's a former champion, he was visiting his parents' house, his elderly parents and his dog woke him up in the middle of the night to crazy barking and he realised that there was a fire in the house.

So he immediately jumped into action, he ran into his parents' bedroom, pulled them out, he was worried that they were already dead. He was able to carry both of his 83-year-old parents out of the house. And he turned around, realised his dog had not followed him out, rushed back in the house, was searching the entire burning building for this dog. Unfortunately he was not able to save his dog. So he stumbles out of the building, he gets airlifted to a hospital because of his injuries.

He was in a medically induced coma for over a month. They didn't think he was gonna survive. But he pulled through and he did all of that again without skipping a beat, without even questioning it. I mean, he's a fighter, he's strong. Why would he not use his strength and his pension for, you know, working in these huge adrenaline fueled situations to save his parents. And then there's fighter Derek Lewis, who during Hurricane Harvey and Houston saved over a hundred people just by himself.

He wasn't working for any organisation. It wasn't like the UFC was like, Hey guys, let's all go out and save people. No, he literally just saw what was happening, got in his truck, started driving around and pulling people out of their homes and getting them to safety. Another very dangerous white supremacist obviously. And then there's another champion who chased down and subdued the man behind a hit and run in his neighbourhood who would like run into his neighbor's home.

That took place in 2025. Again, he got him into a choke hold. He was able to hold him down until the cops arrived. Another fighter stopped on a freeway to pull a family out of their burning SUV after the dad had run the car into an 18 wheeler in this murder suicide attempt. He saved all of their lives. I mean, I could go on and on and on. There's so many stories just like this and we should not be surprised because yes, these are strong elite athletes, but they are also used to this kind of adrenaline.

They are not afraid of running into situations where they can use their strength to help people because they beat people up for a living. So like obviously they're comfortable with that. And I, it's so funny to me because I would ask you guys to like look at the difference between say the NFL and the UFC because you football is the American sport. I know that we say that, you know, baseball is the all American pastime, but in my opinion in 2026, football definitely is, you know, it is normalised, it's average, everybody likes it.

You know, the NFL is desperate to be loved on a global scale. They wanna be politically correct. I mean, we're crying out loud. The NFL makes their players wear helmets that say love is love and like hate has no place here and end racism. End racism. How do we do, how does Gen Z do the hearts these days end racism, whatever it is. Meanwhile, that league that is so hell bent on being loved by the media has a documented track record of their players getting in trouble with the law being in domestic abuse disputes, cheating on their 10 million different baby mamas.

And while the UFC is obviously not perfect, and I'm not trying to paint the picture that they are, obviously they have their own domestic abuse disputes. There are, you know, athletes there that are outliers. But in general, I do appreciate the fact that honestly, you know, like many of the hockey teams out there, the UFC does not feed into that performative bullshit. They're not actively trying to soften their image and make the elite screeching media class like them or to cover up for the fact that a man accused by 24 women who has 134 documented arrests got the biggest NFL deal in history at the time.

But love is love hate has no place here. Ignore the fact that he was beating up people and abusing them. But like it's just ridiculous. But yeah, yeah, UFC really that, that's the toxic leak out there. Like instead of all that BS, these fighters, they show up, they work, and in many cases they use their strength for good to try to make the world a better, safer place. And the reason why they're able to do that is because of their strength.

Because they're used to getting in the ring fighting essentially to the death being in these high adrenaline intense situations so they can run in and take down an active shooter so they can run into a burning building so they can stop a man who is trying to crash a plane on Frontier Airlines. So yeah, if that is toxic masculinity that I'm here for, we all should be. And then even more recently, hold on, I need a drink coffee.

And then even more recently.