Tyson Pedro is kicking back on a chair inside the UFC fighter hotel and, for our amusement, dry retching.

Or at least pretending to.

“Because this is what the guy was like,” he says of great mate and fellow UFC fighter Tai Tuivasa, with whom he now owns Drink West.

Order UFC 293 Sydney: Adesanya v Strickland, Tuivasa v Volkov. Sun 10 Sept. Main Event on Kayo Sports

That breakout beer label which, apart from boasting a schmick Penrith brewery, or $2 million in fan equity — apart from being a UFC sponsor, having NRL star Nathan Cleary as co-owner, or even a new midstrength range — has at its core a cult UFC heavyweight whose signature is drinking beer from the shoe of strangers.

Shoeyvasa, they call it.

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Both the fighter and phenomenon.

The latter of which was born five years ago, at UFC 221 in Perth, when Tuivasa – shoe in hand, having just iced Cyril Asker – sat atop that cage and drank while the crowd went berko.

And since?

Well, ‘Bam Bam’ has skolled from TNs, RMs, even beers poured down from the bleachers. With the celebration now tattooed as deeply to the fighter as that ancient Samoan inkwork, or tatau, on his thighs.

Stateside too, American fight fans have lost their collective minds for him.

With Shoeyvasa having spawned a range of not only headlines, t-shirts, or viral social clips, but those bright yellow Shoeyvasa devices from which no less than Dana White has also skolled.

Understanding that while Tuivasa isn’t the first Aussie athlete to celebrate with ‘Shoeys’, or even the biggest – with that honour likely belonging to F1 star Daniel Ricciardo — there is nobody, nowhere, for whom it seems more apt.

But you wanna know a secret?

The guy hates beer.

Or at least, he did.

“Oh, I remember when Tai couldn’t drink beer at all,” continues Pedro, who like his Drink West co-owner is set to throw down at UFC 293 this Sunday.

“Every time he tried, he’d be like (starts making that dry retching sound again).

“It’s outrageous.

“The guy who hates beer now drinks more of it than anybody I’ve ever seen in my life.

“He’s become the global ambassador for drinking beer from a shoe.”

Which at first, we thought had to be a gee up.

Until Tuivasa confirmed it.

“Yeah, it’s all true,” he grins, when sitting with Fox Sports Australia soon after.

“When I first started drinking, it was vodka. Then I switched to the blacks – Jimmy and Jack.

“I would always still do the shoeys whenever everyone was around; and with whatever was in the shoe.

“But in those days, yeah, beer was the least of my worries.”

So what happened?

“I saw what the beer industry can do,” he laughs. “So now, I like beer.

“Now I’m a beer connoisseur.”

Which had also been confirmed by Pedro earlier, revealing: “This is why I was initially brought into the Drink West venture in the first place.

“Tai says ‘look I wanna do this beer, but I don’t like it, you do’.

“That’s how it all started.”

While Drink West has now signed on with Coles, boasts seven different beer types, and has Pedro insisting “I want to get a lot of money back to people who invested in this business, that’s my goal”, it all started from out of a car boot.

With the fighters, only days after the first batch was formulated in 2019, parking a car out front of some heaving hotel, then handing those now unmistakeable cans — so coloured to represent the old Black & Gold brand, or home brand, of budget food — to anybody who passed by.

Problem was, that practice isn’t exactly legal.

Which is why, when a curious publican eventually walked outside to investigate, Pedro insisted they were gifting sports drinks.

Same as he and Tuivasa were forced to think quick when the first cartons were ordered too small.

Or just before Christmas that inaugural year, the lids started popping off.

“Initially, the lids were supposed to be silver,” Pedro explains.

“But we liked the look of black, so ordered a heap in.”

Only problem was, the coating was too thick for the cans.

“So when the beers were sent out, all the lids started popping straight off,” he cackles. “We lost some money with that one.”

Yet still, together, the boys rallied, recovered, then went again.

Just as Pedro did when a horrific run of injuries kept him sidelined for over three years. Or Tuivasa, after exploding into the UFC via that unforgettable flying knee, would then go on a run of three straight defeats.

Now this Sunday at Qudos Bank Arena, both men, again, are looking to rebound in what will be a sold out Qudos Bank Arena.

First up, is Pedro.

With the affable light heavyweight, on the first fight of the Pay-Per-View, and coming off a tough loss last start, set to throw down against Swede Anton Turkalj.

Then in the co-main comes Tuivasa, who, ranked No.6, will be chasing one of his famed highlight reel KOs against towering Russian, Alexander Volkox.

Despite coming off consecutive losses against Sergei Pavlovich and Ciryl Gane, Bam Bam still carries exactly the same confidence, and swagger, that initially built this Mt Druitt streetfighter into not only a UFC cult figure, or Aussie beer baron, but a beacon of hope for young westies everywhere.

Just as quickly though, the slugger stresses he isn’t alone.

“Look at those Panthers boys,” he says, referencing the reigning NRL premiers who, led by Cleary, and with a host of local players, head into this weekend’s finals looking to make it three straight titles.

“Those boys, they’re me.

“I’m them.

“I probably grew up a bit wilder, but we’re western Sydney, we’re housos, and we’re looking to make a positive impact.”

Which is going OK, right?

“Man, if you’re a westie at the moment,” he grins, “your stocks are up”.

Same deal Drink West.

“Yeah, going great,” Tuivasa continues.

“Sales are good, brewery is going well and we’ve just signed on with Coles, so we’re moving and moving forward.”

Pedro agrees.

A truth proved by the fact he and his old man, as part of UFC 293 fight week, have been cruising around Sydney in a white, McLaren sports car.

“And were sitting in it one day this week, when I turned to him and said ‘dad, life’s changed’,” he says.

“I think back to when I was 17, on my red Ps, and it was him and I driving around in a Charade — different coloured panels, three cylinder, it could hardly get up hills with me and him in it.

“But now we’re here.”

Again, thanks to the same attitude that sees a bloke who doesn’t like beer become Shoeyvasa.

“I went clay shooting with Israel (Adesanya) recently and he said to me ‘I love how you just walk up, shout ‘pull’ and then just go’,” Pedro continues.

“And I told him ‘bro, that’s pretty much our life’.

“We shout ‘pull’ and then go for it.

“If you miss, OK … rerack that bitch and have another shot.”

FULL CARD (ALL TIMES AEST)

MAIN CARD (from 12pm)

Israel Adesanya (c) v Sean Strickland for middleweight championship

Tai Tuivasa v Alexander Volkov — heavyweight

Manel Kape v Felipe dos Santos — flyweight

Justin Tafa v Austen Lane — heavyweight

Tyson Pedro v Anton Turkalj — light heavyweight

PRELIMS (from 10am)

Carlos Ulberg v Jung Da-Un — light heavyweight

Jack Jenkins v Chepe Mariscal — featherweight

Jamie Mullarkey v John Makdessi — lightweight

Nasrat Haqparast v Landon Quinones — lightweight

EARLY PRELIMS (from 8:30am)

Mike Mathetha v Charlie Radtke — welterweight

Shane Young v Gabriel Miranda — featherweight

Kevin Jousset v Kiefer Crosbie — welterweight