All summer long, we braced for it. Haiden Deegan was the best 250 Pro Motocross rider all year. He had a 1-1 score at round one and a second-straight AMA 250 National Motocross Championship was never much in doubt. Other riders caught fire here and there (Chance Hymas, Jo Shimoda) and Deegan dealt with the adversity of a RedBud practice crash that left him hurting, and a few bike issues. Overall, though, this was his season.
For most riders that would be the whole story, but Danger Boy has infused his dirt bike persona with the best of UFC press conference rumbles and WWE promo cuts. He talks trash! Some call it old school, but the reality is this isn’t even old school. It’s his own school. Yes, Bob Hannah was brash and cocky, but beyond that, you could take entire decades of the sport with every rider combined and still not create a trash talk reel to rival what Deegan himself has done in three-plus pro seasons. When people think trash talk is old school, that’s because “old-school” encompasses decades worth of material. Jeff Emig and Jeremy McGrath didn’t like each other. Jeff Matiasevich and Damon Bradshaw didn’t like each other. A few things were said here and there and total up an entire decade with everything every rider said and it seems like things used to get crazy. In reality, most weeks were mundane. With Deegan, you brace for a mega quote every single week.
During Deegan’s 250 run, he has taunted, chirped or bumped into double-figures worth of riders in three years.
The list? These are the obvious ones
Hunter Lawrence
Jordon Smith
Levi Kitchen
Chance Hymas
Julien Beaumer
Jo Shimoda
But there are others you don’t see, going back to amateur rivals and including super subtle jabs on social media. This year, Haiden won High Point and posted the Instagram caption “me vs. me.” Did you know that’s what Ty Masterpool said when he held off Deegan to win High Point in 2024? Yup. Kid keeps all the receipts. You also have that on-track battle with his teammate and friend Cole Davies earlier this year, a racing incident, but one that drew boos. He then chirped back on the podium.
Against those standards, it was a surprisingly quiet summer for Deegan, who stayed humble (at the races) for the most part. Away from the track, he produced some Tik Tok rants, but that could easily just be classified as “a 19-year old on TikTok, anywhere USA.”
The racer Deegs was quiet. Until Budds Creek. When he unleashed it all.
“I feel like I can switch it on whenever,” he explained. “When I feel I need to chirp someone, I do, and when I don’t, I don’t. When I’m confident and racing smart, I’m humble Deegs. When it’s a battle, you get un-humble Deegs!”
Danger Boy was on one at Budds Creek. Deegan has been very respectful of Shimoda recently, but Jo got the wrath after moving over on Deegan off the start of moto one. Jo showed his grasp of curse words in English during the press conference. You can see below:
Even better, Deegan then reposted the clip with the caption: “No what I said was F you Matha Faka !”
He also added that he says even worse down on the starting line.
In his TV interview after a dominant final moto of the season, he said: “I told my mechanic watch this, I’m gonna sprint and I’m gonna kick their ass. And that’s what I did!”
Later, the Honda HRC Progressive team was up on the podium taking pictures to celebrate a 1-2 finish in the 450 Pro Motocross Championship. Deegan also wanted the podium to take some championship photos, and words were exchanged between the two camps during the transition. What actually transpired is a tale of two sides of the story. Either Deegan was trash talking and the Honda/Lawrence group retreated, or the Honda team was done and gave him the stage. Either way, just know that the budding Lawrence/Deegan rivalry is not a mythical creature invented by the fans or media, it’s real, and it comes from the athletes. Did you really expect Deegan not to lean into this?
Later, Pro Motocross organized a champions press conference with Jett, Haiden and WMX Champion Lachlan Turner. Deegan took to the stage first, and when no one else joined him, at first, he stated: “We’ll see who wants to sit next to the king.”
All in a day’s work.
Yet, humble Deegs still appears. Once Lawrence finally did join Deegan on the stage, they were asked about racing each other next year. Haiden kept it chill.
“Yeah, I'm excited. I’ve got a little work to do,” he said. “Obviously, those guys are, you know, pretty gnarly in the 450 Class. So, all I can do is work hard and, yeah, eventually, hopefully be up there running with the boys. But as of now, I got a lot of work to do, whether it's a lot or just, you know, go out there and put my days in, but we'll get there.”
The work will come first, but if it goes in the usual pattern, expect there to eventually be some words, too.
“At the beginning of my career I leaned on the people talking as my motivation,” Haiden says. “Now I feel like I’ve matured past that level where it doesn’t bother me. I can’t really use it anymore. So now I use the 450 class as my motivation. My days when I’m out there suffering. My trainer, my team, they will tell me if you want to win in that 450 class it doesn’t matter if there’s pain today.”
The Deegan mantra is a combination of serious work inside the arena with wild window dressing outside of it. The two pieces meld together—does the confidence start with the trash talk, or does the trash talk build the confidence? Does the trash talk actually force him to work harder so he doesn’t eat his own words? Each time Haiden Deegan has put the target on his own back, he emerges with more wins. Will that continue next year? You might be able to gauge how it’s going as much by his words as his results. Get ready!
