Cameron Hanes - Keep Hammering Collective - KHC 001 - Michael Chandler - Exclusive Q&A (Bonus)

Episode Date: February 7, 2023

Exclusive Michael Chandler Q&A from the Keep Hammering Collective podcast.   Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameronrhanes Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronhanes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camhanes/ Website: https://www.cameronhanes.com   Connect with Michael Chandler: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikechandlermma YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoJA_fJwuyS9aJC7gmnpdnQ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeChandlerMMA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikechandlermma Website: https://walkonfit.com   Special thanks to our sponsors. MTN OPS Supplements: https://mtnops.com First Light: https://www.firstlight.farm Leupold: https://www.leupold.com Black Rifle: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com Hoyt: https://hoyt.com Bass Pro / Cabellas: https://www.basspro.com   Timestamps: 0:00:00 Introduction 0:00:37 If you could add two more training partners for the KHC, who would they be? 0:02:43 Michael vs. Conor at MSG? 0:06:12 Is weight cutting fair? How should the UFC regulate PEDs? 0:10:47 What is Chandler’s walking around weight when not fighting? 0:12:36 Is a Cam workout similar to an MMA workout? 0:14:53 What do you consider the moment that shaped your mentality as an athlete? 0:16:00 The moment and the promise 0:17:30 Under Believing 0:18:01 Did I give all I have? 0:19:25 Slay the dragon 0:23:30 All I can do is put in work 0:25:24 Win the day

We're here this week's question and answer with Michael Chandler. How you doing? I'm great. Thank you for having me. Oh, it's great to get you here in the Keep Hammering Collective Studio. Yeah, this has been an experience, to say the least. So I can't wait for everybody to see it. It's going to be awesome.

Oh, we've had the best day. Yeah, it's been a little over 24 hours. I feel like I've been here for a week. We're packing a lot in. We're packing a lot in. I love it. It's good. So we made a post and was going to,

just put out there anybody have any questions for you hit me up so here's a couple questions i'll go through coming in on instagram this one is from hearf jones if you got to add two more training partners to make this a four-person lift run shoot who would you add oh my gosh that's a good uh that's a good one uh man uh i am a i'm a huge fan from a from a hard work and a dedication standpoint the rock yeah really cool you, me, the rock. Oh, let me see. And then I'm tempted to add somebody who's a little bit out of the, almost like out of the,

the realm of what you think lift run shoot would be like somebody who probably can't do the runs. Who isn't good at lifting, somebody who's just there for comedic relief. Like Ron White. Yeah, like Ron White. But actually, I will say Theo Vaughn. Theo Vaughan would be awesome. But I don't say that to say that he wouldn't be able to do it.

The dude's been getting after it in Nashville. He lives in Nashville and I'll see him. He trains with my trainer in Nashville. So he's been getting after it. He trains at my gym a little bit too, does jiu-jitsu and stuff. So he wouldn't exactly be the can't-do-any-type of guy, but he would be a great comedic relief. So if we had to the rock and Theo Vaughn, that'd be pretty great. Theo just seems like the nicest guy.

He is the most down-to-earth, just sweet, sweet soul. Yeah. And just, I mean, his comedy is just so off the wall. I know. He makes up these words that are just, you're like, dude, where do that even come? How does your brain even work that way? Or the stories he comes up with from, I guess, growing up. Growing up.

Yeah. Part of the time you're like, is that a real story? Yeah, I know. How much are you embellishing? Right. I'm not quite sure. Either way, I'm entertained. I'm laughing my face off.

You know, he went to dinner with Joe and I. We did the podcast with Rogan on the same day. And then Joe said, hey, what are you doing later? You want to go to dinner with us? And Theo's like, I'll go. I mean, you guys probably won't call. I probably won't hear from you, but it's fine. I'm used to it.

And he was just like, being, it seemed genuine, but nicest guy. So of course, he went with us and he was awesome. He's awesome. Yeah, love that guy. Okay, let's see. We've got to get Iron Mike back to MSG to welcome Connor back. What do you think of that?

Oh, my gosh. Let's talk about MSG. I am 0 and 3 at a MSG. Really? As of right now. You say Gay-Chi? Gay-Chi. Well, I lost a Brent Premis back in Bellator at MSG.

then, yeah, then Gagee, my second or third fight in UFC, and then obviously Porre gave my last fight. But, you know, I don't think DeVinue makes a difference. Right. It's more of just a, and I'm not superstitious, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, Connor at MSG doesn't get much bigger than that. So we definitely want to fight Connor next, but I don't care where it is. Yeah.

Oh, that'd be a show. Yeah, I mean, especially, yeah. There's something different. There is something different about MSG. It's big. I mean, quite frankly, I think it does bring something out of you as a fighter that maybe is not that great for me because I just takes control of me. It's incredible. I mean, I wouldn't know what it's like to perform there, but just being there and walking in those hallowed halls, basically.

And you walk through the hallways where the dressing rooms are and you see the photos of the stars who perform there. And it's special. It's crazy. Yeah. And they even, it was cool this last time too. They had this long hallway. there's a there's a photo of me and justin gaitchie fighting in the hallway really yeah i'm like holy cow you know there's got rod stewart and and and janet jackson and there's a picture of me and me and

just and gaici right and then but it's kind of the same thing you think about warming up in the same locker rooms as mohamma and ali and mike tyson and all these guys and it's just it really is pretty crazy well that fight with gaichi i mean i can see why they've wanted to document it because that fight was yeah it was unlike anything i've ever seen as far as the excitement and that was the first fight of the pay-per-view that kicked off the pay-per-view and it was like it's only downhill from here yeah because how do you get better than this well and they it was a very smart move by the UFC because there was a there was another big boxing fight that night I think it was Canelo canelo so I think uh in order to secure pay-per-views put announced two

days before the fight that it's me and justing gaiti first and I didn't even know they didn't call me and say hey what do you think about fighting first it was just like Ariel Hawani or M-M-M-A junkie popped up and said, hey, Chandler and Gathear the first fight. I'm like, all right, well, I guess we're going first, which I actually was kind of okay with, because you got to fight no matter what, so you might as well just fight as early as possible. Get it out of the way.

Yeah, be done at 2 a.m. Oh, man. Yeah, that's one thing about fighting back east there. It is late. Yeah, I didn't get out of the press conference to 1.30 last, you know, this last time. And it's, you know, it kind of just, you're not going to sleep anyway, but you'd rather at least be back at the hotel

or hanging out with your friends and family before. Well, that was a crazy fight. I mean, I think you landed, didn't you land a big uppercut on him? Which one was it was a big shot on him? Do you remember? Was it an uppercut? On Gichi?

Well, yeah, it was the flying knee. Oh, okay. Yeah. The flying knee that came up and then he kind of got rocked and I threw like three overhand rights in a road. There's just like chased him, chased him all the way across the octagon. Yes. You know, it was just, it was good.

I mean, one of those fights where you're just like, I lost, but I didn't really lose. Yeah. You know? No, you put on a show. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's, there's something. to being a prize fighter, right? I mean, of course, you're fighting for the prize,

but also you're putting on a show. Yeah. And you guys did for sure. That's fine. So next question. Let's see. Well, oh, this is about weight cutting. We talked about this.

Do you feel that weight cutting should go away? What would make the sport more fair regarding PEDs? So a two-part question. Yeah, I mean, we had a lot of talks today on the drives and on this. I know. I know. When I wasn't going, when I wasn't, you know, breathing, trying to breathe my last breaths on the middle of the,

when we were able to actually have conversations. We were talking about some weight cutting. And I did say weight, weight cutting is the hardest part and the most unfortunate part and the worst part about the sport. I mean, if I just had to train and I just had to do the workouts and I just had to, you know, just be disciplined. It kind of disciplined without the last 10 or 15 pounds.

Yeah, it would be great. Or the unhealthy part almost? Well, yeah, it's the suffering. you know, emotionally, but also the biggest thing is just the long-term effects of, you know, dehydrating yourself or whatnot. But as far as it actually going away, I don't think you're ever going to see it go away. You know, even if, you know, we talked about how one championship does their weight cutting. It's, you know, a 155 pound weight class. All you have to make is 170 as long as you pass the hydration test. Right. And eventually you're going to have guys who

are way too big for 155. They're pushing it either way. They're going to push it. They're going to keep coming and they're going to do it. But I do like the high. hydration test thing, you know, where you get a maybe a 10 pound allowance and as long as you make that hydration test, the problem is it's, you know, these old habits die hard, if you will. And in life, in general, in sport, it takes a long time for these things to change. And, you know, unfortunately, until we see, you know, probably some really bad, some people falling out or people even, God forbid, dying because of it, you know, like it's, it's going to, nothing's really going to change and you know ultimately the older I get as I've said I want to fight my next

fight at once in a one something I want to fight Connor 170 he's big enough to fight 1170 I would love yeah well you yeah the uh I think that image of people jogging with like the trash can yeah or the what is the trash bag liner yeah so they're sweating that's like that's like part of the sport almost yeah and it's and and to an extent it's uh to an extent it's healthy like I mean it's it's fine as long as you don't over do right you know I mean the drying out your organs. Yeah, because the idea also, too, is it's like, okay, hey, I only have so much energy to put in during this one hour workout.

I want to put on a pair of plastics or a sauna suit, trash bag, whatever you want to call it, to get my sweat going faster. It's not to go extreme to the extreme extreme, it's just to get it going faster because there's nothing worse than working out for 20, 30 minutes and you're like, holy come, not even sweating. Right. It's going to get it going. Because it's just like anything, it's similar to a.

runners high, right? You've had that runners high. You get that sweaters high, if you will. Yeah. Oh, I'm sweating. Yeah. Yeah. Putting in work. It's going to come off tonight and it's going to, this is going to be an easier one of ease. Yeah. It's a measurable. That reward. Yeah. That's good. And as far as PEDs goes, I mean, at some point, what else can you do besides be governed by Usada? I mean, I think you made a couple good points about not certain whether IV should be regulated like that or you know i mean if everybody's eating the same iv to hydrate and then also maybe stem cells you know i mean if there's a difference between performance enhancing and recovery enhancing yeah right well yeah and and to we are governed by you said i actually just uh i have it on my phone the app

where usada knows i'm right here in springfield organ okay so like they they know they can show up here and pop in and pop in and test me whatever so in order i mean i don't know what else you could do there but it is a little bit overarching here and there, you know, and even, you know, even me just having a second guess things. Like, you know, they're supplements here that aren't, are NSF certified. So I'm like, well, I'm not going to drink. No. When 99.9% chance, it's 100% fine and it's clean. Yeah. You know, so that's unfortunate. But then, you know, the things like IVs, why wouldn't we be able to use IVs? Why wouldn't we be able to use stem cells or some of these other things that are not performance enhancing?

You know, there's a bucket of things you should not be using. Steroids, testosterone, HGH, of course. No one's going to argue that. No one's not argue that. But there's so many things that you could do for the human body while you're already putting it through these crazy amounts of what we're doing to be able to just live longer so I can go play soccer with my kids in the front yard when I'm done fighting, you know?

I think it needs to be discussed for sure. Yeah. We talked about this. What's Chandler's walking around wait when he's not fighting? Yeah. So I think it changes here and there, but for the most part, I mean, I easily get up above 180 no matter what. You know, depending on, you know, after this last fight, as I said, I kind of banged up my foot ankle a little bit and banged on my hand. So, you know, as I was saying, those are really just excuses for why I haven't worked out.

But to be honest, I haven't worked out a ton holidays and just want to, you know, we talked about this too. You go into robot mode for two, three months training for a fight. You kind of just want to throw it all the way. Turn it off. Let me just turn it off. Let me feel a little bit lazy for a second. Let me, let me. Yeah, let me feel what it feels like to eat the crap, drink the crap, not work out.

And then all of a sudden you're like, okay, now I know what it feels like. Now I want to get back to being healthy again, right? Back on the grind. I'm kind of, I've been going through that the last, you know, six weeks or so. So I'm about 185-ish right now. Okay. You know, I touched up to 188, 190 here and there. But I'm kind of getting back into it now, so I'm about 185.

Yeah. And you mentioned you try to get maybe 10 off before you start the true camp, and then you just got 20 to work with in your 10-week camp or what is it? Yeah, I usually do about a 12-week camp, but the first four weeks is kind of don't go crazy into it. But the first four weeks is starting to clean up the diet, really starting to dial in the training. Yeah.

And then that's when it starts coming off a little bit as far as the weight goes. And then that last eight weeks is balls to the wall training, obviously. and then also meal prep, calorie restricted diet and all that stuff. All part of the process. Yeah, and then that last 10, 15, 12 pounds is dehydration. Yeah, the fun stuff. The fun stuff. So is a cam workout equivalent to an MMA workout?

It's a great question. They are, I mean, obviously they're different, you know, but I think that's the beautiful thing about working out. You can take any modality. you could take jumping rope, which seems pretty easy. You could take whatever. And you can go to the extreme and it could go till exhaustion, go till it breaks you, go till your calves fall off, right?

So that's a beautiful thing. I mean, obviously, yes, I saw Jesus about three times today on a going up, Piscka. You know, I, so, I mean, I always push myself in my MMA training. This was different. And it's not something that I do a ton. I'm not a big time runner. Not to mention, you know, running. with you and running up Piscay or Spencer Bute.

These are awesome things to do. But they definitely took me to a place. I knew I was going to end up going, but I didn't really want to go there, but I was kind of excited to go there. But the one thing that was cool too, and this is kind of just an overarching theme in life, and it kind of hit me today. I was like, I was doing really well, and I was following behind you, and I know you were going at a pace that was probably friendly for me.

But I was at least, you know, I was watching your feet move, and I was watching my food moving. I was like, okay, his feet are just going to keep moving. My feet are just going to keep moving. And then all of a sudden I took a break. And I realized after that, when I took a break and I stopped for a second, or at least started walking, making whatever excuses we make as human beings, after that, my body basically started taking more breaks without my permission. The first one, I was like, I'm going to take a break. And then after that, there was like two or three more times where my body just slowed down and like started walking. I'm like, I didn't try to do this. It's just happened. So the moral of the story is keep on going. Keep on hammering.

Well, you did great. I mean, I don't know how you felt, but I mean, you did great. You got your body. You got your body up there. Yeah, I got up there. Jumped up on the monument. So that was cool. That was cool. Well, that was the thing too. That was the, that was the dangling carrot. I'm like, I got to jump on this monument. I know. I got to jump on this monument. And you did it. And we did it a couple times too. It actually didn't happen unless we jump on the monument. I got to jump on the monument. And it didn't happen unless there was a picture or video of that. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah, you did awesome, though. Here's a good one, and I don't know how this will be able to throw it out there, but what do you consider the moment that shaped your mentality as an athlete? Great question. There was a couple different catalysts, and I could just go over maybe at least two real quick. The first one, I was a walk-on at the University of Missouri. I was the hardest worker in the room. coach's favorite wrestler, team captain.

I did every single thing right. God blessed me with some amazing abilities. I could have been a multiple time All-American. I could have been maybe even a national champion. Who knows? But I didn't get myself permission to win. I didn't get myself permission to be the best because between my ears,

I didn't think that I truly deserved it. I would tell the media. I would tell the coaches. I would tell you. I'm going to be a national champion. I want to be an All-American, but I didn't truly believe it. I had this cognitive dissonance of my actual belief,

not matching up with the reality of what I actually believed or what I actually said I wanted to happen. I get done, I take fifth as a senior and we're at the Sabbath Center in St. Louis and I walk back to the back and I take my singlet off. You know, everybody knows what a wrestling single. It's kind of got the two straps. I would take it off.

And in that moment, this weight lifted off me. And I thought, holy cow. In this moment was when I realized I underperformed so badly over these last five years because I didn't truly believe that I could have been successful that I should have been an All-American. Yeah.

And in that moment, I made a promise myself, okay, Michael, you know you're going to move into mixed martial arts. Don't let that happen again. You know, you know what it feels like to fall short and it be over and have that regret. Right. You know, so that was kind of the first catalyst. And then the second catalyst was a couple years later,

I got shot out of a can in the mixed martial arts. I ended up becoming 12 and 0 with like nine first round finishes. I'm ranked number five in the world or something like that. And then I lost that first fight to Eddie Alvarez. I wasn't ready to lose at all. I was not built up enough in my mind to lose.

Then I lost to Will Brooks. Will Brooks again, I went 688 days without winning a fight. And in that three-light fight-loss streak, almost two years of losing, I didn't, I made, I had to make some big-time decisions between what was going on between my years because I was building up my body and I was doing all the work.

And I was just building up a bigger, faster, stronger subpar version of me really because I didn't truly believe it. So I really started taking ownership of my mindset. So it was kind of those two things realizing how badly I underperformed in college. And it was mainly just mental. I didn't underwork. I didn't under train. I didn't under put the reps in.

I just underbelieved. And it's been a recurring theme in my life and I've seen it all over the place. and it's not necessarily people's fault because of the things that they've been through but they can get better at it. Yeah, no, that's great points. I mean, and I think just verbalizing that, I think people do that and they don't realize it.

But I think, you know, you look yourself in the mirror and you can say the right things, but if you don't believe it, it's going to be tough. I mean, there's that saying that man's greatest regret is unfulfilled potential is when you get to the end of this journey and you're laying there, or just like your time with taking your singlet off

and you're like that sobering thought of, did I give all that truly give all I have? Yeah. Or did I say I was? Well, yeah. And nobody knows. Only you know. Yeah.

Well, and the unfortunate thing too was I deserved, based on the work ethic and based on, if coach said run through that wall, I would have done it. And I would have left everybody in the dust. I was the prototypical, just pupil,

the guy, the guy who deserved it. He did everything. why wouldn't I deserve to believe that I, you know, it's just the mindset part of things and the falling short based on your self-image is, it's such a tough thing to get over, but it can be, it can be conquered. Did your coaches tell you you were the best? They did. They did. They told, they, they did, and they believed in me more than I believed to me.

My training, you know, I've been talked a lot about my past two with, like Tyron Woodley I wrestled with, who ended up becoming a UFC champion. And who ended up becoming mixed martial arts fighter as well and multiple time world champion. Those were like my big brothers and they were like, Michael, you can do this. And I'm like, oh yeah, for sure, for sure. But in my mind, it's like, no, you can't, dude. You can't. What do you think you are, dude? You're a little guy from a little town who was taught to do little things.

And I'm still battling that guy. And it's okay for me to continue to battle him and never slay him. It's like I worked with a mindset coach named Jim Hensel and he said, you know, sometimes we slay a dragon and sometimes we just get really good at pushing them into a corner. Yeah. Wow. And that makes sense. Yeah.

And it's okay to just push them into a corner and never slam because you also need to rely on continuing to get better and also rely on God. John Gordon said that to me one day. I said, you know, because we were talking and I said, yeah, I just can't wait. I would love to just get rid of this little guy from a little town. And he's like, but if you did, what would you need God for? Yeah. Right.

I'm like, it's true. Sometimes we just, we need these things in our lives to get. continue to trust and to continue to have faith, you know? Yeah, no, that's true. And I mean, I think you've done a good job of almost embracing it now because you got walk on on your sweatshirt. That's almost like challenging that, yeah, I did come up. I was a walk on.

Yeah. And here I am. But still, we're still humans. We still have insecurities and we still have doubts. And no matter what we say or how we act, we know we're battling with this. I think you verbalizing that, I mean, because people would look at you and think that you're bulletproof. For sure. I mean, they would, and they'd say, oh, my God, why can't I be more like that guy?

So to hear that you're like us, you just overcome it and fight it and not really embrace it, but just acknowledge that it's there. I think that's pretty powerful. Well, it is because when I think that I realized that a while ago, too, is that this is such a big part of my platform because it's so. such a common threat and it's a common problem and it does it does it does uh lend itself to the to the masses everybody has something that they need to work on or everybody everybody has these doubts and fears and insecurities and to have those to have those things is to be human you know we are prone to wander and there and there's different seasons in life there's seasons where you will feel bulletproof and everything is firing on all cylinders and you have your breakthroughs and everything is going great

then all of a sudden a couple things happen and all of a sudden you're down in the dump and you're down in the dumps and you need to be pulled out of it. You have to reach back and remember those things that you learned. Remember those practices that you had. Remember those things that you did for me? What did I do in those 688 days? What did I do during this time of my life? What did I do?

How did I feel in that greatest moment of regret when I was taking those straps of the singlet down? Yeah. And you look back at your life and the mental highlight reel and the chapters of your story to continue to remind yourself that you can continue to get better and continue to grow. Right. You've done it before. You can do it again. Yeah.

Type thing. Yeah. It's no different with bow hunting. It's been, sometimes I'll be on a good run. I'll be successful. And one tough hunt, and I'm like, how have I ever even killed anything with a bow? I mean, I'm not even good. And it's so funny. The average bow hunter would be like, wait, what, Cameron Haynes thinks that? Yeah. That thought has actually gone through his mind. But it's something so beautiful because I would never think that you would ever think that either. Just like other people would never think that I think maybe I don't think I'm that

that I'm that I fight in a cage for a living, but I still want to go home and like curl up in a ball in a fetal position and have my wife hold me sometimes, right? It's just like, do you have these moments? You're a human being. We are prone to wander. And that's it's a beautiful thing, but also accepting that. And also even you verbalizing that you actually have that, those kind of thoughts, even with your experience and with your massive amount of success makes you human.

Yeah, and I think people will say, well, how can they over, how I've overcome it. So it's like, it doesn't seem fair because you can have years of success and everything's working like it's supposed to. One failure and you're questioning everything. So then how to me, however come that is I just like, I got to get back to work. And when you, when I'm back at work, putting the reps, putting the miles, shooting the arrows. I'm like, this is all I can do. All I can do is put in work, get better, overcome, whatever happened.

And so that makes me feel better. Yeah. Just that I'm out punching that time clock. Quitting doesn't help anything. No, for sure. That's what, and even just getting back on the horse, you know, like we've heard of a thousand times, getting back on the horse, you know. Getting back to doing what you're doing.

And almost just you can't move past something unless you continue to engage in that. and then find your next success. I mean, that's the, that was the great thing about wrestling. If I lost a wrestling match on Wednesday, I'm most likely going to, I can get back in a win column on Saturday. Right. The problem with fighting is I might lose in January,

not fighting until May, June. You don't have a win until then. So similar to that, it's like, hey, well, I can go climb that mountain. I can go shoot 60 arrows right now. And 58 of them are going to be right where I wanted to be, and that's a very great success. And then you get back in the wind column. And that's, I think we underestimate just getting back on the horse

and just giving yourself, giving yourself the opportunity to win again will make you all this. You'd be very surprised how quickly you can figure about that loss. I think it's important too that it seems like wins, it's hard to keep track of big wins and little wins.

Like a win, a UFC belt is a huge win, but also winning the day in the gym almost feels like it's still in that win column. Yeah. Yeah, maybe it's not quite as a heavy line as a UFC champion, like that really thick like win. Yeah.

When, or a mark in the wind column, but it's still a win. And it still feels good and it's still something to build on. And it's like, as long as we can have, even with a little wind that gets, you start stacking those up. And then the ship starts to turn a little bit. And now all of a sudden you got more momentum going down the right direction. Yeah. That's what Drew Breeze always said. Every day was like, just win the day.

Just win the day. If I win today and I put it together with tomorrow and then five days after that, and then we got a week and you put it together 30 days in the month. And very simple, too, when you think about getting back in the wind column, okay, I had a bad day, what can I do tomorrow? If I can get back in the wind column and even just making a easy-to-do list for yourself of things that you know you can check off is a win. Because part of the reason why we fail sometimes is can we really trust ourselves. You might be slacking in this area. You might be slacking in that area. You might cut a corner over here.

Right. If you can't trust yourself in the small things, God's word said, the Bible says, he who can be trusted he can't be trusted with the big things until you can be trusted with the small things right and it's like well can I trust you to show up on time can I trust you to show up and do this have your hair

done not like like a you know these small little these small little wins that you can have just by and then those things stack up that turns into a big way I love it well that was a great Q&A for

we're wrapping up our lift run shoot day. This isn't even the official podcast. This is a little bonus. But thank you. Let's go eat some elk. How about that? Yes, I can't wait. Thank you. All right. Thanks. Keep hammering.