FULL SEND PODCAST - Georges St-Pierre x Nelk Boys | Ep. 84

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

Presented by Happy Dad Hard Seltzer. Find Happy Dad near you http://happydad.com/find (21+ only). Video is available on http://youtube.com/fullsendpodcast/videos. Follow Nelk Boys on Instagram http://instagram.com/nelkboys. Part of the Shots Podcast Network (shots.com). You can listen to the audio version of this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & anywhere you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When are you flying back? Tonight we actually have to fly to Ohio. Oh, wow. Because we have another. So this is like our one channel where we do interviews. And then we have another YouTube channel that we do like lifestyle content. So recently, you'd probably know this one. We went to, we went to Russia to Dagestan.

No way. We visited where like Islam and them. Before Islam's last fight, we like went to where he was training. Wow. And we like trained with them for two days. And then we, you know, Hasbullah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we chilled with him in Dagestan.

But we went all the way to Russia. Oh, wow. So that's like our other channel where we do like crazy shit like that. So tomorrow we're flying to Ohio or today we're flying to Ohio and we're going to spend two days with Amish people. Wow, wow. Are we hot? Yeah, we're hot. Oh, do you know the Amish people?

Do you know who they are? The Amish is like where they... The religion? Yeah, where they don't know electricity. Oh, I see. No technology. But they live in like in the like what? what year they live, like, like, in the 16th?

They kind of like, it's like, kind of like pilgrims. Okay, okay, like 16, hundreds. Yeah, but they're like living like that in 2023. Yeah. No TVs, none of that. I went to Africa once, and I visited the Maasai. I mean, yeah, but some of these people, they don't want to, they don't want to have nothing to do with the world, you know?

Like, they just want to live the way they live and they're happy the way they are. I mean. When did you do that? They did that a few years ago. Yeah. What was that like? it was incredible. I did a few trips there. I went to visit the Maasai because I was curious. I, you know, everybody says that, oh, if you, if you live like Antargetter, it's

healthier. But how come they have a longer, a shorter lifespan? You know, if you look statistically, they have their longevity or statistically are shorter than us. But I didn't realize that, but it's because of the the rate of the baby that dies, the newborn baby that dies, they have a very high rate of death when the kids are young. And it's true, I never thought of it. So that affects the overall number.

Yeah, because us we have like, for example, when I was young, I had a condition. I made a, you know, when a baby has a fever, I had to go to hospital and they put me in a coma, like artificial coma. Otherwise, I would have died if I would not have that technology. But over there, if you have something like this, you got fever or something, you're done, you know. So what did you learn from the Messiah that you took back with you?

Oh, my God. They are like 99% carnivore. They eat once a day. And they're very beautiful people. Like they're old people of like 70 and plus are much, they look much better than ours. like this this is something i can tell you for sure i mean they might have a higher rate of birth when they're babies but when they're past a certain age they're much much healthier they look much more healthier than our than our people yeah it's crazy yeah no we just want

to say this is a legendary episode for us i told you i remember you remember we met in miami right i want to tell the audience so uh yeah we're in miami it was uh izzie versus perere that fight weekend And then I was out to dinner with Dana and like the mayor and David Grutman. And then I don't, I meet a lot of people too. Like you guys know, we've had Trump on here. We got Elon Musk. But when I saw George walk in, I had never met him before. And like, I grew up watching your fights.

Like I've been watching UFC for so long. So you're someone that like really, even though I wasn't into fighting myself, like just your whole career, you really like inspired me to want to like kind of be something as well. So to have you on, it's fucking. It's awesome. Appreciate it. In Montreal. Yeah, absolute legend.

At TriStar Gym. Yeah, that's right. That's fucking cool. Thank you for having me on, man. I'm happy to be here. What's your daily life like now here? Like, are you living in Montreal mostly? I'm more busy now than I used to be when I was competing because when you compete, it's a very

selfish life. It's all about you, you, you. And now I have so much stuff going on. I have different businesses and I travel a lot. I'm going to Europe tomorrow. And I feel like a globe trotter sometimes, you know, like I travel so much. So, but it's fun, you know, I like to stay busy, you know, I don't want to, I always want to be busy. I always fix my goal very high, you know, because if you're satisfying life and you sit down,

I feel, I feel like it's not the way to do it, you know, that's when you start to get sick. So I will probably never retire, sort of, you know. I like to train, but I like to stay busy to be more like an entrepreneur. how often you still like training even just like casually i tried to train every day like now i just we're talking now but i just finished a training now before you before you guys arrive i was training with some of the young uh guys that are actually going to fight soon and they give me a hard time i mean i i i try to look the best i can but man i'm 41 soon 42 may 19 and uh yeah it it gets harder and harder. You don't recuperate as well. Does it or do you still give them the beats in there

when you're scoring. I still get it. You know, I still get it. I, I, you know, I was well champion, you know, but it's just that sometimes I feel like I'm more sore. Or if I do something like a very hard training, the next morning I wake up, I'm like, damn, I'm like, I didn't feel like that before, you know, or some little injuries that happened that didn't that happen when I was younger. Yeah. Is there like a, when you retire from UFC or from MMA, is there like a sort of relief mentally that you have? Oh, absolutely. I, I never liked to fight. I, people, sometimes they don't believe me when I say this, but that's the truth. I never liked it. I never enjoyed it. I did it because I wanted to use that to propel myself where I wanted to be in life. I wanted to have the freedom. I was, I feel like I was just very lucky. and fortunate to found what I was good at and I exploited it and I work really hard. I love to train.

I love martial art. I love the science of it. To come here with the camaraderie of my friend, I love that lifestyle. It gives me confidence. But to not to compete and not knowing if I will be hurt, humiliated or, you know, winning the fight, for me, it's unbearable. It is very hard. And that's what I didn't like about that lifestyle.

That's interesting. So when did you decide, like, in your life, when did you decide, hey, I want to be a fighter. I want to take this serious. And it sounds like it was for, like, a financial freedom. Yeah. I didn't, when I was young, I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I remember when I was a kid, like, I was a very young kid. I was like maybe 12 years old, 11 years old.

Like the teacher was asking everybody in the class, what do you want to do when you get older. And some were like, oh, I want to be an engineer, whatever, a doctor or whatever. And when they came to me, I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And I said, I wanted to be a WUWE wrestler because I was a fan of Hulk Hogan. Because MMA did not exist at the time when I was that young. It happened after. And everybody started laughing. Like, they were all laughing. And obviously I'm not, I don't have the, the physique to be a WUWE wrestler. Now it changed. Now it's different than it used to be, but they used to be only like big, huge guys, you know.

So I didn't have the physique to become one of them. But when I saw the first UFC, when Royce Gracie won the first UFC, that's when I knew. Like, I was like, that's what I want to do, you know, like, that's, I see myself in this, you know. And I was, I was at school at the time. I don't know what I wanted to do. I try many different things. I was studying in aeronautic, you know, like an airplane to repair airplane. Then the tower felt the industry crash.

And I changed. I went to become a fireman. I was accepted. I did all the physical. I was accepted at school. But I received a letter from the fireman school saying, oh, we can accept you. However, you don't, you're not going to have the standard of the city to work because you have a, I can't remember which of my vertebrae is off by some millimeter.

And now I'm thinking about it. I'm like, no, I can be world champion in mixed martial art, but I cannot become a fireman. It's kind of stupid. But, you know, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was at school studying, but I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And at the time when I started mixed martial art, it was not something that you could do and make a living. Right.

You know, like everybody was broke. But I always have faith that at one point, the sport could grow to a certain level that you can make it. And I was like, I worked really hard and it happened. What was your first, like, I guess, because you were in leagues before the UFC, right? Like MMA leagues where you were like fighting for money. Yeah.

Do you remember what your first like, oh yeah, that was insane. Paycheck was? So I saw you guys had to put like brand deals like on your back, painted on your back, right? Yeah. To get like extra ad revenue for it. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So my my first fight, I remember at the, I was, I wanted to go to a kinesiology in university in kinesiology.

But I needed to have the money to pay for the school book. It costs money. So I needed to, with an apartment because it was in Montreal and I'm from the countryside. So I told myself, I said, I'm going to work for like a year to gain money. And when I get the money, I'm going to go to university. And I'm still training in the meantime. And if an opportunity happened, I will, you know, fight and, you know, make some money on the side. So I was at that time of my life that I was a garbage, a garbage man.

And I was also working in a nightclub as a security guard, Dora Dorman. So Monday to Thursday, I was working for a company Garbageman. And during the weekend, I was working in a security of nightclub. It was a terrible job. It was like hip-hop, hip-hop club. It was a lot of battles. Do you ever have to fight, like, as a security in the club? Not really.

I thought of not really a fight. It was very short. Yeah, I used a lot of time I was using, you know, my, you know, talking. I was talking my way out of a problem. You know, I was like telling a guy I was, a lot of guys I was working with were like big guys on steroids. Like they had like right, right. Sometimes it was insane. They fought even if they didn't have to.

So I hated that job. But at that time, I had no choice to do it. And I had my first fight. And I remember every fight, I didn't make much money. And my first fight, I made a thousand, three hundred dollars. I fought in TKO, and it used to be UCC. Yeah. I had like five or six fights in UCC.

Then I got recruited to fight in the UFC. And weren't at that time, were you, like, traveling from here to New York to train? Yes. Every day? Not every day. I was going, I tried to go every month. also like uh or every two month i uh i was going in like a week a week at the time and uh i used to drive

a i remember a old ford tempo and it was so bad there was an hole in the in the ground and people made fun of me they say i was like the flintstone you know like like running with i didn't know if it was going to make it you know it was that it was bad it was a old car but i was very lucky i I made it. I learned English. I've learned it at school before, but I was in the French environment. So it helps me. Traveling to U.S. helps me a lot with my English. So, yeah, it was a good experience, too. And then how did the UFC, like, how did you get into that? Well, I, how were you approached? The way it happened is there was a guy, his name was Pete Spratt. He was a fighter, a very good striker.

And at the time, Pete Spratt beat Robbie Lawler, who became later champion of this. the UFC. He beat him, he beat him by, with leg kicks. He stopped, he made him stop the fight with leg kick. And he was very fair, a very, very powerful striker. And my manager at the time brought Pete Spratt to fight me in TKO. And Pete Spratt didn't know who I was. I wasn't nobody at that time. And he probably thought that he was coming to collect an easy paycheck. And I beat piece brat. I beat him with a rear-knick at choke. I cut Adaka, Jimmy. And that was my ticket for the UFC. So that's how it happened. It was a good move by my agent at the time. That's crazy. Yeah. It's interesting with you because, dude, like, you're so calm and collected.

You don't seem like, I feel like if you're going to go into UFC, like there's got to be something that sparks some anger, but you seem so calm. So. Well, there's different schools of thought, right? There's like the Connor McGregor mentality, like, love me, hate me, but don't ignore me. You know, like, MoMA Daly used to be like that too. And, you know, English was never my first language. So I always knew that if I would try to get into an argument with someone, with a guy that speak English better than me, at first, it's not my first language. I'm not going to win that battle.

So I choose my battle carefully. And on top of that, I'm just not good at it. I just stay authentic to who I am and I try to be a good, good role model. Yeah. But that doesn't mean I don't, you know, I like to, you know, to enjoy my life, have a drink and I, you know, to live the life, you know. Do you think being like quieter and calmer affected you, like people looked at you as weaker, like it affected like? Maybe they, I don't think they saw me weaker than I am. I just think that I knew that a lot of guys that I fought,

they tried to get under my skin knowing that what I believe is they knew that they could not beat me if I fought the perfect fight. They needed me to do a mistake. So in order to make me do that mistake, they wanted to get under my skin and make me fight emotionally, which is a bad, a bad thing to do in mixed martial art. example of that. I believe Connor McGregor did that to Jose Aldo. Yeah. When he first, the first time he won the title, he got under Jose Aldo's skin so much that

Jose Aldo lost his mind. He threw all his probably, I probably think he threw his strategy out of the window when he went straight at Connor McGregor. And Conner McGregor is an very, is an excellent counter puncher. And he hits very hard. So he slipped the punch and knock him out. And I think in like five seconds. Yeah. Yeah. That was a perfect example of someone that loses, loses, is chill. What do you think when you see that?

Because I remember Connor was talking about like the favelas, like just, like, does that, do you think like this guy's disrespectful or do you kind of see what he's doing? That's the nature of the sport, you know, like it's a very egotistic sport and environment that would gravitate them. And we're not on a dance floor, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's, it's fighting. And when you fight someone is the art of war, you'll do everything you can because you can say,

I play basketball, I play baseball, but you don't play fighting. So the outcome of the fight could have a profound effect on your well-being. You know, you might die. Maybe you're not going to die in the octagon or in the cage, but the damage that I'm going to give you will make you die younger than you would normally. And it has a huge effect on your health, your income, so every fight is so important. And that's why there's a lot of mind game into this. Yeah. When you joined the UFC, too, you were at like, your whole career was like,

it was a pivotal moment for the UFC, right? Like, it's crazy how far it's come. And even when you retired, like, did you know is going to be as big as it was when you first joined? I didn't have any certainty, but I had faith that it could become very big. And I'm going to, I'm going to tell you why. if you're if you take whatever what's the most popular sport in u.s it's american football or in the world it's it's soccer right football if you're in a in watching a match you're in among the

crowd watching a match and there's a fight that breaks out you will stop watching the match and you will watch the fight why is that because we can all identify herself to fighting. I can take the nicest person in the well, put him in a situation where he's going to have no choice to fight. Maybe he's not going to be competent at it, but he's going to have to do it either to defend himself or to defend someone that he loves. So I think for that reason, we all identify to this, you know, so I knew that it would become very popular and it did. You know, so I, I, I, And I didn't have any certainty, but I knew that it was something that everybody can relate to.

It's not a form of entertainment that is made for everybody, of course, because it's very violent. But it's something that everybody in some kind of way can understand. It's not a game. It's more than a game. It's a sport, but it's about survival. It's a very primal fight. And it used to be in ancient Greek, Greece, it was called pancreation. it used to be the most popular sport at the time.

So we just kind of relearned it. Whenever people say, oh, it's a new sport. It's not a new sport. It's a very old sport that we kind of rediscover. When you first joined the UFC, did you absolutely love it? Or were there some things you wish you could have changed? No, I love the sport. I love the training.

But I always was terrified before every fight. And I don't like that feeling. It makes you very uncomfortable. It's very, very stressful. For me, I'm kind of like, yeah, I had some injuries through my career, but the stress is really what takes the most out of me. You know what I mean?

How did you push through that every fight then? Because it's such a big stage. Oh, man, it's terrible. And you need to learn how to control your fear. And I remember at the beginning of my career, I was terrified before every fight. And you know, there's a lot of people watching you. You're not, I can speak for myself.

I was not so much afraid of getting hurt, even though I knew it was a possibility. I was afraid to be humiliated. My ego was, my ego in the same time, it's something that is bad, but it's something that is good because it made me the fighter that I was. And it pushed me to, you know, to, to,

through my fear. So being afraid, I realized, because in the beginning I was so terrified that I thought, oh, later when I'll have more experience, I'm not going to have that much fear. But I realized through time that every fight is bigger than the last one. So you're more afraid. Every fight is bigger and you have more to lose because you have more people to watch. So I realize how to control it better. How so?

Being afraid and being confident. Being afraid is means, it doesn't mean you're not confident. You can be very confident, but being afraid as well. People sometimes they make a mistake. So the way I controlled it is I try to focus. I try to be very objective and not subjective. I try to focus only on the thing that I control. The thing that I do not have controls such as,

Am I going to win or lose? What people are going to think about me, what my opponent is doing right now, and things like that, I do not control. So I don't focus on that at all. I try to ignore it completely. The thing that I control, how hard I get, how hard I train, you know, am I doing the right thing? Did I study my opponent?

Do I know myself? What are my strength? What is my strategy? these are the thing I need to control. The thing that I need to do to win the fight, and it could vary depending on who I'm fighting, but I need to find out. It's my duty to find out a way to solve the problem.

And those things need to be done at all costs. Me, myself, as an entity, I don't exist. The way I feel, am I afraid, am I sick? This, it doesn't matter. But I need to only focus on the thing that need to be done. And if I do that, I will slope the odds in my favor. So the outcome will take care of itself.

On the flip side of that, when you are victorious or you get the dub, your emotions completely change? Yes. Is that super temporary or does it stick with you? When you win a fight, it's just incredible. They, there is, it's a relief. It's, it's, it's, there is no pleasure without pain, they say in philosophy. And it's kind of true.

It's like you need to push yourself through pain in order to have the pleasure. You know what I mean? It's very hard. Like in everything, like if you like to eat, you know, like I remember when I fast, I do fasting sometimes. When I fast for three days, I'm at the, and I am at the table eating with my friend, breaking my fast. And we all eat the same thing.

I'm telling them, I'm like, my meal tastes better than all of yours because I fast for three days. The same thing in fighting for you you you have you did so much sacrifice for your training camp. You sacrifice so much time, freedom and you have to push yourself through training and, you know, and it's hard. And when you make it and you win, you achieve the win. When you when you lose, it's heartbreaking. But when you win, it's like, wow, because you have so much to lose. And I think that's why it's it's such a high, you know. Yeah. I mean, you had only two losses, I believe, right?

So walk us through that, like when you do take the loss. First, people don't know, but I have only two losses as a professional. But if you go back before, like I started my career when I was 19, if you go back before when I was doing amateur, karate, jihitsu, wrestling, I have tons of losses. I've lost many, many, many, many time. I've lost before I learn how to win. And that's how it is.

People, they only see me winning and all at a great career, but they don't know that what I had to go through, you know. And that's what makes the difference sometimes between someone who makes it with someone who doesn't. It's hard when you lost sometimes because you put so much on the line, you prepare yourself and then you lose. It's heartbreaking, you know, it's very hard because you feel like, man, it's depressing, you know, sometimes.

And when you dedicate yourself so much to this, but it happened to me many, many time when I was young. But every time I have lost, I've learned why I lost, I identify the mistake that I made, and I made sure that I never made the same mistake twice. I never made the same mistake again, which means that doesn't, which means I'm not going to lose again, but I'm not going to lose for the same mistake.

So you have to see your life, your career as a marathon, not as a sprint. It's not one thing that will define you, It was the sum of all the thing, you know, at the end. You know, it's not all you start. It's all you finish. For sure. And I was fortunate to have a lot of experience through martial art growing up

before my career, before my professional career started mixed martial art. And I learned I had many, many losses, but I've learned how to win and I improve during that time a lot. So when I got to my professional career, I had a lot of experience. experience. That's why I don't need two losses. But those losses that I had in my professional career always taught me something. I tried to see the positive and in the negative situation. Those losses, the first time I lost, it was against Matt Hughes. I was fighting my idol at the time. I was an up-and-comer. And it was my third fight in the UFC.

and I was fighting this legend, Matt Hughes. It was like, for me, through my eyes, if you look at the stairdowns against Matt Hughes in the beginning of the fight. You weren't even looking at him, right? I could not even look at him in the eyes. I was looking up. I was like, man, it's impossible.

I didn't even believe I could beat him. Like, I didn't see myself beating him. I couldn't sleep the night, the week before. There were no scenario in my head that I went through that I could beat him. I didn't know. So I took the fight. I was very, very scared. And I did a good fight, but he cut me with a number.

And it's after the fight when I watched the fight. I sat down and I watched the fight. I realized I was like, man, I could have beat him. And it taught me something. I should never put nobody on a pedestal. Everybody's a human being. We all need to drink, eat, go to the bathroom. We're all the same.

So he's a human being and I can beat him. So that's why when I fought him after the, the same thing, the second time and the third time, I beat him. And I beat him, not that beat him easy, but I beat him more decisively because I add confidence.

And confidence is very important in everything you do. You can have all the skills that you want, but if you don't have confidence, it's like someone who has a lot of money in his bank account, but no way of accessing it. So for the magic to happen, you need the skill and the confidence.

Yeah. What changed after the Matt Serra loss? Because I know I've seen you say that before you're like after that loss you changed up everything you changed up your style so so when i became champion i beat mat use i was on a on a high now now it was the opposite i had too much too much confidence i and had a lot of people telling me oh you're the i was a new kid on the black you know like i was very young i was like i just beat the legend matt euse and people everybody was telling me how good i am and i start to believe it unfortunately and i was

fighting a veteran, Matt Serra at the time, who really nobody really gave a chance to beat me because all the odds was against him, you know? And I remember the odds in Vegas were crazy. And I respected Matt Sarah, but I felt like I was not scared enough. And before every fight, I don't sleep very well. I have a hard time sleeping. And Matt Serra is the only fight that I slept well.

You slept like a baby? I slept like a baby and I got knocked out. So that's not a good thing. So the fight with Matt Serra taught me that I should never, never underestimate nobody. Because you're always at one mistake. No matter how good you are, how good people tell you what you are. You're always at one mistake to lose everything. And I've learned that.

Since then, every fight that I took, I was scared. And that fear helped me to perform better because I used that to be sharper, to increase my reaction time, to put more into my training, you know, because I was afraid to not be ready as much as I could, you know. The fear helped me to be more explosive, you know. So I like to be afraid. You know, I think now I learned to appreciate. it in a way that I know if I'm not afraid is something wrong, giving the experience that I had in the past, I need to be afraid.

That fear may make me stronger and help me perform better. A lot of guys, the fear crumbled them. Yeah. That's one thing about that champion, I believe, is someone who's good at an elite in every discipline, everything in life. a champion like an elite is good to perform when it matter you know

he's good when it counts you know everybody can be good in the gym but when it counts that's what matter to be good when it counts and a lot of guys they can't do that they can't pull the trigger when it when it counts because they're mental they're weak up here

and a lot of it has to do with your mental what do you think are some like whether it's training or your mental over the years that you had as like an edge over your opponents like was there anything you did specifically that's like yo this is going to help me win that yeah i i i've learned how to control my fear and and i learn also like we talk to focus only on the objective things and it helped me build my confidence confidence is it's something that you can build up. If I make an analogy and you're at school and you have an exam in a week and you don't study the night before the exam, you'll be afraid. It's normal, but you're not going to be

confident because you did not study. But if you study hard and well, the night before the exam, you will be afraid, but you have the right to be confident. And that's what I did. Before every fight, I didn't not cut corner. I did everything I needed to do. And I trained hard and most importantly, I trained smart. I did the best I could do. I leave no stone on turn.

So I gave myself the right to be confident. I was afraid. I was terrified, but I was confident. And I always told myself, there's no courage without fear. And I seek the help of a lot of sport psychologists. because I really thought I was looking around in the gym and a lot of fighters that were like happy to be to be fighting on Saturday night and me, that was not the case.

I was scared. If I could have clicked my finger like this and fast forward until the fight is over, I would have done it every time. The weighting was unbearable. So I remember I saw many sport psychologists because I thought I was not made for this. And they all told me a lot of them, they say, George, stop saying you're afraid. You're not afraid.

You're excited. I'm like, not excited. I'm excited if it's minus 20 degree in Montreal. And I know I'm going to Miami at the beach next week. I'm not excited to go fight in the cage, you know, not knowing if I will be hurt, humiliated, or the victor. I'm afraid.

And then I'm like, you know what? I should not be afraid to say that I'm afraid. And there is no courage without fear, you know? Nice. what was it like when you're at like the height of your career because you became like a superstar pretty much you know like how did the fame kind of change your life and like i'm sure there's temptations or like chicks or parties or like a lot of guys they they they told me oh if you say you say you're not you don't like to fight why why did you do it then while i did it because of

i wanted to have the freedom the girls the money access to things that most people don't I'm a hundred percent honest with you. That's why I did it. You know, I like the confidence that it gives me. I like the martial art changes my life. I was bully as a kid. And I first started martial art as a self-defense, self-defense transform into a passion. And now I made a living out of it, you know?

So it changes my life. And that's why I did it. I didn't do it because I like to beat up someone in front other people. I didn't, I don't like it. I, I, but in order to make money and to, That's the price to pay. And, you know, when you're a champion in UFC, you fight maybe two, three times a year.

So the days that I, the night that I'm fighting are the worst days of my life. You know, I hate it. But after when it's over, I can surf on it and I have a very good time, you know. So that's the way I sit. So if you make the statistic on 365 days in a year, three days or two, three days that are bad, it's like kind of a good thing you know it's a good good average do you remember one fight when you noticed like the fame really like rose i know that's a hard question but no no i i um during fights i i uh you know every fight is bigger than the last one you know and

but i remember in one of my fight i uh i was fighting i believe it was it was bjpen and i was in a locker room, I was extremely, extremely scared as usual. First or the second, there's two, right? I don't know if it was the first or I think it was the first one, if I believe, if I believe, I think it was the first. And I remember I saw in the, on the, we have a little TV and then in the locker room, and sometimes they show the celebrity and then who's in the, the attendance. And I saw Cindy Crawford and she, she used to be my favorite, like, oh my God, she's so

beautiful and still today she's like an amazing woman you know and i saw she was in the crowd i was like oh my god she's going to be watching me perform and i was nervous i was already nervous and during the fight there was a moment that i my nose is bloody and i got bjapan against the fans and i look through the fans and you know like when you watch a movie like rocky rocky you know they put slow motion and but these really happen when you're a fighter if you ask a fighter

because you fight you're on survival mode so sometimes you have the impression that from your perspective that the time slows down and it's what

you got a hand and then you look and you're like see Sydney over there what I mean is I add BJP against the fence and I look through the fence

and I saw Cindy Crawford this is true story and I'm thinking this as imagine the time that it lasts but that's my perception of how things happen I look and I saw

and I saw Cindy Crawford I'm like my gosh she's so beautiful and I'm thinking I'm like I look at her and I'm bloody and I'm in a clinch over and door and I got BJPens back

against the fence and I'm like she's so hot and then and then I look next to her she's with her husband and I'm like oh shit

her husband is watching me staring at his woman. I'm like, of course he does. I'm doing the show right now. And then I get back into the fight. That's amazing. That instant seems to me like it was like at least a good five, ten seconds. When I, when I watch the fight and I try to pinpoint when it happened, I can't really see. But it really, I have a memory that it happened. Or maybe I'm just to brain damage or something. But no, I think it really happened. Well, did that like give you that extra step or energy to take it, take him up and slain his ass or what? I wish, but it's just to tell you that sometimes our perception of certain moment change according to different individuals.

In a fight, sometimes there's, I remember one of the fight I fought Jason Miller. I'm on top of him, like, and Jason Miller is on the bottom. We're near the fence. I think we're in Afghanistan. I threw elbow, big elbows. And I, and his cornerman, I saw his cornerman. They're screaming at me. F you, French, go back in your country, French.

And then I look at them, F you, and then boom, boom. But for me, from my perception, that instant lasts at least five, five seconds, you know, at that moment. But when I tried to, I watch the time, I try to pinpoint. I can't, I think I know when it happened, but I can't really see it on camera. But it did, it really happened. I know I remember that moment. your opponent, I'd have Sidney Crawford in my quarter. You'd be distracted the whole time, bro.

Oh, yeah. Like, if you have Cindy Crawford in your corner, I'm lost. Like, that's a good way to beat me. Did you have a bunch after, like, a big win? Like, would you go celebrate or have a crazy night? Oh, yeah. Of course. I worked hard, but I play hard a lot. See, you're right. You said that before. I would have, I would have never guessed that. Listen, I, like, I try to have, I try to be a good role model to have a good image. which you definitely were yeah you know that that's what i stand for but that doesn't mean i live

like a monk monk i remember when i fought uh seeago alves uh that's that's one example and every fight was like that when i was younger like i fought siago alves we used to we used to go to an after party yeah and after the after party we used to go to to another after party and another after party and then we end up at it they used to have a pool party at the art rock hotel called rehab. People of my generation remember that because it was, it's a legendary party. So we used to end up all at rehab. And it's always funny because the guy that I thought, Alves was there too. So we were drunk as well, we see, we saw each other and we're like, hey, we start taking picture and people like, they just fought. How come they're a friend?

I mean, that's just the nature of the business. Yeah. I actually want to ask you about that. How important is that to leave it in the octagon? And what is it like when people like, Have you ever had an experience where someone doesn't clear the beef and they just hate you afterwards? Or is it always kind of like, hey, we're doing this for the same reason? Well, it happened that, you know, like guys have like really personal issue with each other. It's never been the case for me. I see it as a job. And to tell you the truth, I kind of love my opponent in a way that I don't hate my opponent.

And the reason is why if I hate my opponent, a little bit like if I hate myself because when I look at myself in the mirror, I'm a little bit similar to what I see, what I saw across the octagon because that person probably made a similar sacrifice than I did. He had a very similar life path than I have, very similar. So I can identify to him much more than I can identify to anybody else, you know. So for me, it's important that I respect that. You know, like we give it all. We go all in when we do

that. There will be only one winner and one loser. The winner takes all sort of, you know, like take all the fame, take all the credit and you know, and it suck. But I have to respect that. It takes a lot of courage. And I know a lot of guys have personal beef. And there's a guy that I thought

that I'm not, I mean, I have no grudge against them. But I know they could, I could not really be friends. It's a question of compatibility, you know. And some guys, I'm cool with them. Like Michael Bisping, last time I went to England, we had a lot, we had too much to drink, you know, we had a really good time. And, you know, like it's a guy that I fought.

And before we fought each other, it was a lot of trash. He was talking a lot of shit. Oh, a lot of shit. Yeah. And one of the best things that he did actually for leading up to that fight was, you know, a lot of the stuff are like promotional stuff. We do the press conference and things like that. But the best thing that he did, and he's a clever guy, we were in Toronto.

And after one of the press conference, we went back to the parking lot, to our cars. And our cars were in different locations. But to go to the parking lot, we had to go through the same spot. And when we did that press conference, we had a stair down. And we kind of, he kind of went. to touch me, so I had to push him, you know? So when we went in the parking lot after the press conference, he saw, I think he saw that TMZ was there. So he walked back to me in the parking lot. And he went face to face to me, he said, hey, keep your FN on you because next time you do

that, I'm going to, I'm going to smash you. I'm like, what? I was like, F, you keep your, keep your hand, you touch me first. So don't touch me if you don't want me to touch you. And then then this thing, like, and people separate us. It wasn't stage, but because it's real. Like, I didn't know, like, the way I felt when that happened, I was like, man, is he really want to fight with me? And so I was ready to fight if something happened. And I'm sure the same thing for him, but he did it in a promotional way to instigate me.

Yeah. But that was very smart because that went viral. It was crazy. So when you say that certain things, it's not stage, it's real, but it's, some of the fighter take it personal. I never did. When it's over, it's over. We shake in it.

It's over. But sometimes some guys, they take it personal. You said that one of the critiques or something that people did say negative was you, like, weren't, you didn't cause enough drama in your career. So do you think that that's, like, essential? There has to be that beef and people have to be yapping at each other in the press conferences? No, no, no, no. You don't have to. But most of the fight are promoted on emotion.

because people can relate to emotion. If two guys fight each other, like, for example, like two guys fight each other, they're very, very skilled, but you don't know about them. If you're a fan of, for example, of MMA or boxing, and you see two very skilled guys fighting each other that will get your interest to watch the fight. But if you don't know who's who,

what will get you tune in is the fact that, oh, he talks about my wife, I can't believe it. You know, he said this. You know, you can't say that. You know, you never talk about someone as well. Like something, then you can relate to that. Then you can say, now because it gets to you, because you can relate to that thing.

So you will be emotionally involved into the fight. The storyline, it's important that it has a story. So the story is what promote the fight. But the fight is not one on emotion. It's one on mundane thing that you do every day. How are you preparing? yourself. Do you think, or have you ever seen anybody like cross the line like when they did say something that you were just like, whoa, that's not promotion anymore? A lot of guys, I think,

crossed the line in a way, but there's no rules. So, so for example, for me, I'm very good at putting a shield on myself. And I believe I've learned that because I was victim of bullying at school and I've learned that at a very young age and it was dramatic when I was young was a very negative experience but it helped me later on in my career in the MMA because nobody can get to me here I'm they can talk shit as much I want it's easy but if someone would for example talk shit about someone of my family or someone that I love how it's different it will get to me that's why I never expose my family I never talk about it never like I, it's nobody knows about it.

It's the greatest thing I ever accomplished in my life. And I'm the most part, but it's a secret. This is something I, I care about. It's like my treasure. I keep it for myself because I know a lot of people have exposed them. And look what happens sometimes when they talk about others, other guys' family. Now it gets bad. It gets bad.

I think it crossed the line. But there's no rules. It's a fight game. You can die out there. So people will do anything to get to you. I'm obviously, like I always think everybody thinks about McGregor-Kabee when it comes to that. Absolutely, absolutely. You know what I mean?

But that's the problem. You don't want to expose your weakness. This is the fight game. You never want to expose your weakness. There's many ways to make you lose your mind, you know? Like they will, some guys that will do everything to make you lose your mind. They will cross that line, you know? And I'm aware of it.

I'm aware of it. That's smart. Yeah, there's some people, you know, like they, they, everybody's different. And there's no wrong to do this. You know, some people like to, they, they show their private life and stuff. They expose. But when you do that, you need to be aware that, yeah. People are coming for that.

Yeah, you show your, you put your card on the table, man. You know what I mean? So fast forward, you're on the huge win streak and then the Johnny Hendricks fight. Why do you decide to retire then? And what did you kind of do during those four years? When I, before I fought Johnny and Dricks, I was going through, I was, I was afraid to talk about it because I was, I thought that people will not respect me and will laugh at me because, oh, they will say, oh, I was going through a depression and people will be like, oh, what he has to complain of, he's, he's rich, he's popular, he's the champion, some people are poor, like, what he has nothing to complain. but I felt like I had too much on my shoulder and I felt claustrophobic. I felt like I couldn't breathe.

I had hard time sleeping at night. I was going crazy. I and I was on top of that fighting against performance and ensing drug and the sport. And I felt like the UFC at the time did not add my back. They didn't want it. They didn't want any part of it. And my goal doing testing, you mean? Yeah, the testing, yes.

So you're fighting guys on PEDs? Oh God, like I can't. say it's wrong for me to accuse someone because I don't have the evidence. But I'm in the fight game. And in the fight game among fighters, we know who's who, you know. There's only a few guys that, you know, doctors that do certain things for certain people. So it's a small world. So I know, I know, I know who's who, you know. And to tell you the truth, I never wanted to attack one individual. I wanted to change the system. And I wanted to change the system.

I wanted to do it not to hurt the UFC. That was not my goal. I wanted to elevate the UFC, elevate the sport. Because the outcome of a win or lose are very dramatic in our sport. It could influence the life of an individual. It could be very bad. So this is one of the reason why the athlete should be clean. You know, it's not like baseball or you lose a game.

of basketball, you lose and it suck, but you lose a fight, man. You can die out there. So for me, it was very important to try to change the game. And it was to elevate the USC. I wanted to cling the sport. And the UFC didn't have my back on that at first. They didn't want nothing of it. And they even tell the other guys, oh, don't take the test, don't take the test. And it drove me crazy. And at the time, if I would have, if I could go back, I could have, I would have hold my stand. I'm saying, oh, yeah, you don't want to do the test. I'm out.

I would have even retired before. I was going nuts. I was going nuts. And I was afraid to talk about it. And I'm glad that, for example, Tyson Furie come forward. And there's a lot of athletes, sometimes it comes forward because it showed that it can happen to everybody. The image that you have of someone is your perception that you have is not sometimes the reality of what's going on. And everybody can have some problem sometimes.

I put pressure on you to be like, hey, I got to get on PED so I can compete with these people. Man, sometimes I'm going to tell you the truth. I ask myself, I say, how good would it be if I would have take some stuff? You know, and how good? Because I know even some of my training partner, they tell me and say, oh, they take certain things. And I see it's not even the same people when they are and they are not. It's a crazy, crazy difference. You know what I mean?

So people that say, oh, yeah, it has nothing to do with the performance. because I'm the one who threw the pun, I'm like, yes, it has something to do. And this is a bullshit excuse because when you take performance and ensing drunk, it changes you not only physically. It changes you mentally. Every training camp, my friend, when you go to a training camp, it's the loneliest feeling in the world because you feel very lonely. Even though you have a big entourage, you feel lonely because you go through something

that only a few people can identify it to. And it's very stressful. You're burn physically mentally because you train, you're over-training, you hurt everywhere. But you had to go to him. So waking up in the morning to go to the gym, it freaking suck. And it takes a lot to do it. You know, it takes a lot of determination to do it, to push through that. So if you put yourself some performance enhancing drug, it helps your endocrinian system.

It changes you. So it makes it easy for you to go through that. So it's not only physical. Yes, it's physical, but it's also mental. So that's why it's, it's, for me, it's unacceptable. You know what I mean? It's like I'm fighting you, but I have a knife in my pocket and it's supposed to be a bare knuckle fight,

but I go clack, clack, that's the same thing. That's a very similar thing. With the technology now that we have, it just makes such a different. Yeah. Such, such a different. Just look at the Tour de France, the cyclist. we can't fighting is a very subjective sport because we always can speculate oh this guy is better than this guy because we don't we don't really have the data you know like but if you look at sport like track and fill weight lifting stuff that we can measure the sport that we can measure look at the tour de france the the year when they they start testing people like like this i think it's the guy that finished something like 15 like not

And now that it's just the sport that you can measure the performance, it's just insane. You see the difference. It makes a huge difference. And then put that into fighting, it's the same, same thing. Yeah, for sure. It makes me want to take it. It just makes you physically better, but mentally more creative. It makes you better as well.

Everything you're saying sounds so positive, bro. If you're not competing, it sounds we should say. Well, and no, no, but listen, I'm not against performance and an announcement. I'm against performance enhancement in the sport when you sign a contract and it's supposed to be fair. Yeah. You're not going to take it. I'm not going to take it.

But then I go and I take it. Yeah. This is not fair. This, I'm not against it. For someone who want to improve the quality of his life and you need some testosterone to make him happier to help him train, to, to take care his wife or, you know, man, go for it. And who knows, maybe when I'll beat or a certain age, maybe I'm going to use it to, you know? Yeah.

I'm against. Yeah, not in competing. Yes, yes. Makes total sense. When it helps to enhance the quality of the life of an individual, for sure, I'm 100% for it. But for a sport to make it fair, no, man, this is, this is bad. This is wrong. Yeah.

So why do you, what did you do like during those four years to kind of overcome like the depression and stuff like that then? I took time for myself. I went on, I'm a big fan of paleontology. I've studied paleontology for a very long time too since I'm a kid. And I had a chance to go on a world tour, sort of. You know, I went on different site. The fact that I'm a, the fact that I'm some kind of a celebrity, a professional athlete gives me the chance,

sometimes to have access to things that most people don't have access. So I went on different sites around the world. Paliant, like on dig. That's dinosaur bones. Yeah, dinosaurs. Yeah, I did a show called Bone Yard too. And I went on different site.

It was unbelievable. Like I went on a site in Patagonia in Argentina. There were eggshell, fossilized eggs of titanosaur. It was insane. When the sunrise, we went in the morning, it was just insane. It were like 100,000 of them. it's insane and you had to watch where you walk because you can you can step on it incredible sight like i went on a place that in dakota like pete pitt larsson told me that the the paleontologists

that was there had a chance to meet many paleontologists microbeologists and i went on site and on a different dig and they were like a place where it was maybe like a tyrannosaur nest like where they like you see a lot of triceratop femur bone were were crushed like like crazy like I see any like crazy like T-Rex like things yeah so I saw Tyrannosaurus Rex I saw a triceratops like femur like the the mark of the bone that is crushed by a T-Rex because Taranosaurus Rex used to have a the bone crushing power bite it's it's incredible oh yeah I saw it I saw it at myself I went on the site and and it makes it makes me realize something too, because growing up, I didn't know what I wanted to do,

but at one point I was like leaning towards becoming a paleontologist at one point, but I had to go study in Alberta. That's the best place to be for that, for that. And I didn't want to go there. And now that I went on site and I live a little bit of the life of some paleontologists, I saw what they had to go through every day. And now I realized that that life is not made for me. I like to acquire the knowledge, but to get on the site and like to brush the ground and like for hours, I'm like, no way.

That's cool. No, I can't do it. I don't have that patience. How did you get into like wanting to do that? Like you're just always like dinosaurs? Yeah, I first, I always love dinosaurs. I love paleontology. I'm very fascinating, fascinating about the past.

The study of organism that disappear. The past, you know, like not only dinosaurs are like our past, like the Neanderthal, the Nisovin. We know now that our species, almost Sapien, have mingled with Neanderthal with Denizovin because they identified the gene of Neanderthal. So most of us have Neanderthal gene inside of our DNA. And it's fascinating. I feel like there's a big part of our history, sometimes that is unknown. And I know.

about, I know that if you learn about the past, that helps you understand the present better and sometimes helps you also to predict the future. So for me, that's why I love it so much. Aren't you also prepared for like an alien invasion or aliens abducting you? Well, I don't know if there's alien, but man, if you watch, if you watch the news now, there's a lot of crazy evidence. I just watched a show two days ago called moment of contact. It's something that happened in Brazil in 1996, in Virginia, Brazil. Man, it's very compelling evidence and witnesses, like doctors, politicians. Like, it's crazy. Do you have some sort of strategy to make sure you're, you don't get, how are you prepared?

I thought we read something like that. You know, I'm going to tell you, when I was young, I did, I talked to Joe Rogan about that. And when I was young, I, and I'm sure a lot of people add the same thing, I had what they call sleep paralysis. I mean, I don't know if it's what I have, but it's probably what it is because it makes more sense. You know, like, you know, when you sleep, you wake up and you kind of paralyze, you know? Yeah.

So I think that's what I have when I was young. And when you're in those incidents, apparently your brain can produce DMT, so you start to seeing things. I don't remember that I was seeing things, but I remember that I remembered because I told my mom. I told my mom, I was like, hey, yeah, I was a kid back then. I was like, hey, my mom, the monsters come get me at night. And I used to draw them. I used to draw them.

I still have the drawing of them. And it's scary. So the theory is that it's sleep paralysis. And I hope it is what it is because, man, if it's really monsters, like when I was a kid, It's pretty bad and it's scary, you know? I want it to happen now. I want to see you'd go fist with an alien probably, right? You wouldn't even need a weapon with aliens.

No, I think I think if they come here, if they come, if they get to us and we don't know how to get to them, that's a sign there more. But you know, you know, I saw a UFO once. Did you? Yeah. Can you tell us the story? The alien thing, I don't know. I think it's a city paralysis thing because there's no evidence. I saw a UFO once.

It's true, true story. And I was not alone. Some people can, some very critical, like... Were you in Montreal? No, it was in New Mexico, and sorry guys, but I'll talk about it. I was Rashad Evans. Was it Mark, Mike Van Arsdale, Ali Abdelaziz, who's Khabi manager, and Camaroosman manager, is a friend of mine.

And another guy named Alejandro. And I'm not the most credible witnesses because I don't have no background in astrophysic. physicist, you know, I don't know if what I was was, you know, like, I don't know, some kind of celestial event, you know, that it could be explained. But I can tell you something that all five of us saw something. And what makes it so weird is it makes us look bad because when we talk about it, we describe it in a different way. But we also saw something because when it happened, like it lasts about 10 seconds.

we all went like a little silence and then holy shit did you see this oh my what the hell was that and we were all there and it was me rashad ali uh mike and another fighter that i lost i lost uh track i lost contact with him ali andrew it was a mexican guy used to train albuquerque new mexico we were i can't tell you my version of it yeah but i'm sure if you talk to rachad or the way they describe it is different because i remember i i heard an interesting I think Russia was talking about it. I was like, man, that's not really how it looks to me. And I don't have a clear memory of what it was

because I never seen anything like it. I never seen anything like it. So it does not, I cannot recall this thing looking like anything that I've seen. That's why we call a UFO, but it might be something very that we could explain. I'm not an astrophysicism. I'm sure if maybe Nile deGrasse Tyson was in the car with us,

oh no, guys, that's actually Venus. that is coming out tonight or whatever it is. But it didn't look like that to me. It was some kind of a, I think it was like a greenish sort of triangular light coming towards us. We're on the highway in the car. And I was in the backseat.

It was a greenish triangular shape coming towards us. Then it changed direction. And when it went away, it kind of materialized and dematerialized. like chuk, chuk, chuk, and then they disappear. So there's nothing I can't say that it's nothing similar that look like this that I can say, you know. But that's how I recall it.

And I don't have a clear memory of it. And I remember Rashad or Ali, the way they describe it, it's a little bit different. Yeah. So we all look like freaking liars talking about it because we cannot identify to anything that we know that look like this. So you look at plane, we identify this, So this is a plane.

We all see what, we all know what a plane looked like. But that's why it's a UFO. We don't know what it was. I want to see you have an alien in a rear naked choke. Well, double leg an alien with a rear naked choke. I wanted to ask about two personal questions. I wanted to know. Two like fights that were like, I don't know if they almost happened or maybe they never were even close to happen.

But one was Anderson Silva. You guys were both at your primes. Yeah. Was that fight ever even being taught? talked about. Oh, yeah. I mean, it could have happened. And we talk about it.

I was with the UFC. I remember with Lorenzo Fertista. And I think it was Dana. We talk about it. But I had requests because I was on a tear. Back then, I was on a tear. I was defending my title on multiple time a year. Yeah.

And it was at the time right after, I remember I saw Roy Jones go up in a wake glass. And when he tried to go down, he got knocked out by Antonio Tarver. And all my trainer told me is, you see what happened when you go up? Going up is not the problem. It's when you try to go back down. You screw your career, you know?

Because you don't play with your weight like this. So when I, we talk about Silva and I had one request. I said, okay, I'll fight Anderson Silva. But in a catch weight. And Silva used to fight in Japan. Used to be at 170 in Japan. used to be in the same weight as me.

He used to fight in Japan. So I say, I'll fight him in the catch weight. He go down a little bit and then I go up a little bit. Of what? Like 180 or 175? Yeah, something like 180, something like this, you know? A catch weight, you know? And because it's, you know, it's a, you know, it's in the middle.

It's in the middle, you know, like it's a given, give and take. It's equal. It's a fair compromise. And also I want, I want to test for. I want drug test. And at that time, it was before USAIDA and UFC didn't want that. They didn't want starting drug deaths because some guys already implement drug tests. When I fought BJPN, we did VADA.

When I did Hendricks, I did VADR. But it was before a little bit in between, it was a little bit before Hendricks, that situation that happened. So I said, no problem. I'll do it. But catch weight and drug deaths, no problem. And they didn't come back. And also the money, they wanted me to fight on my existing contract. So I'm like, guys, like my agent said, it's not good because it's something different.

They want you to do something that is out of your field. So if it's out, you need to be compensated for you taking more risk. You need to be compensated for. So the UFC never wanted to do it. So this fight, I think I will blame the UFC for that. Was Anderson into it? I think he was. I don't know if he was.

because we don't talk directly to my opponent. I think he wanted his share interest of fighting. It's very easy publicly. I love it. Oh, yeah, I'll fight him. I'll fight him. But then you put some crazy requests that will never happen. That's the way to do it.

So you don't look like a, even if I, if I would have lied and say, yeah, I want to fight him and put some crazy requests. And my requests were not crazy. They were really doable. They were, they were fair requests. And he was not interested. Same thing with Kabib. Kabib at one point Yeah

So was this one actually Ever even being talked to me? I thought it was the only fight I would have come back for And I remember Up to his last fight When he fought Justin Gache I was a commentator

In a sport broadcast I had a French sport broadcast I was doing the commentating Were you there? No I was in Montreal It was during COVID I was in Montreal So we couldn't travel here

Yeah It's crazy rules, but anyway, so I was stuck there. And I was doing the commentating and everybody told me even in his natural, I just say, be ready because he's going to call you out. So I thought I was like, okay, I'm coming out of retirement. I had butterfly. I was like, shit. When I thought I was done, they brought, they pulled me right back in, you know, like the famous line, like Al Pacino, I think he says in the movie. So I was like, okay. And then he won, he took his mic and he retired. Nobody saw that coming. Even his home people. We were there. Yeah.

Some people didn't know that. I remember looking at Dana. I knew some people in his camp told me that he was going to call me out and he retire. And you know what? It's maybe better like that for both of us. So we have a good ending because if we would have fight, one of us would have lose. So it's a good thing. I look at it now.

I'm like maybe like when you're in a competitive mind, you have to be greedy. You have to be selfish. I was thinking about it to do it. Really? So I didn't know that. I didn't know that you were actually into it. It would be very uncomfortable for me because I don't like to fight, but it was the fight that would get me to come back for

because you have a lot to lose, but a lot to win too. So it was worth it. So I would have done it. But it was not at a good time. And at first, after I retired against Bisping, when we asked for the UFC for this fight, before that, UFC always said, oh, we have other plan for Kabib. They wanted to keep the ball rolling.

You know, why you want to take a risk? to lose your big name against a guy who's retired and you don't want to Because then you fight and then you're just retired again. And that's what I would have done. And they know that and it's normal because it's, you know, you have to do the best for your interest

but they were not interested. But they call me a few years after that Kabib took his retirement. Dana told me, hey, a few years after you, would you like to fight Kabib? So when I see Dana, I was calling me on myself,

I'm like, shit. I always take a pause. I'm like, and I try to think about why he was calling me after a few years after that happened. And when I saw his name, I was like, shit. He doesn't want to go see dinosaur bombs. No, no, no, no, it's not no dinosaurs or things like this.

I'm like, okay, it's about the fighting. I'm like, okay, I took the call, say, Hey, George, hey, George, we like to fight Kabib. And it was past that moment. And I was, I was, and then I was like, I thought about it. I said, if I say no, he will tell everybody the news that I'm the one who said no. And I knew that Khabib maybe did not even know about it.

So I asked him what Khabib said. Oh, yes, he's ready. He's on board. And I was like, that's bullshit. I'm sure it's not true. So I said to now, okay, let me a few days. I'll talk about it. And I'll get back to you shortly.

Hang out. the next, the next morning, I think, the next day, Ali Abdel Aziz, he's a friend of mine. He came up and said, oh, now we wait for George for many times for the fight, but now he wants to fight. It's too late now. So I was like, ah, that was bullshit. So he didn't want to fight.

But they know the way when he called you, he used the emotion. He goes, hey, this guy said this about you, said that, blah, blah, blah. He didn't say that. I can say happy, but that's what he said about, for example, Nick Diaz or when I was fighting him. So when I told him, he said, oh, Kabib, oh, yeah, he's on it. He's on it. I'm like, yeah, I think it's bullshit. I didn't say it about, I thought, but we're playing a game of chess. I'm like, okay, like, I'll get back to you very soon, okay? And I just wait a little bit, and man, that was all BS. Damn. That wasn't true. So the timing is the UFC is the timing.

I know. The problem with the Silva, the silver fight and the Kabib is the timing. What if, what if Khabib was in, though? I didn't want to. It was past. It was like already like two years. After that moment that he retired. I think it was two years or like, it was, I was done with it. I didn't want, but I knew because when you talk to Dana or you, you, we talk proficient. I like Dana, but when we talk business, when it's business is business. It's all strategic with them. So if I would have said no, he would have turned around and tell everybody, oh, GSP doesn't want to fight.

So it's bullshit. So I didn't want that to happen. So I said, you know what? because I knew that I thought it was weird I knew that they did not agree on the other side

so I wanted them to come out publicly first than me because it makes me look bad so it's a lot of things like this when you fight you need to be aware of this so when a promoter

call you for some things oh he said this he said that because sometimes he tried to lowball you sure you know it's like oh this guy said this

oh yeah make me sign the contract I'm gonna fuck him up Like then you sang the contract like an idiot and you go fight like, but you get screwed. They low ball you. Yeah. So I'm aware of all this. You know, I, I know the game, you know, that's the game of fighting.

Both of you guys in your prime, Khabib and yourself. Who do you think? You think you could beat them? Of course. It will say the same thing, you know. We're fighters, you know. Fighters need confidence to be successful in a fight. Because he never fought someone obviously with your, I don't know, maybe I don't think like with your wrestling, right?

Yeah, but I never thought someone like him either, you know, so we could only speculate. And to tell the truth, there's only one way to find out, and we'll never know, you know what I mean? And the thing is we, in the game, in the sport, in combat sport, it's very, very rare. You'll see two guys in their prime fighting each other. You'll see two names fighting each other, but you never fight the same fighter twice. So you might fight the same name twice, but it's never the same fighter. You understand what I mean?

Yeah, they make adjustments all that. Yes. So fighting two fighters in their prime, like it's very hard to do. The silver one could have been that. That would have been huge. But it did not happen. I just paused my, I had the request.

They didn't fulfill my request. they didn't, they didn't, they didn't, they didn't, they didn't even came back with, when I was talking about drug testing, like, oh, yeah. And I understand why. Because at first, when they first started doing drug testing, you see how many of their champion that fell. It's not a good look for them. Yeah. It was bad for them. It was bad for bad business for them. But look now, it looks better. It was bad in the beginning. And I think they were aware of it. But in the long run, it makes them look better. It elevate the sport. It elevate the standard because we have better. We have better testing now than most of the professional sport. And it's important. And I think they could be proud of that, you know. And I'm glad that I help elevate their standard for that. Yeah.

I just have a couple things to when you're at your peak at the UFC, right? And like you're on top of the world. You have all the fame, all the money. You said you deal with anxiety and stuff like that. Were you ever like, was there ever a moment like this is all going to be gone one day? And how am I going to still be the man? I knew at one point that the only way that it could be gone, that anxiety is if I retire.

Because the moment that I, you know, to be, to be, to be, to get ready for a fight, it's stressful. Then you fight and you win. The moment that you win a fight, there's another guy. GSP, I'm going to fuck you up. There is another contender right away. And right away is another one. It's another one.

And so you're never in peace. There's always another guy and another guy. And so, man, it's never the end. It never ends. There's always another guy. That's the nature of the business. And they don't, UFC, I can't, I try to speak for them, but I, because if I put myself in their shoes,

they don't want a fighter retiring with the belt. As a fighter, we all want that. We want to retire on top. With the title on top of the game, unbeaten. But for the UFC perspective, for the promoter perspective, they don't want that. They don't, they want their champion passing the torch to the next generation. So it's because they pass the torch for business is better. And I understand that point of view.

But it's my life. So I do what is best for my interests. So much for theirs. Finishing on top too. Like, is that something important to you? Like, because you are often referred to, like, is being referred to as the goat something you care about? The goat is, I wanted to be the best, you know, that was one of the thing. I wanted, there is, there is two things that I wanted, there was three, three things that I wanted to do in my career.

I wanted to be the best. I wanted to be known as the best. I wanted to have my name, like a, like a, like a symbol of excellence. you know, in my sport when I think about Georges Saint-Pierre, you know, that's, I wanted to achieve that. And I did the best I can, you know, and I'm glad what I did, you know. I also wanted to change a standard of the sport. When I first started, people came in tank top in the press conference,

and they were like, they look like freaking bombs. Like, how do you want to be respected that as a legit athlete if you don't act like one? So I start wearing a suit. people make fun of me in the beginning. Remember, Tim Silvio was making fun. He was like, oh, look at you. I'm like, man, they say, yeah, I got more sponsored than you. Why you think is that happened?

You know, I take care of the image. You know, it's important. You try to be, try to look professional. You know what I mean? So I'm glad that now they have a dress code, you know? I helped change that part of the game. And I also helped change for the performance enhancement, enhancing testing. And I'm glad I did it.

You know, I did it to elevate the game to help an honest fighter that perform under honest condition, you know what I mean? And I know there's a lot out there, you know what I mean? But they had to go through that. And also, I wanted to retire on top. I didn't want the sport to retire me. And it was very hard for me in a way that you always feel like you leave money on the table. And I knew, I believe that if, you know, I got.

sick after her, but I could have come back. And even sometimes I watch the fight and I think, I'm like, man, I think I can go back. And, you know, like, I'm not going to like to. I think sometimes maybe it's just an illusion. Maybe it's my perception of what I think I can do is wrong. Maybe I'm right to. Maybe I'm wrong, you know. It's very tempting sometimes, but it demands a lot of discipline.

You know, the money that I think maybe I left on the table. I gain it back because I retire on top. And my health is more important to go through another training camp of freaking eight weeks, hardcore firing, flying out, training partner and getting smashed. You know, it takes a lot out of you emotionally, the stress and also physically. And I don't feel like to go through that. And when you retire on top, you can turn around and there's a lot of opportunity that opens to you in business. If you retire on a losing street, those opportunities, my friends,

are gone. So what I tell to the fighters, the young fighters, I'm like, you better retire before than too late. There's a line of retirement. Let's say the perfect line, it's better be under the line than over. Because when you're over, you screw your after career, you know, and I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I had the discipline to do it. You know, it's sometimes it was tempting for me and it still is sometimes because I'm you take the fighter out of the game but you don't take the the game out of the fighter sort of yeah I mean I guess last thing is like who do you think is the most impressive guy right now or like the next guy up to take over UFC man there's a lot of guys that are very impressive at this anio is very impressive his last fight was just

phenomenal and the ending was like a like a like a Hollywood scenario you know what I mean Like, it seems like he was hurt. He was in the corner and then boom! That was incredible. The ending was just incredible. It was very emotional. I like John Jones. He came back as an heavyweight and he had an incredible performance.

I like also Wakanovsky. Even if he lost, I think he proved right now that I believe he's the best pound for me in my book right now. Right now, Wakanovsky is number one. Did you think he lost that last five? right? I don't know if he felt. I did not, I watched the fight. I did not judge it. I think going into the decision, I think both guys could have won the fight. Yeah. The judges saw it one way, but I think they both could have won. Yeah. So it shows that because Wokonovsky is the, the smaller

guy and Makachev is just a killer, you know, he's on a different level. But for me, when you have some kind of an equal performance, I tend to to worship more the smaller guy because he's smaller. You know what I mean? He's the one that goes up. So for me, that's why he's the number one guy

Wakanofsky right now among the prison fighter, pound for pound. Nice. Well, dude, you're a class act. Thank you so much. This was awesome. Anything you want to, any businesses, anything you want to shout out

or anything like that? Where could people find out like what you're working on in your businesses? Yeah, I'll have a lot of businesses. Base block equipment, home equipment, you know, like my food supplement, wire, heart and soil. I got a vodka that comes out very soon. Ooh, we're going to have to try that.

Yeah, per cent. It's a very good one. And yeah, man, I am just very happy to have all the support of many people. You know, they stuck with me. And yeah, I'm very thankful for that. Thank you, man. Awesome. Well, thank you, but you're the man.

Let's go.