FULL SEND PODCAST - UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

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

Book Club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers,

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Armand first. You're our UFC ever. This one's like... This one is like... You like flex and shit. Like he actually has it, you know? He doesn't though. No, like this is your time to like kind of like, you know, play the act, you know?

Yeah, act like I came from fucking shit. No, but he actually did. He actually like... This is you. We can't let Brad ask him if he could win in a street fight. I'm gonna tell him, I can't ask that. It would go viral though. You'll meet you sleep. I don't know.

Good to me, too. What's up, bro. How's it going on one? I like that. Are you? Yeah. Try it just buy it from you right now? Yeah.

How much you want for? I'll give you 30. 70. What year is it? What piece is that, Steiny? Oh yeah. Presidential. 60, brother.

60? Yeah. All right, I'll go 45. That's the highest I'll do. Bro, this is in the Rolex store, 50,000. I could get one of those right now. They're all over. Is that similar to mine, Stani or no? Almost. His is nicer. Oh, fuck.

Yeah. I'm selling this. Well, what are you going to do? Buy another one or what? I don't know. Just buy something new one. What's your watch collection? Like, how many pieces you have?

Not a lot. Not a lot? Not yet. Not yet? After this fight, maybe. Yeah. How many would you like to have? 50?

50 watches? Yeah. 50, 60, yeah. But just in case you can sell it if you need the money, you know? Yeah. Not bad investing if you get from the store, you know? All right, boys. We have a massive UFC pod today.

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Use code now. Let's get into the pod. How about cars? Cars? No, cars. You're going to, like, lose money. But what's your fleet right now? What cars do you have?

Uruz, S-Claus, J-Wagon. I'm a little confused because I saw you were on Uzman and Jigua. hoodos podcast and you talked about bronco i have bronco in my i'm a raptor no no just simple he's got the raptor oh brad whoa you spun it up to there too he's got the raptor version no it's too expensive oh i feel like i had to give him mine or something huh no no great you would never do something that generous i mean you know who not too 60 he's i've never had the american cars i just wanted to try what do you think of the quality i don't like i want to sell it No, I don't know, maybe Bronco, I spend time in Miami, so the road is so, like, good.

When you drive Bronco, it's not good. You know, you've got to come here or, like, have, like, mountains or something to drive Bronco. It doesn't make sense to have it there. Yeah, it's all flat in Florida. Yeah, here is better to have a Bronco. So that's what I was asking is, I saw on that podcast, you talked about how you're focused on just money fights now. No, no, after this fight. After this fight, but I was looking at all of air, and I saw that what you made is online.

So now I'm wondering how are you able to get all these watches and all these cars? It's from my father. Oh, okay. Yeah, because after the fight, you can just buy one watch and that's it. I like that. That takes tiny. Yeah. Yeah, but whatever we own it, right?

Now I'm making it not bad, no bad. It feels good when it starts coming from you, not your father. Yeah, very good. And you can go like this. Yeah. What was it like growing up and how is it shaped you as like a fighter? When I was growing up? Yeah, just growing up in Armenian and like how you had it easy and like, you know.

No, no, I grew up in. Russia. Oh, you grew up in Russia. Yeah, I grew up in Russia, playing hockey, fighting on a farm. It's not easy on a farm growing up. It sounds kind of... Wait, but that he's, it's interesting, like most of the fighters you see come from backgrounds where they don't come from money, like you don't see people who come from money always get into fighting. So how did you get into fighting with that kind of background? I just don't like to work. I like fighting, especially when I was key. I always fought with my brother. You see this guy? Older brother? Yeah, he's a little.

older one he always beat me and I wanted to beat him as well so that's why like because of that maybe I became a fire as well and real quick in the spirit of UFC we just dropped brand new UFC full send stuff on fullsen.com if you guys head over there we got teas we got hoodies super simple super clean I like this shit you can just rock it anywhere you can rock it to the club I love this shit UFC full send so go to full send dot com right now grab some usc full send shit let's get in the pod were you were you good at hockey Do you still watch the NHL at all? Sometimes.

Sometimes I watch Billy. I don't have a time, you know. You have like a favorite player? Yeah, Avechkin. Ovechkin? Yeah, Ovechkin. Yeah, Ovechkin. Yeah, Ovechkin.

Malkin? Yeah, he's a beast. Yeah, Malkin, Avichkin. And, yeah, a lot of, the, when I was young, I was watching all his trainings. He used to play in Pittsburgh, the captain. With Crosby? Crossby. You like Krosby, too?

Yeah, I used to watch all his interview, how he trained, you know. Were you fighting on the ice too? Yeah, of course, yeah. How was your record on the ice? Yeah, you think you could take Ovechkin and a scrap on the ice? No, he's too big. He's too big? In the ice, I wasn't good.

I was waiting when we go into the locker room and, like, beat somebody. Oh, locker room. You wait for the locker room boxing. Yeah, because on the ice, I was assured. you know you got to have reach on there yeah but like on the on the locker room it's easier you know yeah especially i knew how to wrestle so it's it was easy for me i know maybe they asked you this before i came but what's the biggest thing that is different from where you were born and like where you live now like culturally armenia and russia it's pretty similar and georgia as well

it's like we have almost like a same culture but i mean i mean moving to america and like spending time here what it's the most like noticeable thing that you're like wow so this is so different I just come here for my training camp, but I'm not living here, so yet. But when you're here, what's like? Yeah, it's completely different. So, like, let's see, we have like a lot of situation in the street, you know, and like someone like can say, fuck you and like, you just can say, ah, fuck you too. And that's it, you know.

But in Russia, nobody's going to say you fuck you. If someone say you fuck you, you got to beat him up, you know, and like, it's a different. Or like someone like behaves, you know, like bad. People treat each other much differently. Yeah, yeah, because they know they can, they can get in trouble, you know. Yeah. That's why like completely different cultures, you know. Sounds like more respect.

Yeah, more respect. Fucky means fucking. Sounds like, yeah. Fucky means fuck you. And like here, there, if you say something, you got to like do that, you know, but like. How did we get to lost? You're in a rush. You're in a lot more fights if you were in Russia because you'd have to actually back your stuff.

Well, no, I probably just wouldn't say shit. That's like, you know, you go to Texas. You can't show up. they're gonna fucking blast you you know they're gonna blast you yeah i know but like you're saying i would talk shit here because i know nothing would happen but there you wouldn't talk shit well because i mean unless i'm like yo i'm having a bad day and i want that i want to smoke he's gonna ask you in 15 minutes if no i'm not gonna ask you about i'm not gonna do that he's too big i would fight with you bro against him arm on um he's a bodybuilder yeah there we go yeah hell yeah you look like a bodybuilder

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Let's get back into the pod. What was that, what was it like the most fun you ever had, like in the Octagon, opponent-wise, like your favorite fight you ever had? With Derrush? Yeah, knock him out very fast, and it was easy, quick money, so I was happy with that fight. No injuries. No injuries, yeah, it was good, fast, and, yeah, that's the best when you go there and the first minute, and, like, no Bruce is nothing, and just get born. and leave. How do you see yourself winning this fight?

Because you guys have very similar styles, wrestling, and you're both really good at striking. So how do you see yourself, like, winning this fight? Knock him out, and, yeah, just think every day about that, that I believe myself and I can do it. What do you think is going to be, like, the biggest difference in this fight between you and Islam? It's going to be more striking than it used to be.

the last fight was more wrestling and now I think it's going to be more striking than the last one I saw you weren't impressed by his performance with Porreier yeah you didn't you didn't think he did a good job he couldn't wrestle him you know he maybe Dustin was so good you know but I was I was thinking like Islam gonna take him down and just hold him like 25 minutes but uh dustin like could get up and like be on the feet you know and he got tired fast i don't know why maybe because of wake-out or i don't know or maybe dustin like hit his body a lot that's why maybe he got tired as well did you say on a podcast you're going to start fighting just for money and it's not about legacy anymore no right now

I'm fighting for the title and after title I'm gonna fight for the money why what made you just decide like I'm done and this because you got the goal that you wanted so much and like okay what are you going to do just to make money you know does it bother you that you're like fighting all the era and Islam for like a minimum yes a little bit like I know like my family gonna give me good present of what's what's like what's a post win fight present look Like, what was the last one? I heard like, my friend of mine already, like, bad for me, M5 competition, new one. So I'm going to get it.

A lot, a lot of presents. What about from Pops? That, I don't know yet. He can't beat cheap after Islam. What was the last one? Last one was the watch, Adamarp again. Nice. Wait, but you're going to win the title and then just fight for money, but not try to keep winning more.

No, no, I want to win, of course. Of course you want to continue to win, but you don't think like that's more. important for no i mean like if say like oh you can fight with uh leave the title fight with someone corner or whatever like just regular fight no no title and i i would pick just money fight not like defend the title so you're not concerned with like winning no no i don't want to like i don't want to like be defend as much as possible i just want to make as much as possible money for my future yeah who do you see that anyway like they're going to say this is like a ufc champion yes who do you think those money fights are it's all the verified for sure it's

a chander like all guys would be good so maybe ilya tapuria is good too all that guys yeah yeah how about mcgregor you think he ever fights again yeah for sure you think he's going to come back yeah i think so yeah i believe he comes back and win one fight and fight for the title are you like were you ever a fan of like mcgregor or like what was your yeah of course but when he fought with habib yeah i was supporting habib because i he's from russian like when i was young i always watch his fights but like in general i always watch and i'm a big fan of connor he does who's your top three favorite fighters like of all time john jones habib um

There are a lot, but Connor is good, too. Connor did a lot of statement. You see him getting kicked off the plane recently? Yeah. Is that like... Oh, no, no, no. You mean the Habib? Yeah, he got kicked off the plane

because I guess he was like in an exit road. He was like, he didn't say yes. I don't know what happened. He didn't see anything. No, I saw the Instagram, but I don't know what happened exactly. Why did he kicked out. Armand's not going to be on Frontier Airlines, right? Nah, he's not taking that.

Tell dad, he's on the fucking plane, bro. Yeah, fly spirit. It's fine. But Habee's on it, I mean. Yeah. So why they kicked him out from the play? He was an exit row and I think like some, you know, obviously they come and they ask you, are you good to do this?

And I think, I don't know if he was just not answering or if he was answering in a way that they didn't like it or it was like a weird situation. Obviously, I wasn't there. I just, I just watched the, you know, people's takes on it. But I think because the way he was answering was not is like, they didn't want, they want you to hear like a yes or whatever. Yeah. Maybe, yeah.

Yeah, you don't got to worry about that. He should just fly a private jet. I was fair. I mean, but humble guy. He's like, yeah, like frontier. Even like economic class. He's like, yeah, in the back. Yeah.

He didn't care. Yeah, he's so humble. Yeah, he's a good dude. Yeah. What do you think about Teporia? Do you think he moves up to your division? I think so. He's big for 145.

And I heard he cuts weight very hard. And he should move, yeah. and we're going to have a lot of good fighters. Is that a fight that you'd potentially like down the line? No. I mean, that'd be a massive fight, right? Right now, I need to just, I'm just focusing on my, like, a coming up fight, just Islam, you know. And after the title, we'll see what happened.

Is it intimidating at all having Khabib in the corner? It's more body waiting me. Yeah, it's like, you beat Islam, you beat Habib, no. Okay. You and Islam are friendly, right? we're okay you know just is it different fighting guys that for you and you kind of like get along with them as opposed to like people you hate or do you take it no for me it's the same same nothing different it's for me it's a sport you know i just go there do my job uh he wants to beat me i won't

i won't beat him as well so just uh sport yeah i don't know about these guys but but it's better to be like a not angry you know like when you're too much angry and don't like hates someone You're, like, going crazy right away. It's better to be like this, like, cool, you know. No rage. No, road rage. Yeah. Have you ever gotten angry in the ring?

No yet. Yeah. Not yet. Yeah. Just curious, because they're big Russia, Dagestanian. Are you guys supporting him or Islam? Because I'm with you. Yeah.

I just want to let you know I'm with you, bro. If it's the other guy was here. Wait, wait till Islam's here. Oh, I'm standing on business with him. I'll tell him to his face. I'm with you. Let's go. Yeah.

Should we beat them? Yeah. Me and you're, well, let's just get him first. I'll probably just take on Stiney. I think you guys could take off. You could take off your list with Aramon. Yeah, I'll take on. I'll take on Stony.

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trial and take your business to the next level today. You said earlier about, someone was asking a question about, I guess, sort of training, but you kind of mentioned, I don't know directly, you do this or not, I'm curious. Do you visualize, like, is that a part of your training? Obviously, you're training to fight, you're training to win. And in your training, you're like learning these things to help you win. But do you ever practice like any sort of, I'm not saying meditation, but do you like sit and think about what it would be like, you know, when you win, what it's going to feel like?

Do you do anything like that? Yeah, a lot. Almost every day. Yeah, every day I'm thinking about that. Like what it's like when you're winning. Yeah. How don't know what I give me a bell, how I go, how I leave the cage, how I'll celebrate. Yeah.

And you got to believe yourself and like you got to like say it's simple days. It's nothing like crazy. Just go there, do your job and like get whatever you want in this life. Everything is possible. like people underestimate themselves you know and that's why they never get that they wanted you know so just as much as actually fighting you you do that every day too yeah every day listen books like you gotta be strong here on your mindset you know and uh if nobody believe you like you gotta believe yourself you know had you done that throughout your whole career or is that something

you learn no i learned like last three years i started doing that last three years i started doing that last three years or four years. And you think it's made a big difference? Yeah. And I started to read books and like, okay, let's live like a book says. And like, boom, one happened, second happened. Like the same exactly things to what books says and like I'm just living with that book. Like you read books on like personal growth or like what?

Books on what? I'm listening. I'm listening to the books. But I guess he's talking about what like books about like books about What kind of books are they? What kind of books are they? that's like for the mindset yeah it's a russian books what made you decide to do that one my friend he he told me like read this book uh he i know the guy like he's a billionaire he lives with this

book and like and i started read that book as well and like i became a reach and like became like i got whatever i wanted in his life and i just read that book so i completely changed your life Yeah, and I started to read that book and, like, yeah, they changed my life. Yeah, that's awesome. For you, man. Yeah. This is a billionaire in Armenia in Armenia? Yeah, we have a billionaires.

Is he getting you anything? I thought you should get you a town or something. What else do you want, man? It sounds like you have got all the whips, all the watches. No, I mean, if you have a belt, you want a two belt, right? Yeah, that's true. You have this watch, I'm thinking about, like, Richard Miller or Patech. When you have Pattec, I don't know, you have, you want what?

You want, like, a building. you have a house you want building you have a building you have two buildings you know yeah and we never stop you know in his life that's where like we have a billionaires like or like like Elon Musk he has like so much money he he does anything about money right he just doing this for the people have any other athletes or celebrities like reached out to you like letting you know you're their favorite fighter i don't remember probably right yeah we asked gsp this one time and he said that there was one fight where he noticed like a female in the audience and he got distracted while he was in the ring have you ever gotten distracted like that no no no you just stay locked in yeah none of the

outside noise ever gets to you no no no are you married or kids i'm married yeah oh there you go how are the girls in armenia and armenia they're beautiful uh there are yeah yeah yeah in russia as well everywhere i mean like here's beautiful too yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah miami is that number one spot though yeah but when you're married right of course of course you're trying yeah you're this is good right locked up oh that's my god what you're talking about it's my fucking fighter who are you're you're rooting for bro why don't you be honest you're just saying you said so you're criminating shit over here you're trying to like oh the girls in miami you're in Miami right I would never say you up for some shit like that one do that shit no no

yeah sorry who you're written for or who he's supporting is long come on bro you put me on the spot it's pretty easy you're either with this guy or the other guy yeah no but it's like you're either with this guy or the other guy right yeah no but it's like the guy I can't say I can't want to say the other guy it's like he's right here we don't want you that's what I'll say we don't want you well it's not that I don't think you can't win I just like I just see more of the other guy that's all so I'm just like be ready for a fucking surprise for my guy no he's a fucking amazing fighter I'm like not there's there's no like no shade be trying to pin us against each other let's go you got this he's a hater yeah I think

we're good we don't want to take up too much your time we know you got a big week we appreciate you coming through brother how are you guys how's the weight cut been so far still but drinking too much water I think last time we saw you was in Elbris in the mountains

when we go back I want to come back we were going to ask you I think we need to come there for like two weeks plus and actually train and the best mountains

I think it's May April May you can come did you go back up there for this camp where we went to Kislovsk it's not far from the Elbrus it's maybe two or two three hour by drive but there have big Olympic Center last time when we saw there like together with like small camp it's not like real for Olympic level like training camp but now it's we find some new place it's really big They have hotel for like 600 athletes, you know, and they have all sports.

That was probably one of the coolest things we ever did, has come to Russia and then seven-hour drive. Yeah, you have the hard time there. Yeah. When you come jet leg, everything, you come by a bus, like winter, snow everywhere. Next time you have to enjoy, you know, come April, May. It's a good weather, good time. Where's your ranch at with all the horses?

I saw you're riding a horse. It's close to Mahachkala. And you have horses, goats? Horses, goats. It's now become, it's big, I make, like, new, like, horse table for many horse now. And I will bring more animals there. I have, like, almost 20 horse in the village, in Dagestan. And everybody gives me the horse, you know.

You just keep doing this. And I bought, like, two months ago, some horse from U.S. special for racing. How much was that? Delivered, I pay $18,000. Oh, that's not bad. Just for the delivery, though. Oh, yeah. That's a splash on a horse, though.

Yeah. So I buy in the auction. For the guy who, like, talk very fast, no, I buy it. Sold, yeah. You don't know what your bid was to win? This is secret. Secret? So you got your best horses from the U.S.?

I hope, maybe. Nobody knows what's going to be. Never. It's horrid. just two years old, you know? And maybe it's going to be good. Maybe it's going to be... I thought you're going to put it into racing?

Yeah. In... After one year, she had to training, training. Pumbo's... Yeah. Mount times training there. And we'll see. I hope because I want...

Because all my horses for... Not for racing, you know. Just my friends can come to... We go somewhere. But the racing... For racing horse is different. they like exactly same like professional athlete training in the morning they put in the stable sleep like rest all day evening time the training again eat like same things what the athletes did

yeah so you're saying you're going to take a horse from the u.s and make him stronger and better in daga stand uh like a i hope i hope yeah i hope what is it about dagestan that you know you guys talk about that's the best place to train what is it that you guys offer that you know why i told this basically like all country you can do like things for the training you know bring some gym like a lot of things but first of all in daghistan food all food is organic from the farm like very close and gym we have very big gym everything inside the gym cage coaches we have lot of coaches and it's not mostly important it's not expensive for the fighters you know who can come from other country for like U.S. U.S., like everything is spent,

but Dagestan, you can come like maybe maximum like one and a half thousand, one thousand dollars you spent for the one month's drink. Yeah, I remember when we went there, the food was you could taste the difference. Yeah, because they're organic. And in our gym, we even don't have the fridge to put the food, you know. We every, every morning, they start to cook for the athletes fresh, fresh, fresh, every day. I saw Kabib talking recently in an interview and he said that even yourself included, you guys have not, you don't just have the discipline, but you guys have sacrificed like so much over the last 10 years to get to where you are. Yeah, yeah, of course.

Do you feel like you've sacrificed a lot to get to where you've, you're not? Of course, all my life, you know, the discipline I've full of all my life. and this is the key you know I'm never go some bad place never do some bad things sleep on time wake up eat try to eat always clean you know and that's why we're in the up right now no not very young I'm when I understood you know I'm I'm gonna be professional athlete and I fall of all this you know if you want to be 65 and you want to be in the high level many years you have to follow this like for example Christiana Ronaldo

how many years how old he now and he's still in the top because he follow of all discipline follow of look how he look you know now in like 39 or 38 still in very good shape because of eat because of sleep what do you think is better him or messy like person Ronaldo I like more but players they both God. Is there a specific person who inspired you to get into MMA? No, no, no. Nothing.

Because Dagestan, everybody training, you know. Everybody training, science, they go school, you know, eight years old. They start to do some things. Not like MMA. And it's not good idea to put your kids when they become eight, nine years old to the MMA. We have a lot of Olympic sports, wrestling, judo, Samba, Samba, not Olympics, but some, like other sports, you know, like myself, what I did, I go take Wando, wrestling, Sambo, judah, and I move to the MMA, you know, because Sambu or all the

other sports, amateur sports, help you to be successful, help you to be, like, good athlete you know because I own I have 25 26 professional fights but in amateur career I have almost 300 200 fights yeah 300 amateur yeah what age did you move to or go at the beginning when I go to the some competitions like 10 years old okay wow that's your whole life did you ever play any other like random sports anyone would know about like just that aren't fighting I play soccer I have couple medals from the soccer. I did wrestling, sambo, a lot, Ushu sanda.

Did you golf or anything like that? Huh? You don't like golf. You don't like golf. You played. You sent me a message saying that like golf sucks. Maybe I don't understand what it is okay you shot one times and go like by a golf car. Why you're not going? It's a mental game too though. You're not born calories, nothing. Yeah. You can walk. Maybe I think I thought like this good area nobody see you like you go with your friends and talk some like you know you can tell you can spend time but not I don't this golf golf's good when you start to when you start to see improvements you start hitting good shots you get addicted it gets addicting yeah because it's all mental too right I know you mean it we play one time is Canada it's golf

not for me I like to do some activity you know moving some like but one shot I'll wait for other people, I told them, hey, let's go by Iran to the other place, you know, because golf car, it's... You know, it'd be a good video if we came back is to verse you guys in Dagestani basketball. Dagestan basketball, you know, you're moving too much. I feel like they're fighting, though, for some reason. Too much, like play, wrestling, everything, but golf, it's not for me. I start to play now paddle.

Paddle tennis, you know? Are you good at that? Yeah, yeah, I like it so much. It's blowing up. And I'm planning to open some paddle center in Dagestan. We could probably take them and paddle. Yeah, we would be, you probably, can you play tennis or any other ping pong? No, paddle I'm good around.

Yeah, we need your lunch. Yeah, we could play 2v2, whatever you want. Yeah, we will, when I open the center, you will play there. We were talking a little bit earlier with your opponent, Armin, but we were talking about manifestation and like that part of the training, which obviously is not like, you know, it's not the actual fight specific but how important do you think is that in your training important one sort of seeing or believing what it's going to be before it is the fight like how it's going to go and in your mind what you think's going to happen it's just important things you have to think in people like

you know because you have to in your mind you have to put you in some bad position always if if this happened what i'm going to and in the training also Of course, okay, if, like, my training partner, they cannot take me down. If they can take me down, you know, I have to let them, like, take me down and beginning from this position. Because maybe in the fight, some things can happen. It can take me down. And it's, I have to be not surprised for me, not something new, you know. I have to be ready for that moment.

And in my own always, I put myself on some position and I think what I'm going to do from this position. How long do you see yourself in the UFC and like your plan after? In the UFC, I have one goal. I don't want to leave the UFC without second belt. And after what I'm going to do, I don't know. You know, spend more time with family, friends because last 10 years I travel a lot, you know, my kids, my friends, family even not see me you know that's why i have to spend more time in home do you think this could be the last fight if you win at lightweight it's not my job you know we will sit and talk

with dana with my managers and but i want to fight more years because if you beat armand you've cleaned out the entire division right but even right now it's a rematch you know yeah it's not big sense you know to make very much i always want some new name on my list and but if we're looking for the rankings our man is a he's deserved fight for the title for sure he's a number one contender right now and i don't want to look behind him but i don't see some new new challenge is there is there a fight that you do really want obviously you know we're talking about this one now but is there one in the future that you do want yeah because first time we go all this time it's really good fights we took the bonus performance of the night and but right now

i want to finish him because i'm always good in the rematch and i want to finish him how do you see yourself getting that finish inside three rounds i will because you know any chance i have to my if my opponent give me like small chance to finish i always looking for the finish and if i have something small option i will what do you what do you think is going to be the biggest difference in this fight than last one with armand i don't think it's going to be a big different because he have always all same style and it's not like secret i have also good resting same style always i I try to take my opponents, hold him, make some damage, and finish, you know. Are you keeping in mind the secret, like, technique he's talking about?

Of course, we have planned. We always make plan for any opponents. We sit with the coaches, with the team, and we made the plan. Before you came in here, Brad was trying to tell us that he could beat you in a street fight. I didn't say that. Really big, so I just want to see how you said it. No, if you want, we have a couple guys here. Yeah.

Well, you could run it right now. I didn't say it. I actually said I thought you'd win the fight. We have Assad. He's really good in the street fight and he has crazy experience, you know. Have you ever been in a street fight? I think the real question is, have you? I have, yeah. Yeah. Assad have also fight in the UFC cage.

He jumped to the cage and landed couple punch on the McGregor. Oh, right. Oh, nice. Do you think he ever fights again? Oh, McGregor. No, I don't think. You don't think he'll ever come back? I don't think.

Because I saw Dana said today that he's going to fight in the fall. I don't know. Too much drunks, too much marijuana. What if he came to Dagestan and you trained him? Could you get him right? Who? McGregor. That guy's not stepping putting down.

He's not going to. What I mean by that is like if he came there, could you guys fix him? No. Too far too gone? He's never going to come to Dagestan. We're not friends. Yeah. We don't want to come.

If you weren't fighting, what do you think you'd be doing in your life? I don't know maybe some business honestly because you know all my life I did same things I never thinking like I will do I will do this because and I'm still not doing some business because I don't want to thinking in the training I was my business of going there I have my my team my brothers who take care of this where I invest some money but I'm never thinking about this like singular focus on the fight yeah of course because if you thinking about something inside the gym is dangerous you know you have to be hundred percent in the gym training focus but if you're thinking oh how much I

make today how much my company how much my business thinking you're not in the gym you're getting a lot of business opportunities I'm sure so you're purposely of course I did I did something some investing yeah but I have people who take care of you know if I need I can ask them what or the numbers like last month, but I don't control, I never go inside to watch, you know. No, I have one job, and I am 100% there, and I don't have times to control something. In your opinion, who do you think is the most underrated fighter in the UFC? Right now.

Mosar. Moussar, 145. Mossar, yeah. This guy's stuff. His style, you know, hard to finish opponents, you know. He has style, pressure them, take them down, make some damage, but it's hard to finish. But last fight, he has a good fight against Algeman. But who can't finish Algeman, you know?

They both have almost same style and Algeman, former champion, you know. But Maussar looking good in this fight. to, he tried, he told us, hey, I will try to finish him. But very hard. Maasar just beginning to strike with him, how do you try to take him down, you know? It's very good fight, you know. But he's, he has, he has opportunity to be a UFC champion, you know. How do you see the Umar and Murab fight playing out? It's tough fight, Mirab, you know, it's hard worker, you know, who come from the bed life and training because of hard work he is a champion right now you know and I know he

want to defense his belt and he training so hard for Omar but Omar is also last 10 years he training with us hard worker you know he's his dream he wake up he sleep with the to be UFC champion he have everything to be UFC champion because you know this guys so hungry i've seen you guys talking to recently about coach abeb is is he like a little too crazy in the gym now pushing you guys because the way you guys talk about it it seems yeah of course always not executes always training just one way training training so hard what makes him so crazy like in the gym he just like more it's not crazy you know i understood you know he's this is like what his father did always.

But with his father, we can sit and talk, okay, coach, today I'm a little bit tired, can I do something else? But with Habib, it's not working. What happens if you tell him, like, I'm a bit tired today? Do something else, go running, but not rest.

One day I ask him, Wednesday, like middle of the week, you know, maybe I'm going to rest because tomorrow I have sparring. He said, yes, yeah, okay. okay you can rest and friday after training i made the video and asked him hey how's this week how's everybody working what do you think your opinion i just make instagram story say

like i put from the five four i go i say i ask him why four because everybody working hard this week because wednesday you take rest that's why it's four who's your when you train with your crew who gives you the toughest challenge i have my training partner you know i'm not spar with habib he's so big now he's not sparring but i have one of the best sparring partners what what the make our team it's great you know we have lara high level athletes and we push each other every day everybody have good coaches good gyms but one of the things what we have more than everybody they're the killers in the gym you know it's like a Tapping out ever an option or would you pass out before?

No, I sleep. Yeah. Our rules inside the gym. Tapping outs never happens in Dagestan does it. Damn. Sometimes happens, you know. You have to be smart, you know. It's not about like impossible, but you have to be smart.

And I don't want to put myself in some position where I have to tap. How come, isn't Hasbullah from Dagestan? Yeah. How come his grappling is still pretty weak. He improved. Have you been, can we get him? I mean, he's right down the street from you. He has to make some fight, you know, to show people.

He should go over there and challenge him. And show people his level in the MMA because he- Do you still hang with him once in a while? Yeah, we just met him last night. He came from Dagestan yesterday with Korban. Corban bring me honey. after the win, I want Dagestan honey, try. Awesome.

Yeah, that's great. We don't want to take too much of your time. I know you're cutting weight. You had a big week. Do you have you that honey? You said you had honey? Yeah. Do you have some of that?

I want to try it's not your honey, bro. No, obviously, it's from Dagestan, you will try. Okay. We should go again. We should go again. We're all rooting for your all in your corner, so. Thank you. That if that makes you go more confident.

Wait, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. You asked me last time, and you were room for the other guy. Who? Armand, you just said you said you want. I'd like to make the underdog feel good, you know what I mean? That's crazy. What the fuck? I'm waiting for you in...

You're way more intimidating when you're sitting in... In April. April, you will come to Dagestan. Yeah, I'll be there. Invite you very good. He was scared to come last time. He didn't come. I'm not scared of shit.

Why? He's had busy. He didn't come last time. He was scared. There's a guy who I make the podcast. What is the name? I don't know what you ask me, Russia have Wi-Fi? Oh.

Oh. Yeah. You think same? You do, obviously. Bro. Dagestan have to Russia. What do you think about that when they, people like that

think you guys are living in a village on a farm? It's crazy, man. Just open YouTube or, I don't know, Google. Yeah. This is crazy question. You think they just got cows and shit out there. Russia have Wi-Fi. They think everybody training with beer, like, you know,

it's crazy. And you guys have to come to Russia and show you as people how it's beautiful. Yeah. On top of that. Again. All right. And they have best Wi-Fi in the world. Very cheap and speed very high. All right. Sounds good. Awesome. Thank you, bro. Thank you, guys. We'll be rooting for you, bro.

All right. We'll morning, Magamatoff, man. How's this camp been for you so far? Awesome. Good training camp and ready. Is this your first time doing a lot? camp in the United States no before fight in UFC we're always doing we always prepare here is it different when you like leave Dagestan to come train to United States what how do you like it here you know we have to do this it's not about like or not like if you want to be champion you have to sacrifice and we always came to US before fight like six or seven weeks I saw Kabib talking about sacrifice and we ask Islam too

but do you feel like you've had to sacrifice a lot to get to where you are now? It's not it's not nothing special you know everybody have to do this if you want to be successful

you have to sacrifice. How do you see yourself beating Mirab in this fight? Destroy maybe it's gonna be some finished but I want to destroy him show him like I want to show people is my like who I am and I am much better than him as a fighter.

In one word, how would you describe your like fighting style? New generation fighter, you know, everybody upcoming like me. Everybody knows how is gripple, wrestle, how is punching kicks, you know. A lot of guys now like doing a mix. What do you like to do in Dagestan when you're not training? We're always training. Unfortunately, unfortunately, we always have to train. And I do sometimes I go some natural filming on the like on drone.

Oh, you fly the drone? Yes. I love it and sometimes I spent my, I try to spend time with my family, with my friends, be on the camp, not like before fights like six or eight weeks, but even I have to train. You know, I have to be in good shape. in good shape and you never know when the opportunity will come i feel like you guys are like robots out there almost like you guys are just everyone has the same sort of answers as far as like what they're doing it's just like even with these schedules uh i felt uh i'm not trained

how i have to you know even uh even if i train all the time i think i have to because a lot of guys upcoming. You know, a lot of guys will, everybody want to beat you, right? In UFC, in outside the UFC, in other organizations, everybody wants to take this belt and you have to compare with high-level fighters and you can say, I won't. If you want, you have to retire it. What's like the most exciting part of fighting for you? In the cage or mean all?

In the cage. When they said like, fight. Let me when judge said, fight. that moment exciting and after that for you all your all world for you it's in the cage this this idea because we keep we interview a lot of people like we just talked to Islam but it's from the people from Dagestan and Russia in general is it like everyone treats themselves very like like very singularly focused on what they're doing or is it just specifically in the fight game or is it specifically in that

camp where you guys all are if we're talking about my teammate I saw our guys all the time in the gym you know okay you have training camp it's six or seven eight weeks right for that moment you train to prepare for the fight condition what about other time you can just rest because you have to improve your skills you have to become much better in grappling in wrestling in kicks in like everywhere right because it's a high level competitive sport and if you if you will after fight go to some places enjoying there like three weeks and you will come back to home do like some other things what can like take your time you know you will not you will be

fighter a fighter like who win three times lose three times and And you like middle fighter, like middle level fighter. But if you want to be champion, you have to sacrifice. So like losing zero momentum is kind of the goal. Like never taking kind of time off. Is it like the diet, the food, the sleep, everything. Even outside of like your training camps, it's always, you're just always dialed. No, no.

Even if I'm not on the diet, my weight is not coming up, you know, because of I do train. Like even if I do one time, even if I'm not. i came to gym and grapple like 30 minutes it's enough you know you will be in the good shape you know and uh about diet i eat burgers i drunk uh i drink soda you know like and so you do that during camp during camp like water no like i mean alcohol i mean like sodas like some juices you know and i'm not the person who like like christiana i know he's following diet all his life you know I'm not like that

but when I'm trained like even one time my weight is stopping like 155 158 middle like they always like same

but you guys you never like let loose you never just like fuck off and like yes I'm not become obese like fat I always

no I mean like do you ever just like he's a burger in a soda once in a while no yeah I guess I mean not just diet wise like just in the rest of

your life. You're just, it's after fight, I rest one, one or two week. I'm not trained. It's for me. Like no train. Rest. Yes. I'm not training. Then I, I go to. I go to. That sounds so far. I, I try to spend with my, I do regular life. You know, I'm going to walk with my, I play with my kids, go with my family somewhere, see like meet with my friends, me's parents, go to my village to mountain village and try to be there a couple days with my father and try to go or hunt you know with him you know and a lot of things like like a regular life you know and we when we resting we're going always to UMRA it's in Saudi we're going to do like it's worship you know like for us and I tried to spend my time or

with good things. How many kids do you have? I have two. Two kids. Yes, I have two boy and girl. I saw yesterday you and Marabwe're going back and forth and you guys seem like you're friendly, but he kept kind of saying that you have to become the man first, kind of saying like he's giving you this platform.

He's the bigger name. Did you feel that way? Brother, people can talk about anything. And, you know, in my life, I never do something. can put in the question like my main things you know I always try to act like a man and what he talking about I don't know if he like what he mean like I want to even right now I'm not like logistic understand what he mean what to want to like excellent plan to me like what about you're talking man if you're talking about

disrespect and you think everybody have to respect to Mirab and they will men's lot of guys don't care about Mirab and they don't think he's a man you know and even me I think I'm the more Georgian and a man more than him if we will look at how he follow Georgian traditional how is how he follow his country traditional oh okay he represent his country with tattoo and with black papaha and what about else what about life outside the doors you know what he's doing so you think you're probably a better role model anybody better than him yeah but how do you deal with the guy who can like face plant ice and like swim forever and has the crazy have you seen that clip of him diving in

ice like even this video was like some kind you know like everybody laughing you know nobody understand why he did this because he can jump with legs ahead right he will go down but with ice to his head i don't know maybe he won't uh some hype but if we will see if you watch to other videos where he did with some women's like what he did with some like he think it's funny he do with bets with alcohol and i don't know like for me is he propagand a lot of bad things And he, I think he have to think about his self before to tell anything to me. That's what I'm saying. It's a strong neck, right?

He just stood up like nothing happened. All right guys can do this. Like, you think just him. Yeah. Give, like, no, like, you know, like, you can open YouTube and looking for something crazy things. Are a lot of guys going to come to there and you will see how people do something stupid things. It's not just him. Umar, um, if you could fight anyone in UFC history or like share the Octagon with, who would it be?

It's going to be. It's all history. Jose Aldo on his prime. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he was amazing fighter. Uh, how special is it for you to just share this card with Islam? Seems like you guys have a lot of daggies came over here.

It's, how many are there over here? Like, 150? Yeah. How many Dagestan made the trip? Boys came. Ah, with, with us, uh, 30 or more. we will i will some guys will come to like close to fight you know support and uh you know for me of course um i am you know feeling like awesome and i even can uh accept when to you guys

what i what i feel when we like i'm like no amazing card amazing fights and two builds for our team and three all of us will fight in amazing you know it's amazing do you envision that moment in the octagon like getting the belt wrapped around you many times I saw even dream

how they give you to me a belt you know as soon is going to become true do you think you got in Marab's head at all I know the I don't care about that I don't think about that I don't I really don't care what he

about he like what his mind like why he do something why it's not my business you know I have to I did everything what I have to I prepare for this fight I I'm ready and I will take this belt and for me it's enough you know how he act how he do he have to think wrestling wise people say he's like obviously an amazing wrestler how do you compare your wrestling to his I don't care about that and I think even if you like if if it's gonna happen that me and him will do wrestling match i will not lose i will smash there too you know i don't care about his

wrestling skills about something like no i'm good i'm confidence what's the first thing uh you do after like a big win i'm gonna wish islam to win first fell inshallah i want to give it to him good energy and after that i will continue train it's not it's not not going to be first thing what I will do, but it's not enough. It's not finished for me. I will become a champion and I want to become one of the greatest fighters. Who would you want to be like the first title defense once you? For me, it doesn't matter, but probably it's looking like it's going to be Shona Melle. Because he right now, number one, you know, and it's looking like it's going to be him

and it's going to be, I think, in summer. Easy fight. How do you think you finish Marab? I don't like to talk like I will do something exactly, you know, but then I have to do this. When you're talking, you have to do. But for me, it doesn't matter. I just want to show, like, I'm much better than him, and I just want to beat this guy and take belt. For me, it's this one important things for me.

Other all of like finish, destroyed, like, I'm good. I know I will not give it to him even one round, shall. After the fight, is there, or when you come here and you're not? about to fight is there any american fast food that you like no we have some good places to here where we want to go to eat you know like burgers like some meals what we can eat uh after fights after fight because there's a specific spot like donalds or like we're looking for this and we find uh in instagram there's restaurants we're looking for like you know and there's pages like good good meals and i think but you know always like after

Fights nothing important, you know. You just enjoy it. You don't care about food, water, drinks, and you just want to go home to see your family. He was saying before you came in here that he would beat you in a street fight. He's saying this to everyone now. The big guy over there. He's saying it to everyone.

He will tire it. He will tired. Two minutes, well, I'd get tired. That's what I was taking your back. After that's what you're going to do. That's what I think too. Yeah. So there you have it.

You don't need this. You don't want it. I didn't say that, but it's okay. Stand on business one time. If I said it, I would say it. I would stand on it. You just keep... I get scared once you're sitting with you.

It's crazy, bro. All right, we don't want to take up too much your time. We know you're cutting weight. You got a big week and we wish you the best of luck, bro. Thank you, bro. Thank you, bro. Thank you, bro. Thank you, bro.

Thank you, bro. Thank you, very. See you, brother. One day. Yes, sir. What are you going to meet you, bro? Did I meet you up what you wish for? Yeah.

You want to fight professional fighter, right? I'm the guy. Every time I see him, he tries to get me. Before you were here, you're just saying he could take two of you. Oh, I didn't say that. He did say that. No, he did say that. He said two.

They're told me. What's up, bro? What's up? Rob in the house. How are you? Let's go. I'm good. Before we start, I guess you guys are friends with Shondon Wally.

Of course. It's our guy. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Whoa, that's our guy, bro. You got a weird? I'm sorry, but not sorry. You want to go to him?

You get through all four of us. If you want that to happen, we can make it happen. I beat him, nobody, I don't see nobody there, nobody helping him. We tried to hop in. They wouldn't let us, yeah. It's okay, it's okay. Team Walt tried to help, but we'll see. What's up with that clip of him calling you out?

What was he saying? Yeah. Okay, he said, Marabi, you have to be patient, but that's, that's cheating. That's not, that's not, that's not sportsmanship way, you know. To beat me, you have to train hard. Not like I try to distract me. When you're in the octagon, you can, like, hear that? Yeah, I'm very focused.

The time when I fight, of course, I see everything. You see when Sean throw spinning back kick, and then I back up, he missed him. I'm like, I make fun of him. Did you see this? So, yeah, when I'm fighting, very patient. You know, I see everything. I see my opponent.

And really, I hear because his corner was close to me, and he was he was talked to me and uh usually my corner is calling my name and they give me instructions and telling me what to do or something like this uh once i start fighting and he started talking about me and i tell him talk to your guy don't don't do this to me you know this is not right and um and yeah sounds like you let him get in your head a little bit yeah that's not a good thing no what he sounds like you let him get in your head a little bit yeah but bro i'm a i'm a normal guy you know i'm not how i'm gonna ignore you know like if i'm ignorant i don't know i don't understand is this one more personal than the sugar fight yes

sugar fight i mean uh you know he he disrespect me sometimes he was just ignoring me that was nothing personal with like nothing like other than like he was umali was talking trashed me and my friend uh aljo and stuff like this he's where he's who is but like nothing like this you know he no umar is personal he said something about representing your country better than you or something like that like in this podcast so yeah see the things like that yeah like he he even say i'm not georgian i'm this is what he was saying yeah so that's yeah okay he's gonna he's gonna get slapped for that so umar said i'm not georgian no he said he's more georgian than you and he represents georgian values better than you

Yeah, bro. He represents nothing. He can't represent Dagestan. He's not Russian. He's not Georgian. He can't represent nothing. You know, he's not Russian. He's from Dagestan, but he represents Russia. What kind of, and then he's saying he's Georgian now. Good luck. Okay. How do you see, how do you see this fight playing out? It's going to be tough fight. He's as a fighter. He's good, well, well-rounded. But my main train partner, There is Al Jammai Sterling, the best grappler and, you know, high-level fighter. And I train with him and I train with Yiliatopuria and many high-level guys, patchy mix. Do you, did you train this fight any differently than the Shauna Mali? Do you focus on anything more? Yes, of course, every fight is different.

Sean O'Malley, he's more stand-up and he has a knackle of power. He hits hard. He's smart. And despite Omar, we all know, he wrestlings and grapplings too. And, yeah, I was training a little bit different for this fight. Who's like the hardest hitter you faced like in the octagon? I would say Josealdo. O'Malley is tricky, you know.

If you not be patient, he hits hard too. Do you think that was the best Sean O'Malley that night? Or do you think it was your style that just threw him off? He said himself, no excuse. yeah yeah you know he I think he was he was himself but I yeah he was he was best yeah I mean I believe I mean now he's saying um yeah after the interview he said he had no excuse he lost the fight and next day I think he said he watched the fight he win the fight and he wants rematch I said okay let's go because we both in the same

situation we can fight in November because You know, me and O'Mali, we fought the same day, and we have same time until next fight. We was in the same situation, and let's fight in November because, but when it was, oh, how about I fight November? Bro, no, you was relaxing, you was waiting. Now you, for you, I need more time, I need preparation. You, like, sitting in a couch and training, I need more time with you, and this is new fight. But with O'Malley, yes, no problem. Whenever he will come back, I'm willing to give him.

very much no problem you know you think the hip the hip is just bullshit or he didn't get surgery because he had like hip surgery so like we all have some problems like you know i have some problems and i'm dealing with this and i will do surgery maybe 10 years later or whenever when i have a layoff like between fights i will do surgery i did uh surgery right after i put peterion i was my hand was broken and I did after the fight, you know, I injured before the fight, I did surgery. I win then after the fight. When I fought breadcutt in 2019, I had a big problem with my armorsome nerve and I did surgery right after fight. So, I mean, he was dealing with this injury before years. And so that was his choice. That viral clip of you when you dove into the ice,

like did you did you not go far down deep enough to test if there was ice or was it because it looked pretty cold so I was a little confused it wasn't the summertime yeah you gotta wake up my friend yeah no no but I made you I mean you took it like a champ I'm just curious yeah you didn't want to test it you guys saw what happened there you look like a beast like it didn't hurt you no no okay you just like tell straight you don't have to you don't have to lick my ass so okay I thought I mean you didn't look like the smartest guy jumping in Yes, okay, say like this. He got it.

So what happened was, you know, me and Aljo, we both was training in New York and New York is summertime, no, wintertime, it's sometimes snow comes. And when snow comes the gym was close. And they said,

the road is not clear, stay home, and I was running to the park. And there is the lake in the park. And, I decided to jump, dive in the cold water after run. You know, I was sweating and stuff like this. And I set up my phone. I just turn it on and leave it in the snow.

And I take my clothes off and I decide to just jump in the water. So water was like this deep because I know before. It wasn't too deep. So, and the, on top looks like a snow, but I don't realize it was frizzed. Why I don't check it was freeze? Because when it's cold, oh, I don't want to feel it. I just want to dive it, you know? And so, and I was more focused to jump smart to don't hit the ground.

I wanted to just jump like this. That's savage. And then just, I set up my phone and video because I want to just post a 10 second story. in Instagram and did you feel rocked at all were you like fuck so I take my clothes off

and I'm focusing to dive smart and soon as I dive I pelted my skin cut off I grabbed my head and I felt the skin was coming off and I'm like I'm so stupid I have to give you credit

because I didn't know that you recorded it and you posted it so after doing it you're like I'm throwing it posting it let me tell you this story And then of course, soon as I cut my head, I forget this video and everything. I'm so stupid I should check because I was worried to don't miss two days from the gym. I was running and trying my best to stay in a shave.

But now I have to miss one week or even maybe 10 days because I have to do stitches, right? I'm worried about this. I have to go hospital, stay in the line, get cold there, you know, and it's fucked up. and so I put my t-shirts on the head and I'm walking home now I can't even run I have cuts all over my head and oh I forgot I take a video and check my phone I look and I laugh at myself you know should I post this but if I post a lot of people like you will say I'm stupid but you know what I said I'm not hiding nothing I will post it once I post it Like, at least 10,000 followers added and they show news in Georgia and Europe.

Yeah. You see, you should break his head. Wait, really quick. I just want to say, you took it like a beast. So that's what I took away. I was like, how the fuck is he walking after that? That's how I looked at it. But, yeah.

Yeah, it was, I'm sorry. It's a legendary. It's a savage. Was Dana upset at that one, too, or no? No, that time. No, I wasn't busy in UFC. i was uh yeah i was waiting for my fight i don't had any fights and i'm sure then i don't see then i don't never uh never like tells you in person like this you know when media asked

how about merab did this how about merab not doing this and then he's like fuck merup does it suck when you see dana like saying that seeing that saying that saying that it's hard you know last time he said good things about me the media try to ask him how about marab was going crazy with umar and you're going to punish mirab and then i say what are you talking about you know i was going to go somewhere else that day now actually i moved this something else and now actually i'm going to this fight that's how i'm upset i am and he actually defend me and then I'm like oh thank you because it's always hard you know even algebra my friend you know when our boss talking public about us we want to because we are company every time they

tell us hey you have to fight there okay let's go fight no problem we always step up and that's what we're doing and we are grateful for UFC and we love we are we are very loyal and yeah so But sometimes the journalists try to provocate, yeah. What'd you do after you won the belt? I'll celebrate with my friends and family members. Where we was? Excess, yeah. You guys have a lot of chicks there or no?

Yeah, yeah, but I was so busy. I was like at least three hours. I was taking pictures. You got to let some girls hold the belt, though, right? Oh, yeah, of course. That's very important, bro. That's the right. The right ones only though. Any girl can hold the belts, no problem. Really?

That's your style? No. No, hold the balls, that's fine. But, yeah, right one. You guys live in Vegas, right? Do you guys go out there often? We go out, we have fun. Aljo has a fiancé.

He's getting married. He's being good boy since I know him. And me, I'm trying to date smart girls. Yeah. Have you been dating at all or no? Keep a cigarette Well, if you were, if you were to take a girl, what's your like go-to first date

if you take a girl out? Keep a secret. I like that. You got to be mysterious. You can't let them know what they're getting into, right? I'm just, what's yours, bro? I feel like top golf in Vegas is a nice date. Yeah, that's a good one.

Can you, do you play any other sports recreationally? Any other sports, actually, I'm only good with fighting. You're a good swimmer, though. What? You're a good swimmer, though. Yeah, I can swim, but I'm not going to say I'm a good swimer. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I like swim. I like play football. American football? No, Georgian football. No, not American football. Yeah. Sarker. Saucan.

Rob, is there a fighter you always wanted to face, like in the UFC, but haven't yet? Shondon Mali was the guy. I always wanted to fight Shondon Mali, and even I already fought, I would like to fight him again. Because we don't know, like rematchez. It's not go always same way, like, Camaroosma beat Leonette. leon edwards next fight was different you know leon edwards knock him out and uh i mean you know i want to give him a chance you know and uh other than shano mali it's no no one else even a different way class old fight and new fighter there is i i just always want to challenge the

best guy and then most deserving guy you know whoever deserved more did you did you notice after the sean o mali fight if you got more popular you know we talked earlier about getting like thousand followers after the viral sort of like incident with your head after the shano mali fight did you get get a lot more followers like did you notice that not much no after shanomali i was i was um um just maybe maybe hundred thousand have what you mean like just no knowing yeah like after the fight you how much did your like did it grow significantly your account not much after the fight not much but uh but yeah i'm a champion now and and uh i always had this question i you do a lot of like really kind of funny comedy skits is that is

that just you doing it or do you have people helping you come with the ideas it's usually my idea it's organic you know because like uh it was so easy to make fun of shun omali because uh yeah and i was trying to it was so easy and then especially i find the the guy who look like umali that was so much easy and uh yeah i have my my brother my friend who's helping me other thing and but uh usually it's my idea and maybe we talk together sometimes me aljo aljo used to do this fine fine funny skits like even five six years ago and he's very good with this you know i'll just good but uh usually like it's organic yeah like uh i don't have to you're pretty you're you're funny guy yeah very funny guy it's good yeah thank you guys

what do you expect from the press conference tomorrow last time you guys kind of stole the show yeah because i was mad about him he like i said you know he he disrespect me online and in in in press conference he said i never disrespect it and then that was uh not right for me and uh this time uh just i will like uh we're gonna fight sardy so and then i'm i'm i don't have like nothing to prove to me too much or everyone to fight there, you know. Like, one month ago, I really wanted to fight him, you know, outside. But now I wanted to fight in a cage.

Once somebody starts talking about your country and, like, where you come from, is that when it really triggers you? Of course, man. My country is more than religion for me, and my country is everything for me. And I'm ready for die for my country, you know, because we are a small country. and we always used to defend our country from enemies and, you know, Georgia, my country means everything for me. And, I mean, somebody disrespect, disrespect my country, of course.

Yeah, my country also, it's a nice, beautiful country and smart people and good people, you know. You think the fight goes the distance to decision? Who knows? Yeah. But one thing I know, I'm going to win this fight. What do you think is going to be the biggest difference in this fight for you? No, I mean, I don't know. It's going to be a good fight.

It's going to be a good fight. You know, Umar is a good fighter. He never lost before. And we all know his, uh, Kabib's cousin. He got a little easy way to cut here because he wasn't fighting a ranked opponent. And then he got straight to Corey Sanhagan. And he win against Corey Sanhagan. Now, boom, straight to the belt.

But usually, you have to fight the, rank guys like like Aljo was fighting rank guys like he beat so many rank guys like you know at that time you had a long way to the belt too you really you earned it probably more than anyone right we watched we were there for that fight up you were you were dumping them there yeah so yeah so yeah I think after Peter I deserve to fight for the belt but uh shown fight really much against uh Chitoera and I have to fight somewhere else And then we know more you fight, there is more risk that you may lose, and you never maybe get a title opportunity.

And thank God I was able to win all my fights, and I earned a title fight. And when Womar, call me fake champion, of course I'm mad, you know. That's the problem. Is it intimidating having Khabib in their corner? No, for me, it's nothing. I'm professional. and um he might be yelling more than tim welch right yeah but he will yell it but he's not

gonna tell me anything you know saying he's professional like kabibis respectful fighter and respectful coach he's not going to try this cheap way and like cheating way you know i respect the umar's team and no problem i have no problem with them they never disrespect me or something like this and uh yeah the when um i saw before me and omali fight you guys i saw before me and omali fight I see Tim Walsh interview with Schmo and he said oh Mirab has seven-inch nose he's five three and we're gonna target his nose and it's not a cold job to make fun of me you know I was mad the time too you know because coach you have to focus on your fight day you have to focus on your training and not like a talk trash because me and normally we can talk trash because we're going to fight we're going to find out who's better fighters somebody will give win respect shahans move on that's okay

but when somebody teammates talking about fighter or coach it's not right you know because we are proportional fighters we deserve respect you know that's all yeah what how do you see your like title ring playing out like how many times do you want want to fight and would you ever move I guess Toporia is up at the next weight class but so me I just want to be busy like my plan was to after Omali fight come back in March and start from there like after six months like usually every champion does but now I have to come back quick and around with Umar God willing I'm going to win this fight and after I want to the same plan like I had before. I want to fight in March. If O'Malley will be ready for March, I will fight

Omali. If not Peter is ready March. I will fight Peter. March already? Yeah. Wow. Like I had plans before. And then I think O'Malley wants to come back in April and I will fight April in Miami too. So and then March and April. If they give me. You would do that? I will do it. If UFC wants this, I will do it. Wow. Because after I fought Henley Sehudo, three weeks later I make weight again. I thought, no, I was Beka fighter for Omali Chittovera. And so in 11 months, this is my fourth time making weight, which is... Pretty impressive. Yes, because the weight cut is the hardest, because now, as you guys saw me, I'm skinny now.

I'm like 10 pounds lighter than what I usually am, and I still have to cut 10 more pounds, which is the hardest. I have to work out. I will done interviews with you guys. I have to sweat. Tonight I have to cut five pounds and stay without drink, without food. And tomorrow also no food, no drink. And tomorrow I still have to cut.

No food at all? No, I have a little bit with my own style. And tomorrow, so I have to sweat a lot to cut like four pounds and lay down in the bed. No sleep comes. Yeah, obviously we have so much respect for you guys and what you do, like in the ring. but the weight cutting to me and then you guys have to do all this media too I don't know how you guys do it

did you sleep the night before the O'Malley fight night before I sleep like a baby no problem but to weighing before like Thursday night like Friday morning I can't sleep like zero just too excited or because the weight cut because you need water

you need like just lay down and you're so hydrated and you just want to check weight. Do you ever try to like take melatonin? I'm like just to get you to go to sleep. I'm like actually doing my best. How about rain sounds?

Yeah, like rain sounds or like something to calm me down. You're right, you're right. No, yeah, I'm serious. Yeah, you're right. You see PI actually give us melatonin like pills, but I will take two nights, but tomorrow you need to drink water to when you take pills into your water.

You don't take the gummy bear ones? There's like gummy sleep ones that are like 2 milligrams. I'm scared of this because we have a friend Sidic. He takes something. He was saying. He was high. Oh, he's talking about. I don't take any more.

No, like, I'm talking about the CVS forms. I never try. I never. Maybe I'll do it. I was generally curious. I got a question, though, about the, obviously the weight cutter. I understand why you have a hard time sleeping. It's really because, like, the water and because of the carbohydrates, it makes it really hard.

If you're not eating enough to sleep. But have you noticed more fun? it's gotten harder for you to do the weight cuts to get to weight. Like as you fought more and more throughout your career, as you've aged, has it gotten harder? No, actually, it's getting easy because I learned some things from Aljo and they always pushing me, oh, come on, bro, drink more water. And then I learned a little bit easier way to before I used to kill myself.

I used to, from Monday to Friday morning, I used to not drink and not eat nothing. But now, today, I was still sipping water. I have some water here like just to sip and like yesterday I was drinking I was drinking so like Monday and Tuesday I'm still drinking Wednesday sipping and now of course like I'm not really drinking and so only last two days I do my you have a better protocol now like a better plan much much better I think when you're young I I was kid like 13 years old and I was kind of weight to wrestling. And I imagine a kid's day without foot two days and still have to swing, like sweat and

a run and that was crazy, so terrible and kill myself and I don't know what to eat after. And like we all go through. I'm sure I'll do. He's all American. And we all have to cut weight and do, we learn hard ways. But now, thank God, technology goes better. I hope my English gets better. I can read good and I can maybe one day understand the, then trust the process

because I have a problem like don't trust. I still do kind of my old ways, you know? Yeah. Because they told me, oh, keep drinking water, keep eating these snacks. But I'm like, no, no, no, I don't want to risk, you know. Yeah. That's the thing. And then after, you feel good once you.

Oh, yeah. Once I make weight, I have no problem, never issue. I start drinking, like sipping water, like water, period, lights, like minerals, like stuff like this. Water first and like maybe one liter of water, you have to, you have like 20 minutes to finish. Don't like drink everything like little by little. And after you can you can eat fruits like watermelon, blueberry and rubber. raspberry and because it's easy to digest after you know this you are staying hungry it's easy to digest first and after you can start eating pasta carp and like stuff like this and I'm good

and like I mean daytime I'm still slow but nighttime I already coming back you know the morning I'm God let's go what do you what do you think you actually fight at like when you step in the in the ring. I think like I'm getting back 18 pounds. Oh, shit. What? Yeah. Yeah. At least. Yeah. 18 to 20 pounds is next day. Wow. It's so crazy. Even night. Yeah, 155. And then imagine like I keep drinking all this water eating and I don't even go for pedo like this. I'm so thirsty, dry. Well, yeah, because imagine like in five days, I lose 20 pounds and because it's all water. That's what we do.

Yeah. This is the, this is the hardest way to, you know. Fighting is we all, we all love fighting. You know, it's nothing. Even Aljo now moved up 145 division and look at him and he's like, he's, how I was making 135, this is sucks. He's like, he's like, this is not good. I feel like he got the most energy out of everyone so far.

Yeah, yeah, you do. You got a lot of personality. Yeah, you're a funny-ass guy. No, you guys cool and I'm sorry again. your friend of molly but we'll see in the rematch we're hoping for the rematch yeah rematch we'll see the rematch we'll see it again stony doesn't think there's going to be rematch okay okay what i'm trying to say yeah f y i did not say that you said that earlier stony he said you're gonna lose so he's taking i'm siding with you right now no i'm not i can't do that

okay now he's switch up on my team sorry that's crazy okay i was trying i was trying to come friends with you guys and you want to fight me You can be friends with them, but I stay little to my people. So if they don't want to support. Every guy who comes in here, he's loyal to the last one. I'm going to support sugar. I have to. Yeah.

But I respect you. You already shaking. We've had too many legendary nitrous sugar. He already back up. He's cool. He's cool. So, you know. Fair enough.

I'm joking. No, you're good. Respect. Respect. Do you have any, like, do you have a pre-fight ritual or something that you go through every time before the fight? Nothing. I'm Christian. Just, I will say, God bless me.

and that's it you know nothing nothing I don't you know I have my Georgian music where I work on but it's of course give me extra extra motivation and extra pumped but I don't have nothing specific you know long as I will warm up good I'm good yeah nothing I believe hard work and I always training hard push my limits and when I go to fight and I, all on focus on, do my best. That's long as I will do my best, I'm happy because even if I lost, but I did my best, I'm happy because I try and I do my best, you know.

That's, I'm doing same thing in training, trying to do my best and fighting same thing. Do my best. Wait, when you, when you picked up, I think it was Suhudo and you like carried him around the ring. Like, did you ever, do you ever think about that stuff before it happens? or you're just like you just because i'm just trying to imagine you mid-fight trying to focus on a fight or like the licking did you lick of sugar or something yeah you kiss no you kissed his back you kissed omali's back yeah you kept kissing them like what's up with that is that like a troll or is it like totally a troll what yeah because so when i was fighting him i was controlling him and uh he can't do

really nothing and and i tried to choke him and uh and i heard the bell 10 seconds left and And I'm like, no way he's going to tap out now, but let me make fun of him, give him father kiss. And I was just kissing, you know, and a little bit, yeah, a little bit, make. And then, you know, that was a little bit loud, you know, from father. And the rapper, he called me, hey, stop, dude. And I thought it was time over. I let go. I'm like, touch him and like, good job.

And turn around. and I felt the punch, I realized that time wasn't over. I'm like, oh, shit, the time is the end. And I was it. And Henry Sehudo, I wasn't thinking before, but before the fight, I was so focused, like, I am now with Umar because Henny Sehudo was Olympic champion and he's a good, good wrestler, and my style is take people down, right? But when I was taking him down and when I shoot him,

and lived, I know that he was my baby, you know? I can hold that, I can control. But as soon as I lived, and I was, I lived this way, right? And I was looking for, I turned around, I was looking for Mark Zakenberg because I know that he was in the crowd. He was sitting next to Wachtigan. I make eye contact with him. If I don't make eye contact with Mark Zakenberg, and if I don't bring it to him,

I will have a fun with Hseudo. I will walk around, talk maybe every other person like this. Once I make eye contact with Mark Zucker, I throw up front of him and I punch there. But it's like, are you mid-fight thinking about doing this? Or you're just like, because it's like I'm... That's crazy to think of. In the moment, you're just like, oh, I'll do this. Why did that cross your mind, find Zuckerberg?

Okay, what happened was, you know, me and Aljo, we are friends with Mark Zuckerberg, you know, online. You know, he's training in MMA and he's supporting us when we're fighting. And actually, day before Mark Zuckerberg, message me, me, Hey, Merab, I will be at your fights tomorrow and good luck. And once I walked to the cage for the fight, I said, hey, Mark, you know, how are you? And then, and then, you know, I was all time, I was talked to with him, had had fun, you know. Just, but I had confidence. I don't know, I was winning, I was controlling fight and, and it's just hard work, man.

It's just, I don't know, something... Having a little fun in there? Yeah, a little fun, you know. Last question, but who's, like, the toughest fighter you've ever faced, like, in the Octagon? I will say Josie Aldo was hard, because he's a good takedown on the pants, and he hits hard. And he was, when I fought him, he was three-fight winning streak. And then that was hardest match up. I would say, yeah.

And, yeah, also Peterian was good, also. yeah unfortunately no it's okay I don't want to talk you're good yeah yeah

all right Rob thank you but but but to also answer your question every next fight is tough

opponent because it's a new challenge you know you know every next fight now I'm not focus of my past

I'm looking for my future and so after tomorrow right no Saturday Saturday

almost there almost there yeah This card is sweet though, we're pumped up. Really good. Yeah, yeah, it's good. We'll be there. Nice.

You might hear something from the audience because it sounds like you get distracted a little easy. Oh, good. Please, hey. Chair for me and chair for Aljo when we fight. You know, if you need the strong friends like me and Aljo, we're here. Okay, for you guys. I appreciate it. All right.

Thank you, bro. Thank you.