Mark Bell's Power Project - BJJ Legend Rafael Lovato Jr | The Art of World-Class Jiu-Jitsu

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Rafael Lovato Jr joins Mark Bell’s Power Project to break down the mindset, strategy, and longevity behind one of the greatest American careers in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.Lovato explains his famous pressure-passing system, the “funnel” concept he uses to control opponents, how he’s stayed elite for over two decades, and why efficiency and consistency matter more than strength or explosiveness.We also dive into his upbringing in martial arts, competing around the world, his undefeated MMA career, and the powerful story behind his Bellator championship fight while dealing with a serious brain condition.Follow:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rafaellovatojrWebsite: https://timelessjiujitsu.comInstructionals: https://lastroundbestround.comSpecial perks for our listeners below!🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWER to save 20% off site wide, or code POWERPROJECT to save an additional 5% off your Build a Box Subscription!🩸 Get your BLOODWORK/TRT/PEPTIDES! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com and use code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off Self-Service Labs and Guided Optimization®.🧠 Methylene Blue: Better Focus, Sleep and Mood 🧠 Use Code POWER10 for 10% off!➢https://troscriptions.com?utm_source=affiliate&ut-m_medium=podcast&ut-m_campaign=MarkBel-I_podcastBest 5 Finger Barefoot Shoes! 👟 ➢ https://Peluva.com/PowerProject Code POWERPROJECT15 to save 15% off Peluva Shoes!Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM?si=JZN09-FakTjoJuaW🚨 The Best Red Light Therapy Devices and Blue Blocking Glasses On The Market! 😎➢https://emr-tek.com/Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!👟 BEST LOOKING AND FUNCTIONING BAREFOOT SHOES 🦶➢https://vivobarefoot.com/powerproject🥶 The Best Cold Plunge Money Can Buy 🥶 ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast➢ https://www.PowerProject.live➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerprojectFOLLOW Mark Bell➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybellFollow Nsima Inyang➢ Ropes and equipment : https://thestrongerhuman.store➢ Community & Courses: https://www.skool.com/thestrongerhuman➢ YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=e

I don't teach any fluff. I just want to give you what I know 100% works. In the beginning, when we shake hands and we're on the feet, there's a million different possibilities. And my goal is to get you inside my world, inside my funnel, to where all roads are going to end with two or three of my best finishing positions. People lose consistency when they overdo intensity. Once you start doing what you love, never stop.

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. Yeah, no, I'm saying the amount of muscle I have didn't really matter when we were rolling yesterday. You know, I think one of the coolest things, you're known for, like, even on, even on YouTube, there's an instructional that's up there, battle tested pressure passing. I was, I watched that for a while. But like, you're known for your pressure and you did a seminar with us, showed us some pressure stuff. And you did the exact same move you showed during the seminar when we were rolling together. They had me so pissed when you were doing it. I only teach what I do, you know, only what I know is proven, battle tested, what I believe in.

I don't teach any fluff. I'm not there to give you something that may or may not work. You know, I just want to give you what I know 100% works forever. And yeah, a lot of usually that comment is what I get. Like, you just did this, you know, you taught in the seminar and then you just did it to me, or I just watched you do that at a competition and now, you know. But I love that. I love for people also to feel what it feels like.

so it gives them an extra level of kind of understanding of like how powerful it is you know so you knew what he was going to do and you couldn't stop it no like when I was playing my guard I'm like oh I like because he showed the exact move he was showing during the seminar the sequence of the sequence the guard that I was playing he nullified it then he started doing the exact move and I was like fuck fuck

I'm doing the thing I'm doing oh no it's happening I couldn't I couldn't stop You got out of there a couple times though. Yeah, but by the third or fourth time, whenever you managed to get me and then tap me, it's just like, exactly, the frames I was creating were exactly what you wanted and I was done. What is that?

Like, how do you obtain that? Is that, because you're known for your technique? And what does that mean? When you hear people talk about that a lot, right? Technique, technique, but like for you, what does it mean? I think technique is just learning how to be as efficient as possible with your physical attributes. And understanding what sort of game you want to play on a very deep level of the reactions that

they're likely to bring, all the different directions they might go. Thinking of all the different scenarios and maybe being a couple moves ahead. Yeah, 100%. Many moves ahead. I called it the funnel. I talked about it yesterday at the seminar. it's like in the beginning when we shake hands and we're on the feet, there's a million different possibilities, you know, depending on how the match starts and we approach each other and start to try to get into our games.

And my goal is to get you inside my world, inside my funnel, to where all roads are going to end with two or three of my best finishing positions. So I'm always thinking about the checkmate. You know, I'm not trying to just score points or just get to certain positions and hold or, anything like that. I want everything to be so seamlessly connected that whether you like it or not,

once you're in my funnel, I'm going to take you to my number one positions, my best positions, and I'm going to finish you with the same move over and over and over again. It sounds like somebody that's going to square off against you that's not as good. They think that they have all these choices, but they don't. They're in your funnel. I try to make it that way, for sure. That's the goal. And have such a deep understanding of all the likely reactions that I'm already blocking or I'm where I'm supposed to be before you even know you need to get there and just take everything away and give them no choice but to fall victim to one of my finishes. But the way that I go about that is with pressure.

That's my game, my style. I like to use my body weight and make the other person tired, you know, give them this feeling of being a little bit overwhelmed and maybe smothered and just like feeling like they can't move and through that they they're going to react with a lot of muscle and use a lot of energy and then they're going to get more tired and and i can just kind of control and take my time it's a slower game a slower process um i'm not like crazy explosive and trying to do fast big things I'm going to just keep investing in consistency and, you know, just get a little further, a little further, a little further, a little further, a little further. And that slower process makes the other person more tired on the way. And then by the time I get to my spots, it's usually fairly easy to put the person away because they are tired and they have felt me, you know, so much into that process.

that they're just kind of ready to get out of there. And I think that's been a huge factor. I don't think I know that's been a huge factor why I've been able to be successful for so long competing against the young guys and all the new generation guys that keep coming out into my 40s. I've been, you know, one of the best in the world for now two decades. I want to mention this. If we're being real, you're kind of like the LeBron of Jiu-Jitsu.

When we think about it, because you've done, you've done, you've done all the things that people want to be able to do. You've won multiple titles. You've won grand slams. But at 42, you manage, you're still managing to beat the guys in their prime that are like the best guys. Like you just beat John Carla Bedoni, right? And he's a very, very good grappler.

I don't know what he's ranked right now in Flo, but extremely good. We've had him on the podcast. But you have 42, you're tuning up these guys. Like it's, that's not something that's seen, especially within the martial arch jihitsu. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

You know, I didn't like necessarily make that the plan. It wasn't like I was in my 20s and like, oh, yeah, I'm going to be one of the best into my 40s that had never really been done before. You haven't seen that. And so there was no like blueprint to show me how. But I think I've just done a very good job of creating the technique, you know, understanding what works forever. and focusing on those areas where I am mastering the things that are going to allow me to play that kind of game, you know, and not have to rely on athleticism or strength or speed or anything like that. So I just, the jih Tjitsu that I came from, I'm just so fortunate to get exposed to that style and then just fully believe in it and work so hard.

to build my own style based on those aspects. And so technically I've done the right things, but then also just constantly being a student, always learning, staying inspired and putting myself around the right people and consistently challenging myself as well. I've never taken long breaks. And so I'm always in the game.

And so you're not gonna fall behind if you're always out there and you're feeling what's coming. You're seeing, you're studying, And then just my outside practice, the way I take care of my body and the people that I've kind of honed in as mentors, they're all in the same mindset of building longevity. And they're doing that within their crafts as well. And then I'm just absorbing all that knowledge. So I've just been a very good student at the game.

And yeah, it just happened. Like here we are. I never stopped. I've never allowed myself to feel too comfortable. I'm always fired up to keep getting better, no matter if I'm training at home or if I'm training in a world-class room, wherever I'm at, whatever I'm doing, MMA, Muay Thai, wrestling, you know, ghi stuff, judo, whatever,

I always leave the room hungry to get better. It's just like, man, I can still be better. I can still be better. And so that just keeps me pushing to, keep working just stay to stay in and so i've just stayed in that's that's it there's no secret just just consistency efficiency is like something that i think we all marvel at maybe without really truly recognizing it you know that's the greatness of the tom brady's lebron james like they just they're doing the simple things and they're doing the simple things right for a really long time and maybe they hone them

in and craft them into something that's slightly different than what they originally learned so that's even better than what they learned. But my son, my son always just gives me these like weird facts. We go on walks and I call him Jake Fax. He's Jake. He's 22. So it's not like he's a little kid anymore. But like he's been doing this since he was really young.

But he just hit me with this stat the other day. And he's like, did you know there's a bird that, you know, he knows where it's from or whatever? He's like, it flaps its wings one time. And it can fly up to three months. What? Something insane like that. And you're like, what the hell?

Like, so some sort of efficiency born into this particular bird. And the bird has some sort of weird, like it used to have more oil in it, I guess. Because most birds have like a little bit of oil. And that helps repel some enemies or whatever you want to call it. But it's just like super interesting stuff. Did you find something? I think Brian probably found it. It's called the Wandering Albatross.

Yeah, renowned for its ability to fly for extremely long periods, sometimes months or even years without landing with the largest wingspan of any living bird. It's up to 12 feet. They use highly efficient technique called dynamic soaring to glide over ocean winds with minimal flapping. Wow. I bet that bird lives for a long time too. Probably. Yeah. And with your efficiency, I mean, that's you're you're able to like funnel people into some of these things that you found to be foolproof. Did you do a bunch of stuff that was fancy? Did you do a bunch of stuff that was outside of the things that you do now in the beginning to kind of learn some of this? I did.

You know, a lot of it was just the way I came up. And then, of course, being young and maybe being a little bit more, how would I say, like careless to take more risk as far as like the type of techniques that I would use. but my upbringing in martial arts so my father is a lifetime martial artist and so I've done martial arts my whole life he was my first teacher my first coach and basically ever since I can move

I've been doing some form of training yeah and we grew up doing Gekundo so my dad was a Gekundo instructor he was a student under a couple of Bruce Lee's top students Danny and Osano and Richard Bastille and they're incredible incredible martial artists. I mean, just, like, they've always been way ahead of their time because of Bruce, his mindset, his philosophy. It was MMA before MMA, basically. And, and so I did a lot of different stuff, you know, boxing, Muay Thai. We did Wing Chung, Kali, a screaming like the Filipino martial arts, you know, trapping, pinjoxy lot, different kicking arts like Savat. You know, we did a lot of, we did a lot of. different things and and then my father discovered jih Tzu through Jikundo um they uh you know that they

understood that you must have a form of of self-defense or combat in each range so there was weapons kicking punching trapping and even some ground fighting um way back in the days like that's where you're maybe further apart stuff where you're maybe closer to get yeah yeah exactly exactly and uh and through the jikundo evolution they they discover j j j j jacuzzi Jiu-Jitsu. And they would hold these instructor conferences once a year in L.A. And my dad went to these. And one year they had the Gracies there. Is this like 90s maybe? Yeah, early 90s. And my dad's a smaller guy. So, you know, I don't look anything like my dad.

Back in those days, he was probably like 1.45. So for him, Jiu-Jitsu was like, I mean, he fell in love with it. and seeing the smaller man beat the bigger man using technique. He gravitated to it. He fell in love with it. And then he started bringing it home to me, you know, to the martial art school that he was running back then,

which was a Gekundo school. This was in Oklahoma City. And he opened in 93. He started bringing his jihitsu back. And he was the first one to bring jih Tzu to our area of the country. And let's see, Throughout the early 90s, he then met the Mashado brothers. And he was going to California,

traveling all the way to California, and he doesn't like to fly, so he was driving to train and learn Jiu-Jitsu from the Gracies and then the Mashado's a couple times a year. And then the life-changing moment happened when Chuck Norris, who was a student, the Mashado Brothers in LA, he moved to Dallas, Texas to do the Walker, Texas Ranger show.

and he wanted to continue learning jiu-sitsu. So he brought Carlos Machado to Texas, to Dallas. And Carlos' first jujitsu school was inside the studio where they filmed Walker, Texas Ranger. And this was amazing for us because now my dad didn't have to go all the way to California anymore. He would just go to Dallas. So we had access to jih Tzu much closer.

And he was going to Dallas, like once a week for many, many years. usually on a Thursday, he would drive down, do a private lesson, training in the morning class, and then have lunch, drive right back home and then teach class at our school that night. And so my dad was getting all this information. He was bringing home to me and the students, and he would work with me, show me everything he learned, and we would drill together, and we started buying VHS tapes and trying to study. And then by the time I was like 14, 15, I started traveling a lot as well.

So I was going down to Dallas with him or some of our other guys, even going all the way to California. I did a couple road trips with my dad all the way to L.A. and back. And everything has always been traveling. We always had to travel to get somewhere where we could learn. Travel, gather the information, bring it back home. Bring it back home. Exactly. Exactly. And we did that over and over and over again. And then by the time I was 16, I went to Brazil for the first time. and I competed at the World Championships

and stayed there for two weeks, trained. And I basically have just been constantly traveling ever since. And once I got a car, I was driving down to Dallas and doing the classes and training with Carlos and his guys then and going to California as well. But that, I say all this to give you the backstory as to why my game kind of, I've explored and played with everything.

because I traveled so much and I was in a different room learning from different people and anytime I saw something that I didn't know how it worked I'd always ask hey what was that you know what's the game here like what are the techniques what's the you know how do you play this right and and if it was something new I would study it and then I would bring it home and then we'd be on our own for a while and I would show my dad and we would play with an explorer and And then the next time I'd go and travel somewhere, a lot of times I'd come up with something different. And so I didn't have a real system to follow. I didn't have an instructor day to day saying, this is it, this is how we want to put our game together.

A lot of the techniques and the games that I played, it changed quite frequently. And the MA didn't really even exist. Well, hardly. It started to. We were watching, you know. Pat Militich and those guys didn't. Yeah, even before then, we were watching Hickson fight in Japan at the Valley Tudu opens. This was like 95.

In the United States, MMA was like not fully. UFC had just started. It was still bare-knuckle, like, really raw and violent, you know, not that it isn't today, but it was a different story back then. Yeah, when one guy barely knows how to fight and the other guy knows how to fight, it can be ugly. Well, and they're just the rules, you know, bare-knuckle, hit the person when they're down. I mean, you could do groin strikes. it was it was pretty gnarly but but we we'd always train everything so even when we were starting

to learn jiu jitsu and bring jiu jitsu home uh we still did the striking arts we still did jikundo and my father developed a curriculum um which was a valetudo curriculum so back before m m m m m mc may they used to call it valetudo in brazil which was like just bare-knuckle no holds bar type fighting and uh and so we my dad changed the name of our school from a jekundo school, which was called martial arts international, to Levato School of Valley Tutu. And that was him encompassing everything. So he wanted to have jiu-jitsu and striking and how you could put the whole game together. And basically just taking all of his martial arts and putting it together into his own curriculum. And that's what I grew up in. So, you know, we always did a lot of

Jiu-Jitsu, but then the striking was never far away. And so back in the days at my dad's school, when you got your blue belt in Jiu-sitsu and you did your test, you also had to do boxing, Muay, and MMA sparring. So this was like really hardcore. I mean, we didn't have that many students back then, but you had no choice but to train everything. So if you were going to learn, if you were going to be a student at our school under my father, you had to do everything. So we had a basic class and advanced class, but each class encompassed jujitsu, takedowns,

striking, gie, and no gie, you know, it was everything. And we maybe only had like four or five blue belts tests each year, but they were all like, I mean, they could have been pretty good, pretty decent regional level MMA fighters because they could put it all together.

So the testing back in those days would last like three or four hours. and and you know there was a lot of cardio involved and then you did like striking sparring you know some moitai sparring you would hit mitts the whole thing then you would put your ghee on demonstrate your techniques in the ghee and then you would do jihitsu sparring and then at the end you take the key off put on little gloves and then you would do mMA sparring with our best guys and it was pretty brutal and so the ones that passed I mean like I said they were all pretty good and very tough.

I mean, just to be an average student, average person willing to put on gloves and do full sparring with striking and MMA, you know, that's a, that's a different level. Was that explained up front? Like somebody walks through and you're like, hey, you're going to be asked to do, you're responsible for all this.

Yeah. And you're like, I just want to like roll around the maths a little bit. Like, no, no, no. It doesn't work that way here. Yeah, totally. I mean, he never even made that a, option. And so it was pretty hardcore, but at the same time, it embodied his philosophy. It's like, I want my students to be competent level, like, you know, real fighters, basically, to be able

to defend themselves on the streets. You know, of course, back then, a little bit of jihitsu would go a long way. But in his mind, it's like, well, the fight still starts on the feet, right? like you have to know how to strike you have to know how to close the distance you need to know how to control someone when they're hitting you on the ground and what really works uh jiu jitsu wise for a real fight that was always what we focused on and and so that's what i grew up in and so whenever i did fight m m ms later on in my career um a lot of people didn't really realize my upbringing in martial arts and they just saw me as a jih Tijitsu guy pure a pure jure jr's jr. Jiu-Jitsu guy and they didn't understand the sort of martial arts background that I had and how

I've basically been doing MMA my whole life. Of course, I backed off the striking and just focus on Jiu-Sitsu to accomplish my goals there and was really committed to my career in Jiu-Zitsu, but I still had that, you know, that natural feeling to getting hit and knowing how to punch and strike and what it's like to do, jujitsu when someone can hit you um i grew up in that the only time we used to take our ghee off was to put on little gloves and do m m a we never even did no gie which is so popular today back in my time when i was coming up all this all this professional no gie competition didn't exist um that that sport of grappling was nowhere near where it is today and so there was really

only like one no gee event a year which was ADCC that's started in the late 90s, like 99, and by the early 2000s started to get popular. And it paid money, big money. And so a lot of the top jih Tzu guys would take the key off to do that event. But that was really the only one. And then more no-gi events started happening. But there was never a thought like, okay, let's just do no-gi. It's like, why are we going to do no-gi-i?

If we're going to do jih-zitsu, let's do jih-zitsu. If we're going to do no ghee and take the key off, then let's fight. Like let's put on little gloves and do MMA. And so that's, you know, like I said, that's what I came up in. And I'm much different than what it is today. Like nowadays, it's really referred to as a sport, which I'm not such a fan of. I like everyone to understand that this is a martial art and we are all martial artists. We're not playing a sport, you know, and,

different teams that refer to their students instead of like a student of martial arts. They'll say, oh, that's my athlete. What do you think is the difference? Like when, because someone might be listening, they're like, well, what is the difference of looking at it like a martial art? I mean, I think I look at it like a martial art. What do you mean? Well, I think when you, when you think about a sport, you're playing a game and then you

have your career, right, where you win certain things. And, and that's your sport career. and maybe it has an ending, right? And so, you know, a lot of guys or a lot of kids, maybe they're like, or maybe their parents, like, oh, I'm looking for a sport for my child. We want to play this sport. We're hearing great things about this sport of jiu-jitsu.

And then they immediately enroll and start playing the sport of jiu-sitsu with the idea of, okay, when's the competition? Now we want to compete. and, and it's, it's very much like, I'm doing this sport, and I'm playing this sport to win tournaments, which is fine. I don't want to say there's something wrong with that, but my mindset and my philosophy,

what I try to have people embody is that you're learning a martial art, and we're a martial artist. Like, we're not athletes necessarily. That's an element to it, but. Yeah, we're not doing it just to compete. My wife has been a swimmer since the time she was, was like 10. And she swam for the University of Kansas and she's, you know, competed a ton. But now she's in master swimming and she always just calls it practice. And that's what you see

with martial arts is they talk about it being a practice. Which I think that sometimes when people are talking about working out, they should be working out. 100% workouts as a practice because you're trying to, not trying to necessarily just get better at it so you can go compete or so you can make an Instagram post or something like that. You're trying to continually perfect the movement over a long period of time and increase your efficiency, you know, how you move the weight. You know, maybe, you know, maybe you're, you know, trying to deadlift a certain amount.

But it's also important that over time, not only can you lift more, but can you lift it better? Yeah, 100%. That's exactly the same philosophy that I have. We are in this practice, this is our craft. And as martial artists, we will live the martial arts life forever. So there is no end. and there is no point at which some sort of competition success is going to make me say,

okay, now I'm good, I'm done. I think you're missing the point. There's no end in, you know. That's what I love about it. There is no end. I can picture like telling that to someone who's like new that just came through the door. They're kind of like, what? There's no, like they just are like learning, you know, and they're just advancing.

And it's exciting, right? But then on another hand, probably is a little overwhelming. Yeah. But there's just so many more benefits than the competition wins, right? I mean, the real beauty is how you can take these character traits that you build through martial arts training and help you be a better person and just do life better. And so if we're just thinking about sport and playing tournaments and competitions, then you're missing the bigger benefits.

right. And that's how I like my students to view themselves as martial arts. And they are students for life. We're always going to be learning. We're always going to be trying to become better than what we were the day before. And at the same time, giving back. If you think about a sport, you know, how many people enter into a sport with one day thinking of themselves as being a coach. But as martial artists, we should be learning and then giving back 100%. And it's for so many different reasons. I mean, number one, it makes you better. Right. So if you, even if you just wanted to look at it selfishly, as I become a teacher, I now have to communicate what I do, why I do it, how it works. You know, I have to be able to communicate this on a very deep level where other people can

understand it and do it for themselves and also guide them to do it their way. So you can't just say, this is how it works and that's it, you know? And so you have to be able to pass it on and then also allow them to hone it for themselves. And so when you learn how to communicate on that level, it just makes you better. Now you have a deeper understanding. And now you are also doing these extra repetitions of delivering, you know, so it's like mental reps. And so you're just honing your craft even more because you're practicing more. And then you're making them better, right? So then as they get better, now you're going to have to understand, you know, once they really know your game and your techniques, they're going to have better answers for it. So now new layers

for you are going to come because they're going to be able to do. defend and not allow you to do what you want to do because they know exactly what it is you're trying to do. And so now you're going to improve them even more because now you have to understand how you're going to still get ahead and bring them into your funnel when they are fully aware of what your funnel is. So then there's that. And at the end of the day, we're all just helping each other become better. So I think that's an important element to martial arts, being a martial artist is also at some point saying, I want to teach, I want to help, I want to give back, if it's just assisting or teaching your own classes, or even just point people aside at the

end of a class and saying, hey, try this, or here's what I did, or this is what you did wrong, that sort of thing, just always trying to give back. So that's a piece to it. And obviously competition is great because that challenges you and then you learn more. Um, uh, about your game and how you respond and the truth comes out. Like your mistakes that you can hide in a, in a training room with your training partners that you're very comfortable with and all that. You know, you run into different styles, different bodies, different games,

and now your mistakes or your weaknesses are exposed. And so now you have to deal with that. And then you use the competition as a way to help you get better. So I take my mistakes and I come back to my, training room and I work on it and then I tell my guys hey this person did that I didn't have an answer for it I think you could do this same thing and you have them you know work those areas that where you can be better and then they're making you better it makes them better it just makes everyone better so at the end of the day it's just how do we live the life where we can continue to get better um as efficiently and and

you know as as as much as possible forever like just put everything in place your routine your your your your your lifestyle you know all the practices that you're doing off the mats as well um to set yourself up to to to be able to get the most out of doing what you love did you grow up in oklahoma pretty much i've lived there since i was eight so how did you avoid wrestling like well if you're in oklahoma isn't that question uh everybody there wrestles right man it because you only like started doing wrestling more recently right yes um so Back in the days, whenever I was a teenager, you know, coming up through high school and, and that time, you know, we're talking to the late 90s, Jiu-Jitsu had already proven and shown

itself to be the best. And mixed martial arts wasn't what it was today. And no ghee didn't exist the way it does today. So the appreciation for wrestling wasn't as high back then. and I did, I was curious about wrestling and I did think about it in high school. It's obviously tons of grappling going on with the stuff that you're learning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I didn't really appreciate it the way I should have.

And I just said, but jih Tjitsu beats wrestling. So I'm just going to put all my energy in jiu-jitsu. And when school was over, I just went to my dad's school. And I spent the rest of my days there. I didn't want to put any time anywhere else. So that's funny that you brought that up because that's a big reason of where I'm at today and why I'm doing it.

But yeah, there was no no-gi. And so the wrestling game didn't have a place in Jiu-Jitsu quite the way it does today. And MMA, you know, you could see wrestling is important for sure, but it was like, well, the Jiu-Siu-suits, guys, they all submit the wrestlers. So I'm just going to focus on Jiu-Zitsu. You know, so that's where it was then.

But of course, over the years, especially as Nogi got more popular and I started competing in my first ADCCs, I began practicing wrestling for wrestling. But when I was learning wrestling, it was because I'm doing ADCC. And then years later, it was because I'm going to fight MMA. and so I never really just like said, I want to do wrestling for wrestling versus for noogie or for MMA. And really these last few years, I've fallen in love with the sport of wrestling itself.

And actually these days, when I'm on YouTube or I want to watch combat, I watch more wrestling than I do Jiu-Zitsu. I'm just so intrigued by it and and I've really just fallen in love with it. I have a deeper level of appreciation for it and passion for it. And it's something that like jiu-jitsu, I really know what I do so well. And there's still like just a lot of learning and exploring that I can do within wrestling. So just being a student, just feeling like a white belt and like, okay, I can get a lot better at this versus jujitsu where not to say I still can't get better,

but it's going to be very, very small adjustments. But wrestling, it's like, man, I can go in and learn a lot in one day, one session that can really be game-changing. So it's just exciting for me. And I started making it a point to get into great wrestling rooms quite a bit in these last few years. I spent a lot of time in OU. It's closer to me.

Obviously Oklahoma's famous for Oklahoma State University. OSU is in Stillwater, which is like an hour and a half away. So it's just a little bit further. But OU is like 45 minutes. And so easy to get to. And I became really good friends with one of the coaches that was there. And he's actually my jiu-suitzoo student as well. So we developed this teacher-student relationship where I would teach him jiu-suitzoo

and he would teach me wrestling. And he was coming to my school a lot. These guys that you're wrestling with, I'm imagining that they're probably very explosive. Oh, yeah. They're probably, like, pretty young. Like, I think in wrestling, and maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong because I know nothing about nothing, but like in wrestling, it seems like a lot of those athletes, you kind of have to be explosive.

Yes, yes. I mean, it is a fast-paced, very athletic. You do need to be strong. You need to be fast, explosive. So actually, with the curiosity, how do you? deal with that? Like having to wrestle against PPS? It's not like you're not fast and explosive, but you don't necessarily resort. You don't resort to those types of attributes with your grappling. So how do you deal with that? What's your answer? Well, that's a big reason why I became such good

friends with this coach. This guy, his name is Nick Hefflin, a very high level wrestler. He was a multiple time All-American. He was a finalist in D-1 wrestling, and he lost to Jaden Cox, who became one of the best of the best. And it was a very close match. He was winning, Jaden won the match in like the last seconds. And then Heflin did a lot of time, he spent a lot of time in freestyle wrestling as well and practically made the world team for the U.S. a couple of different occasions.

And one of those times he lost to David Taylor, who went on to be a world champion. And in his match with David Taylor, he was winning for a big portion. He scored more points than David Taylor. than like anybody that that year. And so, you know, if he would have made the world team, he very likely would have meddled at the world championships of that year because David Taylor won. You know, we don't know, but that's the level that he is.

Yeah, there's a match right there. So Heflin's the one in the blue, and he is a freak. He's the guy I was telling you about that just bench 225, 38 times. At 37 years old, 36 years old? He's about to turn 36. It looks like he's got kind of a small waist, too. He doesn't look like he weighs a crazy amount. No, no, he's like 200 pounds right now.

And he just did that. I don't think this was the world team. Well, no, maybe it was. Yeah, these athletes sometimes are crazy. So that move right there. You see how he flipped him over and he got that back exposure? That's four points in freestyle. Or that was two.

But he's anyways, his game is very much a pressure style. And he invests. a lot in the hand fighting. He doesn't take a lot of shots. I'm not gonna be going to my knees at 40 something years old. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I might not get back up, you know what I mean? I don't wanna be underneath anybody.

So he has a really good, strong defensive pressure style with, especially with his hand fight and his hips. And what that does is it makes the other person tired. And so I just fell in love with his style and learning from him. and that's what was taking me to owe you. And then I was in this college wrestling room consistently for quite a couple of years. And I just kind of got to feel that energy of a college wrestling room.

And they had some really good kids on the team. And I was just like, man, this is really special. Like that team energy, obviously in jiu-jitsu, you're part of a team, but it's different in the sense that, you know, you're not so close, right? Like if we all go to a tournament, probably everyone's going to go their own way, right? Some people are going to drive, some are going to fly, some take their families, some maybe, you know, do group up together, but then others don't, you know, coming on different days, whatever the case may be. On a wrestling team, even though it's an individual sport, they're doing everything together. They're in every practice.

The same people are required to be there. Every session. They travel to the competitions together. And a lot of these kids have been wrestling with each other in the same schools or in the same clubs since they were little kids. So they've known each other like their whole lives. And it's just very, very close knit and a very special energy too in the sense that you know it's going to end.

A little militant almost. Yeah. I mean, it's hard. It's hardcore. Yeah, definitely. If you're in a top 10 university wrestling club or school, you know, it's, it's. And you guys are ranked five. The school that I'm in now is an AIA.

Okay. So it's not D1. It's not that level. You know, if it was D1, I wouldn't be a starter. It is what it is. Maybe I could do okay with some D1 guys, but I'm not going to be anywhere at the top. NIA lower level where I can be competitive. Yeah.

But that's the opportunity that I got and, and I'm doing it now. But anyways, one thing that I think is special that I was saying is like, you know you're going to graduate. This time is going to end. And most wrestlers, I mean, maybe a small percentage have the opportunity to go on and do international freestyle stuff after their college career. But for most of them, this is it. And so I think also understanding that there is this end in every year.

year you're getting closer to it brings more camaraderie more like hey this is where we're at this point at time in our lives and we're not going to have this ever again and it makes it more special um so i don't want to act like you know the jihitsu team and the community isn't special as well but it's just a different feeling because hopefully in a jiu jizu school you want to look around and see these same people 10 years from now or 20 years for now but in a wrestling room it will end you will graduate, you will go on, and you guys are all going to go do your own lives, and you're going to have this memory of whatever year it was, that wrestling team, you know, those kids, those, those are my teammates, we had something special, you know, and that was a special time in my life.

And so I just really kind of like looked at that. I was like, man, this is so cool. And I never played any team sports. I never did anything in school in any other sport. And as I was going to these wrestling rooms, I even went to Penn State, which is the number one school by far. I visited Penn State a couple years ago and trained there for a few days, did a lot of sessions with Boe Nickel, a former opponent of Hathelin, and wrestled those guys. And like when I was there, they were getting ready for the Olympics.

This was 24. And there was like 10 wrestlers in that room that were either about to go to the Olympics or were former Olympic Olympians or even champions like Coach Kale was Olympic gold medalist. And I'm just like looking around like, holy shit. Like this is incredible. These are freak athletes of the highest level in their craft. And I just started joking about it. Like, man, if I could go back, I would totally do this.

I would want to wrestle in school and be a part of something like this and go for that. because how amazing is it? And it's a martial art that I've really liked just like, man, what a cool martial art, you know, to just be able to put another man down. You know what I mean? And then the art behind that is just like, yeah, I'm a, how do I say, I'm just like a bit of a martial arts nerd, and I just fell in love with it. And so I was making that joke, like, even at the OU room, I used to kind of like, good job guys, good job team.

Like, yeah, I'm the oldest guy on the team. I was going there so much. And then basically this opportunity arose at the end of last year. One of my training partners, who's actually one of my black belts, he is a wrestling coach at OCU, Oklahoma City University, which is an NIA. and he's coaching and you know we've spent a lot of time together over the years he was my main wrestling coach when I was fighting MMA um help me so much amazing guy he's in his 50s he's like 51 but he's a multiple time all-American D1 wrestler he's a judo black belt he was actually Olympic alternate I helped him get ready for the Olympics for the trials back in gosh I think it was like 06

08, whatever year that was. And we were training a lot of judo, and I did judo competitions with him as well. And he's one of my jiu-to black belts. And he's the coach of this university. I mean, he's not the head coach, but he really, like, he runs the practices. Most of those kids grew up wrestling under him. He had a club for kids, and then he was a high school coach. And now he's coaching in college.

and one of his sons that wrestled at OU when I was going to OU is now wrestling for him at this school, OCU, and he's ranked number one in the country right now. So the coach is Brian Piccolo, his son is Tate Piccolo. And anyways, he sent me a message. He was like, hey, by any chance,

did you graduate college? Could you be eligible to wrestle? How cool is that? And he sent me this text, and he's like, would you be interested question mark and uh i responded like yes sir i am interested let's talk more about this and uh we got on the phone talked for like 45 minutes basically their heavyweight towards acl and they had no backups and uh they're they have this open spot and they're doing these duels

and they're already down six points because they don't have someone at that weight or they're moving the one 197 pounder up to heavy weight And so they had this opening, and it's a really special team. Like I said, his son's on the team. His son's on the team. So this is last year. A lot of these kids grew up wrestling with him. And so I went to the room, did a couple practices.

I really liked it. I liked the feeling. The kids were awesome. And I still had this match in Tokyo that I was about to do. I was like, let me get through this match. Let me see how my body feels. An MMA match? It was a grappling match.

Okay. Yeah, for one I've seen. They're a big MMA promotion, but they do, they do grappling matches, kickboxing, Moy Thai. They do all these different rules, tight matches inside a cage. And that's where I face Bedoni. So I had that coming up. This was like two weeks before that.

And so I come back home. It's December. And he's like, look, we can enroll you for school in January for the next semester. and you can come and do the second half of the season. And yeah, so my body felt good. I was, like, fired up about it. I talked to some people and they're like, you know, they supported me.

And I was like, man, there's no way I can't do this because then I'm going to wonder what if. Like, you know, I have to do it. No other match opportunities came up during this time. And so, yeah, I jumped in. I enrolled in school. Got all that done. Taking any classes?

I'm enrolled. You're not going to see me there very much, but I did have to enroll. I would like to actually do some classes, but with my schedule, it's just impossible. Family, business, travel. Yeah, I wouldn't get a good grade

just because I'm going to be missing too much. But that's another story. Maybe I will finish my degree at some point. But yeah, so we did everything. got it all set and then I jumped right into the national duels a couple of weeks ago in Iowa, which is one of the biggest events of the season. It's a national level tournament for a duel. And I did five matches there.

I went three and two. Should have been four and one, but I messed up in one of my matches and let the kid get me with the last second takedown. But it was all a great learning experience. And I spent like 20 hours in the bus with all the kids, you know, driving to Iowa and man it was just super special like really becoming part of the team and and getting to know these kids I'm a fan of a lot of them they're really really good really awesome kids does I get you a little tired here and there being like a little older like around people that are so young uh not

not like that I think it keeps you young yeah you know it you just feel that energy of these young kids trying to achieve their dreams, you know, their hunger. That's another thing that I've always done a pretty good job of is just putting myself in these environments that keep me, keep the fire burning, you know, and so being around them definitely is doing that. And yeah, it was so much fun. And by the end of it, you know, I had a couple kids that I kind of became buddies with. And what's funny He is the 133 pounder. He, you know, second smallest guy on the team. But our 125 pounder at this event ended up with a concussion.

And he couldn't wrestle anymore. So that we would start by, we would start down by six because we didn't have the 125 pounder, which put a lot of pressure on us. And then the 133 pounder would be the first one to go out and kind of like try to get us a win and build some good momentum for us, right? And so his name is Vincent. He goes by Vinny. And Vinny would go out there and just put on a show for our first match.

And he put some points on the board. And then we'd all get fired up. And because he went first, he had a lot of time to rest. And I would always go last because I'm doing heavyweight. And Vinny, man, by the end of that weekend, he was coming up to me when I was getting ready to go out. And he was like smacking my back, you know what I mean? And kind of like, you know, he's 133 pounds. You know, so he's a little, little kid.

He's like, massaging my shoulders and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, you know, Vinny's pumping me up. And he kind of became my little dude, you know. And it was so cool. And he's like, you know, really, yeah, let's go, LeVado, let's go. You know, your time, let's do it. And just a little kid. You probably don't normally have that in Jiu-Jitsu, right?

You do, you do. But not a 20-year-old, tiny little guy. Hype-man, yeah. Yeah, yeah, hyping up the heavyweight. You know what I mean? And, man, I just had so much fun with it. And when I came back, actually, you know, I have a lot of wrestlers that train with me and actually had another really good MMA fighter who is a good wrestler,

visit me last week for some training. And I was telling him the story about it. And I didn't realize this, but he was like, yeah, he's a small guy, right? I'm like, yeah, he's like, yeah, the small guy and the heavyweight are always best buddies. I'm like, dude, that's so funny, you know. But I had such a good time. and I won my first match and I won my last match and I pinned the guy in the last match. And when I pin the guy, the whole team, you know, it's a duel.

So it's team versus team. So all your teammates are really cheering for you. They're, you know, they're fired up. They're pumped up. And we're trying to win as a team. And when I pin this kid in the end, the whole team went nuts. And they just started screaming and I, on the bus on the right home, I watched the end, not to see my pen, but to hear their scream for me.

You know, I'm watching on Flow Wrestling. And I watched it over and over. And it got me kind of emotional, you know, to be in my 40s doing this, accept the challenge, go for it, be a part of that. And just, I just couldn't believe that it was actually happening. The other teams like, this is bullshit. This guy's former champion. Like, what's going on here? There were a lot of different reactions like that.

You know, overwhelmingly super positive. People were inspired by it. I had a lot of people at the tournament. You know, I was kind of worried like, man, how is the wrestling community going to take this? Because I don't want to disrespect. I'm doing it out of respect, out of love. You know, like what is the better way

to show your appreciation for something than to live it, you know? And really be in there. Put yourself in the fire. And, okay, I'm a world-class guy, but I'm going to take losses from these 20-year-old kids. It's like I'm playing their game, but I'm doing it out of respect, you know, to be able to learn from that experience and become a better martial artist through it. I will never go to a doctor ever again about my general health. All they want to do is put you on pills.

Really well said there by Dana White. Couldn't agree with them more. A lot of us are trying to get jacked and tan. A lot of us just want to look good, feel good. And a lot of the symptoms that we might acquire as we get older, some of the things that we might have, high cholesterol or these various things, it's amazing to have somebody looking at your blood work as you're going through the process, as you're trying to become a better athlete, somebody that knows what they're doing, they can look at your cholesterol, they can look at the various markers that you have, and they can kind of see where you're at, and they can help guide you through that. And there's a few aspects, too, where it's like, yes, I mean, no, no shade to doctors, but a lot

of times they do want to just stick you on medication. A lot of times there is supplementation that can help with this. At Merrick Health, these patient care coordinators are going to also look at the way you're living your lifestyle because there's a lot of things you might be doing that if you just adjust that, boom, you could be at the right levels, including working with your testosterone. And there's so many people that I know that are looking for, they're like, hey, should I do that? They're very curious. And they think that testosterone is going to all of a sudden kind of turn them into the Hulk. But that's not really what happens. It can be something that can be really great for your health because you can just basically live your life a little stronger, just.

like you were maybe in your 20s and 30s. And this is the last thing to keep in mind, guys. When you get your blood work done at a hospital, they're just looking at like these minimum levels. At Merrick Health, they try to bring you up to ideal levels for everything you're working with. Whereas if you go into a hospital and you have 300 nanograms per deciliter of test,

you're good, bro, even though you're probably feeling like shit. At Merrick Health, they're going to try to figure out what things you can do in terms of your lifestyle. And if you're a candidate, potentially TRT. So these are things to pay attention to to get you to your best self. And what I love about it is a little bit of the back and forth that you get with the patient care coordinator. They're dissecting your blood work. It's not like you just get this email back and it's just like, hey, try these five things.

Somebody's actually on the phone with you going over every step and what you should do. Sometimes it's supplementation. Sometimes it's TRT. And sometimes it's simply just some lifestyle habit changes. All right, guys, if you want to get your blood work checked and also get professional help from people who are going to be able to get you towards your best levels. That's americhealth.com and use code power project for 10% off any panel of your choice. And so I was a little worried like, man, I don't want anyone to take it wrong or whatever.

I'm really just coming here to be a student and, you know, use this as a way for me to grow and, you know, feel what it feels like to be out there wrestling under those rules in that game. and and when I was at that tournament, man, I had so many people come up to me and tell me, hey, I think it's really cool that you're doing this. They had no idea about jiu-zitsu or who I was, but then- Is that the pen? Yeah, that was the pin. But Flo was posting about it, and obviously Floor wrestling is the biggest media outlet for wrestling.

And so people were coming up to me and like, oh, I never knew anything about jihitsu or about you, but I saw you on flow and then they started doing research and I'm like, man, this is so much bigger than anything else because what if, I mean, number one, what if I inspire someone to go for something that they thought they didn't have time for anymore? They were too old to do or whatever the case may be. If I can light a fire under some people out out there that I've never met. I'm sure there's people right now listening being like, man, I need to like people that like Jiu-Zitsu. They're probably thinking, man, I need to wrestle. Yeah, for sure. And that crossover happens when wrestlers go to jiu-tsu, but it's very rare that a jih Tzu guy, I think I might be the first,

you know, a jiu-suitzzi guy to go over and do wrestling. And so then I can open up those doors, right? And then now maybe some of these wrestling kids who don't know what they're going to do after wrestling, maybe now they look at jihitsu a little bit differently because I'm coming from Jiu-Zitsu, you know, and I'm exposing them and they're like, huh, maybe I will try shishitsu, you know. And so like I said, it just, it felt like it was much bigger than, than me or my own personal stuff. And the fact that I had so many people come up and talk to me and compliment me from the wrestling community in their world at their event and tell me, hey, this is awesome. And, you know, we're here for it. Even a lot of kids, a lot of the kids were

just like, dude, I think it's badass that you're doing this. And, and, and so, I was like, okay, this is good, you know, but there definitely was some extreme responses of like, either it's not fair because I have the experience that I have, even though I'm in my 40s, but, or other people saying, oh, he's going to get destroyed. He's going to just get destroyed. And it's stupid. And it's like, how can you be on both sides? You know what I mean?

But I'm happy. And I do feel that, you know, it's been. bigger than me. So my next one is coming up in just a little over two weeks. It'll be conference. So I wish I could have done more of the full season, but I already had different commitments in place. And then we got hit with some bad weather. I was supposed to be doing another event last week, but the weather canceled the duel. So I'm missing out on a couple of things. And I came in late, so I didn't get to start and do the whole thing with the team. but still the team has really adopted me, so to speak.

And with these relationships that I'm building with the kids, I'm also trying to let them know, like, hey, I can be a mentor for you too. You know, like I'm a newbie. I'm a rookie in wrestling. But I do have, you know, world class world championship experience for two decades. And so I try to like say some positive words at every practice. You've been around the best. You rub the elbows with the best.

You are the best. You've been a real champion. Yeah. I just want to inspire them and help them and help the team. You know, it's such a special team. And if I can help in any way, you know, and maybe help one of these kids do better, you know, then, man, that's more than worth it. And then put some points on the board for the team and just experience with them.

And hopefully some of them are going to come do some jiu-zitsu with me and we'll see what happens. Where are some maybe physical things that, uh, wrestling did for you because we've had a lot of wrestlers on the show in the past and I never really hear a wrestler ever talk about conditioning being any sort of issue but we've had jiu jitsu guys before ask for recommendations about ways to condition themselves for the mats a little bit better so was conditioning something that I mean you already probably had incredible conditioning because your mMA background and your long-time jiu-jitsu background but yeah uh my conditioning is good um i was very proud to look over and see these 20-year-old's

tired after wrestling with me in their game, you know. So, you know, that's definitely one of my strongest attributes in competition over my career. I usually am the one making the other person tired. And so conditioning has always been one of my strong points. Question for you on that specifically. I mean, one, you've been doing this for a long time. But do you think that there are any special things that you do with your conditioning that help you with your condition that other people can start to try to

implement to what they do? I don't know if I'm doing anything special or anything really different. I think I've, one thing that I've done a very good job at is just always being in good shape, year-round. Okay. You don't get out of shape. I don't get out of shape. I don't let myself get out of shape and then I have to get back in shape for some competition. Whether I have a competition or not, I'm still always in the gym. Doing something for my body, whether it's strength training, just mobility, movement, or conditioning. So, I mean, at least once a week, every week, I'm on the bike doing some sort of sprints or I'm on a row machine, ski erg. I'm doing something to help me stay in shape. And I think my capacity for that,

has just increased over the years where my baseline shape is just gotten higher, even though I've gotten older. You also mentioned you do some zone two stuff. Mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah, at least one day a week is also like long, longer zone two cardio, where I'm just riding the bike for 30, 45 minutes. I mean, I'll even do the elliptical machine,

you know, I'm just moving. And when I usually do the zone two stuff, the longer stuff, I'm just doing breathing only. So, you know, I think I've just done a better job than most where a lot of kids maybe say, oh, I'm just going to do jiu-jitsu. You know, I'm just going to do a bunch of jiu-jitsu, two, three times a day, jiu-jitsu. Maybe they're not really going to a gym to do outside stuff, or if they do, it's mainly lifting, and maybe they're not really focused on their lung capacity and their conditioning. But I always have, and I credit that to my coach, Lucius Tyree,

Green Strength. He's a big fan of you guys, follows you guys. I think you guys have met. Yeah, he did something with you. I don't know if it was a seminar or some sort of strength training clinic or whatever you had going on, but he's been around you before. Ryan, his Instagram is Green Strength IV. The Fourth, the fourth, the green strength, the fourth.

Yeah, he's Lucius Tyree the fourth. Okay, that makes sense. It definitely sounds familiar. There he is. So I've been working with him. him for about 15 years. And he's stayed a student of the game as well, just going from kind of the power lifting approach similar to you.

And really just let's get bigger, stronger, you know, and more athletic to, okay, now let's just become better movers and build a longevity practice. And so, I mean, he's very strong. And for his weight, he did some amazing stuff in the past. but over time he just grew to like okay especially because he's one of my martial arts students as well he's one of my brown belts in jiu-jitsu and uh over time he just said okay how can we just be more efficient right be better movers um do things with better technique and play and just learn and play kettlebells mace rope flow you know all the above um and so that you know he has a martial arts

mindset in the world of strength and conditioning. And so we just bonded so well over the years. And he's been amazing and helping me to understand what physical preparation means and not just going crazy in the gym, you know, but building, you know, maintaining, right, and building longevity, taking care of your body while remaining strong and in shape at the same time. want to add to that a little bit you know i think sometimes some some people that we've talked to before on the show or some people i've run into that um they're playing a particular sport they are they currently don't have the conditioning for the sport and they're simultaneously learning the sport and it can make

it really difficult because you're trying to go four times a week five days a week some people are trying to go every day and then you're also trying to like lift and have some conditioning practice in there at the same time and it makes it very difficult But even for us, the three of us here, we have to kind of like everything we do has to kind of register. And you got to kind of pay attention to what you're doing. You were mentioning like kind of going nuts in the gym. For each person, I have to kind of define that for themselves. And also, why are you at the gym?

Are you actually at the gym to be better at Jiu-Jitsu? If you are, then maybe you don't take every set to failure. Maybe you're not grabbing the 120-pound dumbbells. And it's not to say that you're going to, you know, work out like a borkman. big wimp and you're not going to like do stuff that's difficult you're still going to do things that are difficult but just understand all these things are going to register on your body and they're going to cost you yeah yeah 100% the why is so important I love to mention that to people and anything you do you must understand the why you know what am I here for what's my intention

and and what am I here to gain um you know if you're just going in there to do crazy numbers and impress people or sometimes even the coach the coach sometimes I think have their own ego affect the athlete in the sense where it's like, oh, you're this world-class MMA guy or Jiu-Jitsu guy or whatever, but I'm still gonna make you tired in my gym. Or make you barf. Yeah, yeah, or whatever.

I'm gonna make you feel how hard this is. But it's like, dude, I still gotta go to another practice in a couple hours, you know what I mean? And that's where Luke has just really been amazing, he's taking such good care of me. And there are many days. I mean, he's the first one that really just said, says, how are you feeling today?

I love it. You know, how do you feel? And, you know, I have three and a half year old twins at home as well. So between family, work, training sessions, everything else, there may be a day where I go in and it's supposed to be a conditioning day. Maybe I am supposed to do some sprints. But he sees me and he's like, how do you feel? And I'm like, dude, I'm pretty sore, pretty tired.

I didn't sleep so good. Kids were up. By the way, when you share how you feel with your coach, that's not the time to be a tough guy like when your buddy asks you how you doing you go like oh i'm doing great yeah but when your coach asked you is that you've got to actually let the trauma out yeah yeah yeah for sure let it go and and and another cool thing is uh usually i warm up on a bike and air dine and just seeing the r pms um and what pace i'm doing right off the bat to start my day start my my you know my workout if if it's lower than my norm and I'm not I'm not like trying to put any sort of real pace on.

I'm just warming up, just moving. But I can see, I'm a little, you know, I'm lower today. I don't have as much. We'll recognize that. And it's okay, you know what? We're not going to do this brands or whatever. We're just going to tone down. But that's just so important.

It's like the way I describe it to people, it's like consistency must be there. right so every day for me it's get better and feel better i want to feel better than what i did when i woke up i want to do something for my body to um you know make it feel awakened and uh less sore doesn't mean i won't work but it makes me feel better get the blood flowing all that um feel better but then also get better i still have to work on my craft you know i still need to be able to hone my technique and do you know do my practice of martial arts um and so that must take place consistently every day um and the intensity can be adjusted right but i think people lose consistency when they overdo intensity and and then they're like oh i got to get ready for this or i'm doing this

I got to get back in shape and I got to do all this and then they go too intense and then they get hurt or they burn themselves out. Most guys get injured either because they're doing too much or they did too little for too long and now they're coming back and now they're going hard again. I got a competition coming up. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So inside my longevity practice is just like, okay, my consistency doesn't change. I'm going to stay consistent forever, but I can adjust my intensity accordingly. And it's not to say there aren't going to be times where, okay, if I am getting ready for ADCC, I might have to push through a couple of days, right, because the intensity does need

to be up. But I'm also not going to leave ADCC and take a month off. You know, I'm not going to just get out of shape and eat whatever, you know, for a month or whatever, how long, you know, I'm going to be right back at it again. maybe I do a couple, you know, a few day get away with my wife or whatever just because she's sacrificed a lot and I need to keep the, you know, keep the wife happy and we do a little vacation. But then I'm even on vacation, I'm working out. I'm still taking care of my body. And then I go right back to my practice as soon as I'm back home. And that's the other thing

about being a teacher too. It's like I still have to get on the mats and teach my classes. And so that helps you build consistency because if you want to take the day off or not, I still need to go and teach my classes. And then I'm on the mats. I'm doing extra repetition and I'm moving. And my practice never goes too far. So that's how I try to like program things. It's like consistency cannot be negotiated.

But the intensity, okay, let me just, you know, turn up when I need to and just keep it balanced as much as possible. And then that helps you do good and everything else too, right? I still have work to do. You know, I still have businesses to run. I still need to be dad and husband and everything else. And so, you know, I can balance my intensity with where I need to be present and everything else in my life.

How do you get? Oh, good. I'm curious about kind of the way you look, because like within martial arts, within jih Tweeks and injuries will happen. It's somewhat inevitable. But I find when a lot of athletes are training, sometimes whether it's the environment of the other people around them. There's the everyday pahadah mindset. You get an injury. It's fine. Just like put a band-a-end on it. Train. You know, you see a lot of people, they train through things. And, you know,

you're talking about being a lifelong martial artist and doing this for a long time. I think also another thing that when you say that that comes to mind in my head is like not just doing this for a long time, but doing it with quality for a long time. Rather than being the broken black belt, can you be the black belt that's even better than when they started? So how, how we're would you help athletes reframe the way they look at intensity and consistency so that they can be in their 40s and 50s and still physically strong and able with the martial art? Well, one thing that I like to say that I think just had a big impact on how I see things, martial arts is movement. Any sport, we're all movers. You know, you're just the type of

movement and the goal of the movement is different. In martial arts, the movement has some violent intentions, right? But at the end of the day, we're all just moving. And so any movement is good movement. And how can you be a better mover inside that movement practice? And that's where my coach, Luke Tyree, is also on the same page. And so I think exploring other forms of movement and becoming a better mover is a big part in helping you become a better martial artist and then just taking care of your body because inside anything, you're going to be doing certain movement patterns, you know, so much that they're going to get overdone.

And then there's compensation within your body and things need extra attention. But if you're only doing that specific movement practice all the time, sometimes it's hard to be aware of where are those. those, you know, where those compensations or those deficiencies are. And so, you know, if you're just like lifting weights and then doing jujitsu, okay, you're hitting a couple of movement practices, but where else can you learn some or add some more movement in? So I've always He's been extremely open to that. And my jiu-jitsu, my jih Tse,

and his brother, Salao and Saji Hebedo, they've also been very open to exploring other movement arts, such as yoga and an animal flow, mobility. And then my conditioning coach, he's like, hey, we're going to pick up a kettlebell. We're going to move with a kettlebell. We're going to do mace. We're going to do clubs.

We're going to grab a rope and we're going to flow with the rope. and then just inside any movement is like, okay, how do we build better technique to do that movement? And at the end of the day, it's just being a student, you know, so forgetting about ego and just saying, hey, where can I go and learn and be a student of a different movement art that at the end the day is just going to be great for my body, great for my technique. And then we can just play with how it becomes work versus recovery. versus just feeling better. And how can you blend it all together to, you know,

do what feels good, but also makes you a better mover, makes you stronger or in better condition. And so like this morning, just being out there playing, I mean, I said, you know, I was talking to Luke before I came out here. And I'm like, you know, he always has a blueprint, you know, a program for me, what I'm doing when I'm falling.

I was like, hey, anything specific you want me to do with Insimian and the, and the guys out there and he's like no just just let insima take it away and uh you just whatever he wants you to do it's going to be good you know and thank you luke yeah for sure and uh and i was excited and i'd tell you hey i'm all yours like whatever you want to show me let's play let's do stuff and i'm just very open to that and i'm not scared to look silly you know or or not be good at it um you know every master was a white belt at some point right so that's the martial arts mindset. So like Cameron, for example, the Budukon, that can really, people can get a

little like, I don't want to get down there and do that. Why? You know, sometimes. Because they look super cool. Why? Right. But they have a fear of looking silly. Ah, yeah. You know, like, oh, or or just being awkward, you know, or uncoordinated and letting it come out in a public way. Some people aren't willing to do that. And when I got connected with Cameron, and I mean, so much of his movement is martial arts. That's how this was created. He was a yoga guy that did martial arts.

And he was like, there needs to be more of a connection. That looks pretty hard. Some of it. This is all jih Tijuana. This is all jiu-s-s-s-hizu- This is all jiu-suitzoo. He has more stuff that's like super gymnastic, like, like crazy ability, like very athletic.

Then the way, and I looked at him and I'm like, when I met him, he was late 40s. And I was like, dude, if I can move, if I can do half of what he's doing at his age, I'm still going to be kicking a lot of ass. You know, I'm going to be doing my thing at a high level for a long time. And that's one thing I always try to look at is like, like, how is this person aging? Yeah. You know, if they're aging well and they're moving well, I want to know what you're doing. He's so fluid.

So fluid. So fluid. So fluid. He's also using the ground, which is really nice. I mean, he's not doing anything too crazy. We did some of these yesterday. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, you could tell his spine is moving really well.

Like if I was to do some of these moves, I'm going to be herky jerky and I'm going to, like, hit the mat probably pretty hard on some things because my spine doesn't quite move the way that his spine is moving. But that's the practice. safe. You're low to the ground. You're not going to get hurt doing this. You're not going to get hurt doing body weight. And that's the other thing. It's like, you know, of course, you can lift for your whole life. But there are certain things like, you know, big lifts or sprints or whatever crazy thing that really contacts your body. At some point, that's not going to be possible. You know, you can't do that at that level forever. the same intensity. But you can do this forever. You can do body weight. You can move forever. And so we became connected. And once again, another teacher-student relationship. He's my student jiu-suitzoo. He actually just got his black bill from me and Shang-ji a little over a year ago. Congratulations, Cameron. And I'm his student as well. And I mean, to be honest, my closest friends, we all have that relationship. They're all willing to be students. And there's,

I'm willing to be a student too, and there's always something I can learn from them. You know, so going to like my, I'll just use this as an example, my, my MMA career, the guys in my corner, right, was him, okay? So, teacher, student, Shanji Hibetto, all right, a legend of jiu-jitsu, who he and I, I mean, he was a black belt before me, but we really came up together and, and we teach each other. And, you know, I was his student first, and I would say he became a little bit more

of a student of mine later on. But we exchange knowledge. Well, Shanji learns from Cameron as well, right? And Shangji teaches Cameron. My Muay Thai coach, his name is Maricio Amado. He's from the shoebox lineage, an incredible, incredible MMA team. And their striking for MMA was way ahead of its time

back in the days. And he's part of that lineage. And he is also one of my black belts. And I'm his black belt in Muay Thai, teacher-student relationship. Shanji would do Muay Thai with Mauricio as well. Cameron would do Muay Thai with Manizu as well, right? Then Piccolo, my coach now at OCU, was my wrestling coach. He was in my corner for my fights, or he would come to the fights.

He's one of my black belts. I'm his student in wrestling and judo as well. well and he would teach shanji and shanji would teach him and you know so we're all active teacher students of each other and if you look at my career uh you know i i'm more known for jiu jitsu a lot of people sometimes now don't even really remember that i i fought m m m and i was undefeated 11 and no world champion in m m m m and every fight i mean i just went very fast for my first fight to my world championship fight was less than five years. years. So from my number one fight to a world title, I got all the way there in less than five years

and under five years. And a lot of that, of course, goes back to my father. My father was in my corner as well for all my fights. My father, a student of Shangi, a student of my ECO, you know, the whole, the same thing. But of course, there's my upbringing that helped me get into MMA and just move fast. But the other thing that I think separated us and my team, from everyone else is no other team out there had a corner where every single person, even Luke, my strength conditioning coach, is a student of Cameron and is working us out in the gym, you know, and Shanji is listening to Luke. And then Shanji's helping Luke with Jiu-Zitsu. And then Marisu is showing Luke Muay Thai. I mean, even my strength and conditioning coach, every single person

on my team were all teacher students of the others. And no other team out there has that going on, right? The strength and conditioning coach, he's not doing martial arts, you know. The striking coach isn't doing jiu-tzu. The wrestling coach isn't doing the striking. No one has a mobility guy, you know, but we got that guy too. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, we went all the way to the top. And those guys, I mean, they, we just had such a special time. And I joke about it. Like, everyone is, is a master in their own craft. And we all have crazy schedules. You know, I mean, we could be, we could easily not see each other for a long time

because we're all so busy. We all have our own stuff going on. And the way to get everyone together is one of two or one of three things. Either someone's getting married, right? And we're all going to the wedding or someone is sick or hurt or, you know, there's a funeral or something like, okay, you know, the negative side. Or someone's fighting. Someone's doing MMA.

And that was me. So I got to kind of be the center and I got to bring everyone together. And then we just had these incredible camps and incredible times where we're all training together, learning from each other and pushing each other and having fun. And that is one of the core reasons why I continued in MMA, why I went as far as I did because I was just having so much damn fun. Like all of us together is just like, this is the best. and I wanted to bring a world title home to all these guys too.

I wanted for them to be able to say that they were world champion coaches of of MMA through me and because I felt like they deserved it too. And but that's that's the kind of thing. Like I mean, we got into all that because what are people missing, you know, or how, why are they getting hurt? It's like are they looking to be students outside into all these other things? They're going to make you a better mover. and help you learn more about your body and just your practice

and how to keep elevating it and evolve. If you're doing that and you're going outside of your comfort zone and getting out of the box a little bit, I think it just makes you better. And then you can avoid some of those other things that can hinder people. You can avoid that just because you're around the right people. How'd you get into MMA?

Was it just like a natural thing because you've been training and doing all this stuff for a long time? I always knew that at some point I was going to fight at least once. Just to know how I would respond. And as a martial artist, there is no bigger test or challenge for your skills than getting locked in a cage with another professional fighter who wants to take your head off. You know, like, okay, let's see what you can do, right? Like, let's see under fire how you're going to respond and can your technique help you prevail. and so I knew that I would do it at some point, but I didn't know when.

And obviously, I had my goals and dreams inside of Jiu-Zitsu, and I didn't want to go to MMA at a point where maybe I would look back at Jiu-Jitsu and say, I wish I would have done more or what if or have any regrets. So I gave all my 20s to Jiu-Zitsu. And that was my number one thing, you know, make history. as an American in the sport and just kind of break, break boundaries, you know, especially from Oklahoma. Like, you know, never having a black belt instructor.

My father and I were the first American father and some black belts. You know, I just kind of wanted to pave the way and show people what could be done despite your circumstances, like your location, which at that time was still a very big thing to overcome because a lot of people didn't have access to world-class jihitsu.

And maybe they didn't think it was possible, because of where they're at. And so I wanted to represent that and just, you know, achieve as much as I could. But in the last couple of years of that run, when I was getting into my 30s, there were a lot of events and a lot of times where I was just doing it to do it.

I was like, okay, this is what I do every year. I go to the pans. I go to the world. I do this one. I do that one. I'm competing against the same guys multiple times. And the fire, I don't want to say it wasn't there, but there were definitely levels when it was there more.

And other times I just was kind of doing things because I felt like that's what I did. Like the whole team goes. We all compete. We all do it. And I wasn't as inspired as what I should have been. And there were some losses and things where, you know, I was just like, dude, I really wish I could just fight this guy. You know? Like I actually started having those moments.

where it's just like, I'd rather just fight. And, and, you know, like I said, the inspiration was kind of coming down just because I'd been there and done that for so many years. And so I was like, okay, that's the sign. It's time. It's time to fight. You know, I want to fill that fire again. I want to be a white belt.

I want to be like having a mountain to climb. And so my first fight was 2014. I just turned 31. So I was coming in late, you know, according to the numbers, right? Um, and, uh, and I really did the first one just because I, I wanted to experience it and be able to say I did it once. I at least did it once. And then after the first one, I was like, whoa. What a rush. Like that was another level, you know, um, it's crazy. I mean, it's fucking crazy. Like, definitely the scariest thing I've ever done. Um, and the way you move and everything's so slow, but then, so, so fast and it's over and you're like what just happened like I mean the the adrenaline is another level and I was like dude that was crazy nothing compared to jujitsu you bro you can't even put it in the same sentence it's not it's not there no um so after it was known I was like

all right uh you guys want to do another like you know like hey, maybe we should do this again. But then I learned a valuable lesson. I did that fight. A week later, I competed in a jitsu tournament with my team. Okay. Right. And then I signed up for another match, and I just kept going.

Question for you really quick. And then that's when this happened. Oh. So the lesson there was just do what you're inspired for. And no matter how easy the fight is, I didn't get hit, you know. First round submission, clean. You know, I trained the next day.

We went out and partied and stayed up all night, drinking, whatever. And then the next morning, because we're all together, I'm like, hey, guys, let's go, let's go train. And I train the next morning. And then I competed at a tournament the next week with my team just because, like, oh, well, I'm here. I'm going to do it. And won that tournament, won some money, and then sign up for another super fight. literally kept going. I didn't take any break. And then I was out coaching my team at the Master Worlds. This was when I was in LA before it moved to Vegas. And I coached all weekend. And the next

day, Monday, I went in and basically put myself through a shark tank. And can you explain what a shark tank is from people? I'm having people rotate on me. And I was getting ready for this big, big match on a show called MetaMoris, which is a really big professional jiu-jitsu show. And I just, I never gave myself a break. And I just kept going, going, going. And then in that training session, after coaching all weekend, I was tired. And then I started, oh, well, I'm here in California.

Let me get all the best guys and have them rotate on me. And then Shangea came in and he pulled my arm to try to get a Kimura. It barely even moved. It wasn't behind my back, nothing like this. It just right there. My arm snapped. And it was bad. And so then it was like pause.

And anytime there's been a pause in my life, that moment to reflect and where you're in decide and, you know, understand what went wrong and say, okay, where we're going to go forward. Like anytime those sort of moments have happened to me, I've always come out of it better and stronger. And so this moment happened in moving forward, coming out of that surgery and recovery. which Luke did an amazing job. I came back way ahead of schedule. But I just fully committed to it.

I mean, consistency, consistency, right? And it was just like another training camp. Like, okay, let's come back. And I was unsure. I didn't know how this was going to affect me. You know, a lot of people have an injury like this, completely torn peck tendon. And, you know, they're never the same.

Their shoulder, you know, and maybe they can't compete at the level that they used to compete at. And so I said, man, if I can come out of this and still compete again, I need to be aware and understand where to put my energy. And after doing that first fight and feeling that, I said, okay, that's going to be my focus from now. I'm not going to try to do it all, so to speak.

If I do anything else, it'll just be what I'm most inspired for. I'm not just going to jump into some random tournament or whatever and put that on my body as well. And I also understood that, okay, just because the fight's easy, the two, three months of training camp that I did before still took its toll. Yeah. So I made it a point from now on after every fight, I'm taking a vacation. I'm going somewhere and just taking a break for, you know, four or five, seven days, whatever, and hit a reset button before I come back instead to just go, go, go, go, go, go. And so coming out of that, I said, all right, MMA's number one and I put Jiu-Jitsu number two instead of two number ones.

And then I committed to my MMA run and, you know, we went all in. But I, like I said, I was unsure about how much I would love MMA just because of the, the atmosphere, the environment. I'm not like a violent guy. The only fights I've ever had in my life are my professional fights. I never had a street fight. I don't get angry like that. I don't have that kind of emotion to hurt somebody.

But I wanted the challenge. And I never went out there with the idea of like, oh, I can't wait to hurt this guy. I'm going to, you know, I just, I was always excited to see how my technique and skills could prevail over this other person who's bringing their technique and their skills in a training camp and everything else designed to beat me.

Can I still beat them, you know? and and then just the whole culmination of my martial arts training coming together in a single display you know because I'm not just a jiu-jitsu guy you know I'm a martial artist and being able to go out there and and show that with my striking with my you know of course my ground skills

my takedowns everything how can I put it together and give my best martial artist display. It's like a, you know, a little painting, you know, and that's how I saw it. And I just kept, like, I was so motivated and excited to see what my next painting could be. And so I just went all in. And I still did some jih Tjitsu stuff on the side,

but then it became mainly just super fights, or maybe an ADCC or something. and which I felt like also was a was an asset because I kept my jiu-sitsu sharp. I didn't just go full M.A. And dumb my jiu-jitsu down so much to where it's just, you know, hit and then grab something and try to finish. You know, I still kept my jiu-jitsu sharp. And also that allowed me to stay consistent.

Like I didn't do two fights a year and that's it. You know, I did two fights or maybe three fights a year. I also did three other jiu-jitsu events or grappling super fights against other top guys. So I never got behind. And I would stay in shape year-round. That's different than most guys. You know, you hear them, you know,

they get a couple months off or, you know, and they go into a camp and they got to re-get in shape again and all that stuff. Yeah, I never enjoyed that. I would never do that. But, but yeah, so it was like, I just fell in love with MMA. What was he like having your dad in the corner when you're,

like, because you've been learning all this stuff from him since the time you were a kid. Like, is it, uh, like, is some way help calm you down a bit when you go to the corner and your dad's there? I felt like I needed to calm him down sometimes.

Uh, you know, you could see the nerves. You get really quiet and just his face would kind of change and whatnot. Oh yeah. His son is fighting somebody else. He's got to sit there and watch it. Yeah.

And now I'm a father too. So I, I can really, you know I have a a feeling of what that could feel like I don't know yet but but at the same time he understood you know even before my first fight I set my dad down I said hey it's time for me to fight you know this this is something I need to do and he he completely understood as a martial artist so cool sounds like something out of a movie movie right I was thinking yeah I'm just saying like here like a superhero

The super cool. We've definitely lived a different life. Another thing about my father to just completely throw it off into another subject. Not only is he a lifetime martial artist, but he is a musician as well. He plays the organ. The organ. Out of all the instruments out there, he plays the most complex of them all. He's an organist.

I was born in Cincinnati in Ohio, and when I was growing up there, it was switched the other way. So he was a professional organist for a big Catholic church there. And then what he did on the side was martial arts. And he was an assistant instructor at a Gekundo school. There's a movie in here somewhere. Oh, we're working on it. We're working on it. But so that's the kind of man my dad is.

He's also been on his own, basically, his whole life. His father passed when he was just a baby. So he's just, yeah, there's my dad playing the organ right there. So, you know, he's the one that understands that passion and going outside the box, like not living a normal life, you know, do what, what lights your heart on fire, you know. That's how he's lived. And so having these conversations with him, you know, obviously as a father, he wasn't excited to see me take blows, you know, to get hit in the head and, you know, who knows what happened.

And he also isn't the biggest fan of the MMA environment, you know, people drinking and talking shit and wanting to be violent or be thugs, you know, that kind of thing. But I said, look, as a martial artist, I need to do this. And I need to represent the martial arts way, you know, like St. Pierre, for example. I mean, there's a real martial artist, you know. You don't, I'm not there to talk trash or, you know, want to hurt. hurt somebody or boost my ego or whatever, I'm there to test my skills as a martial artist and become a better martial artist.

Yeah, I think GSP would famously talk about how much he hated it. Yeah. Like he didn't want to like go in there and like hurt somebody else, but it was a trade that he learned. I'm not a fighter, so to speak. I am, but I'm, I'm just a martial artist. I want to challenge himself. You know, I don't want to fight people, but I do want to put my skills to the test. So anyways

Sitting him down and talking to him He'd say okay I understand I get it I know I know And I knew he already knew that there would be a time Where that would happen And then you know We got to experience it together

And that was like I said Going back to my team My father is you know I wouldn't be who I am today without him And Our name You know one thing that he told me when I was a kid

is just how important your name is, your reputation and what it means. And when he changed the name of the school for martial arts international, he changed it to Lavato School of Alitudo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He put his name there. And he was like, make your name mean something. You know, like make that demand respect. And he used to tell me when I was a kid. kid, you know, would compete, he's like, look, win or lose, you're going to lose. You're going to lose

sometimes. Win or lose, you make sure that your opponent never wants to see you again, you know? Like, make him remember what it was like fighting you or competing against you. You never give up. You go and you give your best and you make it a fight. Like you, you know, you dig deep when you have to fight that guy. Like I won, but damn. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so he always preached to me about your name and your reputation and making your name mean something.

And so, you know, through my jih Tjitsu career and all that and then going to M.MA, it was like, I want our name to have that respect of we've been in the cage. We know what that's like. you know we are world champion you know gee no gey and mMA complete martial artists you know so doing that was just like i want to show how good of a martial arts family we are and there's no other way to solidify that than than inside the cage um and so having them there i mean it meant a lot. Actually, when I walked out to my world

title fight against Musassi, I walked out with my music being my dad playing the organ. That was my walkout. That must have fired, yep. And I told him right beforehand, because I didn't want him to get too emotional when he would hear it. So I said,

you know, I'm all gloved up. You know, it's about to go make the walk. And I just put my armor around my dad. I said, hey, dad, you're going to hear yourself playing the organ, hearing a few minutes when I walk out. I just want you to know, you know, that that's coming. And I'll get emotional if I talk about it too much. But there was a whole thing behind that whole thing, too, with my brain condition and what was going on behind the scenes. My dad didn't know. So that's a whole other story. Talk about living a movie. That was a whole movie in itself.

You fought 11 fights and you fought in Bellator, right? And you won the championship. What was, what did you weigh back then? You were lighter, right? I was fighting at 185. Wasn't too much lighter than what I am now. Okay. I was walking around about 210, 215, you know, the week after the fight, after ice cream and hamburgers every day.

But yeah, usually around 210, diet down to 200, cut from there, made weight every time, no problem. I first started hearing about proscriptions from Thomas to Lauer. And, you know, Thomas is somebody that's an animal with working out. You got a chance to work out with them. I worked out with him. And he's kind of always on the front lines of like, you know, finding out

about these new companies that have cool things. But I didn't really realize that Shostriptions was the first company to put out Methylene Blue. Now, look at Methylene Blue. It's so popular. It's everywhere. It's one of those things. If you guys listen to this podcast, you know, I'm very iffy with the supplements that I take.

because there's a lot of shady stuff out there. You gotta be careful. The great thing about transcriptions is that when people want to get Methylene Blue, usually they'll go on Amazon, they're going on to these other sites. It's not third party testing. It's not dosed. A lot of people end up with toxicity from the blue that they get because there's no testing of it. Transcriptions, they have third party testing for the products.

It's a dose so you know easily what exact dose of Methylene Blue you're getting in each TROCy. So you're not making some type of mistake. There's not going to be anything in it. It's safe. You can have it dissolve and you can turn your whole world blue if you want or you can just swallow it. They have two different types of methylene blue. They have one that is, I believe, dose at 16 milligrams. And they have another one that's dosed at 50 milligrams.

So make sure you check the milligrams. I don't recommend anybody start at 50 milligrams. But the 16, I feel, is very safe. You can also score the trokeys and you can break them up into smaller bits. Yes, what I do. And in addition to that, on top of the methylene blue, they have a lot of other great. products of stuff as well. They got stuff for sleep. They got stuff for calming down, all kinds of things. I got to say, I use it about two or three times a week. I use it before jiu-jitsu. And the cool

thing that I've noticed, and I've paid attention to this over the past few months, is that after sessions, I don't feel as tired. So it's almost like I've become more efficient with my, with just the way I use my body in these hard sessions of grappling. And it's like, cool. That means that, I mean, I could go for longer if I wanted to, and my recovery is better affected. It's pretty great. I know Dr. Scott, sure, we had him on the podcast, and he talked quite a bit about how he recommends methylene blue to a lot of the athletes that he works with. And they're seeing some profound impacts.

And one of the things I've heard about it is that it can enhance red light. So those are you doing red light therapy, or those of you that have some opportunities to get out into some good sunlight, it might be a good idea to try some methalene blue before you go out on your walk or run outside or whatever activity is that you're going to do outside. And this stuff is great, but please, like first off, they have stuff for staying calm. They have stuff for sleep. But remember, this stuff isn't a substitution for sleep. This isn't a substitution for taking care of nutrition.

This is supposed to be an add-on to all the things that we already should be doing, and it's going to make things so much better if you're doing everything else too. And I think this is just a little different, too, than just adding some magnesium to your diet. I think this is a little different than, you know, treat these things appropriately. Make sure you do some of your own research, but. Oh, if you're taking medications. Yeah. S-S-R-I's, you better talk to your doctor first.

Don't, don't be popping these things. And if you're taking any medications at all, it would be good to double triple, quadruple check and make sure that you're safe. Transcriptions has a lot of great things that you need. So go and check out their website when you have the opportunity. Strength is never weakness, weakness, weakness. Catch you guys later. But, yeah, so I did.

my world title fight was my 10th fight. So I had done nine fights. And every fight I had done up until that point, it was never required for me to get a brain scan done to get approved to fight. You know, so you always have the medical requirements to get approved by the commission. And usually it's blood work or some sort of physical

and, you know, drug tests and all that kind of stuff. but I was never required to do a brain scan. The only places in the U.S. that require that is California, New York, and Vegas. And I never fought any of those places. And so, and I never had any issues, no knockouts, no concussions. I don't even really get headaches. Like, that never happened. So I never had a reason to think that there was something going on in my head.

But this fight was in London. And Europe, the commission there, requires you to get a brain scan done. So six weeks before the fight, I go to do my brain scan just to get my medical stuff done. I was actually getting ready to fly to Brazil the next day.

For all my Mime fights, I would go to Kuchiba, Brazil, which is the home of Shubox, where my Muay coach is from, and I would go to Brazil to do like the real intense part of my camp, kind of like the Rocky Four, you know,

going to Russia and just get away from everything, zone in, hard work, grind. You're, you know, don't forget what's coming, right? Like, just remind yourself, yeah, you're comfortable in your home and all this kind of stuff, but you're about to be locked into a cage, so you need to get out. And so every fight I would go down there. And I was actually getting ready to fly there the next day. So I go get my MRI and I'll never forget. It's over and they're not coming in the room to get me.

And I'm like, dude, it's taking forever. The machine's done. Like, I'm ready to get out of this thing, you know? And finally the guy comes and gets me and he's like, hey, do you have any problems? Like, do you have some sort of issues with your head? I'm like, no. He was like, dude, why don't you come back here? I want you to look at this.

And he pulls me into the screening room and he shows me the computer. and he shows me pictures like that. He's like, look at your brain. There's something wrong. What about that big black? All of them. I have multiple. He's like, yeah, there's something wrong.

You need to go see somebody. I'm like, okay, well, are you going to sign my paper? Like, can you just sign my paper so I can send this in and get approved to fight? He's like, no, I'm not signing your paper. You're not okay, and you need to go see somebody. This is six weeks before the fight. So I'm like, okay, all right. He's like, and then he tells me, I'm going to do some research.

I'll give you your CD. Come back the next day and I'll give you the disc. But let me look into this a little bit. So I go back the next day, literally right before I'm going to the airport, and he says, hey, I think you have cavernoma. Here's your disc. I'm not signing your paper. You need to see somebody.

I don't think you should be fighting. but I'm pretty sure this is what you have. And so then I jump on a plane. I take that information and I get on a plane to go to Brazil. And I'm like, start Googling. And I'm Googling cavernoma. And I see all these horror stories of, you know, people and kids having cavernoma and having to have multiple brain surgeries.

The symptoms can be as serious as paralysis, you know, losing side of, losing the ability to use one side of your body, loss of vision, seizures, coma, and at the worst death. And basically, what it is are these extra blood vessels that grow in my brain, and they tend to wrap together like vines. And as they grow, they have the potential to ooze blood. So it's not like a quick bleed, but it's a little bit over time. And, and if it grows or if it's in an area that's a very vulnerable in your brain, then bad things can happen. And so I start reading all these horror stories and I'm getting on the plane. I'm on the plane on my way to Brazil.

And I'm getting ready for a world championship fight, the biggest fight of my life, against someone who's, you know, considered by many to be like top five all time in that weight class, a legend, multiple time champion, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm a huge underdog, and he's a great striker, and he was on a run. He was like on a six-year undefeated win streak where he had run through a lot of really good people. And that's who I'm getting ready to fight. And so, you know, all these things start hitting you and you're putting all this together

and you're just like, number one, I'm like, okay, you know, what about my health like is this going to kill me you know or am i am i going to end up like Muhammad Ali i kept seeing Muhammad ali you know am i going to end up like that when i'm older and i was just so afraid i didn't know i didn't know how bad it was i didn't know what could happen and uh so i get to kutachiba and fortunately my my coaches so mariso and his brother dida Dita was a head coach in Brazil. They are like OG legends of that area of Brazil. And so in Brazil, they love MMA, right?

And especially in this area of Brazil has such a rich history of Maitai and MMA. And so they're super connected, right? So they had hookups everywhere. So they start calling up all the doctor buddies that they know. and they're trying to get me in to see as many doctors in Brazil as possible, basically with the goal to find one that's going to say, yes, I'll sign your paper, you know. So we start the process.

I get another MRI down there, confirm. It's the same thing. Obviously, my brain's not going to look any different. But we get another MRI down there, and we start seeing all these neurologists and neurosurgeons. and man, every single one of them are saying no. And they're not just saying, no, like, you can't fight, but they're like, you can't get hit in the head. You couldn't even, or you shouldn't even be doing jujitsu

because getting choked and having the blood flow restricted could cause issues. So by the time it comes to the point where they're telling me you can't even do jujitsu anymore, I'm really a mess. Like I'm so emotional and I'm sparring. every day. I mean, I'm training for a fight. And so I'm going into all the training sessions, emotional, not knowing if I should be getting hit or not, am I going to hurt myself? Like, what's going to happen to me? Are I going to end in a wheelchair or a coma or whatever?

And I'm supposed to be doing this fight, but I don't even know if it's going to happen because no, everyone's saying no. So I don't know what's going on. And so obviously I'm training terrible. I'm not sleeping. I'm crying all day every day. I'm FaceTiming my, she was my, girlfriend fiance she was my fiance at the time um um um i'm facetiming her every day now she's my wife mother my children but i'm just like bawling on facetime with her like maybe i don't know what's going on like work so hard to get here i don't even know if it's going to happen i don't know about my hell i'm just like i don't know and uh and this goes on for two weeks so i was in my time to stay there was like a little over two weeks, like 16, 17 days.

And this goes on for two weeks. I'm literally in the last few days, and I've given up. Towards the end of that second week, I'm in sparring, and I freaking tore my hamstring. Yeah, yeah. So I was in a, and of course, it was that, let's do one more round. It's always that one more round. So it was already like, I could have been done, but I wasn't training well, of course. and so I'm like no I want one more I want one more because I want to end on a good note

and so I did that extra round stupid tired stressed not in a good place and I go for a take that I'm wearing wrestling shoes because I'm throwing kicks and stuff and MMA style and I'm going against a guy who's a judo black belt and he goes to throw me and I try to I try to drop my base with my feet in the in the mat to not get lifted and my shoe got to stuck and it and I still went and my leg locked out and my hamstring is my right leg and I had to get carried out of the training room that day and I was just crying and I'm like I tell my niece this isn't happening it's not happening there's no way uh so now I'm really injured and this was Thursday and Monday we had one more doctor.

Literally, we even stopped going to see the doctors. We just sent them to this and called them over the phone and just said, hey, what do you think? Because it was, we were, everyone, we're taking all this time to go to these doctors and they're all saying no. And they just started telling us no on the phone. This is literally the last appointment. And this guy is the professor at a university. It took, he was, we set this appointment up right in the beginning, but because he was so busy. He couldn't see us until two weeks later.

literally the last stop he was the professor of a lot of the neurologists we had already spoken to okay um so he in that area of south brazil he was one of the top the top top top and he's our last stop and so i don't train that weekend i try to do a little bit of boxing i can't bounce i can't do any takedowns i can't bend my knees i try to do a little bit of boxing on the bags and the that's all I can do I can't throw any kicks and I'll never forget I had this Airbnb and Shanji was staying with me he went down there too to be part of the camp but Shanji had some seminars set up on the weekends and and this Airbnb host was so nice they put like chocolate and candy in the in the apartment as like a welcome or whatever and and Shanji goes to do a seminar

that weekend um in another city and i'm sitting in that Airbnb by myself the whole weekend after tearing my hamstring all this drama and stress and i just like looked at that candy and i was just like i really really want you i'm like i'm so sad and depressed and i just oh this fight's probably not even going to happen just fucking eat the candy you know and i didn't do it i didn't eat it i didn't eat it but then as soon as as Sean G got back on Monday morning I was like do get that shit out of here eat it all right now

I'm a mess I'm a mess you know but anyways that appointment is Monday night we go and check this out I said this earlier this was the first doctor I get into his office

we sit down he looks at my scans he's doing his things typing on the computer tell me how do you feel the first one the first one to ask me

how I felt I'm like dude I don't even get headaches like I had there's no symptoms I had no idea there's never been anything to show me that there's something going on up there

and he was like yeah mm-hmm mm-hmm and he starts typing some more on the computer and he's like oh yeah just what I thought he's searching to see if there's any studies or research about how head trauma could make my disease worse. And he was like, look, this is such a unique and specific case. I'm not going to find anything in here that's going to say that you getting hit in the head

is going to make your cavernoma worse because how many other people out there are professional fighters with cavernoma. And so he is like, I can't say for sure without a shadow of doubt that you getting the head is going to make this any worse. It is what it is. It's there. It may never be a problem or it may be a problem tomorrow. And there's no way we can say that some specific thing is going to make it worse because there are people with my condition who never got hit in the head, who never did anything on the extreme sports side that it just grew and became terrible for them. And they had to do multiple brain surgeries right off the bat just because of the way their body,

fights it or how it grows or how it evolves with their body specific to them. And so he's like, look, the good thing is now we know you have this. So what we'll do is we'll just continue to get scans. And if anything changes, then we have a sign that this is becoming an issue or could change. But if everything stays the same size and nothing grows and there's no evidence of bleeding, then, in my opinion, you can continue fighting. And so he wrote this letter. He put all of his credentials on there.

And he signed my papers. And I was just like, I was so sure he was going to say no that when he said, when I asked him, it's like, well, so will you write a letter for me? And he was like, yeah, yeah. No problem. You could fight. I was just like, what? Really? And man, I'll never forget.

Walking out of that office, Maricio was there with me. Walking out of that, you have to understand, Maricio, we had been training together for about 10 years at this point. One of my black belts, I wasn't his black belt yet, I got it later. And for every fight, he lives in Toronto. He's based in Toronto, Canada. For every fight, he would come stay with me for anywhere from a month to like two months at a time and do the whole camp with me.

We'd live together. We'd do everything together. He was my brother, you know, so Shang-ji, everyone. else um and really only mauricio shanji and my wife knew what was going on i didn't want anyone else to know because i didn't want that i didn't want them to take that to the cage or take that to the fight with them you know so we just kind of kept it all to ourselves i did not tell my dad um and when i walked out of that office me and maricio just embraced each other and i just started bawling and he lifted me up and he was just like we're going to do this

this like this is meant to be you're we're we're gonna do this and I was like yeah yeah you know and I kind of pull myself together and it's like oh fuck by my leg you know he was like we'll work around it you know so I go back to training the next day and I finally I have like a spark and through that two week time period I was I like to do a lot of walks um that's one of my recovery hacks, just keep moving, just go walk, get outside. And the south of Brazil has a strong European influence. That's why Muay Thai is there because the Dutch brought Muay to the south of Brazil. That's where shoebox, that's how it was all started, was from Dutch kickboxing going to the south Brazil. But there's a very strong European influence there. So there's a lot of cobblestone

and like parks. And it's a very pretty major city of. Brazil and so I loved walking around and that would be like my recovery between sessions I go for a walk and in in that time period where I was going through all that stuff with the doctors and all that I was doing all these walks and I would always have my headphones in I'm listening to music and I'm trying to process what's going on and I made a decision on one of those days and one of my walks that I accepted the fact that my health could be affected by fighting I I I I may that acceptance but I knew I said to myself for this fight I'll take that that risk you know I took it on I I needed this fight I needed to know how far I could go I worked so hard to get there

and win or lose I need to know what my level was you know and and so I said we have to go for this and so you know no matter what all the doctors said all the knows I was just there looking for one yes. And I finally found the yes. And so at that point it was just like the next day in training, I was like, okay, we're doing this. Like, no matter what happens, I'm getting this, I'm going to get this fight. But then I had to turn everything into Bellator. And they had to talk to the European Commission. And I still had to wait on their answer. So at this point, I'm with, I'm inside of a month, because it was six weeks before and then I spent over two weeks in Brazil

so I'm coming home from Brazil now less than a month to go and we had plans to go to London about 10 days before so I'm really only going to be home for like a little over a week and I'm dealing with my leg getting through it I'm just doing

boxing which was terrible because that's the last thing I wanted to do with him he has really good hands but I couldn't wrestle I couldn't throw kicks and kicks are a big part of my game. So there was still a lot of obstacle and adversity to overcome and I was still an emotional wreck because of the injury and just all of it. But I started to put together a couple of good training sessions here and there. And the leg was getting good enough.

It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough. And then we're all together in Oklahoma now. And I'll never forget, we're on our way to one of the way. of my last heart sparrings at home. And I'm looking on my phone and I check my email. And I finally got the email from Bellator saying, we're going to approve you for this fight two weeks, two weeks before the fight.

So I do the whole camp from six weeks to two weeks, not even knowing if this thing's going to even happen. So how are you going to supposed to be confident if you don't even know that's going to happen? Yeah. You know? And we all went nuts in the car. I was just like, yes, it's just fucking happening.

We were doing it. Yeah, yeah, I got the email. We're good. We're good. We're going to London. And I'm like, oh, shit, I got to buy your guys as plane tickets because I hadn't even booked anything yet because I didn't even know if we were going to go. And so got all that done.

And we get out there. And even until the very last days, I had a day where I was like, okay, we're going to go kind of hard today. It's still just over a week from the fight. you know we're gonna go kind of hard and I tried to wrestle and I went for a shot and my leg just it just tightened up on me it just yeah completely didn't want me to go and I fall over I'm like fuck dude now we're we're we're we're almost here it's almost time and now I'm dealing with this still and and I got really emotional again I mean I'm I cried more times and that that time period

from six weeks out to the fight yeah I cried more times during that period than my whole put together um and everyone just kind of came around me we made like a little huddle you know a big hug and uh man they really lifted me back up i i i was super emotional when on when i went on on joe show to talk about all this and so i i mean i was still kind of crying on joe show but i was emotional because of how grateful i am for those guys for that team you know the all those people that mentioned before um you know they're my brothers and yeah and we they helped me get through it like they gave me the strength and uh and yeah and then the fight became this freaking rocky style fight where i win the first two rounds he wins the next two rounds and it comes down to the fifth

round and uh you know i mean for the first 17 minutes of the fight it was uh or 12 minutes 13 minutes or so it was going perfect for me. I was taking him down, taking zero damage. You still feel the hamstring? No, adrenaline takes care of everything. So it's like practically going perfect for me. And then I kind of ease off for one second. I'm losing the back and I'm like, oh, okay, I'll play guard.

I'll be all right. And he has really good ground and pound. And this was in the second half of the third round. literally the first 13 minutes are like almost perfect um but then i lose the back in the third round and in the last like 90 seconds he puts together a really it gave him the life he was like oh now i have a chance i'm back in it and he put together a really good like 90 seconds of grounded pound and he cut me open and then in the uh yeah i was after this i mean i'm mounting him all over him but I couldn't finish him.

He was surviving so well. And that's where I got cut. And then the fourth round, I couldn't see. I had blood in my eyes. And I had blood in one eye. And he actually punched me and poked me in the other eye. And then I couldn't see and I put my head down like this. And he snuck in an uppercut.

And he dropped me in the fourth. But he didn't come close to finishing me. So he's up two rounds. Or he gets two rounds. I won the first two rounds and it's down to the fifth round. And, and Shangey just yells at me in the corner and he's like, look, one more take down for your life's work. You know, this is it, everything. One more take down.

And I go out in the fifth round and it's my best round of the fight. He didn't touch me one time. I got him down. I was on him the whole round. It was my best round of the whole fight. I gave everything. but the reason why I could dig deep for that fifth round was because of everything we went through in the camp, right?

Going out to that fight, I had already fought just to be in the fight, just to get to the fight. So it was my advantage. And I talked about this on Joe's show. Have you guys ever heard of Think and Grow Rich from Napoleon Hill? Beautiful.

So I found that book when I was in my 20s. after I'd already like achieve some really good things in jiu-jitsu and I read that book and you know when you get the right book at the right time in your life where it just hits you and you get goosebumps and maybe emotional you're just like whoa this is this is very very powerful um I could see some of the things that I was doing right to get me to where I was but I also could understand better how to hone in and do it all better. And that book just really changed my life. And there was a quote in that book

that became the quote on my first signature gee. I was one of the first jiu-jitsu guys to have his own signature glee. And it was victory as always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. And so when I went to M.M. I used to take that book with me for all my fights. And I would read it during the camp.

I would read it backstage before I would go out to my fight. We're backstage before this fight, and it's my time okay, where I open up the book. And I had the flap saved in a part of the book to where when I opened, and I had like highlights and underlines and markings in the book. And when I opened it onto the page where it was, the first thing I saw was highlighted. Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent advantage. And that was the first thing I saw.

And I remember reading that right there. As soon as I opened it, boom. And I looked up at my guys in the backstage room. And I looked around to them and I thought about everything we had been through in that camp. And I was like, we're going to win. That's why we're going to win because of all of that. This guy's here for money, for whatever. I'm here for legacy.

and to achieve a dream with people that I love. You know, we all love each other. And that adversity is why we're going to win. And so I didn't have to dig deep. It was already there. So when it came down to the fifth round, I was just like, I was ready. And, yeah, so that was that.

But afterwards, words, they created a panel in Europe, the commission, and they continued to discuss my case because they weren't sure if they made the right decision. And one of the doctors who sat on this panel, he was from Ireland, man, he, that's why I was so emotional. People don't understand it. They didn't know what I was going through. The reason why I was so freaking emotional, obviously, it's a world title, but I was

crying so much because that's my decision. right there that's my ECO. I was crying so much because of what we had just gone through to even get there for that to happen. I had, you know, I can't put it into words, but. The doctor on the panel. The doctor on the panel. So we had signed a rematch.

And I was already back in camp. This was like November and we were gonna rematch in January in LA at the forum. and well I'll say that at the end so in my head I'm thinking okay I got approved

not everyone's going to follow suit right and we sign we're doing the we're getting ready for the rematch I just started my camp it's the beginning phases November the fights not until the end of January but I have everything lined up

and camp has started and man I'm hitting another level now like after that experience going five rounds. I never had gone five rounds before. And the confidence that it gave me and just what I went through in that fight. I mean, I was just, I was hitting, I was finally becoming a black belt in MMA. And, and I was super confident. I was like, man, the way I'm training now, he's not going to survive five rounds, you know?

So we're going. But I'm like, hey, guys, like California, let's just make sure, because California is one of the states. that require the brain scan. I'm like, let's make sure we're going to be okay, right? And Bella's first, like, okay, we're going to talk to them. And then I'm in camp. And this doctor from Ireland emails me and he says, hey, he tells me the whole thing. I didn't know they made a panel and they continued discussing my case.

He's like, hey, we done all this and we have now come to the conclusion that you shouldn't fight and you will never be approved here to fight again you need to stop and i'm like i'm not hit with again like really is this happening again and so then i tell rich uh from belator rich chow uh shout out to rich great guy always took great care of me belator great great great show great experience with the whole team there am i rich dude i'm really worried about california now because i just got this call from this doctor in Ireland, Europe's not going to let me fight there ever again. And he's like, oh shit. And so they get me set up to go to UCLA to see the neurosurgeon, you know, the team there,

see the doctor there. They do another scan, another set of scans, more MRIs. And they even see that one of my locations that was really the biggest one had actually gotten a little smaller. Fighting's helping you. Who knows? And I basically get the same response from that guy that I did from the doctor in Brazil. And he is like, look, I can't put any quantification on this of what the increased risk is.

You are like this is abnormal and there is a risk, but I can't quantify it. And I'll just say the same thing. You can continue fighting, but we need to stay on top of this. And I was like, okay, good. So then I'm positive. We're all positive. We're all positive. We're all positive.

We're in L.A. And then they deliver all of that to the California Athletic Commission. Shut it down right then and there. Like, nope, you're not going to fight. And so now here I am in the same boat again. And basically that ended it. um, Bellator is like,

well, you're our champion and we literally can't put you anywhere. We can't put you in Europe. We can't put you in the U.S. because the California Athletic Commission, they're going to basically be the standard for everybody else. And, uh,

and so they're like, we don't know what we're going to do with you. Um, uh, basically like, you can't fight. We're going to have to relinquish your, your title.

and then that's when I jumped on Joe's show because I wanted to get ahead of it and let everyone know what was going on before they're like oh, Lovato's not going to fight and he's not going to defend his belt, whatever. And up to that point, my family still didn't even know. I didn't tell anybody.

All my students and everyone's asking me, when's a fight going to take place? Like when are you going to defend the belt? And I'm like, oh, we don't know. We're still working on it. But I had all this going on. So I don't want to tell the story a thousand times. Just put it out once.

and but that's what happened but uh the circle man like i come right back into jiu jitsu full force end up with this kind of second career in jiu jitsu i was uh the the title fight was 2019 it actually happened the weekend of my birthday i just turned 36 and then coming into 2020 now i'm at my you know late 30s 37 38 and i say all right uh what can i do now let's go all back in on jiu-jitsu again and been able to put together another great run and do things that no one else had done in the sport regardless of age but then throw on the age on top of it but what was really amazing so I got married and my wife and I we had our twins in 2022 and and I did ADCC that year and had a

a good run. I did some cool stuff. And at the end of that year, I got a call for my manager and he said, hey, this event in Japan reached out to me. They're interested in having you fight. And I had never really fully kind of let go of that because I was hitting such a high level and it all just got taken away from me out of nowhere. And so I understood that, okay, if this is my last fight ever, I'm going to give everything I have and, you know, title fight, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like I said, I thought I was going to keep fighting. And I was about to start getting championship pay.

You know, I mean, I was, and Bellator was going to like Madison Square Garden and all these amazing arenas. And I was like, dude, I mean, the forum, you know, I was going to be the main event. have my name on these arenas and and championship pay and all that kind of stuff and then it just boom gone um and so I didn't I didn't get to say goodbye on my terms you know was everyone else saying no stop and so I always told Ed Ed Svarez was my manager I said Ed if anything comes up for Japan because that's the only place they don't care they don't you know if anything comes up let me know and so he hit me up that year and if I didn't stay active in jujitsu if I didn't keep competing and just move on you know keep moving forward I wouldn't have been ready I wouldn't

have been in shape I wouldn't have been you know that would have been three years without any sort of competition you know over three years but because I stayed in it and you know I had my guys and I was still helping my MMA guys and still doing some some sparring here and there um I kept myself in a position to still go for it if it came around. And then sure enough, this opportunity came. And I got to fight in Tokyo on New Year's Eve. You know, huge show, huge show for a really cool event. I fought an undefeated kid who was like 26 years old, 8 and 0.

And submitted him in the first round with a Kimora. The same sequence I showed from the half guard yesterday. and then check this out here's where it gets crazy i'm a little weird with numbers uh i i look for reasons to find that luck like what's you know like if they put me in a hotel room that's my favorite number i'm like oh yeah you know this is going to be good so i'm always looking for that so this is that that fight in japan was my 11th fight and got the victory it was my seventh submission and 11 fights right I had two TKOs and then two decisions so seventh submission 11th fight it happened in 2022 my kids were born that year

2022 twins two the number two then they were born on July 11th 711 my seventh submission victory and 11 fights. And, and I do that a lot. And then, so then this recent year, last year, I went undefeated in jiu-grabble competition. I've had a really good run, did some fun stuff. I got 20, I'm on a 23 match win streak, but only was my 23rd win in a row. And, and I'm top three now in two weight classes in grappling in the world. So two and three. And three, 23, Michael Jordan.

He's one of my heroes. It was my dad. You're wearing some Jordan. Yeah, always. It was my dad. Then it was Bruce Lee and then it was Michael Jordan. Those are my heroes.

And then we went to the Philippines. I told you, my wife and I for a vacation in Borokai and have an amazing hotel, you know, a whole setup. They gave us Villa 23. I'm like, dude, this is like,

you know people can get weird to think about destiny or whatever it's like is your brain work line up things line up in a special way is your brain work that way normally are you normally looking for the good and things yeah 100% always always positive and just that feeling of like this is where I'm meant to be you know this is this is this is where I am right now and everything in my life brought me to this so like just feel having that like presence like the present moment appreciating it. I try to do that as much as I can. You know, I mean, everything in my life,

I never imagined it would go this far. You know, the jiu-jitsu, when I was a kid and we were doing jiu-jitsu, I mean, no one knew what jiu-zitsu was. And there was no sport. There was no ability to just do jiu-jitsu and make enough money to take care of yourself and provide for your family and stuff like that. and to see how far it's come and have the ability to teach all over the world and see

jiu-jitsu all over the world compete all over the world power project family how's it going now over the years i've learned a lot from guests that have come on to this podcast and i've taken the time to learn many different movement practices so for example if you've wanted to learn rope flow which is a practice i think is just beneficial for everyone i have a free rope flow foundation's course at school dot com slash the stronger human now the stronger human community actually She has over 11,000 members. So it's a great community there, but you'll also be able to learn rope flow for free,

along with many other things I teach in there, like kettlebell flow, kettlebell juggling, all that good stuff. So head over there. Along with that, if you're looking for where to get your equipment as far as ropes, maces and clubs, sandbags, all that good stuff, you can head over to the stronger human. And on that site is where I have all of the different functional fitness equipment that I use to become a stronger human.

So check those out. Let's get back to the episode. You know, and build the living that I've been able to do, you know, I don't take it for granted. I really try to appreciate it, you know, give it its gratitude, its due gratitude as much as possible. And I think that's another reason, you know, we had a conversation the other day where it's like how, how am I still putting up the results I'm putting up at my age? I think a lot of this just because I love it and appreciate it so much that it makes it easier for me. Not that it's easy.

It's never easy, but it makes it easier for me to show up, you know, and give it my best consistently because, man, I'm living my dream. Yeah. I mean, even beyond what I could have dreamed whenever I was a kid, you know, doing a grappling match in Tokyo, Just a grappling match, not even fighting. Just being able to go and be a part of a show like that for Jiu-Jitsu, you know,

those sort of things. This is like, I couldn't have even imagined that when I was a kid. And to have these opportunities still there, or, you know, they're there. But for them to be there at this stage of my life still, it's like, how can I not go for it and just continue working. And then, you know, whether I'm competing or I'm teaching or, you know, trying to put out content and do different things, whatever it is, is just like, okay, this deserves my best.

You know, it's like, how can I not? Because I didn't know we would even be able to do this. So that's how I just keep that sense of purpose. and gratitude that that runs through me all the time so the work is just like nah this is great you know it's not hard it's not hard yeah you love it yeah love the process are you still getting your brain uh checked out here and there and like are there things you're supposed to do or uh i should be getting at least once gain a year to be honest um i went through like a a year long process i did a hearing with the California Athletic Commission. It went all the way into halfway through 21. So I

spent like a year and a half doing more scans, seeing more doctors. I went to the Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas. I tried to convince the California Athletic Commission to give me a chance. And I had them so close to saying yes, but they still said no. And I had such a bad taste. And I had such a bad in my mouth after all that to be honest i have not done a scan since um i should i should uh just to check and make sure nothing's changed is there supplements i mean creatine is supposed to you know be brain healthy is there anything you've heard of that's supposed to help the condition does the condition like autumn you know some conditions automatically get worse like is it one of those things or there is no telling when or how it could get worse and there is no cure um it's

actually a genetic deficiency. So I ended up doing this DNA test to see if it was something that I was born with because we didn't know. You can develop it, but most of the time you're born with it. That's why a lot of youth can have brain surgeries with this condition early on because they're born with it and it gives them serious symptoms from an early age. But, um, I did that test, super expensive test. I did it and I confirmed that I was born with this. So it's not going anywhere. Maybe I've kind of shoved it to the side a little bit,

but I don't have symptoms. And there is no treatment until you have symptoms. They're not going to do a brain surgery to try to pull that big piece out just for fun. They're only going to do it when things are getting serious and you have real issues. and so because I don't have any seizures or any vision or whatever problems going on there's no reason to do anything so probably a lot of people that live with it that don't even know 100% I mean I had it my whole life you know I did all those nine fights before that title fight I got I've been getting hit my head my whole life you know I can show you

video of my dad you know work admits and if I drop my hand he let me know you know what I mean since I was a kid. So it's always been there. And, you know, I should just get a look at it again. But like I said, after that whole process and all the money that I spent trying to figure out a way to get approved, I just said, okay, enough of that for a little bit. What do you think about parents and now that you're a parent? Do you have siblings? I do not.

I'm an only child. Yeah, what like I imagine your relationship with your dad. It may be a little complex, you know, because I'm sure like he may have been treating you as if you were older when you were still like a little kid, want to do like little kid stuff. What are your own thoughts and like how do you think you'll parent? Like what are maybe blind spots that maybe your dad didn't see that you kind of wish he was maybe, I don't know, more tent of two or something like that and just, I don't know, I don't know. parents in general, you know, pushing, forcing their kids into, like, I, I, I personally, my personal feeling on it is I think that you do have to force your kids to do stuff sometimes and that you do have to push them. But, you know, to what degree is kind of like a gray area, hard to tell.

Exactly. I think at the end of the day, all we can do is try to do our best, you know, and I do believe that my parents did their best. And whatever I could look at and say, maybe that wasn't the best way or that caused these conflicts or complications or whatever at the end of it I can still look at it and say but it made me who I am today so was it wrong or was it right or you know I don't know I don't know how to assess that you know I mean none of us do like everything is so in the moment. And if you're coming from your heart, you're coming from a good place, how can you say it was wrong?

You know, so I think it's difficult. I am having a lot of these discussions and thoughts of my own, discussing with my wife, of course, and other parents, especially guys who, you know, my black belts, you know, all over the country, uh, that have kids and just kind of asking,

hey, what are you doing? You know, or like my, my wrestling coach, his son, his son, Tate that I'm on the team with,

is a twin of a girl, of a sister. I have boy girl twins. And his son, uh, amazing kid, great kid, um,

gets good grades, good person. And, you know, rank number one in college wrestling right now um you know athletic scholarship um his his sister played uh division one soccer and also i mean i'm just so you know when i look at things like that half that bus ride that we did you know for 20 hours to iowa and back um i was just talking with him and i was just like what did you do you know how'd you do it like good kids athletes good

work hard you know so I'm trying to just be aware and get different perspectives understand that there's more than one way to get to a goal and you know balance it as much as I can I I know that my son is going to feel something that I never felt to the degree I did have a pressure of being my father's son, being an only son, and being the son of the guy who runs the school that you're growing up in. The hard thing about our relationship, and I don't want to put my dad on blast or anything like that, but he had to work a lot. You know, I mean, and he was building a business. And so, you know, I'm an only child. And when I get out of school, my dad has to now be at the academy because from four to nine is kids class uh adult classes

you know and he's teaching and so in order for me to i don't have anyone else to play with i don't have a brother or sister i didn't really feel any connection to my school um in the sense where i want to play a team sport or um do anything else other than martial arts um i uh i obviously was athletic, but I didn't connect to the athletes in school because I didn't play their sports. And I made really good grades and I did all like the AP classes and all that kind of stuff. So I was in difficult classes. But I didn't also feel very connected to like the book kids, you know, because I was an athlete at the same time. I wanted to do martial arts.

And martial arts isn't a thing that people do at school. So when I left school and I went home, it was like, well, I'm going to just go to my dad's school. I'm going to go to the academy. And that's where I could spend time with my father. But when I'm into those doors, he's head teacher, coach, and I also am being held to a high standard to, you know, be a well-behaved, hardworking kid inside my father's school. And so I grew up very fast. Like I mean, I joke, that's why I have all these wrinkles. I never was a kid.

I never was a kid. I was always around adults and I just worked really hard. I never played. I never partied. I mean, I didn't have my first drink until I was like 24 years old. I was super focused. I wanted to achieve my goals and that's all that mattered. And so I didn't have anything at school.

And then I'm at the jiu-jitsu school where, okay, it's fun, it's martial arts, but I didn't really get any dad time outside of that. And at the school, I'm just around adults. And so I just grew up really fast. I never really got to be a kid. And by the time I'm 16, I'm traveling the world. And so, I mean, there were times when I'm 17, 18 years old going on these jiu-suits trips to compete at tournaments and stuff. and I'm flying and some of the guys I'm flying with I've never flown before.

And they don't know how to book hotels or book, you know, I'm literally teaching them and I'm organizing the whole trip. I'm 18 years old, they're 30 years old. You know, I'm so I can't even rent the rental car yet, but I'm telling them how to do it, you know. So anyways, I say all that to say, yes, there were some hardships where maybe, you know,

I was kind of craving just, like buddy dad you know versus like coach teacher um and he was there was a a little bit of a of a leash but also not um in the sense where if i really said hey dad i don't want to compete or anything like that he he would have been fine with it he still expect me to train you know i have to go to class um because it's education it's not about competition like i said in the beginning we were a martial artist it wasn't about you have to win these tournaments or these titles but you need this education in your life because of how it'll make you better and so that was non-negotiable but i didn't have to train as much as i did i didn't

have to compete like i did um but at the same time what else was i going to do and i also wanted to make my dad proud you know uh that was my my goal You know, that's what I was doing. Maybe he didn't put that on me, but I put it on myself. So I could be like, hey, I'm over here. And, and I'm doing this. And maybe a big sense of it was I was doing it for us. And, yeah.

So, like I said, at the end of the day, it may be who I am today. And those expectations that he set. and the level of effort that he expected from me, you know, going back to like what I said in the beginning or whatever, whatever it was about win or lose, you make that person never want to fight you again. I mean, all those sort of things that he's sprinkled in. He demanded excellence, and he did that with everybody.

You know, it wasn't just me. Every student could feel that presence from him. And I think he set me up. up for all the other things that I was going to end up going through in my life. My, my jiu-jitsu teacher, Salo Hiberto, is a very intense man, like extremely intense. And that's another cool story. The way I met him was that I fought him. So how I became connected with Hiberos and it completely changed my life. In 2003, I was a 19-year-old Brown Belt, and this is when Nogi is starting to take off.

And they had this event called the Arnold Gracie pro grappling world championships or whatever it was. But it was a part of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Expo. Wow. In Columbus, Ohio, Ohio, where I was born. And I went to this competition to do their pro-Nobacco. They had three Nogi divisions, a light, middle, and a heavy. Middleweight was up to 195.

I did the 195 division. And I knew that Sala competed in this tournament. He had a Midwest home base at that time. Excuse me. They were working their way to build some seeds and put some things in the U.S. And he had a Midwest base, and he always did that event because outside of ACC, it was the biggest paying event. So they paid $5,000 for first place.

That was big, big money back then. And second place got $1,500, right? And so all the ADCC champs would go to that event and keep their no-gee sharp before ADCC later that year. And so I went to that event knowing that solid would be there and maybe I could end up going against him. Well, sure enough, we ended up on opposite sides of the bracket. And we fought in the finals.

and I had one of my best days up to that point. I actually submitted my first black belt at that tournament and it was one of Salo's black belts and I did it in the semifinals to set up the final against Solo. And so, I mean, I'm just like, I can't believe this is happening right now

because Salo was already multiple time. I mean, he was a legend, legend. And the first time I went to Brazil in 99 was like prime Solo era and the whole gymnasium where they held the world championships used to chant solo solo and now I'm competing against him a few years later a kid from Oklahoma without a black belt you know by myself 19 years old and we fought he beat me as he should have but I gave him a good match I did okay he caught me in the very end with a choke from Mount

just the way it's supposed to be done. Just less than a minute left. He submitted me and held my head up high. I was super proud of myself for competing at that level and having a good day. And I made $1,500 as a 19-year-old. That was fueled to be able to keep going, you know, to the next tournament and the next stuff. And so fast forward, that was March. I'm in Brazil in July for World Trade.

championships and Sallow didn't compete that year. He had won 80CC that year. He won a second ADCC title that same year that we fought. But then he took the worlds off and he was just coaching. And so he was very approachable. And I had just finished. I was still a brown belt. I had just finished my matches. And I went over to say hi to him. And so I just, you know, tapped him on the shoulder, shook his hand and hey, what's up, Sallow? And he's like, my brother. You know, he's all all excited to see me and he's like where are you training here and i let him know where i was training where i was at he was like huh do you want to come train with me am i guys my team i say yes yes i would love to and so he's like okay here's my number blah blah blah he gave me his card i still have

his business card today the one that he gave me on that day um he said call me and i'll come pick you up from your hotel on monday i'll take you to training so i did that and sure enough came and picked me up, took me to training. And this was, so there was two tournaments at this time. There was the World Cup, which gave money. And then there was the IBJGF, the traditional world championships that everyone knows today. But there was like a big drama. And this other organization was created and they used to pay fighters and try to get people to go to that one.

But they were like two weeks apart. So there was a gap. And I saw them at the first one. And so now we're coming back and everyone is now kind of, like, okay, tightening up from the mistakes and getting ready for the real one that's coming next. And so I get right in on this training session and Salo is breaking down so much amazing technique and strategy and mindset and everything. He's giving a whole speech. I mean, he's spending hours helping his guys with everything they did wrong at the first one and then leading and motivating them

to get ready for the next one. And all the years I had been to Brazil, I had never seen anything like this before my life. And no one would let a gringo in on this kind of knowledge. So I don't want to make that sound like that's like some sort of universal whatever. But the OGs of American jih Tjitsu from back in the days, they know about going to Brazil and how it was difficult to really have somebody teach you,

like give you the whole everything, the technique, the mindset, how to play the game, answer your questions, especially if you were good, because then you were more of a threat. And they don't want you to end up beating a Brazilian or one of their teammates or whatever the case may be. So I didn't really ever get that kind of,

knowledge coming my way. And now here Sala is doing this right in front of me with his core team. And he's also helping me and then answering my questions and offering to coach me and help me. And hey, we'll come back the next day. And he's inviting me to lunch afterwards. And I'm eating with the team. Why was he so open with you? You would have to ask him. But yes, being super open. And I fought him. And I'm from another team. And I'm a gringo. And I'm around the same size as a brother.

And you beat one of his students. I beat one of his students. And I'm around the same size as a brother. I could easily end up competing against multiple guys on his team in the future. And he did that. And he saw something. He's a genius. He's a wild man.

But inside everything is a genius. And so I, So I immediately, I went to the internet cafe because that's what we had to do back in those days. And I wrote an email to my dad. And I told my dad, dude, you're not, I mean, my dad, okay, dad, you're not going to believe what just happened. And Salo is being so amazing, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, we should get him out for a seminar sometime.

And so I ended up training multiple days there. really like just loved it. And I told that to Saul, we would love to have you out sometime. You know, he's like, okay, my brother, let's stay in touch, da-da-da-da. Next time I go to the U.S., we'll make it happen. So we stayed in touch.

January or February of 2004, the next year, we made it happen. And so he flies back to the U.S., goes straight to Oklahoma, and he's doing like a Saturday seminar, but he shows up on like Tuesday. And he's like, yeah, let's train for a few days. He stays with my dad.

I was in like a small little single bedroom apartment at the time. Now I'm 20 years old. Yeah. In college. And he comes and he spends all those days, stays with my dad and we're hanging out. I mean, we're doing everything together. And we train every day.

And he's basically giving me a private lesson for free. Mm-hmm. Every day. And it's just like amazing. And we're both, my dad and I were just having such a great time with Sala, all his knowledge, his stories, everything. His energy is super special, super special. And one day on that trip, I brought him over to my apartment. And I wanted to, like, impress him.

And I'm like showing him videos of my matches. And I'm like, yeah, you see what I did there? You know, what do you think about this? and I'm just trying to get some more knowledge from him. And he just like, he's just kind of looking at it. He's just like, and he looks at me. He's like, so what do you want? Like just straight to the point.

What do you want? I'm like, what do you mean? Like, what are you doing? I'm like, well, I want to be a black but world champion. And he goes, so why are you in school? I'm like well you know my dad wants me to get a degree like you know what if it doesn't work out I need to be able to make money somehow

and I was going to be like an accountant I didn't know what I was doing I hated school I hated it I just wanted to do jiuzitsu of course and he was the first one to talk to me like that and just like what do you want and so I tell him and he's like well

why don't you move to Brazil and train with me and my brother and our team and go all in on this basically and we'll help get you ready for the world I was still a brown belt because I wanted to end my brown belt career as a world champion to get my black belt. I wanted to be a brown belt war champion

to get my black belt and so he hit me all this and he's like yeah you go to Brazil you train with our team you do all the competitions together you and Shanji my brother you know his brother blah blah blah blah and uh and let's go and i'm like oh really i could do that and he's like yeah and i'm like ooh uh that sounds amazing and so i'm like okay i got to talk to my dad and so uh i took like a week to absorb it and then because he didn't say that around my dad

that was just with me uh and then two weeks later i finally had to the courage to sit my parents down and I told them what's the invitation that Sawa gave me and there's another moment where I had that conversation with my dad and I said I have to do this and reluctantly he said okay I get it and I dropped out of college I moved to Brazil like within a month later by the end of March and I stayed there for over four months and just ran it all up on the card made it happen and went all in um i did not win the worlds that year still lost fell short heartbreaking um but that was a life-changing moment the opportunity the mentorship everything destiny i had to fight solid like all of that came and happened and i went all in and i didn't know

what was going to happen when i left uh i knew i was going to end up getting my black belt because it was time. I got my black belt. I had another opportunity come right away where I could go. I actually went to Vegas. I lived in Vegas and I used to teach out of Mark Lehman School. He gave me an opportunity to go out there. So I didn't know how I was going to make money when I got home. I didn't have financial like student loans to help pay for stuff anymore. But then literally like a month after I got home from Brazil, Mark Lehman hit me up. Say, hey, I want you to come out here. I was going to help him be a training partner for a camp that he was doing against one of the Gracie kids.

And he's like, you live here, you teach classes, you can do private lessons. All the money is yours. I'll pay you for teaching classes and any private lesson money you get. It's all yours, whatever. I'll feed you. You stay in my house. So I would have no bills and I could just make money. So I said, okay, I'm there.

I literally went like a week later. And I stayed there for over three months. And, uh, and of course I kept in touch with Salo and Shanzi. And then they made the transition from Brazil to Ohio. Toledo, Ohio. Oh, man. You know. And then in 05, they were there.

So then I started going to Toledo, Ohio, to do training camps with them. But what's crazy is the moment from the time that I dropped out of college and went all in, still as a brown belt, moved to Brazil. Three years later, I grand slammed as a black belt. you know so that was just a turning point can you mention what the grand slam is for people grand slam is when you win the four major iBJGF events in the same year um so it used to be the triple crown but then they they made the europeans and then it became the grand slam and so that you win the europeans which is first the pans um and then the brazilian nationals and then the worlds all in the same year. And when I did, I was the first one to ever do it. When I did it,

not just first American, but first person to ever do it. Yeah. When I did it, it didn't even have that name, that term, the Grand Slam yet. That was actually a marketing thing that came around a little bit later. And so it wasn't even something I had like, nowadays people set out to do that on purpose. Yeah, yeah. To make history and market and all that stuff. But it didn't even have that back then it was kind of on accident um they switched the worlds in 07 from being held in Brazil to being held in the u.s that was the first year that happened and when they announced that i was like i was a little sad to be honest because i competing in brazil i always envisioned myself winning in brazil i wanted to win in brazil and uh but then i of course i was excited okay

the sports growing new things it's going to be big and now i can bring my students a lot easier than going to Brazil. But then I was like, well, I still got to fight in Brazil. I'm not going to not go to Brazil, you know. So I put the Brazilian nationals on my schedule that year so I could go compete in Brazil. And I did that tournament twice as a brown belt, and I never even meddled.

And then the first time I go and do it as a black belt, I went. Let's go. So I just, I said, I went by myself. And so I was the first American to win the Europeans in the pants, singularly, the first one to ever win each event as a black belt. And then the Brazilian nationals, I was the first non-Brazilian to ever win that. And then I was the second American to win the world championships after BJ Penn. And the first one to do it on U.S. soil.

And it was over 10 years until someone did it again. but yeah that was all just okay I have to go to Brazil I wanted to start my year early so I went to the Europeans and just ended up doing it but each one gave me more confidence for the next you know so it was a momentum thing yeah really and end up having an amazing year and then things started clicking opportunities started being able to do seminars and but even then I still never imagined it would get to this you know um but then And then last year, part of what I did, I told you after ADCC, I said, okay, what about the IBJF events and Nogi that I hadn't won yet? And so how I got that win streak is I did all those Nogi majors, the Europeans, the Pan and the Brazilian nationals.

And because I already had the Nogi World one. and then I became the first one to win every IBJGF event in GE and no GE just this last year. I just got the other three that I needed and was able to do it all in a row. Went pretty smoothly and made history one more time. So it's pretty cool. That's amazing, man. Especially at 42. Again, it's, I think one of the coolest things about you isn't just obviously your consistency,

but the way you're still able to do this against the newer crop that's coming up, you're still able to beat them just like you were. But it's nothing, I don't know, I appreciate that so much. And obviously, that's like even a new layer of motivation. You know, it's like, okay, how do you keep the fire burning? How do you stay inspired? And that is kind of like a thing that instead of using it to put me down, I use it to fire me up.

It's like, yeah, you know, I can still do this, you know. And then, of course, being a father as well gives me so much inspiration to set an example. And if you have a dream, go for it, that kind of stuff. I want my kids to be fully equipped to chase after anything that their heart is burning for, you know. And I thought being a father would slow me down. I didn't understand how it would fire me up even more, you know. but but really it I think it's not as hard as what people think like I mean it is but it's really in the consistency it's just that's it just why if you don't stop you're not doing anything different you know I'm still

I'm just doing it smarter yeah like I'm just better you know the the other things the routine and the lifestyle you just become better at making the right decisions and, you know, putting everything in place the way it needs to be so you can keep going. When you're younger, you maybe don't fully have the awareness or the, you know, you don't know a lot. You're also still trying to find the right people. Yeah. You know, and I found them and I've just never left. Like we're still close. We're still together. And they've accumulated more knowledge as well over the years. And so then I have even stronger sources of knowledge and mentorship and and experience I can gain from. So I just feel like I'm even

more equipped. It's a harder mission, especially physically, but I'm more equipped to do everything I need to do to help me keep going. That's it. Just keep going. Where can people find you? Where can where can they find these shirts and learn more about your seminars and stuff? So timeless Jiu-Jitsu. That's the timeless logo on my back. That's kind of that whole like once you start doing what you love, never stop, you know, and then build the whole everything we've been talking about, you know, the whole practice around helping you give your best and receive the best possible for as long as possible. But that's really what I try to preach. It's like once you start guys, never stop. Like, uh, Jiu-Jitsu just keeps on giving.

back but um time website timeless timeless j i u jitsu dot com that's my baby uh you you're going to see links to everything um from there the store um my newsletter um also you get linked over to last round best round um that's my okay like the the instructionals no um it's more like my mindset type stuff motivational stuff uh last round best round like the title fight can down on the fifth round, last round, best round. And that was something that I always said to myself to motivate me in my sparring, in my training, in my conditioning.

Anytime it came down for the last round, I'm going to finish strong. I'm going to do better than what I did in the beginning. And so you can see a documentary here that Will Harris filmed. Will Harris is amazing. He does the anatomy of a fighter. He followed us and went with our team to Japan for that. last fight he actually wanted to do something sooner but then I couldn't fight

anymore and when that opportunity came I called up Will I said hey man this is it this might be the only chance do you want to get in on this and he's a yes and he's he's awesome great energy definitely check out his stuff but he came with us to Tokyo it was in my camp and he made this documentary it's beautiful but you can see at the end I'm holding we took him to Japan my twin babies and I just dreamed that moment of fighting one more time and then being able to hold them in the ring with me after I won. It was like, it was amazing. But so yeah, he, he made that. But last round, best round, Instagram, timeless jih Tzu, website, Instagram, all my instructional stuff. The newsletter,

you can follow my seminars, all that good stuff. That's my school right there. I'm based in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma, right in the middle of the map. Anyone's ever around? Come on through Nensima. It's time for you to come. And let's get some good training in. But yeah, that's my stuff. Strength is never a week. This week, this never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.

Thank you guys.