Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 257 - Genah "Fabioso" Fabian

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

Road Trip! We stopped off at CSA Gym in Dublin CA to podcast with some of the very best athletes they have to offer. Today we are with Gena “Fabioso” Fabian, a professional kick boxer and MMA from New Zealand, fighting out of the Combat Sports Academy in Dublin, CA. Genah is a World Muay Thai Council Champion and lightweight in the Professional Fighter’s League. ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

So in SEMA, I know you come from a background of kind of counting calories and weighing stuff and things like that. But more recently, you've been doing a lot of intermittent fasting and you cut out a lot of carbohydrates, right? Yeah, I've been going super, super, super low carb. How are you doing that with jujitsu and power? And you're still strong. I mean, I think it was just two months ago or so you pulled like a 725 deadlift. Yeah, no, I think it took a little bit of getting used to, and it took a little bit of experimenting with things I could use in my fast to just make it go a little easier. So I wasn't, you know, feeling like crap. I think

some of the perfect keto products are pretty awesome for that too. Um, like the MCT oils in the morning, but, um, yeah, it just, it took some time. It took some getting used to not having anything in my stomach and not eating food during the day. My brother really struggles with fasting. He's like, I can't fast. And I was like, well, what if you have some MCT oil in your coffee? He's like, oh, yeah. He's like, I can fast then.

So he can make it to like 1 or 2 o'clock each day. A lot of people really struggle with that. They get too hungry. And the perfect keto products, I think, are a perfect addition to anybody that's trying to mess around with fasting or trying to make some good lifestyle changes to their diet. You can try the bars. You can try the MCT oil. They also have collagen. I mean, they sell all kinds of stuff, and all the products are really super high quality.

People should be checking it out. Check out Perfect Keto. What do we got, Andrew? Tell them where to find it. Cool. So our listeners can enter and stay in ketosis today by going to perfectketo.com slash power project and use code power project and get 15% off all perfect keto products. All right. So, Mark, how lean did you get in your bodybuilding show?

I got as lean as I could. You know, I was trying to be lean and tender. Not all of us can be tall, dark and handsome. Some of us can be. You can tan. But did you eat a lot of lean meat when you were getting ready for show? I did. And you want to know what else is lean and tender?

What? Piedmontese beef. Ooh, tell me more. You better believe that. You know, the Piedmontese beef, what I think separates it out from a lot of the other companies is the fact that they somehow have the meat taste really tender and still have a lot of flavor. Yeah. But the fat reduction is amazing.

lot of flavor yeah but it's the fat reduction is amazing it's unbelievable how how much less fat is in the piedmontese b versus some of the other uh companies you look at their ribeye right their usda prime ribeyes normally 30 grams of fat piedmontese is 10 saturated fat normally 14.5 piedmontese is 4.5 they literally cut it in, it's a third of the amount of fat? Yeah. Are these cows jacked and tanned or what? Yeah. And the protein's more. It usually has 24 grams of protein in Piedmontese, and your normal USD prime has 19. That, I literally don't understand how these crazy scientists make this happen. Are these natty cows? I think these are natty cows from Nebraska, which makes sense because everything's bigger and better in Nebraska. Or maybe that's Texas.

I think that's Texas. But Nebraska too, I guess. Where can they find out more about Piedmontese beef? All right. You guys can get lean just like Mark Bell and head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com. Enter the promo code POWERPROJECT. That's all one word for 25% off your order, along with free two-day shipping on all orders of $99 and above.

All right. We rolling? We're rolling. We're good to go. Tell us about the workout that you just hit up because we're here at CSA, Combat Sports Academy, and I just saw you hit up a little workout over there. Yeah, yeah. I just jumped on one of the daily workouts of the day from CrossFit programming,

so I used that as my conditioning portion for the day. How long did the workout take? It didn't seem like it took a long time. No, it was a 20-minute, every minute for four minutes, three different elements, so bike, double-enders, and working to hit heavy deadlifts, mainly cardio, which is kind of what I'm what I'm pushing for right now just at the stage I'm at and lead up to my next fight it seems like you've been an athlete

most of your life um so I can't picture you really uh being like a cardio bunny like some females fall into that category of like going to the gym and spending a lot of time on a treadmill and stuff like that but how is this uh style of training like this crossfit style of training is it a little bit newer for you or do you know about it for quite some time i've known about it for quite some time um i started crossfit um and training crossfit quite intently uh from 2011 i was introduced to it um and just as a general strength and conditioning protocol it was new back there well you know it know, it was at that point where people were starting to catch on. It became what it is now, very popular, especially on my side of the world, Australia and New Zealand.

It was just starting to really take off. And I enjoyed it because it was performance-based general strength and conditioning protocol. So I really enjoy it. And I still do it to this day, not as intensely as I used to. I used to do all the Olympic lifting, competed for a minute, nothing great. But just because I was following those through CrossFit, those protocols and those programs to get better and more efficient at those lifts, which helped translate to my sport-specific stuff, I felt. Are a lot of people in MMA utilizing CrossFit workouts?

Because like I said, a workout didn't seem like it took very long. It seemed super efficient, though. Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of fighters do incorporate that style workout and you can, like, so many movements involved, as you know, so a lot of things can be tailored and be relative to our sport and just that the different time domains and, like I said, the protocol, like, you know, stop, start, stop, start, explosive kind of,

or it can be longer style um more endurance based stuff so i guess you know um the the broad range that that you've got in crossfit can translate um really well to the conditioning portion um and assist in that that we that we have for mma yeah so you did crossfit, Olympic lifting, you did some power lifting, right? Yeah. With Louise Simmons, we can talk about that more in a minute. Yeah. But how'd you get into the fight game?

Man, crazy story. Just, I took my first trip to Thailand, basically, and Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand. And my girlfriend and I at the time were were like we're here we're just you know doing a girls trip holiday and uh and we'll give it a go we'll give it a crack had fun didn't know what I was doing never did any martial art in my life I looked like a total spaz looking just like uh did some training for it or just hopped right into a ring against somebody uh no oh no no no yeah definitely training definitely training yeah um just training in in terms of like learning combinations learning techniques um and things like that and

learning uh their their way of training um and uh yeah developed a love for it since then but never thought never did martial arts growing up so to speak i was always an athlete like you mentioned um track and field and also rowing with my my own sports and um at a high level too as a junior coming through the ranks like Olympics was on the I was on the horizon that's that was the path I was going and then uh to do a full u-turn and uh yeah to choose choose uh initially Muay Thai to now fighting. Yeah, it's a trip to think about the journey today. You know, I'm really curious about this because you are a really good athlete, but how does one go from doing Muay Thai to hitting the ring?

Because I know a lot of people that train Muay Thai, I know a lot of people that train Jiu-Jitsu, but there aren't many people that take it all the way to going to the ring and getting hit and hitting others. Yeah. So when did you realize that you wanted to take it that far? So after my first kind of six months of training, like I said, just having fun, basically using it as a bit of fitness.

But I think I've got quite a um competitive and addictive personality which is um blessing and a curse sometimes and and I really found myself immersed in it like training twice a day and doing these three-hour sessions and just how uh how Muay Thai is um uh how they train and I and just, I really got addicted to it and formed a really great relationship with my trainer at the time. Like, you know, he took me in like a daughter and started, you know, really, really putting his time into me. And so that got addictive.

And then a year later, there was a fight that came up in my weight class. And I was training at this point quite intently, like twice a day, immersing myself around the fighters, around the pro team at the camp that I was at in Thailand, and watching fights and going to live fights and things like that. And on three days' notice, he asked me if I would be in to fight at one of the stadiums. And I didn't know what to do I said do you think I'm ready, do you think I'm ready, I don't know I don't know and I had all these doubts

I didn't know what I was signing up for and it was three days and I just, he goes yeah sure I was like well if you think so like looking back now like knowing what I know I probably would have given myself more time and and and and had a few amateurs and worked myself up the ranks but I just went in guns blazing and I never really

had an amateur career in fighting and Muay Thai so it was it was straight into full rules and in Thailand the mecca of Muay Thai so that's how that's how it all started um yeah yeah I guess ignorance is bliss like you're kind of in that situation. But if anyone asked me advice these days and amateurs coming through, I'd say take as many smokers and amateur fights as possible to gain your experience, gain your confidence, be able to go back to the drawing board and train better for it, not just go head first like I did.

Do you think there needs to be something a little off in your brain to be a fighter? Yeah, people say that, a little off. I'd say so. I'd say so. Or maybe some sort of desperate want or need to, like, I don't know. It just seems like the next level of competition so like if we play if we play basketball it's like it's a made-up game but we still have to like fight uh football same thing like it's it's a made-up game with a ball and then we have this

objective to get the ball moving into into somebody else's like territory and then score a touchdown and there's all these individual battles and fights going on. But fighting is like, is the real deal. And you're putting yourself, uh, in harm's way. Not that you're not putting yourself in harm's way in other sports,

but it's that next level of like, holy shit, that person's going to kick me in the head or knee me in the face or choke my ass out. You could actually die. It sounds really extreme to say, because, you know, usually you don't. Normally you've got, like, equipment

or there's rules that prevent you from, like, yeah, getting punched in the face or something. Yeah, or taking too much damage. But, like, yeah, the reality, and you don't, you know, people say you don't play fighting. Like, you very much have to be aware of what you're signing up for.

And so I think, yeah, there is definitely, I don't know what the correct word is. Crazy is probably a description that's in that. But as to why people sign up and want to pursue this and be fighters. Is there something specific that you're finding that you get from it, whether it be the training or actually the in-ring stuff? Yeah, firstly, man, to do it, and I haven't even been doing it as long as a lot of other people, but you've got to love the lifestyle and take the highs and lows

because there's a lot of lows. There's a lot of lows that people don't often see too much of. And so you've got to want to be the best and just have, like there's got to be something bigger than just signing up for fights because so much is entailed in it. Like on the back end, like I said, that people don't see behind closed doors. And I think the high of winning winning the high of dominating someone else um and beating someone else uh and that adulation different different things trigger different people i think as to why they fight but i think that feeling negates all the all the all the lows

that can come with this sport and this lifestyle. It's not just about the wins and losses that people see under the lights, in the ring or in the cage. Like I said, it's everything else that comes with it. So you've really got to love it and really got to love and chase that feeling of dominating and winning. And I think all that's comprised of it. If you can help me understand, because when I watch fighters or when you watch the YouTube interviews, the pre-fight interviews and all that,

you see all the hype and you see all of that. But what are some things that normal people like us don't understand that fighters go through on the back end? What things do you guys deal with that just people like us, spectators, don't get? I think it's a very unstable lifestyle you know nothing's guaranteed fights can fall through all the time you could be you could go for what you know um months or even even a year or even longer than that um layoff from fighting due to injuries and

all the all the training that's um uh you know through yeah through all the hard training um that we have to put our bodies through we're constantly like grinding each day um especially if you're going to that level of being a pro or if you are a pro um and all the different martial arts um and components that are um entailed and and becoming a in fightinging. And so, yeah, just the daily, you know, you've got to sacrifice a lot too. You're away from family and friends and events and things like that that you would usually be able to go to because you've got to be at the gym first thing in the morning the next day. You've got to travel away from family. You've got to be away from family depending on who you are and what you're doing.

Like that could be years that could be months that could be for a whole camp and you know a lot of people a lot of people have families as well not just partners or significant others or immediate family so you know there's it's it's slightly different for everyone but all that is definitely felt. Not being financially stable all the time until you get those big breaks or paychecks. And that's a small percentage, really, that can break through that barrier. So it's tough. You've really got to love what you do and believe in yourself to see that through.

It's got to be difficult to believe in yourself every single day, especially see that through. Um, it's gotta be difficult to believe in yourself every single day, especially like the training is just like, it's nonstop. There's so many different aspects to it. And, uh, me, you know, coming to this gym here and there, cause my, my friend, uh, has been training people here for years, Jesse Burdick. Um, so I I've come around a bunch, but I don't know what it's like to be a fighter, but I've seen, you know, up close and I've seen, you know, you guys kicking the bag and you guys doing all these different drills and working on jujitsu and working on striking and working on wrestling. And then you're lifting and everything else. And it's like, all right, well, you got an hour and a half and the hour and a half, like, quote unquote, break is going to get massage therapy. And then maybe grabbing some food on your way back

to your next training session, you know? So it's, um, it's an enormous amount of work. And you mentioned kind of like an unstable lifestyle. I think that's what you're referring to is like, it's just never ending. It's like a never ending amount of work and you can't ever master it. Yeah. It's like really, really difficult as it is is and then you're never going to be like quote unquote the best at it and the second you think you're the best at it someone's probably going to kick your ass yeah yeah absolutely so you've got to really love and enjoy your journey and and know why you're doing this why you started and why you would want to pursue this um and and and yeah why to keep going so that's where you do draw off your coaches and your teammates

and surrounding, you know, and some people can't find that all the time, but surrounding yourself with a team that gets you because it is going to be your teammates or your coaches or, you know, whoever else is in coverage of that, your nutritionists, your doctors, whatever, that are going to be the ones that have to um help you out and lift you up and and and uh give you that that rocket up the ass when you need to sometimes so you know you don't crack yeah yeah yeah because you give man um it could quite easily happen like daily you know what I mean so it just just like like you mentioned

like all that's encompassed and um with our training and and then um it's performance based so we're always trying to you know be better or do better or compete against one another and our teammates in a healthy sense you know um and give each other those looks and those pulls and so some and sometimes you're you're the you're the nail under the hammer. Mentally, more so, that's hard to deal with, especially if that's happening each day, each session, until you get a bit better, but you've got to really stick through those grindy parts, and that can be tough.

Last time I was here, I got to see you and a few other people go through some training, and it was really interesting uh watching gaston uh go through some of his training yeah he was just so stone-faced like it was just this is what i do like and yeah he was throwing some crazy like hard kicks and stuff but very rarely was there a change in like expression and i'd imagine that some of that is probably just coming from the fact that like this is the shit I need to do every day. And if I get like overly hyped or overly stimulated, I'm not going to be able to bring it with the same intensity every day. And then I asked him when he was kind of wrapping up his practice that he was doing. I was like, you know, what's it like for you nowadays going into a fight?

You know, he's like, it's just training's done. You know, I get a little nerves like anybody else. They come and they go. He's like, the training's done. I worked as hard as I could. I put as much time as I could in. And the results will show up in the ring. Absolutely.

And at that stage it is, you have to trust. And you've done, you've left no stone unturned and lead up to that point and um and trust who's backing you in that corner behind you and and and all that you've put into that and all that you've sacrificed and it really is okay like okay we're here there's you know the cage is about to be locked like i've got two two options you know what i mean so it's just like um it's just like it's a crazy feeling, yeah, because all the doubt, all the highs, all the lows, and lead up to that point doesn't matter.

It doesn't. Like, it doesn't. It's all right, game time, like time to go or not, you know? So and that's what you see. Locked in a cage. It sounds crazy. If someone would have told you that's what you'd be doing, if they would have told you 20 years ago or 15 years ago, like what?

No fucking way. There's no, yeah. I'm going to lock you in a cage with someone that's going to, you know. Yeah, no way. And when I, my first fight, right, like I was mentioning before, how that all came about, full rules, Muay Thai, you know, full kicks, full shins, full elbows, all that. After that first fight, it was funny.

I said to myself, yeah, I'm not cut out for this. Like, this isn't me. Like, it was more the emotional stuff that I was feeling, you know. And granted, I had three days to process it. And I couldn't deal. And I was like, look, I did it. Gave it a go. I'm just keep training and enjoying it.

Burning a few calories and learning the art and whatnot. I was like, but the fighting thing, oh, no, no not for me and then I got another fight then another fight and then another fight and then it just um that's how it all trickled into um taking it seriously and and becoming a professional but uh yeah it's it's like yeah if uh if anyone had said that I definitely wouldn't believe them oh like I, always been an athlete, but fighting's a whole other thing. Yeah. How cool has it been watching women's MMA blow up as big as it did in such a short period of time?

Like, you know, boxing, women's boxing has been around. I can't name one female boxer, unfortunately. There's the WNBA. It got extremely popular popular but it was never the main stage it's never the biggest pay-per-view you know uh event ever right yeah uh like yeah being being a female fighter like how exciting is it for you absolutely it's it's huge it's like um you know i i was i i started fighting before that whole blow up on the mainstream and Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey and Cyborg and all those people started to really put it on the map.

They were definitely pioneers in terms of the main stage and making it to helping develop it to what it is today. It's amazing. and it's giving women more of an opportunity this man's world you know uh fighting and the same amazing so um the fact that uh women are now being recognized and it's being encouraged man even when i started like i said i haven't been around that lot like you know i've been doing 10 10 years now or just under that. But women wouldn't even get a look in, not even in the gym and stuff like that. Now you've got mothers joining up, doing it for fitness,

and just girls that you wouldn't expect before, just doing bag classes now and boxing and kickboxing or you know and attracting themselves to these arts so it's super dope and it's just it's giving us another platform and women fighters man women fighters is something special because they have to have a much hardened mindset I think to be in this environment and like I said not just fight but um be able to come back day after day after day and immerse themselves in all that um and keep going with all that's involved you know are you are you saying it's more difficult because there's not as like as many in your like camp with you or as many women yeah as many women yeah yeah and i just like i said it's been a male dominated sport

for a while and the coaches and so women bring a whole nother dynamic to to not just martial arts but fighting you know women are more emotional but that can be used as a great tool and a great gift but also needs to be managed accordingly and so it's a new thing so people are still trying to figure it out do you know what i mean but it's it's definitely evolving like and like i said really quickly with the rise of um uh women's mixed martial arts in particular and and being on the main stage so i think it's beautiful and i think you don't realize at the time but you're you're a part of that and you must you must and because i love it and because other women I know around me love it,

you must continue and show it. And we're part of this. We're part of that evolution. So, yeah. Why are you here? Why did you move to this area? So Coach K, Coach Kieran Fitzgibbons, owner of CSA, he brought me out here two years ago now to fight professionally

and train under the CSA banner. Like I mentioned, I was living and fighting out of Thailand prior to that. And I was kind of – through the fight world, we'd always been in touch and he'd watch me for a while. And, you know, I followed all his fighters here and the CSA gym. And he was like, look, you're an amazing talent. And, you know, beautiful girl, da-da-da. You could do a lot more, but you're getting kind of lost and buried in the jungles of Thailand. But he's like, it's been great for your progress and your development, but now it's time to go to the next level.

And you need to be in America in front of the right eyes, in front of the right sponsors and promotions and be more accessible. And that happened over a phone call and this was right before I was actually going to stop fighting. I was going to move back to New Zealand where I'm originally from and take some time out and so I was at a real crossroads at that point and then this came up. He literally put an offer to me to be out here through the help of one of the CSA investors. He helped me get over here and I had to make a decision pretty instantly. Pick up my whole life and come here. That wasn't the plan.

He helped me get over here and and um and make that decision and I was like all right fuck it okay well what's the worst that can happen I can always go home and I've got a great base and great stable and great things that I can always go to back home I was like okay but then yeah haven't gone back since and I've been here now two years how many fights have you had in that period of time here? And how's it looking for you as you're moving forward? Yep, so I got my first world title here in Muay Thai. And one of the most legitimate bouts too in Muay Thai, WMC world title. And that was my first fight with Coach K under the CSA banner here. and that was my first fight um with coach k and under the csa banner here

um so that was amazing um and uh then i've had three mma fights so far um and all under the pfl organization this tournament that i'm doing yeah so cool yeah and uh there's a lot of great women that that uh train here you Absolutely. You mentioned Gina Carano. Does she still train here? No, no, I think she, I mean, as we all know, she's definitely retired from fighting, but she would still come in and train with us, but she's been busy.

Like, she hasn't been back for a few months. She's always traveling right now. But, yeah, she comes into the gym and still very much gets down and still got it, that woman. She's amazing. Yeah, she's a beautiful person as well. For you, I'm curious about this because Mark mentioned a lot of people think some fighters have to have some screws loose to fight or something, right? Yeah.

I don't think that. But what I'm curious about is it seems like when you watch some fighters, like he was mentioning, what's his name? Guston? Yeah, Guston. Gaston. Gaston, right? He was talking about how calm he was. Some fighters, when you see them in the ring, they're super aggressive.

Some, you see, they're just super chill. Yeah. So you specifically, do you bring from aggression? Are you calm? Are you chill? How does that work for you? For me personally, I'm my most dangerous when I'm my most calm. Absolutely.

And it's not even stage. It's just I feel like I'm ready for whatever at that point when I'm in the cage or in the ring. And that's definitely something that's been developed and trained too. like knowing what my what my process is and developing that knowing when I feel the best and when I feel my most confident and my most amped and ready to go because yeah for me personally at that point it's like I'm not emotionless it's just I'm ready for whatever comes and therefore they're like you said there is no triggers of excitement or doubt or anything at that stage um it's just like cool we're here

let's let's go and you'll see and people see me and they're like you're quite like stoic and emotionless in there and it's not because I'm trying to be it really is um at that point um and it's funny because I watch my fights over I'll see a photo and I don't know who that person is. It's like you're seeing yourself in third person. It's crazy because you can't even fathom outside of that what you're about to do. Because it still scares me to this day. And then I'll see photos and footage and highlights and this and that. I'm like, holy shit, that's the last thing I want to do right now.

Like, what the fuck? Who was that? Or a couple weeks after a fight and you're getting to eat some good food and you're chilling with your family and friends and enjoying your life again a bit. And then, yeah, you'll see your fight just happened a week ago and you're going, who the fuck is that? I'm not that girl right now. So speaking of watching, can you sit back and enjoy watching MMA fights?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm a huge fan of the sport. And I call myself a fan because I really very much am. I watch fights all the time and my favorite fighters are different matchups that are coming up or are anticipated know, are anticipated or built up. And I love it. I love watching fights. Like, I'm a fan and I'm a fan of the art, you know,

because I can appreciate it firsthand. And so, and it is. I actually, it's not so much about the wins and losses. I'm watching how someone reacts to something. I'm watching their demeanor. I'm watching their decision-making and watching their um their decision making and all those things in those moments you know so um yeah to me I love it I love it what's uh something that you had to work on the most over the last maybe three to six months what was like kind of a glaring

weak point for you that you feel like you brought up well definitely um in my my ground game you know I'm an elite level striker I'm very comfortable on my feet and not just not just for the strikes I just my positioning and and all those things that I've developed and trained over the years but definitely my ground game has been something that I've had to work really really hard on to transition it and bring it all together and learn how to move on the ground just as efficiently and just as methodically as I would on my feet and I think that's you know a common story of strikers coming into grappling and the ground aspect of it so that's definitely something that we've been working on extremely hard over here and through

Coach K obviously and our MMA coach here, Darren Monoyama, who's also a black belt in jiu-jitsu and in Strikeforce and UFC, all the, you know, Dream and all those old promotions there. And he also brings that experience firsthand and that knowledge of what we need to be more efficient as fighters, and being able to translate from a striker's perspective how to best fast-track, I guess, a lot of those positions that we need specifically as fighters. So yeah, that's something that's been a big focus.

And my wrestling a lot since I've been here, and I love wrestling. I really love wrestling. I adapt to it well and use it well with my style. What's it like training here at CSA, having so many like-minded people? There's a lot of fighters here, a lot of a lot of fighters here a lot of pro level fighters here yeah uh how does that feel you know having like a whole team of people that are pro and that that are always wanting to get better and always practicing and always working on new things yeah it keeps you sharp you know otherwise you get left behind so um it keeps you on your ball and

on your game you know um and i think that's probably for me the um the biggest um plus as i've evolved and and as a fighter and as an athlete you know um uh you've got if someone else around you or beside you that you're trying with is leveling up or getting better at some specific art you have to too and so it's cool I think that's healthy I think I think a bit of healthy competition um like that um keeps keeps you keeps you hungry keeps you the student keeps you growing um and things like that so I I think it's amazing and we all vibe and feed off each other and we all have our moments in the light you know like one person's fighting this month another person's fighting six months or whatever it may be and we

see you know um some of the the great amateurs or people coming up as well so um it's inspiring yeah it's inspiring i'd say and and um to use it as a tool for that. So it's been great. And this is the first time that throughout my career since I started training and fighting that I've been around so many women fighters. Coach K's developed a huge women's team, which is very, very rare in the world of MMA. I've always had only male training partners

or my main training partner is only being male until I've come here. So that was something, a totally different dynamic for me to realize and get amongst and get used to at first too, and also high level in terms of their specialties and their art. So it's been incredible, yeah. So you trained at Westside barbell a little bit as well yes did you do some power lifting or is that for olympic lifting uh no i did power lifting and

followed at the time while i was there followed louis um protocol for his athletes um and like as you guys know he loves um training and conditioning um for uh strength training for for athletes specifically. So I was under that program. And, man, that was a crazy, awesome experience. I loved it. It was my kind of environment, though. He stuck you on that belt squat, didn't he? Yeah.

Tortured the shit out of you. Yeah, I couldn't walk for two days. And I had no hamstrings back then, and it was killer. It was awesome, though. But it opened up my mind and eyes to that side of um training and um also just how much strength um can benefit and bulletproof athletes um if granted we know how to train properly um so exposed me and opened up my mind to that you know and strengthening those areas of weakness that are quite common for fighters and in particular you know like our hips our back you know posterior chain and things like

that um so uh yeah it was an incredible experience just him as a person as well he's a character man he's a character and i love it he just he just doesn't want to leave his little shrine and he's just like he loves living amongst his his four squares and his boys and you know he doesn't want to leave his little shrine, and he loves living amongst his four squares and his boys, and he doesn't want to really do too much else outside of that. He'll send someone else, oh, I'll do that. Oh, you want to do that certification? All right, go for it. I just love his, he's so old school. It's dope, it's cool, cool experience.

I'm curious, because you were mentioning that right now, since you're getting ready for a fight, you're doing a lot of conditioning work here in terms of like the lifting the crossfit stuff it's shorter workouts so you have a pretty good strength program or background and you know how to lift heavy yeah outside of getting ready for fights do you still do like you know three rep maxes and stuff like that or do you stay away from that type of stuff nowadays yeah um i know i don't stay away intentionally um but i've got i've got to kind of prioritize my training um and lead up too so i'm not getting the the the time to follow a program um a strength specific program though i

would um but just with everything else that's encompassed in in our day and and and what's prioritized and lead up i'm not lifting so heavy just yet but i can't wait and i think i mentioned this to you before i can't wait till after this fight to actually start um following a strength program again and just getting back purely to just being on the bar and and and supplementary stuff to um and all the um yeah just following a proper program basically of strength work to help develop that because like man it translates it so well to what we do um and bulletproofs us almost and and helps strengthen those areas of weakness that we've got so much from our posture from being in a unilateral sport from um you know beating up our bodies constantly you know we need that that work to balance it out too

but so many fighters unfortunately don't um don't do it um or aren't exposed to it or don't know enough about it aren't as educated so um yeah i i feel it only benefits i'm a big yeah i've just gotta have the time to do it myself it's the whole thing yeah well as a fighter too it can cost you a lot you know if you do max effort deadlifts and they make you super sore yes and you're slowed down and you're tight yeah four or five days that's really not of a benefit because you got so much other training to do right yeah absolutely we need our our legs to be fresh for for wrestling for striking for sparring for for running for all the extra conditioning stuff we do but mainly for our for our specific sessions that we need to be um as fresh as possible and but um outside of fight camp yeah strength training i love and i think it only aids

and sets a good sets a good base you know what does your family think about you fighting is are they supportive are they like oh man yeah now at first it took a while yeah it took a it took a it took a while and i almost had to um i i had to distance myself myself because they just didn't understand it at first. And in hindsight now, I see why. They were just like, you've got so many other qualifications and attributes. Because it really was. It's not like I grew up in martial arts and that was the path I was kind of going. was like oh so um oh cool you're doing a bit of my job that's fun oh that's cool yeah all right what you're fighting what you're moving to thailand like what you know

what's and they didn't get it for the longest time so i was just like yeah like for what you're not going to get anywhere like that's what they're thinking right like they're not my mom thought it was for a guy she's like you've got some boyfriend over there that you're going over and she didn't she didn't get it i was like and i got so angry because it was just like you're not taking me seriously you know but in hindsight we laugh about it now but you know they they and they they thought i was mixed up in some underworld fucking thing there i went there for holiday and they're like what's really going on like this can't be you know you can't think you're gonna fight right like what you know and so yeah it

was hilarious and then um i sounds it sounds fake yeah it sounds like something from like a movie or something well right and then prior to that because i was rowing on the australian circuit going back to that um i was rowing and i was working in media so I had a good um I was working for news corp at the time and so I was on a you know a so-called good little setup and path as a 21 year old you know I had my looking on paper outside looking in I had my shit together and I had it but I really didn't you know and I wasn't happy and um you were working to work and I was very much in that system and I think and nothing wrong with that but I just it wasn't um I was going with what I thought um you know was was um the norm or how how you should live so now they're more supportive do they show

up at fights absolutely now definitely more supportive and over the years you know and it didn't take too long but they saw oh okay wow like okay she's really really about this and she's really dedicated and she's doing quite well like and wow she's traveling all over the world like what you know so it didn't take long and it's not that they were always not supportive but I had to kind of distance myself and put put my nose to the ground and and improve you know improve and I think that's what um made me develop faster as well than than most is because I had a bit of something to prove in it and also having that that that mindset and that discipline and that um competitive nature definitely like

crossed over um and to when I started fighting and pursuing fighting seriously. But, yeah, I definitely had a chip on my shoulder for some years. And then it was unlearning how to be kind of cool and calm and just, you are, you know, like, enjoy this. You don't have to keep proving everyone wrong all the time. But that's kind of how I think I got by and got through those first initial grindy years, like the first five years. And being in a man's world, like I mentioned before,

I had to prove myself even more so as a woman amongst a stable of men and killers. And I had to take beatings and I had to give them back and not quit and not stop because they would look at you like you didn't belong or treat you differently. And that was one thing that drove me nuts at the time coming through. And so it was good for what it taught me and the mentality it helped me develop. But these days, I'm definitely not as aggressive or as angry or as got a chip on my shoulder. That took some time to unlearn as well. Because you were mentioning earlier that for a fighter, you started late.

Yeah. And I'm curious because you said you were an athlete for your whole life. Yeah. What allowed you to, I guess, like you said, you were thrown into the Muay Thai ring. But what allowed you, when you started fighting seriously, to believe that you could actually get towards the top, knowing that you started later than a lot of top fighters? Yeah. Like I said, I fell in love with it,

and I've got a very addictive personality. So it wasn't just like, oh, showing up for a class every day like I was doing. Once I decided, I aligned myself with the pro team at the gym. I was amongst some amazing Muay Thai practitioners at the time and that were all fighting actively and had names in their own right you know where we were at and so I kind of threw myself and trained alongside them and I was picking up things a lot faster and learning things a lot quicker as well and I think just just kept coming back, kept coming back, kept coming back

until people started to take me seriously. And I started to mix in and work with them, which, like I said, fast-tracked me a bit, I think. And I was like, okay, I'm starting to hang with these people that are world champions or established fighters. And then I think, honestly, just the belief and encouragement as well from my my first coach um because fighting's mental it really is like of course all the physical um things that are encompassed in our sport but it's so mental um that I think um having your team behind you and alongside you is just as important um because um yeah he definitely encouraged me to to to helping me believe at that point that I could be really

great at this and um and yeah I think that's what um encouraged me to to go all the way with it and make that lifestyle change of like hey this is all or nothing like because because you can work and and you know do something else outside of that alongside the fighting thing but I saw it as I don't have time to do that like it's I've got to really like change my whole life around and sacrifice these other luxuries and things that I'm used to or were brought up with to to be the best um which was what I was trying to go for and what I'm trying to do yeah were there any uh tough lessons that you learned that maybe in that moment you're like why is this happening but looking back now you're like okay that had to happen in order for you know x y and z to happen yeah yeah there's so many um so many that help shape that um to

what it is now um i like i mentioned i think i think uh uh just having a that disconnect at that point in time with my closest family and friends was a big hit in the face and then it made you it made me realize that um all right you've got it you know you're either gonna pick it up or or or crack you know um you're gonna keep going and and do this and prove people wrong or crack you you've only got yourself and that's the that's the that's what i told myself at the time and that's the mindset i developed to make me pursue this with a vengeance and make me almost desperate. You know, it's desperation. To that point of where you just keep coming back and there's nothing else that matters.

And so that was a big lesson, but helped shape me, definitely. And then I'm grateful that it's come full circle now and and um of you know we're all good and we could understand at that point of time where each other was at and why that happened um and that i do have love and support that i don't need to be this chip on my shoulder and and you know trying to prove everyone wrong because that's that's a huge emotional drain in itself um and you need all the good emotions to be able to go out there under the lights and perform and fight which i'm just saying this as i've gone along is what i've what i've learned um and and and and yeah how i've developed so you mentioned having a an addictive personality has that ever led you down the wrong path? Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Definitely.

Man, there was a, so like I said, originally from New Zealand, moved over to Australia, which is really close in proximity, the cities that I'm from when I moved to Sydney. And I mentioned before I was working in corporate and media and yeah and Sydney's a really fast paced they work hard they play hard kind of kind of environment and and it's I consider Sydney like my second home because that's where like my adult years were like me as an adult and where I had freedom and when I was learning more about myself and kind of starting to party and stuff.

And, yeah, it was, yeah, I really went for a few years there where I was burning the candle at both ends. And I was, yeah, loving a high. And if it wasn't while I was competing and while I was rowing or in the gym, it was out partying for days. and while I was rowing or in the gym, it was out partying for days. And so, yeah, like, thankfully I didn't get into anything. Thankfully I'm still here, but I didn't realize at the time that it was the same kind of level of chasing a high.

How did you kind of rein yourself back in from that? Oh, um, when I realized, like when I realized that, uh, what I was doing was becoming destructive and affecting different relationships that are, uh, you know, of mine. And, and um when I started to start hiding it I was like oh okay like and and then looking at myself like what are you doing like this isn't okay you've gone too far like this isn't you but it was again it was an addictive kind of a high that I was chasing and essentially you know um but the wrong kind and and too much of anything isn't good so my whole thing is um definitely learning and developed over the years to be more balanced um yeah blessing and a curse like I said having that kind of personality because

I'm all in or I'm not at all like um and so yeah is once I was aware that that's that's what I had that's a trait um and a mindset that I have I had to I had to if I want my life to be amazing and great and achieve these things I've got to learn to to have a lot more balance and just being aware of it, I guess. So you've got this fight coming up. Yes. How do you feel about that? Great, great. I've put in so much time, so much work.

I know I've left no stone unturned. So my confidence comes from the work I've put in. And not just like we can do sessions and we yeah all the sessions are hard but putting myself in real positions to where I've had to really fight and not avoiding that because we could we as fighters um and athletes we can um showing up just isn't enough all the time you've got to you've got to know that you put yourself and tested your will and your heart and your mind not just physical um to where you feel a lot more comfortable in the chaos because um yeah by the time we get out there you're rolling the dice and whatever a lot can happen it can go many different ways in a fight so just just being

as confident in in my preparation and and being prepared as possible. Got the last little bit of weight, which is always the fight before the fight, the real fight, I feel like. But honestly, if I didn't have that, I think I'd go nuts either way because then I wouldn't have something to – I don't know, I personally feel more ready, like I've really sacrificed something and lead up to it. It's more of a mindset mentality thing. So, yeah, you know, apart from that, I feel great.

And the next couple of weeks, one more hard week of hard training and then the next week I can let my body rest a lot more and deload and reflect on the camp properly. Right now, we're kind of just coming to the tail end of the thick of it. Well, we're excited to see you fight. I hope you kick a lot of ass. Where can people find you? So my Instagram is probably my biggest form of social media.

So at Jenna Fabian, same as my Facebook page, Twitter, which I don't really use. I know it's a big American thing, but there's too many apps. That's my hidden. But it's all at Jenna Fabian and that's G-E-N-A-H-F-A-B-I-A-N. Awesome. Thank you so much.

Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch y'all later.