Mark Bell's Power Project - EP 537 - Black Belt Slayer Nick Rodriguez: How Lifting Is Essential For BJJ

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

Nick Rodriguez, is a professional grappler, ADCC silver medalist, & former amateur wrestler who is one of the main members of the Danaher Death Squad. The most dominant team in submission grappling. Subscribe to the NEW Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Eat Rite Foods: http://eatritefoods.com/ Use ode "POWERPROJECT25" for 25% off your first order, then code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off every order after! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Sling Shot: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

What up Power Project crew this is Josh Setlich aka SettleGate here to introduce you to our next guest Nick Rodriguez. Nick Rodriguez is a professional grappler and former amateur wrestler who is one of the main members of the Donaher Death Squad, the most dominant team in submission grappling. Nick crashed onto the scene as one of the top names in the sport when as a blue belt he conquered a silver medal in the ADCC world championships in 2019. ADCC is arguably the toughest submission grappling event in the world that takes place once every two years. Originally hailing from Clayton, New Jersey, United States, Nick wrestled throughout high school and into college. After his college career had ended, he then transitioned to

submission grappling. Within his first three weeks of submission grappling, or nogi jiu-jitsu training, he entered two pro-level tournaments and went undefeated in both. He now trains full-time in Puerto Rico with the Donaher Death Squad under the watchful eye of world-renowned martial arts instructor John Donaher. On another note, Nick may or may not have had a staph infection explode while on an airplane overseas to compete against former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. But that is a different story for a different time. Please enjoy this conversation with our guest, Nick Rodriguez. Wait, what happened? Yeah, I smashed some of the salmon for me right yesterday and

the turkey for me right yesterday. Like I mentioned, since I'm not going to be doing jujitsu for a little bit, I'm going to be eating a lot. So I'm going to be eating a lot and lifting a lot. So like just eating those meals has just been so easy because I don't have to do anything but warm it up and eat it out the fucking tub. Yeah. So last Friday, I wanted to have like a like a like a i don't know i wanted to step it up a notch with dinner i was like man but i don't want to go buy any like i didn't want to go to a restaurant just because you know it's not really on the plan right now and then so we combined the uh the eat right shrimp and the steak with some stir fry

dude we had a like it was like it was super legit for dinner like i took a bunch of pictures i did video that i ended up posting but it was like like i like i'm not gonna be like oh it's five star like micheline whatever restaurant but it was really fucking good and i was shocked and the cool thing is my wife really likes it. So for a working mom, still nursing, she can have like an easy access, ready to go meal out the fridge into the microwave. It's been such a huge time saver and such a huge help for us. Consistency and convenience is like such a huge part of the whole ordeal. People fall off plan when they get hungry and when they don't have good options. You know, you get hungry they don't have good options. You know, you get hungry, you don't have good options, then you kind of have cravings,

and then you find yourself eating something that you shouldn't eat. But when you have food that you can microwave in a minute or, you know, I actually usually heat some of their stuff up just in a frying pan just because I just like that a little bit better. But I kind of leave it out of the freezer for a little bit. It defrosts, throw it in a pan, throw some extra seasoning on there, and boom, it's ready. There you go. Two minutes, three minutes, you're ready to go. Super easy, convenient, no cooking, no cleaning, no shopping, none of that mess.

All the meal prep's done for you. Head over to eatrightfoods.com. That's eatrightfoods.com. Load up either a week for yourself or a week for yourself and maybe your significant other so that way you guys can both be on track together. And at checkout, enter promo code PowerProject25 for 25% off your first order. And then code PowerProject for 10% off everything after that. Penless once again. You know that's what it is.

I'm like, what are you guys giggling about i'm like trying to do the most important part also if you're looking around my day you got something yeah there's some juice in here okay ready yeah and then we'll throw it over the wire through the go right there's a high ball let's go oh that wasn't bad if you could touch it you could catch it. All right. I can't catch it and run to the end zone for you. I can only put it on the numbers. Yeah, I don't have good hands when it comes to catching and stuff.

Only when... So I heard you've been under a lot of stress lately, though. Huh? You've been under or over a lot of stress lately. Really? Yeah. Wait, what? Am I missing something?

I thought you said it was a stress fracture. Oh, okay. That's cool. Yeah, so it might be. It might be a stress fracture. Luckily, we have some super friends. So Mark connected me with Dr. Sturette, and he's been giving me some stuff that I can do to alleviate this.

I can't put weight on my foot much right now, so I'm waiting to do jujitsu. But other than that, I think it'll heal pretty quick It feels okay Swelling's gone down Yeah Was it hurt from putting your foot in people's ass? You know the funny thing man I don't even

I don't even remember The funny thing is yeah You don't remember what it's from I don't even Because I Like when I got off the mats that day I was walking normally But it's like when I got to the hotel

And I started chilling out And I think it was like that night i got out of the bed i was like oh what is this right so i don't even know when it happened but it seems like it's healing up pretty quick right yeah yeah the swelling's down i still can't put pressure on the foot um but you know i can lift so i can uh i can do a lot of upper body and i'm actually excited for that when you were saying you thought it was a stretch stress fracture i was like oh man his foot's gonna probably swell up so much overnight yeah and then on the plane it's gonna swell up but you got uh you got some good advice right away and and got to work on it so hopefully that helps yeah dr kelly sturette thank you so much he's uh he's a lifesaver and you too mark y'all were telling me what you got

what i need to do. So, um, yeah, I think it's gonna, I think it's going to heal up pretty quick and, should be able to get back to jujitsu, hopefully maybe three or five weeks. But this is cool because now for the next, however many weeks I'm going to blast my upper body with so much fucking volume where you guys are going to see,

you guys are going to see something. You thought I was growing. You thought I was growing? You thought I was big? Y'all don't even know. Just you wait. Dang. So, board shorts? I can still do some things with my lower body.

Like, I think I can do some leg extensions. I can do leg curls. I can still actually squat on the slant board if i keep my weight in my heels but i won't use i won't use like heavy weight i'll just do like really really high rep slant board squats keep the weight in the heels off of the off the tip of the foot and i my lower body is gonna be fine yeah and to keep your legs going you can maybe ride the bike or something and use the hip circle for stuff too like yeah there's there's a lot of stuff i'm gonna be able to do and what's what's up with your slant board oh yeah yeah you got a nice little fancy custom slant board so slant board

guy sent me a slant board with a chunk on it it has a slippery emoji on it nice so i was like whoa this is sick but um yeah that's so silly but that's sick yeah it's dope he's an awesome guy um he sent another like shin builder thing. Oh, a tibialis raise? A step thing? Nice. Yeah. Is that the one?

The little step? The tib bar. He wants us to have huge tibs. Fixed dig. Big tibs. I can do that too. Yeah. I might be able to.

Oh, it might rest on your foot. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. But you could do the one against the wall without the thing. Cause yes, I can. I can.

Yeah. Yep. It's a, you know, a thing that we talk about, I have talked about on the show before, but yeah, you can't focus on the shit that you can do when you're injured rather than

the things that you can't do. And, um, you know, it's unfortunate. You run into situations where you can't do certain things, but luckily for us, there's like millions of exercises to select from.

Same thing with your food. You get sick of eating chicken breasts. You can veer off and start eating something different. Yep, yep, yep. I think that most people, when they do like bodybuilding diet or when they try to lose weight, they just think they have to chop out all their fat and they have to eat chicken breasts and broccoli. But it ain't got to be that way all the time. Not at all, man. And it's like, I mean, we talk about Piedmontese all the time, but like, again, the steak is just, it's not crazy high fat. I don't, I will never eat chicken when dieting purposefully again,

like maybe sometimes here and there, but I ain't going to pull it out. Cause I like it. Right. Yeah. If it gets in to pull it out because I like it. Right. Yeah. If it gets in your way, maybe you'll eat it. Yeah. Yeah. If it's in my face, I'll eat the chicken. Like, but other than that, Andrew's just over there nodding because he eats his chicken. I eat.

Yeah. You know, I mean, he digs it. Yeah, I do. I dig it. And it's weird. I was trying to explain that to somebody like, yeah, like I actually look forward to chicken and rice almost every day. You're not a cook, man. You make it. You make it's weird. I was trying to explain that to somebody. Like, yeah, like I actually look forward to chicken and rice almost every day. You're not a cook, man.

You make it. You make it taste good. I've had your chicken and rice. It's nice. There's that. But also now eat right makes it for me. So it tastes even better. That's true.

And when somebody else makes it, it just tastes better. That's fact. I think that normally chicken breast by itself is pretty hard to eat. That is true. But if it's with something else, it's not bad. Whether it's with vegetables or rice. Now we're talking about it's like way, way easier to eat. I remember years ago when somebody just put me on like a straight bodybuilding diet, it was chicken and rice pretty much.

It was chicken, rice, and broccoli over and over again. Like six times a day. I got over it real quick but i i used uh mustard on there which sounds disgusting but anyone that has ever done a bodybuilding diet knows that like anything other than any anything that's like just a little bit off plan tastes amazing where where was the meeting what did the council do and where they're like what must we eat when bodybuilding right chicken breast broccoli and rice why is it that we've all done that shit they're like put that shit on repeat six times a day dude i yeah i if you want to mix it up you can have egg whites you're like oh whoa son settle the fuck down oh man but be careful on the salt

because you don't want the sodium intake because then you're going to retain water. I know. They're crazy about sodium. They're still that way. Bodybuilding people are still nuts about their salt. They don't want to be holding any water. Boiled chicken. It's odd.

But I think if you don't consume sodium, I think your body's not used to it. So you might react differently. Yeah. If you don't have a lot of sodium typically and you have a little bit, then you're just like. And that's like. Your body will self-regulate if you have it consistently because your body fucking needs it. Exactly. Yeah.

The whole low sodium thing. Not a good look. It's not good. Tell us about today's guest. Nicky Rod Rodriguez is the black belt killer that's his nickname so nikki rod why is he why is he killing everybody okay so he's this nogi he's this nogi guy who's super dope um big as fuck too he's probably like 240 245 is uh nogi style of training is it like newer or no it's not newer nogi's been around um but he normally wear a gi which is like

a uh yeah a karate karate outfit or whatever you want to call it a bathrobe yeah bathroom yeah bathroom but nikki rod is dope because he came into the scene not that long ago and he's been a wrecking top level no gi black belts he does have a wrestling background but he trains with donna her and by you know donna her working with him on this stuff this dude's just you can see you can see how big and jacked he is what the fuck makes no sense but actually i'm curious how big he is how big are you dude how big what like tall or weight size height height and weight because i've heard like i've heard myths about people seeing you in person and they're like nikki rod is so huge. So you got to tell us.

Yeah. Uh, yeah, I'm six, three and I'm, uh, I'm like two 35 to 40 right now. Damn bro. Yeah.

Yeah. A lot of people say I look bigger in person. Um, which definitely that's a good time, right? I'd rather be big in person and bigger on Instagram. You know what I mean? True.

What are you, uh, what are you working on nowadays? Are you still working on getting, I've heard I mean? True. What are you working on nowadays? Are you still working on getting – I've heard you on previous podcasts. Are you working on still trying to get a little bit bigger? I mean, I think I'm – right now, I just want to get a little leaner and get a little more mature muscle. The problem – the internal debate I have is, like, how big is too big

to when you start hitting diminishing returns you know what I mean like I feel like last ADCC uh you know I was like 220 225 and um the biggest I ever was was 250 I was kind of pretty thick not no abs or nothing but uh I move I move good you know the athleticism was good at 250 but the cardio wasn't there you know like 30 minutes I give you a tough 30 minutes. But like after that, you know, you start hitting exhaustion. When I'm right now, I'm about 235. I feel like my cardio is just as good as it ever was.

So I don't know. I don't know. Maybe a shredded 250 will be just as good cardio as a Niki ride with 225, 230 pounds. But it might just take longer to make my body acclimates to something like that i uh feel you on the diminished returns because as a power lifter that's what i've been doing with my life and i got all the way up to 330 pounds so getting up to 270 and 280 and 290 and even 300 worked pretty good but it got to a certain point where i was like oh shit i'm just fat now yeah yeah yeah i uh that was my thing too i kind of want to look good for camera but i also want to fill in those t-shirts

you know what i mean so it's uh you gotta find a good middle ground all right so dude let me ask you this um because obviously you've been doing some sort of grappling from wrestling to jujitsu forever um but how because a lot of a lot of grapplers struggle with trying to put on mass with all of the grappling that they do right um especially when they start in grappling me i was lucky because i started in the bodybuilding and fitness side of things and then i came into grappling so i was able to maintain my muscle and maybe build a little bit but you did you did you start off as a lifter or did you start lifting later in your grappling career so i started lifting i'm about uh 2014 i i first picked up the weights and took it like treated it like a job you know i started lifting 2014 but not only

that i started lifting like a bodybuilder i started eating like a bodybuilder as well and i'm sure you guys, I was 17. Just graduated high school. In high school, my last wrestling match was in Jersey State Tournament. I wrestled at 170. It cut from maybe 185, 190 to 170. I was still 6'2", 6'3",

at 170. I felt like I was a lot weaker than the guys in the state tournament. I was wrestling good. Second of all, I was fast. I had really good endurance, but I felt like these guys were stronger and they put more emphasis on

the weights. So after my last high school wrestling match, I was like, I'm done losing. I'm going to get as big as possible because I felt like that was my downfall of strength. So I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and just kind of taught myself, you know, how to get big. And it was pretty simple. I mean, everybody tells you the answers. You lift a lot of weights, you know, if you lift like the guy you want to look like and you got to eat like him too, you know. So I think people really undervalue the nutrition part. Like if you're not eating your

body weight protein or more, you know, you're not going to see the results that you potentially see. And for you, like how fast did you start seeing the benefits of that as far as your grappling was concerned? Because a big thing I think is that a lot of grapplers are scared of lifting and getting bigger because they're like, I won't have mobility and it'll be I won't be able to move well. But obviously watching you, that's not the case yeah i mean uh i think if you're if you're doing both like like uh if you're doing jujitsu while you're gaining size i don't think you're gonna have an issue with mobility or flexibility i mean granted everybody's body type is different you know things i can do that the normal people just can't do um but uh i think uh i don't know i i really really never had an issue with flexibility or mobility

but i think uh just putting on size kind of made me if anything more explosive and uh you know i knew that like being the height that i am that i had the potential to get really big you know like everybody knows you know shorter guys get bigger big, you know, like everybody knows, you know, shorter guys get bigger, faster, but you know, probably have a,

a shorter limit, you know, to how much size I put onto as opposed to taller guys. So you look at a guy like Arnold, that's like, you know, six, two is like,

fuck, can I look like that and still be athletic and grappling? You know what I mean? Cause on the top of the podium, you don't want to see a fat kid, you know, you want to see somebody Jack that's like, he looks, he looks like he won that shit, you know? So that? Because on the top of the podium, you don't want to see a fat kid. You want to see somebody jacked. He looks

like he won that shit. I always wanted to be really good while looking really good. So that's kind of the game plan. I love the diversity of different people that we've had on this show. We've had scientists and doctors

and all different kinds of people come on, but it's always refreshing to have an athlete on right off the bat in like the first paragraph of what you said. You said one of the most brilliant things ever said on this show before, and you put it so plainly is, hey, if you want to like look like this particular person,

maybe you should lift like them. And you want to look like that particular person. Maybe you should eat like them. How have you applied that to jujitsu? Have you kind of done the same thing where you're like hey i want to be able to fuck people up this way so i'm going to go with these guys over here yeah most definitely with my grappling i like to like to watch a ton of wrestling jiu-jitsu and kind of uh i want to be like uh the source of all the information in the sense that like i do a little bit of what everybody else does.

Like if Gordon does this fantastic, I'll do that. But put my twist on it. Craig, Craig Jones, Leglocks this way. Jordan Burroughs takes on this way. And I try to try to be the middle ground where I kind of all those different diversities of techniques meet. And I really I don't like to have one specific style. I like to have options. So, you know uh i can wrestle i can i can be on top i can play on bottom like uh i i really enjoy everybody else's how i understand how different people grapple and uh i try to kind of incorporate that in my own game and with that being said man obviously like you train with donahue and people and we all think

that donahue is one of the greatest jujitsu minds of all time especially with the way he's looked at the sport he's produced athletes like yourself gordon and he's literally seems like he's shortcutted your your route to the top so let me ask you this when you like have paid attention to maybe how other people have trained and the way they look at jujitsu versus the way you and the death squad look at jujitsu what do you think has been the biggest or what is like the biggest thing in terms of the way you look at the sport and the way you train the sport that has allowed you to progress so quickly and also can you kind of give people that don't understand how fast you've been able to progress

to actually fucking up top nogi guys can you give people a rundown of what you've been able to do and the time span that you've been able to do it okay so uh within my first year and a half of ever training jujitsu um within six months or i'm sorry within the first nine months i won the adcc trials which is essentially the olympic trials of uh of jujitsu. Um, so I won the, I won the ADCC trials. I go on to ADCC with about a year and a half of experience and I take second in the, essentially the Olympics of, uh, jujitsu. So what that goes to like my wrestling background, right. Uh, people think, you know, it's this extravagant thing. Uh, and it's really not, you know, I, I wrestled in high school and I wrestled in middle school, a couple of years i wrestled in high school you know i wrestled in

middle school a couple years i wrestled in high school uh didn't do well at states i wrestled one year in college and i did okay in college and uh that was it man like i took a year layoff after that trying to figure out life and um pretty much found grappling after that so my sense is like i saw i saw a really big hole in the heavyweight division at ECC where all the other weight classes looked super technical. I was like, wow, this is really jiu-jitsu. It's a lot of information and stuff. But the heavyweight, to me, it just looked like a bad wrestling match. Two bad wrestlers wrestling for a takedown.

Whoever falls on top wins. I was like, this is going to be easy. The whole time, every time I competed against these guys, I was like, obviously, like, I have overwhelming confidence. You know, I don't know if that was born to me or bred in me throughout wrestling. You know what I mean? Because they tell you, you have to fucking believe in yourself before you even step on the mat.

So, you know, like, I go out there and I'm like, all right, this is just a bunch of old dudes grappling. There's no way they could beat me. The first ADCC, I pretty much won with wrestling. Like I just snapped guys down and I won with really good hand fighting and good anti-jiu-jitsu. So that's how I was able to kind of succeed over there. Now, what was the real test was the matches after that. Because it's like, okay, everybody knows the game plan.

Everybody knows you can wrestle, but can you do real jiu-jitsu so every match after that it was like my learning process right i'm learning with the best team in the world but like i can't go out and and test it on like competition against blue belts or perk belts everybody had was a black world champion and that's an outstanding black belt so So if I was practicing a guard pass, I can practice it and practice great, but in competition, I don't have any easy matches that I can just warm up at. I was just thrown to the

dogs immediately. So it's been a learning process, man. I've been having really good matches after that and still learning. Like Johns, I think the way we train is so different in the sense that we have a lot of fun with our training yeah it's a lot of knowledge like uh you know we're constantly learning we'll learn for maybe an hour hour and a half every day before we go live but uh it's the chemistry that we have in the room that's that's really unlike any other room i've

seen like you know before practice we're just sitting around for like an hour an hour plus just talking techniques and bullshitting and figuring things out and then you know we before practice, we're just sitting around for like an hour, an hour plus just talking techniques and bullshitting and figuring things out. And then, you know, we train this long hard session, we do the same thing after we figure out like all the problems that we have. And it's a, it's really a cohesive unit. Like nobody has the ego where like, yeah, this worked on me. So I'm not going to show them how to get out of it. You know what I mean? Everybody kind of shows you how to get better so so your your rounds are harder if the guys know if the guy know what you're gonna notice what you're gonna do i mean it's gonna be a way harder round than the competitor that you know never seen you before

so uh i think you know having having tough rounds of practice having a team that with the equal goal that we all want to be the best in the world um and then obviously having a guy like john uh that we can we can get our definite answers for because a lot of a lot of guys in jiu-jitsu don't uh don't do a lot of jiu-jitsu like it's a it's a lot of jumping around it's a lot of like you know athleticism kind of makes you up as you go that's cool but uh if you have the the superior athlete that also has a superior technique man that's really hard to deal with. So that's kind of what we focus on.

You said anti-jiu-jitsu, and I find that to be really fascinating because we see this a lot in powerlifting. When people come in and they come from a bodybuilding background, they clean up in powerlifting a lot of times. They come in and kick everyone's ass a lot of times. And it's because of that mentality. It's like anti-powerlifting. It's like not that they're necessarily against powerlifting. It's just that they spend the majority of their time with their focus on something else. Is that kind of what you mean by like anti-jiu-jitsu?

Obviously, you're not against jiu-jitsu, but you're utilizing just like whatever techniques you can to win, really. Just like whatever techniques you can to win, really. Yeah, so what I meant by anti-jiu-jitsu is kind of like it allowed me to stick to my game plan solely and kind of run away from other people's game plans. So if people tried to engage me in leg locks or closed guard, I got really good in the short time I was practicing at avoiding those things or escaping. I made it so I was nearly impossible to sub. I was nearly impossible to hold down or get on top of. So I was like, okay, I can combine this anti-jiu-jitsu with my wrestling so it'll keep me on top the whole time. I look at the judging criteria for ADCC, and it's like, all right,

whoever's attacking more, whoever's more aggressive during the match, if it goes to the decision, that guy wins. So I was like, okay, if I can just not get subbed, not get taken down, stay on top of these guys and just make it look like I'm working. You know, I tried a bunch of knee cuts, cartwheel passes and really more athletic movements as opposed to technical movements. Then I really thought I had a shot at doing more of the tournament. And it worked out, man. You know, I out-ath out athlete a lot of these guys. I outworked them.

And, you know, I think the next big test is going to be this next ADCC because everybody's going to be like, all right, he can wrestle. He can do this. He can do that. So let's see the culmination of that. And I think it's going to be good, man. I've fucking been training hard. Like, Jiu Jitsu is weird. Like, it's not like, I mean, I guess here, at least like, we don't take days off. Like, I know, like a lot of people have rest days, but it's not, it's not weird for us to go 70, 80, 90 days in a row. No, no break at all. No. So like seven days a week, I train jujitsu and six, seven days a week, usually seven, I lift weights as well. And I feel like, I feel like I, like I'm falling behind if I miss a day. You know what I mean?

If I'm just like, I have jiu-jitsu in the morning and I'm sitting on the couch and it's like 7 o'clock. I'm like, I'm just going to sit here and go to fucking sleep or I'm going to go lift weights and make the most of my day. So that's pretty much my concept. And it's been my concept for a long time. I think that's why I am where I am. I have a quick question, man, about your game plan when it came to that first adcc you were with john at the time right yeah definitely okay so john knowing the skill level you had at that point knowing that this guy's super athletic he he knows escapes

maybe his jujitsu isn't like peak like some of these black belts but he he knows what to do did john set you up with this is the game plan that you're going to do in every single match or did you just go in with that instinct of i know i can i know i can keep these guys at bay here i know the points i know how the rules work i can do that how did that work um no john didn't really give me a game plan per se but he let me know like he pretty much john's really's really big on boosting your confidence and he tells you like it is. John's not a guy to give you false confidence

or lie to you. Before ACC, John was like, listen, these guys are bigger than you, but you're faster. They're stronger than you, but you have more endurance. Now, with that said, we already knew what... John and I already knew my capabilities.

You know, we see what was happening in the practice room. And, you know, if you do the math, it really added up to me having a good shot at winning the ADCC. Now, I mean, he didn't really give me a specific game plan, but it just really gives me confidence to attack the game plan I already had. I didn't have enough technique to really get an in-depth game plan i can pretty much i can pretty much do what i was doing every day in practice and just continue to to better that in competition um now i mean the time after that it's just been non-stop technique like uh you know i'm doing all the stuff people don't want to do i'm pulling guard i'm doing leg locks i'm fucking triangles you know so it's a it's constant growth but yeah for the first 80 cc it was really just uh you know get on top and and stay on top so that it was that simple

is it hard to manage uh lifting with the schedule that schedule of jujitsu and and how do you get your food in for the day so uh so uh, so for the food, right, I usually start off, um, I'm not that hungry in the morning cause I get most of my, my food at night, but I start off with like a protein shake. That's like 30 grams right there. I'll get a handful of almonds and a bunch of fruit, go straight to practice after practice. That's when the meals really start. I'll usually have, uh, maybe 16 ounces of steak right after practice with some more fruit. I'll take like 15 minutes of nap, go lift, and then I pound all the food. It's a pound of ground beef after that with some pasta. It's another pound of chicken and maybe another protein

shake. And I'm usually at 350, 400 grams a day. And I feel like the more protein I eat, the leaner I get, the better I feel, to be honest with you. It's all about the food, man. People really underrate the nutrition. It's like, yeah, I don't take a rest day because I don't feel like I need one. Like, yeah, I'm sore every day, but you're supposed to be fucking sore. I mean, you're not doing it right if you're not. So I feel like if I'm eating enough, my body's going to recover. I'm sleeping eight, 10 hours. I'm good, man. I fucking – I do it because I love it. Like, no one's pushing me to go practice every day or lift.

I do it, one, because I want to be the best, two, because I can't let anyone else be better than me or look better than me. So fuck that. And it's a passion, man. I love doing the jits. I love lifting. I love bodybuilding, you know, bodybuilding style workouts. Right now I'm trying some CrossFit stuff, like switch it up i never i learned how to lift off youtube so i never like never really got like a like a quality squad i never got like the

right technical way to like do a clean or deadlift i was just doing shit picking shit up a lot you know so uh uh you know my form's not the greatest but uh my biceps are, so that's really nice. I like what you're saying there, too, because we have a lot of people that kind of – we think that people overcomplicate things to a massive degree, especially when it comes to training. I think they think they're going to do some sort of weighted jiu-jitsu move in the gym. And it's like that's probably not the best application, probably not the best way to train. We'd rather just see you get strong.

Like you said, pick stuff up when you can no longer pick it up. Maybe, you know, move on to a different exercise or lighten the weight or find a different rep scheme to follow, things like that. But, yeah, we're kind of big believers in like just go to the gym, build up some muscle, get stronger and then do your sport. Yeah, I think I think it's important just doing it uh people like forms form super great it's important you know but if you're not lifting 500 pounds i mean you're really worried about form like that i think people put a little too much emphasis on being perfect instead of just fucking picking it up you know what i mean like uh if you're not doing a weight that's going to hurt you you shouldn't be really too scared to put that weight

you know nick i want to know about this because like you you lift almost every day and you do jujitsu every day um but how long did it take you to build up to that type of um that type of overall volume right the volume of jujitsu the volume of lifting have you been like because i i i see the possibility i know that one can get there, but it takes time for your, to you to, for you to adapt to all of like that stress. Right. So would, or have you been just doing that shit from the start? What's that, what'd that look like for you? So it's definitely a, a mental, mental, just mental change that you have to make that say, okay, I'm just going to accept what I have to do. I'm going to accept this pain. I'm going to accept this extra food that I have to eat. And, uh, you know, I, when I started, when I started lifting

in 2014, I told myself, I'm going to do this every day to the rest of my life. Like I never want to go backwards in life. And I feel like a lifting weights is a way to keep your life progressing. You know, although it is physical, but it keeps you in that mental state. It's like, I got to get better. All, you know what i mean so uh when i started lifting i was like i'm gonna do this every day no matter what so even when i found jujitsu i still made it i was like all right no lifting priority jujitsu's second priority because at the time when i first started jujitsu was just like to get leaner you know i mean to look better to be honest with you i was still like modeling itself uh in new york so i was like all right let's do some jujitsu was just like to get leaner you know i mean to look better to be honest with you i was still like modeling and stuff uh in new york so i was like all right let's do some jiu-jitsu um just

to get a little leaner get in better shape so pretty much my second week of jiu-jitsu is when i started taking it seriously and started competing and stuff but all the while i was lifting man i just i just knew when i started training jiu-jitsu that i i had to keep listed like i never wanted to get smaller you know get it get a less uh less of a quality physique um so yeah i just made that mental adjustments like you you just you just gotta accept it sometimes you know what i mean like uh you know you're gonna have you're gonna have shitty in your life that you got to deal with and uh you know some of that is just pushing through a workout every day so it'll make it happen do you run or do any other form of cardio uh and with the wrestling background i imagine you used to run at some point

yeah i used to run a ton um but uh like i run sometimes i work out with a trainer like twice a week just for like just to do good cardio stuff like he'll blow my lungs out you know but uh um i don't run really i don't i don't uh i don't enjoy it it's not good for my knees i'm not a big fan you're a big guy so yeah some people some people like it but uh yeah i haven't run ran in quite a while but uh my my foremost cardio is usually just uh jits and that's i'm completely exhausted after jits and so you get some food in me and we get ready for that next lifting session your nutrition is something that i think is like really really interesting because

like you're eating i imagine that you're not over here trying to count your calories at all because you are burning so much every single day so i'm like actually let me ask you that are you counting and then number two are you kind of just eating enough just to make sure that every day you wake up and you're like, my body can perform? Like, do you wake up some days if you haven't eaten enough and you're like, ooh, I should have eaten more yesterday? How does that work for you? I would say, yeah, if I don't eat enough, I definitely I'll wake up way hungry and I'd be like maybe a little more sluggish. I don't count calories per se, but I track my protein.

So I make sure I make sure I get enough protein throughout the day you know bare minimum i usually do you know a gram per pound uh if not you know 1.5 per pound but uh i don't try calories just because i feel like if i eat my protein everything else kind of falls into place like i'll know like oh i need some more carbs i need some more fats and stuff but uh yeah i think protein is the way to go man dude good shit yeah it helps balance everything else out when you eat enough protein i think it also kind of helps bring down your hunger for you do you um do you eat a lot of carbohydrates sounds like you had fruit a couple times a day and then you have like pasta a little bit uh just enough i guess to give you the energy you need to continue to perform well right right yeah like if like if I'm hungry, I'll eat.

But I really just go for the fruits and maybe I'll do some rice and pasta at night, you know, pretty clean. I try not to get like pasta shit too much. Like I'm not a, you know, I'm not a food freak or anything, but I think the less processed your food is, probably the better it is for your body.

So more simple things. The fruit, I eat it when necessary. A bunch right before practice. Give me that insulin spike. Then right before my lift, right before and after, I like to pound some fruit. Then the meals, man. It's just so much fucking

food I have to eat. It's definitely part of the job, but it's necessary, man. I've been eating like this this eating like a bodybuilder for like seven years or so and uh it's been non-stop progress to be honest with you you know i'm like uh 235 now it's look good feel good and uh just don't keep at it man i'm curious man okay because a lot of people uh you do you do a no-gi, right? And I feel like, personally, no-gi has freaked me out because I've seen people get effed up from heel hooks and stuff. And I know when you learn the escapes and all that, it'll be fine for the most part.

But I like my knees, right? So I train a lot of gi and I train some no-gi. But since you train no-gi all the time, you've competed against high level no G guys. Um, does, does that ever get to you in the back of your head? Like if a guy holds a heel hook for too long or something like that, or do you just, do you, are you just so good at dealing with it and understanding it that you don't feel that you're in that type of danger? Um, I mean the danger part, it's always there. You know, you can always get your leg, your arm broke, whatever. But, I mean, it's not a street fight.

You know, the ref's there. You know, so if something happens, the ref's going to pull him off and, you know, we deal with it after. So that's really not a worry of me. I'm more so thinking, like, how can I break this guy? You know, like, my goal is to go in there and break this guy's arm, break this guy's leg, put him to sleep. So I never really think about the negative effects.

That's part of me just, I guess, just being able to shut it off during, you know, competition and stuff. It's always a risk, you know, it's always a risk, but it's fun, man. I like going in there and making somebody quit, you know, like getting your opponent to the point of full exhaustion, where, you know, this thing that they've been doing, you know, 10, 15, 20 years, they're just going to get beat by a purple belt. And I enjoy that. I really do.

All right, Nick, you got to tell us what happened, man. Did somebody steal your bike when you were a kid or someone smash your Nintendo or what happened, bro? No, man, I just grew up in Jersey wrestling. And I think that kind of attitude, you know, be the hardest worker in the room, be the best guy in the room. And that's always kind of stuck with me. You know, I've had like, I always knew my whole life I was going to be an athlete of some sort. Like, I remember working at Home Depot and I'd just be looking around like, I could kill all of these people.

You know, I could beat the shit out of all these guys. Like, why am I here? So I just kind of, I mean, it sounds kind of bad, but I just kind of carried that mentality. And I'm happy I found the sport that I did when I did. Because I really feel like the next five, ten years of jiu-jitsu, man, it's going to go much more mainstream. And it's going to blow up in a big way. We already have a few grapplers, know that are pretty popular and i think as a whole as a sport we're going to blow up what um what led you to wrestling in particular just you you were playing a bunch of different sports or um you know what was it uh somebody suggested it to you or how'd

you come around with wrestling so i tried a few things you know like in elementary school i tried like uh baseball soccer uh football was cool for a little bit uh but i had a friend i had a friend uh that lives around the corner from me that his dad was a wrestling coach and i was always super against it so i was like these guys are wearing fucking tights and hugging each other really not for me so uh i go into practice one day and i remember like we started running around for as a warm-up just like jogging the mats i was completely exhausted because all i knew i just sprinted you know i thought that's where it's supposed to be so we started fucking sprinting for like 10 minutes and please also we start practice and

they show us like a headlock and a double and just simple. And I just remember going home and I was like, this is the hardest thing ever in my life. And these guys like beat me up. But I remember the coach telling me like, dude, if you learn a little bit, you could beat these guys up or beat you up in practice. And that just stuck with me, man. I was like, all right, if I keep training more and I get a little smarter, a little bit better, I can beat these guys. So just kind of kept that mentality and kept that growth. Have you always had a fairly, uh, aggressive and competitive mindset or that grow as you got gained more confidence, got better in sports? Yeah, definitely the confidence helped grow that. Um, the, I think the confidence in training, the maturity in, in,

in training and the physical maturity that I've adapted. But yeah, I guess I've always really had that killer instinct. Like I remember even wrestling in high school, like I would always have really exciting matches and it's just high school. You know, we have a, like I'm from a real small school where like, you know, we graduate class with 75 people. So like, you know, a full gym for us is only a few hundred people and you get loud in there and i'd be like i'd be like uh really attach that feeling of people people screaming you know once i slam somebody or something like that so always kind of uh that was always in the back of mind like i

wanted that kind of uh kind of feeling against let me ask you when you um when you started looking at jiu-jitsu and as you've been progressing obviously you get to train every single day with some of the best guys. And actually, yeah, some of the best grapplers in the world. You have one of the best grappling coaches in the world. But also, what do you think your learning process is in terms of trying to learn so quickly? Like we've heard John talk about like how he tries to focus on high probability techniques. Right. And not not all the fluff that you see all these other jujitsu guys doing where you said like they're dancing around and wasting time. not all the fluff that you see all these other jujitsu guys doing where you said like they're dancing around and wasting time. So what is your learning process to learn so quickly? Because I

think that a lot of guys who are just getting into jujitsu or they've been in it for a few years, they can get a lot from that and understanding how you learn things. So, uh, just, just to idealize how we learn is like, you always want to have a reason why you're doing this movement. Like, um, you have to realize that every action is going to be a reaction and how you go about, how you go about attacking that reaction is going to,

is going to be, you know, pretty much the basis of your match. John teaches everything in long sequences. Like it takes, I do think that what, how John teaches probably takes longer to acquire all the information, but it takes a shorter period of time to, to bring it all together. Um, you know, like, like a sequence to John showing us would be like six, six move series.

Right. And we'll do that pretty much for the whole practice. And then, uh, and they'll have to'll have to put that same sequence together in live. Now, it's hard to do because you have really tough practice partners. But then again, it's a combination of everything. Like you have a guy like Gary Tone, right? World-class jiu-jitsu guy, really hard to score and really hard to sub all this stuff. But in practice, right, if we're doing a tough drill,

you put the ego aside and you let us – let's just train and let's just get to submissions. Let's just get to dominant positions. Training without ego and then just having John work in sequences and series on us, it's really weird because I've seen so many guys coach and teach, and John's just so different, man. He really takes his time. Even the way he resonates his voice sticks with me a little bit more than anyone else.

And he's really big on giving us confidence. Before every match, after every practice, he's telling us how we can do better, what we're doing good at. He reinforces our confidence, and that reinforces our positivity in training so uh those those few aspects definitely make a big difference in our style if there was a like a million dollars on the line in a tournament and you knew you know the four or five other uh athletes that were in the competition would you study them at all or would you just keep training the way you train? Yeah. So I, I never studied anybody until, uh, I had a match with, I had a match with Yuri Samoa.

It's like maybe a month or two ago on flows grappling. Who's number one. And that was the first time I really studied an opponent. And mainly I'd never studied anybody just because I didn't have any options. I was like, whatever they're going to do, especially in the last ACC, I'm just going to take them down, get on top, stay on top. Now, I have some more options. If I have a tournament and I know who's in it, I'm definitely going to

watch their tape. I'm going to see where they're good at, see where they're bad, see where they're uncomfortable. If this is a top guy and he doesn't like being on bottom, I'm going to put him down and make him drown. Vice versa, if this guy likes me on top or if this guy likes me on bottom i'm gonna put him down and make him drown uh and vice versa you know if this guy likes me on top uh or if this guy's like likes me on bottom you know maybe i i law him into coming up and then you know shoot up from bottom to him down something like that but i have many more options now and many more avenues to win so you know the diversity in my

competition is going to keep coming i'm curious man when when you roll um do you ever pay attention to like your breathing or the breathing of your opponent I'm just wondering because you have such a good gas tank you like you said something I think it went over people's heads you said when you were 250 that you could roll for 30 minutes but then you'd be tired most people can't roll for 30 minutes in the first place

right so what goes on with your breathing when you roll like how do you do you pay attention to that so at the start of my grappling career, I treated it like wrestling. Wrestling is a six-minute sprint. You go as hard as you can, and then you gas out and recover for the next match. Jiu-jitsu, especially being around a guy like Ward and Ryan, I pay attention to how he keeps his pace.

And he can keep the same pace, you know, for an hour, two hours long. He just won't, not that he won't get tired, but his body is capable of dealing with exhaustion and keep going. Like a lot of guys hit this peak when they're competing. It's like, all right, we're going to sprint through this, through the six minute match and maybe three minutes to hit their peak. And then the last three minutes to start coming down, that's when their opponent starts coming back up.

And how we do it is we start off, we build to a peak, right? So we start off at an average speed, a speed that we can keep essentially forever. In practice, I train with a tempo, speed. Maybe it's only like 40%, 50% percent of my capability but i can keep that for an hour i would have two hours if if necessary i think that's where people fall off people uh they go they sprint to 100 and then they come back down to 20 you go 100 you go 20 i think uh if we see more people keeping a 40 50 60 percent pace that that allow you to have a longer match. But with that comes also,

do you have the proper technique so where you don't have to expend so much energy? Do you know what to do? Are you making the right decisions so you don't have to explode as hard as you can to get away from this guy or to get to a dominant position? If you always have different options due to your quality in technique,

then you shouldn't have to hit that 100 in competition. That 50%, 60%, you should be able to ride that through the whole comp. What current goals do you have? I know like a lot of people that are in your position are thinking like UFC, but I'd imagine you got to pretty much stay focused on what you're doing now. Do you have like particular goals coming up and then maybe down the line, maybe you'll consider something like UFC? Yeah.

I think my definite goal is to keep with this grappling stuff. I took second at ADCC last time I came around. So I want to win ADCC. I have a few particular people I want to beat in the grappling world. But besides making as much money as possible, I'd really like to open a school in a few years and develop UFC fighters. I think I have too many options to really hop in the cage and get beat up. It's a whole other sport, yeah.

Yeah, it's a whole other sport. I mean, in addition to that, whatever I do, I do it 100% of my capability. So if I did decide to fight, I'd train every day. That'd be the goal in my life, to be a UFC champ. I just feel like I have too many options, too many different avenues to make some serious money.

I don't think it's necessary. Fighting has to be the only thing you want to do in life to be successful at it. I have fun in other places. Getting punched in the face isn't really yeah so uh but but to coach i'm about that i'll definitely coach the ufc fighters for sure there you go um i'm curious about this um because you just said you want to make you know as much money as possible um from somebody who's just like a casual fan of jujitsu. You know, like some of these names you're, you're listening out. I can recognize some of them, but in SEMA knows all of them.

So with the sport getting a little bit more popular and you know, it's, it is exploding, but it's not quite like, you know, like the big three, which is, you know, baseball, football, basketball, how does somebody in your position turn this into a career? How do you actually financially make money? Because it doesn't seem like... I mean, you're not clocking it at Home Depot anymore. So how does... Yeah.

Yeah. So how does somebody actually turn this into a financial money-making machine? Besides winning. Obviously, we get paid through competition. You can make a couple bucks competing. It's not going to change your life. You're not going to make millions of dollars through competition money.

Just like life is, jiu-jitsu is a popularity contest. Obviously you have to win, but you have to show people how you're winning. I use the social media outlets. I use Instagram to show people my lifestyle and winning you know i use the social media outlets i use instagram to kind of show people my lifestyle and how and how i'm growing through there but uh but uh i think the way i think the way to do it right my idea i have this idea for the next 80 cc is to vlog the whole thing because we i feel like we never had any any grappler like any high level grappler

whether it was like uh into vlogging or really to go backstage and show people, you know, exactly how we, how we deal with it or the anxiety or how we go about competing. So I would really like to give people a, uh, kind of a, uh, a backroom look at that. Um, but in the, in the case of making money, yeah, you make money through competition. You make money through sponsors. Um, you make money through seminars. Like money through sponsors um you make money through seminars like you know you can make a hundred couple hundred thousand a year you know if you're if you're a tough grappler and you're you're a hard worker but uh you know there's only one guy making millions that's gordon and it's mainly mainly through dvd sales but i think uh as a sport grows you know we're gonna have many other options to make money like

we don't even have uh serious sponsors that you don't have we don't have teams like a couple companies like nike or adidas sponsoring us yet you know so we're still we're still uh on the on the path upwards for sure but uh yeah competition and uh seminars and shit like that will be the bills for sure let me ask you man just from your opinion and like what you've seen do you think that there's any chance for, because I, like when I look at gi training, I think gi can be really exciting if you're continuously hunting for submissions and you're not playing the fucking point game. Right. But do you think, cause no gi has like caught, caught in a lot of fire. People like, like the speed it's, it's more slippery, right? It's more paced.

Do you think that gi is dying or do you think that it will it can it can it can make it um i mean i don't watch any gi i never have i don't really i don't even really know any top competitors like i know like buchesha was a big guy or leandro aloe but that's uh that's it. I think Gi has its place. It's the roots of Jiu-Jitsu. It's the original Jiu-Jitsu. But I think no Gi is more

Americanized, more suitable for the eyes of people that don't compete. If you see a guy in a karate suit and there's just two dude shirtless fighting it out, you're probably going to watch the two must real guys that are shirtless, you know? So I think just visually it's more appealing and it's a faster pace,

uh, match because, you know, most people really don't have a long attention span. And if you don't know what the fuck's going on over there, you're not watching. But if you see, you know,

like I said, two, two big guys, you know, going to war at a fast pace, the match is definitely more, more, uh, you know, you definitely more prone to watch that for sure. How does somebody that's in jiu-jitsu already, what's the best way for them to advance?

Do you think it's a good idea to try to go to some different schools, go to seminars? What was your experience? Did you just kind of happen to link up with some of the best in the world right off the bat? your experience and did you just kind of happen to link up with some of the best in the world right off the bat or what's your advice to somebody that's in it already and and trying just to be uh trying to get good quickly the way you did so when i started training i did a lot of cross training like i i found quickly that was i was the best guy in the room like in the regular jiu-jitsu rooms you know likeped in a school called South Jersey BJJ. Fantastic school.

A lot of competitors and stuff in there. A lot of good black belts. But I was just a superior athlete, so it was hard for me to deal with. So I would constantly train in South Jersey. I trained at a place called Grindhouse and another place called Ricardo Almeida's BJJ. So I would cross-train a lot, and I'd pretty much try to find where I wasn't the best guy. So I think that's what a lot of people do.

It's too comfortable. You're too comfortable being the alpha in the room, being the best guy. You know, like, oh, I want to get off bottom. No problem. I'll just stand up real quick. No problem. You don't have that guy fucking holding you down for 20 minutes.

So I think you have to find a room where you're not the best guy and you're at a lack of knowledge in that room as well. So that's pretty much what I tried, what I was searching for until I found John Danner and DDS. I started training with John maybe like three months

into training Jiu-Jitsu. I started training with him like a couple times a week and then come ADCC, it was pretty much every day. Let me ask you this. You seem to have an ego in a good way. You don't have like when people say, oh, you got an ego, they're usually like trying to put somebody down. But you seem to have like a strong ego as far as like your competitive mindset, etc. Right? Now, when that comes to your training in jiu-jitsu, you mentioned Gary Tonin and I heard on a podcast how like sometimes he'll just like let people get to him in really bad positions to see if he can actually escape it. And sometimes he'll get tapped. How do you,

how does your ego show itself in the training room? Like if you get tapped by somebody like Gordon or if, if, uh, like, do you, are you able to kind of back that out when you're doing, when you're sparring to do things like Gary Tonin to kind of back that out when you're doing, when you're sparring to do things like Gary Tonin or is there still something there when you're sparring? Yeah. I mean, that was, it was really hard for me to kind of shut that ego off. Like I still have some days where like, you know, if I get tapped in practice, it's like, I'm super frustrated and I go home, you know, and I will sleep over it. But for the most part, honestly, I just let it go. It is what it is.

More laxities go in there. You've got to recognize that it's not competition. It's very hard for me to do that sometimes because I'm so competitive. But if I just keep telling myself it's practice, you're going to get better, it's practice, then when you shut that ego off, it really allows you to get better and keep the learning process going because if you're if you have a hefty ego in training you're not getting put on bars you're not getting leg locked every day you're really limiting yourself you don't know your your full capabilities of defense and you don't know how

far you can go before you break so uh you know you kind of have to learn your boundaries and you have and and i think people are more flexible and flexible and more durable than a lot of people think. You see a lot of early taps just due to lack of knowledge. This guy clearly hasn't put his arm bar too many times, so he doesn't know how to get out. So I think putting yourself in bad positions is essential for growth and essential for having dominant defense. Do you do a lot of positional training when you guys train like do you do a lot of positional training from trying

to escape back mount etc literally every day put it put it like this right like especially when i first started grappling i i would spend days where our first round is mounted so like we start you know with partner mounts on top of us and we have to get out. For the first year, I was with Gordon every mounted round and I would stay under there for 20-30 minutes. John wouldn't

end the round until I got off bottom. You know what I mean? If you don't know how technically you get off bottom and you have the best grappler that's ever lived on top of you, dude, it's like you're on the water you're talking the rash part is soaked with sweat fucking hair and saliva in your face and it's like your mind you know your mind goes to places like fuck just fucking tap and get the fuck out of here or then you start panicking you start rolling and squirming and you're you're exhausting Once you get over that shit, you're like,

all right, you accept it. You're stuck here. You got to figure out how to do it. I think just having mental toughness and getting through those mental faults will definitely help you keep pushing. Tons of positional routes, man. We start mounted. We start

internal position, people on our back. We start 50 50 um we start uh single a we start fucking in doubles like everything we do is positional we'll have obviously we have some open rounds as well but uh you know i think uh you know starting in uh dominant positions and starting in uh defensive positions as well that's that's gonna shoot skyrocketed progress man yeah that that mental toughness. So, well, that's, that's going to shoot skyrocket progress. Yeah. That,

that mental toughness that you just mentioned, um, that's something you can't really, I believe you can't really teach it. You can only just obtain it through experience. But you said back when you were in school, like your first day of wrestling, you got your ass kicked,

but you wanted to keep coming back. Where did that, like, where did that mental toughness come from? I don't know, man. I think I just never wanted – I mean, it sounds kind of bad. I never wanted anybody to be better than me or be able to beat me up. I thought wrestling, in my mind, was essentially the closest thing you get to a fight

as opposed to being in an actual fight. You're probably at each other. You're taking shots and trying to hold you down shit like that so to me wrestling was a fight and i treated it that way i never wanted to lose a fight and uh you know i went into practice every day like that and honestly having coaches to tell you you know push your pace go harder uh you know be the hardest worker and uh keep keep it going man that's uh you know i've always been around that. So I think I just kind of grew up with that mentality. My parents are super supportive too.

You know, they would constantly want me to be better. So definitely drove me to just do more and try harder, man. Yeah, this is an interesting question. But because you were always like, I mean, I'm assuming you were kind of bigger than all the other kids too. Did you feel that because you were the like i mean i'm assuming you were kind of bigger than all the other kids too um did you feel that because you were the big kid you couldn't let anybody beat you up and you kind of felt like maybe you had like a target on your back so you're like no before they get me i'm gonna go get those motherfuckers first uh no i don't think i felt like that i think i think i just uh there's just something about the the sport of wrestling just taking somebody down

you know like like there's a there's a point in a match where where your opponent hits full exhaustion and you can feel them quit and i remember feeling that a couple times in in in high school and practice and in college and it's like uh it's like you you that's all you want like you just want to break this guy you're like it's just uh it's like you you that's all you want like you just want to break this guy you're like it's just because because a natural competitor you know what i mean but to feel somebody that works so hard for this this one moment to feel them give up and and essentially you're driving the car now it's uh it's a weird feeling and i always just was really attracted to making to breaking people like it mentally breaking people, you know, by even, even in like high school,

like I just remember, like, I just want to get this guy so tired that he fucking quits. And, you know, I may not be the most technical guy, but I'll get you fucking tired. And I'll make you quit. You know, that happened, happened more times than not. Being a competitive in powerlifting. I trained at one of the strongest gyms ever, Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio. And it was like a battle like that every day.

We weren't actually physically fighting. No one in there could probably fight very well. But it was a battle with the weights. And you would just be exhausted and you would just be getting worked and we would squat in a group. And you would look at the other guy. And actually, I remember watching the other guy's lift. and you would look at the other guy and you're actually like i remember watching the other guy's lift i'm like i hope this fucking guy dies right now because i just i just want to be able to win like i don't care how at this point because we've been doing this for 20 minutes uh but you would

look at the other guy and you would go to do another set and you would just say plate like just meant throw another plate on six plates seven plates eight plates and so on just keep getting thrown on the bar until someone is like broken. Someone can't do it anymore. And that's, that's the way we would do it. But I think in some cases, I think, you know, having that mindset can be something that can help you elevate, especially quickly the way that you have. Yeah, for sure, man. I've watched some of your, some Westside Marble stuff.

So your stuff on YouTube, you got some serious numbers, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. some of your some uh west side marvel stuff some of your stuff on youtube you got some serious numbers man thank you appreciate it so lastly i want to well not last question but um as far as your your lifting and stuff right now is concerned how is that how is that evolving in any way like because i know you do the bodybuilding stuff you've added some crossfit stuff in but is there anything that you've been trying to add in maybe as far as strength training is concerned? Or are you just going to be keeping it bodybuilding, getting bigger, not focused on heavy lifts, etc.? How's that going to be looking for you? Yeah, I mean, I just I really focus on the diversity in my training. You know, like I was never a big powerlifter guy just because I've always saw the worst of powerlifters.

Like I've always seen guys get injured and shit like that. Just, you know, not doing it properly. So they never, they never attracted me. Uh, but I was always attracted to the guy that looked like,

you know, the superior physique, you know, that was, it's always been kind of my goal. Um, so I think, uh,

I think, uh, just my, my last thing I keep switching up from bodybuilding to CrossFit to, you know, just, I find what's best for me because I don't know what's best for Jiu-Jitsu yet. Yeah, it's good to be big and strong, but like I said earlier, is there going to be – is there going to get to a point where I'm 240, like a lean 245, lean 250, and I can keep going forever? Or is it going to be like I like this big jacked and shredded dude. They really can't go that long because I'm too heavy. So I don't know, man.

I'm trying to find that middle ground. I think maybe after the next ADCC, I'll try to put some size on it and see if I can hold 250 and my body will activate and I can go for a long time. If not, I'll come back down, man. I don't know no rush i think that's the case man i like i really don't like i think that if you continue to train um and get bigger and keep training i think that there's no reason why you can't be 240 245 250 while still having a massive gas tank i mean all i got like just from personal experience being this like being this size for me has done like my gas tank has just gotten better over time of training jujitsu and what do you like 240 or

actually 244 and my gas tank like i i go round after round after round after round i can increase pace and i like i it's just it i don't get tired right um and i think that's gonna that's the same thing for you but even to a higher extent since you've been grappling for so much longer than I have, your body's even better at handling that stress. So fuck, I don't think it's going to be bad for you at all. It's just going to play to your skills. It's going to play to your strengths. Yeah. I think you're, I think you're right. I mean, it does take some time for the body to activate. Like, I feel like everything kind of internally has to grow and you know just get ready for the extra few pounds like last adcc i was like 220 225 so i'm a bit heavier now uh and yeah i

still feel my cardio is just as good if not better so uh maybe you're right man maybe i'll just put some size on and keep it going what about uh bodybuilding you seem pretty interested in it you think you would ever do bodybuilding competing bodybuilding or even just shred up for some photos just for the fuck of it uh i mean i'll get shredded for photos but uh those guys are crazy going on stage they are super super lean uh i mean i like i like that i like my food like the good thing about like burning so many calories and jiu-jitsu is like yeah if i want to eat fucking ice cream i go eat some ice cream you know so i don't have to be uh super shook with the diet but uh to be on stage i'd rather watch that looks like a lot of work and focus over here you know what i mean uh who knows what the future holds but i'm gonna definitely have respect for the i'm gonna predict that you're gonna do it

one day because you seem pretty into it and you look fucking awesome so i don't think it would take much for you to turn it around and get on stage and compete. It's just, it can be fun. And for me, like I competed a couple of years ago and it just helped me stay leaner, you know, ever since.

And I'm talking, you know, when you're done kicking the shit out of everybody that you want to kick the shit out of, you know? Yeah. I'm not, I'm not opposed to men,

you know, break into a new world. I was even thinking maybe like a crossfit shot. I wouldn't mind hopping in across crossfit competition one of these days. Those guys look like they go hard, man. They do. It's pretty unbelievable. I think that's a sport that actually could really play to your strengths because you have

a great gas tank. All you have to do is learn the form of certain crossfit movements, which you'll be able to do because you're an athlete. It'd be sick seeing you do rope climbs and shit. Yeah, I'm a little heavier than those guys i feel like they're all like a little bit shorter nice and stocky uh but those guys have crazy endurance man i'd be uh i'd be about to learn learn some of that for sure i feel that all of us are overdressed we didn't know that you were

gonna wear this right we may as well just go with the flow are go are we doing this fuck it let's go we didn't there you go we kind of came unprepared we didn't know that we're gonna have the nips out but andrew what's going on over there buddy let's take a shot off too yeah yeah we all have to be shirtless for this podcast how do i get how do i get traps like that bro what the fuck uh some deadlifting deadlifting what goes a long way okay okay i'll switch it up i need i need some of that yeah you look great you look great appreciate that do you uh deadlift bench squat do you mess around with those movements a little bit here and there yeah yeah i do uh i do more high reps you know maybe i go like 225 and 15 or 20, but I never go too heavy. I just feel like the endurance is going to translate to my jiu-jitsu much easier. But I'm interested. I just never push myself to lift heavy weights. It's just never been in the back of my mind. I always thought that reps and, and shit like that was, uh, the best way to go.

And I know it's good, but, uh, I wonder if, you know, maybe back in the day, if there's been more heavier stuff, you know, I'd be, uh, even bigger. I think you can mess with it now. What about maybe even like trap bar deadlift or something, something that's, or even partial range of motion, like full range of motion, deadlifting for you just like to jump into it randomly, probably not a great idea, but, uh, if you do some partial range of motion stuff and keep the weights really light for sets at six to 10 reps, uh, would probably go a long way for you. I mean, even look at the stuff, like John Jones, what do you consider really like?

Well, I would just start with like two, three plates, you know, something like that, but it's kind of depending on where you're, you know, you're a big guy. So I'm assuming that that would be a pretty light. I would just start a week one and start with two plates, moving around a couple of times, see how you're feeling the next couple of days, you know, and, and then kind of build into it over,

over a period of time. And then also one thing to think about here is like, when you, when we look at powerlifting, we had this guy, Jim Wendler on the podcast. I don't know if you've ever heard of the program five, three,

one. It's a strength training program that every new powerlifter has done. I did that program when I was like 19. But when you think about lifting heavy, people think about like, oh, one rep max is doing two reps and it fries you, right? Lifting heavy for, I think, a grappler could be doing something at like 70% of your max or 75%. And maybe if you do a set of five, you could have done three more reps, but you stopped at five. That is going to be heavy.

That's going to help you gain strength. You don't have to be lifting two, three reps and almost failing to get stronger. That's just dangerous. You don't need to be doing any of that. The sick part is, is you haven't done a lot of it. So you would get even bigger.

Fuck. That'd be crazy, bro. Like that actually be really fucking crazy. Get you to 270. Dude, if I had 270, I'd be crazy, bro. Like that actually be really fucking crazy. Get you to 270. Dude, if I had 270, I'd definitely have breathing problems. We'll have a CPAP when you're on the mat, you know? Yeah.

But not. But yeah, dude, I think because since the way you've trained, you've done a lot of bodybuilding stuff. I noticed this for myself, too, because when I started training, I started lifting at 13 and I did all bodybuilding work. But when I was like 1920, that's when I started lifting and doing a little bit of strength training. And that strength training, it's like my physique went from here and I just gained a different type of, like, it's just, I gained a different type of strength by getting stronger. And now I don't do a lot of crazy heavy lifting. I see guys like you, you know, lift like that. And it seems like they have a really high maturity in the muscle like uh just seems like it's it's more dense and that's kind of the look i'm going for so maybe you guys

are right then maybe i'll put some fucking size on keep it going keep it growing yeah and it doesn't have to be dangerous at all it doesn't have to be too crazy heavy but it you you would you would destroy bro you are destroying but you're gonna like get that next level which would be so dope to see you got time for anything else like do you play video games or uh you have any other type of hobbies or anything like that or it's i mean imagine you're at jujitsu all the time and training all the time so maybe you don't have a ton of time for stuff uh yeah i mean i play some play some warzone at nighttime but uh yeah i mean it really just jits and lifts every day. Um, but again, like it's, it's kind of my hobby, you know what I mean?

So I do, I do what I want to do every day, you know? So, uh, I have fun, man. I fucking train my friends. I lift weights all the time. The beach is right around the corner. We're here in Puerto Rico. So, uh, it's good life out here, man, for sure. How has that transition been?

Cause you guys were in New York, we were training over at Henzo's and I don't know, have you guys been in, has it been up to a year? You've been in Puerto Rico now or how long has it been? About six, seven months we've been here. And honestly, we just do the same shit that we did in New York. Yeah, we train every day, we lift, we just do it in the sunny islands.

You know, it's the same thing. It's fun for us, man. You know, food's good here. It's nice weather. No, really no complaints. We have a good life here for sure. island you know it's the same thing it's uh it's fun for us man you know food's good here it's it's nice weather no really no complaints we have uh we have a good good life here for sure wow it seems like you're uh pretty um uh i guess um like relaxed when it comes like your social media seems like you don't take it too serious seems like you're fired up and excited and sometimes inflammatory with some of the other competitors and things like that so it seems like you have a good time with it but how do you deal with some of the other competitors and things like that. So it seems like you have a good time with it,

but how do you deal with some of the negativity that comes around here and there? Do you just kind of totally ignore it? Do you, uh, like your partner, I think he goes after people. Do you kind of, you know, go that mentality? Like, I don't know. How do you handle some of that? Um, some of the negative stuff I really, I either, uh, if it's like foul, I'll just delete it. Or if it's, if it's foul, I'll just delete it. Or if it's negative, if people are answering, I'll just let them argue it out. I mean, I don't really respond to negative stuff.

I just don't care, to be honest. Somebody's opinion is not going to really affect me much. You don't know it. Yeah, exactly. You're on my page looking at me so i think i'm winning right have you seen anything negative like as far as because like i've noticed even at a certain point that i had to kind of back off in terms of how much attention i paid to social media because i was using it so much for work and shit have there been any negative repercussions of having to use

social media so much for yourself or has it just been chill for you no i mean social media has been been chill i mean uh i always knew like when i started social media what it was i was like it's a fucking popularity compass the more followers you have the more money you're worth i mean that's kind of as simply as i was able to break it down you know um and i knew like what in whatever field i was going to go into, having a decent following on social media would benefit me. It just so happens that it's grappling. I think people put too much emphasis on how other people feel and they react to their negativity and stuff. And that can kind of cause some internal anxiety that's just really not necessary.

I mean, I got a good good life and if somebody doesn't like me i mean i really don't care i don't have much to like to not like either i mean like what you see on instagram keep it pretty real i mean i don't do any uh like it's me on there you know what i mean i think i think it goes to show like people think i look bigger in person because i'm not fucking photoshopping my pictures you know i'm not doing these weird videos where i look big it's just so yeah it is what it is so i mean you seem very level-headed so the uh the negative negative side is not going to affect you but do you ever i don't know find like me and and you also don't need motivation so that's not at all what i'm getting at but do you just taking pictures uh but do you do you find any like uh just is there

somebody out there on instagram or just youtube or whatever that kind of gets you hyped up that makes you um because i i look i look at guys like you uh marking and sema and like i'll feel like i have a really really good productive day i got a good training session got a lot of work done and then i see what these guys do and yourself and then i'm like i'm a lazy piece of shit is there anybody that kind of makes you feel that way that gets you a little bit more hyped up to go even harder uh yeah i mean honestly i go i go online i go on youtube and i watch guys like mark i got to watch guys like bradley martin and other influencers like that just to if i'm just watching somebody do something that i like i want to do it so like if i'm exhausted after practice i'm eating food and, I want to do it. So like, if I'm exhausted

after practice, I'm eating food and I'm resting and I'm like, fuck, I really don't want to lift. I'll go watch, you know, maybe one of Mark's videos or something. Fuck dude, I'll just go do it. You know what I mean? Just, just go knock it out. And I feel like people just put too much time on contemplation and really just got to go out there and put the fucking work in and eat the food and get it done, man. So yeah, I think social media and things like YouTube and stuff is a great way to kind of boost your motivation. If you're feeling down that day, you go watch a back day video and you're like, fuck, I'm going to go get my back pumped today.

You know what I mean? So things like that definitely help me push through the groggy days for sure. And with training, you train with Gordon, Craig, Gary, you train with some of the best grapplers in the world and an amazing coach. When you're looking at now your competition and you see the type of competition you're going to be seeing at ADCC, are there any guys that you really pay attention to? Or do you just focus on the technique and stuff of the guys around you? I watch some of my competitors

just to see what they're doing wrong. But in terms of learning, I honestly only watch my team. Guys like, you know, Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones, Gary Tonin. Like I really only watch my team because I do think they're the best grapplers on the planet. And I think their movements, because not only I'm training with them, but more so because a guy like Gary Tonin, I strive to move like that to be as athletic and elusive and as technical as Gary.

So I watch a guy like that and see how I can make those movements my movements. So I think for the average grappler, if you're just looking to learn a little bit on YouTube and stuff, find somebody that moves the way you move or moves the way that you want to move. And if you can even emulate that a little bit, then you'll have tremendous benefits in practice and in competition. Thank you so much for your time today. Where can people find you and where can people find out more information about you? Yes, you guys can check me out on Instagram at NickyRod247 and on YouTube at NickyRodAllAccess. That's it, man. I appreciate you guys having me. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time today, man. Have a great rest of your day. See you later, man. Thank you.

Dude. What a beast. He's a fucking beast, man. I think the dopest thing at the beginning of the episode when he talked about the way he lived and his nutrition, I'm just like, those concepts are so on point. So on point. So on point, you know, like you don't have to complicate it too. So it was, yeah, it was awesome. And, uh,

what he said there at the end is something I've shared with people forever. So, um, you know, if you're power lifting and you want to, you know, uh, you're trying to improve your lifts, find someone that looks a little bit similar to you that has a little bit similar style. You'll be able to adopt like all the other styles at some other point. But, you know, if you're 5'6 and you're working on your deadlift, it can be helpful to look at someone who's 6'8 and deadlifting. But it's going to be more productive to look at someone that has a similar body. Like maybe you find someone that's really good at the squat and they really suck at the deadlift like you do or vice versa. It's important to kind of line that up in the beginning and mimic those people first. And then you'll be able to figure things out maybe in some other ways at

some other point. He's convinced me that I need to, everyone's been telling me that I need to train more Nogi, but talk just like that conversation. I'm like, I got to train more Nogi. It's necessary's necessary i mean it's only gonna well sorry actually i don't know anything about it but i would imagine the speed is gonna kind of help slow down nogi even more for you does that make sense wait what so because you said like the the speed of nogi is a lot faster than with the gi yeah because with the gi it'll probably slow down gi for you so that way you kind of can get it like a step ahead almost yeah so that's the thing with the gi because there's so many things to grab right you can like a wrestler once they put on a gi i'm not threatened

by them anymore really because i can stop their movements right like i can pause them in certain places but no gi like it's under hooks it's it's head snaps but no key, like it's under hooks. It's, it's head snaps. It's like all like it's slippery. And there's a lot of like, even like the way I play gear where I like playing guard a lot. Um, you like it's, it's not as effective in no key.

So I think it will probably plug a lot of, a lot of holes too, that I may have in the key. Maybe with a key on, um, there's more controllable variables. There's more controllable variables there's more controllable variables and also there's more weird possibilities in terms of positions okay because all the positions that you can get in nogi you can do in gi but not all the positions that you can do in gi you can you

can't do all those positions in nogi because you don't have the grips right i was gonna ask is as simple as like gi has handles no gi doesn't yeah like kind of yeah no gi has like yeah there's almost less moves and no gi there okay so there are less yeah there are less overall moves in no gi that doesn't mean it's easier or anything no no that just means like it there there are less might make it harder even yeah and i mean athleticism plays more of a role in no gi if you're more of an athletic person if you have more of an athletic build that plays to your strength and nogi in gi it does it does help but because there are all those things a smaller guy in the gi can still really really mess somebody up because they have all these things to like climb all over your body there's a good example this. I have this guy that used to train over at Casio's.

His name's Este. He's a rooster weight. So he's like 130. But when I used to roll with him, when I was a white belt, he was here, he'd legitimately be crawling all over my body. And his like, his whole body would like engulf my arm because he was so tiny and it would be difficult rolling with him because he could just like, he was like a little spider monkey.

Yeah. He'd like be on my back and I'd be like this trying to get him off. Right. That's sick. Yeah. So does Kalipa roll? No, he Kalipa rolls.

Guy had no. Okay. Yeah. I like when he talked about how he would run away from other people's game and not, you know, not get tangled up in their game. You know,

it's like, that's a really interesting thing like a great way to handle a great way to handle someone that's really really great at jujitsu say like in a fight would be to punch them would be like not not get involved or kick them like not get involved in jujitsu would be your best and maybe only chance for survival yeah don't let them take you to the ground but not like that what he said there was like super smart like just don't let your opponent play their game and play your game instead right um but that dude's like that dude's mentality towards competition is something is something really cool and one thing that he mentioned

for all the jujitsu athletes that were probably listening as far as um getting big and doing jujitsu it's like it's not gonna it's not gonna hurt you it's like it's not gonna make you immobile you know you're not gonna start moving all stocky the only times where you see big guys and they can't move is when lifting is the only thing that they do right or they came in with a background and they were already tight right i was gonna say they like yeah if somebody like myself came in still lifted but try to do jiu-jitsu it's like oh i can't blame the lifting it's because no i've just had a fucked up back for over a decade now so i would imagine that that definitely plays a role in it

but that's something that just needs to get addressed elsewhere it's neither jiu-jitsu or lifting's fault you know so i yeah i could see that being an issue and also his volume of training is seven days jiu-jitsu inspiring dude yeah so sick yeah but like that's the thing it's like i totally think that people can do that but you got to let yourself build up to that yeah like you're lifting every day can't be be like 90 minutes session, right? Like maybe you have some days where it's a 30, 30 session lift, right? Or 30 minutes session of lifting along with your jiu jitsu.

And then some days where it's longer, but you got to build up to that because that is possible. And what, another thing people are going to say is he's probably on drugs or steroids. Nah, no. Like he, he probably just has built up that capacity over time.

Yeah. And when you look at someone like him, like you, even Josh Settledge, like it makes sense when you look back and, you know, I always point back to this video where Settle Gates doing fucking muscle ups at like 14, 15 years old. I'm just like, oh, I get it. Yeah. You've been lifting for like over, you know, know whatever 10 years at this point at a high level so yeah with him doing i mean i think wrestlers out the gate like they're just built different yeah they really are absolutely the work capacity for the sport's crazy what a fucking animal that was sick dude i love that i you know i do find it interesting that there's some people that

when they get into a sport they already have most of the components down. So his boxes are checked. He's got stamina is good. Like now it's great, right? Physique was good coming in. Now it's great. So he's able to kind of work through a lot of the things as he was competing and as he was maturing. as he was competing and as he was maturing.

But I see from a lot of people there for maybe multiple reasons, but they're, they're stuck in their sport, but they're not really improving in their sport in some of the areas that they really need to. Like, for example, it doesn't sound like he needs to like run or have any other conditioning program.

However, there could be some individuals that could utilize maybe some HIIT training or maybe utilize some form of cardiovascular training because every time they're in class, every time they're in competition, they're probably gassing out and they might, for whatever reason, that particular person might need to address that particular thing or they're weak and they never really get any stronger because they're only focused on just a jujitsu practice every day. And they're not focused on just trying to make a change. And what I would advise some people to do, I don't know shit about jujitsu, but in general, when I've seen this happen before, I've even seen it in powerlifting.

Where the same guy ends up with the same technique flaw at every single competition for years and years and years and years. And I'm like, when is this fucking guy going to address this? The only way to address it is to be really, really consistent. And you do have to pull back a little bit. So he was talking about getting in some of those vulnerable positions and training and like how he hates it. But though things like that are, are really critical to progress. So if you're stuck and you have the same form technique over and over or same flaw every time pull back on the weight a little bit relearn how to do it and ask yourself how the fuck do i stop doing that i actually remember dan green sent me a video and he squatted like 600 and he squatted like 625 and then he squatted like 650 and they're all just like just brutal like muscled up lifts dan has really really strong

legs and you guys kind of yeah you know how big and jacked he is now well he at the time he was 220 he wasn't nearly as big and the form just got worse and worse with the weight that was on his back and i was like oh my god then he sent me and i was like man i think you need to go back and like you know work on it and sends me a video of him squatting 705. I mean, this is like weeks later and just it's perfect. And I was like, holy fuck. I'm like, he fixed it. And I usually didn't see that from people, especially from someone that was strong, like squatting 600 pounds when you're 220.

It's a lot of fucking weight. Pretty amazing. And then he just boosts right up to around 705 and it was great to see like someone who's a mature lifter someone who's already good said hey you know what i'm not that good at this particular thing i need to go back and fix it whatever way i can i think he worked on his hamstrings and lower back a lot then he was able to squat a lot more yeah he's huge hamstrings yeah hamstrings. Then he was able to squat a lot more. Yeah. He's huge hamstrings for days. He was able to squat more upright and that was the solution for him. But there's a lot of people that aren't willing to go back,

you know, take a couple steps back to kind of fix up or clean up their lack of strength, their lack of mobility, their lack of whatever it might be to continue to progress forward. That's like what kind of, he was talking about when it comes to positional training to athletes mentioned that they,

they do a lot of that. So Hodger Gracie has talked about how he didn't necessarily have a lot of world champion training partners. Like he didn't have the best in the world training with him. He was always the best in the room typically. And what he would do, the reason that what he would do is he do a lot of positional training where he would have somebody mounted him,

have somebody on his back, be an already an arm bar position where he'd have to try to escape before he could actually do anything. And he would train those bad positions so much because naturally his training partners couldn't even get there if they were to normally spar that he got so good at not getting not being in danger in those positions, even though he didn't have the best in the world to train with. Right. Right. So that's addressing those weaknesses and addressing things that could be weaknesses before they happen. That's, that's a huge thing. Yeah. When I was boxing,

we used to do the same thing. A lot of the guys that were really, really good whenever I got in the ring with him, cause I was young and green. I just didn't know what it was doing. Um, they were only allowed to jab. And if I got like too rambunctious or like caught them with

something because i was pretty strong then they would do then they start throwing hooks and a couple other things yeah they'd be like oh shit okay sorry fuck all right because i thought i was doing good you know but it's like you kind of forget okay they have a pretty good handicap but even when they're just jabbing i mean they would just they would just fucking tag you oh it would hurt so bad i mean they're pros you know they know what they're just jabbing, I mean, they would just fucking tag you. Oh, it would hurt so bad. I mean, they're pros. They know what they're doing. But yeah, amazing podcast, amazing guy.

And I think he talked about how he would like to continue to be more popular and make money. I like that authenticity of just saying it. just saying it, you know, but I think if you, if you go out there and you kick everybody's ass in something, it actually is a lot easier to, you know, quote unquote,

build a brand or, um, you know, winning is, is the key is a key factor in the whole thing. You win a world title and you're a black belt. It's gonna be that much easier to get attention. Someone's like,

Hey, what does this guy ever? Oh, nevermind. You know, what's his credentials what does this guy ever? Oh, nevermind. You know, what's his credentials? Yeah. They look,

Oh, he beat. Oh shit. Okay. He beat like the top five guys in the world. Nevermind. I ain't got a shit to say. I'm actually just going to open up my ears and,

and listen to him. I know with Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, there was always that battle of those two being, you know, some of the best that the UFC had to offer. And Tito Ortiz was always like really, really concerned about how he can make more money, how he could be more popular.

While Chuck Liddell was like, you know what? I'm while he, I'm sure that was in his mind too. He was like, I'm going to be more popular and I'm going to make more money than you ever make, because I'm just going to kick the shit out of you and everybody else.

Like that's a, that's a way do it, is to just keep grinding it out the way that Nicky Rodriguez is doing. Pretty cool. Yeah, absolutely. Take us on out of here, Andrew. I will. Huge shout-out and thank you to Eat Right Foods for making sure that we all stay jacked

to where the three of us are confident enough to go ahead and pop the shirts off. Yeah. So that's at eat right. Foods dot com. Eat R.I.T.E. Foods dot com. Promo code Power Project 25 at checkout.

Links down in the description. YouTube description as well as podcast show notes. Please make sure you're on the podcast at Mark Bell's Power Project on Instagram at MB Power Project on TikTok and Twitter. Mark Bell's Power Project on Instagram at MB Power Project on TikTok and Twitter. My Instagram and Twitter is at IamAndrewZ at TheAndrewZ on TikTok. And Seema, where you at? Guys,

thank you for all the ratings on iTunes because we are literally in the top 10 all fitness podcasts. We ranked number five or something a few days ago in top fitness. And then in health and fitness, we broke through in the top 100 and health and fitness is a rough place for pods so we guys go on apple give us a rating review five stars obviously and uh yeah we we killing it out here

yeah it's up to five stars damn they have up to five stars five whole stars which we should always be getting you know what peeps i'll challenge you to do this as well. Your favorite peeps, your favorite YouTubers, your favorite podcasters, your favorite influencers. I can bug the shit out of them. Say, Hey,

go on Mark Bell's power project. Yes, actually. Yeah. Bother him. Say, say, Hey,

all you gotta do is hit us up and hit up Andrew. Uh, what's your, I am Andrew Z. All right. There you go. I'm at Mark smelly bell on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. Strength is never weak.

This week is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.