MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: James Krause No Longer ‘Actively Looking to Fight’ As He Turns His Attention to Coaching Full Time

Episode Date: November 23, 2021

UFC veteran James Krause joins the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer to address his current status as a fighter after last competing in 2020 as well as how he’s embraced his role as a full-time head coach in recent years. Leading the team at Glory MMA, Krause has put 17 fighters in the UFC and he’s looking to add even more as he continues to grow his team and he’ll discuss how coaching has brought something out of him that even competing never could. Krause will also discuss the art of cornering fighters after the recent controversy involving Aspen Ladd and what he does to ensure he’s always giving his athletes everything they need between rounds. All this and much more on the latest installment of The Fighter vs. The Writer Follow James Krause @TheJamesKrause Follow Damon Martin @DamonMartin Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible.

Welcome back to the Fighter versus the Writer. I am your host, as always. I am Damon Martin, and today I am joined by one of the busiest guys in all the mixed martial arts. He's a top fighter, but these days he's best known as a top coach, also a top analyst.

I welcome back a good friend of mine. James Krause, excuse me, hold on. The James Krauss, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm good, man. How about you? I'm fantastic. Thank you for doing this.

I really appreciate it. It's funny, I've known you for a long time, and we've done interviews all over the years. I don't know if I ever asked you, where did the James Kraus come from? This is kind of a stupid story. So, like, I was whenever, like, Twitter started up and all that, so this has been, you know, 10, 15 years ago, whatever it was. And I was looking for a, like a handle on like Twitter, Facebook, whatever, Instagram wasn't around at the time. And James Krause was actually taken, like just regular James Krause was actually taken. And it was taken by a guy that I went to college with.

There's another guy named James Krause in the college that I went to. And anyway, I didn't want to put like a, you know, James Kraus 155 or anything like that, you know, because I figured at some point I would switch away classes. but I didn't know what's put, so I just put that. And I was like, I'll just change it later, and it's stuck. It never, you know, so. I like it. I personally like it. It's the simplicity of it, you know what I mean?

Like you get a lot of weird nicknames in this sport. I think D. James Krauss is pretty damn catchy. Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. You can't really pick your nickname. I didn't like it, but everybody is stuck. You know what I mean? This is what it is. Yeah, well, I like it.

So, like I said, count me amongst that group that does like it. James, of course, as I said, you're one of the business. guys this sport. You know, it's funny, I see your name and I, you know, obviously, I tweet at you occasionally and I'm always like, you're always doing stuff. And I just realized that it's actually, I looked at your record just before we did the interview, just because I was like to, you're going to do my research. October this year was be a little over one year since you fought now. Now, I know you tried to jump in a fight a couple months ago, and literally a day's notice, because that's just what Dee James Kraus does. But what, like, because you've been so

busy with coaching, like, kind of be honest, like, have you kind of put your own fight career, like, in the backburner a little bit while you've been focusing on the gym and coach? What's going on? Yeah, man, it's tough. I think we have like 17 guys in the UFC now. We have one in Bellator,

you know, and then we have our own show on Fight Pass that we do. And it's just, I mean, I don't want to say, like I haven't told anybody that I'm retiring, but I'm not really like actively looking to fight or anything like that. So,

uh, I don't know. You know, it's weird. I, I've said this quite a bit. There's three, there's three things that I want.

wanted like at the end of this whole thing. And one, that was that was I wanted to go out on a win. Two, I wanted to go out on my terms. I don't want to have like the UFC say like, hey, man, like you've lost three in a row. We should probably look at, you know, we're going to cut you or whatever. You know, like one of those nudge, nudge things where the guy where the fighter just doesn't realize like, hey, you should have been done a long time ago. You know, we see it all the time. And then lastly, I just wanted to create some financial freedom from the sport of MMA.

And I've done all three of those things. You know, as it sits right now, if I left today, all three of those things. things are accomplished. And yeah, so I don't, I'm not saying I'm done. Obviously, I'll jump in on a day's notice or if that just seems easier for me, I train every day. Like, you know, it is what it is, but I enjoy coaching. I've, I'm like 70-something fights pro and amateur. October of this year was actually my 15th year fighting since my first fight. Like at some point you got to be done, right? And like, I've always said I wanted to quit a little bit early rather than a little bit late. Once again, I'm not saying I'm done fighting, but I'm not also actively looking to fight either.

So I don't know what that means. But if I finish, if I was done today, if I never fight again, I'd be happy with what I've done as a fighter. And I would be even more so happy with the transition into building a team and coaching. Yeah, it's funny you say that because, you know, outside of the one, you know, the split decision lost you had when you jumped up, weight class took a fight on extremely short notice of fight that absolutely no offense whatsoever to Trevin Jaws, I thought you won. You know, you've been on a great streak. I mean, you've had like a great, you know, great streak in a row, and then beating

Claudio Silva's a big one as well. But you've been so busy with the coaching and the gym and all the other things you're doing. Like, in a weird way, it almost feels like, you know, that's kind of taken, I don't say taking the place of fighting, but it just feels like priorities have shifted. Is that, is that fair to say? 100%. Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of times what the problem is with the fighters is, is, This is one of the hard sports in the world to quit because they want that drug.

They want that highest high and they don't want to go out on that lowest low. You know, so they're constantly seeking the drug again. And for me, I'm still getting the drug. You know what I mean? It's just I'm getting it differently now. And so it's an easy segue into coaching for me. Like I'm still heavily involved in the sport. I'm still at the fights.

You know, I'm still fulfilled, you know, as a competitor, I'm still being fulfilled from the MMA standpoint. And honestly, more so even, you know what I mean? I don't, you can watch me at the end of my fights. Like, I don't smile. Like, that's not a big deal to be. You know, like, I've been, dude, I've been fighting 15 years, man. And I'm not, I'm not saying that I'm not happy to win or anything like that. But, like, watch, watch me after one of my wins and then watch me after one of my people wins, you know, after one of my people wins.

You know, it's different. So I get much more fulfilled out of watching other people's success than I do my own. Yeah. So not retired, but, you know, you're not calling you. You're not calling Sean Shelby or Mick Maynard saying you get me a fight. But, you know, Chris Curtis is around 24 hours notice. You might just. jump in there. We might see you jump back in there that way, something like that. Yeah, I mean,

he took the fight on a day's notice. Like, he trains every day. We're both 70-pounders. We were going to fight at 85. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it made sense. I like the match up. I'm sure he liked the match-up too. I don't know. But like, he took it on a day's notice. I would have taken on a day's notice. We're both 70-pounders fighting in 85. Like, was it, you know what I mean? Like, okay, like, let's do it. You know what I mean? Like, it's, yeah, I still train every day, man. I'm in the, I just trained. I did an hour drilling and five rounds, uh, grappling just an hour ago.

So like I'm, you know what I mean? Like it's, I just train every day. So yeah, it's funny. Back when, back when I was at another company, I don't want to mention their names because, you know, a little bit of ill will towards them, maybe a little bit on my side. I'll let that go. Uh, we did stuff with the Ultimate Fighter back then. And we were doing like weekly video blogs and things like that.

And, uh, you were doing analysts stuff at that point. And I know you were coaching at that point, too. You had the gym. Did you ever imagine, I guess the dream scenario is kind of what you built, right? Like you built glory into becoming not only a great gym, but like you mentioned, 17 fighters in the UFC. I mean, I don't know, like in your wildest dreams, did you imagine this is where it would be? Because you really have created, you know, one of the top gyms in the country. And you become one of the top coaches in the country.

I mean, it's a pretty amazing accomplishment because we got to be honest, it's not easy to do that. We hear about guys opening gyms all the time, but that doesn't mean you're going to actually create a successful team. Yeah. Yes, I did know it was going to happen. I just didn't think it would happen this fast. I didn't think it would happen while I was still fighting, you know? But we have an amazing culture, man. Like we have a really good, we have a really good culture. We have a really hardworking team. We've done a good job staying small but getting bigger if that makes sense. Like, man, it's a very tight-knit group. We have a, I think we have 52 in our morning practice this morning. And it just, it just, you know, it's a bit, man, it's a very tight-knit group. We have a, we have a, we have, I think we have 52 in our morning practice this morning. And it just, it just, it just, it just, it's kind of like Kansas City in itself. You know what I mean? It's a big city, I guess, but like it's still got a small town feel. We're in a very blue-collar team.

Everybody works hard. And we have a great culture. It's a blue-collar culture. Everybody works hard. Everybody helps each other. And I'm really proud of the team. Everybody's bought in. I think, I don't know,

I'd like to think that comes from some of the stuff that I'm doing, but everybody's bought in on what we're doing. Everybody's all in the same direction. and yeah it's pretty cool to see. I had this conversation a lot with Matt Brown who's a good friend of mine. You know, he has his gym here in Columbus and he's getting towards the latter part of his career

and he's acknowledged that. And he's told me many, many times, as much as he loves fighting and he absolutely loves fighting, he's like, I know one day I will be a better coach than I will be a fighter, giving back to the next generation of fighters, I will eventually become a better coach than I'm a fighter.

Now, again, you're not retired, but I know you said you're not actively, you know, looking to fight again right now. do you feel like in that way kind of the same thing with you like you become a better coach like do you do you like coaching more than you than you like fighting yeah yeah yeah i do at the grand scheme of things like man like it gets tough at times like travel and stuff like that like i've been on the road this is like my first weekend off in a long time a long time by 10 weeks 11 weeks something like so like i'm on the road almost every weekend so that can get a little tedious right but like

uh everything's everything is in moderation right i mean why water is great, but like if you have too much, it can kill you. So, you know what I mean? Like, it's just everything's good in moderation. But overall, yes, I do love coaching more than I do. I do. I know throughout your career, James, and I know from us doing interviews and talking, you've never been the guy who's looking for, you know, people to be like,

oh, my God, James Krauss is the greatest thing ever and, you know, things like that. You're not the guy who looks for praise on social media, all those kind of things. But what does it mean for you that your work is being recognized? I know I've tagged you a bunch on Twitter when I hear you in the corner and see you coaching. I'm just like, man, like, and I have a lot. And I bring it up because you're not that guy. You're not the guy to go on Twitter and say, I'm the greatest ever. You know, look at me.

I'm writing books and, you know, put me on Twitter and all this kind of stuff. You're not that guy. So when I acknowledge you on Twitter or social media, I do that because you're not that guy. You're not the guy to go out there and say, pat me on the back. I'm the best ever. But do you appreciate that your work is being recognized? Because I think at this point, we've seen it from media, from other fighters, from analysts. Like, we're recognizing what you're building of glory.

It's pretty special. Yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, appreciate our work getting noticed. Yes, absolutely. Um, because it's not just me, man, like, A, I have a team of coaches that help out a ton, but man, it's, it takes a lot. You know what I mean? These fighters, they, they, they put a lot of trust in me. And, uh, yeah, it does. To answer your question, yes, it means a lot to me when, when people notice that, uh, because I work hard, man, I work really hard. Um, and I spend, I've dedicated and sacrificed like pretty much my entire adult life for the sport and more ways than most people can even imagine. And it does feel good

to know that that sacrifice has paid off to a degree. You know, like, I do feel like some of the other top coaches are starting to like recognize me as a peer to them. And yeah, I mean, like, it's, it's pretty cool. It really is. And I try to watch some of the other guys, you know, the other top coaches that I really respect. And, and, you know, the other top coaches that I really respect. And they play a similar, they play a similar game. You know, the top guys, they don't, it's just like, how can we get everybody better? You know what I mean? And it's good, man.

It's all those guys, all the good coaches, in my opinion, that I really respect are big into leadership and culture as well. And that's not good leadership is, you know, saying, hey, look at me, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's not what that is. So I think people, we build as a team, you know, so like to answer a question, yes, I'm really proud that people are starting to recognize what we as a team have built. not what I have, though. Was I a part of that? 100%. Was I a big part of it? Yes. But it's not all me. You know, I'm just happy that everybody is starting to recognize our hard work together for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Let me shift gears a bit.

One thing I want to talk about, and it's been a big subject lately in M.MA. And I know you see it because, you know, you've been there is the culture of cornering in mixed martial arts. And I know, I know you saw the discussion. I'm sure you heard about a couple weeks ago the whole situation that had with Aspen Lad and her coach, you know, very vehemently, you know, kind of, I won't say yelling, but very, you know, very, very, very, very, much, you know, I don't know if you want to call it motivation, I'm badgering. There's a lot of different opinions on that. One thing I've always appreciated about you, James, and this is one of the things I've

always complimented you on, is you are such a great corner man. And there is an art to it. Let's be honest, just being a coach is not just being a corner man. There's two different things there. And I know it's not one-size-fits-all, but I saw a tweet or I saw a thing on Instagram after Tim Elliott's fight. And you, I mean, you took responsibility in yourself. You said, I 100% thought we won rounds.

and two, and you basically apologize for getting it wrong. But we've always, there's, again, there's no right or wrong answer, and every fighter's going to be different about what they need. But I want to get your opinion on where we're at with Corning, because, like, I'm a big believer in honesty. And I think that, you know, I'm not saying you're telling your fighter that, you know, they suck by saying, hey, you lost these first two rounds. Something's got to change.

So kind of what we do it? Because I'm curious, because I, I, I, but I hear, and you know, you heard it, too. Some coaches, some corners are like, we're doing great. I think you won those first two rounds and everyone watches like they did not win those. There's no way they won either of those rounds. Like I want to get your opinion on this because I think brutal honesty is good. But like when you look at the Aspen Ladd situation, like is it too much? Like I don't know.

You tell me. Um, I'll actually defend Jim West here. Like I have a couple of questions. Like one, would we be asking any same questions if Aspen was a man? I don't think we would. I don't think we would. Two, they've been together for like nine years. A lot of people don't know that they're a couple.

Like, did you know that? I did, but only more recently within the last like year or so. Yeah, they're a couple. So if anybody knows how to talk to her. And another thing is like he's talked to her like that before in between rounds and she won and he was praised for it. So it's like, man, you got to know who you're talking to, bro. Like you got to know you're fighter.

You got to, you know what I mean? Like I can't talk to one person to saying, why I talk to another. Like different personalities. Like, I make all my fighters take a personality test. And, like, it helps me understand how they're going to connect with things and, and understand how do I, how can I talk to them? How can I connect with them to get them to understand the easiest way?

But, dude, if anybody knows how to talk to her, it's him. You know what I mean? Like, and if he felt that was the way, I, this is my whole thing. My whole thing, I think this whole conversation would be null and void if Asimel was a man. I don't think anybody would be saying shit. Well, I don't. actually, yeah, I agree. And I actually said, I go back, you know, a couple of podcasts.

I actually had Matt Brown on as a co-ist for that episode. And I said, I think people are overreacting. And I said that was part of it was because she's a woman. And I said that, listen, you know, at the end of the day, he knows her better. He knows her better than we know her. He knows what she needs. Like, that's, and that's what, one of the reason I always compliment your cornering is because you are, you know, I've heard you in your corner with your fighters. You are brutally honest with them.

You tell them, but you also motivate them. Like, there's a, it's a balancing act. And I feel like in that moment, like she wasn't doing anything. Like he had to get her going. And you know what? She had her best rounds. What does he lose? Yeah.

And once again, man, he's done the same thing before and he was praised for it. Like, the internet blew up over how he was great coaching, great cornering. And it was good. It was really good. But now he does this. It's it, bro, these people, honestly, these people don't know shit. You know what I mean? Like most of the people don't know shit.

And like, that's the reality of it. is these people don't know anything, man, and they just, they're trying to make comments. And even some of the fighters don't know what the fuck they're talking about. You know what I mean? It's just like, dude, like, man, if anybody knows how to talk to this woman, it is this one dude.

I guarantee you that. If there's anybody on the planet that knows how to talk to this woman and get her fired up to get into a fist fight, it's him. You know what I mean? Like, it's not only it's her coach, it's her spouse or whatever, you know, whatever you want to call it. They've been together for years.

They've trained together for years. Like, you know what I mean? Like, anyway, it's, but you're right. You're right. There is, there's coaching and then there's cornering and then there's motivating, there's leading. There's a lot of different things that go into it. And it's not, I've seen good coaches be terrible corner men.

And I've seen not so good coaches be great cornered. And, yeah, I mean, a corner can lose you to fight. I've seen it. You know what I mean? Like, shit, I've probably done it. You know what I mean? It is what it is, man. You know, it's just when you're, when you're, when you're, I say this all the time to my guys.

Like whenever you play at the highest level, Steph Curry said this. I think it was Steph Curry or maybe Chris Paul or one of the, the big NBA guys. He said if you play at this level long enough, you're going to get shook. You know what I mean? Like you're going to get dropped on your ankles once. You know what I mean? Like it's going to happen. And if you play, if you play this game like I play every weekend, like Jim West plays every weekend.

or whoever, you're going to get shook. You know what I mean? Like, you're going to get dropped on your ankles a couple of times. And you got to be, you got to take it with the punches and go, you know, because the reality is there's 99% of people saying in their opinion don't know what the fuck they're talking about. 100%. That's true. And it's funny because when I watch you corner, like one of the reasons I really, like,

it sounds weird to say I enjoy watching you corner, but it is because I learn when you're talking to your fighters. And again, the way you talk to Tim Elliott may not be the way you talk to one of your other guys. girl or whoever. But I love that because I watch it and the reason I'm so fascinated by it and I really am fascinated by it is because you have one minute and you have to basically assess everything that happens in a five minute round in that next 60 seconds you have to tell them what went right, what went wrong and what to do next. And that's a really special talent to do in 60 seconds because I'll be honest.

There's a lot. Like what I watch like that crazy wild round that happened between Marab, DeVosio, Josh DeVos Willie and Marl Marl Marius. I'm still trying to figure out what I just watched in five minutes. It takes me a good two minutes just to figure out what happened. As a coach, you've got to get your guy or girl, you know, back ready for the next round. Like, it's, it's, there is an art form to it. Yeah, definitely.

100%. Like, a lot of, I think it's, it's a lot in your personality. Like, this goes back to the personality test thing that I make my guys do. But it, a lot of it is like, it's, it's, it's, it's, called gross motor skills versus fine motor skills. Some people are able to see how it is unfolding right in front of them. And then others are able to see like a little bit more into the into the future. It's a difference between a quarterback and a running back. You know what I mean? Like they're able to see like what's going on and then they're able to see it unfold right in front. So it's like

present and future, right? Like are you able to anticipate what is happening and what's going to happen? And I think that's what that's what makes a good cornerman is like A is recognizing like, okay, if my fighter got in trouble, what happened? What is getting us in trouble? You know, what is the action that is we're getting a consequence for? And how do we fix that? And then on the other side of that is like the opposite, like, what are we having success with and what are they lost with?

What do they need to adapt to us with? Okay, cool. They can't reap. They have no take down the fence on the right side. You know, whatever. Like, okay, let's keep driving that home. And it's, you go to the well until the water runs dry, you know, and a lot of people, even at a high level, aren't able to adapt mid-fight.

You know, the guys that are able to adapt mid-fight do really well. And I'm really big on specific coaching, and I get a lot of criticism for this. Like, I'm with my fighter. I talk the whole time. And I just, I've studied psychology. People like to hear their, you'll hear me say, great job, Tim Elliott. You know, people subconsciously, they want to hear their name. They're rewarded for their name.

You know what I mean? It's kind of like how you treat a dog. Good boy, good boy. you know what I mean? It's the same thing. It's the same action. And whether they're conscious of it or not, it does work. It's a proven fact. It does work. And I like to be very specific. You know, some people are, you know, look for the cross hook. Okay, why are you looking for the cross hook? What do you see that's open? I think one of the things that I have is I'm able to see like what is working in front of me. And that's, I don't, you know, there's a lot of other coaches that can do that as well. But maybe I'm just more vocal with it. I don't know. Well, I think it's, I think, like I said, one of the reasons I love listening to your corner is because I, like, as a guy watching the sport covering it and writing about it, like, when you are talking to your fighter in the corner, you're talking to them, but you're also talking to me because I'm watching like, okay, let me see them go out and execute it. And so many times your guys and girls go out

and do that and execute them, like, that, again, I know you probably get sick hearing this, but that's one of the reasons why I drop your name on Twitter, like every weekend when you're coaching. I hear you coaching. I'm just like, this is awesome stuff because they listen and you have that relationship built with him. And I am, if you don't want me asking them, I'm fascinated about the personality test. Where did that, where did that come from?

Um, it's the Briggs-Myers test. It's like, uh, they did it in the military for like World War II, I think. It was World War I, World War II,

something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a simple test. It takes like 15 minutes to do. But what it'll do, it'll tell, it'll tell me how you like to be talked to. It's kind of like,

uh, you know, the five love languages or whatever. It's kind of like, that, I guess, like, how am I able to connect to you the easiest? Like, what, like, are you emotional? Are you mechanical? You know, are you introvert, extrovert? Like, what makes you tick? And it talks about, like, being friends with an ISDF or, you know, whatever your four letters are, you know, and it talks about those things. And it's easier for me to like, oh, okay, well, that makes sense. That's why whenever I yelled at him, it didn't work. I just didn't

talk to this guy more. And then I can yell at you, Julian. or whatever, you know what I mean? Like whoever, you know, it's just, but it, that, that for sure. And the thing is, I think a lot of people don't understand this is like, whenever I'm talking and I'm talking and I'm, I'm giving success, like, yeah, hey, out of boy. I'm also talking to the judges too. Like, that's another thing that people don't, like, they connect my, my, my action, my request, the success and my reaction, that goes there.

Boom, bank that. You know what I mean? Like, and if I'm, if I give a reaction every time my, my guy hits, that's, that's why one of the ties, you land a low kick, that, oh, that's the same idea. Only now if you hear my request, the request goes through. And then, oh, then that you bank that. You know what I mean?

So it's, it, uh, I'm not saying like I'm cheating the judges or anything, but it's all psychology, man. Like, I study, I study that a lot. It is a real thing. Oh, it's, I remember I'll never forget I was kidding. Because a lot of people who don't, unfortunately, the folks who don't get to go the events and of course I've been to dozens when you don't have the commentary

you hear all the things around the cage you hear the coaching you hear all the things and I remember I'll never forget this fight Martin Camden fought Diego Sanchez in Louisville Kentucky and in my opinion Martin clearly won the fight he was landing to better punches but Diego was so aggressive in throwing so

many shots he was missing I think he probably landed like 12% of his shots that fight but every time Diego threw a combination the crowd went nuts the crowd was going crazy and I guarantee you without a doubt in my mind that played a factor in the judges scoring that fight

because watching Kayside was hard it did he connect? I couldn't quite tell if he connected but the crowd's losing their mind. He must have connected, right? It's absolutely placing in psychology of judging and we can't deny that happens. 100%. You're absolutely correct. It for sure happens. It's a

real thing. And you know, I don't know know to what degree, but like I'll take every little, you know what I mean? We're dealing with the one percenters here, man. You know what I mean? Like, I'll take every little advantage I can get. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's, I mean, it's brilliant. It's funny because you do, you talk so much about psychology. And again, you know the X's and O's as a coach. You know the ends and outs. You know how to execute a Kimora. You know how to do all those kind of things.

But coaching and cornering, as we've said, goes so far beyond that. It's funny to me, I feel like you and Matt need to, like, sit down and have a conversation because Matt Brown says a lot of the same stuff. He studies psychology, reads a lot of books and takes that into his coaching. and I imagine that's a huge part of it because, again, it's more than just the X's the O's. It's more than you need to, you know, go left when he's going right. There's a lot more to it than just that. Yeah. Well, another thing that I think helps me as, like, being a fighter,

like, I see a lot of those moments when somebody's ready to break. And, like, they won out of the fight or they're ready to give up a position, you know, and, like, if my God, trust me, you can, you, you've watched me porn enough to know, when I feel adamant about something, you fucking know. I'll go crazy. You know what I mean? Like, if I see you got to squeeze, like, I'm, you're like, go, go, go, go. Like, I'm all over it, you know?

And if I tell you to press, like, and you hear the urgency in my voice, there's a reason for it. Like, I'm not just saying the shit just to say, like, if I tell you, a great example is watching Julian fight, Maki Patole. Like, I knew he was, the Maki was just tired, tired of trying to wrestle him. I just, I knew he would give up a position if we just kept pressing him. And Julian's got some hammers. He kept pressing him and, you know, it ended up how it did third round and a Conner stroke, which is a transition.

We worked two things throughout that entire camp so much, hundreds of reps. One was the back defense that got him out of trouble in the second or third round. And then two was that that guillotine to Anna Connor transition that won him in the fight. Yeah. It's amazing. And I know you talked about, you know, how much coaching has become, you know, kind of your life now. I mean, of course, you're a great, you know, father and husband, all those kind of things too. but I'm saying like in professional life,

coaching has become such a big part of it. You've started to really build Glory MMA into such a tremendous gym, and you've got a lot of great fighters out of there. You know, in your own career, because you did accomplish a lot and you did a lot as a fighter, and I'm sure there's a part of you that, you know, of course you would have loved to have, you know,

fought for a UFC championship and gone to do those things. But what would it mean more to you at this point, like to build up a Julian Marquez, to build up, you know, one of your fighters and see them become a champion? Like, can you even wrap your head around, like what that would, mean to you again to like to have that happen because almost most of your fighters and I again

I want to give credit also you've had a lot of people seek you out now which I love I love seeing that people coming to your gym to say hey help me out you know teach me things like that but so many of your guys and girls are homegrown they've been there with you for years what would it mean to you to build one of them into a champion to build one into a UFC champion I uh I dare you to go back and find an interview of me saying that I want to be a world champion I want to be you know, this or that or whatever. You won't find it because I've never really cared. I do want to coach a world champion, though.

You know, that is a bucketless goal of mine is to win a world title in a major organization. And, you know, I think I have a few guys that can do it for sure. I really do. Who, you know, I don't want to, I don't want you to single anybody out, but you mentioned 17 fighters in the UFC, Bellator. Of course, we just saw you work with James Galaher. And I want to say, I know he, I know he didn't. come away with the win against patchy mix, but I saw so many improvements in James Geller

since he's been working with you. And I can only imagine, because I'm a big believer in time, you know, builds. And I think the more time you get with the James Galaher, the better he's going to get. But kind of look at the next year. You got a lot of young people working at Glory as well. Can you give us a couple names, like who we need to be on the lookout for in the next year or so, that whether we're talking contender series, ultimate fighter, getting into UFC, who's the next crop of Glory MMA fighters? We should. be on the lookout for. In the UFC or out of the game?

Just basically young up-encomers, we need to know their names now because a year from now, two years from now, we're going to know their names. Jeff Molina is the first one that comes to mind. I know he's starting to get a little bit steam behind him. Kids of Buzz Saul. He's really good, man. Really good 25 are really good striker. Really good striker.

David Onama took the fight on a couple of days notice at 155 against Mason Jones. He's a 45er that doesn't cut a ton of weight. He's never fought a 50. I think he weighed 158 when they fought. And he took that he was on vacation in Alabama when he took the fight. You know, he was he was literally on a week long vacation there. So David is really tough. He's young and he's athletic.

He hits like a truck. He's really good, really good. Mike Breeden, fan favorite fighter. Like he's a live by the sword, die by the sword guy. He's somebody's going unconscious. You're very rarely going to watch that guy go to decision. Somebody's, you know, if he's not knocking somebody out, he's probably going to get knocked out because that's just his style is get phone booth

you and big hooks and big shots. He's a big puncher. We've seen Trey Ogden and Joe Holmes just got signed for the looking for a fight. Both those guys had amazing performances. I know I'm missing some, man, but we have a really good crop of young guys. You know, those are just the guys that have like three fights or less in the U.S. see, you know, they're, I know I'm forgetting some, but, man, we have a really good, we have a really good group of guys right now that are just phenomenal.

Yeah. As if you don't have enough on your plate. I don't know. I'm sure you do kind of remember this back when we did the Ultimate Fighter stuff. I said, James, you need to be an analyst. Like, you need to get in there and be an analyst. And you did right after that. You started doing the analyst, but you're so busy right now.

Like, do you still want to do the analyst stuff at some point? Or is just coaching and things keeping you so busy. It's hard for you to tear away from that because, I imagine most UFC fights, you get, you're in the corner, so it's probably hard for you to ever actually do the analyst thing anymore. Yeah, it's, listen, I do love that. I really do. And at some point, I want to revisit that.

I think I'm supposed to start commentary for LFA here pretty soon. So that would be pretty cool. Yeah, I do. It's just really tough for me to commit. Those guys want commitment like two, three months out. And it's just really difficult for me because if I have a fighter comes up, that's my commitment is to my guys. You know what I mean?

Like, that's 100%, you know? and yeah so it's it's tough with the schedule for me to do that like i i think on my southwest i think on my southwest flights alone not counting other flights i think i'm over 40 flights this year on southwest alone and that's that's not you know i've taken other airlines you know what i mean like so i'm i'm on the road almost every weekend yeah well yeah i think that's one thing that gets missed like you look at a daniel cornea who does a tremendous job with the analyst stuff and does the commentary but he even though he coaches today He's not a head coach.

He's not Javier Mendes who needs to be in the corner. You are the head coach. If one of your guys is fighting, if Julian's fighting, let's say, you're going to be in his corner. You're not going to be pulling Anna's duty. So I imagine that makes it that much tougher for you to commit to anything like that. Yeah, it's, I mean, I hear a lot about that. You know, like, Khabib's getting a ton of praise. Like he's helping those, like, but that's the same thing.

He's not their head coach. You know what I mean? And I've built these guys from ground up a lot of them. And I'm, this is not a shot on him. I think he's doing great. And obviously, everybody in corners is a fucking monster. You know, he's amazing. So that's not a shot on him at all.

But it's just different. It is a different role. You know what I mean? Like, you're 100% correct in that. Like, I'm coaching these guys on a daily basis. Like, I worked with Grant Dawson this morning individually. You know, I work with every guy I have in UFC at least once a week individually. Yeah, that's another one.

I love Grant Dawson, man. That kid's a monster. I think he's got such a bright future ahead of him. And I'll tell you what, James, now that you've done this once, and I know you're like the busiest dude in the world, but I'm just going to tell you ahead of time. I'm going to pull you back here to do this again. I'm just letting you know you're not going to be off the hook.

Thank you for doing this, man. I really appreciate it. It's so funny. Like I've texted you and I always tweet at you and stuff, but you're always so busy. I really do appreciate you doing this. And man, and I know you, I say it again, I really do mean. I know you don't do it for the praise.

You don't do it for like the accolades. But sincerely, I think you become one of the best coaches in this sport. And I really do get a thrill out of watching you go out there and do your thing and become one of the best coaches because like I said, it's an amazing thing because, again, it's not easy. What you do is not easy. And for you to do what you're doing

is pretty amazing. So keep up the great work, man. You're killing it to glory. You're killing with all your fires. And sincerely, thank you so much for doing this. I really do appreciate it. And 100%, I'm going to be pulling you back in here, just so you know.

Yeah, man. I had fun, dude. If I'm free, it's no problem at all, man. Feel free to text me anytime I had a lot of fun. Absolutely, James. We'll talk soon, okay? All right, brother. All right, bye-bye.

Bye. There you go. The James Krause coming in strong. Again, make sure you tune in each and every week to the fighter versus the writer. I think next week, if I'm not mistaken, I think next week we'll have Anthony Smith is going to come in as a co-host for the first time. We're going to break down Font versus Aldo and get into UFC 269, which has come up in a couple of weeks.

It's kind of crazy. The end of the year is fast approaching with only three more UFC cards. left in 2021, of course. So we'll be getting into that. Of course, we also got a big Belator car coming up in December with Anthony, excuse me, Sergio Pettus, and Keoguchi. That's going to be a great one as well. So we'll have lots to talk about in December, of course, coming up.

I want to say a big thank you to James Carls once again for doing the show. Make sure you check us out on all of your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcast, Spotify. And of course, you can also find us over on MMAFighting.com. I want to say a big thank you once again for everyone, We'll see you next week for another edition of the Fighter versus the Writer. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you then. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.