MMA Fighting - Israel Adesanya and Eugene Bareman Exclusive UFC 248 Pre-Fight Interview

Episode Date: March 5, 2020

 In an extended sit-down interview with MMA Fighting, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya reflects on his journey to the top and the path he took ahead of his title fight against Yoel Romero at UFC 248. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Esther Lin: @allelbows 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

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responsibly. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, what's up, guys? M.Afighting.com. The teams here, Jose Youngs and Esther Lynn speaking with UC Middleweight champion, Israel-A. and head coach of City Kickpots and Eugene Berman.

Big fight on Saturday, I guess, right? Yeah, big one. A little bit. Yeah. So your last fight, it was obviously in Melbourne, in that Australia area. You're now in Las Vegas, your first fight since Brad Tavar. So I'm personally curious what is the difference in Fight Week like to

then where you have probably more media locally rather than you're basically flying all the way across the world now to do media, right? Yeah. Even flying over like for a day at a time for L.A. for Houston just to like do the face off and whatnot. And

for UFC 2, 4.3, it was a lot of media but my team handles that day. They chopped down all the fat from it. So we never really get and on that it were too much at the end of the day. But this week was pretty good. My busiest day was Tuesday. And then the rest, like, I mean, this is probably my last media for the day.

And then I can just chill and then we'll train later on. What about you, Coach? Like, was, I imagine media was probably higher. Demand for you yourself is probably higher closer to home, right? Yeah, I don't do that much. Like, I do a lot of ones, like, and hoc ones, like, I'm just passing by. People would be like, can I interview? I'll.

Fashing by? Yeah, I always say yes because I'm just, he's a nice guy. I don't want to be an asshole, but I was like, ESPN, I did the ESPN today at this one. I was just standing there and baking the restaurant and they came to go on me. I was like, yeah, cool. I do a lot of ones like that, but I don't do too much. Anyone come up to you, and I spoke with Derek Lewis about this in Houston. He says when he fights close to home, a lot of family members just emerge.

They're like, I'm your cousin because I've never seen you before. That happened a lot. You guys? It's hard to happen for me in New Zealand because obviously, My family is immediate, for him probably. Ah, no, more friends. Like, you get a lot of people that's like, hey, I'm going to be a friend from way back.

You're my acquaintance. I've just got to come to you for 10 years. Sure. Yeah, that pops up for sure. So last week, two weeks ago in Auckland, then pretty much just friends of hitting you up for tickets. But did it feel like a lot of pressure to travel and do the press conference,

You were doing the press conference there, come out to L.A., go to Houston. I believe you said you had Spider when you got back. Yeah, straight away. Like I landed 630 a.m. Went back home, nap for like two hours maybe, and then straight to the gym for Spider. But we brought John and Mike, and Frank was already in Houston, so I still got my work in Houston. But, yeah, Spider, it's just the worst workout of your life. It's, yeah, it's like just a fight gone bad, like the worst case scenario.

So for me going through that, and we've done it. every day and according to the fight time. Every week, sorry, according to the fight time. So when it comes to fight time, my body's already used to it over the last 10 weeks, like, oh, you've been doing this already. And that's only if you have to push. He told me for the last one, it's only if you have to push when you get to deep waters and you've seen that, we can go, we can swim.

So this spider training, is it, do you, do, is it regimented around your specific opponent? Like, imagine your all-in-law represents far more problems. not far more, but different problems than probably probably say Derek Bronson. So this, spite of the worst case scenarios with Romero are probably different than worst case scenarios of Wittick, right? Yeah. I mean, it's regimented around the energy systems and the energy systems that we're going to use for that particular opponent. So for Merro, it's a lot different to some of our previous opponents.

So we adjust the workout according to the year. How do you prepare for someone like Romero though, where just from the outside looking in, even on the cost of fight, It looked like he was willing to lose four minutes. If he can land that one punch. Like even in the, the Weidman fight, he's like, he beat me the first, I beat him the second, and then I just finished him in the final round. I don't want to bring him up because of a fight,

but like John Jones has said, like the unpredictable eventually becomes predictable when you're preparing for an opponent like that. Yeah, and that's exactly the case with Romero. Like the unpredictable has become the predictable. We have, I mean, there's a pretty clear pattern in terms of his energy use. And it's, I mean, you'll be surprised how much of a identifiable pattern it is from trying to fight because it's almost exact down to the minute where he decides to expend energy and the minute where he decides to switch off the, you know, switch off and start to consume energy.

Sure. It's a more much identical. That's the you on Adam, right? Yeah, it's just... Adam's like done the breakdown with you and stuff. Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, it's just something we look at because it's important. It's important to know where he's going to expect the most energy

at what particular time and what particular position. The whole venture of energy use over the whole fight. We've looked at that entire thing. Also, you've been incredibly active as not just a fighter, but it feels like you've been a champion for a while, but this is technically your first official title defense after second title defense, my mistake. Even looking at Dan Hooker, like he's been pretty active.

Brad Riddell just fought. Even Kikar, France had that quick turnaround. So what is the secret with you guys where you can fight so often? But then you look at AKA, you had that time frame where like D.C., Kane, Rockhold, and Habib, they all couldn't stay healthy at the same time. Well, I mean, it's being in the gym all the time. So not taking too much time off between fights. It's like using this window of opportunity that everybody.

has in their career and it's um uh training like everybody talks about training smart but it's one thing to talk about it and then actually do it i mean yeah like our spying if you look at our spying and you look at a kay spying they won't even the you want the look completely different if you look at our sparring and you look at the way that they're sparring alpacoup you'll be completely different that's one of the big secrets of the about gym as we identified really that we need to prioritize our skills and whatever we're doing and not necessarily our brawn or some of our other athletic credentials. We just need to completely prioritize skill.

That's one of the secrets why these guys can be so active. I wanted to kind of go off on a tender you were saying that one of the secrets is that you don't take long breaks, you go back into the gym. After you won your title, you assume you want to go on vacation and stuff, right? Atlanta, I went to, I went back to Nigeria because I felt because even throughout this, my UFC career itself, I've probably skipped on five trips. I was supposed to go to Europe. Then I think Anderson Silva, New York, came up. We're supposed to go to a wedding, too?

Yeah, yeah, even this one, like, I skipped my boy Slava, Shasta Slav, and Tyler, congrats. I skipped your wedding because I felt like to go there up north of New York. New Zealand and come back would fuck with my time frame. So I was like, no, I can't. So I've sacrificed so much, so much. But after the Atlanta fight, I went to Nigeria, went to Dubai. And I just kind of messed around for a bit. And then I came back to the gym.

So that one was after five or five or six fights, like back to back to back to back. So, you know, you can't just put your put on the gas. You have to hit the brakes, pull the handbrakes, and relax for a while. So that was my last long break. Is it different now that you're not chasing anyone? Like you were, you were. you, we spoke, I call this guy out. That's very true.

We spoke at your, before your Vittori fight, and you kind of hinted that you had a plan, like, I'm going to beat this guy, and then I'm going to beat this guy, and then this guy. Now you don't have to basically, they're all chasing you now. You don't have to beat another person to reach the title. Yeah, I mean, like, if someone like his manager is Abe, Cala, they would have probably advised me not to take this fight a manager like that, but I'm like, why?

That's the guy that everyone's scared of. That's the guy that's supposed to be the one. Like since my UFC debut, I've always seen, feed him to your marrow that's over. Feed him to a good wrestler. I'm like, okay, let's see. Like, you guys aren't paying attention. You're just, like a lot of experts really have casualty wearing sometimes.

But, yeah, I've seen that. And, yeah, we're up for the challenge, man. We're just up for the challenge. It's about legacy. It's about skills, not just about this mentality of the, because that's still from Hollywood. It's still ingrated in the culture that people think the guy with the muscles.

Even when I was in China, sometimes some of the people come, like, oh, no muscle, no muscle. And then, like, I knocked their guy in the second round. And then, what are you saying about no muscle? They don't understand the skill that's required. So, yeah, just off for the challenge. Eugene, you didn't have to, like, kind of pull him back.

There's never been an opponent where you're like, I don't know if you want to fight him right now. You didn't have to, like. Not that I can think of. Not that he's told me. No, I mean, like, if you're doing the work, you can fight anybody. That's the important thing. If, like, the thing that kills fighters at this point in their career is that they don't

come back to the gym after the fight. How do you ensure that you, you, he's on my ass. What the fuck are you? I've been in LA, I've been doing press, I've been doing the world tour. Let me come back, but he just, I know he does it just because he's still. have to stay on me just so I don't slip. It doesn't accept. Yeah, but I do it myself because when I was younger, you can admit, I wasn't always like that.

I, you know, like, but now, Dan came to help me with my spider. Brad came to help me on my spite of my last one. Like, afterwards, you have to come back. Like, some of these gyms, like you said, the AKAs, the big names, you know, you get your fight done and then you fuck off. And then that's it till your next camp. And they don't give their body back to the people that gave their body for them. So that's the culture that we've created. Like, you know, your boys put their fucking bodies on the line.

I've got to hurt, freak accidents, you know, in the gym because they're helping you out. And then when it's your turn, you don't return the favor. That's a shit friend. That's a shit partner. So, yeah, that's the culture that he's created along with other coaches to get back to the gym. You guys, I mean, these guys also have lofty goals. Yeah. To, the honest truth for us, if you want to be a easy to champion, you can't take a break.

Like, and, like, you can come to training and you're not, like, working at, like, with the pedal down. but you have to be in the gym all the time if you set these lucky girls want to be champion I want to fight you see themselves John Jones steep in usage you said that one

I'll take it but I like that point yeah the journey to those fights has already begun years out like you have to look at it like that and so

you know I can't have these these guys know that they can't take two months off here two months off there two months off here before you know it

out of a 12-month period, they've only been in the gym for half of it. You aren't going to be able to reach those lofty goals that you're sitting yourself. It's like not a reality. So if these guys want to get out there and they want to set these goals and they want to make them public, then they have to do the work that's required to reach there. Otherwise, you're just talking over bullshit. And they know that. Have you seen a rise of interest in maybe someone from America wanting to come join your gym?

Because, I mean, you look at Jackson's. There was a point where there was so many countries under one. roof just because it was the Jackson name but now you guys are at the forefront of combat sports right now I'm sure you're in demand yeah I mean I get about five six emails a week but there's only one way to come to our gym and you have to come through someone really yeah so there's some fun find that there's this three or four guys that live full-time in New Zealand now but they've all come through someone so they've all we've had someone that

we know that's been able to vet them. To be like, okay, this guy's a good guy. He's going to fit him well within your environment. It's not going to be an asshole. He's a great training partner. All come through someone that we know.

So you have basically a screening process where, like in America you see fighters kind of, oh, I lost this fight. I'm going to bounce around to a few gyms. You can't just show up. If you show up. You just haven't paid money.

It's big to try it. Yeah. Like that's just not how it works. You have to somehow be connected through someone and that we can and now and then that's the big process we use like money like in terms of that

is not what we're interested in we can make a lot of money if we did but we always talk about the gym and how it's a special environment but to maintain that special environment we can't open the flood gates like even for the rubber fight

I talked to him and I already knew he would have done it but like I made sure because there was some Aussies that were coming into the gym and they're now like some of my favorite training partners but I was just like hmm can you

can you ensure that this guy is not a spy and stuff but he he assured me like bro you got to took it as an insult like the fuck you think I am you know and I was like nah and so I just I just form my own conscience just so I can get it out there

and I put it on the table and it's like fuck I've already done the vetting process it's already done it. All those guys have come through someone that I know or for a friend of a friend and I've been able to like know find out about them as a person and then obviously talk to them

and trust them completely Yeah. And so, like, there's, you know, that's why how gym can exist. I'm obviously, you ever hear about a problem coming out about Jim. Yeah, I was going to say, we don't, well, in America, it seems like you guys are all away on the other side of the world. Like, could this work if you guys were in America? Hmm.

I don't know. It could work. It comes down to your principles. Yeah. It's like, you know, some gyms have opened the floodgates and been like, you know what? Like, we're just going to. How come? Exactly.

If you pay enough money, you can come and train alongside. John Jones or you can come train alongside Camaroisman or if the money's right. Like we just, as a principal, we're just not down with that. And that's there's nothing. Like, so, but people have to make money. People got kids to food and bills to pay. So that's fine, that's just not the way we're doing things. You had to be better then at some point.

Me. No, well, I kind of did. Actually, I mean, the first, the first flight I had with him, my corner, it's a famous story that's been happy with Ruranda. There's like a friend who trained with them previously. When I was living in Wanganui, he was like, I know a gym. And I got a fight off Facebook, an amateur MMA fight. And then he roped him into cornering me.

But then he saw how shit I was on the ground. And he's like, oh, well, good riddance. But he's already met me. But then, like, his partner also saw me fight kickboxing in Fangare, which is a town up north, like a few months prior. And then she was like, yeah, he's good. He's good. And then what he saw was shit.

He was like, I don't have to see this guy again. Well, I was already kind of vetted through, I think it was Denny, Danny who introduced us. I knew someone. We had a mutual acquaintance. Yeah, so I was vetted. I was vetted. Why, I didn't pass my initiation if you put it that way. I sucked in my first, it was like the ABA as an MMA fight that I got my ass, worked in amateur.

So no punches to the face. No, that wasn't a getting impressed. Yeah. All that changed was your shit for you. Well, I was going to say, like, that's my next question. What did you see in this guy? I think it's part of the one. Just off that brief meeting, he was very polite and, you know, like you could say he was a nice person.

You just couldn't tell much about us fighting it. That's all. But, yeah. Yes, I wasn't an asshole. Yeah, I wasn't one of those guys. Oh, yeah, no, I know this. I knew that. Yeah.

Well, going off of that, I mean, you clearly have been a student of the game. You can bring up these events. Like, you talk about Anderson Silva. You can bring up a lot. You've watched the sport a lot. You've seen inside the Octagon what works, what doesn't work, how it evolves. But even outside, I feel like watching you is like watching your interviews, I go, this guy's at media training for sure.

But you haven't. You've seen this all. It suggested it. Exactly. You've seen other fighters make these mistakes in front of the cameras, maybe not be themselves, maybe come off fake. And that's not you. So it feels like to me looking in that you're also using.

what you've seen out like a caution entail for people outside and in front of the camera as well as inside the outfit. Yeah. And also, we had a plan. Like when I got to him, first thing was like, I want to be a UFC fighter because I felt like I could be the best in the world. But then kickboxing took over and I was really good at that. But we were still training, grappling on the low for years. So that's why when I go in the UFC, everyone thought, I'll just take him down. But apart from that, everything else, like the embeddeds, the countdown.

I don't really have as much time these days to be really embedded and all that extra stuff. But when I was younger, it's all I did, just all the videos, all of my favorite fighters, you know, I would watch the interviews, study them and watch the embedded and see how things were like, okay, even this, I was ready for all of this, preparing yourself. So it's not just for inside the cage, it's also everything outside the cage. And also, like he said, he had a plan to get us to the UFC through kickboxing, through the international circuit in China or Australia elsewhere. And then eventually jump into the UFC. but I wasn't 23 in the youngest champion in the UFC, young, dumb and full of come, making all these mistakes. I was 28, I think, when I went on the UFC.

And I felt like I said I had my metamorphosis at 20 here where I felt like it became more of a man than a boy. And all my mistakes I've made away from the spotlight and I've learned from them. That's the difference between me and other people. I learn from my mistakes. And I don't make them again. I make new mistakes. When you watch these embedded coming up in the sport, and then all of a sudden you are the focus.

this whole week, was anything different than you imagine? Like, if I would like, say you watch like Dan Henderson Correa, UFC 173, and then all of a sudden you're behind the one in front of the camera. Was anything, would you, did you expect someone to be like some way and then it wasn't and then vice versa? Yeah, there's variables. There's definitely variables, but you have to adapt to them. But for me, it just feels normal now.

Like, I have some things, I still get deja vu moments or like, whoa, that was cool. I still get surprised by certain things. But for me, it's just, it's part of life. Now, you have to accept it. You have to accept all this. Because a lot of people shy away from it. And that's how they crumble. But for me, nah, I just, you just have to own.

Even him, he hates all this. He doesn't like. Not hate it. Not hate, but like he doesn't like to be in front of the cameras. But he understands now. He understands. No, I don't gravitate. I don't like it either.

I like my privacy. But he understands now, like, this is part of the game. This is what's going to sell our brand. It's one I'm going to sell Citi Kickbox. and this is what's going to push us forward. And I think his wife is the one who had to beat it in it. And you need to get front of the camera and stop denying all these interviews. So I was here.

Do you wish you didn't have to do interviews? You could just show him fight? That's his. That's his. He'd rather be back at the ABA. That's the local boxing club in Auckland. But like this is at this level you have to. So you have to embrace it.

You can't shy away from it. And I'm pretty good at it. So yeah, I just own it. What's the weirdest place you've been recognized? Ooh. What's your one? What's your one? The weirdest place, I think about one.

Well, not so much recognised, but we used to fight in some places in China where clearly there been never a tourist set foot. Really? And then that would be the first non-Chinese people that had ever seen that person. Yeah. The whole street would just stop. They would just shut down. He just stared at.

Cobby Brianta. Yeah. Yeah. Basketball. Yeah, they just see a tall black man. Yeah. I have the best record with staring contests with old people in China. Like literally, I break it by smiling at them, but like they just, like they saw Bigfoot or something.

Yeah. You know, but yeah. I mean, we would go to places where there would be never be a need for tourists to go. There's no tourist attractions. There's only industry. And there's literally never been a tourist. And then, of course, you're going to like, it's almost like seeing a alien. Yeah, big foot.

I've only ever seen them on a screen on TV. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to steer like it's real too. My word that's wrong probably be a bathroom, men's bathroom. And it's all like, they'll recognize me. I'm like, yeah, hold on, let me just finish pissing first.

But then the worst one time after I said, let me just let me, hold on, let me finish. I'll see you outside. And I could feel someone and I looked and I see him like on his phone. You know when people like bring their, I was like, what fuck are you doing? And then like, Tim was like, hey, fuck out and I denied him a photo because I fuck you I'm taking a piss you actually what I said outside and then you whip your phone out acting like you're texting but I know what you're about to do so I was like nah I'm not playing with that who's the in your mind

the coolest person that's recognized you Jamie Fox that was Vegas on his birthday which is my dad's birthday as well December 12 so we got invited to Lord John's booth or his DJ table and he had a booth behind it and I missed him in Macau because I went up This was when I, remember I fought in Macau, and I stayed there for a while with John and James. But went out, like, I think my first weekend there, I was training for the fight, but then, like, went out the first weekend there, and I got, like, absolutely fucked up with because he'll see Lil Jon. And then I missed the whole show because I was too much. And then I told him the story.

He cracked up, and then he talks about, happy birthday, Jamie Fox. And I'm like, wait, what? And Jamie Fox is right there. And I was just like, oh, shit. And he's doing the Instagram of lives, and he sees me. And he goes, I'm like, yeah, my man. And he taps me up. We have a few words.

But for me, I think I'm not normally Starstruck. I compose myself. But for me, it was because it was such a surprise. It took me by a shock. And I was like, oh, shit. He was just so cool. Yeah. So that's the coolest person, so far that's recognizing me.

What about you, Coach? No one recognizes me, but the coolest person I've seen was probably my person. Your starstruck. You're one of the EFCs. Yeah. Well, I mean, again, I'm like, you wouldn't think I'd be star-struck, but then you're kind of like, you don't know until you're in front of you. He was walking with fame, and I'm like, you kind of.

you kind of double-tech like shit. I said to Mike, I grew up watching the guy. Yeah, yeah. No, I see that at the PI. Like, even when you walk through the PI, I don't know if you guys have been, but he was walking through, where you could see all the fighters, all the personnel,

everyone just like, oh snap, Mike Tyson. And everyone's thinking he's coming into the cafeteria, but he's walking through, boy, you can see, he has, he's still Mike Tyson, you know? Yeah, it's like, everyone was just like, whole, even Dan, after he beat, um, Gilber Burns, backstate, you know, I never asked for photos, but he was trying to get a photo with Mike Tyson.

So it shows you the level of, you know, pedestal everyone puts him on. And rightfully so, he's done so much for the sport, for combat sports, you know? Well, kind of going off that, I don't, obviously, after the passing Kobe Ryan, Janice, Anteucco, from Nigeria to a basketball player, someone asked him, like, what are you a member of Kobe? And he goes, for me growing up, that's who I wanted to be. Like, he set all of these standards for us. And then someone goes, what does it feel like that now there's a third-year-old watching you and thinking of the same thing. For you, when you look at Mike Tyson, there's got to be young fighters

not looking at you the same way they look, that you guys look at Mike Tyson. Has that thought ever crossed your mind of like, wow? Heaps, heaps early on as well, because when I've gone to the UFC, I was like, I don't want to be like, you know, fake like some people and then act all the whole other than now and go crash into a pregnant lady. I know I'm a... Shit. No, but I know I'm a human and I know I'll make mistakes and I know I learn from them, but I never want to put on a fake persona and act like these guys who want to all be like he's sponsor.

So I know kids are looking up to me, but I feel like they can still take inspiration from my story and my character, my horizons in this whole game. And I just want to keep that same energy. And even like we gave away a boombox at the workout to this little girl. And for me, she was so genuine and so nice. And I know people like that would look up to me, but I, It still doesn't stop me from living my life, but at the same time, I know there's eyes on me. I know even in my close circle, I know there's eyes on me, people that look up to me, but I'm like,

I just have to hold myself to the highest standard. But we do. I think, I think one thing he's become a bit better at nowadays is he's aware that with this power, you can choose to do nothing. But you can also do something great with them. And you can inspire people who need inspiration or people that. aren't doing so well you can change your life within a fleeting moment. And I think that he's like gotten more aware of that like and we do man we we do a lot of

stuff that people don't hear about it like we we have a big thing and our group of fighters that you know charitable type word is charitable type work it shouldn't be done in front of a camera that's I was gonna ask that just for the best way of giving no straight up not honestly best way I think no Jayce he said best form of giving is anonymous to anonymous or by i mean people do it all the time for if sometimes for a cause if our platform can break attention to a cause i don't mind but like what we do so much oh yeah that we don't put on camera of course kids yeah even people in our jemma and stuff like that like but it's just we do it because it feels good to give and people forget that sometimes like

when you give it actually feels good to do something nice for someone you know and i think that's lost sometimes yeah never never i was like oh here's some fruits yeah oh can you just have take a selfie real quick. Like, ah, I cringe at that, man. I know you're trying to inspire people to give, yeah, but you can do that without putting someone a human and degrading them to just this. Oh, you're talking about people are getting on the camera to do this. You're like, oh, hey there, yeah, oh, here's a, here's a sandwich. Yeah. I'm a nice guy. Gross. It is something it's weird. It's something very weird about charity work that goes on Instagram. Yeah. It takes the genuineness off it a little bit. So,

We do an awful lot of that work, but I'm definitely against putting that in the public eye. It doesn't feel right to me. I agree. You do it for genuine reason. It doesn't need to be in the public either. So that's something that he's got really good at using the position he's in now to help people behind the scenes. It's pretty cool. I had a question about, I want to circle back to when you said that, you know, you'd been thinking about

all of this. You were ready for all of these, the cameras, all this stuff. Like, how do you make sure that you're visualizing and preparing yourself, but not getting ahead or, like, you know, building up too much of an ego from imagining all of this? I have a counterbalance. That's why we work well together. It's like Yan and Yang. So he's a guy that can tell me when I pull the right, hey, I can calm down or go get him, you know, like, like, it's just experience as well I think our team does it as well yeah constantly

I think our team our culture like you can't like man it happens and you see it happen in an environment and other gyms where the fighters aren't

being put in check I mean when you look at all of this it can be so easy to lose yourself like this is another life compared to how much fighters used to look this is complete all the glitz and glamour it's a completely different life

But for us, it's like, as soon as you start, you're getting a little bit too big for your britches. You're regulated. The other boys will be there to remind you where you came from. Yeah. And that's like, yeah, that's a very humble way of bringing people back down to it. Like, I've been to certain gyms all over the world, and there was one gym in particular that I went to train and one of the fighters, like,

yelled at the coach when the coach was like you know you can't stop fucking around my fucking glove sleeping up and in my head I was like oh oh you can talk to your coach like that wow yeah and you know I looked at the coaching coach just goes

I was like and then we just kept on sparring but for me I was like yeah I couldn't do that but I would never do it like this is still martial arts mixed martial arts martial arts is that code of respect with your sensei you can't just

fire off at him like you're a divot, you're a superstar, what not. You don't want to create a monster, you know, and a lot of, we've seen it happen in combat sports. Even in our, in our region, you see some athletes get too big for the, for themselves even. So yeah, like I said, like the team will be there to let you know. It's just sitting a standard and just sticking to it and it doesn't matter. We, what your status is in the sport. The other day, we are a perfect example.

What do I do? I had 85 people sparring. And I had 84 people wearing hip-year. Oh, no. And he decided that he thought, oh, that's a hot day or my tee-gear isn't funny. It wasn't that. It was because every, every sparring, every camp,

my last sparring, I take the headgear off, my last sparring, just so I can, like. He asked me if you could take the heat gear off, and I said no, and then he kind of walked away in a sock, and then I yelled and curse that him and said, you know, like, you are not any different to the 84. other people here.

If the whole gym stopped and looked at us. And I said, but if and he'd get back on and get back to sparring. It's like these are just it's just standard practice. Does the rest of the gym hold you accountable to? Like all of your time?

Not everyone, not everyone, but some people who can't like, I mean, Brad, Dan. The senior guys are the coaches. Yeah, the coaches. But also like he knows. Like he holds himself accountable. Always doing.

There's out of those 85 fighters, there's 60 of them are younger than I'm trying to beat him up, trying to get to where he is. So it's like, they're looking at you. Like, they're looking at you. And he knows that.

So he knows that. He has to set the standard for the next generation of people coming up underneath them. Do you think, do you make a good coach? No. Fuck off.

Trying to see, what could I throw at him. Hey, hey, have said one thing. I am in the corner. Hold on in the corner. When I'm cornered people,

I am undefeated. When I'm undefeated, I'll leave it there. I'll leave it there. lunchtime if you feel like it show up about it I don't mind if you show up at two

even I sit lunchtime it would be the worst Jeremy let me let me just say undefeated as a corner man I'll leave the fruits on the table how many is that one and oh two and oh

I've cornered many people he's trusted me I've even cornered Kai in China and many times like go to China with this guy go corner go corner put it this way

it's a definite when he's corner what It was a hard fight for Kai. I know there's no one of the guys losing. Sure, we get it. This is what I mean. My fucking sweaty.

One of the last, I was just, you started last year. You know, champions now you have two, right? Yeah. How do you keep going? What do you? We keep that same energy. Like, everyone keeps saying, like, have you trained different for this fight? I'm like, bro, when we fought Anderson Silva, we wrestled a lot, like the same amount.

Yeah, we wrestled, you know, with the O2 Max, the everyday 10 a.m. sessions are grappling. And then we do our stand-up work. We do our clinch work as well and conditioning. But we keep the same energy. Each fight we have is the biggest fight of our life. So this fight was no – excuse me – this fight was no different. This fight was no different. It's the biggest fight of our life. So we keep that same energy of going all in and being well prepared for this fight. And I feel like we are. Even the open workout, I was going to do like, shout to Mark Hunt.

I was going to do like a little Mark Hunt. It's like, man, let me just chill and save myself tonight. But you get there, you feel the fan and you see that. I'm like, every time I'm just like, all right, let's go. Then I start jabbing. My jab was fast. I felt on Andre said I could feel like some of the kicks, the power, like behind it. And it just reassures me like, yeah, we're prepared.

We're ready. We're fucking ready, man. Well, I wanted to ask you about your actual workout. Watching all the other fighters, they're doing like long combinations like this. And you're like one shot, like one, two. And that's your style. I remember watching the Brunson fight and you wobbled them. Nine times out of ten of fighters blowing their gas on that run.

And you just looked at them and you just like walk and you're like looking for a second. Then you don't want to get him like. So I don't want to say how do you do that against Romero, but Romero seems a guy. Like you saw against Costa, he goes, look at that. And then he's a juice head. He's a, he's a dumb, like, there's nothing up here for Costa. He's dumb.

Like, like, silly. Like, so me and Anderson, we're playing around as well with little games like that. He's the best at it. He's not better than rumor. So I was able to play games with Anderson. I was able to be like, you know, I almost got you. And then like, when you're trying to need me, I was like, ah, not today. But I got, I have tricks as well.

I'm a veteran in this game. People forget, like, my ex-exam. extensive kickboxing background. There's a lot of different looks that I can give as well. I mean, what is what I'm going to do? Oh, look there. And then jabbing the coin or whatever. I don't know.

But, like, yeah, I've seen a lot. I don't think there's anything he's going to bring with trickery that I haven't seen yet. Like playing Lepastom or anything. Yeah, we've seen. We know he plays possum. He'll act like he's hurt. I saw that last week as well. That was a bad stoppage.

That was going to ask about it. Yeah, that was a bad stoppage. The referee should not have stopped that. Because I haven't watched it. And I saw the guy was, I've done it as far as far as. I do it in spying sometimes. If I get hit in the body, even if it doesn't hurt, oh. And then they come in or something.

And I just, pat. And I catch them. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So I play Possible. But I've thought about doing it in the fight. But for that very reason, I don't, because Mike Ango said it happened to him when he fought Jason Suddy. He said he played Pawsome and the referee was like, nah. So I don't want that to happen to me.

Well, I might one day, you never know. I mean, hey, this is, I mean, this is what we play, man. This is the game. My game is deception. This is one thing. He's taught me very well as how to deceive people with my strikes. So we'll see. Has anything caught off?

Has anyone, have you fallen for that inside the Octagon? Nope. Nope. Let me see. Different ones, standard ones. Well, there's been occasions where guys have been like being able to really show really good poker face. Yeah. Kelvin.

Oh, yeah. That's Calvin. One thing he told him before the Kelvin fight, he told me is like, no matter what, don't be discouraged. You're hurting him. the fight, this told me the day before the fight, like you're hitting him, you're going to keep hitting him, but don't be discouraged, you're hurting him. And same thing, that's why I was like, cool, I'm ready to die, let's go. Like, I knew even in the fifth round, he's there.

And I called that moment, say Diablo, because he's just looking at the camera. He had like these little horns. And I was like, let's go to hell, you and me. So then in the end of the I knew I was hurting him. I was like I trusted his word. Like, I'm hurting him. And that's that I dropped in him. I put the second round, dropping him, dropping him, dropping him in the fourth round, or fifth round, sorry. And then he was right. Just because he was had a poker phase, doesn't mean he's not hurt. You couldn't handle it. Eventually your body will crumble no matter who you are. How does it feel to be tied to another human like that? Where now when they're going to bring up you, your legacy, they can't talk about you without Kelvin attached to you.

Only if we talk about that fight, not like my whole legacy, but like you saw that at the workout, they gave us the award for fighting. And I was like, and I gave him a shout out because like said, it's not just me. I didn't do it myself. I had a very durable, strong Mexicana. He's Mexican, man, these Mexicans, like, they're hard to knock out. We are. It's possible. Oh, you're Mexican as well. Don't try.

Bad joke. But, yeah, I mean, like, I gave him a shout at because I can't do the salon, you know. I had a good dance partner, you know, and we sauce up together very well that night. You got to, do you imagine that fight will have to be run back at some point? If he climbs, yeah, I know, yeah. I don't do it just for fun. I mean, if he climbs the ranks again and if he gets to the point, he needs to get in the, the, division, maybe two or three good wins, like solid wins.

I was going to see what happened with Darren Till. Yeah, if he had starched Darren Till, he might be the guy on, I'm fighting this weekend. Really? You know, but it's not just up to me. He's got to have a saying it as well. But I think if Diana Till I've done the same thing to him, it might be Darren Till this weekend. But yeah, this is how the cars flow. But I think definitely he's a guy that he's hard to beat and we'll see him again.

I wanted to finish up with, you were talking about dancing. So what do you have plans? for dance off movies. I'm not doing anything crazy. Like, I wasn't going to do anything for this fight. I wasn't, but then I had this metamorphosis on 10th of February. The day my cat will run over that let me know, like, yeah, life's short. And then I had this metamorphosis in my car for like three hours

where I got these messages through music, listening to my old phone, old tracks I haven't heard in so long. And I've been there before, and I just knew, like, I have to make this visually, aesthetically pleasing. because it's my pay-per-view in America, my first one in Vegas properly. And I want the numbers to really show, and I need some moments. So, yeah, I'm not going to be like Deonti Wilder or Tyson Fury. I was going to say, like, anything like that. I'm not going to know. That's not what I do.

But, like, I'm just going to walk. I'm just going to walk. But I think it's going to be visually, aesthetically pleasing for everyone to watch. Do you always end up? I mean, you know, they're not always a fan, but it's my show. You know, I'm the main event, so I'll let them know what's up. But I mean, he's not a fan of it. Dana's not a fan of it.

But I'm like, I don't care. It's my fucking show. So it's how it goes. How has the, have the American fans been training here this week? Good. Oh, everyone's nice to me face-to-face. I mean, it's different online, you know. But everyone's nice to me face-to-face.

Even a guy checked another guy who would say, he says he's going to, you're going to be in 10 for an hour saying, he's going to fuck you up. I'm like, really? Stay here and watch it. And the guy just like, mm-hmm. Like, you see them all freeze when it's face-to-face. But, yeah, I.

I love America. One thing I love America is the food. Oh, God. They went to Popeyes last night. Was that you guys? Pop-I's. Woo! That spicy chicken sandwich there was a lot of hype about it last year.

Yeah, it was. But I'm getting like four of them. I'm getting four of them after this fight. Get Derek Lewis to bring you. Nah, he's in Houston. Yeah. If I was in Houston, maybe, but like, yeah, definitely. There's also like pictures of stuff.

I keep taking pictures of things I'm like. Things remember to eat later. Yeah, I'm going to eat. There's a pecking duck here as well. I see the way they slice it. It's always on the TV, on the ads. I'm like, getting that do you

you said to your face they're nice to you and I've talked to someone that not you know this not so much style but he said Michael Benham pays he gets compared to you a lot whenever you're fighting Michael Van Page says yeah that just is because he said tall black guys tall black he goes because of black me

Anderson is he were going to get fed forever he says he gets a lot of racism on money oh yeah that does happen yeah of course even like I kind of hinted about it when I had the speech in New Zealand by you used Top Puppy syndrome to disguise it a little bit, which is also a big problem. But definitely, you get racism everywhere.

I mean, like, it's like water over ducks back almost. Like, one thing I find weird sometimes when I talk about it, especially when something happens in America, people are like, don't get involved in America. I'm like, bro, when I come here, a KKK guy is not going to be like, oh, no, you're from Nigeria, you're from New Zealand. They're not going to discriminate.

They just see you as black. So they're going to be racist towards you regardless of where you're from. Even him, you go to bear. He looks like fucking ISIS or some shit. See how many times he gets stopped at the airport all the time. Stop. I'm sorry. You can't go down this road.

Terrorism or anything. Oh, yeah. No, I'm not saying that. Yeah. Sometimes I do get stopped. He gets stopped a lot. Because I look Muslim, but that's just, that's the world we live in it. But I still, hey, I love US and A.

Straight up, I do. I really do. It's one of the best countries in the world for culture. cultures, yeah, but mostly for food. That's one thing I keep thinking about. I think you had mentioned once that there was just too much bread that you had to leave because there's so much good bread. Oh, yeah, the bread is nice, soft, especially that brioche bread, that soft brioch bread, like on burgers and shit. Like, what was it?

What was it? It's pretty much made out of butter. Oh, it's so soft. Yeah, that's the one. It's right by the New York, New York. Yeah. And I go there, when we stay at the MGM, the one next to the Piedm, the Park MGM, I go there and I go there, like twice every time I'm Vegas. And I'm just, oh, it's so soft.

It's so soft. You can sleep on it. All right. Let's see. What is, since we're talking about all this, what is the very first thing you're going to eat then when you? Oh, after the fight. Yeah.

Probably Popeye's chicken. Yeah, probably Popeye's chicken. If it's still open, I'll get down there. Or I'll probably, it will be half for me after the fight. So I'll send someone to give it down there and get me something. But yeah, not him definitely. Fuck, no. He doesn't give a fuck.

I was so disgats. I'll ask someone. Yeah, I'll round that and pop us. I'll probably. Oh, she can't. You win a championship. You can send her head coach to get a chicken sandwich for me. It's not one of those ones.

But, yeah, I mean, I'm just happy, man. I'm, I'm ready for this weekend. Well, send Frank or Andre. Yeah. No, they won't. I wouldn't even get that again. Take here, us. Well, thanks.

Well, thanks so much for taking time. Thank you guys. As always. As always, I appreciate you. Thanks so much. And of course, this has been Jose Esther, UFC champion, Israel, as Sonia. And it's head coach Eugene Barerman of City Kickboxing

and all of our content on our YouTube channel, social media, Facebook. Shout to Casey as well, behind the camera. Shout to Casey as well. Best mustache in the game. Yeah. All right. We're out.

Thanks. Easy. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.