MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Phil Daru: From Broward to the Big Time and Back | Morning Kombat Room Service Diaries

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

Room Service Diaries is BACK! Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell sit down with Strength and Conditioning Coach Phil Daru. Phil discusses what got him into training, how his relationship with Din Thomas impacted his career and much more. **Luke's Mic Issue is fixed at the 4:40 mark** Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Come on! MK on the ground in South Florida. I've been, I don't know if people noticed, we're getting a little bit of a dad shape lately, but I want to take it to the next level. I want to get strong. Daru, strong. Hop in the V, I'm with the dogs, we poppin' a leash. Raggin' a ball and a talkin' is cheap. Can't entertain what I got from the dogs, we poppin' a leash. Raggin' a ball and I'm talkin' his cheek. Can't entertain what I got from the streets. More extension, more extension.

Well, it's instability. Yeah. All right, what's going on, guys? My name is Phil DeRue. We are here about to shoot Room Service Diaries, and I'm going to go ahead and send Brian and Luke through a DeRue Strong training session. I know Brian is a funny guy, so we I'm gonna go ahead and send Brian and Luke through a real strong training session I know Brian is a funny guy so we're gonna go ahead and see how funny he's gonna be when he pushes his prowler maybe he will throw

up maybe he won't we'll see what happens now Luke on the other hand I know he can push some weight so I'm gonna go ahead and see how well he does in my territory How are we doing? Sorry. I'm so sorry. It's all good. You don't have to apologize. I'm so sorry I've delayed everything.

No, no, no. I'm kidding. Hey, how are you? Are you guys into ass tats too? He also said, listen, no. Yes, see, I knew I liked this guy. Listen, I'm going to show you. Oh, no.

What? I never had somebody show me their dad's ass before this excitedly. Holy shit. Holy shit. Well, that's like the one on the back of your head.

Precisely. Like mandala style. Okay, yeah, yeah. You know, we don't always talk to trainers on this show, but when they're as esteemed and good and as, well, let's say accomplished as our next guest. How about just badass? How about badass, too?

We decide to do it all the way from Deerfield Beach, Florida. It is the trainer to the stars. It's Phil DeRue. Hi, Phil. Thank you so much for having me. First of all, I have to do this on camera. I have to apologize to Phil. We were supposed to shoot this two hours ago. I went to the wrong airport. I have to apologize to Phil. We were supposed to shoot this two hours ago.

I went to the wrong airport. I am so sorry, Phil. I did this to everyone. It's my fault, bro. This is what happens when you go to Florida, man. Things start to get crazy. I don't think I'm the only person to do this, though. I feel like it's happened before to other people. It's definitely happened. And what I'm seeing is the influx of people just migrating over to Florida.

So then you have the traffic on top of that. So you're all good. You're my man, so I'm no problem. In honor of Phil, I tried to dress like random Florida man today for this. I think I pulled it off well. Phil, I think a lot of people don't necessarily know. Some people know who you are. Some people don't. Let's set the table for folks who don't.

You are a trainer to a lot of MMA stars. Dustin Poirier. You've had a lot of guys in your stable before. Orlovsky. Many other ones. You want a champion. You want a champion. What would you say that, describe yourself to the folks? How do you view yourself and what you do? A performance coach, you know, primarily. I'm a teacher. I work with several now at this point, 5,000 coaches that I

mentor around the world. So that's really where I go now is more so coaching coaches, but I still have my staple of fighters that I work with. I've been doing that for 14 years now. I've been training and competing in martial arts for roughly eight or nine years. I was a pro at one point with Dean Thomas. Old school. Old school, yeah, yeah. I was 19, 20 years old after I got out of college playing football.

He played at a historically black college. Yeah, we were wondering. BC wants to know, are you black? Mike Perry was his roommate. It's funny you said that. So Mike actually was a part of Dean's affiliate school. So we used to cross train a lot. So I've known Mike for a long time.

Yeah, he's a good dude. But yeah. You played at Alabama State? You were a defensive back, right? Defensive back. I played strong safety. And then when I was in high school, I played middle linebacker. Okay yeah. You played at Alabama State. You were a defensive back, right? Defensive back. I played strong safety. And then, you know, when I was in high school, played, you know, middle linebacker. Okay, so you were the hitter.

Yeah. I mean, that was primarily why I stopped fighting because of the fact that the concussions just built up on me. All right. So let's rewind the tape. Where'd you grow up? Here. Deerfield Beach, Florida. Broward County primarily.

Up and down Fort Lauderdale area. But I decided to put the gym here because I wanted to give back to the community this is something that I've always wanted to do at some point and the brand built enough to where now I can fully do that and I have my other gym I live about an hour and a half away so I have that gym up there but I wanted to make this spot special for the kids in the community give them somewhere that they can go that is positive because let's face it we don't live in the greatest area right so what I want to do is get back give them somewhere that they can go that is positive. Because let's face it, we don't live in the greatest area, right? So what I want to do is get back, give them an opportunity to be around positive individuals. Not only do we have fighters in here, professional athletes, but we have celebrities too as well.

You know, we have great human beings just in general. So I wanted to give them a spot to where they could come to to have that. All right, so let's get back to Dean if we can. Sure. How did you win him over? Did you win him over? The journey through MMA, because it wasn't a long journey in MMA. You've been in the MMA sport in various roles, but as a fighter, it wasn't a super long one. No, no. Eight years primarily. Like it seemed longer because I was in it, you know, I was in it for two, three

days or two, three times a day for six, seven days a week. And so with Dean, I think it was more so he wanted to make sure that I was really, truly into it, you know, because he started when it wasn't like the cool thing to do. Right. He was, you know, finding wrestlers in high school. He was cutting their hair and, you know, bartering with them to teach them how to wrestle. These are those times. With now, it's like everybody wanted to fight at that point. The Ultimate Fighter came out, so he was really, with all of us,

we had five guys, five professionals, amateur to professional that he brought up with him. And so we were always looking to showcase ourselves and make sure that we won him over, per se. He was one of those hard asses that like, you know, it was going to be a hard way to to get him to really follow what we were doing, you know. And I remember my first amateur fight I won and I called him. He wasn't even there.

This was in Cut-Off, Louisiana, like population a thousand maybe. And I won the fight and I called him and I'm like super excited. And I go, Dean, man, I won. Did great. He's like I'm like super excited and I go Dean man. I won did great He's like cool when you come back to the gym Didn't even say I'm like he didn't say like good job. I think he said cool I said when you coming back to the gym, I think that's only thing he said and I go Monday I guess man like hung up and I was it and that was that's Dean, you know, I think now He's stated this recently that he's seen my progression.

He's seen the growth from when I was a young kid coming to him, you know, rough around the edges to now. So and I remember the day that I talked to him after I actually retired based on what he told me because I would have kept trying to go for it. Did he give you like a Robin DeShobb, Rogan DeShobb type speech to talk you off? I think so. I think so. It was primarily like, listen, if this was your knee or your elbow or your arm or something like that, you could work around it, but it's your brain.

You can't really work around that. So, you know, after he told me that, that's when I decided to just call it quits in a sense and pivot, you know. But two years later, a year and a half later, I wanted to get back into the sport heavily. And so he was down at ATT, I know he was coaching full time now. He had left the gym that I started with and there was really no other MMA gym per se like that.

So when he went down, I was like, all right, well, I want to get back in the sport, but I just don't know. I want to try to get there. What can I do? Or if you have any openings for somebody that you're working with, because I know he's still working with Tyron. I knew that he was down there. So like, maybe there's something there. And he's like, you know what, you may be in luck, come down, bring your resume, you know, see what you can do. And so the first day I trained King Mola Wall, Tisha Torres, Dustin, and Daya Davis. And that was the first day. So I was like, okay, throw me to the

wolves, I guess. But at that time, I had already developed a great coaching skill at that point. I've already built my gym up. We were at that 11,000 square feet. I've had like 300 members. And I was like, you know what? Let's see what I can do. Because I wanted to still work with fighters. I still wanted to work with those competitors. And I wanted to be a part of it now. I still wanted to be there at some capacity. I got questions, though. What type of fighter was Phil DeRue? I was an athlete, you know, primarily. I mean, at the end of the day.

Because you had high school wrestling experience. Yeah, yeah, I wrestled. I think more so I was great at, I was more enticed with the stand-up game, primarily. I wanted to stand up and fight and all that. But I would just take it to where I knew that my opponent didn't have you know the main thing was like i was looking to game plan and so that's when i found out that i would be a better coach than an actual fighter sure because the game plan the strategy the tactics you know really resonated with me did you have a shitty nickname please tell me it was bam bam oh bam bam that's not bad that's pretty good all right i mean

that's very specific though you got to look the the part. And that primarily was from me as a younger kid because I was just hitting everything when I was a kid. So I was like, oh, that was the nickname y'all gave me? Okay, I'll just take that then, you know. But it went through several different phases, you know. When did it dawn on you where you were like, I'm actually a pretty good coach? Like, I can do something with this, you know? I knew I was a good trainer. I knew I was a good motivator when I was a kid because I started really training people, my friends at like 16.

You know, I would bring guys over to the to the to the gym or I would bring them to my I had this I had this makeshift bench that was like wobbly. But I would put together programs and I was reading Louis stuff and I was reading Joe DeFranco. And so I already knew how to like properly program and periodize at a young age When I started to realize that I could coach at a high level was when I got to top team because I knew that The methods and the systems and the protocols that I was using was actually working at a high level and then I could relay and communicate Properly to these people that take it to the next level on that way then I was like, okay, I got something here. Excuse me, on the split between what you actually do,

obviously so much of it is scientific and involves the body and nutrition and all that combining together, but how important is the psychological side in the success you've had? Do you think that that has allowed you to kind of start to separate your name from the others in this game? It's very big in the fight game.

It's very big in just sport in general. You know, that was something that I needed to learn more of. I needed to learn how to properly communicate and understand personality traits and go to a point where I can test them and actually assess, you know, who they are as an individual. So then I can go ahead and relay over information that is going to get us the adaptation necessary. But sometimes you got to get in that ass, so to speak. Absolutely. Here's the thing.

It's funny. Some guys don't like that, right? Not everyone responds to that hard-ass shit. Some guys don't like that. And I thought that going into that situation, because at this point I was training high school kids and some general pop clients, and I had some college football players that liked that style, right?

King Mola Wall liked that style. Dustin Poirier did not like that style, right? So, like, I remember, I guess he told Daya, he's like, man, why is this guy young enough? style, right? King Mola Wall liked that style. Dustin Poirier did not like that style. So like, I remember, I guess he told Daya, he's like, man, why this guy's young enough? I was like, oh, this doesn't work for him. You know, at certain times, you know, especially when you develop a trust and a bond with that individual. Yeah, you can do that. But you have to find pain points. You have to peel back the layers on their actual why. And then then you can relay over certain things and say certain things to get

them to be motivated. Because listen, at the end of the day, elite fighters at the UFC level, they are already self-motivated. It's just getting that one or two things out of them to really figure out, okay, I need to push it a little bit more. Because in a controlled environment with prowlers and squat racks and things like that, they're not used to that in all essence. Most of the fighters are very new to the weight room. So pushing them in this world is a little bit different. Whereas that they know if they don't push it in sparring or they don't push it in their drills, they may not make it out of the cage alive. Right? So it's really different in that perspective. So I have to give them a reframing. I have to make them understand that what we're doing here

will have some transfer over to what they do over there. And when that happens, then you get buy-in. When did you go independent? I went independent. I was always independent. Okay, okay. But like, you know, fully independent, I guess. So I started at 22, right? Opened up my own gym, 22 years old. And then when I went to top team, that was the first time I ever actually got a paycheck. I never really got a paycheck. So I was working on the team and I was there for four and a half years building up, you know, my base and then understanding, you know, how to actually train these types of people at that level. And then when I, it was was around actually in coven i left

that to 2020. 2020 that's right and then you do and you've had this facility how long i had this i actually moved in here maybe four or five months ago okay so this is all relatively this is new yeah and i had a gym um in boca raton with uh with movon for a little bit and that was really my my way out like i got out of top team and went over there primarily and just started working and building up, you know, more of a base of like overall clients. So now I have boxers, judokas, everybody. So-

Movon was the 95 AL MVP. Wanted to remind you of that. Yeah, thanks. I don't watch baseball, but I do know who Movon is. You were big into like mathlete stuff. Yeah, I was a mathlete. That's true. All right, so let's talk about Dustin Poirier.

How did you end up like, it seems like of all the relationships you have, and maybe I don't know this, but it just seems from afar anyway, that that is one of your closer ones for sure. Is that a fair characterization? And if so, how'd it get here? Well, so I think that similar personalities. Similar backgrounds in a way too, man. Similar backgrounds.

I fought a lot in Louisiana actually too as well I fought some of his teammates um I remember you know he was in I think he was in the crowd at one point in my pro debut against Kurt Hollibaugh who fought in Bellator or Strikeforce I believe fought in Strikeforce and the UFC no he definitely fought in Strikeforce he fought in the UFC twice twice yeah yeah so i mean his big name or in that in louisiana and we were the main event too as well my pro debut um yeah it was crazy and i made 200 by the way hey at least you made it i made that and spent that shit on the way back so uh but yeah i mean with that it was it was that kind of chemistry you know um i was there the first time i went there as a coach i used to train as to cross train as a I was there, the first time I went there as a coach, I used to train, I used to cross train as a fighter,

but the first time I went there as a coach, we sat and we talked for at least an hour and a half. And I remember him just being so welcoming and just the person who he is, he's a standup guy. So I liked that about him. He's an American hero. And I say that very sparingly about fighters. Randy Couture, American hero, okay?

Dustin Poirier, American hero. Yeah, and he likes to say I'm a student of the game, but he's a student of the game too as well. Like he loves boxing, he loves jiu-jitsu, he loves it all. And I think that that was something also that we bonded with. Like I wanted to be the best at what I did for him and he wanted to be the best at what he did for his family.

So that's where we grew. And then I remember, you know, for the first year, he's a person that keeps a circle close, right? So I had to get into the circle before that happened. And we didn't start working together for another year and a half until he decided, you know, he's not a big strength and conditioning guy. You know, he's not somebody that would just go into the gym. Now he does because he likes to look the part, you know, he wants to build a little bit of muscle. He's getting bigger now too as well. But when I met him, he was still like at that 45, 155 range, you know, and he just started to grow, you know, and that's just maturity overall. And that's where like I really started to grow with him because I started to understand him, who he was as a person. One of the first conversation we had was really about road work and how he loved to run. But you knew before that he had a bad hip issue, right? So he had a hip impingement. He had constant problems.

Yep. Very bad. And like at that point, he was not saying anything. So I was like, you'd run seven miles, but you'd be in excruciating pain afterward. And I said, why are we doing this? I was like, you can do other things to increase your aerobic capacity. And he was like, no, I just like to do it. And I go, well, can we level?

Like, can we figure something else out? He's like, no, I'm not gonna. It's just him. It's like working with Brian, really, if I can tell you. He's like, I'm not gonna do it. I mean, and I was like, okay, so do me this favor. When you run, run on a softer surface. Or when you do run, just manage your volume, you know, per se.

And so we leveled with that. He was cool with that. All right, the success, not necessarily because of you, but you played a big part in the larger Poirier team. You come to Dustin, I believe I was talking to you off camera, right after the loss to Michael Johnson, which kick-started a run for him. He's among the most battle-tested's when you're talking about will chin durability

but you play a part in building that up so you know what is that strategy and focus because you get a guy like that he has to have the want and will and he does but he's built for 25 minutes of health so we should say like just for the record for folks who may not remember that fight or haven't seen it i would argue that's one of dustin's worst losses in the sense of relative to his ability that was a major underperformance definitely you know and since then he's kicked into high gear obviously he he definitely should have won that fight and if that ever got ran back it would be different oh i'd pick him to win i thought he was going to win that fight absolutely absolutely i think he's just grown um i mean you've seen it from the first even from the first uh counter fight to the counter fight, like his mindset is totally different and he doesn't allow outside distractions

to come into his psyche and allow it, you know, to allow it to negatively affect his performance, you know? So with that overall, I just wanted him to feel comfortable and I wanted him to feel comfortable in the fact that he was going to get better no matter what we did in here, because it was new to him. So he was going to get an adaptation no matter what. I wanted to focus on things that he wasn't doing inside of the skills training. Why do fighters hate strength and conditioning? I think most of it is difficult. And then also for the most part, they don't see the correlation, right? They see it as another stressor as, you know, more to be tired from. And they have so many things that they have to do. I understand that because, again, I fought and I know, you know, the day to day process.

But when you come in and it's directly correlated to whatever their game plan is or whatever their structured dispositions are, right, whether, you know, they have some insufficiency, some, you know, some coordination issues, whatever the case. If I can get that better and they see that generate more positive adaptation inside the skills training, then they're more apt to actually coming in and doing the work. But that takes like several camps. It does. You got to build that trust. It takes time. I mean, that's an investment, like quite literally, like you have to put a dollar in the account like kind of every day.

I mean, it really didn't, in the case of Dustin, it didn't start until the second camp where then we started to implement certain things like cognitive conditioning and mobility work

and then he's like, I just want to blow out my lungs today and then we started to do, you know, things like that for him because he started to trust the process

and that's the same with every fighter primarily I had Kevin Lee in here Kevin Lee's never done any strength and conditioning that was structured the first day I worked with him. I saw the video right he was walking on his heels and doing like warm-ups from like the littlest part of the muscle all the way to the big one. Can we say future champion Kevin Lee? We have been you should know this about Kevin Lee and I or us we were and have been big believers in Kevin Lee. We have been, you should know this about Kevin Lee and I, or us. We were and have been big believers in Kevin Lee. Truthers, if you will.

Truthers. We get accused of being truthers because he has fallen on hard times, although he has returned to the UFC, and so we'll see what happens there.

He's got new management, and I know he converted to Islam and stuff, so it seems like his life is in order. And he may have been a staph infection away from being the interim champion.

He's always been yoked. Like, these dudes, you know what it is? It's the dudes who are naturally athletic, naturally strong, naturally fucking like that. They don't think twice about it. Whereas doofuses like us, every rep matters.

You know what I mean? True. Yeah, that's true. And I think that, you know, he took advantage of that in some capacity. But what I wanted to do was I wanted to show him that there was some dysfunction there. He tore his ACL. Oh, yeah. Again.

For the second time. The same one or a different one he tore both of them and then tore this one again Wow against Diego in an evening right and I saw the video and I could see him he kind of like yeah jolted he lost his good move yeah no so then he came to me and he didn't even know who I was which is great I was happy with it he knew like he knew of me but he didn't he didn't follow me or anything like that So when he came into the gym, I was just and he was going to Sanford so it was right across the street at that at that time and

I go listen, we're gonna develop more structure. We got to get stronger in the surrounding areas We need to build strength of the muscles that cross that joint, you know, I tore my ACL So I know I battled I remember your rehab, right? You documented every, every, uh, stage of that. I wanted to, so I could showcase, okay, this can be, this can be dealt with. We can definitely come back from it. And, uh, so I, I did it with him and then he started, he was like, man, I've never done anything like this. And that's good because now we get a positive adaptation. So every day would come back and come back and he would come, you know, he'd come three days, four days a week

and he's never done any strength conditioning before this. I'm not going to say he's done no strength conditioning. He just hasn't had it structured, right? So yeah, he's been one guy. And then another guy that's fighting this weekend, Chase Sherman, who's been here consistently putting in the work, but he's a guy that's very intuitive.

He loves to know what's going on. And that's where you find out who that person is. Personality-wise, he's acetylcholine dominant. He's very conscientious of what he wants to do and how he wants to do it and why he's doing it. You have those types of individuals. Then you have those very A-type dominant people that are just like, I don't care.

Just tell me what I got to do and I'm just going to go do it. Then where does you want a champion fall into that mix? Because we're allowed to have our favorite fighters Luke won't stop talking about city kickboxers. I do like city kickboxers. Tell me about the dog that's inside Ioana. Jay is like is a different is a different animal like I first trained her on a Sunday afternoon it was the first time that she started that top team and she called me up and she was like coach I want to I want to train can you do Sunday I'm like absolutely she's like one of my up and she was like, Coach, I want to train. Can you do Sunday? I'm like, absolutely. She's like one of my favorite fighters. I was like, absolutely.

When she walked in the gym, I'm like, I got to train you. Because I knew she had that dog in her. Like, I saw it. And the first time I had her run the prowler, you know, it was like an initiation phase. Can you describe what the prowler is? The prowler is the sled, right? Yeah, it's a sled. It's a push sled, you know.

It even has a warning on there that you could catch prowler flu which basically means you might throw up you know uncontrollably and uh and so i was like all right let's do that you know primarily was more so just for muscular endurance work and everything else to break it down but for the most part i want to see where she was at mentally you know and mentally in that in that way where she couldn't take advantage she couldn't control the tempo she couldn't you know she couldn't pace herself and she couldn't control the tempo, she couldn't, you know, she couldn't pace herself. And that's another reason why they don't like it, because I control the tempo. I control the pace.

Right. So now it's going to hurt no matter what. And they're not really that great at that in a lot of ways. And nobody really is. Right. Everybody wants to kind of get through it, you know. And maybe sometimes it's not about getting through it. Maybe it's sometimes it is about just testing yourself.

Sure. Right, creating that mental fortitude. So you talk about like personality in when people show up and what they say and what they prefer. But like I've detected your personality from afar. I mean, I've known you for some time. But even then, I could tell that you were a little bit different. So let me give you an example. Your methods are what I would call a mix between old school wisdom and new school, I don't know, progressive ideas. It's this interesting mix

between them. And I think you get that way because you're constantly investing in yourself, investing in your knowledge, investing in your, like, what do I need to know? So when you were coaching, when did you realize, okay, here's what I know is true. And also shit, I need to know more. And what did you do to solve that problem? I would reach out to as many people that I respected as possible. I would look for mentors. You know, I would reach out to Louie. I would reach out to Joe DeFranco. I would reach out to anybody that I knew that was doing it on a high level. And then I would also heavy into the books, be all into, you know, super training, you know, science of practice, strength training.

Those are like my Bibles in a sense, right? My fitness and strength conditioning Bibles. And so I would always do that. And then I have a long drive. Remember that? So I use that drive and I took it long drive remember that so I use that drive I took it you know took advantage of that drive, so I call it like it's 95 I 95 95 University So it was and it was four years of that two three hours

It adds up adds up. They don't use turn signals at that college at all Not over there no no no no we're running past things. Yeah, yeah. That's definitely. So yeah, I would just, I would just spend time listening to podcasts, audio books, everything that I knew I needed to learn. I saw you at seminars a bunch too, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, as far as me going to them? Absolutely. Yeah. Like seminars, workshops, anything I can get my hands on. And going there was, was really good because I could network too as well. So, you know, FRC and even with the CPPS and everything else and CFSC with Mike Boyle's stuff.

And I would find similarities, but I would also find differences and I would pick the things that I knew that were gonna work for me and my circumstances. Just rode with it. You know, it's weird though, bring us all up to say like you came up at a time when like strength and conditioning,

we talk about MMA being in the dark ages in 05 and 06, but dude, strength and conditioning was even fucking worse. I'll never forget, dude, this is a true story. This is why I ask you about it. I remember I one time went to go interview Brandon Vera. This is before he went to Alliance. He was with Lloyd Irvin at the time in Camp Springs, Maryland, just outside D.C., so I was like, bet, let's go over there.

And I show up, and he was very friendly. He was doing, like, two or three days, so this was the evening session. This was right before the fight with Tim Sylvia. And I remember they were like, oh, you should have seen the strength and conditioning class this morning. And I'm like, oh, yeah, what was it like? They had video of it. It was just Brandon Vera barfing in between, like, exhaustion barfing. And they'd be like, okay, 25 more laps.

I'd be like, what the fuck is this? Right? We have come a long way from that it feels like and it feels like on the mma side for me you were one of the first ones who was like trying to be scientific with well he's still got the sled flu so he's got okay okay there's always going to be a place for that in when you push yourself to the limit but but they would seek that out right rabdo the clown the Clown and CrossFit, all that shit. Well, here's the thing. And let me just say this. Like, I would never really do that unless it was for a specific reason, whether that be… Fuck this guy.

Yeah, or that. Yeah, right? Or, like, I wanted to see or I would test them. It's an assessment process. So how much sprint work can we do in an extended amount of time? How much can we recover from within a certain amount of time because now i can use field-based activities as opposed to going to you know a ufcpi and then they weren't even around at that time or like another lab testing where vo2 max and lactate threshold i can give this a go and actually have that as a baseline assessment and then re

reassess them afterwards so i would push them right into the edge and then i reassess them afterwards. So I would push them right into the edge and then I pull them back, right? And then I remember this was when I was fighting too, it was like five by five minute rounds, circuit training, do it one minute each and go until you die. And that was like the main thing and everybody did it, you know? And so I decided, okay, what are they not getting that?

What are they not getting outside of the actual skills training? They're not getting that? What are they not getting outside of the actual skills training? They're not getting maximal power output. They're not increasing their explosive power as a whole because they're not giving the adequate amount of rest periods. And they're also not doing low intensity cardio. They may be doing road work, but they're pushing into lactic zones because they're competitive and they want to push themselves mentally. So then I'm like, all right, we got to go from a high-low approach.

So I got to ramp up their alactic system and I got to ramp up their aerobic system. And that way I can give these two systems here and bring them together when they do their skills training, which is primarily somewhere in that lactic zone. He's an artist. This is what I'm saying. I've seen the development of all this.

When did we cross paths? When did I hit you up? Because I remember I did a story on you for MMA Fighting. I think that was it. I think that was it. And then I seen you in Dallas. Yes. And then that's when we talked.

Yes. And that was when Dustin got the eye poke from Eddie. Yeah that was. Oh fuck that was right. That was 2-11 right? Yeah that's right. It was Stipe was on that card. Joanna was on the card.

Joanna was on that card. That's right. That was my first UFC event that I went to, actually. Is that right? The reason why I bring that up is because I did a story on Phil for MMA Fighting because I was looking up coaches who were trying to do different things. And you were the, this is true, I'm not saying you were the first guy to do this, but you were the first guy that I saw making guys do zurcher squats for takedown defense yeah yeah and then I looked him up and I'm like I had seen he had done bodybuilding he had fought MMA he'd been a football player at a collegiate level and uh powerlifting powerlifting

and I had seen you powerlifting I was like so this dude probably knows a shit ton yeah and sure enough the journey just kept going from there yeah I mean, and then like I've always figured out what was the weakest issue because I had so many to work with, you know. So like you had like 60 plus fighters at the high level coming to you on a weekly basis. So then I knew what I needed to do. There was a general issue that was going on where I was like their mobility sucks or their lack of coordination in certain movements are not good because they're so specific. So like even running was an issue, like watching their gait was a problem. And a lot of jujitsu guys that come from that jujitsu background, like tight hips, you know, tight upper back, you know, so or tight low back and kyphotic posture. And that that'll affect your movement, right? So I wanted them to be better movers because I knew if they were better movers

They could correlate that over in a skills perspective. I remember distinctly distinctly. What year was this? 2010 something like that. Mm-hmm. Marcelo Garcia doing an interview being like yeah, there's one's like what do you do for strength and conditioning? He goes more jujitsu. Yeah, and I was well, if it works for Marcelo, that must be great. And now I'm like, okay, maybe it did work for, I mean, Marcelo had a great career, but like, it's fucking insane that people kind of think that shit. It's crazy. I mean, I had a conversation with Andre Durrell, and it was actually one of the most viral videos I had.

I've seen it. Yeah, yeah. We talked about the value of like, why weightlifting for punching, or sorry, for boxing. It was just boxing in general. We called his comeback win. We did. We did call his comeback win. Yeah yeah that was amazing man i was he looked dope i was so excited for him man he's a guy that really put in the work and then like is a student he wanted to learn what was going on he's grateful to be here too oh he hasn't lost that super great like this is another great opportunity yeah he called me like he was a

like a fan i was like bro i'm a fan like what are we doing like so i was more so just just happy to help him in that in that in that way so i wanted to make sure that he had he had all the tools necessary so when he asked me that yeah this is broward bro yeah there's a there's someone yelling aggressively there's a disturbance getting aggressive yeah you missed the guy you know saying what's up to us in the window by the way just recently but they always say what's up um no so like i just basically said like as far as strength training goes right to build strength to build armor right you need to do that and you need to build it from a general perspective that can enhance the specific skills that you already have attained over the years especially at his level right he's he's been boxing for i think he said like 20 years or something like that stupid so i was like oh four

olympian yeah yeah bro you don't jesus oh four oh four he's 38 years old you know what i'm saying and then you you talk about okay he's also boxing since he was a kid so you know i wanted to make sure that we were giving him the tools right from a from a from a physicality perspective and then on top of that what does that do from a mental perspective? It gives you confidence because now I'm more physically stronger. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.

McSpicy, consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. So now when I go on the mats or I go in the cage. I participate in McDonald's in Canada. So now when I go on the mats or I go in a cage or I go in the ring, I know that I have the skills because I do that every day. And now I have the physical capabilities to withstand blows, like forces that have come upon me and the force that I can produce out. All right. If you can give me a, when you're behind the scenes, you get invested,

you're a teacher, you're a coach, all that. Has there been a high-profile victory that you worked on that you're like, I know, I know what was put in that camp. I was a part of it. And you retain that pride for your student? Is there one that stands out most? Dustin Poirier winning the interim world title against Max Holloway. You were there that night.

UFC 236. Were you in Atlanta that night? No, I wasn't. I was at home because I think we had another fighter fighting the weekend after, so I had to stay back. And I jumped up like I was there, and I think I woke

up everybody in my household. I lost my voice, everything, because I knew that this was something that was really something he wanted to do and wanted to achieve. And it was great. That was a tough fight, too. It was, man. And it was entertaining but like I never really got uncomfortable Watching him fight and that's weird because you know as a coach. I'm always like I don't know You know what I mean? Like I know that they can do it, but you're not in there with them this fight particularly

I was like he's got it. He's like he's's got it. And you know, obviously other fights, bigger fights in that way, I was kind of like, damn, this is a tough one. But I, you know, I got all faith in my man. But at the end of the day, this one, I was like he's got it for sure. All right, Luke, when you look at him, this, you know we use that term a lot that you invented UBL. Yeah.

Upper bound limits looking at Phil DeRue in relation to us, we see, even though it's 10 years. They look like different species. Some of the upper bound limits. If we either, even though it's 10 years. They look like different species. Some of the upper bound limits. If we either, if I could get going on a 2013 VTOR plan, like, all right. But here's the point. When you look at his beard, though.

Shout out to VTOR, by the way. That's also what you could be if you took a little bit more attention. You dyed it. You grew it out. You quaffed it. How much maintenance is involved in that? Because that's fantastic. On the beard?

I've always had a beard, man. I've always had it. I think, you know, you have to- It's gotten thicker over the years though, yeah? I think, well, I took, I understand I take care of it more, you know? You condition it, right? Kimbo always said, you take care of your beard, your beard takes care of you.

Absolutely, absolutely. I know what he was referring to, I do, yeah. I mean, I've heard people- He may have been a bodyguard on porn sites, I don't know. I'm just saying. Yeah, no, man, shout out to Kimbo. Well, while we can be impressed with Coach here- I've heard people have done that. He may have been a bodyguard on porn sites. I don't know. I'm just saying. Yeah, no, man. Shout out to Kimbo. While we can be impressed with Coach here.

Hold on. I do have one more on the serious angle, if I may. I don't do serious. Okay, never mind. Go ahead. If I may, if I may, I'm going to ask it this way. I'm not going to ask how much could strength and conditioning prevent injuries among MMA fighters. But what I will ask is is what role can it play what

role can it do because it seems like your guys once they're in that program for a while they just on the fights they're rough and tumble but they can't always be able to make it without too much issue I mean it's reducing the risk of non-contact injuries you know you can't obviously you know somebody you know kicks a knee or something like that you can't do, but when it comes to non-contact injuries, we want to negate that totally, right? Especially in camp when things get rougher, intensities go up, reducing of calorie intake,

all those things come into play. We like to make sure that we get a full on assessment in the beginning. I wanna see bone mineral density. I wanna see how low are they in body fat percentage at that particular time, like usually around eight or nine weeks. And that's when I'll go and take them to the lab and get a DEXA scan done because that's pretty much the gold standard. And I'll measure all that out and then we'll get dietary needs based upon that.

If I had my full go, like if I had full control, that's what I would do. Right. And then from there, you know, it's figuring out what's their compensation patterns, where are they deficient at, where are their asymmetries. And you'll find that, you know, if somebody's just too much on one side of the body or isn't really rotating appropriately or, you know, has compensation patterns inside of a joint and doesn't have the capacity to do things, we want to gain more capacity. We want to gain more control. We want to build more base. And that's how you can reduce the risk of that non-contact injury dr bam bam could fix my liver in probably like three weeks all right i need him to fix my shoulder and also the way i look um i need that luke you can't

see a man this tatted up without talking about it and this and i don't know a ton about the you know the history of it like you do but that's impressive he's paid some money for these yeah yeah and i got more since we talked man you got uh you got a guy you go to yeah he's actually in pompano yeah i went to high school actually i played little league football with him yeah so he's gotten he's done all my stuff and we're still going we're going all the way up as you've seen my my guy jake boswick i gotta try to catch up to him yeah i mean that's not a job you can i mean i mean it's a lifestyle like if someone asks him what do you do for a living oh i fight bare knuckle right yeah it works out but you would never be like attorney you know what i mean accountant not at this point carnival rides on the weekends no he's too he's too big and strong for that but he's very friendly too by the way i might add he's a nice guy he's a nice guy super

charismatic so you got into this whole bit where like you're coaching coaches what does that mean yeah so the coaches that the trainers that work with fighters or work with athletes or just general pop clients that want to learn some of the methods that I've been able to put together, I coach them. So now I put together a mentorship program, and I can coach any trainer from around the world. So we have over 5,000 coaches in the mentorship program from anywhere from like, you know, Italy to Australia to the US to Canada and the great thing there is that not only am I able to help them but I'm

helping them help all the other athletes that they work with so now I can spread out my methods I can spread out the service that I've been able to give to the people that work with me directly and I could do that in a wider range are these coaches like specific to combat sports or they tend to be whatever? Yeah, anything really. If you're, if you love the methods, if you love the systems that I use and the systems can be spread around any area. I still use condensed conjugate for my, for my general pop clients because it is versatile. It's just a skeleton system. And then from there you plug and paste and I give them certain protocols and things of that nature in training ideologies to a degree, I'm not a big ideology guy.

I'm not a big guy. I'm not a huge proponent of living in one world. I do like to take things from every other person that I feel is appropriate or different methods. Josh Fabia included? Definitely not. Definitely not. I was about to say, who is that?

That would have been better. That Diego's old guy. Nah. included definitely not uh definitely not i was about to say who is that that would have been better diego's old guy nah like there's certain things that just doesn't make sense but you know and when it comes down to it's like fundamental movement patterns understanding fatigue management you know understanding uh communication and then putting it all together in a systemized approach that can progress an athlete and also reduce the risk of non-contact injury. That's the main principle. That's the root strong right there.

Bro, that's it. I'm looking at this equipment. I'm so fucking jealous of your equipment, man. Man, we was going to train, man. What happened? I flew to the wrong airport. That is what happened. That's a true thing.

Watch this. Ready for this, BC? Tell me if I say anything wrong. So the back extension there, the ghost machine, here's why that one's special, because you've got the back tray on it, which means with the bands on the bottom, which means not only can you do barbell raises up the bottom for your posterior chain,

but you can now attach bands to it as well. The one I have at home does not have that capability. This one allows you to go Pete Rubish super heavy on the back end. That's heavy, Pete Rubish heavy. That's pretty nerd heavy right there. There's your deadlift jack. What do we call band tension at an end range? I don't know. I don't do bands very much. So bands at an end range gives you accommodated resistance. Accommodated resistance. That's it.

Phil, can I ask you a key question? I want to get on that seal row before we go. Okay, yeah. I've never used the seal row. What about the reverse hypers? I have a reverse hyper. Okay, good. Can I ask you key questions about gym culture, but I want you to be dead honest with me, okay? Lifting gloves, yay or nay? No way. Yes! No way. Fuck you!

Fuck you! Do I look like the president? Eat shit! Eat shit! Eat shit! Do you wear with the fingers out? Do you do the fingers out with it? I don't use them.

I haven't used them since high school. Oh, please, good. But if it's good enough for Ronnie Coleman, and GSP is good enough for me. Listen, listen. I'm 43, okay? It looks like I've been hit by a bus, and they threw lard on me.

That's what I look like. I look terrible. But there was once upon a time, I lived in the gym. These fuckers don't believe anything I say. All right, back to my line of work. No, no, hold on, Phil. I respect his knowledge.

You go into any... It's very book- work. No, no, hold on, Phil. True or false? I respect his knowledge. 100%. You go into any. It's very book heavy. Dude, in the Marine Corps gym, this was definitely true. You walk into any gym filled with dudes like this. Just running trains. And you put on the gloves. Just running trains. I've told you stories, all right?

Just, you know. Damn. Took a day off. I'm sorry. Sorry about that. They're going to throw you out of the fucking window. Yeah, they will. No, I had a SWAT officer try to put these things on,

and I grabbed them mid-pulldown. I was like, get the fuck out of here. They're condoms for your hands. Back to gym culture. What about people that have ways and means? They even have the hopes and dreams, yet they're still working out in their front yard. How just homeless bullshit is that?

As far as what, though? What are they trying to do? They're doing, like, full-on... He's taking a shot at me, but he's wrong. You know, instead of, like, working out in his basement, Luke goes out in the front yard in Washington, D.C. I did for a long time. And just flaunts that shit.

It's going to sound like I'm fully with him, but I'm not mad at that. No, come on! I'm not mad at that. No, I'm not mad at that. No, I've mostly... Get it in where you can, man. This was during the pandemic, when the gyms were open, they were closed, they were open, they were closed.

I don't know where I was in Florida, but certainly most of the country was. So I just started investing in my home gym. And during COVID, it was like, dude, it wasn't unusual. Again, Florida didn't have the same kind of lockdowns, but it was a while in D.C.

where you couldn't even leave your fucking house or whatever. So I was just ordering shit and having it set. And then I had enough, I was like, I got a little set here. Yeah, that's a little classy.

But now my shoulder's all jacked up, so I'm using kettlebells. That's what you were telling me. We got some kettlebell stuff that we can do. I'll show you how. And finally, about gym culture, how do you make sense of or understand that I can walk into most gyms, fitness centers, see almost no old guys in there. But if I go in the men's restroom, there is just balls hanging out. That's where they go, man. It's like a party. It's like balls, bonanza. What's up with that, bro? no old guys in there but if I go in the men's restroom there is just balls hanging out it's

like a party it's like balls bonanza you gotta go in the sauna first because they're butt naked in the sauna primarily right they may be the steam room right they're brushing teeth and shaving with with just old men old men will literally put on socks and shoes before underwear that's very true they don't do that at Daru Strong. I left the gym after that one. I was good. I never went back on that one. What's the number one benefit? I guess the number one benefit of owning your own gym is what?

Like, you can just work out whenever the fuck you want. Yeah, you can. I mean, this is my lab. Right. This isn't, like, to the public or anything like that. No, no. This is private. But, yeah, even when I started the gym, I just got sick.

I started at a real competitive powerlifting gym when I was fighting, too, as well. So I never really did the gold gym, LA Fitness. I would go here and there. But I grew up in a powerlifting strongman environment as far as. They call that a judgment full zone. Yeah, only judgment zone. Like you couldn't touch the radio unless you squatted over 400, 450 pounds and benched at least 300 pounds. Right. You didn't touch the radio. And so with that, there was no gloves, by the way. You squatted over 400, 450 pounds and benched at least 300 pounds, right? You didn't touch the radio. And so with that, there was no gloves, by the way, either.

Couldn't do that either. And so for me, I was like, I wanted to keep that environment going. And I said, well, if I have the means to do so, I'll just create my own environment and make sure that the culture is what I want it to be. And so that's what I do. Fair enough. Do you feel like, in all seriousness, do you feel like, it's kind of funny, right? Like when I look around, I'm like, who else is doing what Phil does? And of course, you're pretty unique. But there are other people trying to do certain kinds of things.

Like he moved on, but for a while, Bo Sandoval was at UFC PI. But funnily enough, where did he come from? Football, right? To what extent is that some kind of influence in how you think about your facility, how to train, everything? We still have high school football guys that come in here. I have to have some NFL, 15 NFL guys coming in on Wednesday, this Wednesday. But yeah, it's, it's because of the fact that football was our first understanding of how to do strength and conditioning as a, from a sport perspective, right? That was the first sport that actually really adopted strength and conditioning. And then, you know, other sports came along, hockey and, and, and even like basketball and

baseball, they didn't come to later, but football was that sport. So you have a lot of guys that one, it was one of those things where you wanted to get bigger, stronger, faster. So how do you get bigger, stronger, faster? Well, you do that in the weight room, right? And you need to get bigger, stronger, faster for football because football is a very, you know, high impact sport, right? And so for that, I think that that's why a lot of those guys kind of migrate over to other sports and have the understanding of it because they have a background in basic biomechanics and physiology and so on and so forth all right who's been like you know you just test them you see him work out you're just like this guy's a fucking freak the one that just left Boston with Jace Bob Jake Boswick has been with me for seven years and I would

tell you right now the kid puts in so much work and effort. And I have another one. There's two. And they go hand in hand. It's like they kind of compete all the time. It's him and Tyler Ray, who works out of Kill Cliff now. I'm going to call it Kill Cliff. But these two guys, they're not the biggest names, but they put in the most work. Right?

And then another guy that's outside of that, Timbaland. Timbaland. Boy, I've seen his transformation. Man, I'm going to tell you. You mean like Timbaland and Magoo? Yes. From Virginia Beach that Timbaland Timbaland boy I've seen his transformation man I'm gonna tell you like Timbaland and Magoo yes it was from Virginia Beach Timbaland uh when so walk me through that you're going through your day and you get a phone call or however it happened so yeah so it's funny because Jake actually did pad work with him so he's been doing pad work with with Timbaland for like five six years and then And then one day Tim told Jake, he's like,

man, who's the trainer that you work with? I want to work with him. So Jake actually called me and goes, Tim wants to work with you, come to the house. So I was like, cool. Went to the house. For the first year, I saw that he had no movement in his hips.

He had very little movement in his upper back. So we had him on the floor doing mobility work and just basic biomechanics for the entire year and so that he bought into that system and then from there we started to grow into arcade now he's standing up now he's doing more dynamic movements and he built a great base with david alexander the one of the guys i don't know if you guys know who that is he's he's another great strength and conditioning coach. Worked with LeBron and D. Wade and all those guys down in Miami. Built a good base with him. And then for me, I just took it and just tried to run with it as much as possible

and started to progress him going further. Now, I won't say names because you may have had to sign an NDA, but you've got a celebrity clientele that's impressive, almost like, man, maybe that's the pivot. I mean, that could be a fun life for the rest of your life. Could you live off of just training Timbaland alone? Yeah, absolutely. You know what, Phil?

Fuck you. Well, I want to give you the chance to answer this. What's that like? You know, it's one thing to train, you know, Olympian, NFL, or mixed martial artist, or bare knuckle fighter. What's it like training? Athletically ordinary

because these these movie stars they're they're yoked to but you know did they put in the work to get that that's my question i mean i know i know the rock puts in crazy amount of work i know kevin hart puts in a crazy amount of work and this is i'm just saying that i don't train them don't don't say that training but i know the guys that do and i know you know them as as individuals they're the hardest workers in the room wherever they go, right? But Timbaland is the same person. He's the same way. I put him with some of my elite fighters. He trains with Jake sometimes. He trains with Tyler sometimes. I've seen that. Yeah, yeah. You've seen it. And he may not be able to do most of the actual, you know, exercises or anything

like that, but he'll still put in the effort, which is important. And I've noticed with the most elite people, that common theme of effort is solely there. Right. He may be athletically ordinary, but in no other way is he ordinary. What he's trying to say is that Marky Mark does so much shit before you even think about waking up each morning. Yeah, it's not chicken and broccoli that got him those abs. Well, maybe it helps.

Listen, all those guys in Hollywood, who's the guy who plays Thor? Like Hemsworth or whatever his first name is. My wife has a crush on that dude. And she was like, he lifts so many weights. And I'm like, he does? Are you doing Gringo Poppy there right now? Is this what's going on? No, my wife's from South America.

But I was like, yes, he does lift weights. He also lifts SARMs and TRT. They're out and, you know, I'm not hating on it. They do have anything and everything at their disposal. I just try to explain to people, there's a certain kind of realistic perspective you have to have. Even if you work your ass off, there's a level that you're going to level out at, and it doesn't look like Thor. You have a genetic makeup at a genetic ceiling per se, you know, that you have to hit and that that's, that's what it is,

but you can always push it to the actual ceiling of where that is. So, so where, where, where's Phil Daru headed, man? Man, since we talked the first time, you've got like a completely different person in certain ways. I appreciate it. I'm trying to do it all, man. Honestly, you know, I just want to put the people in the right place to do it. You know, I'm trying to build a solid team with everybody that I have here and then scale it. You know, not only not only for this gym, but for gyms to come.

You know, I want to do a licensing where I'm licensing out the methods to all gyms in the world that one, maybe the mentorees that I that I coach to have gyms. They can use those methods. And as we license that, then we can start to do more continuing education on that front. Put together a university or a course that is a CEU for any nationally accredited certification. That's going to help my guys still stay relevant in their certifications. Then on top of that, you know, I want to build something with Tim. We got something big with Pushing Peaks, which is a program that we have out. But it's really more so about optimizing human performance from a whole. And I want to build that up into something spectacular.

Maybe do conferences down the line and then also maybe a sports club. So there's a lot there. I can go on and on. Just don't sell out if they're like, we want you to be the official GM of PowerSlat. Be like... So I had a couple of... I'll just say this. This is just a personal thing for me.

I just want to tell you this on camera. Listen, anyone who makes it from any walk of life, I have respect for, right? And I feel like you're not done, but I do feel like you've made something for yourself pretty special. I especially appreciate it out of the blue collar guys who don't have shit handed to them. And you didn't just do it with hard work,

you did it with constant adult learning, making good decisions, betting on yourself, investing in yourself. You've never been short on that, and I've kind of watched it from afar, and I've been like, yeah, I don't think your success is in any way accidental, bro. It's not.

I appreciate that, really. Coming from you guys, I thank you so much, man, because it really is a constant, constant progression and grind to a degree. Like, I don't stop. It doesn't stop. And I'm grateful and blessed to have the family that I have that understand that.

You know, my wife is phenomenal. She knows that I'm up at 11, 12, 1 o'clock at night still studying, still putting together, you know, plans and programs and formulating new processes so that we can grow and do things that I always saw myself doing. Right. Traveling the world, helping people in accomplishing many things to come and then building something of that, right? Building quote unquote a legacy, but really it's just what I can pass down to the people that follow me. Where does your vision for yourself come from? And when I say vision, I don't mean like that thing. I mean thinking of yourself as someone who is capable

of doing things because honestly, man, that's not necessarily inherent. It certainly not intuitive a lot of people grow up thinking why would I even bother I can't be anything and you had every reason to not think that at least for a certain part of your life but yet you never really seem to you always seem to be like oh I this will always go well yes it's interesting you asked me that because I thought about that last night and I was like it literally last night and I go I've never had doubt in myself like I've always been like strategic we're like okay be smart like it's going to take time and getting older I'm a lot more patient in my approach where

I'm a little bit more strategy based for the most part when I was younger I was like just go after it get it done and in your 20s you can kind of do that when you get to your 30s and and we'll see in my 40s and the great thing is I have people that are at that level in their 40s and 50s like yourself that I can go to see that I did that that I could go to ask for advice on like what did you feel at this particular time in your life what did you feel at this particular time and I'll never forget so Tim is now like a mentor to me too as well not only I he's a business partner but for me I asked him I go you know he goes he actually said I love you and the reason why he

stuck with me is because he loves my my grind my effort the stuff that I put in he was man he's like just keep, he's like, just keep working. He's like, be strategic, be conscious of your thoughts, understand what you're doing, but know that you have to be patient. And his mentor told him, his mentor is a big name. I'm not going to say the name, but he's a big name. Told him, you're not going to make your real money. Just be patient because you're not going to make your real money until you're 50. Because that's when everything comes together. Peak earning years. Yep.

That's what they say. I mean, whatever that means, I just took it as just be patient and it's going to come. And don't look at anybody else and try to dictate what you're doing or feel bad about what you're doing or where you're at because you look at somebody else at a higher level. Yeah, run your own race, motherfucker. Exactly. That was good. I like that. We should put that on shirt yeah so do you see a world where you might just like not train mma

fighters anymore yeah no i definitely do i i'm at that point now where like i have my guys i don't want to take on any new clients to that degree um i have my personal training clients i have my online clients i have my fighters but i'm not interested right now unless it's something that really, it's like Dustin says, like, you got to get me out of bed. You know, in that particular way, I always will help somebody. But I'm going to give them to my coaches that I coach now. So now those young guys coming up, whether they be in the UFC, Bellator, 1FC, whatever, if they come to the gym, I'm going to say, go to, you know, go to K, go to Jack. These are my young

kids that are actually coming up in the game. So I want them to get the experience. I want them to get what I got. So that's where I'm at right now. That's where I'm headed. Well, Phil, I have over the years, man, I will just tell you that like I have all, it's funny, right? I've been, I have always been, not always, but every time there's a new wrinkle, I'm like, huh, look at Phil trying something new, doing this. Like there's new little wrinkles every time. I have to learn to stop being, I guess I am. I'm not, I'm no longer surprised, but you do find ways to grow and reinvent and self, again, better yourself in ways that is just so not just unusual but proof of concept it all mostly anyway that seemed to work for you and I have to say this because you you gave me a spotlight when nobody

did you started me out in this world I always say that I always you know have gratitude towards you and what you've done for me so I thank you once again for putting me out there and let me do what I do. I think nothing of it. It's funny. Do you remember what you asked me when I called you on the phone? Oh, no. You go, why do you want to talk to me? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we walked through it. And in the end, it came out just fine. But I remember you being like, why do you want to talk to me? And I was like, because I think this might be interesting. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. I think at that point, I was kind of like, what's going on here? You know?

And so, and I'm still very selfless. So I'm like, why are you talking to me? You're an MMA journalist to a degree, right? We're combat sport journalists now. Entertainers. We've evolved to entertainers. A hundred percent. Like, you've evolved tremendously.

And you look great in that hat. Thank you very much. I prefer the term pornographer. There you go. Yeah. And I've always watched your breakdowns and everything, and you come at that, in that way, the same way I come at physical preparation. Angry?

Yeah. To a degree. Yeah, fair. Yeah, I see it. Less sad, perhaps. Less sad and depressed. Well, Phil, thank you for bringing us in here, man. Thank you, man.

I guess if folks want to get in touch with you, and I actually don't know, who is the right person for Phil DeRue? Like, who would I send your way? It seems like you cast a pretty wide net. Sure. Yeah, I mean, well, if you were to go to any of my social media accounts, you can get me there. DeRue Strong, at DeRue Strong. And then I have my accounts for the gym and education space. And then my website is DeRueStrong.com.

My Twitter is at Darustrong. If you want to find out more videos and stuff, it's Phil Daru on YouTube. I get all that stuff on there. But if you want to contact me directly, you can contact my assistant, Maureen Shea. She's a two-time world champion boxer. So don't get slick out the mouth.

She trained the million-dollar baby for the film. She looks the part, man. It was great meeting her. Luckily, I didn't tell her my review of the film it just goes off a cliff dude i mean i know it won a lot of awards no one prepared me at all for that it gets sad yeah it gets sad at the end luckily she did no writing on the film yeah fair enough right but at maureen or actually it's it's maureen at darush strong.com there you go all he does is build champions build champions built himself built a business built champions and

imagine this artist could take in an unfinished work like this like this dad bod and give about give about three to six I mean I need to move you know order and see what happens to my life I honestly feel like I'd be I'd look completely different no absolutely I would let you inject me with the effort you put in absolutely for sure well you know Phil I'm pretty pathetic these days but I try I try I'd like to get a saggy nipple like most good champions these days. Smoke weed. I hear that's what you got to do. All right. There he is. Phil DeRue. That's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Morning Comment, Room Service Diaries.