My Mom's Basement - QUARANTINE MINI-POD: CALVIN KATTAR

Episode Date: March 24, 2020

Calvin Kattar joined Robbie via Instagram Live to discuss his fight at UFC 249 in a few weeks, which, as of this recording, is STILL ON! Plus, topics like his fight with Zabit, the coronavirus quarantine, and Tom Brady leaving the Patriots are discussed. Enjoy.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. I did this interview earlier on Instagram Live with Calvin Cater of the UFC who will be fighting at UFC 249, knock on wood, on April 18th. Dana White says that fight is still happening. If you stick around later, I will have an announcement after the interview that I believe you will want to stick around for. And before we get into this, let me just remind you once again about Beat Elite. You know me, I'm not the most active person, but in these trying times, I'm trying to get prison jacked. And while I'm trying to get prison jacked, I got to do it the right way. You got to be consuming the right stuff, you got to be putting the right stuff in your body. I'm obviously putting a lot of trash into my body right now. So I have to

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could do 11 push-ups. One up your Instagram idols. So do what I did. Take your game to the next level with Beet Elite by going to livehuman.com slash mom and get 20% off your first purchase. The team at Human is making this offer exclusively to my listeners only, and we really appreciate them helping us out in these trying times. So we would like to help them out in these trying times, and you will not find a deal like this elsewhere. So go to livehuman.com slash mom. That's live human, H-U-M-A-N.com slash mom, M-O-M, livehuman.com slash mom. Let's get into this interview with Calvin Cater. the past few weeks past few days but you've got a fight that you got to prepare for through all this so how are you keeping your head on your shoulders you know nothing's changed for me i'm just keep my head down staying busy and um the way i attack these camps is really a day-by-day

mindset anyway um it's just just that i always bring that patriots bill belichick mindset we're on so instead of next week it's each session i'm just on to my next session tonight and if i continuously do that and i beat him every day when fight night comes it'll be no difference so i'm just focusing on tonight's session you know then tomorrow's the day this week's ahead it's it's definitely gotten um a little tougher with the the the limited gyms with the open doors right now yeah so i'm kind of on my tony ferguson shit just tackling boxes sidekick and heavy bags just just whatever i can do you know yeah absolutely so what have the past few weeks or past few days been like for you where everything's getting canceled even the ufc events are getting canceled and dana white is staying adamant hey this is happening

we're making sure the tony to beep card gets put on for you guys. But have you been kind of, have you been in the loop? Have you been not in contact with people, not knowing if this fight's going to happen? What's it been like on your end? Of course, everyone's reaching out, you know, and I have no answers for him. I haven't really been updated much, and I know he's probably

getting swarmed. I run a promotion in New Hampshire. We had to cancel our show, but I was getting a lot of communication for that event. So I'm sure he's getting slammed. The last thing I'm going to do is kind of reach out on that. I'm sure he'll reach out to me when it's a need-to-know basis. And for me, all I'm controlling on is focusing on is the things I can control. And everything else, I'll let Dana deal with.

That's why he gets paid the big bucks. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a good call. I think that's probably a good call for you. So you don't know where the fight is right now no clue and honestly i i'll take it back as yesterday i was saying like it's a zero percent chance i think this fight happens i just can't see it but i gotta give dana that you know he's saying it's a 99.99 percent chance that's gonna happen well i'll do the same for him i think that's how it chance that that's going to happen. Well, I'll do the same for him. I think that's how it's, that it's not going to happen, but I'll give him that 0.01 because he's Dana White.

And if anybody can get it done, it'll be him. So I won't say completely rule it out, but even considering that, I've only buckled down and trained harder because of course it's frustrating, but what else am I going to do with that frustration other than go and try to push it that much harder? That's usually how I try to respond to everything. you know, all the stress, aggravation, these chips that I collect, you know, chips on my shoulder. And then I just try to put it into being productive and things that are going to be helpful, useful, and not consider myself like a

victim mindset. And you get small, you know, this is when you got to be bold, big, figure it out, man, figure it out. People are dealing with it. And could be worse. I is when you got to be bold big figure it out man figure it out people are dealing with it um and could be worse i mean you got people in the front lines right now not having a choice you know i gotta go out there my my sister-in-law is one of them she's currently being tested so that kind of x'd out my brother's garage which is oh yeah i was gonna say training as a potato family like have you told everyone stay away from me so yeah it's like oh how are you even finding partners to train with are you like you better fucking stay in your apartment tonight bro yeah it's tough i got a couple i got a couple um a couple guys that you know are cleaners they they want the work just as bad as i do and um and right now the grass is cut

real low and you can see who's around you who's the squad right now in the cartel who do you got right now i mean oh of course, you already know Rob Font and Tyson Chartier, my coach Carlos Neto, Jake Manini. Been there every day almost, holding mitts. And John Dupree Wrestling right here. Shout out to them. Recon Wrestling. Just getting me ready, man.

And it's definitely become more limited But I'm able to see who's sticking it out with me And you know how that is man You appreciate those guys that much more for being here When Everyone else is shutting their doors You just kind of appreciate the ones that are left open And right now

I'm just getting in the work with those type guys Yeah So the last fight you had If we go back for a little bit, before we even get into it, I want to talk to you about the Stevens matchup, like talk about it, because that fight is happening. But the last fight you had against Zabit was awesome. The whole storyline leading up to it where you were going to have the fight in Boston, he gets injured, and then you take the fight in Moscow,

and everyone was all for it, obviously. You going over there across enemy lines. It was cool, New England cartel you have the fight it was a three-round fight three-round main event that everyone wanted to see five of and i think it proved why we wanted to see five in the fight because it felt like it was just starting to heat up what's your takeaway right now months removed from that how do you look back on that fight what did you learn from it how do you feel about it i mean just that i'm used to this shit, man. I'm used to the chaos.

Like, you know, everyone's saying, oh, how do you feel about, you know, your fight got pushed back from Boston. Now you got to go to Russia. I'm going to try my hand and go to Russia this fight, you know. So I'm ready for it. Wherever we got to go, man, it's just part of the game. Being a veteran in the sport this long, it's like things like this happen all the time. That fight would have been a lot cooler had I won, but ran out of time.

I look forward to getting that one back, but I'm still picking up learning lessons from everything. Just like in this situation, you've got to pick up the positives, move on from it, and just not dwell on the past, learn from it, move forward. I'm ready to go. Coming off a loss, I don't give a shit where this fight takes place. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get that last one that tastes out of my mouth. And Jeremy Stephens asked for this fight, so I'm going to get what he asked for.

So going on that, Jeremy Stephens asking for this fight. When somebody does that, you seem like, to me at least, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, you seem like the kind of fighter that you like that when somebody wants to fight, especially someone like Stephens with that striker style that wants to throw down. Am I right there? Yeah, for sure. I thought it was going to happen when he asked for it in person. I didn't know what was going on, you know.

But, you know, at the end of the day, I get it. You know, you got to ask for what you want. And if you don't ask for it, you're not going to get it. But you also got to be careful what you ask for, you know. Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew. And definitely taking some chips with this one. Jeremy, he's a tough kid, man. He's on a little 0-3 skid.

But that's what happens, man. You're fighting some of the best guys in the world. You know, top ten guys, shit happens. This is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sport. And I know he's going to come out guns blazing, and I'm going to be looking to put him away. So it'll make for a fun fight. Assuming they keep just the main card, we'll be kicking off the night and, uh, I can't wait. Do you, have you been, uh,

really trying not to use the, who the fuck is that guy chirp at him? Because if I was fighting Jeremy Stevens, bro, everything he said to me, I'd just send that clip. I'd be like, I'm fighting the, who the fuck is this guy? That's just, it's a miracle, man. It's funny that like, that's the claim, you know, it's, yeah, definitely. It's a it's a miracle man it's funny that like that's the claim you know it's yeah he's a vet of the sport and definitely claim to fame at this point is the he's the bad guy yeah yeah and and uh you know after this fight hopefully they're still wondering man it it's a great opportunity though to be on a khabib ferguson card that i was supposed to i was on it when it was supposed to happen back last April, I want to say,

in Brooklyn. You know, it's cursed. Brooklyn's cursed. And just going to make the best of it, man. But shout out to Trifecta, man, staying with me, too. And all they got to start doing now is shipping out water and toilet paper. And I don't even got to leave my house. It's a trifecta hooking it up.

We went grocery shopping the other day, me and my roommate, and shopping in New York City right now is crazy. You're standing outside grocery stores because you can't have too many people in there at once, and you're standing six feet apart from everyone. There's no toilet paper anywhere. It's complete madness. So talking about another guy, a veteran of this sport that I'm a massive fan of, was my, I would say, my first true favorite fighter of all time, Joe Lozon.

Yeah. I want to talk about Joe Lozon for a second. Ask what you think his legacy on mixed martial arts will be when people look back at Joe's career. As a guy that's been there with him a ton, you know, you're around him all the time. Yeah, he just lays it out. He puts it all on the line every time he goes out and fights. Formerly it was called team aggression, and the more I got to train with him,

the more I realized that stigma and how they bring that and what that means to him because you see him do his rounds, man. He comes in and he brings it every time. The guy in the gym is not the guy in the cage. He comes out, he's dropping elbows. It's a switch that flips. But in the New England area especially, you know, his impact is huge, bringing together a lot of the best guys in New England for a home gym right now.

We're all coming in every Saturday, getting work. And, yeah, shout out to Joe and Lazon MMA and everybody going down there. It's great to see New England on the map right now with MMA. I think you're just seeing the tip of the iceberg. I think there's a lot of lower level guys that are feeding off what's going on right now and you'll see them in time to come.

Yeah, I think you're right. I've been all in on the New England cartel for a while. I try to follow the Boston-based fighters because Barstool is a Boston-based site, I know that our fans are going to be down with you guys. And I think a wave is coming. So something that happened in your weight division very recently, this whole Korean zombie

Brian Ortega thing. I just wanted to get your take on it. If people aren't aware, basically, this guy Jay Park was the Korean zombie's translator. And he translated some stuff that Korean zombies said about Ortega on that Helwani show. At the most recent UFC fight, Ryan Ortega went up to this translator when Korean Zombie went to the bathroom. He smacked him right in the face, and this has been huge controversy throughout the whole thing. These are two guys that I guess I could see you mixing up with.

You're all in the top. I'm going to mix up with everybody, man. Give me a chance. Give me some time. I'm going to mix up with everybody, man. Give me a chance. Give me some time. I'm going to mix up with everybody that calls themselves the best guy in the division. But I didn't know if he was saying that. I didn't know if he was just legitimately translating what the zombie was saying. I heard he was.

Is that all he was doing? Yeah. That's kind of fucked up. Fucked up. Fucked up to wait until he goes to the bathroom, too. I mean, at least he slapped him and not punched him because, I mean, if you punched him, it's a little worse. But honestly, yeah, it's kind of, I mean, the people that I spoke to are kind of like,

man, why did he wait until he went to the bathroom? That's, you know, that's some bitch shit. How do you do a slap as a fighter? As a guy that's been in, I'm sure, scraps as well, like going up to someone, let's remove this from the situation. We're not talking about Ortega in this part. Just going up to someone and giving them a smack instead of a punch, I'm sure, scraps as well. Like going up to someone. Let's remove this from the situation. We're not talking about Ortega. Just going up to someone and giving them a smack instead of a punch. I'm a big fan.

Really? Yeah. A good Nate Diaz Stockton smack? More disrespectful than a, yeah. I mean, that's Stockton's with the open hand. I think the New England cartel slaps backhand. Backhand like that guy? Did you see the video of that guy?

It was the viral. He like licked his hand, smacked it out. Yeah. That's how we do it in the New England cartel. We backhand. Did you see the video of that guy? He licked his hand, smacked it, and it went over the bench. That's how we do it in the New England Card Show. We backhand. I'm a fan of the slap. I think it's a good way to get your message across without really doing much damage and just trying to insult someone.

It depends. It's a tool for everything. I think to insult a rapper, maybe, I think that was probably one of the better ones he could do, aside from a shove. I'm writing that down. Calvin Candace's slaps are okay. Next time I get beat with somebody fucking. I'm a fan of the slap.

I'm a backhand slap guy. Sends more of a message, you know, and you hit him with the knuckles. The knuckles, yeah. The knuckles leave four little bruises on there. That's good stuff. All right, before we get you out of here, I got two more questions two more questions for you sir first of which your top five quarantine snacks for the people it could be drinks could be snacks just five things you need in the quarantine i mean fight camp quarantine this shit no no no no like post fight camp quarantine post fight

bro i'm telling you i'm i'm nervous right now always post fight first thing i go to is a ralphie's cutlet it's an italian restaurant out here i go to is a ralphie's cutlet it's an italian restaurant out here i go to after every fight and i even sign contracts there now just to get it going but it's the best i'm a big uh chicken palm guy but aside from that um i'm a i'm a popcorn addict um you know enter in or outside of camp if it's outside of camp i like to throw some bacon with it a little bacon popcorn maple maple syrup yeah you just do movie theater butter you do kettle corn how are you cooking that shit up yeah so it kind of comes out like uh like uh like the crackerjack type style because it's covered in the maple syrup a little bit of honey

and the bacon fat you throw it with the popcorn oh yeah yeah cartel is going to be coming out with some food reviews soon like like you see everybody else doing all these spiders now they're like what the hell else am i doing my time they're all doing cooking shows yeah throw up a tutorial how to make the calvin cater popcorn yeah cartel popcorn man we're working on it we got a youtube page going we just started it uh you know shout out to martin foley getting it going off the ground and uh we're gonna have some fun with it going off the ground. And we're going to have some fun with it on there, especially the longer this goes. Shout out to the cartel.

And then finally, before we get you out of here, I feel like people are going to want to know. Your guy Tom Brady, he's gone. He went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. How do you feel about it? Hurts, man. What world am I living in right now? I know. It doesn't feel good still. I'm waiting for somebody to just wake

me up. It hurts me, but of course the guy's done so much for us over the years. I've learned so much. I've seen his career, the systems that him and Belichick were able to implement with how they played the game, their mental approach to the game, the laser focus. I bring all that

into MMA, man. I take whatever I can, whatever can translate, and you'd be surprised how much can. Just more mindset and how they deal with adversity and just focusing on the next task at hand. So the guy's been a great leader of what it means to be a true champion over the last, what, you know, couple decades. It's like, it's pretty unbelievable what he's been able to do. I'm happy to be a fan and a witness to that legacy and greatness, man. And I hope he gets another one next year, either him or Belichick. Oh, really? Yeah.

I don't care. Yeah. So you'll root for him if they're not playing the Pats? Yeah, man. How can you not? You know? How can you not? Yeah.

All right. I'm a Redskins fan, so I don't really give a shit about football. Because how could I? You've been in the dumps a long time. Yeah. I don't think we've had, like, a could I? You've been in the dumps a long time. Yeah. I don't think we've had, like, a quarterback two seasons in a row since I was born. So it's been really rough.

You don't see that happen, man. You've got to appreciate that. That's that Kobe with the Lakers, the greats, man. They stick around for a long time. But I'll tell you, I do respect his decision to not just settle for something he feels isn't right for him right now, especially with the legacy he's already developed. It's so easy for him to just go right off in the sunset,

but he's just got that hunger and that drive to get more. I love that competitive spirit. And shout out to him for even saying, you know what, I'm going to get out of this. I've got another, what, year or two left in me. I'm going to go get me a championship, and if it's not here, it's going to be with somebody else. And I just love that competitive drive.

And he just – he's got it in him, and he can't – he's got to – he's just got to listen to it, or else he won't be able to live. You're talking about him like he's your quarterback, Calvin. No, I love him, man. I'm going to talk. He's not. He left you. He left you.

You're going to stink next year, I think. Finally, the past first year since I was born where you guys are not going to be so great. I'm looking forward to that. This was fun, though. I appreciate you joining. I hope that you fight on April 18th. We'll see.

Man, I was hoping to come to Brooklyn and go in the real setup. I know, yeah. The basement, right? Is that what it is? When this whole thing is over, we'll get you in there, yeah. I'm in. I plan on here. So Brooklyn's got some good donut shops.

I need some post-fight donuts. So I'll be coming through as soon as they lift the band. Fuck yeah. All right. Good talking to you, man. Oh, you too, bro. Take care. Stay healthy.

All right. Thank you very much to Calvin for joining the show. That was a lot of fun today.