Nuanced. - 154. Aiemann Zahabi: How to Develop Mental Toughness & Defy the Odds with a UFC Fighter

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Aiemann Zahabi reveals how to develop grit and determination, the spiritual and physical benefits of observing Ramadan, his impressive 4-fight winning streak in the UFC, and his latest endeavour with a new YouTube channel.Aiemann Zahabi is a Canadian bantamweight fighter in the UFC, celebrated for his string of early first-round victories and as the sibling of Tristar Gym's famed head coach, Firas Zahabi.Send us a textThe "What's Going On?" PodcastThink casual, relatable discussions like you'd overhear in a barbershop....Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

Welcome back to another episode of The Bigger Than Me podcast. Here is your host, Aaron P. He has been on the show before. I find him to be incredibly wise, insightful, and an absolute wealth of knowledge. I'm speaking with the man, the myth, the legend. Amon, Zahabee. Amon, I missed you. I feel like we don't hang out anymore.

I told you to get me out after my last fight. It took a whole month here, man. Oh, my God. Okay. For people who don't know you, would you mind just really briefly introducing yourself? Yeah. So I fighting the UFC. I just fought recently, actually, a month ago, and I won again. I beat an undefeated fighter. Someone was never lost, which was a big accomplishment for me, especially that everybody counted me out. So I was really happy with that performance. And I've gone to win four fights in a row in the UFC. And now I've become a YouTuber. Yes, there's lots to talk about, lots to catch up on. Maybe let's start with the mindset of going in to fight somebody. undefeated. Yeah. I mean, it was interesting because I saw, when I watched the tape of him fight, I look for the holes and his weaknesses and stuff like that. And I just feel like a lot of

people, they just focus on his positives and they don't see the weaknesses. So everyone was kind of doubting me because I have two losses and this guy has none. And I've won three straight in the UFC. He's won three straight in the UFC. So obviously he should win. So they're just going off the numbers and statistics. But that's, not why we play the game right you know statistics don't judge who's going to win you know you got to go in there and play it right that's why a lot of times you have these great like underdog stories where the underdogs win because they don't know what's inside here and they don't know what's inside your heart too so uh it was interesting to go there as an underdog and at one point i was

after round one i was like minus 1200 i sorry plus 1200 so i was the underdog so yeah So, which is huge, man. Huge. It's disrespectful. Yeah, very disrespectful. So it was nice to prove everybody wrong. And, you know, when it was training camp, I just put the blinders on. I believed in myself and I believed in my team on what we were doing.

And I brought in some, you know, world-class fighters to help me. And I just got ready and I knew that people's opinions don't fight for the guy. Nobody intercedes for him. In the end, it's just me and him. You know, that's the only thing that matters is how we fight. how do you develop the mental fortitude to not let this undefeated streak get into your head of like well he's undefeated he can't lose like how do you make sure that those i don't know demons don't get into your head yeah it's not easy it's an easy job to fall into that for sure but like one of the things that i do is uh i watch my opponent's bite and then i watch one of mine then i watch the next one of his and then i watch one of mine and i'm watching him but i'm watching him but i I'm also watching his opponents. And so, like, what me and for us will do is we'll be like, okay, well, he's scoring these strikes or these takedowns because his opponents are doing what?

What are they doing that are giving up the takedown or allowing him to land the strikes? And then we watch my tape and we see, oh, but I don't react the way they react in these situations. And what can I do to double down and make sure that I don't get hit the way they got hit? And what can I do to avoid the takedowns that they gave up? So we also look at it from perspective of what was he, why did he win? Like what was so bad about his opponents or what mistakes did they make? And then we try to realize, okay, did he win because he forced them to make an error or or his opponents making errors on their own?

So we take that into consideration too. So there are different layers on preparing yourself for a fight. You can't just focus on the guy you're fighting, but you have to take a look at why he won the fights against those opponents and then we come to the realization oh i don't do a lot of the habits that these guys do i don't do the mistakes they do and for me if you don't force an error there's a very little chance i'm going to give up an error whereas some of the guys he fought they gave up a lot of errors and then they spiraled out of control and it's not my personality or my characteristic or my style of fighting to do what they did you know i'm much more conscientious of

the time elapsed in the fight, and I'm much more of a ring general. So, like, have strength that these opponents didn't have, and that helped me build the confidence to go in there. You're like my life guru. I have a follow-up specific question to that. Yeah. I'm wondering how transferable that mindset of looking at your opponent's errors and maybe where their weaknesses lie applies to regular people.

And what I mean by that is, like, so often I find that we struggle with our own self- confidence. We go, I'm not very good at that and I could be better at this, but we don't really go, how could I be better than the colleague that I'm working next? Like, how could I improve? Not in like a malicious, like, that person sucks and I'm better than them, but like, how can I bring more to the table? How much do you think is transferable in regards to looking at your opponent's weaknesses? It's super transferable for sure, because you need to be able to be strong where your opponents are weak or the person you're competing against is weak. But also, you have to strengthen your game where you're strong as well.

So because you want to do better than they do where they're bad, but they also have strengths and you have to help do them there as well. So that's why, like, there's a really good quote I like, really specific for fighting, but I think it works in a lot of different things. It's offense and defense are the two blades of the same pair of scissors. Okay, so like without both blades, you can't use the scissors. And the same thing with fighting. Like, you can be really good on offense, but if you've got no defense, you're going to get cooked.

Like, you might beat certain guys, but you can't beat everybody. And if you've only got a really good defense, you may not be able to finish somebody. You know, and you may not be able to go out there and take the wind, because in some fights, you have to take it. And in some fights, you know, it's given to you, right? So you need that balance of offense and defense always working together. And it's the same thing with strength and weaknesses. So you need to, obviously, outdo them in their weaknesses, but you need to also crush them in their strengths too, right? You have to find a way to outplay them as much as possible.

possible and at the same time cover your weaknesses so that you don't get outplayed and it's really interesting that when you talk about work and stuff like that or competing against another business or another company or another employee doesn't have to be so direct the competition right it's more like we each have our own lane and we're each trying to climb this ladder right and we're being judged independently especially if we're working for the same company you don't need to be like head-to-head and malicious competition and there's another quote actually i just saw the other the day, whereas a lot of times your competition, they end up dying from suicide. They don't get killed by you. They end up having their own errors. Right. So sometimes all you have to do is

don't worry about other people. Like, you know, the horses, when they run really fast because they have the blinders on, they don't see the other horses, they don't get distracted. Sometimes all you need to do is keep the blinders on yourself and work on your game, work on your game, especially if you're like competing against someone in the same business. Don't sabotage them. Don't attack them. Don't go crazy offensive. Build from the, inside, fortify inside out, you know? And then that way, if they create, if they make an error on their own, Bob, you, you skyrocket, right? You jump 10 steps ahead of them. That's one thing I feel like we do see quite a bit within the UFC specific, like within fighting specifically, is somebody

will go, oh, that person's not very good at wrestling. Like, think of Sean O'Malley, like, oh, maybe he's not good at wrestling. So I'm going to try and wrestle him. And then they kind of, they lose what brought them to the dance to begin with. Maybe they are a great striker, but they're not at maybe Sean O'Malley's level. So then they kind of just try and go in and go, well, this is what he's not good at. So I'm just gonna hone in on that. And it's almost an error because you don't do

what brought you to the game. I think Michael Chandler has received some of that criticism of like he's a great wrestler, but he never uses his wrestling. He never wrestled because he loves, he loves that gritty element of the sport. He likes putting on exciting fights. And so it's hard to find that balance.

Do you find that struggle as well? Yeah, of course, we're all struggling with that. That's the difference between winning and losing. you know and uh it's it's interesting because you know when you when you're striking when you're doing let's say like this we talk specifically about striking okay and like when you when you have a new student and you're teaching them how to box and how to kickbox and how to do all that stuff um you know you teach them certain rules of the game general thumbnails you know thumb like rules of thumb i mean these some general rules of thumbs and they have to follow keep your hands up

keep your chin down uh never circle to the power side always circle to the weak side you can give them all these different rules to protect them, to cocoon them. You give them these parameters. But as they level up in the game and they attain a certain level of mastery of the different skills, you get to play outside those rules, outside those parameters, almost like you don't need the parameters. Like if you watch my fight, this last one, I circle to the power side, almost the entire fight, you know, and against Eric Elyne, the plan was to circle towards the power site. But sometimes I prepare so well to counter their best strike or their most powerful strike. And I want to basically egg them on.

Like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm going to go to your power strikes, you throw it. I dare you. Please, please. I dare you, this guy to please take his best shot because I have it ready, have the answer ready. And one of the things for this fight with, sorry, with Javid Boshat, I had a blank there for a moment. With Javid Boshrat, he takes all his opponents down. or watching his fights my brother said well he always takes them down

but what happens to him if he can't score the takedown will he crumble will he run out of gas because to be able to do what he does to the other guys he fought that when he got that takedown it gave him a break to be able to sustain the footwork he has on his feet because the way he bounces around it costs a lot of energy so it's inefficient

It's a lot of in and out, stepping in out, maintaining range, maintaining range, maintain range, maintain a range, in and out, take, fake, fake, in it out, it's a lot of work. So when he scores that takedown and he ground and pounds the guy, he softens them up. When they get back on their feet, he's fresh, and his opponent is exhausted from taking the damage, from being out-wrestled, from being out-grappled. So we haven't seen a fight with him. We just fight standing. So one thing we were prepared for was we have to make sure our footwork, there's a plan implemented,

that he cannot score an easy takedown. There is no such thing as an easy takedown. And you see in round two, when he finally decided to shoot, he missed the first one. He got frustrated, started walking me down, and that's when I started hitting him. And then he shot again. He missed the second one. Then he shot a third one. He was scrambling in his mind.

And that's why I feel like I forced an error on him eventually because he got frustrated. He got emotional. I didn't. His deterioration also started from within. Then I had to, I picked up on it, and I'm near the end of round two. You see, he was getting so frustrated. he kept walking in and throwing strikes and I landed on one strike that dropped him to one knee. Right?

So that's how I ended up winning round too. But, you know, so sometimes they can do an error on their role or you can force an error upon them. You know, so that's kind of like part of the whole strategy building game. Okay. I want you to be honest with me. I need an honest moment out of you. Yeah. How, when you're looking at your opponent, how much do you know that you're better than them?

Like, how confident is that? Going into fight week, everybody's like, oh, I'm going to take them to them. I'm going to destroy them. I'm the man. But it's like how much of that is real? How confident are you when you look at the tape? Do you go, oh, I'm going to eat you for breakfast here? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, like when I was undefeated, that was me every single fight. And after I lost my first one, I had, you know, it wasn't as easy. I was struggling early. But now this last fight was the first one, I was like, I got this. You know, I had won three straight. And not one of those three where I was like, it's for sure I could do it. like a hundred percent it's always like i could win i could win and this one warming up i felt like everything has culminated to this point where i am at my best now and it took 20 years so we

figured it out and we put it all together and now i just feel like if they can't force an error out of me i'm going to win i just have to be myself and i finally reached that point of of uh acknowledgement of my own skills and my own abilities that i have the compass i can go out there there and beat anybody and how much did it play in when you're seeing those odds does i i've heard it said that like fighters can be sensitive about those things and i know like lots of people say oh i think this person's going to win and then that can be like i like i don't want to come on your show i know ariel hawani infamously doesn't like making picks because that can actually offend fighters and go like why would i come on your show if you're betting against me if you think

i'm not going to win so how much does how much does that play into your mindset does it have a negative impact. Sounds like you had a really good mindset going into it, but those odds, they can eat away at you. Yeah, I didn't know the actual numbers. I just knew as an underdog because, you know, like, there was the whole thing about James Krause and his team, maybe fixing fights and stuff. So basically, the UFC sent out an email saying that fighters and their friends and family can't bet on the fights, right? So, like, nobody around me tells me the numbers because I don't want to get in trouble. So, like, I told everybody, if anybody's, I don't know about anything about betting. I don't want to get in trouble with the UFC or like the commissions

or anything like that. So nobody around me tells me numbers, which is good because they do hurt emotionally, right? So I knew that I was another dog, but I didn't know by how much. And like, I think the most offended was for us. Like, for us could not believe how big the numbers were. Like, he was shocked. He took offense. He took big offense to it. But me, I'm just happy to prove everyone wrong. That's fantastic. Do you think that that's also applicable to other people? Like I find that I do better when I start to think of the naysayers, the people who didn't think I was going to graduate high school, the people that thought I was going to join a gang. Like I get like fuel from thinking that people don't believe in me. And I feel like that's a certain percent

and then believing in yourself is also a certain percent. But that having the naysayers is almost key to wanting to go out and prove them wrong. Yeah, I agree. I think it's fuel, man. Some people let it crush them. Some people use it as fuel. So it's either one person or the other, but me, I use it as fuel. I love it. I don't mind it at all. Was there anything unique about the fight camp that you did for this one? Well, yeah, we doubled up on the cardio because he, in his three wins in the UFC, excuse me, in his three wins in the UFC, he won decisions in all of them. So we thought more likely than not, we're going to go all the whole 15. So instead of doing, it's normally what I do is I do like a martial arts practice and then

I have a second martial arts practice and then I do my conditioning, five, six days a week. So this time for us said, no, we're going to do your martial arts practice, conditioning, then another practice and then another conditioning. So I was doing conditioning like you wouldn't believe it. It was crazy. The amount of times I was running. And like, people were freaking out. People are like, what are you training for? What's going on here? Like, I don't think we've ever done it that hardcore. And I'm happy because it's. it paid off because you see in round three he gassed man and i didn't gas he gasped and the commentators are saying in round one that they did an interview with him on like the during the week and he thought

that the reason why i don't throw a lot of strikes it's because i'm afraid to gas i don't not throw a lot i'm afraid to gas i don't throw a lot because i'm efficient if you look at the numbers after that fight he threw like 50 or 60 strikes more than me but i out struck him i out i landed more strikes than him. So I landed like 52% of my strikes. He landed like 28%. So yeah, you're throwing all these strikes, but you're not scoring, brother. You got to score. In the end, you got to score. And the number one criteria to win a fight is who does the most damage. And he's hitting and moving and running and touching and going. He's playing tying, I'm not. I was looking, like, you can tell my strikes, there were thumps. And I was looking to put him out. It's looking to put

him out. Fascinating. And so how do you feel after that win? You're the man. What's the next step after that. Well, I felt amazing. It felt really, really good. You know, I'm still living and I'm still high from the fight. I still feel like things are going really, really well. And the UFC was happy with the outcome, too.

I think everybody was happy. Like, the fight was a really good fight is what I mean. And I decided, do you know what? It's time. I got to start a YouTube channel. So, you know, it was Ramadan. It's all Ramadan right now. Still, it's almost finished.

And I had a lot of free time in the day. So I was like Googling, YouTube, how to do this stuff, and how to, you know, buy the right. equipment and film videos and do the editing and figuring all that stuff out. So I'm only training at night. So in the daytime, I've just been preoccupying with setting up my socials and really like trying to expand my presence in the social media realm. Brilliant. I want to get into that, but I just want to ask, do you have a next fight that you imagine for yourself? Do you know what

that next step looks like for you? I'm hoping it's something like in the top 15 would be great. That would be nice. And for me, I think September would be really good. September, October. because Ramadan, like, you know, it threw a monkey wrench in my physical shape, you know, like I'm not in the best shape right now, I'm only training once a day, and I'm not eating the best because I'm not drinking or eating all day. So I'm picking out at night. And then I got to recover from that. I got to start training again, get back into the routine of things and just sharpen my skills back up to what they were. And I can be ready for, like, the fall. I have a cursory understanding of Ramadan. Would you mind explaining it for people who might not know?

yeah so basically we don't eat from sunrise to sunset and no water no food nothing and uh it's really interesting it's a it's a very humbling experience because you know like we've spoken about fasting in the past before together uh the difference between Ramadan and the other type of fasting is that when you fast for like weight loss and stuff you're drinking water all day you can have your black coffee you can have some sodium some electrolytes in your water but when you're drinking no liquids We have no liquids and no food. It's a different type of hunger. And you get these different types of headaches from the dehydration.

And then when you sit down to have your meal, there's no more appreciation for grocery stores, fast food, ovens, fridges, everything tastes amazing. You know, we take it for granted how easy it is to snack and drink all day. And there's nothing that makes you more grateful to have the, you know, the ability to eat and drink whenever you want. You know, the comforts of the West are amazing. What is the, like, the religious belief behind it? What, like, what brings it about?

Basically, it's to keep you humble, to keep your head on the swivel, because, you know, when people start making a lot of money or start moving up in the world, they have a lot of these comforts, they forget what it's like to have them taken away. So it's mandatory for all of us who practice Islam to fast during Ramadan and it's to humble you to remember that there are people out there still today while you have the comforts while you have the money they can't afford food they don't have a pair

of shoes they don't have clothes they don't have homes to live in and it's a time where you tell the stories of the prophets also during this time of Ramadan so you get to hear a lot about their life stories and it's also humbling because a lot of the prophets started with nothing you know they weren't born kings the prophets right a lot of them were poor So you get to hear all these stories, even though, you know, the Prophet Muhammad has a, there's a story about him, and he's walking in the middle of the night during Ramadan, and he sees a couple of his companions strolling the night because they're, sorry, the evening, just before they break their fast. So they haven't broken their fast, and they're hungry, so they're just walking around and just keeping their mind busy and avoiding cheating and eating something. and they're asking how is your fast going he says you know it's going well i'm just out for a walk and they're talking chit-chatting or whatever and he asked him how is yours and then they show him that

they had the stones tied around their bellies with ropes to squish against their belly so that they don't feel their hunger pains and they ask him how he's doing and he shows them he's got two stones he's got two stones tied around his waist so it's just it's just interesting to see how like Even then they suffered, you know, like, you know, Prophet Muhammad is like, you know, the most revered prophet. And he suffered during Ramadan. And if he's suffering, why can we suffer? Why can we take the time out to suffer? And he was, you know, leading the empire, right?

So we should all take a chance and humble ourselves for this time and to remember that not everyone can afford food and water and clothes and homes and all these things. That's incredible. Do you have any other stories that you like from the prophets? Yeah, but I love the story of Noah. actually Noah's Ark, like the Islamic version has like a small little twist, a little bit of a difference, is that when it's time to get on the boat, Noah tells his wife and son to come on, right, to go on with the animals and everyone who's going to believe in God and get on the ship, and his son refuses. And Noah and asks God to change their minds. And God says, no, I can't change their minds. They have free will. You know, it's their choice. They either come on the ship by their own will or they don't. And so they decide not to, and they don't go on the boat and they die.

And it's a really interesting story because I tell this story to my kids every Ramadan. And it's because in the end, if they choose to follow God, it's up to them. I am going to do my best to teach them what I know and what I learned. But their relationship with God is there is on their own. And same thing for my wife, same thing for everybody. So you can't go around trying to force people to do what you believe. You just teach them what you know and what you can, which you understand. And if they take it great, if they don't take it, that's on them.

It seems like you've also incorporated that. In one of our previous conversations, you talked about helping people lose weight. And if they don't participate at a certain point, it's like, I can't train you anymore. Because if you're not going to agree to the path, then I'm not going to take responsibility for the lack success you're seeing. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the choice is yours. All we have is free will. You have nothing else. Nothing is in your control. Nothing. I have absolutely no control. The only thing you can control is your decisions and your attitude about how you take things, right? That's all you got. So if you're not on board with my plan to make you lose weight and I know this plan

works, that's life, man. You go on your own. I go on my own. There's no amount of money that you're going to pay me that's going to make me take the money and just try to motivate you. I can't motivate you. It is what it is. You know, the same thing for, religion, you know. I teach what I can. If you're not down for it, and it is what it is. I know you're Mr. Philosophy. So I'm just curious. What are your thoughts on Sam Harris and his perspectives that there is no free will? I'm not a PhD neuroscientist like him, but he's debated the Muslim scholars and other people before. And, you know, they've made fun of him for his take, especially on Islam and things like that. So like I wouldn't have the skills to

debate him in that sense but it's something that we all feel you know it's something that we all feel in the end uh you know for example you could take someone and kidnap them and beat them and do all those things to them like let's say like the people in um the people in oschwitz i say the people who got killed and murdered by uh the nazis right one of the people that they had in those camps was uh victor frankl and he wrote a book it's called a manse for meaning and he talks about it and he's look they took everything from us our families our homes our money our clothes they sleep us 21 people on a little cramped bed everyone's sleeping sideways and on top of each other they feed us nothing but like warmed up water with little bits of vegetables like nothing nothing they're giving them

literally the bare minimum of everything but yet every day they decide to wake up and do the work that is asked of them why why do they get up and why are they slaves to these Nazis so why did they dig the trenches why do they build the railroads why do they help do whatever it is the nazis made them do why didn't they just say yeah you know what put me in the gas chamber man give me a couple of bolts in the back of my head why didn't they just say that why didn't they just quit what is it about us human beings what is it that we have that makes us keep going you know and he talks about the answers in that book and one of them one of the answers is love you know the hope of seeing being reunited with your wife or your children or your loved ones.

And then the other answer is like, you know, seeing that this is not the end and accepting that there will be something greater after all of this, right? Something more than this, something more that you can come out after this on the other side. I haven't read the book in years, but I remember he has like two beautiful points about that. You know, and then so like it's hard for me to, I can never debate this. I don't know it well enough, but I know that those stories from that book and things like that that really made me feel like

for real is really the only thing we can't believe in. Right. I have to take personal accountability to you. Yeah. I did not do the three-day fast. I tried. I tried. I tried twice. When did we meet a person, but I fell. Okay, okay.

I have another I have another couple of motivating assets here for you. Knuckle sandwiches. I I so I what my plan was this was the vision and and we'll get there we're going to do this this is going to happen the vision now that I had was I was leading up to today and I was going to have you on and I was going to eat my first meal during the interview that was had it all set up and then I got to yesterday or the the night before and I couldn't think clearly I had such

a horrible headache so I have such sympathy for people going through Ramadan because I I couldn't, I think it might have been caffeine withdrawals, but I had so much, I had a meeting to go to and I couldn't think straight. And I was like, I don't want to quit. Hey, Mon's going to call me out. He's going to threaten my life. But I want to get through this. I want to force myself through this. I know it's possible.

It's just mental fortitude. And I hit it and I just couldn't think straight. And I had to go to this meeting. And I broke it. And I knew I was going to disappoint you. So I had to look you in your eyes and say, it's going to happen. We hit the two day mark. It was easy.

It was easy. It's pretty good. two days but we didn't hit the three days and so I disappointed you and I just wanted to take personal accountability no no no problem no problem but tell me so you've been fasting regularly now or what yeah so I've always been like for the past couple of years I've done like one meal a day for the most part and just doing it that way and so two days I did almost right after we did our interview I was like oh he's got me all hyped up I'm going to do this and then I hit that two day point and then I just broke it out of laziness, but the one that the yesterday was, was just pure.

I couldn't think straight. And so my new strategy is, as you mentioned, you can do black coffee or caffeine pills. And so I think it might have been caffeine withdrawals that hit me and I just couldn't get over that lapse. So I think the next one I'm going to be more prepared. The next time you come on, I'm going to be having a, having a meal written. You should, man. Yeah, black coffee doesn't break your fast because it doesn't spike your insulin. You can have things that don't spike your insulin.

then you'll be okay. Yeah, I hit that point, and then I had huge admiration. I know some people who were going through Ramadan, and I was eating a breakfast wrap in front of them, and they were like, what are you doing, you monster? And I was like, okay, okay, I'm sorry. My mistake turned off the camera. You should try a dry fast one day. It's interesting.

It's an interesting feeling, man. It's an interesting feeling. A dry fast. Yeah, that's no water or anything, right? Yeah. Yeah. What would you say the differences from having water and having no water? Well, the dehydration, so you get that headache really early on.

Oh, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got to deal with it all day. But, you know, you're supposed to still be nice, which is not easy, right? Because you're cranky and you're tempered and all this. And it's a real test. It's a real test of character. That is a really good lesson to have to avoid that because you have to be careful on how you communicate. And it is a lesson in humility and understanding and patience.

Yeah. The YouTube channel, what made you get really excited about starting it? Yeah, you know, like. Like a lot of people around me, you've always been telling me that, you know, you should do your own channel. You speak well, you answer questions well. Maybe you can do your own thing. So I was like, yeah, okay. And then after this win, it was such a good win for my career. I just feel so established now in the UFC. I'm on my third contract there. And now I have more wins in the UFC than I had before the UFC.

Sorry, more fights, not wins, but more fights in the UFC than I had before. So I was like, you know what, I'm established now. I have credibility. I lived it. done it. So, like, I just feel like I have enough credibility now to go on there on socials and on YouTube and give my opinions. And a lot of people say I had it already. But now I just mentally for myself, I just feel like I've accomplished enough to give back to the community much more now. What's the pitch? What's unique about your YouTube channel? What are people tune in in for? Well, the first thing I started with is I'm going to start doing like watch parties and live streams. So tune into UFC 300. I'm going to have a watch party here in the house

go with my wife louis sanadakis and jordan deichler we're going to have first time we're going to have four people on uh so we're going to be analyzing the fights and giving like an alternate commentary because not everybody likes the commentary that ufc provides so this is another way to watch the fights and get commentary from fighters and also my wife where i call the casual because you know what's great about my wife being on the show is that she doesn't know everything about mbmay right she's like the mainstream person right so she asks a lot of questions that people are too shy to ask when they're in the room with fighters. Because that's such a dumb question.

My wife, she's a casual. We all know she's a casual. So it's all good if she asks. And the people that follow who watch the live stream, they appreciate her questions because they might be thinking to ask that, but they're embarrassed to ask me in the chat. So she brings like a really good angle, and plus she's funny and things like that.

So it's great. And then on top of that, I'm going to have another phase where I'm going to be doing technique videos. So I'm going to teach her different facets of martial arts. and how to do them successfully in fight situation, not just like the fluffy stuff people teach you, but you never actually can use. I'm going to use like fight level skills

will be taught on my YouTube channel. And I'm going to have another type of video where I'm going to do like reaction videos and stuff like that and like analyzing fights. It's always cool to see somebody step out and try something new. What has been the biggest challenge in starting this YouTube channel? Oh, man, I'm going through all the YouTube videos to figure out how to do, like use my OBS, get my mic and everything synced up, make sure I have like, like, now you see my wall, but like now I finally figured out how to use my green screen. I'm getting a green screen so that you don't see my back, you just see me.

And so when I'm imposed on a video, I don't obstruct anything. So just learning the skills of the trade and then dealing with the YouTube suppression right now. YouTube suppression. And because I don't have a lot of followers as subscribers, I mean, like when you type in my name, my channel doesn't come up. Like, my channel comes in like the fourth page, right? Because I have interviews with like you and other channels and they have a lot of views. So I'm getting crept by my own interviews on other people's shows. So it's pretty funny.

So like I have to like make sure people like I send people the link or I tweet my link or I put on Instagram the link so people can find me because nobody can find me on YouTube right now. So I feel like, though, eventually, like, as I big build a following, it'll snowball. What's the channel actually called? Called Eman Zahabhi official. I had it originally, Amon Zahabhi, and it was hell to find me. I added official because, like, on my interviews and stuff, official is not there. So I tried to, like, make it so that it's easier to find. Slightly easier, but not much easier.

Right. And what has been your favorite part of starting it? Like, what have you grown the most in, or what do you look most forward to in doing this? I'm excited to chat with the fans and get into some more dialogue in the comments, you know? Like, I'm interested to, like, I love the lives, like, the watch party. That's my favorite right now because, like, I like to chit-chat with the people, like, when they write in, I like to answer their questions as the fights are happening. You know, and if they ask me what the fighter could do, I can tell them right away. You know, things that people are friends like are interested in.

Whereas, like, when you listen to, like, on pay-per-view or like on the sports net, you don't have a dialogue with the commentary booth. so it's hard for Joe Rogan to explain it to you while the triangle is happening or the escapes are happening or whatever but in the chat you can ask me specifically about what's going on and during my commentary and my analysis I can respond to you personally so I feel like that's a really nice touch and I'm excited to do that with more people are you going to do any interviews because I think you'd be very interesting to get other fighters' perspectives on things

so yeah I'm planning on it I just haven't decided what the format is going to be so like I want to interview them, but kind of like you in the sense where like, I don't want to just talk about, you know, the superficial stuff. I want to get into something more in depth, but I haven't found my, that angle yet. So once I find my angle, I'm going to start, but I haven't figured out the questions yet. I don't know if the name philosophy of fighting has started, but I feel like that's right up your alley. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. My brother's going to fight me for that one, I'm sure. we call him the philosopher king oh interesting and do you think he's going to be attending in any of your videos or anything like that

i'm hoping so you know like eventually i'm just trying to build up my skills for youtube now before i have a big fish like my brother on right because you know he's got like 250 000 subscribers so i want to be good and then i'll get him on you know i'm hoping to get jespion too and uh all the other guys from the gym things like that. But like I want to attain a certain level of skills and mastery of what I do before I bring in some heavy hitters. That's exactly how I felt when I started was like start local, start small, figure out the little things, figure out the thumbnails, figure out the audio and all of that, and then look outwards. Yeah, because first impressions matter. Like if I have like my brother on and everything runs smoothly and good and he gets a, you know, it goes well and we get

good feedback, I'm sure he's going to love to be on the second time. But if I'm all clunky, this and that, even though we're family. Let me tell you something, man. The guy's busy. You know, it is what it is. So I really want to be on par with the, you know, like the other channels that they would go on. Brilliant.

And anything else big coming up? No, not yet, man. Just more YouTube for now. More YouTube. And like, oh, I might actually, my sweet brother-in-law just bought me a nice PlayStation 5, which he surprised me with. So maybe I might do a little Twitch thing. We're going to see.

That's a possibility. Amazing. No trips planned or anything like that yet. Well, I'm going to Dubai, actually. Yeah, I didn't even think of it. I'm going to Dubai, April 15th, man. I'm going to Dubai because one of my friends, Saeed Jakub Kokormanov. He's actually one of the guys I brought in for training camp for this last fight. And he's fighting karate combat. He's fighting a guy named Y2K Fairtex, who's like, got 300 fights in Muay Thai. And he's fighting him April 20th. Sorry, yeah, April 20th.

and yeah so i'm going to be there april 15th april 22nd oh fantastic that sounds like it's going to be the last have you ever been there before i've never been i'm actually trying to set up a seminar now so i can hopefully teach over there one of my friends has a gym out there so i'll love to teach seminar out is jim nordin i message you on instagram as they're back uh yeah so i'll love to be on that and uh get to meet some of the people there see the sites i'm really excited to visit the grad mosque in Abu Dhabi as well. So I might take a trip over there. I'm really excited to go visit. That sounds fantastic. Amon, it's always a pleasure to sit down with you.

Thank you. You get me all excited. You get me motivated to get back in the gym and start working hard. I always appreciate your insights. I highly recommend people go check out your YouTube channel. I just think you're such a valuable voice on how we can develop personally. So kudos to you for starting that. Thank you and I appreciate you man. I appreciate you having me on all the time and doing such great interviews. Thank you guys. No problem. Please don't beat me up in the near future. I'm gonna do the fast. Don't worry. Please.