The Joe Rogan Experience - #690 - Ronda Rousey & Edmond Tarverdyan

Episode Date: August 31, 2015

Ronda Rousey is a mixed martial artist, judoka and actress. She is the first and current UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion. Edmond Tarverdyan is an MMA and boxing coach and is also Ronda's head trainer.

And boom, we're live. What's up? What's up? What's up? Suddenly like pressure when you said it's live. Is it pressure? I was chilling here for a minute. I should take these off. It's more casual.

You guys don't have them on. Jamie, let us know if you can't hear us. So, Edmund and Rhonda, welcome. What's up? Welcome to this humble abode. I like the new place. It's been a minute. Yeah, it's been a while.

Yeah. The last time we did a podcast, you weren't even in the UFC yet. No, I hadn't even fought for, I was going to fight for the Strikeforce title the first time when I came on. Is that really that long ago? Yeah. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, yeah, I got you the cognac. What's the matter, Jamie?

It's good? We're good? That's right, that's right, Armenian cognac. That got us fucked up. Yeah. You guys are a very interesting combination. Before this even got started, I have to tell everybody, Edmund's over here. Rhonda's over here.

You're like, get over here. Get closer. Get closer. He can't be that far from me. I don't know why. That's crazy. I have to be able to hit him at all times. Is that what it is? I have to measure my distance with him at all times. Well, you want to touch him. You want him right there.

You guys are very close. You have a very unusual relationship. It wasn't always like that, though. No? It was very, like, Clint Eastwood,

Hillary Swank, Million Dollar Baby status. I was like, who is this American chick in the gym with all the Armenian guys? Stay away from me. No one would talk to me

at all. No one would talk to me. Well, I love Armenians. One of the reasons why I love Armenians is because they're unapologetically masculine. It's like there's very few unapologetically masculine cultures left in America. That's true. People are apologizing for being men. And Armenians don't play that shit.

It's a fun culture. It's very interesting. They're unapologetically masculine, but they are not afraid to accessorize at all how so? the bracelets show them show them gold chains

a lot of shiny shit cologne but it's because it's designer cologne you know no socks now that's the thing now they wear the shoes with no socks they're very fashionable But it's because it's designer cologne, you know? No socks now, that's the thing now. They wear the shoes with no socks. They're very fashionable.

They had to get me to actually start cleaning up a little bit. Really? Yeah, it was the reverse. They had to make me over when I first started coming. So what was their advice? Well, it used to be that I had this car, the Fonda was my Honda, and it had one working window and no air conditioning. So I would just sweat all the way home.

So I would just put on my clothes I came in with, no shower. I would just throw it on, still sweating, jump in my car because I would just sweat all the way home. What's the point? And Edmund's first word of advice was he made me shower before I got in the car. Even if I would sweat all the way home and have to shower again, that was like, you're like, I know, you know, you're a very good girl and all these things. But he didn't speak English. I taught him English pretty well. He didn't speak English at all.

You speak so fluently. I graduated high school, yeah, but during the classes, like Armenian, Armenian kids have to grow up. You know, the parents love it because they go to school, speak English, and the parents would bring them to the gym after, you know, school programs, and they would want their kids to speak Armenian so they won't forget where they're from. And so teaching for like 10 years, every day, 4 to 10, I was only speaking Armenian, and I couldn't speak well. I was like, what's happening here?

I forgot my English or something. And Rana brought it back. He was the one, too, after I won a couple fights, he was like, maybe you should like, get a little pretty sometime, put some makeup on, you know? Don't be a bad thing. And, like, yeah. Yeah, that was all, like, him trying to get me to grully up a little bit.

Because, yeah, I was a lot grungier when I first started coming to the gym. You're such a fascinating contradiction in that way. Because when you clean up, you know, you're beautiful you're clean up You're a ten, but you're you're you don't give a fuck. Well, you can't walk around like Put it like, you know Going all out all the time because then you can't step it up when it's time to step it up I want to be able to have like my she's all that like unveiling moment whenever I feel like it. Oh, I See and so some other girls did do it the other way.

Like they're, oh, they literally can't not be made up when they leave the house. They fucking panic. Yeah, I don't understand that. Like, I like my face. You have a beautiful face. Thank you. You should like your face. I don't think like I should spend my time like, you know, paranoid to show people what

my actual face looks like. That's a weird thing with women. Our culture has decided that women have to have unusual, unnatural colors over their eyes. Your lips have to like... Everybody has to go, this is where I suck the dick. It's all happening right here.

Look how shiny. Don't you want to get in there? Haven't you seen those contouring videos and stuff like that? What is that? You have to find these contouring things where it starts with a girl with her face plain, and they do all this contour stuff to them, and they're an entirely different person by the end of it. That's so weird.

Yeah. I saw this one thing. I don't know. It was on Instagram, so who knows if it was even true. Some guy sued his wife after they were married because he never saw her without makeup. And she was totally busted without it. That doesn't make any sense. There was one about a Chinese guy who sued his wife because she had a gang of plastic surgery and the kids came out ugly.

But I don't think that was real either. I've seen that a lot. Whenever I see people, like a good-looking couple But they got but ugly kids that you know, it's just like yeah work done. You know, you can't you can't get your genetics lifted Yeah, it is a weird thing. We're like Koreans have like a real issue in their culture where they get their eyes It's so common that a lot of girls like they there's very few natural eyes left it's like everyone gets their eyes done it's like they graduate from they get their eyes changed you know koreans have naturally like a thin opening for their eye well they get their like eyelids they get surgery done and their eyes

it's fucking crazy yeah jamie pull it up so you so you guys can see it. It's very strange. But it's extremely common. Like as common as, probably more common than braces are here. Like look what's going on. Men too. That's men. Whoa. Look at the girls.

She looks like an anime character. Look at those eyes. Hi. Wow. My eyes are crazy. See, that one, look at that. Okay, look at those two. Well, one of them looks like she's eight.

That's not fair. But it's a very, very, very common procedure over there to the point where so many of these girls. Are those stitches in the corners of her eyes? It looks like it, doesn't it? Ouch. Yeah. Yeah, oh, that's exactly what it is. Oh, Jesus. Oof.

Extremely, extremely common. Wow. They do all sorts of other weird shit, too. Like, they put chin implants in them. Look at that girl. Had her chin shaved down. Like, okay, there's perfect. The one on the left, that looks like Bigfoot Silva's sister.

And the one on the right is a tent. So, like, what happened there? Well, they shaved her down. Wow. She looks like Inoki's sister. That's what she looks like. Wow. Antonio Inoki,oki's sister. That's what she looks like. Wow. Antonio Inoki,

the guy who fought Muhammad Ali. That's what she looks like, right? Not that it's a bad thing. Look, they fixed it.

She's great now. Congratulations. I bet that girl went on a dick rampage after she got that done. She probably did. You know, because

before, everyone was not really interested and then, bam, the girl on the right. Holy shit. And you're just shocked that anyone would be into you. It was probably a swarm, you know. But that's super common.

Wow. It's weird. It's weird because it's not in your DNA. And so, like, your children are going to have to deal with the same issues. Like, whatever weird jaw structure thing, nose structure thing that you're gonna get fixed with a doctor I'm gonna eat your kids snip to you know I'm not like a big cosmetic Surgery type of person you know that's your face and like

Yeah, cool with it. Yeah, but what if you have like something goofy? You know like there was a girl went to school with in high school. She had a big crazy nose. She's a nice girl, but it was like crazy, like Wicked Witch of the West type shit. She had like a crazy hump. And then she got it removed. She got her nose fixed. And all of a sudden she was hot as fuck.

And everybody was like, what happened to Susan? Like, damn, it's weird. There's plenty of people that there's nothing wrong with them. Like the chick from Dirty Dancing was absolutely gorgeous. She got her nose done and it was like no one could recognize her. She never could get apart again Yeah, that's weird because you become famous for that look and then like the other girl who did that recently Renee Zellweger She did it recently. She's unrecognizable She's gorgeous. I think that there's like a line like you know if you have a cleft lip or something like wrong with you

You know go you know go for it but like if you're just self-conscious you know about something and then you know maybe you should just accept it that that's how you look you know i think the stars if they're on tv all the time you know yeah already people get used to that look so they shouldn't be that worried about it well it's also like if you're on television that's your currency like your currency is your appearance, you know, and relinquishing any aspect of that they think like The whole reason they got there is because their looks like there's a lot of people that believe that yeah But I mean like when you're a kid you when you're in high school your teenager

You're gonna hate everything pretty much about yourself for a while, you know, you're like, oh god Yeah You're suddenly super self-conscious about all that if it's like so common easily accessible people are going to end up getting so much work done when they're kids and they're just being going through that stage when you know you should at least wait till you're like past 30 and you're like you know you've had a good three decades of not being happy with how that looks then okay fine go for it but if you're a teenager and you're like oh my god my friend allison has big boobs and i want to get implants like no don't do it okay you. You're 18. You'll get over it

You'll accept that you know itty bitty titty committee is pretty cool You you're you're doing something right now with this whole don't be a do-nothing bitch thing Yeah, do you are you aware of like how big this movement is I? Tweeted about it the other day that I was, I don't forget where I was, but these two girls were arguing about the merits, pros and cons of being a do-nothing bitch.

And it was completely, it was all after your fight, and it was completely brought on by you. Some girls were like, well, listen, I don't like to fucking work. I don't want to. What's wrong with being a do-nothing bitch? And the other girl was like, well, listen, I don't like to fucking work. I don't want to. What's wrong with being a do-nothing bitch? And the other girl was like, no, she's fucking right.

Too many girls are out there doing nothing. The thing that's wrong with it is you just contribute nothing to society. All you do is consume. If you're a do-nothing bitch, all you do is spend somebody else's money and try to look pretty. That's all you do is you use stuff up. You use up resources and you give nothing. You're pretty much a drain on society. That's all you do is you use stuff up. You use up resources and you give nothing.

So you're pretty much a drain on society. That's what I think. They don't think it that way. They think what they are is something that all these men want to fuck. So in working really hard to attain this appearance

that all these men want to fuck, what they are they've created capital they've created like a need for this I was just brought up

to think that it wasn't your mission in life to be happy it was your mission in life to leave the world better than how you found it and by being a cum bucket

you're not going to do that it's not your mission in life to be happy have you never heard that before I love that like introducing the new sayings. Like, yes, I invented that. No, I didn't. That's a fascinating thing to say,

that it's not your mission in life to be happy. So, but what's the point in leaving the world better if no one's happy? If everybody follows that same principle, the world just keeps getting better and better and everybody's miserable as fuck. I don't know. That doesn't seem to make sense.

I think your happiness is supposed to be a byproduct of actually living a fulfilling life. Instead of just trying to, if I tried to get drunk and party every day and get as happy as I possibly could every day, I'm going to live a really unfulfilling life and die unhappy. But is that where happiness comes from? The reality of happiness is happiness comes, at least in my feeling, it comes from achieving goals and conquering whatever weird shit you don't like about yourself. Like whatever weird discipline issues you might have or behavior issues you might have and accomplishing goals. Like there's something about setting goals, working hard on something and accomplishing those things that creates a real happiness.

The other kind of happiness comes from family and friends and loved ones. That's the other happiness. Well, I mean, I think it's also about not being selfish and thinking about your kids, too. Because we could all be as happy as possible, you know, this generation, burn every resource we have. And all of our kids are going to starve, you know, in some post-apocalyptic world because everybody before him was just trying to be happy you know like that's not really a good way to live either you know i like i want my i want to know that my kids are going to be all right and they're in living growing up in a better world than i did that's going to make me happier than knowing that i had a great time good luck kiddies so the way

you do that is by telling chicks to not be a good, don't be a do-nothing bitch. Well, I definitely don't want my kids to be. Well, I don't think they will be. I think there'll be a real issue growing up in the Rousey household. I hope so. Your mom wrote a fucking hilarious blog the other day about sycophants. Did you read that? No, but my mom, she's a blog the other day about sycophants. Did you read that?

No, but my mom, she's a blog master. She's a character. If you really know my mother, you understand most of me. Because she is like... I need to get her in here. Yeah. Your mom's so powerful. Really?

Yeah. There's something about your mom. Just talking to her, you go go this is a powerful woman like she's got to think like i was so like laid back and chill and like you know my mom was like the really just really intense and then i realized just in comparison to her i was really laid back and chill and i'm actually pretty intense i was surprised i was like you're so intense like what are you talking about i'm a chill cool one it's all relative yeah it's all relative my mom, you're like, whoa. I'm like, I don't know how you are as chill as you are.

The standards were set so high in your house that just being what you thought was chill in your house, everybody else was like, whoa. Yeah. I mean, I was like the black sheep loser in my house for a long time. You were a loser? Yeah, because everybody else has like bachelor's and master's degrees. And they're like, you know, like average was below average. Like exceptional was average in our family. The rule was you could pick anything you wanted to do in the world, but you just had to be the best in the world at it.

It's like you don't have to pick one specific thing, but you just have to be the best in the world at it. Fuck, that's a lot of pressure. Yeah, yeah, when you're a kid. But you know what? Now I'm happy for it because now I'm in high pressure situations all the time and I can totally deal at it. Fuck, that's a lot of pressure. Yeah, yeah, when you're a kid. But you know what? Now I'm happy for it because now I'm in high-pressure situations all the time, and I can totally deal with it. I mean, now I'm live on the Joe Rogan Experience, and I'm sure my heart rate is perfectly fine. Well, this is a very low-pressure situation compared to Brazil.

Well, I'm sure some people listening right now, if they got on, they'd have a hard time relaxing. My first time that I came on your show, I was a little bit amped up because I would watch it all the time and I was a fan. I would go to training. I would come home and I would make... I got to the point where I could afford Trader Joe's at that point. I was making myself a little sandwich at Trader Joe's and I would sit and eat my sandwich

and listen to you every day. Well, if I remember correctly, we might have been medicated at the time as well. There might have been some plant burning going on. At the time as well. There might have been some plant burning going on. Speaking of Brazil, that experience, to me, that was one of the strangest experiences of all my years of calling fights. It was one of the strangest experiences. Because it had sort of transcended just fighting.

It had gotten into this weird cultural place. First of all, when we went there, it was the first time I sat in the audience for a weigh-in. I'd never sat in the audience for a weigh-in before. But when we got there, they had some dude that was a Brazilian guy that was going to do the weigh-ins because they wanted it to be in Portuguese. So I sat down in the front row, and I got to watch. And one of the freakiest things about it was it was the first time ever, out of all the fights that I've ever called in Brazil where the Brazilian got booed and the American got cheered. And I was like, we've hit some weird tipping point here.

And it was strange to observe that. I was like, when you went on stage, they were cheering you. And she's got the Brazilian flag and she's getting fucking crazy, and she's trying to get everybody on her side. And they're like, that's not what we're here for. We're here for the Ronda Rousey show. She was trying really hard to pull that angle. She brought that Brazilian flag everywhere.

She flew with it in the plane. She got off the plane with it. I mean, I'm sure she went to the bathroom with it. Like, I never saw her without that flag. And then they threw it on the ground when you're walking in yeah then her brother like takes the flag and throws it at my face when i'm walking in and i'm like okay it's cool for you to be patriotic and proud of your country but like you don't throw your flag on the ground yeah that's disrespectful to your country yeah exactly oh my god so edmund's not gonna say this but like okay this her brother the guy with like her she had

the brother with like blue hair i don't know he was giving me on instagram for like a month he was harassing edmund all over his instagram right and cause and edmund's like just you wait when i get that done with this when you beat her ass i'm going to let him have it i'm going to tell him i'm like okay okay okay so you know because that's edmund's thing he like gets riled up and So, you know, because that's Edmund's thing. He, like, gets riled up. So then we get there, and he's, like, wearing, like, these pink shirts, and he was outside when we were leaving the bus and being like, you know,

fuck you, da-da-da-da-da, in, like, a pink shirt. I'm like, oh, look at you. He's like, you know, same fucking pink. That's cute. So then I'm walking out. The guy throws the Brazilian flag at my face. Edmund almost starts something right then, but I'm about to walk out of the cage.

I can tell that he's restraining himself. He's almost just like, I'm going to see you later kind of thing and cuts it off, which I appreciate that self-control at the moment. I still stick my middle finger at him. He's still giving him shit. So if you watch in the background, I put that don't cry clip on my Instagram.

Right. If you look in the background, her face hits that don't cry like clip on my Instagram. If you look in the background, her face hits the mat. Edmund does not celebrate. The first thing he does is he turns around and runs straight at that dude, the blue hair, her brother. He doesn't go, yay. It was almost like he was sitting there

the whole time waiting for me to knock her out just so he could go and give this guy shit. It wasn't like he was waiting for me to ever win so he could be happy. He'd be like, hurry up, knock this bitch out. I got to go get after this fucking guy. Like, that was his mindset. So every single time I watched it over and over, Edmund goes, whoop, off the chair, runs straight to the dude.

Like, not even, he didn't even smile. Like, it was hilarious. I would watch it over and over and over. You see, like, the little gold rousey, like, bouncing away as he's, like, running. One of the fans, Brazilian fans fans that loves Ronda, right? So their whole family just comes to all the fights. And he's literally standing right behind that dude. And he has it recorded, so they gave it through his phone.

He gave it to me. You see the flag. He gets it and throws it. I'm like, you stupid fuck. That's your country's flag. Keep it up high. I wanted to see what happened afterward, though. I only saw you running away towards him like

I wanted to grab him a choke and then everybody held me back all the security That whole the whole event was so intense when she when she face planted right on the straight out of Compton Oh shit, Sharon Compton comes out in two weeks. Oh, I died. We were eating wings afterward and Dana showed it to me. I'm like, oh. And then you stood over and said, don't cry. Well, because that's what she was saying at the weigh-in.

She's in my face going, don't cry, don't cry. Like before, she'd always yell things like Portuguese at me. I'd be like, okay, you know. So at the weigh-in, she was speaking English to you. That's the only thing she ever said to me in English was, don't cry, don't cry, over and over and over. So then right when I knocked her out and I fixed my shorts, I was like, oh yeah, don't cry. What makes you think of those things at that moment?

I don't know. That's the most incomprehensible moment ever. That was an intense moment. When you walked around the cage after you knocked her out, it was one of, I've seen guys win before. I've seen women win before. I've seen people win before. But I never saw anybody soak it all in the way you did when you walked around.

When she face planted, you said, don't cry. And then you walked around like you strutted around the octagon. You strutted and looked around at all those people. You took it all in. You looked around. I was like, wow. This is a crazy moment. That was the first time I did that, actually.

I really received it. Usually it's just like, okay, I beat the person and then I have to not say anything stupid and then I have to drug test and do my medicals and then I have to do press conference and don't say anything stupid again and then I can eat something and relax And that was the first time I took like a moment like to just like look at it I think she was probably thinking I wish I fuck her up one more time, right?

Because it was interesting, you know like cuz I was getting booed a little coming in, you know And they shot right the fuck up when you knocked her out they cheered but when it turned yeah like i was i was gonna like i was this close to crying you know like i'm a big time crier like i was really really close like oh that that one i'm gonna remember forever it was definitely rocky four for sure yeah it was well it was also there was so much emotion attached to that because the shit that she had said about suicide and connecting to your father and all that shit and and you know and knowing you as long as I've had and having daughters and it was so emotional for me that was the closest I've ever come to crying

while I was in I might cry now when I was interviewing somebody it's because it was just it was so intense and it was also like I really knew that I was interviewing somebody. It's because it was just, it was so intense. And it was also like, I really knew that I was like seeing history. It's like, it's hard. I know it's hard for you to probably talk about it because you're living it right now. But like, you're in the middle of history. Like, what happened there? What's going on with you right now? Like, you're a part of some crazy movement right now.

It's not just sport it's like you're this very unique example for other women like that's never existed before there's never been a female combat sports athlete like you and when you went down to Brazil knock that girl out like that and then we're taking it all in it was it was so great i was so happy for you and it was so crazy at the same time it was just it was nuts the whole thing was it was such a strange moment there was a feeling in the air and there was a recognition of what was happening that was very different for me than any other fight that i've ever called before you know i think i think people just are

starting to recognize how solid she is as a you know human being ronda and every every opponent she's faced she keeps it very real very intelligent very professional how an athlete should carry themselves a person should carry themselves if you watch all the fights you know Misha didn't behave from the beginning you know there's a lot of things from the beginning she didn't do what she was supposed to do bringing her forehead you know pushing during weigh-ins stuff like that it's great building up you know a fight it's normal it's the fight business but afterwards going complaining to the Commission to find somebody when you fight for a living it's

nonsense why was she saying to find her to complain to the commission so they could touch her purse to find her she said that she put her forehead on mine our first way in and i pushed her back and she said the commission should find me for headbutting her yeah so basically they don't they're not real you don't do that you don't touch somebody's finances when you're a fighter yourself. You know what I mean? Not, not in that way. And every opponent, how respectful she was against Kat, you know, even on the floor when Ron, the submitter said, you know, I'll give you another chance. You know, that was too quick.

And she's done, she's done an amazing job. And everybody, I think now after 10 fights you know 12 fights 13 fights they're starting to realize that well I don't think we're really like I don't even think I'm gonna really know what is going on right now or realize what is going on right now until afterward you know until it's all done and I could just try to do the best that I can in the moment but I don't really think that any of us really comprehend what's going on right now until we're looking at it in hindsight? And that's the kind of thing I think it's kind of funny is there's so many people that just live to hate me

But when I'm gone, they're gonna miss me You keep it real and you kick everybody's ass How are they ever going to have like like a bad guy better than heath ledger as the joker like you miss him you need like the joker's gone like you're never gonna have joker again joker i'm saying that like i am not the protagonist i'm the antagonist because the protagonist just reacts they do nothing the whole storyline the whole everything that goes on is completely dependent on the antagonist because the protagonist just reacts. They do nothing. The whole storyline, everything that goes on is completely dependent on the antagonist. I'm the one that's forcing everybody to do something.

And so I like to think of myself as more of the heel, the bad guy that you somehow sometimes root for. You can't help it a little bit sometimes, but sometimes you hate him. But I think that the fact that mixed emotions come out is one of the more interesting things you know i'm not trying to have everyone like me i'm trying to have everybody care about what i'm doing when when you beat misha and uh the audience was booing do you you remember that? Yeah. That shit's all gone. No, it's not. Nobody remembers that anymore.

Oh, it'll come back. It won't, it won't. It'll come back because you want to know why it happened? Yeah. Because I wouldn't shake her hand. Yeah. Because it was an entirely disingenuous gesture for her to offer a handshake because she never would have offered a handshake

if she wasn't being watched by millions of people and i wouldn't have shook her hand if we were alone in the room or we had millions of people watching and the fact that i'm not going to play to the crowd for fate like to have them like it would have been so easy to shake her hand have everybody cheer but i felt like it would have been dishonest. And, you know, honesty pays, but it pays very slowly. And it doesn't pay very consistently. You know what I mean? Do you think that she was being honest when she shook her hand? Is it possible that she was being honest when she went to shake your hand?

Is it possible that all the anxiety and all the animosity that she had went away when you guys fought no not at all not because she insulted and really did some very shady backhanded you know backstage things to people i really love and care about without apologizing that we didn't see is that what it is yeah you didn't see well what like what kind of stuff like um one example at the ultimate fighter chris beal's about to go out and fight and he's all warmed up he's ready to go and literally like two minutes before he goes out dana walks in and goes you're signed with another promotion and he's like what and he's like your your other promoter just called like we're pulling you out of this fight all the stuff yeah and it's a close set no one's supposed to

even know that he's on the ultimate fighter and how would his other promoter even know that he was about to fight in two minutes and who would benefit from that kind of timing and things like that like he would say it to he said it to other people in the house, so they knew, and the other team knew that it was another promoter. But how would the promoter know to call right before he was about to walk out to mess with them the most? Because of Misha. Because somebody tipped him off.

Because it was timed. It was premeditated. I don't believe in coincidences. There's no way that that was a coincidence. So he was signed with another promoter. coincidences there's no way that that was a coincidence so he was signed with another promoter and i think like he he had a contract but like he hadn't fought in so long he was supposed to the contract was supposed to default if they hadn't had him fight within that amount of time so he was out of it but it was like some sort of messy contract situation or whatever but um

he like mentioned it to you know to the other kids and it got back to their team and they called and set this up so that they would call right at the exact time he was about to go out and try to get Chris Beal pulled out. Or at least mess with him enough to have him not be fresh when he went in. And so you're pretty sure that that was Misha's doing?

Who else's would it be? Who else would benefit from that? Who else had access to a phone? Was that the only thing? That's true. Who else would benefit from that who else had access to phones was that the only thing that's true who else would have access to a phone right yeah that's not the only thing that's one small example out of very many and you know i just don't even want to like get into it i've like moved on with my life and just not not keeping it real you know we had dana come in and say just leave you know promise me that everything will be normal and you guys won't be acting up anymore this and that and we said yeah we will and you know promise me that everything will be normal and you guys won't be acting up anymore

This and that and we said yeah, we will and you know the promise is a promise You have to be respectful. You know and then the next day the next day. They do the same shit next day They put like some Count Chocula doll in there with a with a like a certificate to like get your eyebrows wax it said Edmund on it The thing is I gave and the thing is I could give my number certificate to like get your eyebrows waxed it said Edmund on it Thing is I gave and the thing is I could give my number they could always write me anywhere in the street You know, and I told them that you know, there's too many cameras don't act like a little bitch in front of cameras You know you guys could do that because you know You don't run doesn't want me to step out of line and kick your fucking ass right there

They're gonna take me out of there and I'm you know, I gotta do this for all those kids, you know But they don't understand shit like that so when a person doesn't sometimes you can't fucking that's the thing like if someone is like been purposely like trying to like backhanded work against you do really really shady shit and then try to like play sweetheart to everybody else and then they try to play sweetheart again I'm not gonna trust you at all why would you expect that and why it would be insults all the people that I love that you insulted to shake your hand without an apology to them anyway did you like doing that show because it seemed like

you hated it it was one of the worst experiences I've ever like had to deal with what was so horrible about it just being around me all the time no about being felt like I was trapped in a situation because the kids needed me so I couldn't leave. Oh. You know, so, I mean, I was kind of trapped. They were, like, using the fact that I needed to be there for these kids so they would treat us however they wanted. And I just felt like, I'd never felt like that disrespected in my whole life. And I had to sit and take it every day.

And I had to watch people that I really loved and care about get disrespected every day. And that was really hard. They were putting up with it every day because of me. And I just felt really, really responsible for everything. But I just don't even, I'm not even supposed to go on about it anymore. I get in trouble every time that I talk shit about The Ultimate Fighter. Who gives you trouble? Dana?

Dana gets upset? People get upset. I think you could probably say whatever the fuck you want right about now. If I was your manager, I'd be like, just let it go. Let it out. Let it out. Be yourself. At this point.

Well, everybody knows how I feel about it. But I'm saying that, like, you know, because I know that all those things happened. The people watching don't know all these things happened. And it would be very easy to placate to whatever everybody else was seeing. Right. But I was going to stay to, you know, do what I felt was the God honest right thing to do, which would be not shake that hand. And if everyone boos me for it, fine.

And there's going to be another situation where, you know, everybody else sees something one way, but it's really another way. And I could either prioritize my perception and image above everything and everyone and every moral that I have, or I could

try and do the right thing and be honest and have people hate me for it sometimes. Because this is how it is. If there's cameras, might as well show everything what happened, and people will understand what really did happen, right? Right. It's just common sense. But then whenever you have cameras and sometimes you show something and don't show the other, then people might think, what the hell just happened?

Like my situation with Dennis Hallman, that guy is looking at me in the parking lot. He's looking at me. I'm looking at him. He's looking at me. Then he turns at him. He's looking at me. Then he turns around and says, I said fucking bye. I said, man, when you say bye, you don't use the fucking word fucking.

You know? Have some fucking manners, you stupid idiot. I'll teach you fucking manners. You can't talk to me. There's no way. If there's no cameras, there's no way you could speak to me.

It's impossible. I don't even want to talk about it anymore. Yeah, and then he comes and then when I go at him because he fucking gets on my nerves and there's the cameras all kinds of bullshit. Well, those reality shows are very problematic when they edit things and they also like to edit things out of context. So they'll take the reaction to something else and put it on the one thing and that's why we hate it.

That's what it was. It was a lot of reactions shown without what, yeah, what caused them. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't even, you know, I just I just want to put that whole part of my life behind me. Yeah, you can't take six weeks and put it into an hour a week. You just can't. It won't be real. And all the different interactions you have, they just do their best to make it entertaining. But there was this one moment where you guys, one of the coaches' challenges, where you

beat her and you're hanging from a rope and you go, fuck you. entertaining but there's this one moment where you guys one of the coaches challenges where you uh you beat her and you're hanging from a rope and you go fuck you and i was like god damn that girl's fire burns hot it didn't matter that you won you wanted to win and say fuck you well what i really wanted to do was i wanted to win and say fuck you and I wanted my kids to all go home with a thousand bucks. Right. Because that meant a lot to them. And the fact that she didn't give a shit that that money would have meant a lot to her kids and they all lost it because she didn't, you know. Like, the fact that it didn't affect her at all.

I was like, you don't give a fuck about them. I would have been crushed if I lost. I would have been crushed if all those kids that really could use a thousand dollars didn't go home with a thousand dollars. You know, because, like, man, I love those guys. I was just,000 didn't go home with $1,000. You know, because like, man, I love those guys. I was just, I just got a video from you the other day. See, like, thinking about that shows intelligence. Yeah. Not thinking about after

the fight when you're getting your fucking ass kicked. Let me, you know, shake hands. What the fuck? You're fighting. Yeah. At that time, her intensity, the way she's fighting you, sticking your hand after being like that, and then people booing because of that, it makes no fucking sense. People are going to boo for other things. It's also, you know, people love to boo winners.

There's something about, and people that win and they don't win, like they're not good winners. They're still upset at the person they beat. People have a real problem with that. Oh, my God. This reminds me of these stories I used to hear about my mom when she was competing back in the day. I can only imagine.

Yeah. She was always pissed. She had angry leftover. That's what they used to say about her. Her old teammates tell me, yeah, she would walk onto the mat, and she'd be pissed off, and she'd throw the curl,

and she'd beat the crowd at the arm bar, and then walk off still pissed off. She just had angry leftovers. She was still angry. It resolved nothing. And, oh, my God. Yeah, that's what I'm telling you. I can only imagine if MMA was around when my mom was competing.

How many siblings do you have? You have one sister? I have three sisters. Three sisters? Yes. Are they all crazy, too? Is everybody crazy? Everybody's their own brand of crazy.

Are you the craziest of all the sisters? Well, I don't think there's one like the most crazy. I think we just really have our own different kind of crazy. But I think Julia, my little sister, is probably the least. The least. She's the most chill. She seems very calm. Yeah.

Like whenever we're at fights, all my sisters are all like, oh, they're so amped up. And like, you know, my sister Maria, I remember at 168 ended up getting a migraine, like threw up. My mom went to the bathroom to cry. My sister Jennifer's like, I'm never coming to a fight again. And Julia's like, I knew she'd win.

Whatever. So funny. Which one was 68? Was that Sarah McMahon? No, that was Misha. Misha? Yeah.

Oh, wow. But Jennifer did end up, she said she'd never come to a fight again, but she came to Brazil because I was like, I'll take you guys

all resorting after if you come. I kind of baited them into it. She's like, all right, fine. Does your little sister, does she

train? She is soccer. She's about to go to college and she's going to all right, fine. Does your little sister, does she train? She is soccer. She's about to go to college, and then she's going to get a soccer scholarship. No judo? She did judo. She went up to Purple Belt, but she wasn't really. There's a different mentality between someone who does individual sports and someone who does team sports. And she is very much like a team sport mentality.

I've even brought her to come and do our training with us a little bit. like a team sport mentality. I've even brought her to come and do our training with us a little bit. And whenever we have like a team workout, she works a lot harder than if it's like individual. Like she really wants to like, I don't know. She's got one of those things where that's her environment. Like I need all the pressure to be on me all the time.

Whereas like some kids do better. All the attention. Attention and pressure. Prayer and attention. Well, you seem to be uniquely qualified to handle it. And uniquely qualified to handle the pressure that comes with being famous, too. It's very weird

how you handle it. Even your perspective, what you said about you can't... You don't even know what the fuck's going on while it's happening because it's going to take until it's over for you to like look back and kind of understand it that's a very uniquely honest and perceptive view of what you're going through well i mean i notice a lot of these girls like they they would like to win a ufc belt and have that respect but they're not about that life.

They don't want that life. They don't want that attention and scrutiny and pressure and constant work and all those things. They don't want it. They want one thing without the other, but it all comes together. And that's, I think, one thing that's kind of working against them is when they actually come in to fight me,

they get a taste, like a small taste, of what what that life is gonna be like when they're a contender because it is like way more attention way more this way more that way or that and Once you win the belt, it's just doubled every single time it's more and more and more and more and They I don't think anyone would actually be happy with that lifestyle. I don't think they really truly want it. They don't know think anyone would actually be happy with that lifestyle. I don't think they really, truly want it. They don't know. Everybody wants to win. Everybody wants to be a winner. Everybody wants to be famous. But I don't think anybody knows other than you. Like, you have to be there to know what that is. Like, I see it from the outside, and it looks mind-boggling. The amount of pressure,

the media obligations, the media obligations alone, which is something nobody considers. But if you go on YouTube or you go on the Internet and look at all the different interviews that you do up to a fight or any of the world champions do up to a fight, it's fucking staggering. I mean, you guys are constantly on the radio, constantly sitting down and doing TV interviews, constantly there's articles in Rolling Stone and in fucking all these different magazines. Even scheduling today was kind of a clusterfuck, to be honest. Yeah.

You know, and this is just like Monday. No fight coming up. Well, Holly Holmes, not until now, it's the November card. Yeah. November card. And that's going to be the biggest audience ever for UFC. No, it's not. Yes, it is. The GSP and Shields. It's going to be the biggest audience ever for UFC. No, it's not.

Yes, it is. Wasn't the GSP and Shields? It's going to be bigger than that. Oh, wow. Okay. This will be bigger because this will be over 60,000. I'm receiving this information right now. This is going to be over 60,000.

It'll be bigger than the Rogers Arena. Wow. It's going to be nuts. So that hasn't ramped up yet. No, not really. So now you're, but even regular days, like how the fuck do you relax? She doesn't. She trains like a champion every day.

I have a problem. He actually forced me to relax after this last camp because usually I'm like back in the gym like two days after because I just don't know what to do with myself. And he like forced me to have 20 days off this time. 20 whole days. And then she was was like why 20. why that number i was like i don't know i can't give an answer right now but make it 20 what is the problem here but what's fascinating is you listen to him how did he come up with this she never that's that's that's what you're saying that yeah what you're saying that belief you know i've you know trained Victor Archini, an amazing world champion right from Australia. He's so stoked that Ronda's fighting there right now.

And, you know, the personality, everything. She's born a fighter, that we know. But what she has is that belief, that trust into a trainer. When I show her something, she believes it and she does it. That belief, I think, comes with respecting who you're working with, the love, the passion, everything combined. But her belief is even if you show it wrong to her, she will make it right. She will make it happen. You know, this is the first time, this last fight, I put a chest protector on in the locker room. I said,

champ, you know why I'm wearing the chest protector? I want you to hit that body when you angle off. And she did it. You know? She does it. She believes it. She doesn't question. She doesn't doubt. Well, you guys have a very unique relationship.

And one other thing I love is Edmund, every time he sends me a text message, he doesn't call you Rhonda. He calls you champ. You know who Shannon Briggs is? Shannon the Cannon Briggs? He's crazy. Let's go Champ! Let's go Champ! Everything he does, like every

Instagram video is, let's go Champ! That's all he says is, let's go Champ! What are you doing Champ? You can't be drinking them sodas, Champ! He calls everybody Champ. It's hilarious, but he's really fun. But he calls, it just reminds me of that, because he only calls you Champ. That's what he calls you It's a title. I like fuck. Yeah, like someone calling someone tiger or bud or you know

Yeah, I can't champ sometimes champion us Champion yeah It's easy to trust him because like he's told you a couple times before like the fight like oh like remember with McMahon He said I was gonna be a lever shot. Yeah. And with Davis he's like it's going to be overhand right. And his last Look at this one. Yeah. Yeah. And then like with

Zingano he's like she's going to come out with something flying right away. And you're going to like check left and you're going to like you know it's going to be quick. And then with this fight he said with Betch he's like she's going to check left, and you're going to, like, you know, it's going to be quick. And then with this fight, he said, with Bet, she was like, she's going to sleep on her face. He swear to God, he said, you're going to knock her out, and she's going to sleep on her face. And I'm like, yeah, okay, whatever.

Like, it wasn't just that I knocked her out, but how, like, it was on her face. How? What are you doing, some Armenian view? What are you doing, man? I don't know. No, you know what it is. It's easy to trust him, though, because I'm just like, every time it's getting creepier at this point. It's because the preparation, what you see during training camp and what kind of sparring partners you hire.

I don't do sparrings in my gym for Ronda. Ronda doesn't have that striking experience, meaning competition experience. So how could I get that? I thought I should get that in the the gym she has competition experience in judo she's you know her competition we can't talk about that how how high level it is but boxing you know she doesn't have any amateur boxing fights or amateur kickboxing fights anything like that so to get it I would get great sparring partners for her in the gym and in the gym when I get the great sparring

partners I see Ronda knocking out people from the liver shot, maybe 20, 30 people for training camp. Those girls are hired sparring partners. They get paid, so, you know, or some of them are her sparring partners in the gym where I, you know, help them and I train them and I, you know, she knows, never charge them. I work with them, you know, so I could build them,

give them what they need to be a champion. And she drops all those people in the gym. Of course, she's going to do it during the fight. How could she not? A champion like her, how could she not? She gets in there and she does it. Well, you have as much of a belief in her as she has in your training of her. That's why I say you have a very unique relationship,

which is why she wanted you right there when you sat down. You were over there, get over here. Can't even touch you. Can't even reach you. We would eat dinner at night when she started her career. And you feel like training, I would talk about boxing, about what are we doing, guide her it you know about the sweet science teacher and she would let's go to the gym and start working would work until 1 a.m. on the

me these pictures of like yeah me you and Manny you're all at the gym at like 1 o'clock in the morning cuz we all went to dinner and we were so like amped up talking about fighting you're like fuck it let's go right now let's go right over so like into fighting and you know you should see him go off on a tangent you like makes you want to fight you know so me and man you're like let's go back we're turned around and straight back to the gym that too it makes you want to fight that's beautiful that you can do that you just want to do it just go do it why not right personality personality you know has to work and with the trainer you know it's not only that I'm the best.

It works for her personality and, you know. There's a video, you guys, that I put up on my Instagram page. I retweeted. Just pull that shit up. I think I retweeted it from Dana or the UFC. But you guys training in Brazil on the beach. That was one of those workout days. Oh, the open workout?

And you fucking hitting mitts. And I was like Jesus Christ what the fuck is going on in your gym because your your striking has accelerated in these giant jumps like every three or four months when I watch like you hit mitts I'm like what the fuck are they doing like you don't see that kind of results from other fighters. There's these giant leaps from the, if you go back to like, I saw you guys hitting mitts before the Liz Karmush fight. And you go back to before the Betch Gohea fight.

Like, fucking, they're so different. It's shocking. You know, we're talking about a few years. But there's a difference between someone who's got a decent understanding of how to throw punches to someone who looks like a fucking world champion kickboxer this is crazy shit

she wins the boxing world champion any given day I always say that right now there's a few females out there no disrespect that are in the Olympic Games that won Olympic gold medal I even told Rhonda about a girl Reza. She could box. She won the Olympic boxing gold medal. A lot of respect to her. She could definitely

box. She could punch. Amazing champion in Olympic gold medals. But professional boxing, her weight class won 35 pounder. She would destroy them. Here it is right here on the big screen. This is where you guys are hitting Mets.

All those pants are in my car. I don't know what I thought of that. It is, yeah. This fucking speed is retarded. Well, the thing is, people forget that, like, when I won the title the first time, it was like my fifth pro fight. Yo, look at after combinations. I was just getting started. i was just getting started yeah it's not like hit and stand it's so much different you

know well you have a lot of striking knowledge it's very obvious i've seen the work you've done with ellenberger and with travis and ellenberger there was a big difference between the way he was throwing punches and the way he was moving after he started working with you and i could tell the way you you coach her and the way you coach fighters you you know a lot of shit about boxing there's a lot going on there with movement but it's also you're a very unusual athlete ronda you know i'm sure you know this but there's a fucking fire burning inside you that is just so much hotter than most people the the intensity that you're bringing to it is that come from the way your mom raised you is that something that's always been in you like i think it's a mix between how i was raised and never winning the olympics you know that's like

the best thing that's ever happened to me because it's like now it's just unlimited motivation forever because it's never going to be satiated. I grew up as a little kid. Even before I did judo, my dad convinced me, he's like, you're going to win the Olympics in swimming. You're an Olympic champion. And then I switched to judo, so I was like, okay, I'm going to be an Olympic champion. That's my whole life. That was like my obsession.

I went when I was 17, and it didn't go my way. And then when I was 21, like, I was so unhappy doing judo that I felt like that was, like, my last shot. Why were you so unhappy doing judo? Because just it got to a point where it's very old school kind of training where it's drilled into your head that you have to make yourself absolutely miserable in order to deserve to win and so it was just like i was miserable all the time why do you have to make yourself miserable what do you mean like constantly over trained always over trained like i couldn't like my knee i i've recovered so much since coming to mma like i was about to retire just because my knee was so bad in judo.

Because, like, I could barely, like, walk some days. It would, I would wake up in the morning and it would take me, like, 20 minutes to maneuver my knee enough so I could bend it again. Because it would lock in place in the middle of the night. And, you know, like, just the people that I was around, like, there was some of them that were cool, but mostly I had no control over who I lived with or who I was around all day long. And so if you're around people that you don't really like constantly, you know, it's just kind of like you're always watching what you say and always looking over your shoulder. You can never really relax. And I didn't like where I lived.

And it was just the actual process of training. Like, the training itself wasn't fun at all. and it wasn't meant to be fun at all. And like from when I was a kid, I think from, I don't know, 2003 to 2006, no, 2002 to 2006, I cried every single practice and would lock myself in the locker room and cry for another half hour afterward. Wow. Yeah. single practice and would lock myself in the locker room and cry for another half hour afterward wow yeah and it was only like when i got older that was able to shake myself from not crying during training because if it didn't go exactly my way like if i had if i got thrown once you know by someone who was 50 pounds heavier than me with five years more experience i would still cry about

it and like i wouldn't then i'd be embarrassed that I was crying, and then I would cry because I was embarrassed because I couldn't stop myself from crying. And it would just keep going. So that's how Manny and all them knew me when I was a kid. My mom would bring me in there just to get beat up because they were really tough guys. And she would bring me to four or five different gyms a week to get all the different styles.

And they would beat up on me and I would get thrown once first time I get thrown immediately start crying then get embarrassed cry more and then like but they were used to me crying you know and like I'd be able to finish the whole night and sometimes you know I'd be able to stop crying one end of the night and and that was like comfortable to me in a way because I didn't have to be embarrassed because they were used to me crying all the time and so they like accepted me like that and they didn't think i was a stupid little girl because i was crying during training and it and then it really sucked like moving to a different environment and then oh no these people don't know that i cry they don't know

that it's my thing and i'm like i have to start all over again and then it makes you cry even easier and she was like let me fight with him before i start crying that's what she did yeah it wasn't until i like i ran away from home and like was out on my own that i was able to like stop myself from crying every night then it would be like a couple times a week and then i kind of like got rid of it mostly but like since doing mma i haven't cried during training when did you run away from home? A week after I turned 18. Wow. That's not running away from home. That's like moving out.

Running away from home is when you're like 13. I know, but no one knew I was leaving. Oh. It was in the middle of the night. You just couldn't take it anymore? You know, I was at a point where I felt like every second of my day was somebody else's decision. I am so grateful to my mother. She's an amazing person.

She did the perfect job raising me. And I was kind of a stupid and short-sighted kid. I didn't realize how much she was doing for me at the time. And I had Rapunzel in the castle syndrome. And I'm like, oh, that was me. I'm locked in the castle. And my mom is so mean. And now I was like, oh, well, it was me. I'm locked in the castle and my mom is so mean. And now I'm like, oh, my God, she's a genius. But at the time, yeah, I was recognized as having a lot of potential very, very young

and was treated like that. I was like the prodigy kid very young and got really intense, really structured training very early on. And it just became a whole life. I never went to a single dance or party in school. I never went on a single date. I trained all the time. And I dropped out of school sophomore year, so I could train all the time.

And that was my life. And then I felt like my life was out of my control. And so I left and was like, well, I I felt like my life was like out of my control and so I I left and was like well I'm gonna win and I'm gonna do this stuff on my own and I'm gonna show everybody they actually know what I'm talking about and because I felt like my opinion and no one had any respect for what I thought and I was always doing what everybody else said I should be doing and so I went off and I bounced around a bunch of different clubs it's a very crazy time where I was moving cities like every couple a couple of months and then after in 2006 I

was like the first American woman in nine years to win um a world cup in judo with no coach I did it with no coach and then then I also, I won in Sweden, and I medaled in Finland when, you know, the Americans were getting their asses kicked. They weren't medaling. They weren't getting past the first round. And so, like, I was kind of my way to get respect from everybody else was, and then I ended up moving to Canada because I was like,

fuck all the U.S. coaches. I'm going to do this on my own. And I was just, I was at the, like, the National Training Center there where they couldn't coach me, but I was beating their girls, so they were like, yeah, well, come here, and they'll get used to you and whatever. So I was just kind of like a body for them.

And I was pretty much on my own, training on my own with no direction and no coaching. They couldn't coach you because you're a United States citizen? Is that what the idea was? Yeah, yeah. And I was just so stubborn and not getting enough respect that I felt like I was going to go win with nobody's help. And then I ended up getting asked back to one of the gyms I was kicked out of when I was a kid.

Why were you kicked out? I was kicked out. I was kicked out several times. I was kicked out, like, once because, like, I don't know, my old coach's wife, like, didn't like my mom. I don't know. They were coach's wife didn't like my mom. I don't know. They were having an argument. Then the last time I got kicked out was I was at the German Super A, and I lost.

I remember first round, I was fighting this girl from Finland, and I was ahead by a yuko, which is a decent score. There was 40 seconds left, and I threw her with an ochigari, which don't know what that is but I pretty much fall into the guard and my arm is out and then I just ended up in the armbar right away I got armbarred and but my elbow like dislocated right away so this 18 year old little me um my brain is going and I'm like I was about to turn 18 I was like yeah almost there I'm like well my elbow's already out you know so I might as well just try to get out. And so I try to get out, and my elbow goes back in, and then she pops out again. And I'm thinking, well, she already popped it out twice.

I can't just let her do it twice. And I ended up getting out and ran the clock out, and I won the match. But then immediately right after, I fought this chick, what was it, Lucy Dacoste, who is a world Olympic champion from France. I couldn't even lift my arm from my side. I had to pick my hand up to pull it up to my side to fight. Then I lost to her, and then I fought this German girl next. I couldn't even lift my hand up, but I would bring my hand up. I ended up winning that fight against a German girl.

Then I ended up fighting Urs Gwisselnier, who's a World and Olympic bronze medalist. And it was a closer fight, but I lost. And so I was all bummed out. And I was talking to my, like, first boyfriend at the time, which was, like, you know, I never had a date, never had a part. Nothing in high school, right? And so, like, I'm a 17-year-old girl about to be 18, and this guy in his 20s that's, like, on the national team, like, has a thing for me, you know what I mean?

Like, I thought, like, I was so cool because, like, I was talking to this guy, of course, you know, my mom and my coaches were totally against it, and they were like, you're not allowed to talk to him, da-da-da-da. And, you know, of course I would talk to him anyway. And so we were seeing each other for a while I ended up seeing this guy for like two years actually but I went back to the hotel and was like screw this I hate you and then so I went

back and I was hanging out with him and then my coach went down to the lobby got the key from my room and came up and walked in the room with me and this guy. Freaked out, lost his mind, and says, you're out, you're gone, I'm done with you, you're out of the gym, you're out of everything, I'll never want to see your face again, all that stuff. Just because you were having fun with a guy? Yeah. I don't get it.

Why was he so mad? Because I was told not to, and I disobeyed. They could tell you who to hang out with? Yeah. They could tell you who you could date? I told you, I had no control over my life. But that seems ridiculous. What kind of, is that just old school judo mentality?

I guess so, yeah. I don't know. Plus, you know, I was, he was a sleazy kind of preying on the young girl that I didn't see that. I thought, you know, we were in love and all this stuff. Oh, so your coach might have been kind of protecting you. Yeah, everybody was. In hindsight, I'm like, oh, my God.

How much older was this guy than you? Like five and a half years. And you were like 18 or not quite 18? Well, we were talking since I was like about to turn 16. So it's illegal. Yeah, yeah, it was illegal. How dare he? Oh, okay. Well, that's different. That kind of makes sense. Yeah, I guess. But still,

like you, you were 18 at the time when you barged in. I was about to turn 18. So it was still illegal. Yeah. And then I went home and my mom's like, you know, you're not going to do judo for a year and you better forget the name of whatever his name was. And you're going to work and you're going to support yourself and you're going to pay me this amount of money to live in my house and i'm thinking i'm like well i want to do judo and if i want to work i'm gonna go pay for my rent wherever i want you know this is what i'm thinking and so that night i um i got social i used to get social security checks because of uh my dad he died and so i i went open to big account and i rerouted social security checks to go into my account,

and then, like, I had to get dentist stuff done, so I scheduled, like, dentist things so I'd still be under my mom's insurance. And then I got myself a plane ticket with the Social Security money to be right after my last dentist appointment. Whoa. That's intense. Yeah. And then, like, in the middle of the night, like, I secretly packed my bags and all this stuff.

Wow. And then, like, I waited until, like like 2 o'clock in the morning or whatever to like walk several blocks away from the house and then call the taxi several blocks away from the house and then took a taxi to the airport. Wow. Yeah. And how long did it take before your mom knew what was going on? Next morning.

Did you call her? Did you tell her where you were? No. When did you let her know? She says I left a note. I don't remember if I did, to be honest. But I went to my best friend Lily's house all the way across the country in New York. Because I was like, I'm going to work at Stewart's, which is their convenience store. I was like, I'm going to get a job at a convenience store.

And I'm going to train on my own. And I'm going to do it on my own. And I'm going to show everybody that I can do it on my own. I don't know. I was a young, dumb kid and I had no way to rebel. So I was like Little Miss Perfect and that was like my little, I suddenly just blew up one day and took off. How long was it before you talked to your mom again?

Like two years. You didn't talk to her at all for two years? Like any time we tried to talk it would turn into a huge blow up so like yeah it's in like my whole family too like they like you know i it was terrible thing that i did i i like took off and i like really hurt my mom and my sisters really resented me for it and there were plenty of thanksgivings where like i would sit there and no one would talk to me since after that. You've got a fucking intense family. A really intense family.

Oh my God. And it took many years for them to actually forgive me for what I did. Wow. Yeah. Wow. That is crazy. The world of judo is a lot like the world of wrestling with that overtraining, isn't it? Yeah.

Why is that like so caught? How come no is caught have they caught up to that since? If people figure that out since it's such an old sport where it's like Bushido martial arts And they're like thinking like all the way since I caught on and then we still do this thing I don't know if it was like What was it called something training that this wouldn't kind of training in Japan or that like in the winter where they'd open all The windows and to be frost on the mats and they would purposely make you freezing cold while you train which is terrible for you but it would be like you know old school mentality mental toughness

you know that kind of stuff and they would always do like more is more for them more is more and more is more and yeah i was so constantly over trained all the time and constantly cutting weight and like not having any way to actually make weight healthily no tools no education anything just getting weighed every week and being yelled at for being too heavy like there's is so poorly run you know it you got yelled at for being too heavy yeah i get weighed i used to get weighed every tuesday and um then i would i would not drink any water after monday practice and i wouldn't eat dinner to try and be lighter. And I would still be, like, too heavy.

And then, you know, then I would eat, you know, all of Tuesday. That's got to fuck with you and give you, like, body image issues. When you're young and someone's telling you you're too heavy and they're yelling at you about that. Mm-hmm. I did for a long time. You know, 16-year-old girl and being told that you're you're like you're too fat or you know should you be eating that all the time constantly i thought if unless i weighed exactly 63 kilograms i was ugly for the longest time yeah it took a while to get over

that's why like i'm so big into like doing like body image stuff and like the do nothing bitch like shirts they all went to dd hirsch which is it's like free, like mental like mental health clinic. That's like 52 different schools around L.A. that helps girls with, you know, body image and eating disorders and suicidal, like all these different things to give like those kids treatment. Because I didn't have anyone talk to. I didn't even really know that I had that much of a problem. That old school mentality does produce mental toughness though it's like such a catch-22 it's it's the dumbest way to train to overtrain people and to make them fight where they're dehydrated or it's the issue with wrestlers it's the issue with judo people

with a lot of like old school martial arts people but i'm torn on it because on the other hand like who the fuck is tougher than wrestlers like getting through that they develop this indomitable determination you know because they've gone they're so used to being uncomfortable they're so used to pushing when they're exhausted pushing when they're dehydrated pushing when they're not at their optimum i think there's a time for it i think when you're in a developmental phase it's a good thing to be to to be over trained a little bit and be made uncomfortable and you know to have to run laps when your foot's great personality yeah but when you're at a professional level and yeah this is the time you need to perform whatever personality you've developed has already developed

by now yeah then it's time to train professionally like we've had situations and sparring sessions like if one of my guys or anybody gets caught with a punch you know they take a knee i relax you know there's always another day you don't need that extra punishment to the head it's not healthy for you right some people don't understand that they push their fighters they get dropped and it's happened to you know even with champ her opponent get dropped and they keep on pushing, and they're pushing. Oh, she's okay. Go one more. Boom, dropped again.

Go one more. That's not healthy. You know, you have to know where to push, how to push. But she's absolutely right about young age. Sometimes you want to create that personality, not giving up, and the only way to do it is you got to be a little bit old school and hard on them, you know. And she's had that, but now she has that. You do it more professional, more structured, better, you know?

Sparring is the right way. Sparring partners, everything is done for her, and she loves it. That's why she loves it. That's why she says she didn't like that, and now she loves this. Yeah, that grind, the determination that you developed from that grind is irreplaceable. But once you have it, for you, is it a matter of just keeping the sword sharp?

What keeps your motivation high at this point? Well, I don't know. It just seems like unfinished. Unfinished. Your life, your career? My career, there's more left to do. I don't feel like I'm done yet. Because with the Olympics,

it's just like you win an Olympic gold medal and you're done right with the UFC what am I really done you're done when you say you're done you might be done right now you might walk out of here and go fuck this sport go do movies fuck bitches up on the big screen I mean you could really do whatever you want at this point right you're rich you're famous you can do whatever you want you transcend point, right? You're rich, you're famous, you can do whatever you want. You transcend to the sport already. You can do whatever you want. It feels unfinished still. What would make it feel finished? Cyborg?

That definitely would. She's your Ivan Drago. But if she never steps up, I'll know. I'll probably go a little longer waiting for her, but if she showed up sooner rather than later, you know, I don't know how much longer I would go after that.

Well, she seems to want you to fight her at a heavier weight, which is very fascinating to me because, you know, she knows that you're the 135-pound champ and she wants, and she knows you've fought at 145 before, so she wants you to fight where she is. But she's clearly. The thing is, someone who uses stairways and those kind of things, they need that to mentally think that they have an advantage that they didn't earn. Bigger.

Like, it's a crutch for her. Well, what she got caught with. She needs to feel like she somehow has an advantage from the outside. Because she doesn't think she's good enough with just what she has. That's why you dope in the first place because you feel like the best you have isn't good enough. She feels like if we fight fair, the best she has isn't going to be good enough. That's why she wants it to be somehow stacked in her favor. Well, the steroid that she got caught with is a steroid that allows you to keep size you keep your muscle while you're

cutting weight it's uh one of the best ones for that it allows so she's obviously not just concerned with making the weight but concerned with making the weight and being big you know yeah that's the thing like if you can make weight and be on steroids even if it's making weight a relatively making weight friendly steroid, you're still like, without it, you're capable of moving down. You see what happens to people when they get off of steroids. You see what they look like. It's very easy for them to drop down.

They immediately shrink up. Yeah. It changes everything. It changes everything. And it's all like an insecurity thing. That's all it is. It's a fascinating time when you see these guys that were on TRT or the people that were involved

in the urine testing, which was like, they would say, is basically an intelligence test. If you test after your fight and you're on steroids, you're a fucking idiot. It's that simple.

But you could cycle all the way up until right before your fight if you're using the right stuff, cycle off of it, weigh in, fight, get your drug test, and still test clean. And so you're not really clean. You were never clean.

You were just clean enough to pass that test. But your body still had all the effects of those steroids. You can't do that anymore. This Jeff Nowitzki guy is not fucking playing games. And the testing that they're implementing on these athletes is no joke I mean they're gonna show up at your fucking house. It's the same that I did growing up I was under USADA testing when I was 14 years old and then when I started doing MMA I was like Really? They just hand me a cup and say go in this other room and come back with something

I was a 14 year old little girl. They're like, drop your pants, pull up your shirt, spin around in a circle. Okay, make sure I can see it while you're peeing. Like, you know, it was like the most thorough. I remember the first time I was a little kid. I had to drink eight bottles of water to be able to do it. I was so nervous, you know. And I'm like, wait a minute. To fight for a Strikeforce title or UFC title is less strict and less thorough testing than a 14-year-old at the Junior Miami Youth in Judo.

Think about that. That's crazy. A 14-year-old at the Junior Miami Youth International in Judo in Florida. Well, up until a few years ago. It was more testing than the first couple times I won the UFC title. Now it's the same testing. When they brought Usada in to do the testing, I was like, thank God. And you know what's funny?

The same chick that was my out-of-competition testing lady from when I was a kid, she was like my same lady again. She showed up to the gym. I was like, oh, my God, I haven't seen you in forever. That's hilarious. Yeah, yeah. Wow. I was in out-of-competition testing, too.

I did it for so long. I remember having to fill out those forms all the time. It was such a pain in the ass. And now it's actually really, really easy. Out-of-competition testing, I hated it because of the paperwork. But I was always so happy that they did it. And now I'm really confident with what the testing is for us now. It's pretty intense.

And it will absolutely weed out all the cheaters. It's just going to take time. But for these guys that relied on it for the longest time, you're seeing a difference in the way they look. Their bodies are changing radically. Look at the difference between Vitor before and after the Weidman fight. That's the thing. When you look at these people from before when they're using and after when they're not, they look entirely different.

And Cyborg looks in ways exactly the same. If she gets off, it'll be very easy for her to make weight from what we've seen from every single other person that's got off. So you think she's still on it right now? I think that... It's possible.

It's very possible. I can't, like, say or proof anything la-da-da, but if you look the exact same as You did when you were using and what changed did you ever see the video of her when she had her first fight? Oh She's like tiny Completely different body. Yeah, it was a woman's body. I mean, we're like, you know, it was very different I mean, she's so thick now. She's so thick and muscular and yeah,, I mean, you get thick and muscular from hard work, but boy, the change is

so radical. It's such a giant difference. And to see, I mean, men can put that kind of size on through power lifting and hard weight, but to see a woman put that kind of size on, that kind of thickness. It's not even just the size. I mean, even like the shape of your head. Yeah. You know?

Shoulders, too. The width of her shoulders, like the whole deal. Like when you add testosterone to a woman's body, so many things change. It's not, I mean, it's, it's even more radical than adding it to a man's body. I mean, when the guys are on the juice and they get bigger and thicker and everything like that, but they're just bigger and thicker men. When a woman goes on the juice, it's, you're taking a woman who, you know, your body only has a certain amount of testosterone that's being produced. That's it. It's a very small amount.

And then when you add all this extra test to it, you see what happens with transgender women. Exactly. It's very similar to the hormone therapy that. Woman to man, transgender goes through. Yeah, exactly. It's the same thing. I'm like, you know. And they become a man. You're turning into exactly thing I'm like you know and they become a man yeah you literally do turn into a man everything changes your bone structure changes you get thicker your I mean the shoulders the face everything it all it like changes your ability to

take punishment as well that's what's really weird like the difference between guys who are on it and off of it their ability to take a shot like you see the difference in their ability to absorb punches or they get off of it and one punch and their legs go it's it's crazy it's the confidence too it really is if you walk in there with confidence like there's no way this person's going to touch me and they hit you you don't care if you walk in there with doubt those those that's what it is like doping is is a mental handicap and when they use it's the mental crutch like when you take that off it's not just what they physically lose it's what they mentally lose and that's the hardest thing for them to let go you'll use once and you're gonna have that forever you're gonna have that mental handicap forever

there's no way you can fix it. Right. You'll always know that you used and you always know that it helped you. And you'll always feel like less without it. Yeah, because when you have it, like the guys that are juiced up, they feel like they're fucking Superman. You know, like when you go back to the early days of the UFC, when you could just do whatever the fuck you wanted. Like go back to the pride days. Those are my favorite days.

Fucking like, I don't know what Vander delay was doing, but I'm assuming everything You know I don't know but I mean he was like one of my all-time Fairfax to watch because it wasn't even like watching a human it was like watching some rabid hyena that took a human form and learned Muay Thai and just Run across the cage and kick the fucking shit out of you and stomp your head when you were down. It was wild, crazy shit to watch, but it was just a human that was just so far gone

off the hormone spectrum. And that's the thing. If you get into a setting where everyone's doing it, then you're hitting and punching harder than a person should. Right. And you're taking more damage and more punishment than a person should. And that is how someone's going to eventually die. Well, one of the big concerns with me is the lack of when they're trying to take out the

IVs. And I understand why they're doing it, because they're trying to stop people from masking, doping. Like Novitsky came on my podcast and explained it to me that there's been instances where people used IV bags. Yeah. Flushes your system out and somehow or another can mask and also blood doping and blood doping is totally legit.

They've used it in cycling for years where you take your blood out, you know, your body replenishes the blood and you put that blood back in right before you fight. I know that people have done that before. What's shocking to me is that the UFC and Nevada State Athletic Commission, just a few years ago, wasn't even testing for EPO. It wasn't that long ago. It was less than a decade.

EPO wasn't something that they tested for, which is crazy. If anything relies on endurance, it's a critical factor in endurance it's fighting it's one of the most critical factors because if if you're running in a race and you're slower because you're tired you don't get kicked in the face you know it's a big fucking difference the difference is so giant and the fact they didn't take that into consideration when all those years, all those years they'd been testing cyclists

for it. And even testing them, they were still doing it. They're still pulling it off. They're still cheating. And the fact that they can test plastics in the blood from the IV bag, that is fascinating to me. That's amazing. I mean, I'm completely supportive ivy

like ban even even just for for weight cutting did you ever use them for weight cutting once in 2005 right before the world championships in egypt in cairo and it was the worst ever because in judo you have like an hour and a half sometimes from weigh-in to when you're going to go. And then you're going to fight like seven times. It's crazy. And so I got the opportunity to use it because a friend of mine had it. And it was still legal back then. It wasn't a thing.

So it wasn't like I was cheating. It was just other people. I just didn't have the means to do it. And other people did. And so I got the opportunity to use it. And I was like, all right, I'll try it out. I had a really, really bad weight cut. I was, you know, kind of like being a dumb kid. And it was after I ran away from home, and I had a terrible weight cut.

It was like 2005. It was like, yeah, that same year. And I ended up getting chills. Like, my whole body got chills. Like, my whole body was swollen. I've never felt that slow and that terrible. Like, it was the worst thing. From the IV?

From the IV, yeah. Was it edema? Did you have edema? What's that? That's an issue that people get when they have IVs for some reason. Your body just reacts in some sort of a strange way with the water. I don't know, but I always remember I got chills. Like I couldn't stop myself from shivering.

And like I was really, really slow and sluggish. I absolutely hated it. I hated it and never did it again. When she told me she doesn't do it for MMA when she started her career, I said, I love it. It's so great. None of my boxers do it. If you need medical attention

from cutting weight, you're in the wrong division. There's a lot of people in the wrong division now. Why can't you just drink normally? You're not sick where you can't raise your hand and drink normally. I think the issue is rehydrating the brain. That's one of the big ones. Rehydrating the brain takes a long time. You have 24 hours.

I mean, in comparison to Judo, I was like, what? I got 24 hours? 24 hours. I was like, what? I got 24 hours? 24 hours. And I don't have, because in judo I would have to have an hour and a half to three hours and I would have to weigh in like four times a month or something like that. I mean, that's really

like, I couldn't do that fighting 135 now. The difference though is that that involves grappling only. And even though there are some head impacts, it's not the same. But Joe, we do training camp if we're sharp at like, let's say depending on the fight, we're sharp at like let's say depending on the fight we're sharp at 147 pounds 148 pounds right she's sharp she's explosive 149 let's say you drink

gradually and you make that weight during the fight even heavyweights in boxing look at their weight it's not heavyweight you could go up as much as you want you have to know where you're strong at right during training right right so you just drink you become 148 49 you're good to go you fight what's the problem why would you do iv to get boom right away i'll blow it that's why most of these guys in mma can't move sometimes they're not as sharp they're young and when they move and i look at them i'm like why are they so slow sometimes you you know compare it to boxing man man. You see those guys, old school fighters, they're in their 40s. Those guys are quick and explosive.

None of them do IV. They don't do IV. Boxers don't use IVs? They don't use IV. But what about radical weight cuts, though? If you make a guy like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., he cuts a lot of weight. Well, he cuts a lot of weight. Probably he uses it.

That's why he's so slow. What happened to him? Do you see him as being the greatest? He's a young guy. Sometimes he fights. He's like a zombie. I think he's getting slow. What happened to him? Do you see him as being the greatest? He's a young guy. Sometimes he fights. He's like a zombie. I think he's getting too much buzzy. If I had to guess, it's too good looking.

Discipline, discipline. Yeah, there's definitely a lack of that, but I think that's what it is. There's a lack of that, but you want to be sharp. I don't think you need that. You don't need that. I don't believe in it. Well, I think you're correct, but I think there are a lot of issues where there's just not enough weight classes. I think there's a lot of issues where guys are tweeners.

You know, they're not quite. The 10-pound gap you're talking about is too much in boxing. We have 2 pounds. Well, I don't think 10 pounds is so bad, but there's like 85 to 205 is crazy. That's a giant jump. 205 to 265 is fucking nuts. That's a nutty one. I think there should be a 225 is crazy. That's a giant jump. 205 to 265 is fucking nuts. That's a nutty one. I think there should be a 225 for sure.

What you're saying is it's too much of a difference when they go down so low that they want to gain it. The only way is to stick an IV in there so you can gain that weight quicker. But I think 24 hours is enough for you. If you could raise your hand and drink water, I think IV is for people that when they're sick and they're throwing up and they can't like move they're exhausted you you know you're right on there and so they could recover that's the purpose of ivy right i really don't think it helps i i don't believe it helps at all i think it's a hindrance

but if you're having a terrible weight cut and you're really worried about this fight it's really helps put your mind at ease if you think, oh, no, no, it's fine, I'll have an IV, and it's like the magical cure, and it's like this bad weight cut never happened. Well, they do think that it's the better way to replenish the fluid in the brain, but it still takes 70-something hours to fully replenish it. The guys that use it, what I notice is when they're warming up in the locker room,

like I see them during training, right? So I know how there's people that sweat more than the others so you know the athlete but the guys that use it right in the locker room when they're starting their warm-up they're sweating you see that the body is not crisp and sharp you know that it's something abnormal yeah it's something that i don't see usually during training because if you're drinking your water you're coming to training you're normal you're, you're coming to training, you're normal, you're fit, you're healthy. Let's say at 150 or whatever it is, right? I know that athlete and we're on the pads, you're sharp, you know, wrestling this and

that. He's looking good, sweating normally. And then you see during the fight day where this person hasn't even warmed up and soaking wet. There's too much in your body because you're... Yeah, you think about why does your body only absorb water back as fast as it does? Why does it expel that much

and only keep so much? Because that's what's best for it. It does it that way because it's best for it, not because it suddenly just, while it was evolving, was like, eh, this is the best I could do. Well, your body doesn't understand dehydrating and then 24 hours later going into a hand-to-hand combat situation.

No, but it understands that you're living in Africa and there's not that much water and there could only be one day of rain and it could all dry up the next day and you need to drink as much as possible and then you're shit out of luck out of water for a while. These kind of situations happen for many, many, many years. And why do we only rehydrate as fast as we do? Nature never developed an IV. That's why. An IV tree that grows in the jungle. But I'm saying camels can rehydrate faster than us, right? They can hold a lot more water than us.

It's physically possible for you to evolve that way. So why did we evolve this way? Well, there are people, though, that are champions. Like Weidman cuts a lot of weight. And I don't know how he's going to do with the IV ban. Because he's a big boy. You know, Weidman's well over 200 pounds. Gets down to 185.

I think during the training, if they do the training right and they see where he's sharp at, how they could deal with it, you know, if you're mentally tough, you could gradually just drink throughout the day. 100% you'll be okay. I don't believe it. They're also going to get smaller. They're going to have to get physically smaller.

They're going to have to lose muscle mass. But sometimes, Joe, it's not only about being how big. You see these guys are bloated, but they can't move. You don't want to be that way either. Speed kills, remember. We know that. Everybody knows that. Speed is very, very important.

The problem is with a lot of people, they're worried about being smothered by a bigger guy. They're worried about being held on to and dragged to the cage. They gotta know how to fight. They gotta learn not to lie down on their back and let somebody be on top of them. Get out of that position. There's been an established way that things have been for a long time so now that this breakup in the established way

is gonna cause... Change is scary for people. I stopped weightlifting a long time ago, I think almost two years ago now. Rhonda hasn't touched weight, no strength and conditioning. I do everything for her. Because I don't want to get too bulky. You don't do any strength and conditioning at all?

No, only two-pound dumbbell shadowboxing. Do you worry at all about, like, injury prevention? It's one of the benefits of strength and conditioning, they think, is injury prevention. They can, you know, strengthen up areas, joints, back. If anything's wrong, you know, I can go see, like, a can go see a physical therapist and he can give me stuff to do or whatever. But I have such a base of doing strength conditioning for so many years that my body is balanced the way it is. There's not an imbalance that I had to make up for through strength conditioning.

Now it's like I'm worried about being too bulked up where I can't fight the way I want to make up for through strength and conditioning. Yeah, I don't want to... Now it's like I'm worried about being too bulked up where I can't fight the way I want to fight. You see how quick her hands are, how explosive combination. She's fluid, she does her stretching, she does two-pound dumbbell workouts, which in the 10th round, she's averaging in a shadow boxing. When she's shadow boxing, and we know if we're on the shadow box, she's not going to be fucking air, I always say.

She's not going to just do it so it could look pretty. She's really shadow boxing. She imagines there's an opponent in front of her and she has to kill him. Throws 500, how many? 575? 575 punches in three minutes with a two-pound dumbbell. That's ridiculous. That's automatically strength and conditioning plus 10. It's plus 10. You know you're going to be firing your hands in the 10th round.

10 rounds of, you know, they're shadowboxing, I always say, and they're shadowboxing. This is not shadowboxing. That is just loosening up. But she does it, you know, throws the punches with the weights. With intention. With intention. And then we go to Santa Monica stairs.

She gets her legs. She does her core. She does 2,000 sit-ups every day Oh, so you are doing conditioning? Have you ever seen every reason Pacquiao like do the cleans or like bench-pressing right or like you ever see like Mayweather doing anything? Like that you ever see like any of those great I did was Muhammad Ali like hitting the iron or anything like that You know none of them were and there's a reason for that fight physical whatever is fighting we and then the time right how much you do and what you do you need to know what you're doing it at what to play devil's devil's advocate though hafele dos

anjos in his last fight against anthony pettis was that he pushed them all in the most ferocious paces i've ever seen for a five-round fight and he went through an extensive strength and conditioning program with nick curse on one of the Guys who was a disciple of Marv Marinovich and I had curse on the podcast explained to me all the different stuff They had do a lot of plyos a lot of explosive drills. That's different than lifting though. Oh, yeah. Yeah We do conditioning, but we don't do like lifting right? Yeah, a lot of people think that lifting in fact fact, slows you down and provides you with an unnatural workload on your muscles, which fucks you up in training. Because if you do bench press all the time, your chest is all fucked up and sore.

So that way when you're training, you're going to have this issue. You're sore and you're all ripped up. Your chest is all filled with lactic acid. You're right about that. Dos chest is, you know, is all filled with lactic acid. You're right about Dos Anjos. He did an absolutely great job. He was physically amazingly fit. And I know the guy you're talking about. He did a hell of a job.

But it's the training also. Rafael Cordero did an amazing job. 100%. His tactical approach to it. And there is all of it combined. But he knew that he needs to win that fight not only with the tactical aspect of it, with the physical ability, right, with the conditioning. So he did his job right.

When you have an athlete, you need to know what you need to do to make that athlete into the best. Ronda is the quickest, fastest, and the strongest fighter. Ronda, we're talking about cyborg here. Ronda, with one hand, will toss around cyborg. she won't know where she is, even at 145. The problem is, it has to be fair, a fight. And we do it pure, she's never, you know, done anything unfair when it comes down to sports. And she fought at 145, like I said before, is because she would walk around 148 People wouldn't want to fight her so we said she could jump in and fight tomorrow for her to get experience because she was always Training but nobody would want to fight her

So when they call you one day before for a fight Would you be willing your fighter to fight at 135 when you're walking around 148 or 145 of course 145? Why would you lose all that weight in one day? Right. And when you know your fighter is a monster, she'll beat anybody. Of course, fight at 145. Now, when you fight at 135, how much weight are you cutting to get down there? 15 pounds. So you cut 15 pounds in how long? I mean, I get around 10 over like three days before.

10 over. 10 pounds in the last three days. So is it just watching your diet, coming back on your water? I have Dolce, you know, pretty much the lightest that I could get without, you know, I can't lose any more fat when I'm at like 43. And then like the last like eight pounds has to be water. Because that's just, you know, I just can't get any smaller than that. That's when you get like super lean, like right before the weigh-ins.

And if you ever consider, I mean, what do you think about the idea of fighters not cutting any weight at all? I mean, it seems to be almost a necessary evil at this stage of the game, but I really wish it weren't. And I really would like to see fighters just fight at whatever is the healthiest weight for them. I feel like I'm actually like, and my best shape and the best fighter that I possibly can be. If I make 35 and then go back up to like 47, 48 the next day.

Why would that be better than if you fought at one 48? If you just felt like you just didn't cut any weight at all. Because I have to be so much more disciplined in order to do that. To get to the 45, I could fib a whole lot more. You know what I mean? Oh, I see. I see what you're saying. I can kind of blur the lines on my diet a lot more. I wouldn't have to be so disciplined.

I wouldn't have to be so many ounces at this hour for weeks and weeks and weeks ahead of time. And so I feel like when I'm at the point where I'm about to actually go fight, I don't feel the weight cut from the day before. It's this crazy feeling where I feel like I'm inhabiting this body that I only have for a day. My

fight night body, it's like everything is peaked up to that day. And so when I'm finally inhabiting this body that can I feel like a fucking ninja, dude. You don't understand. Me right now is not me right then. This is the time

we need to hit the gym right now and start training. You see when we get aggressive like this is like, let's go. We'll show them how it is. But you don't know like, I can't describe to you

how it feels like after all that work and all that perfect food and perfect training and perfect peaking and it's all like done and it's all that perfect food and perfect training perfect peaking and it's all like done and it's all like been fine-tuned so i could be the best that possibly like is physically possible for the human form to be for this 24-hour period that i have like i'm perfectly peaked it feels fucking amazing and i don't think i could get that feeling without

cutting the 35 first wow that's fascinating and when you're hungry you know your opponent you have to punish them for that you know what I mean it's a mental thing when I actually get to put on like a 4 ounce gloves and he does like his rap he does the best rap like ever it's unbelievable but like his fight

day rap is like different than his training rap like when I actually have that rap on and those small gloves on, I feel like I could rob a fucking liquor store. I mean it. We don't need a liquor store. Something better. I'm not going to pee all day like that.

I want to talk to Edna about... I will tell you. That's a great question. What was it like when you guys first started working together? I mean, she was describing it. Like, you knew that she was a judo player and she was getting into MMA. Like, what was, like, the first couple of training sessions like? When she came in, I didn't want to train her because I had my hands full and I had, you know,

Vanes Marirosian, WBC champion and Olympian and Vic. And I was working with all of them, and I was like, what is this girl doing, you know? What is she going to do with this? Is she serious? Is she not? And I don't like to jump into things. I like to wait until it's the right time. Timing, I feel like, for me, is the most important thing

that I've learned throughout my career. You know, I opened up a gym when I was 16 years old. And doing all this, I learned that patience sometimes on timing is very important because in my life, I went through a lot of hard days because I was a kid myself, didn't understand what I'm getting into. And I've been through a lot of tough days. So I like to stay patient and just watch and see, figure out what the person wants to do with their life. And then I could guide them. If I can, I will. If I can't, I'll give them a pointer. You know, you could do it better with this person or you do

it this way and some listen and some don't we know that Ron is an amazing student I figured that out right away because within the three four months she was in my gym I would tell her go stay on the bag and she would go hit the bag and really hit the bag until I paid attention to her again she would have a lot of patience and she would be understanding and she would work very hard. But after like three, four months being in the gym, I gave her maybe a few pointers. And then when they called me, they called me literally the day that they got her an amateur fight. So they called me and manager called me and was like, hey, we got a fight for Ronda. And, you know, are you in the area?

You think you could come through? I just, I don't know what hit me, but I was like, maybe I should respect this girl, you know, she's an Olympic medalist and everybody's talking about Ronda's Olympic medalist, you know, she's, she's a cool girl, this and that, manny. And I was like, maybe I should go check this girl out. I went to the locker room, I wrapped her hands, she, I saw she was excited that I was there, you know, I wrapped her hands and i said hey keep your hands up you know and she i remember she was so squared instead of being in an angle and i was like okay yeah like the picture in the back i'm like yeah and then i was like

you know she's gonna kick you doesn't matter kick punch whatever comes just keep your hands up high and let's just step forward right away you know break the distance and get inside a clinch and do what you're best at. And right when I told her that, her focus, the way she looked at me and, you know, I knew that she was a fighter, but I was like, let her get in there first, you know, let me, until I see this girl.

So I could see it. Speed, power, explosiveness, without even having that top level of training. The way she did it, I knew she was a real athlete, real fighter. So I was coming back and I text the manager. I was like, give me the name and last name of this girl. Spell it out for me. You didn't know my last name.

Yeah, besides that, I didn't even speak English well. So how could I write it? I was like, what happened there? So he texted it to me. I didn't look that day. Next day was like maybe 3 p.m. I went online. I pressed her name that it came amateur debut Ronda Rousey,

and it had already like 100,000 views. I was like, what the hell just happened, you know? We just fought. How is that possible, 100,000 views? And I was like, okay, this girl has a following. Then I started looking at her judo fights, all her matches, and it was interesting. I knew that she was ao fights, all her matches, and it was interesting. I knew that she was a real fighter because of her attitude, her approach to fighting.

And, you know, I don't understand judo at that point, especially I didn't understand much about it. But, you know, I have a vision. I've done all kinds of martial arts growing up. And I knew what's a technical fighter only, what's a fighter that has the attitude to fight what's a fighter that's born to fight you know so she had all the pluses but I knew that it could be way better done why because right away I knew that hey USA judo you know it's amazing what Anna Marie did with Ronda Rousey is phenomenal what being in this country what you with judo not being such a strong sport in the United States. And all the gyms she took her to and all that guidance made her into something special.

It's an amazing job. But I said it could be done, you know, boxing. And U.S. boxing is huge. And I said if we train with that concept and keep her judo, this girl's going to be unreal. Started working with her. It was amazing. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, no, then we bumped heads, yeah.

You want to say that? No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. I'm trying to be nice. She said it. She said it. Then I started working with her. No.

No, I didn't. No. No. For like the three amateur fights. I remember going home. I remember going home to my ex. He was my boyfriend at the time. And just bitching about how Edmund would not spend any time on me.

At all. Even though, yeah, we already had our blow up. And he was spending. Oh, my God. I would go home every night. I would go home every night. And I would be like, he's still, you know, I'm there. And I ask him. And he's just like, you know, I don't know, he's playing hard to get or like, what is this?

I'm playing hard to get. He's like paying all his attention to all these other people almost intentionally just rubbing my face and he's not paying attention to me and like, oh my God. What turned the corner? It was before my first pro fight he started. I had a fight and this is how it happened. She says it a bit differently. Talking to the same. Yeah, she says it a bit differently talking to this thing yeah she says it a bit differently but this is what happened i was wearing i don't

know what kind of shirt was i wearing this was before the first amateur fight we had this fight yeah yeah you tell it you tell it yeah i was wearing like a shirt and my fighter had another pound or two pounds to drop he was fighting on showtime he was a boxer and he was on the elliptical just to break into a quick sweat and she came right in front of me when i got out of the locker room and i was no no no no i got up really early that morning so i could go to alberto crane's uh gym and spar they did mma sparring in the morning right and from like 8 30 to like whatever 9 30 um well they they were like 8 30 to 10 they had a workout but i left early at 9 30 so that i could get to the gym in time at 10 to be able to

be there to to bug edmund into holding events for me because he wouldn't he still had it at that point but every day i would ask can you hold this me like no i'm busy how much you know i got this thing no it's me it does and every single day like, the excuse got, like, worse and worse and worse. Until I didn't have an excuse. Yeah. And so that day, I left sparring early so that I could be there. I'm, like, wrapping my hands. I'm sitting behind the desk.

I'm all like, okay. He's like, I'm going to, like, pretty much right when he gets in the door, I'm going to ask him again. Because that's, like, my thing now. Right. And he comes in the door, and I'm like, hey, Edmund, can you hold a mitsumi today? And he goes, I don't want to sweat in this shirt And walks off Just like that

Like that And I looked at him and I went this is fucking bullshit She started like her eyes got open And then it was just like no one speaks to Edmund like that Especially in his gym all the other fighters it was like you pulled the record and it was like Everybody looked at him like, oh my God, something's going to happen.

And he was just like, I came close to it. So then like, I like, I walk up and I'm like going to grab my stuff or whatever. And I'm walking back across. He's like, don't ever,

he's like, don't ever swear. Don't ever speak to me like that in my gym. And I was like, and I was like, fuck it, whatever. And I just left. I went out the door. I grabbed all my stuff.

And I was ready to never go back in there again. I was like, well, I'm not welcome back anymore. He never even said that I could train there. He just didn't say, no, you have to leave. So I just stayed. That's the thing. This is not a welcoming environment. Not at all.

No. And then, yeah. Everybody has that fuck you attitude. And I'm like pulling away. And then everybody else is like, welcoming environment. Not at all. No. And then, yeah. Everybody has that fuck you attitude. And I'm, like, pulling away. And then I was like, oh, God, I left my gloves, you know, because I couldn't afford anything. Those were gloves that were given to me. I think Roman gave me gloves. And I was like, oh, you know, like, whatever.

You know, I'll find new gloves. I'll find a new gym. I don't know how. I'm going to afford any of it. I don't even know how I'm going to afford this guest home, but somehow. And then, like, then he texted me to come back. He got a text. It was like, come back to the gym. And I was like, well,

at least I can get my gloves and have an excuse to walk back in and grab my gloves. So I turned back around and went back to the gym. You can pick it up from here if you want. And I said, I need to talk to you. Could you drop me off at the bank? I got to make some deposits. And she said, yeah. She was with the Honda. and i said in

the car i was like holy i can't move in here because it was all messy i've never seen shit like that the thing is if you're cashing in change to make rent okay if it's that close every month okay when it rains free car wash for everyone how was i sitting jim yeah and so like i also had a dog that like i, I had a really small apartment. I still have this dog, Mochi. She's awesome. But, like, she was a crate train for the car pretty much, you know? Like, I would bring her everywhere I could, but, like, not at the gym because she wasn't allowed at the gym.

So she would just chill in your car? Yeah, if I, like, had to go anywhere, you know, like, in the evening. I wasn't going to let her, like, die of heat stroke or anything. If it was, like, the weather was fine, she would come with me everywhere. And then, like, I had a basket system in my car where I had like, I would just bring my basket of like clean clothes and put it next to an empty basket. And then after training, I'd put all the other clothes and all the dirty clothes in one basket. And then when the clean clothes basket was empty, I'd wash the other one and like had this rotating basket thing. My dog is just obsessed with the smell of my

vagina. I don't know why. I don't know why. But she would just go through all of it. Whenever she was in the back, she would rip all of the dirty clothes out, put them all over the chair, just rub my old sweaty underwear that had been sitting in there, like, just all over her face. Like, it was, like, her favorite thing in the world. And so it's just, there's just sweaty

pants and, like, underwear and bras everywhere and dog hair and all this stuff. Edmund is, like, OCD clean. You want to know why that pen is straight? Because dog hair and all that stuff. Edmund is OCD clean. You want to know why that pen is straight? Because he was probably like that earlier and he already went like that and straightened it out. And we just didn't realize it, okay? So he gets in my car and my car

looks like it is a petri just trying to find the new cure for leprosy or something. And he levitated. He was hovering inside my car. Like a public toilet when you have to take a shit? year for leprosy or something. And he levitated. He was hovering inside my car. Like a public toilet when you have to take a shit? He was doing this.

And I don't know how it was really physically possible. It was a really low ride. He somehow had his feet at a 45 degree angle, but was not touching his ass to my chair. And that's how I drove him to the car. And did you guys resolve it in the car? Yeah, I told her that I was thinking about my fighter sweating. Right. You know, but it wasn't a great excuse. But she believed in it.

He didn't apologize. I didn't apologize. What he did is he explained why he was right. Why I was right. Why I was right to not hold the Met Street today because Art was cutting weight and this is my William shirt. I wanted him to sweat. I didn't want to sweat. I don right to not hold the mitts for you today because Art was cutting weight, and this is my weigh-in shirt. I wanted him to sweat. I didn't want to sweat. I don't want to explain to her.

In my mind, I was like, there will be a time that you will be in the same position. I have to be next to you because I'm a hands-on trainer. But you obviously felt bad about it because you texted her. I felt bad about it. That's why I texted her, yeah. So I said, come back. But in my mind, when I told her to come back, I was like, man, this girl wants to fucking do it and this was at a time where the ufc didn't have women's fights women's fights were an oddity at best other than the gina carano cyborg fight there was very little

attention whatsoever given to women's fighting so for you it was like this thing that wasn't like a promising proposition exactly but i never, I didn't think about that. I like to keep it real. Honestly, like she sees a lot of athletes come right now to my gym. Even I try to help them, guide them. You know, I never think about, she knows about finances or will they become something special. I want to help all of them out, you know, but at a point in life, you know, you have to make sacrifices and understand what you're doing. It's a very fascinating position to be a coach because a coach relies 100% on having a quality student. If you're a great coach and you're around people that don't give a fuck and don't train hard and don't care,

your knowledge is like it doesn't ever get to them. It doesn't ever get out there. And no one can ever see what you're truly good at. You and I had this conversation once after a fight. And you were saying that all my years of training fighters, who would have ever thought that it would be this woman that would be the greatest student? I would never. MMA.

He couldn't stand MMA. He hated it. He didn't like doing MMA. He trained Manny just because like Manny works so hard For the for the Mike Brown fight. I trained Manny and all those fight But well the Mike Brown fight was one he knocked him out. Yeah, you know I worked with him and then although that was a huge win for him. Yeah, but yeah other than that Edmund only had men Armenian boxers and that was like his little like so category how does the

relationship work as far as like you're the striking coach then but you're her overall coach yes I give the whole program and I say when we're grappling when we're doing using her judo know when to use the judo like speed week when to bring in those sparring partners what kind of sparring partners how many days a week she does her strength and conditioning or sparrings you know but she's boxing and strength and conditioning so she's learning always but i see henner in your corner occasionally yeah well edmund does like the structure of the camp so what we do what days but when i do like you know jiu jitsu or judo or wrestling you know i'm working with somebody else but because like the amount of time or you know how like how the intensity or what day it is or what we're

working on specific you know what we need to do i know her so because you're the closest to her exactly i know her mentally what she needs to do to to be dominant you know so sometimes people that don't have so much experience they will work on certain things during certain time of the training camp that it's unnecessary to work on that you know because you could do that at times that when she's off off she doesn't have a training camp she doesn't have a fight so i i understand that's why sometimes it was so difficult to teach her everything in boxing and to progress earlier. The reason was Ronda could have done that is because we had fights in front of us. So when we have fights in front of us, we specifically work on that opponent and what she needs to do.

I didn't show her how to throw an overhand right or anything like that until the Alexis Davis fight. She knocked her out. You know, I told her straight shots. Those are the best for you to back them up, get that clinch, you know. You don't want those big overhand shots, and we could stop all of those with a great jab. You know, you work your way inside with a jab in boxing, you work your way out. If you don't want anybody to come inside, you keep that jab out there, and they'll have a hard time. So it's a simple concept.

A lot of footwork, you know, utilizing the distance distance right and you see how she gets to clinch you know if you watch Liz's fight short stocky girl throwing heart short shots the way she maneuvers and uses that jab gets under that elbow it's it's beautiful for you was it a difficult transition becoming an MMA coach like being in a situation always I was a people don't know I was I did I have like 40 professional in a situation where you know because I was a people don't know I was I did I have like 40 professional Muay Thai fights you know after doing Muay Thai I did shoot boxing I fought in Japan throws so I was used to all that I did taekwondo matches all those international Jimmy Kim all those fights so I have experience and all kinds of martial arts but then fell in love with boxing you know polished my hands and, you know, trained with the best.

And putting it all together, it's not. A fight is a fight. You've got to understand what, it's not only about the fight, you've got to understand what you have as a trainer. I know what I have. I know what abilities she has. And, you know, I know Ronda's personality. I know what they're going to be trying to do.

This last fight, she knows. I said, Ronda, the way you're punching right now, everybody's going to try to push you off them. Or they're going to be desperate for them to clinch. Before, you would want to go clinch. But now you're going to clip them so hard, guess what? They're going to try to come and clinch you. And when they're doing that, you either counter-take down, which you can do, or you keep on punching them,

counter-punch or, you know, push them off, knock their ass out. What happened? She was punching her. What did she want to do? She couldn't take those shots. She came to grab Ronda. Ronda pushed her, kneed her, jumped on her again. Fight was over.

But that we understood as we're seeing progress. Because when I'm seeing the sparring partners, we have a boxing world champion sparring with Ronda. Ronda's on her, hitting her, and this girl's like, holy shit, trying to get inside to close. Tie her up. That means it's a big problem now. So are you analyzing this stuff independently of your training sessions?

So you're sitting down afterwards and you're going over what you're seeing, what the progress is. That's why I can't teach group classes. I can't do group. I like to work on an individual's ability and bring out the best from the fighter well you gotta look deep in exactly too much too much yeah you know and doing it at this level you have to have that fighter you have to love that fighter. You have to love that fighter. You have to care about that fighter.

You have to understand that fighter. Personality. So, you know, that's why she puts me to understand. She lets me write the whole structure, but I'll tell you, she's intelligent. Why? Because there has been choices she's made or said, hey, coach, you know, we should um work with henner and he don't you know because just to understand their tactical approach to fighting where they're on their back i will never lie down on my back you know because in the beginning it was like he did all the striking and i was all of the the grappling yeah and then so i didn't have a jujitsu or wrestling judo coach

for years. And then I brought Martin Berberian, who's an Olympic, three-time Olympian, bronze medalist. You know, so we added, like I added, once she added Henner and Girona, and she was like, just for me. And then I added Justin, yeah. Yeah, to understand the approach to their style. And then now, when we go, she understands that when they're on their back and being passive, judoka is not going to lie down on their back. It's, you know, you lose that way. But they do, you know, jiu-jitsu does, and just for her to be aware of that.

And I said, Rhonda, you're brilliant. Let's go to them, and we'll do it once a week, twice a week, so you could understand their approach to, you know, grappling. And then we'll know how to take advantage of that. grappling and then we'll know how to take advantage of that well this it's a ever-evolving game grappling unlike anything else is constantly evolving and adding new techniques to it and like if you pay attention to Abu Dhabi like the world championships it's all leg locks now it's crazy there's so the leg lock game and grappling has changed so much over the last few years everybody's attacking with leg locks using leg locks for sweeps, using leg locks to establish other transitions. Yeah, but leg locks,

when you bring striking into it, it's very different because it's very risky in that when you go for a leg lock and it doesn't work out, you lose position. And MMA, you have to think a lot more about risk. And that's why I feel like arm bars work so

well is because if it doesn't work out, I'm still on top. I can still be somewhere positive. You have control over the hands. If I go for a leg lock, I'm suddenly on the bottom. That's why I don't do doubles. I don't shoot for doubles. What if it doesn't work? Then you're on the bottom.

You're in a worse place. It's so risky. Do you know who Eddie Cummins is? Top-level Brazilian jiu-Jitsu competitor right now, trains under John Donaher. And John Donaher apparently has a very complex and comprehensive system involving attacking legs and leg locks. He's one of Henzo Gracie's black belts, really, really respected Jiu-Jitsu guy. And Eddie was talking about, he just competed in Abu Dhabi, And Eddie was talking about, he just competed in Abu Dhabi, and he was talking about bringing leg locks to MMA.

And that you are seeing many more leg locks in MMA now because guys are learning, like, at the highest level, the transitions. Like, a lot of times we have these looks at things and we go, well, that's not going to work because of this. And people might have said that about all sorts of different aspects of MMA before someone came along and figured out a way to do it successfully. I think we're kind of seeing that. I'm not discounting like leg locks at all. I'm just saying. They're risky. And then again, it's the ability of the fighter. What ability you have, what you've done.

Like, you know, I'm saying like when she does with Henner and Hiron and, you know, during training camp, she's not going to one month the fight, lie down on her back and try to do triangles. That's not her. You know what I mean? So we need to be dominant in certain areas. Do you train those things? Do you learn specific skills outside of a training camp? So when training camp's over, you knock out Betch Kohea and you go, I'd like to learn how to do this.

Or I'd like to add a little bit of that to my game. Yeah, you learn stuff without a particular direction when you're outside of camp, and camp is what directs it towards something specific. But is it crazy because MMA, there's so many skills, there's so many things you can adhere to, or so many styles you can adhere to. It's like you kind of figure out where to focus your thing. And you're focusing your thing on boxing, your judo, and your armbar. And because of that, you've been so successful because everything is just razor sharp.

When you start adding things, sometimes what happens is you're putting too much attention to these other things. You can add, but know when to add. That's the thing. Now we got Justin Flores. He comes in the judo, the explosive throws. We know that judo is all about timing and explosive and she loves it when she uses that,

knowing when to do that. You know what I mean? But if she does that right now, when we're just starting off and quick explosive throws, her body is not ready. Like you were saying about strength and conditioning. People do that so they could prevent injuries, right?

For you not to have your joints hurting this and that. So it's the same thing. You have to think of it when to use it it's okay to add but when to use it when you're fighting you have to do what's best of your ability to get the w it's about the w it's not about what people make the mistake of trying to memorize certain things like separate things that aren't are completely disjointed and not related as opposed to memorizing concepts like when when I'm grappling I probably make up 15 different moves a night I've never done before just off the top my head because it makes sense right there because you know the concept and now that you're in

an unusual position you just apply the concept the concepts I'm just applying the concepts to every kind of situation I could end up in. I don't memorize every single individual move. It doesn't make sense. I'm not going to memorize a leg lock and then memorize a spitting back elbow and then memorize a push kick and memorize, you know, something else that's completely a Superman punch. Like, they're completely all over the place and they have nothing to do with each other. They're not connected. Why am I spending so many hours of my day on all these different things that they

they're not connected to each other and so i spend a lot of my time connecting things as opposed to trying to learn individual things that don't have anything connecting and ring journalism where's the ring journalism is the most important thing you see see her on the pads, watch her. Every time I'm stepping, she's one step ahead. What is she doing? She's controlling me. She's controlling you. Exactly. Building that framework in her mind of always knowing what to do.

Ringed generalship is the most important thing in boxing and fighting in general. You can't be in the middle of the octagon, walk 10 steps and hit your back on the cage. And then expect to learn a superman punch and become something special you got to learn ring journalism first there's more to fighting people just you know know it have an idea and there's coaches out there that think oh they could show a fancy jumping kick or a punch or whatever it is or a throw and become something special with that no no it doesn't work that way positioning is so critical in grappling but it's just as critical in striking it's just in critical just as critical in movement just as critical in being in a position where the person literally doesn't

have the leverage to hit you correctly and that's it's an art and you watch floyd mayweather it's the one thing he does better than anybody he's always in a good position exactly constantly in a good position to avoid damage he knows if he goes on the ring ropes calls you in takes the impact he knows which round he's doing that in you know if he knows you're a huge puncher he won't go there the first two rounds he'll you know know exactly when he's calling you in to counter those shots you know on the ring ropes on the ropes he knows when to do it it's about when to do it how you use it when ronda went and clinched misha you know the second fight ronda says she was done and then misha admitted that she was hurt from that right hand if you watch your interview at the end she's like yeah i got

hit i that was a good right hand right well it made sense because she was so high she was so high up on your hips i remember watching i was like why is she she's going flying boom yeah i mean as soon as she was clinching you up high like that, I was like, she's going to go flying. But it's the sense. When Rhonda says, I clinched her, she was already out. So Rhonda tossed her and did an arm bar. But why she did that throw there is because she knew she was out. She could have finished it standing too.

That was the worst throw ever. The last, the beginning of the third round, when I, she was out on her feet with a straight right, and I knew it because of the way she was breathing. When I put her up against the cage, I felt she was deflated. She wasn't there anymore. So I knew I could do whatever kind of bullshit throw in the world. Even if I could be on the bottom, it's still going to work right then because she's not there. And the idea in that fight, the structure of the fight that he put out,

is you're going to break her first standing and then the submission will be easier because they're going to be so focused on the submission you have to get them their mind somewhere else before you go for it and so at that point i i knew that she wasn't there because of like you have to have a feel for the other person and know them very well you have to know them so intimately you know that if they're breathing differently, you know where their mind is at. And that's the time I can do the shittiest sumigayashi that you've ever seen and be straight on the bottom and know that I'm going to finish her from there because she's not defensively there at all. When you're looking at your future right now, are you planning when you're going to

bail out of this and what your life is going to be like after? Because you've hit this crazy peak in your life right now. It's likely never going to be replicated by anyone else that comes after you. You're in this weird, crazy position, and it can't last. You can't fight like this when you're 80. It just can't be done. I'm not going to be in my 30s. She might be able to. She might be able to. She's't be done. I'm not going to be in my 30s. She might be able to.

She might be able to. She's a fucking ninja. I'm not going to be doing this in my 30s. No. No, not when you're 30. No. Really. I don't want to be fighting in my 30s.

Dude, Dana White's going to call you up on the phone. He's going to listen. I don't fuck with my Captain Moneybags. By 30s, I mean like 31, 32. He's going to take stacks of thousands. He's going to rifle it through the phone. By 30s, I mean like 31, 32. Just take stacks of thousands.

He's going to rifle it through the phone. But I mean, if you're actually 30 or so, that's not 30s. That's 30. 30s. Once you add 31, that's 30s, plural. How old are you now? I'm 28. 28.

Are you really thinking like a couple years, two, three years? Like, what are you thinking? I don't know. Like, I look at it like exactly like how we were talking about how fighting. That's how I do everything else. I don't look at Like I look at it like, like exactly like how we were talking about how fighting that's how I do everything else. I don't look at all these separate disjointed things. Like I'm not going to go in there and I'm not going to try this thing and then try this thing and try that thing and then hope something works out. It's like, I follow like, like a path train of thought while I'm, I'm, I'm in there and while I'm doing everything else. So it's just like, this is what I want to do right now. And these are the possible reactions.

These are possible things that could happen. And we're going with option three. Okay, this is, these are the possible reactions. And I follow it like a path from whatever happens from what I'm doing right now, that determines everything else afterward. And I just kind of follow it. And so it's very, everything's very organically done. And I'm improvising all the time. I'm improvising when I'm fighting and I'm improvising all the time.

I'm improvising when I'm fighting. I'm improvising with my career. I just know the concepts of what I want to accomplish in my career. I don't know exactly what I'm going to be doing. I don't walk in and know I'm going to arm bar that person. I don't right now know exactly when I'm going to retire and how exactly I'm going to do it. But I know it's going to happen at some point. I know I'm going to finish this somehow.

But we know she's going to be undefeated. I know I'm going to be undefeated. I know it's going to happen at some point. I know I'm going to finish this somehow. But we know she's going to be undefeated. I know I'm going to be undefeated. I know I'm going to retire at some point. But still, I'm still so far away that I can't say exactly how. I'm still following the path and the train of thought to get there. And we know when she wins, you know, so quick, no injuries, training, healthy, happy, smart, intelligent, back-to-back wins. Wish she could fight three fights a year, you know, because she was in there not over a minute for this last three fights. How are you going to know when to stop?

And what, do you think you'll be able to just walk away? Yeah, but that's why I'm... But look at Fedor. That's why I'm doing all this other stuff. He's jumping back too just because what else is there for them to do so you think the other stuff will be sufficient and sufficiently exciting yeah i just want to build it up enough and develop it enough where it's ready for me to do full time when i want to switch over you know i i got a lot going on

you do a lot you almost have too much going on well you know I wonder you doing movies right before you're training for fights you're in the middle of things and it's hard like doing expendables and Fast and Furious back-to-back right before going into camp I tell him why it went to three or the third round with mission Joe knows you know do you know why it went to the third round with Misha? Joe knows. Do you know why it went to the third round? No. It's not only that, but I still keep on saying it.

It's because she had the movies, right? So first time going to a big movie of her career and dealing with all those big actors. And she kept her weight very low. And I wasn't there because I had Nonito's and Vic's fight. Donair's fight. And I couldn't go there to help her out during training camp when she came back ronda you know because she always i do her hand wraps and she you know works on the bag and her hands i don't know how to wrap my own hands yeah her hands are ready to take that impact she messed up her knuckles right away during training camp she She wasn't fit, you know, she wasn't healthy

and it took us, she couldn't throw punches that fight. Still hurt her in the third round. That's why when we thought we were going to fight Misha the next fight, I said it's not healthy for her. It's not going to be healthy for Misha next time she fights Ronda. You know,

the scar on my knuckle, I think it was like nine stitches or something like that from the Alexis Davis fight? That is an injury from that Misha fight because I lost my calluses while I was filming. And so when I came back, all the skin came off my hands right away. Like my knuckles were gone. So while you were filming, you didn't do any training at all? No, I trained a lot, but I couldn't do any impact off my hands right away. Like bare, like my knuckles were like gone. So while you were filming, you didn't do any training at all. No,

I trained a lot, but I couldn't do any impact on my hands because I punched too hard for my hands. I have the smallest hands in the UFC. I have tiny, fragile little hands. Like the, even like my thumb bone, like is like abnormally small.

Yeah. And, um, so I, I can't hit unless he, he professionally wraps my hands with gauze and tape every single training session. I can't hit any other way. My hands will, like, explode pretty much.

And so I was training really hard. I was running up mountains, and I was wrestling, and I was, you know, doing all these things and everything that I could. But I wasn't having any impact on my hands. I was shadowboxing with the weights. I was doing everything I could. But, yeah, I couldn't land anything. And so I got home, and all the skin impact on my hands. I was shadowboxing with the weights. I was doing everything I could, but yeah, I couldn't land anything. And so I got home and all the skin comes off my hands then, but I'm like,

okay, I have to leave for fast and furious in a few days. So fuck it. I'm just gonna, just gonna punch like this. And so it was just open wounds. I was punching open wounds for five days straight until I like, I literally had a crater like on this one hand and I'm just like,

okay, well it'll heal while I'm at fast and furious and I'll back I'll be fine because me I'm like you know I'm thinking oh it's just scrapes whatever and then I come back and it never heals the whole camp we just keep putting neosporin and peroxide in it and I just have like like a crater in my hand and it keeps falling off and the whole thing falls off and it gets bigger every time every time it falls off it's bigger and it's deeper and i start to see like the little like the the fat like beads because it's like that like deep like i would look at it sideways and there would be a dent inside and then it would heal and then there'd be a huge lump and then they

would whatever it was inside would burst i was getting a ganglion cyst on my knuckle. That's what it was. And so I finally, like, healed up enough where I could fight, you know? But I had to, like, not punch on it really at all or else it would rip right off. And I remember right before the fight I told Edmund, I was like, this knuckle on my right hand, I'm going to, like, fucking, I'm going to plant it right on your face, I promise you. Yeah, and I'm like fucking I'm gonna plant it right yeah and I'm like and that's I ended up actually knocking out with the straight right but then I had I couldn't get anything done about it because then I

had to go straight to McMahon and then we're like man I did two camps back to back now my knee is fucking up because I'm doing two camps back to back and I can't take that much punishment all the time and my knuckle is like still like super fucked up and I I'm like, whatever. And it keeps ripping off and cutting out and trying to heal it back and ripping off and trying to heal it back and ripping off and trying to heal it back. And so we get through the McMahon fight. And I was going to get surgery. I was going to get my hand and my knee worked on.

But then Dana's like, listen, you could fight Gina in February. I mean, in February, in December. And I was like, well, I don't want to wait till December. I want I'll be a better fighter in December if I fight in February. I mean, not in February, in December. And I was like, well, I don't want to wait until December. I want, I'll be a better fighter in December if I fight in July. I don't want to be sitting ring-rusted that long, because I ring-rusted for the Misha fight and I didn't feel good. So I'm like,

I want to stay active in that time. So give me a fight right away. So I was like, okay, I'm going to fight Alexis Davis. I just want to fight someone. So I was like, I want to fight Alexis Davis. You said Gina. Yeah, it was going to be Gina Carano. And it ended up not happening.

But so... That was a big deal. Yeah, so I wanted to fight in the meantime. So I was like, okay, I can't get surgery and I can't get all these things worked out now. I'm going to go do this fight and then I'll do it afterward. And so then I went and did the Alexis fight. And I remember just looking at this thing in my knuckle.

I was like, I feel like I could pull it out. Like, I feel like whatever the fuck is in there, like I could get it out. And there were times I was trying to do surgery on it and like pull things out. And I was pulling things out of my hand. What were you pulling out of there? Furniture? Like little beads, like little balls of things. I don't know what they were.

Like I felt like I was pulling out like balls of fat or scar tissue and stuff out of my hand. Jesus. But I felt like, even right before the Davis fight, I was like, I feel like I could just rip it off right now and pull it out. But I couldn't do it because I was about to fight and I couldn't do that to my hand. I just couldn't wait to get this thing out. I felt like

it was in there. It was itchy almost. And then, yeah, the first overhand hand right I ever threw in a fight, I threw it right on Alexis' head, and the whole thing exploded, like, down to the bone, like, from the inside of my knuckle all the way out. They never got good footage of it because I didn't want my mom to see it because she was, like, all, you know, really nervous and worried for me when I'm doing MMA. And so there's, like, this tiny bit of footage that Elliot got

where I'm like holding my hand away from my mother, and he's like looking around the corner, just then sees, like you never saw it. It was down to the bone all the way around my hand, and the whole thing blew up. We saw the wrap. The wrap's covered in blood. But that's how you get rid of a ganglion cyst.

You have to like burst it. And so it was actually gone once we did that and sewed it up. And then cool you know that's what that's what it was i thought my hand hurt and then i realized like a couple days later i broke my thumb and i was like walking around like with my hand out and i ended up having to have a pin put in and like all that stuff so like i just had fragile little hands i have a great chin but fragile little hands you know i'd rather have you know it that way than the other way around but yeah so that's that's my my knuckle chronicle and then i i ripped it open before the last camp because of a stupid was it commercial no the promo commercial and then i hurt my pinky during the budweiser commercial i didn't hurt anything else during the the camp at all i got hurt doing

like the two like commercials right beforehand. It's one of the big problems that people don't think about when they watch fights if they're casual observers. It's what fighters are going into camp with, nagging injuries. I put D-Wrap right now under it. We do it, but she punches. It's normal.

I gotta get out of here. I gotta take my kid to a martial arts class. Dude, I have a million things to do. I just didn't even want to know what time it was. It's 3. 3.10, I have a million things to do. I just didn't even want to know what time it was. I was like, I was like. It's 3. 3. 3.10. 3.10. Oh, shit.

I'm so late for everything. 306. 306. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for doing this. Thank you so much. It was so much fun.

Thank you. Anytime you guys want to come back, open invitation. Thank you. I'll start this bitch up. We can go off tangents like none other. Yeah, it was fun. Really fun. All right.

That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you thank you appreciate it you guys are the best thank you have fun at your thing with your kid