The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #100 with Cody Garbrandt

Episode Date: February 12, 2021

Cody Garbrandt is a professional mixed martial artist and former UFC bantamweight champion. He's also the author of "The Pact", the story of his rough upbringing in a small Appalachian town.

Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day! Hello, Cody. What's going on? Good to see you, brother. What's happening, man? Enjoying Austin.

Yeah. So you're coming here? Possibly. Are you letting the people know? Not yet. Did I blow the... Not yet, man. They're going to know now. Did I let people know? I think so. I blow the... Not yet. They're going to know now.

Did I let people know? I think so. I mean, it's probably the move we spoke about earlier. Yeah. I've always loved Texas, like we spoke earlier. I got signed here to the UFC. I was on it for so many years. Came out here during fight camps for a week and kind of just unplugged but focused on

training and had a good time out here. It was always a pleasure. Yeah, it's a beautiful place. I'm enjoying the shit out of it dude first of all congratulations on your comeback i that you know you're a great guy and when there's someone i like who loses a bunch of fights in a row and you get into this skid it's hard it's hard to watch i can't imagine what it was like being you you know to have a young child and to be dealing with all this going on i mean it's like losing your top but then to come back the way you did against a really fucking tough guy in a sun sal and get arguably the ko of the year i mean you got to be feeling pretty fucking good. I feel great.

Back from the brink. Back from the brinks. I mean, that time in my life, that time frame period, and going through that from on top of the world, world champion, to three-fight skid, honestly, it feels like a lifetime ago. I feel like I'm just a different person where I was at from there, removed. The thing is I'm just doing differently

thinking differently you know how i was able to approach the game picking myself back up time and time again i mean it's internet is a horrible place to get get knocked out on you know you got the trolls this and that you know it's but besides that point you know um just coming back to that and having a love for it. A lot of the times I got to the fight and not to make excuses, I was just, I didn't feel myself. I didn't feel like, and the training and leading up, I felt physically I'm always ready to fight. Like flip the switch, I'm always physically ready to fight. But I think mentally going into those fights, I was just out of body. I wasn't, I felt like I was going through the motions.

You know, my passion wasn't there. I wasn't waking up every day like what's your reason why I was just trying to find that and I think the reason why I was had so many people infiltrated in how I should train or how I should live or what I should do to get back there and really it wasn't nothing that I needed to learn new I didn't have to reinvent the wheel it was just doing the slate edge theory, like getting out of your comfort zone. Like you're doing your sauna sessions. Like you're pushing yourself to go in there and just be uncomfortable.

You know, so I had to go out there. And with that comeback, you know, I moved to Jersey, did training camp out there. I split time between. Yeah, I want to talk to you about that. I'm a big fan of Henry. Mark Henry's a bad motherfucker. He's great.

I love, I enjoy him so much, his passion for it, his love for it. He's so interesting, too, his crazy codes and the fact that the dude makes pizza on the side. Dude, I was so nervous going out there because I heard of the codes. And I was with Lance, and Lance kind of gave me a little insight on it, on everything. I'm like, damn, codes. And I just fight, dude. I don't have really said things I kind of go off of my instincts and game plans and he was trying to you know brief me on it when I got to the first two weeks holy we go down to his basement and he has like pizza

scrolls from the pizzeria where we have off about 50 things that we're working on um before camp and so what does he write him on boxes pizza boxes pizza scrolls like the just uh basically white paper he rolls down and it's tapes it there to the wall you have like corey's fight camp you have you know frankie's and all these codes you know he's working with 14 fighters that one time he knows all the codes and all different kinds of fights too different like he's got zabit there he's got frankie it's like all these different styles styles yeah styles and we'll kind of you know what I like about that is he'll try things that Zabit does Zabit does these crazy double jump scissor kicks and spinning you know the Russians are really good at spinning shit you know so we

threw that into the into the game and it's it's you know it was nice to get that kind of stuff that Frankie's done and had success over the years. So we meshed that together. He got to know me really well. We worked extensively with Ricardo Almeida up there as well. But, yeah, Coach Henry is just obsessed with winning. But what I loved about him was the first thing that he said to me was that his job is he's competitive. He wants to win at all costs, but his job is to get us back to our family. And I watched your podcast with Andre Ward, and he said the same thing about his trainer. He's competitive. He wants to win at all costs, but his job is to get us back to our family.

And I watched your podcast with Andre Ward, and he said the same thing about his trainer. And once he said that to me, and I have a child now, my whole thought process has changed and transitioned. And they're like, I want to be able to be around for my son's life. I want to speak to my grandchildren. I'm not drooling. That's what Coach Mark says. I want you drooling when you're you know you're 50 60 years old and i kind of the style that i fight i can punch and move i don't have to brawl with these guys right you know and um just reiterating the defensive part of the technical offensive part with him is i could go in there and hit a six seven punch combo dude he

would he would care less he's like what did you do after? You moved after your head was off, your hands was up. He's all about defense. And, you know, I think he just helped me out a lot with saying that, like getting me home to my family safe. Like that's what I want to do. It's such an important approach to be defensively sound. And yet there's so many fighters who don't think like that at all. They just think about offense.

And if you, you know, it's really like in jiu-jitsu, like Hicks and Gracie, I had a conversation with him once about jiu-jitsu, and one of the things that he said is that the most important thing is defense. He said, because I'm always safe. This is what he said. He goes, I'm always safe. And he goes, in every position, I'm always safe. Like he lets guys on his back with a fully locked

in rear naked choke and he'll start rolling like that he he's always safe so he never and that's interesting also i read that about the donahue death squad john donahue's guys like you know gordon ryan and all those guys they'll start in really bad positions all the time they train constantly in bad positions so they're always defensively sound and that makes sense with striking as well so many guys are so concerned with offense and you know you've had so many spectacular knockouts like the thomas almeida fight that it's just like you probably just want to blast guys true i get i gotta like pull the reins back sometimes i'm like dude i'm so amped up just get in there and get the fight you know like forget the walkout forget the you know yeah i'm gonna i want to get the first blow

i want to get that exchange and then that's when the fight unravels sometimes i think i get so amped up that you know taking it back you know doing that kind of having defensively sound it sets up your offense yeah and my uncle's trained me my whole entire life and this is what he said your offense sets up your defense and vice versa but okay like my offense was so good and then you get to this point where you people are breaking down your footages and your films and you know your speed and power you know you have to have that you have to be defensively sound if you're so offensive i'm a forward fighter i can fight going back a lot of fighters can't go i can feel like i'm fight positional um like you said about danner's guys, Chris Holdsworth has adapted into a phenomenal coach.

He's my right-hand guy from martial arts to the T, and he makes us start in horrible positions like that when we're dog-dead tired and then get up and we're shadow sparring each other and then going back to the ground, like really fight-simulated things to where you're feeling uncomfortable in those positions. Like, yeah, I can go in there and knee wrestle all day during jiu-jitsu and i didn't get tapped out i didn't tap anybody i was safe but i didn't put myself in those positions when the fight really happens you have to see how you know you're great you got to be able to fight off the hands fight off the body trying to fight all those bad positions so you're comfortable with whatever the fight goes and i feel like that's where i'm at

now i've transitioned into that fighter i was so green when I got to alpha male, and a lot of my speed and power catapulted me to the top where I have to kind of draw back a little bit and do the correctional errors, not reinvent things, not do things, but the defensive part of things. I was up in training in Jersey, and I knew I had the good head slips and movements, but some of the slips coach was watching me. I would get caught on the first or second. I usually would get hit with the fourth punch, a it's a combo puncher so i would slip slip and then i would slip down this way and i would get hit with the the jab every time it's like dude

just bring your hand up a little bit when you're slipping to the right and moving to the right and i you know he's like how you feel after sport i'm like dude i feel great i don't have a headache i'm not getting my ass kicked like i'm not getting hit really like my. Like, my defense has gotten so solid working with him and just constantly. And Chris is the same way. And my coaches out in Alpha Male are the same with hands up, hands up, hands up. But I was just, at that point in my life, I was just so aggressive and angry. Yeah. And just.

We had so much success attacking that way too. At doing that. But this last fight, I was honestly joe when i was you know doing those feints on the sun sound and coach henry said hey don't feel like these feints aren't going to work like he's defensively sound he's a great fighter at that respect keep doing these feints they will work i'm fainting this guy dude i'm fainting i'm fainting he's not really biting he's not really coming in but i kept on the feints and we you know i started catching him with some some shots that i saw and his eyes were hurting him.

And then feinted, did the Tyson 2, overhand right, dropped him. And I knew once I had that range and the power and speed and his timing that he would come in with something. The KO, the way you did it where you dropped your hands and looked to the side and waited for him to move, oh, my God. That was like one of the best walk-off KOs ever. It felt great because the first round i kind of had myself to the cage and coach man he he probably kicked my ass being on the cage

like get get off the cage get to the you know movement more we're movement fighters you know he made me um and i know my back was in this cage but i saw and in the the round was ending but i saw a sunset like oh here's my opening i saw that in the first round and then the second round i was staying off i was moving i was being i was switched you know stances um but towards the end of that i heard the clappers i'm like i'm back in swell let him come in i kind of leaned towards and he kind of like feigning on it and then he chased me down when i leveled change i kept my eye on him and he threw the hook because he was going south paul and i knew like i had the hand my hand on the cage and know where my distance was that he was coming with a kick after I could lean back.

I just had my range and my timing. Once I threw it, man, I knew when I felt it from the hip, it was over. Dude. And that guy is so fucking durable. That's the thing. I mean, this guy is so tough and so durable. For you to catch him and KO him like this yeah that had to feel so good that was good you know back against the wall i mean that was a pivotal point in my life but i knew leading up to

that i needed to get knocked gone i kept like hey sean dana then obviously in the beginning of the year i had the kidney infection that landed me in the hospital i had to remove myself how did what happened there dude i had a um i guess a staff or cellulitis i didn't know my shin was so sore for weeks i would tape it with a knee pad put a knee pad and tape it and spar and grapple but there was no like infection no nothing no cut um so you just thought it was bruised i kicked kicked this dude hella hard i just thought that my leg was just bruised that bad like you know sometimes you hit your shins yeah you know um kind of elbow maybe a knee and i was transitioning back i was in jersey for a month and i was back here for in california for two weeks and i was going back to jersey and just training hard you know and um

to where my body just started shutting down like i remember telling coach mark after training one day i'm just feeling horrible um and then by that night i kind of just started feeling really bad and started urinating blood so i went to the hospital and uh they checked everything out like oh you're good like the doctor came in and was like here's the surgeon's number like you're gonna have to get your lymph nodes removed because my lymph nodes were swollen so much in my groin i couldn't even walk i was like get crawling in there and i'm like everything checked out they did all these tests i was there for like why would they just remove them just that's what he said i'm like all right so i was like drove home to because i drove there the first time and then drove home chris is actually flying out

for the week to help me train and i was like chris bro i don't feel good um there's something going on like you know but i just had everything checked out so i'm not gonna be pussing go back to the to the hospital but restfully during the night it just became like two words just straight blood i was this was urinating so this is not good i couldn't eat i had the cold chills went back ubered back to the hospital and um they admitted me and i had a really bad kidney infection from um i guess cellulitis i was in my leg so how do they find out that you have really bad kidney infection do they do it for a blood test I did blood cultures I was doing I did probably 26 labs I was in the hospital for they didn't know why I was what was caused from it um I had a team full a team of doctors surgeons um you know uh infectious disease doctors like all these like

trying to do these tests and like we didn't know what was going on And then they gave me antibiotic I was on hip to pick up the penicillin for six days and IV the whole time like it was the first few days in The hospital do I couldn't eat I couldn't even urinate myself the lady had to hold the bucket to where I was just I was Just dying. I think I was training myself You know, it wasn't a diet thing. I was eating right correct taking supplements like just training hard and then I guess I just trained my body to – Well, if you get – that's the thing about people that get sick while they're training.

Like people that are in – like if you're in a fight camp, your body is – you're constantly breaking yourself down. That's why guys get sick all the time in training because you're so tired. You train so hard. If you get sick bad while that's happening, you can get really fucked up. And there are so many guys out there running around with staph infections that don't know they have them. I've seen guys at the gym and they have like this little thing on their arm. And then someone's got to say, hey, dude, have you got that checked out? Like that thing looks like a big boil.

Like you got staph, bro. And they're like, is that staph? Is that staph? People don't know. But that shit gets bro. And they're like, is that staph? Right. Is that staph? It looks like staph, yeah. People don't know. But that shit gets systemic, and then you could die. Yeah, it was. I had to go and do, you know, I had to go to a kidney specialist.

They went to Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, did all these tests. They wanted to do a biopsy. Staph is fucking scary, man. So I texted Dana, like, man, like, I had to pull out my fight. And then he was saying that he was going to have the fights. I'm like, well, I need to fight. Like I just need, my soul needs to get in there. I need to turn this around.

I'm on three fight skid. Like I was excited. I was fighting in Columbus, Ohio, my hometown. I was going to start to come back there. And then Marshawn, you know, I was back to my visualization, focusing on fighting. Like I was so far removed from that. Not because I was losing. Like even when I won the title title i was just like so far

like you weren't visualizing then i wasn't i mean i ended up injuring myself in the fight with cruz with my knee and then i ended up having the back procedure in germany um leading up to the tj fight it took me out a whole year did you get that regenokine stuff yep i did and it worked and there's shelf lives of it you know i still feel um i learned a lot like doing obviously yoga pt you know as much as i'm training i'm still doing five days a week of PT, you know, and mobility work. For your back? Just overall mobility. What was the exact extent of the injury?

It was an annual tear. Of the disc? Of the disc, yeah. So it kind of just protruded and it was just hitting that sciatic nerve and just locking up. They're doing stem cells and discs now and they're having great results from that you know i know a dude who had severe sciatic pain and a drop foot like his foot was like going numb and and he got it completely fixed with stem cells wow that's regenerative medicine is the future man it's really fascinating stuff and part of it's pulling from your own self

to heal you and mix with some other things. Yeah, some of it. And some of it they're doing from umbilical cords. When a young woman gives birth, they take the umbilical cord and they make stem cells out of the umbilical cord. Yeah, that's great. I'm all for it. Dude, it's incredible stuff. But so you – talk to me about the visualization stuff. So this was something that you had concentrated on earlier in your career?

Really, my whole entire life, without knowing what law of attraction was and having these people teach me this kind of stuff, I remember writing on my planner in grade school and junior high and high school, like I was going to be a state champion. You know, that's what I wanted to be. You know, our mom always gave us Christmas presents at the Jerome Schottenstein Center to go watch the state wrestling tournament in Ohio. And everybody knows the Ohio State tournament is, you know, you've been a state champion in Ohio, you're elite in the nation. It's a tough state.

So that's what we were, you know, our first sport we fell in love with was wrestling. We traveled all over once our mom, you know, put us in it and traveled us around the country, packed in our minivans, driving all kinds of, you know, of you know Iowa Maryland Florida just that's what we did every weekend you know that's what we uh enjoyed to do so I started visualization there with you know I saw the announcer's name you know hearing that this is just in your like you almost like just daydreaming just daydreaming just thinking about what you want yeah not paying attention in school but not like a not like a form like like a formula not like a i didn't really know a formula just i would write down my weight class my name what high school i was representing and i would just read that when

i was in school and read it over and over again i would hear the guy the announcer's name at the drum shots he had a distinguished voice. Freshman Cody Garber from New York, to Matt, too. You run out and it's going to rest in front of 22,000 people. Think about it in your head. I'm going to be a state champion my freshman year. I did it. Anything that I visualize like that and really put myself in those kind of uncomfortable positions now like i want to be a world champion and to be a world champion you have to put yourself through some misery some some straight

pain to get you know your goals to be the top because everyone's going to everyone's fast everyone's tough everyone's strong it's like that slight edge theory like what are you going to do that they're not going to do right and i think you know you're going back to the three fight skid going to jersey i need to get out of my comfort zone right i've never been away from my son more than a week you know like i had to go and and reward myself with coming back to my family coming back to my son after being away and dedicating myself to this you know this life that i chose to do but you know rewarding myself with a win, coming back, enjoying my son. So every time I was away from him, this is my deposit.

This is my deposit to get back to my son, to have these good times, to make a great future for him, things that I didn't have. I'm fighting for him and things for his future, good schooling, things like that. So getting out of that comfort zone, going to Jersey, and then a winner from California. You know what I mean? New training partners, you know what like that so getting out of that comfort zone going to Jersey and then did a winner from California yeah it's not you know I mean new training partners you mean like dude I feel like once you're a champion like you have that X on your back like everyone wants your best and everyone's gonna give you their best and I'm all for that I'm oh yeah let's let's you know let's do it

and so having those new guys on you trying to just you know earn your respect and I had to go out there and have them earn my respect to be this kid is the real deal this guy is the real deal he's a world champion he's making himself come back and i'm going out there like frankie those guys are great eddie alvarez ricardo almeida coach henry the whole top guys in jersey are kind of we laugh and joke like they're the team Alpha Male East Coast, basically. We're such similar styles, wrestlers that are turning into strikers and just the mentality of the hard work kind of everyone.

It's a co-op. Everyone's helping everyone out. Like, oh, I'm going to hold some pads with you. Frankie was great. He came in and helped me out when there was only four or five people in the gym. He would give me my sparring rounds. Just a great dude, great camp to be with, and I needed that. I think I don't need cheerleaders, you know what I mean,

but I need people that I respect that's going to push me the extra round to the next breaking point. How did you choose Mark Henry? Did you guys have a conversation? I talked to Coach Henry years before this, and anyone that knows Mark, he doesn't give out compliments. You've got to earn his respect. I remember him telling me uh you know he's like dude we really love you and enjoy you i feel like you're going to be a world champion in a few years and i was only one

or two and own the ufc and i was like that's a high praise from a guy that's worked with frankie and built him up and all these other fighters he's worked with i was like i appreciate it and we kept in contact you know mutual respect you know at the fights and seeing him but Ali my manager was like hey like I'm not you know he's giving me some of my best life advice I know people have this perception of him but he's honestly helped me out so much in my family but he was the one like look I don't want to tell you what to do but I truly believe that Mark is something that you need in your life he's a great mentor he's just great guy to be around. Happy go lucky. He wants to win. You know, he shows you a good life and, you know, just things that he's been through in his life. So he's like, I think you should go with Coach Mark. And I'm like, for me, change.

I was always, I didn't like change, but some change is growth. You know, I looked at it differently, you know, going out there and battling myself to, you know, get up and be out of your comfort zone and going out with Coach Mark. So, Ollie's kind of the one that kind of set the staple to go out there. I reach out to Coach Mark and Frankie. I'm like, hey, I just want to let you guys know. I want to come check you guys out and would love to work with you. I'm still going to be here with Team Alpha. My guys has brought me up, but I just need a head coach um a guy like coach henry

that showed me a lot about breaking fights down watching more fight tapes like my guys chris and my coach out there they do the same thing um but coach is just more hands-on on that way like breaking it down and repeating like here's what we're doing working 10 rounds today 10 five minute rounds we have 50 combos that we're going over and then that's outside of camp and inside of camp we're kind of limited to 30 um so that's what we're working on for the whole camp of you know getting ready for your your adversary what he's doing and what you need to work with him um so breaking that down just constantly working was just um he's got a mind that's like no other i mean i've never met a coach uh quite like him that thinks like him you know there's people that on his level for mean i've never met a coach uh quite like him that thinks like him

you know there's people that on his level for sure i feel like chris is uh because chris is right there on a full spectrum of martial arts with the grappling i mean chris he's a bad motherfucker i mean we do one-on-one private sessions and it's like no chris is a beast they're horrible they're horrible that dude's like a wet blanket on you especially you go from pads to takedowns now right now you're grappling he's putting you in those bad positions you got to fight out of this guy it's it's bad so let me ask you what was mark's initial uh approach did he was it concentrating on defense was it feints like what what did he want you to do different obviously you're a tremendous offensive fighter correct and that's always been the key to your success

but what did he what did he look at he said this is what you're lacking or this is what we can improve upon um just obviously the feints the defense um you know timing them sometimes my speed is a blessing and a curse sometimes i'll faint faint twice and they're still you know off the first thing and then i'm hitting the combo so it's like i have to kind of dub it down a little bit read more faints do more eye faints you know just faints with the feet movement wise you know and because the speed is just just unreal you know for for mark you know he's like you you're fast like you're probably the fastest guy i've ever seen the octagon no bullshit your hands i try to be in there when you hit a sunset that's one of

the things i said i said i don't think there's a faster person in the sport. Right. Like, you have crazy fast hand speed. But that is true, right? Like, power and speed are sometimes people just rely on them so much. You know, like, I always go back to Roy Jones Jr. The Roy Jones Jr. in his prime was the fastest fucking human being that ever lived. He was so fast.

But because of his incredible athleticism and ability, he developed this style that was just so unorthodox that it wasn't fundamentally sound to the point of the way Bernard Hopkins fights or the way some other fighters fight where they didn't have to be as fast. Because Roy's thing relied so much on his speed. Speed and precision and setting up being in the right hitting the quick shots and getting out and then come with our stuff so i feel like what coach helped out a lot if you look at a lot of my losses i would load up right and put my head first and like why am i gonna give you my get back to the tj fight right the two fights the those you were

more emotionally invested in those fights than any fight you've ever had right definitely and that's not me i don't have to joe i love the fight i can fight in your studio right now you know i mean i'll kick jamie's ass you know if you know making fun of his pants earlier you know but uh so i never like for me to go in there and kind of have that you know just an example of I didn't need to do that

yeah you know and you know it was great I was a world champion felt like I had to defend it a lot of other stuff you know the back story of it

and the injury coming off a year I was just so like I said not mentally ready to go in there and fight that I physically was like overcompensated for it the emotions that go into a fight with someone you don't like, it's always extremely difficult.

But for you to go into a fight with someone you don't like, who you used to be tight with and used to train with, that's got to be like doubly difficult. It's not like I said I didn't like TJ. I don't agree with a lot of things that happened. But that's so far in the past that, you know, past that. But, yeah, definitely taking that in there, it was my mental state was not what it should have been to go in against a guy like TJ, you know. And we can fast forward to where, you know, he got popped and this and that.

TJ can be on that stuff. He can be on that stuff, and he still can't beat me. When I'm focused and i'm mentally there i'm in there and i'm excited you know like i'm glad that he's coming back he's got to prove to himself you know and that's a big fight for me to come back to you know in the future that's gonna that's gonna happen you know i feel like tj caught me at a time where mentally i was not in the best state of mind to go on there and and and, and be a champion. And that's why I was taken from me. You know, I wasn't doing the right things, you know, the slight edge things,

I wasn't doing those. And, uh, you know, he capitalized and, and I look back on it. I, I kept going back in those fights and a little bit of insanity, you know, you gotta be insane to repeat the same thing, thinking a different outcome. And that's what I was doing in there. I was always trained hard, always prepared, ready, But what was, what was, it wasn't nothing new that I needed to do. It was just the slight, slight edge things. Little work, work this, work that. Like, and looking back on it, it's, it's hindsight's 20, 20, always in the fight. But I'm thankful for that.

I have to feel like if I would have went off and defending the title and I probably wouldn't have been as hungry and motivated as I am today. And that's going to help me out for the next five years of my career, however long I want to fight for, you know, I always kind of break my life down to five, five year increments, but I'm excited for, I'm more hungry than ever. Cause I know what it takes to get back to the top. So when you said that you stopped visualizing for a long time and now you're doing it again, are you doing it now in, do you have like a rigid format

do you have like a do you have a disciplined format of visualization or do you just spend time alone thinking about things like how do you do it um yeah i do do a format write things out i write out goals three months six months a year five years what i want to accomplish why it's financial why it's you know athletic why it's financial, why it's athletic, why it's personal growth, spiritual growth, family growth, things like that. So I try to prioritize what I'm lacking or what's the lower grade that I give myself and try to focus more on that so it's all balanced. I feel like I'm trying to balance my life more as far as being, I grew up in chaos.

I feel like I do well in that, but I'm at a different place in my life and what I want from my son and my future, I want to have that balance of you're not so 100% in this and, you know, lacking this. You know, I want to make sure it's kind of balanced across my goals. But I feel like, you know, going back to talking about getting out of your comfort zone, like doing things that absolutely suck,

and you've got to mentally put yourself in that position. Were you in your comfort zone when you were a champion? When you say getting out of your comfort zone, I know you trained hard. So what is different? I think that I removed myself after winning the world title. I didn't feel like it was everything that I thought I was going to be. In what way? Just the whole prolific, you're a world champion, you're the best in the world you know i didn't

i never expected a lot of things that would happen i just focused on what did you think it was going to be like i don't know i don't think i had any expectations when i feel like a lot of things change around oh man like how's it feel like i'm still the same person i just gotta you know i'm just the number one person in the world at what i do you know i don't know it just didn't did you think that like in achieving such a great goal that you would feel satisfied that you would feel like i wasn't satisfied maybe maybe because that's what at the later than the tunnel since i was 12 years old and i was man just through the journey of getting to where i was at looking back on it i was like man like what's next i didn't have the

what's next isn't it interesting like this is the thing that gets brought up all the time about fighting is that so much of it is mental, especially at the elite level, like at your level. So much of it is how you're approaching all aspects of your life, how your relationship is going, how your friendships are going. What's your relationship with your family? That's so much of how a fighter fights. And then what is your focus on? Is your focus on adulation? Is your focus on doing interviews and letting everybody tell you you're the shit? Or is your focus on continual improvement and then recognize, like, yeah, you might be a world champion,

but there's a bunch of hungry lions climbing up that hill to try to get to the king. Yeah, you see it. I have, you know, Chris Holdsworth, my coach, my trainer, my good friend, he travels with me. You know, we put through hard workouts, you know, this morning we're going to go after your podcast. And that's the thing, doing those balancing that. Okay. I might have, you know, come on your show. Absolute honor. I got to train. I got to, you know, I can't take this week off. We're here, you know, look at homes and doing other things with PNP, my other business partners. So just prioritizing what's important what's your goals how are you reaching those goals what are you working towards are you reading help books

self-help books are you reading you know books to help your your mental fortitude to strengthen that you know are you doing yoga are you doing there's so much resources and staying enthusiastic i think that's the main thing. I wasn't enthusiastic. I felt like I was just going through the motions. And there's a lot of other things. There's a lot of fighters. There's a lot of things that can transpire. But I'm solely putting the blame on myself because that's all I can control, what I do, how I react to things.

And I wasn't the person that I am during those kinds of tribulations or trials in my life. And I've grown from that. I was 24, 25 years old. I'm 29 years old now. I look at the game just differently. I'm still a savage. I'm still going to go in there and try to kill you. And Dana's going to give us extra money for a knockout bonus.

Sign me the fuck up. Do you like the extra money, the bonus thing? I don't even like win bonuses it drives me crazy i feel like a fighter should get paid yeah like i don't think you are trying to win anymore if you get a bonus you're a professional cage fighter there's there's it doesn't make any sense there's only one time my professional career that i didn't get my second check and that shit sucked i was man i was uh because you're banking on i mean we've right we make our money through our fights you know and

luckily we have some good sponsors if you know able to be sponsored by that but we fight that's how we make our money and then there's bad decisions which is even crazier so it's not just that a bad decision give you a loss but it could cost you half of your paycheck that's insane and we don't get to run it back next week we gotta recover we might be banged up dude that was my first time after the sun south fight since the km is a gawky fight that i didn't get injured i tore tendons and ligaments and stem cells out for eight weeks to you know and then you know so i was like man i was back in the gym monday hungry to go and then fucking covid get covid get title shot i'm like i'm about to fight figgy at 25 you got covid bad right were you did you get covid in the were about to fight figgy at 25 you got COVID bad right were

you did you get COVID in the were you in the middle of training when you got it like were you worn out dead I was doing one training session and actually I started the whoop and I was like man like my recovery score is one percent in the morning my HRV was like 13 it was one percent for like a week and I would only do one workout and then I'd have to cancel on Chris and Malat I'm like one percent is dead dude that's crazy but then i was like you know i'm just gonna go ride the bike you know i was getting on those bikes doing you know 50 to 100 mile rides and just suffering because i had vertigo really bad so i couldn't get in those uncompromised positions that when did you start experiencing vertigo vertigo was my first symptom of covid not knowing

and then i had you think it was head injury i thought my uh my doctor i went and saw he's like that's a concussion i'm like dude i didn't get hit hard and sparring my fights like i've worked on defense a lot like i know i would know if it was a concussive blow that gave me vertigo and um what did you experience it after training did you experience honestly it was during grappling i was like grappling you didn't like collide heads or anything nope just went into a scramble and next thing you know i was just like fighting the hands off and the whole room was spinning and i was actually training with uriah and i was like man he's like you all right i'm like what's going on i was like kind of like didn't want to end the round so i just kind of like closed my eyes and like held onto his hand so he wouldn't choke me

you know he was taking my back so i was finished around and I was like, man, I just don't feel good. And I was nauseated for a few days. Um, so I went to my doctor, he was giving me like anti-nausea medicine. That was making me so much more tired than I was because I was fatigued from, from training. I was just trying to train through it. I was like, I have a world title coming up in eight weeks. Like I have to get down to 25 and my weight was good. Um, I wasn't restricting any calories. You felt something was off with your body besides the vertigo. My body like i just was for a three-week period when i was training and i didn't feel like myself at all and just mental clarity was was so do you think during that time you had covet the whole time i think so you know that is crazy and that makes sense that it hit you so hard

because you never gave your body a break and you were beating yourself up while you were fighting off covid well that i think what happened was the kidney infection in the beginning of 2020 i was on all those antibiotics i was on five different antibiotics people don't even know it's two weeks before the fight with the sun cell the infection came back so i had to go to another infectious disease doctor that my doctor hill found in sacramento this lady was amazing. Did two blood cultures. Found out. Got all the reports from the hospital in Jersey.

The reports from the specialist in Cleveland. Studied those all in a day. Got a blood culture. I was on the wrong antibiotics. I didn't kill the infection. Just basically put a Band-Aid over it. So I had to go 10 days to an IV fusion center to get an antibiotic drip for 10 days while I'm training. Two weeks before the fight. Oh, my God. I didn't let any of the UFC or anybody know. Um, I told Ali what was kind of,

what was going on. Cause I just needed to get in that octagon. I was like, dude, just put me in that octagon. I know that it'll happen. Like get me there healthy and I'll be good. So, but that fucks with your endurance in a big way. The IV antibiotics are ruthless. It was tough, man. It was, uh, and my strength conditioning coach we were having the hardest time i was hovering around you know i was getting my heart rate up 187 and then i couldn't get it below it was like hover at 150 which i'm fine at standing 150 and going up and being in that 150 to 180 zone that i can be there for a while but we'll work on the aerobic system so to drop it you know i just couldn't drop it it took about the last week of

training before i flew out to the fight week to finally get my heart rate in like 35s like after a hard like a minute 30 push and then drop it down so i noticed something like that was it but mentally i was like it's good so two weeks out you did you had to do a 10-day cycle of IV antibiotics? And then a 10-day of oral. What? Yeah. I was on antibiotics for literally five months almost from Jersey. I was on five different antibiotics from the hospital. So from the Assunção fight, how many days did you have where you weren't on antibiotics before the fight?

I mean, I declared that I was on antibiotics all the way up to the fight. I was taking probiotics and antibioticsact the effects i was taking a lot of a lot of probiotics yeah what were you taking um frankie egger's wife sent me uh she would do they they took care of me when i was in jersey like hooked it up like coach brought me pizza in the hospital he was like it was during covid when it happened but don't you have to cut weight i don't cut weight to 35 really i'm like right now probably 144 you know wow like i don't and i stay you know strong and fast and this is why i feel good at to fight 35 yeah i'd have to just diet a little bit like everyone else does for 25 that's what everyone's making is a big deal going to 25 it's not that was a very interesting fight you you going down to 25 was very interesting i'm so

excited for especially watching the merino and figgy fight last fight um great fight you know awesome it was entertaining but a lot of holes a lot of holes a lot of a lot of things that i can you know take away from both fight whoever wins this next one but i'm not gonna fight again yeah they're rematching each other that's why i'm not gonna wait it'd be eight months so i get a title shot so that's why i'm you know didn't merino fuck up his shoulder in that fight ah he did something yeah i know he had to do something so what a fight though what a fight great fight yeah i mean i thought merino did great i think that if he had more pop to his punches figgy would have been in some trouble you know the takedowns looked great you know i think matching that getting figgy worn out i felt like

in that fight davison really put himself on the line in terms of like he threw himself into the fire. He didn't fight like he was worried at all about Moreno's firepower. He was just trying to smash. And Moreno is a tough motherfucker. He's tough. He's that dude that's been in the gym for so long getting his ass kicked. Now it's finally like I'm starting to, you know what I mean? I know what you mean, yeah. He's just one of those dudes that just great it's like a darren elkins yep that guy gets his ass kicked and he'll kick ass too but

when it comes down to the fight this dude is he's he's all in you know like the merced beck tick fight oh perfect example that was one of the greatest comebacks i've ever seen in my life yes because merced beck tick is so technical so fast so so precise i mean the kid looks like a world champion to hold elkins down to hold elkins down and do that ground and pound him elkins is the number one fighter in the featherweight division with the most top game percentage per fight really and massat you know was on top of him i've grappled with you know elkins is not you know easy to to hold on he's indiana wrestler that's just like gritty and just like let's go dude you know isn't that amazing about

the sport though that a guy like you gotta know how much gas you got you gotta know when you can hit the gas and when you gotta back off a little when you gotta pace yourself and if you try to empty out and that guy like a guy like Elkins, who's so fucking tough, if he's still there, you've got a real problem. Dude, it's, yeah, it's, you know, when you crack someone with your, you know, with some of your best shots, and they're just, like, covered in blood coming forward, you're like, fuck, give me a baseball bat. Let me hit this guy.

You know, Elkins. He's such a savage. Such a savage. Yeah, it's great. He's a great guy. I mean, he leads by example. He's not, you know, brash and outlandish talking. He just gets in. Blue-collar guy. He's a pipe fitter mean he leads by example he's not you know brash and out out outlandish talking he just gets in blue collar guy he's a pipe fitter you know comes in and when he first

moved out here he had to go back he was still with ufc fighting and then part time he'd have to go back and get his union hours in and then stay for six months and come back and fight wow and so that till he finally you know retired from pipeending and moved his whole family out. Just a great guy, great family, tough as hell. But, yeah, that is the kind of guy Marino is, that just blood and guts, gritty guy. And I think Figueredo, I mean, Figueredo's so good. I think he probably thought he was going to get him out of there. He did, I mean, especially with his win over Alex Perez that quick. And Benavidez, two knockouts to Benavidez, which is gigantic.

He's flying high. It's good eyes on 125, but mother fuck, the Bantamweight division. I can't leave that one yet. There's so much going on in both divisions, though. I'm staying here. I'll cut the weight if you want me to fight this. But, God, that division is stacked at 35. So you basically beat your immune system up while

you had covid and then because of that you got covid really bad yes yeah so tell me what it was like i was horrible i mean i had the vertigo was the first symptom right and then when did they test you for covid i didn't get tested till i went down to mike tyson's ranch we were working with the smart cups company we're all all sponsored by them doing digital videos. And it was our first kind of getting athletes together because they started doing fighters, boxers, and some rest. WWE Kurt Angle was there. So I had to do like a rapid test like we just did here. And I waited, waited a while.

And they're like, hey, we want you to do another one. I'm like, all right, cool. We just didn't see some things we liked. I was like, all right. I'm like waiting for an hour do another one i'm like what did you guys another test yeah what did you guys see i'm like oh you failed the first one i'm like well that's a subtle way you're telling it like i want to stay away from everybody like you know everyone's coming up to me and so i tested there in august um and then i went you know quarantine went home did the whole Did you do any medication?

What did you do? I did a Z-Pak. I got on an inhaler because I had pneumonia. I got pneumonia. Vertigo. And then I did like a 21-day because I had it so bad I kept getting tested like every three weeks. And you kept having it. Kept having it. I did molecular tests, which was like some of the best ones to do.

Is that the PCR test? Yes. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. And just kept negative negative my doctor's like hey we're gonna quit testing you you know like you mean positive you kept testing positive yeah positive for it yeah and i'm like dang this is this is crazy i mean and i had started to have the symptoms going away like pneumonia was fine my lungs were

good like i felt it like i was that's when i started cycling a lot um so i was out there just pushing the lungs that's what my doctor said was the best thing to do is riding that bike that that much is getting those lungs to keep working because you have pneumonia really bad jesus christ wow i felt horrible i thought cycling was one of the hardest to do isn't it funny because you would think like most people would think that a guy who's a world championship caliber fighter is the type of guy who would get COVID and it would just burn right through his system. But because you were training while you had it and beating yourself up, it just got deep into you. Deep.

I mean, it took over my body. But I think, honestly, from the kidney infection beyond the antibiotic, my immune system was so weak. How much time was there between the kidney infection, the antibiotics, and then getting COVID? Dude, I literally got out of the hospital and I texted Dana likeana like hey i heard you did a press conference about having a fight um my kidney levels are good i'm waiting for maybe you have to do a biopsy um but i want to fight he's like all right work on it i was like begging sean so you got covered right away um so i then i after the fight yeah i had uh so june to august okay but uh so it was from the kidney infection the fight two fight camps, you know, basically.

One didn't happen. Recovering, building myself back up from where I was at, getting ready to fight a Sun Tzu the first time in March. I literally had to start walking on a treadmill for a couple weeks to get my, I was in rough shape, rough, rough shape. And I started training at my business partner's house. He had a home gym because everything was closed. Your gym wasn't open he's like dude i got a treadmill i got weights kettlebells you know on a kettlebells and uh so i went over there and just started to to train and i'm like i'm getting myself ready and it was brutal brutal brutal training getting back in there and this is pre-covid this is pre-covid this is a kidney

infection jesus christ but so your body was obviously already compromised oh yeah i was yeah very compromised still on antibiotics they still had me on antibiotics uh to clean out the infection i was on it for like a 30-day antibiotic from the hospital so august you get covid how long before it clears your system how long before you start feeling good months like i literally i went to miami and worked with this company called amino wells and they did like kind of injections um we talked about like kind of stem cell injections throughout my body arms um and i kind of started feeling a lot better at like the week after that i did a month on the injections with the three milliliters a week and i felt

really good body felt good um clarity went away i actually had to go to arizona the mayo clinic uh dana thought i had minears disease so i went and saw his doctor that did his surgery um they gave him a shot in his ears did all these testings hearing test um did you have ringing in your ears i had ringing bad in my left ear and there's um i have a loss of uh hearing in this year and they don't know why i think maybe because i'm this is my lead lead and you get hit in the left ear that's all i can say i'm like i don't know i haven't shot a gun without you know anything like that you know trying to just figure out why it's ringing it makes like this popping noise oh um and i was just getting so like dizzy

i couldn't even do anything um so so that probably contributed to the vertigo for sure, right? They said it wasn't positional. Usually it's ear things. Yeah, they said like crystals. I had vertigo before. I worked with UPMC. I was out for a whole year. My pro debut broke my hand.

I had vertigo from crystals being out of the air. I went to the UPMC. Crystals? Crystals, yeah. It was an irregular tube that was throwing my equilibrium off, which basically is positional vertigo. A lot of it's, that's the most common one. You know, a lot of people just, you know, they can sneeze wrong or do something, sleep wrong on their neck and they have vertigo and there's a maneuver you do to put it back, but it wasn't positional

vertigo. It was just literally COVID had, had me so messed up. So your body was so compromised from the antibiotics, the kidney infection, second kidney infection. So you were just basically getting your health back, which is crazy that you beat a sun sow in that state. Yeah. Because you had to be clearly compromised. There's no way you could have been 100% if you went through that much antibiotics before that fight. But I think that goes back to my mental state where i was at i knew that i needed to get in that octagon and change this around i was not living life like

this i was tired of living on a three fight skit i was ready to get back in there and when you know like for me like i like we talked about earlier with the tjs fights i don't have to go in there and be angry and upset and want to rip this head i got there hate this guy i have hatred for this guy it's a flip to switch like when you know know, you have it in you or you don't. And that's been bred in me. I have it. So I just needed to get in there. I was like not taking no for an answer.

I mean, my coaches and stuff are like, oh, we don't know if we're going to make it. And Coach Mark, I'd call him because we basically did, I would film my pad work and my sparring rounds and send it to Coach on WhatsApp. And then he would break everything down, do more of this, do less of that, looking good, looking fast know your left toe counter off things like that so we did virtually you know camp through there so then when he came out so i kept working the codes to you know keep working your codes keep working you know and make sure you're doing under nine things like that um and then when we came to fight week it was just so talk me through you getting you got covid tested in august at the tyson show

you knew that you had it when when are you free of it like this is the first test that i passed since really today my doctor quit testing me. February? February. Jesus. See how excited I was? I was pumping everywhere. I'm like, dude, I'm free. I'm free of it. It was literally a couple months of having it, testing it, to where my doctor was like,

I'm not going to send out any more tests because there were 72-hour return ones. Every time you did it, you had it. Every time I did it, I had it. And this is for months. Tested my son. He didn't have it. I mean, we were, I was, yeah, for months. Your wife didn't get it? She ended up

getting it um but it wasn't as severe it was it was a couple months ago that she got it um two months ago her twin got it and it was kind of you know they were sick but not like what i had like i was just yeah well you're a perfect example of you know obviously you're a super healthy guy and an elite athlete but when you put yourself through training, there's only one way to get in shape. You got to beat yourself up. There's no other way around it. It's true. And when you are so tough that you push through, even though you had COVID, and you let that shit get deep into your system, there's a lesson in there for people.

You know, because there's tough. Tough's important. You don't get where you get without being tough but there's there's also you you gotta be yeah you gotta be able to take a step back and go it's not wise to push sometimes and i think honestly if i got tested before having covid then i mean before i first had the first like i've had this you probably never got it you probably would have had it for a couple of weeks or whatever. Yeah, exactly.

It wouldn't be as, it took over my body. Then I came back and I hit pads the first time. I'm like, dude, I'm in great shape because I was cycling 100 miles. You know, we had a hard pace. We were riding four or five times a week, you know, building the legs up. And so I started hitting pads again. I was excited. Like I'm back in the gym.

I can be around people because on the bike, I was just on the bike trail on the road, just suffering on the bike. Came back, hit pads the first time. And, man, my bicep was so sore. I remember going to sleep that night and waking up in excruciating pain. Wow. And my bicep was just filled up with blood like this. I thought I tore my bicep. So I went to my doctor, and he ultrasounded it, and he thought it was a distinal bicep tear. Deemed it at that. I'm like, fuck, I got to call Dana and tell them, like, hey, I just tore my bicep. So I went to my doctor and he ultrasounded it and he thought it was a distinal bicep

tear, you know, deemed it that I'm like, fuck, I gotta call Dana and tell them like, Hey, I'm just torn my bicep. I'm going to then get the MRI, get the MRI. Nothing's torn. It was a, uh, a guy. And then I had to go get an urgent ultrasound. I tore my vein in half and it ripped in half from, and then I had three blood clots. So I was immediately, they started injecting me

with blood thinners i was on i've been on blood thinners for you know since yeah this is because of covid as well that's another thing that happens with people that severe cases of covid they get blood clots didn't know and my business partner jeremy perkins he owns uh pmp medical which they work with COVID or they work with blood clots they have the devices they sell to doctors and hospitals and the whole time he's like dude I think you have a blood clot I'm like there's no way I have a blood clot that's the number one silent killer

in the nation is blood clots because people don't know they have it I had three of them in my arm didn't even know that's crazy my arm was sore for a while so you were on blood thinners now? I just finished up my last. I was on blood thinners for almost three months. So how do they know when to get you off them?

How do they know that you're okay? So I was going every month after I did a month of blood thinners. I was getting ultrasounds, re-ultrasounds. They were literally going from – because I literally had my – my vein was like an electric cord, hard, like a rope. I couldn't even set my arm down it was so sore like driving in the console and this only manifested itself when you started hitting pads after after i hit pads like you didn't feel that before that no like it blew the vein ripped the vein in half so your body must have been see that's the thing too right like i'm sure

when you came back you tried to rip oh dude i was i was horny i was so horny i was like feeling good i was in great shape my conditioning was on another level world class always is but i all that cycling energy yeah and i was not getting tired and i was just you know i'm like oh no yeah and usually my biceps hurt after i hit strikes i'm just just hooking and just for the first few times, if I don't hit pads in a while, but this was another pain. I woke up and my brother just moved in with me. Um, and I woke up in the middle of the night and it was at six and I had Chris's class and I literally hit my arm on the side. I was like, I don't think I can go do jiu jitsu.

I'm like, Oh, I got hill sprints. I'll go do hill sprints in the afternoon. Text my doctor. I'm like, Hey, can you check my arm out? And he was like, holy shit, man, this is not good. So how long were you on the blood thinners for? It was almost three months. I just got off. I actually go, when I go back from here, I go to the hospital and get ultrasound to see if the, because the one blood clot reabsorbed, but I still had one blood clot since the last one. It was a superficial vein.

So I learned a lot about health this year year from the kidney infection the blood clots and and now I just did a blood panel so every camp before I'm gonna get a blood panel of things checking what I'm low on maybe a vitamin or supplement can help me out not break my body down cuz dude we're training two three times a day we're you know you understand it a lot of people don't like to just to get to the fight yeah is amazing but to be able to peak on that night it's an art form it's an art form yeah it's it's scientific you have to really know your body and i usually do when you train with mark henry does he have any uh different approach to strength and conditioning does he leave that to other

people does he advise you in that or is he just technique-oriented? You know what he harps on and brags about, and it's so funny from a boxer. All boxers talk shit about wrestlers. Like, oh, you're in those singlets. He's like, get your wrestling in. Because he's fucking smart. Dude, he knows. He understands. I mean, Rutgers is right there, so we have the Rutgers in the New Jersey Training Center.

So we go to train with those young, hungry college kids who are trying to fuck you up. And then you have the All-Americans or you have the international wrestlers that are on the training center. And it's just a dogfight. I mean, you get those kids. You're hand-fighting for 10 minutes with these dudes and live wrestling.

And we all have wrestling backgrounds. And it's funny, when we get into MMA, we kind of dip away from wrestling so much because we're focused on striking and jiu-jitsu and what got us there was those grinding wrestling matches when you're just i mean it's miserable and uh so he always says hey every time i get off the phone with him we're about to hang up he's like hey get your wrestling in i'm like all right cool yeah for sure so it's great so he he harps on that obviously strength and conditioning is big as well but you know don't don't um see what i, I do strength and conditioning outside of camp.

That's when I rebuild my body, back, you know, everything that I need to do that's going to get torn down in fight. So I build this armor in camp and then I push the first four weeks outside of camp. And when I get in camp, the first four weeks are brutal. You're sore. You're hurt. And then the last four weeks you kind of modify your workouts to where you're so you don't do much actual strength and conditioning while you're in camp i do i touch the weight i touch the weight um it's more for aerobic skill skill work i have a my my coach uh amadeo novella has

worked with um danny and tj and joe so these these guys see new methods that we're doing and danny always walks in like wish i had this when i was you know that i was a guinea pig you know over trained so he's learned so much and has us peeking at you know a strength weight and uh aerobic and just using all your different systems to formulate an mma because you know like anybody mma training is so much different when you go into mma fight you know like anybody mma training is so much different when you go into mma fight you have to be a conditioned boxer condition you throw kicks in with boxing now you're thinking about a whole different cardio then you gotta wait for you got a guy like khabib trying to fucking just take you down and be a wet blanket on you and then you have to get back on your feet

and fight them like yeah it's the cardio and the conditioning i think is uh it scares me dude i get scared before my workouts. Like, I know when I go there an hour before and everyone's like, oh, you're here early. I'm like, well, I have to mentally prepare myself to put my body through that. And I think that going back to the slight edge there, I see a lot of my teammates, they're walking in, they're late, they have no urgency. I'm like, I just couldn't do it. I have to mentally put myself in there, what I'm going to do. I might pass out.

I might, I'm probably going to throw up. I'm going to push my limits to where I'm going to feel like i'm going to pass out i'm going to be sick after and i feel like that's a slight edge theory you have to do and just getting to that point because dude how embarrassing would it be that i'm better than this fighter but my conditioning was worse and that's why he beat me dude being exhausted having fatigue will make a you a coward in any circumstance. Vince Lombardi, right? Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Yeah, that's my favorite quote. We had that in our wrestling room.

And I didn't even know what fatigue was. As a kid, I'd always see this in our high school wrestling room. We grew up in it. We're homegrown from kids tying shoes on the first time on the mat to wherever you go to college after in the same wrestling room. The same coach was there for 30-some years, Eric Tokanen, and he was just old first time on the mat to you know wherever you go to college after and like the same wrestling room the same coach was there for 30 some years eric token and and he was just old school old school and had quotes and i'm like fatigue makes cowards but that one stuck in me and then i figured out what fatigue was i'm like well i'm not going to be a coward i knew what a coward

was i didn't know what a fatigue was but i'm not going to be tired i'm not going to be a coward so talk to me talk to me about the cycling because I think that's really interesting that you developed all this endurance from cycling. I mean, I go back to when Nick Diaz was in his prime, and one of the things that separated Nick from everybody was his elite cardio. Nick has swam from Alcatraz five times. Yeah, I'm a fucking crazy. Maybe more since then because I remember I said twice once, and he corrected me.

He goes, five times. I want to do it one time. Five fucking infested waters dude i don't i'll go to the beach and i'm all for it my son loves the beach always wants to go i i have to see my feet in the water i can't be out too far the wife she's out there she's thai so she's like i'm out in deep end but uh yeah that world-class cardio that's what i think separates it like yeah there's something about that right the running the swimming that's what i think separates it like yeah there's something about that right the running the swimming the riding and i think because you're so alone in yourself you know you're swimming you're swimming what are you doing you're you're on the bike you're you're running you're in your thoughts you're pushing yourself yeah you know and then you get

into that well i've done defeated myself i've done pushed myself past this limits where i want to give in now i have another human that might have some will that might give a little eye or body language that he doesn't want to be in here now you start getting that confidence and i feel like for me going into a fight is my confidence comes through my hard work knowing that i left no um you know stone unturned and i feel like that just but you have to be smart with it now are you going to do that in all your future camps now or leading up to it it's because it seems like it was very effective for you yeah i feel like i just did my vo2 testing you know as high as it's ever been i'm i feel like i'm have world-class cardio especially when the rounds get deeper i feel

like i get better in the fight as i get tired i get sharper i feel when i'm when i'm you know putting the work in great shape of course um so definitely i think i have to tailor my cycling i'm not going to be because i have back problems you know i've had some back issues being in that bike for seven hours riding 100 and some miles in that crouch over position like it locks you up um do you have you ever talked to volkanovski i haven't no he uh had a pretty severe back injury and his back would blow out during every camp but then he got a really good strength and conditioning coach and worked with him on strengthening his back and he's never had a problem since because a lot of what happens with people that have back issues

where sometimes it's good and sometimes back is the muscles around the back aren't conditioned to maintain posture maintain the training camp and then they give out and when the muscles give out then you hurt your back again then the big muscles lock up yeah yeah yeah so my strength conditioning coach i'm dale novella my pt russ uh down from kind performance they've worked with a lot of baseball players who throw a lot like fighters so i don't do a lot of front loaded squats back loaded squats i do split stance you know okay single leg a lot of single arm single lunges just a moment you know get the weight evenly distributed so it's not heavy load on one side and i feel like that's been um a huge advantage as far as strength where i'm not getting my back locked up i can still do these deadlifts i can still touch this heavy weight

because you need to build your body in those back so have you ever seen that uh harness system that louis simmons from west side barbell created it's he's in columbus you know yeah marcus marinelli a steep ace coach has one we used to train on that thing is amazing i got one in my old gym in what do they call that it's like it drops down belt squat yeah yeah we have one at the old gym in california and now I have one in my house from Sorenex. But it puts all the weight on your hips. Yeah. So your back doesn't take that load.

Yeah, we have one at the gym. It's called a pit shark. And it's, yeah, the same thing. It just puts it on the hips, and you can just rip it. So, yeah, we utilize that a lot. Obviously, the machine that you gave me or told me to get. The reverse hyper. Reverse hyper. That's another Louie you gave me or told me to get. The reverse hyper. Reverse hyper.

That's another Louie Simmons. That guy's a fucking wizard. And then the machine that you just kind of like lay there and it kind of elongates. The other machine. Oh, yeah. That's the Dex from the company. Fucking. Dex 2.

Yeah. Dex 2 from. God damn it. It's one of the sponsors. Teeter. Yeah, Dex 2 from... God damn it. It's one of the sponsors. Teeter. Yeah, Teeter. They're the folks that have that. Well, first of all, they have those boots that you can hang from,

those gravity boots, which are phenomenal. And then that thing is the shit. That Dex... Is that a different one? It looks a little different. It's just a different color, I think. Oh, okay. That thing is the shit that is my all-time favorite back you could do those back hyper with that back extensions but in terms of like loosening up your back and and having your back

decompress what i like about that over even the the the regular teeter is that this one you're you're hinging from the hips so you're not supporting yourself at all with your ankles or anything else your body weight is in terms of your lower body is all supported by your thighs so you can completely relax your back and the decompression is just phenomenal it's i'd love that thing yeah i'm thankful you gave me that or you know help me get that because my back you know that was when i was on the show three years when i had the back problems and i literally get on there my back starts getting tight from training or riding i'll lay in there you know five five minutes at a time you know just kind of decompress the reverse hyper to strengthen it and also active decompression from the reverse hyper and then that thing those

two together are fucking phenomenal yeah i feel great i mean i'm gonna knock on this wood but uh that's good yeah did you do do you do any yoga or anything i do i do i mean we spoke about that um on a podcast years ago about doing hot yoga and i started getting into that but like i said i do five days a week of pt i do manual um manual work with cupping and blading and grasping and what is it i've never had cupping done how is that what does that do for you it makes you have weird weird circles all over your body yeah yeah i feel like the the only problem with that leading up to a fight is when guys see it like uh the adesanya fight with paulo costa yeah he was covering it. Paulo Costa, he had them all around his calves. Cavs, yeah.

It was just like, that ain't good. If Izzy sees that shit, he's going to know. Yeah, and I was getting a lot of work done, too, during one of my fights with TJ, the first one in Madison Square. I had Heather from the UFC come in, and I was just pretty banged up my neck and just stiff in my hand. But I found use with cupping as far as my hips getting kind of bound up. So what does it feel like?

It loosens you up? I feel like you just like, you know, when you have a physical trainer and you're in these hips and you're hugging your other knee and he's opened up your whole exterior line, it just helps get the blood flow reacted there. I kind of just traumatize it and then all right the body's like oh shit something's happening here we got to hurry up and heal get the blood flowing there um i think that's what happens a lot but i started doing dry

needling too and um a lot of athletes like fast twitch athletes it it depletes them like it just and your muscles are just so fatigued and fried from dry needling from dry needling really just hits that nerve and it just spazzes it out and the muscles is like i don't know what it what it does like um my trainer he did some on some obj uh back on me he said they would like when he would do it it was um you know he would be kind of on rest for like two days because it was just his body so fast twitch you know but i feel like when i'm that bound up i need to do something like that but going to the pt doing mobile um mobile strength and conditioning together and just and just stretching honestly stretching and drinking

a ton of water like staying hydrated was uh it's a huge thing stretching is a funny thing because it's so important for fighters but so few fighters really stretch yeah they they train they maybe do a little bit of stretching and then at the end they're done but it doesn't suck any more than strength and conditioning work but for whatever reason people don't like stretching i think it's the the middle like oh man i gotta go stretch it's hard but it's like i can go and kill a two-hour workout or an hour workout with pads or grappling yeah because you express aggression yeah express aggression like you're like this ain't doing but it's actually going to help you out in the long run the one that sucks the most is when you're um sitting your legs straight out and you touch your toes and you bring your body down because you can't breathe so you're

holding on your feet and you stretch and it's like your hamstrings and your body's like just stop just stop doing this you can't breathe come on you want to quit oh yeah you want to quit it's that is to me the the most annoying stretch i've done so with my pedro fight i tore all my um my carpes radius um flexor tendon in my wrist and how'd you do that just wide open slang and yeah sl Slinging it from my belt waist. Are you sparring hard or are you sparring technically? I'm not. I don't really spar.

I mean, I'll go in and spar. I don't need to, Joe. I feel like I know how to fight. I feel like you do need to go in and get some shit thrown at you, but more technical sparring. You just need to have someone throwing fast shit at you. Like Chris, he'll be throwing kicks and combos in our pad work, and he'll be moving around.

But I'm not taking those hard shots. I'm getting comfortable with getting stuff thrown at me and retaliating. When did you shift? I started shifting probably prior to right after the Pedro fight, I would say. I started doing that more and more did you decide that you were getting beat up too much in training honestly i wasn't that's the thing like i felt like i was what made you make the shift the shift i i just wanted to train smart i don't know if i was like over training over sparring uh because i would get to the fights joe and i would just be

like fuck i gotta fight i felt like I was over-trained. Is that also why you started getting the whoop strap? The whoop, yeah, the whoop was huge. I kind of wanted to show you where your recovery is. You know, like there's some days like you're not going to go over this strain, but it's sparring day. You know you're going to go over that strain, but it's going to have, you know, okay, after that sparring day, you're going to maybe take the night off instead of doing a pad session.

You're going to let yourself. So I'm pretty much in tune with my body prior to having this it's just a tool to help me know sleep you know um hrv i think that's a heart rate variable is great what your resting heart rate's at and then obviously you know the sleep's a huge thing recovery for us is how much can you recover and go the next day i love the fact that it gives you real data so you don't have to guess yeah you don't have to say i feel pretty good you can actually look at the whoop app and it'll show you exactly where your body's at based on just real pure feedback not intuition not guesswork right and you wear it for a while at 30 or 40 days and it acclimates to your body so it has that grace period of like get to know your body.

Training-wise, you know, like I'll be done with a training session and they'll already know that it was a kickboxing workout. Yeah. It's my heart rate. Are you putting it on with one of those impact straps? I have the impact straps when I grapple. But sometimes when I spar, I think I have it positioned right on my wrist. I wrap it with my hand wrap and then tape it, and it doesn't mess my wrist up. Okay.

So the strap's cool. The strap was good, actually. And I think closer to your heart, obviously, is going to get a better reading. Is that real? You just guessed it. It sounded awesome. It sounded great. If that's the case, you should just wear a chest strap.

Yeah, because I feel like when I wear the chest chest strap but then you have it right in your sternum when you're sparring you get front kicked or knee to the side I got hit there before with that thing that does not feel good it's not fun it goes flying everywhere you're trying to catch it in between sparring

but this is nice it keeps it right in there with that sleeve and with this covered up it doesn't really bother me too much but i do do this trap when i do like cardio and um where i can check my phone like what i'm doing the strength conditioning stuff like that but grappling i want to make sure like i want to know what my heart rate's at so i know right um you know the ufc just started doing punch you know dialysis with they put like the meters in your glove they cut it out and put this thing in your gloves yeah i uh have you done that so just showing the volume of punches or the impact

impact i don't know what what's what's in there i don't know what they're checking there's like we're taking your gloves and uh you know you pick your gloves and then this is during the fight they have there's a little thing in your gloves like yeah they literally cut your glove where the ufc logo is at and slide this thing in they take it out after each fight and put it in so he has your oh that's fast data i'm like i want to find out what it says with francis yeah i was smart i'd always have a pair of gloves like dude you get those gloves fight week they're stiff as hell you know i mean like i'm gonna wrap them up put in this bag they're gonna be in this little bag you get out they're gonna be work so i used to always bring

a pair of gloves i would use the last two weeks of training camp so they'd already be broken into my hands and then i would just switch it out and i got so nervous when they were like oh shit they got stuff in the gloves like we can't use our old gloves now you feel it any different no not really no just slight edge thing you know right slight edge thing, you know? Right. Slight edge thing. So, but yeah, they tore us out, so I was like, I chickened out last night. I'm like, oh, no, we've got to use these ones. What do you mean? So I would always bring in a pair of gloves that I had. Uh-huh.

And I would just have them in my bag, and I'm like, these are broken in, not these ones that are fresh and stiff as hell. But do they make you wear those stiff, fresh ones? Yeah. That's what they give you. But you couldn't use the ones that you had? They wouldn't let you um i don't think they would let you uh i just always did you just always would do it yeah yeah just do it yeah yeah the the gloves are not they're not the best it's tough you know eye poking yeah my my thumbs. Trevor Whitman has a phenomenal design.

His Onyx gloves, his MMA gloves are the, first of all, his boxing gloves, all of his gear is top of the food chain. Shout out to Trevor. Yeah, dude, I love it. The heat molded ones. He's the fucking man. Oh, my God. How many times have you been to a gym and you're like,

fuck, I forget my hand wraps. And you can't hit with it. Well, if you heat molded your gloves, you don't really need a hand wrap that thing it's they're just so good they're just so much better design what about his headgear his head everything's great everything he makes is great shin pads everything he makes is great but the thing to me is his hand his gloves his mma gloves they're superior they're better design and i don't know what the deal is why they can't make a deal with the ufc to use those onyx gloves they should fucking figure out a way to make it happen they are the best gloves they're so much better the the hand positioning is better first of all it forces your hand into this position instead of like this with mma gloves with ufc gloves your

hand is you want your hands want to extend. It wants to open your hand up, and you have to force it closed. Trevor's gloves want your hand closed. They curve at the end. It puts you in a natural curve position. To be able to strike. Yeah, and they're better in terms of the protection they offer your hands. Knuckles.

I'm all for that. I mean, my hands busted up. Oh, sure. Dude, as hard as you hit? Busted up. I broke the hand i always have you know i wrap it tape it see if you can get a photo of his uh onyx glove what do you love literally one year ago today is when rashad was on the podcast to premiere them oh like really was it the pot that those gloves yeah but that one and then he officially i guess he measured me and shit and 3d scanned me. And he's supposed to send me a bunch of shit. But those are not.

Those are the pride gloves. Those on the right-hand side. Yeah, those are the boxing gloves. Those are the MMA gloves right there. What is that? Where you were just at? Where your cursor? Right there.

Click on that. Nope, those are boxing gloves as well. He's got. Oh, that's right there. The white ones. That's them. That's them. Those are the shit. Those are the shit.

They are the shit. They are so much better than any... I've fucked with the pride gloves. I've touched a lot of different people's gloves and put them on different... And a lot of good ones. Right. But those, head and shoulders above everybody else's. They are phenomenal.

And they have the best protection for your hands, too. Yeah. They're fucking Trevor Whitman. Let's go UFC. Let's get in there. Please change the gloves. It's a new year. Come on.

Yeah, it's a new year. I know they were working on some sort of a deal, but for some reason they couldn't. Oh, that'd be great. They couldn't come to some agreement for whatever reason. How many people get poked in the eye in a fight? A lot, man. A lot. A lot.

And it was less in pride. Did you notice? Yeah, for sure. Less people got poked in pride. It was. The gloves were more curved in pride. I lot. A lot. And it was less in pride. Did you notice? Yeah, for sure. Less people got poked in pride. It was. The gloves were more curved in pride. I'm all for it. Yeah.

Let's start it. Yeah. Something needs to change because the eye pokes are, I mean, Nick Lentz, I don't know if it was a poke or what, but he lost 40% of his vision in one of his eyes. And he just retired from that. He just retired. Yeah. He said his last fight he was seeing double.

I mean, look at, I don't know, well, well bisping i believe it was a kick that his eye up and then subsequent surgeries and you know it's happened to me before i got kicked in the eye and sparring like the toenail like raised my eye and cut my eye and luckily i didn't have anything detached or anything that's how mike wingleton lost his eye holding pads for somebody yeah guy. Guy got him with his fucking toenail. That whole camp, I couldn't spar. My eye was bloodshot for like two months. I guess it was just there. I had to fight. The things that people don't know about what fighters go through.

The headaches were crazy, man. From that? Intense. From the eye pain? From the eye pain, yeah. I had to get drops in my eyes for two weeks. Jesus Christ. Damn, dude. Yeah. It's been a journey, though, man. It's been fun. from the eye pain yeah to get drops in my eyes for two weeks jesus christ yeah damn dude yeah it's it's been a journey though man it's been fun i mean i would love to do it all over again now

where are you at now do they have anything lined up for you you're obviously you're clear covid now clear covid i let dana and sean ufc brass know when did you start feeling like you felt 100 i mean today was the first day you tested negative all right but when did you start feeling 100 i would say about a month ago jesus christ about a month ago a month ago folks is january we're in february now we're talking about a disease that you caught in august that is crazy to where i could feel like i could go and push myself and then the next day be able to that night be able to recover um so you were a good four plus months just wrecked horrible yeah and trying to just work through i still step work through it you know i'm still riding the bike still riding the bike still doing you know my strength and conditioning um

individually when i had the when i had the covid or you still had the symptoms um you know they have all kinds of studies say you're only contagious the first 48 hours, this and that. What? 48 hours? I don't know. I've read up and done so much studies on what it is. Really? I don't think that's true. I don't think. Maybe they just changed it. In the beginning, they had all these thoughts in the beginning that they thought, you know. Double mask. Yeah. Well, now I triple mask. Triple mask is safe and better.

Dude, we flew out here. I saw a lady with a double mask, a shield, and goggles, and gloves. Yeah, I've seen this. My friend Reggie. Sorry. My friend Reggie Watts turned me on to this. Look at this. Come on, son. Am I upside down?

No. Is this the right way? Yeah, there's like head. Yeah, you got it. There's a pad up for the forehead. Okay. Come on, son. Am I upside down? No. Is this the right way? Yeah, there's a pad up for the forehead. Come on, son. How about this? Dude, I need one. Where's Reggie at? Let me fly home.

I don't want to experience COVID again. I don't think you're going to catch it again, right? You must have mad antibodies. Maynard Keenan from Tool, he got covet a second time bad he had a bad once and he got it a second time yeah i started cycling so i started following some of the athletes that were top in the world cyclist athlete he got it twice you know back to back like it was that that's one of those things where i wonder it's because there's training if it's because they're training so hard because when people train so hard your immune system gets crushed yeah i think so i think it's like oh

like everyone said that to me like oh you're world world athlete athlete like you should be able to get this and i thought that too because i remember what pedro muñoz was fighting frankie test deposit had to push it back like he's getting ready to fight like he had no symptoms like he was good like he was maybe asymptomatic maybe but then he pushes it back you know a month or so and he's still fighting like i guess burns the same thing yeah i guess everyone's everyone's different sometimes you know it attacks you differently but i truly believe that mine stemmed from you know the kidney infection breaking my body down with the damp antibiotics sure but what was i supposed to do do did other guys in the gym get it um there's a few not like

a huge outbreak you know outspread of anything a handful here and there where we closed down for you know a week and how did most guys what was their cases like not what i had my back mild mild i honestly don't know i mean i could probably just stem to that you know being on the antibiotic and when you're on antibiotics it's not good it's not good for you it's terrible for you how do i had to do though the recovery from that is is rough too because your body just does not want all that stuff in the system you know all those antibiotics they kill the good bacteria too i was feeling horrible yeah i wasn't even drinking coffee i was just stomach was so upset i couldn't even drink I love coffee you know did I had staff once the first time I got staff I had it and they put me on some heavy heavy antibiotics and boy what did that

give me so much respect for people that have fought on antibiotics because I never realized how bad it wrecks you and now it like Luke Rockhold won the title he beat Chris weidman on antibiotics which is fucking insane right when you do antibiotics and you're i felt like my head was filled with cotton i was like oh it's horrible i hope my body was weak it was like every punch i got hit in training and just little things like oh that should hurt way more than it should have you know i mean this was like it's all fragile like, man, just give me a tampon. I'm going to get the fuck out of here.

I'm being a bitch right now. So now you're clear. And now what is, like, do you contact the UFC and say, hey, I need three months? I need, you know, what do you say? I told Dana that I'm healthy. Sean, Ali, I'm keeping good communication with them. I got a relationship with them outside of business and friendship, but when it comes to business, I let Ali go in there and do that stuff.

I told him, hey, I'm ready. I'd like to fight Jose Otto. They told me I had a title shot. I'm not going to wait until eight months and see what the flyweight division is going to do. I'm healthy. I want to get in there and fight. I want to fight two or three times this year. Jose Otto is a phenomenal legend.

A lot of respect for him coming off a big win he was right there fighting for the title the fight before um you know i think that's a great fight stylistically for me and it gets me up it gets me hungry motivated i'm going to fight a legend he's at my weight i get to fight jose auto i get to stay at 35 is that the proposed fight or is that what you're you're wanting that's what i I'm wanting. Ali told me that everyone's for it. Dana just has to make the fight. So how many months would you need now, knowing that you're over the illnesses? I've been saying April.

I've been saying April, and Ali talked to me yesterday and said, you know, maybe May. I said, if it doesn't happen April, May, we've got to move different opponents, and I'm ready to fight. But you want him because he's a big name. Big name, firmware champion. There's a lot at stake. I like to stylistically fight. This is looking not past him, but if I'm going to fight Aldo and I still have

the title shot at 25, which they've told me, but obviously rematch. I'm for it. I want to fight for it. I want to earn my spot like I did in the beginning to be a champion. What would you prefer? What what if the what if moreno gets injured and they say figuerito wants to fight you would you would you prefer that or would you prefer the aldo fight either or either fight i just want to fight you just want to fight any fight to be honest any fight that makes sense to me makes sense for my career where i'm going and if i'm

having the title fight after you know whoever is declared winner and say Moreno's a striker Figgy's a striker Aldo's a striker, it's not I have to get ready for a different camp, I don't have to get ready for this Jiu Jitsu savant or... Well, Figureno's a Jiu Jitsu savant too, man That motherfucker's got a guillotine in the house 100% takedown defense, I would love for him to try to

take me down, I'm going to box that fool up I'm confident I'm confident in that, especially after watching that fight after watching that fight i'm telling you what if i hit him as many times as moreno hits him he's gonna be face down ass up he fought almost like moreno had no business in there with him i think moreno does have he's tough he's tough he's a gritty dude like we talked about earlier he's gonna keep coming you're gonna have to knock that dude out and stop him. But what a fight that was.

It was great. Because of the way he fought and, you know, Moreno style. I think he exploited a lot of weaknesses, the takedowns, the punches on the breaks, the kicks was really what stood out with me. He was blitzing with the hands and, you know, Figgy goes down with his hands and those kicks were coming. He was catching and getting caught with the kicks. He got hit with a lot of stuff that I feel like I'm better, you know, Figgy goes down with his hands and those kicks were coming. He was catching and getting caught with the kicks. He got hit with a lot of stuff that's,

I feel like I'm better, faster, stronger than him. And then, and vice versa, Figgy, you know, if I'm fighting Moreno, you know, he's bigger. Well, it'd be interesting to see you at 25 because you'd be really big. You'd be really big for that weight class. I feel, Figurata has been at our gym. He's a big dude.

He's done two or three camps at our gym, Team Alpha Male, brazilian connections that we have that fool's bigger than me yeah he's big he walks around bigger than i do well he is fucking shredded when he gets down to 25 and he's missed it before you know what i mean so missed it for the title when he fought joe benavidez the first time yeah yeah i mean that's that just shows you where you're at you know you're cutting all that much weight you're he just honestly fighting out his weight class. He cuts that much weight. And that's why I like 35 because I'm not that person. But if I have opportunity to go and help a division and bring awareness and bring attention to it, I'm all for that.

You know, that's what we spoke about with Sean and then the UFC and Dana and Mick. Like, yeah, I would love to be able to bounce back and forth, not just win these titles and be like, oh, I'm going to retire. What did you think about TJ trying to get down to 25? I thought that was the scariest I ever saw a fighter look, like leading up to a weigh-in. I knew he was going to get knocked out. Did you? I knew.

Because he was just so depleted. I think Monsters sent a video of him doing this. I'm just like, ah, his neck was just too frail. His face. His face, neck. He had no fat. Yeah, no fat at all. And he was clearly eating his muscle tissue.

For sure. That was not healthy. And TJ walks around bigger than I do. You know what I mean? About 10 pounds. TJ's probably 55s when it was cutting down to that. To 35 and then made it all the way down to 25. Exactly.

That training lab that he works out with. Cavillo? Yeah. I'm fascinated by that guy. It's really interesting because they've got it down to a science, like everything from your nutrition to the cardio, all the different types of workouts that they do. Yeah. And the guy does everything out of his fucking garage.

Out of his garage. That's awesome. Pretty wild. Yeah. It seems like his work. I know my buddy Lance Palmer, he trains with coach cavia and speaks highly of him he works out you know it's uh structured for him he has his program he's in jersey he can do the training at home and do it at his house you know he's in ohio so so that's great you know and lance is one of those guys

his workhorse you tell him you know here's what's on the agenda, you're going to do it. Is he with the PFL now? He's with PFL. Back-to-back champ, you know, the first ever in their organization. He's getting ready, I think, April. The featherweight tournament starts again. So he's getting ready to ship out to camp to Coach Henry as well. PFL's interesting now, right? Because now they just took on Rory McDonald and they got Showtime Pettis.

So they're juicing up their roster. They got some new heat. It's nice for a lot of the fighters to have options. Fuck yeah, dude. It's nice to see Rumble and Yoel Romero at Bellator. Holy fuck, they're fighting each other. That's amazing. I'm excited for that.

It's a big fight. For both of them, I mean, wow. Look, Bellator has put on some great fucking fights recently. Musashi versus Douglas Lima was a great fight. they've got a lot of heat there now they got that russian champ that just beat bader i mean like yeah that dude's solid he's a beast he's yeah oh man he's huge they've got great fighters they've got great fighters i'm excited for that fight yeah i just don't like the name bellator i think it's a dumb name bellator yeah we gotta doesn't make any sense what's a what's a bellator yeah just call it call it mma i mean look let's go find that steel cage it's people

want a champion and you know you have an organization you got to have a name for your organization but i felt like with boxing with the you know whether it was the wbo or the wbc or the ibf here's the lightweight champion of the world right here's the welterweight champion of the world this is the wbc welterweight champion you know they need something like that yeah for sure because like a bellator is like what is a bell unification it means warrior in latin that's not the worst name but like out of here who's speaking latin who knew that i did i knew it we looked it it up before. I thought we did. But it's goofy. Yeah, UFC is nice.

It's catchy. It's short and syllable. UFC. All the fire championship. It's like Q-tips. They got it locked up. Do you train UFC? I train UFC.

You know what I mean? Everybody does. Nobody wants cotton swabs. Do you got any Q-tips? It's a fucking Q-tip. That's right. No one asks for cotton swabs. Give me a cotton swab. Right? Do you ask for a tissue or do you ask for a Kleenex? He asked for a fucking Q-tip. That's right. No one asks for cotton swabs. Give me a cotton swab.

Do you ask for a tissue or do you ask for a Kleenex? He asked for a fucking Kleenex. I'm tissue. Fucking tissue. I don't know. I don't know. My argument did fall apart. You're right.

No, that was great. I was doing good for a little while. Fucking tissue. I'm a Kleenex. I'm asking for a Kleenex. Do you ask for petroleum jelly or do you ask for Vaseline? Vaseline. Yeah. That's what I'm saying It's just the name UFC means so much

I don't care how big the XFL is NFL UFC, NFL NBA You grew up watching that shit It's like UFC You have yourself there Everybody

They branded that This weekend I'm flying to Vegas for the fights It's like UFC, you know. You have yourself there and everybody. It's Liddell's, Latito's. They branded that. This weekend, I'm flying to Vegas for the fights and I'm fucking pumped. Kamaru Usman versus Gilbert Burns. That is a wild fight. I'm pulling in that fight. I'm really pulled at it. I like both dudes.

I think both are great assets. I just feel I don't. And then it wavers because now you have usman working with trevor fucking whitman like how great is that i know when i went to coach henry for that time short time how much i leveled up you know maybe that could have been a difference in usman striking and open up his game more working with a coach at that much knowledge and and to give into the game i mean look gilbert's working with Henry Hoof too. Yeah, exactly. And there's that,

there's no weakness there. Like Gilbert is a monster. He's, he's a terrifying guy because Gilbert is a guy that was torturing himself to get to one 55 moves up to one 70 and he's just smashing people. And the way he beat Tyron Woodley, boy, that opened up a lot of fucking people.

That first combination that he threw at him. I was like, Holy fuck. When he dropped him, you're like, Oh Jesus Christ. And and on top of that world champion in jujitsu i mean gilbert's a fucking phenom on the ground and like what kamaro's good at is wrestling you know what i mean kamaro is also good at just mental toughness his mind is as strong as any man that fights in the octagon he's rock solid i mean you're talking about a guy who's never been taken down never been dropped i mean he's a fucking monster man kamara was a monster and then fought in his fight with uh masvidal with a broken nose he shattered his nose before

that fight after the fight they're testing they go you got a broken nose he's like yeah i had that already i've had that thanks i had that coming into the fix now yeah i mean literally had a shattered nose coming into one of the most high profile fights in that shit that you know general public don't understand what you go through to get to the fight even talk about it until recently no one even knew about it until recently you knew what he was going to do is win yeah at all costs he's i'm i'm a big fan of both of those guys. I think that's a wild fight. It's great. And they train together. Yeah,

and they train together. So there's, there's a, you know, I train with TJ going into those fights and I knew what I did in training and training is training though.

But you also know tendencies, you know, where you have an advantage. Exactly. Training is training, but it, especially fighting because,

you know, you're going against TJ. He's not your fucking friend on the mat. You know, that motherfucker wants to win, you know, at all going against TJ. He's not your fucking friend on the mat. That motherfucker wants to win at all costs. So do I. We're competitive. You get us in a room of sharks.

You want to be the top shark. You want to be the cream rises to the top. That's what I think everyone on our team is so good. And we just level up with each other because if you're the guy in the room pushing the pace and you want to be that guy that's the man, the other are going to the room elevates do you ever run into him since then um tj uh no i haven't actually how do you think you guys would talk do you think you would or do you have any animosity no i don't man you know i mean like that's that like i said i feel like it's the last time ago and i was just a different person with the approach of everything.

And, you know, I feel like we've both probably hopefully grown from there. I know he's had his, you know, stuff to come over, you know, with the testing positive for the EPO. Two-year ban. Two-year ban, you know, a lot of us. And all eyes are on him now. Oh, yeah. You can't fuck up now and then if he falls off Like if his performance is off or if people think that they're like he's not the same fighter Then they're gonna call into question his legacy. Well, same here same here. I was undefeated world champion, you know, right?

But you didn't cheat I didn't cheat but I fell off right but there's a difference, right? There's a difference what I'm saying is like the real problem with someone getting caught for performance enhancing drugs is i'm saying is like the the real problem with someone getting caught for performance enhancing drugs is now the public is looking at your next performance and look if a guy takes two years off and comes back you're assuming there's going to be a certain amount of octagon rust but maybe means some guys don't have it some guys do yeah but if a guy comes back after a two-year ban and he was banned because of performance enhancing drugs and then there's a drop off then people are going to be pointing a finger at you that's going to be that that yeah that'll just be uh a case rested with knowing that he was on that the whole time you

know and just now got tested for you know you saw it as great you know all for testing but dude we're pissing in a cup like yeah you know how hard it is to test for epo like come on i don't know how hard it is because i don't i mean if you listen normally test for it yeah they don't they don't normally actually test for it it's it's extensive testing it's expensive testing to do so why are we getting tested i remember when you saw the first came in we used to get random drug tests quarterly whereabouts were addressed at 365 like they would come in the morning they come in sundays afternoons like just sporadic to try to catch people which i'm all for um they used to bring a phlebotomist would give take blood i was like oh this is awesome you know we're doing urine

and blood and then it stopped with the phlebotomist coming and giving the blood it was just urine i'm like how easy is this to just. Is it? Because they keep catching people. You got to think, man. If you have a, I don't know. This is my theory. If you have a doctor you're good friends with and you give them like, here's $100,000 to help me get this test and, you know, and check my levels and know that I got to peek at this or I have to be off it at this time.

You don't think a doctor's out there in the world that's going to help? Well, listen, there's a guy on YouTube. His name's Derek and he's got a YouTube channel called More Plates, More Dates. And he's a chemist and is involved in bodybuilding. But he talks openly about the benefits of performance-enhancing drugs, whether or not people are natural or not, how people are getting caught. And he has this thing on Paulo Costa, what he thinks Paulo Costa'sa's on he gets into that and he also gets into john jones and what he thinks was happening and why he thinks that there's there's giant flaws in the usada testing protocol but this

guy is super informed to check him out very very intelligent and it like i sent it to shop i go dude watch this video. This is fucking crazy. Because he details all the stuff that you can do to skirt the USADA protocols. I bet. And it's pretty weird. I thought it was locked up. I thought, there's no way to cheat now.

And he's like, no, you fucking 100% for sure can still cheat. Right. And USADA didn't even catch TJ. It was the New York Athletic Commission that popped him. Was it? Yes, it was the New York Athletic Commission. So they tested him for EPO. They tested him for EPO.

No kidding. Blood test. I didn't even get tested in my last fight. At all? Dude, they said, USADA's coming. We're going to test you the fight of the week. Never, never once. I got tested from the Athletic Commission. I'm pretty sure I did blood after and a urine, but I didn i got tested from the athletic commission i'm pretty sure i

did blood after and a urine but i didn't test it from usada so why do we have to do these whereabouts where we're like man i'm sometimes if i didn't log in and say i'm i'm out here and give an address where i'm staying at they show up to my house that's a failed you fail you get three of those and you're out for three years right you know then how are some chad you know and these guys get these sentences are three years tj took epo and only got two years well what did chad get caught it was like a peptide for peptide and something he because his um he has uh what the fuck is it called the skin a psoriasis right wasn't it something tied like tied like that i'm pretty sure i i didn't really you know felt like that was what he said he used a peptide cream but if that was the case and why did he get

three years who tj willingly knew that he was doing epo the only way to do epo is inject it into yourself yeah you know well and he got a two-year sentence chad didn't you know chad was kind of thinking about moving on anyway, right? Right. So he probably just like, ah, fuck it. Yeah. I mean, he's got that guide service, Fins and Feathers. He's doing great.

He's got his meals. What is the name of his company again? Find out what Chad Mendez's meal company. He sent me some of it, and it's really fucking good. And it's real healthy. Like, a lot of those backpacking meals they're not that good they don't taste that good and they're not designed candy army food from years ago you fart like crazy dude well thanks chad thanks for not his stuff but uh some of the his stuff is really

good but i've had some of the other stuff and like you just your body's like what is this get this out of me and just well you know you're out there hunting and blasting horrible farts and the animals are deer coming like The animal's like no no no son They're downwind of that Joe's back He had that fettuccine from that bag Cause you know you take those things And they're freeze dried

And then you add water to them And they're dehydrated Yes that's it Peak refuel Elk ragu pasta His stuff is phenomenal Chad Mendez that's his shit Peak Refuel. Elk Ragu Pasta. His stuff is phenomenal. Chad, I've never seen this. Chad Mendez. That's his shit.

Yeah, and he's always working on it. He posted on his Instagram. That's, in my opinion, that's the best out of those backpacking, camping, hunting meals. Is he freeze-dried? Is that what he does? See what it says, whether it's dehydrated or freeze-dried. It says freeze-dried. Yeah, it says there. Awesome. It's phenomenal. Phenomendried. It says freeze-dried. Yeah, it says there.

Awesome. It's phenomenal. Phenomenal stuff. Yeah, that would be great. Yeah, because he's an athlete. He knows the right foods to put in your body. He eats really clean. I think he fought Conor.

He was in New Zealand for, like, a 16-day exploration with his father, hunting and hiking. And they're like, oh, I'm going to fight Conor. And he comes back, and Chad's one of those guys that's been an athlete're like, oh, I'm going to fight Conor. And he comes back and he's in. Chad's one of those guys that's been an athlete his whole entire life. I mean, just a fucking animal. This dude would come out of being out of the gym for two months and just look insane on the mitts, sparring, wrestling. He would be giving me some of my hardest rounds because he's just so explosive, fast, technical.

And just built like a fucking turtle, dude, to get in on, man. Like, he'd start in those bad positions. And, you you know he just did with uh he did a submission grassland tournament with jeff glover choked him out which is crazy there he is look at him just an animal great guy too yeah no he's awesome i love that guy i miss i actually just spoke to him uh prior to coming out here and hit me up about doing some kind of podcast with his buddy he's like man i miss you i miss you too man he's like i just you know he goes i just don't miss getting hit by him like me neither i don't miss having to go around with you brother like thank you but i did this training with him is he still in that area the sacramento area yeah he's i think he's in uh the auburn area because he travels so much for his guide service he's always he likes to be out he likes to be in the country yeah well he's always taking people

like you know i've seen him he's got on his instagram taking people tuna fishing he's taking people like bird hunting he's like he's always running these guys i've actually ran into him at one of those outdoor expos oh wow i was there with my buddy cam haynes and we're walking and i just run i go chad what are you doing here and he's like oh i've got my my guide service and i'm signing people up for it i'm like that is fucking cool and this was why his career was in full bloom yeah he started doing that yeah it was great you know looking for and he always said like he made fighting fun you know what i mean he would come and do a six-week camp and go on there and give it them all and train his ass off and he'd always say that you know he fights to fund his hunting you know that was his goals you know he was happy with what he

was able to do um and he's selling out like crazy, too. His camps or all of his different hunting camps he's got, they're selling out like crazy. It's awesome. They're getting on and doing it. And Clay Guida's doing the thrills with gills, the fishing. He's always like, dude, let's go fishing, man. Thrills with gills. Yeah, thrills.

I think that's what it's called. How fucking good did Clay look? Beats Michael Johnson. Scared me. I was always like, I watched it with Chris and my brother. I'm like, man, I'm nervous. I get nervous for my boys to fight. You see him in the gym, and he's just a fucking gamer.

Oh, forever. He had Michael Johnson hurt. I'm like, wow. You did really well in that fight. Johnson's a slick southpaw. Johnson knocked out Dustin Poirier with one punch. Exactly. Johnson's a beast. Yeah, and he knocked out Dustin Poirier with one punch. Exactly. Johnson's a beast.

Yeah, and he's had over 20 fights in the UFC. That guy's not an easy win. No, no, no. But Clay's there still hammering. And then even while he's getting his hand raised, he's bouncing around. He can't stop moving. Yeah, I see him in the morning. I usually get there in the morning too early, and he's like,

I'm just running. I'm like, oh, cool. You're going to practice? Yeah, I usually just run probably five miles a day before practice. And he's like i'm just running i'm like oh cool you're going to practice like yeah i usually just run you know probably five miles a day uh before practice and he just always going like you know he's in phenomenal shape it's it's crazy it's absolutely and i mean the guy's still around i mean go back to his fight with diego sanchez which was like one of the craziest fucking wars i've ever seen in my life it's just some people can take damage and not it's his mind yeah i mean just like people can take damage and not it's his mind

yeah i mean just like you can take damage and like some people get you know knocked out and they're fucked up forever on it or they're you know sort of their words or punch drunk like this guy you know he's articulate he speaks well you know um got the good hair i mean that hair is that hair is holding on it's holding on dude it's there but it's like he's got a man yeah he's man but he's trying to you know throw some shit over here he's a wild dude yeah he's uh it's like he's got a man yeah he's man but he's trying to you know throw some shit over here he's a wild dude yeah he's uh he's great he's a great guy so what is good energy's out there does he have like a fishing service pretty sure yeah he's always asking me to go and do it i'm just like i don't know if i want to be on the cold ocean fishing

like last time i did that i went open sea fishing you fishing. Danny is really big into fishing. Is he? My wife. She loves fishing. I went out the first time open sea at the end of the point. We caught a black sea bass. Dude, I was so sick on that. I took Dramamine before. I just can't do it.

Oh, you get seasick? I was like, let's go back. Clay took a job working in Alaska on one of those crab boats. Like you see the world's deadliest catch? He did that shit. Don't surprise me. He did it for the adventure. Oh, yeah.

I remember him speaking about that because we had a couple of friends come from Alaska. My buddy's actually stationed up there. Deadliest catch is a crazy show because they lose people on that show. People die on that show. All the time, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that is a – I mean, crab's delicious. But it ain't that delicious. It's not worth – yeah. It's a mess.

They open that damn thing up. It's crazy. It's like those cages and you're constantly wet. But they make a fuckload of money. They go out there for a few months and they make a shit ton of money. Yeah, it's true. I mean, Clay to go out there and just do that for fun that just speaks of the kind of character he is he's always looking for those kind of thrills and he's always he's the guy like when he comes

to camp i love it because he's got a good playlist he he he puts the phone jack in he got what does he got let me get classic rock yep yeah it's yeah and it's like honestly when you don't hear that for a while we're all listening to rap. And when Clay comes in, DJ Clay, it's like, wow, this is some shit, man. This is taking me back. Some red hot chili peppers in there. Oh, there you go. Some Mixed Grapefruit Dead.

Nice. You know, Van Halen. It's just, yeah, it's great to have him in there and just learn from him. He's been all over. And he's been with us for quite some time now. And to see him adapt and evolve himself later on on in his career we just have good energies like i said alpha male and then it seemed like it was a great fit for him coming to you guys yeah it's crazy you know them guys you know fought each other chad and clay there's so much alike you know i mean like

remember chad saying like oh man i don't really have to fight clay you know we look up to him you know like things like that. So there are fights that you can go into and just be like, all right. You know, a lot of guys join the gyms now. Does he still live in the tour bus? I don't think. I think he, we just spoke about that because I was talking about doing, like, a sprinter van. Me and Chris want to go and start doing seminars at gyms and around, just kind of, you know,

showing our martial arts and sharing with people and helping them out. obviously going to see in the world once you know covet opens up and he was talking about how he had that big rv and he used to drive everywhere he's a ride i had i had uh you know but they want to sell it man just uh and downsize to like a something like that because because you fall asleep at the wheel you like you just pull over things like that so he said just it's just safer yeah um you know what's best about that you just pull it over when you start getting tired so right well he was living out of that thing and going from camp to camp in it and he would drive it to his fight yeah his family his father and his mother live in florida so he's always road tripping and fishing and yeah living life man like i learned a lot from that like i

was so just like oh i can't do this i can't do that i'm just stuck to this training but you have to break it up you know you have to break it up you have to enjoy i think that you enjoy your wins you enjoy you know um that time in between camps because you know the window shuts all the time there's only a certain amount of time and fights that we have left in our career to why why be so stressed out and you know fighting is anxious you know the whole thing once you get that fight signed you kind of walk on eggshells like i don't get sick i don't want to get hurt right you know the worst thing to do is pull out of a fight you know motivated you're hungry you're training hard you're going to make some money you're going to hopefully um level up in your life and your career with this that's what the opportunity is that is given each fight

um do you have hobbies outside of fighting oh man hobbies um obviously not because it would be like right there yeah dude i just like to train man i like to train like do you think you'll be a coach when you're done um i think more and more that i'm um in the gym and i kind of go and just watch my or watch the classes. I like to help out like some of the younger guys. I don't know if I have the patience. Not every great fighter is a great trainer. I don't think I can.

My uncle is a great trainer, but he's a horrible coach. He's a horrible coach, but he'll train the shit out of you like you'll train you he'll have you hitting the tire and doing little things why is he a bad coach i don't think he has a pay is like if you suck he's like i don't fucking work with you well it'd be a great trainer for people who don't suck yeah exactly so he wants to come work with you know like you know we're in a small town so he's trying to i'm like you gotta build you gotta groom these fighters like how many times we to work? I used to get so frustrated with him as a kid, 14, 13, 14 years old. He used to make me just work on my jab.

He'd tape my fucking hand in my head and just work on my jab. And I got a really good jab, a stiff jab, different angles off it. And we'll just get worked through the frustration. You know what I mean? But I was like, dude, we got to this point because we worked through that. Like you got to do the same thing. And some people just don't have the grid or the tenacity or the, you know, to go in and work through that like you got to do the same thing and some people just don't have the the grid or the tenacity or the you know to to go in and work through that so he's just like if you're not good like i just don't want to work with you i don't want to waste your time it's it's so

interesting how many different approaches there are to training and how many different trainers have like different philosophies and different styles and you see it sort of accent you see that the different styles in the camps because you see how different groups of people have sort of you remember like the old shoot the box camp they were just fucking berserkers just wild people come at you like a comic oh my god it's like waterly sewages that with camp was known for being savages kill you you know and alpha male right alpha male is known for being a wild camp. I mean, you guys have some of the best lighter weight fighters in the world, some of the best guillotines in the fucking sport.

It's interesting how camps and different groups of people sort of take on a persona, and they have a style that comes out of these places yeah the jersey guys you know with the spinning shit jersey guys are we like what what mark henry's done is really interesting because he's worked with so many different kinds of guys yeah you know i mean he's he's got a fantastic group for sure but he's worked with so many different kinds of fighters swab usman's been up there like rashad was the first person rashad pulled me aside he said man the guy's a genius it's and he said he had all these notes pages and pages of notes and they would change with every camp he knows different codes he knows what i'm doing

before i would even throw it or do it and he would it was crazy and i was just new on i would i think he would just study my fights and the way i moved and it's funny i was sparring with frankie a lot and i feel like me and frankie are similar i think frankie's a little bit more of a combo striker um you know regretted but we had a lot of same code so we're sparring each other me and frankie are just fainting each other fainting each other i'm like is that my code or is that frankie's code because we're you know coach is calling it out right it's crack i crack. I'm like, you know, and sometimes, you know,

are you going to, I'm sorry, are you going to go with him for your next camp? sure. Yeah. Um, yeah, we talked about,

I just was like waiting to go out there. Um, Frankie had a big fight coming up, you know, this, this previous, uh, weekend and,

um, some of the, some more. Was that hard for you to watch that one? Oh my God. I was heartbroken. San Hagen is a motherfucker, man. He's good. I remember san hegan coming out to alpha male when tj fought brow the first time and i was like this is tough you know uh he brought him in as a training partner uh with

duane and sean mcfadden and those guys uh the colorado connection um so yeah he i i knew that that kid was you know tough um i saw a different i saw i think what he went through with the auto fight kind of lit a fire out of him like fuck this i'm not gonna let that happen again same thing with me it just took me a little bit longer to get it turned around well al jermaine is a monster on the ground he's a monster you know i mean he's matt sarah trained henzo gracie black belt that group of people like the the grappling level out of that team, out of New York and, you know, that area, all those Donaher, Henzo Gracie guys, fuck that level so high.

Yeah, it's great. Those guys are so goddamn good on the ground. There's so many good guys on the ground. And you saw it with Aljamain. Yeah. When Aljo got him on the ground, man, he just wrapped him up and strangled him quick. I don't think Corey is ready for that. Not for just as his body like you can you know watching

them you know like be a potential fight like the kid a lot um could be a potential fight in there so i'm just watching them backstage i just don't think that he was ready for that kind of prime spot like holy shit i win this fight i can be fighting for the title you know and it's um you know i think they just made a mistake aljermaine capitalized on it but if i feel like stylistically that's a bad fight for aljermaine if it doesn't get to the ground you know cory you know throws long kicks he stays rangy and and and aljermaine kicks a lot and kicks lots and goes back and that's the last thing you want to do look what happened with marias you know like yeah i mean he got leveled he got caught i'm not taking a lot of away from excited for the ayan the Ayan-Ajman fight.

Pure Ayan. Yeah, that's a really interesting fight. That's a really interesting, because Ayan is so solid. We'll see how good his wrestling is. I think Funkmaster's going to try to idealize that, as you should. That's something that was not shown in Peter's fights where he does have wrestling. Just like when I fought Cruz. Like, could I go five rounds?

There's these unanswered, unknown questions, unanswered questions you know will get solved in the fight that's a great thing about fighting we're gonna figure it out well that division is so hot right now that 135 pound division is on fucking fire it is you know and you're right in the heat with this sun sound knockout i mean you're right top three you know next you know win or so puts it right back at the title shot you know so jose Aldo is what you would like next. I would like next. But you're open to any of these possibilities. I'm ready to fight.

You know, Joe, when you're feeling it and you have this drive back, and I don't even say motivation because motivation comes and goes. Sometimes you're motivated. Sometimes you're not. Just the drive, you know, being driven, a driven person. Right. So that drives back like i'm i'm excited i'm excited to see what i can do i have my uh camp i have my coach i have

you know a lot of shit going on in my career that i'm worked for and and used opportunities and and able to travel and and be away from the family i know my son's getting taken care of when my when my when i'm away so that's a huge mind over matter thing like he's good go focus on what you need to do right um come back and you know and and reorchestrate camp and so i just feel like i everything's ready to go like i'm i'm ready to flip the switch get in that fight camp i want to be sharp you know i think that uh outside training camp is great you work on a lot of things that you might not work in camp but in camp is where you get sharp your skill level rises um you train smarter obviously um because you can over train outside of camp you're like oh i'm just gonna take tomorrow off or do a recovery day

inside of training camp i love what it it's it's blinders you're just focused focus focus focus that's what i want to be at right now in my life. The sport is so fascinating to me in that it's constantly evolving, different approaches. And one of the big things now, I mean, probably one of the biggest techniques ever is the low calf kick. It is fucking bananas. Yeah, I utilize it a lot. I do a lot of like, I kind of modified it with the sand chai. Sand chai goes down and kind of kicks up. I do a kind of hand plant

three six you know 360 sweep with the leg um i feel like it's it gets me out of range i can't i'm not countered a lot you know with that kick and it's quick um you know i feel like i'm i'm really quick in the transitions if case they were trying to come try to take me down and i've utilized that a lot i think uh what happened a lot of the fight the first fight i came out and kicked a sun style right in the leg super hard it was in the beginning when you guys were talking and i noticed that hurt him like i noticed that his body language and his movement if you get kicked you don't move right away like all right that you know oh yeah and and and just the eyes a lot of things i hit him with i could tell but that that calf kick is –

It's crazy. There's no bone there. There's nothing to help. You can't really check it. Isn't it crazy how long it took for that to be a factor? Yeah. I mean, all of a sudden – I mean, I credit Benson Henderson. I think Benson Henderson was the first guy to start implementing it in fights in the UFC.

But he didn't have the same effectiveness. Right. You know, I don't think we really saw how effective it was until I wonder who was who started using it where they really started making it I'd have to go and watch some tape right figure out who the guy was but now Jesus Christ I mean it's Justin Gaethje's the master of it you know Dustin Poirier and him had that crazy war, and a lot of that was low leg kicks. And now Dustin fucking Conor up with those low leg kicks.

I mean, Conor was done. In that second round, you could see him with that wide stance, heavy on that front leg, and because they're both southpaw to southpaw, that front leg was exposed, and Dustin was just smashing it. It took all his power away all his motion away and after a while he just couldn't take it and that's what me and chris were talking about earlier um throughout the training he's kind of taking over my kickboxing and flow into into the takedowns as well uh working from both stances there's might be your leg might get

chopped up you're gonna have to fight southpaw. And I feel like I'm adapting very well, speed, kicks, combos with both sides. That's so important, I think. So important. And I think that's where the fighting is going. You're going to have to fight both styles because there's going to be some of those calf kicks. You're a boxing fan. Terrence Crawford is the best in the world at that shit. You get used to him facing you in an orthodox stance and all of a sudden, boop, he's a southpaw.

Everything's backwards and he's lighting you up. He wakes up. He's like, that's my title fight. He's like, I'm going to flip a coin. I'm going to fight southpaw today. That was Marvin Hagler, too. When Marvin Hagler was in his prime, he could fight from any stance. That was one of the beautiful things about his style.

He could do whatever the fuck he wanted to. That's such an advantage. Especially switch stance when you're on that attack, and you have an angle so far deep that they have to really, and that's what's great about MMA. It's boxing, it's kickboxing angles, it's takedowns. So you get those angles, you get those people running from those certain ones. You switch stance, you come with the same side kick, they're out of position.

It's blinding. Also, one of the things that they've shown in studies when they've done athletic skill is that practicing with your non-dominant hand makes your dominant hand better. Yeah. Because you're more aware of what's off about that side. And as you're drilling and you're really focusing, it's almost like- Body mechanics, right?

Yeah. I'm sure you see that with Holdsworth or with anybody who teaches. When people teach, there's something about teaching. remember at levels higher yeah guys who would i would train with these guys and then they would quit their job and start teaching they got better and they would be way better all of a sudden they were fucking me up i was like what are you doing they just because they're constantly focused on it the finer details yeah constantly so you're kind of doing that when you switch stances definitely because you switch stances and you're throwing a straight left. You're like, oh, okay, this feels weird.

Like this is just automatic, but this is like. Head off, you're making sure. And then you're going to right head or your head's off. Yeah, you go to the right hand side where you're, and now all of a sudden it's just locked in. So they say that with everything. When you practice with your non-dominant hand, it makes your dominant skill better.

I should honestly probably be a southpaw fighter really um i wrestle with my right foot forward but i fight with my left foot so all my shots come from my right side i remember matt hughes did that a lot he would because he was a right-handed which is great sometimes if i'm i love my right hand i trust in it i believe in it i'm throwing a right hand it's a little out of range i get overcompensensated, my feet aren't under me, I can roll right into southpaw, boom, takedown. That's what happened with Cruz. He backed up, backed up, was like, oh, shit, I'm southpaw with the right.

Boom, double leg open. He started to takedown. Dustin Poirier is right-handed as well. Okay. And Dustin will fight with his right hand forward most of the time. But, you know, Daniel Cormier has a great series he does on ESPN called Detail. And in that, he broke down, in this most recent episode, he broke down Dustin knocking out Conor. It's a phenomenal breakdown.

Yeah, check that out. And he discusses how you can see when he's got a fight or hurt, what's the hand he switches. And he switched to orthodox and blasted him with the right hand when he had a hurt. Orthodox inside shot. And that's another thing going back to Coach Mark. He watched all my my my

footage of my fights he goes all your knockouts were inside shots you don't have to wind up you don't have to it was inside catching here inside right inside hook rolling it on almeida and by the time i rolled off my right hand it was inside hook right inside hook i rolled out he was already falling to the ground followed up silver with well the almeida fight was so impressive because almeida was on a tear and you guys were both it was like a meeting a collision course you know almeida was this guy yeah he was this guy that was fucking people up man he was he had a really bright future knockout bonuses i'm sitting there broke as hell trying to get a fight i'm like man 50 bucks going into that uh fight week and i was like man i know i win this fight

it's gonna change my life and sure shit as it did you know i mean obviously you know fights fights fights but every fight's your biggest fight you know that's the most money i want i want a knockout bonus gotta go see dana and lorenzo and the headquarters like hey what do you guys want you know like we want to help you out what's your next fight i'm like i just want to stay busy stay active you know you know what's interesting to me is how fucking good max holloway is and how max holloway is training on hawaii like the the the thought has always been you have to go to this big camp you have to go somewhere else and that's how you get better but meanwhile max holloway puts in one of the performances of the decade against calvin calvin's a fucking gangster.

He's a gangster. I was so excited for that fight because Calvin and the boss in Massachusetts and what they got going on there, striking is phenomenal. He's got some of the best boxing in the sport. For sure, 100%. The Ricardo Lamas fight is a perfect example of that.

Dude, he was popping, hitting his shots, getting out of range, coming back with combos. Like, man, that's hard to hit. And then for what happened, what Max was able to do to him, and I think what happened that first round, he put so much damage on her. Like, sometimes it's one shot, and you can be on autopilot. You get hit hard, but you're just not firing right. You're taking that damage to the brain.

Well, that was another fight where Max didn't spar at all. And he said after the second Volkanovski fight, he didn't do any sparring after fights, or in camp rather. All of his training is just movement and training for endurance and training for, you know, he's doing drills and he's hitting pads. But he's like, I don't need to take any big shots. Similar to what I am doing. It's not realistic. We're going to get boxing gloves on shin pads you're gonna throw a kick i'm gonna be able to block it with these big ass gloves small gloves are coming over top hitting you in

the head like that little placement saves you well uh my friend kevin ross had a an instagram post recently about the importance of technical light sparring for tie boxing and one of the things that he said is like with the ties they do they do a lot of this like sort of light tap sparring for Thai boxing. And one of the things that he said is like with the Thais, they do a lot of this like sort of light tap sparring. And that's where you work on things because you're not worried that someone's going to take your head off and that's how you get better skills. Also, no impact or no shin pads, no knuckle pads. So you get a more realistic understanding of placement, of where you're going to be.

Yeah. get a more realistic understanding of placement of you know where you're gonna be when you yeah and it's like being able to play until you're gonna develop that timing you're gonna develop and so many guys think you just have to go to war all the time yeah and that every time you spar you go to war but that's it's not wise there's there is time to do that i think you know but smart doing like you're not going to go in there and just working what did you get out of sparring like oh I just wouldn't fight like what would you take away from sparring yeah you might have won but what does it work on you went in there and brawled like that's what we did for so long like a technical approach I think a lot of these young

fighters that are coming from wrestling or not a boxing backgrounds or striking background they need to get in there to know what a fist fight feels like some of these wrestlers I'm so surprised I'm know what a um a fist fight feels like some of these wrestlers i'm so surprised i'm like they've never been in a fist fight in their life some of these fighters i talked to lance my buddies lance for since i was a kid and he never really punched someone in the face until he's a professional fighter you know i mean his first professional fight i'm like you never grew up and wanted to fight your brother got in a fight with your brother he's like oh no never i never i mean never in a wrestling room like i fought well in a fight with your brother, he's like, oh, no, never. I mean, never in a wrestling room.

Like, I have fun. Well, it didn't hold him back. Exactly. He's a bad motherfucker. But he has that work ethic since he was a kid. And, you know, he got in there and thrown to the wolves of sparring. And now it's technical. I think there's people that you do that with.

So you have that urgency. Like, dude, I'm getting my ass kicked. I better formulate something and work on something where i need to like and lance is great he uses wrestling to take it where he can dominate and that's where his good his strong point is you know he's got great cardio he's strong as an ox he's a beast yeah yeah um when you look at your career you were saying that you you were thinking about life in five-year increments is that when do you do you think at five years you'll be 34 is that when you're thinking like you'll assess where you're at your career whether or not you want to keep going

or retire hopefully you'll be the champ then right like do you do all these variables but yes do you have these goals set in your head or what you'd like to accomplish i do i feel like uh my next three fights are kind of lined up obviously that's that's kind of out of my control but in my control with the ufc you know works on like auto then either peter yan or whoever wins whoever's it's kind of optional because it's i can if i fight auto right there i have a claim on to fight you know i knock him out to fight win knockout streak i can be next in the line for the title shot i know cory's up there if cory wants to you know get in there for the for the championship it's not gonna fight till july who knows you know we can fight in the meantime i want to stay busy you know as long as i'm healthy i want to stay busy i fought four times in one year i went from unranked to world champion i feel like i can do that better now

because i've known what to do how to pull back how to train how to recover right um you know covid was just a fluke thing that just took over my body that had me sidelined like if i didn't have covid i would who knows what would happen right it's the past but we're focused on this but well you know it makes you appreciate your health now though oh my gosh i i literally um thank all the you know first responders and the nurses and the people that work through my stuff you know in jersey and they're just so helpful and then all my doctors like i'm okay i got this i'm i'm just making sure that i'm healthy because i know what i'm going to do in camp you know i want to

tear my body down i want to give myself every opportunity to go in there and fight and level up and better my life better my family's life and i know how to do that and that's through hard work but working smart do you know when you're gonna retire do you have it in your head dude i've honestly not even thought about that you know i kind of take one flight at a time but obviously you have your next i've learned uh throughout my life like when i won a state title i didn't i got there i was like man what's my next goals i won the world championship what's my next goal so just have these high goals but then also have things that you can bounce to next um so i haven't really thought about retirement i still feel like i'm just learning in this sport i feel like i haven't

even hit my prime i feel like i'm just getting my um style of fighting together my coaches and my team and i feel like i feel like the next five years are going to be some of my best performances mentally physically emotionally um inside the octagon growing outside of the octagon and uh I'm excited for this ride, I'm very very excited to get back in there both divisions are great so I have options you know, that's a good thing I'm right

I'm sitting in a good spot I'm excited to watch brother, I can't wait to call your fights again, alright me either well thank you very much for being here, thank you for having me welcome, thank you and I can't wait to see you again brother, thank you very much man always here. Thank you for having me. Welcome. Thank you. And I can't wait to see you again, brother. Thank you very much, man. Always a pleasure.

Always a pleasure. Goodbye, everybody.