The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #105 with Derrick Lewis

Episode Date: March 12, 2021

Joe is joined by UFC Heavyweight Derrick Lewis.

the Joe Rogan experience train by day Joe Rogan podcast by night all day what's up thanks for being here thanks for finally having me my pleasure dude yeah we talked about it a couple times yeah my balls was hot one was the famous one. I don't remember that one. So how's things, man? Things have been crazy. I can only imagine. After that knockout of Curtis Blades, like, whew, I mean, that got a lot of attention.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And it felt real good to knock him out because he was talking a lot of trash before the fight. Isn't that, like, par for the course, though? Everybody talks shit before the fight. Even whenever I'm doing good, though. He's been talking at least three years now he's been talking mess to me. Really? Yeah.

Do you take that shit personally? I do because I'm not in there trying to sell tickets. Don't just come to me trying to sell tickets to talk trash. You know, I take everything personal. Yeah, some guys do just trying to sell tickets. Don't just come to me and try to sell tickets to talk trash. I take everything personal. Yeah, some guys do just try to sell tickets. And then they'll say it's not personal. It's just like when Khabib Nurmagomedov was fucking up Conor, when he was on top of him, pounding on him going, let's talk now.

Let's talk now. Remember that? Yeah, yeah. And he goes, it's just business. It's like, this is not business. No, no. I go into, it's just business. You know, it's like, this is not business. No, no. I go into every fight like life or death. And I enter a deep, dark place every time I step inside the octagon.

So it's not business for me. What was interesting is after the fight, I mean, it was just such a spectacular knockout. But after the fight, you were so nonchalant. You were just so relaxed. And you're like, I couldn't get started in there. And everybody's like, what the fuck are you talking about? You couldn't get started. It was one of the most spectacular knockouts in the history of the heavyweight division.

And you're like, I couldn't get started. Yeah. So I went back home and got my blood and everything tested. And my T levels was like in the 300s. So I had very low T. You mean testosterone? Yes. You have low testosterone?

Yes. That's ridiculous. Yeah. I would never, if I was going to make a bet. It's so like I try to spend all my energy on my wife. So it's kind of hard because if i don't have the energy for her then she'll think i'm out there messing around and stuff like that so did they know why your testosterone was low um maybe you over trained or something no i don't we we don't know yet so i

want to go to another doctor that the lady was just telling me about oh wow that's crazy so that's why you felt lethargic yes yes it yes. It was like that all week. At first I thought it was the jet lag or something like that, but it ended up just being my T levels. That was like one of the most perfectly timed uppercuts I've ever seen. It was perfect. Yeah, we practiced that for the last few months. So that was the game plan when he shoots to catch him coming in?

Yes, either the knee or the uppercut. We knew he was going to be there. We knew he was going to try to play the game, try to stand up for a little bit. Then the way he shoots, he don't really shoot like a real wrestler. He shoots like from the hip down and come in like that. He doesn't bend the knee and try to come in. That's interesting. So he goes, he hinges, he goes forward. Yes, yes. Why do you think he does that? Um, I don't know.

I don't know. You know, it's usually the wrestler, they drop a knee, then shoots. Yeah. But he just bend down and I'm guessing he was just trying to grab my leg to pick it up or something like that, I don't know. So how did you get involved in fighting?

What was your first experiences? First experience was like, because everyone knew I loved fighting in the streets, like every weekend at parties and stuff like that. And so one of my friends had told me about MMA, and I was like, I didn't really know anything about MMA at the time. And he told me to watch videos. This was like 10 years ago. Did you have any martial arts training at all?

No, I don't. I still don't have any martial arts training. That's ridiculous. Of course you do. You're a professional martial artist. I'm watching YouTube videos now, so I'm learning some stuff now. Really? You're not fucking around?

I'm serious. You learn from YouTube videos? I learn from my coach as well, but I watch YouTube videos and stuff like that, too. So 10 years ago, you had no martial arts training at all? No martial arts training. And where did you first start training? I started training at a gym called Silverback MMA. And so this was 10 years ago.

You just decided to learn. Were you thinking about being a professional were you just doing it for fun um they said that back then i thought like 500 500 was pretty good money you know so they were saying that you could get paid um five hundred dollars um just three rounds or three minutes i said just three minutes i didn't think three minutes was a long time until I got in there. It's like, damn, okay. And so we just started training from there, though, and I fell in love with it. To me, it's almost like street fighting.

So it's like, yeah, I could do that. Well, one of the things that's changed about you over the years is your endurance. Your endurance, it came up in a big way. Like you can see in the Gabriel Gonzaga fight you can see in a lot of your fights like you can you can put pressure on people now and and you have a lot of high volume with which in the beginning of your career I think you had a harder time with oh yeah and so that's really what we focus on now at Main Street Boxing Gym

is my um conditioning and my endurance and stuff like that because we feel like that's the only weakness in my game right now. Yeah, but it's like you're so big. I don't even know if it's a weakness. I think it's just part of being a giant person. Yeah, yeah. But the Travis Brown fight's another example. That was a crazy, fast-paced fight, but you overwhelmed him. Yeah, yeah.

I love that fight, too. Before this past fight with Curtis, that was one of my favorites. And that week, going into Travis Brown's fight, I took some laxatives to try to help me cut some weight. But, you know, I took it that Wednesday, and he was still lingering around. So it's like he kicked me in my body but he also broke my ribs but i also did have to take a shit so i wasn't lying about that so yeah that was a ridiculous interview though

yeah that fight was uh that was that was a heavy duty fight there's a lot of bad blood in that fight too right yes and ever since then, whenever I do my, you know how they come in a few days before, the commentators try to talk to you. And ever since then, I stopped telling the guys what's my game plan and stuff like that. Because I didn't know him and Bryan Stanton at the time was friends. And so our game plan was to come in and

try to um to kick his legs because he used to stand real wide but whenever me and him fought he didn't stand like that at all like not one time so you think brian stan went to him and told him so i believe so oh brian yeah yeah yeah that's kind of dirty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he didn't tell you his strategy. No, he didn't. Damn, Brian's damn. So I just believe that was the case because he didn't do that at all. And I watched previous fights of Travis, and he always used to have that wide stance,

and he didn't do that at all for my fight. That's interesting. Do you watch a lot of tape on fights? Who? Do you watch tape on fighters when you're going to face them? I used to. Like, early in my career, I used to, but then I stopped because they fight me different. Like, if I'm watching tape on a wrestler, then by the time me and him fight,

he's going to try to stand up with me. It's just like when I fought Big Country. I thought he was going to stand up the whole fight, he's going to try to stand up with me. It's just like when I fought Big Country. I thought he was going to stand up the whole fight. And he just tried to take down, take down. But don't most dudes try to take you down? I mean, you have some pretty ridiculous punching power. I think a lot of guys, if the option presents itself, they're going to try to take you down, right?

Yeah, I guess so. But I prefer that anyways. That's where I started to breathe and catch myself and my adrenaline be pumping too high. Like I fought throwing pots and my adrenaline was out of this world. And so I told my coach if that happens, like in the fight with him, that I'm going to eat him in the nuts on purpose. I don't think you should say that.

Cut that out, dude. Cut that part out. You can't say that, man. No, my adrenaline was just crazy. I just needed to calm down. So it was like beginning of the fight, so I did it on purpose. Oh, no. I knew I was going to get a warning, so I like okay I'm calm down now so we can go now.

That's an interesting strategy. What makes you get more amped up for some fights than others? What's getting me amped up is if I'm looking at something that i want to buy um after the fight and so i'm like okay so you get excited yeah i get excited for that you start counting your win bonus oh yeah yeah i'm already counting my win bonus before i even get it so i'm like like give me an example something that would that you would want to buy that gets you excited? We had wanted to buy some property in Colorado a few years ago. And so I was like, man, if I could get this knockout right here, that we could buy cash. And so that right there gets me excited to do stuff like that.

There's no more cars. I got all the cars. I'm like, that don't excite me anymore. It used to, but like stuff like that. What are you going to do in Colorado? Are you going to get like a vacation spot? Yes. We got the, got like 80 acres.

Nice. Nice. Where at? In St. Louis. Where's that at? It's like south of Colorado Springs. Oh, okay. Yeah.

It's like two hours away from New Mexico. Oh, all right. I fucking love Colorado. Yeah. It's like two hours away from New Mexico. Oh, all right. I fucking love Colorado. Yeah. It's so beautiful out there. Beautiful. So peaceful too, right? Especially at night.

I think that many stars at night, it's like, don't even seem real. I know. It's crazy. It's so quiet out there. It lets you know that we really are in space. You look up like that. Yeah. Especially if you're high, right? Man we really are in space. You look up like that. Yeah. Especially if you're high, right?

Man, that's a different story right there. So for a guy like you, I'd imagine, like, you need some serious downtime because, like, the chaos of being a professional fighter at the highest level in the heavyweight division, like, there's a lot of pressure and stress. Oh, yeah, that's why I don't watch fights. You know, whenever I watch fights, I catch myself starting to sweat or, like, holding my breath. So, like, this past weekend, I was watching one of the guys fight,

and I was sitting next to my wife, and she noticed that I just started breathing the heaven out of nowhere because I'm already daydreaming about, okay, if I was in that situation, this is what I would do. So, like, that's why I don't watch fights because it's still stressful. Yeah. So there was a rare thing you watched in the fight Saturday night? Just wearing how that one guy that's fighting like Khabib.

Oh, Islam Makachev? Yes. And I was, like, wondering, like, if a guy would hold me down like that, like the whole fight, wouldn't be able to do anything, what would I do? That dude's a bad motherfucker. Yeah, yeah. Islam, he's for real. That grappling is serious.

Because that kid, Drew Dober, is very good. For him to handle Drew Dober that way, I was super impressed. What did you think of the main event, Blachowicz and Stylebender? You know, I was going for Stylebender, but Blachowicz, he just seemed too strong. His power was a match. What is he? Yeah, his power is ridiculous.

That dude's got crazy power. And he's a big fella, too. The difference between a legitimate light heavyweight and a guy who's a middleweight who just wants to test himself. Yeah, but I don't think he's got what it takes to beat Jones, though. Yeah, Jones is a different person. He's a different person. I mean, Jon Jones, that's top of the food chain. He just figures a way around people. He figures out how to beat

people. But I gotta admit, when you see what Blahovic did to, what the fuck's his name uh the guy he not jesus christ i've talked to dominic reyes thank you i don't know what happened my brain just short circuited dominic reyes went five hard rounds of john jones and it was a real close decision bohovich blew him out in two rounds. The thing about Blachowicz is you can't fuck up. It's a lot like you. You can't make any mistakes. He hits too fucking hard.

Yeah. But I would like to see that fight. I wish John, but I want to see John at heavyweight too. What do you think about John coming up to your weight class? Yeah, that's good. And, you know, John cool up to your weight class? Yeah, that's good. And, you know, John cool. He's cool people or whatever.

But I also, like, picture myself fighting him one day. And I kind of know what his game plan would be if he ever faced me. You know, he would try to attack the legs a lot. I don't think he would really try to take me down. He would try to keep his distance and try to strike at a distance or what. He'll try to stay away. You don't think he'll try to take you down at all? I don't think so.

How come? What makes you think that? Because I would love for a guy to get that close to me. I believe that's their downfall, whenever they get that close. That makes sense. They clench up, especially. Yeah. Well, John's very good at using that long reach. I'm just interested to see.

I mean, he's at 250 pounds now. That's a legit heavyweight. He looks like a heavyweight for sure. I don't think he should try to gain any more weight, though. I think his walk-around weight is good enough because I believe he walks around at 240, 235, something like that. I don't think he should keep trying to gain weight or bulk up as much as you think he should because Cain Velasquez and Stipe, they walk around at 235, 240.

So he'd be a natural heavyweight, really. That's interesting because there's two schools of thought, right? There's a school of thought that you should be as big as you possibly can to deal with guys like you or guys like Francis Ngannou, the biggest of the big in the division. And then the other school of thought is you should be lighter, have more endurance, push more volume, move quicker. That's what I'm working on right now.

Trying to be endurance and trying to be quicker and stuff like that. Because being big, it's like you can last for like three minutes, four or five minutes, one round. And then after that, everything starts going downhill. What do you weigh now? Like right now, I'm 290 only

because I had Krispy Kreme this morning. You're going to cut that part out though. What do you want to get down to? I would love to get down to like 250, 245. Yeah? Yeah. Do you see that being possible? I think your skeleton weighs about 250.

I don't know. I don't know. I'm trying. I'm trying. But since I've been off, I've been eating my ass off. So I would love to get down to 250, though. Now, I've watched a lot of your training videos, and you do a lot of strength and conditioning stuff,

like a lot of explosive work and shit like that. Would you change that and just start doing a lot of long-distance endurance stuff? How would you lose that kind of weight? No, I wouldn't change that. I love doing that. I believe me doing that right there takes a lot out of me and i love feeling fatigue after every workout and so i wouldn't do that anything like that but i will also try to run on a track or something like that run a few miles around the track that's something

i've never done before would you so you don't run at all no No. So what do you do for endurance work? I do Stairmaster. We do elliptical bike and stuff like that. I don't run. I haven't ran in years, really. Do you not run because you don't like it, or do you not run because of your joints? Oh, I just don't like it. It's boring. I mean, really, it's boring.

But if it was good for you do you think you so this is the plan the plan is to start incorporating that yeah if it's good for me you know but it's hard though I can only imagine

I could probably do it for a few days but after that I'm like nah I don't feel like doing all that well I only weigh 200 pounds and it's hard on my knees

I can imagine as big as you are running it's rough yeah I'm sure it's rough I don't like it it's hard on my knees i can imagine as big as you are running it's rough yeah i'm sure it's rough i don't like it's boring yeah but you i mean i guess you could do other kinds of cardio long distance cardio long long duration cardio to try to drop some weight but you'd have to try to change your diet too right yes diet is the number one thing but it's hard though i'm living i live right next to popeyes and all these water burgers and all these thing. But it's hard, though. I live right next to Popeye's and all these Whataburgers and all these fast food restaurants.

It's like right there. Listen, man, I'm a giant fan of Popeye's. Spiced chicken and beans and rice, it's hard to pass up. That beans and rice is good. Yes, it's deadly. It's a problem. But do you work with a nutritionist at all? I used to work with Lou Nutrition out there in New Jersey.

I used to work with him. But other than that, no. My wife, she tried to look up recipes here and there. But she still needs a lot of work in the kitchen. Have you ever used the UFC's program with trifecta meals? Yeah, I did, and I didn't like it. Didn't like it? It was trash.

I told them it was trash. I don't like it at Didn't like it? It was trash. I told him it was trash. I don't like it at all. What don't you like about it? It's no season. No flavor to it. Yeah, I get it. Whenever I spit in the other guy's food, I really meant that. That shit was nasty.

That's right. You spit in his food. Why the fuck were they... Was that Ole Nick? Yes. Yeah, why were they sending you Ole Nick's food? I don't know. They probably just trying to get rid of that shit nick yes yeah why would they send you only next food i don't know they're probably just trying to get rid of that shit because it was nasty do you didn't send it back to i mean they threw it out they didn't give it i don't know if they sent it back

or what i don't think so definitely not have to sell the video well he don't speak english so he probably didn't know what i was saying anyway well he probably knew you were spitting in his food that's pretty universal what kind of shit were they giving him? Oh, I don't know. Did it look boring? Chicken breasts? Boiled broccoli? That kind of shit?

Well, he probably got something good because I don't order no nasty shit like that. That was nice. I told him to put seasoning on mine. So, like, for trifecta, do you get to pick what they send you? Yes, you get to pick. So you can order something that's got seasoning

and some spicy food. Something good. Yeah. But whatever they was trying to give to him it was not good. No? No. Maybe he's got some

weird diet he follows. I don't know. Probably so. He's an interesting cat that guy. Yeah. I never fought anyone like him.

He's weird. Crazy grappler. Yeah. Finishes people when they're mounting on him which is nuts. The only guy I've ever seen I think he's done it twice. He gets him with that Ezekiel. Yeah. Finishes people when they're mounting on them, which is nuts. The only guy I've ever seen. I think he's done it twice.

He gets them with that Ezekiel. Yeah. He got me in, I guess, the Ezekiel. That's what it was. He got me in that position. I was like, if my coaches never had told me about that the week of the fight, I would never know what the hell he was doing. Yeah, it's weird.

And so it was like I was kind of panicking because i he was suffocating me with his skin it wasn't just a choke it was just i couldn't breathe so i was like panicking a little bit then he had said something in russian then let it go and smile i was like shit appreciate it because he almost had me i was like shit i'm about to tell him because i ain't know what's going on so i was scared. I said, all right, I appreciate it. He hit me in my stomach. I said, all right. That's hilarious.

Keep doing that. Yeah, that guy, he's an unusual grappler. He just grabs a hold of people. He seems ridiculously strong. Yeah, yeah. It was weird. I've never seen anybody finish that move like he does, where he lets guys mount him.

He grabs a hold of their neck. He puts it like this, and then he opens up so they think oh i'm gonna mount and they move in the mountain he sinks it in and he squeezes and he presses you down i want to feel that that's that's a crazy move i want to know how he does that i wonder if he's got like a certain setup he uses for that yeah he's got what 80 fights so yeah he's been around it's crazy yeah he still loves it i guess he's in his 40s too deep in his 40s right 45 45 yeah when do you think you're gonna stop how old do you have a number in your head um it all depends um if my body says sit your ass down or we could keep going it It also depends on the money.

If the money keeps getting better like it is, we'll keep going until UFC say, all right, we hollered you. You're in a position now where you're at the top of the food chain. You've got Stipe, who's about to fight Francis in a rematch. You've already beat Francis.

I don't even count that as a beating, Francis. You know, that fight right there. It was a weird fight. People don't even talk, bring that up no more. Yeah, that was a weird fight. What was up with that fight? My back was hurting. I felt overweight the whole fight.

I had knee issues. I had a bunch of problems with myself. And I don't know what was going on with him. I think he was still fucked up because of the Francis fight. The Stipe? Excuse me, yeah, the Stipe fight. Yeah, I think that Stipe fight just fucked with his head, and he just, in fact, he got so tired in that fight

that Stipe overwhelmed him and beat him for the first time in the UFC, and I think it was just bothering him. I for sure love to run it back, though. You've had some back issues over the years, right? What are the back issues? It's my L4 and L5. Do you have a bulging disc? Hernia disc?

Bulging and hernia, yes. What have you done to fix it? I had knee surgery after the junior fight. And so they were saying that my right leg was shorter than my left leg because that's how tight my back was. And so they ended up having knee surgery and they said that I was compensating on it. And so ever since I had the surgery, I haven't had any serious problems with it. Really? That was it? Mm-hmm.

Isn't it weird how everything's connected like that? Like a knee problem can fuck your back up. I've been having the knee problem for like four years before I got it fixed. Was it meniscus? Yes, meniscus and it was partial torn ACL. So did they replace the ACL? ACL's still partial torn. They replaced the meniscus.

So what did they use? MCL. MCL is completely gone. Oh, really? Yeah. So did they reattach the MCL? Yes They put some plastic things

Anchors or whatever So now it's good to go? What happened I heard it Ruined pots He got me in a knee bar It was real tight And I didn't tap

Ever since that fight, it's been bothering me. Because in one fight you had, the Fabrizio Verdun fight, you had to pull out because your back was so fucked up. That was like the day of the fight, right? Yes. What was going on with that? I couldn't move. I couldn't even roll out of bed. It was

like cramping, sharp pain in my lower back. And that was just from the herniated disc? Yeah, the doctor came in and coaches, and it was the size of my fist, the knot in my back. Wow. It's crazy that it's all because of the knee. Yeah. And so since the knee's fixed, now your back is good.

Yes. And did you have to do any back strengthening exercises or any? Yeah, I had to do therapy for like four months. Yeah, ever since I finished all the layups, no more back problems. That's pretty crazy.

Do you fuck with yoga or anything like that? They told me that yoga would help a lot. You know, I seen DDP been trying to reach out and help,

trying to get me to do his yoga. Have you been in contact with him? No. I connect you. He's great. No, I'm alright. Oh, come on, man. Come on, man. I want to see you doing DDP yoga. He's a great guy, too. You'd love him.

I guess I'd give him a try, but I prefer like a woman try to teach me yoga and not know how to do it. Oh, I understand. I understand. Yeah, he thinks it's different than regular yoga yeah that's what i heard yeah well he has like dynamic tension at the yoga you know he did he add he does yoga but he adds like a bunch of other moves that go with it it's really tough it's a very good workout and you know he's in his 60s and he can grab his foot and stick it straight

up in the air and do like a standing split it's crazy how flexible he is i guess i'll give it a try since i got low t so i'm just the closest woman anyway his whole thing was his back was so up from pro wrestling so using yoga he strengthened his back and that that allowed him to extend his career okay yeah i know a lot of guys whose back has been pretty fucked up and yoga is what saved them yoga yoga put it all together for him that's why i brought it up but i understand a lot of manly dudes don't want to be in there doing yoga especially with another man you know i understand yeah that's like getting a massage from another man. Yeah, I can't do that. I can't do it. I like to relax. Yeah.

It's odd, but sometimes dudes are the only ones that can really get in there, get in there and work them muscles. I know some big old Brock Lesnar. Corn-fed women. Brock Lesnar form-looking women that really get in there with the same haircut and everything. Shout-out to Ms. Linda. Appreciate it. Same haircut and everything. Shout out to Miss Linda. Appreciate it. Same haircut and everything.

That's hilarious. Yeah. So what is like a typical training day for you? Do you ever do straight jiu-jitsu or do you do just straight on MMA training? Like what do you do? Now I do strength conditioning for an hour then after that like i rest for like three hours then i go back and do jujitsu and striking at the same time so you just mma style workouts so just everything's so um when you say you do strength conditioning for an hour you do that every day yes um monday i guess not

anymore it was monday wednesday and friday i do that and so every day is two a days or do you have sometimes one workout a day yes some wins tuesdays and thursdays is one one a day and how did you do this from trial and error like did you try different ways of doing it and different ways of setting up your camps? And this is what you found to be the best for your body? I really just don't like training. I'm not going to lie to you. I don't like doing none of this. I really just do it just to take care of my family.

I do it just enough if, okay, I can last three rounds. I'm going to train just the last three rounds. If I got to train five rounds, I'm like, damn, okay. All right, I'm going to try to train as much as I can just the last at least four and a half rounds. But if you're going to fight for the title again, you're going to have to fight five rounds. Yeah, I know. I'm going to have to fight five rounds. That's the only thing that scares me.

But you want to be the champ. I want to be the champ champ but it's not my main goal is to be the champ my main goal is to be rich like you and i ask people questions but the best way to be rich is to be the champ that's like your best path and you have a like a legit shot at being the heavyweight champion of the world. I mean, that's got to mean something. It's just my name and mixed with heavyweight champion of the world is so crazy because my past and the stuff I've been through in my life just wouldn't be real. Well, tell me about your past. Like what about it makes it seem less real? I guess, you know, like going through the system and stuff like that

for so many years and being counted out and being left behind by family members and friends and stuff like that and everyone turning their back on you. Then being on top of the world and top of the sport and stuff like that. And my name mentioned by other great people in the world and stuff like that. Now other people are looking up to me than being heavyweight champion of the world. It'd just be an unbelievable feeling. Well, it's got to be unbelievable already, right?

Yes, yes, it is. I mean, you're one of the top heavyweights on the planet Earth. It is, it is. You got to be ranked, like, number two right now, right? Yes, I'm number two, yeah. It's a crazy feeling. You know, I try not to think about it because it really don't feel real. You know, it feels like one of those highs that you wish you'd never been this high.

I don't want to be this high anymore. I'm sure to show you. Because I heard you be on the mushrooms and stuff like that. I'm like, nah. Yeah, I understand. So tell me about your past. Like what about, like when you're saying going through the system, you mean the judicial system?

Like what about your past was? Yeah, I've been like in prison and prison stuff like that i did three and a half years in prison for what for assault aggravated assault i don't see you assaulting people that's weird oh i'm kidding well you should have been at my courthouse you should have been in talking telling that to the judge i would have said that to the judge yeah your honor i think i think this is a mistake yeah yeah so three and a half years for that and so people wrote you off they felt like this is just you're just gonna be trouble your whole life yeah especially i had a full scholarship um i was already i played the year i ended up getting probation for that i ended up playing a year of college at killgore dream college and i ended up violating probation for that. I ended up playing a year at college, at Kilgore Dream College.

And I ended up violating because I didn't have a job, and I had to pay my fines and fees and show up to my meetings, which no one wanted to help me, no one to do. And so I ended up getting violated from that. And it was only a two-year probation at the time, justification, and so no one wanted to help me to go to my class and help me pay my fines and stuff like that because I was in college,

you know, didn't have any money. And so they violated me. I went to prison for on a five-year sentence, but I got parole three and a half years. So you went to prison because of the violation of not paying the fines? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

The feeling of being counted out by the system, that's one of the main problems that most people have with our justice system. It's that it doesn't really rehabilitate people. It makes people feel like there's no hope, and in a lot lot of ways it makes them resign themselves to a life of crime. Oh yeah, yeah. Then it's really nothing they can really do to help somebody to rehabilitate themselves, you know, whenever they get out. There's no programs, they can really, like jobs and stuff. There's some jobs, but not really good paying jobs like that they really need to really um survive out here so from going from that to becoming a successful martial artist like and to be and i know you don't think you practice martial arts but you definitely do but to be a successful fighter you've you've uh you've changed your. But I think you've also opened up a lot of people's eyes that maybe they can change their future too.

If a guy like you can do it, then what's the difference between you and a lot of other people? Not much difference. Yes. My brother reminds me of that all the time. He thinking that the fighting is so easy because I can do it that he believed that he could do it. I'm telling you, it's completely different. It's not.

Is your brother big like you? Yeah, he's big, yeah. Can he fight? Well, he can fight in the streets. You know, it's completely different fighting in the streets than mixed martial arts. But, yeah, in the streets he can fight. How old's your brother? He's 31.

I'm recruiting him right now. How much does he weigh? Where's he at? He's about 250. Oh, there we go. But he's short, though. He's short. He's like 5'10". So is Daniel Cormier.

Yeah, yeah. You can be short and still be the heavyweight champion of the world. I mean, Mike Tyson, too. Yeah, but he's interested in doing it? Yeah, Mike Tyson, too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but he's, is he interested in doing it? Yeah, he is, but I told him, no, we're not doing it. Really?

Yeah. Why? Because my brother took ghetto, first of all. They wouldn't, the world wouldn't be able to handle someone like him. Really? He's too outspoken, and he's real ghetto. Man, I don't know. If you can tell him to tone it

down a little bit we might have i tell him that every day whenever i talk to him he see i was going live and just want to be ghetto all the time so he can't be doing that you gotta learn how to turn it off and on and he's like no is he the guy you get your best Instagram page out of any MMA fighter. I check your shit every day. I do. I check your shit every day because there's always something wild that you have posted. Somebody reported me for something just now. Oh, you fucking rats.

Yeah. What was it? It's the video I posted. Which one? He ran into the back of the truck. That one? Yeah, the guy who slid with the rope, hanging out to the rope. You got reported for that one?

That's so tame. They should see all your other shit. They're reporting you for that? Yeah. So now what I do, I just keep him on there for a few hours or maybe a day or so. And then delete him. Yeah. I almost hesitated telling people how good your Instagram was because I didn't want you to get in trouble.

Because it was so fun. Because it's always dudes getting fucked up and it's always he's okay when you know that motherfucker's not okay. That's what I started doing because I was getting reported a lot and I was like okay, he's okay. And people started asking, what's the backstory? Is they okay?

I'm saying he's okay. There's a lot of dead people that were on your Instagram for fucking sure. Aren't you selling a he's okay shirt? Yeah. We sold out. We sold out. He's okay.

She's okay. Sold out. I need a he's okay. She's okay. I feel bad. I feel bad. I don't know why, man. But when girls get fucked up in those videos, it makes me feel bad.

When dudes get fucked up, I don't feel bad at all. It doesn't bother me at all. Snoop's got a great page too. Snoop's always posting people getting fucked up. I don't feel bad at all. It doesn't bother me at all. Snoop's got a great page, too. Snoop's always posting people getting fucked up. But he posts this one girl. She was drunk, and she was on the top of a truck. And the truck pulled off, and she fell and landed on her head. Yeah, I'll post that.

Yeah, there it is. Okay. I told the lady that day that I'm like, damn, I know my head is messed up, but she really had cropped the hell out of my head. Yeah, what did she do? She made your head smaller. Look at my ear, too. In my ear.

She's like, his head's too big. I'm going to make it smaller. She did. She shrunk your head. Look at my ear. Look at my ear. My right ear. I don't have no ear.

It looks like she took like a half inch off the right side of your face. It was a rough photoshopping job there. Yeah, she's terrible. Yeah, well. People think they know better. Like, oh, his head's too big. Yeah, she's terrible. Yeah, well.

People think they know better. Like, oh, his head's too big. When did you start posting fucked up things on Instagram like that? Oh, shit, I don't know. Probably 16, 17. Did you see this one? Which one? Yes, the guy with the hot dog.

He took a hot dog in the dude's pants, wake him up, and cuts his arm. What does the UFC think about your page? They used to have that one guy, Randy. He used to always call me every day telling me, oh, Dana White wants you to take it down. I'm like, no. I'm not taking that down. I say, hold on. Give me a few more hours. I'm going to leave it down i'm like no i'm not taking that down i say hold on give me a few more hours i'm gonna leave it up female hours that's hilarious he used to call me every day

do you think it was really dana white though was it him that's what i was telling myself it's probably dana white i bet i mean it's probably on him him yeah but then then dana white had messaged me one day on one of the videos. The guy had jumped off the roof. Well, he was trying to jump in the pool, but he ended up slipping on the roof and laying the head first. And Dana White said, White, what happened to that video? I said, well, I took it down. He said, send it to me.

And he ended up posting it on his page. Yeah. I said, okay. Let me tell you something. If someone's saying, take it down, it's not Dana. It's not Dana. I sent Dana some fucked up things. He never gets upset.

Yeah, he's fine with it. But you figured out a way to make your, I mean, how many followers you got now? Just about almost 2 million. Yeah, and I mean, a lot of it is people following you because of your fight career, but a lot of people are following because of some wild shit you post. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a lot of celebrities, too. I didn't even know they were following me.

It's pretty cool, though. Got invited to shoot some golf with Scarface. Really? That's pretty cool. No shit. Look at this. Oh, look at him right there. Yeah.

Brother Mob and Scarface. I met Willie D when I did the improv in Houston. And it was like, sometimes I get starstruck. With him, I got starstruck. When I was a kid, when I was delivering newspapers, I would listen to Ghetto Boys all the time. And I was like, I can't. Sometimes you meet people and you can't believe that's really them.

Like, you're a real person? Yeah. Like, here you are right here. Then I had him on the podcast and it was great, but Jamie fucked up and half the tape got erased. Whoops. Whoops. The recording's good, but the the video got up the hard drive filled up

he'll come back again he'll come back again it's never happened never happened again yeah i had a chance to have bushwick bill on but uh we we when we circled back he apparently was in the middle of dying and right when we circled back he was apparently was in the middle of dying. And right when we circled back, he was already in the hospital. And then he died shortly after there, unfortunately. But I've always been a huge Ghetto Boys fan. Yeah, I love Ghetto Boys. But Scarface was sick too, right? Didn't he have a...

Yeah, he's getting lung or something like that. He needed a transfer. Yeah, I think he needs a kidney transplant. I think he still do. I'm not sure. I think so too. Yeah. So you golf a transfer. Yeah. Kidney transfer. I think he needs a kidney transplant. Yeah. I think he still do. I'm not sure. I think so, too. Yeah. So you golf a lot?

Yeah. Is that like your recreation shit? Yes. That's what you like to do? Every week. Every week. Just about every week. Yeah?

Yeah. What else do you do to relax? Just probably just go for a ride through the city. That's about it. Go for a ride. Chill with my kids. My wife. That's about it. Well, we were supposed to with my kids, my wife. That's about it.

Well, we were supposed to have a UFC. They were trying to have a UFC in Houston. They were trying to do the title fight in Houston, but apparently Texas was like, not yet. Yeah, the mayor, he was already tripping about it being fully open, 100% open. He was already tripping. He went on the news right away whenever that happened.

He was saying that it wasn't a good idea. Look at Florida. They're fine. I'm going to Florida next week, actually. They're wide open and they're fine. If you look at their cases, their cases are no worse than anybody else's. And they have an old population. Florida, like the numbers, the average age of people is higher than most

places yeah and they're fine it's retirement home city right yeah i think you gotta let people do whatever the fuck they want to do it's too long it's been a year you can't just lock everything down for a year especially when we know what the disease really is yeah like a year ago everybody thought it was like the plague and it was going to kill 10% of the population. We know it's not now. But they was blaming everything on COVID and getting in a car accident, COVID. Right. If someone died, you mean? Yeah.

Yeah. Talk to me about your cars. What kind of cars are you into? Ferrari. You got a Ferrari? Lamborghini. Really? McLaren.

Really? That's where you're spending all your money? Yeah. Yeah. I buy houses too. Yeah kind of ferrari you got f12 really yeah it's the best sounding car in the world right oh yeah pull up a picture of that see if you can get a video of a ferrari f12 that's a serious fucking car that's the v12 right yeah oh my god that thing straight pipe. Straight pipe, IPE exhaust.

Yeah, my friend Coleon Noir, he's a gun guy on Instagram. Maybe you've seen him. He's famous. He posts all kinds of shit about guns. He just got one of those, too. Got an F12. But, yeah, that's a ridiculously fast car, too. Yeah, yeah.

Is that your favorite? My favorite cruise around car, if I wanted to, like, embarrass somebody in the speed, it's the McLaren, the 720. Yeah? Yeah. So how many cars do you have? One, two, three. Look at that thing.

About six. Six? Yeah. Let me hear this thing. yeah let me hear this thing it's a beautiful sounding car look at that thing what color is yours? this red

do you sometimes like get in it and go I can't believe I have a fucking every day it's the same way with my home Do you sometimes get in it and go, I can't believe I have a fucking phone? Every day. Every day. It's the same way with my home, my house. Every day I'm like, I'm just sitting in the living room or sitting at the kitchen table, and I just look around like, can't believe it. So I've been in the house almost three years now, and I still can't believe it.

And I pull up to it, and I'm like, man, I can't believe it. Because I grew up in a 700-square-foot home, you know, in the projects in New Orleans. And being in apartments just about all my life until I got into the UFC. And so, like, living in a home like this is, like, so crazy. My whole life right now is like so crazy. So that's why I really don't even really get high no more. I really drink because I'm already feeling like on top of the world. Yeah, you're high on life.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it's got to be surreal. What is this here? Oh, this is my Lamborghini. Damn. It's a twin turbo. Look at that fucking thing.

Which model is that? The Huracan. Jesus Christ, that's a good looking car. What do you take this into a drag strip for? Look at Derek Lewis. McLaren. look at derrick lewis mclaren my wife is back there james the best he knows my wife is back there she'd be finding all kind of stuff she'd say oh you was here oh you was doing this i said no, no, I wasn't. She'd pull up the receipts. I'm like, damn. I said, no, that ain't me. That's Shaq.

They say me and Shaq look alike. Shaq's a ridiculously big person. Yeah. Every time I'm around Shaq, I can't believe we're the same thing. His hands are so big. Like, you shake his hand, like, my hand disappears inside of his hands. I'm like a point guard next to Shaq. It's so crazy. When you see a guy like Shaq

what's crazy is he couldn't fight in the UFC because he's too big that doesn't make any sense to me why do they have a weight limit for heavyweight I don't know it don't make any sense to me either I don't get it why do you have to reach 265 that seems so silly to me

because there's a super heavyweight but there's no division it's not real I guess they feel like it would be too fat and slow and everyone get tired real quick maybe i don't know well what does lebon james weigh he's got to weigh 290 what is he what he might be slimmed down i remember them saying 280 was the claim like 10 years ago yeah okay so let's let. Okay, let's think he's 20. It's 280.

Let's say he's 280. He's not getting tired. You could be a 280 super athlete. He's probably 265 solid right now, you know. Yeah. I just think it's weird that there's a limit on the heavyweight division. Yeah. It'd be good if they change it.

Yeah. So in a way, not in a a way but like for sure you're living the american dream yes and in a good way because like it wasn't good your life wasn't good in the beginning and now it's amazing yeah it's pretty amazing you know i can't complain about anything really you know even the bad days i really can't complain about it you know it's so crazy and now it's like i try to help a lot of my family members out but they still trying to find ways to burn me at the end your family members yeah i brought just about all of them cars like cash cars and less than a few months they sold all all of them. Like, each of my brother's sister, my mom, they all sold their cars for the cash.

Oh, no. Yeah. And they had some type of crazy excuse, but it's all good. Do you have a lot of people asking you for money now? Every day. I already know what's the setup going to be. As soon as someone texts me or calls me that I haven't talked to in a long time, I already know what kind of story they're about to talk about

before they ask for money. You got to do what I do. I change my number. I change my number. I change my number all the time. I change my number all the time. My wife thinks, oh, it's because I'm female or something like that. No, it's not really no females.

There's no females at all. It's just like family members or some other guy is trying to get an interview with me that someone gave my number to. Yeah, that becomes a problem too, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's the problem, right? More money, more problems. It's 100% true. It's real.

So true. And as you become more and more successful, it's going to be a bigger issue still. Like, if you become the champ, then it's going to be crazy. Oh, it's crazy now. I already know. I got men follow home, like, three times already. Really?

By fans? Yeah. Do they ever knock on your door? Usually twice it was by some like different it was couples and twice it was like the woman was driving and the guy was in the passenger side wanting a picture making his girlfriend follow me to my house jesus To take a picture. Yeah, it's weird shit being famous, isn't it? Oh, yeah, yeah. But for you, I mean, to come from being incarcerated,

not having hope, into being in this position now, and, I mean, I can only imagine. It's got to be completely surreal. I'm surreal. That's what I say. It's like I really don't need to get high on nothing or drink anything. But it's cool. It's a plus, you know, smoking a little weed here and there.

Yeah, to relax. Yeah. Take the edge off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But does it give you more motivation to keep pushing too? Because you realize that what has been possible. I mean, you've done an amazing thing with your life. Yeah, so it gives me a lot of motivations.

Like, because I know how easy it is to slip up and go back into those situations because it was nothing but a street fight. They ended bad for the guy I was going against and ended up having to serve almost five years for it. So it could still happen. I could walk out of here and get in a street fight with someone and probably be way worse situation. I think you got better lawyers now.

I think. But you're not a, you're an easygoing guy. Yeah, now I am, yes. Now you are. But you weren't back then when you were younger. Back then I was just... I think I had a lot of anger built up in me, which I

still do now, but back then it was a lot more. I believe it was just the way I was raised. You know, wasn't showed that much love in my household and just the family circle. You know, I believe that's what led to a lot of my troubles in the street.

That's a lot of young men. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do you feel like you have a second chance with your children to show them love because you didn't get that kind of love when you were younger? Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, my kids is, like are completely different than how I was raised. I'm so happy that they're making straight A's in school

and making the honor roll every year and already getting scholarships and stuff like that to go to big colleges. And so it's like my life is already unbelievable as it is and just seeing that it's like making me so proud that's beautiful yeah so proud that's amazing man that's what everybody wants right yes what everybody wants is like a happy life where it all comes together and i i think with a person like you you really appreciate it because it wasn't always like this oh yeah so i i tell people all the time I don't regret I don't you know wish nothing like that would happen I believe that I had to go through

that situation to be a better person than I am today so it's like raising being raised without a father figure and stuff like that I felt like to me everyone is different to, I felt like, to me, everyone is different. To me, I felt like I had to go through that situation to be a better father, be a better man here today. Because if not, then I for sure would have been going in and out of there. For a lot of guys growing up with a bad situation, like without a father figure, that's ultimately, ironically ironically what makes them great like having this thing that you're missing when you're young having these deficits in your life having like a lack of love and all that it gives you all this motivation and it makes you gives you all this

energy to do something with your life it's it's ironic because like everybody like i want nothing but good things for my family but all of my interesting friends had fucked up lives like all my favorite people all the people that i know with the most character their their childhood was chaos but i don't want my kids to go through that you know i want my kids to have a nice easy life oh yeah yeah it's ironic nowadays you really have to really talk to your kids now, even though they're doing everything good in school and they're quiet. But now it's like the suicide rate is so high, you never know what's really going on inside their head.

Even though they're not in the streets or doing anything bad, but they stay in the room all day long. My oldest daughter, she's 17, and she stays in the room all the time. And, like, me and her mom, we talk to her all the time. And sure enough that she had those thoughts, like suicide. Does she stay in the room because school's closed, or has she always been like that? She's always been like that, you know, just to herself.

And she just wants friends and stuff like that. We try to, like, tell her to go out and try to make friends and stuff like that. But with her, she want friends so bad that she willing to pay for their friendship, you know, like give them money and just buy them gifts and stuff like that. Try to tell her it's not the way to do it. And so she's in a real bad place right now. So we still trying to talk to her. That's terrible.

Have you thought about getting her involved in something where she can meet people that are doing things she does, like some kind of either a sport or an activity or. Yeah. Some type of art class. Because she's a real good artist. She liked the Japanese art. She could really draw really good.

Like anime? Yeah, anime, yeah. So we're trying to get her involved in something like that. So that's about the only issue with her. That sucks. Yeah, I think it's real hard for kids today with social media, too. Social media.

Social media. There's a book called The Coddling of the American Mind by this guy named Jonathan Haidt. And inside that book, he talks about how there's a spike related to suicides and self-harm, particularly among girls, that's directly related to the invention of social media. Because people are fucking assholes of social media because people are making they're fucking assholes on social media yeah yeah and a lot of girls are comparing their life to other girls lives and and the you know they're comparing their pictures to other girls pictures when these girls pictures are photoshopped and they're changing they're doing what they did

to your head and shrinking the heads and shrinking the bodies i mean that's what they do and you know people look at other people and they they feel like they they just feel like they're not as good it leads to a lot of bad things along with the bullying leads to a lot of bad things yeah and this is the thing i didn't know women do they go to stores and take pictures with purses and stuff like that, or jewelry. Then they go to the restroom and take pictures, make it seem like they brought all those things. Come to find out they didn't. And that's the thing that's trending right now in Houston.

They go to the Post Oak Hotel, and they got a lot of cool stuff over there, and they make it seem like they brought all this stuff. And they really didn't. Yeah, it's so weird showing people all your shit. Yeah. It's a weird thing that people are doing today. It's just social media has gotten everybody all fucked up. Doing things for likes.

Doing things for attention. And then just paying attention to those likes, looking at it all day, checking to see what you got, you know, I think you're doing it the right way. Just show dudes jumping off roofs and shit, getting pulled into trucks. At least it's real. How old are you now, Derek? 36. How long do you think you're going to be fighting for, if you had to guess? I would like to start fighting whenever I'm 40. That'd be great. But after 40, it'd just be embarrassing after that. It seems like the bigger fighters, they have a longer career, and you mature. That's always the thing with heavyweight boxing, too, except for Tyson, of course.

But you mature later in life, and, you know, I think maybe bigger guys, they get more coordinated as they get older. They get a better control of their body. But, like, look at Jan Bohovic. He's 38, you know, and he just won the title last year. And there's a lot of, like, top-flight heavyweights that are in your age range, you know? Like DC, he won the title at 40, I believe.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. It depends on my body. I'm feeling pretty good right now. My body's been feeling good ever since the surgery. So we'll just see. But you've had so much success

and you've had this success because of your body and because of your hard work and, and you've had this success because of your body and because of your hard work and the fights you've won. For a guy like you, it's like you've got to have that in your head. Like, man, this is what I'm using to make my life amazing. Yes. Like, how much more time has this thing got? The thing about with me, you watch my fights,

and it's like I really don't take that much damage. Been in real wars like JDS has been in or the other guys at the top has been in. Stipe been in a lot of wars and took a lot of damage.

I believe stuff like that will shorten your career quicker. 100%. How do you avoid taking damage? I guess just go to You know, I believe stuff like that will shorten your career quicker. A hundred percent. How do you avoid taking damage? I guess just go to Wayne's, look scary as possible. I don't know. So, I don't know. Well, being big helps.

And also, I think your endurance helps too. You know, I think a lot of guys, one of the things that happens, they start fading and then they start getting beaten up, you know. Yeah, that's the thing too. It's like in my fights, I'm fighting with myself. I'm not even really worrying about my opponent. I'm fighting with myself the whole time. How so? All right, don't do this. Don't do this.

Okay, you can throw this punch, but how do you feel after you threw this punch? Alright, you got a little tired right there. Okay, take a little time. Alright, you can throw right here. Okay, see how you feel. I'm trying not to get tired. I'm fighting myself. I'm trying not to get tired after every movement I do.

And so, okay, you're tired right now. So, okay, wait, wait. All right, wait until he clenches you. And then he clenches you, then we probably can finish him right here. Does that show you how important experience is? Because that's what you learn. Yes. Experience from day one was my first amateur fight, I guess, real bad.

I guess so bad I had to put my hands on my knees. And, like, even the guy was walking towards me he just was hitting me because i was just so tired i didn't wasn't even feeling punches anymore so i didn't want to be in that situation anymore so now but that seems like it's not just endurance right it's knowing when to put on the gas and when to slow down, knowing your body, right? Yes, experience come into play. I learned a lot being in the UFC fighting all these different type of fighters. It's like, okay, they could have way more skills than me,

and I feel like that if my endurance and conditioning is it's decent enough to um to finish the guy no matter what round or how many seconds left in the fight that I should be okay Jamie I'm gonna send you something is me reacting to him knocking out Volkov this is one of my favorite one of my favorite clips because that knockout was so crazy. We were in the middle. Here it is. I'm going to send it to you right now, Jamie. Here, I just airdropped it to you.

Wait a minute. Why is it not working? All right, is it going through? I've got two Jamie Vernons here. You have my computer. Okay. I'll try both of them. You got it?

Okay. So that fight, to me, was a perfect example of one of the reasons why people love you. It's because at any moment in the fight, you can end that shit. And that was a fight where you were behind on the judges' scorecards, and we were just saying saying it doesn't matter. Like, at any moment, Derek could knock him out. Like, that's the thing that's exciting about you. But the UFC, because we go so crazy, the UFC has decided to put these cameras on us.

Give me some volume on this. Look at everybody going crazy. We were going crazy. I had to get up. I had to stand up. I couldn't take it. That was so nuts. My coach, my manager, my manager at home, he fainted. Lou, Lou say he fainted

he couldn't take it either no more everyone was just so pumped about that and I heard that some police was called because my neighbors fans was just going crazy after the fight that was wild that was one of the best come from behind knockouts ever

it was wild too because we just got done saying, like, don't count him out. At any moment, he could knock him out. And then, boom, you catch him with a big punch, and then drop him, and then, boom, put him away. We went nuts. I like whenever my coach say, okay, we got a minute left, 30 seconds left.

Then I'm like, okay, try the game. So I have to let everything out um a lot of my fights i finished in the last few seconds of the fight so i like to wait the last minute or last two minutes left to really show what i got left in my tank so but that shows your hard work that you can keep that power in in like deep into the fight that means you did the work in the gym like you still have the the gas yeah yeah was that your most satisfying knockout that was yeah the crowd made it real exciting and satisfying because the way they reacted you know then seeing that one guy that played in um the one movie um

then seeing that one guy that played in the one movie, Groot? Brute? What movie is that? Guardians of the Galaxy? Oh, Chris Pratt? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's a big fan.

Seeing his reaction, it was like it made it all work well. Yeah, no, that was a big one. That was a big one. Yeah, I wish the fans was here for the Curtis fight. I'm pretty sure they would have went crazy for that one too. 100%. I screamed in my house. I screamed in my house. Every now and then in a fight, like when I'm watching fights at home,

I scream. And then my wife has to realize I'm watching fights because I'm by myself in the theater going, ah! Yeah, that was one that for sure would have got a giant reaction from the crowd. Yeah. Yeah. So what is like, do you have a favorite moment as a fighter? Or do you have so many knockouts?

Yeah. You have the most knockouts ever in the heavyweight division. Yeah, it's crazy. Because I wasn't even really going for that. My favorite one, it has to be Volkov. Volkov. Because I was telling my coaches in my camp before that fight, it's like I'm fighting a Russian guy.

It'd be cool if I could get one of those rocket-type fights and showing off a rocket-type fight. Like, so crazy. So crazy. And it ended just like a Rocky movie. Yeah, there it is. Boom. My goodness, that was crazy.

Then like a few minutes before that, I hit him, and he was saying that his mouthpiece was my mouthpiece. I said, nah, that's not my mouthpiece. I said, okay, I guess. Yeah, that was picture, that KO. Back up to the right hand again that drops him. That shit was picture perfect. Here it is.

Boom. I mean, timing, distance, everything. It was picture perfect. And the fact that you did this deep into the fight, look at this. Yeah. Does it feel surreal watching yourself? Oh, yeah, all the time. All the time.

When you watch yourself on television, like, what goes through your head when you see something like this? I'm like, man, I don't look that fat in person. I always look fat whenever I watch my highlight. When you see me in person, like, you lost some weight? No, I ain't losing no weight. That's the TV. The problem is the Fox Sports.

Fox Sports. ESPN, I think I look a little smaller now. Fox Sports cameras make me look fat. I think everybody thinks they look fat when they see themselves on television. I think I look fat when I walk by a mirror. I'm like, come on, really? There's all this shit. But, you know, if you do drop down to, you know, whatever you want to get to,

the 240 or maybe then you can see a little six-pack. Yeah, then, you know, I'll walk around. I walk around with no shirt. But now I don't like walking around with no shirt in front of my sons. My boys, they always call me fat. Because they got six- so then like i make it seem like they don't bother me but i'm gonna cry in the room how do they feel about their dad being one of the baddest motherfuckers they don't care they don't they don't care yeah the neighbors in

the backyard like that lives behind us said we know who your dad is your dad is famous and I heard my boys say say something back to them said that we know we don't care they say they don't care but they must care they have to they spoiled oh my wife spoils them I'll try not to try to give them lessons, make them earn everything that they get. Do they have any interest in fighting themselves? No. They wanted to fight and wanted to box and put them

in boxing class. Then now they're saying they don't want to get punched so they don't want to do that and play soccer. I said, okay, cool. Play soccer. I don't want them to fight either. I don't want them to play football. Yeah. Football may be worse, right? either. I don't want them to play football. Yeah. Football may be worse, right? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Concussions and stuff like that. Did you feel like that when you were playing football that it was more dangerous than fighting? Not at all. That's all I wanted to do was play football. Yeah? Yeah. So if you had your way to go back, you would have done that instead?

Yeah, I would have played football, yeah. That was my number one sport. You enjoy it more? Yeah. Especially being in this situation and playing football, it was a team sport, so I can really blame. Okay, it wasn't my fault. It was the defensive tackle fault or the linebacker fault. But now there's so much pressure on myself, like, okay,

if I lose this fight, it's really all on me. Yeah, but if I lose this fight, it's really all on me. Yeah, but if you win this fight, it's really all you. Yes, yes. Yeah. If somebody else scores a touchdown and you win, you're like, yeah. But if you knock a motherfucker out like you did Volkov, that's you. I mean, listen, man, you have more knockouts than any heavyweight in the history of the sport. It's giving me goosebumps just hearing that.

Isn't that crazy? Because I watch the highlights of Randy Couture, seeing his highlights and all, like Shane Carlin and stuff like that. The guys that was really knocking out everybody back then. It's like, for me, to pass them, it's like so crazy. Pass to everybody. Yeah. Is there any fighter from the past that you wish you were in the same era as them so you could have fought them?

I guess you would say Kimbo. Kimbo? Everybody, like before I even got into UFC, they was asking me, you think you'll fight Kimbo? I'm like, yeah, I will fight him. And just like everyone still asks me that. And they don't even know Kimbo passed away already. Yeah.

Like people that don't know anything about fighting really still ask me, do you think you'll fight Kimbo one day? I'm like, hope not. He was an interesting case, right? Because he became famous from the internet. One of the rare guys that became famous from street fights from the internet. I believe that's when YouTube came around, too. That's when it really got popular because everyone was trying to go watch fights.

That's all you could really do back then on YouTube was watch fights. Yeah, YouTube was in its infancy back then, right? Yeah. There wasn't much going on on YouTube. Everybody just watched YouTube because of fights. Yeah, YouTube was in its infancy back then, right? Yeah. There wasn't much going on on YouTube. Everybody just watched YouTube because of fights. I didn't really know anything else to do on YouTube but to watch street fights. I admire that Kimbo went from that with no real experience in grappling or kicking or anything and then took a chance and fought in the UFC. I mean, that took a lot of courage. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I was a big fan of his back then. I mean, he was famous when he got into the Ultimate Fighter and really didn't have a lot of experience in MMA. I mean, fought a little bit in Elite XC, but, you know, relatively small amount of experience in martial arts, really. Just really had good hands. Yeah, I believe his career is similar to almost mine. And so, you know, I started following him back then, too, as well, because I felt like the same way.

You know, people would treat me the same way as well. What do you think of this bare-knuckle boxing that's going on now? I couldn't do it. Yeah? I pray I'll never be in that situation where I have to be, like, going in there and fighting financially to be going against guys, like, bare-knuckle boxing and stuff like that. It just looks so painful. Yeah, you get cut up.

A lot of guys get cut up. Yeah, I'm already an ugly guy, so I can't really. I can't go in there like that. Did you see the cut that Chris Lieben got in his fight? Chris Lieben versus, what is his name, Dakota Johnson? Is that his name? He fought this guy, and he had this, like, an axe wound on his forehead. Like, people don't realize like how much yeah look at

this yeah seriously people don't realize like how much guys get cut open from just the the bones of the knuckles i used to wonder i used to think that oh yeah right jesus christ jason knight got fucked up too and artem loboov look at his face too the goat yeah both these guys their face is just destroyed yeah it's so crazy that they legalized that though

yeah but is it like because you can elbow a guy in the face you can elbow in that no but I mean

in MMA and elbows slice people open too but it just seems like you get sliced open more in this I just think it's crazy like you get sliced open more in this. I just think it's crazy that Paige Van Zant's in it. Yeah, that's crazy.

I paid a few million for that. Did she really? Wow. If they came around for a few million, would you think about doing it? Of course. That's the problem, right? How much are you getting paid for a big fight in the UFC? I don't know. You're not allowed to say it?

Yeah, because the way they set the payout right now, it's like... I get it. No need to discuss it. It's pretty good, though. Obviously. You got a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, and a McLaren. You live in a big house. You're doing great. Obviously. You got a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, and a McLaren. You live in a big house. You're doing great. But I guess

with Paige, she just wants to do it anyway and show everybody she's not just pretty. I thought she was just pretty. I watched the highlights of her last fight and she did pretty good. She's tough. She's tough. It's amazing that

she's willing. But I guess it makes sense if they're willing to pay her that amount of money. The money talks. But there's a lot of fighters that are leaving the UFC at the end of their career and then going over and transferring into bare-knuckle boxing. But you just, you know. I'm just hopefully that, you know, like Bellator, PFL, and all the other leagues that's out there are really paying this good like I'm hearing. Yeah, I hope that there's more competition like that.

That fighters can negotiate against other organizations. If it wasn't for them, then the negotiation would be harder for fighters. So it's good that they're around. Yeah, it is good that they're around. Yeah, it is good that they're around. It's good that they're willing to make big bids on fighters that they think are worthwhile. Guys like Mousasi, Ryan Bader, all these guys that are going over to Bellator.

You need competition. It was really strong when the UFC had pride against them and pride was gigantic pride was as big as the UFC at one point in time and it was a real legitimate competition and when the UFC bought pride for the longest time

there really wasn't much competition there was Strikeforce at the time and the UFC bought Strikeforce it's not good for the fighters it's not good for the fighters. It's not good for the business either. It's better for everybody. In competition. Yeah. Look at boxing. You've got all these different promotions. You've got Mayweather. You've got Bob Arum.

You've got Eddie Hearn. You've got all these different promoters. That one guy wearing the dresses. The guy that wears the dresses? Who wears the dresses? Who's that? Thelahoya. Oh. Golden boy. Yeah, that's right. dresses. Who wears dresses? Who's that? Thala Hoya. Oh. Golden Boy. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's right. Cocaine. That's what old Danon called them, cocaine. Yeah. The one guy that wears the dresses. I don't even think he was wearing dresses. He was wearing fishnets and high heels and shit. I think it was a dress too. Cocaine's a hell of a drug. It's a hell of a drug. Yeah. That's what I heard. Get you wearing fishnets.

Yeah. Woo. Yeah. Some Russian broad set him up. Took the pictures. She just wanted to push him. Put him out. Yeah.

She must have had some good good. She was hot. Yeah. Yeah. She got him to wear the stockings. I want you to do this for me, Oscar. Put on fishnets for me. Okay. Fishnets me let's do it what kind of conversation do you have before you put on those shoes and you pose with the boxing gloves I mean what

kind of crazy shit today it's actually both there is another picture oh the dress there's a girl let me see zoom in on her whoo look at him yeah I don't know yeah look at his eyes he's on another dimension right now wearing a tutu dancing dancing around her apartment. She's snapping Polaroids. What the fuck? Yeah. Yeah.

He's an interesting character. But I guess he still promotes fights. He doesn't promote Canelo anymore. Him and Canelo had a big falling out. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know anything about Canelo until he fought Mayweather. You know, I didn't.

But he's a good fighter. He's phenomenal. Do you follow boxing? A little. A little bit? Really like the heavyweights. Someone that's entertaining. I really don't keep track of them that much. What do you think about all the shit that's going on with Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury and

Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz? There's a lot of good fighters right now in the heavyweight division. It's an exciting time. Yeah. What's his name? The bronze bomber or whatever? Deontay Wilder. The Wilder, yeah.

It's crazy that he's not calling out Fury right now. He wants to fight someone else. He's trying to fight Andy Ruiz. Yeah, I think that's the latest. I would be calling out Fury again. You know, it's 1-1 already. So it's like, for him to go away from that, it's like, it don't look right.

It doesn't look right. No, there's a lot going on with that fight. I don't know if you know, but he came up with a bunch of crazy excuses. Yeah, I was hearing excuses every few months. The suit was too heavy. Someone of crazy excuses. Yeah, I was hearing excuses every few months. The suit was too heavy. Someone poisoned his water. Yes, water is poison.

He thinks Mark Breland had some sort of a deal to sabotage him. That's why he threw in the towel. And Trump lost the election. South Park episode was supposed to be canceled. Well, he thought that Tyson Fury had an egg weight in his glove. Egg weight. And he also thought that the glove was not attached correctly. He thought that he wasn't hitting him with the padded part of the glove,

that the glove was pushed further up on his hand so that his knuckles were hitting the wrist area. That's where his knuckles were. And it's crazy. There's all these videos detailing how Tyson Fury... Conspiracy. It's so stupid. Because they don't understand what Tyson does.

He does this kind of shit with his hands. And if you catch this, if you do it as a photo or in slow motion, it looks weird. But it's because he's showing you this and then dropping the right hand. And that's what he does. That's always what he's done. If you watch that, it's in all of his fights.

But he also can do this. Like, they're gloves. He's got gloves on. He's wearing the gloves right. He fucked you up. It's just a fight. And it sucks because I like Deontionte and i'm a big fan i think he's probably the most exciting one punch knockout artist in the history of the heavyweight division i mean he knocks guys out like he hits them on the forehead and they go

to sleep it's crazy he's got crazy power it's just sad when a guy is used to winning only winning and then loses one fight and doesn't say hey he was a better man back to drawing board i'm gonna figure out what i did wrong instead he's got crazy excuses like there's a weight in his glove and i was poisoned and the weight the vest was too heavy and so conor mcgregor he has a lot of excuses as well in the last fight yeah yeah well he had legitimate excuses like dustin poirier did fuck up his leg and he said he wasn't ready for that. And he also said he was training for Manny Pacquiao. But he also said, at least, that Dustin was the better man.

Yeah. He was the better man that night. And he wants immediately to do it again. Yeah. Which I respect. Yeah, this would be a good fight. I like Conor. I like watching the fight.

I like hearing him talk, see what he got to say. It's interesting how valuable personality is. Yeah. Right? Like, think about that guy. Obviously, he's had some spectacular fights, the Jose Aldo fight, Eddie Alvarez fight. I mean, he's done, he had some amazing knockouts. But it's also, a lot of it is personalities.

Personality is so valuable because people want to watch him fight. They just want to watch. Yeah, he's crazy though. He always has me laughing. I just feel sorry for those little guys though. Having to go to press conference and talk. He can't really say anything.

Yeah, he talks so much shit. He's so good at it. Him fighting Cowboy and he was talking shit to Cowboy before the fight, I'm like, I feel bad for Cowboy because he didn't really say anything to him. Conor be on his shit though.

Well, Conor's just too good at it. He's just much better at talking shit. The best example to me was the Jose Aldo fight. Because Jose Aldo had never... He wasn't used to it. Not at all. Everybody respected him.

Most of his opponents respected him. Because he was the greatest featherweight champion of all time at that point. And to have Conor just talk mad shit for months and months. And they went on a world tour. So they did press conference after press conference. And Conor's just talking mad shit. And then knocks him out with one punch. Yeah.

I guess Conor kind of seen it too. Tried to get under his skin. Guys from Brazil tried to get under his skin. He's not used to it. He just knew that he was going to try to come in and try to take his head out because he built up so much hate. It worked. His game plan worked. Yeah. So it worked.

His game playing worked. Yeah, but it backfired against Khabib. Oh, yeah, Khabib. Because when Khabib was on top of him, beating the fuck out of him, going, let's talk now. Bam. Let's talk now. Man, that's like, I would be so mad about that.

Yeah. For the fight of ever. He probably had to catch me in the parking lot. Yeah, Khabib's an interesting character, isn't he? He's good. He's the best

lightweight of all time for sure. 29-0. Maybe lost one or two rounds his whole career. Maybe. And, you know,

those rounds is not like he lost in a big way. He was just kind of coasting yeah to me to me i go into a fight not even worrying about trying to win the round i'm trying to win the fight so i'm not even trying to make it to the decision do you ever think about decisions do you ever think about scoring points no he's trying to knock people out yeah that's it maybe that's why you have the most knockouts ever. That's what I'm going for. I'm trying to just finish them.

I'm not trying to go to the decision. It's weird going to the decision. I'm always shocked. Every time I win the decision, I'm like, yeah. Bang on my chest. I'm like, it's always so weird, though. You know? That's funny.

I never have a good feeling in a decision. It's funny because most people, that's the majority of their wins. But we have opposites. Yeah, it's so weird. Have you always had that kind of power? Yes. What do you attribute that to? Is it from just...

Probably my father. My mom said my dad used to be like that in the streets and stuff like that, knocking everyone out. I believe that's where it's from. dad my mom said my dad used to be like that in the streets and stuff like that like knocking everyone out i believe that's what it's from and most of it maybe from my anger just built up just want to just rip somebody head off you know well power is a weird thing right it's like you either have it or you don't yeah you can get stronger you can hit a little harder but to have the kind of power like you do you you can't train that you'd have it yeah i mean some some of the boxers they seem like they have a lot of power but whenever you

see them start um not boxers basketball players they come to the gym like a couple of the rockets come to the gym like james harden came to the gym and you see them hitting pads it's like there's no power behind their punches you know they big guy see them hitting pads it's like there's no power behind their punches you know they're big guy big strong looking guys it's like they pity patting whenever they hit the um the mitts i mean they're trying to hit it as hard as they can and they just can't yeah it's a weird thing do you either have it or you don't you know um i don't know you know i don't think they've ever figured it out either i don't think's like, I know that like there's the size of your fists, the width of your shoulders, the size of your shoulders,

there's a lot of things along that. But it's also, you either have it or you don't. Yeah, that's what I believe, yeah. I don't think there's anything like it in any other, like, for like athletes in any other sport, you can get stronger, you can lift weights, You can get more powerful. But just in terms of striking power, I just think your body's either designed for it or not. It's very strange.

So I feel like I'm living in, like, a simulator. Simulation. Simulation. And it's like whoever picked me, it like okay you know they do speed do grappling or whatever and they put strength all the way up and they spent everything on strength and power and so it's just like my life just feel like a simulator i think you you have those things but i think it's also your mind like you you stay calm in there and you find ways to win and there's there's moments in fights where guys get overwhelmed by chaos but when i watch you fight you find ways to win

you're always you're always seeing through all the bullshit looking for a way to win yeah like i said i'm thinking i'm talking to myself the whole time i'm fighting i'm like okay we gotta we gotta slow down right here. We got to keep going. It's like they could hit me a thousand times, and I'm like, I'm still the same. Like, you can't really rock my spirit with them. Now, where does that come from? Have you ever worked with a mental coach?

No. I think it was I had got a hold of some bad weed in high school, so maybe so. No, I don't know where it come from. It's just. Just always been you? Yeah. Do you think it's just from getting through tough times in life? I believe so as well to going through some pretty bad situations

and coming out of them. It's like, hey, if I made it, you know, how some people like pray to God and say, man, Lord, if I ever get out of this situation right here, then I ain't going to never do that no more. So I believe in stuff like that. I think also when you go through those bad situations, being inside the octagon is not as bad. Oh, yeah.

You know, because it's like the fight's going to be over in three rounds and you'll you'll go on with your life but for you know i compare like i see my grandfather like battle with cancer and stuff like that and and i knew how tough he was and like to see him go through all that pain and stuff and suffering that that he did the last few months that he was here. It was like, man, if I could just go through just this, whatever I'm going through right now in life, if I could just go through this for 15 minutes, 25 minutes, then I should be all right. But my grandfather had to deal with that pain every day, all day, the suffering that he went through. And, you know, I knew how tough he was.

And for him to be calling out for me to help him do certain things, like to help him go to the restroom or get some water, even for him just to sit up, I just knew it was just real tough on him. Yeah. Well, seeing something like that puts it all in perspective, right? Yeah, for sure. Now, after the Curtis Blades knockout,

where does the UFC have you lined up? Are they telling you, hey, we want you to face the winner of this fight or we want you to face Jon Jones? I think what they're saying now is they want Jon to face the Jones. I think what they're saying now is they want John to face the winner of Francis versus Stipe.

Do you know where that leaves you? They didn't say anything really. Right now we're just trying to re-engrave the contract and see where it goes from there. For me, I want to stay active. I don't want to be waiting around to fight anyone, you know, because I'm not young like I used to. So I'm not really want

to wait around and fight for the title or wait around to fight on a certain opponent. So I'm willing to fight anyone who's ready. So do you think that it's better for you to stay active because you fight better when you're active, when you fight more often? No, I don't think that's the case. It's just that I know I have my window of time is closing. To make money. To make money, yeah.

So I don't have that much time left, so I just want to make money, not just sit around and wait. So who's left, though? Overeem's gone. Junior's gone. You knocked out Volkov. You knocked out Curtis. Who makes sense in that heavyweight division to you right now other than John, Stipe, and Francis?

Rosenstreich or what? Rosenstreich, yeah. Rosenstreich, yeah. Rosenstreich or, I guess, Gane? Mm-hmm. Gane or whatever his name? Who just beat ZeroGon, yeah. Who just beat Rosenstreich. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Whoever. Whoever I haven't fought yet in the top ten. But I'm glad they're not talking about that one guy anymore. I'm bad with names. I don't care who you are. I'm bad with names. I don't care who you are. I'm terrible with names. Which guy?

The guy that beat his wife. What's his name? Travis Brown? The black guy. Who's that? Greg Hardy. Oh, Greg Hardy. That's right.

I'm glad they not ask me to fight him anymore. Did they really ask you to fight him? Yeah. But he was just starting. Yeah, Greg Hardy. That's right. I'm glad they not asked me to fight him anymore. Did they really ask you to fight him? Yeah. But he was just starting. Yeah, I know. They've been trying to get us to fight for a few years now. And is he released from the UFC? Did they release him after his fight?

Oh, I don't know. Because he got stopped by Marcin Tibura, right? Yeah. That's who it was. Yeah. Yeah. That's a CBD drink. It's good for you. No THC. yeah that's who it was yeah yeah um that's a CBD drink

it's good for you no THC oh okay that's got my face on it too look at that that's me how'd it feel how'd it feel to have your face

on certain products uh weird not as weird as people tattooing my face on them that's the weirdest shit yeah especially when there's a dude. Yeah, there's a lot of dudes.

I know of one lady who got my face tattooed on her. She's very pretty. Where'd she put it at? Right next to her pussy. How'd your wife feel about that? She doesn't know until now. Okay, alright. Look, I didn't ask the lady What kind of facial expression

She put on there though? Um Just a regular Regular picture Just a regular picture Of my face Yeah, I didn't ask her to I don't know her

You know Yeah, you gotta say that now I don't know her I don't know her I just She's just a lady Who put my Face on her leg

It's all good That'd be cool If a woman do that to me i'm sure they have you probably just don't know about it there's probably one listening right now going now i know my next tattoo yeah yeah yeah that's a new one yeah that's me with the ufo and some asteroids it's amazing how good tattoo artists are now like that looks like a fucking photograph it's wild like they got the pores on my face and the gray in my beard and everything it's nuts stone out of your mind stoned out of my mind yeah there's been a lot of those yeah um how did i how did we get to that

oh the cbd drink so we're talking about um the greg hardy fight yeah that was that doesn't make sense to me that they were trying to do that. Unless they're trying to set Greg Hardy up with someone who's got a lot more experience than him. No, it was really the... He fought Volkov, you know? Yeah. Greg Hardy fought Volkov, and he fought well. He fought Volkov after I fought Volkov.

Yeah. He fought well. I thought I was impressed. Like, when you think of how little experience that guy has in MMA, that he went three hard rounds with Volkov. Yeah. He fought well. I thought I was impressed. Like when you think of how little experience that guy has in MMA, that he went three hard rounds with Volkov. I thought that was impressive. Yeah. Other than that, he seemed like an okay guy.

Yeah, I don't know him. I don't know him. Seems like an okay guy. So there's no one that stands out as a potential opponent for you in the heavyweight division? No. So whoever want to fight, just let's go. Holler at your boy.

Yeah. So you just sit around, just wait for the phone call, right? That's it. So we would like to do some grappling tournaments with Chael Sonnen. Oh, yeah? Oh, you're going to do Submission Underground? Yeah, we were supposed to do it in December, but the UFC said no because they might have me fighting again in December. And this was before I was supposed to fight Curtis the first time.

And I'm like, if my fight is going to be in November, I'm already fighting Curtis. Why? I can't do a match right there in December. Usually it don't, no matter how fast of a knockout, I would land. We kind of knew something was up with Curtis. We kind of figured

that maybe he's sick or it's something the UFC is hiding. So, sure enough, the day before the fight, he got tested positive for COVID. Oh, okay. That makes makes sense you never got covid not that i know of i don't know i you know if i'm sneezing or coughing or

my feet itching i'm thinking it's covid so don't know. They coming out with new symptoms every week. So you never know what you got now. So when you have a big knockout like the Curtis Blades knockout, does the UFC, do they talk to you afterwards? Do they say that was impressive? This is what we want to do with you? What do they say? I got a FaceTime from Dana afterwards.

You know, he talked pretty good. You know, I'm just leaving it at that. He talked pretty good? Yeah, he talked pretty good of me, you know, during the FaceTime. And he said some other stuff, too, but I'm going to leave it at that. Okay, I understand. You don't divulge any information? Not yet.

They have to be happy with that. Oh, yeah, it was cool. One of the most spectacular – I think there's two super impressive one-punch knockouts in the heavyweight division. There's Francis knocking out Alistair and you knocking out Curtis. I think those are the top two of all time. I can't imagine a better knockout than that uppercut. The noise that he was making afterwards. I don't know if you heard the noise.

I heard it, yeah. That reminded me of a fight i had in you know in high school it was at cc's a guy was talking trash kept bumping me it was the rival rival um school we just finished playing a scrimmage football game against and we was all sitting at the table eating pizza and their school came in and the guy just kept elbowing me in the back of my head, like bumping me every time he walked by. I thought he was messing with me at first, like playing around, because I knew him since elementary.

But he was serious, and he was like, what's up? And he stood in the middle of the floor, just cussing me out and stuff like that. And as soon as somebody cussed me out like that, I'm like, I already think it's something hostile. And so I said, okay, what's up? And just walked to him and just laid him out right there. And he just started catching a seizure and making the same noise Curtis was making. And I was like, damn, maybe he about to die or something.

And so what we learned, that if they turned their wrists inwards, that means they about to die, that their body is shutting down. But if they turn it like the way Curtis was, then you're good. Really? Mm-hmm. So... There's a certain way, like whenever a guy gets stiff, if the wrists turn outwards, that means the body is shutting down. And if the wrists, if they keep their arms like this, that means they're going to be okay.

Really? Mm-hmm. You sure that's not more of a he okay shit? Well, I told y'all he's okay. He had his thumb up and all that. That was so fucked up. That was so fucked up when you made that post. He's okay.

He's got the thumbs up as he's going down. And his wrist was good. Yeah, look into that. I've never heard anything like that. I'm looking. Yeah, Jamie will find it. So, I don't wonder why that is. That means the body is shutting down.

You can't survive from it, really. The other way is to survive them over your body. So from that street fight, that's when you learned that? No, I just learned that a few hours ago from a coach. Yeah, it's uncomfortable watching someone out cold snoring. But whenever a guy talking trash, you know, it could happen to me. It was just no other better feeling. I'm glad it happened.

I'm glad he's okay, though. You seem so calm afterwards, though. Yeah, but in my head, I'm like, damn, that was cool. I'm serious. But you just stay calm. Yeah. Man, that was cool. I'm serious. That's what I was thinking. But you just stayed calm. Yeah. As crazy as things are now, you had one shot at the heavyweight title.

You lost to DC. What was that fight like? To me, I felt like I was in the best shape of my career. Even though I came in with the knee problems, but it didn't really bother me until he started taking me down. And I started hobbling on my knee. Then I had the problem, but other than that, I felt the shape, my conditioning, everything

was on point, and I really felt like I was going to win that fight. DC's a hell of a wrestler. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you look at that guy's career. I mean, you look at that guy's career. I mean, pretty fucking amazing. The only guys he's lost to is Stipe and Jon Jones. You know, won the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, and he's an undersized heavyweight.

Won the heavyweight title, defended it, knocked out Stipe, who's, on paper, the greatest of all time. I mean, you look at Stipe's accomplishments. Now, going from that, what did you get out of that? Like, what did you learn that you would apply if you fought for the title again? That I had to get surgery. And we was already in talking to the UFC trying to get surgery done before I took the JDS fight.

And so they had me go into the doctors and stuff like that. They really get x-rays and MRIs and stuff done on my knee before the JDS fight. And they knew that everything was messed up. But we also wanted to still get that taste out of our mouth from losing to DC. And it ended up still backfiring fighting JDS. So I ended up doing a surgery after the JDS fight. So after that then you feel like you're a different person? Yes after that then I felt like I could really do more in the octagon and like move around and and just have my conditioning way better like going going three rounds, it was just a completely different fighter then.

So how would you feel now if the UFC says you're going to get a shot at the title? How much time do you think you need to prepare for that? How much time do I need to prepare for a title fight? Maybe six months. Six months? Really? No, no, no. But it just would be 25 minutes.

It all depends on who the opponent is. If the opponent is going to be a wrestler, I feel like I'm going to have to get my conditioning pretty good, at least eight weeks. If I'm fighting Francis, I believe like four or five weeks. Four or five weeks for Francis. Yes. Is that a fight that you'd want to do again because of the first fight?

Yes, for sure. Got to get that. Got to do that again. If you had that choice? Yes. If you had your choice, that would be the fight that you would get next? Yeah. Maybe.

I mean, who knows what's going to happen with him and Stipe. It's got to be a weird situation for you because Jon Jones is waiting in the wings for a shot at the title and then there's a title fight in two weeks so at the minimum you're waiting a few months

yeah that's the only thing about it I don't want to wait yeah so it's like Rosenstreich Cyril gone those are the two guys

and I guess it's got to be Cyril gone because Rosenstreich lost he lost the last fight. Yeah. It all depends. I don't know how the UFC want to build up the Stereo Gone guy

or if they want to throw him in there in the mix right away. So we'll see. Did you watch that fight? No. Rosenstreich and Stereo Gone? Mm-hmm. It was not the most eventful fight. It was –

Yeah, I started getting tagged in the fights only because they were saying that it still wasn't worse than Francis and Lewis fight. I'm like, damn, okay, shit. Yeah, it was... But it was five rounds, right? That was a five-rounder. Oh, that's bad.

Yeah, it wasn't the most eventful fight but Cyril gone fought he's fought smart just moved around a lot stayed on the outside you know clinch some and just avoided big shots he's a big dude though Cyril gone yeah big big powerful heavyweight it's interesting to see at least some new talent in the division whether it's frozen strike or Cyril Ghosn you know out of all the divisions the heavyweight division

it's hard to get big powerful guys natural heavyweight yeah yeah well I guess the couple of heavyweights that was on my card the last fight

they look pretty decent. Who's that? I don't know their names. I'm terrible with names. They won. One of the guys fought Orlowski. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. You know his name?

Yes, yes, yes. The English fella. He's very good. Yeah. He needs more experience. But Jesus Christ, why can't i remember his name don't help him out james the guy who just fought andre alofsky tom aspino is that how you say his last name i haven't he's very good very fast and that's his name andre Andre Olowski's last opponent what's that

it's not coming up usually when you type in their name it comes like I think it's I think it's pronounced Aspinall he's an English gentleman yeah

he's very good very fast he's got a lot of potential but you know he's a young guy and I think he's like 24 or 25 or something like that,

and he's, you know, on his way up. I don't think they'd have him fight you right away like that. No, no. I'm just saying, the future of the heavyweight division is pretty good. Yeah. Do you see yourself being a champ one day? Or is it too crazy to think about? That's what I say.

It's crazy to even think about. It'd be cool if I can, you know, but, you know, I wouldn't be bummed that I couldn't, you know, achieve that goal. But if you could achieve that goal. If I could, it'd be cool, yeah. Really couldn't tell me anything by then. Even my kids, I wouldn't care if they teased me walking around the house with no shirt on.

Just walk around, that belt will cover your me walking around the house with no shirt on. Just walk around. That belt will cover your belly. Just put that big ass belt on. Yeah. Yeah, it's, I mean, you have a really interesting opportunity in this life. You're at a rare position. Very few human beings ever get to where you're at. Yeah, go through what I went through to get to where I'm at.

Yeah, I know. It's crazy to think about. you're at yeah go through what i went through to get to where i'm at yeah i know it's crazy to think about so crazy yeah no i can only imagine and it's uh it's fun to watch you man you're one of my favorite guys to watch because anything can happen at any moment yeah any given moment like the curtis blades fight or the Volkov fight or a lot of your fights. At any moment, you could drop a hammer on somebody and it's over. Yeah. The next fight, whoever it's going to be, I believe I'm going to be in great shape for the fight. So it's going to be, it all depends on the type of shape I'm in with each fight. And I believe I want to be in better shape than I ever been.

with each fight and I believe I want to be in better shape than I ever been and so when we going in into a fight like thinking like they'll come in great shape I could go ahead and go for the finish in the first few minutes so you're looking at your career right now it's like this is kind of the home stretch you know the last five six years or so whatever you got left for sure yeah so you want to go out with a bang i would have banged yeah do you have any idea what you want to do after you're done fighting um a lot of people say i should do acting uh comedy and stuff like that i don't think so um i really just want to just sit back and collect checks and real estate and stuff like that. Something more easier. Yeah, but you're a funny dude.

Nah, nah, I'm alright. You don't think so? Nah, nah. You don't think so at all? Nah, nah, nah. Whenever I'm drunk, yeah, I'm hilarious when I'm drunk. Just stay drunk.

Nah. Nah. So, real estate investment. Yes. That's a good move. That's what we're doing now. That's a good move. We got a few houses.

Well, especially Texas. Texas is hot right now. Yeah. It's a good place to buy houses. Yeah, real cheap. Except for Austin. Austin probably is the... Crazy.

Yeah. It's crazy here. Yeah. All the tech people are moving here. They're fucking everything up. And then me. I fucked it up too. Moving here.

I'm bringing in all the comedians. Yeah. But, uh, seeing the prices around, so I won't, we wanted to do something around the lake, like,

like Austin or whatever. But we've seen the prices of it. It's like, damn, not even an acre. It's over a million dollars. I'm like, nah,

that's all right. Yeah. It's, it's pretty ridiculous here, but it's, it's over a million dollars. I'm like, nah, that's all right. Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous here. But it's because it's a great place to live. Not downtown, though. Not all the homeless people. Yeah, they got to clean that up. I don't know what to do about that, though.

It's like the episode of South Park. Got any change? Change? Everywhere you go, in the grocery store, they ask for change. I'm like, damn. This is nothing compared to L.A. If you go to L.A. right now, it's like a zombie movie it's nuts like there's people have camped out everywhere all throughout la you see tents on the streets it's very strange it's sad because it's like so

many people that are out of houses that just this is their only option they don't know what to do covid and the the pandemic and the lockdowns just killed so many businesses and it's fucked i mean i don't know how to fix it but it's it's not a good sign when a society is that that fucked up that you've got people camping on their sidewalks i don't want to be in charge of like having to handle something like that. It's like, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a tough job. Do you think you could run for office?

If they pay me good, I would. Would you? Yeah, I'd be like a Kanye West. Mayor of Houston? Yeah, I'd be like,

okay, take some donations. We need some sponsorships. Go ahead and take everybody's money. They'd be like, oh, I don't think we have a shot.

So when you think about the future, you just think about investments and things along those lines. You have to. You have to. Because, you know, a lot of people have been doubting me still. Like, a lot of family members really doubting me. Still? Yeah. How can they doubt you still when you have the number one most heavyweight knockouts ever?

No, they not even worrying about, like, the fighting side of things. They talking about the fighting side of things. They talking about the financial side of stuff. Listen, if you can do what you've already done, you can do anything. Yeah. You just have to

dedicate yourself to it. A hundred percent. For sure, yeah. So, my motivation, you know, that's all it is. They motivate me. Does it motivate you

to show people that they're wrong? Oh, yeah, for sure. Especially, you know, I can't really say it, but, yeah, my close family, my own blood. You know, I don't want to be picking them up because, you know, family reunion coming up. Talk of the family reunion. But, yeah. It's hard when there's people that you have to be close to, but yet you know.

It hurts, yeah. Yeah, it's a bummer. You know they're jealous and bitter. But that's always going to be the case if someone's successful, especially someone's like you that's so much more successful than the average person. And I try helping them out. They burnt their own bridge and expect for me to send a yacht to help them out. Can't do it no more well listen though if you looked at it you gotta you know it's worth it all of it's worth it you know all the bullshit all the

dealing with the families just to be derrick lewis in 2021 come on yeah yeah if not i would have been here in austin asking everybody if you want everybody if they had some change and stuff like that. Yeah. No, you've got a great life, man. You've done amazing shit, and you've got an amazing future, too. And I'm a fan. I appreciate it. I'm happy to have you in here, man.

Cool. Alyssa, my strength and conditioning coach, and she's a huge fan of you. Shout out to Alyssa. strength and conditioning coach and she's a huge fan of you shout out to Alyssa that's the lady in the videos the countdown videos that works you out yeah yeah okay I've seen her she's a huge fan so she'll appreciate that oh my pleasure

she looks good too she looks like she's a really good coach oh yeah she's real good it's shocking because she's a woman yeah no offense to all the women out there. I know the council coach is real strong right now, but she's real good. How did you find her? She's – my coach used to train her in jiu-jitsu, and so he told me about, like, going over there, and she's close to my house.

Were you hesitant at first, like, a woman? Yeah, a woman, Yeah, a woman. Yeah, but... I think it fits you, though. She's a different type of woman, so I was like, okay, cool, I'll give her a shot then. It fits you, though.

Mm-hmm. Like, when watching it, I'm like, it's kind of appropriate to see a big, bad motherfucker like you with a woman telling him what to do.

Beauty and the Beast. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. Well, listen, Derek, good luck with everything you do. I appreciate you, and I'm a big fan. yes exactly exactly well listen Derek good luck with everything you do appreciate you

and I'm a big fan and thanks for coming in here man thanks for having me and thanks for not letting me eat bull balls on the show

thank you brother thanks very much thank you bye everybody Thank you.