The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #106 with Leon Edwards

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

Joe is joined by mixed martial artist Leon Edwards, who is currently competing in the UFC's Welterweight division.

Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! The Joe Rogan Experience Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day! Leon, what's up? I'm good, how are you? Dude, first of all, fun hanging with you last night, it was a good time It was the first time seeing you live, I was saying to my manager You're so effortless, it's like talking, right? But

it's still funny, it's like, if you can approach fighting like that, like make it effortless, then you're doing a good job. Well, I think some guys can at certain stages, right? Like there's moments in fights where don't you feel like you're in a zone sometimes and it just, everything's flowing. Saturday night. Saturday night, yeah. like you're in a zone sometimes and it just everything's flowing saturday night saturday night yeah i felt good all backstage because um leading up to the fight everyone's like ring rust ring rust so i was kind of waiting for some feeling to say where's ring rust right but i

felt great backstage and i preferred fighting with with no crowd did you really yeah can you get you get to the to the apex and it's like you get there you wrap your hands you warm up you fight there's no hanging around for five hours backstage and just it's like a gym right you just you get there you warmed and just go compete so i i preferred it for sure do you prefer it because of the there's no noise no distractions no nothing and you can hear your coaches clearly oh yeah instructions clearly and i'm a very good listener to my coaches so i wouldn't say i prefer it but it was it was good i enjoyed it you have been in a very interesting position over the last few years where you are

one of the top ufc welter welterweights but just because of bad fortune just things just haven't totally lined up correctly fights have fallen apart injuries and sicknesses and a bunch of shit went down and you're until saturday night you you had been kind of ignored by a lot of fans like a lot of people don't understand what level you're at they don don't understand. I think they saw it for the brief moment that you fought Saturday night, but then unfortunately there's the injury. You know, Bilal has the accidental eye poke, and it's another unfortunate situation. But at least during that first round, they got to see your skill level.

Yeah, for sure. I was just getting warmed up as well i got over the last year and a half i've learned so much that i wanted to show and to have that that incident happen like it's one in a million right you when you're preparing in camp you're like i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do that and then when that happened i was like i thought i thought okay take five. Let it play out a little bit. Then hopefully we can fight again. But he's just, he's always that bad.

His eye was so fucked. And was it, it was not quite, it wasn't a poke. No, it wasn't a poke. It was like a knuckle. If you see the picture, it's like,

you're kicking, right? So when you're kicking, you don't hold your fist and kick like this, right? You kind of use it to, momentum to swing your arm back. And as I was doing it, it kind of just like grazed his eyes. Well, not grazed. It kind of went deep.

But it grazed his eyes a bit. But was it like the front knuckles? It looked like it from the pictures. I couldn't tell. I didn't feel it. I thought it was the kick that got him in his body and then he fell down at the start. You know? Then when he started grabbing his eyes, I was like, oh, shit. I caught him in his body and then fell down at the start you know they wouldn't start grabbing his eyes i was like oh i got i got i caught him in his eye you know right i

thought it was just literally the kid that caught him because i did this and then i think dana put a photo on his instagram jamie i think it was a knuckle you weren't you weren't doing this for sure it's uh so unfortunate man but i mean for you what i was getting at was that it has to be so frustrating here you are another ad blocker here here you are you have this long layoff yeah and fights keep getting canceled and then you finally get a fight you're performing really well and then this happens it's like the bad luck right the last the last year or so just one after another after the woodley fight i meant to fight woodley in um in london in march and um how'd that cancel the week before on the sunday before the fight and then from there just bad luck bad luck bad

luck trickling down so so yeah it's like yeah it's like the bottom of your finger yeah so it's not like it's straightforward it's like it's just getting in there that's like yeah it's like the bottom of your finger yeah so it's not like it's straightforward it's like it's just getting in there that's terrible and it wasn't the eyeball right it's like the under the eyelid yeah you know because i saw i saw bill out um sunday in a casino in vegas and his eyes was fine just the it's the lid um that was bruised but yeah he said the the vision started returning the next day and now he said there's no permanent damage so heised. Yeah, he said the vision started returning the next day, and now he said there's no permanent damage, so he's going to be okay. He had his lid stitched up.

Yeah, I wish him well. So good. Yeah, he's a great guy. And it was a great opponent for you too because he's so relentless. He's constantly moving forward. He's a tough guy. He's durable. Yeah, he's very durable.

I caught him with a head kick in the first round and I kind of rushed my work a little bit. I kind of went wild and started swinging for him but I should have picked my shots a little bit better

but he's tough, he's durable but he doesn't beat me in a given day. You know, I believe if we fight 10 times I'll beat him 10 times

and that's just it. He was a late stepping for for Hamza that fell out and I think he should go back, work his way back up and then hopefully we can meet somewhere down the line. But for now I'm looking towards the title shot. I'm looking towards being a world champion. Do you think that the title shot is warranted just because your previous work

and just because of the great first round that you had? But I mean, do you feel like there's any unfinished business because of the way that fight ended? With Bilal? Yeah with Bilal I don't believe so I think from the first round normally I'm a slow starter right so if that's my if that's my

first round you're not making it to the fifth you know so I think everyone saw where the fight was going and it wouldn't have made it to number five so i understand your confidence i really do and this is not to demean that at all but you gotta you gotta give the guy an opportunity right like you know i'm saying like if here's my point if the fight went the first round if the eye poke didn't happen the referee just stopped the fighter but like what are you doing well you know where this fight's going well you

don't know where a fight's going because fights are crazy like weird shit happens people slip guy gets them in a choke like weird stuff happens you know people get injured you know someone throws a calf kick all of a sudden your leg goes numb you get hit with a punch weird shit happens you fights are crazy you know that's crazy but um you know what i'm saying though i know i know what you're saying but i would have i would have won that fight clearly joe normally normally i'm a slow start in the first round right i know like so i would have felt great saturday night and even though i felt good but i was not beating me i completely appreciate your confidence but as a fan of you you and as a fan of Bilal,

I don't think it would be a bad thing to run back. Not straight away. I'm looking to, that's my ninth fight, right, in a row. I won an eight-fight win streak for Bilal. I would have won the fight. That would be my ninth fight without loss from getting beat by Us usman five six years ago so i feel i've done enough work now to prove that uh i belong at least in no more contender

fight or title fight you know so i can totally appreciate your position but i can also appreciate balal's i know where it's coming from obviously if i was him i'd probably do the same thing right he's right number one 13 14 and yeah this big opportunity's first main event um number three guy in the world so i know where he's approaching it from but i am looking looking for my own career right i want to look towards the title shot i understand hopefully we'll get it yeah you've had all these weird situations where things fell apart it's uh it's very unfortunate and uh did you feel like the hamzat fight was strange too because like here's this guy who's only had a few fights in the ufc he's got a lot of hype behind him because he's had like the meerschaum fight was a great result he looked fantastic but then all of a sudden he's fighting you yeah like it was weird right because

we were two weeks before that daniel white came out and he's like uh no i'm never gonna fight leon or no one in top five but then next week he's like leon you wanna fight him i was like you just said oh you i'm too high ranked for him but um where do you think that came from i don't know i think everyone was turning him down you know and um no one everyone's turning me down as well so just like okay you want to fight him i was like okay what about kobe is that kobe said no what about mas was like, okay, what about Kobe? Kobe said no. What about Masato? Masato said no. What about Wonderboy? Wonderboy is injured. So I was like,

okay, you've got the most hype in the division now that I could like piggyback off to get to a world title shot, right? And this was a kid,

they know what building up is this kid that can't be beaten is tough. So I was like, okay, I'll go out there, I'll fight him.

And when I beat him, I'll fight for the world title and that was my plan, right? To use this hype they're building around him to get me to a world title shot. I'm always looking towards the title shot, right?

So any way I can get there easier, I was going to use Hamzat to get there. Isn't it weird how hype comes along sometimes? Like some guys just get, they just get washed up in hype and they're just flying down the river like what's going on i know i've been in promotion for so long

i like an eight second knockout and everything i did i did exactly what he did but like you said right just random just comes from nowhere and well it's like sometimes it's justified like remember when uh joaquin buckley uh when he landed on, how do you say his, how the fuck? He's got the gentleman he kicked with that wild kick. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you say his last name? That was a good kick. It's a crazy kick.

That was a good kick. Holding on one leg and he does a jump spinning back kick to the face with the other leg. I was practicing it in the gyms the next day. It's a wild technique. Kasana Ghanai. Kasana Ghanai, right? That's how you say it, right? That's hype that's deserved.

But, you know, every now and then, I mean, that makes sense. Like, then people were paying attention to him. You know, but every now and then, like, a guy will get so much hype, and then it becomes like a thing of its own like people start paying attention to it more than anything and it's it's weird like personality and hype it's so important for selling fights yeah 100 so important it's been on that since back a day right since boxing it's like we can put the bums in the seat yep that's everything that's everything right so it's not really about skill set a bit about skill set but it's more about you can put the bums in the seat yep that's everything that's everything right so it's not really about skill set a bit about skill set but it's more about you can put the most bums in the seat and

it's about everything right like remember when prince nasim hamed would come out on a throne yeah there's certain things that have to sell are you do you ever think about that like man maybe i should talk more shit or maybe i should be more flamboyant like how do i get more hype or should i just keep winning yeah i should just keep winning keep doing your thing right because yeah if i come out tomorrow now start dressing like everyone's wearing like robes and shit now start wearing a robe and paint my hair pink and people are like how are you doing you know so um desperate yeah exactly the weird stuff be yourself. Keep winning. That's important. And you can't deny winners, right?

I believe if you work hard and you win, they can't deny you. So I'll win it my way, and I'll feel more, I'll enjoy it better when I win it my way. What has it been like going through this lull where you couldn't get a fight? A lot of ups and downs, obviously.

You got, that was my fourth camp before Fort Belal, cutting the woodland camp. So it was a lot of ups and downs, but I used that time off to grow. I kind of changed my mentality. Instead of sitting around and bitching and complaining about no one would want to fight me,

use it as a blessing. Use it to improve your skill set use it to improve your mindset and that's that's what i did in the last year year and a half you know i use it to approach the game different if you control if i can control what i can control which is all i have to do is turn up to training that's it right i can't control masadal or kobe not fighting me but i can control training and that's that's what i did i control what i could control and turn up to the gym, working hard, dedicating myself, staying disciplined.

Because I know one day I'm going to fight, right? So instead of sitting around and complaining and not growing, not learning, maybe I'll use it into my favor. It's a blessing. And I have grown leaps and bleeps since my last fight in the full RDA. And it was, I feel good. I feel good. Now, when you say improve your mindset,

what do you mean by that? Just the way I look at the game, you know? As before, I was kind of fighting to win, not to hurt them, you know? I'm fighting now to hurt them. I want to be a world champion. I don't feel like winning is enough now, you know, because I'm on an eight-five win streak.

That's the third most in the division history. GSP won, I think, or no, Kumaro has won, I think, GSP and me. So now I'm fighting to hurt them and to cement my name in the division. And that's my mindset now. I'm not fighting to win no more. I've won enough.

I know I can beat them. The more I win, the more confidence I get and the more I compete against these guys, the more I know I can be world champion. Coming from the UK, everyone tells you that if you're from the UK you can't wrestle, you can't do this, you can't do that. I'm proving it fight by fight and I'm going to achieve being a world champion coming from the uk and he's going to mean so much for the kids coming under me that's my motivation to to be a world champion so this was like a conscious decision do you remember making it you remember deciding like i'm going to stop trying to just win fights i'm going to decide to hurt people yeah yeah i thought it wasn't a day but i was remember my mind just over the last year or so year and a half my mind just changing that you know you you got everything

to be able to to to do this why why you i don't know what it was it's kind of just fine just to it's like i don't know if you're kind of fine just to like win right i think the money as well like in usc is like if you leave you get half you pay but now like saturday night it was like a flat fee right so it's win lose or draw i gotta get i get the same money so and i still went out there and perform the best of my abilities so this is probably changing that as well but um yeah i think the mindset changed over time like just one one day it's like over the last year or so my mind frame changed do you ever work with a mental coach or anything like that never no i don't believe it i don't know don't believe in

it because i got i got teammates that do it you know and work with um coaches but my life experiences helped me um in in the position i'm in what what specific life experience um just coming from where i came from, you know. A lot of ups and downs. I came from some... Ups and downs is like the norm to me, right? I look forward to facing that adversity. So when I do face it, I know I can get through it. So that's what it is, really.

I look forward to adversities. I've been here before. I've been doing this since I was a kid, you know. So I look forward to adversities so i know i've been here before i've been doing this as a kid you know so um it's uh i i look forward to it when did you get started martial arts how old were you 17 17. yeah yeah like straight into into um mma i didn't start oh really yeah i didn't do nothing before i was like hanging around on the street with your friends and into martial arts that's interesting because when you watch you kick you would swear that you had like a traditional martial arts background. Yeah, everyone said that.

Everyone said that was my jam. But I did nothing at all before. I went straight from hanging around the street with my friends to one day a gym was getting built in my area. My mom said try it out. I tried it out and I was stuck to it. Wow. And I fell in love with it.

I fell in love with the striking first, even though I was doing all of it. But the striking just caught my attention attention and then the grappling came later. It's so interesting now that you're seeing like a whole crop of kids that are evolving that came straight into MMA. Nothing else. Yeah, I can imagine another 20 years. My son now is doing martial arts. He's just kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. So I can't imagine their generation,

what they're gonna be like, right? Cause every fight, every year there's a new technique that's coming out, like that calf kick. That's a new technique that's last, what, couple years? They've been using it? Four or five years. Yeah, exactly. So I'm looking forward to see how far MMA goes

and what's the next thing that's gonna come. Did the calf kick like did that surprise you like the popularity of it? Yeah. How quickly it became like such an important technique because you land a few of them just three or four of them and then the guy's fucked. I first had it when

I went to AKA and Luke Rockhold did it to me. This was like five years ago and he kicked my calf when I was sparring but I he kicked my calf when I was sparring. But I didn't feel it when I was sparring. After the sparring, my legs was dead for like a week, you know. So I thought, that's a good kick. But I got like skinny shins.

I'm like scared to like break my legs. So I never try it. But it's a good technique. Right when you see like the Anderson Silva break. Yeah, yeah. I got some bony legs, bro. So I'm not a woman kicking the calf. I'm like body kicks.

I kick the thighs and the body and the head. But the calf, I think it's like a technique too as well, right? You got to kick like the meaty part of the shin. So it's a good technique to use. It's just so strange when you see like the Dustin Poirier fight, the first fight with Conor, and then the second fight with Conor, how different it was not kicking the thigh, but instead kicking the calf.

Shut him down, right? Shut him down, yeah. She like, three kicks it landed, you think? I don't know. I mean, you'd have to go back and watch it. I think it was a few. I think, when watching the countdown, Conor approached the game just like,

just boxing, right? You can tell, like a boxing coach in, and that's all he was doing so for there's a good technique to use to if you're gonna fight him you're looking at what he's doing in his training camp you're gonna kick him right he's a boxer so um fair play to dustin he's a good guy like he did an amazing job but you know connor has that south paw stance heavy on the front leg puts a lot of weight down there especially when he throws his backhand you know and he timed it perfectly he throws his backhand, you know? And he timed it perfectly, he throws his backhand,

he kind of like slipped to the inside and landed a kick. It was a good technique to use. Yeah, when you see techniques that are sort of new to the sport, do you start looking like what's going to be next? Like what is it, going to be an axe kick? Like what's the new thing that people are going to figure out how to do i know i'm trying to think because the coffee came from norway right i'm trying to think what wenson henderson was the first guy i saw throw it yeah he was the first guy i remember him to be effective with it to like

stop people it wasn't as effective for some reason but he was using it i mean it was definitely doing damage but he wasn't like a lot of guys are stopping yeah um yeah I'm trying to think what I would technically could use right cuz elbows already in yeah I don't know maybe yeah that was crazy against Tony Fricklin right that was an answer in his prime is like favorite my favorite fireman to this day's I think he's the goat you know from how easy he made it look people forget because of the the end of his career yeah if you just stop looking at the end of his career and go back and watch like the dan henderson fight dana white sent me the dan henderson fight the other day he goes watch this fight again

he goes he fucking throws dan henderson around who throws dan henderson around like this the goat when he was when he was in his prime. I remember watching it when I was like 18 years old and watching Silver perform, you know. And Stephen Bonner, he was like, he just knocked him out with a jab. I was like, oh, God. That was Forrest Griffin. Forrest Griffin? Yeah.

Crazy. Yeah. He's good. He's good. Well, he was just, his timing and his precision was just so amazing like when he front kicked vitor in the face like god damn i've been trying to learn that kick now for inspiring for like years i can't get the timing of it because you always go like straight up he's like skim the lip or something but you gotta get like under the chin right yeah to knock him

out but it's a good technique to use I think to land it as well if you look them in the eye and then get them staring at you then go bang then you land it right but you're looking

in the chest when you're sparring that's the idea you look in the chest then you look him in the eye you freeze him a little bit

then you go bang you know and that's how I caught Bilal on Saturday with a head kick I looked him in his eye

he looked at me then I dipped then he followed my eyes and then I kicked him in his eye. He looked at me, then I dipped, then he followed my eyes, and then I kicked him in his head. I think Anderson looked down. I think he did one of those where he looked down,

then he kicked up. I think that's what he did to Vitor. I'm pretty sure. Did he? Yeah, I think so. See if you can find it. The Anderson Silva KO Vitor Belfort. Did he look him in his eyes first, though,

to freeze him, then look down and go up? I don't remember. But I do remember thinking that he looked at the body and then threw it to the face. That was good. Yeah. Which is a sneaky thing to do, right?

Totally look down and kick up. Nah, it was good. Anderson was a master. He really was, man. I remember the first time he fought Chris Lieben, the odds were, like, he was favored, but not by much. And I remember telling my friends bet the house bet the house on the brazilian i'm like this motherfucker is on another level like they

don't even know yet let's see here here it is see he's looking down whack boom fuck perfect front kick and before that i remember i had a conversation with someone i'm like yeah you really don't throw it to the face like most people didn't yeah to the body right yeah go to the body with it most people didn't think that that was a technique that you could use effectively to the face especially on a seasoned striker like vitor that was insane oh look dana white got caught he wasn't even watching. Wow. Bang. Right through the guard. Back that up again.

You can see Dana White's playing with his phone. See him? Look at him. Look at him there. Wasn't even watching. How dare you, Dana? Missed one of the greatest KOs in the history of the sport. And then after that, Leoto Machida did it to Randy Couture.

He did a jumping front kick. He was good as well in his prime material yeah he kind of just like fell off right well you know i mean how long i fell off but how long can you compete at that level you know it's like for some guys they can sustain it for 10 years since some guys it's only like three or four and then what age do you think prime is in mma would you say i think it depends on how you train i think it depends on the amount of damage your body's taken whether or not you've had serious injuries back injuries seem to fuck people up more than anything because knee injuries are bad but you can recover from

them at least unless it's bad meniscus tears ligaments seem to be you could recover from them but it depends for i think for most fighters it's in the 30s it's like 30 to 34 35 that seems to be the prime and if you're natural that's when the wheels fall off right around 37 38 it's so yeah yeah that's when you go to 1FC. 1FC in Beneteau. For real, right? Nah, bro. Yes. G-Stump, ready to go. Listen, man. We're just telling the truth.

We're just telling the truth. Nah, I think you're probably in MMA. Yeah, about 30 to 35. When they were doing TRT, though, didn't you think it was kind of crazy? When you saw Vitor, when Vitor foughtitor fought rockhold when vitor fought bisping and he just had muscles coming out of his teeth another level now the brazilians at one point like owned mma right then once he started came in oh fell off which is weird but well i'm not saying on juice but it's a weird thing clearly some it's somewhere on jews yeah yeah there's no way they

weren't and vitor was on trt i mean it was it was an open thing you were allowed to have it and which is strange because like the thing that young people have is you it's like this weird balance right you're young you have this incredible body you move fast you heal quick but you don't have the knowledge and experience that an older fighter has but then if you take an older fighter fighter and then you fill him up with juice, now you got some weird situations. Because now you got both. You got a guy who's got experience

and then you got a guy whose body behaves like a young guy's body. Nah. I've never touched no juice. I understand. But you're young. Yeah, yeah. When you hit like 40,

you might be like, dude, someone says, Leon, come on over to Singapore. We got some big fights for you. Oh, Jack. but my body was good last week i felt good last week so i was jacked last week so it's all good now how old are you now 29 yeah you're still yeah you're not even in your prime yet nice coming yeah exactly so and i'm beating all these guys you know so i think everyone above me like 35 34 I think Usman is 33 34

Masado 36 they're all like old not old but they're all like older men you know so I'm not the youngest guy

in the top five so were you surprised that they decided to have Usman and Masvidal too um surprised no because I know

like you said it's about money right putting asses in the seat and um I think if the fight 10 out of 10 times I think Usman probably nine probably um it's a good entertaining fight for the fans but martial artists is uh yeah one of them fights right it's like it wasn't just gonna go out there and. It was going to probably grapple him again, probably. I want to see what,

what Masvidal can do with the camp, you know? Because clearly he wasn't prepared physically, you know what I mean? He's taking a fight on six days notice. There's no way he can really be prepared. Nah, he was training. He had like wrestling coaches.

Like, I remember watching him. He was, he was like getting was getting good training. He wasn't sitting on the couch for the last six months. Didn't take six days and fought. Right, but you know as well as I know there's a difference between just training and then preparing for a fight, right? Yeah, yeah.

Were you thinking Beardson? No, I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is there were some very interesting moments in that fight where he was out striking him yeah but you know kamara was just so strong it's such a good rest durable and finger dropped him um bernal dropped him the other day so um it'd be a good fight i'll be watching it for sure you know but um i think if i had to put money on it i'd probably go um uzman forman for the win again. Well, once a guy beats a guy, he's always going to be the favorite to fight again.

But it's just an interesting fight. I'm excited to see how Masvidal performs with a camp. It'll be good. I'd love to see it as well, but I can't see what he could do different. He's going to come out again, be what he does, swing for the fences and try to knock him out.

He doesn't go to high guard and just grapple him. I just can't see what he does different. Unless he catches him and knocks him out, I just can't see what he does different. When you and Masvidal got at it at that post-fight press conference like did you expect that a fight was going to come after that that you would eventually

um yeah for sure 4k next that's that's the next fight right straight away and to have it like now it's like two years two for two and a half years it's like we're still ain't fought yet i've been calling him out ever since and the ufc wants it. But you just keep turning it down and say, no, you don't want to fight. Well, that's the weird thing. It's like you're at an elite level, the top of the food chain in terms of your skill level. But you're not as known as you should be with the skill level that you have. I mean, it's like you're the best kept secret in the division. It's weird. Yeah, it's a weird thing, but It'll change. It's gonna change

It's coming. I can feel it. It's changing, you know slowly, but I think number number one should fight number two, right? Number two to number three to find number four and that's the way it should be right But it's like I love to like go to like number 13 to fight below I'll have to go to fight Hamzat because all these guys are like divas right they're always demanding like kobe for example just demanding title shots like just got beat like one fight to go um knocked out one fight ago right no he he beat tyron after that yeah so yeah so tyrone then right tyrone and yeah um in fort since right so far to his mind then he beat It was just Tyrone right There's one fight right I think so

After that I think it was just A Woodley fight Yeah I'm sure it was Pretty sure So I don't think You deserve a title shot

He just got beat Like convincingly You weren't like It was a close fight To be fair But he did get stopped You know So I don't think

You should get a title shot Straight away That's a fight You would like, the Kobe fight. Now, yeah, for sure, 100%. Obviously, I wanted a title shot, but now the fighting. The only reason why I would say it'd be better for you to fight someone before the title shot is just to get the hype out. Yeah, yeah. So that with the pay-per-view gets built up, so that you'll get more money.

Yeah, yeah. It'll be a bigger deal. Nah, for sure. I won't be sitting around waiting for the i'll be fighting you know so we're trying to we're trying to get it and um colby's a weird weird one so we don't know what's gonna happen but we're trying to get a fight done yeah well the one thing that does come with colby is a lot of attention and that's that's the good the good part of it it's a it's a it's a good fight technically you know um i think i think the top all the guys are

all similar right in skill set what they're going to do when they fight me right they're going to come to wrestle if a fighter is going to come to wrestle kobe's going to come to wrestle um belal doesn't come to wrestle don't i know what they're going to do you know it says it's easier to prepare for them you can um i was saying before you kind of like swap them out so when when hamzat fell out i was like okay put anyone in because they're all gonna do the same thing anyway so just swap another one in and that's that's what it was so normal they're all gonna try to yeah i didn't yeah i didn't try to grapple but that means nothing to me you know i've i've i feel good when it would grapple and i feel good with the striking and um i just can't wait

to show show my skill set and show what i'm about i haven't done what i could yet in the game but i want to show it and i'm going to show it when you put when you put together a camp like say if you get a kobe fight yeah and do you who designs your camp do you design everything yourself in terms of like when you do strength and conditioning when you run when you spar when you hit mitts um yeah i haven't got a head coach like really nah i ain't got like one coach i said this is my head coach right i got like coaches for different martial arts and they all come together and um i put them all together and they communicate like that but i've got like one person that say okay you have to do this you have to okay, you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to do that. I prefer it that way as well because I feel with head coaches, from my experience, it's like you do it my way or no way.

You know what I mean? You can't train 10 guys the same way. Right. I think that's what coaches do. Like we've got one person, you train them all the same way. But it might be different. I'm tall and southpaw. He might be short and orthodox.

He can't train me the same way you train him, you know? So that's what I do. And I feel comfortable. I feel good doing it that way. So it's usually that. I don't think nothing's wrong with it. Just for me, I prefer... Obviously, I talk back and forth with my coaches

and we run game plans together, you know what I mean? So if I don't agree with it... Let's say my striking coach comes to me and be like, OK, for this fight, you need to throw a head kick. I'll be like, yeah, but I don't groove it let's say my coach my striking coach comes to me and be like okay for this fight you need to throw a head kick I'll be like yeah

but I don't want to throw a head kick this fight because I don't think it's going to work for this guy you know and if I watch him and see what he does

that's what I do I watch the person I break him down and say okay everyone got habits right that they do some people like to

pass to the left some people like to pass to the right so Some people like to pass to the right. So if he's good at passing to his left, if you can make him pass to his right, if he's not good, then you're going to have more success. And that's what I try to do basically all over the game. So if he's good at jabbing, if you take away his jab just by moving out of the way of it,

then he has to throw something else, which is not natural to him. And that's the way I approach the game, really. Just try to throw them off for what they're good at, but take it away from them and let them use what they're bad at. And so if you put together a camp, so you basically just have all these people

that you work with. You work with a wrestling coach, a jiu-jitsu coach, striking coach, and then just you decide how the fight's gonna play out based on how you're watching tapes, you're watching. Yeah, I watch tapes. No, they send information as well, you know?

I'm not just like mastering it all myself. They sent like, okay, this is what he does, and then I'll look a bit, okay, what would you do to counteract that? And if they tell me, they tell me, I'll be like, okay, if it was good to me, then I'll do it. But if it doesn't,

it's not natural. I think it has to be natural movement, right? If you're kind of like forcing yourself to, like, for example, this fight with Bilal,

the coach was like, okay, you need to throw the uppercut, the back uppercut, because it dips into it. But in sparring, those weren't, sorry,

weren't, you can swear. Oh, yeah, it's the internet. Fuck yeah. That's hilarious. But in sparring, I was trying to do what you told me to do, but every time I was throwing an uppercut,

the guy was catching me over the top with a hook. You know, it just didn't come natural to me, so I said, I don't want to use that technique for this fight because every time I'm trying to inspire him, I'm getting caught with shots. In boxing, that's what happens, right? A lot of times you guys throw lead uppercuts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But in boxing, they get off nice.

Like Canelo, for example, he's good at it. You just touch, you go bang, and it's good. It looks good. But in boxing, the guys are like they're more like top right here so you can work the body a bit more but in MMA the guys are more like

elusive and they've got different guards they've got long guards tight guards everyone's different so yeah I think boxing

and striking is two different things do you work with boxers at all? yeah sparring yeah if they go to boxing it's like a war right? oh yeah in the UK is two different things. Do you work with boxers at all? Boxers, yeah, sparring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If they go to a boxing gym,

it's like a war, right? Oh, yeah? Yeah, in the UK. Especially if you're an MMA fighter, if you go to a boxing gym,

you're like, okay, my coach is always, always taking me to that gym and be like, okay, you spar this pro and then it's like, it's always like,

just coming out bloody and just having like a terror, it's never like a play spa, it's always like a, if you're going to spar a boxer, you're going to have a war. That doesn't seem like a lot of fun like a terror it's never like a play spa it's always like you're going to spar a boxer you're going to have a war that doesn't seem like a lot of fun

nah it's not how do you approach sparring do you think that you should like you see like Max Holloway like his last fight didn't spar at all and looked fucking amazing

like one of his best performances against Calvin Cater I got a teammate that does it as well Tom Breeze he's the same way he doesn't spar no really yeah he lasts two free fights is is he's saying he doesn't want to do it um that's interesting yeah yeah yeah um so i think each each to their own right how does he do

it does he do drills where he just like simulations of yeah like yeah like situations like play play spar you know um just like range finders shots really he's not really getting like hit properly so um for me i prefer sparring i spar twice a week um in camp do you play do you play spar like do you do you touch light or do you blast like do you do? Do you have full power sparring sessions? In camp? So one spar a week would be big gloves, which is you can hit hard, you can go harder in big gloves. And then on the Saturday is little gloves,

which is the bumper gloves. And that's more like play, spar. I normally end up in a grappling match because it's small gloves. It's hard to pull your shots in small gloves. So if it's one hard on a Wednesday, then Saturday is more like a technical working through your technique. Yeah, because it's so interesting how the Thais do it

because they fight so often that when they spar, they're just kind of touching each other and playing with each other. And it's interesting if you talk to guys like John Wayne Parr, guys who trained in Thailand, he said there's a lot of wisdom to that because when you spar hard you don't try things you know you don't you you're you're always worried about the consequences but you can you can hone your fine reflexes by just light sparring because there you don't worry about the consequences as much and they're already. They already know how to fight. There's so many different philosophies when it comes to sparring.

Yeah, it's all different, right? Because Russians do the same thing in wrestling. They wrestle for like five hours a day. But they're not going hard, hard, hard, you know? They're more just like drilling technique and just drill, play technique. They don't resist, you know? So if you add it up over the years there's probably way more hours in the gym

than what you're doing if you're going hard hard hard every day so I see where they're coming from but I think it's different I think you have to

for me anyway you have to get that that hit right when someone's trying to like knock well not trying to knock you out

but they're coming at you full pace and you're reflexing you're getting shots and I like to feel the shots before going into a fight let's say i didn't spar for the whole camp i'll be paranoid but i can still take a punch you know so i want to feel that i can you know i think it was different how many years were you training before you had your first fight um i saw that amateur fight like six months in oh and i won i beat like

a blue belt he's like um it's like a it's like a tour my gym did like a tournament it was like a in-house tournament like a smoker yeah yeah you know in that storm and then some blue belt came and then i did it and i won the tournament after training for like six months and that's like kept me kept me in the gym you know and having like positive feedback from all the coaches and shit so um yeah about six months in had my first amateur fight so you just took to it like yeah striking and martial arts it seems like something that normal normal because i was a good fighter anyway uh from like young on the street and in school and shit so but you just didn't have any coaching at all you just knew how to fight on the street yeah oh yeah street street fight is a street fight right yes

um um have you also um nah no coaching until 17 didn't start learning um what it was and that's it and did you stop street fighting when that happened um i just start no but later on yeah because i haven't had a street fight now for a while. But I'll just start. You're kind of just like testing out your skill set. Oh, just to see how it works. See how it works, you know. Because people on the street really, especially in the UK,

they're not very good fighters, you know. And they kind of just swing wild and you end up in a tussle and that's it. But you can pick your shots good and see openings. It's a different ballgame. Yeah, that's a terrifying thing if you don't know how to fight and you're talking shit and then you see a guy moving and you're like

oh Christ you know like shut up you see there's so many YouTube videos of like two guys fighting and one guy is talking all kinds of shit

and then he realizes like halfway and oh my god this guy actually trains he knows how to fight yeah I think it's gonna be a bad bad night right i've been out before you know like bouncers like the doorman and like

they're wearing like gum shields and but i've seen these guys in the gym right and i can't they're not really they look tough but they can't fight you know and i've brought them to the gym before and like okay you just spar this kid that's like 17 he's like a little skinny kid and the skin the kid black beats them up you know and like humbles them and it's a mad thing when you can fight it gives you i think gives you confidence as well to to not fight when you when you do go out oh for sure you know and yeah that's the reason i put my son my son in it how old your son now he's eight eight yeah start exactly so um i think it gives you the confidence to you know you know what you're about

I don't need to go out there and be tough and prove it and I think that's what martial arts did for me it kind of calmed me down when I was younger and I was fighting

it's more just about proving yourself right so yeah that shit talking and things like can I have some coffee yeah sure brother

here thank you sorry if you want another one of those monsters we got those two in the back perfect um cheers cheers good man i need some of this coffee after last night it was a good night it was a lot of fun hanging out afterwards too chapelle and those fellas they go hard like that every night do they uh i was doing nothing like two o'clock cause i got i gotta go i gotta I got Dave's got a philosophy behind

though it's actually well thought out like he's like the the hang is important he's like it's not just about doing shows it's like the hang actually makes you funnier and we talk about comedy during the hang you know it's always talking about jokes and talking about that's all set them a coaches um this week of I was sitting down and I was like, okay, this is what we're going to remember, right? Hanging around in the hotel. We don't really remember the fights when you're old. You remember when you win or you lost, right? But what you remember is the banter that you had with the coaches. That's what I said to my coaches last

week. We treasure these moments. This is what we work for and just enjoy it. Camaraderie. Yeah, man. Yeah, that's what it's all about. That's what you remember when you're old. Well, there's a similarity in the way fighters and comedians hang out with is that not too many people understand you guys like you. Yeah.

You know, like fighters and your coaches and your training partners and the people you work with they know you yeah they regular people would never understand the amount of sacrifice and commitment and what it's like to go through hard sparring sessions what it's like to go to hard strength and conditioning so like that that you're always pushing yourself constantly pushing yourself and they get it like so it's it's hard to relate i'm sure to other people yeah for sure but to be fair all my friends they they train as well you know so to all your friends train yeah um most of them train since i since i got got in it they're all kind of like winning winning it as well they don't compete they're like businesses

and do um other shit but but they train martial arts, either boxing or strength conditioning. They do something, so they kind of understand it. And they tell me shit I don't know about. Oh, really? Yeah, about fights. You've seen this fight? I was like, nah, I don't watch it.

Because in the UK, it's like 3 in the morning, but they stay up and watch it. I'm not staying up to watch the fights. There's so many different disciplines that you could follow if you start paying attention to muay thai or paying attention to boxing or or jiu jitsu it's like you will not there's not enough time there's so many matches you could watch yeah it's too much i enjoy boxing i love watching boxing um mml watch mml as well but if i had to choose i i like watching boxing really yeah do you think you'll ever box do you think um like when you saw connor fight floyd yeah like if an opportunity something yeah for sure 100 i'll do that for sure but i enjoy i enjoy sparring boxes as well you

know um i enjoy switching stances as well and so i'll probably box one day. I'd love to try it out, you know, because I've got good hands. So we'll see. But it's not like – Nah, nah. Not now. My goal now is to be a UFC world champion. After that, I'll probably look down that road. But once I achieve this goal, then I'll move on.

So you were saying that you don't have a head coach. So you just have head coaches in all these different disciplines. Do you have a strength and conditioning coach that you use? Yeah, Johnny Reynolds. I've been working with him now for about eight years. Oh, wow. Yeah, about eight years, six to eight years. Before, I was working with his brother.

His brother does Anthony Joshua. That's his head um head um strength conditioning coach then went from his brother to johnny now he's my strength conditioning coach and we're working together now for for a while and how many days a week do you do that strength conditioning um two three times a week and yeah so it's tuesday thursday then on saturday we either do hills or we do tracks or something but yeah and do you schedule it so that you do that and then do you do it after you spar do you do before like how do you do you do it on days where you don't spar like how do you yeah i don't know yeah days i don't spar so if uh i probably tuesday morning if i spar wednesday I do it Tuesday morning.

Then I have a light Tuesday night. Then I spar heavy Wednesday. Then pads Wednesday night. So I kind of do it hard, medium hard. If I feel tired, I'm good at listening to my body, right? So if I feel tired, I know I'm tired. I have a day off. And that's what it is.

Our coaches sometimes like one head coach but now you have to come training be tough do this do that you know but i believe you should listen to your body if you're tired that day have a day off i think it's more mental right that everyone's like i need to train i need to do this but you don't if you're you're tired you'll be way more better if you had like one or two days off and then come back and train and fight so um i think it's more mental than anything so this is like trial and error you figured out yeah i figured out over the years well yeah i figured over the years and like i said i think it's mental because for example look at such a diet look at flying my river right i'm watching um

countdown over days i have like mcdonald's and yeah it's a lot of McDonald's you know it's like well i think he's really good yeah i think so but it's part of that is like to show people i know i don't give a fuck you're eating a cheeseburger and i'll still be people some people will do that and like we'll fuck them up mentally oh shit i had a burger i'm gonna lose the fight i was like you didn't lose the fight bro just chill do you think yeah yeah do you use anything to monitor your recovery like do you use a whoop strap or anything like that when you check your no

the PR game in that ring oh an aura ring yeah yeah I tried it but it's hard to keep remember to put it on and take it off

and plus if you're doing like boxing or jiu jitsu to leave it on it's like no you can't do that have you ever seen what happens to fingers no

you know that's why they develop those silicone rings when fingers get sheathed have you ever seen that no to fingers? No. You know, that's why they develop those silicone rings when fingers get sheathed. Have you ever seen that? No, no, no. Google that. It is horrific.

Wedding rings, what happens is they dig into the meat of your finger, and it pulls the finger meat and the muscle completely off. Because the metal from the ring, like if you're in a bad situation, I know guys have happened. And it came off? The skin came off? Oh, yeah. Terrible. I know guys have had it happen in rolling where like say the ring will get pinned like this and it'll just pull back the meat google yeah you should show it people should see it because i know

i know guys who roll with wedding rings on and i've seen them do it and i'm like hey man take that fucking thing off oh my wife she doesn't want listen to me bitch you're gonna lose your finger you will lose your finger it's possible to lose use of your finger I'll show you what I'm looking at because I don't want to look at it for a long time okay

just bust it out there wedding ring did you google wedding ring sheathing yeah finger sheathing injuries yeah from wedding rings um it's not there's some horrible ones man i don't see any of these are these wedding ring ones did you put go pull up a wedding ring well i mean wedding ring finger sheath there you go there you go that's what I'm talking about. Look at that. Click on that one. That's what happens.

Like literally, it pulled the guy's fucking finger off. The wedding ring digs into your hand. It digs into the meat of the hand, and it just tears it right off. You got to be real careful with those things. That's why they invented like Michael Chandler has a company. Jesus Christ, why can't I remember the Chandler has a company. Jesus Christ, why can't I remember the name? His ring company. They make the best ones.

What is his company? Can I have a monster? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's also called Ring Evulsion. Sorry, I was looking at nasty. What is Chandler's company called? Because he has the best ones. What, doing rings?

Yeah. Groove Life. Groove Life, that's right. Thank you. They make great belts, belts too but they make a they make a silicone like wedding ring that just it come on yeah it it won't fuck your finger up well just take the ring off when you train and put it back on yeah you should yeah it happened to jimmy fallon a couple years ago and cooking something like slipped and fell and

we had to grab you know i don't know like the island in the kitchen oh really and it sheathed his finger many people doing random things like that that's why Groove Life I think invented those I think it was a I believe the store was it was an Alaskan uh hunting guide that figured it out and he he's the guy that invented that uh that specific type of ring. Can you tell Jeff to bring Monster in for the gentleman? Oh, sure. And tell him to get me one of them. Oh, just bring some of those Kill Cliffs, too. I'll just grab them.

Okay, thanks. Yeah, he's coughing the drama mouth out. Yeah, yeah, no. Last night. Yeah. I'm telling you, those guys do that every night. I don't know how they do it. And then they got the Rona and didn't even get sick.

Yeah. It's crazy. Both of them. Donnell Rawlings and Dave Chappelle both got the rona and didn't even get sick yeah it's crazy both of them donnell rawlings and dave chapelle both got the rona and had nothing just over in like days they were just they just quarantined their hotel room i said no symptoms no symptoms no fuck now i've done i had in december and i lost like six kgs i don't know what's that in pounds um i lost my smile my taste i did i like two weeks off because that's what you meant to do and went back to training and um my body just felt weak you know i was i had to pull out the fight

so that's was that a situation where you were training hard and so your immune system was kind of broken down and then you caught it yeah yeah i believe so because that's like um yeah i think that i think that's what it was i was working so hard in camp then your body just just shut down right and then when you had two weeks off thank you thank you you got monsters whatever you want thank you yeah when you had like two weeks off and try to go back at the same intensity that you was two weeks ago you just can't do it right yeah yeah so i had to pull out that hamzat picture of his sink where he coughed up blood in the sink is fucking crazy but apparently he has um he's had lung issues before he's had um some sort of uh lung issue in the past you know um what is that called when

not pneumonia but something that a lot of people get. God damn it, I'm trying to remember that. It's a very common disease that people get with coughing. Maybe that's it. I think that is it. I think it's bronchitis. I think Hamzat has bronchitis too. So that on top of getting corona fucked him him up pretty much is he recovering good yeah

he said he was gonna retire i said it but then he's like no son i know dana said no it's hard look dana doesn't want anybody to retire which is kind of crazy like he's he's still letting uh khabib hold on to the belt yeah i know but you know khabib has he's got his own life man you can't tell him, you know. I think he's going to come back, though. You think so? Yeah, I think so. Why?

I don't know. I think he's always training. He's always around to fight. I think once he has some time off, I think he's going to come back. I think they should set up Khabib versus GSP. Yeah. Because GSP wants another fight. That'd be good.

And I think he can make 55. I think he can make it yeah he said he said he can make it yeah they should they should definitely do it for you know it would be perfect right if that was me i wouldn't want to go out 29 i have to get out for a man but i'm coming back just to get that fruit yeah it would be annoying well i just i think you know he made a promise to his mother and after his father died i just don't think he's going to come. I could be wrong. But I think.

How long do you think they should leave it for to strip him? Not much longer. How long has it been now? When did it fight last? Well, he fought Justin. It was during the COVID, right? Because they fought in Abu Dhabi with no audience. Yeah.

I think that was six months ago, maybe? Something like that? Yeah, probably give him a little bit longer, probably. Because he's been so dominant.

I think we should give him just a little bit longer to see what he's going to do. Yeah. I mean, unless he says, I'm done. I know.

Leave me alone now. Well, look at what they did with Jon Jones. They just basically stripped Jon Jones. He said, I i'm gonna go up to heavyweight and they said okay and that's it he abandoned the belt and then they stripped him right away i mean he easily could have held on to that belt while trying to try a fight or two at heavyweight he was gonna fight for the lightweight lightweight belt if the district the light heavyweight belt or the lightweight belt that's interesting right i don't know i don't know i think olivera should be fighting for the

title but i think dustin poirier should be fighting for the title too and they're gonna have dustin versus connor again that's the plan yeah that doesn't make sense for the title not why olivera is around i think olivera is supposed to be yeah for, for sure. He's a beast, man. That kid is so impressive. And he's a guy that has had these ups and downs in his career where he's lost and he's come back and he's lost and he's come back. And you see where he's at now. Skillset-wise, he's up there. He's on another level than he's ever been before. The Tony fight with Ferguson, I was super impressed.

Yeah, he's good. fight with Ferguson I was super impressed yeah he's good um I think skill set wise I think he's for me I think he's at number one probably for skill set you think so yeah uh him very clean right yeah him Chandler um Dustin Connor who else is there uh well you know option there's a lot of people in that division it's a great division. I mean, it's packed. But it's like... I don't think they can give Chandler the shot. Not right away. Not right away.

I mean, he had that super impressive knockout of Hooker, which puts him in the top 10 and makes a big deal. But maybe one more. Yeah. Because so many people have been in the division for so long. Yeah, exactly. Racking up wins. They'll be furious.

Yeah. Oh, pissed. You know? No, for real. Yeah, exactly. Racking up wins. They'll be furious. Yeah. Oh, pissed. You know? No, for real. Yeah, I think Oliveira and Dustin should fight for the belt. You know?

And then after that, let Chandler fight. I don't know. I think Oliveira and Dustin, but, you know, it doesn't matter what I think because they're going to have Connor versus Dustin again

because that's where the money's at. That's where the dough is at, right? That's going to's gonna be crazy they're gonna do that in front of a live audience that's gonna be nice you think that one who knows i mean connor was catching me some good shots you know just like shut him down but um yeah it's gonna be hard you know it's gonna be hard to figure out because connor did hurt him he did rock him dustin admitted he said in the first round he said he rang his bell yeah but ultimately dustin won so you got to think he can win again and i don't know connor never switches stances either it's very rare he doesn't doesn't box doesn't like his power hand is for sure his left hand yeah he switches he's gonna spin yeah right right right yeah so

it'd be an entertaining fight if I put money on it I'd probably go I think Conor can do it again if if he just fix up his his stance a little bit

earlier in his career he was a bit more elusive right now he's just like heavy heavy on his legs so I think Conor can do it

if they fight again I'm sure he'll make an adjustment yeah the the it's just crazy seeing a guy pull up in a yacht you know to a big fighter he's doing shadow boxing on a yacht and meditating on the yacht it's like wow like if he did win that way that's like the most baller shit ever yeah no i couldn't do that in fact we could have to be like zoned in right i couldn't be being on yachts and i'd have to be like isolation in my room my coach is chilling

talking i couldn't do it i think there's too much to do as well right you got to focus on your job at hand is to perform so um yeah if you did do it though it would be cool did you go through a bunch of different processes to get to where you're at now where you know exactly what to do like the week of the fight you know you know what's best for your mind you know what's best yeah would you try to distract yourself what do you try to do i try fire week i try to treat it like another week right i think if you build it up to be something that is not what normally happens, right? Because you're sitting in your room kind of like,

oh, we're thinking the fight, what's going to happen? And it never does. And the more I compete, the more I fight, I think you just think crazy shit in your head, what's going to happen in a fight, and it never plays out that way. So I learned to be like, you know what, just treat it like another week. You know what I mean? Eat what you normally eat.

Obviously, you've got to cut weight. But on fight day, I eat what I would eat on a sparring day. I eat normal chicken, rice, fish. Eat light. I don't really eat heavy on sparring day. I like to go for walks. I go for a long walk fight day with my team. Fight day?

Yeah, yeah. I like to go for a long walk just to banter with my team. Just make it feel like a normal day. I don't want to build it up to be something it's not. I like to have a long walk just to banter with my team and just make it feel like a normal day. I don't want to build it up to be something it's not. I do this every single day, you know, and if you do it that way, I think you'll have better success than just sitting in your room thinking, oh, it's going to be a play on a match in your head.

Right. When you say go for a walk, do you find that that relieves nervous energy? Why do you like to go for a walk, do you find that that relieves nervous energy? Why do you like to go for a walk? I don't know. I've always enjoyed on Friday going for a long walk. I don't know what it is. I don't know. I can't put a finger on it to say this is why I do it. I just like to go for a long walk, stretch my legs out, have a little banter with the team,

just chill, treat it like another day, like I'm back at home in my gym and I'm on the way to the gym. That's it. I can't think why I would do it, but that's what I like to do. You just always like to do it. Yes, I always like to do it. Do you meditate at all? No.

Nothing? No. Nah, nothing. Nah, nothing. My mental strength, I don't know where I strength i don't know i don't know where i got it from but i'm like mentally i'm like quite solid right but i think just from like my upbringing and my trials and tribulations i've been through in life and it's kind of made me who i am right i know that i can get over struggle i know i've been there before i've done it before

i can get over it and i think the more you struggle you get more armor you're more solid right and i think that's what that's what it is just build me up to be why yeah yeah it's uh there's an interesting mindset that comes from people that have been through really tough things in their life you know like uh i spoke with francis ingano and he was talking about his journey fucking crazy man, man. Fucking crazy. Like, you think about that guy, 14 months to get out of Cameroon and to get all the way to Spain, only to spend two months in prison. He just swallowed his money and shit. That's how it worked. Crazy.

All of it was crazy. The whole story's crazy. Like, that guy's been through so much that to fight for him is probably a relief. Yeah, it is what it is. Yeah. I'm just saying, like, I've been through so much that to fight for him is probably a relief. Yeah, it is what it is. Yeah. I'm just saying like I've been through so much that a fight, like a fist fight, it's just like it's a fist fight, right? You're not going to die. What's the worst shit that you've been through?

Worst? I don't know. I don't know like one worst thing, you know, just like the duration of life, you know. I don't think it's like one thing. This is the worst thing I've been through. But I've been through a lot, you know just like the duration of life you know i don't think it's like one thing like this is the worst thing i've been through but i've been through um a lot you know like what kind of shit um i don't know i don't know it's hard to put a finger on it like i don't know just like struggles in life yeah yeah just i was born in jamaica obviously um came to uk when i was 10 11. um my dad was in was basically a gang leader basically oh really yeah in jamaica so basically

in jamaica it's like um streets right we call it lanes with like streets it was like um we're one street fight with like the Never Street down, like three streets down the road. In my era, my dad was like the leader of the gang, right? So he came to the UK before us. He was like, he's like, sell drugs and whatever he did to bring back money back into the community to buy guns and do what he does, you know?

And I came from that. Then from there he brought me my brother um and my mom to the uk um to obviously for safety obviously and then paulson birmingham and then he passed away when i was 13 13 years old so i was in the uk for about two to three years then he died when i was 13 and then how did he pass away um got shot got killed in um in london um when i got a phone call i was like 13 years old i remember like being in bed right and well mom got a phone call that two in the morning so i heard her phone ring and she's like uh i heard her crying right i was like oh so like she will she woke me up so your dad um I was like, oh, shit.

So, like, she woke me up and said, your dad just got killed in London. But it's like a weird feeling, right? Because I've seen, since I knew my dad, he's always been the same person, right? He's always been in that life, you know? So, I wouldn't say I expected it. It wasn't like a shock, right? Because I knew what he did.

I know that's the life, right? Yeah. You know? And so it was mad. It was mad. What is it like growing up when your father is running a gang? It's got to be fucking crazy. Like, just knowing.

As a kid, it's like. fucking crazy like just knowing as a kid he's like did it feel normal because yeah he's just normal right everyone he's fucked up because i liked it when i was a kid right because i had all like the latest shit because he was like sending shit from the uk and like having like a butt i'm like a bicycle when he's in jamaica and like a remote control car as a kid that was a big deal you know and i had all i had all that and um obviously everyone around the area and nowhere was and so as a kid it's like my dad is this guy you know he was a special person yeah exactly you know so um look looking back on it now and knowing exactly what he did and what what what he got into it's um it's wild right but i understand the sacrifices that he made for his family in these different opportunities i know looking looking at it from like now when

i'm in the uk's in the uk if you're broke you can go to the council and give you money you know in jamaica if you're broke you're broke there's no help no one can go to the council and give you money you know in jamaica if you're broke you're broke there's no help no one's coming to help you and give you nothing so if he if he decided to to to risk his life and provide for his family then you do what you have to do you know and i i love him for that i respect him for that and and that's it yeah it's very difficult for anybody else to judge if you're not living in that situation. Yeah, exactly.

It's hard to explain to my friends. It's hard to tell them, right? Because you just don't get it. You live in the UK. You got basically a fallback plan. If I go dead broke in the UK, I can go to the council and and it's called signing on and they'll give you like basically a month a month like a week that's it just give

you like a weekly wage right in jamaica there's no sign none you know so you have to you're gonna hustle or you're gonna do something there's no opportunity for jobs or especially if you come from from the ghetto there's no opportunities to go and get a 9-to-5 because your area alone marks against your name. He did what he needed to do. He provided for his family. He did a good thing by bringing me to the UK and bringing my brother and my mom to the UK.

Now I'm able to provide for my family and give back to my family. Did you ever worry that you were going to go down that path? Yeah, I was going down that path when I was a kid. See, when they passed away, I think that's when they got more, like, rebellious towards life, right? And I was going down that path, like, in gangs and doing shit like that, you know. path like in gangs and doing um shit like that you know so um till age about 16 17 my mom brought me to the gym and mma is what took me out of the life you know because i was spending so much time in the gym um that i weren't hanging around on the street no more with my friends you know and i think mma 100 saved me from that life do you think that also the training itself like

relieves you of some of the stress and keeps you from being aggressive and keeps you from like having to prove yourself with other guys um yeah for sure i think what kept me in the gym is that the positive reinforcement right to have someone saying to you every day oh you're good bro you can do it you can do that i think that as a kid, it helps you, man. It motivates you. You want to be there, right? You want to be in that environment when everyone's telling you good stuff and they're saying, no, you can do it.

If you work hard, you can do it. You can achieve it. You can be a UFC world champion. When I was on, I went training for like a year. You know what I mean? And this is what my coaches was telling me and people was telling me in the gym. So that's what kept me in the gym for sure. When you talked about how you want to achieve success so that other kids can see what can be done, that's important to you?

Yeah, 100%. That's one of my main motivations. If you can touch it, it's different, right? You can see it on the TV but if you know someone in your area that grew up like you in that situation as you

and he achieved it then you usually feel like you can do it as well and I know I know Michael Bisping was the first champion from the UK but he did it

living in the States right he did it from America so for me from being in the UK, it was hard to be like, okay, I can be a champion as well because he did it from another place.

He didn't do it from where I'm doing it from, you know? So I was respecting him for doing it. But I want to achieve it coming from the UK. So the kids behind me can be like, look, Leon did it. He came from the mud, you know? And he achieved it by sticking with his team, working hard and dedicating himself.

And that's my main motivation to give back to the kids. I know what it feels like to struggle and to go through hardship. Do you do any travel? I mean, you said you went to AKA and trained there for a bit. Do you do travel around to different gyms at all? In the UK? You know, you said you trained in the UK. Yeah,

I've been to the UK twice, I think, like six, seven years. Was that to work on your wrestling? Yeah, do a bit, do a bit,

like, work my wrestling. My first time, I went there for, I think, for the Kamari Usman camp, to work, that didn't play out.

Because I still got out-wrestled. But yeah, that's the only time I traveled. And then from that, that's what I'm saying. If you listen to other people, it fucks you up, right? Because when I was coming up

like young in the UK, all these guys telling me, even my coaches, and not my coaches, but my training partners, you have to go to, if you want to be successful, you have to go to America

to improve, you know? So I started believing it and that's the reason why I went to AKA, you know? But after the commodityaribusan fight fought and I lost I came back to my

to my to to the UK and I was like you know what I can I was willing to open to that point

you know I won all my fights in my early career and just by being being with my team and believing in my team once I start like

looking elsewhere and I need to move I need to move if not broke don't fix it right my early career and just by being being being my team and believing my team once i start like looking elsewhere and i need to move i need to move if not broke don't fix it right i'm winning with these with these guys what i need to move um so i started believing in my team believing in myself um obviously the older i get more learn the game and i study the game and um that's it really it's also a situation too i mean you fought Kamaru Usman yeah he's a beast I mean the man is the champion for a reason and his wrestling

is phenomenal he's good he's tough and he's durable he's a good fighter good champion was it a unique experience

to face someone that's that good as a wrestler um a little bit a little bit but at the time

I didn't look at the game the same way I look at the game now, right? I approached it from a defensive point of view. So I went in there thinking, don't let him take me down, don't let him take me down. You know, I went in there with a defensive mindset towards the contest, you know, and that's a total wrong way to approach a fight like that. And that's how I played out. Yeah, that makes sense so that's the good thing about this quarantine about this uh pandemic that it's allowed you to

think things through and yeah things um yeah think it through um tied up in some areas that i need to tighten up on and it gives me time to grow just physically and mentally you know because when in training camp you're not really learning much, really. You just prepare for this certain opponent, what shots you're going to use for this opponent, you know, and you're not really, you fight a few times a year. That's like, that's a lot of camps, you know, and you're not growing much in between because I wrestle like a month,

then I'm back in camp again, you know, so. So what is like the difference between like a training when you're in camp versus when you're trying to learn and grow? Like what kind of shit are you working on? Everything. So when you're like a training when when you're in camp versus when you're trying to learn and grow like what kind of shit are you working on everything so when you're trying to learn when you're in camp you you're doing specifics to this opponent so okay let's say this guy's a wrestler i won't throw like like leg kicks earlier in the fight because he's gonna take me down um so you're mimicking the game for this guy but when you not got a fight coming up um like i have in the last year and a half i had time to just free grow my my skill set and if you want to learn i'll learn it

no because i'm i ain't preparing for nobody i'm preparing myself and and and grow myself you know so that's what i've been doing i'm working my wrestling my jiu-jitsu my striking everything just been trying new techniques out you you know, trying out different stuff and that's what it is. Especially my elbows, you know. I've been working my elbows and just adding new tools to my arsenal. Are you going to go to the fights next weekend?

Are you still in the country for next week? No, I leave Monday. Because I know you're going to Vegas soon, right? Yeah, I go to Vegas today. And then I leave on Monday. I go back to the UK on Monday. Damn, it's too bad. That was a good one to see live.

Have you seen any of them live? Or you just only fought live where there's no crowd? Have you seen a fight? Yeah, yeah, yeah. At the Apex Center? No, no, no. I've seen crowd event live. I haven't been to the apex and watch

it live they're so different so different to watch it live i'm imagining it must be pretty insane to fight like that where there's no crowd but to watch it like that too i i think i prefer it i really do i said my coaches i was like i should prefer that it was like quick you know it was like in and out it weren't like no no i get it for you yeah yeah yeah right no fucking around you know just like you get to the apex okay leon you got yeah wrap your hands okay wrap okay you got like three more fights in your arm i was like what the fuck so it was just quick you know no time to think around like make energy get you just like you get you get there wrap warm up walk fight uh i liked it. It was good.

It's interesting next weekend because Stipe versus Francis is in that small cage. Oh, no. Yeah, I don't know how they're going to do that. This is crazy for those two giants. I don't know who benefits. Probably Francis, right? I think Francis. Yeah, if it's coming out explosive like it did.

He did a commotion strike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If it does that, then it's two steps in the back of the cage so that's the problem yeah it'd be it'd be good francis is such a unique guy because like all he has to do is touch you you're gonna be there next week oh yeah yeah yeah for sure i'm gonna be there i don't want to miss that yeah he's a powerhouse francis man he's a i met him in vegas his hands i shaked his hand he's like it's like a giant brick yeah he's he's a unique guy because he really

just has to touch you yeah anybody he touches they're like it's different as well right when you believe in your power as well he believes in his power right he believes in

his power and also he's lost you know he's felt the sting of defeat twice in a row because then they lost to Derek Lewis right afterwards oh yeah yeah so and he was very tentative in that fight and then he comes back and he's he knocked out curtis blades

knocked out junior del santos i mean he's a he's a monster now he's coming to his own yeah i think he's believing in himself as well and uh especially his cardio you know he's he's known i can i can go five rounds you know i mean so he's uh i like watching him he's also got can go five rounds, you know what I mean? So he's, I like watching him. He's also got a real camp now, you know, now he's with Extreme Couture in Vegas. Yeah. Where was he before?

I think he, he was talking about it on the podcast. I believe he said he trained for it in France. I think he was, a lot of the training for Stipe was in France, but I think it was just, he didn't have the best situation in terms of like training partners and and how to get set up nice good I thought um yeah I think he's probably get steeper this time this is a smaller cage you know

it's it was tough though man it's so hard to bet against the guy the guy always figures out a way to win I mean steep a like a lot of people bet against him in DC with this the last fight figures out a way to win. I mean, Stipe, like a lot of people bet against him in D.C. with the last fight. That adjustment to the body shot was good. Oh, my God. To adjust mid-fight. That was incredible. Well, that fight, he knocked him out in that fight,

and then he beat him again in the rematch. So, you know, two victories like that over D.C. is pretty fucking huge. But he's the most successful heavyweight ever. Yeah, for sure. It's hard to say But he's the most Successful heavyweight ever Yeah for sure It's hard to say Who the GOAT is For me Kane

Kane Cardio Kane Kane Velasquez Kane was a monster Yeah I watched that fight Kane versus Fedor Would have been the shit

Oh yeah In the primes as well In the primes Kane versus Fedor Would have been fucking amazing Yeah Cardio Kane was another animal When Junior DeSantos When he just From around In the primes as well. In the primes. Kane versus Fedor would have been fucking amazing. Yeah, Cardio Kane was another animal. When Junior DeSantos, from round fight number two, just set the pace.

His face was all transformed. He puts a pace on you that's inhuman. Yeah, I was watching it thinking, I don't know how he keeps that pace for five rounds. But he did it. I don't know how he does it either i know he had like weird genetics yeah that's the only thing that could explain it because i talked to dc he goes dude he would take three weeks off and and then come to the gym and out out cardio everybody and he goes it didn't make any sense cardio cane he's he like no one that's a one in a like a hundred million people that's a heavyweight

that has that kind of cardio because most heavyweights they just they have big power but they can't put a pace on you like that yeah he sets the pace and he keeps it that's that's what's good about it you know you don't really fade really no um he keeps the pace and he's and he's wrestling and striking he's in everything you know he's not like lying on you and trying to like no and he's like he's constantly beating the shit out of you he was in wrestling yeah he's he was a guy that was almost like too tough for his own good too like his body kind of gave out his knees started going his back went he's got all kinds of surgery shoulder surgery knee surgery back surgery yeah it's like the old school mentality right just train for everything you know you're injured yeah

fuck it work for it but that's the problem right it's like you're almost too tough for your own good yeah but if it wasn't like that you probably wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't be as good as he is maybe so it's like where do you go you know it's hard to say do you find that it's hard to achieve balance like that like when you when you're training you got to know when to pull back but then if you're a really tough person like you like fuck it keep going and that's when people get injured do you do you have a problem with that balance or how do you find that balance um a little bit I kind of know how to my body and my body feels you know um especially I know

in the morning i wake up i feel like my i was like uh i'm gonna have a light day today you know so i can tell how my body feels and um to to what what i'm gonna do that day so if let's say i got like two sessions scheduled in i probably miss my morning one and then go to my evening one or if i feel fucked and i'll take the whole day off so I know I have to listen to my body and white needs and how to when to push and when not to push. But you just listen to your body you're not looking at a heart rate monitor you know that's interesting. None of it. Do you get massages? Yeah yeah I get massages every week in camp I use chorotherapy. Cryotherapy? Yeah that's it

the cold chamber once a week as well. So I do both of them. This camp I was using chiropractor. Got like a bad injury on my back now. Are you using saunas at all? No. No? I hate saunas. Because of cutting weight?

Yeah, I hate it. I did it once in Brazil. Never again. Nah, I hate it. Now, how much weight do you cut when you make 170? So normally I'm like about 90 kg. I don't know what's that in pounds. I'm like a kg guy.

90 kilograms is what? That's 182. That's like 190 something. Yeah, 190, 191 I think. Let me see. Yeah, I'm like, are you kg? Why the fuck didn't the United States pick up kilograms It says 198 Why didn't the United States pick up the metric system It's so fucking stupid

We're one of the few countries America That's why America They tried it when I was a kid They tried the metric system on us They were teaching us the metric system The whole was a kid, they tried the metric system on us. Yeah. They were teaching us the metric system and they're, they're like the whole world's going to convert to the metric system.

And the United States tried it for a couple of years. Oh, fuck it. Nope. And they went, nah, that was like, I think when Jimmy Carter was president,

I'm pretty sure. And then Reagan came along and said, fuck you and fuck the metric system. It's just so dumb. Well, it's England's England's interesting. Cause you you guys have stone too which is so weird yeah we have 13 pounds yeah stone is like 12.5 i think 13 yeah yeah we use kg stones i don't know i don't know about pounds when i wear myself in pounds like the fuck what do i do that's from that uh acdc song whole lot of rosie isn't isn't doesn't she 16 stone in that song

isn't that what it is that's part of the lyrics of that i remember like being a kid going what the fuck is he talking about weighing in at 16 at 16 stone. Like, what is it? 19 stone. 19 stone. Oh, that's big. That's a big gal. What is that? Heavyweight gal. What is 19 stone?

Let's guess. What is that like? Nice. Heavy? It's a big 260. 260? Oh, Jesus. That's a big girl.

Squat. Whole lot of Rosie. Maybe I make heavyweight. Yeah, so squat soon. Where the fuck did stone come from? I don't know Because when we do the weigh-ins in England Stones?

They yell it out in stone And then I would have to say the weight No, I didn't do it in my head I'd be fucked, I'm an idiot I'd have no chance I'd have to have my phone out Hold on, hold on I'm going to figure this out.

Because it's 13 something, right? It's not just 13. Oh, it's 14 pounds. Just 14 even? Oh, okay. That makes it easier, I guess. But either way. Yeah, the kilogram thing is confusing.

I don't understand why we never adopt it. Yeah, I don't know. But I always use KG. So even when I'm a nutritionist, nutritionist is like what do you weigh i'm like i'm like five week normal like 83 kg five week then i cut down from there to to make um water weight so um yeah i don't know where it came from so your last um few days are you uh loading water loading yeah so a water load it depends how much you have to get off

but a water load for about four days probably so Sunday to about Wednesday so it's not a drastic cut nah nah nah I like to get it down in

in camp right I don't like to crash crash your weight I think it messes up your strength and your cardio for sure if you just crash it right

so I like to get it down to a point where i'm comfortable cutting it you know so yeah you're not really bad not too bad when you see those guys that cut big like did you see rodolfo vieira's last fight no you know vieira's that uh massive brazilian jiu-jitsu guy he fights at 85 but he he's a gorilla i mean the dude is so jacked. He did a fight? He, um... Shit. Pull up Rodolfo Vieira's record. He fought this kid who was a young guy

who was a huge underdog, Anthony Hernandez. And Anthony Hernandez survived and then started putting him on. It was an amazing performance by Hernandez because he was a huge, huge underdog in the fight. Because look at that picture of Vieira. Get a picture of Vieira.

The dude is a gorilla. I mean, he's just carved out of granite. Look at that six-pack. I mean, come on. Who the fuck wouldn't want that six-pack? Jesus. But just gassed out hard. Did he?

Yeah, real bad. Real bad. By the end of the first round. You know what he cut? I want you six pack. Jesus. But just gassed out hard. Did he? Yeah, real bad. Real bad. By the end of the first round. You know what he cut? How much did he cut? A lot. A lot. He looks so big.

When he's in the octagon, he looked like he was like 215, something like that. Nah, I think that's too much. I think you've cut too much and put on too much. I think it's a bit detrimental to your performance. So I try to maintain it a little bit to not crash it do you think it's possible that they could ever get to a point where there's no weight cutting um nah you don't think so nah that's what everybody says yeah i know nah i can't see it i think unless you put like put like loads of weight like boxing does

it like loads of weight classes right then probably but no i still i can't see it now i wish they did one more more weight classes yeah i wish they had more weight classes maybe not as much as boxing but i wish they did it every 10 10 pounds i think i think there's a lot of weight limits where there's just too big of a jump like 85 to 205 that's a big jump that's crazy that's 20 fucking pounds and no other no other champions in between there that's nuts um yeah but in boxing it's kind of like ruined the boxing as well right because some different belts and different weight classes is like you'd be well to wait like there's like four champions in there he's like nah but that's this that's happening kind of in mma with all the different champions in different organizations you know there's like, nah. But that's happening kind of in MMA with all the different champions

and different organizations. You know, there's legitimate champions in other organizations now, like Pitbull in Bellator is a legit champion. Douglas Lima is a legit champion. Like, they've got some legit champions. Yeah. Nemkov. They've got some legit champions yeah um nem cough they got legit guys i know but i think it put more classes just water it water it down and maybe but then but you're you're built for 70 like it works you got lucky true if you were one of those guys it was between

85 and 205 you're like yeah it's a big jump yeah he's he tried it right and yeah i think i think if if you build his body up a little bit more you had more success yeah like all it is didn't cut weight and just like um went to fight uh john jones he's like been building that for a year yeah you know is he said that that's how he was gonna do it too and he said that John was making a mistake. And, you know, I just think if you're dealing with grapplers, man, you need that weight. Yeah, for sure, 100%. You know, if it's just a kickboxing match, maybe you don't need that weight, you know, because Izzy's so fast.

And he was doing good. He was catching him with good shots. The bigger guy is holding the shots. Well, Bohovich is an interesting cat because you know he's a champ now at 38 years old polish power legendary legendary polish legendary and that fucking shit is legendary no the way he put it on dominic reyes i was like holy fuck he can crack i mean jan bohovich can fucking crack he has some of the best punching power I've ever seen in the light heavyweight division. Because he hits guys with weird punches.

He hits guys with short shots, little short shots, and fucks them up. Fucking solid. Nice guilt. He's 38? Yeah, he's 38. Oh, shit.

Yeah, he made his debut in the UFC when he was 31. And worked his way through and figured it out. And now, top of the food chain at you know an advanced age 38 is pretty advanced and he's it looks fucking great i wonder what what he puts that down to to having success now in his later career you know i wonder what it is i don't know maybe it's maturity maybe it's experience you know maybe train smarter i don't know but his fucking power is extraordinary you know even the way he approached the fight with izzy i thought he was gonna out class him on the feet you know but

he was he did good man on the feet you know he did he was out jabbing him in everything there's always extreme consequences with that guy you know because you know izzy always had to be careful because all it takes is one shot from that dude. Yeah. You know? The powerhouse. It's the division without Jon Jones, though. It's like, fuck. Like, Jon Jones is the division. Yeah, for sure.

I think it's been through, like, three generations of fighters, right? It's been through three generations. I mean, he really is undefeated. You know, they have the one loss that was a... Yeah, Matt Hamill. But he was smashing him. Yeah. It was just a disqualification, which is ridiculous. But, you know they have the one loss that was a yeah but he was smashing him yeah it was just a disqualification which is ridiculous but you know yeah I think it

going for the go I think I think Jones should be to go there's it's hard to say because different classes right well yeah Khabib a lot of people have the argument that Khabib's ago but I think in terms of accomplishments no one's accomplished more than John exactly I know like i said it's been through three generations of fighters you know it can be it's good for what he did but you haven't done it in a short period of time right so i think if you've got a longer career probably yeah well if john goes up to heavyweight and wins the heavyweight title the discussion's over the discussion i'd love to see him versus francis that would be good francis versus anybody is so so nerve-wracking

i want to see francis and derrick lewis again i want to see a rematch of that fight because lewis was here last week his back was pretty fucked up going into that fight yeah he thought he knocked out um blaze double week yeah crazy crazy power he's the only guy in the UFC in the heavyweight division that has that same kind of power that Francis has you can't make any mistakes

with either one of those guys both guys have crazy power that blades knockout was brutal good it was an uppercut

right yeah it was good it was a good shot but for me uppercuts are not my shots it depends who you

find and what what stance they got but for me it's a hard shot to land well he just said the way he was describing he said curtis bends in when he uh goes for a shot he doesn't go down and drop to the knees and drive forward like a lot of other wrestlers do yeah he bends down and so they knew it and they were timing it and they were yeah scary the powerhouse is good even francis i think francis probably beat him again if it's a fight if i pick who knows man it's a good it's a good fight though it's one of those things though like francis can't get hit by him no nobody can get hit by derrick lewis like he can knock out anybody yeah like both guys can knock each other out. What does he weigh? Derek? Yeah.

He's got to be 270, 275, somewhere around then. I think he cuts a little weight to get down to 265. Oh, and on the chin? Yeah. And his fucking head is this big. Is it? He's just so fucking giant. He can take it, too.

But do you remember when Sean Jordan knocked him out? Sean Jordan hit him with a hook kick. I didn't see that one. It was crazy as shit. I kick Like crazy as shit It was like real early in Derek's career But Jordan hit him with a fucking hook And Sean Jordan is this really big football player dude Yeah See if you can find that fight I didn't see that

It's crazy In the UFC? Yeah Yeah he hit him with a hook kick And like you look at him and you're like This guy is not throwing a hook kick and they're like you look at him you're like this guy's not throwing a hook kick because he's built like he's just like like a football player he's built like a lineman he's so huge and he gets his his heel up there and i think derrick was like what the fuck did i just get hit with clean out no he dropped him and then he finished him off

if i remember it correctly it was quite a quite while ago. I want to say it was like... Yeah. Watch this. This is early. Look at that. Isn't that crazy? Like, how does it even get up there? I know. Watch this.

The lead... Like, out of nowhere. I know. The lead leg is all right. Yeah. Well, he kind of switched it right before he threw it. Oh, so then he got on top and then beat him up. And then finished him this way. See? Watch how he does this. Like, he switched it right before he threw it. Oh, so then he got on top and then beat him up and then finished him this way. See, watch how he does this.

Like he switched it. Oh, shit. Yeah. That's a wild kick to see a giant dude like that throw. But he's a crazy athlete. Sean can do backflips and shit, which, you know, for a 260-pound heavyweight, it's pretty nuts to see.

I'd love to learn the the the spinning sidekick there it is oh i wish i had a bag here yeah i love to learn it i've been trying to do it but always even my knees are too high or something this doesn't feel solid you know yeah it's a thing that you have to start out with the sidekick you learn how to throw the sidekick properly first and then learn how to do it in the air learn how to do the the turning sidekick in the air yeah because everybody does it on the bag but if you learn it on the bag the problem is you get used to spinning instead of turning like you do it in the air so that when you extend the kick it goes straight so that every time you so like i when i learned it i learned it on the line line. Like you would do a line on the floor of the gym.

So you would turn and then make sure the kick is on the same line as the heel. So you turn and kick and then extend the leg, turn, kick, extend the leg, and then eventually go to hitting things. But if you do it that way, then you learn how to get the weight to go forward. Because when people do it on a bag bag you kind of get used to spinning your whole body into it that's what i do you're like 40 like missing the bag and shit going everywhere fuck your ankles up too because you you'll catch it with your toes you'll catch it with the ball your foot and hyper extends your ankle you land it with the heel right yeah you

want to land it with the blade the blade of the foot like have you ever stopped in the water with it oh yeah yeah yeah that was my shit good that's the only it's the only video i have of me uh fighting in the taekwondo tournament on is knocking somebody out with a spinning back kick you got it on here yeah can i see it yeah it's on youtube it was uh 19. when i was a wee lad a wee lad yeah it's uh it's it's a brilliant technique because there's so much torque in it You know that that's good if you can the move. Yeah, your legs there it is. Boom. Oh As it went the kickers are right, yeah It's

Yeah, it sucks. Getting hit with that is terrible. I mean, you see it in the UFC when guys get hit with it. It's just horrible. Has anyone stopped anyone in the UFC with it? I've seen people throw it, but not like, boy, just stop the fight. It's been a while. I know... Who's the last guy to do it?

I'm trying to remember people who've stopped people. Charles McCarthy got stopped with it back in the day. Yeah, I can't remember in a recent fight if someone got spinning. Dennis Seaver. Didn't Dennis Seaver used to stop people with it? I think he stopped somebody with it. I don't know, man. It'll work, though.

Nah, it's a good technique for sure. There's a dude in 1FC that's got a fucking wicked one. I like what I see. Yeah. He's boxing in little gloves, right? Yeah. I like watching that. You can kind of use it for MMA, right?

To see what the techniques are used. Because some people, because they're smaller gloves, your block is different. But these guys are... Yeah, this dude. Look at that guy. Kevin... How do you say that word? Belingons. Belingons. Yeah, he's. Look at that guy. Kevin, how do you say that word?

Bellingons. Bellingons. Yeah, he's a beast, man. This kid has got one of the best spinning back kicks I've ever seen. And it's off the side. It's a side kick. It's a turning side kick. Look at that.

Boom. See how straight it is? It's brilliant. Look at that. Turns. Boom. I mean, it's like getting hit by a car. Yeah, it's a time love as i probably can use it as well to set up your spinning back fist as well right oh yeah for sure i mean just some guys that come

from that taekwondo background they learn how to do it and then they learn everything else that's the key i think oh look at that i think the key is like then he throws a wheel I think the key is like, and then he throws a wheel kick too. The key is learning that first, like when you're a young kid, and then learning all the other stuff later. Wow, spinning? Yeah, learning how to do those kind of techniques, sidekicks and turning sidekicks. And then learning takedown defense and striking, Muay Thai and everything else later. Why? Because Taekwondo is only effective

If you know all those other things Like when I learned Taekwondo One of the big wake up calls Was when I started fighting and kickboxing And I was sparring against boxers And kickboxing and just getting fucked up Because my hands were terrible Oh your hands were different?

Yeah and my hands sucked Because I was just kicking Because Taekwondo is just all kicking But the thing about all kicking is you you get really good at kicking kicking yeah because you can do things that you really can't do if a guy's punching yeah right you really can't get away with ranges all right different range overcrowd you with the shots exactly exactly makes sense but you could develop leg dexterity from doing it that way. And then once you get proficient at it, then you learn all the other stuff. And then you could actually apply it.

I tried to do it before. I found a good taekwondo coach in the UK to just use the site, add tools to my arsenal. There's a video of me teaching GSP. Is there? Yeah. There's a video of me teaching GSP. Is there? Yeah.

And if you find the video of me teaching GSP, the thing about that video is that you could see how I break it down. You could see what's important about extending the foot and the difference between the way. Some people like to do it where your knee is low and you kick up, but you lose all the power in it. And the key is having the knee up. That's why doing it in the air is so important. Well for the balance in the air see like I was We were I was trying to show him like the difference between the way he does. This is him. Yeah I don't know if this is before before I showed him or Really it wasn't in the beginning Really?

It wasn't in the beginning? No, because you weren't in. I skipped ahead in the video where there wasn't even anything going on. Oh, I thought I kicked it. You're showing it there, I guess. I think it was way before that, man. You're just wiping the mat off. No, no, no.

Watch. Watch. I'm wiping the mat off at the beginning, but I think I had already thrown a kick by then. I think it's the very beginning. I don't need the taekwondo for? I started when, yeah, there it is. It's the very beginning.

I started when I was 15. I did karate when I was 14, and then when I was 15, I got really into taekwondo. But yeah, I'm wiping the mat down because the beginning of it's kind of fucked up but if you watch that video i break you can learn from it i break it down how would you set it up from let's say that i'm softball right they're going towards my right then you spin right how'd you when was your first your timing of it

when someone's coming at you it's the best because you can catch them coming in like if someone's coming at you, it's the best because you can catch them coming in. Like if someone's coming at you and you know, especially if someone's fights flat, you know, but you can also set it up with other things. You switch stances. I see you do that a lot. You can set it up as you switch stances. That's a good way to do it too. You can set it off, off a round kick. Like you throw a round kick and then immediately, like the round kick is almost like a setup

for that. So throw the round kick and then boom, go into it. there's a lot of different ways to do it but catching someone coming at you is the most effective because it's a it's such a ruthless counter because their weight is coming forward and then you you extend oh it's horrible it's horrible so you're landing landing in the solar plexus yeah it's not a knee when you land a good knee in the solar plexus oh yeah takes you we're not you man man body shots like a crazy technique right just shuts your body down

yeah even if you land it properly well you're such a good athlete if you just found someone who was a Taekwondo coach that could show you how to do it right

you would pick it up yeah nah I was trying to find something that's good yeah yeah I'm trying to find something I'm good at like

roundhouses like head kicks body kicks but I don't think I got the it's the the turn yeah the turn i'm more like falling short i can show you afterwards just the turn part of it it's not it's not hard to

learn but the thing is like you got to learn it on the air that learning it in the air is the best way to do it yeah keep your balance right yeah i mean you're always keeping your leg here i'm like falling over yeah it's the whole idea is to get the weight going forward as you kick. Like sometimes people kick and when they hit things, they're actually bouncing off. You want to just make sure the weight is going forward. Yeah, that's me. I bounce off.

So I'll work on it. It's a good technique to use. I'm always interested in adding to my arsenal. So I added my elbows and started using my elbows. I caught Gunn Nelson with a good one in R in rda and even cowboy he was a um it's a good technique i realized in mma the inside fighting the not many fighters of school and fighting on the inside to get to like like lock up over over unders the underside grappling or you throw a few leg stomps knees to the body but they're not very schooled in using the Thai up

to open for elbows and for knees. So I thought I'd add that to my arsenal, and it's been working good. Have you done any training in Thailand? No. Have you ever wanted to do that? I love to go there. I would say every year I'm going to Thailand this year,

but I never get to go. That seems like if I was fighting, that would be the place I would would want to go the motherland go to the motherland and learn like one of them crazy gyms that's outdoors all right yeah i mean it's just i watch it on youtube it's like oh it's a padman right was like how that apparently kicks him then like he goes to kick then i just kicks his legs away. You're not learning nothing. There's some bad guys over there that are hilarious. It's just amazing that this one country figured out this incredible way to fight.

It's really wild, right? And it's effective. Fuck yeah, it's effective. It's crazy. It's not big either, right? In the UK anyway. It's not like a popular sport. You don't get paid much. It's weird, really.

It is weird because everybody likes stand-up. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, everybody likes stand-up fights. But yet Muay Thai, for whatever reason, as a pro, as a pro sport, never really took off in America. Look at Glory. Glory's big. It's not that big. Yeah, to be fair, it's not big in the UK.

Unfortunately. Well, I went to watch Rico. Botter? Yeah. No, he went botter. We were just fighting. I can't remember what we fought. And I went to Holland to watch him.

There's like 30,000 people in the arena. I was like, what the hell? Oh, they don't fuck around in Holland. I was like, what the fuck? In Holland, it's huge. Yeah, it's huge. He came to the UK to have a fight and it didn't sell much, you know.

But when I went to Holland, I thought it didn't sound much you know but when I went to Holland I thought it would be the same thing but it was like a big arena with 30,000 people no it's huge in Holland

I mean kickboxing in Holland I mean think about all the champions Ernesto Hoost you know Rob Kamen

you know I love to watch Ramon Decker Gokhan Saki Gokhan Saki yeah Turkish Tyson he's a bad

motherfucker I like to watch him man he puts combinations together no he's wicked you know the fights in Go Kansaki, yeah. Turkish Tyson. He's a bad motherfucker. I like to watch him, man. He puts combinations together good. No, he's wicked. You know, the fights in Glory and K-1, they're so exciting. But for whatever reason, it just never took off in America, like boxing or MMA. Same in the UK, which is weird because it's striking, right?

Everyone loves to see knockouts. So I don't know what it is. I don't know. i don't know what it is to i don't know they don't know either yeah no one no one knows like what it takes to make it big it's weird really but i love boxing because it's got a long history behind it you know and you can trace it back to back in like back to slavery days and stuff like that so that's the reason why i love boxing you know i love to watch like old school documentaries and just the mindset of the fighters um back in the day and where they approach their game we were just talking about uh haggler before um the the uh podcast started and how crazy it is that he's gone it's i just can't believe it it's just i thought that guy like he was so he was so disciplined.

When I was a kid, I remember, you know, I talked about it in this Instagram post that I made. They had some profile of him when he was preparing. I think he was preparing for a Mustafa Ham show, and he was running on the beach, and it was in the winter. That's the one to ask you about. I remember watching you and Tyson was on the podcast, right? He's like, he's running in the snow, screaming, war.

Yeah. And I was trying to find it all week for five weeks. Fuck, man. I wish I could find it. Where? Do you know where it is? No. I couldn't find it nowhere.

I've been looking for it, too. No one can find it. Fuck! I mean, like, it's happening in war in YouTube. There's, like, threads about it. I heard Rogan talk about it. Yeah, yeah. I can't find it.

I can't find it nowhere. I'm like, where did I see that? I'm not trying to find it. Some local news show. It was like, I was probably like 15. Yeah. And I remember just watching it going. Because he was doing sit-ups and push-ups.

And he was just so disciplined. Nobody was more conditioned than Hagler. Nobody. When he fought Mugabe, he just kept the heat on him. Just kept the heat on him'm just kept a heat on Fuck that fight was crazy Mugabe was putting people to sleep Look, I remember I was working at this boxing gym and they were talking about Mugabe like long before he fought Hagler But he fought this dude and gained brain damage. She like he knocked him out. He's like the guy was never the same again

It's like there's certain guys that just have punching power That's just out of this world and Mugabe one of them do you remember julian jackson um no i don't think fuck julian jackson was another one he had this they called him the hawk he had this crazy punching power i mean he looked he looked like a solid guy but for whatever reason when that guy would touch people they would just stiffen up julian jackson is like one of the most ferocious power punchers ever in the history of boxing. Yeah, I love Hagler. I've been watching him all week, which is weird, right? Because I haven't watched Hagler for like about a year, two years.

I haven't watched him. But for some reason, I just felt that energy last week, fight week. So from Sunday to when I got to Vegas, I was just watching him, watching him, watching him. I was posting on my Instagram even posted on my Instagram all week I was posting him and then just before I left

to go to the Apex I was watching his fights then I went to my room to to have a little rest then I got a message that Aguilas dead

I was like I just posted him like an hour ago that's fucking crazy crazy yeah well like you said he's disciplined and the way the way he worked and that's inspiration um inspiration to me you know and i watched his documentary that his first 30 fights he didn't get paid no more than like he said like twelve thousand dollars or something because there was no like no one no one wants to fight him you know and just i took inspiration from that you know what else i love he got out on top yeah he's like

i'm done try to get a rematch with sugary leonard sugary leonard said no and he's like i thought i won that fight as well i did too yeah i thought you won when i watched it it was a split decision right i think it was and so he just said good i'm done that's it out on top and the rest of his life spoke well. Never had problems with, you know. What do you think that is? Because some people, like, for example, Ali, you know, I know it took a lot of punishment. But for some reason, some people get it, some people don't get it.

What do you think that is? Well, there's a gene. I think it's, what is the gene that makes someone more likely to get CTE? I think it's APOE4. I think that's what it is. But there's a gene variant that Rhonda Patrick discussed, Dr. Rhonda Patrick discussed when she was on the podcast, that it specifically makes people more susceptible to CTE. Yeah, but it's also it's like heavyweights man i mean you

think about the punishment that ali took from frazier from foreman i mean the big god larry yeah yeah i'm sitting on the ropes the rope it out yeah i mean trevor burbick those were terrible terrible fights to watch what he just was getting battered. And, you know, and also Larry Holmes was his sparring partner, right? So, I mean, just imagine sparring with Larry Holmes all the time. Every week, yeah. Yeah, just that's where a lot of the damage comes from, unfortunately. Sparring? Yeah, and this is what Max Holloway's thought process is about not sparring.

He's like, I want to keep my head fresh. So when I fight, I don't have, you know, I'm not going in there already banged up. Yeah. You know, and it's like i want to keep my head fresh so when i fight i don't have you know i'm not going in there already banged up yeah you know and it's like i already know how to fight yeah i don't spar at camp but in camp i spar you know but um when i'm not in camp i don't spar at all i do like i do like obviously wrestle spar and jiu-jitsu spar but i don't do headshots um spar but in camp i spar headshots yeah yeah so i think everyone's different right it's like it's up to you if it works for you works for you like max halloway looked fucking great last time i can't argue with that so it's like you can't argue with him right

his way work for himself he's such an interesting guy too because he's so unassuming yeah like if you met him you would have no idea yeah i met him in vegas if you're just hanging out with him he's so unassuming. Like, if you met him, you would have no idea. Yeah, I met him in Vegas. If you're just hanging out with him, he's like, oh, he's this friendly guy who's just a stone-cold fucking killer when he gets in there, you know? Nah, he's good. But he's that durable as well, you know?

Yeah. You know what he's doing, man. But he doesn't throw, like, power shots. He's like, tap, tap, tap. Yeah. Just in your face, you know? Touching, touching, touching. And I like him.

He's good. He's good. He's amazing. I'm really interested to see next weekend Volkanovski is going to fight Brian Ortega. That's an interesting fight, too. That's a good fight. That's this weekend, right? Yeah. That's a good fight.

Yeah, what do you think? Well, you know what? When you see how good Max Holloway is, then you got to appreciate how good Volkanovski is. Yeah. Because Volkanovski beat him twice. Second fight was very close. A lot of people thought Max could have won that fight. But bottom line is, everybody else, Max is running over.

Yeah. You know, I mean, except Dustin, Dustin Poirier. But that's at 155. That's not his weight class. It's like Izzy, right? You can't judge him from that performance because that's not his weight class. He tried. That's not his weight class, Yeah, you can't. It's like Izzy, right? You can't judge him from that performance because that's not his weight class. He tried.

That's not his weight class, you know? I wonder if he does it again and if he does it again, I wonder if he decides to gain weight this time. I wonder what his approach is going to be.

But then it's going to be hard to come back down to middleweight, right? Maybe. So it's like, if I was him, I wouldn't do it again. Not now, anyway.

Unless I'm the one who wants to move up permanently, then I'll build like Jon Jones is doing. I'll build my body into it. Well, there's good fights for him at 85. The winner of Kevin Holland and Derek Brunson,

that's a big fight. That's a big fight. If Holland can win, Holland, I mean, that kid's a star. If he can win. I think he wants to fight Darren Taylor as well, right? Yeah. Well, Darren Taylor's going to fight Vittori. Marvin Vittori gave Izzy one of his hardest fights.

That guy is fucking good. Nah, he's good. He's good. Yeah. Vittori is probably one of the most underrated guys in that division. Nah, he's tough. That was a good fight. I'd probably go Darren, but I think that'd be a good fight.

Yeah. And Calvin Gastelum is now going to step in and fight Robert Whittaker, which is interesting too. Did they fight before? Or was it meant to fight before? They were meant to fight before, I believe. They didn't fight, did they? No. I don't think they ever fought before.

I think they were meant to fight and something happened. I'm trying to remember. They did Tough, right? Did they? No, they didn't. Oh, no. I saw a picture the other day. Really?

Both in Tough clothes. I don't know if they're in the house together or what. I don't know. I like Dana White's Tuesday night contender series better than tough. Because I don't want all that drama shit and arguing over who ate whose asparagus. Whitaker and Gaston were scheduled to fight when Whitaker was still champion in 2019. Whitaker is home country of Australia. Canceled the morning of the event when Whittaker was hospitalized and underwent

emergency surgery for a collapsed bowel and internal hernia oh that's right that's right it was the day of the fight I remember that

oh that's right that'd be good Whittaker looked great since getting beat by Izzy yeah he looked fucking amazing

his sidekicks like those to the knee as well is a good technique to use against wrestlers anyway. Well, he learned it from Yoel. You know, Yoel fucked him up in the first fight.

He started using it? Yeah, Yoel hurt his knee. He fucked up his knee in the first fight doing that. If you think that should be illegal? No. How are you going to make it illegal? Nah, you can't make it illegal.

You can't. You can't make it illegal. I know people are saying, oh, you should make it illegal. I know even Wonderboy said that. Like, how are you saying that? Did he? Yeah, he said he doesn't like it.. I know people are saying, oh, you should make it illegal. I know even Wonderboy said that. Like, how are you saying that? Did he? Yeah, he said he doesn't like it.

He uses it though, right? Wonderboy. I guess you use it because it's legal. Yeah. But you wish it wasn't legal, I guess, maybe? Nah, leave it. I think it's fine. Yeah, it's fine.

Leave it. How come heel hooks are legal then? It's like the elbow, the 12 to 6 elbow. That's ridiculous. Put that back in. Yeah, throw it back in there. It's crazy. You can do it over angle. Yeah, it's like the elbow the 12 to 6 elbow that's ridiculous put that back yeah it's crazy you can do every other angle yeah it's so dumb but do you know where it came from where big john mccarthy told me that it came from the athletic commissions had watched espn and they remember they used to have those karate demonstrations where they break bricks yeah

they thought that that was too powerful, that that technique was too dangerous. The fuck? The 12- The fuck? The fuck? Did it? Exactly. That's where it came from. That's why the 12-6 elbow is illegal.

It's so dumb. That's mad. I didn't know that was the reason. That's the reason. And it's still illegal, which is really hilarious. It's like a legacy rule. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Nah, I think it's- I mean, this elbow's harder.

This elbow's harder than this. Yeah, I think I can generate more power this way than coming down this way. Yeah, it's a more natural move. Yeah, yeah. It's because you're throwing your shoulder in it. This just seems odd. And you can put your whole hips into it, you know?

Yeah. So I think this should put it back in there. I think so, too. There's a lot of things that should be back in there i think so too there's a lot of things that should be back in there i wonder if uh knees to a grounded opponent like what did you think about that al jamein sterling peter yan ending um i think if it was hurt right if it's generally hurt then i think um it's justified but um if it wasn't hurt and he just did it just to get a title, then it's different. But it was clearly an illegal shot. It was clearly illegal.

But why is that illegal? That's my question. Like, if you have two hands and you have one knee down, why is it illegal to hit someone with a knee? I don't know. You can do this. Why would it be illegal i can kind of get it if your both hands are on the ground yeah maybe i kind of get it but even then i don't get it i think the problem is the cage that's the problem the cage yeah because if there was no cage here i go with this i go with this every every few months i go on a rant about this that they should just

have it like a basketball arena like if you're playing basketball right there's no cage around those guys yeah they're running around they have a big space yeah but what about like put them in the middle yeah but what about like war wrestling and shit yeah but why why wrestle but why but why wall wrestling? See, that's the thing. It's like you're using the wall becomes a part of the strategy. Yeah. You're pushing someone against it or you're pushing off of it to get back up.

But if you just have just open space, first of all, it's easier for everybody to see. Like they do a lot of kickboxing tournaments like that where they don't have rings now. I've seen kickboxing tournaments where they just lay mats out. Do they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, amateur smokers. Like, I just, there was one on, there's a fucking, one of those Muay Thai pages. I was watching them a couple of days ago. But if that was the case, then you could do all sorts of shit that you can't do.

Like, knees to a downed opponent. Because the problem is if someone's trapped. If you're trapped against the cage. The allergen is still in the middle. You're in the middle of the octagon, right? That's why it seems like that should be legal to me. You can punch him, but you can't knee him? Why?

Why can you punch him in the face? If the guy's down like that, why is it okay to elbow him in the face, but you can't knee him? Why? Why can you punch him in the face? If the guy's down like that, why is it okay to elbow him in the face but you can't knee him? I wonder why, yeah, why it is,

why they chose to do that, you know? But it's like, where do you draw the line, right? Yeah. You have to draw the line somewhere,

so. I guess. Like stomps, I don't believe stomps should be, like, legal. Stomps on the foot?

To the head. Oh, you don't think it should be illegal? No it should it should be illegal should be yeah yeah that's like remember pride but they used to allow stomps some vanderley silva knockouts were ruthless he just stomped on dude's head that that's like barbaric right it's just like it's kind of barbaric yes that way do you draw the line to sport and madness. Like soccer kicks. That was the other thing about Pride. They allowed soccer kicks. It made it exciting.

It's wild shit. For the general public to be like, what the fuck is happening? Getting stomped in your head. I used to think that they should have no gloves. I used to think that you should be able to fight with no gloves. Because I was like, well, why is it okay to hit someone with a shin but your knuckles have to be padded that doesn't make any sense you fucking hands for a break right well or fragile it's also the cuts yeah like when you watch that bare knuckle fighting championship you realize people just get sliced

open nah you have to have gloves i think it's just change i think you should look looking like changing the gloves i don't know what you could change it to is the question, you know? Onyx, Trevor Whitman's company, has the best gloves. Yeah, they're the best. I mean, they're so superior to the gloves they use now. Yeah. They're completely full. It's like you would know this better than anybody that the UFC gloves make your hand want to open. Yeah, just pads there, right?

Nothing stops it from doing this, you know? It almost like forces your hand into to open. Yeah, yeah. It's just pads there, right? Nothing stops it from doing this. Yeah. You know? It almost like forces your hand into an open position. You got to fight against it to close your fist. Especially when you got wraps on. Yeah. It's not naturally like this anyway. But you have to like, like you said, you have to fight to close your fist. For sure.

But the Onyx gloves that Trevor Whitman designed, your hand is always curved. Your hand is curved. So if you want to open it up, you can't. But the resistance is to open it. Yeah. So your hand is in a natural fixed position like this. And I think it's going to prevent a lot of hand breaks because I think it's better made.

Does it affect the grappling paw of it? That's a boxing glove. See if you get to Trevor Witten and his MMA gloves. I was just looking around for a good comparison. I'm pretty sure if you go to Trevor Witten and his MMA gloves. I was just looking around for a good comparison. I'm pretty sure if you go to his website, if you go to Onyx, his Onyx I don't know what he calls it. Is it Onyx

Equipment? Onyx Sports. It's the best MMA glove I've ever seen. By far. And I know the UFC was, that's his boxing glove again. Does he have a menu where you can see the equipment? There it is.

Yeah, he came where is it? It says training glove. I finished a look into it. Does he not have it for sale? That's the only glove on there. What? He doesn't have it for sale? Yeah, I guess he doesn't have it up there.

That's so weird. I wonder why it's not on his website. I know you could find it somewhere, but I wish I had a pair so I could show you. Yeah, I think they should at least look into

doing something to the gloves. It's been the same gloves now for how long? Forever. Yeah, I think I should at least look into doing something to do with gloves. It's been the same gloves now for... Forever. Yeah, forever. It's like boxing right there. They had to move up from back in the day. Yeah, even Pride's gloves are better. Pride's gloves, there was way less eye pokes in Pride.

And I think that was part of it because they're curved. They had more form fitted to a fist. But the Whitman ones are by far the best. No, nothing anywhere? I know how to find them in a second. Okay. No, it's still a good book.

It's just a way better design. The way he has it. And the knuckles are way more protected. It's like it forms around your knuckles. It's really excellent. That's it? That looks like pride, dude. That one on the left? Yeah, the one on the left is the pride glove

But you can see in that one how it's curved They gotta do something I thought maybe even there's a way to cover the fingers Nah, I don't wanna cover the fingers You wanna grapple, right? I know, but would it be like You remember those old school bag gloves? Yeah, yeah, yeah

Couldn't it be something like that? Where it covers the fingers that way? Nah, you won't be able to like Nah You could kinda Yeah, yeah, yeah. Couldn't it be something like that where it covers the fingers that way? Nah, you won't be able to like. Nah. You could kind of. Yeah, kind of, but your grips, you want to feel the grips, right? Yeah, I know. It's like.

What actually might be better in a way because like you'd have, like when your hands get slippery. Yeah. If you had the texture of the leather. Yeah. You could kind of hold on to things. Nah, you have to like feel. I'd have to like feel, you know. Yeah.

Feel the grips. I feel like the gloves to like feel yeah feel the grips from the gloves you can like probably start slipping off or is when you solid he's not play around your grips different how often do you do straight jiu-jitsu um once a week once we wrestle a wrestle three times a week three four times a week you know so I like grappling I don't really focus much on on jiu-jitsu jiu-jitsu i like mma jiu-jitsu is like mma grappling right i don't really focus on just doing jiu-jitsu you know i just do i do all do grappling you know which is war wrestling open mat wrestling um rolling so um yeah i never really I used to but as I get

older I kind of just do specific for the sport that I'm doing it was MMA I don't care about not being a black belt you know

you don't care at all no my culture is cute I have to I hate the gear right I do yeah yeah I was fucking

I was thinking stupid because you're fucking you're grappling with a guy he's grabbing your collar you're like he's not realistic you know but when you're because you're fucking, you're grappling with a guy, he's grabbing your collar, you're like, he's not realistic, you know, but if you're free flowing,

you got no top on, you can work free movement, it's better for me, you know, but my coaches keep telling me I need to do it to get my belt, but I was, I can't do it. Yeah,

it's kind of weird for MMA fighters, I think for MMA fighters, no gi is what much more easily applicable. But some people like the gi for the defensive purposes because you have to get out of things correctly. You have to really – like arm bars and things like that, you have to be very tactical in getting out because you can't just explode because you're wrapped up.

So you have to follow all the correct steps. And the thought process is that if you learn how to grapple correctly with the gi, your defense would be better. It definitely makes it more tighter, you know what I mean? Because when I roll guys that do the gi, they're definitely more tight, you know? But for me, I just want to do MMA, right? I don't want to compete in jiu-jitsu. No, never? You never want to?

I used to when I was a kid, when I was younger. I used to do jiu-jitsu yeah no never you never want um i used to when i was a kid when i was younger um i used to like do like jiu-jitsu tournaments and stuff like that but um now i was on the farm up my game around mma so everything i do has to fit into mma you know so yeah yeah you're so focused on your career you have to right yeah i think it's hard to like take time off to go do like a pure jiu-jitsu competition. Also, you can get injured. Exactly, you can get injured. So, yeah, I think everything you do, you should do it so it benefits your art

and what you're going to do in MMA. You should own other teammates that do compete in both MMA and jiu-jitsu. I mean, they enjoy doing jiu-jitsu. I enjoy MMA. I enjoy doing all of it.itsu but i enjoy i enjoy mma i enjoy doing all of it you know do you think you'd take a kickboxing fight um that's more your yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure um yeah 100 i love striking i love boxing i love kickboxing so it's this possibility for sure you know i mean depends on opportunity what comes up but um i love a boxing fight more than anything you know i got i got good good boxing when uh

i'm like a weird one right i can like adjust my style to do what i want to do so if i want to do i can when i go to a boxing gym i can i can be a boxer you know i can same guard that they they have and so um yeah i think it depends on opportunity how long do you see yourself fighting um It depends on the opportunity. How long do you see yourself fighting? It depends. I don't know.

38, probably. 37, 38. 37, 38? Yeah, it depends. I don't know. I might get to 37. I feel good. I keep going, you know?

That's the thing, right? With, like, modern science and learning how to recover better. Yeah, exactly. So it all depends on um what so i don't know what 10 years probably then they're probably hanging up start teaching is that what you want to do when you retire you want to be a coach yeah i want to um i'm all about giving back right so that's um i started like a charity as well in it with me me darren tell um jimmy manuel and the ufc to to do with knife crimes in the UK. Because in the UK, obviously, guns are illegal.

Not even the police carry guns, you know. But knife crimes in the UK is, like, big, you know. So I started a charity that's going to help with, like, at-risk youth that's involved in stuff like that. And we're partnering up with the police with a charity that's called legacy in the uk um they're already in the field and we're trying to basically um go there teach classes um if the kids obviously show up and behave then we'll pay for that gym membership for the year and just stuff like that anything to do with giving back that's my that's that's my passion you know and what is the name of your charity? I can't remember the name of it. It's called Knife Youth.

I can't remember. Youth Mentoring Program. Part of the UFC. They sponsored us with kit and like financing that helped us. Because one of my friends got killed last year, knife crimes, you know. And I've lost so many friends from knife crimes from getting stabbed that if you can do anything to give back and to help um that's my passion well that's a very worthy cause man it is a giant issue in the uk right it's big you got crazy

he got stabbed on um father's day oh shit fucked up his cousin his cousin called him out to for like help basically on father's day he had his daughter daughter with him they fucking took his daughter to to um in the car to go pick his cousin up and then fucking got stabbed with his fucking and i'm bled out on the floor in his neck oh jesus christ so yeah anything you can do to like help with anything to do with that i'll i'll help you know and so that and working with uh young up-and-coming fighters yeah yeah yeah 100 as i said i wanted this is why i want to achieve being a world champion coming from where i come from right so i can just show them that you can if you can touch it like i said it's more realistic so that's my my passion to give back to these young kids and um especially kids that's at risk or coming from broken homes or poor families and um if you can help one or two help them right

so that's it well leon um i'm glad you got some attention from your your last fight and i'm sure you're going to get more but i just want more people to understand how good you are because it's so rare that someone gets to the level that you're at and just for unfortunate circumstances doesn't have the same amount of attention. Usually when a guy's as good as you are, everybody fucking knows. I think a lot more people know now. It's getting there.

I want everybody to know., but it's getting there, you know? I want everybody to know. Same. Same. It's getting there, you know? I think fight by fight, it will come. I think obviously getting more push from the UFC as well

will be good as well, you know what I mean? So, yeah, fight by fight, the more I beat these guys out there, the more I beat the guys that think that's good, the recognition will come,

right? So, you're going to go and talk to the UFC. You're flying to Vegas tonight, right? Yeah. And do they have a timeline, do you know, about when they'd like to see you back in there again? Well, I would like to be back straight away

because that files out one round, right? I didn't get to get in my flow. So straight away, really, I feel the same. We're trying to get Colville Covington, right? So we'll see what he says. Probably May, early June, May. Okay. so we'll see what he says probably May May early June May okay

so we'll see but I want to be active this year I had a long year and a half off so if I can bang them out I'll keep banging them out alright brother

well thank you very much for being here I'm a fan I appreciate you thank you and goodbye everybody Thank you.