The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #118 with Julianna Peña

Episode Date: January 27, 2022

Joe sits down with UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Juliana Peña.

the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day it's dope right yeah it's i don't think that's technically an nft it's like a digital representation of the nft he gave me an nft too but you have to put that in an NFT wallet. I don't know. What does that mean? What is an NFT wallet? That's how you store it. Exactly. What does that mean? I was right there with you when you were talking about you have no idea what this stuff

is and it's really complicated and everything. It's weird that they're so valuable. That's what's weird. But I'm actually going to try to start one. You should. Yeah. It seems like a scam that people were willingly participating in. So like, okay.

But this guy, Beeple, he's an amazing artist. He does art every day. He puts a new piece of digital art out every day, and he's done it for 12 years. I saw it, yeah. And he's got a gallery that they're building of all these these kind of things like this Elon thing of these giant digital artwork pieces yeah it's so that's like he's a different thing some people are just making NFTs of like an image of them like at the park or something like that I'm trying to figure out like what

I can give to like super fans, right? So I'm like, do they want an old fight bra or something? Do they want tickets to the fight? What do these guys want? What do you mean? They definitely want a fight bra. Yeah.

So I think I was going to stick some of that stuff, some weird stuff in there and be like, these are my old hand wraps. Do you guys want that? Is this an NFT? Is it hand wrap NFT? That's valuable. Jeremy Stevens gave me his wraps and his shorts from one of his fights

one of his victories and it's up in my uh studio in la oh nice i gotta bring that over here yeah so in the beginning like when i first met you uh today rather when i ran into you first thing i was like are you still on cloud nine like what is this like like you you you know it was matt sarah and gsp that was like the biggest upset ever in the history sport right but this is like i think this is there or bigger it might be bigger yeah i i mean i that wasn't my era i'm in the new generation yeah this is my era so of course to me it's it's the biggest but it was was huge because Amanda was terrifying. Like everybody was scared of her and you were the one that wasn't scared of her.

Yeah. No, you can't be. You're fighting. I know, but it's still, it's like, it's the way you did it was so wild. Like wild was that.

Like, DC sent me a text. Are you laughing because you were counting me out the whole time? No, I'm laughing because DC sent me a text and in the video, look counting me out the whole time? No I'm laughing because DC sent me a text And in the video

You're very excited I'm ready DC sent me a text and it was a video Of me and him doing commentary on your fight He goes bro listen to us we're just making weird noises Cause during the fight He's like ahhh He's screaming like a little girl

It was wild It was fucking wild. When you were standing toe-to-toe with her and smashing her with a jab in the middle of the octagon, we were gripping each other. We were like, oh shit, oh shit. You can't describe what that's like to watch because it's hard to believe that it's happening. I felt like if you had a chance to beat her it would be in a scramble you would catch her and submit her yeah a grapple exchange wear her down and submit her yeah but to see

you standing in the middle of octagon and smashing her with a jab it was like ah it was crazy it was so wild to see it was almost like the world changed yeah but the whole world changed like what is not possible is now possible yes well there's there's two things first is um there's styles we've already talked about that styles makes fights but i knew stylistically that i have the perfect uh style of fighting to beat her and because there's for example i'm not the type to run around the ring the whole time and do the point sparring thing and go to decision. It's like one of us is coming out of here and that's it.

That's just the way that my fighting style is. I'm the type where it's like if there's a big puncher, the only way to meet that is meet fire with fire. And I have to stand in the pocket. So I'm not the type of person to run away in the fight. I'm the type of person to meet that fire head on and match it with my own fire. And I knew that that was how I was going to win. And so that's pretty much all I did is just game plan that that was how I was going to win. And so that's pretty much all I did is just game plan that specific type of you're going to be in the pocket, you're

going to have to meet this fire, and you absolutely cannot shy away from it. Well, you said it leading up to the fight that you're going to drown her. Yeah. I mean, I've been calling for this fight for five years. Everyone's like, this girl's talking all this crap, you know, she's this and she's that and getting upset at me like, but I've been calling for this fight for five years everyone's like this girl's talking all this crap you know she's this and she's that and getting upset at me like but i've been calling for this fight since i won uh kat zingano at ufc 200. she beat misha that night i beat kat kat had just recently beat her and in the press conference amanda saying uh that i'm next and then ronda got to cut the line and you know ronda had just got knocked out by holly holm and instead of her you know having to fight somebody else she got an immediate title shot and she got to cut the line and you know ronda had just got knocked out by holly home and instead of her you know having to fight somebody else she got an immediate title shot and she got to cut the line

and i was like that was my fight she's the champ said that i was next and so ronda came in she got knocked out and then i you know i got put to the back of the line again but i was constantly saying even when ronda was champ and i won the ultimate fighter i kept saying i want to fight ronda i want to fight ronda and they wouldn't they wouldn't give me that fight. But the fact that she knocked out Ronda helped your fight. It really did. When you finally got her. Yeah.

Because she's a legend by then. True. Because before then, she was super dangerous. Everybody was very aware that Amanda was like super fucking dangerous. Yeah. And a vicious knockout artist. Yeah. But beating Ronda the way she did put her on the world map. Right.

When she knocked her out in 48 seconds, everybody was like, holy fuck. You know? a vicious knockout artist, but beating Ronda the way she did put her on the world map. Right. When she knocked her out in 48 seconds, everybody's like, holy fuck. Right. You know, and your fight with her was bigger because of all the delays. Because she achieved this goat status. Six years, I think, that she's been unbeaten,

just knocking people out for like the last six years. The fact that she knocked out Cyborg like that, incredible right and then you just stood right in the fucking pocket yeah i know and that's great is if i can get people emotionally invested in me whether it's in my successes or in my losses whatever it is as long as you're watching and as long as you're you know gripping your seat at the end of your seat and freaking out, I want to invoke that emotion in people. And that's why I love fighting, I think, is because, you know, whether you're invested in the loss or the success, you're watching and you're like feeling some type of way and your heart's, you know, going through your throat. And to get that reaction from people and to see the, you know, outpour of people reaching out to me and how I made them feel.

It was like it almost made me feel guilty in a sense. I'm like, really? Yeah. My dad lost 15 pounds. Like this guy's throwing up, you know, people are like putting, you know, this guy's like putting, you know, pissed off that they lost all this money, you know? And then there's people that are like super happy, but like the emotions of like people close to me is seeing how much I put them through. I'm like, I'm sorry I did that to you guys. You know, like it makes me feel bad, you through. I'm like, I'm sorry I did that to you guys. You know, like it makes me feel bad. You know, I'm like, oh man, I'm really putting these people through the ringer. Like I feel, I feel guilty, you know.

That's hilarious. Listen, they're all invested now. You know, after that fight, everybody's invested. Yeah. That was one of the best fights I've ever seen. Thank you. In terms of like, like what do you want out of a fight? You want to, you want to be completely immersed in it.

The world goes away. All you're thinking about is what's happening right in front of you. And because of your effort, because of what you accomplished that night, you change the way people think about what's possible and not possible. That's everything we want from a fight. Everything. You were the underdog. You came in. You were the underdog. You came in.

You were counted out by so many people. You fought the greatest of all time, and you fucked her up. And the way you did it, the whole world, everybody that watched that was like, holy shit, the world is a different place now. Yeah, it just goes to show you how strong the mind is and how it's going to sound corny, but my mom always used to tell me you can do anything you set your mind to. And that's almost true. I mean, it can't swim across the ocean. No. Okay. So it's almost true, but I mean, you got to be realistic obviously.

And people were upset about me like, oh yeah, you can't do this and you can't do that. Set some realistic standards for yourself. You know what I mean? You know, some old lady is not going to be obviously a world champion in the UFC, but she could find something that she's passionate about. She can pursue that with her whole heart and she can achieve whatever that goal is for whatever it is that she wants. You know, so you got to be realistic. But if you're passionate about something, how sad would it be for somebody to die with no passion? You know, to not be passionate about something. That's a very common thing.

You know, a lot of people never find the groove. They never find the thing that excites them and then never realize that facing that fear and then challenging themselves actually feels good because you accomplish it. You get through it. And then on the other end of it, you feel better. That's something that people,

everyone wants to seek comfort. And comfort's a terrible place to be. It's horrible. It's only good after you've already worked really hard and you deserve a little break. That's what comfort's for. Comfort's for like these small moments when you're not grinding.

Right. And I think that that's probably the thing that's been hardest in my life is having to choose the easy route or go the tough route. And just me by personality, I'm always gonna choose the harder road. It's almost like I know that I could go the tough route. And just me by personality, I'm always going to choose the harder road. It's almost like I know that I could go the easy route, but that's just not in me. That's not who I am as personality. It's like, if everyone's going this way, I have to go the other way. When you had

that catastrophic knee injury, I mean, that was, that was such an enormous setback. But how dark were those days? Like how hard was that for you? It was very depressing. Talk about wanting to hide under a rock and never come out. How did it happen? Explain the actual extent of the injury for people who don't know. I can tell you that I was in that moment very angry at the time. I was angry at my, the relationship that I was in at the time. And I went to the gym, angry and ready to like mess something up. And the training partner

that I was with, couldn't take me down. And we were fighting for real. And, and so at one point, he was just hugging on my neck, trying to take me down in desperation and we ended up being like shoulder to shoulder and he's like pulling me from the neck this way trying to pull me down and my leg got stuck in the mat and it just completely caved and sideways sideways sideways yeah i tore four out of five ligaments and when i uh went to step down on the mat my whole knee just like was came out from underneath me. It was like one of those disgusting things, like just flopping all over the place. So, you know, I made a mistake because on the way, you know, I had just won the ultimate fighter and I was getting ready to go to my next fight. And I was getting ready to fight Jessica Andrade, actually.

And when my my first reaction was I'm out of the fight. And so I was on the way to the hospital. I was on my way to, you know, go, but I was screaming bloody murder, freaking out. And my coach is like, call, call Dana, tell him that you're out of the fight. And so I called Dana as I'm on my way to the hospital, crying, telling him about my knee. And that was the biggest mistake ever because he literally blew it up and was like she got mauled by a bear her training partners are jealous they're trying to kill her you know what i mean yeah he told me leave that gym now like he made it a really big deal and and it just brought so much negative attention to my gym oh that's unfortunate it was unfortunate it was well dana cares but yeah

sometimes when you care you get a little crazy, well, it just ended up making him hate my coach. And, I mean, this is still the coach that I'm with for the last 13 years, you know? Well, that sucks. It does. Retraining injuries are just a thing. Yeah. I mean, some of them you can avoid, but you can't avoid personalities. You can't avoid people struggling.

You can't avoid, like, you zig when you should have zagged. Right. You can't avoid people struggling. You can't avoid like you zig when you should have zagged. Right. Well, and again, it was just my fault completely because I should have waited. I should have not gone into the gym in that moment and trained, you know. No one was watching.

It was just us. It was like no supervision, no like, you know, direction. It was just like we're fighting. Like, let's go, you know. And it was almost like a bad karma type of thing. It was like, no, no, no no don't act like that so was it because you think you you've trained the way you did because you were in a bad headspace yeah i was i had just recently saw something with my eyes that i perceived you know girls are weird you know they overthink everything so i saw something and i was

like oh no and then i went to the gym and angry, angry, angry, like just seething, seething, angry. It's so hard to just take that anger and, and put it aside and just think rationally when you're training, you see guys like spar angry and then drop their hands and swing wild. And it's like, God, the worst things happen when you do that well and um i think that for some reason my coach has it in my mind or even other people's mind not so much my mind but he'll tell other people that like she fights better when she's mad like she actually fights better when she has chaos in her life it's almost like the tanya harding type of situation where it's like i'm not at my best unless i'm getting mentally beaten down but i don't think that i

think that's just his excuse because he's always created so much chaos in my life. And that's what he wants to say. We'll get in a fight and I'll go choke the girl out right away in the first round. So I think that's what he thinks, but I don't think that way. Well, you need to be invested in the fight, but to be that worked up. I mean, it's weird. It's like so many fighters have had some of their best performances while their life's in chaos.

Like Tyson, when he was in his prime, his life was full chaos. He had syphilis when he knocked out Michael Spinks. Yeah. Is that what he had or gonorrhea? I think he had gonorrhea. Not syphilis. Either way, a walking STD. Which one's the clap?

Gonorrhea right yeah I don't know he knocked him out when he was walking with an STD he had an STD and he destroyed the former

heavyweight champion in one of the most spectacular knockouts the heavyweight division has ever seen yeah and the guy had an STD yeah

and by the way I love Mike Tyson I love Mike Tyson I'm sponsored by Tyson 2.0 oh are you really what is Tyson 2.0 right now. Oh, are you really? What is Tyson 2.0? It's his new cannabis line.

Oh, you're sponsored by weed. Yeah, I'm going the apparel route with Tyson 2.0. Nice. But yeah, they just came on as my newest endorser. Nice. No, I love Mike. I'm a giant fan. I just think that when he was in his prime, I mean, he was destroying everybody

and his life was just full on chaos. Yeah. Yeah. And I could make a case for that. I could go back and be like, oh, yes, I was, you know, in a really tough mental spot there, too. And I mean, I could argue that for even this fight. But I don't want to because I feel like at the end of the day, those are all excuses and you you got to be able to perform and that's the bottom line. Yeah, and as a professional, especially now as a professional and a world champion,

like you're in this state, like you really have to like make sure everything is aligned properly. Your mind, your rest, your recovery, the whole deal. Yeah. What is next? Do you think a rematch is next?

Absolutely. There's still naysayers out there. There's still people that think it was a fluke. There's still people that are harassing me. There's still people that are like being like, she's going to kill you. You know, they were like 10 seconds and you're dead, you know? And so I just, I would love nothing more than to put the naysayers to bed for one last time. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Now, have you guys started discussing when and if that can happen? Yes. And, you know, in my mind, in a perfect world... July 4th. Yeah. July 4th.

Right? Yes. Yes, let's do it. Yes. I totally would love to fight in Vegas. It's the biggest card. In my mind, I would always want...

I have always wanted to anyway since I was on The Ultimate Fighter. I would love to coach The Ultimate Fighter. I just... You know, the last time. I would love to coach The Ultimate Fighter. I just, you know, the last time that we were supposed to coach before this fight, she decided not to do it. And so I'm just trying to coax her into doing it. You know, like, come on, let's coach The Ultimate Fighter.

And then we'll fight in July. It'll be perfect. That would be great. Yeah. So in a perfect world, that's how it would be for me. But I would anticipate sometime in the summer for the rematch. The Ultimate Fighter, what kind of a commitment is is that it's like a six-week commitment Yes, something like that. I it's it is like a six week commitment. So you just live in Vegas for six weeks Yeah, and your kid. Yeah train there and then coach people. Yeah now

That is always like traditionally been a way that people have been able to like get rivalries like traditionally been a way that people have been able to like get rivalries really cooking yeah because then you're next to each other all the time for six weeks it just bubbles up yeah what do you think that's going to be like being around her for six weeks you know it's not a personal thing it's not like i have anything against her personally i think that she's great you know um and if i were to be on the show I can pretty much guarantee you I'm not going to be pulling any shenanigans. If she pulled the shenanigans, then it's on. You know what I mean? But like, I'm not out to, you know, be vicious or malicious or anything like that.

But again, like I said, like if I get pushed in that direction, that's a different story. But yeah, I've seen like, I think theor mcgregor one where he was like poking at uriah it's just hilarious epic like well how about when ronda was on with misha she beat her in a competition jizzed her fingers like so angry oh yeah and i was right there next to her when they were at the red rock and misha's like she's like you can't even throw punches and ron is like she stormed off so angry she went and got edmund and they came back and like i thought they were gonna throw down right then and there literally like it was it was awkward well you get to see sides of people's personality when you had to see them on these exchanges with each other right remember rashad evans and rampage yes and like you're a

bitch treat me like a bitch you're a bitch treat me like a bitch like You're a bitch. Treat me like a bitch. Like face to face with each other for like several seconds saying that. Yeah. Or even like Vonderlei and Shel Simon. Oh, that's a classic. Yeah. They straight up fought. Yeah. That's a classic.

I would hope that that wouldn't be the case. You know, like let's be adults about this. But then that's the flip side. It's like we're trying to sell the fight, right? We're trying to make people invested and make sure that they watch the fight. So it's like, how can it be, you know, this epic season of The Ultimate Fighter without that kind of chaos? But it's like Amanda's not that kind of person. And I'm not either.

Yeah, I don't think it has to be that way. The fight is going to be giant no matter what. When you guys have a rematch, holy shit. God, it better be in north america yeah i don't want to miss that one no i would i would hope not fuck yeah it's absolutely going to be in north america it has to be dana dana white don't ship that shit to abu dhabi no heck no that has to be in america because that one's that one's just too big it's too big they locked us down in abu dhabi i went out there twice and I was like, I'm in Abu Dhabi.

I'm like in the, I want to go buy some gold. And they're like, hotel room, that's it. Sorry, sweetheart. I'm just like, ugh. You think that's different now though? It seems like everything's kind of lightening up now. And you already have had COVID, so you got the antibodies and everything. Yeah.

No, I mean, to me, I don't put on a mask unless somebody like asks me. And then I'm like, that's over. Come on. CNN has said that they don't work. Yeah. On CNN, they said cloth masks don't work. So unless you have a fucking respirator, or what are those things called? Not a respirator.

What are those N95s? What do they technically refer to them as? Because it's a specific kind of mask. I thought it was an N95. Yeah, but when they seal up to your face, they call them a specific type of mask. Gas mask? I don't know. This is ridiculous. I'm sick of mask. I thought it was an N95. Yeah. But when they seal up to your face, they call them a specific type of mask. Gas mask? I don't know. This is ridiculous. I'm sick of this. I'm seriously so sick of it. When did you get COVID? I got it November of 2020. Oh, you're an early adopter. Yeah. November 2020. How was it? Fine. I mean, I had the chills one night. It started with

the headache and I had a massive headache for two days. I couldn't understand what was going on. Was this in a camp? Were you during camp? It was right after I lost to Jermaine Durandiman in October of 2020. And I had the chills day three. It was, like, freezing. I had, like, sweatpants on, everything, and, and like three blankets, and I was still like shivering cold.

I think day four or five, I lost taste and smell, and I had a very mild cough, and then it was gone. I quarantined 14 days, and I was fine. Did you get your sense of smell and taste back quick? Yeah. I have a friend who still has no sense of taste and no sense of smell for a year and a half. Yeah, same with one of my really good girlfriends, Jennifer Mercier. She still doesn't have her taste and smell. Apparently, according to Andrew Huberman, he's this brilliant guy from Stanford

who's been on my podcast before. He has his own podcast. He's an expert in health and wellness, and he says that alpha-lipoic acid is really good for that. Another thing that is really good that this is anecdotal evidence, but people that I know that have dried is NAD drips. So they get vitamin IV drips and then they get an NAD. Yeah. Which is, I don't know how to say it. Well, like.

Nicotide, alumidide. You took like the monoclonal. Yeah. And then they just stripped those like two days ago, right? I wish this made sense. I wish it made sense. Because I have a friend in LA that just took the monoclonal antibodies a few days ago. And she got better.

And she was really scared. Yeah. And she's vaxxed and boosted. And she got real sick. And she took the monoclonal antibodies. And she was back like that instantaneously. And they try to not give them to her in the hospital because she's too healthy. They won't, right?

I don't know. I listened to the podcast with the two doctors like back to back. Robert Malone and Peter McCullough. Yes, yes. And I mean, that was eye opening for me. I'm a massive conspiracy theorist on this whole thing, and I have been since the very beginning. I'm like, this is just a money grab. They're trying to kill us, you know, and this is ridiculous.

I don't think they're trying to kill us. I think there's a lot of confusion as far as what works and what doesn't work, and then there's a lot of— Well, remember Peter McCullough said that there's like a specific plant that's growing somewhere, and then one day they were all burned, gone. What? plant that's growing somewhere and then one day like they were all burned gone what he said that there was like a field of like this medicine like somewhere else and then when they went to go back for it it was like all burned down do you remember this what was he talking about so is that if it was in the amazon the problem with that is No? I'm trying to remember too. They do slash and burn

agriculture in places and they don't take any consideration as to like what... That's an issue with the stripping of the Amazon is that there's a lot of plants in the Amazon that could conceivably lead to amazing pharmaceutical medications. A lot of the pharmaceutical drugs

that we take that are really helpful, they find them in the Amazon. It's pretty crazy. So when they do stuff like that, it might not be a conspiracy to kill people. It might just be slash and burn agriculture that they're doing for livestock. What they do in Brazil in particular and in some places is they'll slash and cut down giant chunks of the forest in the rainforest. And then they use it just for grazing land for cattle. But in doing so, you know, you're destroying this ecosystem. Yeah. Well, I mean, at this point, I don't even think it's a conspiracy anymore with all the other stuff that's happening. It's just like, no, this is reality. Well, reality is, there's a lot of people scared and there's a lot of confusion. And there's

also a lot of people that don't want people discussing things. They only want one narrative. And that's where, you know, it becomes a problem for me is because science is supposed to be debated between experts. And oftentimes people who are highly credentialed, who are experts in their field, disagree vehemently about the exact same subject with the exact same facts at hand. And so the way they sort that out is through peer review, through discussions, like when they have litigations, right? When they have lawsuits, you'll often have an expert witness that is for the defense and an expert witness for the prosecution. And both of them are experts, like legitimate, educated experts, and they differ completely. Now, whether or not they're

being honest or whether or not they're being paid to give an expert opinion that follows a certain narrative because this is what their client wants, I don't know. But I do know that science is supposed to be sorted out through discussion of evidence. And when you suppress the discussion of evidence and you suppress people utilizing things that are 100% healthy, safe to use, off-label medications, you've got a real problem in your hand. And that's what a lot of doctors think now. That's a lot of people think now. And that's why this whole thing is so confusing. And also people are dying. You know, like you got over it easy.

I got over it pretty easy. But I had the right medication. And, you know, and we're both fit. We work out a lot. That's a big factor. This is the thing that's been driving me crazy about all this is how little emphasis they've put on getting people to change their lifestyle. Make better lifestyle choices. You know, that's fucking crazy when you find out how many people that wind up lifestyle, make better lifestyle choices.

That's fucking crazy when you find out how many people that wind up in the hospital that are overweight, how many people that wind up with real problems because they have vitamin D deficiencies. All these things can be fixed. Yeah, we're living in a time where you absolutely have to be supplementing. You have to be supplementing.

It's just bottom line. If you're not supplementing, then you're obviously going to, your immune system is weak by nature. So you have to supplement to get what you need. But you were telling me that you gave me a box of the supplements from this company that you use. What's it called again? It's called Designs for Sport.

And you used those before they were sponsored yours? Yes, I did. Yes. It's all NSF certified. So if soda comes knocking on your door, you're not going to piss hot or anything like that. This is legit stuff. I was taking it before they sponsored me. And now it's just awesome that they are sponsoring me. You know, there's a thing that not a lot of fighters know I don't feel like for brain injury. It's called GPC liquid. And if you get knocked out all the time, you should be taking this.

If you get knocked out all the time? Yeah, I've never been knocked out, but I'm just saying it's great for brain cushion. GPC liquid? GPC liquid, yes. Do you know what GPC stands for? No, I wish I did. I'm sorry. You know what's crazy is that I'm sponsored by them, and I know their stuff is legit, but I just take it.

You know what I mean? You're busy. Yeah, I'm busy. You got a kid. Yeah, I just know that I need to be taking this stuff. All the stuff that it does, I don't know. I know I drink the hydration complex and the amino acids during and after practice and stuff. I know that I drink the collagen and the beef protein and make a little mocha in the morning with my coffee.

I take it because I know that I need it and that it's good for you and I need to be supplementing. But like what the ins and outs of everything is like, you're going to have to do more research. It's hard enough to be a mom of a four year old. Yes. Be a mom of a four year old while you're a professional fighter at the highest levels of the game. Right. Come on, you're busy. Yeah. No, cut yourself some slack. Yeah. So, so I don't know what everything does, but I know that it's great. And another thing that's great for the brain injury is psilocybin, Wysana. Yeah. I'm sponsored by Wysana.

Daniel Carcillo, he created this. Well, he was an NHL hockey player, but he got his career cut short as an athlete because he had too much brain trauma from, you know, those guys are constantly smashing. So we saw it as a psilocybin company that sponsors me. That's on your left shoulder. And they're a psilocybin company. How do they do that? They microdose.

But it's illegal. So how do they do that? I have no idea. It's stupid as fuck that it's illegal. It drives me goddamn crazy. That you could buy pills that are, you know, Oxycontins are legal. You can get those. You can't get a prescription for mushrooms.

The conspiracy theory continues. Medicine is just a big, big money thing anyways, you know. Well, it is and it also heals people. Well, this medicine heals. Yeah, but a lot of medicine heals. There's a lot of pharmaceutical drugs that are very beneficial. We're lucky that they exist. But whenever you have companies that are designed to make as much money as possible, they start trying to figure out how to make money versus trying to figure out how to heal the most

amount of people possible. That's where things get weird. But you're in Oregon. No, I'm in Chicago. Oh, you are? But I'm from Washington State. Right. But, well, sorry things get weird. But you're in Oregon. No, I'm in Chicago. Oh, you are? But I'm from Washington State. Right. But, well, sorry, Washington State. But Washington State, I meant Oregon. Pacific Northwest. Didn't Washington State... It was the first state to legalize marijuana. Yeah. I know that. And I think they did something with mushrooms too recently, right? I think Oregon did for sure. Well, Oregon did with everything, right? Yeah, right. What other states have done something with psilocybin? There's been a couple of states that have decriminalized psilocybin.

Oregon essentially decriminalized everything, right? Yeah. Well, and here's the thing. I'm not telling you to go trip out on mushrooms every day. You know what I mean? This is microdosing. It's specific. It's not like you're losing your gourd every day and high as a kite.

It's like you can actually function and talk if you have this brain injury that you've sustained. If you have these issues, then you take this and then you can come back to normal and have a conversation. Here it is. Seattle becomes largest U.S. city to decriminalize psychedelics. Yeah. So that's it. So it's Washington State and Oregon. I think it's a bad rap though because people are like, I got to go chew these mushrooms. It's like, it's not like that. It's like a pill that you would take like a vitamin. Right. And for people who haven't microdosed, I have it really, you don't get high. It's like a very, very mild elevation of mood and alleviation of anxiety. Yeah.

Psilocybin services will be legalized in Washington state under new bill. So this is just three weeks ago. Okay. So that's what I was referring to. So you were in Tacoma, right? No, Spokane. Spokane, that's right. Spokane, Washington, yeah. Spokane is, that's like towards the middle. So there's a mountain range that separates the state of Washington. Seattle's on the coast and the ocean.

And then Spokane's on the exact opposite side. Spokane's better weather, right? Yeah, yeah, because that mountain range. Yeah, it rains all the time in Seattle. And then it's like a really dry heat over in Spokane. That's better. I'll take that. That rains for the birds.

Yeah, I know. Fuck that. It's depressing. They need the psilocybin over there because they're so depressed because it rains all the time. Yeah, I remember when I was there. One of my escape from L.A. trips was Seattle. Before the shit hit the fan with COVID,

I was thinking of taking my family and moving to Seattle. Yeah. And we looked around there, but I had a buddy of mine who was a coach at 10th Planet in Portland. And we looked at Portland too. And he had moved up there from LA. And I go, you don't miss California at all? He goes, no, dude, man, it's fucking amazing up here.

Yeah. And so I go, well, what about the rain and all that bullshit? He goes, you know what, man? You're getting used to it. It's totally normal. Yeah. And I finally went, hmm. So I was thinking about that.

Then a year later, I'm training and he's back in LA. I go, what are you doing, man? He goes, fuck that rain. I go, oh. See, my sister lives on the opposite side of the state. She lives in Bellevue, which is a few minutes from Seattle. Not minutes. I mean, it's like 20 minutes, whatever traffic.

She lives over on the Seattle side. And she had to get a light, like a specific light, like look into it every day because she's not getting the sun you know like she's like depressed and like has all this sadness is like because you there's no sun it just rains all the time you know yeah you don't make like alice in chains and nirvana music if you live in a happy place yeah exactly it's just that kind of fucking but beautiful stuff comes out of there oh yeah no the pacific northwest is one of the most beautiful places so green yeah you know it's It's just that kind of fucking, but beautiful stuff comes out of there. Oh, yeah. No, the Pacific Northwest is one of the most beautiful places. So green.

Yeah. No, it's gorgeous. I remember the first time I went to Portland, I was like, God, the grass is like illuminated. Yeah. It's like that's so healthy. Yeah. The grass is like a bright, vibrant green. Well, and where we're from, we have mountains all over the place.

You go snowboarding, you go skiing and all that stuff. It's awesome i moved to the to the midwest and they took me like two hours north to the dells in wisconsin and i was like where's the mountain they're like you're looking at it i'm like that's a hill where's the mountain you know it's like complete contrast why did you move there um i mean the short of it is I got knocked up. I can't leave. But no, the truth is, you know, I had to go there. The UFC sent me there one time for Latino Heritage Month. And I was like, this city's legit. I like drove into Chicago downtown.

I saw the skyline. It was like the most beautiful skyline I've ever seen. You know, coming from Spokane, I was like, this place is awesome. And then it smelled like chocolate and pizza. And I was like, I never want to leave. And then, of course, one of my favorites is like Kanye West. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to go to the Chi. And then I was going back to train with Luis Claudio.

He's a Hicks and Gracie black belt. And so I went out there with him and I was training with him. And then I went back to Spokane and I would come and stay with Luis for a few months, you know, and do my camps. And I was like, if I ever move anywhere, I would totally choose Chicago. And then I met baby daddy. And then I packed my shit after knowing him for two weeks, put it all in the truck. And I was like, I'm here. After knowing him for two weeks?

Isn't that crazy? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. No, it was nuts. Well, you're a professional fighter.

You take chances. Right. Yeah. No risk, no reward. Right. I wouldn't have my beautiful baby. Yeah. There love it. Yeah, no, it was nuts. Well, you're a professional fighter. You take chances. Right, yeah. No risk, no reward, right? I wouldn't have my beautiful baby. Yeah, there you go. It worked out. So I'm in Chicago now.

But honestly, it couldn't have been a better move career-wise because, you know, in Spokane, I'm top dog. I'm, you know, a big fish in a small pond. Chicago is like, welcome to the big leagues. What gym are you training on out there? So that's also the flip side, right? Spokane, one-stop shop. Go to the garage, that's it. Chicago, I'm constantly in my car all day long.

I have like four different places that I got to go to train. So it's not just one spot. It's like I get my boxing at Gregory Boxing in Muay Thai. I get my MMA, like straight wrestling and MMA at VFS Valley Flow Striking. I got my jujitsu with Luis Claudio at LCCT in Schaumburg. And then I do my strength and conditioning trainer with Alex Spanos at the Northwestern Football Facility. Schaumburg is a hike because I used to do the improv out there. Absolutely it is. Especially with that traffic. Yeah. And even Evanston at

the Northwestern Football Team, that campus is far away. So I'm just constantly in my car all day long. That's the benefit of a place like American Top Team. Yeah. You know, what Dan Lambert did down there by dumping a ton of money into that facility. Yeah. I mean, what an amazing opportunity. If you've got a place where you can go where everything is under one roof. Right.

God, that's huge. It is. Strength and conditioning, Muay Thai. And you only got to pay 1% over there. That's it? That's it. 1%? 1%, yeah. That's when you're's it. 1%? 1%, yeah.

That's when you're a rich fuck. Like, damn. But is it that great, though? Their greatest ever of all time just left. You didn't see that? No, what are you talking about? Amanda, she's gone. She left?

She left American Top Team. What? Yeah, she's gone. It was just like last week or two weeks ago, not even. I didn't see that at all. Yeah, she left. To go where? I guess she's building her own team from scratch, I guess.

I love Dan Lambert, though. I wish we would. One percent? How could you leave one percent? One percent is a great deal. Dan flew me down there when I won the Ultimate Fighter. He put me up in a beautiful house on freaking South Beach and gave me a car and was like, have fun. Maybe talk to baby daddy and take over that spot.

It's a total free state over there. I would love to move to Florida. I would love to move to Florida. If you moved into American Top Team after Amanda left. That'd be great. And you trained there for the rematch with all the people that trained with her. I bet Dan likes me better anyways. No, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. I love Dan Lambert. So do I. He's fucking awesome. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I love Dan Lambert. So do I. He's fucking awesome. No, he comes to Chicago. He'd take me to the Cubs game and buy me popcorn and buy me dinner and stuff. Really? Yeah.

I mean, he flew me down there. I felt bad because when she pulled out of the fight in August, I saw him at the show and I was like, what's up with your girl? We kind of got into it a little bit, but it was business at that point. But I got nothing but love for Dan Lambert. I think he's a cool guy. What he did was he set a precedent. I mean, they tried to do that with the Blackzillions, but the guy, he died, right?

Didn't the guy? I don't know, dude. The Blackzillions guy. I think the head guy died. I don't know. But they tried to do that in some other places, but no one's done it like Dan has. Yeah. The amount of money.

I mean, he built a giant-ass fucking building. State-of-the-art building. State of the art facility. Top of the food chain. I think there's another one there. What is it called? Sanford MMA? Yes. I feel like a lot of the people that were at American Top Team are now at Sanford.

Well, Sanford, you got Henry Hooft, who's phenomenal. Right. And you got so many top flight athletes down there, too. I bet that's probably a one stop shop for some of those guys, too. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But that's, I think that was pioneered by Lambert.

Like him doing that, he dumped so much money into American Top Team. And you know, fighters fucked him over and there was a lot of bullshit. But he kept at it and he kept doing it. And then now he's got this incredible team with an amazing history behind it. Yeah. You can't do any better. No. Well, you know? No.

Well, you could. You could go to a little garage in Spokane, Washington in the 509 and still become the champion. I don't know. I'm just saying. I don't mean you can't do better in terms of your results. Sure. I mean, in terms of a place that you can train. Yeah. And honestly, it's so nice there.

Like, the weather's great. I mean, I would be afraid to live there because I've never experienced living in, like, hurricane season or anything like that. I bet that would be pretty scary. Hurricanes are wild. I've only experienced hurricanes when I lived in Massachusetts by the time it gets up there it's kind of a bullshit hurricane yeah in Florida they get the full brunt of it and I don't think I could deal with that yeah it's scary I was watching a video the other day of a tornado that had hit they were in Florida and a tornado hit like across the river from this guy's house there's like some body of water and across the river from this guy's house they're looking

out the window and they're watching this tornado just drops down and fucks the house up and it takes off yeah oh isn't just recently right like it was at kentucky there was a bunch of tornadoes that like over 100 people killed yeah horrible did you ever see what that one looked like this is what's crazy about that one it came in the middle of the night, and it was lightning so so these people were driving and then Lightning would flash and through the lightning because the sky was illuminated you see this funnel cloud That's as wide as like 30 blocks. You're like what the fuck is that? And you can't even predict which way it's going to go left or right. Imagine being in your car and you don't know what's going on.

And you hear there's a tornado warning. Yeah. And then the lightning and thunder flash. Yeah. And you see it in the distance. Yeah. Like, holy shit. Yeah.

It reminds me of that movie Twister. And not only that, but just let's just say Mother Nature is a son of a gun. She's a bitch. Yeah. But she's also awesome. nature is a son of a gun she's a bitch yeah but she's also awesome she is it's like but what what it's like it's so chaotic what what can possibly happen that you know the sky can turn into a funnel cloud that flattens everything in front of it see and there's a part of me that thinks that like one day we're gonna wake up and this is it watch this watch this because this is so crazy watch this so imagine your car and you hear the lightning and thunder and you see that real life twister yeah oh my gosh yeah look at the size of that fucking thing so that was that was what came

through and just destroyed so imagine that person driving yeah right and you're looking off to your right and you see imminent death and you don't know how fast it's going it's probably so hard and just destroyed. So imagine that person driving. Yeah, right? And you're looking off to your right and you see imminent death. And you don't know how fast it's going. It's probably so hard to judge because you only get to see it through the flashes of lightning. And it's so common there

where they're like, get to the cellar, you know? I know, fuck that. Can you imagine you don't have a cellar, your house is just flattened? Like, horrible, horrible. I feel horrible for those people. Like, golly.

Did you ever see what it looked like after the the impact yeah the the entire town was gone well there was i mean in chicago they there's sometimes tornadoes i think like one of the places got hit there uh naperville got hit and i saw some houses flattened over there and i was like that's kind of scary because i live you know pretty close to the area so and obviously the only thing that I've ever worried about in Chicago is just how bitter cold it is you know like smacks you in the face and it's just like the wind will take you away that's not Spokane cold no it's not see and that's the difference I was like oh when I moved to Chicago I'm used to this you know I'm

from Spokane I'm from the Pacific Northwest you kidding me but like Chicago's a different level it is a different level it's like piercing your skin cold yeah people that think new york city is cold try chicago in january i know well i'm there right now i just came back from being you know in places not as cold like la and i come back to chicago like why do i live here it's horrible it's just like it just makes you angry does your baby daddy work there yeah yeah he's a police officer okay so whatever i know what i'm gonna do it's a rough place to be a cop a lot of shit goes down in chicago yeah yeah it does exactly another reason why i'm like why do i live you know i live i come from a place where it's like you can like leave the doors unlocked and you know

you're relatively probably safe it's like chicago's like don't answer the door you lock everything up head on a swivel don't look down on your phone when you're walking anywhere you know it's hard to get a gun there too yeah it's like their gun laws are really tight even though everybody has a gun yeah exactly isn't that weird it's so weird it's not it's normal it's like there's there's remedies that people put in place there's laws that people put in place that they think they're helping people and they're just making problems worse. Criminals don't pay attention to laws. So you make laws that criminals don't pay attention to that keep ordinary citizens from protecting themselves.

You're always going to have problems. It's just like they think they're doing a good thing. Yeah. But statistically, it's not good. Yeah. If you look at gun violence, it's the places oftentimes that have the strictest gun laws that have the most gun violence yeah so i was a like a day before christmas trying to get some shopping done before i had to leave and take off and i was in oakbrook

which is you know not the city not downtown chicago and i look up and like laurie lightfoot the the mayor is like standing 10 feet away from me. And I was like, this is crazy. She had her mask down here. Did you believe that? She didn't even have it. Below her nose? Yeah, she didn't have her mask on.

How dare she? I know. Anyways, so, and I'm not trying to be the mask police because I think they're BS anyways. But I was like, wow, really? We can't even go into a restaurant without showing, you know, our papers. And this chick's, you know, dropping the hammer on everybody and she don't even have her mascot. Like I was whatever. Terrible,

terrible mayor. Okay. So regardless, okay. I leave the, the mall and I go, I was so hungry. I went in the same parking lot to a restaurant.

Five seconds later, my phone's blowing up like ridiculous. And there was a shooting. Two people had just got shot in the same Parking lot at Nordstrom's that I had just left. Oh shit, and I'm just like This is stuff. I would never have to worry about you know so Chicago's like The real deal like welcome to the jungle when you go over there. It's kind of freaky have you talked to him about moving? He would never you know it's only me that has to you know pack up all my

stuff and say goodbye to my family you know i'm the only one that would do something like that so yeah forget it no his whole family lives there literally he's not going anywhere chicago people love chicago and i do too because there's a culture there yeah that is incredible they're great people great the nicest they talk to you you don't even know these people they just like inject themselves in your business and all of a sudden you're friends. That's the beautiful thing about Chicago. It's a big city, but it has a small town mentality in terms of like how people are friendly. Yeah.

Very unusual. The food's a problem. I mean, it's so good. It's so good. And Dana told me that when I told him I was moving to Chicago, he's like, babe, he's like, the food's a problem. I was like, no, no, it's good. He's like, I'm he's like the food's a problem I was like I was like no no it's good he's like I'm telling you the food's a problem and he was right I gained like 15 pounds when I first moved there that deep dish I eat it all and just put it in

front of me I'm like Mikey he'll eat it you know like I I will eat whatever you put in front of me um you ever thought about going up to 45 and challenging Amanda for her other title I've thought about it we We could do that dance. I mean, but everybody knows the 45 division's BS anyways. Like, what do they got there? Nothing. Well, if Kayla Harrison comes over. She ain't coming over.

You don't think so? No, no, no. Why don't you think so? Well, they wanted her to come over. First off, can she even make 45? They're going to have to create another division for her at 55, I think, or 65, or whatever she fights at. I bet if someone like Mike Dolce

got a hold of her yeah and put her through maybe she works with him right now maybe I'm talking out of my ass no you might not be

George Lockhart yeah a nutritionist I'm sure she could it would be miserable but of course I'm sure she could it would be miserable

yeah but I mean people accomplish wild shit when it comes to weight I mean how about Paulo Costa how the fuck has that guy ever

made 185 pounds? I have no idea and I don't think he's made it since. Didn't he? Yeah. He just missed weight this last fight, right? I think Adesanya's fight took a real toll on him mentally. Oh, I'm sure. And wasn't he like, I was drunk and drinking wine. You don't deserve to win then.

There were so many excuses and it was the way that Israel beat him. I mean, Izzy just lit him up like a Christmas tree. Right. That was not a competitive fight by any stretch of the imagination. No. And I think when you're a guy who steamrolls everybody and walks down Yoel Romero, and you look like a just destroyer. Right.

And then this skinny dude just lights you up. Right. And fucks you up, and then dry humps you from behind when he's beating you up. Not a good look yeah and then marvin vittori beat him up too yeah that was a good fight though that was that was a close fight but marvin vittori is a fucking bull that guy yeah there's another one how the fuck is that guy 185 pounds i stand next to him like how are you you're a heavyweight like how the fuck are you 185 pounds yeah they're so're so big. Yeah. I just know that I heard anyhow from one of my friends who is signed with the PFL that

she was going to stay with the PFL. And then I think yesterday they said that they signed a new deal and that I believe that she's staying with the PFL. She should. If she makes good money. Yeah. She's won what? The million dollar tournament twice.

Yeah. Good for her. If it don't make money, it don't make sense. Keep making your money, sweetheart. That's the thing about these other organizations. One thing about the UFC has so much prestige, and everybody wants to be the UFC champ. It's the number one organization in MMA by far.

But these other organizations, they have to cut their profit margins down and pay people more in order to get people over there. So I think that's great. Well, and that's what I was just talking about yesterday. Some of these people don't care whether they're gonna make you know eight and eight or ten and ten because they're like i'm a ufc fighter it's the prestige of being a ufc fighter and back in the day i would have been like no way i'm totally going to the ufc you know but then it's like now that i'm older i'm like no if it don't make money it don't make

sense and gilbert melendez was always telling me that and he was right you know if and that's the other thing too these other organizations they need to pay their fighters to lock them down so they don't feel like they got to go elsewhere but they they got to pay the fighters and also who cares about where you're fighting as long as you're making the money yeah i mean if you are a professional fighter that is what you're supposed to be doing you're supposed to be doing You're supposed to be trying to make the most amount possible But if you're doing it for your legacy, there's a thing about like these great fighters that never compete against UFC fighters So you're like god damn it. Like if Fedor had fought in the UFC when Kane was in his prime

Do you know how big that would have been? Yeah, how fucking huge that would have been right? They had made that deal Fedor came over and he fought Kane in his prime that would have been yeah how huge that would have been right they had made that deal and fedor came over and he fought kane in his prime i always wished that fedor would come to the us why couldn't they make a deal like what it was hard to make a deal there was a lot of craziness on both sides i'm sure i don't i don't know the exact specifics but i know they tried yeah they uh they wanted to make a deal with them for sure. Oh, for sure. Yeah. What was that? M1 that governs him? I believe so, yeah. Yeah. They were very strict, obviously impossible to make a deal.

Well, they knew that he was an international superstar. Yeah. And that wasn't the case with anybody else over there. Yeah. He's like the Yao Ming of Russia. Yeah. I mean, he was, you know, when he was in his prime, when he was running things in pride, there was nobody like Fedor.

No one. He's my favorite fighter of all time, for sure. Number one. He's up there, for sure. Yeah. I mean, that guy, when he was at the top of his game, was so complete. I mean, he would lightning fast submissions. He walked down Crow Cop in basically mostly a stand-up fight.

Right. Beat the shit out of Noguera in his prime. I mean he was a monster. He was. When he was at the top he was extraordinary. And the guy's still fighting. Yeah. Which is crazy.

Isn't he scheduled to fight really soon in Bellator? In Bellator right? Yeah. Like real soon. Yeah. It's so funny. He came to Chicago and fought and I was like this is my only chance to get a picture with him.

So I just stormed him right as he was walking out of the cage and I got a selfie with him. He's like get this chick away from me. But that's my only picture with him. So I just stormed him right as he was walking out of the cage and I got a selfie with him. He's like, get this chick away from me. But that's my only picture of him. And it's so funny because he was in Chicago and Wayne, my coach, Gregory, asked me to come to the gym that day. And I was like, I can't, you know, because I was like stalking the hotel

waiting to see Fedor. This guy didn't even tell me. Fedor came to our gym and did like a private in the back area of the gym. And he was basically telling me to come to the gym because he knew Fedor was going to be there. But he didn't tell me that he was going to be there. So, of course, I'm like waiting to like stalk Fedor. And he was at the gym the whole time, you know.

And so the only picture I got of him was me like trying to get like a quick selfie after he won. And he's just like stiff-armed me out of here. Yeah, he's literally like get the heck away from me. You could have got a perfect picture. I could have got a a perfect one it was like a dream come true that never happened it was i'm still depressed about it honestly it's like the greatest of all time who is he supposed to fight i have no idea find out uh fedor's next fight yeah i guess he just still enjoys it he had one point in time was thinking of retiring i think he did retire at one point right yeah yeah but you never know with with fighters when they say they're retiring.

Is it a business deal that you're retiring from? Do you have an injury? I know so many fighters that are retired that come back. Most. Yeah. Most. Right. But that's why I really appreciate the ones who don't.

Yeah. The ones who say, that's it. I'm done. And then they walk away forever. And at the top of the game, like Andre Ward. Yeah. He's the best example. Yeah.

He's undefeated, two-division champion, Olympicic gold medalist he's like that's it yeah see ya or even um i don't even want to say his name because i am still angry about him not giving me any credit and actually talking crap about me but khabib he retired on his own terms yeah he was just like telling like i saw in a presser they asked him a question and he was just completely downgrading the whole win and everything like that what yeah downgraded your win yeah it totally broke my heart but i will say he went out on his own terms and he said he was done yes and you know he's done why would he i know i was like dude you're breaking my heart man like i freaking love you like seriously like uh not man. Like, I freaking love you. Like, seriously. Like, ugh.

Not only that, if you watched that win, how the fuck could anybody say anything bad about that? He must be friends with Kayla Harrison or something. I don't know. Because he was like, if this is the top of the women's division, it's a joke. I mean, like, it wasn't very nice. I didn't appreciate it, Khabib. It was weird to watch a man to fold so quickly. Like, get tired so quickly.

Yeah. She's never tapped before, ever. Really? Never. Wow. She's never tapped. It was weird to watch a man to fold so quickly like get her get tired so quickly. Yeah, yeah She's never tapped before ever really never Stop quick to yeah, will you under the chin? Absolutely? Yeah. Yes. It's hard to tell from that the angle you cuz you're smart Yeah, yeah. No my No, no hooks. No problem. My That's like the first thing that they teach you in jujitsu uh well at least that's where they do in in 509 in the garage that's that's what they teach us up at sick jitsu um back of the back of the shoulder right on the back of that brain stem there yeah i was absolutely underneath the chin yeah yeah it was uh they're like she quit like quitting

and tapping what's the difference you if you tap, you're quitting. If you quit, you tap. You had her. Yeah. That's all it was. Dead to rights. But she was so tired. It was crazy. It was almost like the- She took a lot of shots. Oh, yeah. Not just that.

She took a lot of shots. She took a lot of heavy shots. Heavy shots. That jab was thunder. And you were cracking her with that jab. But on top of that, it was also like, oh my God, I'm losing. Yeah. She was realizing, oh my God god i'm like the anxiety she

had to realize like she's getting fucked up well and like it's so crazy the state-of-the-art cameras and everything in the ufc and no one's like getting the right angles that they should have been in the first round i had her in a straight arm lock i was like sakurabu-ing that thing i was literally thinking i'm gonna get the first ever win by straight arm lock in the ufc i was like this is over i got her i just see her pissing in her pants in the back of me like holy crap i gotta get out of this and then um she got out and then i switched to attacking the kimura and then the end of the round but i was like coming up from that first round i'm like i got this and then everyone's

like how did you feel knowing that you lost the first round going into the second i'm like what are you talking about like i won the first round going into the second? I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, I won the first round. You know, and that's just my opinion. Well, I think if you threaten with submissions from your back, that should count for a lot. Yeah. Like, that's a real close submission. And even with the Kimura, that was very dangerous. Yeah.

There's not enough, like, people have this idea that if you try for a submission and then you don't get it, then it doesn't mean anything. No, it does. You're attacking. You're not just attacking. And you're in trouble. If't get it, then it doesn't mean anything. No, it does. You're attacking. You're not just attacking. And you're in trouble. If I'm attacking, you're in trouble. Exactly. I think it should be like almost getting rocked.

Like very similar. Yes. Yeah, and she was rocked on the feet. I could see her eyes were as big as plates and she was like, oh, F. You know what I mean? And I could see like, yeah, I'm trying not to cuss, right? It's like so hard.

I think we've already cussed. I might have said, you know, pissing. I'm see, like, yeah, I'm trying not to cuss, right? It's like so hard. I think we've already cussed. I might have said, you know, pissing. I'm sorry, Mom. I'm trying so hard not to cuss. Why are you trying not to cuss? Because I'm like trying to, there's a certain part of me where I want to be the real Juliana, you know? Then be the real Juliana. Especially here in Joe Rogan.

Come on. But then there's another side where it's like there's people that are listening to you. There's little kids, you know what I mean? There's like, you know, trying trying to be like come to wait for the beeped out version yeah so i'm just trying to walk a fine line here well i appreciate that i appreciate that you when you look back on the fight um did it play out the way you felt like it was going to play out yes exactly absolutely yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I wasn't sure exactly how, and I wasn't sure when, but I knew without a doubt that I was going to win.

You know, one of the things that everybody says about Amanda is her power is shocking. Did you feel that her power was shocking? Well, we have to cut back to the way that I grew up for me to answer that question properly. In the 80s, you know, people wore those knee-high socks with like the two stripes on them, right? The tube socks. My brother would pack more socks in the bottom of this tube sock and pack it real tight and swing it around. He'd call it sock bombs.

And he beat the heck out of us with these sock bombs. Like, if you can take a sock bomb punch, you can take a real punch punch, you know? And so I've been getting my ass kicked my entire life. Yeah, does she hit hard? Sure, you know, and so I've been getting my ass kicked my entire life Yeah, does she hit hard sure, you know, but can I take it? Yes. Am I the type of person that can take it? Yes, like I have you seen this too big chin, you know, I Got it, you know, well, you had a very good high guard to like you kept your your hands a good because you were very Defensively responsible. Yeah, it's it's Wayne Gregory, you know? Wayne Gregory has changed my game.

And again, that's one of the great things about moving to Chicago. I would have never met Wayne. I would have never met the team that I have now without moving there. The team that I have around me right now is extraordinary. The other thing that was interesting about that fight was her last two fights before that,

Megan Anderson and Cyborg. Was it Megan Anderson and Cyborg? Were they back to back? I think so. In the 45 division. Yeah. Yeah. So both of our fights were at 45. Like she hadn't defended 35 in quite a while. Two years. Yeah. So the making that extra 10 pounds is probably a big deal. Like she looked very lean at the weigh-ins, like leaner than you ever see her before. Lean and she showed up all half naked and she was ready to go she was in the best shape of her life it looked like she looked ripped she looked yeah she looked ripped but you know oftentimes when people haven't cut weight yeah and then they have to yeah you

know and that you see like uh there's a difference in like where your body bounces back from that yeah well her focus in her camp was two fights. I got to make weight and then I got to worry about Juliana. My focus was all I have to do is worry about Amanda. That's it. That was my only fight. That was my sole focus. Her sole focus is I got to be miserable for the next three months because I got to make weight and make sure that I'm, you know, up to par. And me, I've been grinding the whole time. So I was like, all I got to focus on is just her. And everybody was aware of the Kayla fight. Everybody was aware that Kayla was in the audience. Yeah. And they were trying to set that fight up.

And how dare they, right? Because Kayla is like talking about how she's training partners with Amanda and how she learns so much from Amanda and how amazing Amanda is as a training partner and how, you know, she has just learned so much from the champ. And so I'm so confused because you want Amanda to win so that you can fight your friend? Well, they just want to get paid. Yeah. Well, she's getting paid more than I am making the millions over there at the PFL.

I think the idea was that, and I'm just guessing, that Amanda, you know, this worldwide recognition as the greatest women fighter of all time. And then you get, if she beat you, then you get this giant super fight with this Olympic judo medalist who seems like, you know, when you look at Kayla, she seems like a threat.

Like you go, okay, well, Amanda's this like super strong, like really good grappler, knockout puncher. Kayla is such an elite judoka.'s so good and she's so fucking strong you they go like that could be a giant super fight yeah i think they probably thought if she came over to the ufc they would have like the biggest female fight of all time yeah well i really messed that up didn't i yeah good who needs friends with who needs enemies with friends like these you know especially with kayla needs enemies with friends like these, you know, especially with Kayla and Amanda being like training partners and like hugging

each other. And, and now they're going to fight each other. Like, come on. Like it's ridiculous. But if Kayla wants to come over to the UFC and make weight, let's let pack your lunch.

Make 35. 35, 45, whatever you guys want to do. You'll fight her at 45. Yeah. I mean, all I can say,

like we already established, if it don't make money it don't make sense and what's the job of a fighter especially with the window being this small and your opportunity being this small i gotta jump through a window this little yeah my job is to make as much money as possible right so pay me i'll fight whoever you all fight pay me just pay me i hear you you know i feel like i'm not asking for too much especially now that i'm a champion i've been saving my silver bullets this entire time and now that i got it it's like i want to get paid is that too much to ask i mean as a professional yeah don't you feel like you should of course there's flip side no one's holding a gun up to your head no one's

making you fight no but i'm a professional yeah you know and i'm at the the height of my game i'm the champion i'm at the top of my game. I'm the champion. I'm at the top of my league, you know. Pay me. Also, you have a child. You have a future. Sure. You know, you have a window of opportunity with fighting that doesn't last very long.

I mean, it's one of the smallest windows of opportunity for an elite professional athlete. I got to hold on to this little chunk of money that I have for the rest of my life, you know. And it's like, what do you want? I feel like I'm not asking for too much. You know what I mean? I just want what's fair. I think if you beat Amanda again at 35, excuse me, when? Yes. At 35 and then you fight her for the 45 pound title. Yes. That would be crazy. That would be like bullying. Well, somebody suggested, well, what if she, uh, doesn't decide to take the fight with you and decides to take an easier fight at 45 and retires off into the sunset?

Like she can't. She can't do that. She would look like the biggest coward on earth. Sometimes people just get worn out by the pressure too though. That's a factor. How hard is it to go do your road work when you're waking up in silk pajamas every morning? That's Marvin Hagler. You know?

He's another guy who walked away in his prime. Yeah. Good for Marvin. Good for Marvin. But I mean it's got to be? He's another guy who walked away in his prime. Yeah. Good for Marvin. Good for Marvin. But I mean, it's got to be difficult. You're sitting on 10 mil in the bank.

The motivation is just not there. I guess. It depends on what your motivation is because it never stopped Floyd Mayweather. I know.

Isn't he incredible? He's incredible. He still trains and stuff. Yeah. He's still doing it. He still never got fat. Always fit. You know,

Floyd would go to a nightclub and then leave the nightclub and uh have his drivers drive the car home and he would run behind the car that's awesome run miles and in his fucking jeans and sneakers and shit that's one guy i would just die to meet i would love to meet him his motivation apparently i mean obviously he loves money his motivation is most certainly money but i think that's why i love him is because he loves money so much. Money made with it. And he does it good.

You know what I mean? He's styling and profiling. Yeah. Yeah. But he's always involved in these strange things. He's in Dubai all the time, involved in these weird NFT deals and stuff. Yeah. He's a fascinating character because he literally never lost his motivation.

Yeah. Even though he was worth hundreds of millions of dollars Yeah, he still and he's just been so brilliant in taking these fights against guys like Conor McGregor Logan Paul. Yeah. No, he's very intelligent. He knows what he's doing. Absolutely if I could pick his brain man, that would be awesome Yeah, well, you know He became money Mayweather when he used to be pretty boy Like, he was a different fighter when you first saw him fight. Yeah. And he became more exciting with, like, less exciting performances.

Yeah. Because he was smarter defensively. Yeah. But he talked so much shit that everybody wanted him to lose. Yeah. Well, and boxing is a very particular thing, too, right? So they build these guys up 30 and 0, and they make sure everything's got to be like tailor-made. Yeah.

Perfect for your fighter, you know? And that's where I think real MMA fighting differs from boxing. It's like you get thrown to the lion's den right away, you know? There's no like they- Especially in the UFC, right? Yeah, no F's given. It's like we're giving you a fight. You don't want to take it.

No problem. There's a thousand other people that will take it. How many fights did you have outside the UFC before you came to the UFC? Like five. Five. Wow. That is wild. Yeah.

So your entire professional career other than those five fights have all been in the biggest organization? I think five. I'm not. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Very little. I went pro after two amateur fights.

And then I think I took like three pro fights. And then that was it. How old were you when you first started martial arts training 19 years old I threw my first punch at 19 well I threw my first official punch at 19 years old and what what style was that it was a woman's cardio kickboxing class and this is a god honest truth there was how you get your start I was like I'll just be honest with you I was fat I was overweight and I needed to lose some weight and my sister didn't want to go to the class by herself. And so she invited me and I wasn't doing anything. So I was like, I mean, I was working, obviously. And at that time I was a know-it-all. I was moved out at 17, like, can't tell me nothing, mom and dad.

And then and then I was a bowling alley server at nighttime and I worked in the casino alley. So I would start my shift at 10 o'clock at night and get off at like six and I worked in the casino alley. So I would start my shift at 10 o'clock at night and get off at like six o'clock in the morning and I was overweight. And so my sister invited me to a woman's cardio kickboxing class and I met, I met Rick little and kind of do my first punch and it been over since, but I started in the UFC at 2013. So how many years after cardio kickboxing was that? Uh, so I started in 2008.

And 2016 was your first UFC fight? 2013 was my first UFC fight. Oh, wow. Yeah. Horrible with numbers. I can't sing and dance. I'm a fighter. I don't know.

I'm not good at numbers either. Horrible, yeah. That's pretty crazy then. So it's five years. And most people get their daughters in wrestling at a young age or they put them in karate or judo or anything like that like i've just been defensive my whole life because i was always getting attacked from all sides from my brothers and sisters you know what i mean so it was like it wasn't like you know my mom put me in judo or you know i i literally

just was defending myself all my life and then when I got into actual cardio kickboxing class to lose weight is when I threw my first punch so I actually started pretty late compared to the age that kids are starting now especially young girls very late yeah I mean it's getting more and more mainstream but back then in 2008 it was there was no one you know there wasn't a lot of girls fighting when was the first UFC women's fight what year was that 2013 wow yeah so I've been in the division just as long as as me Rhonda and Misha and everything like that Amanda like when they were starting the division I was on the ultimate fighter so instead of them fighting one time I was fighting four times wow yeah and

they just gave a belt to Rhonda you know what what I mean? They're just like, hey, welcome to the UFC. Here's your belt. I'm like, I've got to fight this girl, this girl, this girl, this girl. And you still won't let me fight the champ after this? This is ridiculous. What do I got to do? Well, it was a weird situation where there wasn't a lot of standouts in that 135 pound division. Where it like marketing wise, where it looked like someone that everybody wanted to see fight Amanda.

And two truths. Ronda was a star. She was winning in 10 seconds. You know, she was incredible. She put it on the map and opened up that door and blew the doors right open. So props to her for that. And the other second truth is I messed myself up. I tore four out of five ligaments.

You know, the delays that I've had in life have been injuries or pregnancy or more injuries. You know what I mean? So there's half to blame them not letting me have the title shot. And then the other half to blame is like, quit messing up yourself. You know what I mean? How long did it take you to recover from the knee surgery? At least 15 or 16 months, I think. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, to each of our four out of five ligaments, half the doctors are going to tell you you're never going to fight again. Really? Yeah. The other half are like, you get a really good surgeon which i had dr cavitney in la who did kobe bryant um john jones george simpierre like he's done the who's who all the la lakers uh he was like you absolutely will fight again wow and he gave me that confidence

did you have meniscus damage as well so it was everything yeah did they do a cut on the meniscus or did they just leave it alone? No, I don't. I think they might've like sewn it. I'm not sure. I don't really recall. I just know that I tore four out of five. The only one that I didn't tear is the PCL. How's it feel now? Fine. I mean, my goal in recovery is to attack your recovery like you would a fight. So being diligent and disciplined and making sure you're doing this rehab and going home and doing your rehab. And so I have strengthened both of my legs

because I've done them both to the point where I don't really notice it. And I take the collagen, making sure my joints are well oiled. If I don't take that collagen, I feel like the Tin Man. Really? Yeah.

I have to take this collagen to make sure that my joints and everything's feeling good. If I don't, it's messed up. But I do a really good job of strengthening my knees. And I would argue that my one that I tore is better than the other one. Really? But they're both competing with each other, right? Because I've done them both. Right.

Yeah. So I just make sure that I strengthen. It's a focus area for me and you were telling me before we got here that your strength and conditioning program like you went several camps where you didn't have any strength conditioning program right yeah because my original trainer Chris Grayson he moved from Chicago and he went to South Carolina and I didn't have anybody so I was just doing my road work on my own pushups, pull-ups and sit-ups and just kind of like lifting, just, just touching the weights, uh, on my own in my, in my, uh, vanity room. Just touching the weights? Yeah, just touching the weights. Yeah. What do you mean by that? It's not like I'm like trying to,

you know, be this gigantic, you know, Hulk mania and be lifting every day. Like I, I know how to lift if you point me in the direction and show me what you want me to do. But like, if I were to go by myself, I'd be like, I would be so like overwhelmed, you know, like I know how to lift and I'm, I'm learning more, you know, but I'm just more of like the you point and I go, you know? And so I shoot whatever my trainer tells me to do. But when I didn't have a trainer, I was just like, you've been doing this long enough. You know, that at the end of the day, it's not about how much you can lift or how much you can bench press. It's about fighting. And so just do your road work, touch the weights, get that, you know, body calisthenics, the pushups, the pull-ups and stuff like that. And you'll be fine.

Did you put your camps together or did you have somebody that structured them for you? So Rick Little is my head coach and he kind of is in communication with all my other coaches in Chicago. He'll, you know, call them, tell them what he wants me to work on. And then, you know, trusting in their expertise because they're all experts in their own field. He'll call coach Mike and then coach Mike will obviously run me through his own practice, but then he'll put attention to the detail that Rick said too. And so they all, all kind of in communication with what Rick is saying as far as what we're going to do in the camp and how we're going to win the fight and game plan. So but Rick is not there physically. He's not there. He's in Spokane.

But when I have a fight, he'll come out, stay with me for a month. He'll stay with me for two weeks. He'll go back to Spokane and then I'll come back out again. And then we'll always leave together to the fight. So he's always making that trip to come over and be with me and make sure that, you know, as long as he stays for a week or two weeks and sees that I got it, then he'll go back and then he'll come, you know, a couple of weeks later again. How important is that for you? Because for a lot of fighters, the development process is like so intense that the relationship between the coach and the athlete, it's almost inseparable. And then for other people, they go jump from camp to camp and they never have that sort of like deep intimacy with the person that trains them. And he is he'll take a beating if it means that I'm going to win. He has my back 110 percent.

And the flip side to that is these people are gym jumpers because they don't have a coach that cares. They don't have somebody that's invested in them. You have to find a coach that cares about you. You have to have that. And they don't even have to be that good. They don't have to be some world renowned coach as long as they care and they're checking and they're putting you through what you need. That's all you need but that's why these people are always jumping gyms because they can't find a coach that is invested in them and rick has always been invested in me he believed in me when i didn't believe in myself and he told me that i was going to be a champion he told me

that dana white was going to open the doors to the women in the ufc he told me stick with this you know and he's the only one that has been like that constant voice of reason and guiding me. And I mean, he taught me how to fight. So without Rick, where would I be? Well, that's awesome that you're still with him. It really is. 13 years. It's going to be 14 here in September.

I love hearing that. I think loyalty is everything. It's so important. I'm loyal to this. I'm a Leo lion. Loyalty for me is like top tier. You know, when's your birthday? August 19th. I'm August 11th no you're leo too see i was born on a cusp day so like i'm like have virgo tendencies what's a virgo tendency see i don't even know that much about it because i

feel like my leo side is just so dominant but my sister is a virgo and you know she's also the type of person that knows me like the back of her hand we're very we have similar tendencies sometimes she's a little bit in a sense more feisty than me in some regard really

more feisty than you well I'll be like I'll joke with her and she thinks I'm being serious and so she's like get out of this house you know what I mean and I was like

dude I'm kidding you know and she's the one who dragged you into cardio kickboxing yes did she ever think god damn it

I could have done that too she was a better and if she obviously she's got five kids, so she's very busy. But if she would have stuck with it, she was a better kicker than me. This girl could kick like a mule. And she was a soccer player. And she had incredible kicks. And she was so good at kicking. So I definitely think that she could have stuck with it.

But it was important to have her because her knowing, her beating me up and knowing me my whole life. When my sister was in my corner in the early amateur days and stuff, I was like, I'll take on anybody because my sister believes in me, you know, and even Rick, you know. So the two of them together, they'd be like, let's go. You can do it. I'm like, I know I can because I know that she knows who I am through and through that we share the same blood. And she's not lying. If she's telling me I can do it then I know I can do it that's awesome yeah I think there's something to soccer players there's something about um first of all the conditioning that soccer players have is off the charts they're some of the best and the most fit athletes in

the world there's no other sport where you run as much besides maybe running yeah and so also like the strength of their legs, because it's sprinting. It's like you're sprinting all the time. Like you're not just running, you're running as fast as you can and you're trying to move the ball around. So you have two things in coordination.

You have dexterity and then you have this endurance aspect and strength aspect as well. And so like if you look at Jose Aldo, he's one of the best kickers ever. The best leg kicker ever in the UFC, one of them. Soccer player. Started out in soccer. Kenny Florian started out in soccer too.

There's quite a few people that were elite soccer players that, if you think about how much they kick and kicking a ball, it's not much different than throwing a kick, like a body kick or a roundhouse kick. Yeah. Or you even see gymnasts, like girl gymnasts that have come into fighting. It's very similar oh yeah well the strength that they have yeah the strength in the like or i guess we've even found out like stripping too like you just the other day you're holding up that girl like she's like yeah she's like my my uh my stripping has helped me yeah

has helped me in fighting i mean you could find a similarity in any sport or any physical activity that you do and apply it into fighting. She's a little firecracker. Oh, yeah. She's great. She's hilarious. I love that. I was like, that's great, man.

She's pretty funny. You go, girl. Yeah, you go, girl, all day. Yeah, get your money. Yeah, well, you found that in jujitsu with breakdancing, you know, with Richie Martinez and Gio Martinez at 10th Planet. They came over and they were these breakdancers

and they were so fucking strong and so mobile and agile that Eddie Bravo started incorporating break dancing training. He was like, there's something to that. It's obviously, look how these guys can manipulate their body. Do you ever watch break dancing? Well, I'm really good friends with Fee from the Jabberwockies and one of their older guys,

uh, not that he doesn't go there anymore. His name is, his name is Ricky too. And they would always tell me that they, they love fighting. And they also like kind of their similarities there between their break dancing and their moves as there is in fighting. And so I didn't realize that by any means,

but maybe, I don't know. I'm like, what the isolation holds are like, what, what do you mean? But they would say that there's similarities between their dancing and being a jabberwocky and fighting. And I'm like, that's very interesting.

Well, if you ever go to stance elements on Instagram. Okay. Stance elements, go to their page. It's like, these people are the biggest fucking physical freaks. Like, some of the shit they do it's it's like it should be in the olympics well they're probably so good they don't need to fight so good for them but it's just when you think about oh well like give me a do that one the far right that one looks pretty crazy these these dudes what the shit that they can do is like they're defying

gravity and physics like the amount of strength that it takes like look how is he spinning on his hands like that because he's a fucking awesome freak look at his head like what is this guy's name he just looks like a little 10 year old 13 maxo max m m x max o o f k he's from france of france yeah there's a lot of them from korea M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M- Yeah. Look at this little kid. Maybe he's not from Korea. Jesus Christ. That's insane. That is insane. Does it say where he's from? That kind of body. Oh, he's Japanese. I apologize to anybody I might have offended.

He's Japanese. There's a lot of them from Japan. That's incredible. Yeah. I mean, it's just what they can do physically at such a young age. And that these guys, they do this. Go to that, what's his name b-boy pocket kim he's the freak of all freaks there's a chick dude she's got she she can she's got some moves oh there's a lot of

them that are chicks let me see what and this is breaks break dancing that's what they call it yeah that's the style give me some music so i can hear what they're doing it to some missy elliott probably i watch it i get tired i mean i watch it and i'm like oh that's it looks exhausting it's kind of like a moving dance gymnastics right I love that. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Who's that guy in the far right there? That's not that B-Boy Pocket Kim guy,

is it? No. That guy's... Japanese. There's so many of them. It's just that culture, the culture of breakdancing is so strong

and the athletes that do it, I don't think most people know how crazy what they're doing is. Like most people on the outside, they don't know how wild this sport or this art form has gotten. It takes a lot of athleticism, that's for sure. And coordination. Find a video of this guy because he's incredible. There's a video right there jamie on the grass kill that fucking music immediately jesus you know they look like gymnasts they look you know those guys that hold on to the bars and they do the thing on the bar, like they're holding on to the bars? Like that's what it looks like, but no bars.

Exactly. And, you know, look at this fucking aerial he's doing. That is nuts. These guys got to be like stunt doubles for like movies in Hollywood, right? Like those martial arts movies. Yeah. Well, look how crazy that is and everything like the flexibility the athleticism that just the physical strength to distort or contort your body i would appreciate if you take

that mask off while you're doing it though sir how dare you well it's gone to a point where people like want to keep them on right yeah like they don't want to show their real faces or maybe they didn't brush their teeth or something like that bad breath yeah i think it's also like a signal that you're a good person. Like, hey, I'm doing the right thing. I'm wearing my mask. I would be considered very disrespectful then. No, just logical. Yeah, exactly.

It's not, you know, it's just silly. No, it is. At this point, it's like, that's not protecting you. I know. Have you seen that guy where he takes a pool from a vape pen on the outside and then just like clouds and plumes of smoke coming out? It's like, what is it really protecting? there the particles of covid are smaller now can it stop some of the virus from getting to you maybe i don't know maybe can it stop some of your virus from getting out to other people maybe i mean do you remember when we used to like blow out candles on birthday cakes like we were wild back then like that was nuts yeah that's a super spreader event now yeah exactly so when you do like walk me

through like a typical camp okay like if you, say you're going to defend your title against Amanda. Yeah. What, how much time do you want to give yourself? And like, how do you prepare? I've already started. You've already started? Yeah. Yeah?

I just got to keep the foundation first off. So that means going to the gym, not three times a day anymore, but at least showing up at least a few times a week and getting that foundation with the strength and conditioning and the conditioning and everything like that. So you just stay in a good place. Yeah. I'm not as aggressive with, you know, training six days a week. And I will once I get into like official camp. But it's important now to keep the foundation and to keep the base.

And that means lifting still and running still and making sure that, you know, I'm not turning back into the tin man, you know, because nothing is harder than getting out of shape and then trying to get back in shape again. It's brutal. Talk about a mental F like, oh, how did I even do this before? Like, you got to just stay consistent is that one of the hardest things about getting over a knee injury like yours uh staying consistent no getting over the fact that you're out of condition too like not only are you well not even just a knee injury it's like go to any you know I think it's changing but like typical fighter after a fight what do they do they get fat they eat whatever they want and they don't you know step into the gym until their next fight again yeah uh for not everybody but i have i'm not gonna lie have been that fighter before where i'm just like chilling you know until i go to the next camp

how much time would you give yourself off um i mean so fighters fight like two times is is is a lot um i don't think it's that much. But when you're at that high of a level, you know, that's plenty. And so if you had a fight after the fight and back in the day, you would just kind of fuck off? Yep. For how long? Weeks, sometimes even months. Not do shit.

Yeah. But I was in a younger stage where I would just be like partying and living it up. And I didn't have any, let's say little lives depending on me you know so I was like single living the life you know and enjoying myself now it's like you can't do that and especially with her being in school it's forced me to get on more of a routine do you think also though that the progress you've made from not doing that has made you more disciplined because you've recognized the value in that discipline? Well, not only that, but just staying consistent and active. Staying active, I think, is a very important thing, especially as a fighter. And I never used to think like that. You take a loss, I won't fight again for a year because I'm so depressed and F fighting. But when I took a loss

to Jermaine, I was like, I'm going to disappear off the face of the planet and cry myself to sleep again like I did with Valentina. My coach Wayne was like, no, you need to take another fight immediately. You need to stay active. You have to stay active. And I took another fight about a month and a half later against Sarah McMahon. And it's tiresome and it kind of gets, you know, like, but then once it becomes your norm, it's like, this is what I do. And then you think, what else do you got to do today? You know what I mean? You're a fighter. You're a professional fighter. What else you got going on? You know, you should be in the gym. You should be training. You should be, you know, eating okay, it's time to grow up a little bit. And this is my craft and I have to keep honing in on my craft. I have to keep evolving. I have to keep adding, I have to stay consistent and I have to apply that discipline every single day, you know? So was the, with Valentina fight was the hardest loss for you? Absolutely. Yeah. Why? Because I hadn't lost in the UFC at that point. And I think I had, it was a big, gigantic lesson in underestimating your opponent.

You know, I thought, Valentina, 17-time Muay Thai world champion, all I got to do is take this chick to the ground, it's over. You know, I was winning that fight, but I got overzealous. I was trying to punch a hole through her face, and I ended up getting caught. On top, her on her back, in an armbar. And I'm just like, out of all the ways, I absolutely didn't think that that was going to be the case. Right. You know, but there's like, hello, you're fighting at the highest level.

You have to assume everybody is well-rounded. Just because she's a 17-time Muay Thai world champion doesn't mean she doesn't know jujitsu. You know, so that one was something that I was beating myself up for for so long because I was absolutely certain that I was going to stomp a mud hole in her. And I was up until I wasn't. So that's one that I took very, very difficult. When you think about defending your title, does she pop into your mind about somehow or another getting a rematch? Absolutely.

Do you think you can make 125? I have in the past. I've fought twice at 125. How hard is it? Well, when I had the notice the first time? I have in the past. I've fought twice at 125. How hard is it? Well, when I had the notice the first time, I made it no problem. Literally no problem. The second time, I absolutely did not make it. I was off by one pound and I didn't make weight by one pound because I took that fight on such short notice.

that fight on such short notice. And it's not something that I would like to entertain because I have a gigantic love for food. And I don't want to live miserably. I truly feel, and this is going to sound weird, I truly feel like I'm a natural 135-er. What do you walk around at? I'm like at 145. I walk around at like 145.

On a bad day, catch me on a bad day, I walk around like 148, 150. But I walk normally at 145 on a bad day catch me on a bad day i will walk around like 148 150 okay but i walk normally at 145 when i'm in camp i can't get any i can't get any higher than 143 um not because for anything other than the fact that like i'm training so much that like i wake up consistently 142 143 um but i feel like i'm a true natural 135 or 25 of course i can make but is it going to be annoying yes and is it something that i feel like doing no not really but again what did i say yeah you pay me i'll go down to

115 if you want me to you know i'll go to 155 like i don't care i'll fight anybody just as long as if if it don't make money it don't make sense well i was just thinking that like uh maybe even a catch weight between the two of you two champs yeah depending upon what amanda wants to do now have they made some sort of uh they started negotiations or discussions or brought up i can only speak from what i would do personally and she thinks it was a fluke she thinks she mentally checked out she thinks that she was just you know um had to go see a sports psychologist to figure out why her brain stopped ticking, you know, at the moment and that she just gave up and quit on herself.

Whatever her reasoning is, she's probably a little embarrassed. She's probably a little stung and she probably wants to stay active and go and get her belt back and show everybody that it was a fluke. You know, that's probably what she's thinking. That's probably what her camp is probably telling her, you know. And that's the big money fight anyway right now. What did he say, Dana White? The biggest women's fight in history.

In history. So, I mean, it makes sense. You've got to have a dance partner. It takes two to tango. It's not just a one-stop shop here. You have to have somebody that's going to want to dance with you and what not better opponent than somebody that just beat you and just put a blemish in your gigantic record of being the greatest of all time.

Oh, there's no question. I mean, it's going to be huge. Yeah. It's going to be huge. Yeah, well, that's what they said. Biggest fight in women's history sounds pretty big to me. And he said the Kayla Harrison fight and Amanda Nunes was like a mega million dollar fight. He's quoted as saying mega million dollar fight.

So if that's the case, then what is this? I think it's bigger. That's just me. Of course I'm going to advocate for myself. Of course. Well, how can you not? Listen, that's always been a hot topic is the subject of fighter pay. I'm always on the side that fighters should get paid the most amount possible.

And I think that without fighters, there's no sport. This is where the money should be. And also you have this small window. It's a slippery slope, right? Because, oh, you don't want to fight for 10 and 10. Well, there's a thousand other people that can't wait to put these UFC shorts on that are going to fight for that. And no one's holding the gun up to your head. But then there's that flip side that, like I said, those silver bullets, I've been saving these silver bullets so that when I'm the champion I can finally advocate for myself with confidence to say I'm the champion now and you must pay me yeah and then you get into that bad guy good guy good cop bad cop type of scenario it's like

well I've been establishing these relationships with the UFC since 2013 I love these guys they're great like I'll go have a drink with them any old day and then there's the other side where it's like you can't keep advocating for yourself because you're screwing yourself when you got to have a middleman you can't you it's business yes but then once you do business then they hate you you know and i'm gonna get tense yeah and i'm like how do i how do i do this you know what i mean because i want these people to still you know rep for me but then I don't want them to hate me because I'm asking for more money but how many times does that bother them where then they end up not putting the belt on you and not showing up to

the press conference you know what I mean so that's the thing right it's like you gotta first of all someone else has to do the talking you don't do the talking you just do the fighting but the problem is when you're talking to them too yeah and that is the problem because every deal that i've ever done it's been me and it's been like me going in there and be like all right yeah sure you know oh you feed me this awesome meal yeah yeah i'll fight whoever you want just give me the pen you know and i'll do it and anytime i go back to you know somebody else like you idiot why would you do that i'm like it was really good he was so nice you know it's like and I love those guys I love Sean Shelby

I love Dana White like I really do like I think they're awesome but there's other people that are like more on the business side where they're like you just made the biggest

mistake of your life so do you have a business manager that handles those things now yes Chad Bronstein he's the he's the owner of Filo

he's the owner of Wisana he's got me all these awesome sponsors he's got me the most money that I've ever made pre-champ you know beautiful yeah i just started work with him and he's legitimately changed my life him and aristotle loomis yes well i can't imagine how much money the new fight is going to generate the rematch is going to be gigantic i mean that's what they i'm just i'm just using his own words again he said mega million dollar fight he said biggest fight in women's history well i think the idea was that

amanda was undefeated and she was the goat and this would be the big challenge to her but also that's you know big challenge you guys even you that's why i came here to have a bone to pick with you even you were like uh the week or the two weeks before the fight would be another ufc and they'd be like, Oh yeah, UFC 269 is coming up. Amanda Nunez defending her belt against the Juliana Pena. Anyways, Valentina is the only one that can pose a threat to Amanda Nunez.

You know, I'm like, I'm fighting her. You guys won't even say my name. I'm fighting. You're talking about somebody who's in another division. Who's lost to her two times. You guys won't even give me any credit in the world.

It's like, nobody was giving me credit for that fight. Not even you. Listen, reality is if you look at your record and if you look at the people that you lost to and you look at what she's done, it looked like she had a massive advantage over you. She was being called the greatest woman of all time.

You lost to Jermaine Duran to me. You had one, who'd you beat after that? Sarah McMahon. You beat Sarah McMahon and then was there one more fight after that? I was supposed to fight Holly but she pulled out for injury and then since Holly pulled out it was Amanda

so that's one loss so you had one loss one win and then fight for the title it's not doubting your abilities weirder things have happened but you can't say that when you're talking about the future of fighting. If you're looking at like the rankings and you're looking at what, what's,

who's going to challenge who and how things line up. It's not a disrespect to you. It's just the reality of your record. Yeah. Misha was 0-2 when she got a title shot. There was other people that like did absolutely nothing that were getting title shots. But that was when Misha had 0-2 when she got a title shot. There was other people that did absolutely nothing that were getting title shots. Yeah, but that was when Misha had lost to Ronda over in Strikeforce.

So it was like there was history behind it. And the division was very shallow back then. The division, when Ronda first won the title or came over and became the champ, the division is night and day different. And there's so much talent now. There's so much talent in 25. There's so much talent in 35. So when we're doing that,

we're just trying to think of what's the biggest hype-up fight. Valentina is one of the greatest martial arts practitioners, period. And when you look at her being a threat to Amanda, you would say that would be the biggest threat to Amanda. So you're trying to set things up

and talk about the future. It's just talk about it realistically based on accomplishments. But now, obviously, you've accomplished something that nobody did. So it's a different animal now. So now going into this fight, I'll talk about you very differently.

Yeah, I hope so. You know I love you. I gotta go to Texas, man. I gotta clear my name. I'm sick of this. No respect. Listen, I'm not here to disparage respect listen i'm not i'm i'm not here to disparage you i'm here to pump you up no i know i'm pumped up i love that win i love it i

went crazy i know the whole the everybody did i think the the highlight for me honestly was hearing dc scream like that like he's like a little girl like we were both screaming octagon like his the range that he hit he was like yeah i'll show you the text he sent me he was like look at the noises we're making i know because you're both like oh my god oh my god oh my god yeah because it was so crazy no when you took her down i remember screaming like oh my god i'm blowing people's eardrums out yeah well it was crazy because leading up to the fight, you know, you do the fighter interviews. And DC was just not giving me the time of day. He's all turning in his chair, rolling his eyes.

And I'm just like, am I bothering you? Like, are you okay? Like, how are you doing today, DC? He was turning his chair and rolling his eyes? Well, I get a Zoom call with Megan and John and DC. And, like, I'm trying to talk to them. But, like, DC, he just didn't look like he was having a good time or paying attention you know so I asked him in the fighter interview I

said how they they want to know like how you feeling going into this fight I said well how did you feel you know when you were in my position and fighting for you know a championship and he was like well sometimes it went my way and sometimes it didn't sometimes I lost and sometimes it didn't it was very like you're fucked you know so uh that's the sentiment that I got and so then we went to the ESPN desk and he asked me on air like um you know you asked me in the fighter interviews you know how I felt or what you were asking me for advice and you know to some people when you're in your position and you ask somebody else for their advice it looks like weakness you know and I'm like i'm only asking you dc because how many

title shots uh did you get and he was like i fought in the ufc i think don't quote me 13 or 14 times out of the 13 and 14 times that dc fought in the ufc 11 of them were title fights wow 11 that's crazy yes so i'm like of course I'm asking you. Right. Of course I want to pick your brain on this. I need to know because you've been there. I'm looking to you as a guide that can give me a nugget. Anything. Anything I'll take, you know.

It's not weakness. It's just because you've been there 11 times. It's respect. Yeah. Yeah. So I was really happy to hear him scream it. And he's like, she's telling me right now. I told you so.

I'm like, I did tell you so. I told you. But that I told you so I'm like I did tell you so I told you but that I told you so look at us going crazy do it from the beginning yeah okay this is no in the beginning if you turn it up you can hear DC scream like a little girl look at Sean Shelby's mouth over there on the left. I still can't believe it happened. Juliana Pena, and there are her coaches, Mike Valley, Luis Cabrillo. Wow. What an achievement award for him. So wild.

It's the first time I've ever been on the octagon in my entire career. Oh, you deserve it. They tell you not to climb up there, right? Look, my coach boosted me up like a little child. He was holding my shirt the entire time to make sure that I didn't fall down. That's so amazing. He made me get on the cage. I was absolutely like, no, I'm not going to get on.

He's like, get on the cage. Like, okay. How does that feel looking at that? I felt bad. You see that bald head right there? Where? The guy on the left? Yeah.

I kicked him in the back of the head when I got up there on accident. He'll be okay. Yeah, no, he'll be fine. But it felt great, right? Because Wayne was like, look it out there. Look it out there. Look at all those people. You know?

And Rick's like, get on the cage. And so they boosted me up there. I kicked that guy in the head. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm up here. This is my first time ever being on the cage. This is nuts. Does it feel crazy just seeing that? It does.

It does. You know what's even crazier? That thrill and agony came out. And so my sister, she's got to be like, what, 125? She's just a little thing. And my strength and conditioning trainer too, he's jacked, you know, this big guy. Both of them after the fight were like, oh, I was holding Issa, my daughter. I was holding Issa the whole time.

I was like, oh, that's great, you you know I went and watched the thrill and agony and paused the frame on my family there is a complete stranger holding my kid and I'm like Grace I thought you were holding Issa she's like she's really heavy and she was squirming all over the place I sat her down for a second and then I was like Alex I thought you were holy he's like well I was and then like when you pause the frame on the thrill and agony, it's just some random guy. And I'm like, mom, who is this guy holding my daughter? I thought she was supposed to be with you guys. And they're like, that's your that's your friend.

That's your friend. And I'm like, what are you talking about? That's my friend. Like, yeah, he's a part of your camp. I'm like, no, he's not. And they're like, yeah, his wife's in a wheelchair. I'm like, I don't know anybody whose wife is in a wheelchair. And I'm telling him looking at this in a wheelchair i'm like i don't know anybody whose wife is in a wheelchair and i'm telling him looking at this guy's face right now i don't

know who that is and they're i still haven't figured out who it is whoever you are thanks thanks for holding my kid up dude literally yeah because he's holding her he's grabbing her he's he's he was cheering for me he was happy but it was so funny and the thrill and agony i'm just like i don't who's that rando yeah all these people are like claiming that they were holding my kid the whole time. And then when it cuts back, it's like some stranger holding her. Oh my God, that's hilarious. Yeah, it was pretty funny.

That's so funny. Yeah, it was funny. It was great. When you watch the video of it, does it seem surreal? It does. A little bit, it does. I will say on the flip side,

I knew I was going to win and I expected it of myself and I absolutely expected, you know, whether I was going to walk away with one leg or one arm, I was gonna win and I expected it of myself and I absolutely expected you know whether I was gonna walk away with one leg or one arm I was gonna walk away with the belt that night no matter what so I knew that um but and I expected it of myself but there was that surreal moment of like okay this is checked off we did this we got this and the also part people ask me that all the time like yeah it's awesome i won that's great but i don't want to keep focusing on this i want to talk about the future and what's next and

how i'm going to you know move on to the next thing which is retaining the belt and defending and getting on to the next thing because i had already known in my head that i will be a champion one day and that it's going to happen so it's like that's great i want to always remember this moment and i always will i think the moment moment speaks for itself as far as being very big, but now I'm ready to go and do the next thing. That's a champion's mentality. Yeah. Yeah. Move forward. And now when you think about your future, how old are you now? I don't know. I'm just getting old. I think I'm 32. You don't know. I'm either 32 or 33 You don't know 89

I was born in 89 And I mean I could tell you But I don't I'm Well when What August of 89 August of 89

What year are we in 2022 You're 32 About to be 33 right Yeah You're 32 about to be 33 No I think I'm Wait

I'm going 2022 Subtract 1989 right Yes It says 33 But am I going to be 33. No, I think I'm 30. Wait, I'm going 2022 subtract 1989, right? Yes. It says 33, but am I going to be 33 in August? Yeah. You don't even know. I'm 32. I'm old, dude.

She busted out a calculator. I'm old. It sucks, dude. I'm 54. Yeah, but you're not fighting. These girls are coming in here like 18 years old, hot off the press. How old do you think you'll be when you stop? Well, that was the question, right?

My brother's like, do you really want to be fighting when you're 40 that's embarrassing and i'm like but women are so yeah he told me that one time like he's trying to fuck with you oh he's always been trying to mess with me my entire life that's what brothers do right that's embarrassing what if you're winning at 40 yeah but that's what i'm saying what i'm saying is is that women are so incredible that like why not be fighting when i'm 40 right because women are awesome and we can do everything so i don't necessarily yeah i don't necessarily think that fighting at that age is a is a bad thing it's absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about by any means but do I want to be fighting when I'm 40 I don't know well Bernard Hopkins was in his prime at 40 yeah he really was

he was destroying people at 40 he fought all the way up till he was 50 at a world-class level wow and see that's what people are telling me now I'm'm in my prime now. So like, am I going to be in my prime when I'm 40? I don't know. I think that primes today are different because of nutrition and because of strength and conditioning methods and because of recovery methods. I think people are able to maintain their prime longer. However, when it comes to strength and conditioning and all these different things, like one thing that you have to take into account with fighting is damage. And so many fighters, by the time they get to a certain age, their necks fuck, their backs fuck, their knees are fucked. There's something wrong.

Yeah. And then they're just not 100% ever. They're always going to be a shadow of what they were five years ago, six years ago. Right. And you see it in fights. You see the deterioration. And a lot of it is just based on the amount of damage they take in training and fights. Yeah.

That's why, again, it's very important that you try to capitalize on every opportunity that you get. 100%. And that means monetary-wise because I'm pretty sure I'm going to need knee replacements when I'm like 50 or 60. You think so? Probably. Why do you think that? Because I've had two knee surgeries, right? And like, don't people get knee replacements or hip replacements and stuff like that? I'm going to have to have pulled money from somewhere to have this type of surgery. I mean, my, my surgeon, he told me, uh, you know, when I talked to ask him that question, he says, you know, by the time

you're going to have to be worrying about that, we'll be living on the moon. So technology will have advanced way before, like by the time you get there, you know. Michael Bisping has two fake knees now. See? Yeah. See? But he was an animal. Like Bisping, when he was training, he was in agony. His knees were chewed up and he'd still run 10 miles.

Yeah. Just mangle his fucking knees. Yeah. Well, road work is super important. Yeah. Well road work is super important. Yeah, you know, he's uh, Just one of those guys just all grit not just all grit obviously talent Intelligence as well, but just so much fucking grit that he wore his knees out But the knee replacement thing is a scary one. Totally I feel like we're so close to being able to figure it out with biologics

They're so close to being able to figure it out with biologics. They're so close with like stem cells and different things that are regenerating tissue that you might be able to fix it. Yeah. Without having to put some sort of a plastic version of a kneecap in there. Well, and I've had those treatments. I had PRP injections and I can tell you, okay, first off the most pain I've ever been in was coming out of that knee surgery. The second most pain that I've ever been in is when I got the PRP.

Really? I was in excruciating pain. I was going to stab that doctor with my little pen I had. I was screaming. I begged her to stop. I was like, I don't want this anymore. I was like, do you hate me? That's how I felt.

Like, why are you doing this to me? Because I know after my fight, I think Sarah McMahon had told me when I fought Sarah that she had got it and it wasn't painful for her. So she's like, I don't really know what you're talking about. But the PRP injection that I experienced was the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life. And I will never get it again because I was in so much pain. Really? Yes. That's weird.

I've had Regenicaine, which is a very similar process to PRP, where they take your platelets, they take your blood out and they spin it in a centrifuge, just like PRP, but they add a bunch of stuff to it. It's really effective. Is it USADA safe? Yeah, it's USADA safe. A lot of fighters have gotten it. In fact, a lot of fighters used to have to go over to Germany to get it. Oh, I see them going to Columbia lately. Yes. That's bio-accelerator. That's stem cells. Yeah. A lot of guys go over there.

Yeah. That's a good thing too. But anyway, I've had Regenikine done a bunch of times and I never felt that kind of pain. So I don't know. Maybe that lady did hate you. I think, yeah, I was like, she told me that she has her NFL guys, the Bears players. She says that they cry. She says that I handled it better because she's done it to some of the bears players and they cried really I thought she was just spinning

spinning tails there because I was gonna I was gonna throttle that chick I don't know why it would be so painful that's weird it was really painful but I do hope that like Dr. Kvitney says that we'll be living on the moon by the time I have to worry about that type of situation however when I do get to that point I'm gonna need to pull some money from somewhere to get it done. You know? What do you think you're going to do when you stop fighting? It's a really good question. So I wanted to talk to you about something. Um, Campbell McLaren, love him. I love Campbell. Love Campbell. Campbell's the reason why I got into the UFC. I know. He told me he hired you. He hired me to be the backstage interviewer. Yes.

Yes. I actually saw an interview of you and him the other day. He sent it to me. And you guys are talking about cars. Like he was going to start a car show or something like that. It was going to be like about fast cars. And you're young. You got all this head full of hair.

It's hilarious. But Campbell McLaren hired me as his color commentator for Combate Global. Oh, nice. So I was, during this camp with Amanda, flying down to Miami every Friday. And I was going to the Univision studios and I was their on-air commentator for streaming on Paramount+. Oh. So I've dabbled a little bit in commentating. I love commentating.

I mean, I could talk about MMA all day. I could talk to a rock about this stuff. I love commentating and I love MMA. Well, what about doing a podcast on MMA? The beautiful thing about that is you would control it. So it doesn't matter if it's Bellator, PFL, One Championship. You could do a podcast on MMA. And obviously, you're great at talking and you're very opinionated.

It's perfect for you. Well, and Chadad my agent was just telling me about this like we got to get you on a podcast i feel two ways about it number one i don't even know how to use tiktok i i don't i don't have a tiktok i don't know how to use it but you won't have to you're doing a podcast right now and you're killing it right now you're doing great so if you did what you're doing right now by yourself yeah you do that so the second part of that is um timing everyone wants it are you ready to go to hollywood and make movies are you ready to do this and like all i want to talk about or do is is fighting and focus on my career right now so i feel like doing a

podcast especially being a single mom it's it's taking away from training and being a mom like it's it's hours you know sometimes your mom. Like it's hours, you know. Sometimes your pockets are, what, three hours long. Yeah, but you don't have to do that. You don't have to do hours. You could just do one hour. And what you could do is like have it set up where you have some sort of a room

that's got a table and a microphone, a camera on you, and you just talk about how you feel about upcoming match-ups, you know, or after the fight. You can talk. That's a great one right away. Campbell gave me all the equipment.

I have a Yeti microphone and I got the headset. He sent me the camera. I just don't know how to do anything. You can learn. You're smart. Yeah, no, I am. I think I probably haven't done it because I feel like every Tom, Dick, and Harry has a podcast. Every day you wake up, it's like a new guy starting a podcast.

And then I also feel like timing is an issue for me. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is not the UFC bantamweight champion of the world. True. True. That means a lot. Yeah. Dude, you beat the goat. And I feel this way about myself.

I'm like, nobody really cares, do they? They do care. No. They do. Well, also, you're an engaging person. You're interesting. You're funny. You're smart. And you cares do they like they do care no they do but also you're an engaging person you're interesting you're funny you're smart and you can do something like that if they have a if someone has a camera on you and you start talking about the UFC people would go like oh what does Juliana think about this yeah and they will they'll tune in yeah you know

that's I think it's a great way for you to set up what you could do in the future my look at Brandon shop he makes infinitely more money now than he ever did when he was doing fighting. He doesn't have to fight ever again in his life. Yeah. You could do that too. He's a great crossover in that regard. Absolutely. And other guys are doing that now too.

Yeah. You know, Josh Thompson has a great podcast. Yeah. He does a Big John McCarthy. Yeah. Another excellent example. Yeah. And those guys, I mean, who better to learn about or listen to talk about fights than Josh?

He's been around forever. He was one of the best in the world at one point in time. Big John McCarthy, veteran, been around, seen everything. Those two guys together, perfect. Yeah, but doesn't that also require more homework and study on my end? You're talking about after fighting or during fighting? Either or. Yeah, after fighting, I could see that all day long.

But for the most part, people ask me about fights and stuff. And'm like i this is gonna sound horrible it's super selfish i don't care about anybody but myself and i i have no idea you probably know more about it than i do because all i care about is this fighter right here like that's that's the only one that i'm concerned about so i would have to do study i would have to like you know know these guys more and I already do that on the side with combate so that's hard enough as it is because every week I'm flying down there Friday to have to talk about these fighters I mean it's work I get it but I think that sets you up for a podcast doing the combate stuff that allows you to get a base under you just like a base of training from cardio kickboxing that's a base of training to eventually go do a

podcast yeah and and thank god for Campbell McLaren for giving me that opportunity and shout out to Campbell yeah for giving me that opportunity he's so funny isn't he what you could do though is you could do a post fight thing it'd be much easier yeah so just I mean imagine just two big fights like look at uh Cyril Ghosn yeah and Francis Ngannou and Brandon Moreno, Davis and Figueredo. Just from watching those fights, you'll have so many opinions. Just those. And it doesn't even have to be a whole hour. But the idea is like get used to doing it.

Get used to doing it. Do it. Put it out there. And then eventually it could be a business that's really profitable. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. And I think that Chad's been telling me that,

and I just have to find and find and figure out a way to facilitate it. Cause like I said, I do have all the equipment. I just need to learn how to use it. Like I don't, I have a Mac. I just don't know how to use it. That won't be hard to do. That's not hard to do. The hard part is having a fucking personality and you have that, you know, that's the hard part. You already have the hard part. You got that shit dialed in. But the other thing to do for you and i would like to see a lot of fighters do that is commentary on you know ufc broadcasts yeah i mean dc is obviously the big dog over there but paul felder does an amazing job dominic cruz isn't fantastic at it it was one of those things where i was falling on deaf ears again i've asked i've I've told them. I've wanted to do it, and I'm just talking to a wall.

Like, that'd be great, but nobody's listening to me. Well, maybe they'll listen now that you're the champ. Yeah. Maybe it's more likely because I think that we need a woman's perspective, especially a veteran woman's fighting perspective on big fights. on big fights. There's not much difference between men and women when it comes to fighting, but there's enough that I would want to hear from a championship woman's perspective.

And when it comes to a big fight, like say if Valentina is fighting someone, you fought Valentina and doing commentary, that happens all the time in boxing. People who fought people will do commentary. That would be fantastic. Yeah, and that also reminds me of i thought for a long time and that's refreshing to hear you say that actually because i thought for a long time they just don't want to hear what a chick

has to say about fighting maybe well megan olivi does it yeah but megan olivi is not you know sitting on the booth with you guys and and walking through the fight as a caller commentator she's just kind of providing she could but she's just kind of providing information about who's about to go get into the octagon it's different i'm like they must not like respect what a woman's opinion would be because it's been how long that they have never allowed a woman to like sit next to you guys and and do what you guys do like together you three well other than you a third woman in the booth but other than you who would it be right you know what i'm saying like you you want someone like dc's got a big personality sure you know and dc and i are tight yeah so when we do it together with john annick it's like we

love each other so it comes out and megan i love megan too totally but we you know you could do that too like 100 like i have 100 faith in you i would would 100% hire you to do that. Yeah. I mean, I would too, but again, I'm just my own advocate here just trying to be my biggest fan. No, I think if there was a big professional fight that involved women, not even just women. I mean, the only thing about you is- Let's talk about men's fight for a second. What did you think about the Moreno and Figueiredo fight? I would have to go watch it again.

Yeah. But after it was over, I thought Moreno had doneigueiredo fight. I would have to go watch it again. Yeah. But after it was over, I thought Moreno had done to win a decision. And the thing that drives me crazy is they always say, what have they said forever? In order to be the champ,

you got to beat the champ decisively, definitively. You know, I don't feel like he was definitively, you know, leaps and bounds above Moreno. And so I'm just like, I was shocked because I figured, you know, he had done enough to retain his belt. So I was like like I was shocked because I figured you know he had done enough to retain his

belt so I was like that's I was not a happy camper about that I'd have to watch it again because sometimes when you watch a fight live you know you're just so caught up in the fight I always say that if you're doing commentary you're not really scoring a fight because when you're doing commentary you're just trying to give life

you're trying to like you're trying to express things that enhance the people's opinion or the people's enjoyment of the fight. Yeah. I'm doing it for fans where they realize that I'm one of them. I'm a fan too.

I'm so pumped and excited about this that I hope it enhances their viewing pleasure. That's what I'm trying to do. But you can't do that and score. Yeah. So if I was going to score really accurately, I would have a piece of paper and I would shut my fucking mouth. Yeah.

And I would just watch. I would have like two. Like when Eddie Bravo used to score fights. Yeah. He would do like in between round scoring like Harold Letterman does in boxing. Yeah. And we would have he would have two pieces two pieces of paper with two sides to it. Yeah.

And he would write down takedowns, this, that, you know, submission attempts. Yeah. Kicks, punches. He'd mark all those things down. And then afterwards, he would, like, add in, like, what did more damage, like, think about in his head. And then he would give a perspective. And it was pretty accurate that way.

Yeah. But when you're doing that, you're not talking. Yeah. When you're doing that, you're sitting and watching. When I'm talking, I'm trying to make it exciting. I'm trying to, I'm trying to. You're adding color. Yes, I'm adding color.

I'm trying to make it exciting and I'm trying to honor their performances. Like even though I was like making a lot of goofy noises when you're fighting, I was trying to honor your performance because I was like, this is, I wanted everyone to know how I really felt. This is fucking amazing. I want that to be contagious.

Right. And I'll segue that by saying that I think that obviously I'm biased towards Moreno winning the fight because he's Mexican, he's Hispanic like I am, and he's fighting a Brazilian like I did. And then he also, in some regard, did the impossible too because nobody counted him out

this guy's last seed on the ultimate fighter you know he took a fight on short notice the first time they fought second time it wasn't even close he just closed Figueredo out and then the third time I'm I'm trying to like look at his fight and relate it to my own career and being like this guy is not supposed to win this guy is not supposed to have the belt but he made it happen anyways and so of course I'm biased towards Moreno because you know i feel like we're in the same position we're the underdogs and so um that's where i think my bias comes into play but i also think he did great you know yeah you got knocked down but you didn't stop him and he came back and he hurt you too you know so it was a it was a close fight i would have to watch it it was a close fight it wasn't you know it didn't

seem like a robbery to me but it did seem like again i'd have to watch it. It was a close fight. It didn't seem like a robbery to me, but it did seem like, again, I'd have to watch it. I was surprised. I thought Moreno had done enough. Well, my question is this. Aren't you like, how do you, for example, you've been doing this since the UFC started, you know, or pretty damn close. UFC 12 was the first one I worked at. Sure.

You've been doing it for a long time. Don't you get burnt out sometimes? You say I would have to re-watch it. Wouldn't that be such a taxing chore for you to have to do because you already watched it and you already had to call it? That's hilarious. I don't think like that at all. I get pumped to watch that fight again.

I re-watch fights all the time. Do you? I love them. Oh, I'm not burnt out even a little. Yeah, that would be hard, right? No, the only thing that was hard for me was travel. The only thing that was hard to me, like the flights to England, Australia, and Brazil. I loved being there when the fights were on. It was just physically, I do so many other things. The problem is if you fly back from Brazil, Brazil's awesome.

But when you fly back, I'm wrecked for days. So that means my performance and everything else is off. So my performance in training is off when I do jiu-jitsu. My performance in doing comedy is off because I'm tired. My performance in podcasting is off because my brain is fucking flat. That's all that is. But even having to be up to speed with every single fighter. I mean, they're just filtering these guys in left and right.

And having to have that knowledge on who's fighting every time has got to be taxing. I mean, they're just filtering these guys in left and right. And like having to like have that knowledge on who's fighting every time has got to be like taxing, right? I love it. No, no problem at all. Yeah. No, no, it's my favorite thing. I think for me, I would say

because I've been commentating with Combate that the struggle has been that I'm trying to be on my own thing. Yes. And then having to travel every week to be talking about these guys. And of course I love doing it. But like my brain, especially leading up to Amanda,

I had to tell them a month ahead of time that I had to quit because I needed to focus on myself. It was hard for me to be present calling these fights when I'm like, I'm making a mistake by being here because I should be training right now. No, that completely makes sense. Yeah. But that's a different animal than me. You know, I'm, I'm a, I'm so thankful that I have that gig.

Oh yeah. And I'm so thankful that I was there early oh yeah and i'm so thankful that i was there early on you know when i first started working for the ufc i was on news radio which is a sitcom kathy griffin and yeah no not no redhead she's in that show is she not no it's vicky lewis kathy griffin was on suddenly susan is that what she was on i think you're right i'm so sorry no no, no, no. It was the same era, I feel like. Kathy's great, but Vicky is the original. She was the redhead?

She's the OG. Okay. She's the OG. My bad, my bad. But anyway, when I was on that sitcom, I was doing the UFC and flying these fucking puddle jumper planes. Like, meh.

To weird spots. You're like, this thing's going down. Yeah, like in Dothan,abama and weird spots yeah but um people would act like i was doing porn or something they're like why are you doing that yeah and i'll be like i love it and they're like it's like you think it's smart that you do cage fighting commentary yeah like what the fuck are you doing why are you why are you doing backstage interviews at cage fights yeah and i'll be like i don't know what to tell you i love it yeah i'm like i'm not gonna stop to tell you i love it yeah i'm

like i'm not gonna stop doing it yeah and so it was a thing where it was like i was wondering if this is damaging my career but i was like i don't care i love doing it yeah and then um it got to the point where it was costing me too much money because um i would make more money doing stand-up on a weekend than i would doing the UFC and it was hard because I was flying all over the place so I quit yeah in like 98 yes I did it from 97 to 98 so I did it for two years essentially at the end of 98 I was like ah they would they had one in Japan I was like I can't go to Japan man I'm busy yeah and so then um the UFC was sold to Zufa, and then in 2001, I met Dana, and I became friends with him, and then he's the one who talked me into doing commentary. Oh, really?

And the first time I ever did commentary was UFC 37 1⁄2. That was the Vitor Belfort versus Chuck Liddell fight, and that was on Best Damn Sports Show period. So it was a big deal that they were on best damn sports show period, and I was on Fear Factor, and so he was like, would you do me a favor and do commentary? So I did like the first 15 shows I did for them for free. I didn't even have a contract. I was just doing it for fun.

I said, listen, I don't even need any money. I said, just give my friends tickets so my friends can watch the fights, and I'll go do commentary. It's no big deal. They weren't making any money. They were hemorrhaging money and I was, my dream, like Eddie Bravo and I would always talk back before Zuf had bought the UFC,

like you know what the UFC needs? Because we thought it was the greatest sport in the world. But no one else did. Everyone else thought it was like porn. You know, it was like a. What did John McCain say? They were like trying to get this like. Human cock fighting.

Yes. So like, we were like, you know what this sport needs? This sport needs some crazy billionaire like what did John McCain say they're like trying to get this like human cockfighting yes so like we were like you know what the sport needs the sport needs some crazy billionaire who's a fan to just dump a bunch of money into it and make it so that like everybody could see what we see yeah just put it out there and that's what happened yeah the Fertitta's the Fertitta's Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta came along and they literally did exactly what we were saying. Yeah. They were giant fans who did martial arts.

Yeah. They practiced martial arts. And then they hired Dana, who was their high school buddy. Yeah. And then they turned it into what it is today. But it was literally like a dream come true for me. Yeah. So I just wanted to help.

Yeah. So I was willing to do it for free. Wow. So I did the first 15 shows for free. That's nuts. And then it got 15 shows for free. That's nuts. And then it got to be the point. That's me. Oh, so cute.

Look at all my hair. So then it got to the point where when it became, I was doing a lot of them. Yeah. And I was like, look, I'm doing this all the time. And then they said, I think we should start paying you money. Were you like, yeah, I will graciously take that? Well, you know, it was, they were very generous, but it was a weird situation where it was like, I'm doing a job, but I'm doing a job for free, but I've been doing it for free for so long.

Yeah. This is a spy. It says, Campbell McLaren was born entrepreneur at UFC 17. He spoke to Joe Rogan about a new program called Street Legal. Do you remember this? I do. He had like some racing show. He was putting it together. Campbell's always got something going on.

Yeah, like that's you and him back in the day. Yeah. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah. Well, Campbell's the reason why I got hired. Yeah. Yeah, he's friends with my manager from the comedy club days. And Campbell was involved in this comedy club that my manager was involved with like way back in the day.

Yeah. And then, you know, they had a conversation i think a casual car i don't think he's even asking about me they had a conversation like campbell's like i need to get a a new uh backstage interviewer where we need to hire a new guy and uh they were talking and he goes well i think joe's really into the ufc yeah he goes you think he would do it was like well let's call him up they called me up on my fuck yeah and they're like you're gonna have to fly to the middle and it was supposed to be albany but then uh new york state canceled it and then i had to fly to dothan but i mean i got to be there for vitor's debut i got to see randy couture's debut i got to see so many historical tito ortiz's debut guy metzger's debut i got to see so

many historical fights yeah mikey burnett when he was in his prime i got to see pat militich when he was defending his title i mean i feel very honored and privileged yes it was for me it was like god this is incredible to be there and these are like fucking high school auditoriums and shit that these fights would take place in. And there was no rules. There was nut shots. You could pull hair. Everybody wore shoes. You didn't have to have gloves.

When I started, it was bare knuckle. That's crazy. I saw Mark Coleman. Mark Coleman beat Dan Severin to become the first ever UFC heavyweight champion. That was the first time I did a post-fight interview. Shit in my pants. Nice. Talking to the hammer.

Yeah. I met him. I got some pictures with him before. I actually sat next to Chuck Liddell for this fight or the fights on Saturday. Oh, really? Yeah, but I was so like, I didn't know how to feel. And maybe you can help me out with this because like two UFCs before I sat right behind him and it was the first time I'd ever seen him before.

And Valentino was fighting Lauren Murphy and he was just like not happy. You know, he's like women's fighting is. And I was like, you're breaking my heart, Chuck. He said that? He was like the whole fight. What was he saying? I'm not going to repeat, but I was like, you literally. He said that to you?

No, he was talking in front of me, but he's watching the fight, and you can just tell he's just upset. I don't know how anybody could watch Valentina perform and perform against Lauren Murphy if she put on a fucking show. Clinic, yeah. And then I sat next to him at the UFC this last time, and I think that I was trying to be like, give him a chance, because maybe he was just having a bad night that night.

And I think, you know, the second time meeting him was more pleasant. And I was thinking to myself, this is so weird because his generation back when he was starting is just so different from this generation. But what's interesting is that you've seen like all the generations. You know what I mean? You've seen those Mark Coleman moments, those Dan Severn moments, those Chuck Liddell moments, like all the way up to current day. And that's nuts. It just also goes to show you how new the sport is, but like how much more mainstream it's getting. It's getting very mainstream. But yeah, when I started, the difference between the skill level then versus now is there's not another sport where you

can go back to me when I started was 97 yeah there's not another sport where you go back to 97 and then look at the difference in the caliber of the athletes and it's so night and day yeah what other sport is like that yeah I mean not just what the difference in the caliber of the athletes but the difference in the sport itself. Like what's recognized and respected as sport. It's so different. It's infinitely evolved. Right. What are your thoughts on those like scoring systems? Like I think in Kansas City, where it's like round by round, they give the live scoring, they show the live scoring.

I think they should do that. You do? Yeah. I think round by round is the best way to go because then you hold the judges accountable how do we get rid of these problems that we're having with these judges I think you need to hire fighters for judges and I know some fighters like Ricardo Almeida he's done some judging and some other you know we had Frank Trigg was in the octagon during this and so he was as a referee. I think that's, you have to really know martial arts to be a judge. Yeah. You know,

and then I think it's also very subjective. I think there's some very good judges. Don't get me wrong. Yes. But I think there's some scoring that's just a little fucking, and it's a real problem when you go to regional judging. Yeah. So like if you go to a town that's not used to having a UFC

and then they have regional judges or regional referees and they fuck up the fights, that does become a problem. That becomes a real issue. You know, like they separate fighters too quickly. They stand people up too quickly. They don't let people work. Maybe they hear the boos of

the crowd and they give into it. Unlike a guy like Herb Dean, who's not going to he's going to judge, he's going to referee that fight based on what he knows to be the right way to referee a fight. He's not, boos and shit don't mean nothing to Herb Dean. Yeah. He knows what he's doing. Yeah.

But there's other people that aren't like that. And they, people will boo when someone's clinching against a cage, kneeing legs, and they'll just separate them right away. Like, hey man, you gotta let them fight. Yeah. Like that's, I don't think they should be stood up ever. Me, I'm the same.

I'm with you. Good, thank you. I feel like sometimes when they do that, I'm like, what, you just want to be a part of the show or something? Let them go. Like, what are you doing? You know, you're not the star of the show here.

Let the guys fight. I know people love baseball, but it's so fucking boring. Yeah. And it's boring for hours. Right. You don't, you don't, you can't let

someone be boring for a couple minutes while someone's smushed underneath yeah if someone gets taken down right and someone like dc or someone can hold you down and punch you in the face right and and do that for five minutes tough shit yeah whose fault is that that you can't get up it's your fault if you want to get up you should get up right figure out how to get up and if you can't get up that means this person's doing a better job than you. Maybe it's not effective enough. Yeah. Look, we've had people win fights off their back.

Right. Kevin Randleman and Boss Rutten fought. Boss Rutten was on the bottom. Yeah. And throwing elbows and punches. And they gave him the decision from the bottom. You know, and a lot of people agree with it because he did more damage. Yeah.

He landed more strikes. Well, I think that too. If you're on your back and you're causing damage or even those attacking submissions, just because you're on your back doesn't mean that you're losing. But sometimes to the naked eye, they're like, oh, this guy sucks. He's on his back and he can't do anything. It's like you don't even know what's going on. Uriah Hall knocks someone out from his guard.

Yeah. He knocks him out with punches from his guard. Yeah. I forget who he did it to. I even just saw Kevin Holland do that against Jacare. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Kevin Holland fought Joaquin Buckley.

He said to him, you got a booger in your nose. And then he knocked him out afterwards. He pointed to his nose. Yeah. He said, you got a booger in your nose. Yeah. And then he knocked him out. Yeah, he's a character.

He's a wild man. He really is. And he's also really talented. He's got so many different levels to his game. I had him on with Travis. What is wrong with my brain today? I had him on with Travis Luter, who's his jiu-jitsu coach. Yeah.

Who's been with him forever. Sure. It was a fun conversation. Yeah. He's working on his wrestling. Yeah. That was a flaw that he had in his game. But when it comes to knockout power, he's working on his wrestling. Yeah. You know, that was a flaw that he had in his game. But,

like, when it comes to, like, knockout power, the way he knocked Jacare out from his back like that, it's crazy.

Yeah. I took a page out of that book when I fought Sarah McMahon. Like, I was on my back, but I was still doing damage. You could 100% do damage from your back.

I think it was, I think Dwayne Ludwig Yeah. broke someone's eye socket from his back. Yeah. I think it was Eve Edwards. I think Dwayne Ludwig broke someone's eye socket from his back. Yeah. I think it was Eve Edwards. I think Eve Edwards said that Dwayne Ludwig landed a shot from his back that hurt him. You can land shots from your back.

It is possible to do. Now, let me ask you. In all of the time, obviously, you were doing news radio and then the Fear Factor, and now you've been doing this, but have you ever fought ever, like amateur? I had kickboxing fights. You had kickboxing fights. Kickboxing fights and Taekwondo fights. But not like ever in the octagon.

There was no, no, no, no, no. There was no MMA when I was fighting. I had retired by the time, I retired in 89. I'd stopped fighting. That's the year I was born. Yeah, no, fighting didn't come around to like 1993. There was fighting back then, but it was only kickboxing. And so I was a Massachusetts state Taekwondo champion four years in a row. And then I won the U S open and I won a bunch of other

tournaments, some national tournaments. That's all I did from age 15 to 21 was compete. Did your parents get you in that or you wanted to do it? Yeah, 100% me. My parents did not want me fighting. They never even went to one of my fights. Oh, wow. Yeah, I fought probably like 100 times. I traveled all over the country and fought in all those tournaments. That's all I did.

I had like a socially stunted high school year, like the high school time because all the time in high school, all I was doing was fighting. I was just traveling around the country and competing in tournaments. And were you like really popular? Did people know that you were a fighter? I mean, I was doing was fighting. I was just traveling around the country and competing in tournaments. And were you like really popular? Did people know that you were a fighter?

I mean, I wasn't, I was a weirdo. You think? You know, yeah, I was a socially awkward weirdo. Oh yeah. I mean, I was popular in some ways because I was kind of cute. Yeah. But, and also like people are a little weirded out by the fact that there's this kid that goes to our school that, you know, travels around and kicks people in the face.

Yeah. And I was pretty good. Yeah. I was really and kicks people in the face. Yeah. And I was pretty good. I was really good at Taekwondo. Yeah. It was the first thing that I'd ever done where I realized that I wasn't a loser. Yeah. Because I thought I was, you know, we moved around a lot when I was a kid. Why?

Well, my mom got divorced when I was young. She separated from my dad and then married my stepdad and we moved to San Francisco. We lived because he was going to school there. We lived there from age seven to 11. And then I was born in New Jersey, lived there till seven, then San Francisco seven to 11, then Florida 11 to 13, and then Boston 13 to 24. So it was like all of this moving and not having friends and then getting picked on a lot. I got bullied.

You did? Yeah. So I was like, I don't like this. So I'm like, I got to take a martial art. I got to learn how to fight. And are you still in contact or know the people that you started with? A few of them, yeah. Oh, really?

One of my very good friends is a guy named Steve Graham. And I've been friends with him since I was 15. Oh, wow. And he is the guy who talked me into doing stand-up. Oh, really? Yeah, because I would make people laugh because we would all be nervous. Like we would be on a bus or something like headed to a tournament, and everybody would be nervous, and I would be the guy talking shit. I would make everybody laugh because we were all fucking freaking out.

I would make everybody laugh because we were all fucking freaking out. Because the thing about Taekwondo is it's definitely less damage than MMA or kickboxing. But when people get knocked out, it's horrible. Brutal. It's ugly because it's kicks. Yes. Kicks to the head. Yes.

And so we're all nervous. Yeah. And so I would be the one who broke it up. And also I needed a lot of attention back then. Yeah. So I was always like of attention back then. So I was always demanding attention. And so when we got to these tournaments, it was the back room warming up area was like my stage. And I would be just talking shit and getting everybody to laugh.

And then my friend Steve was like, you should be a comedian. I'm like, listen, you think I'm funny because you know me. I go, think about the things that I'm laughing at. These are horrible things. Everybody else is going to think I'm a fucking asshole. Yeah, that reminds me actually because you know my friend, he's one of my really good friends, Adam Hunter. Yeah.

Yeah, Adam Greenberg. He's hilarious. So funny. Really good comic he just texted me the other day and asked me if uh I would be willing to do like a five or seven minute set for I don't know I think they were doing something on Fight Pass where you know they got like Shale Sonnen oh yeah he just did that he just did that yeah I was I so when I was growing up I always the three things that I wanted to be rapper boxer and comedian like I remember I

remember growing up and be like I want to be either these three things and I wanted to be, rapper, boxer, and comedian. No shit. I remember growing up and being like, I want to be either of these three things. And so I love comedy. I'm a massive comedy fan. Why don't you fucking do it? I told them, I think I will. You could totally do it. But that was my next question to you.

Okay, you went into comedy. Yes. How do you, you obviously have to write your own jokes, right? Yes. Isn't that the most difficult part? That's got to be hard. It's definitely hard.

Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. To have that material and keep coming back with it, you know? It's also hard to find a premise that interests you. Yeah. The thing, it has to be, like. Is that where you start? You start on, like, you start what your material is going to be based on what interests you?

Yeah, what you think is funny. Okay. Because if you don't think it's funny, the audience is not going to laugh as much. I mean, they might laugh because it's good. But when I know that I have a subject that is really going to work well, it's like what I'm interested in. Yeah. Like when I start talking about things that mean a lot to me or that make me laugh

or that I think are weird, something that makes me pay attention. Yeah. So that's a big part of it. Because sometimes people just do things that they think are going to work. Yeah. And those are like trades people, I feel like, more than they're really like an artist. Like they're just saying a thing they think the audience will laugh at.

Like if they have a nail and they have a hammer and they hit the nail with the hammer, they're just doing a job. Whereas other people, like you go to see some comics, it's their personality comes out in their performances and in their subjects and so you get addicted to the way they think about things and look at the world. So you're obviously funny, you're obviously smart and you're really good at talking.

You can 100% do stand up. Yeah. But you would have to think about things that you think that make you laugh and then realize that it is a long, brutal process to become good at comedy. Right. It takes like 10 years to become like a legit headliner. Right. And it's a long 10 years and you're going to eat shit and there's going to be hostile

crowds and you're going to have days where like you have off training days. You're going to have off show days. Yeah. And I think about that. I think about I don't think I could handle that. Right. Get some heckler in the crowd. I'd be like, let's step outside, guy.

You got something to say to me. You know, like I. And then that's the thing, too, is like the fine line. Right. Of like what's offensive and what's funny. Like, I think masks are hilarious. But you start talking about masks and people wearing masks and then people are going to get offended because all these people have died and yada, yada, yada, you know. So you dance around it.

You just got to know how to dance around it. It's like everything else. Well, there's like topics that you can touch and topics that you can't touch. And I feel like that's one of the topics that you can't touch. But right now I find hilarious. But it's not a topic you can't touch. There's no topic you can't touch. But here's what it's like.

It's like if you want to fight and you want to punch someone you can't just run up and punch them because they're gonna move you gotta set it up right you gotta set it up it's the same thing with comedy yeah the same thing with comedy and i think every subject can be discussed every subject can be discussed but it's like how do you discuss it like what do you say what is uh what's your take on it what's interesting about your take how do you discuss it? Like, what do you say? What is, uh, what's your take on it? What's interesting about your take? How do you get that take across in the least amount of words possible, but with the clearest impact on people,

it's complicated. There's a lot to it. Yeah. But if you love comedy and you enjoy it, then you kind of probably already have a sense of how it works. It's just like watching fights and you're like, God're like I love fights I wish I could be a fighter yeah well you can yeah well you ain't gonna be great immediately yeah it's a fucking bloody road yeah gotta take your licks yeah you can do it I guarantee you can

do it yeah that would be a great thing to do along with a podcast yeah but I'm just putting these things in your head because you know there's so many fighters that focus entirely on their career and that's great because you know there's so many fighters that focus entirely on their career and that's great yeah but until there's no more career yeah and then they're lost and their identity is completely wrapped up in the fact they're a fighter they retire and then they come back to fighting because what else are they gonna do yeah and because it's exciting you know and that was the thing that like chuck did recently right he came back and he fought tito and it's like oh it's hard to watch you? You don't want to see that.

Yeah, love Tito. I mean, I'm sure I would love Chuck, too. I didn't mean to say that, but I just... I get it, you're a girl. He wasn't into girl fighting. Maybe he was drunk. He was. I don't know.

I don't know. Yeah, he didn't look like he was having a good time that night. Well, that's unfortunate. Some of the best fights I've ever seen are women fights. I remember there was a Tough Enough event in Las Vegas that Eddie Bravo and I went to back when Tough Enough does those amateur fights. Yeah, my training partner, she's fighting on Tough Enough in March. March 4th, I think.

And the first one that was like one of the first women fights that I'd ever saw. This was before women fights were in the UFC. Yeah. And it was fucking awesome. It was a barn burner of a fight. Who was it? Like Erin T women fights that I'd ever saw. This was before women fights were in the UFC. Yeah. And it was fucking awesome. It was a barn burner of a fight. Who was it? Like Erin Tuffield? I do not remember.

I do not remember. But I know Erin. Yeah. She's awesome. Yeah. I do not remember who was fighting. There was two young ladies that I don't know whatever happened to them. Because this was like 2002 or 2003 or something like that.

I was extremely ready to see a chick fight but we were i remember we were talking afterwards we went to dinner eddie and i were talking like that was the best fight of the night yeah and it's like anybody who thinks that girl fights aren't good yeah that was the best fucking fight that when amanda knocked out cyborg yeah that was one of the wildest fights i've ever seen in my life when you beat amanda one of the best fights i've ever seen in my life. When you beat Amanda, one of the best fights I've ever seen in my life. Because what do you want out of fighting? Like I said, you want this moment where it's so exciting that while you're in the middle of it,

you're going, I can't believe this is really happening. And that's all you're thinking of. All your troubles go away. All you're thinking about is, oh my God, she's gonna win. Oh my God, she's busting her out. Oh, my God, she got her down. Oh, my God, she's got her back. Oh, my God, she tapped.

And it was wild. Yeah. I mean, that's what everybody wants out of the UFC. That's what everybody wants out of fighting. You want this moment where someone just rises to the occasion. Yeah. And I've always been a fighter that has been able to rises to the occasion yeah and i've always been a fighter that has been able to rise to the occasion i've always found a way to i'll quote ronda rousey fight above myself

in in times yeah when the rubber meets the road i mean i can i'll bet on myself every time well that's not above yourself that is yourself that's what you're capable of you just have confidence you just have like there's people that are killers. They just have a killer mentality. They know how they can get shit done. They might be nervous. They might be excited. Yeah. And I think that that's just a credit to women and how incredible women are and what they can do. You know, like we're, we're givers of life. We give life like no doubt about that. We're strong. We're so strong. That's the most incredible thing. You're making people inside your body. Like that is the most bananas thing in the world. Isn't it weird? I don't feel like it gets enough credit. It doesn't. When you think about your life pre mother and then post mother, how much, how different are you? It's extremely

different because I was a weirdo back before I had a kid in the sense that like, they'd be like, well, how important is this to you? And I'd be like, I'm a mama bear and I got to protect my cub and my cubs got to eat. But like, I didn't have a kid. And they'd be like, what are you talking about? Like like this doesn't make any sense you know and I'm like well you know what I mean I'm gonna defend as if I did have a kid you know and as if I did have to defend for my cub now that I'm actually a mom like it's it puts a whole nother level of meaning on top of it I feel like I have more to fight for now like yeah my kid's a star and I need to make sure that she has the best life possible and

everything that she could ever dream and desire you know and so i want to make sure now i'm actually quite literally the mama bear and making sure that you know i do everything to defend my my real cub so it's just it's a whole different element now what is it like because your your daughter was in the crowd when you fought is that the first time she's seen you fight no no she came with me when i so i had i gave a birth i had my baby and then i took a fight on two weeks notice against nico montano and she was with me the entire time wow and she was just a little baby she stepped on the scale with me and she was there how old was she she was like a year and some change wow Wow. So there's a recovery post giving birth.

Yes. What was that like? How long was that? I have to shout out Jennifer Mercier from St. Charles. Jennifer Mercier changed my life. She is a doctor. She's got her PhD, and she has invented this type of therapy. It's called Mercier therapy.

a doctor. She's got her PhD and she has invented this type of therapy. It's called Mercier therapy. And first and foremost, what she does is women spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on IVF treatments or all sorts of different ways in order to conceive and give childbirth or have kids. Jennifer, her method is alternative to say, before you do that, just hear me out and let me try to work on you. And then if i can't get you pregnant then go ahead and spend your you know tens of thousands of dollars getting pregnant she manipulates the the body so that your body can be ready to receive and so that you can get pregnant she has an astronaut she has a very high rate of getting women pregnant so basically she's a miracle worker what does she do she works on your body so that you could if you're wanting

to have children she works on your body so that you can, if you're wanting to have children, she works on your body so that you can get pregnant and she gets, she gets women pregnant, but she also heals women from pregnancies. And, um, but what is the method? It's like this massage type of like deep type of massage. Um, and she also teaches workshops. She also massage. Yes. Massage can help you get pregnant? Yes. Really? But I don't know how she does it. Like I said, she's a miracle worker. She's got these techniques and she works on you

and she works on... It hurts. It's like you're getting your pelvic area worked on and it puts you out to sleep. It's like very, very intensive type of massage. It's different than like

a regular body massage. But she has a very high rate of getting women pregnant. How did she figure that out um i would say her own um experience she has endometriosis she couldn't get pregnant and she would manipulate and massage and have her you know husband ex-husband now um manipulate and work on her and then she realized that there wasn't this type of therapy and then and she was a midwife too for a long time and then um she just kind of geared it into this you know treatment plan that she does and she gets women pregnant from all over the world people come in from Ireland from Denmark they come from all over the world to get pregnant by her um so yeah Jennifer Mercier but what I

heard was one of my friends in California she's a ch chiropractor. She was like, this girl's on a podcast. She's in the Chicagoland area. You should check her out. And it was Jennifer. So I had a traumatic birthing experience, you know, especially being an alpha female. I was like, I'm ready to give birth. I'm ready to, you know, give birth naturally. I'm not going to take the shot. Like I was ready to do that. My rite of passage as a mother is to give birth, you know? And then I found out that I was like 42 weeks, baby hadn't dropped. You're not giving birth naturally. You have to get this baby out right now or it's emergency C-section. And so they took the baby out. They, you know, take, they cut you open. They rip out your guts. They throw it back in. So you up giving your baby until you have a nice day. Most women just go on and have a nice day. And then when they laugh,

be until you have a nice day. Most women just go on and have a nice day. And then when they laugh, they pee their pants a little bit. What Jennifer does is she helps your body recover so that your organs are no longer fused together. The blood flow can go through again, and then you can get back into normal life. Your abs can heal back together and everything like that. So I luckily found her through one of my chiropractor friends, Brittany. And I went and she worked on me. She worked on me as a trade. And I was able to get back to fighting because of the healing work that she was doing on me. Because if you don't get this work done, your abs don't heal the same way together. You're never quite the same because your organs are fused together.

There's no blood flow going through there. Fused together? Why are they fused together. There's no blood flow going through there. Fused together? Why are they fused together? Like, I feel like they get stuck, you know, because there's not that. It's almost like cartilage. You know what I mean? Like, like when you get a scar or something like that. Okay.

So scarring. Yes. The scarring. They have to cut you open and move everything around like that. Yes. Yeah. That's got to be brutal. It is.

What is it like after a C-section when you got this like, you're opened up and you got this giant scar down there and you're like, I felt in a sense depressed because I was like, I didn't get to give birth

the way that I wanted to. But they're like, having a C-section is still giving birth. And so I was like, but in that moment, I'm literally like, I'm never fighting again.

You know what I mean? Because they cut you open like that? Yeah, like I wasn't expecting it. I absolutely didn't think that was going to happen. I got gutted like a fish and then just have a nice day, you know? And so I was like, yeah, there's no way I'm ever fighting again. I just didn't think it was possible. But Jenny helped me realize, again, having great doctors and great people around you,

giving me that confidence that I would absolutely be back. How long did it take before you could train again after that? I mean, at least like I want to say like 12, maybe 10 to 12 weeks. Oh, wow. I think it's like typical six weeks after a C-section, but I don't think I was comfortable training until I felt like absolutely better. And I'll also say that, shoot, I lost my train of thought. Oh, yeah, people want to rush to get back to fighting right away after having a kid. I didn't feel that sense of rush.

I didn't feel like I got to fight right away. You know, I was like, I just had a baby. I want to enjoy her. You know what I mean? So there was no rush for me to get back into the gym and train right away because I just wanted to enjoy my baby. You know, they're only so small for such a short amount of time. Do you get extra motivation knowing that she's watching you?

Yes. I mean, I see her. She comes. She's been literally. And since I went to the gym after having her, she's been in a car seat as a tiny little baby up until now, four years old, coming to every single training session that I have. You know, like we're a package deal. And since I moved to Chicago, I don't have my parents. I don't have anybody, family or sisters, anybody that can watch my kid, like everywhere you go, I go champ. And so she goes with me everywhere I go. We're a package deal. And she has seen me train every single day.

So she'll hang out on the cage and she'll start cheering for me, you know, and I can hear her and she's excited and, and she, she knows, you know, she I can hear her and she's excited and, and she, she knows, you know, she knows what's up. And so, yes, absolutely. I'm like, my baby's out there. That's gotta be wild to be a four year old and your mom is the champion of the world. I know. I kind of want to know how she feels, but like when somebody comes to ask for a picture, it's like, forget it. Like you might as well just, you know, just take the picture with her because she is not going to let me take the picture on my own. She'll be like, I want the picture. I want the picture, you know.

And she's four, but she's like 14. Like she's advanced, I feel like. And she's the type of person where it's like, say the Pledge of Allegiance. It'll be a whole crowd full of people. She'll tell you the Pledge of Allegiance at the top of her lungs or she'll sing, you know, you are my sunshine. Or, you know, she's just very outgoing, very sociable. She's a little social butterfly. Do you think she's going to want to do martial arts?

So she has no choice. Her dad owns a jiu-jitsu gym, and so she trains. And it's hard. The attention span of a little kid is very difficult. So I know that sometimes he has a hard time reining her in. She can be more of a distraction than a help on the mat as far as a little training partner goes she's only four but she absolutely has to learn how to defend herself she's got to

know jujitsu yes um with that being said they ask me oh what are you going to do when she wants to fight and i'm like she's not she's absolutely not going to fight because oh we're gonna play this back later well that's the thing too like listen take it from me i've dislocated both my elbows i've broken every finger and thumb that you can think of. I've torn both my knees out like I've done every horrible thing. It's a fighter's life is very difficult. It's hard. It's hard on your body. And do I want that for my kid and be passionate and dedicated and, you know, showing me that she's disciplined and wanting to do it for real. And that's what her heart truly desires. Then, of course, I'm not going to say no. I'm going to back her as long as she's happy. She can do whatever she wants. I want her to be happy. So as long as she's happy, whatever that is and brings her happiness, I'll support. But is that the life that I want for my kid?

No. Absolutely not. Well, nobody wants that life for their kid. Yeah. But nobody wants their kid to be pissed that you didn't let them live that life, too. Yeah, but then she's going to have to show me some. That she wants it. That she wants it.

Yeah. Yeah, and I don't want her to feel like there's any sort of competition or that she has to do it to make me proud or anything like that. I just, in my opinion, what do I want her to do? Especially because I see her singing, like when I ask her to sing in front of other people, she'll sing. I'm like, dude, I'm pretty sure this is like how Ariana Grande got her start, right? There's little videos of her as a little baby, like singing songs like this is my little baby. Like, I think she could be, I think she's a star. I do. I'm like, this girl's be in movies and hollywood and like she's gonna be a movie star like she's not gonna be a fighter she's gonna be something better than that who knows would you say better than that but i don't think there's a better than that yeah i don't not to say not to discredit fighting or fighters i'm fighting is amazing and i'm very happy and fortunate and blessed to do what i do but i mean better in a sense where you're not gonna to have to, you know, go take punches to the face to make some good money. That's yeah. But the thing is, it's like the reward, right? It's not just your, your reward that you've gotten. I mean, you could speak to this better than I could, but I think that your, your reward that you get from being who you are

now is not just money, but it's also like, holy shit, look what you did. Like you could do anything now that you beat Amanda. Like you can't, nobody could what you did like you could do anything yeah now that you beat amanda like you can't nobody could tell you that you can't do something right you've you've accomplished something that's spectacular and that they said was impossible yeah that's you could do anything yeah if you decided to go do something else you could do that too yeah like no you you've already have the the mental fort fortitude to get through that. And it's also the entertainment value. There's no higher entertainment value in terms of like the amount of joy that you gave the world that night, that moment when you beat Amanda and she

tapped and you went crazy and everyone went crazy. And that is a, that very few human beings ever affect people that way. Yeah. Especially large numbers of people that are watching you. Yeah. It's such a small group of people that get that window in life where they, they break through with some performance, something they did, some effort, some accomplishment that they achieved that literally changes everyone's life who watched it.

Yeah. that they achieved that literally changes everyone's life who watched it. Yeah. And that's why fighting gets me excited because I just want to go do it again. You know what I mean? I just want to go do it again. And I am so blessed and fortunate that I get to live this life and give these people this inspiration and this hope and this realization that, hey, look at me. I'm a mom.

I'm a single mom. I'm doing it. If I can do it, you can do it. I'm not saying that you can go be a world champion and be a fighter all of a sudden overnight. No, I've been grinding at this for 13 years. This isn't something that just happened overnight. But I've been putting in my time.

I've been putting in my licks. And this is something that is, I deserve every little bit of success that I have now been able to attain because I've been putting in my time. And so that feels really great. No one can ever take that away from me. And to be that voice of hope and inspiration is an honor. And it makes me excited about fighting. That's what makes me passionate about fighting.

It makes me want to do it all over again. I can't wait to do it all over again. But if she could experience that in a different facet without brain damage. Yeah, exactly. Then that would make me very happy to. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. But whatever makes her happy.

Yeah. Well, listen, congratulations on everything. What you did, like like realistically changed the face of women's fighting forever really did yeah because you changed the landscape yeah you know you're the you're the new champion in the world thank you this wild yeah it is so wild and I can't wait to see you fight again and whether it's with Amanda or the Valentina or whoever I can't wait to see you fight again thank you thanks for being here yeah tell everybody how to get a hold of you it's with Amanda or Valentina or whoever. I can't wait to see you fight again. Thank you. Thanks for

being here. Yeah. Thank you. Tell everybody how to get ahold of you on social media, what your accounts are. Yes. Uh, at Venezuelan Vixen is, uh, my handle on Instagram and on Twitter. Uh, you can find my name, uh, Juliana, the Venezuelan Vixen Pena on Facebook. I do have a Tik TOK. I don't know how to use it. I don't have anything posted up there. Um, but, uh, yeah, so I have a TikTok. I don't know how to use it. I don't have anything posted up there. Do you have a website? Yeah. So I have a link in bio. You can buy my shirts. You can buy designs for sport, which is what I would definitely suggest.

You can buy a cameo. I'll sing you happy birthday. And I think that's all I got up there right now. But my shirt, it says too fast, too sexy no too fast too strong too sexy too penya and then on the front it says the penya power so I love that shirt I think it's great

my little knock off Nike version of my shirt so I love it beautiful well thank you very much thank you appreciate you bye everybody

bye bye Thank you.