The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #134 with Belal Muhammad

Episode Date: January 19, 2023

Joe sits down with Belal Muhammad, a mixed martial artist competing in the UFC welterweight division. www.ufc.com/athlete/belal-muhammad

the Joe Rogan experience we're up what's happening brother how you doing good man how you been very good to see you excited man it's one of those milestones that you you achieve it's like oh come on here I get to talk to Joe Rogan yeah that's hilarious. That's hilarious, man. Well, it's an honor to have you on. I appreciate you. I appreciate you.

I'm a big fan. You're in a great spot right now, man. You're on the run. You're like, you're there. You're like at the fucking door. Yeah.

It's been a long road. It's like, when I look back at it, where I've been, where I'm at right now, you still don't even believe it, but it's like,

I still need to get over that hurdle where people still don't believe in you so people still looking for excuses of why you beat this guy why you beat that guy why you don't deserve the title shot but it's not always the case and then all of a sudden you're the fucking man like that was charles olivera right for the longest time people thought oh he falls apart he falls apart and then all of a sudden everybody had to go you know what he's the fucking man you know until islam got a hold of him he was you know he was like a completely different entity than he was like back when cub swanson knocked him out yeah when you look at the way his career is the way like people don't give him enough credit for that and the way he dominated some of the best guys oh my god once he was in his title reign when he beat gaethje the the way he beat Chandler, I mean, my God.

But, I mean, now people know how good Islam is. People are respecting him the same way I feel like I'm not getting respected. And then now when he plays with them like that, beats them on the feet, and then finishes them on the ground, I think that now people are realizing, all right, well, Islam isn't all talk. Like when DC and all of them are saying that, that he's going to be better than Habib, now they're realizing it. Anybody who said it was all talk is a fool. If you

watch the way he submitted Drew Dober, he just smushed him. There was no getting up there. It was just a matter of time before he put the smush down on him. Training with those guys, I tell people, if you never train with the guys from Dagestan, from somebody on their team, you don't know what it feels like.

It's not regular jiu-jitsu. It's like quicksand where you're in there, you think you're moving, you're looking for a way out. You know, I'm really good at flow rolling and everything. And I'm training with them my last camp and I'm like, I cannot move with these guys. None of them. Like everybody on their team has that same style, same pressure on top. And I'm feeling it, and I'm like, I need to change what I do in Chicago. I need to change what I'm doing because these guys are so dominant with the way they play, the way they grapple.

It's like they're going to beat everybody. Nobody's going to mess with them. What is the difference? Well, for the mentality, I think, is a big thing, too. You know, when you're rolling with somebody new, you'll get a flow roll with them. You'll play around to see how they're feeling. With them, they don't have that at all. I'm not going to lose a round.

I'm not going to lose a minute when I'm going against you. This is our first time rolling with each other. I'm on my back. I'm going to my back, starting on my back, and I'm like, all right, let's move. So I'm trying to play guard, trying to go for armbar or anything like that. And then Khabib's just yelling at me, get up. We're not playing jiu-jitsu. This is get up.

This is MMA. We're not playing jiu-jitsu. You're on your back. You're losing. And their mentality is let me hold you down because I'm not going to lose this round. I'm going to stay on top of you. I don't care if I'm in your guard the whole time and I'm just staying on top of you with pressure. You just lost.

Even though the round's over, I'm sitting there like, man, we haven't done anything. It's like I'm just laying on my back. You haven't done any pressure, no ground upon or anything. But I just lost because I though the round's over, I'm sitting there like, man, we haven't done anything. It's like I'm just laying on my back. You haven't done any pressure, no ground upon or anything. But I just lost because I'm on my back. And I figured that's their mentality. They don't want to lose any round in practice. They don't want to lose any minute in grappling. If they get taken down, they're popping right back up.

It's not, let me get taken down. Let me play on my back a little bit. Let me flow a little bit like that. No, it's rough, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. a little bit let me flow a little bit like that no it's rough hard hard hard hard hard and i think that's what transfers their mentality into the the the cage when there's no there's no let me warm up here it's like right into it because he goes in there he grabs you he holds you down you don't you never felt it before because his strength is another level and that's why i feel like a lot of these guys break once they feel it i would be really interested to see. I mean, the best guy off his

back, arguably in the lightweight division, is Oliveira. And Oliveira really couldn't do anything with Islam. I mean, he really, he gave, you know, some difficulties. He made it, he got into the second round. It was like, it was work, but he didn't really threaten, you know, where he threatens everybody off his back. That's the thing about Oliveira. It's like he'll catch you on the feet and he'll trade with you on the feet because if you drop him, he like gladly goes to his back to invite you into his guard. Yeah. But with Islam, he couldn't do a damn thing.

Yeah. A lot of those guys before Islam were afraid to go to the ground with him. Like Gaethje dropped him a couple of times. Chandler dropped him and and they stood up. It's because you had that fear. With Islam, it was like, I don't care. He's going to feel what it is on the ground. They always say Sambo is better than Jiu-Jitsu.

And he just has that mentality, like, I want to beat you at your own game. And the way he tapped him out from half guard with that arm triangle, I'm like, nobody's ever treated Oliveira like that. Well, that squeeze must be another level. Yeah, I was rolling with him. I was rolling with him. And that first week, he's catching me with like an anaconda choke every time I'm going with him. And it's just squeezing, squeezing.

I'm like tapping. And then Islam is nice. So like he'll tell you like you need to do it. You need to do it this way. And he'll show me the technique with it. When Habib's on top of you, he's like breaking me at every single point. And I'm asking him for it. No, brother, you just got to keep going.

And I'm like, all right, cool. So the next time he does it, he's just on top of me again. He's like mounting me. Then I'm turning, giving him my back. And then he's like just laughing as he's talking to the guys outside of the cage as he's on top of me. And I'm feeling like disrespected. But it's like, this is not Habib. But at least like Islam, he'll be like, brother, do this way, do this.

This is the way you get out of it. He's giving you some tips. Yeah. So by the third week, he wasn be like, brother, do this way, do this. This is the way you get out of it. He's giving you some tips. Yeah, so by the third week, he wasn't catching me with anymore, but his squeeze is a different type of squeeze. They have a very, very disciplined camp, right? Like you have to have your hair cut a certain way. Like you can't be fucking around showing up with blue mohawks or nothing crazy. Like it's very disciplined, right?

Yeah, I think that's one of the reasons why they're all successful, I feel like. When Habib walks into the room, it's like an army. We all get up. We all stand in line. He'll stand in line. He'll point to who's sparring hard in the cage because it's a different type of sparring, too, where normally for us we have a sparring day in Chicago, or most teams I've trained at will have a sparring day like Monday or Wednesday.

For them, they're doing everything every day. It's small glove sparring every day. Then right after that, you're taking off the gloves and you're grappling every day. Then right after that, you're going in the cage and you're wrestling on the cage every single day. Small glove sparring every day. But it's light. You're not trying to knock each other out. But then if he points to you that you're going to your hard sparring, hard sparring, then you're going in the cage with big gloves on.

And those guys were going hard, and he's cornering. And then Javier Mendez is in there cornering. So you're getting that real fight feel. For me, I was down there with him for five weeks. So Habib would corner his guy, and my coach, Lewis Taylor, was down there with me in Dubai, and he would corner me. So it's like it's a real fight field.

The guys outside of the cage will sit there, peek in. So you get those little nerves that you would get in a fight. And I'm sparring with somebody, his cousin Abu Becker, who's also in the UFC welterweight. You're sparring with somebody you're really not used to. So you also still have that tension that you feel like, I don't know what this guy's going to do. He's not one of my normal training partners where I know, well, he's got a good left kick or he's got a good cross. I know what he's going to bring to the table. It's like, no, it's a real fight feel every single time because I don't know what he's going to bring to the table.

He doesn't know what I'm going to bring to the table. And we have two corners cornering each other in there. So when it's your hard sparring, you're in the cage. When it's not hard sparring, you're outside of the cage. You're doing a little bit of technique. Then it's your hard sparring, you're in the cage. When it's not hard sparring, you're outside of the cage. You're doing a little bit of technique. Then it's light sparring going. So was this camp going there and training there for five weeks, is that just a big change in the way you look at things

and like an eye-opening experience? Yeah, because, you know, I'm a guy that I like to cross-train a lot. I'll go to a bunch of different gyms. I've been to Sanford MMA. I've been to Fortis. I've been to Canada before mma i've been to afford us uh i've been to canada before to train with frost hobby and i want to get bring that knowledge back to my team and back to my coaches like yo these teams are successful this is what they're doing this is what we got to start doing too because we're a small gym in chicago and you know we have we had a world champion juliana pena with us but still you have to keep

evolving you have to keep trying to do what the best teams are doing and seeing how their team is, how disciplined they are. It's like none of the guys are going to show up late to practice. You're not going to show up late and smile and laugh. It's like once he lines everybody up, you better sprint there in that line because he's going to tell you what your duties are for that day. And then when it's grappling, every single one of those guys is an amazing grappler. There's guys in there that you don't even know their name. They're still young, 19 years old, 18 years old. They're just starting, but they still had the same type of grappling as Khabib.

They still feel super strong. And I'm like, who the heck is this guy? So I'll look up his name, and I'll be like, oh, 12-0, 15-0, 16-0. And the whole team is full of killers. But I just want to bring their mentality, I think, is a different type of mentality that a lot of gyms don't have of being more disciplined. And I think that comes from being Muslim.

I think a lot of it comes from that. Just being religious, you're bringing a different type of discipline where you have to pray five times a day, and every single one of the guys is doing that. None of their guys are drinking. None of their guys are going out and partying. If there's guys that come to practice and they look a little bit tired,

Khabib will take their phone away from them and he won't give it to them until the next day tomorrow morning. So he'll take their phone at night, 9 p.m., and then you have to go to sleep, get a good night's sleep, and then next practice he'll give you your phone back because you're probably on your phone all night playing games or something stupid. He pays attention to those things

and the fact that he wants you to win that bad because he doesn't need to be there. He doesn't need to give you the knowledge. He doesn't need to care that much about you if you don't care about yourself. But it just shows you how much of a great person he is too. And it just makes you want to work that much harder for him. Well, just being around someone who is – if he's not the GOAT – I mean, is there a GOAT? I don't know. It might be Mighty Mouse.

It might be Jon Jones. It could be Khabib. There's a conversation to be had for many fighters when they're in their prime. But Khabib's the first one to really retire completely undefeated, where you can make the argument that even the rounds he lost, if he lost like one round against Conor, maybe one round at another point in his career there were barely yeah barely there were like coasting rounds where he just like was refreshing himself and then comes back and dominates

yeah so if you're training with a guy like that like fuck man yeah and i think that that's a big thing too is you know one time we were training in vegas in Vegas and I have a Moroccan kickboxer that I trained with. We were down there training with Habib's team and he's sparring one of their guys. He's a great kickboxer. Their guy is obviously a great grappler, but he has striking. The first round, he's taking my guy down, beating him on the ground. The second and third round, he's going to be striking with him a little bit because the ground is too easy. He's striking with him.

My guy is landing hard kicks, hard punches, hard knees. And Khabib just like stops him and like snaps at him. Like, you took him down. You treated him like a baby. Like, why are you going to sit there and kickbox with a kickboxer? I don't care if this is practice. I don't care if this is sparring. The goal is to win.

If you want to look stupid, you want to be dumb, then go against the plan. Go against the route that's going to help you win. He's like, and that like open your eyes too. It's like he knows the path to victory. All the guys know the path to victory. It's hard grappling, heavy grappling, and strength on the ground. It's like, why are you going to be dumb and spar with the Moroccan kickboxer for and take that damage?

Yeah, ego. Yeah, ego's a motherfucker. Yeah. It really is. So many guys just decide to trade with people for no reason, and they wind up getting lit up when they really should be taking the guy down. Yeah, and I feel like that's what a lot of these newer guys coming up. I was training with an Ohio State wrestler.

He was in Vegas visiting, and he was going to transition into MMA, and he was telling me, like, yeah, you know, I like this gym, but in wrestling I'm killing the guys, but then I don't know nothing about sparring so on sparring day I'm telling these guys you know it's I'm still learning and then he said everybody's trying to throw hard at me because I'm killing them in wrestling and I'm like you got to find a gym where the guys don't have egos where they're going to try to help you build yourself because if you're sparring hard and you don't really know how to take a punch or anything you're only going

to hurt yourself right and you're going to get your ticket punched too many times and then by the time you get into fights I mean there's quite a few guys that i know that by the time they have their first or second pro fight they've already had six seven concussions in the gym you know and like man like you already had a deficit yeah i look at when i go to gyms and i see guys like they're laughing about it like oh i gave i knocked chris out yesterday man and i'm i'm looking at like like why is that what you guys do? And it changes my mentality because when I'm first coming up, I used to like, we'll spar like 15-minute rounds, just nonstop boxing.

And now when I think back to it, I'm like, it was so stupid because I know how to take a punch. Why am I going to take a punch at practice when I'm not getting paid for it? Like, build the skills. And if you find the right training partners, and I feel like I have the perfect training partners where we spar super light and we're still getting that same movement, that same fluidity with the striking, with the speed, with everything, but we're not putting an extra oomph on it.

And if you don't have any guys like that in your gym, I think a lot of these guys are going to have shorter careers or they're going to get broken a lot earlier than they should have. It makes a big difference with timing too. You really develop timing when you get a guy who's willing to spar light with you because then you're not thinking about the consequences of missing or getting countered, and you could really just develop that ingrained timing. And occasionally hard sparring. But hard sparring all the time, I mean, the early days of the UFC, guys would just fight.

They would go into the ring in whatever their gym was, and they would beat the fucking shit out of each other. And somewhere along the line, people realized, like, hey, you can only sustain this for so long. You're not going to have a long career doing this, and you're not going to reach the best of your potential. Like, when you look at all the variables that take place in a person reaching their full potential, I think one of the things you're doing that's really good is going to different places. I think that has a

big factor that make that's a big factor and being exposed yourself to the guys like Firas Ahabi or Khabib or all these other different minds that can give you a different approach and you could take a little bit here and a little bit there. But also it's like being smart in your training and knowing when to push and not when you're being a bitch and when you're actually being a meathead because you're just going too hard and you're fucking your body up. Yeah, and a lot of guys have to learn that the hard way where it takes them like, you know, when you're coming up,

you're fighting for pennies.'re not you're not fighting for anything i'm i used to fight for 150 and i'll tell my family no i'm making like 15 000 and yeah like i would sit there and lie to them but it's because you you had that dream you had that push and i had an end goal where i knew i was gonna make it or i felt like i could have made it so when i i had you gotta have i think leaders in the gym room that are going to teach you the right things. Because if you have those guys in those bigger gyms, I feel like there's so many UFC fighters in there, 20, 30, 40 guys. Yeah, it's great training partners, great things. But if it's a guy like trying to come up on the come up or anything like that, they're going to use you as a body for them.

And they're going to beat you up. And who are you going to talk to? You're going to talk to the coach. But the coach is like, well, this guy pays me more. So I'm going to use you as a body for them. And they're going to beat you up. And who are you going to talk to? You're going to talk to the coach. But the coach is like, well, this guy pays me more. So I'm going to stick with him. So you just go in there and give him some rounds. Keep it quiet. Like nobody really cares what you have to say.

So I think smaller gyms are better for that. And for me, I had my coach, Lewis Taylor. He was a fighter. And when I came in, I was 23 years old when I first started fighting. And he was already a veteran in the game. He was in it. So, like, I was following in his footsteps, and he was teaching me all the small things.

Don't go to that boxing gym. What are you going to go to that boxing gym for? Boxers hate MMA fighters. They're going to just try to knock you out. And, you know, I would sit there, go on my own a little bit. Like, you know, let me just see how it is. Because ego, then you go over there, and they're just trying to knock you out. And it's like, what did I gain from that?

It's just, it's hard sparring, but it was like, I didn't really gain any skill level. I gained toughness. But it's not really going to help me when I need better footwork. I need better defense. I need better that. I was still on the come up learning. So just getting beat up is not going to help me. Yeah, the small gym versus the large gym, that's the big debate.

Because some people think a place like American Top Team, they have dormitories. You've got all these guys coming in from Russia and Morocco and all these places, all parts of the world. They're coming to American Top Team and, you know, you might get some sparring with some fucking killers. But how many coaches are really paying attention to you when you're just a guy who just started out there? Is this a good place to develop? Are you running the risk of being injured because you're just going to war every day versus a small gym where you get individualized attention and people are really paying attention to you?

But then it's like, which small gym? Like every small gym is different. Some small gyms are really good. Some small gyms, the guys are on point. They have a deep well of knowledge and they can really coach you. Some small gyms, the guy Some small gyms are really good. Some small gyms, the guys are on point. They have a deep well of knowledge, and they can really coach you. Some small gyms, the guy's kind of out of his league. And, you know, he's bringing guys to the UFC and giving them shitty advice. I mean, you've seen guys in the corner give shit advice,

and you hear this guy like, he's not giving any technical advice at all. This dude is like, he's doing things. He's making mistakes, and he's not getting any coaching. He's getting like, go out there and fucking win. Go out there and kick his ass. Like, what? He doesn't. Don't you think he already knows that?

He knows that already. So that's a bad small gym. You know, it's really finding the right place. And finding the right place is so crucial. It's so crucial. And finding the right training partner is so crucial. Yeah, I think the key, honestly, is training partners. You have to have the right guys that really care for you.

Because I've been at gyms where guys really don't care if you win or lose. But if you have that family feel where they're going to be in the gym for you no matter what, and they're going to push for you, and they're going to watch your opponent and give you that opponent's look. Like in bigger gyms, if I'm a UFC fighter and you're a UFC fighter, you're telling me I'm fighting Wonderboy. And in my smaller gym, I had every single one of my five guys that I've trained with, all of them try to give me that Wonderboy look. They're all paying

attention to what he does. Hey, I think he does this extra. In a bigger gym, they're like, I'm not a karate guy. I'm going to give you what I got. You want this or not. I got to get paid too, unless you're going to pay me for it. But that's what I love about the smaller gyms is because I fought Damian Maya. I didn't have one black belt in my

gym. I didn't have one black belt that was helping me push or grapple. So I had the mindset of I have great wrestlers that I'm training with. Every single one of my guys is a great wrestler. So, all right, well, let's just not hit the ground. Let's just push my wrestling so hard that he's going to tire himself out trying to take me down. So I don't have to overthink it, the situation. When I fought Wonderboy, I've been at camp

with Anthony Pettis when he fought Wonderboy. I've been at camp with Woodley when he fought Wonderboy. And Woodley brought in Sage Northcutt. Anthony Pettis was using Mike Bigger-Rhodes, and they have that karate style. But for me, then I asked Anthony, like, so do you think I should bring somebody in? He's like, honestly, just

watch this tape. It was, I forgot who it was. It was a kickboxer that fought out Raymond Daniels, and he's like lit him up. And he's like honestly just watch this tape it was uh i forgot who it was it was kickboxer that fought out uh raymond daniels and he's like lit him up and he's like watch this uh yeah and he was like watch watch this and he's like lit him up and he's like just follow that routine because what was valtellini it might have been valtellini yeah i think it was valtellini yeah yeah because he showed me the tape and i was watching i was just rewatching just the pressure he gave and everything like that and i just wanted to mimic that because he's me the tape, and I was watching it. I was just re-watching it, just the pressure he gave and everything like that. And I just wanted to mimic that because he's like, yeah, I had a karate style guy, but Wonderboy's different, man.

His kicks are a lot snappier than you think. His spinning kick is a lot snappier than you think. His angles are a lot different. So he said, don't try to overthink mimicking him. Just stick with what you got and do what you're good at. Was he the most puzzling guy that you fought? Yeah, I think so. I never even wanted that fight.

I was telling my manager, I was like, bro, give me Chumayev. I was like, because also just that Wonderboy is a guy you can't hate. I always love watching Wonderboy fight. He's the nicest guy in the world. The nicest guy in the world. Yeah, and you got to find a reason to hit him and dislike him. And just like his highlight reel. And I'm looking at it.

Like I said, I was in two camps watching these guys. And they're telling me, like, he's nothing like these other guys. His kicks are snappier. It hurts so much. And you're seeing him. And I'm like, man, I do not want to be on his highlight reel. I do not want to get hit with a spinning heel kick. And he was coming off of a loss.

And I feel like guys coming off of one loss, their mentality is different. They're that much hungrier where they want to get it right back. I was so impressed with him in Kevin Holland fight. That Kevin Holland fight was amazing. Yeah, but mentality. Like I said, Kevin Holland, I'm like, bro, you took him to the ground. Why are you going to stand up for it? They made an agreement, apparently, to not go to the ground.

Like, Kevin, you're a black belt in jiu-jitsu. And you're, like, in the top ten of the division. Like, Kevin, you're a black belt in jiu-jitsu, and you're, like, in the top ten of the division. Like, what are you doing, man? Like, you really could be a contender, a top contender. Literally, and beating a guy like Wonderboy, that name value right there, you'll see where he wants to push you. You have a good push behind you with Holland. So I'm like, you beat Wonderboy, you could probably be right there

in the next line for the title shot. Actually, I don't know if he's top 10 at welterweight, but the fight was supposedly scheduled at... That was a welterweight fight, right? Yeah, that was a welterweight. But Wonderboy was ranked top 10 so he probably took his number if he beat him. That fight was crazy

because I just couldn't imagine why he wouldn't want to vary his approach when you're fighting with a 57-0 kickboxer. Bro, I had so many people messaging me after my fight with him, like, bro, all you did was hump him, all you did was, like, bro, he's 57-0 kickboxer. Yeah.

Good job. Yeah, they're like, he's old, he's this, he's this. And I'm like, whoa, look, he beat Holland in striking. So I guess he's still got some fight left in him, huh? Yeah, he ain't that old. He's not done. He's not that old. And he doesn't take a lot of damage himself.

He's been knocked out once by Anthony Pettis. But that was it. Well, he got dropped really bad by Woodley. Tyron hurt him bad. And that's the way you have to fight him. If you're a guy like Tyron, everybody's like, that fight was boring., you know, that's the way you have to fight him. If you're a guy like Tyron, like everybody's like, that fight was boring. Like, yeah, that's smart.

You have to fight him smart. You can't just charge at that dude. You're crazy. He's so good at countering, and he moves like a snake. He moves back and forth like a snake the way he pops back and then pops back in. When he's beating guys like Luque and he's beating Jeff Neal, and he's, like, making them look like amateurs. They all wanted to play that.

Let me, oh, I'm going to strike with you. I'm going to strike with you doing that game. And you can't beat him at that game. That karate stance is so different. Everything, his movement. Yeah. I mean, his sideways stance and then attacking you with that front leg, everything's different. And his front leg is, like, so sophisticated. Like, we can hit you with this and he'll bring it over the top and he's like when i first came out he threw one spinning heel kick

at me i'm like i'm shooting i'm not i'm not gonna play this game i'm like and then when i took him down they just started giving me building the confidence building the confidence building the confidence so like all right well my wrestling is up there where people beforehand were like uh johnny hendricks couldn't take him down. Johnny Hendricks is a national champion. Woodley couldn't take him down. Johnny Hendricks, when he fought Wonderboy, was on the slide. Yeah. Like there was a big slide with Johnny Hendricks.

It was Johnny Hendricks versus GSP, who was a motherfucker. There was the Johnny Hendricks that knocked out John Fitch and Martin Campman. Like that Johnny Hendricks was a bad motherfucker. He was a beast. But by the time Johnny Hendricks got to like Paulo Costa, that Johnny Hendricks was done. Yeah. He was done. I don't know what was going on in his personal life.

I don't know how hard he was training. I don't know if USADA got to him. I don't know what happened, but he was not the same guy. Yeah, he's one of the main guys where that USADA comes in and you're like, how do you fall off that much? Do you remember he used to knock guys senseless? They would go flying. He would crack guys. Like with Fitch, he cracked him and Fitch goes flying.

Everybody goes flying. And then all of a sudden the power goes away. It was wild. And then you're thinking back to the GSP fight where it's like, how could somebody be that good? Like somebody who almost beat the GOAT, a lot of people consider the GOAT, and all of a sudden you fall off that much and it's only like two years, three years later. Right, real close to beating him. Yeah. Like maybe you could have given it to him.

Like if, I mean that wouldn't have been the most egregious decision. Yeah, yeah, Crosby would have for sure gave it to him. Ha! Who knows? He might have given George every round. Who fucking knows? Yeah, man, there's some bad judging, right? Some of those fights were like, what in the fuck are you guys watching?

Yeah. Yeah. Thinking back to the Patty fight. I'm getting tagged in all the videos with you, and we're looking at each other. We're both looking at each other. I said to you right before I go, he got it. I go, Jared got him. Yeah. And we both agreed agreed and then i looked at you like what the fuck that didn't make any sense i thought it was two to one yeah for sure and then i'm re-watching it i'm like i'll

go back and i'm sitting there like i still give it to jared and it's like no bias involved obviously there may be but i'm like but just just stats. You're looking at the stats. I struck him 21 to 16 in the first round, and he took him down, and all the judges gave still the first round to Patty. It didn't make any sense. And he caught him clean with that left hook. He was landing that left hook on a regular basis. All day.

Very clean. Yeah, he got fucked, and that's unfortunate. I don't like when someone gets by just because they're famous and they have this big personality and and everybody loves them the problem with that is people are going to be rooting against him now in the next fight and so now he's going to go in there against someone and maybe he's going to go in against someone who's on another level like one more level up and he's going to be in trouble yeah and for a guy like him i just don't think that he really wants it that bad if you're going out of camp and you're getting up to 200 pounds, 210, and you're getting that big, you're not in the training room. For me, I'm in the practice room all day.

I don't care if I have a fight or not a fight. And it's just building skills in between fights. Him, I'm looking at it. I was watching a fight for Jared because I knew I was going to be in his corner. So I'm watching tape and I'm like, he's going to be the same exact fighter. That left hook is going to land all day. His coach, very smart, was like, that left hook, that left hook, that left hook. And it landed the whole fight because he didn't evolve from his second fight,

his third fight, his first fight. Yeah, someone said that too, that his fights are like fat camps. Yeah. Yeah, they're really not like training camps where you're going over skills as much as he's just, he's got very good skills. Yeah. But now he's just trying to lose weight. Yeah you just gotta lose it. He gets so big. He gets so big his big pie face.

I mean you can make a show about it and like play that whole game like it's a fad for you but like in general it's not good for your health. And if you're training with that much extra weight on you that's when little injuries happen and he's going into surgery now. So I'm wondering if that played a part into it.

What's he going to surgery for? I don't know. They said he's not going to be on the March card because he has surgery. Oh, no shit. Yeah. See what the Patty Pimblitt is getting surgery on. He's a fun dude, though, man. His fucking personality and the way he dances when he gets inside the octagon and everything.

It's very fun. But sometimes, ankle surgery. But sometimes you can be more famous than you are good yeah and that's a real problem when you run up against a justin gaethje or some fucking assassin yeah and that's what i feel like he has to level up from jared so yeah who leveling up from jared i think is probably like top Oh, he had a partial tear of his ligaments in his ankle. Hmm. Or something like that.

It says a grade two injury to the ankle. Rehabilitation in Pemblitz. Doctor disagreed with the UFC lightweight. Continues to deal with swelling and soreness more than a month removed from his most recent fight. I wonder if he looked into stem cells at all. Well, who knows? Either way, he's getting surgery. Yeah. Well, you know? Either way, he's getting surgery. Yeah.

Well, you know, I hope he heals up. But I hope he realizes that. I mean, he's openly talked about having an eating disorder. Yeah. You know, and some guys do get that when they cut a ton of weight. And it really fucks with them. And you always have that mentality. Like, when you're in camp and it's about to be, like, two or three weeks out,

and you feel so good because you're eating healthy for six to eight weeks. Your body feels good. Your energy feels good. I always tell myself after this fight, I'm not eating bad. I'm not going to go on any bad binges or anything. Right after you win, you're like, I don't care no more. I'm eating whatever I want. You're like, I'll make up for it.

For me, I only give myself a week. One week? Yeah. You go to two to three to four weeks. A week must be glorious, though. Man, it's like heaven, and especially if you're winning. For me, I was flying back from Dubai, from Abu Dhabi, and I was like, I'm upgrading to business class. I'm going to do business class. I got me a big bag of M&Ms.

I'm just sitting there front row. My brother was able to sneak up there with me in business class because it was empty seats, and they never asked him. So he sat up there the whole time with me. So me, him, and my coach are just sitting there front row. My brother was able to sneak up there with me in business class. It was like empty seats, and they never asked him. So he sat up there the whole time with me. So me, him, and my coach are just sitting up there. Eating M&M's. Yeah, oh, let me get some French toast. Let me get this. It was like the best ride ever.

What's your binge food, the one binge food that you like to go to after a fight? I love nachos. Yeah. I'm a nacho guy. I'm chips and cheese. When I'm in Vegas one time, I was on the same – me and Anthony Pettis, we were training together and we both won on a card together. And he comes up to me. He's like, hey, we're going to go to the club at – I don't know what even the name of the club was.

And he was like, all right, we're going to get a table over there. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to go get a nacho daddy. I'm going to go get some nachos. And he was like – looked at me like I was such a loser. And my coach – my coach was like, bro, you're such a lame. And I was like, because I don't drink or party or anything, but my family's always had all the fights with me, so my best time is celebrating with them, going to eat with them.

So he's looking at me like, you're a lame, man. And I was like, bro, let's go eat. And he's like, all right, man, let's go. Let's go together. Well, you're probably adding time to your career by not drinking. You're probably adding time to your career. Yeah. you're probably adding time to your career yeah it's like look drinking's fun there's a reason why people like to do it there's a reason why bars are everywhere it's fun but the reality is it's fucking terrible for you and if you're a

professional athlete and you're in this world of professional athleticism that has very little room for error which is what you're in. I mean, you're in the hardest fucking sport, I think, in the world. And if you can maximize your recovery and maximize your health and maximize your vitality by not drinking alcohol, I would tell people to do it. Maybe a glass of wine here and there, a little glass of whiskey, no big deal. But guys who get drunk, guys who glass of wine here and there, a little glass of whiskey, no big deal, but guys who get drunk, guys who really like to party and drink,

man, you are fucking chipping away at your health. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I know a lot of guys that do it, and then they'll come into the practice room on Monday or hungover or something, and you're not really getting as much out of the session. You get hurt.

I've seen it happen to a lot of guys and I tell them like, how bad do you want it? How serious do you want it? These younger fighters. And I tell them like, it's not an easy road. Everybody always asks me

for advice. How do you get to the UFC? And I was like, there's no easy road to the UFC. There's some people that will skyrocket right in there.

Like you said, they're famous. They got a following behind them and they're going to blow up right away. Or there's guys that have to inch

their way in. Guys like you that grind. Yeah. You've worked your way through contender after contender after contender. You've been grinding, dude. Yeah. I appreciate that though, man. That's a mentality that I really appreciate because it's hard to do.

And no one has to tell you that. When you're not making these monumental leaps in terms of public consciousness and being celebrated, you're steady up that fucking ladder. That's what you're doing. And that, to me, is some of the most impressive shit. Like that Sean Brady fight, that was a big fight, man. That dude's a killer. He's a fucking killer, and you put it on him, man.

You put it on him, and you pressure the shit out of him. That was a big fight. that was a big fight it was a big fight yeah that was one of those fights where obviously i wanted to fight upward i thought that i i fought luke who was on a seven fight winning streak and he was number five in the world and i beat him and then i'd be wonderful before that who was number five and then you're gonna offer me number eight and i was sitting there like this doesn't make any sense like chimes hamza's still out there. Gilbert Burns is still out there. Give me those guys. And they just weren't pushing it.

And they were like, well, we'll give you him. We'll give you Brady. And I was like, honestly, I don't care. Why do you think they weren't? I mean, Gilbert, who's Gilbert fighting this weekend? He's fighting Magne. That's right. That's a good fight.

But it's a good showcase for Gilbert in Brazil. In Brazil. Yeah. Not that Magne's an easy fight. He's a very good fighter. But it's like neither one of those, like beating Magny is not going to move him into a title shot. Yeah. You know, because Magny hasn't really won enough fights as of late to warrant that.

But beating you would. Yeah. You know, like if you beat him, that moves you closer. Like it's like that's a consequential fight. Yeah. And sometimes they do consequential fights and sometimes they do fights where they'll like give a guy a good opponent but give it to him in their hometown and you know they have it set up so it's nice they offer you a fight that makes sense financially and it looks good just to build you up in that

area but but for you a gilbert fight or more more importantly a hamzat fight hamzat you versus hamzat would be gigantic yeah and that's i didn't get why they weren't doing that one i was sitting there like i'm asking for it there's a million guys he says oh this these guys are all turning me down i'm like i'm not asking for extra money i'm not telling me i need to have this this and this i'm i'm like give me that fight and i'm showing people i'm texting my managers like they don't want to do it. And I was like. Hamzat doesn't want to do it.

The UFC doesn't want to do it. The UFC didn't want to do it. And they were like, well, he's going to do Nate Diaz. And I was like, why are you going to do Nate Diaz instead of me? It doesn't make, obviously to build his name, whatever. But I was like, this has to be a joke. And then I was like, well, give me Gilbert. And they were like, well, Gilbert's going to fight Masvidal.

And then they were like, there's nobody else for you, but Sean Brady. So then you're like, all right, well, as long as it's in Abu Dhabi, I always just wanted to fight in Abu Dhabi because the first time I fought there was the crowd there was amazing. The people there were amazing. So I was like, just give me him. If you guys think that he could beat me, if you guys want to push him, he's 15 and 0 and everybody's hyping him up to be the strongest man in the world. and if he touches you, you fall. I was like, all right, let's do it. And I felt like after beating him and the way I beat him in that crowd,

I thought for sure I'm going to get a Hamza fight after that. But they still didn't do it. Well, Hamza's not scheduled to fight anybody, is he? No. Yeah. But now they're saying he could be going up to middleweight. Yeah. Well, the thing about the middleweight thing is, like, yeah, he could go up to middleweight,

and he would be a top-flight middleweight, but he has fought at welterweight. Could he make the weight, though? Like, that was a big problem after that fight with Kevin Holland. Like, you know, why are you weighing so much? Like, why did you weigh eight pounds over? And he said that they stopped him. He could have made the weight. And it's like, you never know.

Like, maybe they did stop him. Maybe it was the commission. They looked at him. And, you know, those commission guys, they don't cut weight. They don't know. You look like shit. Yeah, you're always going to look like that. You look like death.

You look like death. Nobody's ever going to be there smiling, cutting weight. Nobody's going to go, he's great. Is that eight pounds to go? Yeah, let him go. yeah yeah eight pounds is a lot of fucking weight man but yeah that's a lot that's a lot for me i think it's just the mentality for that fight it's like you're fighting nate diaz not like you have to do the extra running the extra jogging right while you're in camp it's not like somebody that's making me want to work harder when i follow a wonder boy i'm working twice as hard i'm doing doing five practices, three practices a day,

doing whatever I can do because I'm so afraid of what he can do to me. Nate Diaz, you're like pretty sure you're probably going to beat him pretty easily in the first round if your hands up. So I just think that his motivation factor wasn't there. That might be it. Maybe he didn't work hard enough. Yeah. Or, you know, maybe he's –

He's just fake. It also could be he's getting close to the top of the food chain and there's a lot of pressure involved in that and sometimes people have a lot of pressure they self-sabotage there's that possibility yeah you know you really don't know it's it's so hard to tell that's why experience is so important and that's why your resume is very impressive because you fought so many top guys. You've been around for so long. You're a proven entity.

And with a guy like Hamza, you go, okay, well, he looked real good up until that Gilbert Burns fight. And the Gilbert Burns fight was a fucking war. That was a war. But man showed he could take it. Man showed he can bounce back from diversity. He gets dropped and still drives forward. He gets a takedown i mean he showed he's a dog he shows he's a fucking mad dog but how many times can you do

that how many different fighters how many who's gonna figure you out who's gonna find your chin who's gonna catch you who's gonna get your number who's who's gonna get it we need to know and then maybe he's thinking that after the gilbert perrins fight you have a fight like that where you're steamrolling everybody. You only get hit four times in your first four fights. He was just ragdolling people, man. Runs through Lee Jinglian, fucks up Gerald Mershart, fucks up everybody, right? And then all of a sudden he's getting tagged.

And Gilbert's a savage. Gilbert is a bad motherfucker. And that dude was just throwing bombs at him and clipped him and hurt him and rocked him. And maybe he's thinking, like, you know, who knows, man? You never know. So that's why being a proven entity is so important. When you get a guy like yourself that's just had so many tough fights against top contenders,

like, then you can see what a guy's made of. You know? That's why betting lines are hard. Yeah. But also with Hamza, where you're looking at that Kevin Holland fight, where he just came out so hard. I'm like, I wish we would have seen the second round. Yes. He was going for darses, all the scrambling.

I'm like, nobody can keep up that pace. I don't care who you are. And how you recover in the second. Yeah. And you're not going to do that for five rounds. If you do that for a five-round fight, man, and you don't get him in the first, you're fucked. Yeah. And you're not going to do that for five rounds. If you do that for a five round fight, man, and you don't get him in the first,

you're fucked. Yeah. You're really fucked. That fight, the extra two rounds, I tell people, it's a difference. But meanwhile,

he was right. Yeah. See, the thing is like, we can second guess him all day, but Hamzat was right. He knew he could do that. Yeah.

He knew he could do that, and he was right. He ragdolled the shit out of Kevin Holland. I was impressed. I mean, I was really impressed. When you see what he's capable of when he puts the fucking pedal to the gas and really just stomps it to the floor, like, that motherfucker's scary.

Yeah. He's very good. But those type of fighters are the ones that, like, I want to figure out. Those are the ones where everybody's telling me I'm going to get walked through. All right, let me figure him out. Colby Covington's another one where Dana Weihaba. If Usman wasn't here, Kobe would be the champion. And I'm like, I don't think so.

I think Kobe sucks. I don't think that he's as good as everybody thinks he is. You think he sucks? I think that compared to me, I think I'll be able to walk through him. Really? He's a lesser version of Sean Brady, I think. Because if you're looking at the guys he's fought, he's beaten Woodley coming off of two losses.

He beat Masvidal coming off of two losses. Robbie Lawler coming off of two losses. He hasn't fought one of the guys that's in the top ten right now. He's getting so much credit for losing close fights to Usman. Like, you're a good loser? Is that what people are trying to say to him? I'm like, bro, why does he get all that credit for? Because him and Usman stood toe-to-toe with each other.

Neither one of them went for a takedown. Neither one of them tried to shoot at each other. They were just two wrestlers kickboxing. So because he made it a close kickboxing match with a wrestler makes him that much of a monster, a pound-for-pound guy? I just don't think so. Really interesting. I'd like to see that fight. Yeah.

Does he have a scheduled fight, Colby? He doesn't have anything yet. But he's been missing like well, he's a punch by Mazda doll and apparently he really got hurt from that Yeah, I mean, I think it's hurt for court. You think so? Yeah, cuz I'm like, I don't know I know people who know that he actually got hurt. Yeah, he was up He was fucked up for a while after that fight, apparently. Or after that punch. Like nerves? I don't know. I'd be talking out of my ass. But my friend who knows him well said, dude, he got really fucked up from that punch.

Because he didn't see it coming. And Jorge just ran up to him and sucker punched him in the face. But when you're that person, you have to have security with you. I'm like, all the trash talk you say, all the people that want to kill you, I'm sure. American Top Team, all them Brazilians you talk trash about like you don't think that somebody sees you on the streets gonna hurt you and that's what I feel like a lot of these guys need to start realizing is like you could say whatever you want to build a fight but when you're talking about a guy's family his kids he deserved I know that it was a

sucker punch it was dirty I'm as what i was then like be a street fighter go street fight him in the streets hit him with something uh but don't hit him and like run off but i thought he deserved it i'm like i'm never gonna kick a man when he's down but i always kick kobe covey when he's down i don't care about kobe covey tonight that's hilarious i've had hate for uh sean strickland and i've called him out before and I was at the fight when he fought Pereira and Pereira like knocked him out and I like got

like I got up to go to the bathroom and Ali's like brother stop don't go anywhere don't say anything to him I was like bro I was going to the bathroom

like I hate him but I wouldn't like laugh at somebody that they just got knocked out like I wouldn't go up to oh you just got knocked out lol or anything like that because I know what it is

to get knocked out in the cage I know what it is to want it that bad and be that close to achieving something and then you lose, fall flat on your face. So I would never talk trash about him. But if it was Kobe, I'd probably laugh and point and everything at him.

Like, I don't care about Kobe. So he's your number one dude that you hate. Kobe, yeah. Well, that's a real possibility for you. If he comes back. Like, people just don't know. I ask, when is he fighting? Oh, he's not fighting for a year.

He's not going to be fighting for a while. And then I'm looking at it like. They say why? I'm assuming because he's claiming brain damage with the court case. And I know like some lawyers, like injury lawyers. And he was like, yeah, when somebody comes in claiming brain damage, like all I hear is cha-ching. Like I know that I'm going to get paid for it because you could claim like future injuries or anything like that, like stuff that's going to happen in the future. So and the court can't do anything like, well, we'll wait 10 years before we let you get paid or anything.

And if you're suing Masvidal, who's worth millions of dollars, and you're claiming brain damage and they see you take a fight, they're probably going to be like, how are you going to take a fight if you have brain damage? That's a good point. And that's really interesting, too, is like. Has there ever been a fighter that sued another fighter for a sucker punch? Has that ever happened? No, I don't think so. I don't think so either. Now that I'm thinking about it,

I don't think in the UFC it's ever happened before. And I feel like that should be like guy code. Right. I'm not going to call the cops or anything like that. I'm not going to sue you

off of that. And especially for them too because they had a relationship before. Right. They were roommates. Yeah, you were roommates for that long and you're going to sit there and go to court and sue them like that?

To me, that's soft. I'm not going to... If I'm Kobe, I'm going to get revenge. If I'm Kobe, I'm going to... You already embarrassed me in the cage. All right, well, hire somebody on the street to jump Masvidal.

Do the same thing. But when you're getting to that level, it's three guys. I'm not a guy that's going to go to court or snitch or do anything like that. It's just I just don't like that mentality. Well, we'll see. We'll see what happens. Because if he gets a million dollars out of the settlement, you're like, well, okay.

You know, I mean. A million dollars for chipped tooth. All right. It might. I don't know. I mean, if he really can prove brain damage. If he can prove that something really went wrong. I mean, we don't know. I mean, his career might be over. Who fucking knows? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, if he really can prove brain damage. If he can prove that something really went wrong. I mean, we don't know.

I mean, his career might be over. Who fucking knows? I don't know. I don't know what happened to him. You know? Sometimes guys get hit and they're fucked up. Yeah. Especially if you don't see it coming.

And especially, like, we've seen it with guys that get knocked out and they've never been the same. Yes. From it. Yeah. And you're like, how the heck did this guy just change so much off of that? And you're like, they took that much damage in a change so much off of that? And you're like, they took that much damage in a fight

and you don't know which fight it's going to be. And that's why I tell guys, don't spar hard because you don't want to lose those years, lose that toughness from your chin

because you can't gain muscles on your chin. Right. And I think Tony Ferguson was a big one of that. After that Gaethje fight, he was never the same. And it's like a prime example

of like, bro, people get hurt and something changes in their body or mind or something. That was a beating, man. That was a beating, that Gaethje fight. That was a beating. And Tony caught him. Caught him with a big uppercut early in the fight.

Remember? Oh, yeah. He had him rocked. Yeah, he hit him. He just decided to stand and train. And Gaethje, instead of loading up, he started Trevor Whitman in the corner, told him, like, settle down. Don't fucking try to take his head off with every shot. Pick your shots.

Be technical. And then he started tuning them up. And when he started tuning them up, at the end of it, it was bad. I believe it was Herb Dean. When Herb Dean stopped it, I was like, ooh, good stoppage because this is ugly. Yeah. I mean, he was like moving away funny. I was like, he got too many shots.

Some guys are just too tough for their own good. That's Tony. He's so tough. Yeah. That motherfucker's so tough. But you think back to those, like how you said, he almost dropped him at the end there first. And you're looking back at Pereira and Adesanya where he almost dropped him at the beginning of the first. You're like, how many of those fights are there

where it's like one more second, this guy would have won and the whole thing would have changed. Yeah, if Izzy caught him with that punch two minutes to go instead of two seconds to go, who fucking knows, man? He could have stopped him in the first round. Yeah, that was right at the end. It changes everything in the whole division. You know, Izzy almost stopped him

in the second kickboxing fight they had, too. Yeah. Or, yeah, the second kickboxing fight stopped him in the second kickboxing fight they had too. Yeah. Or, uh, yeah, the second kickboxing fight. Because in the second kickboxing fight, the first one, I thought Izzy should have won a decision. It was very close, but I thought Izzy should have won. And the second one, Izzy had him rocked. Like, he had him wobbling

and then they came in and gave him a standing eight count. Yeah, I didn't know that like, and I felt like he should have let him drop first before giving him the standing eight counts standing eight counts are weird yeah they're so weird it's like you're in trouble i'm gonna give you a break versus you're in trouble and then the guy stops you yeah why i don't agree with standing eight counts i don't understand it but that's like i think the i think mma rules are are superior in that like there's no like you get dropped and you come back up

because of the fact that there's ground fighting and ground and pound when someone gets hurt and someone can put that person away that's the end of the fight there's a thing that happens in boxing when a guy gets dropped where you're like one two and you get up and then no one's hitting you and they brush your gloves off and they go come to me and there's all this time and you get up, and then no one's hitting you. And they brush your gloves off, and they go, come to me, and there's all this time, and you have time to sort of get your equilibrium back and move around. That's probably worse for you. Yeah. It's probably worse for you.

Unless you're Tyson Fury and you get dropped by Wilder and you get up and you're like, how the heck did he come up so hard? Came up and won the remainder of the round. Yeah, but you're looking at that, too. You ever seen those videos of the ref counting and somebody's like like, dude, it was like 20 seconds the ref's counting. Because you go one and two, and it's like, what if it's a bad ref who's counting a lot faster? That does happen. It changes everything, too.

That happened with Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas. When Tyson dropped Douglas, that was more than a 10 count. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. You can go back. There's people who have taken that video and superimposed it with a camera that shows you an actual count of 10. Oh, wow. Yeah, and it goes to like 11 or 12

before Buster Douglas actually gets up. Yeah. That's crazy. Let's just... When you got someone going like this, one, two, like you should have a fucking clock. Like if this is 10 seconds, there should be a giant digital clock, and the moment

someone gets dropped that clock goes and has nothing to do with the referee yeah the referee should be reading that shit off the clock that's it yeah i don't know why they don't do that like just point to it yeah he's down exactly look at the clock here you got seven eight like it's on the clock because guys can do a slow count and they can do a quick count too six seven eight nine ten you're like hey hey hey that's not ten yeah seven that was seven seconds bitch and then you when you're looking at it too like you said when it comes to famous guys or like if patty pinley was boxing right and the ref liked him more i'm not gonna count faster for you like yeah we're all humans right like we all like somebody more than another person regardless of what you say did you see the video of dana and uh i think it was hunter campbell i'm not who

sure it was celebrating when patty got the win oh yeah they're like yeah fuck yeah i'm like oh no no you can't do that for me i hate like losing in general and then it hurts me more when i'm like jerry's like my best friend he's like my boy so seeing him lose and because i know how hard he works he's one of those guys where i know that he puts the real time and he puts the real work in his like life story is so crazy it is crazy so it was like yeah that was his moment that was his moment to shine you know the whole crowd's booing him before the fight and they're all like that could have turned into a star yeah and i'm like that could have changed everything. So for it to be, like, snatched out of his hand because three stupid judges, like, pissed you off so much. I'm like.

Yeah, most people did not agree with that decision. There's controversial decisions. Like, I went back and rewatched Jan Blachowicz, Ankalayev. That's a very interesting decision because, like, the first round, you go, who won that fight? Who won that round? Because the first round, go who won that fight who won that round because the first round onk alive was pushing the pace but Jan Bohovic landed some very good leg kicks you know and that motherfucker go shin to shin with people I'm looking at like I was I want to see how he's walking afterward because y'all walk fine what does he have a metal dude Jan Bohovic is made out of metal.

But it makes sense if you think about the power that dude carries. He must have some dense-ass bones. Yeah, and I'm like, you never, like, Ankalayev, I've seen him training before, and this dude's a monster everywhere. And then you're like, wait, so his weakness is his lower shin? All right, so we have the weakness now. Other guys are looking at it like, I'm not going to do that, though. I'm not going to come out there low kicking his lower shin.

I just think Bohovic has ultimate confidence in his ability to... If guys want to get in a firefight with him, he has ultimate confidence he can blast them out. I think he just has ultimate confidence in his durability, too.

He's tough. He's kind of like a glover, where both of them just have that crazy old power and old toughness and they just have the discipline of just keeping their hands up a lot of there's not that new fancy footwork or moving back or matrix style stuff like they just keep it simple keep your hands up go underneath chuck it off yeah glover man 42 years old fighting for the title again. Again. Amazing. What do you think of that fight this weekend? I'm excited for it.

Glover is one of those guys where I felt bad for him because I thought it was going to be one of his last fights for him to take the title fight away from him. And then every time I see him in the PI, he's like the nicest guy. And I saw him there that weekend for the Ankalaya fight. I was like, oh, man, that sucks, man. It should be you in there. And he's like, it's all right, oh, man, that sucks, man. It should be you in there. And he's like, it's all right, man. Nice guys like us, man. It'll come back to us later, man.

It takes us the long road because we're both nice guys. That's interesting. Yeah, he was like the nicest guy in the world. He is the nicest guy. And I was like, yeah, you know what? You're right. And it just made you feel good. Like, I feel bad for you. But he's like, no, I'll accept it.

It's OK. It'll come back to me. So the way it just happened, I was excited. The thing is, he said he would fight Ankalayev, but he said he wanted to fight him in Brazil. He said, I have to adjust my game because I'm fighting a different guy now. Give me some more time to train for this guy, especially at 42 years old and especially coming off of being a champion. He's supposed to be fighting Yuri Prohaska, who's this bizarre style.

Yuri just moves around funny. He's throwing crazy shots. He's got a very odd style. Very specific. So to go from that to Ankaliev, and Ankaliev is standing tall, and he moves really good, and he's very fast and super technical. Totally

different style. You've got to prepare for different looks. I understand got to prepare for different looks. Yeah, but I understand the UFC's take on it. You need a title fight for the pay-per-view. You've got to sell it for that one at the head in Vegas. At 42, you've got to make your choices count. Yeah. I like what Glover did.

No, yeah. He was right. He came back to help him. It worked out perfectly for him. Jamal's a dog, though. Jamal's a dog. Jamal's a dog, and Jamal's got crazy power, man. He's got crazy power.

Yeah, he got that. There it is. Jamal, he has an intelligence, like a fine-chin intelligence. He finds your chin. He, like, sorts through all the shit you're doing. And he's like, now's my time, and just drops bombs. And he's so calm in there. He's like, even on the way that we, when I fought Davey and Maya, he was calm in there. Even on the way, when I fought

Davey Amaya, he was in the car with me on the way to the fight because he fought Paul Craig that day. Interesting. He's the favorite. Oh, Jamal is? Yeah. Interesting. That's interesting. I guess it's just the power. Go over his age. It's the power. When you see the way he knocked out Johnny

Walker, you're like, dude. Kind of glancing off the forehead. Good shot, but wasn't even his best shot. And Johnny Walker goes stiff. Jamal's got crazy power. And he switched stances right before he knocked him out with that shot. And I'm like, oh, a bigger guy that knows how to switch stances. So smooth.

Yeah, he's very clever in there. And that power is undeniable, man. His power is undeniable. Davidson Figueredo, he made me eat my words. That motherfucker got down to flyweight. I was like, the last time I saw him, he was 300 pounds. I was like, dude, you're never going to be a flyweight again. He came in the octagon.

I'm like, you're heavier than me. Like, how are you going to get down to 125? But he did, man. He looks. Go to his Instagram. He posted a photo today. Damn, he looks good. So, Davidson, sir, may me

eat my words. I was like, whenever... We still got a couple more days. Friday, we'll see. He made it. I think he made it. I was saying he's probably going to go up to Bantamweight, but no, look at him. Oh, wow. Damn, son. That dude's shredded. Look at him. Look at him. You can't get more shredded than that.

That's not possible. It is literally, like, he's got veins everywhere on his body. You can't get more shredded than that dude. That's fucking shredded. That's their fourth fight, right? That's nuts. I saw the stat today. It was like, Davidson Figueredo

hasn't fought anybody not named Brandon Moreno in the last four years. Like, he fought him in the last four years. It's only been Brandon Moreno. That's the only person

that Figueredo's fought. The last, yeah, the last guy he stopped, yeah. Well, he fought Alex Perez, yeah,

and that was 2020. Yeah, and then before that he fought Benavidez. He stopped Benavidez twice. He beat him twice. And then Brandon Moreno. And then the rematch, the last one I thought Moreno won, man. Yeah.

I was shocked at that decision, you know, but I was real happy that Moreno got that fight with Kai Carafrance, got the interim title, and now they're fighting for Undisputed. I like that fight. I like that fight a lot. Those two guys match up really well. This is going to be, I mean, we could watch them fight five or six times. I think it's going to keep switching back and forth.

But now Moreno doesn't have his coach with him. He switched across. Right, that's interesting. And I'm wondering how that's going to play a factor into it. What is your take on that whole thing? I don't know enough about what happened. Do you know enough about what happened? I don't know enough, but it's...

It doesn't sound good. When I watch that fight, when I look at that fight, I'm like, this guy said he had an injury, then he just fell down. He literally just fell down. It looked like he threw the fight, the one who was cornering that day. And then he came out afterward and said, oh, I had an injury. But it was like, at least act a little bit more if you're going to go in there and throw a fight. Well, if you have an injury and you go and fight it says ufc's jeff molina suspended for alleged

substantial involvement in ongoing james kraus investigation substantial yeah he was on uh i've heard a thing that he was on uh his discord and he said that like jeff molina said that like you know i paid my my mortgage my house, my phone bill, everything with this Discord right here. Make sure you guys join it. So he was pushing it hard. So I'm sure, you know, he was under Krause. So his Discord, was that something that they were using for gambling? Yeah, I think somebody or somebody that they had.

Jamie, you know, you're aware of this, right? Yeah, I know some of the details. Jamie's got a big smile. What do you know? What I heard, this is what I heard, there was up to 2,000 people using that Discord for gambling information. And most of it was probably MMA stuff. Probably all sorts of sports were being talked about. But one fight in particular, the line changed right before the fight from like, I think the favorite was like maybe minus 220 or something like that to then like negative 450, which is a four to one favorite.

or something like that to then like negative 450, which is a four to one favorite. And more specifically, it was like of a KO in the first round. And it happened in like 48 seconds or something. And that fighter had never been KO'd or something too is what I was hearing. So people knew that there was an injury and they were letting people know that there was an injury so that affected the gambling line. And then they traced that shit back to find out. Oh, they fucked everybody because now you can't bet on yourself. If you fought Hamza and you're like, fuck, I'm putting $100,000 on myself.

Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, there's a lot of fighters that do that. You should be able to gamble on yourself. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to gamble. Yeah. But now I don't think fighters are able to gamble even on football or basketball or anything.

Oh, that's terrible. Like DraftKings or something. I even tweeted out, I can't even get on DraftKings. That's terrible. That's terrible. You guys fucked usings or something. I even tweeted out, like, I can't even get on DraftKings. That's terrible. That's terrible. You guys fucked us. Freaking Kraus, man. He was on Air Hawaii before, and he said he makes more money gambling than he did fighting.

Oh, no. And I think that, like, triggered everybody. Like, wait a minute. Let me check what you do. And I met a couple guys in Vegas, and they were, like, talking about the situation. And he was telling me like one guy was like oh yeah you know I make like $500,000 each UFC fight and I'm like really he's like yeah what he's like there's fights that are the line still out there even after the fight's done

so the fight will happen he knows who won and how they won and then some of the casinos will still have the lineup what yeah and he's a little bet the house on it and I'm like you're lying he's like bro I'll show you my bank account. This is what I do. Wait a minute. He's gambling after the fight is concluded? Yeah. That's insane. That's what I was like, that can't be true. He's like, bro, there's casinos. I'll look for the casino

that has it. He said, all I do is gamble. That's what I do. And I'll wait for the fight to be finished and they'll still have the lineup. And I'll go to the casino, put the bet on there. That makes no sense. That seems like the casino should be able to get their money back. It's already concluded. I don't know if I'm snitching on them or not, but that's crazy what I heard.

I think you might be snitching. No names were said, right? I heard no names. But I feel like you should be able to gamble. You definitely should be able to gamble on your fighter, and you definitely should be able to gamble on yourself. you definitely be able to gamble on yourself as long as you're not gambling for someone to lose and if there's a situation like this where it shows that someone is either taking a dive or the coach lets everybody know hey this guy's injured you know bet on the other dude that kind of shit you really should

be banned for yeah you shouldn't i mean i don't know what kraus actually did and what actually is going to happen to him, but that makes me upset. That's terrible shit. That's terrible. Especially, you ruined it for all these guys. If you wanted to fight Hamza and you wanted to bet $100,000 on yourself or you wanted to bet on yourself against Colby, you should be able to do that.

That's a fun storyline. I want to talk about that. Exactly. You have confidence in yourself that much. And doing commentary, I want to be able to bring it up. I want to talk about that. Exactly. You have confidence in yourself that much. And doing commentary, I want to be able to bring it up. This is how much he believes in himself. He put $100,000 on himself.

But now you can't even do that. Check this out. The company that found this is called U.S. Integrity. They found it. I think this would be the PFL event. It says they showed fights that were taped a month ahead of time and aired them as though they were alive no yeah and people gambled on them i think so yeah oh my god that's so stupid this was one of the ones that he was telling me about too he said that like crowds put out his

discord that they knew all the results from them oh my god that's wild that is so dumb yeah they had all the results he said so pushy he's like made like $200,000, but I know guys that made like $800,000 off of that. Oh my god, you're going to jail, bitch. It was the Professional Fighters League Challenge Series. And I was like, what? It is like, yeah. That's so dumb. They didn't play the results, but people that were in the crowd, they were like, we were getting texts like, hey, I was in the crowd.

I know who won. You won all these things. Give me $50,000. And I'm like, that's insane. I can't believe that's real. Yeah, that, I was in the crowd. I know who won. You won all these things. Give me 50 grand. And I'm like. That's insane. I can't believe that's real. Yeah, that was crazy. Oh, my God.

That's so unsophisticated. Like, how the fuck did they not know that the fights already took place when they have a line on it? That's so crazy. Yeah, but, I mean, I think that's another issue, too, with, like, the UFC PI where you see guys fight week. Random guys are walking in, and if they see somebody getting worked on who's fighting, and they see, oh, he's getting his ankle worked on. So you're like, go back. Oh, I think something's wrong with his ankle or something's wrong with their back leg.

Yeah, I'd heard about TJ Dillshaw's shoulder before that fight. Oh, did you? Yeah, before he fought Aljamain. Yeah, I'd heard about his shoulder. I knew his shoulder was fucked already because I knew that he had been getting stem cells. He had gone down to Dr. Neil Reardon, who's a stem cell guy. He has a clinic down in Panama, and he was going down to Panama to get shoulder stem cells. During camp? Yeah, this was quite a while ago, though. This was before he got popped for EPO,

before he fought Henry, Henry Cejudo. And so he has some pretty substantial tears to his shoulders. His shoulders are pretty fucked. They're pretty fucked. I think his supraspinatus is completely torn off on both shoulders. It's not good. Yeah. And stem cells could fix that?

Not really. No. I don't even know if anything could fix it at this point. Because's like when you if you have something that's torn off and i'm completely speaking out of line here i don't know the the actual full extent of his injuries i'm not a doctor i haven't even seen his mris but what he was explaining to me is that he tore it early in his career and that he just been using bands and all these things to keep all the other muscles strong and keep the stabilizer strong but eventually that shit just gives out and then it just popped out a socket during the fight yeah that was yeah and we i've seen a couple of shoulder injuries

now it's like crazy how it happens to one person and it starts happening aaron pico had his shoulder popped out uh with yuri prohaska oh y Yuri Prohaska's shoulder popped out and his guy tried to put it back in and tore his shit oh no way yeah that's why it got worse they were trying to

manipulate it and put it back in and it fucked it up even worse that's crazy yeah but get a bunch of guys

yanking on your shoulder oh we got it we got this we got this buddy that's the fighter mentality it's like yeah it's alright roughs and dirt

like I won't go to that doctor or hospital unless I'm unconscious or I really, really need it. Like, I'm trying to avoid that at all costs of just seeing a doctor. I don't care what's going on with me. Yeah, I'm like, I'm afraid. If there's any chance you're going to tell me I can't fight or don't train anymore, I'm going to be like, no, F you. It's all right. What's your worst injury you've ever had so far? For me, honestly, I've had two detached retinas oh jesus yeah was one of them for the leon fight no it was i had one before that fight um it was i think it was after uh it was from

training it was i was training one day and i'm sparring and then all of a sudden I see black at the top of my eye and I'm like rub it, whatever so I go back to sparring, light sparring, we're moving, we're grappling and then it just becomes literally all black you can see it but it's like a film of black over your eye and I'm like what the fudge is going on

and then I'm like alright well let me go to the doctor and then the doctor just gives me a look and I'm like he's like, well, let me go to the doctor. And then, like, the doctor just gives me, like, a look. And I'm like, he's like, oh, yeah, we got to go to surgery immediately. And I'm like, what do you mean? Like, what's going on? What's wrong?

Blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, he's like, yeah, you have a detachment right now. You can go blind. And I'm like, you know, you're thinking of Michael Bisping. Yeah. And what happened to him? And you're like, you don't know what to do. So then, you know,

we go to the, I had to go like the surgery right away. Cause he's like, the longer you wait, you're going to lose vision more and more. So they had to like put a bubble in your bubble in my eye. And then like, I still didn't know what it was.

So like, I'm assuming like once he takes the band-aids off, I'll be able to see. So he takes the, you know, the next month I go in there, get the surgery done. And then like the next Monday I go in there and takes the band-aids off and i'm like bro i still

can't see he's like no it's gonna be we have to see what it's gonna be like in what it was like eight weeks to 12 8 to 12 weeks you're gonna have a bubble in your eye and you have to like hold your head on a tilt like this yeah 12 weeks for 12 weeks and you have to tilt your head on a tilt like this. Yeah. For 12 weeks? For 12 weeks. So you have to tilt your head sideways for 12 weeks? Yeah, like you have to keep the bubble in its place so it lines up the retina or seals it back in. And then I couldn't watch. I had the massage tables where you have to put your head down.

I had to sit on one of those to watch TV with a mirror that was downward and it was like pointing up there to the TV because I couldn't look up like this like I had to keep my head down so the pressure's on there so I'm like I had to watch TV like this for like to watch TV through a hole in the massage table dude it was honestly it was like the most depressing thing that I've ever gone through in my life and it was like the hardest thing wow and it was like one of those things too where it was like I'm not one of those guys that like cries well for anything so like I kept it to myself I didn't tell my parents or my family i would just like go to the house with sunglasses on and see them and then just like avoid seeing them type thing like that so then they didn't even know you're not attached right now well now they know now from here but

but uh yeah it was like it was rough because you can't do any working out i'm a guy that works out constantly two to three times a day and so for 12 weeks you can 12 weeks can't do any working out. I'm a guy that works out constantly two to three times a day. So for 12 weeks you couldn't do shit? 12 weeks I couldn't do nothing. Could you even go walk around the block? I could go walk, but not a lot. Yeah, not a lot. Wow. And for like the first four weeks, it was just like I had to stay in this specific position the whole time.

Wow. Yeah, and then like you had to sleep with your head down. Like I'm a back sleeper too, so I had to sleep with my head down on a massage table too like that like I had to stay in that position the whole time and then like 12 weeks period goes and like the bubble just like starts shrinking and shrinking and shrinking So you're always seeing like a little bubble in your eye and then finally about a 12 weeks it was done But then he was just like yeah, like I't fight anymore oh boy yeah and then you're like

no i'm gonna fight i don't care what you say type thing and so then i go back to regular training and i start wearing like one of those uh face like catcher's face masks to like spar in and train and i'm wearing goggles to train and roll in and like i just don't know how it's going to react once i go back to sparring and hitting hard again how long did it take before you felt like confident like the 12-week period was where the bubble was gone and then probably like back to sparring and hitting hard again. How long did it take before you felt confident? Confident? Like the 12-week period was when the bubble was gone and then probably like maybe like eight weeks into it. After that where I was trying to get back into shape, getting back to the thing,

and finally trying to go hard sparring without the goggles on. Yeah, so it was rough. Do you remember what you got hit with? No, and that was the thing. I don't remember what specific thing happened to it. So it didn't make any sense. But you get poked in the eye sometimes during training or anything, but you just don't think nothing of it.

So you don't really go get checked. But I never wondered. So then it was just constant wear and tear on it. So after you got the surgery done, was there a point in time where you're like, hey, I don't know if my career is going to be over here? That point was during the Leon fight when he poked it, and literally I couldn't see nothing. And I was like, this is what the doctor said.

I was like, I'm blind. And I was like, and then you're like, you waited this long to get a main event. You waited this moment, and it just got taken away from you. And you're like, I'm done fighting. And it was just like. Even worse, maybe you can't see now. Yeah. Well, in that moment, you're just thinking like, dang.

Right. Because fighting is my life for me. And I'm like this is what i want this like my goal is to be right here it's a top to be a champion so just like get it taken away from you like not seeing a second nature i'm like man i can't train i can't fight i can't do this so that was like the most heartbreaking thing and like knowing that probably have to go through it again not knowing what type of surgery it is the doctor told me not to do it like you should have stopped what's wrong with you and're like, fudge it. How long did it take?

I like how you won't even say fuck. Yeah, that's fair. How long did it take before your vision came back after that poke? In the Leon fight, it was like 40 minutes after that. Then I realized that my eye was just like, I had to get like three stitches under the bottom eyelid. And that's when I realized that my eye was just like they i had to get like three stitches under the bottom eyelid and uh that's when i realized that my eye was just closed it wasn't uh blind because i didn't realize my eye was like closed i was like bro i'm fucking blind i'm like done but then they're like the guy's like trying to open like this and he's like do you see any light and i'm like i see light

i see light oh and then uh yeah so then probably when I got back to the hospital they had to do like stitches in the bottom the bottom eyelid and he was like don't blink and I'm like having to stitch there

with my eyes getting stitched don't blink yeah and I was like what the fudge and I was like it was like the worst thing ever so then thankfully

I was just like it didn't it wasn't the detached retina again I was like I felt blessed't it wasn't the detached right now again i was like thankful i felt blessed but you've had two detached right now and it had in the other eye as well when did that one happen it was after that one so really um after the leon fight yeah so uh after that one it was after the luke fight I mean not detached right now what you call it

my lens was detached oh Jesus yeah so in the third round of the Luque fight he just like hit me and I was like I'm in the corner

and I feel something like weird in my eye it's like like a shield in front of it and I was like what the fudge I felt like I just got

like poked and I'm trying to rub it and it's the Tate the cut man he's like bro ain't nothing in your eye stop playing and i was like dude i feel like something but i'm like i still could see a little bit out of there so i'm like all right well whatever i'm just gonna keep fighting so i'm like i just gotta take him down and it was like the uh i only had two rounds left and i thought i won like the first three rounds so then i was like all right well whatever whatever and then afterward i'm like the doctor's like well it

doesn't look like there's anything detached or uh torn in there i said oh okay cool so then i wait till i get back home and they were like uh your lens is uh it was like loose so then i had to have surgery on the lens part of my yeah when they do that are you awake no no they put me to sleep yeah they put me but i like like i said for the first uh detached run i didn't know how long it was gonna be before i see but thankfully with this one it was just it was like full of blood afterward but i was able to see so i was like did you see that new guy from dagestan that uh got signed by the ufc in the middleweight division that's blind yeah that's that's crazy i was like yeah i didn't know you could fight. I thought Bisping had a lie all these years about being blind and one eye.

But this dude, see if we can find that guy. He's a fucking killer too, man. Nasty striker. Yeah. I met him in Dubai and he came and took a picture with me and he was like, I'm undefeated fighter. And I was like, oh, man. Look at him.

He's got one eye. Sharaputin Magomedov. Nasty striker too. But he's got one eye sharaputin magomedov nasty striker too but he's got one eye which is really crazy man fighting on a moscow russia 28 year old forced to undergo eye surgery before making a return to the cage in 2021 yeah that's crazy it's crazy because I didn't think that that was legal. Yeah. I thought maybe it's only legal in certain states. Maybe he only has to fight in certain places. I don't know what the laws are.

Yeah, it's weird. But I thought like Bisping said he had a lie. He had to memorize the charts. Yeah, I know you have to get eye test every single time beforehand. Yeah. And they check it all like that way. Yeah. I was sitting there reading the Bisping book and it's thinking like, man, am I ever going to have to do that?

We're figuring out a way to lie and everything. And just like reading his book and listening to his book, it was crazy because like the way he described it. And when I had to detach right now, you're like, you're going to like the retinal doctor and it's like nothing but old people in there. And it's like, I don't belong in here with these like older people. Why am I having to get this stuff? And all the nurses in there are like, what happened to you? Like you don't belong in here with these like older people like why why am i having to get this stuff and all the nurses in there like what happened to you like you shouldn't be in here these are for people like cataracts and stuff like that like yeah you don't get later in life so this being's a fucking gangster i mean he fought like 11 fights like that 11 fights with one eye won the title with one eye yeah he's one of the guys that like i like try to mimic a lot He was a beautiful punch too, the way he slipped it over the shoulder. He is like one of the toughest guys that's ever fought,

just mental toughness, the fortitude to fight like that with one eye. Yeah. There's a different type of man that's willing to do that. Like you said, you've got to want it that much more because you said there's a life after your career. How old are you now? How bad do you want to be a champion? How old are you?

34. 34? When you think about how much time you have left in this life to have one eye and go through all that time because of fighting. There's certain things they can do now to fix eyes, but I sent Bisping an article, actually, that I read about them bringing vision back to people that have lost eyes but he said it didn't apply to him because his nerves already dead oh wow yeah nerd dang that's crazy that's crazy so your right eye is the one that you had the lens detached yeah did that when

that got fixed how long did that take was it the same process it wasn't uh it wasn't as bad as that one it was just like it was probably like four weeks after that one that I was able to see right away, but it was like just full of blood. So I just had to wait for the blood to clear out of the eye. And yeah, after that, it was just clear. And like, same thing, same mindset of trying to get back into training and everything and getting over that hump. I was training with goggles on still. Wow. hump i was training with goggles on still and wow you're still thinking about it like all right and my eyes just jinxed am i like there's something wrong with that or is god trying to tell me something do you think they could do a better job designing the gloves for sure i think so and or like enforcing the rule is better if you're gonna tell guys like hey if you put your fingers like this don't do it but they give you like 25 warnings. It doesn't really make any sense. One eye poke, one point.

Right away. Right away, take a point away. And I don't care how bad it is. Even if it's not intentional, it's damaging. Yeah. I mean, you're compromising the other fighter's ability to fight. They can't see as good. They're fucked up because now their eye hurts.

So now they have to think about something that's going to occupy their mind. There's so many factors. You've got to be that guy, too, that you can't say that. You've got to tell them, the doctor, that, oh, I'm good to fight. Otherwise, you don't look tough. Yeah. And you could be like a DC when you fought Stipe. And he said, dude, I couldn't see the whole time.

Yeah. And his eye was literally full of blood. I was like, bro, that was a terrible poke. Eye pokes and nut shots. I think eye pokes even more than nut shots because with a proper cup, with a really good

like a diamond MMA cup or a steel tie cup, you could take a nut shot. It hurts. Yeah. But it's not going to really compromise you the way an eye poke

is going to compromise you. Yeah. Eye pokes change fights. Change everything. Change everything. And I don't care who you are or how tough you think you are like if you can't see or your eyes shut like you're just gonna keep going to that side yeah you're done you're fucked and it's just it's can ruin careers and you know

they have gloves that are better that's a trevor whitman has designed a glove uh he's got that company called onyx yeah you use his stuff, I've used his boxing gloves. His boxing gloves are really good. Fantastic stuff. But his MMA glove is so superior, and it keeps you in a curved position. It keeps your hand curved, whereas the UFC gloves keep your hand stretched out, and you have to close it on purpose to make a fist. With this glove, it's naturally like this.

The whole time? Yeah, the whole time. Oh, wow. So you can still grapple, because you can open it up, and you can clamp down on stuff. But your natural inclination, see if you can get a video or a photo of it. His gloves are the shit.

And I know he was in negotiation with the UFC. I forget what happened. Something went wrong. And I talked to the UFC and I talked to him. I'm like, what is going – do that. Get his gloves. They're the best gloves. Yeah, there has to be a way to make it work.

I think the UFC, I don't know what the story was, but there was some business deal, a bridge that could not be crossed. I don't know what it was. I wish, there's a lot of things that I wish I was in control. If I was in control, that glove right there, that's his glove. It's the shit. It's a better phone. It keeps your fist like that.

You just did like that the whole time. Yeah, my fist, I'm not clenching it to hold your fist that's your you just did like that the whole time yeah my fist like I'm not clenching it to hold it like that it's just naturally like that they're the best gloves man

they're the best by far I love them and they're also better foam it's a superior foam Trevor's a genius Trevor really knows

his shit when it comes to creating equipment and also he has a long history of combat sports. But those Onyx gloves, the boxing gloves, his shin pads are the best. Everything he has is the best. Is he making those gloves, the other ones, by hand?

I do not know. I do not know. I don't know how he's doing it. Because the UFC ones are weird. Sometimes you'll get a pair on fight day, and it's a lot harder and a lot stiffer than normal, too. Then some fights you'll be like, oh, I just feel way better. That's his eye poke pulled up.

Oh, Jesus Christ. You're bringing back bad memories. Come on, bro. Sorry. Oh, my God. That's what it looks like? That was the Leon one, yeah. Dude, that is in there.

Oh, my God. Leon got his finger in your eyelid. Look at that. Yeah, I had to get stitches in that whole bottom part of the eyelid. Yeah, it God. Leon got his finger in your eyelid. Look at that. Yeah, I had to get stitches in that whole bottom part of the eyelid. Yeah, it looks like he cut it with his fingernail. Yeah. Well, now that he's a champ, you've got to be looking at that. I mean, after the Sean Brady fight, I mean, you're in the hunt, right?

That's what you would assume. You would assume. But you get mad because guys like him are trying to push the narrative. Well, I won the first round and the rest of the fight was going to go like that and it it's funny because it's like how much he was getting killed by usman and he won in the last 30 seconds so right you would sit there i'll be like oh let me get the leon fight well he was killing you every single person oh he was killing you you're like there's a reason why fights are five rounds yeah three rounds and then for a guy

like me i'm like i took that fight on two weeks notice. It was short notice, first of all. Secondly, my head coach, Lou Taylor, he had COVID that day. So they took him out. So then I had to get a new coach in the corner. Shout out to Coach Saif Salood. He was in there. But it was still the first time trying to mesh our teams together. And it was all just first main event, everything.

So I'm like, bro, give me a full camp. I'm a guy that likes to study fighters. I study my opponents. I'm like, for the Sean Brady fight, we. I'm a guy that likes to study fighters. I study my opponents. I'm like, for the Sean Brady fight, we were studying him so hard. We were like, all right, he's going to come out. His first strike is always a left inside kick. And literally, that's the first thing he did. I'm looking at how you react to a single leg, how you react to a double leg, how you get on top.

Khabib sending me videos. He goes for a rear naked choke with only his left hand. He doesn't use his right hand for a guillotine. So be careful with that. It's like we're looking at the smallest details with everything. And you can't really do that

for a one week notice fight. Right. No, you can't. And you also, you're not going to change your conditioning and your preparation and what you do

and what you don't do. You don't have enough time. Yeah. It's a good fight. I like that fight. I'd love to see that rematch. I mean, he's talking about Masvidal.

That's what he keeps talking about. Because he wants to get him back for sucker punching him backstage in London. You had four years to try to get that back yourself. And it didn't come. So you weren't pushing it that hard. I understand the money fight. And it's going to sell pay-per-views, obviously. Well, he's got to get back to Usman.

Usman in March. What do you think about that rematch? I mean, if Usman fights that fifth round cautiously, that never happens. You know, if he fights that fifth round and just, you know, circles away from him and doesn't try to close the distance and doesn't try to take him down

or doesn't engage, just plays defensively, he wins that fight. But, you know, what Leon did was perfect. I mean, it was the perfect high kick. You can't take a thing away from him. The guy's down at least two rounds, three rounds, going into the fifth. He's losing the fight. It's for the title. He shows him the left and hits him with a perfect high kick.

I mean, you can't take anything away from that. That was the most consequential high kick of all time because it's from behind. He's coming from behind. He's fighting for the title. He's fighting a guy who already beat him before. He's fighting Usman, who at the time was the man of mans. I mean, everybody thought he's the greatest welterweight and arguably is the greatest welterweight of all time.

Right up there with Georges St-Pierre. And then, boom, lands a perfect high kick. Yeah, I mean, people so many times, when people say, oh, it was a lucky kick, I'm like, bro, you can't call anything lucky in the sport. Especially a kick. You throw it to land it. I'm like, bro, you can't call anything lucky in the sport. Especially a kick. You throw it to land it. I'm not throwing any strike not to land it. And it's just. Yeah, you're talking to assholes.

Yeah. It's a lucky kick. You're so funny. But do you think that he's able to do the. You think he's going to come out this fight just wrestling him? Who knows, man? Who knows? Who knows?

I mean, Usman has problems with his knees, man. Like, real problems with his knees. And now his hand. Like, we're with his knees. And now his hand. Like, we're seeing it with a cast on every time. And I'm, like, hitting up Ali because we both have the same manager. Shout out to Ali Abdelaziz. And I'm messaging him. I'm like, bro, what's this talk with Usman?

Like, if he's not fighting for title, it needs to be me. Like, it can't be Masvidal. Right. And he's like, no, it's going to be Usman. It's going to be Usman. And I'm like, why aren't they announcing it? They announced London. Like, why are they not announcing the fight and then they finally announced it but like I was

on him all the time what did he get done to his hand there's something with like the ligaments I think in his like thumb or something that they had to like reattach well he got surgery before the fight yeah and so he got another surgery after the fight so did he re-tear I think it was I'm not sure if it tore in the fight injury I think it was. I'm not sure if it tore in the fight. Or was it a different injury? I think it was probably a different injury. See if you can find out what injury it was. Man, it's just your body can only take so much.

I mean, you only have so many years in this game. And with Kamaru, he's always had bad knees. I mean, he can't run. He openly talks about it. He does all of his cardio on like assault bike and does all sorts of different stuff for cardio but in terms of like road work he said he can't even like he walks backwards downstairs yeah i've heard about that too i'm i'm a big swimmer i'm like running yeah i'm still getting my miles in but like i love just swimming

i don't have like the best technique but yeah it's you don't get the same wear and tear on your body as you would get with all that extra stuff on there. So that's your favorite form of conditioning, swimming? Yeah, yeah. Swimming is my favorite form. And I do longer bike rides now, being with Paul Felder, seeing how he's been doing triathlon stuff. So I'll do 20 miles, 30 mile bike rides. Yeah, yeah. Paul's like a serious tri do 20 miles, 30 mile bike rides. Really? Yeah. Paul's like a serious triathlete, dude.

Isn't that wild? It was funny because when he was fighting with us at Rube Sporting, he was training with us. I'll tell the guys I'm going to swim. He'd be like, all right, let me go try it. He only used to swim a lap and then walk a lap. Then swim a lap. He would not know how to swim.

Now he's all in. We went swimming and he's just sitting there lapping me like, you want to do more of my workouts? We're in there and I'm looking at my watch and it's like, a two mile swim we've done so far. Then he's like, alright, now I got to go ride the bike for three hours. I'm like, bro, I'm going to get lunch.

Three hours? Really? Yeah, after a swim. Bro, he looks so thin. It's crazy. he doesn't even look like the same guy when I see him get interviewed or interviewing fighters he looks like a bantamweight I tell him I'm like bro you could make 135

he's like walking around at 165 when he used to cut weight he'd be he'll come into camp like he would come to us when he would do his camps at Rufusport and he would sit there and like measure stuff before practice. Like, let me get six blueberries and two almonds. He was that guy because he was thick.

He was small. Yeah, he was pretty big. Yeah, and I'm like, I can't live like that. Because people would always tell me, like, oh, you need to go 155. The first time I met Habib, he looked at me. He's like, you're lightweight. And I was like, no, I think I'm a welterweight. And he's like no no brother you

you need to go lightweight and i was like what do you weigh right now like 190 that's probably what islam weighs yeah he's he's he's big after seeing him in person and what is this feeling around it i feel like minimum 190 so when he cuts how much water is he cutting and how much is he just dehydrating himself throughout the month of camp? Honestly, the way they do is different. How do they do it? Because we're over there and it's

we're in Dubai and we had full buffets and it's like after our morning, wake up, go downstairs, we had a buffet. Then after practice, our first practice, our lunch was a buffet in a room. All the guys would go in there. We'd all eat together. And it's like, you're getting like,

this tray's full of lobsters. This tray's full of steak. This tray's full of kebab. This tray's full of rice. And I'm like, I'm there and it's like five weeks before the fight. So I'm trying to deload calorie count and everything like that. And I'm putting it in a small plate and they're like, brother before the fight. So I'm like trying to like deload calorie count and everything like that. And I'm like putting in a small plate and they're like,

brother, you're cutting weight already? And I was like, I'm just dieting. I'm not really cutting yet. But they're like still eating normally. And like they don't really start the hard cutting. It's probably like two weeks out

or like fight week where they're pushing it. They're like working it off. They're like, they have a sauna suit on on Monday and they're on a treadmill that way. Really? Yeah. What do you think the right way to do it is?

Do you think their way to do it is the right way, or do you think you can only do it that way so many times? For me, I used to do it kind of that way. Like, before it was just me and my coach. And, like I said, we had a small gym, so like we'll go places and it'll be like fight week. And I'm like doing bear calls with Asana Sudan on the treadmill. And he's like making me do like boot camp classes with Asana Sudan. So like I'm dying.

I'm draining myself. And then, you know, you get to, you start learning these nutritionists. And they're like, there's a science to weight cutting now. You know, water load. Start water loading. Because I would like to starve myself. I had like fight week. I had like one piece of spinach and like chicken breast thinking I'm cutting weight the right way.

But now with these new nutritionists and they're like doing the whole water load changes everything. And like I don't start, I don't really even start trying to cut weight until the day before. So I'm trying to sweat it all out. So I'm doing two gallons from Monday until Thursday. And then Thursday I cut all the water and then I just go in the sauna literally 30 minutes and I'm usually done. So it's like, yeah, for me it's, it comes off super quick. So the week of like, if you got to get down to 170 week of what are you weighing when you wake up? 184.

Oh, that's not too bad. Yeah. And so then you just drink it. Shit tons of water. Yeah. I'm drinking so much water, cutting out the salt and eating more protein stuff. And, you know, they have these little, like, fat peanut butter balls and stuff like that that I'm eating and munching on. But this fight camp, it was, like, my first time doing the bath. Like, I never did the bath before. So, like, I'm usually a guy that, like, I'll go in the sauna.

I like to stretch out in there. And then 30 minutes in of a good stretch i'm like usually on weight so this time he's like well we'll just we went into sauna bag for like 20 minutes and then we went under towels for like 10 minutes and i was probably like 174 the night before and he's like just go to sleep because you know you're not usually sleeping the night before a weight cut so go to sleep now we're not gonna take it all off we'll just do it in the morning so So the next morning he's like, we'll just do it. We'll try a bath. And I was like, ah, I never did a bath before. I don't want to try it. And he's like, dude, we're going to try it. Everybody does it. It's going to work.

So I'm in the bathtub and you know, they put the water to a certain temperature. It's like 108 degrees or something. And I'm literally in there for 20 minutes and I get out of there and I'm laying on the bed and he's like, all right, we got to do another bath. And I'm like, all right, whatever, man, let's just weigh myself real quick quick so I could see how much I have left. And so I woke up at 174. And then after 20 minutes in the bath, I was 165. What? Yeah, I overcut.

Oh, my God. Yeah, I was like, what the fudge? He's like, wait, hold up. We got to go downstairs and check it on the scale downstairs. So I went downstairs and checked it on the UFC scale, and I was 165. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. So the

bath is that effective? He said, from now on, he's a pro from now on, we're doing the bath. Cause I was like, I didn't realize, I didn't think about it. Cause I'm like, bro, I need to be, I need to feel the sweat. Like I'm in the bathtub. I don't know if I'm sweating or not. And he's like, dude, trust me. You're sweating. You're sweating. And I'm like annoyed. Cause I'm like, you know, you're cutting weight. I'm like, bro, I never want to do this stupid bath anyway. And you guys have to sit over by five pounds. That's crazy. Yeah. I'm like, you know, you're cutting weight. I'm like, bro, I never want to do this stupid bath anyway. You guys have me sitting in here. Damn, you cut over by five pounds. That's crazy.

Yeah. I was like, I looked at it. I was like, man, maybe 155 is possible. But I was like, yeah. It is possible. If you get down to 65, that's only 10 to go. Have you thought about doing it? 155?

Yeah. Earlier on, but not now. I'm like, I've never felt out-muscled or anybody at 170. I'm so close to the title fight at 170. I'm like, what would be the point of going out at 55? Just to see what it feels like. If I get to the point where they're still not giving me

a shot or pushing me at all, then I was going to offer to go down there and be like, let me see if I could make it, do a test run or something like that. There's some dudes who get to 55, like Islam, where I'm like, how are you 155? You're so big. Yeah. Or Drew Dober.

Drew Dober's a big motherfucker. It's crazy when you see him weight cut. Yeah. Because his whole face, his chin is all gone. And then when he puts it all back on, he's super stoked and jacked. It's a gig of Chad. Yeah. It's huge.

Dude, I was like, this makes no sense at all. Yeah. Drew Dober's built like a brick shithouse. He's a bigachad. Yeah. It's huge. Dude, I was like, this makes no sense at all. Yeah. Drew Dober's built like a brick shithouse. He's a big boy for 55, too. Like, I wonder what he actually walks around at. He's got to be in the 80s. Yeah, I think a lot of these guys. Yeah.

So that's what he looks like at weight. But then you see him inside the octagon. Well, that's not what that's for. Oh, my. Look how thick he is right there. Yeah, he's pretty thick. He's got a hell of a chin, too, man. That dude's got the squarest of square jaws.

And he uses it in a fight. I'm like, Bobby Green was hitting him with some bombs. Oh, boy. And he was so fast, too. You can take it, though. Yeah, he's tough. Yeah, it's interesting to see a guy like him get smushed. Like, when Islam smushed him, you're like, man, what is that squeeze like?

That has got to be some otherworldly squeeze yeah i tell guys i'm like you never felt it's it's it's different like they'll oh you just you just oh they're nuts you do this and i'm like bro roll with one of them feel how it is are you gonna do your future camps with them as well yeah i mean i'm gonna like i've literally been messing with the guys trying trying to go to Dagestan, but they're heading out to Australia now, but they have some guys that are out there, but I definitely want to go to Dagestan because I know Habib's

done coaching right now, but... Is he done done? That's real? Yeah, they said he's going to be done. Why did he decide to leave coaching? Just spend more time with his family. I was telling people, he goes, when they're in camps, they're all in. They're all together.

They're like one big family where it's, I'm going to be at every single practice with you. I'm going to be here. And they travel so much. And for him, he has to corner this guy here. Then you've got to go to all Australia. Then you've got to go to Vegas. And he has two young kids. And seeing how he is with his kids, like he brought his son out to Dubai when we were out there and it was just cool to see because you never see that side of it.

You never see their family life. They don't post any of that or anything like that. So it was cool to see. And I came wrestling with his son and he was showing me videos of his son doing gymnastics. And his son's going to be a beast. So just seeing how he is, like kind of like how you're smiling like there. That's how he was when he was like showing me his video of his son. So like you could tell that he misses them.

Yeah. And, you know, for him, when he goes to corner somebody, it's not just cornering. Right. Like, when you go to a different state, every single person in that state wants to see you. They all want to touch you. They all want to get a piece of you. Of course. We went to Abu Dhabi, and we went to go visit, like, the police department out there. And, you know, we're all there before Habib.

So, it's, like, me, Islam, like, like the whole team's there and nobody's saying nothing to us and i'm like you know islam and all these guys are still here it's not fighting for the title but like nobody's really caring that right when habib walks in every single person runs out they run out with roses flowers like wait for him to get out the car and following him and you just he's just like a different level of superstar so for him he was also like telling me to like i just want to get i want to be able to uh just go to starbucks one time and just sit down and have coffee like i used to like i can't do that anymore happen though yeah muhammad ali couldn't do that before he died yeah you know it's like you reach a certain level of fame when that's just hit forever, and that's where he's at. I mean, he's a legend forever.

Yeah. If he never coaches again, never steps foot in a gym again, that guy is a legend forever. Yeah. And I was going to consider him like if he stayed on this track, he would have been a GOAT coach. He would have been a GOAT coach. Well, hopefully he – I mean, I want him to be happy.

I want him to do whatever he wants to do. But if he did decide to just do that, to just coach, man, the knowledge that that guy has and also the amount of motivation he could give people because you realize you're getting coached by the GOAT. Yeah. You know? And he doesn't ask for nothing in return. It's like he's giving you his time, his effort. He's on the match with you rolling.

And it's not like he didn't retire because he was out of shape or injured or anything like that. He's still that same Habib. He's still that same top pressure, that same strength grappling. He's just heavier now. Which is wild. So he's just still moving like this. It's like a heavyweight now, right? Bro, and he's still freaking so strong.

I'm sure and it's like when somebody's rolling with you and they're sitting there oh order me a starbucks he's getting me like in a kimura and i'm sitting there like bro should i be like mad or like embarrassed and it's it's like humbling because there's guys out there like that and guys on his team that aren't in the ufc yet that are like that and you're learning imagine those guys you're growing up your whole life learning from these guys his younger cousins Umar and Usman the Bellator champion and Umar who just fought this weekend they grew up under Habib

Umar's got such a different style too if you watch his style real light on his feet and great kicks he's got that great front kick that he throws and he like question marks it a lot too he's very smooth he's smooth man and front kick that he throws. And he like question marks it a lot too. He's very smooth with it. He's smooth, man. And that combination that he threw with that left

hook and dropped him, I mean, that was amazing. Yeah. Amazing. And that's just the small side of him. His grappling is still there, same as their guys, but he has that striking too. And I tell people too, you're sleeping on Islam striking. All their guys, they all know how to strike. They just know what wins, what's the path to victory. He beat the feet yeah oliver on the feet you know and

umar has a real potential to be the champion he really does man he's he's fucking good dude and honey barcelos is no no joke yeah honey is really good and for him to take him out like that nobody's ever beaten like that no and no like you said he has is he's a black belt He has think he's like a judo guy to a great wrestler on the Brazilian team and he has it all Yeah, the way that Omar just showed patience and all these guys have that hook They had that pressure just having that never give it off last name. It's like people expect you to be great Yeah, so you're undefeated and your brother just won the Bellator title So you're going out there and he he's just relaxed, calm, cool. He's picking up his head, waking him up afterward.

It's like their humbleness. He hit him with the punch, and then he realized he was out already, and he went and grabbed the back of his head to help him. Yeah, all of them guys. Their humbleness, it was another level. Learning from them. Being religious myself, but it's a different culture in America. But being over there five weeks with those guys where they're,

everything's to the T, everything's to the dot. Like I shared one of my, my friend Horacio, he was on that show that Masvidal was on, that Mexican reality show. He was on that show. And like I shared like a video from him on that show and it was like Women in bikinis, but he was like it was more for him and he's like brother. We shouldn't share that for us, you know Be better at that. I was like, oh I would share it for my boys

I know I'll just share it with just him and I was like it makes sense because being a Muslim People look up to you. I see younger guys look up to me I don't want them to think that I'm this certain way like I want to hold myself It's a higher standard like they can't even look at girls in bikinis and videos no like you know you should like no you're not supposed to it's supposed to be like lower your gaze where it should only be you on your you and your spouse or your wife or anything like that so that's what uh that's what it should be that dude who fought with the guy with one eye who what's his name again magomedov he actually got in a fight with someone in a mall in dagestan because the guy was doing a public display of affection and he told him to cut it out the guy took a swing on him and he beat

this dude's ass oh really yeah because apparently over there like you you can't even like kiss in public yeah it's a it's a different culture it's a different thing it's not like it's it's not like out of like hate or anything like that it's just like you shouldn't be doing that you should if there's kids around there shouldn't be you tongue kissing with a girl in front of you or anything like that and being a muslim being religiously it should be like in the household that's where it should be it's just like holding yourself to different type of standards and obviously you want to show love and self with your wife hold hands you don't have to be freaking making out in public and everything like that but in america it's a different culture obviously and it's you

start seeing now more like americanized muslims where they're like oh well what if you do it this way or that way it It's like, no you can't just like switch what's in the Quran. You can't switch what's written down already. It's been like that for how many years? And in Dagestan, everybody's like that. They all had that same mentality. And being in Dubai

and Abu Dhabi for those five weeks, it was great for me because it was like, not an eye opener but it was just more like refreshing because you're training and then you're here to call a prayer so every single person i don't care if you're the janitor or the the the workman or the fighter or anything you're all going to pray at the same time you're all shoulder to shoulder praying next to each other and there's no like ranking in that raw shoulder shoulder we're all praying to the same God, doing the same exact thing at the same exact time.

And you don't really get that kind of feeling in America. It's like if I pull out my rug to pray on the street at a certain time, people are looking at you weird like, oh, what is this? Or you'll have random people just like beeping or saying stupid things because they don't understand what it is. They don't understand the discipline it is to, all right, this is God's time now. We're supposed to pray five times a day. I don't care where it is.

What you're doing, it needs to stop for this. And every single one of those guys had that mentality. When you stop to pray, how long do you stop for? Every prayer is probably like five, ten minutes long. So once you begin the prayer like five, ten minutes long. So once you begin the prayer, it's not that long. So I tell people all the time where they're like, dang, you gotta pray

five times a day? But in the end, it's 50 minutes out of your life, 50 minutes out of your day, out of 24 hours. When you waste so much time scrolling through TikTok, scrolling through the phone, things like that. Give those ten minutes to God. Give those ten minutes to the person that brought you here. How does it work on a day you fight?

Same thing. Usually, so there's a morning prayer when you wake up in the morning prayer. Then there's afternoon. Then there's a midday prayer. And then there's a sunset prayer right when the sun sets. So usually, right after that prayer is the fights. After that, probably. And then after the fight you pray again

your your late night prayer so for me also just hold you accountable to to no matter what happens in the fight whether you win or lose I still have to I still owe to God to to pray whether it's I'm thanking him for a win or I'm thanking him that I'm still able to pray. I'm still alive right now after this fight that I'm still here because anything can happen. These prayers are at very specific times during the day or could, if you were in the middle of something, are you allowed to put it off and then pray afterwards? So you have a timeframe. So from the morning prayer, you have all the way until the afternoon prayer to do it. And then from the afternoon prayer, you have to the midday prayer. And then

there's some people that I tell people all the time, like when you're starting out, if you pray a prayer late, do it late, like get the quantity in and then work on the quality later, but at least get the quantity in first. So, you know, you have to pray five times a day. So when you're beginning out, there's so many people that they come in and my coach, he's a convert, Lewis Taylor, he converted to Islam. And he had so many people telling him, oh, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this. Why are you wearing this? And it was just like turning him off from the whole thing.

It's like I was born from a different culture. I was born doing different things. My family isn't Muslim. So if I'm with them and you see me hanging out with people that do these type of things, don't come here crying to me. I tell them, bro, go at your own pace. Start patiently. If you missed the morning prayer, hit both of them in the afternoon. If you missed the afternoon prayer, hit that one in the midday. But just get the quantity in. Talk to God. It centers you a lot of the time too because in those 10 minutes, you're not stressing. You're not thinking about the stress of life. Oh, I got to get this done. I got to get this Oh, I got to get this done.

I got to get this done. I got to get this done. That normal people have in the workday. I think it's kind of like a meditation for me. And it just clears my mind, clears my head. And knowing that I got it done. And at the end of the day, I know that I did my five prayers. That's the most important thing.

I don't care. Oh, man, I forgot to do my homework. I forgot to do this. I forgot to do my homework. I forgot to do this. I forgot to do the stuff that I was supposed to do for work. But it's like I did the most important things, which is pray. And when you're in a camp, I would imagine that that kind of having a rigid schedule like that and having extreme discipline and having a real purpose,

like when you're doing this to pray to God and you have these five prayers that you do during the day, like it keeps you on the path. Yeah. I mean, those guys, there's something to whatever Khabib's doing that's not just technique. It's not just that they have great technique. It's not just that they're tough guys.

There's also this devout sort of ideology that they've ascribed to that they're that they live their life by they're they're so devout in their religious beliefs they have so much confidence it's almost like that's all taken care of like they can just concentrate on on what they do yeah that all you know god has a plan for everything you don't have to like have this existential angst that a lot of people roll around through life with. Yeah, we have a thing called Tawaka. It means God's will. So whatever his will is, that's what it is.

So you could sit there and train and be super stressed out and like, am I going to win or am I going to lose this fight? It's like you just tell yourself whatever God's will, that's what's meant to be. I've lost on the biggest stage. I've lost my debut in the UFC. I'm coming undefeated. I lose a close fight. I'm telling myself, why did God do this to me? I pray five times a day.

I'm a good person. I do this. When you're thinking back to that, it all brought you to where you are today. Knowing that his plan is always the best plan no matter what. So now when I look back at the losses I've had, it's like maybe I wouldn't be where I am right now. I wouldn't be as tough as I am. I wouldn't be as smart as I am.

I wouldn't have changed the ways I've trained. And I think that all of Habib's guys had that mentality. You don't have the fear of losing because if I lose, I was meant to lose. If I fail, it was for a reason. There's a bigger plan in the end. And God may not show it to you now, but he may show it to you in a couple of years. He may show it to you in the next life. And because I go into every fight and I tell, I'm asking God, because we put our head down to the ground and that's when you're like closest to God when we pray and it's called sujood.'s when you're like closest to God when we pray.

And it's called sujood. So when you're putting your head down, you're talking to the highest. And you talk deep from the heart because that's basically kind of like you're face to face with God. And I always tell him before a fight, I'm like, if it's going to make me a better person, a better Muslim, grant me this victory. If it's not, then grant me the loss. If it's going to make me a worse person, it's going to give me an ego, it's going to make me unhumble, it's going to make me worse to the people that

I love and the people that matter to me most, which is my family, then I don't want the win. I don't want the victory. I don't want the wealth. Just having that sense of whatever happens, happens. It's meant to happen. I think it just changes everything. It's got to give you think it just changes everything well it's got

to give you a feeling of peace because so many people that that if i think that for a fighter having a religion like that and especially being devout it does have an advantage and that that's one more thing you don't have to think about yeah you know you don't have to and it also just builds you up from you when were a kid, just the discipline of, I know I have to do this, this, and this every single day. I'm not allowed to eat this. I'm not allowed to eat pork. I'm not allowed to do this. I'm not allowed to gamble.

I'm not allowed to play drink or anything like that. So it puts you in those things. And a lot of those things are worse for you as a fighter anyway. Like you shouldn't be drinking. You shouldn't be eating pork. You shouldn't be going to clubs or anything like that. So in the end, I think it's like the being that's why you're seeing most of the muslims starting to be the best fighters out there well it's also they're coming from really tough camps

too i mean that is having a great camp is just such a massive advantage i mean and you must feel that having trained with khabib and his boys like that having an elite camp like that when you're surrounded by killers, like you must rise up to the level of your competition that you're surrounded by. Yeah, you have to. There's not no weak link in that gym. Every single person in there is a monster. Like, you know, you have your regular gyms and you know that I could go with this guy because I'm feeling sore today. I'm feeling tired today. Let me roll with him.

Yeah, let me coast a little bit and just go smooth. No, then it's like, oh, you want to go with me? You pick me? All right, let's go. And it's like, wait, wait. Okay, I thought you were a 135 pounder. He's so strong. And he's so, like I've rolled with Umar before and I was like, dude, this guy is like a monster.

And they don't have that fear of themselves where you go to gyms and it was like, dude, this guy is like a monster. They don't have that fear of themselves where you go to gyms and it's like, oh, well, the band weight's on this side, the light weight's on this side, this side. No, they're all going together. What do they do for strength and conditioning? A lot of their stuff is just, they do a lot of normal stuff after practice that

burnouts with. We'll hold a plank, a heavy plank after we just grappled sparred and everything we'll stay on our hands we have to stay there for two minutes three minutes until like habib sees you like breaking and then all right push-ups then jump squats then lunges and it's i think it's those little burnouts after practice when you're tired and your arms are dead that levels you up with strength but they also do have a strength coach that they would do twice or three times a week while we were in Abu Dhabi that he would put them more through high reps for time.

So they'll go from doing shoulder presses to punching the bag, doing box jumps to kicking the bag, little things like that that I think just build strength and cardio at the same time. When you are in Chicago, do you just like build strength and cardio at the same time when you are in chicago do you have like a regular strength conditioning coach that you work with yeah i got a strength coach uh shout out to matt murphy we do like more like heavy lifting stuff so really for like throwing bodies so we do deadlifts i'm going heavy on deadlifts we go squats i'm going heavy on squats we We go bench press.

And then all the other stuff is more like cosmetic. But like the bases. Trying to look good? Not cosmetic, but like now we're going to do these little rolls or something like that. Deadlifts? Yeah. And then farmer walks. Yeah, farmer walks.

So when you're doing this stuff stuff like when you're saying you're doing heavy like how heavy are you going are you are you doing a lot of like reps for strength or for uh conditioning or is most of the shit you're doing heavy stuff so out of camp i'm doing more more heavy so right now it's just like a strength building phase. And then once it gets into camp mode, then it's more for reps. So like right now it's heavy with low reps. So if I'm benching, it's maybe 250 for like four or five reps, but they're like cluster sets

where I'm putting it back on, then I bring it back down and I explode back up with it. And then with squats, it's sitting down on a chair and then exploding up, sitting down on a chair and then exploding up with it. But it's heavier, but it's sitting down on a chair and then exploding up. Sitting down on a chair and then exploding up with it.

But it's heavier, but it's just lighter reps. And then when it gets closer to the fight, he changes it up to higher rep stuff for the conditioning aspect of it. Are you trying to put weight on with this heavyweight, or are you just trying to maintain your strength? I'm just trying to build more strength and explosiveness. So I want to get stronger, especially once you're in the next guy, whoever my next opponent would be, I figured it would be a stronger guy, heavy grappler.

So I figured I would need the strength and I'm not the biggest welterweight. So I want to make up for it with strength and explosiveness like that. And I think when people look at me, they don't think that I'm strong, but when they feel me inside the cage, then I feel like it's a lot of them guys get their eyes open. Like, oh, he's a lot stronger than I thought.

Yeah, there's certain dudes that are just strong as shit and they don't look like it. Yeah. But you look strong. But there's certain dudes, strength is like Ben Askren. Oh, yeah. There's like certain strength. Like how the fuck is that guy, when you'd watch him fight in Bellator when he was in his prime,

when he was ragdolling really high level fighters, and you're like, what is going on here? I know it's technique, but that motherfucker seems strong as shit. I used to train with him. When I would go down to Rufusport and I would drive down there once a week. It's like two hours away

from Chicago, but I would go in there and I would train with them and I'm like we're sparring with big gloves on and you know he was the best striker so I'm feeling like I'm lighting him up but once he grabs a hold of you it's like he takes you down and you cannot move once you're on bottom and it's with big gloves on and like you really it's really hard to grapple and hold people down with big gloves on but like so after that every time I'll go with him i was like i cannot let him grab his hands together if he locks his hands together i'm going down and that was when he was still in bellator and like you said people don't realize how good he was back then when he came to the ufc it was a different version of himself yeah he was already worn out by the time he got to the ufc here he

needed a hip replacement you know it's like unfortunately we didn't get him in his prime he was in his prime when he's in Bellator even before he went to 1FC you know 1FC didn't even really get him in his prime Bellator had him in his prime and if you watch some of those fights they're very impressive and but Bellator didn't like it they thought that style was boring I'm like you got a dude who could do whatever the fuck he wants to people. But he did to Korshkov. I mean, like, my God. And Korshkov's still killing it right now.

Yes, yes. That was when he was in his younger version of himself. And to have Ben just maul you and take you down at will. Yeah. It's like I tell people it's harder to beat somebody for five rounds than it is to finish him in the first round. It's like if i could beat you dominate you for 25 straight minutes that's a harder task than me going out there and finishing you in one minute one kick that's it like those guys get all the credit but it's like the guys like ben those are the ones that are having to push through for those full 25 minutes dominating knowing that all

it takes is one punch or one kick and they avoided all of that got to be a real champion at one fc one and he just doesn't get the credit i was like people don't make sense well it's interesting All it takes is one punch or one kick, and they avoided all of that, got to be a real champion at one FC, at Bellator, and he just doesn't get the credit. I was like, people don't make sense. Well, it's interesting to watch someone who's a real specialist, and Ben in his prime was a real specialist, where he really wasn't a good striker. He really didn't submit guys.

But, man, if you've got to hold you, you are going to get wrestle-fucked. Duke Rufus would literally show sparring drills. He'd be like, all right, you are going to get wrestle fucked. Yeah. Duke Rufus would literally show like sparring drills. He'd be like, hey, we're going to do striking drills. And Ben would just be like standing there with his hands behind his back just like looking up at the sky. How do I wait for sparring? And he's like not doing the drilling at all. And I was like, what the heck? But that's when I was like, when he was boxing Jake, I was wondering how serious he was going to take.

Because I'm like, he doesn't take striking serious at all. If you're a guy like Jake, who's athletic, he's tough, he's strong, all it takes is one punch to land. I don't think Ben just took that fight serious at all. He's one of those guys that I think nobody takes a loss better than Ben Askren.

He got knocked out by Mads when I said, well, that sucked. I'm a terrible loser. If I lose, I don't want you to talk to me. I don't want to see anybody. I don't want you guys to come near me. So to see guys like that, it's kind of like you want to learn from guys like that, honestly. How to relax and just be yourself after a loss.

Yeah. Boy, he got ruthlessly taunted on the internet, too. All the memes of him. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what it sucks when you see guys like that who are OGs, him and Woodley, and when they lose like that and the world forgets that they were at the top. They were one of the best.

Tyron was one of the greatest welterweights of all time. Yeah. Tyron in his prime was a bad motherfucker when he knocked. I mean, he knocked out so many guys. But when he beat up Darren Till, when Darren Till was the man, when Darren Till was on his way up, he dropped him with a punch and strangled him. Dude, people forget the Wonderboy fights. He was the one who had Wonderboy hurt.

Wonderboy, who's the great striker, never really had him hurt. Yeah, at all in either one of those fights. No, I mean, they were kind of boring fights. But, again, unless you're going to fight him the way you fought him, I feel like you've got to fight Wonderboy in a boring fight. You've got to make him lead. If he doesn't lead, if you're coming at him, his counters are so nasty. And his distance, his management of distance is so good.

There's nobody better, I think, at distance. John Jones. I'm very interested to see how he comes back now though three years off well it's really interesting yeah and so bummed out man i do not like this whole thing i do not like this at all i do not like when a champion leaves i do not like i don't i do not like having the best guy in the world not being the champion i do not like the best guy in the world not being the champion. I do not like the best guy in the world not fighting for the title against John. If Francis wanted to resign and he wanted to say, I'm done,

I had a great career, but I made some money, and I'm going to relax. Okay, congratulations, sir. You had a great career. But to not make it through negotiations, I don't know what the deal is. I suspect some of it involved him wanting to be able to box as well

because there may very well be a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. But I don't know because Tyson Fury is back to fighting real boxers. Yeah, he's fighting Usyk now. And there's a Deontay Wilder fight out there, I feel like. But do you really want – if you're Francis, do you want to fight Wilder who has that one-punch power? Right. At least with Fury, I feel like Fury will dance around with you a little bit, do you want to fight a wilder who has that one-punch power? Right. At least with Fury, I feel like Fury will dance around with you a little bit, let you show something.

Well, I think, isn't Deontay supposed to fight Andy Ruiz? Isn't that what's supposed to happen? Oh, they're doing that? I think so. Is that true? Yeah? Jamie says so. It's not booked.

It's talked about. Well, Andy Ruiz versus Francis would be interesting. That would be a fun one. That would be interesting. Andy's got some fucking hands. And he's fast, yeah. He's so, if Andy, an in-shape Andy Ruiz like he was when he fought Joshua, damn, he's got some hand speed. I'm a big fan of Andy Ruiz.

But that second fight with Joshua, he just got so fat. You could tell he's like. That was the money. That was the. Fat partying. Yeah, like. Women and, you know, he showed up in my podcast studio in a Rolls Royce with a diamond-crusted watch.

I was like, damn, Andy Ruiz. It wasn't out of the podcast. He was like, yeah, I don't got a fancy car. You know, I just got a Rolls Royce. He's got a Rolls Royce. Or something like that. I was like, what? A Rolls Royce?

I don't even have a Rolls Royce. I was like, bro, I'm still trying to get a Tesla or something. I was like, you're talking about I don't got a fancy car, I got to roll his bro's. Oh, he was balled out of control. And I think he was partying, too. And he had a group of boys with him. You know, they were having a good time. You know, you come from nothing, and all of a sudden you're the heavyweight champion of the world.

You knock out Anthony Joshua in Madison Square Garden. Like, holy shit. He's a hero. A lot of tacos, a lot of pussy. What do you think about that other box you fight? Garcia against Tank. Oh, man. Gervonta is something.

I hope they make that one, though. Gervonta is something. He's so unique. He's so... Gervonta is so interesting because he... I think... I think if you look at all the active boxers who are champions, he may throw the least amount of punches. Yeah.

Because he sets guys up, and so the first few rounds, he's just calculating you, trying to find your openings, testing you, moving towards, like, his first round of his last fight. I mean, how many punches did he throw? Yeah. Like, very few. Yeah. But goddamn, when he hits you, you're fucked.

That dude can crack. He's so good. Like, very few. Yeah. But goddamn, when he hits you, you're fucked. Yeah. That dude can crack. He's so good. He's so accurate. And he's so sneaky, the way he, like, dips to the side and cuts in uppercuts. And his power, man, his power is just extraordinary. I am really interested to see if Ryan Garcia can handle that. I don't know. I mean, Garcia's fast.

He's got a great counter. And he says i love fighting southpaws i'm the i'm the southpaw killer but yeah oscar de la jolla why is oscar de la jolla got fake abs have you seen that no way does he bro oscar de la jolla's got some fake abs yeah something's going on man oscar de la jolla didn't have abs throughout his boxing career. Look at him now. Get the heck out of here. Bro, what's going on there? It's either he's got some fake abs or he's going semi-glutide. One or the other.

But the thing is, like, his abs don't match his chest or his arms. Yeah, that's weird. Look how defined his abs are. Even when he's sitting there, he's like the liver king. Look at this here. They're like fully tight. I mean, the thing is, it's like he's not that low body fat. This is why it's confusing.

If you look at his body, like his arms and his shoulders, when a guy has abs like that, generally, they're really shredded. That's weird, yeah. Yeah, generally, you have low body fat in your chest. Like, everything looks defined if your abs look that defined. Yeah. When your abs are that defined and the rest of you is not that defined, I'm like, what?

Like, all these people are claiming that he got ab implants. Maybe he didn't. That's what ab implants look like. It looks like a bear. Damn. Is that real? Wow, that's crazy. They look a lot better than...

I think that Liver King dude has them for sure. Oh, man. He has two. I saw someone show that he didn't. He was twisting his body in certain ways and they kind of go away when he moves in certain directions. Right, but do these go away when you move in certain directions? I don't think these go away because these are actual things in your body. Click on that one with the belly and the guy right next to him.

Right where your cursor is. Yeah. Click on that one. There's no way. Is that really they can do that? This is etching. Etching. Maybe that's what Oscar did. Maybe they dug a knife in there to make him show up. That's crazy. I think when they say etching, what they use is liposuction.

But is that real? Oh, that's what this says. But that photo from that photo, is that real? Because that guy looks legitimately jacked. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? He looks like those would be his abs. I don't know.

I mean, this is from a men's health article, so. They might be full of shit. Let me go back to those images. So maybe that's what Oscar did. Maybe he did etching. But it's like all of a sudden he's got abs out of nowhere and he's showing everybody. That's so crazy. Very.

Look at that one. Is that a woman? What is that right there with the blonde? Here, I got my laser pointer. I forgot about that. I'm not looking at what you're looking at. Right there. In the middle. I got a laser pointer. I forgot about that. I'm not looking at what you're looking at. Right there. In the middle.

I got a laser pointer, man. I think this is the... We might have pulled this guy up before. Is that a dude? Yeah. What the fuck's going on there? I think this is one of the surgery guys. Oh, no.

Yeah. Oh, that guy's insane. Shane Kendall. Oh, yeah. That guy's had... And he does have abs. Look at this dude right here. Go to that dude right there.

Oh, this one. Yeah. That's preposterous. Oh, that is weird. Big fat belly with some crazy have abs. Like this dude right here. Go to that dude right there. Oh, this one. Yeah. That's preposterous. Oh, that is just weird. Big fat belly with some crazy fake abs. The ab thing is weird. So is that what they look like, that thing right there? Let me see what they look like.

Which ones are you looking at there? Well, my laser pointer, bro. Well, I'm not looking at that screen. Look at my laser pointer. Look at my computer. So is that what they look like? They're like little gelatinous things. Oh, this is so disgusting.

This is like a bad one. I don't know if that's what they're... Oh. Yeah, that guy's got abs and nothing else. That's what's weird. It's like people get ab implants, but the rest of their body looks like dog shit. Yeah, like why would you want it?

Yeah. Like how bad do you... Yeah. Narcissism? Yeah, narcissism. That's exactly what it is. Fucking weirdos. To build up your Tinder account.

So I don't know if Oscar did that, but that's what people are accusing Oscar of doing. It doesn't look right, though. It just looks weird. Yeah. Like you said, you didn't have it during boxing when you were in your peak shape. So that doesn't look too terrible right there that just looks like he's flexing

his the side abs or obliques is that what that is yeah yeah those look pretty strong yeah it looks pretty good but but his thighs don't yeah his thighs and his chest don't it's just weird when one area of your body is like very defined all of a sudden yeah that's what's weird is that it's all of a sudden yeah my uh my girl is doing a 75 day hard uh it's like very defined all of a sudden. Yeah. That's what's weird is that it's all of a sudden. Yeah. My girl is doing a 75-day hard. It's like you do two workouts a day, one indoors and one outdoors for 45 minutes each time. Oh.

Then you pick any diet you want to do. You can do any type of diet you want, but you have to stick to it for 75 days. And you have to read like a motivational book, 10 pages every single day. That would wear me out. Just the books, the motivational books. But her motivation is, I better have abs at the end of this 75 days. And I'm like, I mean, if you're eating healthy and you're working out twice a day, I'm pretty sure you have at least two abs by the end of it.

Depends on what you start from though, right? Yeah. So what do you think of this Jon Jones-Cyril Gaughan fight? Honestly, I think it's a tougher fight than Francis. Really? I do. I think that Cyril Gaunt, his movement, his footwork, he's so good with his front leg. And for Jon Jones, remember when he came back from OSP?

He looked so stiff. And that was a time off and putting a lot of muscle on. He just looked like a slower version of himself. So now this time, it's a a time off and putting a lot of muscle on. He just looked like a slower version of himself. So now this time, it's a longer time off and you're coming back with way more weight on and you're going against one of the faster heavyweights and the more smoother heavyweights

instead of Ngannou where, you know, he lands that hard punch. I could do it, but I could just shoot under that hard punch. Ngannou, I mean, Cyril Ghosn, you have to watch the kicks, watch the footwork, cut him off

yeah the thing is that zero gone was out grappled by francis when francis had a bad knee francis's knee was fucked up and francis out grappled him and beat him handily with his grappling yeah you know i talked to eric nixick and he said francis's grappling is on a totally different level than it used to be before and he's so big and so strong. Yeah. Like, you know, he's in camp with Blagoi Ivanov. Yeah. And he said he was just holding him down, doing whatever he wants to him. I'm like, that is really impressive.

Because Blagoi beat Fedor in combat Sambo. He's a monster himself. He's the one who got, like, stabbed, right? Yeah, in the heart. Yeah. He's crazy. One time, I saw him at, you know he's under ali and we ali had like a media day for his fighters and blagoje like comes up to me and like i make pics every uh

every fight and i'll like circle fighters who i think is gonna win i'll post it on my instagram and he like came up to me like shoulder pump he's like you didn't pick me my last fight and i was like i was like what i was like dude i don, dude, I don't even know if fighters even really pay attention. I was like, dude, now I started realizing that these guys are like watching it. Of course they watch. Yeah, I was like, this guy's crazy. But I was like, man, I got to pick him every single time he goes out. I was like, nuts.

But yeah, I always talk to Eric Nixon. Eric Nixon is one of those coaches that he's like my brother. I'll call him after, hey, they're giving me this guy, what do you think about it? And he would always tell me, like, Francis is one of those heavyweights that loves to wrestle. Like, you know, wrestling practice, strikers, they don't show up. They don't, they hate to be

in that grind. It's a different type of grind. He said, Francis is there all the time. He loves to be in that grappling mode. I mean, especially after that Stipe fight, the first Stipe fight, he learned, like, that's where his Achilles heel is, is grappling. And that also you can't take everybody out. Sometimes, not in that fight at least, Stipe just weathered the storm somehow or another.

Yeah. And you have to have the gas tank and you have to have the grappling to survive all those other exchanges. But that was at his moment. I remember when he was just knocking everybody out and he had like two minutes of fight time yeah then all of a sudden you fight a guy oh dang it's past the second round well it's also like we talked about with Hamzat when Hamzat went after Kevin Holland if you get out of that round how much do you have left

yeah he got out of the round Stipe made it out of the round and then Stipe started dominating but that second fight man Francis's takedown defense, he looked good. Patient Francis. That's what DC was saying. Patient Francis. Scary Francis. Yeah. That's why I'm mad.

Yeah. I'm mad because I feel like we were deprived of one of the great fights in MMA, one of the most compelling fights in MMA. Does it mean I'm not interested in Cyril Ghosn and Jon Jones? I'm very interested in that fight i'm very for all the things you listed also for serial gone's performance against tied to ivasa it's like god damn serial gone and serial gone does a lot of shit that's very unusual like first of all he stands totally sideways and he does like a twisting kick with his front leg to throw a front

kick you know he does that yeah very weird Yes. He stands totally sideways, and he twists his leg in. He doesn't stick it up and stab it forward. He twists it and go in. Yeah. You never did that? Well, Taekwondo is a- It's a twisting kick. Oh, yeah?

Yeah. It's called a twisting kick. Okay. Yeah. So, no, that's him throwing side kicks. A spinning heel kick. Yeah, he threw a spitting heel kick. He throws this kick off the front leg.

If you go to Tai Tuivasa. The one he was landing to the front of the body. Oh, my God, dude. Tai is so tough, though, man. He's so tough. Tai is so tough. That was a crazy-ass fight. And that was a perfect fight to, like, showcase what Cyril Ghosn is capable of.

Because his movement movement the fluidity of his combinations and I mean the guy moves like a middleweight he's 240 plus pounds this was a great ass fight so he stands sideways and he throws this front kick when he gets distance he throws this front kick off the sideways stance, and he turns his body. Oh, there's that kick to the body, those round kicks. Oh, this is the finishing secret. Oh. Yeah.

Very interesting, man, watching the two. There it is. See it? Yeah. See how he throws it? And he throws it off of both sides with the front leg. He's the most agile and probably the most technical of all the heavyweight strikers. Cyril's very well-rounded when it comes to his striking. He's so smooth.

Yeah. And he's intelligent. He understands the distance. All right, now this is a knee distance. This is not kick distance. Very interesting fight. So for John, it's going to be, can John take him down? How does John perform

at heavyweight? Can John close the distance? Is he as fast? What is the three years off like? Is he hungrier and even better because he's fired up and y'all must have forgot? He's got that mindset? He usually does too, right? Remember he was always that guy that would want to beat you at your own game. Oh, you're a wrestler?

I'll wrestle you. You're a striker? i'll strike with you yeah so well he comes out there thinking zero gone you're a smooth striker i'll smooth you i don't know it's also first fight at heavyweight we really don't know how he's going to respond when he gets hit by a big heavyweight we don't know anything yeah and it's a years and it's also john is older now you know just that time off honestly a lot of partying yeah John parties you know I don't know what he's been doing maybe he's been living clean over the last few years I don't know I know I saw him with uh Cejudo now and yeah maybe that Cejudo mindset will help him too so I like that I like Cejudo's mindset and I like that fight ready camp

I think what Henry brings to the table is very unique. His mindset is really incredible. And, you know, I talked to Mighty Mouse about it. I had Mighty Mouse on. And Demetrius was saying that, like, he's so meticulous in his training and how he prepares and plans for things. Yeah. Like, everything is, like, very, very focused. Dan Ige, he was telling me how he went down there and he was, he's like, I never talked to anybody with kind of like the war mindset as him. It's like he sees it as like a chess match.

He breaks it down in that type of way. It's not like, oh, let's go out there, see red, whatever happens, happens. He does this, this, and this. Even with the, I said I had breakfast with him once before the Sean Brady fight. And he was like, let's watch a little tape on him. Let me look up what he does. And just like watching one tape of Sean Brady. He's like, oh, well, he stands like this.

I think you should do this. This low kick will be perfect right here. But just seeing how he breaks down, how he talks to people, it just tells me that being a coach and being at his gym, he'll get deeper and deeper and deeper into those little aspects of the fight that a lot of people don't really care about or look at. I know a lot of fighters that they'll never even watch tape of somebody they're going to fight. They're just going there with the mindset of, if I'm in shape and I'm on my bus, I'm going to win.

Yeah, I think he's one of the great coaches out there. I think Firas Ahabi is probably, I mean, he's one of my all-time favorites. It's not my favorite, but I think there's just a few guys like that, like Henry Cejudo, that are just like their next-level coaches. They just have this mindset. That's the most important thing, I feel like. It's not all about toughness. I've had coaches that are telling me, like, oh, well, this guy never fought before.

Why are you going to think that he's a good coach? But you don't need to be a fighter or that. Some people are just better at understanding and breaking down fights in general than having to go in there and fight. people can teach some people can fight some of the great coaches like think about guys like teddy atlas wasn't known as a great boxer amazing coach yeah you know like there's emmanuel stewart wasn't known as a great boxer but amazing coach one of the greatest coaches ever there's there's quite a few guys like that. Yeah, I mean, Eric Nixick, my coach, Mike Vallee, I've never followed him before. He's the same way. And

like I said, it's like some people are better at teaching. Some people are better at breaking down film and seeing other guys' weaknesses. I know Nixick was telling me that he would he used to be a football player and he would bring that mindset, that game plan mindset of what's the weakness? If I know

these guys are good at the pass, well, we're going to play pass defense. And then fighters don't think like that. For me, when I fought Damian Maia, my goal is to stand and strike with you. I'm not going to grapple with Damian Maia. When I'm fighting Wonderboy, I'm not going to strike with Wonderboy. I'm going to take him down. When I'm fighting these guys a certain way, I'm switching it up each time. Is John in Phoenix now?

Is he training down there? He was, I know he was down there. He said he was down there for visiting. Because he was with Jackson Winkle, John. They had a falling out, so he left. I think he was doing stuff out of his garage, but then now he was down with Cejudo, training down there with them now too.

I think, I'm not sure if he's doing his full camp there, but I know he was doing some stuff there. One thing he's done right is put that weight on slowly. That's the one thing he's done right because he's got accustomed to being 255 pounds and walking around real big and heavy, and he looks real big and heavy. He looks like a heavyweight. He doesn't look like a light heavyweight that gained weight. He looks like a fucking heavyweight.

I'm wondering who he's sparring with because you know there's this being in the gym and being who you are john jones you know there's people like want to see how he is and a million people trying to get an inside scoop of oh how does he look how does he look and we really haven't heard anything like that yeah from uh any of the little uh birds on somebody's shoulder or something like that so i wonder if he's actually sparring with anybody training with anybody or if he just has that much loyal teammates that are not going to say a word about it until he wants to. I don't know. It's a good question because if he's going to fight a guy like Cyril Gunn,

he really wants to get some movement, some really top-flight kickboxers. So, like, who does he have that he can work with like that? You know, you really want – Cyril is so good at mixing up the kicks and the knees and the punches and the combinations, and he's so light, like the way he stands on the outside. If you're going to compete against a guy like that, you've got to get some similar looks. And how many similar looks are there out there for a guy that's 245 pounds? That can move like that.

That moves like Cyril. Yeah. There's not a lot. Yeah. Interesting fight. But here's the problem. Let's say John beats Ciro gone, okay? And then

John fights Stipe, and John beats Stipe. Then what? People are sleeping on Curtis Blades. I think he's one of the toughest guys there. My immediate goal is to beat Ciro gone and to beat Stipe Miocic, John Jones said. After that, I'll be in conversations with the UFC.

Go to the UFC heavyweight rankings because I'll show you what I'm fucking interested in. What I'm interested in at UFC heavyweight, click on that shit. Pavlovich. Oh, Pavlovich. Oh, my God. That's the boy. Yeah. Sergei Pavlovich, that motherfucker, that's the Russian Fedor.

I mean, the Russian Francis, rather. He comes out, guns blazing on people, just like Francis used to. That motherfucker can bomb. He's a monster. And he's so fast, too, with that. He's so accurate. Very good. Very good.

Does it have any fights of his? Not on that website. Oh, okay. Not the way I have it set up. The way he beat Black Beast and Taito Iwasa so quick. I know. I was like, who is this guy? The Taito Iwasa fight was incredible.

I mean, we think about Cyril Gan going through that war with him and Sergei just put it on him. His boxing is fucking tight. Very tight, man. Real power punches. Excellent technique. Big guy, too. Real power punches. Excellent technique. Big guy, too. Big heavy fuck. I think Corey was talking about he used to

train with him and he was like, yeah, he'd be in a practice room with us all the time and stuff like that. So coming up with Kane and him, man. I mean, this fucking dude scary. I mean, to beat Derek Lewis like that, to have Derek completely on his... I mean, look at the combinations he's landed.

Mark Smith. Oh, there's a Dan Mergliana. Seen enough. Look at that. That fucking dude can crack. He can crack. He's fast. He's interesting.

So I want to see him fight more. Obviously, he beat – go to the Tai Tuivasa fight. He beat Tuivasa. I mean, the fucking combinations this guy has. Look at this. Boom. That was so smooth. 30 seconds in there.

And Ty gets up and just guns blazing. So accurate. Oh, my goodness. Dude. So he's, to me, with Francis leaving, he's one of the most interesting guys at heavyweight. If not the most interesting guy at heavyweight. Yeah. I'm very interested to see him fight a guy like Jon Jones.

That's crazy to me. So if Jon gets a few fights at heavyweight, if he gets Cyril gone, if he beats him, that's an if. And then if he beats Steve Bimiocic, that's another if. And a few fights at heavyweight if he gets Cyril gone if he beats him that's an if and then if he beats Steve Bimiocic that's another if and then he fights Sergei and maybe Sergei gets someone along the way to build him up even further but I still think people don't know about him Curtis Blades called him out and Curtis called Sergei out yeah he's like yeah well I know everybody saw that they want to try to get my reaction to this fight Cyril gone's getting it back to back whatever all right it's cool give me uh Sergei next and I'll show you guys my worth I know everybody saw that they were trying to get my reaction to this fight. Cyril Ghosn's getting it back-to-back. Whatever. All right. It's cool.

Give me Sergey next, and I'll show you guys my worth. Great for the undercard. So you have Jon Jones, Cyril Ghosn, and then Curtis Blades and Sergey on the undercard. Whoa! Whoa! Big fellas. Yeah. Big fellas throwing hammers.

That would be good. I like that. And then also, Curtis Blades will really test him in the wrestling department. Curtis is an excellent wrestler. That's a really good fight to see what Sergey can do against an elite wrestler. And a guy with real experience. Like, you know, Curtis has been in

there with a lot of top-notch guys. So he's got, like, world-class experience, really good wrestling skills, tough, tough dude. He's been so close every single time. But you get to that level, all it takes is one punch. He only lost like Francis, then that Black Beast

uppercut. But other than that, he's been one of the most dominant heavyweights out there. That Black Beast uppercut was crazy. Derek can just put the lights out. Have you seen him looking at like 170 lately? I know, isn't it crazy? I was like, is he running or is that just like a mad picture? I was like.

I don't know. You really can't tell. You can't tell. But it looks like he's taking it real seriously and decided to get in real good shape. Are you going to stay up for his fight? Fuck yeah. His fight's at 1 a.m. I know.

You're going to stay up for that one? I stay up that late anyway, man. I was like, that's crazy. I'm always up late. That didn't make no sense. I was like, what? How the heck is it so late? Where is it taking place?

What is this? Oh, he's getting his manicure and pedicure done. I love Derek. It was supposed to be in, I think, Korea. And then the Korean zombie was supposed to be on the card. But I think he got injured so they moved it back to America. But they already had the time slot done. Oh, really?

Yeah, I think so. That's what I heard. Yeah. So they had to keep it there. I think they had so many of those fighters from Asia on the card. Apex. So it's at the Apex, and it starts at 12 a.m. Central Time. Whoa.

So that means it's going to start at, what is that in California time? 10. 10? 10 p.m. 10 p.m. main card? Main card with five fights. So what do we got here? Prelims start at 9 p.m central time so seven

oh do ho choi that's do ho choi uh is is coming back that was a he was a while ago he was a beast yeah he took a lot a lot of time off he hasn't fought for a few years what else is on the card screw this prelim sorry let me see what what you got here let me see here okay interesting so begloy is on that fight, too, against Marcin Tibura. That's a good fight. And Duho Choi against Kyle Nelson. Crazy how late that is, though. I might just record that one.

That's the beautiful thing about ESPN Plus and streaming. You just get it any time you want it. It's always available. Being in Dubai when they had a couple fights on, and it was like the time change was so much, and I would not want to watch it until the next morning. I was like, I'll do the cardio in the morning and watch it on my phone. Then my coach, hey, did you see Sanhagen and Song Yedong?

He's cut. I was like, bro, I did not want to know the results. I was saving it the whole time. Right when I got out of the channel, he tells me, did you see the cut? Who's Sanhagen fighting next? Chido. Oh, that's right. Woo! Woo!

Woo! February 18th. That's at the Apex, too. Man. That one makes me want to take a flight. Yeah, that one makes me want to take a flight. I might want to take a flight. Fuck.

What's on the undercard of that fight? Aaron Blanchfield. Oh, that's another one. Against Talia Santos. Talia Santos is no joke. Aaron Blanchfield is the fucking truth. When I was with Dave Portnoy, Dave Portnoy was telling me he bet all this money on Molly.

When she fought Aaron, I was like, Oh, you were with her before the fight? Yeah, I was like, dude, that's I mean, Molly's tough. Molly's very tough. Meatball can throw bombs, but Erin Blanchfield's the truth. She's a monster. She's going to be a champ. She's one of those that's going to challenge Shevchenko for it.

Super technical. And she's catching Shevchenko at the end of her reign. You know what I'm saying? Not to say that Shevchenko's slipping. She's definitely not. But it's a good time for her to be coming up because there's really no one else. When you look at that division, there's very good fighters, but there's no compelling, really interesting storyline

other than Erin because she's so young. She's 23? I think they just gave her Alexa Grasso, Shevchenko against Grasso, but like you said, it's not like I'm not looking at it like, oh, man, but if I see Blanchfield in there, even right now, if it hits the ground, I'm not looking at it like, oh, man. But if I see Blanchfield in there, like, even right now, like, if it hits the ground, I'm interested. Shevchenko's so good. She's so good.

When she knocked out Jessica Ai with that head kick, I was like, god damn. Yeah. Very few women can fight like that. Very few women could just flatline you with one shot like that. Yeah, I would see her in Moreno training at the Apex. I mean, training at the PI i mean training at the pi and i'm like man i just want to see how their sparring goes because it'd be fun like she's one of those girls i feel like could keep up with some guys yeah and inspiring department with gloves and

shin pads on but yeah i was just always like interested in it like you said she's smooth everywhere and now her wrestling and grappling get into that level too where i feel like she's trying to show a different side of herself. You better not break into that lady's house. She's got fucking five guns strapped to her while she's sleeping.

See her shoot guns, man? I talked to some guys that went to a range with her. They go, dude, she's like a world-class markswoman. Like that? Yeah, like world-class.

Like really good. Like beep! Those, you know, like those things that do the timing. That's her. She's doing like somersaults she could do all that shit well obviously she's so athletic yeah you know but it's like her accuracy and her marksmanship is like really world class they were saying like oh dude people were so impressed she could fucking shoot yeah which is that's the wrong

house to break into son i was uh one of my buddies, he's like, he teaches people to get their guns, to get their gun permits in Chicago where they can carry it on them. They're carrying concealed. And he's like, some dude tried to break into my garage. And I like gave him the, yo, stop where you're going. And he turned around super quick. So I had to shoot him. I was like, you broke into the wrong house. Like, I was like, he's like, dude, I'm at the freaking gun range every single day,

and this guy tried to rob me. I'm like, what a moron. He's like, I felt bad for the guy, but I still shot him. Yeah, there's a lot of people out there doing stupid shit right now. Yeah, especially Chicago. I know. Chicago is so filled with violence. Do you ever think about getting out of there?

Honestly, I do, especially when it was during those riot times. And just the mayor just sucks. Like, she doesn't do anything to— The mayor's terrible. She's the worst. She's such a goof. And she was, like, outlawing protests on her block. Literally.

And, you know, I train with cops, and I roll with cops. So one of my cousins, he has a cell phone store. He's telling me he put his shutters down. He's like, there's people outside my store trying to break in with the shutters. Just come and help me. I'm like, all right. I'm trying to call my boys that are cops. I'm like, hey, they're trying to break into this guy's store.

Could you guys help them? They're like, no, they're telling us to stay inside. They're telling us not to do anything. They're telling the police not to do anything. I'm like, no, they're telling us to stay inside. They're telling us not to do anything. They're telling the police not to do anything. I'm like, bro, what? He's like, they're telling us to stay in the free thing. I was like, that was crazy. So we literally pulled up.

And, like, obviously my guy has, like, a gun inside the store. So he's, like, shooting upward outside of the store. So people, like, run away. And, like, people end up running away. So then we pull up. And people are, like, across the street yelling, like, you guys got insurance. You guys want to try to kill us over it. guys know you got insurance that's so crazy don't shoot at me while i'm robbing you i want to like just like people are just so airheaded so like we literally like they put everything into trucks and took everything

out of the store and people saw us taking everything away and they still broke in and just smashed everything for no reason at all. So many knuckleheads. Where would you go if you didn't live in Chicago? Honestly, I was on the edge of moving to Vegas. Yeah? Yeah, because obviously I want to train at a good gym. The USCPI is there. Yeah.

Access to all those resources. Yeah. And then I'm really close to Nick Six. I like him, but it's just hard because I'm a big family man. So, like, we're going to my mom's house every Sunday for dinner. I like going back there. My whole family's there, so it's a lot easier. And then, like, my teammates in Chicago, they've been up with me since the beginning. Like, 10 years I've been with those same guys that I'm still training with now.

Even if I go train at other gyms or train with other teams, I'm still with the same core of guys. So, like, I wouldn't want to, like, leave them before I get to the goal. You got a whole system in place now in Chicago, too. Yeah. Like, we have – and I know what I'm doing. That's working. Yeah. And that's the thing.

I have so many people, like, you need to come here. You need to come here. We have this many UFC guys, this, this, and this. And I'm like, we're doing it right. Brian Callen told me he had a great time with you. Oh, he's the man. He was so cool. And I was, like, freaking – So, he went to your house, ate with your family

the whole deal he was eating with my dad we were eating breakfast we brought you up I don't like Joe Rogan Brian Callen, this is the boy Brian was like, oh why not he never interviews my son

after the fights that And I was like, oh, my God. Oh, that's not my decision. That's what I said. I was like, oh, my God. Stop it. And I was just like, I have a big- Maybe your dad will like me now. Literally, he's probably going to tell all his friends. People get mad at me, like, when the fights go long, if a fight goes

to a distance or it goes to a decision, there you guys are. If a fight goes to a decision, like like i don't have the say as to whether or not a fighter gets interviewed that's the truck yeah yeah it's generally they run out of time it's a time constraint because like they make a concession like say if there's uh five fights on an undercard and the undercard has to take place within x amount of minutes you know if because it's on espn plus, if fights go the distance and they look at the time, they don't like the first fight went the distance,

second fight goes the distance, they go, no interview. They'll just say it in my ear. I go, okay. Yeah, and I tell them, like, you know, dads are always the ones looking out for you. Like, how can they give this guy an interview and now you an interview? It's Joe, and I'm like, bro, like, chill out.

Like, relax. But Brian was hilarious. He was super cool, and he out. Relax. Brian was hilarious. He was super cool. He had some hands. He was sparring with my boy. He boxes. He boxes a little bit. I was like, all right, you got something left in you.

You need to do one of them Jake Paul fights. Oh, no. Don't get Brian knocked out, please. Please don't do that. Not Jake Paul. Just like a random TikToker. No, no, no. You can mess with him.

You don't want Brian getting punched in the face. He's already got problems with his head. You don't want Brian getting punched in the face. He's already got problems with his head. You don't want him getting his dome rattled. He's 150 years old. Look at him here, throwing punches. He's slow as shit. Don't let him do that to anybody. Stay away, Brian.

It's cool. just like the experience. It's called the Swallow Cliff Stairs, and he ran it up there with me. Oh, nice. Yeah, one of the things we do every week down there at Chicago is hard stair running, hard pushing up there. We usually go to the top, and we're sparring up there. People are just randomly looking at what the heck is going on. What are you guys doing? What do you do in terms of recovery? Do you have like a system? Do you get massages?

Do you do ice bath? Do you do cold plunge and sauna? Like what do you do? Yeah, I mean I got a Sauna at my house like one of those light saunas and infrared infrared. Yeah Yeah, so I got an infrared sauna. I got all the the boots all those other extra things I get a massage when i'm in camp once a week When i'm not in camp probably like once every other week things i get a massage when i'm in camp once a week when i'm not in camp probably like once every other week or something like that or when i'm feeling it sore but now it's being very careful and being smart with the way i'm treating my body it's like if one of the biggest things i learned from the the guys uh from habib's team is like

they'll come in before practice and he'll be like he'll ask you like today's your hardest part how do you feel mentally? Are you okay? Did you get in a fight with anybody in your family? Are you stressed out? Like, if you have any of those issues with your head,

you're not training. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So he's like, Interesting because it's hard sparring because basically you're in a fight.

Yeah, you're going to be in a fight and if you're not fully engaged and you're not fully ready for it, you're really not going to gain anything and you're going to hurt yourself. Oh. And that's where injuries come from, a little thing. So when he brought that up, I'm like, huh? Like I figured you guys would be like, tough it out, tough it out, man up.

Don't like my mentality was when I got there and I'm like, don't be soft. But they're very smart with it. That just shows you how smart they really are. Even though they're beyond tough, they know there's there's a certain little area that you really need to address yeah and it was it was cool because like i said i'm like one of those guys where probably every single camp i'm over training and like i don't feel like i'm ready unless i'm over trained so yeah because you know you

i'll work out twice and then i'll be like three hours of doing nothing i'm like man i should do something i need to be doing something right now. Let me go for a jog. Do you use like a heart rate monitor or anything to see what your resting heart rate? You do whoops? Yeah, yeah. When I'm at a camp, I do whoops. So can you tell from that whether or not you're overtraining?

And do you back off when you are? You know, you'll get those days where it'll be like you're redlined or whatever. But I'm still going still gonna train but not train as crazy hard right but for the most part when i'm even feeling tired and i'll be like you're 90 recovery uh and i'm like i feel like trash but then eventually i'll be like oh well the whoops is i'm okay so i think that yeah maybe maybe i am okay maybe i'm just being soft mentally when my body feels terrible, but it's like the whoops tell me I'm okay.

So I'm just trusting it. So that's all you use to make sure that you're not overtrained? Yeah. And you monitor, like, what it says about your heart rate and your resting heart rate and all that jazz? Yeah, yeah. I'm waking up, and I'm seeing what it says. And, like, when I started really believing it was when I caught COVID.

And, like, I woke up, and it was, like was the day before I was supposed to come to a fight. I was fighting Limey Good. I mean Diego Lima. We were supposed to leave the next day. I woke up and it said zero on my recovery. Zero? Yeah, it said zero. I was like, what the fudge?

Then all of a sudden that night I was literally just shivering in bed. I woke up in the middle of the night shivering. I was like, what the heck is going on? I was freezing. I was like, no, I got to fight this week so I put like my jacket on went to bed and I'm like still shivering with my jacket on and I was like what the heck's going on so then I look at my whoop and it says dad and I was like so I called like my buddy who's a doctor and I'm like dude what do I do for shivering and he's like he's like he's like bro uh I think you should go get tested it was like early on when COVID first hit and I was like

nah I don't got COVID dude I'm fighting this week and he's like I don't know I think those are symptoms for COVID and I was like like I hung up on it

I was like forget you but like the whole night like I was up the whole night and I was like I hit up Ali and I was like are they gonna test me when I come down to

when I get there tomorrow and he's like yeah and I was like what if this isn't positive and I was like are they gonna test me when I come down to that when I get there tomorrow and he's like yeah and I was like what if this is a positive he's like then you're gonna have to drive home or you're gonna have to fly back uh well they're not gonna let you fly back home you have to drive back home or you wait the two weeks in Vegas and I was like but they're for sure gonna test me he's like yeah so then I was like all right you're gonna fight even if you were sick with COVID yeah because like you go through a whole camp. Were you still training when you were that sick? Well, that was just like the first day it hit.

So I was like shivering that day. And then the next day I was supposed to leave. So I woke up the next day, my flight's in like a couple hours. And I'm like, why the heck am I freezing or whatever? And then like I'm calling everything that time. And I'm like, I don't want to fly to Vegas. And then they send me back. But for me, I'm like, if it's a cold, I'll get over it in a day.

I'll get over it in a couple of days and then fight Saturday. So I still have three or four days to get over it. Right, right. How many days did it take you to get over COVID? It was probably like two days of just like chills and shivering and then just like body soreness. But like by like day three, I was feeling okay. But like I was like in the best shape ever. you're in your camp you're healthy yeah and did you work out at all while you had covid it was like a depressing moment because my fight just

got canceled because of it yeah so then i was like fudge this i'm just like eating trash and laying there yeah and then probably about like day four then i was like all right i need to get up and reschedule this fight and then do something so So, like, by day four, I was back to training regularly. There's a lot of guys who try to work through COVID, work out through COVID while they had it, and they got fucked up. That's Hamzat. Yeah. Hamzat got fucked up because he's too tough. Too tough for his own good.

And while he was sick as a dog, that motherfucker was still going to the gym and doing rounds in the bag and working out like a beast. And then he was throwing up blood. Yeah, I was hearing about that. I was hearing that. Yeah, he's throwing up blood. I was like a beast, and then he was throwing up blood. Yeah, I was hearing about that. Yeah, he's throwing up blood. I was like, what? Yeah, he was coughing up. Like, his whole toilet bowl was filled with blood. And the question with that is, like, what has that done to his lungs?

Like, does he have scarring on his lungs? Are his lungs at full capacity? Because he was hospitalized more than once with COVID. Like, it was a big deal because he's such a knucklehead in that regard. Like he's so tough that he worked himself to the bone while he was sick with COVID and then got hospitalized. I think twice. Wow.

Yeah. And then the Cody Garbrandt did the same thing. Cody Garbrandt had COVID, kept working out, kept training, never got himself tested didn't find out he had covid the whole time until he went to mike tyson's mike tyson had him on a podcast and they it was during the pandemic so they tested him like hey

man you got covid and he's like oh that's what's been going on he had had covid for fucking weeks oh wow really working out work still working out too tough. Too tough for his own good. So for a long time, never got over COVID because he kept training. That's crazy. Crazy. But, I mean, for me, like I said, who knows if it wasn't my fight week, if I would have just still continued on or if I ever got even tested. Right.

Like I would have figured it was a regular normal cold. Well, got over the chills. When DC was training for Stipe, he got COVID in camp. Yeah. And still fought and won. I mean, he worked through it. Just worked through COVID.

You just got to adjust. Yeah, he adjusted and he just, you know, Stipe, I mean, DC rather is very smart, so he didn't train too hard. Yeah. He just knew what his body was telling him and then got over it and kept training.

So he had like a few slow days where it't that wasn't pushing it very hard, but apparently Hamza just So he just get in the gym coughing up a storm while he's sick as fuck You know that's it was real bad for a lot of people that didn't take time off Yeah, didn't didn't take breaks Because if you think you're tough, the problem with being tough is you are breaking down your immune system every time you work out hard. So if you're sick already,

so immune system's compromised, and then you're breaking your body down because you're tough, because you're working out, now the COVID's really getting into your body. I mean, that can happen with the flu. That can happen with everything. Yeah, and that was the hard part too because you're at a gym and you're wondering,

if you have a fight, you're like, hey, make sure you don't come to the gym if you have COVID. Make sure if you have any type of symptoms and you didn't know to trust anybody. And you catch COVID and it's my fight week. And I'm like, look at who to blame. I'm like, how did I get COVID? I didn't do nothing else. I didn't go nowhere. I just went to the gym and back home. Sometimes people have, and they don't even know they have it. My real estate lady, she had it and she didn't find out until she was going to a wedding. So she had to get tested because she was going to the Bahamas or some shit and they tested her. And she's like, I have COVID? And they go, you got COVID? I'm like, I don't believe this. Let me get

tested again. So she got tested again. Turns out she has COVID. Wow. And never felt anything. Never felt any symptoms at all. Nothing. That was the, being in Chicago, everybody would catch it at weddings. Like being a Middle Eastern, they have weddings every single Sunday. And then my mom would still want to go to weddings. I'm like, you're not going to weddings.

We have to go to this person's wedding. And I was like, that's where people are going to catch it. Because like 90% of people don't even know they have it. And then all of a sudden the next week, oh, 16 people from that wedding got it or 10 people from this wedding caught it. And I was like. Yeah, because you could kind of have it and just kind of feel just a little down and not think it's that big a deal. And then you're giving it to everybody. Or there's people that had the antibodies and they didn't even realize, like, wait, I had it before?

Right. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah, weird times, man. But thank God the UFC kept those fights going on at the apex, put together that whole COVID bubble, tested the shit out of everybody, made sure that everybody was clear before they got in the building. Yeah. It was beautiful, man. And I felt so privileged to be there during that time. I remember thinking when I was there for the Tony Ferguson-Justin Gaethje fight, which was in Florida in an empty arena during COVID.

Empty arena. It was crazy. But I remember thinking to myself, man, I feel so fortunate that I get to be here because everything was shut down. The whole country was shut down. But yet here we are watching this fight live with no audience. And it's a fucking amazing fight. And there's only like 10 people here watching it.

Does that change the way you commentate it too? Cause obviously the energy is different. I don't know, man. I don't think so. I think, I think we did it the same way, but I tell you what though,

I really do love fights at the Apex center. Like when we were talking about Cheeto and Sanhagen, I'm really thinking about flying in for that just because I love seeing fights at that Apex center, man. Yeah. I know that rings not as good. I don't, I think I wish they had the same full size oct, man. Yeah. I was telling people that. I know the ring's not as good. I wish they had the same full-size octagon there.

Yeah. I think they should scrap that little bitch-ass octagon and put a full-size octagon there because I think it should be uniform. I think the sport deserves a uniform-size octagon, but, man, being there live is exceptional. When it's a little arena and there's very few people there you just feel special feels like real

like real privilege to be able to be there for that yeah if you're in the audience my family was there they're like dude I never watched a fight I never want to watch a fight not like this it's like sitting courtside for like an NBA game or something because you hear guys breathing you hear every little thing you hear the corner and everything

it changes everything, too. And then you hear commentators, too. Like, when you're in the cage, it's weird for you because you're like, you're hearing DC and Bisbee talk. And I was like, I wanted something. Dude, shut up. You don't know what you're talking about or something like that. Because you're in there, and it changes the way you fight, too. It's a different type of energy.

Yeah, sure. I mean, some guys hate it. They want that crowd. Like Sugar Sean, like he wants that crowd. He wants to hear that roar. Some guys, they like it. Some guys, it takes the pressure off of them. And they're in that little place. No one there feels better, feels easier, lighter. tell them it's going to be better for you because there's not a lot of people there. You're not going to feel like it's the same energy. You've got to just have that mindset like it's in the gym. Yeah.

Because if you just change the way you think about it, it changes everything. Not, oh, man, this is my debut. This is the biggest stage, the biggest company, the one I always wanted for, the dream. But you're fighting with 50 people in the crowd. So it feels like it's that normal bar that you're used to fighting in freaking Bufu, Indiana. Yeah. How hard was the first debut for you're used to fighting in in freaking Bufu, Indiana. Yeah. How hard was the first debut for you, the first fight in the UFC? How much different was it than anything else? For me, it was different because I took it on short notice too.

And it was during Ramadan. Oh. Yeah. So then they called me for that one. But I was 9-0 outside of the UFC, and I just won the Titan FC belt. Andc belt and i was still waiting for my shot i was like dude they're not giving me a shot they're not giving me a shot and like i said i've my coach seeing his footsteps and seeing him he never got a shot in the ufc but he was killing everybody he was like on a 10 fight finish streak of guys in the first round and like they never call him and i was like bro if he's finished people

like this and you never get a call like what makes you think i'm gonna get a call then they call me during ramadan short notice it was like a couple weeks and it was alan joe band and i was like we have to take it so we took it and um it was international fight week too so that just changed everything too because it's like a lot more how do you train during ramadan how how did you organize it? Honestly, it's just basically, I don't really change anything but the way I eat at night because I'm cutting weight at night. So I have to make sure that since I'm cutting weight in a camp, I have to eat healthier. But you can't drink water during the day, right? No, you're not drinking water or no water or food during the day.

Are you training during the day? Yeah, so I'll train in the morning at 10.30 a.m. No water? No water. So I'll train at 10.30 and then I'll have another practice at 6. And so at 6, what time are you allowed to eat when the sun goes down? I'm allowed to eat usually during those times. It was during the sun was going down at like 7.38.

So the moment the sun goes down, that's when you can drink water, and that's when you can eat food. Yeah. So you're training with no water? Yeah. Yeah, I'm not you can drink water and that's when you can eat food. So you're training with no water? Yeah. I'm not training with no water or food. Do you get up early and eat? Yeah, so our morning prayer is

usually at like 4.30am. So you have all the way up until that 4.30am to eat or drink. So I'll wake up probably 4 o'clock, 4am, and then I'm treating it like I just had a weight cut. So I'm drinking a Pedialyte. I'm getting my electrolytes in.

I'm making sure that I'm having good carbs that I'm going to have so I'll be able to train. So I'm eating white rice, eggs, good protein. So I just have to be very smart with what I'm eating and not just like junk. A lot of people during Ramadan, they're gaining more weight because it's like you're not eating all day, you're not drinking all day. Then it's time to break your fast, so you'll eat a little bit of dinner. Your stomach's already shrunk, so you're not that hungry. But then you're eating sweets, sweets, sweets. And that's the biggest thing for us is your mom's making all these sweets during Ramadan.

You want to try this, this, and this. So for me, it's just being way more disciplined during it. That's got to be hard to not drink water while you're training. Yeah. I think probably after day four, my body like gets used to it it just toughens up I tell people like you never know how strong your body really is until you push it and I think it just like evolves and it learns to keep doing it so so then so your second training session of the day why don't you

schedule that after it's dark out? I started doing that this camp when I fought Luque during Ramadan. My coach was like, hey, we're going to adjust everything to that. My second training camp was always at 9pm at night. But for the Alan Jovan fight, it was still like I didn't care. Like I said, I wasn't thinking about the science of it or anything like that. I was like, let's tough it out.

So I was still training twice a day. So with the Luque fight, did you eat dinner first and then go to train? Yeah, I would eat dinner. Drink water? Yeah, I would eat dinner and then go train again at night. And all the guys would still, they would adjust their schedule. The whole team would come at like 9, 30 p.m.

And then they would come and train with me at that time. Well, that's nice. Yeah, it was fun. Did you like nap during the day? Like how did you take care of your days? Yeah, so you do your morning. I do my morning session whatever it was and then you know during ramadan you try to be closer to god so it's not like just starving yourself or uh staying away from food and drink it's like

you want to get closer to god so you're trying to read the quran you're trying to be more at the mosque whenever you can there's a night prayer that we we do and it's like a late night prayer that everybody goes to the mosque at the same time it's called so a lot of it is just doing as much as you can possible to be closer to God and be a better Muslim so during the day getting your mind off the fight where I'm not

I think it helps me a lot of the time too because I'm not stressing about the fight because I'm trying to do be the best type of Muslim I can be so read the Quran more you want to try to read the whole Quran during the month of Ramadan. And you want to just bring yourself closer to that. Learn more about it. Learn more about the religion and everything like that.

If you had a title shot that took place during Ramadan, would you have any apprehension? Like if you had your qualms, if it was your choice, would you rather have a fight outside of Ramadan or would you be fine getting a title shot during Ramadan? No, I mean I would definitely want outside of Ramadan or would you be fine getting a title shot during Ramadan? No, I mean, I would definitely want outside of it.

It does compromise you. It's hard. Yeah, it's like it's not easy and I always tell myself I'm not going to do another fight during Ramadan again. They call us this night, I'm going to say no. But when they call you with a main event fight against a guy that beat you before, it's like I'm never going to say

yeah. Has Habib ever fought during Ramadan? No. A lot of them, they refuse to. They decide not to. Like they said, they just focus strictly on the religion aspect of it. So, like I said, for me, I've done it outside of the UFC a lot of times

and I fought a couple times outside of the UFC during Ramadan. So, I had like a game plan of what I was doing and a way of just toughing it out through it so i think it just helped me out in general but um yeah back to the i mean the joe band fight international fight week i think it was brock lesnar fighting that week too uh so it was just a lot of eyes a lot of eyes it's cool to see and um i was never one of those guys beforehand that would like watch tape or break down film or anything like that it was just like we're not i don't know we're gonna we're gonna go in there we're gonna beat them so going there was a tough fight we ended up uh losing a decision but it was fight of the night so and it was like like i said i'm a

terrible loser so i put my head down i'm like upset like i don't want to talk to nobody and then my coach is telling me like bro like the crowd's going nuts you had to feel the energy look at the crowd embrace still embrace the moment even though you lost and like i had so many fighters come up to me that day and it was like it was crazy because it was like max holloway hey respect bro diego sanchez hey you're a beast you're a monster and these are guys like i looked up to and like love to watch fight but like i didn't care at all just because I lost. But thinking back to those, I wish I would have been a better loser at that time. Because we won the $50,000 bonus, too.

And I was like, I don't care, man. And me and Joe Banner are at the hospital. He's like, we won the bonus. And I was just crying. Get away from me, dude. Yeah, it's easy for him to say. He's got the W. Yeah.

So what kind of timeline are you on right now like does the UFC give you any indication of when they would schedule a fight for you or is a lot of it dependent upon the March 18th title fight that was the thing I was trying to get on the March 18th card with them and I was trying to be on the same card with them and whether it was is that still possible it just depends on who they get close right yeah it's like for me i'm still training no matter what so like the 17th yeah the 17th so i think it'd be like eight weeks or something like that so right yeah it's the 18th so you got you got two months yeah yeah so it would just be like you're hearing things of how's that going up to 185 yeah and

you're trying to figure out what's happening to them that And you're like, well, where's Kobe at? So I'm talking to my manager because, like I said, he manages me. He manages Gilbert. He manages Usman. So he's managing three of the top five guys up there. So I'm like, you have to have an idea of who they're going to give me. And he's like, we just have to wait. We have to wait and see who they're offering and who's ready at the time.

And I'm like, well, give me Masvidal. Masvidal's on a three-fight losing streak. It doesn't make sense. And I'm like, but he has theal Masvidal's on a three fight loser streak it doesn't make sense and I'm like but he has the biggest name he has the biggest name and he's the guy that's calling for the title fight and the champion's saying his name so if the champion's saying his name

it tells me that that's the name I have to beat to tell you that no you're not getting that fight because I can see Leon beating Usman if he beats him this time saying well I defended my belt once now I get to call my shot and I want to fight Masvidal because he three-pieced and stowed it on me. And you're like, it don't make sense, but UFC, money makes sense. Money makes sense. And that is a big money fight. And there's a narrative there. I could

see them making that fight. I could. It's such a talent stack division, man. That division is so filled with talent. But it's rough too for yourself because when Leon Edwards was right at the place I'm at right now where he was on an 8-fight winning streak and the world was begging for him to get to the title fight, and I'm like, I've found way better guys than Leon Edwards. I have four top-10 wins. Leon Edwards has to be in one top-10 guy in the division besides Usman. And Colby Covington has no top 10 wins in the division

besides Masvidal who's who he beat on a three fight losing streak so how hard was it for you to the Leon Edwards fight get stopped because of an eye poke and then they don't give it back to you they don't run it back and Leon is saying I was winning that fight and we were moving on to the next I was I was so bitter I was salty I was hot like I wanted to snap so bad cause like in the cage oh I'm so sorry bro and it's like I didn't commit the foul

he committed the foul I didn't do nothing I took the fight on short notice it's almost like he was rewarded for a foul and then now he's the champ yeah crazy

I'm looking at it like it doesn't make any like make it make sense to me cause I'm like I waited this long to get to this moment I stepped up nobody stepped up fight up Leon Edwards uh leon edwards it was short notice comes up pulled out they needed somebody and i was like all right i'll do it so that first round happens

eye poking and the whole road oh well you were losing anyway and i'm like bro there's still four more rounds i'm a guy that my cardio is my weapon i love to to fight i love to grind it out and it was still leon edwards he was out two years before that. So you're still trying to figure out which Leon Edwards is going to come. So it's a reading out period in that first round. And I tell people it's not a 10-8 round. It was a 10-9 round in that first round. So with you saying, oh, he killed you. I'm like, in the Joban fight, I got dropped three times in the first round and the third round i almost finished him so i'm not a guy that loses the first round and starts to put my head down and i need my coach to give me a motivational speech like leon edwards no i'm gonna stay motivated the whole time to the end to the final bell rings i don't need you to wake me up like i'm gonna put my head down you're in that position where they start to give you these young contenders like they did with sean brady you know like that they have these guys that are like these up-and-coming guys, and this is kind of a crossroads fight. If you could turn back this guy, you'll show you are at the top of the food chain right now.

And you did. And there's a few of those other guys out there right now that are trying to build a name up, like Shavkat Rakhmanov. Yeah. Those kind of guys where they're trying to like – and you could see them conceivably matching you up with someone like him. Yeah. And that's the thing. When I took the Sean Brady fight, it was like fighting downwards, and he had everything to gain because he was undefeated.

He beats me. Well, dang, look where he is now. Sean Brady could be fighting for the title next. But for me, it was like if I beat him, I'm moving sideways. I'm not like – I didn't really gain much from it. I think you did, though. I think you opened up a lot of people's eyes. Yeah.

Yeah, because everybody was really looking I mean, he had got the highest VO2 max they ever scored at the UFC Performance Institute. It was like a big deal. He was one of those guys that people looked at him and go, man, this dude's elite. He won a grappling match against Craig Jones. He's elite.

Everybody was looking at him like, this guy might be a future champion. But you put it on him, man. Yeah, but then now it's oh, well, Sean Brady was getting threats that somebody was going to bury him in the desert if he beat Bilal Muhammad. What? Yeah, that's why he came out after the fight and said it. What? Yeah, and I was like. What?

Is that real? I'm like, people are trying to come up with excuses for everything. Listen, you beat that dude's ass. Yeah. Save all that shit. He was trying to beat your ass, and you beat his ass. That's just how it is. I mean, if somebody really was threatening him, that's fucked up.

A fan threatened to kill him and bury him in the desert if he won a recent fight. Yeah, but, you know, I would say to him, stop reading social media. Yeah. Because that probably is a 13-year-old kid in his mom's fucking basement somewhere. Yeah. You know, who fucking knows who's saying that? You could get lost so deep by reading comments. Have you buried anybody else?

Do you know how to bury people? Shut the fuck up. Oh, well, tell his wife to get off social media, too. You shouldn't be reading that shit. I know a guy who was a heavyweight, and his wife started reading comments. She had a public page and she started reacting and responding and so more people started doing it and then she lost

her fucking mind because like she was just constantly getting so she's like everyday checking her and people are like fucking with her on her phone like hey that's not real life put that down go outside chirp chirp chirp chirp see the birds chirping and fucking yeah see the grass

is green. That's not real life. Don't be engaging with these fucking people. You don't even know who they are. They're calling you fat and ugly and saying all kinds of mean things about you. Go outside. Stay off your goddamn phone. Don't be reading comments. That shit's mental illness.

Go to that article. Let me see that article. When I first got into the UFC my mom would like, when I first... Go to that article. Let me see that article. When I first got into the UFC, my mom would read comments and say, hey, how come you didn't respond to this guy? And I was like, are you reading my comments? So they sent it to his wife, right? Said someone messaged her and said if I won the fight against Bilal Muhammad, they would kill me and bury me in the desert. First of all, if someone really was going to kill you and bury you in the desert,

they don't tell you. Okay? Brady fought Muhammad on October 22 desert, they don't tell you. Okay? Brady fought Muhammad on October 22nd, suffering a knockout defeat. It's interesting. He should probably keep that to himself. These fans, they're scumbags, Brady says. Hey, Sean, these are idiots. They're not the fans.

There's so many people. The problem is human beings are used to interacting with other human beings in a one-on-one setting. When you're dealing with people online, you're literally opening your – like how many followers does Sean Brady have on his Instagram? To be fair, during an interview, I don't know that he just came out and said like, well, by the way. No, he's in an interview. Well, Ariel Hawane looks to get people to say things. So if you're looking at Sean Brady's Instagram, what does he have?

Let's guess. I'm going to guess he has 190,000 followers. Let's guess. 96,000? Okay. So he has almost 100,000 followers. How many of those people are douchebags? Yeah.

100? Let's be real conservative. You have 100 idiots that are threatening you and sending you pictures of their dick. Don't read that stuff, man. Yeah. People got to stop reading that stuff. I know so many people that start reading comments and arguing back and forth. I know rappers that do it, comedians that do it.

Stop doing that, man. Kevin Durant had a fake whole profile. It was arguing with people back and forth. And I was like, what are you- Really? that, man. Kevin Durant had a fake whole profile. It was like arguing with people back and forth. Really? Yeah. You had a fake profile? Yeah. And I was like, is this guy serious? You're an NBA star at the top of the thing. Oh my God. It's ego. It's just ego. It's so bad for you too.

It's bad for your psyche. And you can get lost in it so easy. I have a don't list that I make when it's fight week. I'm like, don't answer the phone from somebody who hasn't called you in the last month. Don't read comments. Don't respond to texts. Don't overthink the fight. I just have a long list of stuff that I say don't.

And I'll just read it every single time that it's fight week. Because, like you said, you get lost into it. And one of those things could change your whole mood, your whole energy for the whole day. It really can, man. You get the wrong – it's like someone – I forget who said this, but they were talking about how you have to think of diet not just in the food you consume but also in the things you consume with your mind. Yeah.

And if you're, like, consuming people saying they're going to burr you in the things you consume with your mind. Yeah. And if you're like consuming people saying they're going to bury you in the desert and all these fucking idiots, assholes telling you you're a loser and you're fat and you're going to get killed. Like, why are you eating that? Like, it's like eating junk food. Like, why are you eating Pringles? Yeah. You're supposed to be eating healthy food.

It's, it's sad, honestly, because my, uh, my girl, her, her dad's, uh, daughter's like played softball college and she was like telling me that was telling me that she just got signed to Auburn. And she's like, how do you deal with trolls? And I said, softball players get trolls? It's like, yeah, they're games. People tweet out the worst things to me. And I was like, I never even thought about it. And it's like girls softball.

When you have kids, you go to games. And when you go to games, see how some parents like take it so goddamn seriously like i cheer for my kids and i'm happy when they do well and i always like try to cheer them up if it didn't go well and try to give them like as many tips about keeping your head up and try to think straight but some fucking parents man i saw this one dad who was telling his daughter like you keep missing the ball. Like, don't miss the ball. When that ball comes your way, make sure you catch that ball.

I was like, hey, dummy, that's not going to help. First of all, you're going to put it in her head, don't drop the ball. Instead of saying, you're so good at catching the ball, I love when you go out there and you put on a show and it all comes together smooth. I'm so proud of you. Just do your best and everything's going to be fine. Instead of that, he's like, don't drop that ball. Whatever you do, don't drop it. Now in her head is dropping the ball.

You don't know jack shit about sports, you fucking idiot. You're coaching your kid. You're really poisoning them. You're poisoning their head with bad ideas. If they do well, it's they're doing well in spite of you. They're not doing well because of you. So many of those dads, man, they're just living through their kids.

It's awful. Some of those kids don't even want to play the sport. They hate it so much. They despise it. You look at them and you're like, you're at the top of the world and you're going to make it to the NBA. I don't even like it. I don't want to be here right now.

Yeah, it's awful. It's awful. But that kind of pressure that people put on their kids is so counterintuitive. They don't understand. It's so bad for them. It's bad for the kid. Well, listen, Bilal, it's been fun talking to you, man. And I appreciate you.

I'm a big fan. I'm always excited watching your fight. And I'm proud that you're in the top of the heap, man. I'm excited big fan I'm always always excited watching your fight and I'm proud that you're in the top of the heap man I'm excited for you I know that you're you're in a great spot

right now it's like you you're right there man there's like this group of people at the very top of the list at 170 pounds and you're right there

I can't wait to watch your fight again man appreciate that man seriously that means a lot thank you for having me my pleasure tell everybody your Instagram social media

so they can troll you. You guys can follow me, BullyB170 on Instagram, Twitter, any of those. I tried to do a TikTok. I couldn't do it. Yeah, good for you. It's Chinese spyware. All right, brother. Thank you very much.

Bye, everybody. Thank you.