The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #167 with Cory Sandhagen

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Joe sits down with Cory Sandhagen, a professional mixed martial artist competing in the Bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.  www.corysandhagen.com This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://BetterHelp.com/JRE Don’t miss out on all the action - Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up at https://dkng.co/rogan or with my promo code ROGAN. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). 1 per new customer. $5+ first-time bet req. Max. $150 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: dkng.co/dk-offer-terms. Ends 7/20/25 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Joe Rogan Experience Trained by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day! Good to see you brother, what's happening? We were talking about golf and Jamie who's a full-blown addict What's up? You want to know? I feel like everyone is now. So you're saying Gagey's fully hooked?

Oh, fully hooked. It's crazy. He, yeah, I don't know. Do you know what Fanatics Fest is? No. So Fanatics Fest is, I was just at it on Sunday. But it's just like, it's like kind of like Comic-Con, but for athletes.

And Gagey got to do like the Fanatics game, which is like a celebrity thing, where it's like 50 pro athletes do it 50 normal people and they compete in a bunch of sports or whatever He said he won because he was good at golf. So the fucking guy won a Ferrari because he got second place Tom Brady got first he got a million dollars and then like a normal like non professional athlete got third place Got like 200k. Whoa, he's got a Ferrari. Yeah, dude golf Got him shit golf got him for this fucking Ferrari. I think he took shit Yeah, so he's so that kind of just enforced his addiction more than damn. He's that good. Yeah, he's pretty good

I mean for I don't know shit about golf But Daniel told me DC told me that he started off and he was just kind of okay But over the time between the Holloway fight and his fight with Fiziv He didn't do anything but play golf for a year So he played like 260 days in a row and he said his handicap just kept getting better and better and better and better He said the next time he played him. He's like, holy shit. He's really good now sounds about right. Yeah, make sense though He's a psycho. He is a psycho. Yeah.

Completely dedicated to something. And he's single. He's going to excel. If that guy gets his mind on something, he's going to excel. Yeah. He's a unique dude, for sure. I've really liked because obviously, you know, I started working with Whitman not too long ago.

I've really enjoyed getting to know that crew, like Trevor, Gachie, Kamaru. Trevor's a unique guy Yeah, yeah, all of those guys are pretty unique in their own way He makes the best fucking MMA gloves that have ever been made and the UFC should have bought them out a long time ago I think he wanted some crazy amount of money or something. I think it was like some nutty deal Unfortunate I know you know I know they should have just licensed it They should have just made some sort of a deal like you will sell the gloves you make the money

Yeah, let's just get the athletes the best gloves bought. They're so much better. They're way better. Yeah, the foaming them's really good I mean shape is better the protection of your hands is better Yeah, Trevor's one of those guys where I'm kind of similar too. Most things aren't stimulating enough. TV, kind of playing on my phone isn't really super stimulating to me. He's always doing something, so he's always making shit. But when I would go into Onyx, he'd just be in the back with this smile, working on the gloves every single morning that he's there. The style that they have is real cool.

People keep asking me when they're going to come out with them, and I think he's there and The style that they have is real cool people keep asking me when they're gonna come out with them And I think he's getting pretty close, so I just really wish that him in the UFC can make a deal I know cuz they try they spent so much time and money to develop those new gloves, and then they threw them out Yeah, I hate that too. I like the new ones. Did you I have really fit like my hands aren't massive like some of these guys The old ones are better for like if you have like a really thick hand, the old ones are way better. But I have a thin hand dude and those things used to fit me like perfectly. Because the old ones when you, when I would make a fist, they would stick out like this

much. But the new ones they would be like perfect. So I can make a fist and not have this like really awkward big space right there. But what is the, what's the issue with the new gloves? What did they not like about them? I honestly don't know. I think some people were just complaining probably because they were just guys with thicker hands.

Because that's what it would come down to. There was no other reason that it was... I mean the leather was different and stuff, but how important is that? It can't be that important. I think the whole idea was it was easier to close your hand so it was going to eliminate some of the eye pokes. They were a little bit curved but honestly I mean maybe I mean even if you bring it down like 10 percentages I guess that's saving 10% of people's eyes but yeah but I mean it was honestly I don't think it was like significant enough to be like oh no one's

gonna poke me in the eyes when they're wearing these things Well, I think the Whitman gloves would cover that because they're much more curved those ones were curved Yeah, I mean your hand is in a permanent position like this. Yeah, so for you to do that. It's an effort Yeah, which when do you do that? You only do that when you're blocking things or you know, maybe you know when you're sliding an arm under You know get a choke or something like that, but I don't think there was specific things or you know maybe you know when you're sliding an arm under like you get a choke or something like that but I don't think they're specific significantly bulkier yeah yeah I'm not I'm not too sure honestly I don't really

recall where I think that that was a while ago when they were doing all that so I kind of don't recall super close what the curved ones how impactful it would have been on grappling I think the idea of the new gloves was that people there weren't as many knockouts, which also doesn't totally make sense. That doesn't make any sense to me. They probably ran a number that was from like all of the years of the UFC and then maybe just when they started using the new ones instead of like just last year, how many knockouts.

No, I don't think they would do that. No? No, I think, but there were a lot of people complaining Said that they weren't hard as hard as the old gloves like should have brought you some yeah Oh, yeah, I mean I like me some of his and I was like these are the best gloves ever yeah for sure Just fucking a man work it out. I know they're good to train into like like you can actually feel like you could hit the person and not be like Sorry, you know because that's a pain in the ass when you always have to when you get like a stiff pair of gloves and then you

Have to hit someone and you're just like right sorry man. I know that you but with these ones you can fire away Yeah, yeah, yeah that how important is that and it's like having training partners that are that are Conscientious and they aren't gonna fucking blast you like though the miles that guys take off of the clock when they're Training is so big. Yeah, it's big. I think I don't I mean we spar I spar pretty hard still I know that like not a lot of people are crazy about that, but you don't get hit a lot though. That's true Yeah, that's the thing is you're slick. Yeah, that's like for a guy. Just like a fucking face first Yeah, you know, yeah, you know that's there's's styles that enhance longevity, and you have a style that enhances longevity. Because not only do you not get hit a lot, but you're also like, you're a puzzle.

It's not like, oh, here he comes. It's like, what's going on here? There's a lot of thinking that a guy has to do when they're interacting. You have so many feints and so many stance switches. Definitely. It's such a smart style, man. I love watching you fight. Yeah, thank you.

Because it's so, you can see that the fighter, if they don't, and by the way, they're probably not used to training with somebody like you, because there's not a lot of guys like you. You can see how there's all these adjustments that they have to make on the fly that makes you think. Yeah I mean I always really looked up to all of the defensive guys that I would watch. Like I know that in boxing defensive just winning the defensive battle is a big piece in boxing and the judges almost even score

a little bit for it but in MMA it's just like only offense scores. Right. So that's not really the way that I grew up thinking was good martial arts really. Cause some of my favorite guys were Mayweather, Perna Whitaker, Nenito Denaer, like all of these really awesome like movers that did a phenomenal job at protecting themselves. And, but now man, people, I feel like even more so now

people want more blood and more offense casual Yeah, yeah, that that shit drives me nuts. It does it just drives me nuts and and catering to the casuals I know fuck off like whenever someone like booze and then they separate people or stand people up. I go crazy And what are you doing? I know fuck the crowd This episode is brought to you by coho ever wish somebody would make managing money easier I know. Fuck the crowd. Because with Coho, it already is. Get two months free with the code ROGONCOHO and join over one and a half million Canadians making progress. Download the app today.

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Stadium on June 14th to the finale at MetLife Stadium in New York City on July 13th. And good news for any Canadian listeners out there, it's on Canadian time zones. Don't miss out, sign up for free at dazone.com slash FIFA. That's D-A-Z-N dot com slash FIFA. I think grappling is really hard to understand unless you've done it. Like striking is easy to understand like okay that guy hit the shit out of that guy more than the other guy hit him. Grappling is like it's a whole it's like super proprioceptive you know like a lot of what's going on in grappling isn't it's like hidden to the eye you know what I mean it's where am I sitting

my weight where am I doing this and and yeah, so it kind of just People just don't think it's cool. But when you understand grappling like it's amazing to watch Yes, you know like I'm a Rob for example, who's obviously a guy that I watch a ton. It's amazing Yeah, like he does such a good job with like the little nuance II things in wrestling. That's just like yeah that but it's hard to appreciate Unless you really understand it well It's hard to judge to yeah It's a real problem because there's judges that don't train and never have trained which is to me fucking crazy I know that's like judging a Chinese spelling bee and you don't speak

I know they don't understand that they understand when someone's on Chinese. Like, who's nose is fucking winning here? I know it. They don't understand it. They understand when someone's on top. Oh, he's on top. I know. But, you know, there's so many, like, near-submission attempts that I think should count. Like, like, I always go to the Olivera-Armand-Sarukyan fight. Because I think Olivera won

that fight. Because Olivera came close to finishing him twice. And Sarukyan stayed on top and he had a lot of control and it was a very close fight but I think those fucking moments where a guy is like at nine you Yeah, you got out of it, but still that that's big man that should count and Damage leading up to a ko or that doesn't lead to a ko is very significant the scorecards But a submission that doesn't lead up to a submission doesn't count and I don't understand that you can't just count damage You have to count like near falls or near near near subs. I agree Yeah count damage. You have to count like near falls or near near subs. I agree. Yeah, I mean

If you if you want to take for example to like even like a me and a TJ fight Like TJ was limping out of that cage and I was kind of you know, like oh cool You know, and I don't think that that should count for everything But like you're saying like the reason that he was limping out of that cage is because I popped his knee really bad You know like he had to spend the next 18 months making his knee better so that he could fight again. And I was able to fight, you know, pretty shortly afterwards. So, yeah, there's gotta be something to that.

Like if you pop someone's shit really bad, it should count just as much as a knockdown or something like that. What do you think about the idea of, uh, like 10-8 rounds for, like, things that are known, not just like, okay, this person won by a mile, but like in kickboxing they do, if you get knocked down in a round,

it's automatically a 10 eight round. You like that for MMA or no? I do, but if a guy is tuning you up for like the entire round and you clip him and drop him and he gets back up and he's still okay, I don't think that's a 10-8 round. I think MMA should be a completely different scoring system than a 10-point must system because I think the 10...

We just stole this boxing system, which is a great system for boxing because you only have two weapons and you only have your hands. You don't even have elbows, right? So think about all the different factors in MMA and we're limited to 10 points. To me, That seems silly I think it should probably be 10 points for each aspect of the sport like okay Who who landed more kicks who landed more punches who and then calculate all that shit up together? You know who had more takedowns who who landed damage from the top at all

It should be a comprehensive system, and I think there should be more than three judges. You know, when you have a split decision and like some of them are so crazy, you know, you see like a five round split decision and it's, they gave like four judges or two out of the three judges rather give like three out of five rounds and the other person gives them the whole five rounds rounds like this is too much Variability there's too much weirdness to it and if you're a fighter Especially in MMA because of the win bonus. Yeah, which also drives me crazy I think you if you had three more judges

So if you have six judges six judges would balance it out six good judges So the ones that fuck up and make mistakes they'll be canceled out by the better judges We could do like a submission or knockout only league. Oh, that'd be pretty cool. Then you definitely know who was winning that one What would you think about a no time limit? Yeah, no time limit submission or knockout only that would be wild That'd be pretty sick. Well, you can probably sanction that old-school UFC. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's UFC one Yeah, it wouldn't really pay off for me though. I need weight classes in order for me to fucking know my career We good. Yeah weight classes sure but but no time limit within the weight class. Yeah, that'd be sweet That would be pretty pretty pretty wild. Yeah, that'd be pretty you know, you know

Like two guys are facing off each other like and they know like there's no rescue You know like two guys are facing off each other like and they know like there's no rescue Every five minutes and you go into it knowing you're either getting knocked down or submitted or you're doing that to the other person Oh, that would be real but again the casuals would have a hard time with it because it would probably be a much more moderate pace or Yeah, or yeah, unless someone just tries to go for it right off the bat. Yeah, and that could be a strategy sure I mean it does work. Yeah, it's like there's so many fights where did you see the the past the Azerbaijan fight? I didn't watch those ones No, I watched Curtis's fight and a guy named Mohammed's fight on my team, but I didn't watch it. It was

Who was it Mota and the other guy from Azerbaijan? See if you can find his name Salikov fuck I Hadn't seen him fight before what weight class wasn't I think it was 45 Yeah, no it was lightweight yeah Sadikov and Nicholas Mota Nazim Sadikov and Nicholas Mota fucking crazy fight man It was so good that Dana white gave him double bonuses Oh nice, but Mota landed a 75 punch combination Like I'm not kidding man. He landed like and then Sotokov came back and stopped him

Oh shit was why I was like a wild fight like a fight like that were two guys just fuck and Mota like Basically emptied out the tank but Sotokov had fantastic defense just kept covering and moving as you get bombed on body into the head But he kept it looked like was getting close to stop nice. He comes back and see well Just take a deep breath whoo was wild yeah when that strategy works it works, but when it doesn't yeah And some shit, that's the problem., the blitz sprint and very few guys You know we were talking about Dechi and golf and I was saying that I'm scared of golf and you know You're like I don't have time for golf There's the thing that happens with golf is it takes so much time and it's so addictive that

It's gonna take away time from other stuff no matter what you do and when you look at a guy like I always point to Marab because the day after he beat Sean the first fight, DC went to his house to go talk to him and he was out running. The day after. Like there's a guy that does not stop. And that extreme physicality and that extreme endurance because he is just constantly working, that means something. It counts. If you take months off you take

You know like like this was the thing that I was thinking about with John Jones John Jones said he needed needed six months to prepare for Aspen all if he's gonna fight Aspen all so they were trying to Make a deal and then he decided to retire But it's six months because he's not training like at all. Mm-hmm He just doesn't train like in between fights, just doesn't train. Which, he used to do that a lot when he was younger too, which I always thought was crazy. That is crazy to me.

I always saw guys do that when I was in my 20s, and I would watch these really big fighters just not train, unless there was a training camp time, and I'd be like, fuck that, I'm never being that way. I don't know, man. That's like a really weird one to me But I don't want to bash it too bad because I do know a lot of guys that do do that But look at John great. Yeah, it's like how did he do that? I really don't know talented I don't know how that works like I wanted to make sense in my head that like the harder you work the more shit

You'll get from it. You know which is like true to an extent But then you have like these weird outlier guys That maybe have something more figured out than me that I don't have figured out or whatever But I mean that to me is like completely unacceptable in my head like I I think that I really hate when people say that they want to be something and then they don't do any of the Actions to like actually do that thing that they're saying that they want to be right So I don't get to walk around being like yeah

I'm gonna be a world champion I want to be a world champ real bad and then not do any of the fucking actions You know right then I'm just a stupid person. You know well I think John is just so fucking talented that he could pull that off. Yeah, that's the outlier It's like he was just so good. He was so good It just he just he could do it. He could he could party and still fuck guys up like when he said to Cormier at the press conference for the second fight. I beat you when I was on cocaine. I know I saw that

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That's BetterH-E-L-P.com slash JRE. This is the thing, when guys are that talented There's so much like they're playing with their food Essentially until you know like like I always point to with John the first Gustafson fight which by all accounts he didn't train Oh, really? Yeah, barely trained for that fight barely trained just partying Yeah, and beat Gustafson and pulled it off in the last rounds, which was really crazy, but then comes back in the second fight and is like, okay, motherfucker, now we're trained. And just destroys him. Just runs right through

him. Which God does he worship? Yeah, I know, right? And then like start going to that church. Well, I think it's just talent, man. it's also genetics like both of his brothers are super athletes Yeah, you know he's just a phenomenal specimen And then he's got a great mind for fighting his his it's you can't discount is in cage IQ because it's fucking phenomenal I do think two people have different wired brains to where some people need like cool down time in order for them to

Yeah, I don't know man. I really I don't know how it works. I spent a lot of time thinking about it I don't yeah, I'm more on the other end where it's like I'm gonna give every inch of myself to this thing right now in hopes that I get it one day but then I know a lot of guys man a lot of guys that are really successful that are just like Now man, I need my like off time. But that to me is really uncomfortable, but I kinda got a little bit, I don't like chilling, you know? Like me and my wife were just in Maui a couple weeks ago.

It's like the first vacation for seven days I ever taken like since I was a kid probably. Did you get stir crazy? I got a little stir crazy. I kinda liked it though. Like a piece of me liked just completely being like, oh my home, my like life doesn't exist back there. So I liked it a little bit in that,

but I didn't like the feeling of being completely, like turning my nervous system off completely. That was like weird to me. I like being like a little stressed or having something going a little bit all the time. It kind of just makes me feel like alive or something. I don't know, but I didn't really like that feeling I was kind of ready to come I like didn't like that

I liked it too. It'd be like if I started playing golf and I was like, oh shit This is fun. And then I got to like do that more and more I don't really want to get addicted to relaxing either. Well, the golf thing is a six-hour plus thing. That's true Yeah, when you're gonna like Jamie, you know, you're wack like Jamie's got a simulator out there So he's whacking balls every day. It gets you gets in your blood But the thing about like relaxing one thing that I do like about vacations is that at the end I'm ready to go to work. Mm-hmm Like when I when I'm done when that when it's like day if I'm on an eight day vacations day seven

I'm like, I can't fucking wait to get back to work. I don't wait to get shit going I don't get that you know when I was out there. I was like I could stay here forever Okay, I'll stay. I was like fuck home. I was like we can we afford this I was like let's just stay here Isn't that it's a weird thing about momentum right like when you're training really hard all the time you have this like Constant momentum in your head of improvement. You're like you're you're on the path you're in the process you know and you're feeling that and when that gets disrupted when guys get injured and they have to come back or they get sick and they have to come back there's like you got to like rebuild that momentum whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa and get it

going again so it's like a part of your mind you wake Up like time to go. Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with like the process of like having to kick back into camp You know and I do realize that it takes me about two weeks to get like alright This is my normal life again You know which is why I really like training camp and I really like fighting more than real life is what I say just because it's like organized I know what I'm doing I don't got to think about stuff I'm not traveling places people like traveling I hate traveling it makes me feel like my life is moving on fast forward which I don't really like I like feeling I feel most alive

when I'm in a routine and I have time to myself and I could sit and kind of reflect and all of that shit. But yeah, I... What is the difference between your training, like regular training, and then training once you get into camp? What is a normal day when you're not in camp for you? It's all the exact same, I'm just less competitive when I'm outside of camp.

And I won't, if I'm like beat to shit, dead tired, I'll miss a practice. But that's really the only time that I'll miss a practice. In camp, I won't, if I'm like beat to shit, dead tired, I'll miss a practice. But that's really the only time that I'll miss a practice. In camp I won't miss. Unless, I have like a two week rule, where if I'm like dragging really bad, I'll make myself go for another week and a half, two weeks, until I'm like,

okay, I do actually need a rest, you know? And then so I'll do that in camp. But yeah, but outside of camp is pretty much the exact same. I've been traveling a lot, which I really don't like doing. Just because again, like I don't really feel like I'm alive. I feel like I'm like fast forwarding

through a bunch of stuff. But it's been like useful stuff, like seeing family and then like me and my wife going on our honeymoon or whatever. so it's like normal life shit that I guess I got to check in and do every once in a while but if it were up to me it would just be like training camp life all of the time just because it's easier it's way easier it's fun it's easy I go to the gym I do my hard workouts I'm competitive as fuck I get to get that out of me and then I just

hang with my friends for an hour afterwards. When you say you're less competitive when you're just normal training like is that conscious like do you decide to be less competitive and why do you do that? I do that because I can't I think that if I'm too competitive I won't work on stuff like it like a lot of camp for me is getting better at stuff and then the last four weeks is figuring out how to win. It's not like, I think that practicing winning is just as important as being able to practice a certain skill.

So a lot of my camps will be developing those skills, but then like the last four or five weeks, it's just, I need to focus on winning each round, regardless of who it's against or whatever. I'm not like practicing a certain technique or doing anything like that. It's just win, win, win. Just doing whatever it takes to win that round.

Exactly, yeah, because that's an important skill to build. And when you're less competitive, when you're just training and you're not in camp, you'll try things, you'll be a little more playful, try to like sort stuff, try new skills. And I'm definitely not sparring hard as fuck like I do in camp to Like I won't do that outside of camp unless I got a guy that's been giving me a bunch of rounds in My camps and he has a fight coming up and and then I'll like gear up to give him a good one, you know

But no outside camp comp like just less competitive I don't show up as early and get my mind right before When I'm in camp every single sparring session that do, I try to put myself in the locker room while I'm warming up. I think that that's like, I've had a lot of success doing that. Just making my body make good decisions when I'm in a super elevated, high intensity state is something you got to practice too. I definitely won't do that outside of camp because that's a lot of energy So you visualize the walkout you visualize like stepping into the octagon all that

essentially, it's not as so I don't do as much of I'd more so go off a feel a little bit more now where I'll be like, okay I need to do this today because I know that I really don't want to do it. Or I'll be like, okay, this day, for whatever reason, I'm really distracted. I'll do a little bit more visualization, mindful stuff or whatever, because every day is different and sparring. As you know, where some days you're good to go right off of the bat and then other days you're dragging, it's those days that you're dragging that I make sure that I'm like, those

ones I'll be like, okay, fucking visualize because your body doesn't want to do this right now and I'll put myself in that state twice a week which is has helped a lot a lot a lot I know for a while you were organizing your whole camp right yeah are you still doing that no I don't do that anymore that has actually been like a super significant piece in one my life getting a lot better and then two, I think that like it, I think it's going to transfer over really well into my next few fights. For a really long time, for a lot of reasons, I was like really micromanage-y over my stuff.

I don't like when people do things for me. Like I kind of like live in a way where everything is my responsibility and if I fuck up, it was like on me regardless of what happens, which is like a fine way to be, but also it's not like crazy realistic either. But that's just kind of the way that I am, just the way that I grew up. Like it was kind of like take care of me type of thing,

you know, and if I'm messing stuff up, it's on me. So I was like that for a really long time. It was actually after the Umar fight where I realized how in the way I got of myself in that fight. How so? Overdoing it from insecurity a little bit. Like that was my first camp with Trevor too.

And Trevor's a phenomenal coach. I've known him for a lot of years. He has a lot of champions. There's no reason to doubt any of what he has going on or my other coach, Carrington Banks, or anyone really. But because I kind of have this mindset on life or did used to have this mindset on life where it was, hey man, like manage everything,

like make sure everyone's doing their work, like blah, blah, blah. Like after that Umar fight, I really got into, I was like, all right, fuck it guys. Like I messed that one up, I felt like, because I was trying to be too micromanage-y over this thing. I started getting outside of myself.

You guys take over. And the reason that I did that wasn't necessarily because I lost, it's because I'm coaching a couple Professionals now and coaching a professional is different than coaching an amateur It's like it feels like a lot more responsibility And I realized what was happening when I would try to help these couple guys that I was trying to help is that they They are too close to it the same way that I'm sure you get too close to your art as well like in comedy too close to it, the same way that I'm sure you get too close to your art as well, like in comedy, you're too close to it sometimes where you don't really, you can't see things

from a perspective that is like true and real because you're so locked into what it is that you're doing. I really big time realized that that was a thing in my other guys. So when I would try to help them and they'd be like, hey man, like, I don't know, like they'd kind of get a little bit argumentative. I'd be like, you could keep doing that, but I'm that but I'm a thousand percent sure that I'm right about this You know, but do your own thing and I started to realize like oh fuck. That's what I do all the time I gotta stop being argumentative and just shut the fuck up and listen if I really trust these guys

Right, and so I started doing that big time man, and it made my it changed so much stuff for me I forgot who you fought your last fight. fought Figgy last that's right yeah yeah so that's essentially the same position that you got in with TJ yeah yeah 50 50 and what that that's like you're this this is all Ryan Hall stuff right yep and so you're putting him in a position where if he doesn't know what you're doing and he tries to get out of it He's gonna blow his knee. Yep, essentially. I like 50-50 a lot because one I get to learn it from the guy who Essentially invented it and is the best at it in the world

The only guys that I feel I can beat me at 50-50 are guys that train at 50-50 um, and so it's kind of like what it feels like 50-50 the position and just kind of leg locks in general if you really know how to do them in MMA Are a spot that you can pull people into and have them be completely lost Because they have to think what do I do now and you're already moving? It's super niche to like understanding the position is super niche It's like judo almost a little bit in wrestling, where it's like, okay, cool, if this guy's gonna just wrestle with me, great,

but if this guy has good throws, that changes a lot of the way that I have to do things. I can pull people into these really niche spots, where I know that I'm gonna win them. So 50-50 is one of those. It's kind of like what Jiu-Jitsu used to be a little bit before people started to understand Jiu-Jitsu. But now people fully understand jujitsu,

so you don't really get to catch people in guillotines or whatever, but 50-50 and a lot of the leg locks and a lot of stuff that Ryan teaches me and does is so niche that you would need an absolute expert to understand it, and I get the fortune of having that. Yeah, that's awesome. He's so fucking smart too. That dude is just like his analysis of jiu-jitsu

and the way he's broken down different positions. It's really exciting to watch. Is he fighting? I know he's had like nine surgeries or something crazy, right? Yeah, it's like closer to a thousand. But yeah, I mean, he's doing good. He says he wants to fight again.

I hope that he does. Why is he having all these surgeries? Like, what's going on? I think it's just one of those things where, like, you let one thing go and then another thing breaks and then another thing breaks, and you kind of, like, are taping yourself back together, and then one day you wake up and you're like,

shit, I gotta, like, take care of this. How many, what are the surgeries that he had? I'm not sure specifically. You name it, he's probably had it. I've never heard of anybody having How many, what are the surgeries that he had? I'm not sure specifically. You name it, he's probably had it. I've never heard of anybody having that many surgeries. There's a couple knee ones, a couple shoulder ones. Honestly I quit asking after a certain point. But yeah, I think that he's kind of coming back.

Ryan more than anything, I'm like a super conceptual thinker. Like I don't really like details. Like I don't remember names of stuff 19 General anesthesia first of all that is so bad So bad for you to go into general 19. Can you go back up there? What it says there? It says tearing his ACL the following years and many surgeries you just a specialist wasn't out of the woods just yet That is so crazy

Okay, so we had to fix a planter plate, so that's his foot, got fallen on again, had to have a tightrope surgery, the one that Pat Mahomes got and a lot of other people have had. I don't know what that one is, do you know what that is? Tightrope surgery? No, no idea. ACL got infected, had to have a couple of septic oh septic arthritis. The tightrope is actually allergic to the hardware they put in me some, oh my God. So you had to have that redone. Boy, came to injuries he said completely bulletproof

for 15 years until his training camp for teporia where he tore his hip right before the fight. Tightrope is used to stabilize ankle. Oh, wow, that is crazy. Yeah more than half the surgeries of ones where oops we screwed up let's do that again. It's six elbow surgeries and five knee surgeries. Holy shit. Holy shit. Yeah I don't like taking any type of medication ever so that would probably really bother me having to be under that much it would probably really fuck me up.

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Voighton, Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash audio. General anesthesia's very bad for you. It's kind of scary, dude. It makes fucking scary. I've, it's kind of scary dude. It makes fucking scary.

I've only had a couple surgeries. How many surgeries have you had? Like under the knife, like had to go under. Um, three knee surgeries under the knife. Uh, I think those are the only general anesthesia ones that I've had. It's kind of, I get really, I've only had to do it for my elbow. When I tore my tricep. You tore that shit off the bone, right?

Yeah, it was pretty fucked up. But you still won the fight. I did still win the fight. That was like a whole fucking thing though. I got bursitis in that elbow because I got a bunch of loose floating bones and shit in there. So then it just swelled up really bad and every time I've gotten bursitis I've gotten really bad staph infections in it.

Yeah, because I mean you got to think it's just like sitting pooled Oh, yeah fluid in your body And then you're still in the gym training and it gets like in your bloodstream or whatever it just like it's like a swamp And then it just wasn't that what happened to Ben Askren wasn't it a staph infection that turned into a pneumonia. Oh really I don't know Is he doing okay? I never not doing okay, man. He needs a lung transplant. Oh really? I don't know. Is he doing okay? I never heard. He's not doing okay man. He needs a lung transplant. Oh fuck. Yeah he had I think they call it necrotic pneumonia. So essentially it was rotting holes in his lung tissue. So they had to put him on a ventilator and apparently one of his lungs is just gone and they have to replace

it which is, that's so crazy because then you have to be on medication for your entire life because your body wants to reject the lung because it's not your lung. So you have to take these immunosuppressant, so now your immune system is severely suppressed because you have to take immunosuppressant drugs in order to have this. I have a friend who had a heart transplant and he's all fucked up because of it. You know, it's just like you're always worried about getting sick because your immune system is very compromised. Yeah, that's gonna change his life.

Oh my god. I mean he's still in a medically induced coma, I believe. I think he's out of the coma now, like he looks at people and he can kind of talk a little bit. But I mean, this is all going on for many, many weeks now. And I think what happened was he was feeling like shit, and he didn't know how bad it was, and he went to a Bitcoin conference. You know, he traveled, and then it got real bad. And then he realized, oh, this is serious.

So it was a staph kind of inside of his lung? Can you see if you can find that? It started with a staph infection. That sounds like it would really hurt Staff infections by themselves hurt really bad. I couldn't imagine having it in your lungs where you're breathing into I don't think enough people pay attention to staff I mean how many guys like fight and they're on antibiotics it happens all the time Rob like when Rob fought umar apparently he had staff on his shin and he was on

Antibiotics when he fought so did the type his shin and he was on antibiotics when he fought. So dude, the type of antibiotic that I was on, I forget the name of it unfortunately, but the reason I tore my tricep was because that antibiotic made my ligaments super shitty, pretty much. Which, because dude, like I should never tear my tricep. I'm pretty sure it happened when he was comoring me. Dude, that shouldn't happen, you know?

Like maybe something else, but definitely not tear myide trisept. So that's when it happened and then I was like, yo, what the fuck is that about? Like that shouldn't happen and then when I read into it a little bit they told me that that specific antibiotic, it doesn't mess with your respiratory stuff, like your conditioning as much, but it makes your ligaments just really not good. Oh that's terrible. I know. And then you have to fight. Yeah. Which is crazy. I know. Last camp I didn't get one dude I was so happy. I didn't get sick. How many times have you had staff? Not too many times but man so this time with my elbow

against Font I got it really bad. I was on one round of antibiotics for seven days or something and then it came back immediately bad. I was on one round of antibiotics for seven days or something, and then it came back immediately, so then I was on it for two more weeks, and then I got off it the week before the fight. So I was essentially on it for, like, a month, which sucks. And then, uh...

And then against Umar, I got it really bad in my knee. Like, super bad where, uh... I'm not a crazy anxious person dude, but I finally got to like experience what it was like to have a panic attack because I was in Virginia training, got it. I was like, something's up with my knee. It hurt really bad. Couldn't put weight on my leg. This was probably like a month before the fight, maybe, maybe a little bit before that five weeks or so I got a really bad knee

infection. I started a really bad knee infection I started taking the antibiotics, but they told me like hey, man If this doesn't get better like if you start taking these antibiotics and tomorrow, it's not better We need you to cut it come in we're gonna cut your knee open and clean it because that's how they take care of it and I was like sure I was like I'm not coming back here You know like I'm gonna take these antibiotics. Because otherwise you can't fight. Then I can't fight. So yeah, so that was a shitty situation,

but just pretty much really bad, maybe three times. Three times, yeah. Yeah, three times, maybe like pretty bad. Yeah, it's such a scary thing because it fucking kills people. Yeah, it does. Staff gets systemic, gets in your bloodstream, and you can die. Dude, that's why I think I freaked out really bad with my knee is because I remember laying

in bed and being like, I called my wife and just set the phone next. I was like, hey, until you get home, can you just be on the phone? Because I'm kind of afraid I'm about to die a little bit. It was really, it got like really scary there. Was it swollen? So it was an external abrasion? It was super swollen, yeah, it was super swollen. No, no, no, it wasn't an abrasion one.

It was like inside of mine. So it was internal. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, so that really wasn't good, but I remember every time I've taken antibiotics with the staph infection, my experience has been that it gets really painful

and a lot worse for like the first few hours when the antibiotics kick in and start killing it. And then it starts to get better, but the first couple of hours is like kind of scary. So when I first started taking the antibiotics, that's when I called my wife, because I don't take a lot of medicine.

Like if I take an ibuprofen, I will feel that shit working through my entire body. And yeah, so I like took the antibiotics and I started to feel it through my body and I was like This is scary and I was like hey like Take it home. Let's be on the phone because I'm afraid I'm about to pass out and die here I didn't want to go to the dock and then get cut open and not be able to fight because that fight had already got Cancelled and shit. So yeah, I know we're always putting tough spots I know but sometimes you just got to do that sometimes you have to cancel a fight

And I know nobody likes to hear that but I know it's still different than boxing boxing you get so few fight cancellations You know it's much less, but when you're wrestling when you're grappling You're you're constantly getting kicked and punched and you're fucking You're doing so many different things the odds of you getting injured are so much higher I know Gordon got staff for a fucking year Like that's why his stomach is all fucked up Gordon Ryan was on antibiotics for a year and his internal gut Bacteria his flora is just torched. Damn.

He's just a mess. Damn. He can't keep food down. He has this like constant fight or flight reaction in his body where he wants to vomit all the time. And he's going through training camps and beating everybody in grappling matches against the best in the world. That's how good he is.

Yeah. Like with staff for 12 years or excuse me 12 months and then on top of that this Lingering stomach thing because of that that no doctor seems to figure out they can't fix it He's gone to like every fight. They've given a bunch of different shit He's tried peptides and this and that and you get a little bit of improvement. He starts training hard again comes back Yeah, there's probably some like old lady in the Amazon jungle that knows how to cure that shit I told them just eat this stupid I told them try like a seven-day fast try something nutty like yeah like only avocados diet there's gotta be something it's gotta be

something but I would think like a fast where you just have to like you're just completely let your gut reset yeah I mean I don't fast where you just I feel like you're just completely let your gut reset Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Do you do those? No. No. Yeah, I've done a day Yeah, I've never done like the long one Dana just did a long one. He did like three days It was awesome. So by the end of you feel fucking amazing Yeah, I did the three day one and then I was like fuck dude. I was just hungry for three days Feel like a superhero at all. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, maybe it's variable.

The one thing that I'm really big on is I like won't fuck around. Like I'm really in touch with what's going on usually with like my body and stuff. I'm really big on, I don't know why it doesn't get talked about more, but like digestive, like things that mess up my digestive system, I don't mess around with like bread pizzas too much cheese

stuff like that like I fucking terrible for it is dude every time I eat pizza I like can't shit the next day it's not it's not even pizza it's American pizza it's our wheat our wheat is poisoned really is it's sprayed with folic acid and it's fucking all the nutrients are pulled out of it. There's glyphosate in the wheat It's like that's what's really going on. It's also a re-engineered wheat. So it's got more gluten more complex gluten So it's got a higher yield per acre. So your body's like Causes all this inflammation when I go to Italy I eat pizza with I eat a whole piece. I feel great Oh really good shit nice the next day feel great

I never have a problem shitting, but I do feel bloated like I get my gut swells Oh, yeah, I'll eat a giant bowl of spaghetti or something like that, and then I look like I'm pregnant. Yeah, it's horrible Yeah, I don't miss her hair. I feel so tired Just like I got shot with a tranquilizer and Darley, but I'm so dumb. I keep going back. I know dude It's hard not to do you're just like surely this will work this time. It's just it's so delicious Like I see a plate of lasagna. I'm like fuck it. We're going You know, but I know what I'm getting into when I do it. I know I don't I actually don't get like that anymore I have like a weird relationship by food now where that shit is just fuel to me kind of yeah when I'm like low in

Weight I get cravings but right now and I'm like just kind of good not hungry not like overdoing it and stuff I don't really feel like I get too many crazy. Do you have a nutritionist or anything like that? I use a nutritionist inside my camps. Yeah, she's great her. What's an average meal for you? Um I Wish that I like actually gave a shit so I could follow and actually be more helpful There's two things I really don't care about it strength and conditioning and nutrition I'm like just like tell me I like don't explain it to me. Just make me do it Just tell me what to do and I'll just do that thing But it's actually a lot more food than what you'd think and I can lose a lot of weight when she has me do it

She do it Trying to think what it is. It's more so a lot of carbs more towards the end of the day. Like before, because I really don't sleep good usually when I'm really training a lot. My nervous system is like not ever down. So at night I'd usually won't sleep well, so I'll eat like a big bowl of oatmeal at night. Everyone is kind of different. What I will say though that I would big time recommend to fighters and stuff is after hard workouts drinking dextrose or Gatorade with like some electrolytes, if you have multiple workouts in a day that's a giant game changer. Like because there's a little bit of a window from my

understanding, I don't really know how this shit works, but there's a little bit of a window where it's like 45 like 20 to 45 minutes after you're done working where your body will just take sugar and put it back into your muscles Right and so I'll drink a shitload of sugar after like really hard workouts like really hard sparring sessions Like 50 60 grams of sugar, which is insane, but but not when you're training that yeah Not when you're turning that hard may whether drink soda Yeah, he drinks like he'll drink our coca-cola after training and it's probably good for yeah, it's probably good for you You know when you're training that hard like it's not like, you know people that all sodas bad for you Well, sure if you're just drinking soda, but if you're fucking running marathons or something crazy like that

Are you doing something like really? Exhausting it's really good for you right after a workout. Yeah, definitely. Especially if you have multiple workouts. Like, that's one big thing that she does that I added in. In the morning, it's like a pretty balanced thing, though. It's like not like no fat, no carbs. It's like nothing like that.

It's like a pretty balanced... It's a lot of protein. What's the sources of protein? It's a lot of protein Was the sources of protein I drink a lot of protein shakes I get it I'm like a part owner in this company called vegan So I just get like a shitload of protein for free pretty much as I drink protein so it's vegan protein It's vegan protein the other ones kind of mess up my stomach a little bit like the just the ones that are made out of Like milk and oh like way yeah way once you fart like crazy? Yeah? Yeah, those ones Yeah, I'm if I drink if I take something

I almost immediately know if it's gonna mess with my digestive system And I can't be having that while I'm like rolling around with yeah, I know there's certain protein bars like yeah Peter at T has this great protein bar called David. They're fucking so delicious Mm-hmm, but whenever I eat one I have to like go outside My farts is not bad. Yeah, I think what be in the house. What is it the fiber the protein? I don't know what's in them. They're delicious. It's low calorie high protein. I think it's like a small bar It's like 30 grams of protein. Mm-hmm, but whatever it is just make your body just say Fuck this. What is this your body's just like, fuck this, what is this?

It's just, I genuinely think that anything that does that to you can't be ideal. It just can't be good for you. So I'd rather just eat a piece of steak or something like that. That's better for you. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. When it came time to make a website,

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Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Yeah. But I also have different cravings in camp too. Like outside of camp, I'll do a little bit like more fruits and stuff like that instead of a bunch of rice or potatoes or whatever. You don't have fruits when you're in camp?

I still do, but it's not as much as you think like it's like maybe a cup cup or two a day. Mm-hmm I'll do that. It's not a ton of vegetables, but it's like specific vegetables because I've been getting a lot of staff It's like ones that counteract like staff stuff. She's do you like take fermented stuff like kimchi things along those lines? That's a piece of it fermented stuff is good it's like a decent amount of garlic stuff like turmeric stuff that garlic apparently there was a study that was done with garlic with like external staph infections and it's as effective or more effective than antibiotics yeah I believe that yeah garlic fucking kills everything there's a reason why like a lot of people use it in their food,

a lot of cultures use it in their food, it's to prevent food poisoning. So dude, when I got the knee infection staph, I was like, all right, I'm just gonna try to kill this with a bunch of garlic. And dude, I was taking like 10 or 15 garlic pills, like the high potency ones. Dude dude after about two days of that. I shit out every single piece of shit inside my body that ever existed The ones that were up in the attic just chilling bro all of it came out

I was like a little hack there You know so maybe you don't have to fast for three days You can just fucking eat a bunch of garlic and shit everything out Why did you go with the pills and not the cloves? It's more convenient like just eating garlic. Yeah eating garlic. I don't know if I would do that I eat garlic clothes. Yeah, you cook them. No. I just eat them raw okay, because it feels like it's doing something All right, if I'm not feeling good. I'll eat garlic I'll eat like raw cloves like three or four cloves, and your body's like something. If I'm not feeling good, I'll eat garlic. I'll eat like raw cloves,

like three or four cloves, and your body's like, whoa. Oh really? Yeah. They don't give you indigestion and stuff? A little bit maybe, but really what it does is like it feels like you just took a drug. It feels like you took a medicine. Really? Yeah. All right. How many you eat? Four? Three, four. Yeah. I'll try that. Some fat fat clothes just chew them down. They taste nasty Okay, like why you're eating. I feel like I've tried that yeah But I mean I think there's something to like ancient medicine like people been taking garlic I mean obviously it has something to do with taste thousand year old onion and garlic eye remedy kills Mercer Thousand years old whoa look at that cool. That's the recipe right there

Cool language, what at that cool ass language. Is that the recipe right there? Yeah, it is. Look at that cool language. What is that language? It's an Anglo-Saxon manuscript. Whoa. Look how wild that language is. What language it is. People used to draw so- Old English, I guess. Wow. I guess you can probably read it.

So, astonished to find an almost completely wiped out, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus. How do you say that? Staphylococcus? Yeah, I always try to say that. Staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as MRSA. Their findings were presented at a national microbiology conference. The remedy was found in Ball's leech book, an old English manuscript containing instructions on various treatments held in the British Library In that wild man like there's stuff that works that like people been doing for thousands of years But people dismiss it as being voodoo. Yeah, you know what else is a cool one, too

Is like a tip I do you cramp up a lot ever no I take a lot of electrolytes Okay, I used to I used to but then I really I drink element like almost like every day basically My PT a long time ago recommended that because I used to cramp up a lot if spicy food I guess makes you not cramp up as much. Oh really? Yeah, so like about ten years ago when he told me that now I love spicy food, and I don't really need to force myself to eat it, but when he first told me that I started eating a bunch of spicy stuff, and I stopped cramping up much. Maybe that's why I don't cramp up. I eat a lot of spicy food. Yeah that might be why because they have these little things

that the UFC gives us too called hot shots where if you're cutting weight you're supposed to drink it and it's pretty much just cinnamon and cayenne and like some other stuff. Yeah it's supposed to stop you from cramping. It works though. No kidding I wonder what the mechanism is of that. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I love hot sauce So I have my own like kind of hot sauce like senior lechuga made like a little line of three hot sauce All right, nice for me, but how does spicy foods prevent cramping? Okay, science is simple if your neurons are too busy firing off to your mouth They won't have time to bother cramping up your mouth

That's crazy Look over here found that spicy drinks help prevent these short bursts of muscle cramps He teamed up with the biotech company to produce a product that can be sold online and found on the shelves at select stores. Hot Shot, there it is. A drinkable shot mixed with ginger and cinnamon, Iron Man champ Craig Alexander is an avid user of the supplement along with several other Rio Olympic runners. Interesting. It works, dude, because the second I started doing that I stopped cramping up.

I still get one every once in a while. It's not like a hundred percent thing, but it works. Yeah. Yeah, muscle cramps must be brutal when you're cutting weight, right? Because you're draining your body of basically everything. Yeah Yeah, I don't my weight cuts. I'm pretty like I kind of got down to a science a little bit I don't really cramp super bad. How much do you cut like a week before I try to be like 16 to 18 pounds heavy over And then I'll lose that last bit that week but I'll walk around if I'm really fat like on vacation and shit not giving a just not caring I'll be about 162 when I'm training good and like all of that I'll be about 157 158 and

then I just got to lose until I'm about 52, 51 the week before. And then that week, I lose the rest. The week is a calorie restriction in the beginning and then water restriction? Or how do you do it? It's a decent. So 10 days away, I start loading up on water. The rule of thumb is however many pounds you got to lose, that's how many pounds of water you'll drink that day.

So if I have 16 to lose, I'll have to drink two gallons of water. Also, don't take any of my advice if you're listening to, because I don't really fucking know. I know that water drink two gallons of water. Also don't take any of my advice if you're listening to because I don't really fucking know. I know that like water shit can get really scary so I don't, you know, like people chugging distilled water have like killed themselves and stuff. Yeah, distilled water, is that what you drink?

No no no no no. Yeah, that's not good for you. Yeah. But yeah, ten days away I start loading up on the water and then on the Tuesday, so we weigh in Friday, so however many days before that is, on Tuesday, you'll cut the sodium. And then that pretty much, you lose a lot when you're chugging that much water and cut sodium.

So I would say on Tuesday, a lot of it is water. And then it's kind of up to me how crazy I want to go with food. I'm obviously not eating like super huge meals that week, but I don't let myself get too hungry. I'm pretty good about a lot of stuff where now I can kind of be like, if I go to bed at like an eight amount of hunger, instead of like a seven, I'll know almost exactly how much I'll lose the next day,

which is like kind of cool. How much of a performance hit do you think you have? I mean, obviously you're in phenomenal condition, but how much of a hit do you think you have? I mean, obviously you're in phenomenal condition, but how much of a hit do you think you have in dehydrating yourself 24 hours before a fight? Yeah, I think it depends on how much water you lose too. I think just off the top of my head maybe 15 or 20. 15 or 20 percent?

Maybe. So what would you think about if the UFC instituted more weight classes and they eliminated weight cuts? What if they said, because for some guys, it is the most dangerous part of the fight, because some guys go hard. Yeah, they do. Some guys are losing 26, 30 pounds within a couple of days,

and they just look like hell. Yeah. I think that the way to solve that because ones tried doing that with like the Rehydration tests and everyone that I talked to that's like been involved with that has been like dude. I could cheat that easy Oh really yeah But how do they cheat it? I mean, there's just like if you know that you're gonna get like hydrate tested at a certain time I'm sure that they probably just drink most of their water during that time or something like

that but then your weight would be higher right yeah your weight would have to be higher but I don't know that they like test you yeah yeah I guess I don't really know honestly but I mean if they're gonna test you when you do they test you like hey your weight has to be this, and then you're high? I think that they just go in and they're like, hey, how yellow is your piss type of thing? I'm pretty sure that that's what it might be. If it's like more scientific, then cool,

but if it might just be like, hey. It's gotta be more scientific because sometimes my piss is pretty yellow. It just meant I drank a lot of vitamins. I think there's like an actual test where they test the levels. I think that if you added in more weight classes, that would handle a lot of it. I'd probably just do 140. Would that be ideal for you?

That'd be pretty ideal. I feel like the UFC should have more weight classes, and I've said this for a long time. I think there's some gaps. They're crazy like the 85-205 yeah is nuts 20 pounds is nuts. That's crazy That's not that's three weight classes at least in between fights like that's in between classes rather. That's nuts I just don't understand that yeah If you I mean I think that the way that old sports kind of do things they do things for a reason so like boxing. Yeah, that's lean they all have like It's every seven pounds or whatever it is. They see like oh too many champions that way. It's too confusing

I'm like, what are you talking about? It's one UFC champion per weight class Yeah, you'd have more champions and then you could also have more champion versus champion fights Yeah, because it wouldn't be like Ilya going up 10 pounds is not too crazy. But Alex, when he went from 85 to 205, that was pretty crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. That's a big ass jump, man. Obviously, he could do it because he's one of the craziest weight cutters of all time.

He was fighting 85 and weighing in at 226 the day of the fight. What? Really? Oh, yeah. When he fought Adesanya, he was 226 when he got into the cage Is that 41 pounds or 31 pounds and 41 pounds so after 36 hours you put on that 41 pounds Yeah, holy shit. Holy shit. It's crazy. He's also giant. He's an enormous guy It's like a lot of body mass yeah

And apparently it's easier to cut weight like yoel romero style like when you're that muscular because most of the muscles water Which is kind of counterintuitive you think like a fat guy would you could be able to lose more weight? But no, it's actually to dry out the big muscular guys can lose more weight. Yeah, definitely Yeah, I have a theory too like the more ripped you are the easier it is to sweat too Because if your muscle is like muscle then fat then skin then skin, and you gotta like, it's gotta travel through the fat. This is how I fucking think. There's no evidence of any of that.

Because there are some fatsoes that sweat, but I don't know. Sometimes I'm like, I can just see who's gonna be a good sweater and who's not, but that's probably me just being fine. Yeah, I don't know if there's any science to that. Makes sense in your head though. Kind of. Makes sense in your head. I kind of see what you're saying.

I kind of see what you're saying. But you could also, I guess, make argument that fat makes you warmer too. Maybe that sweats it out too. Yeah. But I don't think that there would be a problem with doing multiple weight classes, because then you would just have like what you do in boxing,

where you just have like a ton of, you have like one dude with like eight belts. Right. That would be cool. Like look at Pacquiao. Yeah, he just keeps going up in weight classes And yeah, I think that it just be better for the athletes and I think it'd be better for the sport in general You're still gonna have like incredible fights because the level of competition Particularly at the lowest weight classes, is so high right now. I think your weight class, featherweight, and lightweight are the most competitive weight classes in the sport. There's almost too many top contenders where guys are forced to take fights that maybe you really shouldn't take that fight because you're kind of entitled contention and then,

oh, you lose a close decision. Fuck, now you're back to the drawing board. Now you've got to fight this guy. Oh, you got injured in camp. Fuck, you lose a close decision fuck now you're back to the drawing board now You got to fight this guy. Oh, you got injured in camp fuck you lose to that guy, too Now you're set back when you could have been a champion Yeah, you know it's there's a lot of like weirdness going on with possibilities and You know just luck bad luck and good luck bad luck and good luck timing. I think is a thing

Like I think that I'm pretty I was even saying this before the figurative fight I was like watch like if I go out and finish figgy Which not a lot of people are able to do The timing of everything is gonna be perfect for me because there will be no one else and that's and that's me also You know coming off of a loss from umar just a year ago Which anytime you lose kind of devastating you're like oh, it'll never happen for me You know, but then it's like, oh wait, no, if this thing gets timed out right,

you know, like it could work out. So a lot of the shit is timing. You lost though, but it was a competitive close fight. Yeah, I know, I fucked that one up. What did you think went wrong? Like, you just fucked it up. More than anything, okay, it was like a, it's never just one thing.

It's always like things get compiled and then they exponentially get worse. One big thing was I knew I was fighting in the Middle East and I wasn't gonna get like a nod if it was a close fight. And Umar is a defensive guy and I'm a defensive guy. And I knew that it would be, there was potential for rounds to be really close. My game plan wasn't gonna be to take him down.

So anytime you're gonna be like, hey, like I'm committing to striking. There is a little bit of a level of rolling the dice because one striking matches in a five minute round are really hard to like hammer down and be like, I won this round against really high level guys. That's my opinion. I thought that I would be able to stuff most of the shots. I was like, OK, most of this thing is going to be done striking. I need to have big moments in order for me to feel like I'm really winning these rounds so that there can be no argument that I'm losing.

If we just are point scoring each other, which Umar is good at and I'm good at, I'm kind of rolling the dice a little bit and kind of leaving it into the hands of God knows who the judges are. A piece of it was I didn't want to lose another close split decision. a little bit and kind of leaving it into the hands of who God knows who the judges are, you know. So a piece of it was I didn't want to lose another close split decision. Like a lot of my losses or a couple of my losses are just close split decisions. And I'm like, fucking man, I'm not, I'd rather just go for it than lose, you know. But that pulled me out of my game plan.

And just the way that I typically fight, like I'm not the guy that hunts for knockouts, you know, I'm just not that guy. And so I just got pulled out of my strategy. I got really frustrated in the fight by it not working, like me not being able to have really big moments. And now looking back I'm just like, man, what were you thinking? Like just go out fight like how you do and you'll do awesome. What do you think specifically like you would have done different in exchanges? I would have fought him the exact same way, you would have done different in exchanges? I would have fought him the exact same way that I would have fought the first... Like that entire fight, I was being really defensive and just looking for one big shot.

In the first round, I didn't fight like that. The first round, I was cool with point scoring. I was like, okay, this guy's going to wrestle me. Let's see how good he is at wrestling and if I can hang. Once I was like, oh, okay, cool, like I can hang. Then I just started going for big shots, which is just like not a good way to beat a really high-level Guy, it's kind of a lazy game plan. Honestly, like If the plan isn't to completely outclass the person and win in every area and be good enough to do so in My opinion that's just like not an expression of the highest level of martial

arts. That's a little bit lazy, you know, and I was, I was a little bit lazy and maybe my approach to that, which maybe lazy isn't the right word, but, um, I could have done a lot better at just trusting myself more, being more confident in my ability to just be like, no, like I'll beat him everywhere, you know, looking for the big shots is always such a trap until it's not, not and you look real cool Yeah, oh my goodness. We all like looking cool Yeah, you lay on the big ones and you've landed a lot of the big ones

Yeah, you've had so many of those moments like the Frankie Edgar fight or you know There's been quite the Marlon Marais fight that was a wild one. That was a great one That was probably like my happiest moment maybe ever in life That was a wild one. That was a great one. That was probably like my happiest moment maybe ever in life Just because I had just come off the most embarrassing loss ever against sterling and they were like hey you want to fight the number one guy in Abu Dhabi during kovat and I was like and That was like kind of back when Marlon was still a really scary guy He's kind of been on a skid since then but back then he was real scary and I was like I don't know if you guys are setting me up for Marlon

Knock me the fuck out or how this is like what the thinking behind me fighting the number one contender is. But I was like, yeah, cool. Like if you guys are gonna give me that shot, I'll take it for sure. And then when I finished it, I was just like, yes. And you finished it with a wheel kick.

Yeah, which I, during COVID was practicing in my basement with my wife, like every day. Isn't that stupid? I was like, why did I, I was like, man, you should have asked me for a cut. Percentage. No, because it's a thing where, you know, if you don't expect it from a guy who doesn't really throw a lot of them.

Yeah. You know, and so like you see his foot turn, and you're like, what's going on here? And before you know it, it's too late. Yeah. And that heel is headed towards your dome. Yeah, people that are good at those too, it's a problem. Oh yeah.

Like that doesn't need to land anywhere specific for it to like rattle your brain enough to knock you down. Oh, it's a terrifying kick. It has so much power. Yeah, if there was one thing I would not want to get hit with, it would be that. My, during my Tae Kwon Do days, I used to feel like I was always gonna be fine.

Like I'd be, I was like, I felt like, you know, I was young, I was 19, I felt invulnerable, and I was really good, and I fought in the nationals in California, and I hit this kid with a wheel kick and he never got up, and he was snoring. Like out faceplant, out cold, taking off in a stretcher, taking to the hospital, and I never felt the same about fighting again.

Because I was always scared that that could happen to me then. Because I was like doing this for nothing. There was no money. I was doing this for nothing. I had no health insurance. I was poor. And I was like, what am I doing? Like this is like, I could have easily got hit by that same kick.

But I was better than him, and I landed. But there's guys that are better than me And if they hit me like that Face down snow, I mean it was my heel hurt for days Yeah, I was limping the next day my knee hurt after the Frankie. Oh, yeah. Oh really? Yeah Yeah, yeah, but I kind of felt a similar way where I don't know I guess you kind of just get used to that where you're just like, but you're a professional Yeah, that's your sport. That's your your living. This is what you do for me I was a young kid doing this thing that I was really good at and it just gave me like some sense of purpose

And then I was like what the fuck man So how like so you didn't have like big aspiring dreams to be like a taekwondo champ or anything? I had dreams to be an Olympic, to go to the Olympics. Was that like a realistic dream? Yes. You were that good? Yeah, I was that good. I had won national tournaments and I had beaten guys that had been in high ranking and I

had a very close decision that I thought I should have won the year that the taekwondo made it into the Olympics against the national Champion cool, so I was good. It was really young so I was getting better all the time Yeah, but then I started kickboxing and when I started training in kickboxing I realized that taekwondo was kind of bullshit because my hands sucked and I would spar with kickboxers And I was getting you know cornered in the ropes And I just I didn't have the skills and I would spar with kickboxers, and I was getting cornered in the ropes, and I just didn't have the skills. And I was like, oh, this is like, I have this distorted perception of my ability to fight

based on my ability to fight in taekwondo. I was really good at that, but then when I started boxing and kickboxing, I was like, this is like that piece that's missing in taekwondo without the face punching, it nullifies so much of what taekwondo is good at. But then when I learned that stuff, I realized like, oh, but I have a massive advantage with my legs, because they have to close the distance with me and I can do things they can't do. Like regular kickboxers, I was

amazed at how many of them were just kind of boxers who learned a few shitty kicks, and they would stand on the outside and they would take a step forward and I'd just blast them and they just had no idea what to do, like a really hard kicker. And then I started doing Muay Thai and I was like, fuck, leg kicks. And so I went from American kickboxing above the waist to Muay Thai, I was like, there's too much to learn.

And then I was doing comedy at the same time so I just quit fighting. I gotta get out before I get hurt. When'd you start grappling? When I was doing comedy at the same time, so I just quit fighting. I gotta get out before I get hurt. When'd you start grappling? When I was 30. Cool. Yeah, I started grappling right at, I guess I was 29.

It was right after the first UFC. Did you wrestle at all or anything? Yeah, I wrestled in high school, but only one year, because I was doing takwano at the same time, and I had to pick one. And I did a year of both, and then I was like,

the problem with this is, I'd rather kick one and I did a year of both and then I was like the problem with this is like I rather kick someone and knock them unconscious like that's it was so To just whack and hear the whole crowd go silent was the wildest thing. Yeah, and watch someone cry I fucking loved it was my favorite thing in life and I was like wrestling is cool. Like it's good to know It's good to be able to pin people, but there was no UFC back then. So it's like everything you were doing was just like, you had to find a thing and get really good at it. But the disillusionment of going from taekwondo

to boxing and kickboxing and then to Muay Thai and then jiu jitsu. So when I started doing jiu jitsu, I was like, oh my God, I'm fucking completely helpless. So I had this thing in my head, well, at least I know, I know how to leg kick, I know how to box now, I'm fucking completely helpless. So I had this thing in my head, well at least I know how to leg kick, I know how to box now, I know how to fight. Oh my god, I'm tapping out constantly.

And so then I was like, fuck, I gotta learn how to do jujitsu. But it was this thing where I feel real fortunate to have grown up in a time where no one knew what was the best style and then see the UFC emerge in 93, and then watch this incredible transformation of martial arts, where martial arts advances more in 10, 20 years than it had in the last 30,000 years.

It was incredible to watch. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad that they did it, man, because that's such a cool question, is whose martial arts is the best martial arts? No one knew, man. It was all, and we were all delusional I was so delusional like I remember I used to do

Tuck window with a friend of mine we were kickboxing at the time and we were doing at this gym where these judo guys were And I was like these idiots this stupid judo. That's useless. Yeah. Meanwhile, I had no idea if those guys got a hold of me I was fucking helpless. Yeah, cuz judo guys will slam you on your head Those guys got a hold of me. I was fucking helpless. Yeah, cuz judo guys will slam you on your head Dude rolling with judo guys like I remember I rolled with caro parisi once I was like he's like a chimpanzee He was so strong like it didn't make any sense So we were roughly the same size and he was just ragdolling me around like there's something to Throwing all the time, you know, you're taking, if you're a 180 pound guy, you're throwing a 180 pound person

over and over and over again. And your whole core is just fucking primed for that. Boom! And their balance and their ability to adjust your weight and use it against you. Watching it in the Olympics is awesome. Cause they'll like spear their own heads. Oh yeah.

That's crazy. I like watching that shit. That's like, I'm like, oh my god next to yeah oh you'd have to do like the way that they land on yeah so many of those guys like you see them later in their career they got like one small arm fused discs and they're just like I did a good job fucking great career you You can't even walk man. It's nuts every taekwondo guy I know has like one super strong oblique And they're like shaped like this and well you got to learn how to kick from both sides. That's so important

That's one thing that I really admire about your style because I think that there's there's gonna be a time where that is just Ubiquitous where everybody switches because there's so many guys that are just like oh he's a Southpaw oh he fights Orthodox like man that's just leaving too much to predictability yeah I think about striking like a dance dance revolution game where like because you're making all the reads with your eyes it's like left arms coming at me move like right leg whatever it's not like grappling we're grappling we get to interact with each other and feel each other and move each other that way. And I can pretty much sometimes do it with my eyes closed.

Striking is done mostly with our eyes, so we have to do like these dance dance revolution-y and like, okay, react to everything that we're seeing. So if I'm just switching my stance and now you have to like read the sentence backwards. Exactly. It gets really hard, you know? And um... Especially if you're just as good with both sides. Yes, yes. And I would say that if you're starting, you don't need to be like super stellar at both,

but just have a couple good attacks to do from your other stance and then just like build off of there or whatever. I got, I started switching stances, one, because I really liked watching Nenito Denaer, who wouldn't fully switch, but he would have steps like that where I was like, oh, cool. And then also, I dislocated my elbow really bad about a week and a half into training, just landed on it, posted, dislocated it. And so I could only, or that was my left arm, so I could only use my right arm. So for six months, I just went lefty and only used my right arm

As like my lead hand and that's how I got really good at it Yeah Just forcing yourself to just constantly be in that position because everybody wants to be in the position with her the most strong Especially if you're trying to be competitive and sparring right? That's like it's what's so important about like the Gracie's always talk about keeping things playful Like learning how to like not don't try to win you're trying to develop your skills and to be able to switch I think like TJ in his prime like when TJ fought Henen Baral that fight to me was one of the best Championship performances that I ever saw I agree because nobody thought TJ was gonna win that fight

Henen Baral was thought to be the number one pound for it was him and Aldo Yeah, would people make the argument or who's the best Henen Barerao was thought to be the number one pound for, it was him and Aldo. Would people make the argument of who's the best. Henen Berao was, I think he was undefeated or maybe had one loss early in his career. He was an animal at the time. Animal, animal. Animal, and TJ pieced him up.

And it was like he was sparring. He looked so in the zone and relaxed and he was constantly switching stances and footwork and angles. Yeah, Dwayne flew me out for that fight because that's when they were training an alpha male to be TJ sparring partner for one of those fights I'm almost positive it was that one and I remember the whole time I was like This isn't gonna go good for TJ You know because Burrell was just that guy at the time that everyone was afraid of and then when I watched it

I was like oh shit. That shit really works good I uh I used to train in the Netherlands a little bit too with Andy Sauer and those guys oh really yeah so that was really cool but there's it's like traditional like you stand in one stance like this is how we do shit here you know yeah and I was like switching stances I was probably like the the gay guy at the gym a little bit you know like being kind of flamboyant and like show-offy. And so I remember going with some of Sauer's good guys and just good guys that we would spar with. And I wouldn't really get hit that much.

And I was like, oh shit, this actually works. Like this isn't just some like Foo Foo whatever stuff. It's crazy that Dwayne developed that style, but he didn't fight that way. Yeah. That's what's crazy. Yeah. Like Dwayne developed that style, but he didn't fight that way. Yeah, that's what's crazy Yeah, like Dwayne had like more of a traditional he always boss root and inspired style And then he realizes like, you know

The best way to fight is actually to constantly be changed and then he develops this system and you know Dwayne's like super focused. I know you know this but yeah for people don't know Dwayne has like a focused. I know you know this, but for people who don't know, Dwayne has like a notebook like fucking which is filled with notes and it's all like he's got systems. This is his life. Yeah, it's not like what Adesanya likes to call button smashing when you're playing a game. Like no, it's very systematic. And TJ, I think in that Henenborough fight was the greatest expression of what Dwayne teaches. Yep. Yep. Yeah, that was a super amazing fight. Yeah, just switching. I mean, just simple little stuff, you know, like it's a lot of striking is just like how coordinated you are like that's like a big piece of striking and then

Can I just overwhelm you with information like that's like a strategy to run, you know, some people choose like Okay, I'm willing to take a few to like land my big one, you know That's like an okay strategy. It works for guys like Ilia and stuff But Ilia is not that easy to hit. That's true, too. He has like a way way good guard He rolls with stuff like the Josh and Mitt fight. Yeah, you know He like takes the he like slides away from stuff and these big bombs are coming his way He's doing like the highest form, like intellectually he's doing that style at its highest expression with the strategy

of I'm about to knock you the fuck out. Which shouldn't be everyone's strategy. Well, you have to have that touch of death. Yeah, that's true. And he's got that God given power. His power's fucking crazy, man. It is crazy. Trevor's actually helped me understand

why it works really good. So, okay, so not to get crazy technical with it, I guess. Let's get technical. Let's get in there. All right, cool. So squared and bladed stances. When you're in a squared stance, you can move really good left to right. That was most of my career was being like, I came from a basketball background. I know that I'm very quick and agile and I can move left right really good if I just keep my hands up whatever it'll be fine probably you know so a lot of squared stand stuff is I'm just gonna cut left right overwhelm this person with all of my

weapons and angles and always constantly make them move off of the things I'm doing and not the other way around. That's good but it's really hard to get a ton of leverage in anything that you're doing when you're standing square. Like I can't, like if I'm going to throw a ball, I don't throw a ball like this. I throw a ball like this. Right, you have your shoulder behind the other shoulder. Yeah. So squared stance is super good for being agile, moving left, right, and overwhelming people with the amount of attacks that you could throw at them.

Because also, if I'm standing square, all of my weapons are really available for me to throw. It doesn't take, like, this is faster than this. Just because it's like six inches closer or whatever. In a bladed stance, you get a fuckload of leverage. Because if you watch Ilya, he's always standing like he's about to throw a javelin and that's pretty much what he's doing is just like and this is kind of like the science of boxing a little bit like I said that Trevor helped me with so I'm a lot more bladed now than I was

because now we're trying to get like some serious leverage on stuff because five round fights moving the entire time fighting these really good wrestlers it can get to the point where it's like, it just gets quirky and just like a little bitchy looking, you know, and like, I don't really wanna like tap people to victory, you know? For a long time I would compensate in being like, all right, but I'll have wheel kicks, knees and elbows.

And that like took me a decent amount of ways too, where it's like, cool, now I can finish guys like that that also but these bladed stances where you can make a shitload of leverage with them are really cool I think finding a balance between the two is really awesome Ilya is like only and that's just my expression of my martial arts I want to be like the jack-of-all-trades guys and be able to be like oh you're that style I'll just archetype you in this style but Ilya is like always ready to throw javelin and he's really good at closing space with his lead leg Like he'll like jab hook and really creep his lead leg near and then just bomb a right hand because he is a shorter guy

But he never seems like he's having that much of an issue getting super inside Well, it's gonna be interesting seeing him at 55 that will be much bigger guys Like think about more Mauricio Rufi Yeah, that's 55 or and he moves good and has leverage and he's fucking gigantic. Yeah, how tall is Rufi? I mean, he's got to be 6'1". Maybe 6'2", and he's 55 and he's not thin Yeah, I mean he's lean, but he's not like scrawny. He's got muscle He's fucking huge for 55. Yeah some 55 and Ilya as powerful as he is he's not that big It's gonna be interesting to see because cuz of this 10 pound 10 pounds is just like it's a lot of weight man

You know it's like when you're dealing with a hundred and fifty five pound person It's a significant percentage of your body weight especially when everyone's cutting like 30 pounds I don't know what roof he cuts, but when I see him walking around he looks like he's 190 pounds Yeah, yeah, you know like Islam Islam's fucking huge. Yeah, he's big Yeah, when I interview him in the cage afterwards. I'm always like how really how are you? 155 yeah, how I know how he's you 155? Yeah. How? I know. How?

He's thick as fuck. He's got a giant back. Yeah. And when he gets a hold of guys, it's like he's just got this leverage, this grappling squeeze that it's... I remember when he fought Drew Dober and like when he got Dober down to the ground, I was like, that's a wrap. Yeah.

It's a wrap. As soon as he gets on top and then he starts clamping down and squeezing and guys Are just like all of air was tapping like the moment it was on yeah fuck this Yeah, a lot of those really good grappler guys They're strong definitely, but they're really strong at closing up all of the space Like I can if you let me get an underhook like I could feel pretty strong like even if you're much bigger than me I'll like make you take a couple steps back which really shouldn't happen but if I just close up all of the space which I think is a big component of being a really good

grappler is being able to be like nope that's my space you don't get that this you know and you're not gonna get inside of mine I can feel strong as fuck you know and yeah those types of guys they're just so used to being so compact and never letting anyone get inside their arms or wherever it is that they need to get that it's just, it's like impossible to feel like you can move them. I feel like there's two types of being strong in grappling. There's being strong in like, I don't let you move me. And then there's strong in I get to move you really good.

And the good, good guys get to do both. Like if I can grab you and move you Really easy. I'll feel really strong if you grab me, and I feel like a rock. I'm I'll feel really strong And I think that some people do both of those really well, and then some people do one or the other really well But those types of guys like the islam's they do both really good Yeah, and he's also his striking has leveled up significantly I guess striking is much much better than it was when he's younger was he's just he's a threat everywhere like when he knocked Out volk with that high kick. Yeah

crazy, but granted If I was in volks corner, I would say no You're not taking it you've been fucking drinking beer and eating kebabs like there's no way you're taking this fight on ten days notice I don't care how confident you are. I don't care how much you like fighting. That's a crazy thing I don't care how much money they're paying you because you look at the slide that his career took right he Arguably won that first fight with Islam very close fight loses a decision or was it a draw? It was a decision shit was it a draw. That's actually a good question. I think he lost. I think he lost.

I think he lost too. Either way Islam keeps the title. Was it a draw? Why do I think it was a draw? Maybe one judge had it a draw. Maybe it was something like that. So super close fight with the pound for pound best fighter in the world ten pounds up. Everybody's like Volk might be the best pound for pound fighter in the world. And then he takes that fight on 10 days notice, gets head kicked. And then he comes into the fight with Toporia,

what, four months later or something like that? Compromised, clearly. You got head kicked, shin to the dome, stopped, unconscious, and then you've gotta fight the scariest fucking boxer in the division and you get knocked out. So then this big slide. And then he comes back full year off and you see against Diego Lopez looks like the bulk of old looks like he's back

Yeah, I would like to have seen that bulk versus it Ilya yeah, that would have been an exciting fight Yeah, was the decision second one was yeah, KO okay, so it was a decision Yeah, yeah, I feel like the casuals like to exist in a world where oh no If you're if you're a better fighter, then you're just a better fighter but it's like no man like If I have three months to train versus two weeks to train like that's giant difference giant like giant I don't do zins. This isn't a sin. What is it? I just don't want it's like I just started taking them They're called they're like they have 50 milligrams of caffeine in them. They're called NZ ease. Oh, yeah, I've taken those those are good

Yeah, they're like those. I like those um they're brain stimulants. Yeah, yeah, I got one car that I got that I bought called alpha That's pretty good although. I did kind of get a little annoyed that they ripped off alpha brain It's you know I like these these are great to these gummies these alpha brain gummies are fucking awesome Yeah, I don't do caffeine anymore. That's one thing that I stopped. Well, I do like this amount of caffeine I do like 50 milligrams of that just 50. Okay, so I could see small cup. Yeah, you know, it's crazy is so Um, I didn't drink like a lot of caffeine or whatever I would drink like a coffee in the morning, like normal people.

But dude, what I learned is, cause once I stopped, I immediately had way, way more energy. Or maybe not immediately, but like 10 days, two weeks afterwards. And you know what I looked up, bro? Is that I already have like low iron, but I noticed, or I looked up,

coffee gets in the way of iron absorption Really? I yeah. You have low iron. Do you eat red meat? Yeah, I eat a lot. It's like a genetic thing My mom has super low. I think it's like a ginger thing Yeah, we're just born Caffeine can inhibit iron absorption primarily do the presence of tannins and other polyphenols in coffee. Dude, I swear this has changed me big time. So now I do the mud water stuff where I drink all the mud water. I like matcha still, so I'll still do like 50 milligrams in the morning. But dude, the coffee I stopped and I immediately started feeling way better.

And I don't know how many people don't know this, but this is a thing, bro. I'm a coffee junkie. I know. I have a real problem. It tastes good. I still drink decaf sometimes because I really like the taste of it I take days off of these things like what are those? This is a breakers Lucy's these are nicotine I like them when I do podcasts I like them before I do stand-up, but I take days off because I was like boy my addicted to these things

I'm fucking sucking on these things all day long, but I took a couple days off like no I feel fine Yeah, I feel fine, but I've taken days off coffee and I'm like brrrr yeah yeah it takes like a week or so I'm falling asleep in the morning just like yeah I honestly don't think everyone would have the same experience I did I think it's because of the iron thing that makes a lot of sense man yeah drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages with a meal associated with 39 to 90 percent reduction in iron absorption. Dude, it was great. Yeah.

So bro, this is how I found out. It wasn't like I was seeking this. I take an iron supplement in the morning usually because I have a little bit of low iron. When I stopped drinking coffee, one of the signs that you're taking too much iron is that you'll get like an iron metallic taste in your mouth. And so about two weeks afterwards or whenever, I started tasting that taste in my mouth and I looked it up and that's what it was. So I stopped taking the iron supplement because I was actually absorbing the iron from my food and shit. Oh wow.

Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. Fuck, I might have to try it. Yeah. It was kind of rough though. Oh yeah, I bet. Yeah, it was kind of rough though. Oh yeah, I bet. Yeah, it was rough. It was like, I quit everything at that time just because I was like getting, like my body was getting anxious.

My mind is pretty much like stupid the whole time to life, but my body will get really, I'll just like notice different shit. I'll just like be more tired or anxious or whatever, you know? Well, you're so in tune. Yeah. A fighter is probably, out of all the professional sports I think a fighter probably is the most in tune with her body. Probably. Because there's so like

the consequences of not being in tune are so grave. It's so different than any other sport. Definitely there's a lot of ways to get hurt and we have to watch what we actually eat in most sports you don't really have to do that It's just right like we're super kind like food the relationship with food for a fighter is way way different than I think Almost everyone else on the panel when you like out of Sonia never cared about his nutrition never took care And there's some people like that older. Yeah, and then he got older he realized like hey, I've got a really fucking do everything I know dude I used to I used to be able to just down a chipotle burrito with all the hot sauce on it and then just train Afterwards like it was nothing and now I can't do that which kind of sucks

Yeah, that's also youth God to me when you're really young you can get away with anything He really can't I used to just be hungover rolling in and just like fighting the hardest I know easy how much you can get away with when you're young. But it's like, the other thing is like, hard training for long, prolonged periods, years and years and years, you get all these little micro injuries, those little things, things start slowing down. You're just demanding so much of your body. If you're not taking care of your nutrition, it's like, are about this or not like what are you doing you fucking six hours in the gym

and then you're eating pizza that's crazy I see people fuck up their weight cuts all the time just because after they cut weight they want to eat like an asshole and I'm like what are you doing dude you literally did for eight weeks you were the most disciplined person in the world and now you're eating cake the night before the fight you're an idiot dumb yeah so dumb I know take the night before a fight. It's so crazy Ilia famous Lloyd you said he only did it twice But he was and they made it seem like in the countdown shows that he did it a lot

Yeah, he would drink wine. Yeah, his weight cutting. Yeah the whole time. I was watching that I was like he doesn't do that every time I was like come on. This is like media stuff. You know I was like You're not convincing me that he does that. You know? He did it twice, he said. And he said, but I was like, what am I doing? Sounds fun. Bet you got drunk as shit off of one glass of wine,

which is probably pretty awesome. And you were probably, it probably tasted so good too, being that dehydrated. And then you're dehydrating yourself more because of the wine, so it probably aids a little bit in the water cut, because it does dehydrate you. Yeah. But then that hangover when you got no water in your body

Yeah, I don't fuck with hangovers anymore. Dude. That's why I stopped drinking. I stopped drinking I guess it's like close to four months ago. Mm-hmm, and I used to have days where I would get it You know, I'd work at the club do stand up have a couple drinks and the next day I'd be working out going Oh, yeah, what did I'd be working out going, oh, what did I feel? I was like, that's just life. Just deal with it, drink your electrolytes, get through it. I have no days like that now.

That's nuts. Even if last night I only had five hours of sleep, but I worked out this morning, I feel fucking great. All the bad days have gone away. I'm like, you moron. You're poisoning yourself for decades. It's kind of like I'm like you moron. Yeah, I know poisoning yourself for decades I felt too. I'm like, so now I'll still go out and I do social shit and just not drink I'm like this is just as fun. You idiot. I know I was like you could have just been doing this the whole time

No, that's the thing is like I thought you missed it Like I remember boss rootin telling me that I quit drinking and not just as much fun. I'm like, right Yeah, just as much fun. Yeah, like, right, just as much fun. But it's true, it's like you're having fun because you're with fun people and you just haven't laughed. So you don't have to be drunk to have fun. Yeah, unless you were me in college. Oh yeah?

A little bit. I think a big piece of me thinking drinking was fun is because I would just do really stupid, crazy shit and so would my friends. And and then we just talk about it the Next day like hey, that was so stupid and crazy, you know, but now that I don't do any of that stuff I'm like this isn't fun anymore. Yeah, and a professional athlete to you. Yeah, it's like this is just not good for you Yeah, it's punishing yourself. Yeah at this age. Unfortunately, they told me my whole life. It was gonna happen and now it's happening Well, it's just becoming wiser too you know that's why like I

when you see that John Jones thing I'm sorry sure you saw the police cam did you see that? I did recently I didn't know if it was old or... No it was a new one. Like this week? Yeah that's a new one he's drunk on the phone talking to the cops and you're like oh no. Yeah I don't know the details of it was he driving the car who knows yeah I just girl in the car said he was driving the car was wrecked and John was gone and she ratted him out John Jones did it and then John's on the phone with the cops and apparently allegedly threatened the cops mm-hmm he was on the phone which is not good yeah not good and he's already got a history of running from accidents. Yeah

Yeah, I hope he gets whatever that is. I hope that he figures it out. You know yeah I hope so too, but you know it is what it is yeah some people yeah, they like riding the lightning, bro He liked riding that lightning yeah, and I think that's one of the things that made him so good too because he was so wild It was just a wild dude. And he just genuinely didn't give a fuck and really had this ultimate confidence. And so skillful and so smart. But eventually, one more drink, then like that, that, that,

and then your body is just like not what it used to be. And Aspenol is a fucking beast, man. I know there's a lot of questions, never been out of the first I know there's a lot of questions never been out of the first round a lot of questions But never been out of the first round because he fucks everybody up in the first round like that's a factor Yeah, you know yeah, I really wanted to see that fight, but also at the same time. I kind of I appreciate it I forget which interview it was recently, but John was pretty honest in it He was like look man like I don't want to fight up-and-coming tough guys he was like I want to fight guys with seasoned champions that have names and I was like that could also be interpreted

as you don't really want to fight kind of the best guys that there are right now you want to fight like a certain category of fighter who you're comfortable fighting but you don't want to fight the guys that are tough and that are saying that you're going to win. And that's okay, but that's essentially how I interpreted what he was saying in different words which I appreciated the honesty. Well it's also money fights, right? Because I think he's wrong because I think Aspinall's a star.

I really do. Yeah, I do too. And I think he's saying who is he, he's no one. Aspinall is a star. I really do. Yeah, I do too. I and I don't I think he's saying who is he? He's not no one Aspinall's a star when I get when people ask questions to me all the time like casuals on the street Is John Jones gonna fight Tom Aspinall? It's constant. That's like the constant question to me The real fight would have been John Jones versus Francis. That's the real. Yeah if I like clearly I'm not

responsible for making decisions because I would have made a lot of different decisions and I would have like, Francis, let's talk. Let's work this out. That guy's a star. Francis is the fucking scariest heavyweight of all time. Yeah, that's a star. You know, like that guy as the heavyweight champion is so fucking marketable. He puts people in the orbit Yeah, you know, he flatlined steep a he flatlined Alistair. He flatlines people. He's fucking terrifying like that's the heavyweight champion and for that guy to walk away from the belt and then almost beat Tyson Fury and then get knocked out by Anthony Joshua and then To come back and destroy that dude in PFL What's his name again?

The big tall Brazilian dude that he ground and pounded into unconsciousness mm-hmm Ferreira that's right. Okay that guys. Oh yeah. Yeah that guy was oh yeah. Yeah, they're really jacked Yeah, and he's the guy that KO'd Ryan Bader in the first round. He looks phenomenal. He's terrifying. And Francis just destroyed him. I'm like, that's the guy. That's the guy. And everybody knows that's the guy.

That's the fight that... That's the big fight. It's a shame when that shit happens in the sport, dude. It's the worst. I hate it. I hate it. I see it happen all of the time, and I can't help but think a lot of it is like hopefully it's just maybe money business stuff but I really I think that some of it is ego and that's kind of what I try to drift away from. My philosophy on

winning the belt has always been if I can't beat whoever it is, if it's like a number 10 ranked Umar or if it's a number two ranked whoever, if I can't beat that person is, if it's like a number 10 ranked Umar or if it's a number two ranked whoever, if I can't beat that person then I don't deserve the belt and I don't think that I should get it. Like it clearly doesn't represent what it represents if it doesn't mean that I beat all the best guys on the way to doing so. Right. Not everyone really has that philosophy and I get it because once you start involving money and then money is taking care of your family which is what you know is kind of an excuse to be greedy sometimes for people it just kind of it's just never really been my

philosophy and I think that it's kind of a shame when that stuff happens because in my head we're doing two things we're seeing who the best fighter in the world is and we're getting people to watch so that the fans can appreciate something that I find to be the most loved thing in my life next to my wife, you know, so I Don't know. I think it's a shame when that shit happens, especially when it's like a an ego thing But also at the same time, I don't really think that that's too much of what John Jones is doing I'm more speaking in terms of's too much of what John Jones is doing.

I'm more speaking in terms of what I kind of see in other people. I think John Jones also has to have some level of awareness around, Tom's a young guy, and we age, you know? We age, and that's okay. John's not a natural heavyweight either. That too. I mean, John still could make 205. Yeah, yeah. Even in his heavyweight fight, he John still could make 205 yeah yeah yeah

even in his heavyweight fight he looked like a little soft yeah yeah and like 240 and a little soft is I mean think about how much per era cuts right he got that weight like he could still make 205 and might still be the champ at 205 yeah you know which is kind of wild yeah and Tom Aspinall ain't making 205 that guy's fucking huge Yeah, and Ghana was not making 205 Francis would cut to get to 265 natural sure which is just bananas Yeah, he's a fucking hulking man. Yeah. Yeah, he's a scary dude. How do people get that big genetics man? So what it is genetics? Yeah, I mean that's just pure genetics. If I was that big I'm playing a different sport, bro Playing hockey

Hockey or fucking baseball or football but football the brain damage you get in football is significantly more probably than the brain damage you get fighting You like hockey? I do. I like watching it. Hockey's pretty cool. Yeah, I like hockey culture I don't really understand the game because there's too much going on right now Or like when it's happening, it just like looks like a chaotic mess sometimes to me Mm-hmm, but I recently started watching it because a dude from the Avs I'm getting I've been like seeing him at the gym a little bit He's been training a guy named Nathan McKinnon who's like one of the better guys in the league right now I've kind of been paying a little bit of attention because me and him will chat sometimes but dude hockey culture is cool like when they

score they smile and cheer for a half of a second and then they're all just like stone-cold killers back again which I really appreciate about sports because I feel like a lot of sports have become like like all of this top players are like really super starry like flambamboyant-y, like. The thing about hockey is it's never been as popular as football. I know. It's always been the steps on.

It's like not quite the same, not in the same, like they don't reach the same, you have a few Gretzky's, you know, Bobby Orr, you have a few guys that become national celebrities, but for the most part, there's not a whole ton of them that everybody in the general public knows about. So because of that, they're probably a little more dedicated, a little more humble, a little more on the grind.

They're cool. They're cool to me. I really like that sport. It's a very athletic sport, man. The fucking amount of energy that those guys expend, the speed. They're fast. Man, yeah the fucking amount of energy that those guys expend yeah speed their fast constantly sprinting on ice You know and maneuvering and gliding around those blades is incredible to watch you like any other sports. I like soccer I like oh you do so nice

You know when I really enjoyed soccer when I went to see a live match I was like oh and then I was talking to my friend Ed was one of the owners of the Austin Club here, and he was explaining to me like this, who's one of the owners of the Austin Club here, and he was explaining to me like, this is the reason why it never becomes popular in America. They don't take commercial breaks. There's no time for a commercial break.

The fucking clock is always running. Oh, I never noticed that. And these guys, these guys have legs, they're like fucking quarter horses. They have these fucking huge legs, and they're just running constantly. They're constantly sprinting. They have to be an insane shape Yeah, you know it's like as like someone who appreciates athletic performance like this is a crazy sport like a really demanding sport How many miles do you think they run every game? I don't know man at least four five has to be they're constantly running Seven and nine miles every game

They're constantly running seven to nine usually seven to nine miles every game That's bananas. Yeah, that's a lot. They're not jogging. Yeah, they're fucking sprinting seven to nine miles Which is when I did that time in the Netherlands that I was talking about I grew up playing soccer a little bit too But I only did it until like people stopped thinking it was cool and then I like switch to the sports I like did when you're growing up all of the goal is just to not be called gay and soccer didn't do that for you you know. That's so true. But dude just your entire existence as a kid is to not be made fun of and called gay. Yeah you were a dork if you played soccer. Yeah but oh dude when I went to the Netherlands and I watched some of those kids play,

I was like, oh, this is soccer in Europe because they were like 10, 11, 12 year old kids, just freaks, dude. And like crazy athletic. You could just tell that that's like what they do with their entire lives. And I was like, thank God I didn't choose that sport because I just wouldn't be anywhere.

Well, you'd have to go overseas. Yeah. And then the competitiveness of the the soccer over there or the football what they call it over there is so much higher than in America. You probably it would probably be a long adjustment to reach their level. Have you ever been to a game where there's all of the SWAT people and shit because the hooligans and stuff? No I've only been to the Austin games it's pretty chill. I went to one in Serbia where they had more SWAT police officers than there were people

in the actual stands. Dude, it was wild. I was like, dude, Serbia is more developed than this, man. People were climbing on stuff, throwing smoke bombs onto the field. I was like, bro, this can't be- Have you seen Serbia in basketball? Yeah, they're good at basketball. We played some clips of basketball games in Serbia

Oh, you see the crowd in Serbia. They go hard I know they the the cheering is like it gives you goosebumps like holy fuck man These are war like people and they're they're they're putting that kind of fucking her Same energy to basketball. Yeah, like boy when those guys come over here Everyone's fucked and you're kind of seeing that now There's a bunch of Serbian players have made their way to the United States and those guys are fucking badass They're ready to fight the entire time probably there's scary hard dudes man Yeah, you know which is like really interesting to see this influx of like guys from Russia

Dagestan Chechnya like some of these guys that are making theirestan, Chechnya, like some of these guys that are making their way into the UFC now, like these are fucking hard dudes, man. You know, it's really interesting. Georgia. Really interesting. Yeah, it's really cool actually. I mean, I really appreciate it. Man, I think that MMA and martial arts just in general

is such a fantastic thing for the world. And this to me has brought so many people together, kind of. Like I didn't follow, I didn't know what Dagestan was or Azerbaijan was or anything like that. It was 2014, so you know WKA, the organization, I did their national tournament and if you win you get to go do the world tournament for them in Italy, so I got to do that and won. And if you win you get to go do the world tournament for them in Italy So I got to do that and won and when I was out there a lot of the competitors were from all over the world and there was a place called Azerbaijan that I didn't know how to pronounce at all and they were whooping guys asses dude like bad like

spinning hook kicks like all kinds of crazy shit and I was like damn I hope I don't fight one of those guys, but The entire time I was like the second these guys start getting into the UFC and stuff, they're going to wreck a lot of Americans, you know? But I really like that. Just the UFC in general has done a good job, in my opinion, because they're really the only globalized, or one of the only super globalized where people from all over the world are fighting each other. I don't know man, it kind of feels like it brings

everyone together or at least for me like I can feel like I could walk into another country and have something super in common with someone which is just like a cool feeling you know. I think another thing that's really cool about it is when someone is elite no one cares what country they from they just love That guy you know it's like if if Adesanya gets in there No one cares he's from New Zealand everybody gets pumped if Pereira gets in there. It's Alex Pereira fighting You don't say you will say no. They're just fucking psyched to see Alex Pereira Yeah, you know so it's it's it's really great in that regard that you can become a true international superstar

And you're embraced essentially by all the nations. Definitely by America. I think that that's a big American culture thing too. Sure. Like we don't really care where people are from. Think about the Russians that are over here. No one cares. Yeah. No one's like, oh Russians, fuck you. Yeah. You know they're like, oh that guy's badass. Yeah. I wonder if it'd be the same in those other countries. I don't think so. Yeah. I bet not not Russia Definitely doesn't think I'm as cool as I think they're cool if I went over to Russia I'd be like fucking super worried. They'd poison my food You know like some crazy Russian like full Kim look this guy

You know and fucking throw something in your tea who knows you know like they're fucking they're hardcore Yeah, it's like America embraces, but we're a melting pot, right? That's the difference between this country and all the other countries is that we are consistent entirely of immigrants. At one point in time, everyone, unless you're a Native American, everyone was an immigrant.

So it's like, we kind of accept that people come from different parts of the world. Yeah, about 300 years ago, we were all like, let's go to this party. I know. Fucking party over there, man. We could do whatever we want over there. We don't gotta do all this bullshit

that we got going on here. It's kinda nutty in that regard. And you know, boy, it's worked out. Yeah. In a lot of ways. Yeah, I'm not really like a, I try not to be like too identified with anything or whatever or like be too nationalist.

But every time I think of like just how lucky we are to be from here, dude, it's pretty cool. It's pretty amazing. It is, especially when you see stuff that's going on with Israel and Iran and all of that stuff, it's kind of like, God, man, thank God that we're here. Even what's going on in the UK. People are getting arrested for Facebook posts.

Are they? Yeah, thousands. They still use Facebook? Fucking losers? Oh, yeah. What the fuck they doing using Facebook? That's how you know it's a political thing. It's all those old people. Yeah, thousands. They still use Facebook for users That's how you know, it's a political thing It's all those old people old people on Facebook my old friends from high school Like my old friends that I was friends with when I was like really young they are they're on Facebook

Yeah, old dudes love Facebook. My mom and dad are on Facebook. They argue about politics on Facebook Fucking miss me with that shit. Yeah, they post about which neighbors Yeah, I got zero time for any of that stupidity Yeah, but this you know this thing that we've done over here is allowing people to express themselves Whether you agree or disagree that is just so gigantic And what they're squashing a lot of that in other countries and that scares the shit out of me. That's what I was really scared about in this last election because because I'm friends with Elon, I knew what was going on in Twitter behind the scenes.

I knew how the government was stepping in and silencing posts and like this is fucking dangerous man. Yeah, because if they get a real grip on social media and you no longer can protest about things and express yourself about things including a lot of things that happen to be true like during the COVID crisis you people are getting their accounts banned for posting factual information yeah that that was scary to me because that's very very un-American you have to be okay with that for all the good and the bad that comes with it. Like you just have to. You have to be okay with people saying things you don't like. It's gonna come

with a lot of good and a lot of bad but you have to be okay with it because when it's your turn at plate like you're gonna want to be you're gonna want to have your opinion respected too. 100% and that's what people have to realize when it's so easy when like especially in this country all tech is primarily left and they have a very strong ideology this very progressive left-wing ideology which is like all over the tech world and when they were in control and they were silencing things I think the attitude was this is good because we're right and we need to stop these fascists or whatever we want to call them you know and but the problem is then what if the fucking right gets in place and they use the same rules that you used

On them now. We don't have a country anymore. Now. We're fucked now. We're just like every other dictatorship I don't really know how you solve it I've kind of thought about like how to like get to a place where there can be world peace and all of that stuff I don't know. I think that a lot of people, I know you've talked about it a lot, they get really attached to the egos and the identities that exist inside them and then they see the world from only that perspective. That's why I think that a lot of the old religions and the old echoed through time ways of being are to destroy your ego, eliminate yourself, be like this watcher of your thoughts and all of that stuff, and then start to identify with the watcher of what you think that you really are.

And then once you spend enough time doing that, you'll spend enough time realizing that everyone else has that watcher inside them, and that maybe they don't realize it yet, but they're still really connected to their egos that are really just a bunch of ideas that were indoctrinated to them based off of our environment or who we grew up with and all of that stuff and then you can start to love people a little bit more and absolutely it's it's kind of a shame that I just know that that's not super big in the West that idea just it's kind of an Eastern philosophy you know like be like we just meditate here.

That's just such a bitch-ass way to think about doing it. What you're doing is you're settling in to being able to watch what you think you really are and be like, hey, if I don't want to be that anymore, I don't have to be that. Or if that doesn't serve me anymore, I don't have to be that. This is one thing that I walk through a lot of my guys with

in fighting is it's like, you want to not be scared of something don't desire anything and don't be anything if you don't want to be scared because fighting fearless is a really big thing. I think that I do a really good job of performing really well because I'm not scared of a lot of things because I don't have a ton of egos inside of my brain as much anymore. I of course do because we all have to but uh but, once you start spending a lot of time with that watcher, I think that that's kind of why it always ends on the idea of love being the answer

is because once you spend time disconnecting from what we think we are, you always end up in the spot where it's like, oh, that person's that. They just haven't figured it out yet either, and I love them for that still. And that acceptance and love is empowering both to you and to them, whereas hate of other people, I mean, it might motivate you in some way,

but it's also crippling. What is that old expression that anger is the emotion that poisons the vessel that holds it? You're wasting energy. You're wasting this is, you're wasting energy, you're wasting life, and you're wasting your potential because you're thinking only in terms of negative all the time, and negative is never constructive. You don't have to.

You don't have to think like that to be successful or to be competitive or in any way. You can be empty. Yeah, there's a lot of energies in life that will serve you, I I think up to a certain point That just will stop serving you because it's just not it's not a Fuel that you can sustain for long enough, you know, did you develop this philosophy from reading? Did you we taught it like how did you fuck load of mushrooms?

Not a time. Are you kidding? Not a ton. No, I think that's the answer. When you were asking me what's the answer to world peace, it might be that. It might be because I mean, that definitely rips you out of your body and fucking scares the shit out of you sometimes, but. Humbles you.

Yeah, it does. Yeah, no, it's a lot of reading. It's a lot of like, I've been fascinated by religion my entire life. I was raised pretty, not like crazy, not like religious in like a dog of like, I've been fascinated by religion my entire life. I was raised pretty, not like crazy, not like religious in like a dogmatic way, but religious in like a, hey, think about these things type of way by my parents, which I'm really grateful because I developed a super healthy understanding of those types of ideas where they didn't feel like there was something I was

latched on to as much as they were things to be explored. And so it kind of started when I was really young. I'd just been fascinated by the idea of God, like in church when they're like, hey, you're going to burn in hell forever if you don't agree with this. That became number one priority from that day on, dude. I was like, hell? Once I could understand hell and forever, I was like, oh, okay. I was like, hell, once I could understand hell and forever, I was like, oh, okay. I was like, oh, okay, so nothing else matters in life.

Like, we gotta figure this out right now. So that kind of took me on like a really religious thing. And then after I lost my first fight, that was my big first experience with facing an ego that I didn't have control over. What was your first loss? It was against a guy named Jamal Emers, who's actually in the UFC now,

but it was pretty much just I shit the bed and choked. I would've got signed to the UFC and I just choked and lost. And I was supposed to in my head, and based off of what everyone around me was telling me, I was supposed to be this like super big prospect guy, blah, blah, blah. After I lost, I had to face that maybe that's not what I am. When you say choked, like what about your performance do you think went wrong?

I just didn't show up like the way, I mean I was five and oh, I was still really new to the, you know, being a professional and being able to perform under high stakes. If I would have won, I think I for sure would have gotten signed to the UFC just because I had been training with TJ. My word was around them a lot. It went back to when you didn't have to get signed by the contender or anything. They just would call you up on a day, but you kind of had to have a little bit of it in or be doing really well or something. So, yeah, so that was like my first big experience with that. I spent about that entire summer as much as I could in the mountains.

I didn't even really train because I didn't even know if that's something that I wanted to continue doing just because losing hurt my heart so bad. How did you lose? Just a decision, dude. It wasn't even gnarly. It was just like afterwards I was like, but I was supposed to win. It's like, what the fuck? It's like, someone fucked up here, man. I was like, I was supposed to win that. And so it was just like, oh, so maybe this universe doesn't revolve around me and my ideas and who I think I am and all of that stuff. And then so I spent a lot of time in nature, read a lot of books like Power Now, a lot of Buddhist stuff, a lot of Thich Nhat Hanh stuff, a lot of just

spirituality books, but just the overarching idea of separating yourself from your thoughts and your body and all of that stuff and just whether it's in our imagination or not, because I'm still not fully bought into any of that stuff, like I don't have any beliefs is what I say now, but I'm willing to entertain a lot of stuff and I want to believe something really bad because it would make life a lot Easier to like navigate through exactly the same way dude. It'd be so much easier if I just said someone come up with a great Call. Yeah, do it with a really great call. I'll join Like a really benevolent leader that really is

Actual real guru and it makes sense and no one's fucking everybody. I was gonna say Yeah, leader gets to fuck everybody yeah, yeah, the leader gets to fuck everybody and he wants your money Yeah, yeah, but if that could be avoided, but it would just make things easier, but it really wouldn't Yeah, you're better off without a real belief system, but sort of entertaining a lot of belief systems. I kind of land on this idea of, so I've been trying to write a comic book for the last couple years. Really?

Yeah, I know writing's a little gay or whatever, but that's what I spend a lot of my, Wait, is that gay? Yeah, it's gay to some people. It's like poetry. They're gay. Yeah, yeah. They're gay, if you're afraid of writing, you're gay. So I spend a lot of time writing.

It's like what I do with my free time instead of golfing But I'm like what kind of right like how do you write? Well for the last couple years It's been trying to write a pretty in-depth comic book, which has been really fun. Are you comic book fan? I'm a comic book fan, but honestly dude how it happened is I was like I wanted to come up with this really cool story I'm just an idea machine like I just think of ideas all day. Like, I don't have many hobbies. I think it's super fun just me hanging out with me inside my head all day.

Um, so I, uh... That's cool. Yeah, I came up with this really cool idea, which is essentially like a bunch of ideas from a bunch of religions that I really like, and then putting them into a story. And the story is Okay, we got some time for me to explain this. Okay. I think it's pretty interesting

But I haven't really like broken it down from start to finish really But I got into writing just because I wanted to make this story of mine Oh, that's what you asked me is it am I into comic books? I tried writing a sentence, like it started out in the August 5th of two, and I was like, fuck this dude, we're doing a comic, I can't write sentences. And I read good books, so I like know what a good sentence is. And I was like, oh no, that's gonna take way too long we're doing only dialogue and pictures and so that's why I started doing comic books although I do really like comic books too. But yeah so it's kind of this it's like a compilation of a lot of ideas that I like about religion inside of this world

that exists today. I actually put a conversation between you and Duncan Trussell in it. I'm not gonna do anything with the comic books so it's really fun like to know that I just have fun doing it like I'm not really... You don't plan on publishing it? Maybe but I think honestly it would take like another two three years for it to be super solid enough for me to want to put out there but there's a dialogue between you and Duncan Trussell. I really love Duncan trust So he's like one of my favorite people of all time I got to meet him at the Comedy Works in Denver pretty recently. He's the best. Yeah, he's really cool

I love that guy. Yeah, but pretty much it takes place where this guy Goes to the Garden of Eden that's being protected by these tribes people and inside of the Garden of Eden are these trees called Kali's where when you eat the fruit of them or you eat the crystals of them, you get teleported to a place where the sixth lives. And the sixth is like the God of our universe. The world takes place in densities, which are pretty much our chakras. So there's seven of them. The first density, second density, third density,

which is what we are as humans. The fourth are aliens. We're like, we're humans that have merged with the technologies that we've created. It takes place about 20 or 30 years in the future where AI is a real actual fucking player in the game, you know? Fourth is aliens. Fifth is psychedelic creatures slash angels slash all of that stuff.

Sixth is the gods of the universe. Seventh is the all. It's just like love. It's everything. It's a heavy comic book, man. Yeah, it's pretty in-depth, dude. I mean, it's not like simple shit It's not like fucking some guy goes and saves the world. It's like a pretty the lore of it is pretty cool

I think so you go through each density our souls do for billions and trillions and however, whatever past whatever's past trillions of Lifetimes and you spend time in those densities learning what it is to learn in those densities. So right now in the third density, because it's the power chakra of life, what we're trying to do is discover that the positive path of love is what we're really shooting for instead of the negative one, and what that means is the positive path is in, we're doing things in service of others instead of in service of self. So we're choosing

love of others over love of self because love isn't like an emotion in the book. It's like a structural building of the world where everything is love. It's this all, it's not like Disney shit, it's like a structural way of building the universe. So choosing to be in love of others is what we're doing. But Earth is in its late third density, getting ready to move into its fourth density. And this scientist who interacts with this tribe takes a seed from the Kali and grows them and makes it so that the entire world can take this fruit and then interact with God. And then what it would be like in this world today

if we were actually able to sit in front of God and ask God questions. And that's kind of the basis of the book. Wow! It's pretty cool, yeah. Are you doing the illustrations No, I call the guy about doing the illustrator I might wait till AI gets good enough because when I got quit, yeah, which we're pretty close I fuck around with AI a lot too, but we're pretty close to I think getting there with like some apps where you can have consistent characters because it's hard to do stuff because you can't make the

Character super consistent, but I think we're like a year or two away from being able to do that. Probably not even a year or two away. Yeah maybe not. I think we're in this very bizarre stage right now where I don't think people realize what's coming and I think it's gonna hit us like a fucking freight train. So I know everyone has like a thousand stories, there's like a thousand stories about AI taking over and all of this stuff. In my book, sorry, this is okay? Yeah. Yeah, okay, cool.

I just know it's long and sometimes I lose track of time. Okay, cool. The AI in this story is the way that we get moved into the fourth density and the way that we get moved into the fourth density is when we merge with the nanotechnology that merges with the AI supercomputer called oblivion, which is pretty much just a hive mind.

Once we all get merged with that, we either based off of our polarity or our frequency or whatever that tells us if we're positive or negative. If we go negative, then we pretty much just extinguish each other because all we care about is love for self and we kill each other. It doesn't say exactly how, but you can use your imagination. And in the positive way, we move together in this hive mind into being aliens essentially, where we live millions and trillions of lifetimes as aliens until we can enter into the fifth, which then we become psychedelic creatures and all of that stuff, or angels or whatever. And that's like a non-physical realm at that point.

But yeah, that's pretty much the idea behind the whole book. It might be actually what really does happen. It's kind of like a positive spin off of it. Well, the best case scenario is we evolve and we merge with AI and we evolve and it's better for everybody. And we become something superior to what we are now. Worst case scenario is we become irrelevant because they don't need us anymore. We're outdated. I still think it will still have to be partly us because it was created by us

Like in like a parallel universe where we are not like say we're fucking lizard people in another universe We see things differently our priorities and values are different We would make a completely different set of AI like there's no way that AI is just this thing that isn't Connected to humans in some way. So hopefully it's connected to the good parts of us as humans, which is like compassion, love, caring for each other, and not like a lizard reptilian. Like, hey, let's just, we got to maximize capitalism and all of that stuff, you know what I mean? So that's a lot of what the book is about too,

is it's just about like hey Maybe it won't be so bad Like maybe this thing will have more human traits than or maybe we're more awesome than what we what we actually think You know I think the hive mind thing is promising because and I have a feeling that that's where we're headed I have a feeling that if with either some wearable or some sort of technology with an implant where We no longer require language to communicate with each other and we essentially have instantaneous access to everyone all the time and The thing that people are gonna have to deal with is that there's gonna be no more secrets

There'll be no more lies. They'll be it's gonna be impossible to deceive Everyone's gonna know exactly what's going on in your soul like how you interface with the world itself. That's cool. I think that's probably where we're headed. I think if we don't, we're going to become obsolete. I think it's one of two things. Either we become obsolete and AI becomes a new digital form of life that's far more intelligent, far more capable than we are, and then it makes better and better versions of itself until it makes God.

Or we merge and we just transcend whatever this state of being these primitive territorial apes with very sophisticated weapons, we become something different. If I did have beliefs, I would like to believe that it is going towards a God or something, or there is like some point to all of the like hard times that we have in life and we're actually progressing, whether it be through many lifetimes or in other universes or dimensions or whatever. And something inside of us that isn't human but is maybe a watcher or something is progressing towards something great and loving and more beautiful than what we got going on here on earth and

If if that is true, then AI will probably be pretty awesome. Yeah, you know if that is true Yeah, well, that's best-case scenario, right? I think we're it's also very strange that we are in this position It's very strange that we are living our lives at this unbelievable, unique moment in history where things are going to change in this undeniably radical way. Unless something happens, unless we blow ourselves up or we get hit by an asteroid, it's gonna happen.

And it's gonna happen probably within the next 10 years. Like 10 years from now, we're gonna be looking back. Remember the old days of 2025, when you didn't know what was coming? I know. I wanna be like, hey, you're over-exaggerating that, but dude, if you think about the world five years ago, it was completely different.

Just the invention of AI. AI wasn't a thing. AI was in the last few years. Yeah, just the last few years. We're all like bunkered down in our house and shit five years ago. Even the UFC five years ago was crazy I met like life Like I only get to view life through the lens of my like job and my love which is through fighting

Which is cool because it like helps me understand the macro picture a little bit better But yeah, man, I mean like even just five years ago how different the UFC was like life is gonna be Really weird in ten years. Yeah, it's the whole world is gonna be really weird in 10 years. Yeah, the whole world is gonna be really weird. And you know, one of the things that always freaks me out about Elon in Neuralink is one of the statements that he said, you're gonna be able to talk without using words.

I don't know how that would work. Well, the hive mind. We're gonna be able to interact with each other. But do we just feel each other's feelings then? Probably, yeah. That would be be able to interact with each other. But do we just feel each other's feelings then? Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Or that would be good maybe. Yeah. That would be good. If it's like, if I don't have like a filter of feeling something, my brain making it into words and then spitting it out and it was just I have this feeling and you feel that

thing, that might be a really great thing. I've often thought about the parallels of religion with what's currently going on and One of them being like Christ was born of a virgin mother, right? So Christ was born without sex and emerged like what else is born without a without a mother? Whoa AI AI is born without a mother. Yeah, Christ is gonna come back. AI is coming Another one is the Tower of Babel. Right. Whoa, did you come up with that? Yes. Yeah.

That's fucking awesome. Right? It seems like it. That's awesome. Right? If you think that God is going to return, well, wouldn't it be? Yeah. That completely makes sense. That's awesome. The other one is the Tower of Babel, right? So, if we all have a universal language and we are working on this fucking tower to get closer to God stairway to God

And it's do it right and you make it there do it wrong and it becomes completely chaotic and divided and you're scattered across the world with a Thousand different fucking languages and no we can communicate with each other so nobody understand each other and it's just chaos different fucking languages and nobody can communicate with each other, nobody understands each other and it's just chaos, which is what happened to the human race. If we develop a universal language and if this universal language is transmitted through whether it's this implant or wearable, some sort of interface with technology, then we bypass, we bypass this primitive state of chaotic tribal monkeys and we become something superior. Yep, that's awesome.

Yeah, the Tower of Babel was initially in my story because I've loved that idea for a really long time, which is essentially it's just like a symbol for like, hey, if we all work together, we can actually do this thing, which is kind of the main idea that I got from it. Yeah, dude, that's a cool ass idea about AI. I'm going to put that in my book. I'm going to steal that idea. Steal it?

Yeah. Because if you think about it, what is AI going to be? Well, if super intelligence gets achieved and then you're attaching that to quantum computing, right? Quantum computing right now is only able to just like do integers and you know do equations. But what if quantum computing and AI merge? Then you've got some insane amount of computational power attached to an insane intelligence that is going to make better and better versions of itself. Well if you scale that up, exponentially, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 1,000 years, if you keep

going, you get a god. Yeah. I mean, imagine, quantum, imagine too, I mean, who knows, if we want to go real sci-fi with the idea, like quantum particles communicate to each other, so maybe they'll be able to communicate with the ones that are in other dimensions, and that's how we're able to communicate with other dimensions or whatever. Well, that's the freakiest concept about quantum computing when they said that the way it works is so confusing and it's so powerful that they think it might be evidence of the multiverse.

Now, I talked to Roman Yampolsky, who is a scientist who talks about the dangers of AI and he thought that that was all nonsense. He might be right, but there's a lot of scientists that believe that it's correct and that this is why quantum computing is so powerful. Because Marc Andreessen said this, and it's the fucking craziest quote ever, that quantum computing, it can solve an equation that if you converted the entire universe, like every molecule, every atom of the universe into a supercomputer, it would take so long for the universe as a supercomputer to solve

this problem that the universe would die of heat death before it solved it, and quantum computing can solve it in minutes. Yeah, I've seen that Instagram reel. Like what the fuck does that mean? Essentially what we would be doing? I bet you when they were trying to invent electricity They didn't know that it would be this and maybe that's what we're in the middle of except like times a thousand billion where it's like Oh

Because I always think I'm like we got we're only looking through the lens of the future through all of the inventions that we have now What if we invented something that was like electricity or quantum computing or quantum communication or like if you can change things at a quantum level like maybe I can turn this thing into the hardest steel metal in the entire world and then that just completely changes the board game that we're even playing. Like we're not even completely changes the board game that we're even playing like we're not even playing the same board game anymore right so it's like I don't know anytime anyone says nothing's possible I'm like you

sure because if we just change the board game it can get pretty crazy you can't say nothing's possible because everything that we have today is impossible 200 years ago yeah you're a sorcerer if you go back to the 1400s and show them an iPhone. You know, like, none of it makes any sense. The fact that you could FaceTime someone in New Zealand right now, that's bananas. All that stuff is fucking completely insane,

and it's real, and it's happening right now. And the other thing about AI being if artificial super intelligence creates something that we can't even imagine. Like we're just dealing with this framework, this structure that's so antiquated because it's all been created by humans. If you get something that's a thousand, ten thousand times more intelligent than us and it's gonna have solutions to things that we can't even comprehend. Yeah, yeah, yeah that's freaky

shit. It can get real weird. You know one of the things that always weirded me out about these stories about UFO encounters and in particular the Bob Lazar story is that when he was working on back engineering, these crafts that were supposedly from somewhere else, one of the things that he said is there's no controls. There's no controls in this thing. Like they don't know what is happening between these beings and this craft that they power it. But they're probably completely connected to this thing. Like what you're seeing with those little grays is probably us in the future. That's probably what every primate eventually becomes once it integrates with technology.

It would be really cool if that's, like you said, what the religions were talking about too. To me, the science shit is all cool and stuff, but I also like the idea of intertwining science modern ideas with really traditional ideas. It would be super cool if it was something where it's like, hey, once we reach this certain of technological advancement, there is a spiritual, religious side to the thing that we also make discoveries into.

That would be cool. It would be cool. To have a belief. Yeah, if you got, well, if artificial super intelligence does become live, all belief systems are gonna get thrown into the woodchip or we're not gonna know what the fuck is what. Unless tells us yeah I mean yeah but I have a feeling that a lot of these stories like these ancient religious

stories they're based on truth it's just truth that was a spoken word thing by people who really couldn't even read because they were illiterate and that they had these tales that were they're told for a thousand years for anybody wrote them down they're writing them down in these ancient languages that even when you take those ancient languages and you try to translate until like modern English a lot is lost in the translation but I think there's something to all of it there's something they're trying they don't they're not telling stories for no reason that I think they're telling

these stories because they're trying to document something. And I just don't think we get a full picture of it. But there's so much truth in those stories and there's so many lessons in those stories that are applicable and that resonate today. I think it'd be foolish to dismiss them. Definitely. I mean, Carl Jung harps on that a lot with their collective unconscious stuff. Do you know Joseph Campbell? Do you follow that guy? I love Joseph Campbell. Oh, it's amazing. I got super into Joseph Campbell around that time when I was kind of You know doing the whole figuring myself out part after losing but I mean the idea that There's a pretty much a blueprint to all of the stories that are across civilization

is crazy. It's like the pyramids being everywhere. Like we it's just naturally ingrained to us for stories to be like superhero gets called to action, finds a guy, beats monster, beats mega big monster, returns back home. Like that's like the blueprint to a lot of stories and I think it just goes underneath the rug because we're just so used to all of the stories being like that. I've messed around, like I said, like I spend a lot of time in my head.

I don't really like talk a ton, I kind of just, but I've done the whole like hero's journey thing in my head during the Joseph Campbell time. I can share it with you, it's kind of fun. Sure. Okay, I just come up with stories and shit in my head, but anyway, so I did my own hero's journey during that time when I was trying to eliminate all of the egos inside of me, and the easiest way to identify one of your egos is to ask yourself, what is it that you feel like you desire, you know? That's why I think in Buddhist philosophy and all of that stuff, it's always like, let

go of attachments, let go of your desires and that will lead, like just good shit will happen if you do that. And I was like, okay, cool, I'll buy into that a little bit. So I tried to identify all of these egos that were inside of me. I even went as far as naming all of them and giving them characteristics and personalities. Like when I would notice an angry person inside of me, I would just name it Samson, give it a tiger's face, and like just treat it as a completely separate imaginative piece of my psyche that I no longer wanted to be attached with anymore. Which is an idea that I

came up with myself at the time, but it's an old idea. There's a really good book called Taming Your Gremlins, if anyone wants to look into that idea more. That guy does a really good job of doing that. So anyways, I started going through like my hero's journey and I spend a lot of time like meditating a decent amount, but not just like normal meditating, like fucking around in my own head type of meditating and just seeing what type of unconscious things are kind of below the surface of my everyday, like Corey, me.

And so I'm walking myself through like, okay, what is this, what are all of these things inside me or what are these desires that are inside me? I would name them. I would turn them into a monster and I would kill the monster. And then at the very end of this story, and I'm like crying during this process when I was doing it or whatever, in the hero's journey, a lot of the time you have a mentor, like a Yoda. You have this thing that kind of guides you through how to defeat all these monsters and

all of it. So I get to the end of my my story and one part that they never really bring up in heroic stories is the return back home Which is a really big deal like you've just eliminated all of this stuff and now you got to return back home So I'm getting ready to return back home and my mentor at the time because I did grow up really religious It was Jesus at the time. We're like Jesus was my homie at the time, because I did grow up really religious, it was Jesus at the time. Jesus was my homie at the time, you know, he was like this guy. And so we get done defeating all of these monsters and we're sitting at the cliff and it's like, okay, time to go home. And he's like, hey man, like you got one more monster to defeat. And I was like, well, what is it? And he was like, me. And I was like, what are you talking about? And

he was like, man, like I'm the last thing that you're attached to. Like in order for you to continue on, I'm the thing that you got to defeat. And I was like, what does that mean, dude? I'm not about to stab you, bro. And he was like, you have to push me. And I was like, push you off the cliff? He was like, you have to let go of me the same way

that you let go of all of your other desires and fears and things inside of you too if you really want to do it. And so I'm like bawling, crying, because that was a big thing. So I do it, and Jesus falls, but then He grows wings, flies away, and says to me, now you can be like me, and then just flies off into the Whatever and then I returned back home and I just remember that being a really big moment for me In my I don't like to use the word spiritual because it sounds stupid But that was like a big deal for me in my development as a person Because it really like made me understand and they weren't things that I was planning out

They were just unconscious things that were hitting me like over and over and over again I found that through hypnosis and through like trying to see what's underneath things. You can't talk to it You can't tell it what to do. You can't control your unconscious. You just have to watch what's underneath there so it was just like a thing where it's like Now I get to be like you was like a really cool thing that just like popped into my head and I was like well shit that's cool. That is cool. Yeah I do a lot of crazy shit inside of my own head I guess probably makes me sound maybe a little bit weird but that's kind of... Where it's good. That's me. Yeah. Where it is good. What was it like returning to fighting after this like

trying to find yourself period? Yeah um I remember I was folding laundry And they asked me to fight this guy Tejinho Galval on four weeks notice for LFA and Tejinho Galval is Fucking savage at the time still still I think is doing pretty well But literally every YouTube video I could find of him was just knocking people out He was like six and oh or something and just murdering people Brazilian guy And I was like I don't think that was a good idea like I just lost I don't really want to lose again

And I remember going back and forth with myself big time and as I was folding laundry I kind of got hit with another bit of wisdom that came from wherever not for myself came from wherever and in this bit of wisdom that came from wherever not from myself came from wherever and in this bit of wisdom it told me man I gave you this life for you for you to make it up yourself quit asking me to make decisions for you and so I was like all right fuck it I'll do it you know I'll do it and a big piece of me going through that whole thing and what I learned a lot about it was love of fighting isn't really love of anything I don't think is like Disney shit it's like a mega commitment to something that you want to achieve and it works like a marriage more like a marriage less than like a romantic like hey this is a fling like it's like man, I might not like you every day,

you know, but I'm gonna commit myself to you and I'm gonna do this thing. And it helped me really wrap my head around what kind of true love is, because I feel like that's what true love is. And if you wanna love this sport, and you wanna say you love this sport, you gotta love it on the months, days,

it might last years that you really don't like it. And just trust that on the other end of it is like a good experience. There's a payoff. Yeah, it's a process Yeah, so how was the fight is good? I knocked him out in the first round Crushed it wasn't scared at all going in really. Oh, yeah I don't get scared much like and when I'm actually fighting in that mode of like fight or flight But I've already chosen fight like I'm good, you know, I don't really get too scared going into fights hardly ever. I get scared leading up to things, but in the actual fight itself, like I'm the goddamn

incredible Hulk, you know, you can't convince me otherwise in those moments. Well, I remember one time we talked and you said that you'd made this adjustment in your head from trying to fight and win to really trying to hurt people these are you still on that same? No, no, not as much I got a little bit older One I think is a contributor to it Two is that wasn't a fuel that I could hold on to for super long It was like angry fuel doesn't really like work. It's not super sustainable. I also found too that being that way got distracting to me being able to do

what I was trying to do. So any thought can be distracting when you're fighting as you know, like even like silly ones or whatever. But if I'm being too aggro and too, I got to hurt this guy, I gotta hurt this guy, that was good for me to learn because I got to learn all of the different aspects of what it means to be a fighter. Before that I was really zen, peaceful, like whatever happens, happens, I'm gonna do my best,

you know? And then I went way on the other side of the spectrum where it's like I'm fucking killing people and that's what I'm doing now, to now kind of somewhere a little bit in between where for me now all of somewhere a little bit in between where for me now all of it is about focus and doing the correct thing at the correct time. I think that where I am today as a fighter is very focused on just exactly what I said where

what do I need to do right now in order to win? And I don't make it angry. I don't make it motivated by anything else. It's just, no, this is like a laser focused in doing the right thing. And that's what I found recently has been the most helpful thing. Just this zen state of just existing in whatever comes, whatever you're supposed to be doing, you do that. Kind of, but I know where I'm supposed to be now

a little bit too, like intensity wise. Before I feel like I got like some like superpower that I like didn't really know how to control very much. Now I feel like I have harnessed it and I know how to control it a lot better to where it's like, okay, a 10 is too much. Like right now we gotta be a seven. We're in the locker room, we're about to walk out, let's maybe be at an eight or a nine right now and we'll

be there for the fight instead of just ten, hurt the guy. Oh you know, Michael Jordan had a really good quote where it was either Michael or Kobe but he was, they said they never play a game at more than 80% and I think that that's kind of a cool way to look at it and that doesn't mean your effort. I think it means your intensity level. You can't think at a 10 sometimes. It gets distracting to burn all of that like angry energy. It's just not sustainable, you know?

So you're in a position right now where you're next in line and when you look at my Rob, he presents so many unique challenges like this is a He's a there's a few guys that are very skillful, but they also have Unique physicality and that's my Rob. So like when when you see that fight first of all, have they given you a date? They haven't there. I think it's I mean, that stuff takes a little bit. They told me November, December is when I'm looking to fight him. So maybe Madison Square Garden. Yeah, maybe.

Which I was a little bit against too, because I hate the New York State tax thing. But also at the same time, I was in New York recently, and I was like, ah shit, it'd be cool to win it in one of the coolest. It's an iconic place to win. If you won the world title in Madison Square Garden. That means a lot Yeah, it would mean a lot

There's something about Madison Square Garden like when you're in the building you like man a lot of shit has gone down It's it's huge. It kind of feels like a gladiator play It's cuz it's just huge like the floor part is yeah, you know, it just feels different I did stand up there and just being there and walking out to this enormous crowd and masses Craig I was like well cool. This is the fucking garden in the center of it. Yeah in the round Oh, you did it. Oh, so you were like looking in 360 degrees. Did you like that's my favorite way Because it's oddly intimate So even though there's 16,000 people,

the people on this side are seeing the people laugh on this side. And everyone's seeing everyone laugh. And you're just walking around in a circle. Ah, cool. It's oddly intimate for 16,000 people. It's my favorite way to do arenas. I was always really curious, because I've

seen stand-ups like that. And I was like, I wonder if that's distracting for them to have to, yeah. It's the most fun. I thought it would be distracting too, because I've done arenas where you're on stage facing the crowd, and it feels oddly impersonal. It's like you're just doing a show for this massive amount of people. It's fun, but that I kind of preferred clubs.

But a giant arena in the round seems like a giant club. It really does. But there's a lot of, like, doing it in Boston was huge because, like, I did the TD Garden, because that was, like, where I grew up, and that's where I started doing stand-up. But there's something about Madison Square Garden for fights, where when you go there,

it's like there's an extra tingle in the air, like, whoo, boys boys we're at the garden. Cool. You know, so you fighting Marabba the garden would be fucking insane. Yeah, it'd be crazy. When you think about him, what do you think about this matchup? Like how do you approach it? I think he has some obviously really good physical traits that make him,

like his conditioning is a superpower that other people don't get to have and That's unique to him and he's made a way to weaponize that in a really smart way Every time I like kind of to technically break down things. I feel like I'm trying to be really convincing instead of You know just believing in it which has which has always been a big problem of mine in the past, has always been I need evidence in order to believe in something. In fighting for a world champion, what am I going to just walk in and be like, well, I've been a world champion before, so I could do it now. I don't get that luxury of doing that to be a world champion.

So recently, I've had this realization of belief in self that Trevor and Carrington Banks have both helped instill in me big time. Where I feel like approaching Marab is going to be unique in its own, but I don't need to tailor what it is that I'm doing too much to Marab. I've really bought into this idea where if I can go out and be the best martial artist that there is in all areas, be able to wrestle with him, be able to strike with him,

be able to grapple with him, if I can go out and trust and be that, I can do it. Against Umar, I did not as good of a job with that. I treated him like I had to change in order for me to be able to beat him. Against Marab, I'm not gonna do that. I think Marab also has this narrative buzz around him, where he's an unbeatable, um, force,

a freak of nature who has conditioning out of whatever, and while that is true to an extent, that doesn't mean anything to the fact that the guy can't be beaten. If I look at myself as a fighter and break myself down technically, I would say I'm somewhere between Umar and Sean in the task that he'll have in front of him.

I think I know that I wrestle a lot better than Sean does. Although Sean does have really good takedown defense, his process of getting up is just like a little dated and pretty slow like you're gonna lose some minutes doing it the way that O'Malley does it. I think that I get up super good. Being tall and lanky it's really hard to not let short little guys get underneath you. Like that shit's gonna happen especially if they're springy and fast in our weight class like they're going to. You just have to be able to pop right back up immediately which I know that I can do because I fought Umar who's easily one of the best wrestlers in the UFC and I was able to do that whenever I wanted. So that brings me a lot of confidence about that so I get to fight Marab with a lot of confidence about that. So I get to fight Marab with a lot of confidence going into it about that.

On the striking end of things, I'm obviously, I think, a way better striker than Marab is, even though he does make his shit work the way that he makes his shit work. But I'm honestly not gonna read too much into it, man. I'm gonna keep worrying about getting better every single day, all the way leading up to the fight, and I'm gonna make my Rob deal with me instead of me having to deal with my Rob Do you have to do anything different to deal with that? Endurance I mean man. I feel like I try to go in as every time I feel like there is a There's like a unique thing that you need to big-time prepare for

I There's like a unique thing that you need to big-time prepare for. I go in shape as best as I physically, humanly am capable of in every single fight that I go into, as long as I'm not hurt or on antibiotics and bullshit like that. So I already do that, kind of, so I'm not going to kind of overthink that piece. I might run a little bit more. I hear Marab run, so maybe I'll run a little bit more. But no, outside that, I'll make sure that my legs are really conditioned.

That was a big one going against Umar. I'll obviously make sure that I'm conditioned enough to be able to get my ass back up every single time, which is its own special, like wrestling conditioning is a much different type of conditioning than striking. So just make sure that I'm fully wrestling conditioned for that fight. And then one of the harder pieces for people in the sport is to wrestle, then be able to strike like how they normally do. So just being, just being conditioned to do that too.

Well, I'm pumped for it. I can't wait to watch. I think you're one of the more exciting guys in the sport and one of the more interesting guys in the sport. I love listening to your thought process. It's very cool. Thanks for being here, man. I appreciate you very much. And again, I can't wait. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks, Joe. Thanks for watching!