The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #171 with Brendan Allen

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

Joe sits down with Brendan Allen, a professional mixed martial artist currently competing in the Middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.www.ufc.com/athlete/brendan-allen Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan. Buy 1 Get 1 Free Trucker Hat with code ROGAN at https://happydad.com Visit https://squarespace.com/ROGAN to save 10% off your first purchase of a website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. All right, what's happening, brother? Thanks for having this. My pleasure. So, Jamie, what were you just saying? I stopped you because it sounds so crazy.

Trump said there's going to be eight to nine title fights at the White House USC event and that they're, I guess, in quotes, withholding. Okay, first of all. title fights right now. There's only eight weight classes. So how's there going to be nine title fights? Maybe it'd be a BMF. Maybe you have a BMF.

Maybe you have all of them in the BMF. I guess. I guess, but that's kind of a crazy thing. We're going to have 20 title fights. All the title fights has ever been. Did he say any matchups? No, you didn't say who. He just said they're going to, I'll see if there's even like a tweet about it.

I just thought I'm talking about it. It was like a, I don't know, press conference or something. Well, if they don't do John Jones at the White House. I also think it would be a travesty. For sure. They need to do that. They have to. Come on.

Dana's like you can't count on them. You can't fucking count on them. Come on. When he wants to, he's going to make it happen. At the White House? Come on. John Jones versus... Let's see.

What does it say here? Donald Trump predicts eight or nine championship fights. Okay. It would literally have to be every weight class fighting for the title, which would be nuts. Everyone's a championship fight Everyone's a legendary type of fighter He's actually holding back fights right now For six months so he can do it in 15th of June

Trump continued seemingly meaning 14th of June Yeah Arena is going to be 5,000 or 6,000 seats Right in the front door of the White House 100,000 people in the back Where they're putting up 8 or 10 very big screens What kind of fucking security are they going to have for this? It's got to be insane.

Yeah. Are you trying to get on this? I mean, not really. Not really? I can't imagine, like you said, the security, the behind the scenes, how much stuff's really going to happen? I'm just like... A lot of weird pressure, too. Because it's like all the security and the protocols, all that extra shit in your mind before you have to go out there and fight.

Yeah, it just seems like a lot, like a lot more than what it needs to be. I'm sure it's going to be cool to watch. You know, kind of like, what was the, uh... The sphere? Yeah, kind of cool to watch like that, but... Also, you're fighting outside. Yes, that's what I... Like, what are they going to do?

Put a roof over it? Like, what happens if it's hot? What if it's hot and muggy? That's going to affect people, you know? I've watched them do outside fights in Louisiana. Oh, man. Oh, God, Louisiana's the... You can cut that air.

You gotta see everyone's slipping and sliding. It's so humid. Oh, that's terrible. Did you ever see that King of the Cage fight that they did where it was raining? I seen the highlight of it, but I never watched the whole time. Yeah, it was called King of the Cage Wet and Wild, and it rained out. This was in the day when we used to have to put on fights at Indian casinos. I'm pretty sure Eddie Bravo was doing the commentary back then, and it rained out.

And so they were like, what do you guys want to do? And everybody's like, well, we want to get paid, so I guess we have to fight. So they fought in the fucking rain. I mean, it was crazy. How do you do that? I don't remember what the canvas was made out of. It might have been slick. It might have been like a vinyl can.

It might not have been like a canvas, like the UFC's canvas, which is actual canvas. It might have been like a jiu-jitsu mat type situation. That's what it was in Louisiana with the humid. So I can't imagine the rain. The rain's got to be crazy. It was pouring down on people. See if you can find some highlights of King of the Cage wet and wild. It's got to be worse than blood on the canvas.

Or blood on the vinyl. Right. It has to be the worst. It just doesn't stop. How bad are the worst? those fucking logos. Do the logos get problematic when they get wet?

On the canvas? Yeah, in the middle of the octagon? Here it is. Yeah, look at that. Look at that. That is like, that looks, it's hard to tell what it actually is, but it looks like vinyl.

Got rubber shoes on, maybe. Yeah, these guys are fighting with shoes on, which helps a little. You see, this was back when there was like zero rules. Your man's a poncho. My man's in a poncho. That's hilarious. Look at these, oh, these guys are barefoot.

Look at these guys sliding around. This is so crazy. They'd throw punches and slip it. This is like a total like, like whinoes in a parking lot of a liquor store. Imagine everyone didn't know it was raining. Like, man, you got rocked like 30 times. No, bro. I didn't get rocked.

It was wet. Right. How do you judge? Like, what shots do damage? This is like so silly. Oh, look, they got a guy come out here with a thing to slide the water off the side. Yeah, that's not helping. This is so crazy.

They're doing this. Look at the fighters are helping. The fighters are moving towels around. That is so ridiculous. You get an extra 30 seconds break if you wipe off the canvas. Yeah, right? That's funny. That's funny.

Yeah. So who knows what's going to happen? I guess they'll probably have to have some sort of a roof over it. But what if it's like 98 degrees outside? It's going to be crazy. It's June in Baltimore or in Maryland rather, and, you know, D.C. Yeah. Whatever that is.

It's not even a state. D.C. gets hot. It gets hot. in the summer. It's going to be crazy. I always wonder how much behind the scenes work goes into, like, for the sphere, for example,

because obviously they have everything else down to a science. Maybe redo that. That's going to be crazy. Abu Dhabi. That's right. We did a live one outdoor in Abu Dhabi. I remember that.

That was when B.J. fought Frankie Edgar. Wow. Yeah. And Anderson. Oh, God. Damien Maya. Damien Maya.

That's right. That's right. Oh, that's right. That was like Damien Anderson and Damien had real beef. And so Anderson was like yelling at him in the first round and trying to kill him in the first round. And then he kind of ran out of gas. And so he just kind of coasted for the remainder of the fight. And Dana was really pissed because he just coasted and won a decision.

I could just put that back out there. I guess, but that wasn't good, dude. By the way, in Abu Dhabi, they had these bugs that were flying around the size of small birds. It was crazy. I was like, this is, because, you know, you're in the desert. Yeah. It's very weird. Very weird having an outdoor fight in the desert. It's like mosquitoes in Louisiana, man. They come out of them swamp water, and I don't know what they're doing, but they're huge. Well, back in the day, they used to have fights like that in Vegas. They used to have boxing matches outside.

Really? Caesar's Palace used to have them outside. Yeah. See, even find some of those, I know, I want to think, like, they had some good fights outside, like some World Championship fights that were outside. at Caesar's Palace. I think it would be cool to say you did, but I don't think I want to do it at this level. If something does go wrong, you're too close. You're too close.

Brandon Allen, you're knocking at the door, dude. You're right there. You're right there. It's crazy. I just saw Chamey have made a post today saying that he's only going to do one more at 85 and then he's going up. What? Yeah, my wife sent him.

He's going to go to 205? That's what he said. That's crazy. She translated it for me. It was in Portuguese. Oh, wow. It was just another holiday party until Michelle arrived with a chocolate basque Cheesecake. Two rich cocoa's caramelized top, which Michelle claimed to have just whipped together.

But the evidence told another story. An empty PC box. A receipt in her purse. All right, Susan, I bought the PC chocolate basque cheesecake. It was just $11. Can you stop true craming me? Can I have another slice? Try the season's biggest hits from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Look at this. That's Caesar's spouse. Dang. Yeah, that's crazy. I never knew that, never. Yeah. Wow.

They had big fights there, too. Look at how big that is. Oh, my God. That's so crazy. But again, Vegas, outside, must be so hot. Has to be. That dry heat is something. That's crazy.

Imagine being all the way in the back of that thing. You ain't seeing nothing. They don't got no screen up for the TV or nothing. Who is that right there? Who was that? Oh, Tommy Hurons fought there. Berto Duran. Tommy Herns and Berto Duran was outside.

Damn. That's crazy. In 1984, wow. That's way before my time. Yeah, way before. I guess that was, they probably didn't even have an arena back then that could keep those guys in it. I wonder when they started putting arenas in Vegas.

That's a good question. It was probably, it probably started for those big boxing matches. Yeah, as perplexity. Yeah, as perplexity, our sponsor. When did they start putting an arena in Vegas? I'm going to say 90. Because I think Vegas in the beginning was just all about gambling. And if there was a show, it was at a showroom in Vegas.

Like, you know, if you went to see Sinatra or something like that, it was probably just a couple thousand people. Probably wasn't that big. It's crazy to see how Vegas is growing, like, even, like, before my time I see pictures. But even since, like, I fought, what, amateur worlds in Vegas? I wasn't even old enough to go into casinos. So they had to, like, walk me around in the Flamingo, I believe. Oh, that's crazy.

You couldn't go in the casino? Couldn't do nothing. If I walked on the floor, they were on me. I'm like, bro, I don't... How old were you? 18? Oh, wow. 17, 18?

No, 18, yeah. 18, about 10, 19. And, man, they were on me. I'm talking about, like, they must have had a watch on me. I stepped on the floor just to go across to get, like, to the drink machine. Well, there was probably a big concern that if you have underage competitors and that they're wandering around the casino, they could lose their license. Yeah, because we stayed at the link. It was brand new at the time.

And then we walked across the Flamingo. We fought there every time until the finals. The finals was in the UFC Expo in the middle of the Expo, which was cool because they had like the Hall of Fame ceremony going on. You were there. I've seen you. Yeah. Yeah.

So it was cool. But yeah, it's crazy just to see it from there till now, like how much it's growing and change. Wow. It's pretty crazy. When did you first start training? How old were you? 13.

And what did you start with? Jiu-Jitsu. I didn't even like really mean to, to be honest. Like, I was playing football. I love football. And my brother came home because he switched schools, and his friend was like, hey, you want to do Jiu-Jitsu? And we was watching, you know, UFC on the weekends.

That was like, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell trilogy, all those guys. So we watched them on the weekends. And he asked, so we went there and looked, and I was still playing football with football season. And my dad's like, you want to try it. I was like, I watched the class, and I was like, Dad, I want to do it. And he's like, okay, we'll usually try Oggy. I was like, Dad, I don't want to borrow a guy. Can you buy me one?

My parents didn't have much money. money. My dad was just starting to do okay for himself at that point. He's like, if I buy you this ghee, I promise you for the rest of the year, you're coming three times a week at least. I was like, yes, sir. So started and never looked back. A couple months later, my brother and my dad joined me, and we did it all together for a little while. Then my brother found girls, and he went his way. So, yeah, it's been a long road. That's derailed a lot of young prospects. It definitely got him. It definitely got him, man. That life. took him elsewhere and I don't know luckily I stayed he would have been better than me though he was a lot

tougher and yeah but it's a lot is he the older brother it's usually the younger brother that winds up being the real good fighter yeah he gives him a lot that's the thing that's the thing you learn resilience you learn how to be the nail yeah you know and the older brother oftentimes is too comfortable being the hammer yeah but my dad would put him in his place so luckily he was he was used to be in the nail a little bit too you know my dad's a big man so Um, yeah, man, life is crazy. So when did you start striking? Well, my dad boxed when he was younger and his, his grandfather taught him how to box and he

was like, uh, he did something, uh, like one, like a golden gloves in the military or something back when they had like the boxing gloves that were made with like horsehair. Oh, wow. Yeah, so, um, he taught my dad to box. And so my box, my dad box in high school. So he was kind of teaching me little stuff here and there growing up, but you know how it is, man. Who listens to their father? Now I look back and I'm like.

like man i wish i would have listened more and i say stuff that he was like what i tell you 10 years ago you know um but i started striking probably like 15 maybe 15 and a half somewhere around there but it was all grown men back then especially like where i came up at there's no like beginners classes or anything like that and these guys are 24 25 26 i mean there's been a couple of times man i got hit and i thought my jaw was broke i start crying i mean like smack and it was just like i couldn't open my mouth and that's the problem with a lot of boxing gyms in particular is that when new guys come in they just beat them up yeah they did they beat me up they don't they don't box you like spar you rather they fight you and they know how to

fight and you don't know how to fight you know one of my best friends uh who was with me like I started with him was Kurt Hollava and him and Dustin Poir were the two biggest where we were from at that time so I remember Tim Crater reached out to Kurt crazy Tim yeah and he was like hey why don't you come sport we got Dustin I think Dustin was justin was justin was just about to go to WEC or he was he was right around there at that time so like let's go Kurt's like hey you want to go yeah let's go so we go over there for sparring and I'm sparring this guy man he had to be like five foot one like he was tiny short and uh Kurt goes with Dustin and I'm sitting here trying to watch them go because I mean they're throwing they're fighting

they're not sparring and this guy's hit me and I'm like get off me like trying to watch and the same day like so we sparred like i don't know four or five rounds it was nice and then uh and i'm only like 14 15 years old at this time and then it was start on the ground in your guard and uh i go with dustin because everyone like said my jiu jitsu was good and it was for that time but i was still just a kid dude he hit me so hard when they said literally when they said go it was like boom right in my mouth and i was like well i guess this is what we're doing i hurried up and grab and try to sweep and all that kind of stuff, but man, I never forget that moment to this day. Like, last time I trained with Dustin, I was like, hey, you remember that time?

You beat me up, like, I'm not little no more. Your three weight classes above them now. Yeah. So, like, I see all the guys like that. There's one guy in particular. If I see him, I told everyone, I'm whooping his ass. One guy, you don't want to name him? His name's J-Mart. Oh, okay.

Great guy, nice guy. But training, I never forget the day. He hit me so hard and thought my jaw was broke. I'm like, and I was little. Like, now I'm a grown man. like it is so hard to find like reasonable sparring it's so hard to find people that are like willing to not hit you full blast and like preserve each other you know like hey we're all in this together you help me i help and if you can get that my god you progress so much faster if you're in there just there's something to be said for going through the fire and understand what it's like to be in a war with guys but there's something also to be said for like learning how to recover and like having more training sessions and not getting concussions all the

time yeah it's like Sean Jordan was the first to tell me that was like he came and trained and obviously you know Sean's huge super athletic guy heavyweight you know and I'm talking about I watched him and this other big man they were sparring and it was literally like touching each other so I asked them after because everyone else is fighting and I'm like man what how come you don't spar so hard he looked at me and started laughing he's like running at this time i think he was like 270 to somewhere around there and he's like i'm 270 pounds i fought some of the biggest guys like like biggest names in the world at the time he's like i know how to fight if i if i go full blast or he goes full blast one of us is going to get hurt and then we're not going to fight anymore like we're not

we're not going to make money for our family so i always i always took that in and obviously i'm not like a huge guy like they were but it's like even like when i was training in florida i knew when me and robocop go we're fighting like i know it that guy's scary you know both you both you guys like how the fuck are you making 185 pounds and you're on a smaller side in comparison to him yeah dude it's my weight cuts way harder than his is it yeah he walks dude surprisingly i asked him before because he has you know he has a great like physique right he's big guy when i see him i'm like bro how much he's like oh like 205 I said no way no way he's like I'll step on the scale right now steps on the scale 206 I was like no way I've seen him a little bit bigger bird bones that doesn't

even make any sense no idea I thought the same thing but me I step on the scale I mean right now I'm probably like 225 but I haven't done nothing since I fought but I stay around 215 220 and I'm the run of my family so like my body wants to get bigger but I'm like uh I got unfinished business here so yeah Joe's Joe's a big 85 or Joe Piper oh yeah he's he's a big 85 or Joe Piper oh yeah he's He has a hard cut. He's huge. He has a hard cut. That's why I'm like when he gets...

Yeah, like, how is that guy? How is that guy one iny-five? When I stand next to him, I'm like, how? Same. I can't believe he walks around 205 because that doesn't even make sense. That's what I've seen him. Hey, if it's a lot, guys strike me down now because... I think he rigged that scale.

Well, we were all using it. He probably had his heels on the ground. There, he was... I was super surprised. My boy Tuko was with me. We was all in the room, and I was like... Because I called him out. on everyone else wouldn't say him i was like

was it after training after training okay and both of you after training yeah but and it wasn't a hard day like that day was not a hard day like we weren't like sweating it wasn't like a five six pound practice day right it was a pretty chill day into the week it was it still be surprised if he was only 211 I'd be surprised

dude but I know like when he had other fights he was a little bit bigger because he wanted to be I didn't understand but still that you know but Joe I think what the Ritter has to be the biggest 85er like he's enormous he was he was bigger than I expected and I seen him but I like in the gym I never went close to him because I I I wrote with him like one

time in a in a quick thing it was like a minute long but like still I was surprised when we stepped in there like we stood up to each other at faceoffs and I was like I was expecting to be a little bit bigger I don't know maybe I make everyone bigger in my head but he was really long like even when we stood next each other his hands felt like they touched his knees I was like all right it's going to be interesting yeah I was surprised when I was surprised when when I first met him in the UFC, when he first came over, I was like, because I saw him fighting one, and I knew he fought it, I believe he fought at 205 and 85 over there, right? Right.

And when I saw him, I was like, how fuck are you making 185 pounds? Like, you look like a light heavyweight. This episode is brought to you by Happy Dad Hard Seltzer. A nice cold, happy dad is low carbonation, gluten-free, and is easy to drink. No bloating, no nonsense. When you were watching a football game or you're golfing, Watching a fight with your boys or out on the lake, these moments call for a cold Happy Dad. People are drinking all these shelters and skinny cans that are loaded with sugar.

But Happy Dad only has one gram of sugar in a normal size can. You can buy Happy Dad on the GoPuff app and your local liquor and grocery store, including Walmart, Kroger, Total Wine, and Circle K. And you can't decide on a flavor, grab a variety pack, lemon, lime, watermelon, pineapple, and wild cherry. They also have a great flavor in collaboration with death row records and snoop dog. They have their new lemonade coming out as well. Visit happydad.com for a limited time offer and use code Rogan to buy one Happy Dad trucker hat and get one free. Enjoy a cold Happy Dad must be of legal drinking age. Please drink responsibly.

Happy Dad, hard seltzer, tea and lemonade is a malt alcohol located in Orange County, California. They were worried about that. when he came over because he never made a real true 85 because you know they have the hydration so he can weigh in at 204 but fully hydrated and they still know how to finesse that like i just learned like how they finesse that how they finesse that so they drink a whole bunch of water and then they go they don't pee they don't do nothing they drink that water and then go cut the weight it stays in their stomach so when they piss it out it's clear it's all good so they they test that hydration they test they're hydrated but they're really not oh they already went

sweat out a whole bunch so they drink it they just hold it that's all the guys do it some guys mess it up but that's a majority how everyone does it and so they so you just drink a whole ton of water and just hold your piss as long as possible yeah they make sure like they probably drink like two cups and then they're just going to hold and then they'll go cut for like an hour like sweat sweat sweat sweat sweat sweat and then they say when they show up to the hydration that's i've heard that from like four people that have done it and they said yeah bro i learned from this guy and i learned from this guy I was like, wow, interesting. Yeah, I knew there had to be some sort of a catch to it.

Yeah, and they say it's a lot, it's more unhealthy than, like, cutting weight over here to, like, really make the weight because it, I don't know, I'm not a scientist or a doctor, but they, they, my friends that are into all that stuff are, like, explaining, like, how it works. And I was like, man, that's crazy. And, but he was a guy that never made a true 186, so they were worried. And then he did, and I know, like, I know for a fact, he's coming in. I don't know what he came in on my fight week, but I think the one before that. He came in Monday, I believe, at 210, 210 to fight week. So I was like, shit, I come in at 206 and I'm stressing. I'm like, ah, 2 or 3 is like my number.

Well, I think that contributes to the fact that he gasses. Yeah. I just, I think it's just too much of a strain. And he's talked kind of vaguely, not real clearly about problems that he's had with his health. And, you know, I've got to think that has to do with weight cuts. Yeah. So many guys have kidney problems. Sure, for sure.

And it's weird because, like, in the fight with him, like, I knew, like, in the first round, to feel, like, obviously, adrenaline's flow and everything. So, even, everything's intensified, right? So I could feel how tight he was squeezing. I mean, he was squeezing, like, his legs, everything. He was trying to where I couldn't move. So I just make little adjustments and make him move a little bit. He'd punch very rarely, but I was like, there's impossible. It's impossible for you to keep this up for 25 minutes.

It's impossible. I know you're not going to do it. So just bide my time. Plus, I didn't want to gas either because it was short for me. Short notice, five rounds, you know. It was a little worrisome, but I knew he couldn't. I knew he couldn't. And we did a lot of print for him specifically, and we saw the Russian that he fought in one.

And I was like, we had our game playing before we watched it. And then we watched it. It was like, here we go. That's why everyone asked me, like, what's going to happen? I'm going to break him. He's tough. He is tough. but you know like well if he comes out with that mentality if he's trying to go full blast 100%

in the first round and a five round fight like we right exactly nobody can really do that yeah like I told the guys like because obviously he trains where I was training and uh they all know they all know me you know so it's like if you think you're gonna come out here and it and he said in his interviews like I'm a front runner I'm not good long but I approach a three round fight differently than I approach a five-round fight. So I was like, all right, we'll see. And it kind of backfired. Well, it was a big win for you.

Thank you. Huge win. You look fantastic in that fight. Thank you. You know, it's like there's just so many talented people in the division, it's so hard to stand out. And sometimes, you know, you take a guy like Derritter who just got done stopping bow nickel and a lot of momentum on his side. He looks real good.

You beat Kevin Holland, submitted him. It looks real good. And then you came along and stole. that momentum. Yeah, it was, it was weird, to be honest, because, like, when he got there, I was like, I want to fight him. Just because, like, things of, like,

he fought one of my friends, which now I guess they're best friends, but who was that? Ungla-Len-Seng. Okay. He took both his titles from him. Right. So, like, there was no animosity,

but it was, like, I want to test my... You're a ground guy? Like, I'm a ground guy. Let's see. And then it happened. He got there to UFC, and I was, like, I want to fight him. Like, I was obviously,

I think at the time, I was, like, 12 ranked somewhere around there. but I was like, let him get one, two, and obviously his name's going to carry him, you know. So that came, and I never forget. I was leaving an LSU game. I was in the parking lot. My manager called, and I was like, man, can we just get a fight, please? I've been asking for, like, three months.

Like, please, I just want to fight because I'm very, like, I get in this mode to where I just want to fight, and I'll just keep bugging him, bugging him. Like, you want me to call Mick? You want me to call Hunter? like and he was like no no no no but anyway so I stayed on him he called me I was like hey what about uh the Ritter he was like oh come on man he had just fought I think he beat Gerald and he was like I think I can make this happen he texted me back a couple minutes hey they're good to go the next day they called back and they were like no they're not going

to get the fight like they don't want this fight it's it's not the right time I was like all right they're like what about Fluffy I was like I asked for him two months ago so that's when I end up fighting Fluffy and it just so happened he fought the bone nickel got all that hype and I don't know man again I was at an LSU practice and they called me and they're like hey my manager called me and he was like just want you to know Fluffy's out I threw your name in the hat but you're not the front runner it's Paula Costa he's he's the front runner but I'm pushing for you because I just saw Paulo yesterday I don't know how he's going to make 85 in four weeks yeah he needs a lot of time to make weight.

He's another guy. Yeah. Do you think that it could ever be possible for guys to just fight without cutting weight? Wouldn't that be, but wouldn't that be better? It would be nice. Just wouldn't it be better, like, overall for everybody? I think so, yeah, for sure. Like, here's, like, if everybody just was honest about what they actually weigh, you know,

like, let's find out what everybody actually weighs when you're in shape, like when you're ready to fight, and make a contract to fight it that weight. because this whole weight cutting thing is just legalized cheating. It's so hard, and some guys are so good at it, you know what I mean? Like how about Pereira? Dude, I don't know how he made 85. He would wait 226 when he would fight for the 185 pound title. Crazy.

Doesn't even make any sense. I don't get how you can put on that much weight. The most I ever put on was this last fight, I was 2 of 7. Bro, he gained 40-something pounds. I don't get it. 40 pounds. In a day. Blows my mind.

What does that feel like? Like, what does it do to your body? I always wonder that because, like, this one was tough for me. One month, full diet. Like, I don't usually have, like, you know, a couple cheats and ease into the diet. Like, I'm starting to do now because I'm hoping to fight in March. So I'm already going to start, you know, being cleaner and stuff. Are you concerned, though, that you could get another of those last minute calls?

Like, do you think like that? Like, to not get too heavy? Because if somebody calls and says, hey, the big Paramount card, somebody fell out, it's January. Can you fight? I think where I'm at, it would have to be like an interim title or something like that. Outside of that right now, plus, like, the reason I'm so big and I was out, like, I had fractures in my foot, so I had to, you know. Did you have fractures in your foot from the fight or just you had them before the fight? Oh, God.

Yeah, which we didn't know. I just knew it hurt. Like, and to be honest with you, like, I had them before the fight before that, but I didn't know. Like, I was just like, man, it hurts. Like, I thought it was just like a muscle, so I just would roll it out there. like you know that's what I was what I would do how many fractures they said they they saw three but they're small it was like different like rate where like the toe meets the base of your foot is it from elbows I don't know I don't it was on my lead foot too so I was like

I don't even know like I don't teep a lot because I'm scared of like stuff like that yeah um yeah but I fought with crazy stuff man I tore my whole like ACL in half uh calves everything when I fought Paul Craig. Did you really? Yeah, that calf slicer? Uh-huh. In half. It just blew your ACL out.

Yes. Oh, God. I didn't know. So, like, in the second round, when I go to throw the punch, I think it was Dominic Cruz. He was like, oh, they clipped each other, and they showed the replay, and he hits my hand. He never hit, like, my face or anything. But your knee just buckled.

Yeah, it gave. And you can see me reach down to my knee in that moment. Oh, wow. It was crazy. So afterwards, we got that. But I was lucky, like, when it healed it, like, it, like, it fell to the bone. Like, if they attach, like, up here, mine just reattached here. So I just have a little bit more play, and it's still attached.

Luckily. Really? Yeah, that's how it's. So you never got surgery? Never. I was very lucky. Wow. Insane.

There's, like, three different MRIs that show, like, fine, torn half, rehealed. So it was a partial tail. No, they told me it in half. It cut in half, and then, like, fell. And when it fell, I got lucky, and it fell on the bone just lower at a lower point. And it healed on the bone? And it fused to the bone? itself.

What? Yes. How long did it take to do that? I don't know. The doctor said it could. It says it looked like it was torn maybe like a slight tear before and that one finished it. And the last MRI was probably four or five months ago because I had to get it for something

else. Fused to the bone perfect. You can see it clear as day. The doctor showed me. I was like, that's pretty cool. Did you get stem cells or anything on it? Yeah, I did. I did do a lot of stem cells like through the UFC and stuff.

Yeah. That probably helped. Did you go around in Tijuana? No, they sent it to my doctor Oh, they just sent it It was nice, and they just sent a whole bunch Like my doctor was like, man, look how much they sent I was like, I don't know what it's supposed to look like

Fill it up, let's go So we injected that, but yeah, man, I'll fight with all crazy stuff Because it's like, I don't know, I don't know how to pull it That's the thing that people need to realize that watch Nobody fights at 100% or very few people Very, very rarely And I just don't know how to pull like I've never pulled from one, knock on wood

I haven't pulled on one fight in my career and I've been pretty messed up I think my worst was when I fought EMAVOLF to be honest physically I was like

as far as like how my body was was pretty good but I didn't realize like how much of a toll because I like have a thyroid problem and I went years

without getting it checked and for like a while I was feeling like real sluggish real tired no sex drive nothing like

I didn't want to get out of bed and my weight was just steady growing up for the first time of my life at that point I hit 220 and I was like what is going on like I'm still training I'm eating clean and anyway I went to a specialist in Florida and they tested everything like T3 T4 and I never had T3 checked ever and it was like seven times the normal value whatever that was supposed to be I have

it on a paper whatever they gave me that and they were like hey man I'm going to let you know I was I was fighting in three or four weeks in France and they were like hey this is going to take a month and a half two months to regulate and fully settle out i was like i don't got that kind of time just give me enough to where my where my weight will come down because i wasn't losing anything they're like it's going to do that don't worry within a week or two that's going to happen i'm still pretty tired but i just kept pushing we get to we went to uh london first stayed there a week because it was cheaper for us than going to france because he had my friend had family there then we went to france and then um i was still feeling like tired that was the first camp in my life i i

couldn't do more than two and a half rounds the whole camp really i i i i was the only person that i had to train with gregg was hurt um other guys were out so i had bysinger every day i paid him to to train with me every day whenever i wanted sparring anything and um ask him i do good for the first round halfway through the second after that i was dead like dead and i'm still hitting my runs my lifts every training session like i'm doing everything normal But man, it was terrible. So the fight comes and they, the commission kind of like did super weird stuff. Like I made weight and then like, oh, you're getting drug tested.

I'm like, okay, no, no, no. You're going to get drug tested now. Not the night of the fight like normal. I was like, what? I was like, I literally just cut weight. Like, I don't got to pee. I'm just now drinking fluid. They're like, doesn't matter.

You can go to your room. I was like, all right, I'll wait for a couple minutes. I waited for like 10 minutes. I was like, hey, man, I'm just going to go to my room, try to sleep. And they were like, no, we don't have enough people, you need to stay here. I stayed there for two hours. They did, finally I peed, just barely, peed, and they did two vials of blood. And they got mad because they did that one they put on in press, the gravity one, and they couldn't get enough.

Like, and they were like, because you're dehydrated. Exactly. Do you think they were fucking with you because you were fighting in France against a French guy? It was me and Moriqano. We were the, us, two, and one other person, American. Was that when Moycano was. fighting Benoit and Deni? Yes, sir.

He bitched about the same thing, but somehow he had to... They were fucking with you guys. Them two were up sleeping in their room, chilling. Oh, that's not an excuse. It does not have to be excused. That's so dirty. It was frustrating, but that's why, like, when... I still think he involves a cool guy, you know?

Like, he's deserved his title shot. I think he's fully earned it. Don't get me wrong. But I want to fight him again where it's like... I sparred him like a month after that. He was at the gym, and I showed up at the gym, and we sparred. We had a good time. But I still think he's a nice guy.

I think he deserved a spot. But I just want to fight him where everything's equal. And like you said, we're not going to come in 100%. He's not, I'm not fine. I don't care if I got a messed up hand, foot, whatever.

But just a equal plate. Well, it just sounds like you were compromised. Look, a good example that was Piotr-Yon in his first fight with Marab. Man, he looked great this week. Fuck! What a master class! He looked great.

I was so surprised. When you're going to fight a guy like Marab, Like, that is the masterclass. For sure. You put on a clinic. I didn't, honestly, like, I didn't think he was going to be able to do that for five rounds. I thought you'd have one, maybe, maybe max, too. And I thought Marab was just going to do what Marab does.

I was so wrong. Bro, his training camp must have been hell. Had to. Had to. I mean, he must have done some. I mean, it looked like it. I saw some videos of it. He was doing some wild strength and conditioning and pliometrics.

And he knew what he was in for. That's the thing. If you're going to fight a guy like Marab, it's like, you know what the mountain is. For sure. You ready to climb it? For sure. And the first time they fought, apparently he had a fucked up right hand. That's what I heard.

He couldn't grapple with it and he couldn't throw punches with it. So I rewatched the fight after he said that. I was like, oh, he's barely using it. Like barely using his right? Made sense, right? Totally makes sense. And then also psychologically, if you only got one hand, everything. Now you have to think.

Right. You can't really throw combinations. You have to think. Can grab. I want to know how tough Uriah Faber is. Uriah Faber when he fought Mike Brown. He broke both hands. Both hands.

I remember that fight. And he was throwing elbows. Bolt hands. He was one of my favorite fighters. He was a guy that I wanted to be just like, I even, you could ask my dad, he'll laugh to this day. I was like, dad, I don't want to be like, my dad's tall, everyone's tall, I don't want to be tall, I want to be like him. He was like, what? Because that was the fight.

He was a beast. He was a beast back in the day. You know, by the time he was fighting in the UFC, I kind of think he had had some of his best fights already, like in the WEC days. Dude, amazing fights. Amazing fights. Oh, he was a killer. I still remember the Mike Brown coming out party. Josie Aldo.

That was... That's another example of how tough he is. When he fought Joseo Aldo and Joseo Alto killed his leg, dude, killed his leg. It is the worst after-fight leg I've ever seen in my life. Other than Austin Hubbard, you ever see Austin Hubbard? He got compartment syndrome and had to have his whole leg sliced open from the top to the bottom to alleviate pressure and drain some of the fluids. No way. It's the nastiest injury I've ever seen.

I'm going to ask him. Google, excuse me, look up Austin Hubbard images of, I forget the fight. Oh, there it is. Look at his leg. That black thing, that's his leg open. No way. Yeah, that's his tissue. Oh, my days.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at that. Oh, my gosh. How insane is that? Dude, he trains in Chicago with me. Oh, when I ask him. Look at that image. How fucking insane is that image.

That's his tissue underneath. there, man. Oh, my days. Look, you have to, like, mature content. You have to click a link in Instagram to be able to see it. Holy cow. How nuts is that, man. Dude, that's gnarly. So there's a drain, that tube that you're seeing right there. What that is attached to is that drain that's letting liquid drip out of his leg. So compartment syndrome is so bad that sometimes people, when they don't get it treated, they have to get their leg amputated. Really? Oh, yeah. So that was just from leg kicks from a fight? Just from a fight. I'm trying to remember who he fought

Jesus Can we find out who he fought It was a year ago Oh more than a year ago This picture was 325 weeks ago Yeah but the fight was

More than a year ago It was quite a while ago But what? Is it like a big bruiser Well it says 325 weeks ago Oh 300 Yeah

325 weeks ago Yeah So it was quite a while ago but I see if who you found out who you fought. Boy it's just like your your leg just stays like bruised and swollen and then you're not just bruised it's like your tissue breaks down it fills up with fluid and yeah and then also what happens I guess when you get that much damage and your tissue is like your whole body has to process all all of that so is Kyle Puppelich I don't remember that and so is UFC Vancouver

elevator passed out an elevator had to be rushed to the hospital oh it's crazy I never knew that yeah see him at the gym all the time so he's a nice guy so they had to cut his leg open to reduce the pressure so that's what that image is damn nuts that is crazy yeah that's nuts and then yariah's leg honestly in the fight looked worse than that i mean yariah might have had compartment syndrome and didn't get it drained because i know he spent a lot of time in hyperbaric chambers after the fight i want to try that it's great i want to try that it's really amazing if you have an aura ring and you go into the hyperbaric chamber it will tell you that you're recovered more really yeah than a normal day yeah oh you have a very high level of recovery today yeah i'm gonna try

that for sure oh it's legit yeah all my friends have been like like jared gordon like got one for one of his fights and was telling me like how different it makes him feel and stuff like for me as far as i go it's like i just started like really like using more supplements like i think the deal that thorn made with ufc really helped me because like i started using there And what really helped is I was always scared to go on creatine because, like, growing up, my dad did get so big and he would, like, back in the day, they'd have, like, all these different things.

Like, oh, if you use too much creatine, it's bad for you, bad for your kidneys or whatever. But it turns out all that's bullshit. Exactly. Yeah, and creatine's fantastic for you. And that's been, like, the main thing. Like, I can really feel, like, how different my body recovers, like, how more almost energized in a way.

You know, I wake up and, like, when I go to lifting stuff, I feel, like, way better. So, like, what's even great for you? your mind. Creatine is fantastic just for cognitive support. I need everything

for that because I've been getting hit in the head since I was 13 years old so you know yeah it don't sometimes it don't function properly

you know I have to it's funny me and my wife were just joking the other day where you're like I was like baby you do that

on purpose don't you she's like what I was like you try to use memory against me you'll wait till I forget something and you were like oh remember you said this

and I'm like I didn't say that I didn't say that I have to die on that hill because it's like I don't remember but I don't tell heard I'm just like no I didn't I know I didn't you know so but yeah the that was a great

relationship that's helped like you know UFC's done like a lot of like made a lot of good partnerships that's helped like the athletes but for me personally like the Thorne relationship Thorne makes great stuff yeah and they're so tested if you get in a hyperbaric chamber that'll it'll help your memory as well hyperbaric chamber is just good for overall recovery for everything there was even a study out of Jerusalem it shows at lengthen's telomeres they did this process where they had um you took 60 sessions of 90 minutes uh over the course of 90 days so 60 hour and a half sessions of the course of 90 days and it showed it lengthen people's telomeres that was really yeah that was equal to a 20 age difference so yeah 20 year age difference so it's like

your telomeres as you get older the that that's like one of the clear marks of biological aging is how long your telomeres are that's good to know yeah it indicates you know Like as you get older, they shrink, and there's a few things that they've shown that will increase telomeres, but nothing as dramatically that I've ever heard other than the hyperbaric chamber. That was probably the best one I've ever heard of, yeah. Man, I've been like trying to learn more about recovery because I'm kind of like... How old do you now? I'll be 30 in a couple weeks. Yeah, that's when you've got to start thinking about it.

When you're 22, you're just a wild man, you wake up in the morning with rock hard boners, like everything's fine. You just show up to training, you don't even stretch. Now I'm like, wait a minute, guys, wait a minute. The thing is, even if you're 22, you should stretch, that's just youthful ignorance. God, it's so, there's so many guys that can't. I remember I was talking to, I don't want to say his name, because he's a good guy. But he's like a world-class MMA fighter, and I was trying to show him something. We're talking about a like guard technique, and he's like, I can't, and I'm not flexible.

I can't get my leg like that. And I go, what do you mean? I go, why aren't you flexible? I go, I don't stretch. I go, how do you not stretch? You're a world-class fighter. who tries to kick people in the head, and you don't stretch? That's so crazy.

He's like, it's boring. I'm like, okay, a lot of things are boring, like, that you don't stretch is so crazy. Because, like, anytime someone says, I'm not flexible, I'm like, how do you know? Right. You know? Like, you don't know if you're flexible until you start stretching for a long fucking time. Right. You can get flexible.

It's like, I don't have any cardio. Well, you can get cardio. That's a choice. fucking work get do cardio and you'll have cardio this is crazy but you're really flexible yeah but it's like i'd never stopped but i started when i was little i i developed flexibility while my body was still maturing which is very fortunate because you're not like like stiff yet it's like you can get flexible but it's i'm 58 years old it's not easy to stay flexible i just keep fucking stretching i didn't know you was 50 i'm old as shit dude i didn't know that

i thought you was younger than that you're older my dad i'm old dude you're in good shape though Thank you. I keep up. I'm scared of death. I'm not scared of death. Death is inevitable. What I'm scared of is being feeble, like where you can't do things anymore. You can't go on a hike.

You can't use your body. Like I work out just as hard now as I did when I was 30. I make my wife always worried because I'm like, I don't know. I don't honestly know if I mean it or not. I'm like, I don't want to be 80 years old. Like, for instance, like, you kind of not say things like that around ladies. sometimes they don't like she's like she's like no don't say that i need you like we're a team and i'm like babe look what i do for a living look what i've done like my body's not like that like you know

and like i don't know maybe i say that but then like i get out of working out for like i haven't worked out like two months and i'm like i'm itching like a freaking fiend i'm like so when you say i haven't worked out like you don't do anything for two months i haven't done anything i went in the gym twice i went in the gym twice i did one run and one lift and then we found out my foot had fractures and they sent me this foot boot and then the doctor's like you don't have to wear that but don't do anything that puts a lot of pressure on your foot and then i've been traveling like at the end of the year i travel a lot going hunting and stuff and you know like like like your meat eater thing like yeah i love that kind of stuff so um i'm not on that big of a scale and that nice of like animals

i'm just like just a simple white tail kind of guy but you know i love hunting white tails i love it i got a little property in illinois oh that's great man yeah so i can't believe that you could take a whole couple of months off with nothing just don't do nothing crazy right yeah i'm very blessed well it's probably smart it's probably smart to do it's good and bad a few people do that it's good and bad so like i only do it this much at the end of the year because it's hunting season and holidays and my kids birthdays and you know kind of my kids birthdays are right now or back well shit i guess all the time they're back to back to back so it's like all right we'll do that we travel but it's only end of the year. Usually I'll take a couple weeks off, maybe a month max, depending on my

injuries after a fight, but then I'm back at it. But it's hard for me at home. I'm a full-time dad and a full-time husband at home right now. I've got so many kids, you know, I'm away for so long. How many kids do you have? I'm about to have five. Wow. Yeah. Five, and you're not even 30 yet. Yes, sir. I have two with my ex. I'm about to have two with my current wife, and she has a son from her previous so stepson yeah so and he's 14 my daughter's just turned six and four my son's about to turn one and then we'll have another one in about a month and a half so you got a lot of work to do yeah but it's it's nice it's hard right now um you know kids have schedules and now like my my little girls do jiu jitsu my stepson was playing football for the first time this year and he's a basketball

player because my wife was a pro basketball player and um so he's all got something going on but at my new house that I'm working to build I have like two gyms full gym so like I don't have to leave oh that's nice I could bring people in to train I have my full cage that I used to have for my promotion so well even if you only you realize only I only have 40 minutes before I have to leave what I can get a half hour workout on real quick and you could really burn it out for a half an hour just to keep keep the machine oiled exactly but you know the argument about taking time off it does reset the brain like you know who used to do that I know he's not a fighter but Ronnie Coleman. Ronnie Coleman is crazy as he used to lift when he was Mr. Olympia, and he was one of

the heaviest lifters of all time. I mean, he would do, he's a freak. He's a freak. Ronnie, when he would like, get done with Mr. Olympia, he would like, I don't know, doing shit. He wouldn't do anything for a couple months. Like, no training at all. And they'd be like, nothing at all. You go, nope, nothing, nothing. Yeah. He goes, I got to reset. Got to reset. But imagine being so driven that you could train the way that guy trained, and yet so wise that you'll, you know, like, I'll get it back. Let me just like, let me just chill. Let me just chill. And it wasn't like it turned him into a lazy person. Like that's what everyone's afraid of. Oh, I'm going to lose this momentum. I'm doing so good. Everything's going so great. I'm working so hard. I want to keep

working hard. Because we've all had, if you will live a life, you're going to have ups and you're going to have downs. And like you were going through your thyroid issue, there's going to be times where you don't have a lot of energy. So when you're feeling good, you want to keep going. Right. And this guy gets to mr olympia but he has the wisdom to go you know what i can get that back right now let this not do shit and let this let this mind recover let this stress just go away let it slip out of my life that's what i try man uh i kind of learned like because i always have traveled for camp since i was probably three or four no as a pro or three and one as a pro three or four fights in as a pro i was i was traveling i was going to rufus sport for a long time i stayed there

for a long time then i went to florida for a long time and now i'm not chicago and um always what you mean you ought to know uh valley flow oh okay and like war room with ball mohammed belal yeah so and that's been a great change yeah man he's so good who both the brother he got a little brother oh really he's a stud he's a stud he's a stud i believe it if it comes out of that family barma mondays is a beast he's a stud the little brother is a stud he helped me for Marvin's fight, I think and then Nacho helped me a little bit for this one, this last one.

How did you choose going to Chicago? I've known Ballalson's Rufus Sport and obviously we stayed in contact, you know, when we see each other, it's like we never, you know, haven't seen each other. And he's always told me like, bro, just come down, just come check it out. You don't have to stay or nothing. Like, stay at my house, but you don't have to move here or nothing. He'll just come check it out.

So I watched his rise and what he does and his work ethic and his team and after the fluffy loss like I just I kind of sat back had some conversations with people that are really close to me and explaining like what was going on with me like mentally and where I felt and um I Bala was one of the people I talked to and he's like I know what the problem is and everyone that I talked to which wasn't a lot they all said exactly the same thing so I was like B can I come what's the problem

what was the problem complacency I know like who I can train with and not go hard I'm the coach of my own thing Like I'm running my whole like whole camp basically I go to Wagner You were running your whole camp Basically I'd be like You go to Wagner's for Jiu-Jitsu? Yeah I'd go to Wagner's for Jiu-Jitsu

I'd go to I'd be at Kilcliffe But I'd be in the corner doing my thing Because you had the Russian coach over here Teaching some crazy stuff that don't make no sense What do you mean Like they'd be teaching some stuff off the wall That would never work Really?

Yeah but the kids like the Russian kids Like they were in the classes Like they got young young guys like Ansar Nikita like um by sangor he wasn't even there like those guys they were like come over here let's do something else like they have like real mMA knowledge because they fight and they've learned from you know all the guys from where they're from but uh so who are these russian coaches that are there was just one man uh you don't have to say his name yeah he was just he's not there no more

but um but he was a legit coach he never fought okay did he fight in anything kickboxing i don't Nothing? I don't know if he even competed in wrestling, to be honest with you ever. I don't know. Okay. Is he, like, does he spar with people? Nope. How old is he?

I would say in his 30s, I would say. What? Really? Yeah, I would guess. And he's a coach? But he's coaching unorthodox stuff? Like, what kind of stuff? Like stuff against the wall, but it was like, for instance, I don't remember what it was.

It was against the wall. I was going with my friend AJ, Aaron Jeffries. And it was some takedown off the wall, right? AJ couldn't get it I was like brother and I don't say it out loud because I don't want no problems you know like right I'm gonna just go with the flow and mind my business but you know I've been doing it long enough to worry it's like you realize this move's probably not gonna work from my body type or my my game but I'll try it right and so anyway he was doing it and AJ's like bro I don't get it I was like yeah because this shit ain't gonna work bro he's like what I was like it's like what I was like he do the guy looks at me he goes he's telling him he's he's telling him he's he's not going to work he's Then he looks at me, go, stop it. Me? He's like, yeah. I was like, bet.

He tries to do it. I literally grab his wrist, grab his head, and throw him. Boom. Is he your size? He's bigger than me. Oh, wow. Throw him. And so it didn't work.

No. He's like, let me try one more time. Let's go full speed. I said, shit, that was full speed. Do the exact same thing, but do it the other way now. Boom. Throw him again. AJ looks at me.

He says, the coach says something. I was like, then, Then I get agitated, right? Then I'm like, man, that's because this shit ain't going to work. I told y'all, y'all don't listen to me. I just walked off. Oh, that's not good. You know?

So I just walk off. And I was like, I ain't taking this. So how did this guy become a coach there? Sticking around and translating? Oh, no. You know, sometimes? Oh, there's those weird guys like that. I'm not saying that this guy's like that, but there are some weird guys like that

become parasitic. You know, they're like friends with a guy who's a really good fighter, and then they're always there. And then they want to be a part of the team somehow. And then they start contributing. or this time maybe running conditioning drills or something like why is this guy running conditioning drills that's exactly how it went oh that's the worst exactly how it went literally tip for there's weird parasitic relationships in any elite like thing whether it's sports i see it in comedy there's some

comedians that have weird parasitic friends that wind up you know becoming a producer on their thing and there's just some guy who just like like a lamprey clinging to the bottom of a shark it got weird for a little while especially at the end it did like when I was still there with that whole thing because even some of the other coaches started to catch on because at Kilcliffe, you know,

sometimes we have a lot of guys fighting like all over the place so coaches would be gone and you try to figure that situation out so he'd step in and try to help and it just got weird but like again, I'm not the kind of person that really cause a conflict.

Like I'd rather just like if, like just for instance, if you're causing something like some type of energy with me I'm gonna just move over here and just stay out your way. That's smart. The world needs more people like you.

Well, my younger self would have, I want a conflict. I'm going to show you. Right, of course. But now, as you got wiser. Yeah. And you realize, like, what's the, also, you're an elite professional mixed martial arts fighter. You ain't got shit to prove to somebody. That's kind of how I feel now.

I see some of these younger kids. I see some of these younger kids now, and I'm just like, let me just stay over here. It gets people hurt. It ruins your life. And that's what it would be for me. I don't want that to happen because, like, I have kids, I have a wife, I have a good life, I live very nice, like, as far as, like, my lifestyle, like, I'm here with you right now, you know?

Also, it's fucking pointless. I've seen bar fights where, you know, there's young guys, and they just, like, see an opportunity, they want to prove something, and I'm like, I just want to tell them, like, hey, man, one day you're going to be 35, you're going to be looking back on this day, and maybe it's the day you got stabbed, maybe it's the day you got shot, you know, maybe it's the day you got knocked the fuck out, your head bounced off the concrete, and you'll never be the same person again yeah like exactly what you said it's just not worth it like you know Kevin James the yeah yeah he just come to the gym oh that's awesome he trains a lot

good friend of mine I've been friends of mine for 30 years when I first met him he told me a story when he was bouncing when he was bouncing in a bar in Long Island one of his friends there was a bouncer and some drunk kid was starting shit and he knocked this kid out and the kid fell down and hit his head and died and he wound up doing time he went to jail for manslaughter Dude, one of my best friends got stabbed in the face in New Orleans because he didn't even know. He was talking to this dude's chick, and he didn't know.

Right. He didn't know. Like, she didn't say nothing. She came up to him. He was just at the bar. Dude, came and stabbed him in the face, broke his jaw. Stabbed him and ran. He has a nice scar.

He's older now, so it's kind of went away, but, like, through his beard. But wired his jaw shut. He was messed up for a while, you know? In the face. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. If you've got something to say, sell, or share with the world, you need a legit online presence. Me, I use Squarespace to power my website. It's easy to use.

And with their AI enhanced website builder and built-in tools for booking payments, email, all of it, you can actually run your business, not just build a site. Go to Squarespace.com slash rogan for a free trial. And when you are ready to launch, use the code Rogan to get 10% of it. off your first purchase of a website or domain. And someone trying to stab me in the face is easily trying to stab you in the neck. Exactly.

Yeah, you just got lucky. So it's like... You just got lucky to hit that jaw and not your fucking carotid artery. Oh my God. I watched a video of these guys in London and they're yelling at each other and squaring off each other back and forth

and back and forth. And then finally they get out of it and one guy just pulls out a fucking knife and slices this dude's neck. And this dude is just squirting out of his neck. And he tries to fight for a second and he just gets woozy. And he's just squirting as he goes down.

I don't know what happened. I'm assuming he died because I'm looking at the amount of blood loss. If someone didn't jump on that and compress it, and even if you did, the crowded artery is like such a significant amount of blood that's going through there. Depending on, I guess, the damage. Dude, I think I had like... So stupid. I've always heard the story, obviously, you know how stories are,

but I've heard from a couple different people. I have, like, a great uncle somewhere along the line. He passed away before I was alive. he was in a bar i know right where the place is everything the building's still there to this day he was in the bar he was sitting down having some drinks with a friend don't i don't know the relationship between him and the guy the guy walked up behind him slit his throat oh god he he missed the carotid arteries both of them by like not even a quarter of an inch like not even eighth them inch he missed both of them so it was just here oh shit chased the guy out almost beat him

to death and then almost died because he couldn't breathe like oh god But almost beat the guy to death. Almost. Almost died. So two people almost died. Bro, nightclubs are so bad. I've never been a club. I hate, like, a group of people, I hate it.

I get very offsetting. There's too many people on Coke. There's too many people that are stupid. There's too many people that want to like, bro, I fucking see red. And, you know, there's too many dummies. When I was a kid, when I was 21 years old, I was at a bar, and I watched this guy hit a guy in a face with a Heineken bottle. At a nowhere over nothing. I was standing by the bar

and there was just two guys They were as close as Jamie as to me And they were talking to each other Like loud voices but nothing crazy Like no physical shit And this guy just takes up Heineken bottle off the ball And smashes it on his face And there was blood everywhere

This guy was just just leaking all over his face I was like the guy's face Is destroyed for the rest of his life Over literally nothing Literally nothing It's crazy man It's just there's too many people out there that are fucking stupid, man.

And you get sucked into their gravity. You know, you're like the guys that like, they're like, if they know who you are, they'll be like, oh, you can fight, I can shoot. I'm like, all right, so can I. Congratulations, man. Fight each other or shoot each other. That's my question.

Hi, my name is Brendan. That's my thing now. I'm like, bro, I don't want to fight or shoot. You just leave me alone and leave my family alone. We're good, bro. I don't want no problems with nobody. Well, the problem is there's too many people out there that haven't proven themselves.

They don't have a thing in their life that gives them a challenge all the time where they're proving themselves. So every time they go out, they're trying to prove themselves. Every time they go out, they're trying to puff their chest out and be Billy badass.

And it's so dangerous. And here's why you don't see that. Train fighters. Dude, I used to bounce out a little, like something small. And I needed the money, obviously. And I never forget, man. This little dude, he had to be like,

this tall, short and fat. He was, I don't know how tips. see he was. I don't know, right? But all the guys know that I was fighting. I was LFA at the time. And they always told me, hey, man, don't worry about hitting nobody. If someone swings at you, I got you. Or just hit him and say I did it. I was

like, ah, I'm good, bro, I'm good. So it doesn't get you in trouble? Yeah, they were super cool, right? Who knows if that would have really been how it went? I don't know, you know? But anyway... If you really fuck somebody up and there was a lawsuit, I guarantee you that they dropped your name. Dude, there was a bartender there. He freaking, I watched it with my own two eyes in the front this dude and him got into it the guy slipped because he pushed him and he slipped it was a little wet dude he soccer kicked him so hard in the face so hard i was like he got arrested for that oh god you know but dev but that little kid he swung at me and i don't even

know if he hit me or hit my hand he hit something right and i'm laughing i'm laughing i'm like i couldn't believe it like he had that cocaine courage son he must have i'm laughing i'm literally doing this and because I was going to stick him with the right but he was so little like I was like no way and how I saw the punch come I was like don't do it. There are some people out there that have no idea how to fight and yet

they still try to fight. They have no weapon. They don't have a good punch. They don't have a background in wrestling. They don't have a damn thing and yet they'll still decide they want to fight someone and just hope in today's day and age. How can you hope that people don't know how to fight? I think

if you wanted to 10 guys one of them can fight today is probably the most in human history in terms other than like Spartan days most in human history and even back then how good was their technique exactly you know what I'm saying it's crazy they probably didn't even know about calf kicks it's like my dad grew up boxing right so my dad he would always tell me like growing up he was a little bitch he was like I used to get my ass kicked until he had he had to move in with his grandfather

And his grandfather at World War II vet, shot twice, grew up boxing, probably the most rugged man that you'll ever meet. I met him once before he passed away. His voice was so gruff. Like he's a man's man, you know, like one of those. Doesn't say nothing, really. And so he raised my dad. And he used to step outside, like kind of mess with him in box. Like he put him in boxing, but he knocked my dad out one time with my dad's like, you know, well, man, come on, let's test it.

stepped on his foot and slept him. And, uh, but anyway, so like, when he was in high school, though. That's a fucked up thing to do to your kid. Dude, he said, my dad said he didn't care about nothing. My dad said he'd literally watch this smash his finger flat with a hammer. The nerves flew out. Like, they were still attached. They flew out.

Oh, my God. Hit his head on, uh, throwing bales of hay in the loft. Smoked his head on a railroad spike that was in the wood. Uh, cracked his skull. He didn't know until two days later. They said if he would have waited a couple, like 12 more hours, he would have dead because all the swelling on his brain. They had to cut his brain, his skull off

to let the fluid come out. Oh, God. Crazy, old, just stubborn old man, you know? That's crazy to your grandson, though. Sleeping like that? Dude, he said, my dad said, my dad said, he said, we were messing around. He's like, all right, like, quit messing with me. He always told him that. Leave me alone. He kept on, kept on. He stepped on.

He stepped on his foot. And my dad said, quit stepping. He said, that's all he remembers. Oh, wow. Old school trick. He slept him. My dad said when he woke up, he had the worst, like, migraine. And he was on the porch. drinking a thing I think tea and he was like hey get your ass up and go clean the dog pin get to work those those dudes who came up through World War II were that's a different kind of

human being yeah you know so it's like that's just kind of like how my dad was so like when he got to high school like he wasn't the kind to go look for trouble but he was the kind of person like my dad told me as well like you stick up for the people that can't stick up for themselves or if someone fucks with you like do what you got to do just don't like nowadays he's like don't put your hands

like don't throw a punch of them first unless they get an arm for each then you throw a punch first don't ever let someone hit you kind of like you too you could just choke somebody yeah now but it's like hurt him you can just put them to sleep

and that's more I'm a good hugger so it's like I prefer that but my dad's like mean man like he's different like he was in the military and he boxed when he was overseas

for like 75 bucks because he'd send all his money home to us So it's like, like, I don't know, like, people don't know. Different kinds of human beings, man. I come from something like, that's what I feel like when I fight. Like, I'm different. Like, I honestly, I was telling myself that in the Marvin fight in between rounds, like, going into the third. Because my dad and my brother were both there in attendance for the first time.

Like, my brother hadn't been in any of my fights since probably my second pro fight because of his injury. And so, like, I watched my buddy Costello fight for the PFL belt. And he said after the fight, like, he said word for word, He's like, I was, I was raised by a warrior. He raised two warriors. I'm a fucking warrior. And he's like, that's what I told myself. And so, like, that stuck in my head till the fight, like, till my fight.

So, like, in the third round, like, everyone was like, oh, he falls off in the third. And that was something like my corner was, because that was my first time in Chicago. So, like, Harassio looked at me in between rounds, and he was like, hey, let's go. Like, let's restart it. He said something else. And I was like, I'm good. Just get out of the way. like you know that's it's kind of one of those moments where it's like you're living in the

moment but i don't know well i think just having a coach is really important it's really important especially having an elite coach having a coach that's really on top of it you know yeah i guess safe saud you know farazahhabi duke rufus having someone who's like really on it really watching you really knows what you need really knows when you need to back off because the fact that you did so well and that you were coaching yourself is kind of fucking crazy well when I say I had coaches yeah exactly but I didn't have a main coach yes sir exactly that's the difficult so for people that don't know okay if you listen to this and you're just interested in MMA generally there's a striking coach usually they have some sort of a moit to hire kickboxing

background you generally have wrestling coaches you generally have jihitsu coaches and if you're a really good gym you got one guy who knows how to put it all together right and those are the the maestro. Those are the guys who are like conducting the entire orchestra and they know you. And if a good guy knowing his fighter is like an artist and I think you can only have a certain amount of people that you're working really closely with because it's a very involved and intensive job. Like Eric Nixick. That's a guy. He gets down into the nitty gritty of every fucking thing you guys are doing. He knows what you need. He knows what you don't need. You know, it's like it's also you got a guy who could just push it off to him. He knows what to

to do. He's going to give you game plans in between rounds. Okay, this is working, but we need more of this. He does this all the time. When he does, the reason why he's getting away with it is because of that, get it in your head, go out there. When I hear guys and the guys losing and they get no technical advice and they start getting, go fuck him up. You got to fuck him up. You got to put hands on him. And I'm like, oh my God, tell him what to do. He knows how to fight. Get on top. Get on top. Tell what to do. Stand up. And I get it. You only have a minute. I get it. And I get it. Everybody's panicking. If things. Things are going wrong. I get it, but my God. It's been different. Having a good coach, having like a Farrasah hobby type dude in your corner who just really understands what you need to do. So fucking important. It's been one of the best changes that I have because I ain't going to lie. I'm not the easiest person to deal with.

Like, I like to be very in control of things that I can control. And I know myself. Like, I've done a lot. I've been around a lot. So I like, I know like, hey, man, like, I'm feeling it today. Like, my body's kind of done. No, no, no, no, no, go, go, go. 100%, you know?

Do you monitor all your shit? Do you monitor your resting heart rate? Yeah, now, I don't, usually I have my whoop on because I used to have the aura, but it hurt, like, I couldn't train with it. Right, right. But I just took it off because I was training jujitsu. Or is a little bit of a problem when you live weights, too. Exactly.

I pinched my finger so bad. Well, have you ever seen sheathing injuries? You ever seen those? Uh-uh. What is it? Where it rips the skin of your finger off? The first time I ever saw one. I never saw him in person.

But the first time I ever saw one, it was somebody who did Jiu-Jitsu. And they did Jiu-Jitsu with a ring on, like a wedding ring, and just fucking mangled their finger. Well, it's called sheathing, because it pulls all your skin off the bone like a sheath you would stick a knife. Yeah, I didn't know that's what it was called. That's what it's called. It's like a sheathing. Yeah. Here's some of these injuries.

I saw it like that. Bro, look at that. Dude. Ew! The first time I ever seen it was someone in a ghee. A ghee. It got caught in the ghee. Oh my God.

Really? Like you said, took the skin off. Yeah. He had the redding ring, and he had, I think he made the grip on the, on the sleeve. And when the guy pulled, it, like, took, it, like, caught that, like, fat, that little muscle or whatever right there. And ripped his fucking skin off his finger? I've never seen that. Dude, it was so nasty.

Like you said, I was like, oh, my God. So now I am 100% sure that I don't wear my wedding ring. That's why it's tattooed on my finger, because when I go to camp, I don't wear a wedding ring. She knows when I get to camp, I take it off. I put it in my truck. When camp is over and I get home from the fight, I put it back on. I don't have mine on now because I just came from the gym, but I used to have a silicone one.

Well, I'm not used to. I have a silicone one that I use all the time. That I can work out with it. I can do anything with it. Oh, interesting. Yeah. What is that company, Ridge? Is that what it is?

No, that's the wallet company. Is that what it is? They're making all kinds of stuff. They've got luggage and everything. It's a good one. It looks like an aura ring, too. But it's made out of silicone. So even if you catch it on something, it's no big deal.

But even that, I forget, which, Which coach it was I forget which coach It's like like an elite Jiu-jitsu coach He goes I refuse to let a guy even train with that He goes I've seen too many injuries Too many injuries where your finger just gets

mangled by having that fucking stupid thing on there That's nasty that's like Groove ring groove that's it Yeah I feel like that with like knee injuries And like dislocations Oh dude you know what It creeps me the most is broken shins When I see that that shin check

When the shin snaps like If there's ever a fight that I think a guy should have pulled out that didn't, and if I was his friend, I would have told him you cannot fight. It's Connor when he fought Dustin. The second fight with Dustin, excuse me, the third fight with Dustin when his shin snapped in half. You know, they knew that he had some sort of a hairline fracture on a shit.

Really? Yeah. I never knew that. He'd already had MRIs and everything. Wow. They knew something was really wrong with it. Yeah, screw that. No, no.

Yeah. And he didn't even, it didn't even, like, go shin to knee or anything like that, like it usually snaps. That's how compromised it was. If you watch that fight, there is one time where Dustin checks it, and he checks the kick, and he looked at him. He pointed at him, like, I know that hurt you, bitch. Like, he, like, got in his head. And that was also after Dustin had just caoed him in the last fight.

So this was the third fight. Yeah. And it was weird, man, because in the first fight, it was like, nice guy Connor. It was like, nice guy Connor even after the fight. Like, after the fight, he was being cool. He got caoed. His leg got fucked up with those calf kicks. And after the fight he was so respectful

I'm like look Connor turned a corner Not the third one Not the third one bro Your girls in my DMs Oh bro It's so funny But it's like I know where Dustin He comes from like a same vibe

That I come from And like same things Probably bother him So when he said that You could see Dustin Like even though he just whooped him He was like Like you know

It's crazy isn't to say Why you're lying there With a broken leg For sure You know He took it well though Who took it the best That I've seen personally

Tyrone Spong When he snapped his in half He's just sitting there We talk about this too I'm like bro How'd you sit there Just like He's like

To be honest I think he said like To be honest I was really Shock at first And then I was like What am I gonna do It is what it is

Yeah like what am I gonna do Like it sucks That's wise Yeah he was a G That was against Go Kansaki too Yeah That was a kickboxing fight

Yeah I remember to this day It's fair rare in a kickboxing fight It's an interesting It's way more common In an MMA fight I've only seen a couple of times in kickback i've seen it god thank god thank because of instagram luckily i get to see every fucking horrific injury that's ever happened i've seen it seems like i never saw it until

one who was the first time was it cori hill i think it was cori hill was the first guy who broke his and cori was like a real tall thin guy i believe he fought at 145 and he was something crazy like six three at one forty five yep it was real tall and skinny and he was real tall and skinny and he who did he fight he passed away right yes he did unfortunately he fought in Louisiana good big because I remember when he passed away they were

doing some stuff for him there so that was um also the referee didn't notice it Dale that just says Dale each on the thing I have oh oh

oh bro that gets me so during the fight the referee didn't notice it so they kept fighting and I put my heads heads down and I got up and I was screaming stop the fight stop the fight the referee didn't notice it he didn't notice that the guy's leg broke so they were still scrapping on the ground I I hope that was in because I did not notice that his leg is literally in a it's just a bad angle you know you're in the wrong place at the

wrong time well looking at where the referee's standing there's actually kind of no excuse. There it is. There it is. You saw it falls back. Look, it's lit. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop the fight.

It's all over. Corey Hill. Dang. Dale Hart. You saw it instantly on your monitor. I saw it instantly in the cage. Dang. I wasn't watching the monitor.

I don't even think we had monitors back then. I was just about to ask that question. I don't think we had monitors back then. We didn't have monitors for watch. The monitors are my idea. Really? I was like, we have to have monitors. I want to see monitors.

I want to see replays. I want to see shit. Yeah. It was early, early in the UFC. I was like, we need monitors. You know, and also the judges should get fucking monitors, too. Yeah, now it's nice. I'll sit behind you sometimes and see it.

Actually, now that I'm thinking that, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we did have monitors. Maybe I was asking for other things. Maybe I was asking for monitors for the judges. Like, when did they start having monitors in the UFC? I don't know. But I always try to watch the actual fight. I want to see the actual fight.

Really? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I like. you can get a better view if the cage is there but I mean fuck man you're five feet away from the best fights on earth you want to see it see it I don't want to be on

watching TV that's crazy yeah you got the best seat in the house oh it's the craziest seat ever so when do they start doing it 2011 is that for judges yeah that was definitely my idea or well there was other people that had that same idea but I'm like you need to do this this is because there was some of them that were so bad

some some calls that were so bad it's like there's no way these guys are seeing everything you know if there's a pillar here and a guy lands an elbow and you're judging and you don't see it like what do you do what do you say that might have been the most pivotal moment in the fight like what are you doing you have to see it and all the judging thing is crazy man because so much there's judges that don't even train they've never trained MMA they don't they don't have any jiu jitza skill they don't know what's going on in the middle of a fight once this lady leaned over to my friend who was also worked for one of the commissions said

what is he doing? No way. It was an Americana. It was like a normal move. It was like, what is he doing? That's crazy. It was either Americana or Camura. I'm not sure if I remember.

I'm not a mess with him. He's trying to bite him. What? I don't know. But imagine this is a person that's in charge. So the really horrible thing about it a bad decision, it's not just that you get a loss on your record, but you get half your paycheck,

which I think is really, really fucked up. I think that needs to stop. I think you should have a designated amount that you're fighting for. And if you want to have a stoppage bonus or you want to, you know, give someone some sort of a bonus for an excellent performance, that's great. That incentivizes them to try harder to stop somebody. But a bad decision that can cost you half your purse is crazy. It's crazy. You know, I had a, I'm getting older, you know, so I try to be, have a little bit more wisdom. So after like I lost the fluffy I was like I went back and watched a fight like six times and I'm like I really don't see how how I lost on it on a decision like I can see like your point if

you use this frame of mind but based on the unified rules at the time how so I could I reach out to like a lot of people that I knew that are like in the high up in commissions and like I had really deep talks with them about it like explain my perspective listen to theirs the rules and literally it came down to it's your interpretation it's your interpretation of the rules and it was like it came down to is his effective grappling even if they're holding they're still you know whatever does it outweigh me almost knocking you out and me putting a cut all the way to your skull on your face and you holding me which one outweighs what that's how i explained it to him and they were like oh but he just had more time i said and look don't get you

me wrong i love fluffy i think he's a great human being i really do i've known him we fought twice already and um he's beat me both times both decisions you know and um but i don't think i lost the last one i still stay i'll still die on that hill well it was a very good fight it was a very close fight i see what you're saying though and it was one of the things that we brought up during this past uh fight with marab and peter yon and i'm like if you're looking at it in terms of just damage Piotrion is clearly doing more damage. Right. He's hitting Marab with shots that rock him.

He kicks him in the body. He's got him screaming. There was never a moment where Marab did that to Piotr. Even when he hit him with good shots, Piotr was firing back. Right. with it. It's like that, it's, look, it's an effective strategy. And if you're fighting a guy who could fuck you upstanding and that's all you could do to survive, I understand. Like, I have no problem with boring fights. I really don't. And I know the fans are like, fucking separate

them, you know, fucking separate them. I have no problem with boring fights because I think if you can let a guy just hold on to you, that is a part of the game. Yeah. If a guy takes you down and holds you down. I think you should be there. A rounds only five minutes. I don't believe in stand-ups. And I know that sounds crazy, but even if it's boring as shit, and sometimes I'm happy when they stand people up, I really am. But if it was my rules, if I could make the rules, I'd be like never stand a person up. Unless there's a violation of the rules, never stand a person up. Because it's part of the sport. If it's boring, it's boring. You know, we talked about it after the fight. Like, after the fight, like, I went in the back and I was frustrated

at myself, really, to be honest, I was super frustrated at myself. well first it was I was like fuck they just let him fucking hold the whole time like in the third I literally almost knock him out da da da da da la like I'm talking shit right and uh Robbie looks at me Robbie Loller and he goes

should just got up then I went you're right yeah you're right that's some Robbie Loller wisdom right there and that's and from there I was like all right yeah but then I found out after like one of Fluffy's coaches is

he used to be in the commission like so he knows the they explained his pedigree or whatever and he's very very very knowledgeable about what the rules are and all these things so they he strategizes i guess certain things around that um so he strategizes certain things around the rules yeah that's what i heard that's what they told me and i bet a lot of guys do that he canceled like he was in the commission like part of it like i guess worked for them and he's like he pulled out of working there because he wanted to be for fluffy more which is admirable but like he didn't want to have like a conflict of interest yeah so i thought that was pretty cool but like i will say like

what fluffy did really good that i was prepared for like wrestling like crazy but i wrestle with guys that are like folk style wrestlers what he does very well is he don't shoot normal shots he doesn't he doesn't shoot like a double or a single he shoots like it looks like it's going to be a double but he's only at your hips he's just trying to get your hips then he's circling right away if he can or putting you to the cage and working his sequences from there but he has very awkward shots

they're so weird like I could see them and I was like oh I'm about to stuff it but I'm the kind of guy like you gotta touch me and then I'm gonna go I'm not just gonna react that way you can set it up for something else but as soon as he touches me like in the second he was I didn't know how but I watched it back

I went to like catch a whizzer and next thing you know my feet came out from under me because we were both circling so hard I was trying to get the wizard, and he was trying to go to my back. And my feet came out from under me, I just landed, like, on my shoulder. And I'm like, in the fight, I'm like, what the fuck just happened? There's no way. This is where my head's at.

I'm like, no fucking way that he just did this. I'm like, what the fuck just happened? And my corner's yelling at me, his corner's yelling, and I'm still in my head, like, what the fuck? Like, what just – and, dude, it took me like probably a minute and a half to, like, transfer into something else. And then I was like, he's not doing nothing, so I'll just get him next round, which terrible frame of mine. set we've worked on and then the third uh but yeah man i was like still like after the fight i was like yo i asked my boy i was like how do you get me down there like he went for a guillotine i said i ain't go for no goddamn guillotine till the third and then i swept him with it and stood back up

i was like i didn't do that i swear but um yeah man but like i said but then he's got a clever style he's a savage he's a savage and he also has a crazy gas tank man he melts guys yeah man that melts guy the delizzi thing when he grabbed his neck and just like a bouncer at a nightclub just dragged them back to finish him that was crazy yeah man that's one thing i wish i would have like put more output like because i wasn't everyone's like you're tired i was like i was having a full conversation like this in between rounds right after the i wasn't tired i was just complacent like i was like oh like i'm already gonna because i beat malcun like that because all he did was hold literally just held and i'm hitting him bang bang bang

how am i supposed to improve my position you're literally just holding you're not even moving at all you're not lifting your weight you're not doing nothing so I won that fight because I did more damage and I had fight ending intentions I felt I had that with Fluffy so in the third

I was like I'm elbowing him and he's gushing blood and I'm looking at the breath I'm like yo he's just holding I try to get up he just picks my ankle and I go back down I elbow him some more

try to get back up he got on top for like a minute but he didn't do nothing really anyway that's where my frame of mindset was at and it was just terrible looking back but I would love a third

you know Well, it'll probably happen. It'll probably happen somewhere down the line because it would be a great fight. Yeah, that's where, well, that's where the kind of the hold-up is, I guess, right now of, like, obviously, you know how politics work in this game, but it's like, the top five is the champion, Drickis, Drickis, Imov, Shepov, Sean Strickland, Fluffy Me. And it's like, all right, Sean, they just announced Sean and Fluffy. Emelvolve, yep, that's cool. And then Imovol's waiting They both said they're gonna wait for that one

So it's just me and Drickus And then right behind me is Izzy Who knows when Izzy's gonna fight or if he's gonna fight or if he's gonna fight or win So it's like we're waiting on Drichus And Drichus always has a lot to say when I'm losing But when I'm winning he don't really have enough to say And then like I just saw an interview like the other day And it was like

He was like Yeah I'd love to To beat his head in or something About you? Yeah about me and I'm like Well you have the opportunity to do so And it only makes sense unless you want to wait forever. So I wonder what he does after that Hamzat fight.

Because when a guy dominates you like that, where it's so clear, it's just like one of those gaps that it looks like, oh, you're never going to bridge that gap. And that grappling gap. And it's never going to, that, I don't know if you agree, but that should never happen at that level. Well, it never does happen at that level. That's the reality. Except Islam and Jack Dalemada. That's another similar situation. Yeah.

Very similar situation. But I think there's guys that you get in there with and, you know, if you're used to a like B caliber guy or, you know, a high, high level guy. Right. But there's only a few real A's. And like, Hamzad is a real A. Yeah. Well, he's good at. He's a savage.

I talked to D.C. about him. And D.C. said, dude, when that guy grabbed me and he goes, we were wearing street clothes and everything like that. He goes, I realized like, oh, I'm going to have to wrestle, wrestle to keep. this guy off me he was like he was he's fucking strong yeah and it's also because first all how the fuck did that guy make 170 i don't know but i don't understand how he talks about going up to 205 because like you said you got guys like perera and don't get me wrong i know they're stylistically different but i think he could do it i think he could do it i think he could do it if he takes the time and puts weight on yeah if he puts weight on i think he has a high chance because

he's tall you know he's tall and it's also the thing is it's like these gaps in wrestling you know these gaps in grappling when a guy's a really good grappler and then you're taking on a guy like Drichis, he's really a striker. Right. He's a good grappler, a good jiu-jitsu guy, but there's levels, you know, and the kind of guy like Hamza, like, man, you got to be a fucking Olympic caliber wrestler to scrap with that guy. Yeah, and it's like, I tell people, like, I'm not going to go out there and straight beat

Chimaev in peer wrestling. Like, it's not going to happen. I'm not stupid. I'm not stupid, but it's MMA. Could I take him down? I mean, yeah, I could. But there's other ways to have. the fight that I think I have the upper hand like you see how other people have approached him

and done well with him but it's like um you also very good submissions too you have you have a real solid jihitsu game and you can strike you know you're you've got a very complete package and i think you know the thing about his grappling is that like you have that hole if you have that hole he's going to find that hole and he's going to smother you for sure and you're fuchsville that's what that's what like makes no sense to me with the jerkest fight right right like you're the champion of the world he took you down no problem man i totally understand i get taken down a lot you know but um i mean i know our styles are different but you didn't try to hip bump you didn't try to hip escape you didn't try to scoop the leg and lift and elevate

you didn't try to do nothing he didn't literally he didn't try to do nothing he literally waited for him to establish his position he'd roll side to side maybe one hip bump around When he did, Tremayev did great, knee sliced, or just stepped over, passed, and went crucifix. Do you, how many times you put in the crucifix, by the way? That was crazy. It was crazy. I only had to be, like, once around,

because he wasn't getting out. It was, I mean, how many times did he put him into crucifix? In a world championship fight, has there ever been a fight where a champion has been put in a crucifix that many times? Insane. It was over and over and over again. We were like, how was he doing this again? This is so crazy.

And that kind of blew my mind. So that's what it's like, I just think Chamaya's gap is just so good And I think also with a guy like Drickus And you would be the guy to speak to this When you're down and you realize Okay, it's the first round He's taking me down, he's on top of me

Let me just conserve my energy There's a five round world championship fight I'm gonna knock this motherfucker out He's gonna get tired doing this He always gets tired But you know the difference with Hamza in this fight Is he trained with Sam Calavita Do you know that guy?

Uh-uh Okay I just already hired someone good Yeah Calavita is a real elite strength and conditioning coach and legendary guy and he runs this he just calls it the garage okay

it's an orange county california and it's just a fucking garage and not even a big one just a small two car garage with no cars in it and it's all just machines and equipment and he's got armand sarukian training down there t j dillishaw when he was in his prime he was training down there the reason why t j's conditioning was that

such a fucking high level when he was in his prime was he was training with that guy he has Everybody that I know that's trained with him is like, bro, this guy puts you through fucking hell. Hell. This is, that's TJ when he's training there. And again, this is like, if you see, there's Sam, if you see it, like, and when you listen to the guy talk, just extremely fucking knowledgeable. But he gets you to the point. It's called the, it's, if you look at it online, Training Lab on Instagram, T-R-E-I-G-N-Lab, In-Lab, Training.

training but training is T-R-E-I-G-N like train M-A I know that name the training lab because I was like yeah that's it so you see Aaron Pico's there with them there's Hamzot so I mean he's got so many elite guys that are training inside of that gym there's one enchiletta I wonder how they how they work that and obviously they have their coaches and stuff dealing with it but like how they operate well I think the issue with Hamzat was over training so one of the things about Hamzat is he's apparently you can't kick him out of the fucking gym he he won't stop training and you got a you got to literally like stop him from training he's a maniac and when he got

COVID that's what really fucked him up so he got COVID and you would think oh healthy guy like that who gets COVID that ain't going to be shit for him this silly motherfucker was training like an animal two-hour sessions with COVID so then you know he's never getting better so So instead of like saying, hey, this cold is not getting better, it's like, don't be pussy. I kill everyone. He shows up again. Training again, two and a half hours. Sick as a fucking dog, coughing.

And then he broke his immune system down to a point where they had to fucking hospitalized him. Yeah, I remember hearing that. Just from training while he had COVID. That's all it was. He just refused to stop training. And look, if you, I don't care what it is, the flu, whatever you have. You're trying to train two and a half hour days when you have a serious lung infection? you're going to fucking die.

There's D.C. And D.C. told me he did one session with him. This is recent. What's that? Resistance. Oh, yeah, yeah. He uses elastic bands along with a fucking rogue echo bike. Yeah.

So those rogue echo bikes, they suck enough. And to have resistance bands while you're doing it too. That's crazy. Yeah. Now, Sam's an animal. And, again, super knowledgeable. Like, knows what your recovery should be, where your resting heart rate should be. And also super knowledgeable in terms of, like, supplements, diet and all that stuff.

He comes from the endurance cycling world, which is like, so cycling, you would imagine, like, Tour de France style cycling. This is probably the most endurance dependent sport on planet Earth because it goes for so long. Like, you have to be, you have to really understand how to peak in order to compete at a real insane endurance event like that. So he's got this knowledge from that sport that he's transferred. it over to MMA but everybody I know that's trained with him and said like man it just changed everything changed my whole game because now all of a sudden you've got an incredible gas tank yeah he's doing good shemai like I said he looked good but I think that was a factor though in that fight for sure there's no fade in that fight where he's you saw like the Usman fight it was a fade in the

third round usman won that fucking third round yeah and after that third round he was like fuck I wish this was a five round fight yeah but it's like also like Usman made him have output yeah he didn't really have to he had one explosion to take him down Mm-hmm, but Ousman can fucking wrestle That's the difference Yeah Like he was in there with a guy who's real strong Even though he's a weight class below him

Like it was Ousman had been competing at 170 And Hamzad had already committed to 85 He's a bigger guy But Ousman can really wrestle And that's the difference It's not like a guy that doesn't know what to do And you take him down, you ragged on Usman's like, okay, you got me down

But this is a long-ass fight And I'm going to get back up And we're going to figure this out And in the third round He was figuring it out and he was he started tuning him up he was landing good shots yeah they i have a friend that trained with tremaya of like he goes and helps and he's told me he's like man his wrestling's really good i was like how good he was like it's good i was like he whoop you he was like no if i

if he whoop me why would they bring me in if i if he whoops me i was like tusha good one but you know he is still going to watch that you got to watch what does he consider whoop yeah let me watch Show me the video Let me see it Let me see what they got Let me go in the room I want to see in the room But I like his demeanor too

Like The the conversation he had With like Ian Gary Like he's similar to me Like Well I don't understand that Because I had heard There's another angle

That shows that Ian Like slapped him on the back Pretty hard Yeah Oh he did Yeah but Ian's that guy He's like He's trying to get a rise out of you

That way when you do get a rise He's like like a big brother You know Like nitpicking he's that guy he wants you to get a ride out of you so then he could be like what are you doing i didn't mean that he's like that's why i don't really like that's why that's why that's why i don't like i don't like i don't like ean at all that's because he's you guys run out of the same gym for a while yeah and he's and but like i don't know like other things and like things that happen he's just

that guy like he's talked shit to me through another person like we're out of me and my boy are out of fight and he's talking shit to me through his phone bro shut up take your stop letting your tell you what to do, bro, shut up, you know? But, like, yeah, he walks over there and he says something, dude, he hits him hard on the back. And Chamea just looks at him. And then he did what he did back or whatever and shoved him, whatever the case, however that you saw

the confrontation from there. But yeah, he did. And he told him, he was like, you hit me, I'm going to fuck you up. Like, if you hit me like that again, he tried to, like, big brother him. Because the clip that everybody saw was after he slapped him on the back.

It looked like Chamayev just got really aggressive With him for no reason There's the other angle Like keeps hitting him Then shakes him as he walks away Yeah And then he's talking a little shit Yeah

Oh we're fine he's not gonna do nothing So it's a little weirdly aggressive It ain't that bad It's passive aggressive It's a little weird He taps him It was like a little like grab his clothes And shove him a little bit

Yeah It wasn't like a guy that's hey brother All right Exactly and that's what he said He's like Good luck to you Yeah I have to give it to him

Like some things Chimaier says are, like, he fought my boy G and he talked shit to him in the hallway. I didn't really like that. But, hey, y'all two are going to fight. Y'all are grown men. Do what y'all want. Some things he might say or do, I don't like or agree with. But, hey, as long as it's not to me, we're good. But that, like, and other things he does, I fully agree with.

I stand behind, as a man, I stand behind him. One of the things I like about Chamaia, like, after he fought Gilbert, Gilbert and him went to war, and then he was like, you're my brother now, you know? You know what I mean? He was like, he was really cool with him. Yeah, you know, there's a young kid. Ansar that trains a Kilcliffe and he is so much like demeanor wise from what I see of Chima if he's so much like that dude I'm telling this kid's like 18 years old and he is a stud

he's 18 he fought for me on my promotion his I think his debut dude he goes and gets in the guy's face the guy's coming down at weight class he's going up a weight class dude he don't care matter of fact he's in uh that streamers video neon or whatever They post about it. He's the one, like, throwing RDR around him. Really? Yeah. 18-year-old kid?

Dude, he gives everybody problems. Gilbert. Wow. We're throwing RDR around. Isn't it wild when there's, like, some weird young phenom that is just so much better than they're supposed to be when they're young? Dude. It's real odd when you're around those guys.

There's three or four of them that, dude, I miss them a lot. Like, when I left Florida. One, they are such loyal humans. Like, you barely find that nowadays, as you know. Like, you don't find too many loyal guys. And when they say, like, my brother, they don't care if you're white, black, Indian, what your ethnicity is, what your religion. They don't care. They care about you.

And, dude, when I got into it with Marvin at the casino, Ansar wasn't even old enough to get in. So he was like, brother, if I'd have been there, I hate him, no problem. But there's like Nikita Umran John which is Ansar's best friend There's like Islam there's a couple of them Dat Salyev There's like three to five

And I'm telling you these guys Especially like Umran John There he is Whoa that's a hell of a shot Oh my goodness Dude he is so good Oh my goodness look how smooth he took that dude's back He just fought a couple weeks ago

He knocked some dude out in the first round That was so smooth man oh my goodness oh he is on that back so quick answer so good you know there's a one thing that these guys have in common is they're all from a hard part of the world a fucking rough part of the world him and his best friend umran john they they left home at like i think he was 17 18 years old they just left home we asked him like hey bro why'd you leave home how'd you leave home like how'd you get here they both said the same thing they said look at he's out he's out referee he's a savage he trains 100% he don't know anything other than 100%

every day who multiple times but we ask him like bro how old is he now i think he's 18 19 max wow dude he's a savage he looks good he's very good he looks good there's another one if you're that good at 18 my goodness he's gonna be a stud what's he's gonna be like what's he's 30 dude I tell him all the time like man if you just learn how to just take a breath and just be a little bit patient in certain positions because that don't come exactly but man he's He's fighting good guys already. Like, they all want to fight him. Uman John.

Uman John was fighting like one or two weight classes up and he had a draw with a guy. And he thought it was like, you would have to think he lost the love of his life. He had a draw because he was two weight classes up. And, uh, like, bro, why don't you fight at your way class? Brother, I just smash. I want to fight everyone. Every one. And they can't get fights.

They can barely ever get fights. It's hard for phenoms to get fights to the amateurs and in the lower organizations. a lot of people don't realize that it's really hard yeah they come to me to match him and you you got to pay the other guy more to fight because like they they already know like what it is and yeah it was hard it was very hard and so what wait is he at now i think he's at 45 damn 45 that's that's his last one right there i think no no that's not a big taketown bro look at the dude's hair he's fighting that's what he does to everyone oh my goodness that is a crazy takedown he's so exciting i can't believe dudes are still holding on to geese

when people get in the side control. How many times they watch Ovin-St. Prue fight, you know? It's crazy how many people still do that. They still keep that guillotine while guys in side control. That is a death sentence. And some people don't cash in on it. But if you just cinch those hands together, he can't get that ham out. That's it.

Turn on your side. That's it. It's almost like giving up your neck. Exactly. If someone gave up their back, everybody would be like, what are you doing? That's like what you're doing. If you're holding onto a guillotine and a guy's in side control, It literally is like giving up your back and exposing your neck.

It's kind of crazy. It is. But I see these kids like this and I'm just like, I used to be that kid, but these guys are even better. You know what I mean? Like it's scary how evolution is. But like I said, man, I asked these kids, I was like, man, why'd you leave home? How'd you leave home?

How'd you get here? Him and his best friend left together. Their story both, same thing, different times. I'm like, brother, we just left one day. Our parents, we told our parents we were going to the store. Never came back. What? you know and just move to america yeah like they somehow got here and they've been here and

dude they work during the day they move stuff like they work for moving company and then they train so they train in the morning they go they train train train then they go work all night all through the night moving stuff try whatever they have to do whatever their work is but most of the time i see them moving stuff and then they come back train the next day and they do this every single day working their ass off man it's super impressive and it's super most of motivating too, but it's, it just lets you know, like, for me, I used to be that young cat. Like, everyone was 24, 25. I'm 17, 18. Yeah.

And I'm doing what I'm doing. And now I see these kids, and I'm like, damn, so that's what it was like when the older guys are looking at me. But these guys are better. Some people can forget when they get, like, complacent in their career and they become, like, a journeyman. And they forget what it's like to be young and hungry. And then they'll train with someone. And that'll either make them retire or it'll reinvigorate them. It's awesome.

Because if you're around, like, people that have. of that driven, it becomes contagious. It really does. Especially if you know that a guy is working all day and training that hard, like you've got no excuses. Right. And it's also just like a, when you're around people like that, there's an energy. It catches you.

For sure. Moves you in its wake. It does. You're right. 100% because, like, I get in my modes where I don't want to do nothing. I'm just like, man, screw this. I've done this long enough. Like, whatever.

But then I go back and like, say today, for instance, I went and train with Nickyrod. They whoop my ass. I ain't going to lie to you. They whooped my ass. And I told them after I was like, it should be illegal that y'all just whoop me that bad. And they're like, yeah, but you ain't done nothing.

And, you know, you don't do peer jujitsu anymore. Like, we're the best in the world, like some of the best in the world at peer jiu-jitsu. It's true. I was like, yeah, but still, I shouldn't be getting walk like that. But it just makes me hungry. I love it, man.

He's so big. He's such a freak. Dude, I told him today, I was like, how are you this big and move like this? This should be illegal. Gordon told me there was a position once they were doing where they were working from the back and Gordon had his back

and Nicky flipped over the top of him and wound up behind Gordon and Gordon turns to John Donaheher and goes, what the fuck am I supposed to do with that? Like, what do I do if that happens? It's like, well, Donaheher was like, well, nobody could do that other than Nikki. Dude.

That's how crazy that is. He's so sick. You know how nuts that is? Do a back flip from your knees? I couldn't. And go over the top of someone who's got your back? I can't even visualize it.

Separate the hands. Somehow know that he separated the hands and flipped over him. And Gordon was like, okay. Because Gordon would be the first to tell you, even though he's the best in the world and the best ever at no-gay Jiu-Jitsu. He's not a explosive guy.

Yeah. He's not, he's like, I'm not a good athlete. He's intelligent, though. Super, super intelligent. Super smart. Yeah, he's super intelligent. Super smart. I've listened to some of his, like,

instructionals before. And like, I know he did one at Rufusport a long time ago, and the guys told me after because I was obviously at home. And they were like, bro, he was in a wheelchair because I guess he had a surgery at the time and he was in a chair. And his lady was teaching, like she was teaching for him. And he was walking through every single position. They all, everyone said that was the best seminar they ever been to.

He didn't get down there and teach one move. That's incredible. That's incredible. I was like, that's impressive. Well, if you could do a seminar from a wheelchair, Jesus Christ. Dude, impressive. You know, Wagner says the same thing. He's like, bro, he's the best guy ever trained.

learn from anything he's he's amazing so i've heard it from a lot i've heard a lot of good guy though that's 365 days a year of training he goes period there's no days off fuck your christmas fuck your birthday there's no days off which is so crazy yeah think of but the way they put it and the way donner put it is like if you are training 200 days a year that is a lot but you will not be able to beat a guy who's training 365 days a year because he has 165 more training sessions a year so over the course of two years now he has you know a lot 300 plus then 400 it keeps going and going so over the course of five years like he's trained so much more than you it's true and it's not just training it's like when they're not physically training they're going over tape all day right

like which is like it's hard to do that and to keep your mind focused on that they're writing things down they're going over positions it's not just all hard physical work it's intelligence it's a lot of breaking things down a lot of like the finer points of technique and positioning it's it's funny you say that because it's like for me like when we were talking earlier about how like time off it reinvigorates your mind it's like that's what it does for me like i i probably do a hundred reps in a day of like things that i've screwed up on like throwing a jab wrong or leaving my hand down or like in my head my mental reps and then somehow when i do go train again it's just so weird like my body just automatically does it like say i throw the jab and i just bring it back to my chest i don't want

it there i want it on my chin i throw i do so many mental reps of this for like a week or two weeks however long i'm out by the time i spar again i'm not doing it no more like i do so many mental reps focus on such little details but then outside of that i really take my time i try to take my time away from fighting like when i'm not training for the most part like especially like the month after the fight i don't want to hear about fighting i don't want to talk about fighting that's why I stay away from like most people that don't know me. I don't want to talk because anytime they see me, oh, what do you think about this fight? What's next?

I don't know, man. You just want to let your motivation return. I just want to be with my family. I want to be a normal person because one day fighting is not going to be there for me. It's always been there for me since I was 13 when I had anxiety about something, stress, heartbreak, whatever it is, it's always been there for me. And that's when I always grew. But it's not, the end is a lot closer than the beginning.

right you know that's where I'm at in my life and I know that so I'm trying to make the most of it and try but you think about like high end you got 10 years if that's really possible maybe it's not usually and usually the last few are rough because the last few years like Anderson after broke his leg right right so I say there's like two Andersons there's Anderson pre-wideman and post-wideman for sure there's the knockout or Wyden caught him at the left hook and then there's the leg break in the rematch and then from then he's never been Anderson again correct and I think the injury has a lot to do with it, but it's also father time. I don't think we got Anderson in the EFC

until he was 34. It was a while because he was already big on the other scenes. Huge, bro. That was one of them fights where people didn't really know Anderson that well, and he was fighting Chris Lieben, and the odds were Anderson was the favorite, but not by enough. And I was telling my friend, I'm like, bet the house on the Brazilian.

I go, bet the house. Yeah. Because he was coming off of that. Remember Cage rage? Yeah. So he was coming off of the Lee Murr. He was coming out. Who did he fight over there as well? He fought Jorge Rivera. That was a big fight. There was a Tony Frickland one where he did that crazy step-in elbow. Oh, yeah, that's all

the highlight of that. I didn't know that was the name, but I know the elbow you're talking about. That elbow, do you know, he had a practice with his wife because his coach wouldn't let him try it. Really? His coach was like, stop doing that. You're not going to do that. He goes, I'm going to hit him with this. He's like, no, you're not going to do that. Stop training that. So we didn't want to train that. So he told his wife to hold a pillow. So his wife was holding a pillow at home and he was going like to say saw over and over again he was just practicing it yes he wanted to do some

unbox shit what a great story to have that was Anderson like people didn't people saw him in his prime for sure obviously because he's one of the greatest of all time but for sure they didn't see that transition to him becoming in his prime and that was in cage rage because he had some really good fights in pride but then when he went to

cage rage like something flipped man you know how it has like Olivera when it happened to him after he had his kid, you know, something flipped sometimes when a fighter just locks in and then they become who they really are. Yeah, who everyone in around them knows because I see it in the gym, but no one else has seen it. It's weird. Like, I always say that about myself, like, I still haven't.

I'm still not the guy that everyone knows in the gym. I show a little bit more every time, but I'm not even that guy. Well, maybe this changing of environment and coaching will allow you to hit that spot. the coaching like you were talking about earlier right it has been the hardest thing for me to let go like of control and give it to someone else but it took it was kind of one of those things i met horacio and mike and i have obviously a lot of trust and a lot of faith in belaw i've known him for a long time and i see what he's done but i met these guys and max too um i met him for five days when i was with Belal. And to

sit back and watch them also have my own interactions with them, it just felt like, you know, one of those things, you just feel like your friends instantly, like you know each other forever. And that's kind of what that connection was with them. So honestly, it was a little bit easier than normal to let go of like the control of like controlling

what I'm going to do, when I'm going to do it, the strategy. Did you think about other camps as well? Did you think about... I didn't think I was going to leave to be honest with you. I didn't think I was going to leave Florida. I was just going there to help my friend and just kind of see what I could do different, like what I could change in my own in my own thing um but then obviously uh my goal after being there because he was getting ready for jack uh belal was so i watched everything i helped him for a few days and then i went

back i fought Marvin and i was at um i did two or three weeks with uh at chicago two weeks i did two weeks excuse me i did two weeks and then um i did like four or five in florida so i was like okay next time i'm just going to do split it four and four you know spend my time mix and match because it was great time like for me then i fought der ritter he was there and i was like i don't know it didn't sit well with me how all that stuff went like how he got there and everything and everyone was like oh why is he fighting him their teammates and i told everyone from the beginning like you can ask gilbert burns because he said it on his little podcast thing he did I always said, I'm not going to train with him.

I'm going to fight him one day. I'm good. No animosity. I just don't need no more friends. I just don't. Right. I have enough guys. The guys that I know that I'm friends with, Joe Pfeiffer, Gregory Rodriguez, by Sangor.

Those are guys that are going to be at the top or are at the top that we have agreements only for a belt. I'll fight anyone on this planet for a belt, anyone. And I expect the same in return because it could change their lives or my own, you know? So they know that about me, but no matter what the time frame is, if you say yes to me or you say my name, we're going to fight. That's it. Like, that's how I feel. But those guys are the guys that I have with, and now they're all coming to the top. So it's like, you know, someday it's probably going to happen.

So it's like I don't need. Dana hates hearing that kind of shit. Like guys won't fight friends. Yeah, but I'll fight for a belt, though. Anyone on the whole planet. Godzilla, I'll fight for the whole belt. I don't care. And Ganoo, I'll fight him for a belt.

I don't care. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it could change my whole life, like, my families. Sure. Yeah. So, like, I'm very realistic because obviously, even if you love to do this, at this level, it's about the money, too. Like, you know, it's financial freedom.

It's about making intelligent choices because one slip up could set you back two years. Yeah. I'm learning that. Yeah. I learned that the hard way. Well, that's also important to learn, right? It's also important to have those setbacks. Those setbacks are some of the most important growth points in your career.

in anybody's career if you do it right. Like those setbacks are when you feel that ugliness and then you really have to assess what could I have done differently. Right. What am I doing wrong? What's my, is there something about my mindset or something about my diet?

Is there something about my recovery? Am I doing too much of this or too little of that? You have to have that pain. If everything is just going great, the thing going into the fight was Aspinall's every fight other than the Curtis Blades fight was a one round fight. It was him blowing guys out.

And so no one really knew what was going to happen if we got into round three, round four, round five. And so that question's always hovering over the head. When a guy like you who's been in those wars and been in the trenches, you've already had, that's a blessing. It really is a blessing because it gives you not just the motivation to return better than you were before. Like look at Bow Nickel after he lost, right? He loses to Derritter, comes back and smokes Hidalph O'Irera. Look like a different guy. Looks like a different guy.

Why? Because there's a blessing in losing. There's a blessing in failure. There really is. Because if you can swallow it, it will give you a fucking furnace inside you to come back stronger. If you can swallow it, but some guys can't swallow it. They choke on it and they cry and maybe their confidence gets shattered and they're never the same again. Or maybe they go, why am I doing this?

I could be a carpenter. I always wanted to play drums. I've thought of that. I thought of that, but I don't want to go back to being a carfinder. I'm good with that. A guy like Tom Aspinall, when he gets to a fight with a guy like Gangano or a guy who's going to be there, those questions, and I'm not saying that he wouldn't succeed. I'm not saying he wouldn't win, but those questions might be in your head because you haven't been in those high-profile wars before where you came up short. You know, I still get those questions.

I'm such a perfectionist, and I know nothing will ever be perfect, but I want as close to it as I can get. that still I find something I will always find something to be negative but what's helped me is I had a sport psychiatrist for a while

he was great and I learned a lot with him and for me it's been about like I'm very like open with people that I care about and that I know care solely about me they're not worried about

if I win or lose or you know all that stuff the fame they're not worried about that they care about me as a person and that was something that was great with Belaw and Harassio and all the guys in Chicago Mike Max

you know we talk regularly how are you man how's the family everything good how's but i'm very open with them leading up to the fight like there's a clip from behind the scenes of the last fight where i'm i'm open and they catch it like this is me being vulnerable of who i am i was too manly or whatever or trying to suppress it before where it just grew into something bigger and i would mentally shut down um malcun was the worst fight for me for that i was shaking in the bed the night before like i thought like i was freezing but i wasn't i was so nervous of like i can't lose to this guy he's not on my level and then i go out there and perform not that well so your mind was fucking you yeah because i find one negative thing and i just

focus and i make it huge i think it's good sometimes i think it's good sometimes but it's it's like almost like you have to be critical but yet also confident right and i i would take my confidence away by by focusing on it but being able to talk about it like again they have that moment i have it on my instagram they made a clip or whatever for me and um it was it's just like literally it was two nights before the fight three nights before the fight and we're talking and i'm telling him he could get me down he could he could finish me but if he finishes me on the ground he's got to be just that good but i'm nervous man i'm nervous that i'm not going to go out here and perform to what i know that i can do that's to me that's the worst i don't mind losing to someone

that's better than me i can take it i haven't found that man yet but i know it's going to happen but to lose to someone truly better than me i can accept it but to lose to someone truly better than me i can accept it but to lose to myself oh man to look in the mirror it eats me alive but think those things that can creep into your head before a fight where I don't want to lose I don't want to disappoint people I don't want to do this then that is a really bad time to have those thoughts it's not a bad time to have those thoughts when you're working on stuff it's not a bad time to have those thoughts like if you're really trying to motivate yourself to get up in the morning and run or whatever it is like to really get after it in strength and conditioning but when you're fighting like

you have to have a strategy of how to squash those thoughts when they come up. And it can, I mean, it's not just fighting. Anybody who's listening to this, anything in life that you have to do that's really difficult and scares you, you got to know how to squash negative thoughts before they burn your house down. Like when you see the fire, stop that bitch out quick. Stomp it out quick and then make sure that you're starting to really only focus on positive things and never let it get.

Because those little creepy demon thoughts, they'll get in, and then they start running around. They start running around. They start screaming and taking over your brain. You're like, get out of my head. Get out of my head. But they're already in there. You let them in. You let them in.

And sometimes they have to burn your house down before you realize what the danger is of them getting inside your head. Right. And so then the next time, you've got to come up with a strategy to squash it before it gets too crazy. We did a lot of, like, at the beginning of, like, sports psychiatrist, like, that was one thing, right? like I would suppress it right away and suppress it and it try to creep back through and I'd suppress it again but then it just gets bigger and stronger

to where it can just come out and you don't know when it's going to come out it could be the night of the fight it could be the day before the fight could be in the fight you know so it's like taking it in whatever that emotion is for you dissecting it

like literally get to the root of why you think this like oh I think he can knock me out if I dissect it well yeah he's knocked a lot of guys out but anyone can knock anyone out anyone can so what do you nervous of you've done this like for me over 30 times like what do you worried about you fought on the biggest level you've main evented you're ranked in the world you fought some of the best in the

world like what are you worried about you let a demon sneak into your brain yeah you know and once I dissect it I've worked on it like that so well and being open and honest with my coaches and like the people that I care about and they care about me has been such a great like thing for me I'm kind of the guy like sometimes like just I've learned about myself is just like just let me talk. Sometimes I'm not a big talker but just let me talk if you don't even

say nothing but damn that's all right bro that's why Tucko who always see me with normally he's always with me bro he's the best it's just like listening to me like it's not very often but when I do want to talk like I'm like bro he'll ask me what's wrong I don't think you want to hear it today like I'm good

he'll ask me that a couple times eventually I'll just let it out and then I'm good I'm good like it's almost like you have to tell somebody what's going on inside your head and if you keep it inside your head there's the wings the wings are coming demons flying monkeys throwing fire bombs inside your head

launching them wizard of Oz so it's like that's been great for me that's really helped in it I've had a couple younger kids that like have asked me oh how's that I turned them onto my god that I used to use what did you do with the psychiatry like how did what were the sessions like

we would talk about things like this he'd have worksheets and stuff like this but you know what really really sunk in so first we worked on like learning to catch emotions he called it something but learning to catch different emotions before they grow so you can dissect the fire yeah exactly before it burns your house down

so like recognizing first is recognizing anything you have to recognize if you recognize it 30 minutes the first time all right let's try for 25 the next time don't let it like you thought on it for 30 minutes and you're like fuck why am I thinking about this right let's do 25 so keep it until you can get it like right away then we dissect it and then we move on about our day things that helped me at the beginning we're like um does it help you talking with a different person like another person about this rather than just bounce it off your own head yes for sure something about talking to another person makes it real yeah and it just like gets it out like i'm holding it in holding it in holding it in as soon as i talk it's like it's literally like leaving my body like the stress just kind of like and sometimes they have like good things to say like like like things like that.

My sports psychiatrist was the one that told me those things. Like, bro, you've done this? How many times? Mm-hmm. You fought these guys? Like... Did he ever work with fighters before?

Uh, he was working with a small team in New Orleans. Okay. And now he, like, he's got other guys in the UFC now because they would ask me and I turn him on and he's, he's great. He's great. He's really great. He's from New Orleans. Because I would think if a guy was like a sports psychiatrist like tennis.

It's like some things would carry over, but it's a very different thing. And he trained as well. He grew up wrestling and stuff. Oh, okay. Perfect guy then. Exactly. And it just, it just, uh, it worked out great, man. I learned a lot, like, I kind of figured out what worked for me.

So I was like, all right, and I get so busy. But, um, another thing he gave me was, uh, you read it the day. Like, after you weigh in, you read it. And then you finish, like, it has a part to where it says read up to this point. And then you read this, the rest of the section, uh, the day of the fight. And it's, I forget the author. I have it in my phone somewhere, uh, that he sent me a long time ago. And I would read it before every fight, everyone.

like the apex when we was in the apex all the time I'd weigh in and we had to wait that like two hours till like we could face off if you weigh in first and I'd sit there and I'd read it and it was like an author and he talks a lot about like different sports and like one of his base things is like hope the word hope hold on possibilities exist

like don't ever think it's over it's done don't ever say I have to do something I want to do something I don't have to the moment you start putting I have to is the moment you start like he says like put like change you hit the emergency stop button the emergency break on your car like you got to let it off you're not performing at your best with all those things so like stuff like that really like sets in and i try to remind myself so like reminding myself of those

things talking about it is really like what helps me this book is it's like a little um pamphler pamphlet yeah kind of i how who wrote it uh it's in my phone i can find it well just like so other people can look at it because it sounds pretty powerful it was great man and if it helped you there's a lot of like hokey sort of self-help stuff online you know be a fucking man go out and get it done and there's you there's a wolf inside of you and all that kooky shit but the reality is there's a lot of wisdom out there too there's a lot of like you could read meditations by marcus arellius and literally learn how to live a better life like there's a lot of stuff out there that's very beneficial so when someone like yourself has something that really

help them. I think it's probably good to put it out there so other people can get it. You know, it's so crazy. Now I'm looking through like the documents and stuff that he sent me like mindfulness was the word I was looking for when you catch it. Like mindfulness like stuff like that but it's funny. Mindfulness is one of them co-opted words. It's been co-opted like gratitude and spirituality. It's one of them words that like too many kooky people use. Yeah, exactly. The first time he told me I was like, bro, don't tell me where I think this is crazy shit, bro. I'm not that kind of guy, you know. Don't you hit me with no mindfulness. Yeah, man.

But look, I'm only going through right here, right? But he would send me stuff, right, before a fight or like... So you'd send me quotes? He'd send me YouTube links. Look at the second one from the top. Who is it with me? David Gagons. Oh, that's hilarious.

He sent me that, like stuff like... Yeah, oh, man, Gaggans is a perfect example that he says things all the time that I think of. Jocko. When I'm working out and I'm really tired, I think of this one Jocko video where It's called Good. Have you ever seen that video? No. You want to get fired up?

Yeah, I want to see it. Can we play that? We get fired up. This is one of my all-time favorite videos. You know Jocko, right? Jock, yeah, yeah. So Jocko, you know, was a Navy SEAL, and was, he's got a book called Extreme Ownership. And it's just the way he thinks, the way he carries himself is, it's so, it's so beneficial, if you can adopt this,

that there's sometimes where I'm training where I'm fucking really really tired and I want to quit I think of Jocko and I go good you're tired that means you're going to get stronger listen to this this is fucking amazing direct support and it's one of my guys that worked for me

he would he would call me up or pull me aside with some major problem some issue that was going on and he'd say boss we got this and that and the other thing and I look at him and I'd say good and finally one day he was telling me about some issue that he was having

some problem and he said i already know what you're going to say i said well what am i going to say he said you're going to say good he said that's what you always say when something is wrong and going bad you always just look at me and say good and i said well yeah when things are going bad there's going to be some good that's going to come from it didn't get the new high speed gear we wanted? Good. Didn't get promoted. Good. More time to get better. Oh, mission got canceled? Good. We can focus on another one. Didn't get funded. Didn't get the job you wanted. Got injured. Sprang my ankle. Got tapped out? Good. Got beat? Good. Learned. Unexpected problems? Good. Good. We have the opportunity. to figure out a solution that's it when things are going bad don't get all bummed out

don't get startled don't get frustrated if you can say the word good guess what it means you're still alive it means you're still breathing and if you're still breathing you still got some fight left in you so get up dust off reload recalibrate re-engage and go out on the attack oh yeah that's a good one that's a good one play that one when you're in the fucking dressing room this is what it is getting ready I don't know if it's like a document. Yeah. Okay.

So it's called how sports psychology can help you do your best when it means the most unedited copy, who's the author, what does it say? Oh, Rob Gilbert. Rob Gilbert, PhD, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey. Okay. It's pretty cool. God, I'll ask you to send me that afterwards. Yeah, of course.

I love shit like that. There's little things like that you can carry. that you can carry in your toolbox and they can help you and not just if you're a professional fighter but in basically everything in life it's been um it really helped change how's belal doing who fucking gets poked in the eye more than that guy Jesus Christ that guy has had I think he's had something insane like nine eye surgeries I know he's had three of the hard ones like of the He literally, he told me the story. He had to drive home six hours.

His, excuse me, his wife came and got him and brought him home. But this is a while back. He had to drive six hours with his head like that because something with the pressure, you can't sit straight up with it. It's crazy. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on Select Nights, now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights,

of shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's Kindest Community, celebrating Acts of Kindness Nationwide, with a chance at $100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at Canada's Wonderland.com. You and Santa? Best rappers out there.

But Rees wants to know, what about the best unwrapping moment? Reese's peanut buttercups, but your unwrapping skills, to the test, and with three cups of creamy peanut butter and smooth chocolate per pack, you get your practice in. Experiencing that sweet and salty satisfaction

again and again, Santa gets cookies. You get Reeses. Nothing else is Reeses. Explained it to me, but it's like, it blows my mind. I couldn't believe he got poked again by Ingear. I couldn't believe it. The moment he got poked, I'm like, I can't believe this is happening.

I can't believe it's happening. Dude, I thought the same thing. Oh, my God. Look at that. Leon one, right? Look at that finger in his, deep in his fucking eyeball. That is so crazy. Yeah. That's so crazy. So he's had major surgeries on his eyes.

Yep. And then Ian poked him, like right away. I was like, this is crazy. I don't know what you feel, but I feel like it should be an instant one-point deduction. At least. At least. At least. I like what talent aspirin all said.

He was like, no, you poke me in my eye. You want me to continue? Okay, no problem. I get to poke him in his eye. Right. I was like, oh, a lot of people are talking shit about Tom, but he apparently still can't see. Yeah. Like, his eyes still fucked up.

Like, no one knows. Here's the thing. The eye, the other eye got hurt as well, but not as bad, but it looks way worse. The finger goes way deeper in the other eye. Dude, eye pokes are crazy. Bro he went straight three stooges, point! And, you know, it's crazy that everyone that talks the most shit has never been poked in the eye, not even a little bit, like accidentally. Oh, it's horrible.

You know? It's like a bolt of lightning in your brain. and then you can't see. And if the idea that you can't see and then you're supposed to fight a guy also you're fighting a guy in Ian Gary who has a fucking nasty left hand. So if you get poked in your eyeball

and you can't see that punch cut well he's got a nasty right hand too. I mean Ian Gary can strike. Oh God. That's been all right there. Look at that. So look at the right one. Excuse me, the left eye.

That's deeper. And that one didn't get hurt as bad. It's his right eye that really got hurt. The left one is like finger, knuckle deep in his eyeball, man. Dude, it's crazy. You know, like, Balal's like one of those guys

you talk about 365, 24-7, he's ready, he's doing something always. I'm even like, bro, take a break, bro. You've earned a little break. Take a week off, be with your family, you know?

He won't. Well, at his stage of his life, it might be the only way to keep going because he's at like 38 now, right? Yeah, something like that. It's really, like, that's the same age as Usman. And, you know, You can still be a world-class fighter at that age.

You could clearly see that with Camaro against Joaquin Buckley. A lot of people counted him out because Joaquin Buckley was fucking a lot of people. Yeah, he was. Joaquin Buckley, bro, whew, that guy's a problem. He's a fucking problem. I've known him for a minute, man. He's a, he's wild and fast, and he keeps getting better. And he's really fucking, he's really fucking intelligent about how to land shots.

He knows how to set things up. He likes to fight. He loves to fight. And he's, you know, he's just. just a dog just in the fight man he's always dangerous that wonder boy fight you know he's having a little bit problem solving that distance in that range

until he didn't until he didn't man bro that dude's got hammers in his fist yes so when watching Camaro just ragdoll him like that I was like god damn fuck yeah it looked like Camaro world champion level Camaro like a lot of people

have kind of counted him out because there's this narrative that he puts out there openly about his knees Yeah. Oh, he talked about it on this podcast openly. His knees are fucked. He's like, I got to go downstairs backwards sometimes. Yeah. Because they hurt so much.

I heard he went and did like a lot of stuff to like redo him. And now he says they're good, but I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Well, I know he went to Columbia. He went down to that bioaccelerator place in Columbia. I don't know if he's been to the place in Tijuana that the UFC uses now, the cellular performance institute, but they're all very similar.

We're being held back to such a fucking ridiculous extent in this country by the FDA that you don't realize how many people with neurological conditions, how many people with severe injuries, how many people could be helped by stem cells. And there's no evidence that they're damaging people. There's no evidence. I mean, look, any time you have any invasive procedure, anytime you have a surgery, there's always some risk that something can go wrong. There's always a risk in any medical procedure. But there's no outstanding risks versus reward to stem cells. On the contrary, the evidence is outstanding results, including, like, some of the things Dr. Neil Reardon has been doing down in Panama with people that have, like, severe neurological problems, guys that have had CTE, like, real, real bad fucking, other than just injuries. And then even injuries, like, my mom had a really bad knee, and I sent her down there, and it got a lot better.

I sent it down there twice. A lot better. Mel Gibson, his dad couldn't walk. He was like almost 90. He was like 80 years old. And then he went down, got his hips done, got his, Neil did his shoulders, his hips, a bunch other stuff, and did Mel as well. And he's like, no, my dad was like up and walking around, like five years later still, like

he was 10 years younger. He's a great actor, by the way. Oh, Mel? He's the man. He's the man. He's the man. he's crazy too he's so interesting he's such a heat that guy's got like a fucking tornado going on his brain all the time really oh yeah yeah yeah that's why he's such a good director man do you ever

see apocalyptic yeah one of my favorites i fucking love that movie same it's one of my favorite i love that movie too such a good movie man such a good movie he plays some great ones mean you made a movie where nobody speaks english exactly and it's a blockbuster and it's amazing it's fucking incredible it's fucking I love that one but like I like his old stuff too like Braveheart Braveheart was amazing

Passion of the Christ was really good too man The Patriot was good Yeah dude he's fucking He's the real deal man Mel Gibson's the real fucking deal What's the one he I think I'm crazy

But I think it's think like a woman You ever seen that one? I did not Bro that is freaking hilarious What is it? It's like He gets trapped in like He can like read a woman's mind

Oh and so because like he's basically a guy he works he's a journalist or like a publisher or something like that and um he's very like a womanizer like he gets women and just like whatever and they always like talking shit about him behind his back like everyone else so now like he's trying to move up the ranks uh he's supposed to be next in line for a promotion well he has his daughter come in and she leaves the the blow dryer and he trips on it and falls in the uh the water gets electrocued and he wakes up and now he can hear all women's thoughts and it like changes who he is as a person that's amazing oh like she gets his promotion so now he 2000 bro great movie funny is hell and helen hunt he's been great in a lot of he was he was great in that conspiracy theory movie what's that one was it julia roberts yeah he was a wacky conspiracy theorist guy i don't think i seen that one it's pretty good what's called conspiracy theory oh is that what's called that's hilarious i didn't see that and um i I think, like, a lot of the things that he talked about now,

it's like people openly discuss online, you know, because this was all before the internet. What year was that? 97. Yeah, so there were no, like, conspiracy theory websites back then. He has another one. He has another one where, like, his wife works, or his daughter, I'm sorry, his daughter works for this company.

She comes home, and it's like this, one of those rich companies that, like, hide stuff, but you never can tell because you never have proof. And she's working in, like, a secret department. She comes home all frantic. And the dude yells something. shoots her with a shotgun right on his front door boom kills her so obviously then he goes and starts trying to figure

everything out and he starts figuring out like through the way what the work was doing it was like poisoning or something well anyway he finds the guy and ends up killing him but he ends up dying too because he got the poison from wherever he went into the workspace like he followed it he was doing all kind of shit but it was super cool too what movie is that I don't know you know that movie where he shoots he shoots his daughter on the front step like that's one of the that was one of the things that sold the movie like that was one of the previews Well, how about Lethal Weapon?

First time we ever saw anybody do a triangle in a movie. True. Right? Yeah. That was crazy. I like his movies. I'd love that scene. Like that scene, I was like, what is he doing?

I didn't even know what a triangle was back then. Because I think that was in the 80s. I wasn't even alive. When was, when did lethal weapon one come out? Edge of Darkness. That's it. He's a weapon, I think it's like 87 or 88. Yeah, man.

So back then, no one knew what a fucking triangle was, other than the graces. People in Brazil knew. Brazil was so far ahead of the curve, man They were having MMA fights in the 30s Dude, I went there for My boy Tucco, he fought in the favela, right? And Yeah, look at this

He was it Gary Busey Who was the guy who was fighting in the end? Who was the guy who's fighting in the end? I don't remember I think it's Gary Bucy, right? Yeah, it is Gary Bucce You know he had a headache Ha ha ha ha ha

Come on, Rick, Hey, come on! Movies in the 80s are so wild, dude. We don't need to watch the whole thing. Let's just cut to the triangle. This is silly. I thought I was coming. I thought so would do.

Oh, Gary Busey tried to take it to the ground. Outrageous. Mel got swept so easily. Oh, Mel's on top. Everybody was doing cocaine when they were right move. Oh, look at that. He goes right for an arm bar. Oh, sloppy.

Terrible. Terrible left hook. The left leg, like, barely held on there. That was some... Wow, there it is. That's not bad. That's not bad. That's pretty good.

I like that. He got a good angle? Oh, that's not bad at all. That's tight. He's cinching it up right there. Everybody at home was like, what is happening? Another man put his legs around another man's head. I remember when Hoyst Gracie did that to Dan Severin.

Everybody was like, what's going on? Like, what is happening? And then all of a sudden, you see Dan Severn Tap, and you're like, what happened? What did he do? Put him to sleep. My friend would know better the lineage and stuff, right? That's where he's my intelligence. But we went to Brazil, right, for his fight.

He was fighting in the favela at Josie Aldo's gym. Novo O'Neo. Yeah, it's like right on the edge of the favela. It's nice, though. Yeah, Andre Pettanaris. Yeah, he was there. He was super nice. He's awesome.

He was super nice, super hospitable. That guy's a pioneer, dude. Yes. He was fighting MMA in early days, bare knuckle. Oh, yeah. Andre put a, oh, my God, man, yeah. I just know him. We met a lot of great guys, but we were there with Daniel Gracie, and I think it's

Hino's mom. And then his dad, like the whole lineage was there before he passed away. He was there. We went over there, and we were sitting on their couch, chilling, hanging out, talking, meeting all of them. And again, I am absolutely got awful with. names, but I knew, like, as soon as he come out

the stairs, he was going somewhere, he had a nice of jacket. Oh, no, he was doing an interview with he was doing an interview, like a little podcast or something. It was all in Portuguese. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but they met him super nice, and then, like, I think it wasn't too long after that he passed away, but like that's like this, one of the starts of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Was it Ilya?

Was it Carlos? Who was it? I think it was Carlos? I don't know. It doesn't matter. It was one of them. Right. I could figure it out, though. Okay. But, dude, super nice.

Like, they were all explaining, like, the lineage. And I started with... What's that, Jamie? Oh, sorry. I started with, like, Gracie Jujitsu. So, like, I used to know that lineage fairly well, but then, you know how life is. You just get away and kind of forget you're not around it as much. But...

Yeah. Well, it's a crazy lineage. I mean, that one family's responsible for changing mixed martial arts. Dude, they were telling us so many, like, cool stories, like, things that I had heard through the Great Vine, you know, from other people when I was just, younger but they confirmed it and like they were even like asking like where the beef comes from in the family you know like what started that exactly what started because obviously he was in it he dude he well they translated for us but he was saying like how it all got started but beef between

what parts of the family two beefs that they have uh no it was uh Carlos and who's the one one of the brothers went out on their own because he was like I don't want nothing to do with this part the family was it horian maybe it was i know that name they were saying that name started the ufc yeah it might have been and horian also trained mel gipson okay for for this lethal weapon fight scene there he is horian gracy yeah hoary and gracy in playboy magazine challenged mike tyson to a no rules fight see i don't want to sound stupid so i don't like to say too many names but you're going to make me call my friend and ask him when we leave here well ilio was his father You know, Hicksons, obviously, he's his brother.

Hoyt is his brother. I think Hoyler and Hoyse are half-brothers. Yes, I knew that. They were saying that. But they were just kind of like going over like old times and stories and like they were talking about that because apparently like with, they were saying like, well, Daniel was saying like within the family because he's a Gracie. But I think he's like it was his mom or something like that was. So she's still a Gracie.

But anyway, or his, no, his cousin. was a gracie so technically like he's not a real blood gracie i don't know they tried to explain it it's very weird but anyway we were there and they can't they don't talk about it like why there's a divide between this side of the family and this side and they they explained to like even when they were kids like they would go in and get into it like say you'd go in and you get in a fight in the street just like maybe you're 12 years old it started they said like basically that young that like there was a divide between whatever one and this one and um because they would get in a fight and he would come back and rat on them.

And he was like, bro, come on. You know, so it started as that young. And he said it was a lot. It wasn't even like, oh, it was just one time. No, like multiple times, you know. So it was just interesting to hear like these stories that these guys had of like when they were young in the streets like fighting in Rio. Oh, yeah.

I mean, there's a video of Hickson fighting somebody on the beach. Yeah, they talk about it. Some Luttle Libre guy, he smacks him on the beach. He talks about it. They were talking about it. They're fighting in the sand, scrapping on the beach. Daniel was there for that. Daniel was there.

He was the one that brought it up. He was there right now. He said they showed the picture of it and he was right in the back. Hickson has a little surfer shorts on. Yep. He even, Daniel explained how it started. I don't remember that exact details, but dude, it was like. Well, they would dojo storm each other.

They would show up at places and challenge like Luta Levera gyms and Lutte Levera guys would show up at the Gracie Dojo. Dude, it was like. Yeah, here it is. Look at Hickson with them beautiful colored shorts on. And it just smacks them. Like, come on, baby, it's on. And the dude's like, take your shoes off. Come on, let's go.

Like, there, hold my shoes. Bro, these were wild times. Yeah. Especially when you take into consideration, Hickson's widely considered one of the absolute greatest jujitsu practitioners of all time. You know, and that he was willing

to have these kind of fights on the beach in Rio, these no-rules fights, just surrounded by dudes. And man thongs. Yeah. I mean, not have any striking. Look, see

how Hickson's wing and punches? These guys had no striking at all. It's really kind of crazy. I mean not ever saying there's anything wrong with anything that Hickson ever did because he's like one of the greatest of all time. But if you look at the difference between a guy that's just a pure grappler like Hickson,

even when he fought in pride. Remember he'd come out and throw those little stomp kicks, just try to get, he's just getting you to the ground. It's all getting you to the ground. There's no one like that now. No one has very little stand-up. There's no one who fights like that. And it's crazy because there is like so many stories about like

Hoyst wasn't even supposed to be the one to fight, you know? Right. He wasn't even supposed to be the one. Yeah. They were supposed to have the other one. Well, Hickson was always the champion of the family. And Hoyt had always said that that Hickson was 10 times better than him. Yeah.

He said Hickson tap me every day. Every day I go to the gym, Hickson tap me. But it's just like that's just how it was. But there was a lot of rumors. One of the rumors was that, so this is, is the narrative. Hoist says it's because he's so beautiful. It's like, look at his face. Of course they picked me. That's what he said on the podcast. It was

hilarious because he's so handsome. But Hickson's handsome too, so it didn't make any sense. But it was, I think it's because Hoyce could show that it was the technique. Because, like, Hickson was shredded. Yeah. He was pretty jacked, too. And he looked like a world champion

athlete. Whereas Hoyce looked like a 170-pound guy who was like, you know, not that muscular and it was just technique. It was him, using beautiful jujitsu technique that nobody knew what it was. It was like the best advertisement ever for jiu-jitsu. When you see a 175-pound guy tapping out Dan Severin, you know, it was this huge wrestler and chemo when he got him in that arm bar.

Like all the shit that hoist did. Ken Shamrock when he tapped him. It's crazy to watch a guy that's like so much smaller than everybody else dominate everyone and everyone was afraid of him. So it was like the perfect thing. And the thought was, okay, well, if he ever does lose, we always have Hickson. right and then but hickson went off to japan and he did japan valley tudo and then he did pride and you know this was always uh there was talk at one point time of hickson fighting fadour

they were throwing money around for hickson after he fought in that coliseum show which i think was in 2000 when did he fight funaki when did hickson fight funnaki i think it was the year 2000 and they were talking about hickson fighting fadour they had made him in offer japan for him to come off and he wanted to do it it never came i wish you i wish you could have heard like again because i'm so bad with names and my memory is not as good as it used to be but it's one of my favorite memories from fighting 2000 yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it's one of my favorite memories from fighting just sitting there and listening to these guys because the the history was freaking insane the stories were awesome like it was uh but like i said i'm terrible with names so

i'm very bad with like uh so look at that Andre Pedinaris on that card versus Genki Sudo. Sure is. Ended in a draw. And Genki Sudo was a bad motherfucker. That's how good Pedaneris was. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah.

Pedinaris was legit, man. Damn. Very legit. Damn. I know it was a great coach. I didn't know he fought. Fought in the early, early days. You know, I mean, it was, he might have even fought in extreme combat.

Did he fight in extreme combat? He might, like, that was back in the day when Mario Sperry first burst on the scene. scene he fought back then. Igor Zinoviev, all these dudes that everybody forgot about. They fought, and that was John Peretti's card. So John Peretti, who was the commentator for the early days of the UFC, then John Peretti went over and started his own organization for a while. It's crazy, like, I think, like sometimes, well, I know, like I said, I'm bad at names, right?

But it's like, I went and fought in Seattle last year, or this year. I fought in Seattle this year. And they did, like, there was Amanda Nunes, Robbie Lawler. And there was one more that got inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. And nobody could give, like, really any fights for whoever the other person was. And not many could give too much for Robbie Lawler. I was like, bro, how have you not heard about Robbie Lawler? Oh, you mean they weren't clapping?

No, like... So here it is. Let me just go over this real quick. Pedinaris, his debut fight, Valley Tudu, Japan. That's what it was. He defeated Rumenosato. and then Pat Melitich for the UFC Welterweight title, UFC 21.

We lost in the second round, technical knockout, and then he fought Cal Uno. He was a savage. I remember him. That ended in a draw. So Genki Sudo and Kyle Uno, two savages, and both of those fights were draws. And the last one with Genkisuto

was his last MMA fight. So how many fights did he have overall? Four fights. But shit, they're all good. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he fought legit guys. Yeah. He beat Ruman to Sopold.

You know, Ruminasato, man, was fucking terrifying back that. Keo, soccer kick, Kio. Ooh, damn. Yeah. But yeah, it was like, it's just different, man. That time frame is just different, you know? Well, it is a... It's the birth of the sport, and it's kind of amazing

to have been there at the very beginning and to be able to watch it. You know, when I first found out about it, I couldn't believe it was real. I had a bunch of friends that told me about it. I think I heard about it from dudes. heard about it from dudes at uh do you remember benny urquitas do you know who he was no i don't know benny the jet was a famous kickboxer now i'm really going back i feel like i know that name he was uh one of the best kickboxers of all time um and this was like way back in the day like

in the early 80s benny the jet was the fucking man in the late 70s in the early 80s and he had this gym in california in van ice california called the jet center when i first moved out to california there's two places i knew i really had to go one was the comedy store and the other was the jet center. And so I got to work out at the jet center. And Benny was there and his cousin Blinky. He was there and Blinky Rodriguez, who was another elite kickboxer, who actually knocked out Jean-Eve Terrio, who was like one of the best kickboxers of all time. So it was like this incredible gym. But Benny the Jet Orquitas was like he was early, like the Bill Superfoot Wallace days, like back in those days. You know. And

I forget what I was just saying what I lost my train and thought what were we just talking about before that yeah you moved to LA yeah yeah yeah but I had a point I had a point about these early MMA fighters oh you were saying it's the birth of this the birth is the sport so watching that this is what my point was watching that

where there was not even leg kicks to watching all the sudden you see Rick Rufus and he fought that dude from Thailand like one of the most important fights in the history of martial arts because you get to see that dude from Thailand just chop Rick Rufus' legs apart. And then Rick and Duke both learned from that

and said, okay, we've got to incorporate that into our game. Duke becomes a world Muay champion after that, which is like it changed, and then Duke becomes one of the best Memecoes ever. So it changes the entire course of the sport. And when I got into it and started watching it in, that's what it was. So the Jet Center, one of the guys from the Jet Center was like, you've got to see this thing.

It's called the UFC. This is in 94. I was like, what? What is it? It was UFC 2. Like, I didn't even see UFC 1. I saw UFC 2 because that was the only one that was available on VHS. So I watched UFC 2 and I was like, this is crazy.

I'm like, how is this guy doing this? And I was like, oh my God, like, how is everybody so vulnerable to this one guy? Like, this is nuts. So I was like, I got to train Jiu-Jitsu. And watching all of these people from that era and watching the level of the competition at that era. and what the fights looked like versus today, there's not another sport on Earth

where you could see a gigantic difference between 1994 and 2025. Like a gigantic difference where it's unrecognizable. Like that kid that you were talking about before, the 18 year old kid, what's his name again? Ansar. That guy would have been a world champion. Easy.

A world champion. Yeah, easy. No one would have fucked with him. We would have said, this is the greatest fighter that's ever walked the face of the planet. And he's a kid that's on undercards of small regional shows now, right? How crazy is that?

So like when you're seeing these guys in the Dana White Contender Series, some of these guys coming up, I'm watching them fight for their first fight in the Contender series, I'm like, this guy looks like he'd be fighting for the title. Like they're complete fighters. They're fast, they have good technique,

everything they're doing is smart. It's like the level has changed so much in such a short period of time. And I feel so lucky to be able to see the whole thing. I saw the whole thing, like from the ground floor to today. It's crazy because, you probably hear it all the time right like i was probably watching fear factor before i knew with the ufc so when i saw the ufc i was like dad look it's him he was like he looks at me because

obviously my dad's seen it before he's like yes son he's been around a while you know he's been in the ufc i don't even know if it was longer but i'm sure it was yeah i was i started working for the ufc in 97 so he was like he's always been there so then obviously as i get older i start seeing history and looking at old fights and older fights and I see I noticed you there the whole time and like me and my friend tucco had these conversations but I was like bro Joe's a real one though he's he's been here the whole time like how awesome does that have to be for like you dana frittitas and probably a few others too that nobody knows that have seen this thing grow from what it was to what it is today oh it's amazing it's got to be it's amazing yeah I feel so

lucky. I'm so fortunate. Like, it's one of the things I look forward to more than anything in life. It was a UFC weekend. I'm like, oh, boy, here we go. I get so excited. I've been doing this forever. I still, I started UFC 12 in 1997. That was the first fight that I ever did backstage interviews. That's what I did. Or post-fight interviews, too. I think I started doing interviews backstage, and then I interviewed guys after the fight was over. That was, you know, early. But how did you start there? It was a crazy fluke. So, uh, I'm was already doing jiu-jitsu. I was at Carlson Gracie's. This is back before Vitor made his debut. I was training at Vitor's, uh, with Vitor's gym with, uh, Mario Sperry. I took lessons from

Mario Sperry when I was a white belt. It was awesome, dude. Murillo Bustamante was there all the time. Um, there was a ton of the, the Carlson Gracie killers, you know, the two bulldogs and fighting each other. Yeah. And Carlson was there every day. So, uh, I got to train, uh, there when I was on news radio, the sitcom. I was, so it was just, like 1996 and um i just loved that there was this was before vitor fought in the ufc so he while he was training at the gym with us he went and fought this guy john hess john hess was this big tall he fought in the ufc as well i believe i believe he did john hess was this he had a style called safta i forget what it was about but it was like back then dudes would just like make up their

own style street fighting artistic finger fucking you know i don't know they would make up some sort of a fucking acronym, but Vitor blitzed across the ring. He was 19 years old and just lit this guy up like a machine gun, like got him down. Like put him out on the ground. Like it was so crazy and so fast, the most ferocious display of ground and pound I had ever seen in my life at the time. And I was like, this is crazy. And so just randomly, they had a guy who was doing the post-fight interviews and they wanted

to get a new guy. and they were looking for people and the guy Campbell McLaren who is the producer of the UFC happened to be friends with my manager from the comedy club days. Campbell used to work at a comedy club with my manager and they were just

shooting the shit over the phone. He goes, hey, I'm looking for someone to do interviews for the UFC. Do you know anybody that'd be interested? He goes like, Joe was a huge fan. He's like, Joe watches every one of them. I actually got direct TV just so I could watch the UFC

because that's when it was banned from cable. So I got my cable removed. And I got direct TV put in my house just so I could watch the UFC because it was the only way you could catch it. And then it was no money. And I was supposed to fly to New York. But then the last minute, it got canceled.

They made it illegal in New York. And we had to fly to Dothan, Alabama on a fucking propeller plane. I shared a propeller plane with Randy Couture. And actually, that was later. Later, that was in Louisiana. I shared a propeller plane with Randy Couture. But Randy didn't fight.

then. But it was, Vitor made his debut against Trey Telleigman, and everybody thought he was a jiu-jitsu guy, because he was from Carlson Gracie, he had a black belt, and he just came out just throwing missiles, just missiles, so

fast, like nobody had seen anything like that. And he was only like 200 pounds back then. He was light and fast and strong as shit, and then he fought Scott Ferozo and took him out in the finals. So he won this heavyweight tournament, and that was 1997. That's crazy. That was the third person I was trying to think of when I was in Seattle.

So basically what happened, UFC was asking fighters, hey, these three guys, they weren't saying they were getting inducted, but obviously if you've been around in view. Oh, was Vitor? It was Vitor? Amanda Nunez and Robbie Lawler. They weren't cheering for Vitor? That's crazy. No, they were asking the fighters, right? They were asking the fighters, hey, do you know who these guys are? If you do, what's your most memorable moment of them? What was your, what was your favorite moment like anything like that right because obviously they put it on the montage when they announce it right and um they told me that only me and two other fighters on the entire card could give a fight from vitor i was like no way i was like that highlight that you're talking about

when he sprints across dig dig dig even if you don't know the person how do you not see that highlight when he did that to vanderlea remember we did that's the one i said that's what i said that was my vanderlea was that one that was crazy but i think the scariest V-T-V-T-V-Tor of all time was T-R-T-V-Tor was the scariest fucking human being that ever stepped into that cage. If they never banned TRT, I think that guy would have been a terror for every fucking human being that weight, that weighed 185 pounds. For sure.

The way he wheel-kicked Luke Rockhold, like, what the fuck are we looking at, man? We never saw him throw a wheel-kicking his whole career. All of a sudden, he's wheel-kicking guys in the head. He come in the gym, like, because obviously he live in Florida, he comes in the gym, and he is the nicest guy brother brother come here come here very nice guy let's talk about it hey i think uh i think you need to slow down a little bit these hundred percent every days no good brother he said why don't you come we can have some coffee have lunch and let's talk about it i love the science behind the sport uh wow but super nice guy right like there's the conversations that i had with him

and uh if i see him great guy before this never had a conversation with him only watched him on TV, you know. But that was like the first interaction I ever had with Vitor as a person. I don't know if he knew who I was. He just watched me spar and then come to me after. That was it. That's very nice of him. Yeah, super nice guy. And for a real OG like him, that's been again fighting since

1997. Dude, 1997, that's almost 30 years. That's literally crazy. Did it hurt my heart when they said that people didn't like, couldn't like say fights for him? Couldn't even say a highlight. It's hard. You know, these young guys, a lot of them are 25 years old.

24 years old. They didn't watch this Joshua Van, 24, right? They didn't watch the sport a lot before they were involved in it and the fights that they've really seen a lot of have been the last few years. Yeah, and that's what Josh Van,

that's why I said his name, he's young, but he says the same thing because they were like, why do you think Pantosius is the goat? He's like, I know Demetrius Johnson is what everyone says. He was like, but I never got to see him, you know? Like, I was too young.

That's crazy too. Go watch. It's online. Yeah. Go see it, Joshua. You're the champ now, Joshua. Go back and watch Mighty Mouse because that motherfucker was extraordinary.

He was. Mighty Mouse in his time was extraordinary. Shit, he was so special when he fought that big Brazilian kid in one. Uh-huh, right? Because he lost one and then he beat him twice, right? He lost the first time in one championship, and then he got caoed, and then caoed him the exact same way. Really?

Wasn't it? Yeah. I didn't know it was the same way. They both got caoed with knees, and both got caoed against the cage with knees. Wow. It was literally like almost the exact same, except Demetrius was more artistic.

It was beautiful. The flow, where he was like, He's like chasing him. He rocked him, and then he's chasing him down. He's like, not yet. There it is. And he just launches and catches him with this. You've seen it, right? Yeah, I've seen it. Oh, my God. I didn't know it was the same way. What does that dude's name? The duty caoed? Just. Andre, I don't know. Search Demetris Johnson flying knee KO one FC. I bet you'll find it. Yeah, Adriano Morise. That's it. That's it. And Marize is good, dude. He's really good. He's really big. And one FC's got that squirrelly weight-cutting jazz So this is the second fight After Marais had caoed him in the first fight And also this is a DJ that's probably 35 years old, right? Right

I mean, and after a long career in the UFC Widely recognizes the greatest flyweight of all time in the UFC And to me, like he just didn't get the love that he deserved when he was in his prime because he was 125 pounds And for whatever reason, I mean, it's not like it's not even more interesting to watch like but people have this weird thing like a heavyweight could beat anywhere in the world 125 pound guy'll dump him on his head stop watch him fight like it right there boom well that's beautiful back back back back it up a second so you can see

the sequence look right hand timing boom perfect the timing is just so beautiful that's so look that's fucking artistic man that is so artistic it's perfect and to kale a guy with the shit he CO'd you with in the first fight is wild. Dude, I don't know much about, like, Demetris as a person, but from what I've seen of him, obviously, because you see more now that he's on, like, doing his, like, streaming and stuff, he is like...

He's the best. He's the definition of a martial artist, too. He cares about the pureness of being a martial artist rather than the views or the belt or any of that. So I respect that a lot. He's not, like, talking stupid shit just to get attention. He hates people that do that kind of stuff. He hates disrespectful stuff. He's such a

nice guy. But also, just so smart about his approach to the sport just so clever inside the cage and also so fucking fast man dude he was so one time I grabbed him just as just being silly at a UFC he was in front of me and I put my arms

around him like from behind you know like saying hi to somebody yeah and he turned around he looked at me and he hit me with two knees to the body like just touched me it was so fast I was like dude that was so scary you hit me so fast I didn't even see them coming it was like da-da

They're just like, just Move like a cat And you know, like you said He was probably 35 or whatever there He could still compete with the best in the world With the best in the world Yeah And juice free too

Juice free with the best in the world And by the way over there I don't know what kind of drug test they're doing But it's probably multiple choice There's a lot of them organizations Where you're like How hard are you testing really? You know?

Because like if you're not test all throughout camp randomly, you're not really testing, you know? Because we have to remember that Alster Overeem, when he fought Brock Lesnar, was tested. And that is the juiciest man that's ever walked the face of planet Earth. The Alster Overeem that fought Brock Lesnar is the juiciest guy I've ever seen fight. It was horse meat. And I wish he could keep juicing. I do.

I think we would have seen a different result. You let Alster stay juicy and stay 265 with world-class kickboxing skills. And also, he was so jacked that he could kind of hide from punches. Because when he would shell up, especially in K-1 when he had those big gloves, bro, when he would shell up. So he's got biceps and shoulders and then traps. Everything's all protected. And he's got that high guard and he's coming in like this, throwing bombs. And he looks like a superhero.

He looks like a guy from a fucking comic book. Yeah, let's just let's just let's just let's just let's just let's just let's even playing field instead of let's try to catch who's not or let's catch who's juice in. Would you if they if they just open the gates? Okay. Okay. I'll start it off by saying yes. When I was younger, I was like, no, I'd never juice.

I want to be all natural to show everything like to show I'm just that good. Then I was like as I got older and seen it. I was like, nah. I would. But that's like, I remember, I fought Eric Anders for LFA, right? And they have pictures of him on the scale. The day of the fight, 222, 23, one of them two, right? I'm stepping in, I don't even really cut.

I'm stepping in, like, 194. I'm young. I don't cut really anything. That time I did cut a lot. That was the first fight I cut a lot for because I was lifting, like, crazy. And I wasn't really doing nothing else because I was in Louisiana. I used to train with Rich Clementi. Oh, okay.

Yeah, so, you know, he's crazy as hell. So I was training there, but I was lifting more than anything. But anyway, I was probably like 196-ish, 197. No more than 200, for sure. No questions asked. And they come in the back that night, and they're like, hey, we're drug testing you. I said, what? He said, yeah, yeah, we're going to drug test you.

It's random. I said, well, if it's random, is he getting drug tested too? They're like, no. I said, hold, whoa, whoa. So you're telling me the man who's weighing over 220 and just, weighed 185 exact yesterday is not getting tested, but the guy who's only weighing like 14

whatever pounds more is getting tested? I pulled up my shirt. I said, does it look like I'm on fucking steroids? Does it look like it? I said, give me some credit, bro. If I was going to take it, I promise you I would look like it. And they were like, I'm sorry, bro. This is just our job. I was like, all right, let's go get it done. But it's just like...

How did you randomly test only a few people on a roster? That has to be like a budget thing. That has to be a budget thing. Texas Commission. That's crazy But that must be Like they don't want to spend money on everybody I don't know

If you test one guy in the card You should have to test everybody Yeah I think it was a total of three or four guys What they said That they tested on the whole card If you're testing a guy You have to test his opponent Dude you have to

That's crazy I still to this day I laugh at it I'm like come on Every time someone asked me Like everyone it just takes you Come on bro There's a few fights where they stop

They wouldn't let a guy fight Because in the TRT days They did test to see what people's levels are. And one guy, I don't want to say his name, but one guy was so high that they canceled the main event. Really? Yeah, they canceled the main event at the way in.

Wow. Yeah. I didn't know that. He was so juicy. They were worried that he was going to die. They were like, you could, like, your levels are, whatever you fucking did, you should not be fighting with this level of testosterone in your system.

Did you have a-old-t-R-T? So it wasn't like, this guy's just some genetic freak, like, you all Romero coming out of the Cuban sports program. No, it wasn't... He's a special human, too. That's a special human. Yeah. Dude, you ever heard of a guy, um, Clovis, I think Clovis Hancock.

He died in the fight. No. I think it was for Legacy or LFA. I fought him. Then his next fight, he died in the cage and they brought him back. Whoa. Yeah, CPR. It was all over the internet.

I fought that dude. I was like, no way. I saw the next day. I seen it. Like, yeah, they had to give him CPR until the ambulance. got him loaded up and taken to the hospital. Is his heart just stopping me? Wow.

He obviously never allowed to fight again. Obviously, yeah. Yeah, man, crazy. Imagine if he wanted to? Oh, my God. He probably did, bro. He was funny. I ain't gonna lie.

Sometimes just have that dog in them. They don't care. Cyborg wanted to fight again after he got his skull crushed by MVP. No way. Yeah, he thought he was going to fight again after that. So here it is. Can you imagine being the audience watching that?

They're doing fucking CPR on a dude. Oh my God. That's so scary. Yeah, yeah, I remember he was the cut man. That's so scary. Yeah, man, it's crazy. Well, thank God they have those EMTs on standby. And, you know, these organizations, they do the very best to screen people and make sure that they're as healthy as possible.

The UFC does a real good job with that. He's dead for five minutes. Yeah, dead for five minutes. The cut man was the guy that was giving him CPR. It wasn't even the EMTs. Oh, my God. Thank God the cut man knew CPR. Holy shit, dude.

Yeah, crazy. Well, you know, reminds you. not a game. It's a crazy ass fucking sport. So what's next for you? Do you know? Do they have you lined up for anything? No. I've been pushing. Hopefully Drickus, hopefully March, April at the latest. So do you need that much

time to prepare? Is that like how you'd like to? Yeah, I just kind of I started training again today, matter of fact. So training, dieting. Maybe that'll get him excited about fighting you. Huh? Maybe that'll get him excited about fighting. Maybe that's a trap. Maybe that's a trap. If I was Drickus, I'm like, this motherfucker probably has a full six-pack

if he takes his shirt off. He probably ripped his butt. Six-pack of rolls. He's ready to go. He's just bullshit and saying he hasn't been training to goad me into a fight. Yeah, man. So Drickis is the guy that you're hoping for. Yes, sir.

And it makes sense. Like, it's just the right time. Like I said, Emovalv is going to wait for the champion. He earned his spot. They just announced Fluffy and Sean. So what's left? It's just me and him. It's a good fight, too.

It would be a great fight to watch. And a good fight, you know, for you, obviously, fighting former champion, you know, in his next, and for Dreykis, it's like, that's a, that's the kind of fight you need at this point. You know, you need to turn back the young lions. I've been trying to fight him since he got into the UFC. I just felt like, I still feel this way. I feel like he's the luckiest guy I've ever seen. Like, don't get me wrong. He does have a couple fights now.

But before he got the belt, I always said, like, he's the luckiest guy. Like, Marcus Perez was beating his ass. Marcus Perez wanted to do something crazy and went to throw a spinning elbow. Jerkis was throwing a body shot when he was throwing to spin an elbow and he hit him right in the mouth. Drickus hit Marcus right in the mouth out. I don't think you can call that lucky. I don't know. I know what you're saying, but he finds a way to win.

The dude's a dog. He is a dog. He finds a way to win. You know, I mean, think about some of them fights that were just like, like the Otisana you fight. Like, he just kept coming and found a way to win. Yeah. The Robert Whitaker fight, we took Whitaker. out in the first round you can't there's no no no you're right i don't see luck in that one there's a lot

i think that was a great strategy he's a fucking animal dude yeah he i love that's honestly like we can say whatever we want about each other he can joke talk shit whatever the case but i love the fight because i know he's coming to fight like he's coming to kill for sure i love that i don't want a guy that's like i've had them but i don't like the guys that just want to hug like he's trying to hurt me I love that. Like, that nervousness brings out the best version of me. Because I'm nervous. Like, who's not nervous of another man that's going to, he's trying to hurt me?

And his, to me, one of his best attributes is exactly what you said. Like, you describe it as he finds a way to win? Like, that's a great way. For me, I'm just like, that dude can dig deep. Look, even in the Hamzot fight, even in the Hamzot fight, remember the fifth round? Yep. Fifth round, he's on top, dropping bombs on Hamzot at one point. time it was a little too late and he didn't get him out of there but he was not giving up yeah he just

was getting dominated right difference for sure he was still trying to find a way to win but i love that that that that motivates me by itself like i love hearing that i want a guy that's going to try to come kill me because what's the worst is going to happen he knocks me out okay okay like that's what we came to do anyway any man could do it i've had i've been TKOed before like all right cool but i can do it to you too you know so that's what i love that aspect of the fight that's my favorite thing that's what motivates me about the fight more than the the number the danger yeah i like that it's and i i feel like i really truly haven't had that in a while like a true like some guys look at it as a sport and some guys really mean it like i'm trying to hurt you and i like that like it brings that out

me too because like i'm trying to hurt you all right you're gonna try to hurt me i'm gonna try to hurt you or you know I don't know but that's just how I look at the fight and it really like excites me like that's that demonic side of me coming out like let's see I'm ready well I love hearing that and I love the fight I hope you get it thank you and thanks for being here man it was great talking to you let everybody know how they can find you on social yeah on Instagram at Brennan Allen 185 or B underscore Allen 185 and that's that's really about be I'm just kind of chill I'm low key All right, brother.

Well, hopefully next time I'll talk to you, it's after a victory. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me. My pleasure, brother. It's such a pleasure being here with all you guys. Thank you so much. My pleasure. All right.

Bye, everybody.