The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #29 with Cat Zingano

Episode Date: May 28, 2018

Joe is joined by UFC fighter Cat Zingano.

Here we go. Four, three, two, one. Boom. And we're live, Kat. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Good to see you here. Yeah, thanks for having me. My pleasure. I've been looking forward to talking to you for a while. I know. I feel like it's been a long time coming. I don't even know how much time we have. I feel like there's a hell of a lot to catch up on. Yeah, there's a lot to talk about, always. You're getting ready for Boise?

That's your next fight? Mm-hmm. Who are you fighting? Marion Renau, July 14th, on the CenturyLink Arena. Now, you took a good stretch off, right? A couple times. Yeah. A couple times.

Let's see, after I fought Misha, I blew my my knee and then the world exploded and so I had I think 18 months off between that and fighting uh Amanda and then after I fought Amanda I so Amanda was like September 27th something like that and I fought Rhonda February 28th and then after Rhonda uh took another big stretch off fought Juliana the following year, uh, July 9th. And then this was another big stretch off. So yeah, it's been a little bit scattered, but doing what I can. Yeah. And you're, you're doing some crazy therapy too, right? Some, some interesting stuff down in San Diego. Yeah. So, um, there's, there's been a few things I've been working on. Like I'm not a huge fan of Western medicine, you know, like, uh, even, I mean, you can call it

alternative medicine. It's like original medicine. I, I appreciate looking at things like that way more than, you know, big farm. But I, uh, you know, one thing that, um, you know, fighting has gotten me and, and stuff with, you know, I think it's more prevalent in women, although I'm thinking it's happening with men too, is like our endocrine systems are not happy with these weight cuts and they're not happy with us like getting hit in the head a lot. Go figure. Right. Yeah. Go figure.

So, you know, within all of that, I've just, you know, had medical problems and things that like I'm constantly working on and I feel really good. I'm constantly improving. I'm constantly working on and I feel really good I'm I'm constantly improving but um one thing I was feeling a little bit stuck on was uh one I was like some of the endocrine problem issues but um like I don't know I I had uh had I went to this facility in in San Diego it's called um dang why can't I remember oh uh mindset And actually the UFC sent me there because, I mean, we have USADA, we have all of these things. After fighting Amanda, I got my head pounded for a good four minutes there. I had a TBI afterwards. So that was like, immediately lowered my estrogen, lowered my DHEA, my testosterone, and I'm hypothyroid like I will always be hypothyroid now like I have after that fight yeah yeah and um you know still toughed it out still was trying to do what I could to go and fight Rhonda as soon as I did afterwards and you know part of my game plan is don't get hit and which means like let's just dart at her and see what happens you know so well

that's what happens when you do that yeah for people who don't know tbi is traumatic brain injury just in case if someone is listening to this doesn't understand what we're talking about and then in the ronda fight if people don't know about that you just charged after and you got caught in an arm bar and like what was it very quick it was like 14 seconds it was 14 seconds but i did hit her with a knee i did throw her ass but she practiced this little ninja move and caught my damn arm and it was it was over you know but i mean even even her coaches were like i mean that's you did what you're supposed to do there and she just got you you know so um that would be an awesome fight to be able to revisit one day uh she even said we'd do it i mean who knows her career is so i don't think she's

ever gonna fight again she don't need to yeah she really doesn't need to I don't think she's ever going to fight again. She doesn't need to. Yeah. She really doesn't need to. I don't think she wants to. You know? Yeah. I think, I don't mean, who knows? You'd have to ask her. But there's a lot of lessons to be learned in what happened to her in terms of like all of the distractions and Hollywood came calling and there was scripts and talk about doing Roadhouse and there was all this shit going on that was other than fighting.

And then it was also, look, the sport has evolved so rapidly and the women's MMA has gotten so high level so quickly. And I'm sure you saw Amanda's last fight with Raquel Pennington. I'm like, holy shit. I mean, that was a fucking high-level performance from her. And five rounds, super high cardio, just put a beating down on Raquel Pennington, who's one of the toughest girls in the world, for sure. Right.

I do, like, I mean, I'm saying the same thing as the fight's going, right? And then I have uh some people in my ear next to me they're like well how long has it been since Raquel fought because she didn't look her her like beefiest right she she looked a little tired she looked a little like not her typical and then it's it's like she's a year and a half off herself right like right into a title fight which I have to say I'm a little bit envious of because when I beat Misha I won uh I was supposed to coach ultimate fighter but that was ultimately going to end up in a title shot with Rhonda and I blew my knee and my husband passed away and there was like a long moment of

silence in there and then when I was able to come back they made me re-earn my title shot you know and so it was like wait oh we're doing that now we're just like well it doesn't depend on like what what attractive contenders are available like what they can sell what looks good i agree yeah i mean it was very young at that at that age or at that time too right and in bantamweight right now there's like there's no standout contender and raquel had beaten some really good fighters and she looked like the next in line and did she blow her knee out as well she had I want to say she got like oh I could be lying but I think she got in like some accident with a four-wheeler like rolled over and broke her leg or something I could like totally be making that up though she could have

just twisted it walking down the street too so I I don't know. She just vaguely remembers some injury. Now that you're saying that, I do remember something like a broken leg. Jamie will find out what it is. But were you surprised by that fight? Between Raquel and Amanda? Yeah. I mean, I didn't see Raquel being the one to beat her, you know? I do feel like Amanda's been working and doing, like, you know, improving.

I mean, she changed her camp. The coaches that she's working with I tried out for a while at 1.2 when I was trying to find my spot, and they're legit. They're very good. And Mary Kentopton has a lot of high-level training partners, both girls and guys, you know. I mean, she had a good decision made there. So I see how she's improved.

I think with the time off with Raquel, I wasn't sure how it was going to go. But also, I just don't know. I just don't see Raquel being the one that beats her. It's so hard to tell, you know, right? I mean, anybody on any given night at the highest level of the game, someone can win. Someone can be off. Someone can be on.

Oh, yeah. There's no math to be done in this sport. There really isn't. Yeah yeah the MMA math is ridiculous no I mean sometimes I hear like statistics on me or definitions on me or labels on me and I'm like wait I'm a I'm a I'm a known striker like I never would have thought I'd be known as a striker I mean I've been doing jujitsu and wrestling my whole life so I mean I'll take it fuck yeah well it was the misha ko yeah yeah yeah but even that is yes but i mean that that in itself was like i love to wrestle and what can i do once i've closed that distance well it's those those short angle strikes you know there's there's

knees and there's elbows there that those are the most destructive things i could possibly do to someone when when we're that close and to do all that work to get that close. But granted, that's all influenced by Muay Thai and what I got to learn from that discipline. So, you know, it's all relevant. But, you know, it's always just interesting to hear how you're now being categorized, you know. Yeah, it is weird, right? Right.

But you are definitely a dangerous striker. I mean, you're dangerous. I agree. I mean, I like it. And I'm enjoying constantly learning new things. Like the basics were always hard for me to get because I wanted to do the big girl stuff. Right. And found my way right in the middle of all of that and found a way to use how aggressive I am and how just like domineering I can feel in there and all

of that. So it's like, I don't know, I want the maximum amount of damage without taking damage, which is obviously the goal, right? But like I want to put it into a dance. So it's like a little, I don't know. What made you decide to go to San Diego? So you're at Alliance now, right? So you moved from Colorado to San Diego? So you're at Alliance now, right? So you moved from Colorado to San Diego.

So a few things. So one of them was, like, Colorado is a complicated situation for me. I mean, I had gyms up there. Like, a lot just personally happened up there. And I love my team elevation. Like, I love, I'm still close with everybody. Like, I go to Colorado for Christmas holidays. Like, it's still home, you know, but a couple of things.

One with the head injury, Colorado is amazing for training, right? It's amazing for building your endurance and whatever, but it is not good for healing. Like you'll never see a doctor tell someone with Alzheimer's or a TBI or heart problems or even like massive allergies or, um, what's the arthritis, like those are not, that's not a good place for people to live with any kind of inflammatory or like major thing that needs to be healing. Cause your body's already working at such a high level because the altitude, I mean, the thin air, the, the things like that.

It's just like, I spent so much time and so much money, like figuring out what the hell was wrong with me that, you know, I ended up at the Mayo Clinic spending weeks at a time going to all their like specialized different doctors and situations like that for them to tell me, like, you know, if you want to heal, you want to give give yourself the best opportunity to heal you're probably not going to do it up at altitude like we would prefer seeing you at sea level and so combined like I kind of I needed to almost exile myself from Colorado because I want to love it and I was starting to it was starting to get like less colorful for me you know because I felt like I had the best there was as far as coaches and the best there was as far as training partners and the situations, like everything was as good as it was going to get. Like it literally was as good as it was going to get. And it was like, this, this can't be it. Like, I don't feel, I don't feel right. You don't feel like you're at your maximum.

No. And, and I was like, that means I'm going to have to take a change, you know? And I was scared. Like I have a little boy, like I'm going to have to take a change. And I was scared. I have a little boy. I'm taking him away from everything we know. And we just packed a U-Haul and we left and we got to San Diego. And what made you decide on San Diego?

I wish I had written down all the gyms I went to and showed up at anonymously too. Because I didn't want them to like, I wanted to kind of catch them with their pants down. Like, what do you guys like right now? Versus if you you're prepared I don't want to show up and have you have people here watching me I don't want you to put on a show like I want to catch you how you are and like have you decide what you think of me too because these needs this needs to be a fit I mean fighting and coaching and training is very intimate and and it needs to be authentic and real the days I'm sitting there ugly white girl crying on the ground, but I need you to tell me to keep staying on the aero diet. You know what I mean?

Like, just let me cry. You know, that kind of thing. So I went to all these places and the best part about it is that I got to learn and train with so many fighters and so many coaches that I'm so excited about the relationships I made and the people I know. But like all of them, it was like, this is awesome, but it's not the place. This is awesome, but it's not the place. I came up to LA if, and I was very close to going to American top team.

They had an awesome deal set up for me to go, like helping me with my kid, helping me with a good percentage for training, like how a living situation was going to be. They were going to accommodate me really well. But when it was time to like pack my car and go, like something was like, that wasn't it, you know? And so I'm like. Florida, that's the problem.

I mean, sweaty all the time, like right here. Yeah, on the boob sweat. There's no making that look hot. It's just the humans there there's a lot of cool people in florida but there's just there's some subhumans down there yeah i i really appreciated like the latin culture i mean i'm all about that part yeah it's the white people right it's florida white people it's not all but there's some fucking swamp people down there like yo no joke

no joke um so uh then i looked west you know um i know ed suarez out here he's my manager and i had a few pockets of people i knew that could maybe be a support to me and my kids so um came to la if i was here i was gonna go to black house uh i think um uh where's cal Calvin Castellum training again? Calvin Gastelum? God, I say his name wrong every time. Where is he training now? His coach, the Muay Thai coach, Kings. Oh, Kings.

Okay, I was going to Kings, Black House, and I was still trying to pick jiu-jitsu. I wanted an art of jiu-jitsu guy or just- Someone really good. Yeah, because I came from traditional traditional jujitsu and like i love mma and mixing it up but i i need that right so what belt are you in jujitsu purple for like forever for how long like six years maybe how come so long because i'm being a weirdo about who promotes me because my husband my husband promoted me to purple belt and like i really want what whoever takes over the lineage to be like that like i don't want a different one from 10 different people like i want that like i want to pick and it be right and so actually now

i'm super excited because i just started training at atos and i have so much respect for andre and his wife and yeah they're Yeah, he's awesome. They're so good. There's so many good fighters that come out of that gym too. Great jujitsu fighters. I've been training there like four weeks now. I mean, I've trained there before, but like every day four weeks now. And I've only had like one day where I walked out feeling like a rock star.

The rest of the days they were whooping my ass, but it was good, you know? Right, right. I needed that. And it tells me, you yeah yeah and um there it's just been so good and to see myself that way and to hold people that way like i was legit a jujitsu man i was like killing it on the circuit for a long time and then mma comes in and puts this pressure on like even those kinds of competitions even though they're not even the same animal and i'm i'm annoyed that I let that bother me and keep me from competing in between fights because I love that because you have a big name in in MMA you feel weird about competing in jiu-jitsu tournaments I think I did or or maybe I thought I'd pick up bad habits or I would do whatever but because

maybe other people had that experience but like for me I need to see it for myself like if I go and I do a tournament and I do great then then hell yeah, I'm going to have higher expectations of myself in a fight. If I go and I do shitty. Okay. Well, like now I get to learn like that competing is where I get to learn everything and spacing out these competitions, especially the time I've had to take off in between fights. Like, like I'm not, I don't believe necessarily in ring rust, but, like, when they say go, I don't know what go means until a little bit later than I'm expecting. And it's been the pattern in these last two fights. You mean when the fight starts, you still feel like, is this really happening?

Kind of. Well, even this last fight, this last fight with Ketlin, like, we got in and I was like, do I remember what to do here? You know, and I was like, fuck remember what to do here you know and i was like fuck it i'm just gonna throw bombs and the whole time i was just like and i'm not that's not me there you know it was just like chucking my hands at her and hoping they land and if they didn't like fuck out you know you feel like out of composure yeah until until the third round and then the third round i was awake and ready to go and i mean i felt warmed up i felt right and you know she was looking at the and ready to go and I mean I felt warmed up I felt

right and you know she was looking at the clock and backing up and all this and I was just like come here come here like I'm ready to fight finally like come here and uh you know I don't know so there's something to be fixed about that I don't think it's a secret but um I don't know I think maybe something with the warm-up I need to like fully like have like a respiratory exhaustion before I go in. So I can simulate those first rounds being the hell out of the way. Even in wrestling. A nerve thing or adrenaline thing. You know,

there's, there's a lot to it. Like, gosh, we're bouncing around all these different things. But I mean, one thing with the, with that treatment center that I went to is like,

um, doing different things, i mean one thing with the with that treatment center that i went to is like um doing different things like dealing with your psychology dealing with like the synchrony in your brain you know having your brain function and on the same hertz that the same are different areas of your brain so what do they do exactly what is this therapy so it's these magnets right like the the main people in there, I mean, it's beautiful, not beautiful, but beautiful to see sitting in the lobby waiting when you see people with Alzheimer's come in. Like there's a man that wheels his wife in every day. And you can, I think at the beginning of the week, she gets like an IV. So she's like a little bit more up and chipper. But by the end of the week, you know, she's a little bit more up and chipper but by the end of the week you know she's a little bit more slouched and and stories like his where he's talking about um you know before they started

going in there she would just go to the bathroom all over and every day this man takes care of his wife puts her makeup on her like goes and gets her hair done even though she doesn't even know you know and now she can at least tell him that she needs to go to the bathroom like just be like hey it's time you know and he can get her there and then you know sort of kind of have like meaningful moments that they haven't had in a while for there's a ton of veterans in there and active veterans too active military guys that are you know they're doing these door breaches and then they get their head rattled up too many times and they're noticing they have problems with some depression. I mean, and these are high level Navy SEALs, high level like special forces that need, they're expensive people.

There's millions of dollars poured into these people and they're not ready to let them go yet. So they're like, how can we fix them? Give them this like performance edge, but still get them healed enough. But we need to throw them back in there. We need them. And so I've had to sit in on appointments with the Department of Defense and talk about my experience with it. There's some really famous people. I don't even think I get to say because I'd be a dick and I'm probably be in trouble, but that I've sat in on and, you know, they've had their own issues with mental health or PTSD or like autism, different things like family members of theirs or whatever that I've sat in on and kind of been helpful in talking about because I went in there on two different antidepressants.

And these I was put on at the mayo clinic and i felt like this is post the nunez fight yeah this is how crazy mma math is right uh you lose to ronda in 14 seconds you ko amanda nunez amanda nunez beats a shit out of Ronda in 48 seconds. Like, that's, you might be, like, the perfect example of MMA math, you know? I mean, crazy. It's crazy. You've beaten down two UFC champions. Well, I mean, it took two and a half rounds for me to sub Pennington, too. You know?

Like, there's nothing, like, you know, but who is it it pennington goes toe-to-toe and round around with holly holly knocks out ronda too like it's just this division in pennington's fight with ashley evans smith to this day that the ending when she got her in that bulldog choke oh yeah and finished her like literally one second it was so violent it was crazy i i screamed so loud at the end of that it was just fucking chaos that was she's done she's had two fights that ended like that with like one second to go she finishes the fight yeah it's a tough girl um so anyway mma math is ridiculous doesn't work. And you might be the best example of how it doesn't work. But so you go to this, the Mayo Clinic puts you on antidepressants because you just feel like shit.

I feel like shit. And because like of the different endocrine problems that I had, right? So I can't have any of the medications that will help that. So I have to be more conservative with it. And one way they thought to do it is because my cortisol levels are really high. They're talking about, um, and I mean, granted, I have a lot of stress, especially like, you know, life hasn't been easy. These past single mom, your husband passes away. You're in the toughest, probably the toughest sport on the planet. Trying to be the best at it. Yeah. And you're elite. You're in the top 10. So

you're, you're in this weird position where you never know when you're going to fire to who you're going to fire. There's a constant amount. And it's not like you're making millions of dollars doing it either. No. Well, and it's expediting healing for me. And I also have a kid going through what I'm going through. So it's not like I get to like split and cut corners and just, you know, it's like there's

maintenance to be done at all times with that. So I go there, they tell me, you know, we could probably lower your cortisol levels if we could lower your stress levels. So we'll try antidepressants. And what did that make you feel like? Flat as fuck. And like I didn't, can I say fuck on this? Where did you do? Okay.

I know. I just didn't know if I have a quota. No, no, no. Before I'm like a bad person. Do I get added to a certain level no there's zero restrictions you can say whatever you want on this show talk like there's no one listening

got it so yeah they put me on flat which like all that training camp getting ready for Juliana I'm just like okay it'll take off in the fight like i'll feel good in the fight like when they say adrenaline no no ups no downs no

no pissed off like want to kill you no nothing you know and so not scared but not happy no and i was like why am i not nervous the way that i get nervous? Like, like, like I was okay, which usually like, especially two weeks out, I have this like flush of emotions, you know, where I'm like fetal position in the corner, like what the fuck? And then once it's over,

all I want to do is kill, you know, but like, and I didn't have that either. It kind of made me nervous. Cause my, my other friend, Barb Honchek,

she, she's a new 25 or, um, we would always like call each other and laugh at how dumb we're being at that point like but that was all gone with the yeah what shit did they put you on oh is this one oh my gosh so love Paxil keep going prozac what do they have uh do you know any jamie effectser effectser i don't know is that one effectser and jamie's playing stupid over there he's like oh no crazy pills he's on everything twice a day just kidding just tick tacks he just tries them out um so so they put you on this stuff and did they try different ones

um no because not a lot of time there isn't you know and and they're looking i'm like i need the side the side effects matter like these can't be ones that make me gain a bunch of weight right they can't make me like like they i need to still be able to sleep like i have to be able to have like enough highs and lows to be able to function and learn and and whatever and so this is like the best they they could have for me so anyway I I fight that fight with Juliana you know I I feel like the first round I came out how I wanted you know and then halfway through the second round like it was just awful like she had had my old coaches in her corner. You know what's weird about that fight is I could hear you,

and I could, like, this is where the flat came in, is, like, I didn't feel like I was in the fight. Like, I could see Herb Dean's feet, and I could hear you talking about us. And I saw, like, I could hear Juliana's coaches, and it was breaking my heart that they were coaching against me because they were my Colorado gym, and she went and trained with them. And I know she had trained with them previously, I mean, before she had taken the fight,

but to me it was, like, fucked up to hear. And it hurt me in a way, like, I wish I could explain it better, but it was, like, I heard heard them and I just wanted to go home you know I look at the clock and I'm like can this just be over I don't want to go back to Colorado I want to move like and I literally on this side of the cage I had my past in Colorado I had these coaches I had the drama with that with that gym like how everything went and and then on this side it was like all new problems like san diego eric and then we're good like there was a lot of training partners there was sunny it was similar to

colorado different but in the right ways you know and it was like i just wanted to fight you were in san diego training for that fight or no yeah i just flew out for it for for the training camp and while you flew out there you were still taking the antidepressants. And did that fight convince you to stop taking them? Yeah. So after that fight, I went to, what did I do? I think I went to the, I was at the PI. I was working with Novinsky and people on like what to do about that. I even talked to Gordon, Dr. Gordon.

Mark Gordon. Yeah, to help me with all of that too. Cause he thought there was a more conservative way to help me with those issues as well. And so I, um, you know, I was talking with him, I had him talk to them. Uh, they were all trying to figure out a way, but still there's like, there's no ways to even just naturally bring you up. Um, did you think about retiring? Yeah. And that, that's the thing is the center was really the place that was, is like, okay, I'm going to go go here I've tried everything else I'm gonna go here and if they can't fix me then then I'm I'm gonna have to be

done how crazy is that how fucking hard does Amanda Nunes hit it's nuts she does it like she I don't want to say she hits like a dude because that's kind of weird you know it's like a dude but um yeah it's, I remember being surprised. I remember having this open guard on the ground and kind of like, come here. I dare you. And then she hit, and I was like, oh. Oh. Oh, you have those.

The fuck? Yeah, you could see the look on people's face when she hits him. You saw it with Ronda right away. There's a part in that fight, because I watched our fight after, and she hit me, and I think it's right when it had to be when I hurt my head because it dropped my arm and it dropped my neck, and I just remember seeing the little Tweety birds, and I was pumped because I was like, that's where the cartoons get it from.

It's because somebody explained that shit that's exactly where they got it it's like woo and uh and my arm like I couldn't get my arm back up and I remember listening to you and you're like Cubs is not intelligently defending herself I'm like listen Joe that fucker won't work

you know and then she screwed up because she grabbed my knee and my knee was the one that was like the catalyst to all my problems over the last couple years and it was just like don't fucking touch that and after that i was just like i just got angry when she grabbed your knee yes it was the wrong knee but i knew what she was trying to do right right yeah and then on top of that it was like it's just I don't know the rest of it was just like punishing her she was kind of like sassy before the fight anyways like in awkward ways like not even like cool hypey ways like just staring at me really weird in a room where it was just

like me and Tim Kennedy sitting there eating like watermelon and stuff after weigh-ins and I look over and she's just like like staring at me all weird i was like damn tim's like dude i'm like i know what do we do i'm like i can throw a plate of watermelon at her i can throw a table i don't know i don't know which one we're doing here right wow but uh when you stopped her we've played the recording of you screaming like maybe 10 times on this podcast. Because to this day, that is one of the rawest moments I've ever seen inside the Octagon.

Like when you jump, like when they stopped that fight and you screamed, it was fucking bone chilling. It's so, I mean, I'm sure you've heard it, but here it is right here play it jamie dude that's like from your genes that's like that's some cellular level shit that's intense it's relief it's like i didn't, like we lived, you know. Like we lived.

They didn't. Like we get to eat. They don't. You know, it's relief. It's, ugh. It's primal. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you were, like you said, you lived.

Because that was, I mean, look, it's just a fight. There is a referee. You're going to be saved. But one of the things that George St. Pierre said last week when he was on the podcast, he said the mentality that you go in there, the way you fight, you are a warrior. Like you know that you're going to be rescued, but you are fighting for your life. And when you're fighting a fucking killer like Amanda and you get lit up like you did and survive that first round, then go back and stop her. That's where that comes from.

I mean, that was just fucking intense. Well, it's the it's the practicality to me. Right. Like, yes, exactly. We have a referee. We have cage walls. We have whatever, you know, fans. It's entertaining people.

But like, I need to know. I need to know that like that be in nature you know that be doing whatever that be self-defense that be fuck us fighting over a territory or food or whatever like i need to know what would happen like if we had like that's why i want these finishes we only get 15 minutes to be able to tell ourselves what would have happened in that situation you know and and when it goes to a decision, I'm pissed. Cause I don't know,

you know, like you don't know, especially these three round fights where I'm waking up, like these last couple of fights, like late in the fight, I'm, I'm pissed. Cause I'm like,

I don't know if that would have been another 30 minutes or another two hours that we're scrapping in the woods. Like who gets the bone? You know, I want to know. And, and so that's, that's, it's crazy. And it's your practicality and it's your survival. bone? You know, I want to know. And so that's, it's crazy.

And it's your practicality and it's your survival. And this is the way I get to know myself. Dude, that's deep. Who gets the bone? Whoo. Damn. The way you just put it. I don't think I've ever heard anybody put it that way.

You need to know. Yeah. That's intense. But I get it. I get it. That's where that scream comes from. You got the bone. It's my bone.

So, you go down to San Diego. What was your short list? By the way, I'm a huge fan of Eric. Alliance is just one of the best camps, for sure. And I think Eric Del Fierro is probably one of the most underrated. And because he doesn't toot his own horn. He's in the shadows, laid back, doesn't want any attention, just not trying to get any attention.

He's the last guy to request attention. But super, super knowledgeable and one of the best guys in a corner too like his advice is always excellent like i've never never heard him say the wrong thing in a corner he's always like on point but what was your short list of places to go to besides alliance um i went to did you go to new mexico uh yes but i feel like i'm not trying to walk in on holly and like make shit weird. We're going to fight each other at some point, I know. And that just, I don't want to be that guy. Although I know I'm welcome and I know that everyone there has always been nice.

I've gone and trained there before and it's been good. But it's just not a cool move. I went down to Arizona with Crzona um with crouch loved it there another great guy yeah great i feel the same way about him same yeah very very very humble very good yeah um super knowledgeable too um up in la la was cool too but it was a lot of that driving around in the traffic and congestion and i couldn couldn't sacrifice the, like, the, yeah, it is. So many people here. Yeah, and coming from Colorado and coming from, like, chill outdoorsy,

you can drive 20 minutes and be somewhere no one's ever stood before to, like, stuck in traffic, breathing air you don't want to breathe. Like, everyone's a little pissed off, but no one really knows why. Yeah, so many people. Jamie's right. Jamie's been saying this forever yeah we're gonna leave we're gonna leave together we're gonna look we're thinking of baling yeah yeah where would you go maybe colorado it's so dope it's pretty dope good there food culture could be better there i wish we could combine that food culture of food culture what are of food culture? What are you into? I mean, I'm into health food.

I'm into like ethnic food. I like every, I like trying new stuff all the time. I'm not very like food chain-y, you know? I'm into fire and meat. Yeah. That's what I like. Are you, are you, I know. It's so good.

It's so good. Meat over fire. Yeah. So I've decided. And vegetables. I've tried all kinds of different shit. I always go for the steak. Vegetables are great. Meat over fire. Yeah. So I've decided. I've tried all kinds of different shit. I always go for the steak. Vegetables are great.

I love vegetables. Yeah. But you can get them anywhere. You can get them in Colorado. Not really. I mean, it's not exactly the produce capital of the world up there. No, but you can get them. Yeah.

Yeah. It's not the best. Yeah. Just get a greenhouse. Grow some tomatoes. On my spare time. Yeah. So did you try Montreal?

Did you think about Five Star? Five Star, rather? I did not. Well, I thought about it, but I don't know. I didn't get up to Canada. Canada. I went to Thailand. I went to Mexico.

I went to... Do you think about going to Thailand? Yeah. Oh, I love... Yeah. I mean... Really? When I'm there, there especially it's like

such it's it's a buddhist culture people are so happy i mean that you have your shit there just like you have everywhere else but at the same time like like the muay thai training is good i know the places i would go to jujitsu like the fair texan uh patea is is is coming around and pretty solid like i haven't considered that for this camp just to kind of like make some changes because I really want to have that influence and that like exposure to the authentic Muay Thai again like when I looked back at my most successful and most happy times after these three fights I've lost three in a row like that doesn't happen I'm not saying you know I'm like no i'm better than this like something's up and i know there's a lot that i

need to work on i mean like in my in my life in general and i'm doing it and i'm happy to be doing it and i'm happy to be getting the lessons even if this is how i have to get them like fuck it at least i know right so um i tried to look back and analyze like what was i doing when i was my favorite fighter when i was feeling the best. And it was like very traditional, thick Muay Thai and very traditional, thick jujitsu. So that this camp has been something that I'm going to also be outsourcing

because I want to be in like that element. So I'm doing my, I'm doing actual Muay Thai with John X. He's a Jeremy Stevens Muay thai coach i think too and then my um jujitsu with atos and then because before it was like i would do these separate disciplines put them together and drills and sparring and then go mangle people and then like have fun with it because it's like these little goals i'd set like this little bucket list i would take into a fight with me and try to pull those things off and then, and then go learn new stuff and then go try to do that.

That's why I was constantly evolving every fight. Even the fight with Amanda, when I like snapped her down and I had her by her head and everyone's screaming, knees, knees. I'm like, hold my beer.

And that's when I go and I throw her with the, you know, the, what'd they call it? A DDT. I, it wasn't, it was a freestyle,

like front headlock suplex, but it was like, like I want, I want every fight to be different and fun. Know what I have, but see what else I got. And that, I don't even get to play that right now because I'm fucking up. And I'm not doing what I want in these fights. So I decided to take steps backwards. How do you feel in training? In training?

I don't know it's something's something's been missing and i'm partially wondering if it's that you know so like every fight i'm looking to to make improvements and change like i'm not gonna ever sit here and say i know everything and that it's just i have no excuses ketlyn found a way to beat me you know what i mean juliana found a way to beat me i You know what I mean? Juliana found a way to beat me. I kind of beat myself in that one too because I let my head get into me, you know, and that sucked. And again,

another thing for me to have put time in and I'm happy I did, but I mean, that got me to move to San Diego. So I mean, I'm happy for that message. It cost me a lot of money to get that message, but I'll take it,

you know? And Ketlin, yeah, she found a way to beat me and to have been beaten by jujitsu when i feel very accomplished in jujitsu that like stung differently you know it stung way differently than just someone else getting their hand raised do you feel when you're in training that you're the same as you were before when you were at your best

um when i was at my best no but it's something that I'm working on. I know I have the hangups that I have. I know there's a ton of mental stuff. One, just how life happened and constantly having it. I had this expedited adaptation to training. I had to get new coaches. I had to find new gyms. I had to do all of this while in grief and being under. This isn't the most forgiving crowd you know like

when when you're having a shit day definitely not the worst it's crazy it's crazy because it's such a like you're so exposed and you're so vulnerable as a fighter and the fans might be the meanest well and yes they're so mean and but i I feel like I have the best fans too. Like I have the ones. The ones that really love you. They're so ride or die. And like I'm so proud of them. But like I didn't even start doing my own social media.

My husband did my social media. And so all of a sudden I get thrown into social media and how social media works when I'm at my most like low vulnerable. And you're reading all that shit? I didn't know you're not supposed to i'm looking at it like investments right like i'm like oh here's the stock i'm gonna put money into this stock and let's just see how it turned out and then i was like oh and i think the first person that ever told me not to do that was callan like later he's like never read the comment what are you doing yeah brian callan doesn't read shit he's like don't read the comments but i'm like well how will i know how i, he's like, never read the comments. Brian Callan? What are you doing? Yeah, Brian Callan doesn't read shit. He's like, don't read the comments. But I'm like, well, how will I know how I did?

He's like, just fucking know and hear. Yeah, you'll know from your peers. You'll know from your coaches and you'll know. You'll know. Well, I mean, it sucks when you know like six hours later you wrote some shit that people are taking wrong. Or I mean, it's like an opportunist situation. They like wait for you to fuck up. And they're like, oh, right there, right there.

I'm like, you know, I didn't mean to say that to say that or you know that's not how i meant it or whatever but it's hard because everybody's text looks the same yeah the text that you would get from howie home or someone you respect versus the text that you get from some fat slob sitting there eating cheetos farting into their hands the same person person. Like, it looks the same on text. But it's just, you're going to get, like, some people that just want to hurt your feelings because they suck and their life is terrible. Like, I've never met a hater that's doing great.

Like, there's no haters that are like, man, my fucking life is awesome, but you know what I like doing? I like going on YouTube and I just go make comments that are just try to hurt someone's feelings i just try to cut them to the bone say fucked up shit about dead relatives and what they did wrong those people are all just losers just fucking losers you know i mean there's just no way around it that's all they are it was so foreign to me because i mean in wrestling like wrestling, like, I did wrestling. I did soccer, volleyball, swimming. Like, I never, ever heard anyone be discouraging. Like, no one ever came to me and was like, fuck you, you suck.

Yeah, because you wouldn't get that from someone who was a fan or someone. Even if someone's from an opposing team and, like, she ain't shit. They're just saying that because they want to beat you. You know, it's like. But the haters that you're dealing with online, there's a lot. Look, life is fucking complicated. It's hard to get right. And as you're seeing with your very difficult career, there's a lot of decisions to be made. You can fuck it up. You got to build back up again try and you're a smart person who's strong and successful for losers life is impossible it's impossible and so they go through

life just angry and depressed and sad and failing at everything they do but they still have a phone or they still have a laptop and like you fucking cunt you fucking loser and that's what you're getting that's what you're getting. That's what you're getting. You're getting all that anger. You don't even know this person. Why are they angry at you? Because they're angry at life.

Because life has fucked them in the ass. That's why they're angry. They're angry at life because they got dealt a shit existence. Right? They have bad genetics. They have a bad family. They have a bad job. They live in a bad neighborhood. They have bad people around them. in a bad neighborhood they have bad people

around them they feel bad everything's wrong and but they still get to talk they still get to talk shit and they still get to type things type mean things out that's that's why you can't read comments because it's fucking the only thing you could do is inspire with your work with what you do and you do that already you. And you're a human being. You're going to make mistakes and you're going to do things right and you're going to do things wrong and you're going to have these epic moments

and you're going to have these failures because that's just a part of doing things that are complicated. But you can't read the cards. You definitely can't take them to heart. Noted. Yes. Noted.

It got me good a couple of times. Like, it'll fuck up your day. Yeah, it can fuck up your day. Yeah, it can fuck up your day. Oh, yeah. Yeah, can't let that happen. It's sad because those people that are doing that, they're in pain. The only reason why they would lash out at you like that. They go, no, I'm just telling the truth.

You just can't handle the truth. Even if it was the truth, the way in which people say it and the reason why they're saying it is because they want to hurt your feelings. They're not being kind. You know, there's a lot of that going on today. I mean, even in the media, the way people tell stories and write stories and write articles about people, it's like they're not – it's not just that they're trying to tell the facts and explain what's happening. They're trying to cut people down and hurt people. And I wonder how much of it has to do with the fact that our fucking president does that. Because it seems more prevalent now than ever before.

It seems like there's like a trend. And I think a lot of like, one of the things about the president, whoever the president is, is there's some people that are not going to listen to anything he says. But there's a certain amount of people that are going to take his actions and use it as almost like a barometer. An example, yeah. Yeah, an example of how they should behave and how

this country behaves. It's like he's the top dog. And when the top dog is insulting people all the time and saying shitty things. And still can be successful. Yeah. It lets people know, you want to get ahead? You you want to get ahead you got to do like him and then they they go out and act like assholes too yeah it's a bummer so anyway you go down to san diego and what what are they doing for you that gets you off of the antidepressants and gets you feeling better

so uh it's again like you get in there and i mean it's scary to go again, like you get in there, and I mean, it's scary to go. Again, like I said, there's all these different people in there. The man found the research on it by treating his own autistic kid, and you can see the before and after videos of this kid, and it's like, damn. Okay, and then I brought my son in too because he has ADHD, and he's off his medication now as well. So I'm going in there. They do an EEG first and like they can tell which parts of your brain are firing at what

hurts and seeing the congruencies and like how all of that is happening or not happening. And then they kind of prescribe these different, these machines machines on your brain that make these electric impulses, but they're magnetic to kind of speed up or slow down the different parts of your brain. So if the front of your brain is moving slower than the back of your brain or whatever. So they're noticing, obviously, patterns with fighters, hockey players, football players, like people that are leading with their heads, basically. And then with the veterans, there's emotional things, too. Outbursts. Yeah, and then having to compartmentalize as well.

Some of the shit they see should be upsetting. But there's different ways that we can train our brain to, to drop things like that. And then PTSD is when it's involuntary and it all comes in and, and that, so, you know, I, I've been diagnosed with PTSD. I had walked in there with medication because of being depressed, uh, and the anxiety and, and all of that, like my symptoms were terrible. And I know they're a combination of things, but even like my startle reflex, like, you know, I could hear someone come walking around the corner, like clap, clap, clap, hear their shoes. But the second I'd

see them, it would, it would stop my heart for a second. And that's like shit on your adrenal glands, you know? And, and, um, all this stuff was, you know, and anxiety that, stuff was you know an anxiety that um i don't know it was hard to fall asleep at night uh you know my memory was crap and and this is all you know different stuff happening in all these other fighters that i know as well but i mean like i said i've been trying things so much so much over the past few years that i get excited about and either it works or it doesn't and um the the point is is is now i found this and i feel better from this but i i was so excited about all these other things like i can't just start telling everybody of the new thing that i found because i've said that and been excited about like everything else but this one

this one one of the things you've been excited about um like the equal scope it's like it's a um same thing it's kind of like a tens machine or stem machine but like a super super low frequency and that's badass too like it it helped on injuries like you know if i rolled my ankle or hurt my toe like you could bring the swelling down from this to to normal essentially in like an hour and a half just working with this like tens unit on it and i mean they they originally used it for racehorses and and for you know super expensive million dollar horses like the equipment they brought over was like 90 grand and like like these really specific like special metals that were put into these plates and, you know,

they would do stuff like that, but that wasn't working on my head. It was working on injuries and it was working on, um, I want to say it helped with like my, like digestive system maybe, or my, um, uh, I don't remember some, some other things it was helping with too, but what, you know, I, I started doing started doing that um or i was doing that when i walked into mindset and started doing that treatment and so what do they do at mindset so you sit in a chair you know and they they put this prescription in this machine and the machine has kind of got like a like an arm that goes on a specific part of your brain and you you know you close your eyes and it sends these these magnetic

pulses into your head and i mean you don't feel anything it's almost like you can hear what it feels like but i don't know how to describe it it's it's a sense it's there's a it's sensual but it's not it's not exactly hearing and it's not exactly feeling um but you can tell something's happening yeah and i mean you you leave the place after your treatment. Like I go, I would go twice a day. It's 45 minutes away, both ways.

So I am driving a lot every day to go to do this. Cause I want to give it a fair shot. You do it every day. I do every day. I haven't gone these past couple of weeks cause stuff with my kids, schedule schools almost out. And then wanting to try out different things, different coaches as far as these new disciplines go. So I haven't been there as much.

But, yeah, for the last, it was August, I believe, is when I was like really, really getting into it and going twice a day. 45 minutes each way, twice a day. Twice a day? Yeah. So you would spend 45 minutes one way one way go back and then go back again and then go back why don't you just fucking move closer to where the place is because the alliance was down there and so i would i would drop my kid off at school i would run and then i would go there i would do my treatment i'd go back to practice down in Southern San Diego. Then I'd get my son and then we'd go up there for the afternoon session. And then I'd come back down and we'd go to his sports and then I'd have my second two a day.

Jesus. That does not leave a lot of free time for Kat Zingano. Oh, hell no. Oh, hell no. Just that alone could be stressful and all that fucking driving. But I was seeing the results. That was the crazy thing is I was feeling better. What did the results feel like? When I just walked in, like, God, like I couldn't sleep. I had just anxiety. Like I had that startle effect going. Like my memory was shit shit and these are all things that i went to the ufcpi to talk to them about because i'm like i don't know what to do like i i want to fight they offered me to fight chris cyborg at 145 that's more the same yeah i was like well like

hell yeah let's take that but like can you guys at least help me get this shit figured out first please you know and they're like sure um so duncan french he's at the the he's at he so he went to college and was at or no he was at notre dame using this treatment with the doctor um kevin murphy that runs the mindset so uh he was like this guy is doing a lot of things with people as far as brain health. He's like, go see them when you get back to San Diego. It's kind of far from you, but give it a shot, Kat. And I called the guy. I'm on the phone, super frustrated, super emotional. I'm at my wit's end. I've tried everything I can think of, like holistic views, chemical views, everything.

I mean, spending money out of my pocket trying to figure this out because none of this is covered by the UFC especially because you know not something I claimed in a fight I mean I fought Amanda and if you don't claim that stuff within the 30 days like you're on your own and of course my head hurt of course I'm dizzy of course the lights are bright of course I can't think right I got in a fist fight you know and I wasn't doing good in it for a while so I I figured you know but then a month and a half two months and i i wasn't doing good in it for a while so i i figured you know but then a month and a half two months out when i wasn't better it's like so even though it clearly came from that fight you still don't get covered what no well and it's endocrine stuff too you know

and it's like there's very there's like how could they dispute that that's where it came from though you go hey sit down i want you to watch something and just play that first round go what the fuck do you think happened yeah i don't know but i mean if you play that video for them if anybody in the insurance business was denying you coverage saying that didn't happen while you were under the banner of the ufc like you're out of your fucking mind. Watch that video. What do you think is happening? Well, this fucking assassin is throwing bombs at your face.

I mean, that's, that is crazy that that's not covered. Yeah. That makes me sick. Oh, it's frustrating. Cause by,

by like literally you, you look at the papers, like it costs me more to fight than, than it, than I make. Listen, it might make sense if it was dealing with a broken hand or a torn ligament or something like that it might make sense it might it does not make any fucking sense if you're talking about brain injuries because

anybody who understands how brain injuries work know that there's there's a considerable amount of time after a fight where you still are suffering from symptoms and you might decide 30 days later, 60 days later, 90 days later, you got to do something about it. Right. Well, I mean, now I know now I come out of a fight and I'm like, my pinky hurts, my elbow hurts, my hair hurts, my eyebrow hurts. Like we're going to claim all of this, you know, because before I was just being tough, you know? Yeah. But that's what fighters do. This is why it's so crazy. And I didn't like, I didn't get it and i didn't know and then but they should know if they're in the if they're in the business of insuring fighters they should have a larger window where people can claim head injuries right you're talking about that's i mean that that it kind of goes together with like any kind of

any kind of mental anything like any you talk about mental illness you talk about head injuries you talk about tbi it all goes into that stigma of like you can't see it so it must not be real right you know what i mean or or whatever so it's like but that's the head injury business i mean basically yeah the point is to make them drop and be done that's what everybody i mean it's not it's not the worst thing in the world to win with a body kick or an arm bar but the reality is what people like is to see head injuries. We're in the head injury business. You know?

Yeah. Yeah. So how long after you starting with this treatment do you start to see results? So the first, I would say, the first thing I noticed was my motor skills in practice. So, you know, I would go. So you think your motor skills were impaired? No. Well, I just feel like I had a block.

Like I said, like it was comical. And, I mean, you can even ask them at Alliance. And it was funny. It was funny. But not to have like we're in class. You know, we're learning. I'm watching the coaches. Like they do a drill

and they explain it and they look up all right everybody ready ready one two three go and we clap and i have no fucking idea what we're doing you know like we walk off and i'm like like there was even a couple of times where like they clap and they're like cat what are we doing and i'm like um three kick and they're like no 20 push-ups and i'm like man i'm not even like i'm not just a bad kid like talking and like not listening like i'm in trouble because i'm right i don't hear you like i don't right i i can like not lose eye contact the whole time like sit here and i'm like focused but it's not going in but no i'm not retaining it unless though like if it has to be the last thing that they do like we can't talk about shit if if it's the last thing i see i can

go do it or i could go do it but if they're like all right and then they explain some philosophy about it or do some movement or whatever like then i lose what we're doing like my my mind would just go right to something else like i had a very hard time concentrating and you know it's it's crazy because when I got to this facility you know I didn't know I didn't necessarily know what I was walking into but they have you do this questionnaire and like on this questionnaire is like all of these things I'm like that's part of something like me not being able to focus that's part of something my sleep that's part of something this startle effect is part of something like me having these like completely like specific things that are all on this was like damn okay like i didn't even want to see the eeg because i was i was scared you know i was like

what if you can't fix me and now i know all the shit that's wrong with me like that's that sucks but then you know they show you different eegs and they show you the they take it every single week and so you actually get to see it and you get to see the level that you were functioning at, especially the different parts of your brain. But then, and the thing is, that's awesome about this is you get to keep the results. Like, unless you go do exactly what you did and go fuck it up again, like you get to keep it. It's not like this maintenance package, which is a problem for these pharmaceutical companies. There's not a whole lot of retention on it because once people get their brains functioning, as long as you're not sitting there hitting your head against the wall, you get to keep feeling better.

These veterans get to go back to combat or whatever it is their job is. We fighters get to go back. Football players get to go back. whatever it is their job is like we fighters get to go back. Football players get to go back. Like I sat in with the chargers, uh, medical staff and talked about our stuff there as well. I, I don't even remember who else there was people from all over the country

coming in asking about this, you know, and, and needing to sit in and, and they're looking at these EEGs in particular. So what is it doing? Like how is it fixing you? So one, um, I think it, you know, there's something with what goes on in your brain with,

with the thyroid stuff, with the endocrine stuff is like getting your damage to your hypothalamus. Right. And that's like, that, that kind of directs all of the information that goes to your thyroid, your thyroid, you know, then sends out everything to your body. And there, when there's like a disconnect there, you know, it just screws everything up. And then on top of it, like now that we're cutting the same weight we've always had to cut, but we don't get IVs, I mean, you cannot 100% rehydrate your brain within 45 or 48 hours. Like you can get your body decently hydrated, I believe, but your brain is just, it's its own thing, you know? And so now we don't have IVs, our hydraulic system in our brain is down and now we're rattling it even more like dehydrated. I

mean, we're just going to have, you know, bigger side effects to our brains being dehydrated with that now um the damage that comes to the hypothalamus to the pituitary to the um your thyroid all of that that goes on there like that there they're saying that you can you can get it firing back at a level that it was before it got hurt like as long as the cells are still alive in it they can re-energize those cells now if you have like just a dead part of your brain, you know, they're not bringing it back to life. But they can use these magnets to kind of fluff them back up, give them back their energy, their life, and put them back into a functional way that was something similar to you at your healthiest. And make it, I mean, not more or less durable, just back. Right.

Now, when you were saying motor skills, like what was wrong? Because that's one of the things that they see in fighters that have taken too many shots. They start having, they analyze fighters' gaits. And one of the things that happens is your legs get closer together. Your balance is off your your steps are shorter you don't have that sort of like dynamic fluid motion to your body and you're having a hard a harder time with balance and just motor skills yeah totally so how i felt before going into there was all i had was a gas pedal i was like just will you know and just fuck them you know just because i i wasn't

reading patterns of people anymore like if someone leans this way a little bit i'm like oh okay i know what you're thinking like if they step this way or that way and and even me juking them and like trying to like faint at them like i i wasn't i couldn't even see the reaction i was making them make like i knew what motions in my muscular memory to make them do but it like I wasn't, I couldn't even see the reaction I was making them make. Like I knew what motions in my muscular memory to make them do, but it like, I wasn't getting the feedback because it just like wasn't. So that was one of the first things I noticed was, you know, going back into practice and, and watching people's angles and beating them to it. And, and, and like remembering, I'm like, damn, I don't just have to shoot to shoot. Like I can wait and do it when it's the right time. Or I can even like, like take advantage of, of the fact that, you know,

I'm making them step back or I can flash fire in their face and, and jump on them at their knee jerk reaction. You know, like these things of like being able to manipulate the situation and make them adjust to me. Like I could see that again. And I could see. So what were you seeing before? I just had go. All I had was go. When you didn't see movement, like say if someone was going to spin and they're like loaded up their hips, you didn't see that?

No, it was just hit them first. What were you seeing? I didn't. All I saw was get there first. All I saw was like close the distance. Don't get hit in the head. Like make, like get down, get low and just be a linebacker you know and and hit them because i i knew i wasn't seeing that stuff and the more i tried to see it the more i would just sit there and wear it because

i'm like any minute now any minute now i'm gonna i'm gonna catch the pattern i'm gonna catch the pattern but it wasn't there and it wasn't popping up. So then all I had was just tack. So even if you were just like super light sparring, just moving around, you didn't see it? No. No, not really, no. Wow. Yeah. That's fucking terrifying.

I was like, yeah, it was really scary. And I'd even get to a good position in jujitsu and I'd be like, I know I know stuff here. I know I know stuff here. But you didn't know what to do. What was it? What was it? What was it like i know i know stuff here i know i know stuff here but you didn't know what to do what was it what was it what was it i know i know stuff you know but like it wasn't like especially with adrenaline firing like it wasn't just happening for me and so like three four weeks into that all of a sudden like that fog was starting to go down a bit right and like part

of it was and then and then i'm also sleeping better were you skeptical before like during like the first week oh yeah because every every fucking person i went to could fix me right and you're driving 45 minutes like what the fuck am i doing yeah yeah in a in a in a car i leased so all those miles you know it's like damn and um it's a it's super frustrating yes everyone can fix me everyone can fix me and then they don't and then my heart's broken again and then i go to the next one and then my heart's broken again and then and then the next one so this one i'm like i'm like i'm not even going to tell people about this because i'm sick of fucking hitting up people and being excited about it and telling them to come with me and then it doesn't work and then

i'm that guy again right you know and so going into this and then watching it work and then seeing all the other people it was working for in there that and they were never trying to push me to promote it they were like just come in just get here you know and and if you like it then tell the because the ufc was talking about getting one of the machines at the pi and they're kind of gonna have me be like uh a guinea pig for it. Ian McCall went in there too, but it didn't like he, he was doing his own kind of other stuff that was making it so it wasn't working for him. But like I was all in, you know,

He was doing something that was making it so it wasn't working for him? I don't think he was coming in often. So I think, and the thing is, is that it does stir shit up, right? So like they, they, they mess with your, your the levels because, again, they have to like if the back of your brain is running at four hertz and and OK, eight is technically where like you're sleeping, you're at rest. Like you're there's part of your brains that could be under your resting hertz. Right. Well, the front of your brain is running at 12. So that's like high anxiety but like low energy and and they can they can almost tell you how you've been feeling lately which was like wow nuts to me right and you could they can tell you know because of this and this that you have some ocd tendencies versus this person constantly feels like they have no energy and their memory isn't working and they're emotionally

incapable of like being in, you know, being a positive force in a relationship right now because they don't have it. So they could read your brain like that? Damn, I need to get my fucking brain checked out. You should. You should. It's scary though because like when you see that like little like in there, you're like, what's that?

But it's for me, it's that's a two hour drive. Shit. Yeah. I know that they're, I don't know if they have anything up here. I know that they have a bunch all over. Here it is. This is what it's called. The website's not coming up.

Personalized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, a non-invasive therapeutic approach to the treatment of PTSD and other neurocognitive disorders. Kevin T. Murphy, MD, Vice Chair, Department of Radiation and Medicine, Applied Sciences, UC San Diego, director, pediatric radiation oncology program, uh, Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego. Wow. So that's where you're going. And, um, I mean, obviously during this whole thing, you have to be questioning what you do for a living. Oh yeah. Well, and it's like, okay,

so they can fix this say they fix it and then i go do it again you know fight cyborg right i mean you were you were thinking about fixing it and you you were going from one girl who hits like a dude to another girl who might hit like a bigger dude yeah i mean cyborgs fucking terrifying and it's like i know healthy at my healthiest like no no problem i believe that like i believe in myself like that like i can figure them out especially and find a way to not get hit doing it like i didn't get hit in my mma career significant a hit not one significant significant hit until amanda and then after that i was getting fucking lit up right and and not even

that even juliana like she kind of open hand bitch slapped me a little bit from the sides. But I and but like I can find a way to to like still control it enough to be like like very effective without taking too much damage. But like that that slow of my my motor skills, my mechanics, it was it was really bothering me. And that's not how you go fight someone like Cyborg. You don't go in there with that weight in your pocket. It's so important that you're talking about this because this is such a factor that we don't see on the outside, other people.

Other people than the people that are really close to you that you talk to about these things. Like if we were seeing you fight and when we see the decline of certain fighters, you know, you see certain fighters, they, they're in a couple of really hard fights and then you see a decline, like a real obvious decline in their skills and their abilities. Very, very rarely are they opening up about what's going on, about losing memory, about not being able to see patterns in people, about not, not having their motor skills

in tune anymore, that things are off. So you talking about this, I think it's so important. And it's so important for young fighters to recognize like, hey, this is also on the table. Here's a great therapy for it. But this is also a possibility of if you do fight a fucking killer like amanda nunez this is one of the things that can happen to you well and it's partially because i have man i have teammates yeah i have people that are 10 times worse than me that are just like i mean the stuff i hear the stuff i see it's it's sad and it's scary and they have kids and they're not going anywhere soon you

know i mean and they're passing their mris right you know what i mean like they're passing their mris because what does the mri really see i don't know i i don't know but if they went to this place and got all their brain mapped out and find out how everything is firing it might be a completely different result like we might be retiring people way earlier, at least forcing them into therapy way earlier. It's possible. And that's the thing is it's like the risk needs to be worth the reward. And, you know, like right now in the sport, it's juvenile, and it's not getting us like this kind of like I can't afford to take another

two years off because I went and I fought cyborg while I'm sick and something bad happens to me. You know what I mean? Like I want to be sharp. And if, and if that means I have to take time, take the time I took off off and get healthy and do all of these different therapies,

the conservative, traditional, non-traditional, like all of that. And so I can feel the way I feel now and like i'm pumped and i'm excited but like that is something that i i really want to know that people know they can go do and it's not vulnerable it's not saying you're weak it's not something wrong with you like like it's your health and your longevity and your future because that shit if you don't treat it it doesn't get

better and like you don't understand the depression you don't understand like and there's an identity that goes away with like seeming like you failed or you can't do it anymore or whatever like that that mental health aspect that comes with the physical health of your brain like that all that all needs to that all all needs to be more educated as far as, as these fighters go, as far as all of it goes. Like, I'm happy to be the guinea pig because I'm, damn, I just want to see everybody okay, you know? Well, I'm happy that you're talking about it, but it's, um, it's been something that, you know, I've talked about quite a bit and, um, that the, the real problems behind traumatic brain injuries, because I've had a bunch of experts and I've talked to a bunch of neurologists and I've talked to neuroscientists and people that are really studying this stuff.

And I've been real vocal about it. And it's a tricky situation because obviously I'm a commentator. But like when someone gets knocked out, I'm very vocal about them taking a long time off. Like when someone gets knocked out, I'm very vocal about them taking a long time off. And it was one of the things that happened after Ronda got knocked out by Holly. They were talking about getting her back within like, it was like four or five months later to fight again. And I was like, they were going to have a rematch with Holly. I'm like, you guys are fucking crazy.

Like you're crazy. She shouldn't be doing anything. She shouldn't be getting hit. She shouldn't be sparring. She shouldn't be getting hit. She shouldn't be sparring. She shouldn't be getting her head rattled. And she definitely shouldn't be fighting Holly fucking Holm, who just kicked her into another dimension five months later or whatever it was, six months later. I'm like, there's no way. This should not be happening. Like, you don't even know what's going on yet.

You don't even know what kind of damage. I mean, think of what happened with you and Amanda. You stayed conscious, at least. I mean, think of what happened with you and Amanda. You stayed conscious, at least. I mean, Rhonda got fucking flatlined and then got hammer-fisted in the head

while she was flatlined. It was one of the most brutal knockouts in women's MMA ever. And, you know, and you saw when she came back

and fought Amanda and got hit, like, right away. That hesitation. Oh, she was just stiffened up and got hit, like right away. That hesitation. Oh, she was just stiffened up and the fear. And then also, Amanda, I felt even before the Holly Holm fight, I felt like Amanda was the more dangerous fight for her because of her hands. Because Rhonda's always in this position where she's closing the gap.

She's getting close to you because she wants to clinch up with you and throw you and take you to the ground and arm bar you and what have you. But with Amanda, you're dealing with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who knocks people fucking dead with one punch. Like it's a terrible matchup, I felt. And obviously that proved to be true. But what drove me crazy was how dismissive all these people behind the scenes were. What drove me crazy was how dismissive all these people behind the scenes were.

All these agents and Hollywood people and all these people that just have no idea what business they're in. They really don't even understand this business. The business, it's basically the business, like we said, of head injuries. And you're just like, you're trying to sell this thing where you're dealing with someone who had a fucking significant head injury and now you're pushing it back in there with someone who's really good at delivering head injuries and is this is this really all been mapped out i mean what kind of training have has changed i mean what is she still with the same coach has she done anything differently like what what do you think what what result is going to be different you know and the the downplaying of the significance of a fucking ruthless knockout like that i just don't think can be understated i think people should take a long time off when

they get knocked out like that a long time yeah well and i mean in especially some sort of like invasive treatment like from out the gates or something like that. They should be looked at. They should be studied. And I mean, I'm glad. I mean, I know they put a flashlight in your eyes and ask you if you're okay, send you to the doctor, do whatever. But I mean, like, and I think honestly, that's what the UFC's like effort was in this, in offering this information of this treatment to me was to see like, hey, is this something that would would benefit fighters in a situation like that? It's at the P.I. It's not at the P.I., but what they were saying is it would be at the P.I.

Still, but the trick with it is that it is something you need to go to and you need to go to twice a day and have that like schedule of it and that routine of it but us as fighters like flying to only vegas for it and paying our own room and board our own flight potentially having to fly our coaches in to have to you know keep us working and doing whatever while we're working i mean it's just i don't know i mean i don't know it's it's just tricky business you know it's real tricky business and how know, it's real tricky business. And how old are you now? 35. Do you wonder how much longer you're going to do this? I, like, I feel like I got like a good couple of years left. Like I'm, I'm still having fun, you know? And like the chest of it is still fun. And like the training is still fun and I'm still

learning and like enjoying it. And, um, I don't know, like getting through everything that I'm getting through and learning everything that I'm learning is like, it's so inspiring to me because I definitely don't feel done. Like I still have so much fight in my heart. And like, I really love putting my hands on people and always like advancing and improving. And the day I stop improving, you know, then I can look at that. But right now, like, I don't care about plan B. I don't care about what's next because that's not what's happening. So your passion for doing is still there.

Yeah, and the purpose. The passion is huge. I love the passion, you know. That to me is huge. But the purpose, like, the bigger picture, the what I'm doing here, what I was born to do, what I was born to get through. Like I have to get through this. Like I, I want to get through this and I'm getting through this and I'm, I'm watching myself. And that is like, it's badass to me. It's exciting to me. It's, it's, um, it's what I'm doing here, you know? And I, I'm, I'm all in like, and, and I can make, I can just make things for

myself that, um, I get to show myself every single day that like no one could have ever told me, you know, it's all stuff that I know firsthand from my experience, from my world, from me trying things, from me risking things like all of that and and um to understand myself and and to know myself like it's been the biggest reward out of all of this you know yourself through the struggles and know yourself through the fights yeah all of it i mean and like even how much you get to learn just even going into a fight right like realizing so going into a fight being on antidepressants like okay i, okay, I'll wake up, I'll wake up. I don't know what this will do.

I feel flat. I don't feel flat. I'll be okay with these people there. I won't be okay with these people here. All of that is very clear about things that this has my attention. Whether I know it or not, that's something in my life that needs needs to be looked at needs to be addressed okay there's direction like all I ever want is understanding and direction like I just want to know you know and so um I get to deal with that

that that leads me to come to San Diego San Diego is is a new chapter in my life that I get to name you know uh also for my kid and myself like it's it's I I get to name. Also for my kid and myself, I get to reveal so much to myself through trying different things and through just kind of like letting life take me down the path that I'm supposed to without me sitting here freaking out about control, freaking out about things that I can do nothing about.

I just want to walk away from all of this content and happy with how I did. That means I never have my hand raised again. I don't think that's the case. Beating these girls, having the belt, that is not a pipe dream. I already beat them. I'm incapable of that, and I'm just wishing I got my fingers crossed. I already beat them. You know, it's not like I'm incapable of that and I'm just wishing I got my fingers crossed. You know, it's not that. My whole journey of my life in sports from being a kid was to meet my highest best, to be my highest good. And that is what's driven me

the whole time. I look at these girls and I respect them because they're here doing what I'm doing. We're all just out here trying to be the best at it. We're all trying to participate. We're all trying to, you know, find ourselves in it and learn what we can learn and go implement it, you know? And so for that, I have respect for every single one of them. Some of them I like less than others. Some of them I like more than others, you know, but, um, really like we're building this stage together. We're doing this together, you know, and I'm, I'm extremely proud to be part of something like this and my position in it and my purpose in it is to, you know, find my personal good, my personal best. And, you know, this has been extremely long road for me. Nothing has been easy

and I respect that like I'm grateful for that like all the things I know because of the hard times like I feel fortunate to know you know and I would never have learned them any other way and I get to handle them and not only do I get to handle them I get to like like relate and understand people and see things differently because I get it, you know, maybe not exactly word for word pinpoint per pinpoint. Oh, I'm not even gonna try to say that. I was going to make me fall over, but you know, it's, it's all there and it all matters to me and how I get through this really, really matters to me because I know it matters to other people too you know and and how they do inspires me as well do you know what you're going to do

when you stop I I just don't I mean I feel like there's that's the thing is there's this awesome resume I'm building right you know like I'm a UFC fighter I'm a national champion in wrestling. Like, I'm, I don't know, constantly advocating and working on myself and trying to help get other people working on themselves, too. Like, I don't know what all that's going to look like. And the thing is, I don't even want to. I don't want to look. I don't want to care about all that yet because that's not where I'm at. And, like, I want to be all in here. I don't want to think about what's next or plan B or, or how all of like all of that,

because my heart is here. Right. You know, it's like, what are you going to do in your next marriage? Right. That's a good point, right? Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like I, I'm right now I'm, I'm, I'm here and I'm doing what I'm doing. I don't, I'm not looking towards what's next. Cause right now I'm here. That's great. Listen, that's what you want to hear from someone who's fighting. I mean, fighting should be all in. That is the only way to approach it. If you're a fighter and you're also a neurosurgeon, a part-time real estate salesman, good fucking luck.

You don't have 100% to give everything. You got one 100%. Especially with something like fighting. It's just such a crazy way to make a living you really have to be 100 committed to it it has to be your life and i i appreciate the opportunity i like i like i like everything i'm doing right now you know and i feel like all of that will be part of what's next. But that will manifest. That will figure itself out. I mean, not the hippie way of, oh, everything will be great, I'm sure.

When it's time, I'll look at that. But right now, this is what I'm looking at. Also, the kind of drive and discipline and work ethic that you showed to become a top-level MMA fighter and a national champion in wrestling, you could do anything with that. And whatever you set your mind to. I really, truly believe that. I mean, I think the biggest problem that fighters have when they retire is finding a thing to

put their energy to and then their identity because their identity is of a fighter. And when that is taken away from them, there's that and also the thrill. I mean, there's you guys are experiencing a level of excitement and intensity like when you're talking about two weeks out you're crying in the fetal position going what the fuck am i doing but that all builds up to these moments like that crazy primal scream after you stopped amanda nuneunes. That's an experience that very few people, other than people who fight to the death, are feeling. There's something that you guys are experiencing

that unless you're the person in the woods fighting over that bone, you really don't know. You don't know. And then for you to go to regular life after that, it's going to be hard., it's going to be hard. And it's going to be hard for a lot of fighters. It's very difficult for a lot of fighters to find another thing that excites them the way fighting excites them. Because it's such a crazy pursuit.

And then on top of that, you're dealing with what you're dealing with. But you're dealing with it publicly. You're talking about it, which I think is a – you're doing a great service to everybody when you're talking about your problems and your issues because there's so many fighters that you know that are experiencing this and that i know that are experiencing this and you know everybody who anybody who's done any sort of martial arts competition and been in gyms you're going to see people that have that have taken too many shots it's just part of the game and you you know it's what you're doing by talking about it so openly while you're still a top level fighter is i think very very important for everybody oh thanks i'm trying man

it's been a lot of trying things but i I do feel value in this, you know. And I mean, exactly when people are done, like, there's some pride in having to go get a 9 to 5 or whatever, you know, after being a level fighter at this level. Mind you, should you not have the fucking brain cells to be in, like, a high-functioning thing that you can be proud of. You know, I mean, it can be really stressful to not live up to the capability that you know you have, but you're just not. Like there's that wall or that fog or whatever, you know, so I mean,

I just think people maintaining themselves and doing everything they can, however vulnerable it feels, like fuck it, do it. Is it possible that they could spread this therapy across the country? I mean, how big are these machines? They have, I mean, they look like, so they have like mobile units.

But again, like it would need to be on, I don't know if it's on some sort of route or whatever that people would need to be able to show up to or what. But they, I know they have one in Indiana. I know they're going to have one in Colorado soon, I think, relative to the training center. And when you say mobile units, like how big are these mobile units? And are they as effective as the one that you're going to? It's a creeper van, you know, with like a little dish of candy in there. Yeah, it's like you get in and it's the same exact chair, you know, and then they have their trained nurse know where to put it on you. I don't, and then even the EEG, I mean, it's like a,

it's a wireless EEG. So I know that every week they make you do the EEG like same time, relatively the same time so they can keep good track of what your brain is doing and how to prescribe the levels to be at what on your head. Um, and I, I think they have one in Arizona. I know there's one in Texas. Um, I want to say there's 12 over the country, but I can't tell you where. And the mobile one, I mean, how big is this? I mean mean is this something that a gym could get and how is it prohibitively expensive i want to say again i might be full of shit but i think they're like a hundred thousand dollars for the machine but i do know that they're being um insurance will cover it because uh for insurance will cover it for migraine, uh, PTSD and autism. I think, I think that insurance will

cover it for that. But then, um, TRICARE is also accepting them as insurance as well. Wow. And so when they're doing this to you and, you know, you said you got it in August, you started doing it and you started seeing improvements after you said four weeks. Yeah. Four weeks was like the first time I saw improvements and then the bigger improvements were coming later. Yeah. Does it, does it keep getting better?

I mean, is it better now than it was last month? Yeah. I mean, to the point where I can, I'm, I'm okay not going for three, four weeks, you know, like, like I said, these last few weeks have been all about me getting everything right to be in training camp right now so you feel right now like you felt before the new nest right in the way i'm training like i'm having fun with it again like i'm i'm watching people i'm like fucking with them like i'll get them to step that way and then i'll step that way and then that's got to be very satisfying oh my, my God. Especially. Because it was gone for a while. Yeah, it was gone. And, like, that is the art to me is the games and the playing and the, like, getting you to do this so I can do that.

And then, you know, like, that was what was fun. Getting in a fight is not fun. Right? But the chess, that's what's fun. The game. Like, making the oohs and the ahs and the crowd happen because you know some gangster shit you know what i mean like that's fun that part's fun right going in and getting cut up and bloody and having headaches and like your ankle hurts for a month and blah

it's not fun no one wants to do that on purpose yeah you know i want to go in and do what i can and not get touched and then have it go on a highlight reel you know and that wasn't happening for a while and even on this last one it was just like man I felt better I totally felt better and and but what I needed to change wasn't that that that was fine what I need to change is other things that I'm changing and I am and again like if that's how I have to learn it, cool. But like it's all part of the process. You know, I'm not, at no second in this entire thing

have I stopped believing in myself. No second. The only thing I worried about was like, was like, all right, am I going to be, is my son changing my diapers here in a few years if I keep doing this shit? You know, like I don't want that. But I never stopped believing that this is what I'm meant to do right here, right now. if I keep doing this shit you know like I don't want that that but I never

stopped believing that this is what I'm meant to do right here right now and I have time and I have more fights and I have everything it takes to go out and beat every single one of these girls some of them again you know I do know now when you're in camp um how many days are you you doing two a days yeah so some of them are it'll be like sometimes i'll have to add more cardio in the morning so like if there's faster cardio if i'm heavy you know depending on how that goes as it's like a science about 45 like what do you walk around yeah what do you walk around i i can get all the way up to like i've i've been all the way up to 76 but that was before I didn't know. That was when, uh, I didn't, I was, I didn't know I was hypothyroid. So, I mean, now I was

eating like 600 calories a day and doing faster cardio and two workouts and my weight wasn't changing. My coaches were like, what the fuck's wrong with you? I'm like, I don't know. I guess the women in my family get kind of big. So maybe it's just that midwestern style hitting me now you know but um no and then when i went and i got my panels done like everything was all screwed up you know and then that post the nunez fight before the nunez fight what was the heaviest you got before then i never broke 100 like 155 152 wow yeah that's crazy yeah yeah i walked around foot. I didn't even have to cut, cut for Misha. I walked, I woke up in the morning, like just didn't eat breakfast. Wow. Yeah. And then now I'm a big mama jamma. Like I look at food and I get fat. It's so annoying,

but I don't hate it. So do they have you on armor thyroid or something like that? It's levothyroxine. Yeah. I take it every morning like 15 minutes before I can eat anything. You should look into armor thyroid. It's a thyroid that's made from pig thyroid. And apparently it's more bioavailable. A lot of people have better results with it. I would try it try i won't try

i wouldn't try it now just because i'm in camp but maybe in between the next ones yeah i'm hypothyroid too really yeah it runs in my family yeah my family too i didn't um have a weight problem because i was working out a lot but i was getting headaches and uh i went to a doctor to get like at the end of the day like uh say around like seven o'clock at night after dinner, I would be so tired that I just like, I couldn't talk. I just had to lie down. I couldn't hear it. I couldn't fucking talk. Boom. And I'd go out and it was like, God, these headaches are weird. Like this is, it didn't seem, it didn't seem normal like the the late i guess was like after dinner headaches like right before bed it was just it was it was not a normal exhaustion

i started getting nervous about it and then when i got it checked out it made sense my mom has it my sister has it it runs in our family yeah i don't know if it's that genetic for my family but you think it's from the head i yeah i mean it was right away yeah it was on set and then um you know then you do these mris and you do all this other stuff and it's like all right well there's where your head hurts and there's what's wrong and you know so i mean it was just it's all too perfect you know who puts together your camps like who decides what you're going to do as far as how much work you're going to do, what kind of training you're going to do, whether you're going to do sparring or whether you're going to do – So this training camp, I'm outsourcing different things.

So I have – I talked to Eric Delfiero about it, and I said I wanted to outsource the jiu-jitsu and the Muay Thai, and those are going to in itself take so much time. And then my strength and conditioning I'm doing with Chad Macias. He's badass. So my strength and conditioning coach, Lauren Landau, do you know who he is in Colorado? So he's like family to me. He's been there for everything.

I don't even know when he got there, but he was always there. He told me about Chad, and so I started doing strength and conditioning with him. I'm going to do that three days a week, and then I know that I want to get working with the more traditional Muay Thai again, so I'm working with John X two days a week, and I think he's going to arrange my sparring as well, and then Andre Galval, I'm going to try to work two or three days a week. And then, um, so I handed all of that information to Lauren Landau and my other coach, my nutritionist is Josh Ford. Um, have you seen him before?

He's got like a tattoo goatee on his face. No. Um, he's been doing my nutrition and, um, I've, he's known me since all I did was jiu-jitsu. So he's been around. He knows my style. He knows me as a crazy fighter and all of that. So who puts together? Between Lauren Lando and Josh Ford,

they're putting it together based off of what they've seen out of me in the past. But if you're going to jiu-jitsu and you're doing a lot of jiu-jitsu training and then you're going to Muay Thai and doing Muay Thai training, when do you get together and do MMA training? That'll be the sparring days. And then there'll be a light spar, like kind of drill day in the middle in there too. So are you sparring Muay Thai and then sparring MMA?

No, I'm going to be sparring MMA. So that'll be where I mix together. And like, that's kind of how I like it too Like I like doing the discipline separate and then and then me finding where to put them in and a lot of times That's where my freestyle wrestling just ties it all together. So your Muay Thai training would basically just be technique drills timing Ninja moves all that ninja moves Yeah, and then jujitsu, are you going gi or no-gi?

I did no-gi, or I did gi for like the past four weeks, and man, shit hurts your feelings. But then obviously it's more practical to do the no-gi, and now they took the gi off of me, and man, I'm like 1,000 miles an hour. I'm so happy with myself. Slippery. Yeah, I'm like, you can't grab my shirt.

And what about wrestling? Are you doing any wrestling training? That part, I, I, I still got to figure out down in San Diego. I want a freestyle wrestler. I'm not like, I got a great shot. I'm good at shots and whatever, but I'm, I'm way more about throws. Like I like there, there're so much more efficient for me. I got awesome hips for them. And it's just like, man, they're high risk, high reward, but it's my funky style. Like I just get them done.

And it's so much less effort when you toss someone over their head on the ground and they don't know where they are for a minute. There's so much to capitalize on there with the equilibrium just off. And like those are things I like like i count on so i need to find that freestyle situation yet i have good freestyle wrestling myself but obviously like like it's good to stay on top of those like it's my strength but i need to keep my strength strong so i'm looking i'm gonna make that happen so what do you walk around at right now? I'm like 155, 156, 157. So 45 is a possibility.

Yeah. I mean, I've wanted to go there as well. I mean, like I said, not having that fluid on our brains when we fight kind of bugs me. Like if I can walk down at 145 and eat breakfast, like, I mean, I won't. I'm like eating clean eating right everything perfect i'm 155 yeah because i watched one of the uh they had a video cyborg cutting weight to make 140 remember they went there which didn't make any sense there wasn't even a weight class for 140 yeah they were i don't know what the fuck they were doing with her like they were trying to prime her for 135

or seeing if she could make 135 yeah but she was like weeping and it looked like she was dying and like what the fuck man yeah did she do the water cut in that one like the the bathtub well she did a lot of shit but yeah it was just it was hard to watch and she gets big too like they um i'm friends with ray lb who. And he, like, hit me up when I was supposed to fight Ronda. They were hitting me up during my training camp. Like, hey, because I think they, obviously, they have beef. And I think they wanted it to be, like, kind of political. But I'm just, like, not into that.

But they were like, hey, how about Chris? Do you have any girl training partners? How about Chris come train with you to get ready for Ronda? And I was like, oh, maybe. I mean, how big is she? And they're like like 182 183 i'm like what what how does that help me that's another big motherfucker on me oh god i'm like i'm thanks but yeah like i got neil magni right there yeah i drewed over like

those guys are 182 yeah i'm not paying her hotel she's so fucking big that's so crazy i mean she really should probably be fighting 165 yeah and there's a 55 you know coming hopefully yeah i mean i just don't know i mean there's only so many 45s i mean she's obviously got the belt at 45 but i think even 45 is a brutal struggle for her and you know as you said you could only do that so many times. It's taking a little bit of your life every time you do that. You know, you're chipping away at your organs. And I just remember, like, I remember coming into MMA and, like, I used to cut to 125.

Like, dying, dying. And so I was, I wanted to be ranked number one at 125 that was my goal before I moved up and like I I did I was ranked number one there beat everybody I could beat and then it was just kind of like the last time I made 125 I just I fought a girl named Takeo Hashi from Japan and I remember it was like last minute because I was supposed to fight a girl something happened to her and then they replaced her with Takeo and I just remember being so happy that we were at altitude because I was like I think I had a heat stroke at the the water cut like the bathtub cut because I was in the water for like 20 minutes and I remember at 10 minutes I was like something's wrong something's wrong something's wrong and they. And they're like, you have to stay.

You have to stay. And so at the 20 minute line, I like dove like a salmon, like out of the water. And I passed out on my floor and like gave no shits that my manager's there and I'm naked and like, I don't, I don't know. I'm out to the point where they're doing the knuckle rub on my sternum, you know, to try to get me up. And then, um, yeah, you know, trying to wake you up. That's how they wake you up by hurting your sternum.

Yeah. Cause it's like something with the nerves here, like hit your adrenaline and wake you up. Jesus Christ. That's so bad. And so I'm up and I'm like, you know, your hands and arms are tingling and everything cause you're like waking up, you know? And I'm like, I don't want to get back in that bathtub.

Like put the sauna suit on me. I don't like put it on me. I don't what, you know, so not that I don't want to get back in that bathtub like put the sauna suit on me I don't like put it on me I don't what you know so not that that like I mean health-wise I was not okay but it was like I'm not getting back in there so they put the sauna suit on me my hands are like freaking out like doing this weird shaky like t-rex arm thing and cramping so bad and my feet were doing the same thing but it was like like they had to cover me in the blankets and put all the stuff on me to keep me hot because i was not getting back in that hot tub or the bathtub is terrible and after that like i remember i felt it in the fight and i was like i'm so glad we're at altitude because i feel horrible like i can't do this again and then i I went up to 35. Jesus Christ. Yeah.

It is the worst part of fighting. It really is. And it's so, it's so unnecessary. There's got to be, I mean, what one FC is doing, they've got some, uh, they're, they're eliminating weight cuts by doing hydration tests and testing people several times during camp, finding out what you weigh, finding out what your actual weight is and ben asker and went into uh the the what the way they're doing it in in detail when i did a podcast with him but that seems to be the way and they made everybody move up a weight class essentially just i mean and that's the thing is i okay like contract contracts can still exist but maybe you're just contracted as a fighter and you have to fight certain amounts of time a year or whatever.

But to have people contracted to weight classes is like it's hurting the sport. And it's obviously hurting fighters individually as well. It's just unnecessary. What you should do is fight. I mean, I think there should be more weight classes. There should be more weight classes so there's more opportunities. And you should be fighting what you are when you're healthy. It's hard enough to fight.

And I think especially because the sport is, I mean, it's very blatantly clear that this is not a bracketed sport. Like this is an entertainment sport. Now it's clear, like we're doing what puts butts in the seats. We're doing what's best for the fans. So at that point, what are these divisions really matter? It's about the matchup. You know, you can throw a belt on any fight these days like so i think if we're going to evolve the sport to to having entertaining fights or entertainment type fights like we should just evolve the the contracts to that as well like shit i mean it'll still save the entertainment

value like look you can get, or catch weights even like, what do you guys want to agree on? You know, like who's down for what? If you had an ideal weight, what would it be? To fight at? Yes.

Uh, probably 45s. 45? Yeah. I feel like I'm skinny enough that I'm like flying squirrel flexible still, you know, but, uh, but still hella strong, you know. But when you're dealing with someone like Cyborg who's coming down from 180.

That's the thing though, is me healthy, like it don't matter. Like I'm the water, she's the rock, you know. And that's something I remember thinking when I was going into 25s is like i'm gonna be huge against all these girls you know like they they may not be as dehydrated and fucked up as me but i can hold them down right you know and and i can do what i want and eventually break them right you know and i she's she's got that in her back pocket too yeah but like you know you get the the i i thought watching the tanya avenger fight like there was a lot of things that that i i saw in that fight against chris and i was like damn like that that right there there's there's a there's there's something i could do there that fight to me seemed like chris is being very cautious and conservative and that she was just

picking her shots and and just trying to be very professional. Like the way she was fighting was not like this marauding rampaging destroyer like we've seen in some of her other fights. She fought much more technical and just, and Tanya Evinger was throwing wild fucking bar stool type shit. She was just, her hands were down. She's winging big bombs.

She knew she had to go for broke and you know tanya evergear's tough as fuck just to take that fight yeah i mean the difference in size was so apparent between the two of them when you saw them inside the cage and you know tanya's just just a really tough woman yeah but her style she was just trying to be unpredictable and wild you know yeah and cyborg was just moving in like just real real professional and technical i felt like she was cautious i mean it was a big fight for her too you know yeah yeah that was the first was that the first belt defense what was that no that was the first belt because holly and jermaine fought for the belt right and then

that didn't happen again yeah and jermaine was like see ya jermaine fought for the belt right and then that didn't happen again yeah and jermaine was like see ya jermaine around me was like not interested yeah where did she go she's oh she's still fighting well she remember right after the fight i interviewed her after she won first of all that fight bothered me it bothered me a lot because she hit holly after the bell twice one hard and really rocked her. And I watched that and I was like, fuck, man. That is a big shot. And you could say you accidentally did it once maybe,

but she did it twice and one time hurt her bad. And even so, when I watched the fight, I'm like, that's the times when she hurt Holly was after the bell. But Holly fucked her up twice in that fight. She hit her with that question mark kick, cracked her and rocked her, and then she hit her with a straight left hand and dropped her too. I felt like Holly deserved the nod in that fight,

and I definitely think she deserved the nod if you take points away, which I definitely think she should have taken. She hadn't points taken away from her. It didn't sit with me well. And then after the fight, when I asked her about Cyborg, she's like, yeah, I'm getting surgery. She's like, I got something wrong with my thumb or something. So I was like, okay, she's going to get some surgery.

And then it became a PED issue. She said that Cyborg is a lifetime PED cheater, that she's a performance-enhancing drug user, and that everybody knows it, and she's a performance-enhancing drug user and that everybody knows it and she's not going to fight her. So she basically just gave up her title and went back down to 35, I think. So she is fighting again. I don't know if she went and got surgery

on whatever was going on with her hand, but she is going to fight again. But she hasn't since, I don't believe. I don't think so either. See if you can find that. Jermaine Durandamy. See who she's fighting next. She don't think so either. See if you can find that. Jermaine Durandamy. See who she's fighting next. She hasn't tweeted since November about a fight then.

Damn. November. Yeah. That didn't happen. See, that's a person not investing in social media. Are you doing it right or are you doing it wrong? I don't know. She's like, I'm just not interested in this anymore.

What's crazy because this is how fucking tough cyborg is jermaine durandami fought a dude and KO'd him i mean there's a muay thai fight with her fighting a dude yeah i remember when i first started fighting and like getting pointed at looking at like that like here's why you want to learn muay thai and i was watching her i was like that girl is she's a beast gnarly she's been through some wars and she's like older too no i mean i can't say older i'm like one of the older ones now but she's older than me a little older than you yeah but she um she fucked up a dude she ko'd a dude with a straight right hand yeah i mean it's uh i mean and then she fought a guy like knew it was a guy signed signed up to fight a guy, fought him, beat him. And they're like, Cyborg? Yeah, I'm not

doing that. That's how scared she is of Cyborg. Which I get it. I fucking get it. Cyborg walking around 182 pounds. I get it. He just carries you around on your hip. I mean, it's a really open

division. 145 right now. And Megan Anderson is about to fight. Is that at 45 or 35? I believe that's at 45. Megan Anderson's a big girl. She's big. She's a big girl. Yeah, that's a legit 45-er.

She's strong. She's in her prime. She's really tough. She's good at everything. She's a legit girl. And fighting Holly in her first fight in the UFC also shows how much they think of her. But, I mean, how many fighters do they have at 45? It's like fucking three.

I mean, who the fuck is there? You got Holly, who fought Cyborg and lost. And then, you know, what else you got? You got Megan Anderson, who was over in Invicta. And most people, other than the hardcore fans, don't know about her. And she's trying to get her name out there. So what do we got here? Is that the whole division?

Yeah, it's the four. That's the whole division. Jesus Christ. Oh, Yana's on there, too. Well, Yana fought Cyborg. She little, isn't she? She got nuked. Yeah, that was, I mean, she did her best, right?

When did she fight Cyborg? Same night I fought. UFC 222. She looked good until Cyborg got a hold of her. It's just like one of those things where when Cyborg starts landing on girls, you see the look on their face. You're like, what in the fuck? Abort, abort.

What am I doing in here? I mean, I was most impressed with Cyborg on her kickboxing loss when she fought Jorina Barge. Did you ever see that fight? She fought her in Muay Thai. Jorina Barge is a fucking beast, man. I remember. She was kneeing her from across the room in the face. Yeah, Barge knocked her down with a front kick to the face, and she dropped her.

And still, Cyborg was still chasing after her for every fucking round. But Bars knocked her down with a front kick to the face and she dropped her and still Cyborg was still chasing after her for every fucking round. I was like, that girl's legit. I mean, she's big and she's strong, but mentally she's tough too. Like she's, I mean, just to fight that girl. Like Jarena Bars had, she had, I think almost three years without a fight where she couldn't get a fight because nobody wanted to fight her because she's just a fucking badass Muay Thai fighter. Real long and tall and just classic Dutch style Muay Thai, you know, and Cyborg stepped

up, fought her in Lion Fight. I mean, when she was like the most feared MMA fighter in the world and said, fuck it, I'll take a Muay Thai fight. With like zero Muay Thai professional fights. Fought like one of the best girls ever. It's really pretty admirable, you know, how badass she is in that regard. That was cool.

But, you know, when you have a division that's that small, it's like, what do they do? You know, I mean, what are you going to grow girls? Make them get bigger? Like, hey, girls, want some food? Here you go. You know, I mean, this isn't the pride days where they could just fill them up with, you know, whatever the fuck Gabby Garcia is on. You know, and toss them out there.

They have to be legit, you know? I don't know. I don't know i don't know yeah i mean it's it's a it's a weird situation because i i mean i don't i don't follow enough to to know what is out there do you follow in victor or do you uh pay attention to any other uh organizations outside the ufc no no i mean and honestly i don't watch the UFC that much either because I like I don't have cable like don't know I have Netflix and a DVD player like we just school yeah we go crazy on 80s and 90s movies Wow yeah well look with Netflix you kind of don't I mean you could watch good shit all day long you don't really mean, so many people have severed their cable now. They just don't want to do it anymore.

Fuck a commercial. Right? I mean, and how much is cable? It's like a hundred bucks a month or something like that. What's Netflix? Ten? Yeah, something like that. Like, get the fuck out of here.

And it's not like you run out of shit to watch. Like, you could watch Netflix all day for the rest of your life and never run out of shit to watch. You know? It's a weird time for those cable companies. It's like the only thing that really keeps people buying cable, I think, or direct TV, one of the big things, is live

sports. Like live sports is like one of those things where you kind of have to have direct TV or cable or something to watch live sports. It's generational too. too i mean there's a lot of people that just always had it yep you know yeah yeah yeah my generation these young kids they don't give a fuck about it yeah young kids don't watch cbs they're like see what the fuck is that and if you the weird thing is if you watch regular tv now it seems like you're watching a time machine like you're watching some some shit from like a bygone error like

laugh tracks and then cut to commercials you're like what is this cliffhangers to be continued what is this it's just weird so what do you do when you're not training other than watch DVDs? Not really much. Like I'm trying to get out in San Diego and like live, you know, and play by the, like I'll get to the beach when I can try to soak up the sun and whatever. Really like I have a struggle because I realized I came here to work. Like I came here, I changed my life to come out here and be all in and be as successful at this as possible. So my day is about training, about doing the rehabilitation type things that I need to do, and then making sure my kids' needs are met. And wash, rinse, repeat with that.

I recently went to like, I've been to a couple escape rooms. I did that recently? Yeah. That's fun. Yeah, they're super fun unless you're not getting out. You sit there and they're like, here, let's take your picture at the end. I'm all pissed. I'm still here.

Yeah, I didn't get out. We didn't get out either. We got out of one room, but it led us into the second room and we're like, ugh. It's hard. I feel like it was hard for me being there's there's hard it was hard for me being an athlete because i'm like there's harder we can do like i can work harder at this but there's no working harder at it right it's a smarter thing yeah it's also like weird shit to put piece together you know yeah and then um let's see there's like there's like a horse

uh rescue that i go down and I'll like put time in down there and just kind of like be with the animals and feed them. And like, you can try to rehabilitate them. Some of them are scary, man. Like, but it's cool. Cause they're actually like something really to be scared of. Like half the shit we're afraid of is just in our head anyway. But there's this like gigantic animal that doesn't know if it wants to kick you or love you. And it's like, you know, trying to befriend wants to kick you or love you and it's like you know trying to befriend it so you can help it and teach it stuff like that that's taking some of my time it's been cool that is weird with horses right like you could

break them you can lasso them and then let you ride them like what the fuck like wild horses people go out and catch wild horses and ride them around. Like what other fucking animal can you do that to? That's so strange. You know? Like that is really strange that you could like get a horse, you got him in the barn, the horse is like, fuck you, fuck you. And you're like, no, fuck you. You get a rope around them and they're like, all right, all right, you got me.

You ride me around now. It's very strange. I mean, what a weird relationship people have with fucking horses you know yeah it's very strange oh man my friend whitney cummings has a horse she's all in she's all in with this fucking horse she rides it bareback she's like you have to have a connection with the animal it has to feel you like not a saddle. I'm like, all right, crazy. I've seen Clint Eastwood movies. It seems like he's riding the horse pretty good with a saddle on. But she doesn't do that.

And she rescued this horse. And she's like, on her Instagram, she's always like riding around with this fucking horse and hanging out with it. You know, and she's like spending all this time with it. It's like. It is like, they call it equine therapy. And like, like I was trying to get, just because my brain was working in all these ways like i got really excited about that treatment center that um the mindset place and then again there's all those other people in there that are in there and the veterans and stuff i was like man if if i could get some of them down there working with these

horses one it gives them something to do because the ones that are disabled like they're hating life and and that place like it's awesome because after a few months of being there they all want to know how to help they're like like tell me what i can do around here you know and um even that with that i'm like man if i could even get them down there like sometimes if all you do at this place is shovel shit you know it's it's still like you're around these horses. And this place in particular, they're all rescues. And it's called Ferdinand's Familia. And they've all been mistreated at some point, or they were trained to be something that they never graduated to being.

And so they were trash. And now they need to turn these horses into, like, rideable, like, horses or whatever. Like, that's the goal. And then they have this um it's near imperial beach it's like on that land like right on tijuana so you get the goal is to take them on this like trail that goes all the way to the beach and you can ride up and down the beach like freely is there a can you ride the beach to tijuana is there a wall oh yeah you can ride

both and it's like a see-through wall and you see them and yeah, I mean, it's just like, it's like panels and you can see right through it. Like I went down there, uh, you could swim around it. Yeah. I was thinking that the other day. I'm like this, you guys are almost too tempting. Like I almost want to go over there. Is it right here? Yeah, it's there. that's exactly where we ride fucking strange to me that is so goddamn strange so which side is tijuana this is tijuana the other side is the united states right and yeah that's exactly what it looks like they have their little umbrellas they're having their little barbecues like chilling playing music having fun meanwhile we're all over there like huh like i almost want to try to swim over just to see yeah if anyone's gonna stop

you because like there is a little bit of like if you keep going up that fence they have like one car with one dude who's watching who's watching the border patrol and it seems so easy to get here from mexico right all you have to do is be able to swim. How deep can that fence go? Yeah, how deep can it go? Dig under that fucker. Just put up your umbrella in a special angle and you're good. Or just climb. That doesn't seem like it's impossible

to climb. I'm not the best climber in the world, but I fucking guarantee you I can make it over that fence. 100%. Look, you just grab a hold and have some gloves on so you don't fuck your hands on. 100 look you just grab a hold you have some gloves on so you don't fuck your hands on yeah you're gonna have to do some soft sand soft sand training because that sprint afterwards is gonna burn your legs out yeah the sprint's rough but unless they're on dune buggies they're not gonna catch you those fat fucks i just i feel like swimming is the move

yeah why climb it you just swim a couple hundred yards over. Yeah, right. It's like 200 yards maybe. That ain't shit. Go left and then come back. It's so weird. Like, build that wall. Build that wall. People are so crazy. The whole thing is so strange. I think one day we're going to look back on countries. Like, the human race. I think one of the things that's

happening to the human race for sure is that we're getting closer to each other. We're getting, we can, like, I'll read tweets that someone will post in Spanish or in Chinese or whatever. And you just press translate and then you get to read it, you know, translate to English. And I'm like, wow, there it is. I could read this guy's words. And they have this thing called the Google pixel. Uh, it's a, you know, it's a phone and they have these pixel buds these earbuds and these earbuds will translate in real time like you could say some shit to me in Spanish and it'll translate it in real time to English yeah and how long is it going to be before that's way better yeah and

we're going to realize that countries are stupid see but I think I mean I agree on that on the social media side like I feel like social media has made that connection for us on that like that i guess mental social side or whatever but us as humans individually like here and now right next to each other like i feel a huge disconnect like look at i mean a century ago more than less than like you knew who the town butcher was you knew who the blacksmith was you knew who the mayor was like you knew like and everybody had their position your kids were safe to run around like everything like everyone knew and there was value to every single person for for what it is that their their craft was or who they are and now no one knows anyone and like people don't want to like like

i i almost feel weird sometimes that like you know know, my kids, my kid doesn't see all of the same pictures that I see. Cause I have Facebook and he doesn't, or, you know, but I'm not ready like to have my kid exposed to that labyrinth right there, you know? And it's a terrible thing for kids to be exposed to. Yeah. And, and I think that, um, you know, so like shoulder to shoulder person to person i feel like a bit of a disconnect you know but social media like we get to share information sometimes not good information sometimes good information like the fact that people are communicating i think is important um it's it's making people take stands on things that they're all finding out oh you believe that

too or i think that too like cool like i can find my people you know but on the actual like oxytocin like social side people actually getting to know each other like those like intimate relationships like I feel like that part is is suffering a little bit from it yeah I think that's suffering a little bit in real life um because people are in cars they're in traffic they're isolated then they go to work and they're in a cubicle all day and they get home and they're in their apartment or their house. Yeah. There's not a lot of like interaction with people. And I just think this is just a side effect of modern life.

Yeah. You know, it's weird that there's so many like in L.A. There's so many people next to each other and almost nobody knows their neighbor. It's very strange. Right. But what I'm talking about is I think countries are stupid. Like states. I think countries are like states. I think we should build a wall over Florida

before we should build a wall over Mexico. I mean Florida's a state, right? But Florida is just as alien as like say Finland or something like that. I mean it's just the fact that you can move out of Florida and like fuck Florida man I'm gonna's just the fact that you can move out of Florida and like, fuck Florida, man, I'm going to move to Atlanta.

And you go up there and nobody stops you. You just go. But if you're in Tijuana, you're like, no, dog. There's a fence up here, bitch. There's no crossing. To me, that seems like super fucking strange and almost like guaranteeing that those spots are fucked forever. The only way anything's ever going to level out

is if you let anybody travel wherever they want. And nobody's willing to do that because it might fuck up the good spots. Like La Jolla would be like, no, no, no, you can't just like... We're not equal. Yeah, we're not equal. You can't just come over from... I mean, you think about it. La Jolla has some of the wealthiest real estate in the world, right?

And unbelievable, beautiful views. And you could walk to Mexico from La Jolla has some of the wealthiest real estate in the world, right? And unbelievable, beautiful views. And you could walk to Mexico from La Jolla. You could walk. I mean, what's the distance between Tijuana and La Jolla? Let's guess. Let me guess. I'm going to say it's 50 miles. Is it 50?

I'm going to say. Might not even be 50. No, it's not that many. 30? Depending on. Oh, yeah. No, it's not that many. 30?

Depending on, yeah. I would say it's a 30-minute drive, like moderate, normal speed limit. No traffic. 35 maybe. So maybe it's 30 miles. So it's like a marathon. Like a marathon run, which people do. They run marathons all the time.

20? 32. 32 miles. So you're in fucking Tijuana. You're in a third world country in one of the worst neighborhoods of a third world country. And 32 miles away, you have like these unbelievable mansions on these bluffs overlooking the ocean. Like, look at that shit. That's crazy. That's crazy.

Even Coronado. It's very weird. Yeah, exactly. It's very weird yeah exactly it's very weird yeah and i and yeah that coronado the island that's all super wealthy people right yeah that's where dick cheney lives apparently yeah they they have the ability of shutting that whole island down if there's like vandalism or like because it's it's got its entry and it's out like um what is it called so it's not exactly an island like it does attach to the land what

is that called the peninsula yeah yeah so but they have an ability at both the peninsula edge and the bridge to shut it down as a community if shit's going down on the island and they don't want someone to get off. Wow. Yeah. That's how rich they are. Yeah. It's only one of the wealthiest places in the world. And another one, there's one offside off of Miami.

There's like some little tiny island that's filled only with rich people. Star Island, I think. Is that what it's called? Yeah. It's like one of the most wealthy places on the planet. It's one little spot off Miami. Just filled with rich folks waiting for a hurricane to fuck up their life. Damn.

Is that it? Star Island is a tiny neighborhood of massive houses and drama. Oh, there's drama. Oh, see the big X on it? Yeah. I'm like, fuck this place. Okay. Kind of drama.

Damn, badass houses though. But they have good brunch too. Yeah, that's their little, so they have a little bridge and it's a little tiny island. All right. Good luck. People are weird. Wow. People are weird, Kat.

That's not safe. No. Doesn't feel safe. Not in Miami. A pirate. A pirate. Come wipe that whole thing out. Crocodiles.

That place is filled with pirates. That place is filled with weird shit. It's just, Florida is so strange. I love it. I'm joking around that I hate it, but I love Miami. It's so strange. It's such a,

every time I go down there, I'm like, you should have to have a passport to come here. This is not America. I don't give a fuck what anybody says. It's great, but it's chaos. But then there's some Florida spots where you're like,

okay, Pensacola, you can just go fuck yourself. What'd you say? It's basically Alabama. It might as well be. It might as well be. Other than Roy Jones Jr. I mean, he came out of there.

He put Pensacola on the map. Thanks. Do you do any boxing training? I do. So Alliance has been like real helpful on my hands. Like I would say there's a ton of improvement as far as that goes like and I never really focused on boxing before like I I worked Muay Thai and kickboxing and between Dutch and Thai style you know and then to go there and have my hand sharpened was

was pretty cool uh I just never um it was hard for me to like, to relate boxing to any sport I'd ever done. And like, as a, as an athlete growing up as a kid, like if I don't, if I can't understand something that I'm learning, I try to relate it back to some like muscle memory of some motion I've done before in some other sport, like volleyball or swimming or like what's the mechanics of how I've moved in something that i can even dance like turn into getting like some kind of value out of so i can learn this thing and like boxing was not like anything that i'd ever done before like i've never had a predominantly hands-on sport that i was good at so it's been the um the most uh what's the word?

I don't know. There's the, the most work and the less, the least natural of all of the disciplines. That's interesting because for this work, but you've trained Muay Thai so much and Muay Thai has hands in it. Right. But the thing I'm excited about the most in Muay Thai is the clinch and the kicks,

you know, so to set up, cause of your wrestling. Right. Yeah. Right. And just having the, the hips and everything with that, that came with wrestling, is the clinch and the kicks you know so to set up because of your wrestling right yeah right and just having the the hips and everything with that that came with wrestling that came with you know the footwork of of soccer of dance of all that stuff like that that contributed i think easily and translated easily over to that but boxing was um not so much you know but a part

of me also thinks like you know some of that had to come with, with learning. Like you, you gotta get hit to realize you don't want to get hit. I'm like, I don't, I'm not ready. I don't want to talk about that.

Like I don't want to get hit. So the best way to learn how to move your head and slip and roll with shit. Yeah. It hurts my feelings to get punched in the face. I'm sure. And I'm happy. I'm the kind of person that it pisses off. You know, like, so it makes me fight harder, you know.

But, like, it's stunning. It's stunning, especially when you get one of those good ones in the nose and now your eyes are watering but you're not crying. Right. That weird stinging sensation. Uh-huh. Yeah. But, yeah, learning all of that, that all was definitely within the last few years.

And it's been fun. It's been not fun, but fun when you see, like, the evolution, you know. A lot of fighters are getting into yoga. A lot of fighters are doing yoga. A lot of fighters are finding that they have, like, real benefits and protecting their back and strengthening a lot of their joints and their ligaments and stuff like that. Yeah, do you feel like it's supplemental

towards the physiology of it or because it's something as far as adding to the combative side? I think both. I think for sure it's good for your mental endurance because it's hard. I mean, it seems like something that should be very easy. You hear about yoga, you're like, oh, housewives do that shit.

But if you do it 100%, and especially hot yoga, you're stuck in that fucking box at 104 degrees for 90 minutes sweating your ass off. Yeah, and I'm pissed at about 60 minutes in that one. Yeah, so there's definitely some mental toughness that goes into the 90 minutes. You endure. You endure a 90-minute hot yoga class. But I think for your joints, for your range of motion and flexibility, there's almost nothing better because you're so hot and sweaty.

Everything's loosened up, and you can get into, like, deep, deep stretches and deep poses. And also, like, for your foot strength and posture and balance, all that stuff is amazing. Amazing for your back. Strengthening your back, your knees. It's really good for jiu-jitsu fighters. I mean, jiu-jitsu people love it. It's one of the best things for jiu-jitsu because jiu-jitsu is so static. You know, so much of it is like holding on and like trying to advance position and slowly.

And then there's these bursts of, you know explosive movements but so much of it is just clenching and and that isometric yeah yeah so much of it is that and i think you really benefit from being able to you know in these yoga poses holding these poses for 30 seconds when your your body's burning and you're you know you're you're having a difficult time just standing up i think adding the heat component to it too especially if you're a weight cutting fighter, like getting to know your body and, and teaching it how to sweat, right? Like this last training camp was pretty awesome with that because I got a sauna for my one, I got a sauna a while ago. I was using a red light for healing and I was using the sauna because I know that you can naturally boost your growth hormone if you're in that every night and help yourself before you go to sleep.

So I was in that every night. I tried to go in for like 45 minutes and that was so helpful in going into the fight week weight cut because it was like I know what it feels like when it's time to get the fuck out and i know what it feels like when it's time that i'm like that sound like when i'm dripping like crazy i still got another good 20 minutes of me sitting here like this you know and and i think it's really hard on fighters when they're not in a sauna or that hot for their entire camp and then they just expect that out of their body the day before a fight yeah i think you're right you know if you can there's a lot of really good benefits as you said too for recovery or reducing inflammation you know yeah i thought it was helpful i got a portable sauna to bring to my fights with me oh that's nice is it one you climb into uh-huh and like just your little head sticks out it's uncomfortable as hell because you can't lean

against anything or it'll burn your ass in the chair yeah and the chair is like this little half chair and by that point you're like organs are so depleted and and you're like leaning all weird anyway so it's just hell but i mean it gets it off and you don't have to leave your hotel room oh that's nice too especially if you're doing something on the road like who was it that um somebody that somebody was fighting somewhere and they didn't have hot water and they couldn't make weight because they didn't have the the bathtub i think it was uh fuck i'm trying to think of who it was that must have been stressful yeah they were i think they were fighting in brazil and there was no hot water for some reason like the hot water

was down and they were like what in the fuck and they was no hot water for some reason. The hot water was down. And they were like, what in the fuck? And they wound up not making weight. I don't remember who it was. I wasn't there for that event. That sounds terrible. But I remember thinking that is one of the real problems with doing some of these gigs on the road. You travel into these places, and there's no fucking hot water. If there's no sauna and no hot water how are you supposed to

make weight well and it's awkward to be in a sauna with your opponent too and what i fought karina dam uh again is 25 125 like a few years ago there it is eric anders oh leota machida was very respectful damn yeah yeah leota's brazilian he knows he's like yeah but we we were in north dakota and we had to go into the same song and it became a competition in there i'm like oh i'm not getting out and when she when she like there was a point like i'm sitting there with my coach and i'm just like biting down i don't even know how long we were in but it was like hard it was rough and. And, um, it's kind of, yeah, exactly. Like who's going to break first, who's going to go first. And she ended up being like, fuck it. And she goes and she gets out

and I was like, Oh, you have quit in you. And I already knew I won the fight. I already knew I won the fight. I was like, I saw everything I needed to see. We're good. Wow. That's crazy. That's so true. I mean, look, there's something to that. I're good. Wow. That's crazy. That's so true. I mean, look, there's something to that. I mean, you definitely don't want to die in there,

but there's, there's moments when you're in the sauna, you know, I have one here and there's this thing that happens at like 30 minutes where you're like, what in the fuck am I doing? Well, you start fucking weird now.

You're like, I gotta get out of here. I gotta get out of here. It's like, it's like claustrophobia. Yeah. Like you're, you know that if you just open that door, it's cold air and you're going to feel great. Just want someone to come in. Just want someone to ask you a question. Just open it. Just open that door for a second. Just open that door.

Let me run out that door. You know, it's right there. But that is what creates those heat shock proteins is that your body realizes that it's in this terrible situation where you're way overheated. So your body starts creating these anti-inflammatory proteins and that's what's so good for your body. They did a study, I think it was in, was it in Norway? Dr. Rhonda Patrick brought it up on the podcast that they showed a 40% decrease in mortality from all causes from use of daily sauna. 40% decrease in heart attack, stroke, cancer, everything across the board. It's unbelievably good for you to use the car. Yeah. It's because your body in reaction, the, the, the response that your body has in reaction to that extreme temperature is just to create all these anti-inflammatory properties. And that's just so good for your body. Inflammation is just the root of so many different diseases and problems

that we have. Yeah. So do you, what is like the temperature and duration recommended for that? I think it's 170 degrees and I think 20 minutes is what they want. They want 20 minutes at 170 degrees, 170 degrees for, I believe the test protocol was four days a week. Is that the same statistic for, say, like a red light sauna? It's a good question. They didn't use a red light sauna. They didn't use an infrared sauna.

Like a traditional sauna. They just used a traditional sauna. But the theory is that it doesn't matter because what matters is your body reacting to the temperature change. And it doesn't matter how it's getting to you. They used a regular like hot rock sauna. That's what I have, a regular hot rock sauna. But I don't think it matters.

I think what really matters is just the extreme temperature. And there's a lot of people believe in those infrared saunas. They think they're better. I don't know. No, I just know your body likes sauna. Whenever I do it, I just feel better. Sleep all good. It's just better. It just feels better for my brain it, I just feel better. Sleep all good. It's just better.

It just feels better for my brain, too. I just feel better about everything. I just think it's just like getting your body heated up like that and then it cools off. It just chills everything out. Everything feels looser. Like a quiet. There's like a quiet afterwards. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just everything feels like it works better. And when I do it on a regular basis. But I feel the same way about cryotherapy. When I do cryotherapy on a regular basis, too, everything seems to work better. See, I only did cryotherapy a couple of times and it hurt my boobs like so much that I just I don't want to go. I just, I don't want to go. I'll ice bath. And I mean, the thing is I'll get in the ice bath and I'm really like, I'll get in, but I'm complaining the whole way, you know, like not, not saying one nice thing to you or your mama, like I'm getting in there and I'll do it when I'm ready. And, oh man, it's awful, awful. And those cryotherapy things, like I appreciate the

speed. I appreciate like the, they have, but like, do you really feel that they get through all of those layers of skin, like down to an optimal level on your tissue? Well, it's the same thing. It's cold shock proteins. What happens is, I mean, if they really got through your skin, you'd be dead. They really got through the, but the idea is that your body produces these cold shock proteins in response to anything that's over or under 150 degrees below zero. That's the sweet spot, apparently. When you hit that 150 degree below zero, your body produces all these massive anti-inflammatory properties. Because, again, it thinks it's going to die.

So it's like freaking out. out and people with arthritis and people with severe autoimmune issues where they have a lot of inflammation real real problems with their joints and their hands they have huge results from cryotherapy there's a bunch of people that go to my place that they say that's really essentially changed their life they were just in pain all the time and now they know all they have to do is go there step in that thing for three minutes leave and they're going to feel better and they just feel looser and relaxed and whatever their flare-ups and instead of their condition deteriorating their condition improved and stabilized dang so it's about your body and the chemical value not yeah the cold itself exactly it's about your body freaking out yeah you body going, yikes, what is this bitch doing? It's 150 degrees below zero.

Oh, my God. And then when you get out of there, you feel so good. That's what does it for me. When I get out, oh, my God, I feel amazing. It's like this rush of, it's just the, what's it called, norepinephrine? Yeah. You have this rush of it in your brain. It's like you just took an awesome drug.

You just feel fantastic. I get out. The sun feels great. People look better. Everything just feels better, you know? I do two sessions, too. I do three minutes, and then I go out for 10 minutes, and then I go back in for another three minutes.

How many times a week? I try to do, depending on how many times I do the sauna. I want to do one or the other four times a week. So either I'm doing the sauna or I'm doing cryo. So you do... I don't do both in the same day though. You do some temperature manipulation four times a week. Yes. Four days a week. And if I don't do that, I do hot yoga

which is another form of temperature manipulation obviously because you're 104 degrees and you're there for 90 minutes sweating it out. And that, I mean, it's not as hot in the room, but your body absolutely has that same feeling that it has inside the sauna where you're just like claustrophobic. I got to get the fuck out of here. Dang. Yeah.

I'm going to try it. I'll try it. I'm so mad. Don't be mad at me. I will. I'm going to send you this emoji. Like, that's how you'll know I'm there for the one. The sauna, I'm good.

I sit in there and I just turn up the jams. Well, if you're good with the sauna, just stick with the sauna. I mean, I think they're both really good. What if I get in a cold shower after the sauna? Does that count as the same? I like doing that, too. I like doing that after yoga, especially in the winter when the water gets real cold. I like to get in that fucking cold shower and just really like,

yikes, feel the two of them. And you know, the UFC has that set up too, where they have the jacuzzi right next to the cold bath that they got that cold plunge. It's like set to below 50 degrees. That's right.

You hop in there and freeze your ass off and then hop in the sauna. Apparently there's like really good benefits to doing that back and forth like that. Yeah. It was, um um the last fight out there is uh i'm sitting in that hot tub and then because i didn't have the sauna uh hooked up i just wanted to go in the hot tub and and then i laid on like the partition and i had like one leg dangling in the cold pool and one leg dangling in the water was really good looking, I'm sure. But when you're starving and dying and giving no fucks anymore, it's just like I'm laying there like that. Mackenzie Dern was laying over there looking a little worse than me,

but it's like, I guess I don't know. What did you think when she missed weight by seven pounds? That shit's kind of crazy, isn't it? It's crazy because I was literally sitting in the locker room with her. We were giggling at UFC 222 because we're both curvy. And we're sitting in the locker room laughing about how much that shit weighs. And it's like, what can you do about that? And even if you could, do you really want to?

I mean, I don't hate it. But sitting in there and laughing about it. And that was what? What was the date of that? March 3rd. And then to come that much over. She got her fight right away, announced right away that she was fighting May 19th or something. And it's just like that.

When you have that date in mind. I mean, granted, it's not me. It's her. I don't have her body. I in mind, I mean, granted, it's not me. It's her. I don't have her body. I don't have her problems. I don't have her life. It's, you know, not my, it doesn't mean anything to me. But to know you have a fight and it's signed up and it's ready, like at that point, it's maintenance.

Yeah. You know, it's maintenance. It's like that. That's not even doing anything different. It's just maintenance. But like these weight cuts are harder and harder on us as we get older. I don't know what her body's doing. I don't know.

Yeah. She's, I think she's 25. Yeah. She's young. And I don't, I don't know. I don't know what that to make 115 pounds asks of her. And, and I don't know if she's on her period or not. I don't know if that makes a difference to her.

With me, I always, I always get mine the day of weigh-in. I have like three other girls, four other girls that I know that it's the exact same thing. Like the morning of, made weight, about to go downstairs, and there's that fucker looking at you right there. She's like, there's why I couldn't lose the last two pounds, sweetie. I would like to talk to John Crouch about what happened because he asked her to leave the lab. Oh, that was where she was at when he asked her to leave? Yeah.

Did she ever say why? She didn't say why. He didn't say why either. They're both planet professional. I don't know what happened. She was there a long time too, though, wasn't she? Because when I went to go train down there,

she was there one of the days. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But I know her dad, he's, doesn't he teach in Arizona? Megaton? I think so. Yeah.

Her jujitsu is fucking nasty though, isn't it? So gnarly. Woo! Yeah, she's good. We competed against each other. Yeah? Yeah. I was beating her ass.

Were you? Yeah. Well, it is rough it was rough because i i it was worlds we were both purple belts i think it was an open division so i was like i was heavier than her by the next weight class and um i i went to take her down i double-legged her all big and then like where we landed so if this is like the square we landed like right here and so they called it out and so they reset us in the middle so no points oh so we get in the middle because she's mackenzie dern because i'm not resilient enough maybe yeah so i they start us

again i'm like okay noted i can't don't go near that line so i go and i shoot another double pick her up go take her down again same thing but like i it's out of bounds again because it's too close because my double is like a tackle you know right and then um so we go back in the middle and we shake hands and we go so this time i go shoot i pick her up and i look at the ref like, like, you're good. Is this good? Put her down here. Yeah. So put her down, go to pass her guard. And I passed. And then I think I sat back for a straight ankle lock and they're like, and they disqualified me. What? And they're like, you can't have an ankle lock?

They're like, you can't do that. I was like, can't do what? And they're like, you can't do that. And it's in the rule books. I'm like, okay, if I'm going to look in the rule books, what am I looking up? What can't I do? They're like, you can't do that. You need to go.

You're disqualified. I'm like, tell me what I did. And they said that I reaped the knee. But I didn't. I really don't think I did. So you think they were just juking the system to try to get her to win because she's Brazilian? I don't know. It happens.

It does. It does happen in some tournaments. Yeah. And I mean, the thing is, I love IBJJF tournaments and I want to compete in them for the rest of my life. But yeah, there is some themes that go on there. There's definitely birthrights that get you places that like birthrights that i would really like to have but at the same time not really no i don't want to have been born into i want to make the statement

of like have your birthright like i got this you know i made it to some pretty badass tournaments and and you know just like fighting the way i fight and trying not to give a shit about all of that. And, like, I continued to do that. I want to do the same, you know. But, you know, that was a rough one for me. Like, I was excited about that tournament. I trained hard for that tournament. And I think we were each other's, like, I don't remember what match into the tournament it was.

But to be disqualified, it was like, but I still. What do they call specifically reaping the need? Don't you have to go against the joint? I don't know. I don't know. Like, I wish I could draw you a picture or show you a finger. Do you think they were just trying to, like, come up with an excuse? Well, I mean, the first two takedowns, like, we weren't.

Okay, maybe the first one. You weren't really out of bounds. Maybe the first one we were on the line. Fine. The second one, like, we hit the ground and then we skidded a little so but we were in you know and then the third run i'm being a dick you know and i'm just like yeah yeah you're good you know and so they're like and they gave me the points and then i pass and they give me the points and then i sit back for that and now i'm disqualified. And it was like, it is.

And I like her, you know what I mean? Like I like her. Her dad was at my gym teaching a seminar at my gym in Colorado like months earlier. And so when the match is over and we go and we're like standing next to them, they're like, sorry,

you know, like, did you see the video that somebody made on instagram of her after one day in liverpool no what do you know people make fun of her accent that it's not real oh brazilian yeah someone just told me that recently yeah she apparently i don't know i mean people accents are weird to begin with like why do people talk the way they talk in the first place because they sound like the people around them it's geographical yeah i mean it's it's weird but there's a video that somebody made of mackenzie duran after one day in liverpool and it's basically her talking but darren till's voice

instead oh my god it's rough it's rough i'm not playing it don't play it jamie don't even pull it up i will not do that to her. Oh. But it's pretty funny. Damn. Yeah, because I was super confused. When I interviewed her, when she won in the UFC, they wanted a translator. And I was like, what are you talking about? Like, she speaks perfect English. Like, this is really bizarre.

So George Grigel came in with me, and he's like, just in case she gets messed up anymore. I didn't even question it. I was like, okay. I was confused. I'm like, but wait a minute. I know she speaks perfect English. Like, this is ridiculous. Raised in Arizona, right?

Yeah, but she fucking speaks perfect English. So I don't know if they were selling it. You know, I don't know whose idea it was. I don't know. I don't know. I don't get it. But the got it they went crazy they went crazy everybody was like what in the fuck is happening i didn't question it i'm like look i'm just here to interview her i just want her i mean she wants to speak in portuguese she wants to speak in english i don't give a fuck but i was like why

do you need to translate her like that's that's insane damn i don't know all that I don't give a fuck. But I was like, why do you need to translate her? Like, that's, that's insane. Damn. I don't know all that. I don't know all that either. You know, she definitely speaks English really well though. Does it, is there a benefit to not Brazilian? Well, yeah. I mean, obviously that's a huge demographic in this sport. Huge, like primarily the biggest other than American. Other than American, yeah. But I'm curious if there's like a benefit or a marketing, like is there something to that that would make that more appealing? Well, Brazilians have immense national pride.

Yeah, I see. And her being a Brazilian and the daughter of a Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend and speaking perfect Portuguese and English. I guess maybe that's the idea behind it. I don't know. She's killing it, though, technically and with her style. I mean, everything that she brings to the table is already good. Don't fuck that up.

Don't fuck that up with some shenanigans. I don't know. You know what? Sometimes when I get around people, like I feel bad because like I try to be like really empathetic and when I'm around like foreigners and like I will totally slow down my speaking so they will get it to the point where sometimes I think I look condescending. Right. You know where I'm like, I just want this conversation to go as easy as possible for you because yeah i'm already awkward and like let me help you out you know that's a

different thing but it's like you remember when madonna had a fake english accent and everybody's like bitch you're from brooklyn or wherever the fuck you're from you're not from england like you can't do that stop well yeah i mean depending who she's around i guess i don't know fuck that's the thing like if you're around people that have that accent, you will pick it up. Yeah. Like when I was a kid, I definitely had a Boston accent, but I heard myself talk on TV once when I was like 19 with a Boston accent. I was like, oh no, I got to get rid of that.

Like how did I pick that up so quick? Yeah. And my family's all Minnesota rural, you know? And so when I go home home i get that and it'll stick around for a few weeks yeah especially if you drink right yeah yeah yeah for sure i'm real tired yeah or you have you're around all those people it's like comforting accents are fucking strange you know they really are strange that they're like specific to regions i mean it just shows you how pliable people are you know southern Southern accents. Well, and even like England, like you have like very, very different like British accents.

Sure. Which I'm sure to them sounds exactly like, you know, Texas versus New York, you know. Yeah. Just a different twang. Yeah. My friend's wife is from Liverpool and she was trying to explain Scouse to me, like the way they talk in Liverpool versus the way they would talk in, like, say, London. I'm like, y'all sound like English to me.

You might as well be Australian. I don't get it. I get that you sound different than me, but I don't get what's happening, though. I don't get the accent. Until, like, somebody like Darren Till clearly has, like, that Liverpoolpool accent it's so clear but i don't i still don't get it i don't know what it is you know like you could say he's from london

i'm like oh okay cool english well isn't there isn't there is it like ibiza that like whoever was a rain there had like a lisp right and so then ibiza and then that ended up being what the people picked up as like was it a compliment or just how it happened because that's how things were like pronounced when they were being explained like i don't know maybe there's some kind of like speech impediment that went along with every different dialect and apparently that is what it is with with spain that the way they pronounce certain words is because like some fucking king somewhere along the line had a lisp strange strange shit did you know that uh there's a place in brazil that has a lisp also i forget

really yeah i'm sure there must be like different accents in brazil right brazil's fucking huge oh yeah i mean definitely different sing-songy type of tones tones i would say more. Yeah. Did you ever train down there? Yeah, I've been down there, I think, three times, four times. To train? To train and to visit. I won a big old jiu-jitsu tournament down there before. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I think it was like Brazilian Nationals, something like that. So I would go down, like, get fully ready to train, get there the day before and cut.

Because once you're there and then compete the second day i was there so the rest of its vacation because it's like once you're there all the food all of the like beach and like lazy like there's nothing in me that wants to work hard once i get there all i want to do is just enjoy the music and the sounds and the people and they know how to cook down there those chujascarillas holy shit is that good brilliant it's brilliant oh well you guys have them in san diego they have them everywhere now thank god yeah but uh that style of cooking is the best those skewers over over fire that's what i'm talking about meat over fire yeah that's it that's it and then the little sauces like the creations

just oil and lime and and seasoning is so good i better not talk anymore you won't make weight oh my gosh i'll always make weight i'm just a little bit more dead than others why is cat cut off her leg we just did two and a half hours that crazy time just flew by right so um good luck good luck in um in boise i'm looking forward to seeing you fight i'm very excited and i'm glad we finally got a chance to do this. Is it Kat Zingano MMA on Twitter? What is your – do you know it? She's got to check her phone.

I know how to send stuff out, but I don't know how to – You don't know what it is. It is Alpha Kat Zingano. Yep, at Kat Zingano. And then on my Instagram, it's Alpha Kat Zingano, and then Facebook, it's Kat Zingano. Yep, at Kat Zingano. And then on my Instagram, it's Alpha Kat Zingano. And then Facebook, it's Kat Zingano MMA Fighter. Kat Zingano, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.

I'm glad we finally did this. Yeah, me too. Thanks for having me. Thank you. My pleasure. Bye, everybody. Bye-bye.