The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #81 with Dave Leduc

Episode Date: October 28, 2019

Joe sits down with Dave Leduc, the current openweight Lethwei World Champion and current WLC Cruiserweight World Champion.

Three, two, one. What's up, Dave? How are you, brother? And we're live, bitches. Yes, indeed. You wanted to say that, huh? I just thought it was. You playing on it?

No. Thanks for doing this, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Dude, I've watched you fight a bunch of times online, and let way is probably one of the most brutal combat sports in the world, and it's so interesting watching a guy like you. Are you Quebecois? Is guy like you are you Quebecois is that what you say

Quebecois you're good how's your French it's not bad it's terrible it doesn't matter I don't know anything in French but how do you

how do you go from Montreal to being the king of Letway yeah it's it's a crazy journey man and like like in a way to

it was if we go there right away let's go there right away basically when I was I used to play baseball I was a baseball I was a pitcher in, it was, should we go there right away? Yeah, let's go there right away. Yeah, basically, when I was, I used to play baseball. I was a baseball,

I was a pitcher in Pennsylvania. I was like doing a bunch of like university baseball, traveling team. And then I got into like a fight with my father. Shout out to my father. A fist fight with your father?

It never went physical, but it was like going very hard and they said like, both my parents said, Dave, please leave. Like you're kicked out of the house wow how old are you 17 18 wow so like i had no money and i was like uh like almost like industry it was minus four fahrenheit so for for you guys like minus 20 degrees celsius it was like like okay i called my friend like come pick me up and I couched her for a few months and finally got a place, got my shit together. But then I had, like, a fire, you know.

We didn't speak for many years. Now we actually have a good relationship now. So then, and I believe that nothing good comes out of comfort, right? Like, hardship. So I was, I had a lot of, like I said, fuck baseball. Like, I wanted to fight. Because of that? Yeah, I guess.

That's so crazy. So because of getting angry at your dad, that's what made you want like i wanted to fight because of that yeah that's so crazy so because of getting angry at your dad that's what made you want to learn how to fight it's like uh resuming maybe like that a little bit i hope he doesn't take it the wrong way but uh yeah it worked out so you shouldn't take it the wrong way i mean it all worked out well true and then actually funny enough my first love was grappling i was uh i did uh like i did a lot of competition like no gi i won some like in gi like but uh was mostly no gi and then i actually had my league called the sfl it was like a submission fight league once a month i had guys uh organized i was i was only i was not fighting i was just organizing it and i got the guys fighting and uh submission only not ibgdf just where was this in que Quebec in Quebec yeah I'm near Montreal so then

we're doing this and then I said my coach my Sifu Sifu Patrick again shout out to my coach uh he said I said I'd never want to do anything other than grappling he said well you're tall and you know you're good reach maybe you should consider I know I don't want to do I only want to do an Ogi he's like okay he lets me do my shit and then uh yeah eventually I started I started uh doing like i come from sanda background like uh sanda right which is a style of martial arts yeah so chinese martial arts all the army in china does that pretty much and it's pretty cool so wide stance spinning attacks you know and cool stuff a lot of throws i was actually with kung li in san jose

last year yeah we did some nice headbutt videos oh wow we need to do one together after all right have you done a headbutt before? No, not really. I've never headbutted a person. On the pads? I've fucked around, you know, and headbutted the bag, but just joking. I've never, like I've seen your pad routines where you incorporate headbutts into the pads. Yeah.

I feel like you fight like you train. So if you don't train it, how the hell are you going to throw it in a fight? Sure. It has to become a reflex. Do a lot of people headbutt pads? I'm teaching them now. Oh, okay. You see you originated it?

Yeah. I've never seen anybody do it but you. I mean, I've seen people headbutt people in fights, particularly in the UFC, the early days. Like Mark Coleman, when he was the heavyweight champion, he was the godfather of ground and pound. Big, gigantic wrestler. And he would take guys down and get on top of them. It didn't matter if you were in the guard. He'd headbutt the fuck out of you.

I mean, when they took away his headbutts, you know, because they changed the rules, they took away fucking 20% of his game. 20% of his game, he'd control you

and bang, bang! He'd just slam his forehead into your nose. You know, you couldn't see. Then he'd pound the shit out of you. Okay. I mean, that was one of the ways he became the champ.

So they took it out from the UFC. They took it out of the rules. Which I don't totally understand why. If you can elbow in the face and the eye sockets and the nose, why can't you headbutt? I don't know. It's because a headbutt cuts, an elbow cuts, and you actually can do way more with an elbow than a headbutt.

Sure. And so knees, knees cut as well. True. Yeah, I think it should be legal. I think so too. Yeah. Well, obviously you do. Yeah, I'm a big proponent. Because you're excellent at it. knees cut as well true yeah i think i think it should be legal i think so too yeah you see guys well obviously you do yeah because you're excellent at it um so how did you get explain the path to

that way okay so now we were basically at the doing starting to do striking so then i do a couple fight nights and i i love it uh i start fighting but then it's illegal in canada you can't do like even muay thai is illegal illegal. Muay Thai is illegal in Canada? Pro Muay Thai. What? Yeah, no elbows. Yeah, it's amateur Muay Thai. But how come the UFC is legal?

Tell me about it. Oh my God. That's so crazy. You can do MMA, but you have to do headgear and shit for Muay Thai. Wow. Even in France. Shin pads?

I'm not sure, but there's no elbows guaranteed. No elbows. So amateur Muay Thai, no elbows. Well, that's not Muay Thai then. No, it's not. Oh, oh that's crazy even in france i think muay thai like thai fight when you go there they have elbow pads really yep with sunshine was fighting with elbow pads last time what yes yes in france sunshine with elbow pads it's hilarious in france yeah wow that's crazy and then what else and then basically um i uh i went to thailand for the first time because

my friends were there. And it's just easier because Myanmar was like, for those who don't know, it used to be called Burma. And now it's Myanmar. And it was super hard to get visas and, you know, a bunch of stuff like that. So I go there. I do my first pro Muay Thai fight because I was like partying and I was like, I want to get a fight. So they give me a fight. I win.

How much training had you done? You did sanda and what else? Well, I did sanda a fight. So they gave me a fight, I win. How much training had you done? You did sanda and what else? Well, I did sanda and grappling. That's it? And MMA, yeah. So basically like overall. So no Muay Thai? Never did Muay Thai before my first Muay Thai fight.

What? Yeah, it was a brawl. That is crazy. It's not beautiful to watch, but yeah. Wow, how many people can say that? I never did Muay Thai before my first Muay Thai fight. I don't know. But I got lucky.

I got a nice elbow in the clinch and cut him up right here. So you started thinking about elbows then? Yeah, that's my elbows now. Yeah. But just to back up a little bit, basically, my coach, Sifu Pat, showed me back then a Black Belt magazine, Burmese boxing, probably the same that you saw or something. And then I'm like, I want to do this, right?

And started watching videos, but there was nothing. It was like black and white. It was super hard to find. There was nothing about it that way. So I just put it on the ice. But my dream was nothing. It was black and white. It was super hard to find. There was nothing about Lithuania. So I just put it on the ice, but my dream was always to go to Myanmar one day. But at the time, Tiger Muay Thai was super big. It's easy.

You have fights every week. You don't even need to get a visa. It's 30 days for Canadians right away. Really? So I was like, okay, my friends are there. They invited me to Tiger, and I have a good relationship with them now. They basically ended up winning their tryouts. are there they invite me to tiger and uh i have a good relationship with them now basically uh ended

up uh winning their tryouts and uh i i do it was a big year that year we had like dan hooker myself uh we wanted like alec rosinowski was there uh peter yan so all the guys were oh great so it was a yeah a good fight and um and then i was like i was for me they were for the mma i was for muay thai so we got a scholarship look, you're still following me? Yeah. So then, and then I go to, I get that little, like, I mean, thank you for giving me that room, guys. But it was like a shitty room with a toilet. It was a bed and a toilet, you know.

But I'm happy at the time. I had no money. You know, I just like, I'm happy. I'm happy with this. We had like, actually, my wife is watching right now. We had like, I call that the black hole in the toilet. There was the AC was leaking and it was so disgusting. We called it a black hole.

The mold? The mold, yeah. Oh, that's terrible for you. I know. Tell me about it. Yeah, some of that mold can be toxic, right? Yeah. And my wife was not very happy about it.

I'm sure they weren't testing that mold either. So then we get this. And then, like, I remember, like, it's yesterday. We're on the bed. And, like, I'm making one fight a month in Thailand. And I'm, you know, it's like I'm telling – I actually got myself in the Max Muay Thai tournament. I was trying to get my name, you know, in the Phuket Stadium, in the Phuket circuit. And then one time, like, the manager pulled me out,

and he's like, you're not good enough. Because they wanted me to be super stadium-like, you know, check, block, check, block. And I'm not, I was wide stance. I was catching kicks, punching back. I was not like they wanted me to do at all. Not good for gamblers, because gamblers, they want you to, they start gambling in the second round,

and I was knocking, I was winning, like, the first round. So they don't make money with me. Oh, so they want you to they start gambling a second round and i was knocking i was winning like the first round so they don't make money with me oh so they wanted you to for people don't understand what we're talking about in thailand it's traditional that the fighters fight slowly in the first round they just sort of feel each other out once the bets are all in place then they go hard in the second and third round but a lot of fighters would go over there especially from other countries and just fuck people up in the first round yeah and that's what you did yeah and they didn't like me for that so what did they tell you to do they tell you to slow down they tell me to just pull you didn't tell me anything just pull me out of the tournament and say you're not good enough not good enough yeah and i was winning i was winning fights yeah

so that's how i'm starting to get pissed a little bit and then um i'm making shit money and i sold everything that I had at the time to go to Thailand. So I'm like a bit in, you know, like hardship. Like I'm like, what am I going to do? And then I meet Irina,

my wife. Now we're married. By the time we were just together and she said, one day we're going to have kids. You're going to have kids with $200 a month, you know? Is that what you were making for a fight?

It's $200 a fight in the Puk you were making for a fight? $200? It's $2 a fight in the Pukesiam. It's like $6,000 baht. It's disgusting. Wow. That's what people get. For a whole month, you were living off $200? I was getting in debt.

Thank God I had credit before coming to Thailand. You're burning through that shit too. Oh, yeah, fast. $50 a week? That's kind of crazy. Yeah, I was spending like $500 a week. So I was getting debt pretty fast. Wow. Like fast. 50 bucks a week? That's kind of crazy. Yeah, I was spending like $500 a week. So I was getting that pretty fast. Wow.

Like fast. So by the time, you know, and I'm like, okay, what am I going to do? So we're crying on the bed. My wife is like, you know, I believe in you. You can do whatever you want. I think you can be champion. I said, I don't want to be just champion anywhere. I don't want to be champion in like the most brutal shit in the world.

But Le Twé, it was almost unattainable at the time. I don't want to be Just champion anywhere I don't want to be I want to be champion In like the most brutal Shit in the world But Letwe It was almost Unattainable at the time Explain to people The rules of Letwe Because we keep Talking about it Headbutts

No gloves Takedowns allowed So suplex On the head Elbows to the back Of the head They don't care Takedowns allowed

Soccer kicks Soccer kicks I mean yes To the body But sort of On the way down Yeah you can kick him In the head you know, takedowns allowed. Soccer kicks? Soccer kicks, not, I mean, yes. To the body, but sort of. On the way down. On the way down. Yeah,

you can kick him in the head. You can body lock and on the way down you headbutt and then you get back up. The referee doesn't care. Is that a rule though? Is it legal?

It's gray line. Gray line. Gray area. So you can actually do a takedown and then drop the knee, like knee stomp and then it's okay. Really?

Yeah. They say that basically you're supposed to help a brother up. So when you fall down, you help him up and you fight. So the mentality is like we fight for 15 minutes and we punch each other in the face with elbows, headbutts and everything. And let's see who first quits. Wow. But then if you go on the floor, we get up. They want action packed, you know.

Even though I love the ground, I think it's true that on the feet is more exciting sometimes. Well, it's easier for people to understand for sure. Yeah. Especially for people that don't train. They always want stand-up fights. True. So how did you wind up going over to Myanmar? Okay.

So just, again, I watch a Vice documentary on prison fight. Okay? Look at that. Oh, that's hilarious. So the prison fight thing, that's again, it's in Thailand. For those who don't know, it's sanctioned by the Thai Department of Correction. And they didn't do, I was on the last one ever in 2014. And basically, it's inmates fighting foreigners.

And if the inmate wins, the sentence is reduced. Whoa. Yeah. Have you heard about this? No. Okay, prison fight. Yeah, I did that. inmates fighting foreigners and if the inmate wins the sentence is reduced whoa yeah have you heard about this no okay prison fight yeah I did that

and we were so basically we go into maximum security prison outside of Bangkok maximum security prison and it's like a

movie man like they made a movie actually about it recently I was on the real deal wow yeah and I was

with my Turkish friend we go there they take away our phones We go to that big metal door We go underneath I have goosebumps Talking about it And then we go

We see 800 inmates They're all there For either rape Gang rape Murder Drug trafficking And they can get Their sentence reduced

If they win a fight Yeah What if they win two fights One guy actually It was on Showtime They did a documentary On Showtime And the guy actually won The finale He Showtime. They did a documentary on Showtime.

And he actually won the finale. He won against an American. And he got released. A murderer? He won. He was actually, what I heard, correct me if I'm wrong, but he went, he was in a bar. And somebody talked about his girlfriend or touched his girlfriend. He went back, he took a knife and stabbed the guy in the neck.

And he got in prison for that, for murder, basically. And he got out for fighting well fighting very well don't go to that part of the world with a squeamish stomach so he was but actually those guys they're they do some mistakes but they were fighting in lumpini they were they were like high level guys you know really yeah maybe not like all champions but they were like like- They knew how to fight. A hundred fights and up. So I get a guy who was there for trafficking meth and fitment, meth. It was like 10 years. And basically, me actually, maybe you know Anwar Barzanarov, he fights in glory. And he was actually, he fought for the belt against, he actually lost at the belt recently.

And we were, me and him at the time, he was not in glory at the time. We fought there. And only, you know, me and anotherian won the prison in the prison fight and what are the rules so it's it's a three-round fight um with our rules with gloves with big pillows eight ounce so uh at the time again my goal was always to go to myanmar so look look at that so basically after this i go back to canada and i'm like my is like, I don't want to be in minus 4 degrees Celsius, you know, minus 20 in Celsius. So I'm like, how can I go back to Asia? And so I go to, I go back, I save money, I go back.

And then, I'm losing my thoughts. Basically, when I get that situation with Irina, where we're stressing for money, we're stressing for the future. I called up the prison fight promoter. And at the time I said, you have a fight for me. I need to get money. He said, well, I don't promote Muay Thai anymore. I promote Let's Way.

You want to fight Let's Way? I'm like, yes. I've always wanted to do this. So he's like, well, if you want, I have this guy, he's Tutu, T-O-O-T-O. He's an undefeated champion, Lettoway rules, 36 fights. His name is Tutu? Tutu. Wow.

That's his real name. He was undefeated in how many fights? 36 fights. That means it's all KO, right? Because traditional Lettoway, it's KO only to win. We forgot to say that. Really? There's no point system.

No points. No. How many rounds? Five rounds. So what happens if you go five rounds whoa even if you're fucking the dude up that's what happened wow so uh yeah so basically i go i said i don't care let's fight i want it because you're just it's my dream so he's like well how many fights you have well i have 10 muay thai fights oh muay thai well he's you know 50 fights in litwey and you have 10 Muay Thai fights. Well, Muay Thai? Well, he's, you know, 50 fights in Lethwei and you have 10 fights in Muay Thai. Well, let me do something. He lied on the record.

He said I have 40 fights. Okay? And then I go over. I go over there. I'm like, I don't care. Because my coach, Sifu Patrick, and I, we were always, like, you know, eye gouging and, like, practicing.

That's the mentality of it. Aggressivity, like fish hooking in the clinch or in the grappling. Can you do that in that way? No. No. But, I mean, you can probably fish hook if, probably. Probably? I mean, they don't care really.

Really? Yeah. But as long as there's no eye pokes, you know. Right. So anyway, so I was always ready for that. I wanted that aggressive fights. So I go to the fight and some kind of energy comes in my body. I don't know.

I don't believe in that stuff. But, like, I just disfigured him. Like, he didn't touch me much. I was using my push kick to the thighs. I was keeping my distance. And then I went inside. I used my elbows. And, like, if you see the fight, he really puffed up.

Like, he was pretty cool. And then that was my first fight. And crowd like they were throwing bottles a little bit but they're why were they throwing bottles because they're he's their champion yeah yeah but then they quickly saw that i did my my likamun which is the the challenge gesture a very old challenge gesture and the uh they loved it. So they started. How does that work? So basically before the fight, you put your arm like this.

So explain to people that are just listening. You put one arm under your armpit. So yeah, for those at home. So you put your left arm under your armpit and the other arm in the air. And you hit with your cupped hand on the triangle shape of your elbow, and you three times, that actually gives me more goosebumps because I triggered that to the fight, right? And this is a very old gesture from Myanmar,

from the Burmese army back in the days when they were in the trenches and they were fighting enemies. You challenge with honor and courage your opponents, and you do that that and that simulates the wing of an eagle. Ah. You know, and you like.

So they saw you do that and they got fired up because you understand the rituals. Yes, because some of the times guys were coming from other disciplines,

other country and they were putting their white crew, they were doing a bunch of other things, you know. Oh, okay.

I embraced the culture. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so they liked it.

It's okay because at first they basically, they wanted another tall white dude to get fucked by their guys. Sure. You know what I mean? I was sent there to lose. Yeah.

I was sent there to die. What weight are you competing at? I'm 180 right now. Mm-hmm. But most of my weight is in the groin area. I hear you. But when you're fighting those guys, what weight do you have to get down to? So traditionally, in Litwe, the Burmese guys were never really over 180 pounds.

So every weight category has a belt. And I fight open weight. So there was like, I fought guys that were 200 pounds, 190 pounds. It doesn't matter as long. And I think it's striking that it matters less than if there's wrestling involved. Right, sure. um as long and i think it's striking that it matters less than if there's wrestling involved right sure yeah but like uh there's only what's it's easy for let's people understand in the twitter there's only one golden belt champion for each weight categories you know like it doesn't

matter you know bellator ufc uh one fc there's one champion in the toy for it doesn't matter how many promotions and then do they have like a stadium champion like they have in thailand or the no no no stadiums change all the time okay Okay. So what is the organizing body? So at the WLC, this is the World Litwe Championship. It's like the major league of Litwe. And yeah, now they're actually going to do, we're saying everything, but we'll be doing an event in the state next year. Really?

Yes. In the United States? Yes. Is it legal? You know the first state to legalize Litwe? Alabama. Wyoming. Oh, those crazy, those bare knuckle motherfuckers up there.

Those are cowboys. Wyoming, they don't give a fuck up in Wyoming, man. There's grizzly bears up there. There's only 80 people. I've never been there. Yeah, it's awesome. You've been? It's beautiful.

No, never been there. Okay. Never. I've been to neighboring towns, you know, or neighboring states, but Wyoming's gorgeous. Okay. But they want to do it like in Miami, in Florida. They try to get in florida they wouldn't let it go in florida they're trying to get it there that would be more prestigious than doing than doing my no man wyoming's the shit i love wyoming you're gonna get a endorsements from wyoming no because it's

like it's uh it's one of the last truly wild places like there's beautiful cities and beautiful homes and stuff wyoming but it's a gorgeous state and it's got real wildlife they have wolves and grizzly bears and elk and it's just like a it's just i've never hunted there but you definitely can't where's the best place uh utah colorado's great there's a lot of montana i've hunted in montana did you ever go out of the country uh only no no i've never hunted in montana did you ever go out of the country uh only no no i've never hunted in other countries if you had to go where would it be like out of the country australia is really good i have a good buddy of mine adam green tree he lives in australia there's a lot of hunting out there and um new zealand there's a lot of hunting in new

zealand so it's a nice trip as far but yeah af's nice. Africa's weird. Hunting in Africa is very strange. Like, it's got too many connotations attached to it, but there's a lot of wildlife there. And it could be rough through some places. Oh, yeah. Oh, hell yeah. I heard some stories. I heard some stories. Yeah, yeah.

Well, it's obviously an enormous continent, but some of the countries can definitely be rough. But there's a lot of these areas that are supported by people hunting wildlife. If I did hunt, I would only be hunting things like antelope, things that you eat. I would never hunt like an elephant or any of that shit. No desire. How often do you hunt? Because I saw, like, I want to do it too because it looks healthy. Oh, it's the best meat in the world.

I wish you were staying around here, man. I'd give you some. I have a freezer full of elk meat out there. And it's like How's the texture It's like It's like a lean meat It's like Like venison

If you've ever had venison It's very lean You have to cook it At low temperature Slowly Is it chewy No No

It's not that chewy I mean it's more chewy Than say like a real Fatty beef steak But I love it man I love it It's so good for your body And it's like wild

Oh yeah 100% wild Yeah Just dodging mountain lions and trying not to get jacked by wolves and bears and shit I followed

Nature's Metal because of you oh dude that's badass Nature's Metal is the best the best Instagram there's like

Kyle Dunnigan's the funniest and Nature's Metal is the best and one of the coolest is King Lezik also that's a pretty good one too yeah right

the headbutts but Nature's Metal man I watched one bear attack a deer and he was screaming like a human yeah

oh in the backyard yeah yeah yeah that's awful I always show that to people that think the bears are like these cuddly little things bro they eat deers alive

they eat them while they're alive I show that to people that think that we're like we're over nature you know like we're mammals. Yeah, we're a part of nature. We just live in cities and we're very well protected.

Yeah. Yeah, but that's one of the things that I actually enjoy about hunting is when you're out there in the wild, the real wild, wandering through the mountains, you realize how vulnerable you are. You know, when you see bears or you see mountain lions. Well, I don't bring a gun. I hunt with a bow. Oh, you hunt. Okay, okay. you are you know when you see bears or you see even with this well i don't bring a gun i hunt with a bow okay but yeah i mean even with a gun you're still i mean if you don't shoot something or if it comes from behind you like a cat yeah like a mountain lion will fuck you up man you have a rifle and you don't even have one in the chamber and a mountain lion jumps in your back

good luck getting gracking a bullet and getting your safety off and getting some distance like there's no way you can like you can't like i poke the guy a cat people have survived by stabbing them people have survived you know there's people that have been in life or death situations with cats and they've managed to stab it it's possible but it's not likely okay likely you're getting fucked up it's that's like a if there's a simulation one day, I want to try it. And you can retry it. A simulation where you don't actually get your face ripped off. And with a bear too, that would be nice.

How would it go? Did you see that video recently of the trainer? Did you see that? Yes. The trainer, the bear just decides, you know what? Fuck this game. Just tears the guy apart. That can happen at any moment.

You're not supposed to do that with bears. Say hi to them. You see them. Hopefully, you're in your car. Keep driving. Wave at them. Don't get out of the fucking car. And definitely don't try to train them.

Did you see one when there were no hair? Oh, yeah, yeah. It's not the most beautiful creature. Creepy looking. Yeah, creepy looking. Yeah. Anyway, back to the way. Yeah, please go.

So we're talking about uh the prison fight i believe or something like that so yeah so i get yeah i know actually we're going to i crossed over to let's wait and then i you know i was giving a just to tell you how much like i i really wasn't prepared how much and it's kind of a crazy how it happened the my translator burmese translator before entering the ring told me you know if you want to protect your head but don't forget you put your hand on on his head right I'm like what do you mean he's like well you know put your head so if he strikes you it's not going to cut you and that's what I teach in my seminars too and I'm like wow and I that's like literally before they call my name so I go in the fight and actually stop the headbutt from this yeah and like people at home that you know

let's say I try to you know if I would put my hand on my head in a clinch, right? And he would strike on my forehead and he could still strike me in the jaw. If I put on my jaw, I can still go to my temple. But the goal is to, and we can do it after a little bit, like I would put on your head. And if you strike me, it's going to stun me but not cut me. Right. That's the key. But then again, why is it so different?

And why is it so different? It's because you lose a limb not cut me. Right. So that's the key. Yeah. But then, again, why is it so different? It's because you lose a limb that you could use for striking. You have to put it on the head of your opponent. So you have like one limb left to hit or whatever. Right. So complete different clinch. And most people, when they clinch in Muay Thai, whatever, they clinch, they hold the biceps, right? But then in the middle, there's a headbutt.

Right. It's really cool that there's still one martial art in the world that still will not budge. It will keep it raw. It's an effective technique. And this has always been my problem with glory, that glory doesn't allow elbows. I'm like, why not have full Muay Thai rules? Allow the clinch. Allow knees to the body in the clinch. Allow elbows, knees to the face, the plum.

I mean, all those techniques are very valid to be able to cross over an elbow in the clinch i mean this it's very skillful it's real and it's you like yeah so that's why you add elbows and then head man that is uh that's another element yeah that's the thing so that's why i think headbutts should be allowed in mma i believe i think so too and, well, we have MMA, which is like the most generalist martial art with the grappling and the wrestling and the striking. But then in Lituya, we have like the most permissive striking sport on the feet. That's pretty exciting to do. Well, bare knuckle boxing, they're doing a lot of that in Wyoming, by the way. Oh, it's in Wyoming?

Yes. That's where they do it. I think that's the only state. See if that's the only state that allows it. I think it might be one of the only states that allows it. I was a big proponent of bare knuckle in MMA. I was like, why do you get to pad the knuckles up

when you don't pad the shins and the elbows? It doesn't make any sense. But then the cuts. The truth? Mississippi and New Hampshire have also recently added it but wyoming was the first yeah i needed jamie in my life yeah there you go everybody does yeah the the cuts are huge and that's the thing but it's only hands right right if you would have your legs to push them away you would have your elbows you have the the head butts you would i

feel um it's even more realistic they would get less cut up yeah i get less cut too and i think you know in a way i actually think like if you look in general most little fights i have a bit less cut than than than the bare knuckle boxing because it's really you're just standing in front of each other and you just punch it it's right i i want to be the new generation little fighter because the burmese actually they go in the pocket and it's a bloodbath. You know, scar tissue everywhere, short careers. You don't fight like that.

I don't want that. I want to go back to my wife and be, hey, baby, I'm good. So you fight. Well, you also are very long, right? You're tall and long for your weight class. Yeah. So even though you're fighting large, what are you, 6'3"? I'm 6'2".

6'2". So when you're fighting these guys, do you usually have a height advantage? Yeah, and that's a good point. So basically people say, because Tutu and Tuntun Min, that's another guy, Tuntun Min, he was the legend,

he was the former champ, the one I defeated for the Golden Belt. He was the open weight champ. So Tutu was 75 kg and the other one was open weight. So basically, Tuntun Min and him are both around 5'9", 5'10". But the thing is, it's actually, and now after facing taller opponents like Americans and French and Australians, 6' and up, 6'3", and everything,

if you look at this, he's like 5'9", would it be about here, 5'10", and then the headbutt would go right away to my jaw yeah okay and a six and and if if i want to headbutt him at 5'10 5'9 i would have to drop my level then do a headbutt right it's slower but if i like i fought uh in august you know said bezinski is like 6'3 i didn't get to didn't get to seth bezinski fought in that way yeah i didn't know that yeah yeah you fought him yeah last month how did it go uh second round i got him with a weave and then a hook in the pen i but i think he was uh he was pretty cautious of the head but we didn't get in the in the pocket so it was yeah it was in burma he's a cool guy he's a very cool guy very good yeah i didn't know he was doing that yeah he was bigger than me though he's a big it's a big fella you got he's not 170 anymore no no yeah so is there cutting

weight in left way well in the wlc now they're trying they're trying to put like more strict weight class and uh but before like i said i fight i fought open weight but now open weight was very restrictive as more as the popularity popularity of left way increases there's more big guys i want to fight right so now in w now in WLC, I'm fighting cruiserweight, which was 185 pounds. Dude, that guy headbutting, who's that supposed to be? The guy in your shirt?

That's me. That's you? I got that by a fan. It's pretty cool, no? Yeah, that is cool. And it's the same face as I do when I headbutt. You're a very angry face.

Well, I try to be kind outside of the ring. Yeah, an angry inside of it. And we don't let anybody... So have other big-name guys like Seth fought in the UFC for quite a long time? I think 11 fights. Yeah. And he did the Ultimate Fighter 2. Is there other guys at that level that are starting to make their way to left-way?

Well, I actually got a message the other day from Diego Sanchez. Diego is so fucking crazy. Of course he wants to do it. He said, Well, I actually got a message today from Diego Sanchez. Diego's so fucking crazy. Of course he wants to do it. He said, Dave, I'm not in UFC anymore. He's not? Oh, maybe I shouldn't say that. Oh, shit.

He just dropped a scoop. Diego Sanchez is not in the UFC. He said, I'm off with my contract. If you want to give me a left way fight in WLC, it would be nice. Wow. Is that fucking psycho? Of course he wants to do it. I think he would love it oh yeah he'd love it he's perfect for it yeah i'll corner him too yeah that's interesting but so yeah apart from that there's been like it was mostly strikers and i had i fought cyrus washington maybe you know oh yeah sure yeah also

disfigured him too yeah yeah and we had a little bit of rivalry and uh he's a very good fighter very good fighter but he wasn't able he was running around the entire freaking fight he's a shorter guy too right he was 5 10 i believe is he yeah 5 11 i'm not sure but you're a bit shorter than me but uh yeah he's a guy that throws a lot of spinning techniques yeah and i was aware of that and i was i wanted to make sure that you know i keep my distance but then i had i know i had a better inside game than him so i don't want So I wanted to go inside fast, yeah. Yeah, so him and a couple, yeah. But the biggest name was the Burmese guys.

You know, there are like 55 men people. For people at home, there's 55 men people in Myanmar, and their national sport is Litwe. Yeah. And it's like a religion there. That is crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy that it's so popular there

and most people unless you're a hardcore martial arts fan you don't even know about it yeah you know there's a lot of ufc fans probably listening to this podcast just hearing about let way for the first time yeah and it's it's okay because i had like again jim's that hosted a seminar with me and he said he's a martial artist for 40 years and never heard about litway wow so it's okay we're in we're in that transition now you know but then in 20 30 years when they're gonna ask hey do you know about litoy yeah i heard the podcast well it's also youtube i think a lot of the videos of your fights and some other fights on on youtube people go whoa they see the the head butts and the body slams and the suplexes and shit it just shows like wow this is wild this is a wild

sport it's pretty exciting how long are the rounds are they normal length three minutes five rounds of three minutes yeah okay yeah exactly

so it's very similar to Muay Thai yes but then the crazy part which my fights I fought in traditional literary rules is that you have

an injury timeout an injury timeout so meaning that let's say you knock me out Joe and then I I have they pull me out

in my ring in my corner they slap my face i i have they they pull me out in my ring in my corner they slap my face they bite my ear they pull my ear whatever they want to make me up they want to bite your ear but that helps you wake you up really i don't know it hurts no it wakes have they done that not to me i never used but you've seen people do that pull the hair yeah you've seen them bite each other's ears yeah they go they're just like they mumble they just chew on the ear a little bit. Really? It hurts, no? Well, I'm sure it hurts,

but I mean, what about ice? It seems like that'd be a better way to wake you up. They do everything. Because let's say you have two minutes to get revived. Okay, so you get KO'd.

Yeah. And the fight's not over? Two minutes to get revived? Why isn't the fight over? I don't know. That's the traditional, back 2,000 years ago, they want to give

another chance. What? But the WLC, thankfully... Oh my God, that is so crazy. Yeah. W another chance. What? But the WLC, thankfully... Oh my God, that is so crazy. Yeah. WLC's eliminating that?

They're doing that and I'm good with that. If you want guys to have a career out of Le Twy, it's better for the brain. Oh yeah, a lot better.

Because I've seen, I think only seen one time, actually it was Tuntunmin with I think Cyrus, where actually you get the only guy, you know, you get knocked out,

he went back to his corner, got revived, and won the fight. What? Yeah. He went by decision? No, there's no decisions. Cyrus Washington's corner threw in the towel. Wow. That is so ridiculous.

That's really rare. So most of the time when you use your timeout, your outlet, you're going to just get knocked out twice. Yeah. I would imagine. I mean, you just had a serious head. Oh, is that it right there? Yeah.

Show it to me in the beginning. Show it to me in the beginning. Nice elbow. You knocked, boom, elbow here. Oh, my God. He's out fucking cold. Yeah, look, they drag him out, and he actually finished and won the fight. That is insane.

So they drag him. That is fucking insane. That is fucking insane that they, oh, my God. They're going to bite ears soon. No, they're not going to bite his ears. Don't tell me they're going to bite his fucking insane. That is fucking insane that they... Oh, my God. They're going to bite ears soon. No, they're not going to bite his ears. Don't tell me they're going to bite his fucking ears. Look, they drag him. He's out cold.

And this is one of the strongest... This is Tuzumin. Yeah. So they sit him down. He's literally unconscious. And he wakes up now. And he's starting to wake up with a lot of water on his head. That's hard, though.

That's freaking hard. Can you think about that? What, Jamie? they just bit his ear rewind who's biting his ear they're pouring water on him he's gonna do it right there huh anyway anyway just like yeah that's the oh he tried to bite his ear he really did that's so that's oh jesus christ so they just pour in water on him and they give him a chance to wake up hey wake up bro and he's that is so crazy what kind of right there right there yeah oh my god he's kissing him too he's making out with him he's like bro i'm gonna fuck you if you don't wake up and the crowd goes crazy because they like you know know, they're... They want him to keep going. Yeah, it's like, it's really about grit and about like heart and he goes back.

Look after like 30 seconds and he ends up winning. Are they gambling here as well? I'm not aware of it. Really? A little bit. It's not, but it's not only Thailand. I know there's no alcohol served. It's really about...

It's about Litwe. But it's not like Thailand. Yeah. Okay, so here's Cyrus Washington. They put his mouthpiece in and he's aware of the rules, right? Yeah. So he knows he knocked him out. Yeah. But then it's a long Thailand. Yeah. Okay, so here's Cyrus Washington. They put his mouthpiece in, and he's aware of the rules, right? Yeah. So he knows he knocked him out. Yeah, but then it's a long time after that.

How much time? It's a long time. Like how long? At the end of the fifth round. But how much time did they give him? A break? Oh, it's a minute or two break in between rounds. No, but you mean while he got knocked out to revive him?

It was a two-minute break. Just two minutes? Yeah. Oh, look at this. He's already back to it, you know? That is crazy. It was a two minute break Just two minutes Yeah Oh look at this And he's already back to it You know That is crazy It was knockout cold That's crazy

Boy this is so bad For your brain So I fought Both of them I fought Cyrus And I fought Tuntumin Three times So basically

Oh look yeah It's the end So Cyrus just quit He's out Yeah Tao was there Like it's over Wow It's over

So Tuntumin won the fight Wow That's crazy welcome to the world of litoy wow but that's so insane that they revive him i mean that was out cold so to the men now uh like that i have a big rivalry with him uh we had a trilogy fight with together and uh he's one of the strongest guys i ever saw in my life like he's like he's almost like immune to i don't know he has he's tough so uh but think about like i was watching when i when i got into latvia my coach showed me showed me fights i got in i saw his

fights right and i was like it's it seems so far away to go actually there i was a little kid from montreal you know fromatineau actually and then fast forward a couple years later, I'm fighting him for the most anticipated rematch in Lithuanian history,

right? Like it was like it was everywhere in the country live on national TV. It was like 30 million people watching it

like almost the whole country. It was insane and then 30 million people? It's crazy. People in the huts and they have a satellite

and the people gather in the villages they and they have a satellite and the people gather in the villages they don't have electricity but they have like they don't have running bathrooms but they have a TV with a satellite

and then we we fight in December last year and that's actually you showed my headbutt last time that was with him

oh yeah you know the headbutt knocked out the knockdown that you showed yeah and you said like this dude do it a lot yeah because people were saying oh headbutt doesn't work like no no yeah that was during fight companion yeah i was telling them no no no you gotta see dave you're good man you're that was good i appreciated that but uh so yeah that was

the headbutt my first headbutt knockdown like this uh like this uh it really i use headbutt i use the head to create distance so let's say we're in the clinch right and you i i would like i would put my forehead the hard part of my skull on the jaw on the iroita on the on the sterno on the mastoid muscle here and i would just use it to push and then i couldn't bring back bring it back so create space and then headbutt now the way you work the pads with headbutts is that something that you invented i never i was never told so i just i just started i wanted to get better right so i started doing it yeah i pretty much invented it wow i mean i cannot put invented but like i started doing it but you well you

started actually doing pad work for head butts though yeah in a more refined way because they do that in myanmar a little bit of head butts on the pad but like i wanted to know more refined way and following up with you want want, oh, look at this. You do with a cord. Don't show this one. Neck flex. Oh, that's so ridiculous. But actually, I actually have- What is neck flex?

Is that something like the iron neck, like the same sort of a deal? To be honest, I don't know if you're, that's for you. Okay. Look at that. So it's a chain for weights and then a cord. So this is my lifesaver, man, for my neck,

to be honest. I used to have those, you know, the blighty thing in thailand right with the freaking uh concrete concrete thing yeah but then explain what that is so basically for people at home like it's like a cord i was always the last guy after the gym to go train my neck because i feel like it helped it helps for headbutt prevention and concussion and everything right definitely helps concussion prevention and i feel like if you would punch me in on the front what what absorbs the impact would be my sternocleidomastoid muscle.

Yeah. And so then I started doing this. But when you bite a weight and you pull it up, it works the back of the neck. But then I was doing neck raises. I was on my back and I was doing neck raises for the front of the neck. But then I was getting a bit stronger. So I was putting like kettlebell on my forehead to get stronger. But then I can't carry this biteable neck on my trips, on my tours.

So then this guy reaches up. He's like, well, you can bring that in your luggage, and then you can put a 45-pound on it if you want. That's pretty practical, right? Yeah. So then I started just doing my neck like this, and I like it. It's practical. When I'm on tour right now, I can just do my neck everywhere in any gym with a weight you know have you ever used an iron neck no no no i have one out here i want you to try it because i think it's the best

for training your neck because it allows you to rotate okay so you put it on it's like a halo and then it has a 50 pound bungee cord you like it i love it okay grapplers love it like john jock machado swears but can you do like heavy weights like because this i can do like a 45 pound no you don't okay you don't do weight no so the idea is you don't think it would be good to do weights i don't know see it's it's very controversial some people think that when you're doing like the traditional i have one of those uh head things a leather thing with a chain like that you put a plate on it and you do these i've done these but some people think that that motion with weights

puts unnecessary pressure on your discs. Okay. So the idea with the iron neck is there's never any pressure on your disc because your neck is straight. Okay.

So you get a halo. The halo sits on top of your head. It forms. I saw that picture, yeah. You pump it up so it gets tight to your head. But I feel like all those twisting

can be a bit like not detrimental for the disc. You know, you twist a lot. Just got to try it. We'll try it afterwards. I'll show it to you. But I mean, I'm not a physiologist. But I've talked to people that I really respect.

And they don't like the weight thing. Okay. Well, I guess because I use the weight. And I feel like actually maybe you saw a video I did with Bass the other day. And I laid with Bass. No, I didn't see it. I put it up. When was this? It was eagle throat in the Bass. No, I didn't see it. Yeah, put it up. What was this?

It was eagle throat in the neck. Oh, eagle throat in the neck is legit. I tell people that. Like, if someone's fucking with you, like, just grab their neck, slam them in the neck like that. But this, I feel like as I'm doing more neck, my muscle overlaps my trachea, right? Oh, yeah. All this? Yeah.

All this stuff right here? I want to feel it. Yeah, man. Get in there, girl. Get that shit up. Tight it up. Okay. Okay. It's a little something damn man you got a lot of muscle in there so you're doing a lot of this a lot of neck raises doing it every day every two days and i do it like you do neck bridges as well yes yes neck

raises back in front yeah and pendulum and everything but i'm not i'm not doing like side yeah i'm just doing frontal because uh i frontal because I don't want to risk it. I don't know. Tyson was doing a lot of, you know, Tyson was in. He fucked his neck up too, you know. Tyson had to get surgery on his neck. It's risky, the neck bridges. If you don't do it well, you can hurt your back.

Yeah, neck bridges are a lot of wrestlers want to fuck their neck up on that. Yeah. I mean, you put a lot of weight, you know. You see that arc when you're rolling back and forth. And the thing is, it's tremendous pressure on the discs it's an unnatural pressure okay this is the whole concept behind the iron neck okay is that you don't put that kind of pressure because you never have like a flexation okay of the neck while you're strengthening okay and but definitely like for example when i when i let's see you by the neck where i put the the neck flex on my head

like when i do this i feel like like, oh, my trap working. So I feel it's like any muscle, like bicep, build up muscle, and frontal, yeah, frontal would be neck raises. Are you doing trap work as well? Do you do shrugs and things like that? I'm not the biggest guy, you know, but I feel like a strong neck, a strong back, everything is crucial. And again, for people at home, when you do a head butt, why I say train your strong neck, a strong back, everything is crucial. And again, for people at home, when you do a headbutt,

why I say train your fucking neck, right? It's not because I want to do a whip with my head. That's actually when it's detrimental for your spine. When I do a headbutt, if you look at all my videos and headbutts, it's like my spine is rock solid and you use your legs. So your head is stable, your neck is stable, but it's strong. But then you push with your legs to create a good headbutt. Yeah.

You're developing real power with that headbutt. It's not just like a thump, like a thoughtless sort of a thump. No, you want it to feel. You're doing it like a technique. Yeah. And then you would actually people say, ah, and we can talk about this. But if you do headbutts, you know, it's going to be a brain damage. Well, first of all, any martial art, any contact sport, there's a risk. We're not playing soccer here. Right. And even if you are, to be a brain damage well first of all any any martial art any contact sport there's a risk we're not playing soccer here right but and even if you are soccer players get

brain damage with the ball heading the ball yeah for sure so i mean let's do what we have life is short we don't know what's going to happen after so let's do what we love i love doing headbutts so you know so basically when i when i uh i feel like if you hit with a hard part of your skull with like the horseshoe the horseshoe yeah you know i feel like you you hit with a hard part of your skull With like the horseshoe Yeah You know I feel like you're inflicting Maximum damage to your opponent But not to myself

There's a great video of a girl Like a girl Who's This fucking guy Is in her face Talking shit Outside of a bar And she grabs his collars

She grabs his collars And fucking slams her head Into him And he goes out It's the best It's hilarious though I want to see It's hilarious Because this guy is way bigger than her and he goes out it's the best it's hilarious though it's hilarious this guy's way bigger than her he's just being a dick and she's like oh yeah okay if i have a daughter one day if i have you know i want to teach your headbutt and kick into ground

it's not you know you don't want to those are two good move here it is here it is watch it this is a fucking hilarious video so this guy is like oh you see there they're they're in the middle of like this thing let's see when when does it actually happen the guy is like pushing her and backing her up boom look at that alcohol bitch oh that's a good one fuck you she got him and she's pushing her yeah she's tiny way smaller than him i mean i don't know what was being said but he was pushing her And pushing her back She's like You're out bitch

Love it Boom So girls learn out of their head But it's self defense That girl probably wakes up In the middle of the night When she has to pee And thinks about that

It's like yeah I got that motherfucker I got him Boom You see she used her legs To do it Oh fuck yeah dude That girl

She did it well Somebody taught her Or she just has good instincts WLC get her a lethwick contract do they have women that fight let's yes sir really yeah one actually was uh maybe you've heard about she was on the ultimate fighter um show with uh julia uh she's a lithuanian and she she went uh she went pretty far i think but she uh from lithuania she won in japan lithuania is pretty getting pretty big in japan really? interesting there's a Latwe in Japan

I fought there three times in Tokyo no kidding Latwe is well I know that the awareness of it is growing like what is is the internet

is that what's making people more aware of it some people say the internet some people say it's Dave I don't know maybe you well it's you too I'm sure

you know that there's like a face that speaks English that you know is the head guy you couldn't have like two men speak in english right it's hard to get excited about it sometimes that's all it takes is like someone who crosses over becomes the best at it from another country and then you can speak english clearly and so no accent no well you obviously have an accent but it's clear but it's actually learned english uh while watching fear factor no you didn't.

I was watching it in Quebec. Maybe, but that's not how you learned English. That's why I swear so much. I'm joking. I never swore in Fear Factor. That doesn't even make any sense. How many fights have you had over there? I'm over 10.

It's like I choose right now. My first couple of years, I was doing like six fights, like four or five fights and i was getting like super uh not depressed but like it was very redundant you know it's like every two months same same technique same pad session same thing same running same heels it was like and i had like whoa and i was like getting injured everywhere like my elbows were hurt my knuckles were swollen so i'm like i called my wife and i i called her after. I was like, can we just take a break? And now I negotiated like a very good contract with the WLC and they take care of me. So I'm able to take, you know, one or two fights a year.

Oh, that's great. So how many fights have you had total? I would say, I would have to check. I think Wikipedia has it like maybe 12 or 11 or something like that. But then, yeah. Yeah. So this year I only fight once. And so it's better, you think 11 or something like that but then yeah yeah yeah so last this year i only fight once and so you're you're it's better you think yeah you do it that way i'm still like

it's like a dog on a leash with a you put that i'm hungry to go fight right and i actually have a they fight like once every two months they fight very a lot right the burmese and um i feel one guy actually fights four times this month like a young young Burmese fighter, he fights four times. I'm like, wow. But I feel like I have a unwillingly, I'm happy with it, but like an ambassador, right? So I have to, not only for the sport, for the country too. So I have to do a lot of other work. So right now I'm working on my online academy. So people can learn Litwe via videos.

I need to film like a lot of videos. And you are really famous in Myanmar, right? I need to film like a lot of videos and you are really famous in Myanmar right like someone told me that your wedding 30 million people watched your wedding on television there more than that I think but yeah that's fucking insane it was so the story that's like look so now we go back to the story when we when I when I went to over after prison fight I went to Myanmar then I after after we didn't even talk about the prison fight we kind of skipped over it I mean I won like yeah so it's no matter I think the more important is the Lithuania part. So then I talked about it because that was my connection to the promoter.

Then the promoter gets me into Lithuania. And then I beat up Tutu. And then I get right away challenged by Tutunmen, the openweight. So like the best in the country. When you're the openweight champ, you're the best in the world in Lithuania, right? The biggest and the strongest. So he's a champ, you're the best in the world in Latwe, right? The biggest and the strongest. So he's a third, fourth,

five generation Latwe fighter. His grandfather was a Latwe fighter and they were all Golden Belts winners, right? So he's born in the, like if you look where he lives, it's raw, man. It's Lahut,

it's in the jungle and he's raised in the headbutt culture. Like, you know, he's an animal. He's a headhunter. He just goes for the head and he has a good right hand. So I'm'm like and i knew right away after that fight with

tutu i he was fighting that night too so we uh i go shake his hand he doesn't know yes and no in english that's how bad he is and i i say good fight and he's like you just give me a head and i knew that we're gonna meet so we meet and yeah, and then, where was I going with this? Basically, what was your question, Joe? You said, No, just keep going so you meet him.

With the first fight, I think it's important to talk about this because I was, only my second lightweight fight ever, right? And I'm fighting the best. Two legends in a row.

Yeah, exactly. So I'm like, they want to get me, oh, two didn't get him so let's get two men to fuck him up, right? So I go back, I was at Tiger at the time. We'll go back to this later.

They were laughing at me because I was doing headbutts on the bags. It was all a big show every time I was doing headbutts. Oh, look at Dave doing this. I had to teach this guy with 300, my coach at the time,

my pad holder at the time, I had to teach him how to hold pads for headbutts. That's the way I developed a bit the way to do, you know, jab, cross, hook, headbutt, elbow,

stuff like that. So then, they're laughing, okay, cool, I don't care, I'm winning fights. I go there and first fight,

that's the hard part, man. Like, the first round, the first couple rounds, the three rounds, I push kick his stomach and he grabs it and he sweeps my other leg

many times. So I actually sectioned the back of my leg, like it was, I push kick his stomach And he grabs it And he sweeps my other leg Many times So I actually sectioned The back of my leg Like it was I had to do physio Like my nerves I think in the back Of my right leg

Was like Sectioned Maybe not sectioned But like severely damaged Okay So yeah Section would be pretty bad So

What do you mean by sectioned? Does that mean like tear? Like tear the Yeah it was like and damage is that from kicking you the back of your leg because he did it many times in the same spot right on my the back of my knee okay which there's a lot of nerves so he's catching your teep kick and then kicking your other leg yes okay so then many times and i don't it's tearing yeah yeah and i don't really i'm like what the fuck like uh because i i want to go inside i want to do my elbows and i can't because i and uh so then adaptation i think is key in life as well right you need to to to adapt and for that so again this guy is 70 fights uh you know i think yeah

like uh all my chaos he's just smashing everyone and then um i uh i started adapting i went i went to the leg instead the push went to the leg instead Push kick to the leg Instead of the stomach And that He couldn't catch it anymore And then it was It was making him buckle up

So that was a big A big thing in my So you're hitting him Above the thigh Hyper extending the knee Yeah And he can't get in So he's a bull

They call him the bull So he goes inside He can't go inside If I'm pushing his leg too much Right So he's having a hard time And he's gassing out A little bit

Because he gives He usually knocks him out In the first round he goes far right so then i'm like i kind of i knocked him out a couple times like knocked him down a couple times at the end of the fight so it was a real draw right it was a real draw so we ended up the first fight as a draw but then right away automatic rematch we fight you again how long two? Two months. Two months. Your leg is fucked up. Yeah. But then it was an added sweetener. Again, I'm very emotional today. I have goosebumps. Because it changed my life, Joe. Basically, it was,

if you win this fight, it's going to be December 2016. If you win this fight, we're going to pay for your wedding. And it's for the golden belt. So the other one was only a challenge fight, you know, but when the,

when the, like this was actually for like, you can, it's for the title fight. So I got two draws and now it's like title fight. So I'm like, let's go. I train and,

uh, I train hard and, uh, yeah, we go, we meet up again. And now I, I,

cause I, I propose the arena, I propose the arena, uh, after the other fight in Bagan. By the way, if you have a chance to go there, beautiful. 10,000 temples, UNESCO protected temples. And you go there at 5 a.m., 4 a.m. And you see the sunrise on those temples.

And there's a hot air balloon. It's beautiful. Wow. So I proposed to Irina in Russian. I learned my script in Russian. And she says yes. I don't script in Russian, and she says yes. I don't know how it tricked her to love me. So we go there,

but then it makes the news in Myanmar, right? So Dave got engaged in Bagan. So then the promoter calls me, so hey, you got that fight in December? If you win, you want to get married in Myanmar? I said yeah. So it's going to be a Myanmar traditional wedding. So full gold with like,

I'll show you pictures. It's pretty cool. But it's going to be in a Myanmar traditional wedding. So full gold with like, I'll show you a picture that's pretty cool. But it's going to be like we're going to make an event out of this. So obviously he's not stupid. The guy pays 20 grand, but he's going to make an, he's going to. Put it on television. Yeah, a bit like what they did with, you know, they helped Connor or whatever. Like they want to build a fire, you know? Sure, sure.

So it's live on TV and it's a BBC freaking everything. Wow. So I had a lot of pressure. I had to win. I don't want my wife to, because the wedding was going to happen regardless, right? But this could be a better wedding, right? Yeah, I don't want to. What do you guys?

Oh, that's not the most glamorous one. Maybe there's another one. It's pretty cool, man. This one or, yeah. Wow. Yeah, pretty cool. So you have Irina Terehova and Dave Lezook in Burmese language. Wow.

That was pictures from BBC. Yeah. Look at my hat. Maybe, Jamie, you can go on the left. Yeah, maybe you can see the hat. This one, yeah. Look, I have like a hat. It's pretty cool.

What is that hat called? I don't know the name. But when you see my skirt, it's called a longi. Longi. So this, Joe, this is, everybody in Myanmar has that. It's also in India. In India, it's called a lungi lungi so this yo this is everybody in myanmar has that it's also in india in india they call that the lungi and in myanmar they call it the lungi most comfortable thing in the world you wear that it's like a kilt i have one for you you have one for me it's directly from myanmar it fits in that little tiny bag

yeah so you're gonna look it's like a long thing this is directly from Burma and basically yeah so it's like a kilt it's like a kilt no a kilt would be

knee up right and this is lower this one is all the way down oh all the way down the ground and I have a story for that okay so this actually

like I don't give you expensive gifts the dudes wear underwear that's a dollar by the way a dollar nice so I don't now do these guys. The dudes wear underwear? That's a dollar, by the way. A dollar? Nice. Sweet.

Now, do these guys wear underwear under this, or are they free balling? They commando. No, they wear underwear. Okay. But then the story with this, and we'll go back to the fight, guys, is just that people wear that very comfortable. But then when war happens, you put it up, and it looks almost like a diaper, right? And and you can kick because this you can't kick with this oh i see and you put it up and then it show off your your leg tats because they have a big tradition of leg tattoos oh and that's where you get all your tattoos in your legs does it come from being over there yeah okay yeah so it is i waited i

waited before having them because i wanted to make sure i deserve them you know ah interesting okay and basically so i like that because when you don't know who's a fighter unless you see at your face but then let's say the the war was happening boom everybody gets their lungi up and they're ready for battle and you see oh he's a fighter oh he's a fighter oh he's a fighter right because the legs are tied it up got it back in the days everybody had uh every fighter that was fighting it we had the the toquin it's called okay, so back to the fight. Yes. Because we're doing a big 101 about Myanmar right now.

It's so many things to talk about. So the fight, and then I started, I actually had a Canadian TV following me for that fight, and he usually told me that day, usually when we follow somebody, the guy never wins. But I was pretty happy, so I ended up getting him a takedown. I get him with an elbow in the face. His head is open up, a pretty big gap in the head.

He's bleeding. And then I get a takedown, but I'm using a lot of my teeth this time. And he bucks them up, and I think their legs are not going too well. And then I do a takedown, and he falls on his leg, and then he has to use his timeout. So they bring him back, and he looks in pain. And I tell my corner, and I'm a bit like I'm bleeding because he got me to cut too.

That's also pretty rare. And then I'm here. I say, which leg is it? Which leg is it? And my corner at times, it's the right leg. So I'm like, okay. And then the two minutes ends up he goes back he's like he looks limping a little bit so i'm like i'm attacking the right leg so i try i try to hit it but he's and then i do another takedown and he's bleeding more then not long after that it was over he was he wasn't able

to get up all right so uh and actually when he fell down, it is a beautiful, it was a pretty intense moment. He fells down and right in front of the Canadian TV crew and the blood like leaks on the floor and it's pretty intense, like pretty cool. Pretty cool. Because I'm excited about this because like there's not a lot of good quality videos about Letoy. Right, right. Is that available online?

Yeah. Can Jamie pull that up? I mean, if you go to my like i don't youtube or something you could probably see um the thing while we're talking but so this makes you the golden bell champion exactly this is a giant moment for you and this also spreads the word about let way in canada it's well not automatically right because it happens in myanmar right so um and then but then then in Myanmar, it's just becoming like crazy. People, and we get married live on TV two days after the fight.

So it's like literally there. Now, they don't resent you for beating up their champion now? Well, okay, a little bit. Because he's representing the entire Muslim community in Myanmar. And I'm basically without even because I don't adhere to anything but like basically I'm representing

all like the 95 percenters which is like Christian, Buddhist and like everybody else basically so yeah yeah

they were so happy they were pretty excited because I think they knew that what was going to happen like we're going to promote their culture abroad, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. So they're just happy people are promoting the sport. Yeah. Yeah. Is it hard to find, Jamie? Yeah. Yeah.

If you maybe Google like new champion, I don't know, but it's, so that was a big moment. Now, when you look at the level of fighters from Letwe versus Muay Thai, obviously there's more Muay Thai fighters. there's more, more Muay Thai fighters. There's more fighters. Yeah. Yeah. What is the level like? Well,

obviously the guys are fucking like, everybody was like Russians prior to coming, they were coming and fighting. It was, Tutun was stopping them all the time. If you look at, if you look at all the fights, they,

they're, they're smashing everyone bare knuckle because people are not used to, for that. Is this it right here? Oh, then that's not, that's not one, but yeah. this it right here? That's not the one, but... Which one is this? That's another fight I fought a Thai guy.

What happened, Jamie? I just took it off. I took it off. It's fine. There's another one more important. But, yeah, the guys are like... What I was going to get out of, have you seen the level rise

with all these new fighters getting into the game well as like for example that was like a you know the lumpini champion came to miyamar and all like sayak i don't know you know mutai like sayak you know this guy i've heard the name yeah so he's like a thai champion lumpini champion or i think he's former champion yeah so he went to miy Myanmar many times to fight and he like he drawed with Tung Tung Min and all these so he's considered

one of the best Muay Thai fighter ever right what is the difference like when Thai fighters come over there what gets in their way like what trips them up

they're very technical and that brings me up to something else but basically they're very technical and they do very well for the first couple rounds but then when the pain

threshold starts to kick in when they start to clinch and then they get ahead but they're're like, whoa, what's happening here, right? Right. And that's good that you asked me this. If you look at Myanmar and then Thailand, two neighboring countries, they were fighting for thousands of years old.

And if you look at back in the days, the Tongtu Empire, I think, I don't know the exact date, but at that time, the Burmese Empire was like all of Southeast Asia, the biggest empire in Southeast Asia. So they were owning all of Thailand almost like Chiang Mai all these things like uh you know I'm not sure Vietnam and Laos all these things so it was very very powerful so that's why they say that Lithuania is the ancestor of all the Muay, Muay Lao, Muay Khao, Muay Thai you know because it makes sense they were while they were owning all these colonies right they were dropping their seeds of their martial arts.

So then as they retreat, eventually they pushed them away, and it became Burma as we go. And now they're starting a thing called Morbaran in Thailand. But then it's very suspicious. Like, how come you have that sport now with no gloves and headbutts? Morbaran is that. Yeah. But you were colonized for a long time by Littwe, by right so then uh so it's basically their version of it yeah and they added

big ropes instead of doing bare knuckle let's wait it was only a bit of gauze they added big ropes right so then but i went when the king of thailand did a great thing for to attract tourism which removed the headbutt and added a scoring system, and added gloves, 8-ounce gloves, and beautiful intricates, and it becomes beautiful Muay Thai as we know, very technical, very nice. But then what happened is that, let's say you're a Muay Thai guy,

you have big 8-ounce gloves, and by the way, if you punch, you don't score a lot of points. It's elbows and knees and kicks that score points. So what's going to happen over hundreds of years the guys are going to practice their kicks and they because that they're i think the thai guys are the strongest kickers in the world i believe and uh uh yeah so so then if you go but you go across and me i was like hey by the way guys no gloves no scoring system and uh if you if you uh it's k only to win they swing for the freaking

fence right so that's the two different type of, so you have way less kicks in, in Littway because you, you viralize, you, you prefer like, you know,

no gloves because you can draw blood right away with a punch. Makes sense? So yeah, it's just a history course. Have you thought about fighting more Muay Thai or maybe even fighting MMA

or do you? Yeah. Yeah, but not Muay Thai though. Not Muay Thai? I don't want to do it again. How come? Well, I represent Littwe.

Yeah, so you enjoy it more. Yeah, it's freeing. You can do headbutts. There's no glove. I don't want to put on gloves. I would consider maybe MMA. I have offers, but one championship and Bellator. I was actually with Kung the other day in San Jose.

Kung Lee, for those who don't know, he's a legend of martial arts Sanda specialist and he actually called Scott Quicker in front of me he's like

get him a fight like I said well give me a couple years I have a lot of things to do to be happy with my literary career more things to do but it's a possibility

and how old are you now? 27 27 so you're still young I mean you could make that transition into MMA if you wanted to. We can go to this, actually.

I actually fought MMA two times. Yeah. I was, so I'm a stupid when I was younger. So in that transition before going to prison fight, it's after prison fight, but like in that transition, like I had a year or two before raising enough money to go back. And like I said, my first love was grappling, right? So I did some fight nights, amateur MMA.

And I won my first MMA fight by guillotine. And then I went there again, another guillotine. So they gave me like the octopus. I'm a choking guy. And then third fight was against GSP's prodigy, like a Japanese guy. So I won by decision. So I was undefeated in MMA and amateur. But then I go back from Thailand.

I'm super excited. I'm doing my striking. And I did some stupid decision. Like nobody wanted to fight. Meunier is a good fighter. He's a good fighter. And he's in UFC now. What's his name?

Jonathan Meunier. He fought Colby Covict not long ago. And so nobody wanted to fight him. And he was like, it's going to be a striking fight. People were saying he was a great striker. So I said, let's go. I'm the best striker, so let's do something. So nobody was accepting the fight.

So I accepted the fight, but I think it was a bit early for my pro debut. He was already on the radar for UFC, right? So I took the fight at 170, but I was 170. So he was a big boy. I think he dropped down to like from 190. But then on the feet, I'm like, I'm winning. I'm doing some good spinning punches and everything.

But then Firas is in his corner and he's like, down, bring him down. So I just stupid. I went on the floor. And for me, I treated it as a BJJ competition. So when I'm on went on the i went on the floor and for me i treated it as a as a bjj competition so when i'm on the floor i'm on the floor you know i i wasn't i wasn't very developed yet i didn't have the ring experience yet and uh again he was the better fighter that that night for sure uh i almost had the arm bar actually and and i let it go and the referee i

eventually stopped the fight because of elbows and the clinch in the in the in the guard but uh i uh yeah i was a bit disappointed for this and uh so it was just a bad you know initial in early in my career now i'm a complete different fighter i fought you know in front of thousands of people i've i've have uh so uh again he's a great fighter but i know that it would be a different thing nowadays crazy that you you became this left-weight champion without really training left way like you didn't really go to a traditional left way gym or learn it from them you basically had your own approach thing together yeah yeah I think so I think it's like I said that no martial art in my in my in Canada we we do a lot of like you know San Sanda and a lot of Sancho. And my coach, Sifu Pat, he did like two pro fights,

but he's a great coach. He's a very great coach, and he just built me up. Because in Jeet Kune Do, he's a Sifu, right? So in Jeet Kune Do, there's a lot of, in the pocket, there's a lot of headbutts, actually. Everything goes. Sure, everything goes, yeah. So, yeah, I guess that's why I kind of did everything.

What do you want to do as far as your career? Do you want to establish some sort of dominance in Lethwei before you leave and go do something else? Well, to be honest, the only reason why I would consider going back to MMA would be because I have ego. I think all fighters have ego. And I want to fucking avenge my loss and stuff like that. But, honestly, I'm super happy with doing this.

My goal was to be champion. Now I've done it, so I don't need 25 belts to be happy. Right. But now, how long do you plan on doing this? Basically, you're the beacon right now, and a lot of people are drawn to you because you've become really the most worldwide famous left-weight fighter ever. And because of that,

you're going to get these guys that come like the Seth Baszynskis and guys who have fought other organizations and come to you. Is that what you would like to do?

I'd love that. Just be that guy and have everybody come to you and challenge you? Yeah, until like, I don't have that

hungriness anymore. It would be nice if there was a broadcast of this. That's on UFC Fight Pass now. Is it really? My last fight was set was on UFC Fight Pass.

No shit. Yes, sir. Dude, UFC Fight Pass has everything. I know. That's amazing. From Burma, they transmitted from Burma.

Wow, that's incredible. Who's doing the commentary? Is that Robin Black? It was Robin Black. All right, my man Robin. Shout out to him.

He was good. It was epic with this one. He's excellent. He's excellent. So actually, next one Hopefully you can make it It would be in

Either Wyoming or Florida When is it going to be? June 100% in June 100% We don't know which state though Okay so it's plenty of time Between now and then

Do you know who you'd be fighting? No No idea So yeah that's the thing So if it's going to be They're probably going to try to do it On pay-per-view or something right? Does it have anything to do

With the bare knuckle fighting guys? No Do they have anything to do with it? Different organization It's going a ufc fight pass i believe and then people can watch it live there it's gonna be pretty exciting to like it's the first historic debut of let's wait like 2000 years old of you know sport in the u.s i'm so excited that is very exciting yeah it's it's very it you know it's like there's different styles of mma or rather of martial arts that enter into MMA and become effective. Let's say the only thing that's missing is the headbutts from MMA. You know, you have this one element of your game that you wouldn't really be able to apply.

That's the thing. You know what? I was joking the other day a long time before I received these serious offers from other MMA promotions. I was like, if I go one day, I'm just going to headbutt the guy and get disqualified, and then it's going to day, I'm just going to headbutt the guy and, uh, get disqualified.

And then it's going to go viral. It's going to help. That's before I, well, I think one FC would probably allow headbutts for a fight. Oh, by the way, one FC is actually,

uh, partnered up with WLC. So they're, they're, they're very friend with, uh, the CEO. That's the thing.

So it makes sense. Yeah. Well, it makes sense because they allow soccer kicks on the ground, even inside a cage. But they actually had a Letui, not exhibition fight,

but Letui super fight inside of one of their shows in one championship. Oh, really? In Myanmar. Oh, that makes sense. So just to showcase the culture. Sure, sure.

I just see, I feel like if someone like you fought over there, I mean, they have such open rules. I mean, they have Muay Thai fights with MMA gloves. They have regular kickboxing. They have regular Muay Thai. But they messaged me for that.

They wanted me to fight Muay Thai. I don't want to fight Muay Thai. I said, I want to fight Latwe. He said, well, if you want to fight Latwe, go to WLC. And that's when we started getting along. Well, they're doing grappling competitions in one FC as well. They seem to be open to almost any martial art. Yeah, for sure. And also eSports esports now like that's the future why he's a good shatree is a good fight he's a good

doing esports yeah i saw that one esports no he's ahead of the wave yeah because it's going to be the future wow what games i don't know fighting games like street fighting games oh my god that would be hilarious if it became huge would they have ufc and one fc fighting the ufc no but i mean if they had the ufc video game if they were playing the ufc video game on this sport in in one fc that would be hilarious hilarious yeah it really would yeah oh my god look at that that's esport shit. Okay. One championship launches Asia's biggest eSport world championship. Chetri is just a visionary for this. Yeah. Look at the size of that fucking arena.

Nothing shocks me more than the massive popularity of eSports in terms of as a spectator sport. Not in terms of people playing it. I get that. Look at the total price, like $500,000 for eSports. No, no, no. Go to the other side. Go to the other side, Jamie the other side jamie let me see that picture look at that oh my god look at that that's a game fucking crazy world of warcraft i don't know is that what it is yeah yeah dota 2 is what it's called i don't know what it stands for this game i don't play it but it's uh we don't even know the game and they win like half a million dollars for this like they're like 14 years old 15 years old these guys I mean, there's real money in video games now.

Before, where parents would say, you're wasting your time. Go play golf. You can make money. You can make money playing video games. You play games? I do, but I get addicted to it. Yeah?

I have real problems. Like a day nonstop? I have fucking giant problems. We set up a land room. Jamie's laughing. Why are you laughing? It's true. Because he knows.

Yeah, I just want to see how much he gets in to tell you, but yeah. You get serious with it. I have a real problem. Are you an extremist? Like, if you do something, you do it like.

Yeah, I've got real problems, man. What's the game you like? It's effective. Like, look, if I want to get good at something,

my brain, it's good, because my obsessiveness allows me to really concentrate on excellence. Okay. But the problem is, like, there's no benefit for me getting really good at Quake Championship. You know, that's the game we're playing, right?

What is it? Quake. Quake Champions. Quake Champions. Yeah. That's what we're playing. We got a land room set up back there and we play it. Dude, I get sweaty hands.

Yeah, fuck Twitch. Okay. We're out there playing. We're just playing against each other. Okay, for fun. Yeah, man, but it's not fun. Okay. The problem is, I mean, it is fun. It's very fun. What is the game? We're out there playing We're just playing Against each other Okay for fun Yeah man But it's not fun Okay

The problem is I mean it is fun It's very fun It's a first person shooter No you have rocket launchers And rail guns It's definitely fun Don't get me wrong

But what's not fun Is the amount of time That it takes And how crazy I get Where I'm like In the middle of the night I'm thinking about playing it Like it'll be 3 o'clock

In the morning I've come down here Like I had to do something I worked out I can't like i'll leave my house i'll come down here to work out i'll work out the gym and say fuck it let me jump online get out next you know i'm here for four hours just playing quake yeah i understand jamie knows he's seen it like he's laughing is it like a real is it monsters or real people well it's it's you know robots and people with like you know like cyborgs and shit with crazy outfits on. But the point is it's a first-person shooter.

So you're in this 3D environment, and it's a mouse and a keyboard, and you're running down these hallways, and there's a lot of strategy involved, a lot of fast-twitch movements and aim. But it's very, very addictive, and it's graphically very intense. It's beautiful. It's crazy how little boys we are. It doesn't matter, right? Yes.

What's up? One of the companies that makes one of the really big esports games just announced that they're working on their first first-person shooter. I think it's their first first-person shooter. They did announce a title that just sort of showed a couple things they're working on. Not that you're going to get back into it, but it could get you back into it.

We have it right there, man. I can't do it. I had a quick cold turkey. How many months were we going at it every day solid three four every day man hours and hours every day jamie like laughed he's like you guys put in more time me and jeff who works here we're playing so much we put in more time and like how was it yeah like in like three or four i had the game on my computer at home for about a year playing it just off and on here and there probably put in like 30 or 40 hours over time playing they passed me in like three weeks oh yeah i'm telling you i got a problem but i had a problem like that with everything with jujitsu taekwondo with muay thai everything that i get

into i get into too much it's a good trait but as long as you can handle it yeah you got to know how to handle it like for me it's like i got to know when to cut things off like stop stop stop stop stop so for me with the video games it's like no cut it out because it was just eating i don't have any time man and i have kids i have a family and i have three jobs i just don't i don't have the time for these fucking video games but i like them too much. I know, I feel you. I like them. Now I got my phone

on the airplane because we took like literally like 20 airplanes this like, this last couple weeks. Oh, you play games on your phone? Yeah,

like Castle Defense. I just like. I don't have any games on my phone except my kids play games on my phone sometimes. I don't have any fucking games What do you do on an airplane?

You just sleep? I read. Okay. I read or I write. I write, you know, comedy material and stuff. I write things. I watch a movie maybe any fucking what do you do on an airplane you just sleep i read okay i read or i write i write you know comedy material and stuff i write things i'll watch a movie maybe but i don't play any games i just i don't i just don't trust myself okay okay just get too addicted yeah you should fucking play it with us sometime oh my god if we had more time today yeah man i'm telling you it's

super addictive i think obsession is key for any success. Yes. And I think every successful people is eccentric a little bit. Yes. I'm fucking weird. Of course. Yeah, we're both crazy. I think it's important. I think you have to be crazy to dedicate massive amounts of time to something and be obsessed. Yeah.

To acquire excellence in anything, I believe it requires a real, genuine obsession where that becomes a primary focus of your life but when you have a finite amount of time like i do yeah because i already have a career i have things that i must do and i don't want to i don't want to slack off and become a bad podcaster and become a bad comedian and fall apart in the other things that i'm focusing on because I'm focusing on a game. That's true. I just can't. Imagine, yeah, I know. It doesn't help me.

See, jiu-jitsu helps me. Like when I train, I feel more calm. I get better perspective. I feel like there's something that I gain. And also, you can only do it a certain amount of hours a day. You can't do jiu-jitsu six hours in a row. You can't. But you can play video games 10 hours in a row, 12 hours in a row.

You just keep going. You hear this guy was playing video games and- They die. They die. People die. They die. They have fucking heart attacks and die. It's very intense.

Sometimes we leave and I don't even feel good. We leave and I feel all fucked up. You're unhappy about yourself. You're like, Why did I do this You wasted a lot of time And also like Your system is so taxed Because it's so intense

You know And we're talking Mad shit to each other It's a lot of fun What's up Did you see that Just made me think of this There

An article about The amount of calories That chess masters burn Yes Yes I saw that I was just thinking About the same thing Like 7,000 in a tournament

Or something insane like that. They lose incredible amounts of weight during these tournaments. Well, they're just realizing now that this is a calorie thing. That your brain, when you're under intense focus, your brain burns off a shitload of calories. That's why I lose a lot of calories, I think. You're a smart guy, right? Thank you.

Yeah, but I really think that that's the same thing with video games as well i mean i i get out of here man i'm fucking exhausted sometimes when we were in those rambling places you should go into that esport thing fuck that imagine there's not enough lives to live you know that's why i don't understand when people say they're bored i'm like how can you be bored there's so many things to do true you know there's so many things you can get obsessed with. Yeah. You know? What's your opinion?

I wanted to pick your brain on that because I'm, me and my wife, we have a pact, okay? And people are going to think we're crazy, but I don't give a shit. We have,

since we met in 2016 in Thailand, we never had a night apart. Whoa. I know, I know. No nights apart at all? And I loved it because I said,

I don't know we have only one life and I love her to that she's my life partner she's my you know she always believed in me I think she's the reason

why I became champion because prior to meeting her I was just no ambition no nothing you know I mean and then

my point is is that the reason behind that is that I wanna you need more coffee no I need to I want to spend as much time as I can because you don't know

if there's something after so what do you think I think you should be happy and if you're happy doing that that's great not about that

I'm super happy with that that's my goal in life is to like to have as much as much time as I can with her but I mean do you think

because it's so hard so it's helping no no not this about the afterlife like i've i've i'm like for first like science i think it leads to that we're gonna just cease existing yeah but that's not science honestly okay well science is the study of how the brain works and the study of where the memory is located and what parts of the brain are affected by injury and studies on fMRI where they're measuring areas of the brain that are active during specific activities. That's real science. There's no real science about what happens when you die. It's pure speculation.

I mean like body or physical body. I'm saying we're going to just like it's going to die, right? And then my point is I know there's absolutely no science about that but my point is i'm doing speculations that if we do stop existing we do stop living and breathing what's our essence where is it going right where's if is there's an energy there's a spirit what like it's so hard to it's so hard to say well no one can really say it's pure speculation and i'm always skeptical of people that think they know for sure nothing happens as much as i'm skeptical of people that think for sure they know what happens it's just comforting for some people to have an answer whether it's the lights go out and that's it i mean that's richard dawkins

perspective oh yeah is it yeah but other people's perspective but he's never done psychedelics and just like he's got this very reductionist perspective scientific based on what we know right now adamant that if you when you die you die yeah but that's nonsense he doesn't know i mean you don't know i mean i understand that he's a man of science and logic and this is how he likes to frame the world but the reality is no one has any idea And most people don't want to adhere to that train of thought because it's very scary. Well, it's also, if you've done psychedelic drugs, you know that there's a very strange thing

that can happen to your brain and to your consciousness when it interacts with certain molecules. What is that? Never tried it. Well, some people believe that that is a portal to the afterlife and that what happens when you die during periods of extreme stress, your brain produces psychedelic chemicals. We don't know what the soul is. Is that a real thing?

Is it nonsense? Yeah. We don't know. Is your consciousness – your consciousness is clearly affected by injury, injury to the the brain And it's clearly affected by age It's clearly affected by deterioration It's clearly affected by some Exogenous chemicals But is

Is that you Or is that something that Your brain is housing I mean what happens when you die Does that Does it Transfer To something else

Do you Does your brain you know house consciousness or does your body house consciousness or is consciousness a part of it and when your brain shuts off there's no activity does the consciousness cease or you do you transcend no one knows no one really knows pen uh penn and Teller, what's the big guy's name? Penn. Penn, yeah. I think I like what he said. He said, we don't know.

That's the real answer. The real answer is we don't know. Anybody saying anything that that is, I don't know. Maybe they know something we don't know. It's interesting. It's interesting to think of. And there's a lot of people that don't believe that you are the same person every day there's a lot of people that believe that when you go to sleep that you you wake up

in the morning and you assume that all of your memories of your life uh they're accurate and that you are absolutely the person that you were when you went to bed the day before but you don't even know that oh oh that's a great oh you don't really know that you know that you have some memories that you you can call upon unless you record them like you do but even if you record them like who the fuck is recording it are you sure that's you okay i mean are you the same person i mean this there's all these ideas of many worlds these quantum physicists like to bring up that there's a bunch of different interactions that are happening simultaneously and that it's so hard to even it's so hard to even to even conceive of the possibility of multiple dimensions and then the possibility of infinite universes.

I can see that, yeah. That we travel back and forth through all these different things and that based on the decisions that you make, based on who the fuck knows, an infinite number of variables that your life moves in a bunch of different directions. The idea of an infinite universe also means

there's an infinite number of David Ledoux's out there. I know. That's what's really crazy. There's an infinite number of young Jamie's. There's an infinite number of fill in the blank, Neil deGrasse Tyson's, Mike Tyson, Vander Holyfield, there's an infinite number of them. And they're all doing different things

and all slightly different lives. How was it when you did the DMT? number of them and they're all doing different things and all slightly different lives how was it when you did that uh when you did the dmt i've done a bunch of times it's very strange i'm scared of that you should be scared okay i'm scared and what does it look like what does it look like looks like well it depends on the purity of it when you get it really pure it's almost like a white looking crystal sometimes it's a little bit yellowish it's more of a yellowish looking crystal um it's yeah and you freebase it and that's something that our brain creates yes your brain produces it that's one of the reasons why your body can bring it back to baseline so quickly

your body knows what to do with it it has it it's it's a part of your your whole you know chemical system how'd you come up like how did you read system. How did you come up with it? How did you read about this? How did you come up with this? I don't remember how I first heard of it. I think I heard of it listening to Terrence McKenna talk about it. I think that was the first thing I ever heard of it. And when I first did it, I couldn't even believe. I couldn't believe that this is a possibility,

that this is something that exists on earth that so many people don't even know about did you like you need to lock the doors when you do it like you need i mean i did it in a you know i did it in in my living room with some friends okay how long does it last about 15 20 minutes short it's very short like a three-day thing i'm gonna no no no no okay it feels like it's three days okay it was like a three day thing No no no It feels like it's three days It feels like forever and then instant It feels like it just happened and it also feels like forever But it's very strange It feels like you've been there before

Really? It's like you leave the world You leave this space and you go to some Incredible dimension that seems more real Than this It's very intense Do you think it's like something that people should experience um i think that's up to people yeah good point i know we have

to be careful what we say to people but i understand but yeah i used to think people need to do it i just think people but i used to think people need to do everything i think you do whatever you do and also having children there's a lot of people that say you should have children i don't know about that, man. I think everybody has a different path. I think you can be a complete person without ever having children. I don't think that that's necessary. For me, it was very educational.

It helped me a lot. I love it. I'm very happy to be a father. I've learned a lot. But I don't think it's necessary. I think you can be a complete person without a lot of experiences I think what's more important is

what kind of experiences are you having with the people that you're around with and are you being fulfilled if you inherently, inside of you you always wanted to be a chess master but you never pursued it you're going to have that regret and that longing for something, for you, let way.

If you didn't pursue that, if you didn't go after that, if you instead decided to get a job in accounting or something like that, you would have this longing to do something. And I think everyone has a different makeup, a different psychological makeup, different personality, different interests. And I think there's a lot of people that are interested in things that I have no desire to do, and to them it's their whole life and i'm not interested in it at all but i'm not them it's like

finding out what it is what it is for you what what is it in your life that attracts you i've been very very very fortunate and one of the things that i've been very fortunate is i i'm i would say I'm a risk taker, but it's more that I don't have any interest in doing safe things. Okay. In terms of like, I don't have any interest in taking an easy job, a safe job where I know I'm going to get a paycheck every week.

That's never interested me. Okay. That seems like prison. Yeah, me too. I really, I've never been able to do it. And I always thought that I was a loser because I couldn't do that. Because other people

Could work hard And they can get a good job And they would get a pension Security I felt like when I was young There was something wrong with me That I couldn't do that Because I grew up in

New England And in Boston Everybody worked hard There's like a hard Blue collar Sort of environment Where everyone I couldn't do it man

I couldn't do it These guys all showed up For work every day At 7am I wanted to kill myself Did you do it a little bit? Did you try it? Oh yeah yeah yeah

I tried it I did a lot of construction gigs And a lot of different Small jobs But Same reason why I left Because I felt like I was missing something

I wanted to see the world I wanted to leave Yes Well that's you though But look Now you're fulfilled You're a fulfilled person You're living your life

But that's you For another person That would be torture if you had some guy that really just wants to be a mathematician and someone's like no no you're gonna go to myanmar you're gonna be a fucking left-weight champion you'd be like what i'm not headbutting anybody the fuck you're not man you're better because they're gonna headbutt you no you're gonna fight in prison what what i'm not fighting in prison for the record guys i I'm not fighting in prison. For the record, guys, I wasn't incarcerated, by the way. I was invited there. You're fighting somebody who was in prison. But that, you know, everyone has their own path.

Some people, like, do you know who Alex Honnold is? No. He's the guy who they made that movie Free Solo about. He's the guy who climbs all these mountains with no ropes. Oh, my God. My friend did it, and he fell, and he got disfigured. But now he's healing up, but he did it, no rope. My friend did it and he fell. And he got disfigured. But now he's healing up. But he did it.

No rope. How far did he fall? Look, I have to show you the picture. It was a bad fall. It was a bad. It looked like he got bitten by a dog. It was like. And yeah.

Amazing. That's a lot. I guess they look for a rush. That's an amazing rush they must get. I think so. But Alex, the way he described it, he said it's not really a rush. He said it's pretty mellow. Okay.

Because if you get a rush, like you're in trouble. Yeah, true. You know, he's like the whole thing. But it's obviously there's something about that intense challenge that's appealing to him that doesn't attract me at all. Not even a little bit. I have no fucking desire. I don't want to even climb with ropes. But this guy loves it. Did you do bungee before?

Did you try bungee? No Never done that either No fuck that Skydiving no? No fuck you Why not? Fuck you

You do DMT but you don't do skydiving That's just Some people love it man I get it I get it Look my friend Andy He's a world champion He holds the world record

In wearing one of those wingsuits My friend Andy Stump. That was a gold on mine for a while. But he's had a bunch of friends that have died, man. They've had to carry them off the mountain because they fucking hit the ground. You know, guys who have jumped and then they hear a crash. And then they realize that guy just slammed into a fucking tree. This is a really horrible video of a guy slamming into a bridge.

He was trying to go through a bridge. He was trying to make it through the gap of a bridge a bridge he misjudged and he slammed right into the bridge while these people were on it filming it you see him come in and he just misjudges it and bam he hits the bridge it's horrific man if he has a strong neck he's fine see i think everybody is different some people are put on this life to be a poet. Some people are put on this life to be an author. Describe put on this life. I mean, whoever you are, how you feel, what is the thing that you're drawn to?

For some people, it's architecture. They want to build houses. They're fascinated by the construction methods. They're fascinated by design. And they're just really drawn to want to build houses. Some people want to make music. Some people are drawn to lyrics, and they're drawn to musical notes and bars and changes, and that's their thing.

Everybody has a, I mean, some people have many things, you know, and for some people that's their problem is they have so many things, it's hard to focus on one. But really the key, I i think to happiness in life is fight being honest with yourself and finding whatever it is that's attractive to you yeah whatever it is that draws you whether it's animation or sculpture or making clothes what it's everyone has a thing while you were talking there i felt like i was another dimension it felt like i was like i lost myself really yeah that's the effect you're talking about, I felt like I was in another dimension. It felt like I was like, I lost myself. Really?

Yeah. Why? That's the effect you just talked about. I was like, I don't know. I'm thinking, I think I'm crazy. Yeah, you're definitely crazy. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, of course.

To be really great at anything, I think you have to be crazy. You're doing something and then you have the feeling like you don't know. I don't know. You're carried away. Yeah, you're getting carried away in the thoughts. Yeah, I have that all the time, man. It's a crazy life. Yeah.

It is a crazy life, but it's a really crazy life if you follow your passions. Yeah. And it's a fucking crazy, boring life if you don't. Well said. And there's a lot of people out there that unfortunately, whether it's their family, sometimes your family, they'll try to influence you in a way to get you to do something that's safer. I mean, my own family did that.

They were always trying to get me to – the big one was graduate from college, graduate from university, get a degree, have a safe – don't just try to do comedy. Because I know Gary Vee is a big proponent of that, like quit school. And how do you do – because a lot of people are stuck with what their parents think. So you just said, fuck it, I'm going to do it regardless? Yeah, I think my parents gave up on trying to control me very young. I was, you know, like, they didn't even want me to do martial arts when I started doing martial arts. When did you start?

Really heavily when I was 15. I started when I was 14, but really heavily when I was 15. That's when I just became obsessed with Taekwondo and competing. And, you know, at first they didn't want me to do it. heavily when I was 15 that's when I just became obsessed with taekwondo and competing and and you know at first they didn't want me to do it but then that was like the first thing that I ever did that made me feel like I wasn't a loser yeah you know it's like the first thing that I ever did that I got really good at like good at and like started getting recognition from it and started winning tournaments and then I realized like wow if I focus on something and become obsessed with

something I can get really good at it. And so that led to learning how to do that and applying that sort of same energy to other things in life. I think sometimes people just have to find a thing, whatever that thing is that really floats your boat, and then find the time. Find the time to pursue it and set up your life so that you have the time to pursue it. And now they're sometimes oh wait if i do this isn't it there's not gonna be income around it but they just have persevered and money will come and yes yeah just everything is possible i think and it's crazy that but i now that i kind of lived it it's true you can do whatever you can do whatever you want well now you do you live in myanmar now now we actually We actually lived in Dubai for a year. So we lived in Thailand for three years. Then we kind of left for Myanmar for a few months.

What brought you to Dubai? Yeah, exactly. We went to Myanmar for a few months trying to open a gym. So I want to open the first Litwe gym. It's on the ice for now. It will happen one day, the Dzuk Litwe gym. But for now, this. And then, like, it's very poor, right?

It's like 50 years behind Thailand. It's a beautiful, and then, like, it's very poor, right? It's like 50 years behind Thailand. It's a beautiful, very raw, very rich country. Not rich, like meaning the culture is rich.

Yes. And then, we kind of got there. There's a real estate bubble there. So the place we had was a two-bedroom apartment, $2,000 a month in Myanmar.

And it was not even downtown. It was like outside a bit. And so I was like, okay. And then electricity cuts happens all the time. You need a big-ass generator. And then when it cuts, you don't have Wi- downtown. It was like outside a bit. And so I was like, okay. And then electricity cuts happens all the time. You need a big-ass generator. And then when it cuts, you don't have Wi-Fi.

I was like, my wife, she's Russian. She really raised her standards of living. So I had to, I want to give her the best life possible, right? So then we get a call to do a seminar in Dubai. We go there. And she's like, raining season is approaching, Dave. And when it rains, I don't want to i don't want to be in myanmar because then everything stops right so i'm like okay so imagine like

and then i paid a deposit on an apartment before leaving the seminar so it's like you're in cleveland and you just you pay for a place because you're there so you went to dubai to do a seminar you said all right we'll stay here for a little bit yeah it was the dubai is very nice right yeah yeah but it's a bit like for me it's a bit like fake like uh it's everything it's a concrete jungle i mean the best way to put it nothing grows there nothing nothing organic there you get the raspberries and they they perish in a few days like it's so uh well it's the the desert really yeah nothing grows yeah but it's cool if you want to party like mayweather you just go there and you party and why does mayweather party in Dubai? Everybody does.

Does it? Rappers. I've only been there once for the weigh-ins. Yeah, there was a fight in Abu Dhabi and we had the weigh-ins in Dubai and we went there for a day. But I remember seeing. No, I didn't go to that one. This was several years ago when Anderson Silva fought Damian Maia. And I remember thinking, man, there's fucking Ferraris everywhere and Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces.

A lot of money. Yeah.ces. A lot of money. Dubai has a lot of money. You know, the crazy thing is that you get a nice car. I have a sponsor there. I drive cool cars. I'm not a big materialist. McLaren. You got a McLaren?

Not me. It's my sponsor. Which one? The 320 something S. I'm not sure. You don't even know what it is? I don't care. I'm not a materialist guy.

What? I found my sandals'm not sure. You don't even know what it is? I don't care. I'm not a materialist guy. What? I found my sandals on the floor. You found them? I don't like. I give all my money to my wife. Well, they're probably somebody else's. It had holes in it. So I don't.

I think he actually. I really don't care about clothing. This is a t-shirt from a fan. Anyway, I'm not a very big materialist. So you have a sponsor that gave you a McLaren to drive? Yeah, when I'm there, yeah. So now we actually left there. Dubai?

Yeah. And now we bought a place. We have a house that we want to grow there in Cyprus. So now we live in Cyprus. Is that outside of France? It's Mediterranean. So next to Jordan, Egypt, Turkey. It's like the most eastern country in Europe, in EU.

What brought you there? You know what? And it was, I was in Dubai with my wife. Like, I don't see we can have kids here. It's a bit like, you know, everybody, they're going to grow with bad values, I believe. It's all about materialistic, about like, you know, everything is about the money. You want a car, you need to pay like, to have the 111, it's a million dollars for that. Like, it's all just bad values, I believe, oh you mean the license plates yes oh 111 license plate so it's

not enough to have a nice resource you need to have the one for the so that's an extra million that's hilarious they pay a million bucks for the license plate what a bunch of dipshits thank you that is the dumbest fucking thing who gives a fuck what your license plate says a million dollars that's when you're just running out of shit to buy and you start you know like people buy exclusive things there's only three of these purses like well they should make more it's so not important in our human life like it's so not important this but the license plate thing is so weird you know they have an issue with that in the united states they have an issue with people from other countries that bring their cars over here okay like really rich people from saudi arabia oh yeah they call it

saudi arabian summer because uh in summer in saudi arabia it's so fucking hot that summer in america seems like nothing so summer in la which gets to be 105 degrees they fucking spit on that they laugh at that like that ain't shit yeah so they bring these expensive cars like lamborghinis and ferraris to save them from the summer and they when they bring them over here and they bring them over here with saudi arabian plates so they have like embassy plates and they have like consulate plates and you know it became an issue in parts of beverly hills because like they're not even registered and they're they're not even registered in america after or what i don't know what the fuck they do but they're driving these things around like i was at a hotel in beverly hills i went to a restaurant there

and there was a car that was parked there like a lamborghini that had a like saudi arabian license plate i'm like this is crazy like how do you have a saudi arabia plate in america like how the fuck does this even get over here? Yeah, it's so random. The guy was saying, no, it's like the whole thing about license plates. It's like a sign of opulence that they're able to ship their vehicle from there, not buy a car here and register it here, but ship it from there. Oh, they drive their own car here.

That's what it is. They bring it over here on a boat. Oh, my God. Yeah. So they load their shit up on boats, have it brought up here. They pick it up at the dock and then drive it around with Saudi Arabian plates. Status, I guess. When you deal with things like oil money, I think it gets to this level that you and I will never understand.

No. A level of money that just doesn't. You're born into it, too. Yeah. But, again, I'm also a bit grateful because the highest suicide rate is in trust fund babies. People are born with too much and they never worked for it. So then they're unhappy. So I think it's okay to work for your goals.

You feel more happy with it. I think so too. To go back to what we said, we just Googled with my wife. We were in Dubai. We just Googled. So where we want to live. So I said, what's important for us? No snow.

So we just Googled what's the best weather in the world. We had the luxury to say that. So I said, cool. important for us? No snow. So we just Googled, what's the best weather in the world? We had the luxury to say that. So I said, cool. We Googled it. It gave us Spain, Cyprus, and Costa Rica. Costa Rica was a bit too like. A lot of bugs. Yeah.

Monkeys, crocodiles. Cyprus it is. So what's it like in Cyprus? It's like amazing. What language do they speak? Greek and English. Oh, interesting. It used to be Greek.

It's a Greek. And actually Turkish invaded four years ago. So half the island is Turkish. Wow. They took it back from years ago. They said, oh, it's our part of the island. So they took half of the island, and the other half, the north, is all Greek. Beautiful.

So did you learn Turkish? No. Did you learn Greek? No, I speak English pretty well. You speak English, yeah. And actually, half the people there, it's a million people in the island. That's the country, a million people in the country. And most of it are Russian.

So my Russian is getting pretty good. Oh, and your wife speak Russian as well? Yeah, she's born there. Oh, that helps. But she taught me. Wow. You lived an international life, my man. The nomad.

Yeah, you're all over the fucking place. You too, you travel everywhere. Yeah, but so now when you're training, are you training in Cyprus? Do you have your own gym? That's the hard part. That'sad. Yeah. They're all over the fucking place. You too. You travel everywhere. Yeah. But so now when you're training, are you training, you're training in Cyprus? Do you have your own gym? That's the hard part. That's the hard part.

So right now I would like, my last training camp, I came back to Canada and Montreal with coach, with Sifu Patrick. We trained hard. And then now I'm like, where am I going to do my next training camp?

You know, I have to fly maybe because there's the high level of striking in Turkey, you know, glory. I have a friend that fought. So I was like, maybe I'm just going to fly the guy for a a month train with me in cyprus and then fight you

know oh but if the fight is in june in the states i will actually probably do my training camp again with my bad note guys yes in montreal i think i will do my training camp in montreal again that's good too because it'll be the spring it'll be fairly warm oh yeah true i don't want snow man i get it man i grew up in Boston. I get it. Yeah, it's snow there. Yeah, not as cold as Montreal, though. Your area, Quebec, is quite a bit colder.

I remember thinking that Boston was cold, and then I went up to Montreal in December. In December? In December. And I was like, what the fuck, man? This is real cold. That's next level cold. You don't have a Boston accentoston accent no i got rid of it okay i heard myself on tv i won the bay state games when i was 19 and i heard myself on tv

and i was like oh my god that fucking accent what's like boston pack your car okay working really hard there's like a it's like it's a weird accent it's a strange every accent is weird australian is weird too you know everything I think everything foreign to us is weird. But Boston is particularly gross when women have that accent. Okay. It's just like, some accents are hot with women. Like English is hot. You know, Georgia, Texas, that's hot.

Russian's hot. Boston's gross. Yeah. It's gross. Even New York is better than Boston. Something about Boston is just like, when women have it. Men can have it. It's gross Even New York is better than Boston Something about Boston Is just like When women have it

Men can have it It's cool It reminds me of my friends I like it Yeah I like when I hear it on men But I hear it on women Maybe that's what the problem is

It reminds me of girls That I dated when I was young Ah that's why I was like oh Let me get the fuck away from you You touched it right there And that's what it is Where you going?

Yeah so this is crazy So when you're um that will be definitely your next fight will be in june june in the states 100 so excited for this you have a lot of time to think about that man we're only here it's not even november yet november yeah so then actually now i'm in the middle of the like uh my you stole my you stole my name joe i called it the day of the zook experience well i stole it from jimmy hend, I stole it from Jimi Hendrix. I stole it from Gary. He had it before I was born. You know, I mean, Hendrix had the Jimi Hendrix experience, I think, in the late 60s.

It's good. It's fucking good. Yeah. But it's a worldwide brand now. It's amazing what you've built. It's crazy. Congratulations. Thank you.

I don't know how it happened. It just happened. Well, you're a personable guy. Everybody loves you. I don't know how it happened. It just happened. Well, you're a personal guy. Everybody loves you. You deserve it. Well, I think it's one of those things. You just keep doing it. If you just keep doing things, you just get better at doing it.

Consistency. And I need your advice on that because I started a thing called Let's We Tuesday. I did 35 episodes while I was in Asia, and I was killing it. And it was pretty cool. But then I- What is it? Is it on YouTube? Yeah, YouTube. Yeah?

Yeah, I got a decent amount of views, a lot of your views. But is it instructional? Yeah. It was when I was doing my first fights. I was teaching the headbutts and the culture. I'm going to start it again. Is it on YouTube right now? Yeah.

Pull some of that up, Jim. Go on the How to Build Your Hands. They might like this one. Build Your Hands? It's like a two-minute video. What do you do? So my pushups, I,

it's basically, you can do some pushups on your knuckle with some like micro jumps to create some like micro, get used to that. Micro fractures. Yeah. And then finger, finger pushup for all the tendons,

the ligaments. Well, you're doing that. You're doing it with these knuckles. You're not even doing it with the front too. Yeah. I guess it depends. I'm doing it.

If I do my tricep, it would be those two. Yeah. I would, I just sit on the table. It's hard to say. That's the thing about That we always

They would always tell you In karate or anything else When you're punching If you're gonna punch With bare knuckle Okay good Yeah but Yeah

That's all fucked up Yeah they get Hard as shit Of using anything To use like a makawara Or something Pounding on something I just do

I actually wanna save my hand As much as possible because I they're getting so fucked up for the fights I put my hands in the ice bucket

after every fight so I just like save them but I do my I do these pushups but then these and then on the wrist

you try these ones on the wrist it's pretty cool it's hard so you do fingertip pushups knuckle pushups and then wrist pushups

and more so this is how to build your hands. You can show the beginning. That's for people. Cool video, too, though. That's 2-2. That's me and Cyrus.

Yeah, let this roll, Jamie, so we can see some of this. So headbutt right there. Boom. Boom. Yeah, boom. Damn. Then the knee here. Oh, that's a nice knee.

Now, did Cyrus try to headbutt you? He couldn't. It was a one-sided fight completely. So he didn't, did he prepare for headbutts and things like that? Yeah, he was a veteran. He went to Myanmar before me. So you know, you spoke about it last time, I think. So that would mean to, that's my fake roundhouse to sidekick.

Oh, nice. Super annoying. That's a good move, man. Fake roundhouse to sidekick for a face, especially for a long, tall guy like you. But anyway, so that's what else? That's the push-ups and everything? So do you punch the bag bare knuckle a lot with no wrist wraps or anything like that?

Yeah, exactly. Actually, you see the good quality of you? That's Jeff. Jeff was here with Israel. He's Israel's personal guy. Oh, with Israel Adesanya. Yeah, man, we we met me and Jeff in Tiger

at the time so I was I miss those high quality videos now I would do it on my phone I think well it's interesting because you're one of the

only guys that speaks English that's talking about this that's talking about this sport and that competes in this sport and is a champion of this sport I mean as far as like

the history of the sport you're probably one of the really the only guys who's an English speaker that's been a champion yeah so the ligament they had the push-ups on their hands i think it's a very hard way i do it in my seminars people have a hard time doing it and i think it's key because if you do like you fight with no gloves with only gauze you really uh you can feel it you can feel it fucking training. Yeah. Basically, you know, if you hit the teat or something, you need to have, you know, you don't want to get this. Because why I started doing this is because I fight in Japan in my second fight in Japan.

And I was always like a dream of mine because of Street Fighter, right? Super Nintendo Street Fighter. Like, Japan, you know what I mean? Right, right, right. So I was like, I wanted wanted i was always taking like either uh guiled or american or sagat and then yeah that's the one that's on the knuckles so you do some little jumps and the way i'm gonna tell you right away i think what is that surface is that concrete yeah that's concrete yeah they're for the craziest of like you do something this is not it's not very

pleasant this one but interesting and you're not using the front two knuckles well i guess uh yeah i mean the big one touches if you look at the big not using the front two knuckles well i guess uh yeah i mean the big one touches if you look at the big one in the middle but not the not the far when i fight you're right but when i fight it's only the big one that pops out anyway i don't but and have you broken your hands fighting left way uh no no i actually i was going there so when i fight in japan i i the first second at the second round i disloc dislocated my finger. It was pretty bad, like broken, dislocated. And my corner man, he's a former Golden Belt guy, doesn't speak a word of English again.

And I'm like, pop it out so at least I can close my fist and finish the fight. So he doesn't understand nothing. And you can see it's pretty bad. So I ended up fighting the whole fight like this. I couldn't close it. So I'm like, okay. But I'm thankful it happened because up fighting the whole fight like this oh no i couldn't close it so i'm like okay and then uh but i'm thankful it happened because that was the first fight i landed like my elbows

and my first headbutts my first like solid because you had an injury i had no choice i couldn't do my cross i couldn't do my cross anymore right so elbows headbutts did you try to pull it out yourself i didn't know at the time i didn't i tried it but it was the doctor required needed he used a lot of force to do it oh i think it wasn't i wasn't so i didn't want at the time. I tried it, but it was, the doctor needed, he used a lot of force to do it. I think it was, so I didn't want to make a big scene out of it because all the Japanese people watching it, they knew about it because the commentator was talking about it. Yeah. It's like, David's on fingers, but my Turkish opponent, he didn't know. Right.

So I was like, I don't want to, you know, so. Yeah. But yeah, it was, we finished the fight and it fight and now I'm like, it never will happen again. I started training these. So what do you do in the off season? So if you're not, if you don't have a training camp, so if you don't have someone coming to you to get you prepared for a fight, you don't have a fight until June, you want to stay sharp. So what kind of work are you doing? Well, it's funny.

After we're done today, I'm going to go with Gokor. I'm going to do a private with him. Oh, interesting. I like to stay sharp with this. So you're going to learn leg locks and all that kind of shit? Our school, the Patenot Martial Art, is actually affiliated with Gokor, Hayastan Academy in Montreal and Gatineau, Quebec. Well, Gokor's Academy is one of the very first around this area

and even in the country that was concentrating on leg locks. A lot of those guys were killer leg lock guys. With, I think, Manny Gabourian. I think he trained Ronda Silva as well, Anderson. Yeah. on leg locks a lot of those guys were killer leg lock guys yeah with i think manny gabrielyan and i think he trained ronda silva as well anderson yeah yeah so i really like him and he's he's i think he's 56 uh six he's still arrest he's still competing still competing go-kart still competes doesn't really you did like the master not a long ago interesting anyway so uh i'm gonna go there but i i tried to uh yeah right now like on the tour Especially on the tour right now I can't even I can't even

I did some weights In the hotel room But like We literally We do a state every day Oh wow So you're just worn out So tonight we're leaving for Texas

Then New York Then Indiana But when you get back When you get back to Cyprus So what do you do to stay sharp Because you don't have A gym there right Yeah

Do you have a gym That you train at in Cyprus We have a We are in our place In the basement We have a full on, right? Yeah. Do you have a gym that you train at in Cyprus? We have a place in the basement. We have a full-on gym, like private. Not as cool as you, but not as big. But we have everything I need. But you don't have sparring partners?

That's the thing. You don't have someone to hold pads? Yeah. I would have... I'm going to... Because we just literally moved. I bought the place a month ago. We dropped the luggage and we left for the tour.

That seems so crazy, though, for a guy who's a world champion and a professional fighter to not be in a place that has professional trainers and elite fighters. Because I want to, I am a big proponent of like, I want to relax. I want to enjoy life, grow old with my wife. Sure. So I feel like this is one of the best. America's an amazing country, but I feel this is the best country because there's no traffic. LA does a lot of traffic, right?

You think? Crazy, huh? So no traffic, good food. You walk in the streets in Cyprus and you can pick olives. Literally, we made a test. Olives, and I give it to my wife. Then a date, then a fig, then everything. We had about a million fruits in a 10 minute walk it's free on the street just growing off trees yeah organic so i'm like this is cool you know it's it's fresh and it's

and also i studied because i want to i want to live as long as i can because again we don't know what's going to happen after so i'm like in japan one of the islands has the one of the highest um longevity now They die late. Yes. So because they're near a body of water and they have a lot of seafood. Right. So I want to be on a body of water and this is an island. Right.

So, yes. Well, it sounds like the quality of life is beautiful there. But the only thing that I would be concerned with is that training. I know. And also sparring partners. And someone to hold paths someone to coach you you know i mean that's what right now so far it's been amazing like i said i've been in like in dubai and all my training camps back in canada were good but now you're

right after in january we go back i'm going to film my academy like my videos which is also going to take a big part of it and then i have to stay sharp so i'm going to have to uh look around and see what the gyms are i didn't even look it into it jesus yeah i know i know but turkey has a lot of high level fighters it's a lot of 30 minute fighters yeah and even wrestlers and a lot of so it's a 30 minute flight to turkey well i do that yeah and maybe you could fly people they'll come to you but that's one thing It seems like you now that your profile is getting bigger, people would probably be more willing to come to you to train, to learn, and then train with you. Just the thing is I viralize or I put on a high esteem quality of life.

Yes, fighting is cool, but I'm 27. Maybe I'm going to retire at 35, let's say. I'm going to do as much as I can. But the rest, the other 70 years after that, if I live until 105, right? It's not going to be, it's going to be, I'm not going to be competing in the ring anymore. So I value that a lot because it's the biggest part of my life, right? Yeah.

I've only been fighting professionally for since 2013. So, but yeah. Is that the goal? 35? Is that the goal? I think it's perfect. it's good more than that i think you i don't know maybe because i'm actually excited to see when i'm going to hit 30 my uh testosterone like you know i'm going to be stronger at 30 31 32 because well you definitely

be smarter you know that's the thing smarter in terms of life experience you know you have enough i mean they say the best fighters are really in their early 30s because their body is still strong, but their experience level is much higher. So, like, when you're 20, you might be stronger or faster, but you don't know as much. You don't have as much experience. Your technique is not as sharp. And as you get older, you just develop more experience, as long as you're dedicated and focused. Yeah. more experience, as long as you're dedicated and focused.

But then again, the thing that I'm saying is the one thing that I would be concerned with is the lack of time training in a high-level environment, which I think is one of the most crucial things. Yeah. So far, I've not had that problem, but when I'll be actually moving there, I need to fly some guys. But you got to let us know when you do fight, and it's in the United States. We'll promote it. We'll let everybody know.

And hopefully you'll have an opponent that people will recognize as well. Yeah, absolutely. I want to be a good fight. Yeah. I'm excited. Yeah. But so what's your – okay. Perfect.

Yeah. Yeah. I actually have something. You know, Jamie, last time you did the chin-long video. You shared a video of two guys kicking the balls over their head. Remember? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That crazy sport.

It's like volleyball with your feet. So this is like, it's Southeast Asia, and I have the ball with me for you. Oh. So look at that. What's the ball they use? Oh, that's it? Wow, that's crazy. You see it?

That's the ball they the kick yeah and wow and you can it looks strong it looks hard but you can do headbutts with this oh yeah i'm sure because that's what you do you can use all your light yeah yeah traditional saudi asia sport man it watching those guys is incredible the leg dexterity no no what is the game called again uh it's uh in myanmar it's called chin loan when you go in circle that's spectacular wow i mean it's amazing watching those guys oh they're so they're playing on a court yeah i've only seen it played like on the grass and outside oh my god look at these fucking guys. That's incredible. Look at the fucking flexibility. That's insane. I know.

Oh, my God. That is incredible. Wow. Look at this dude. Oh, shit. Look at that kick. That's Malaysia. Wow.

So it's super popular in Southeast Asia, and it can use your head, too. Wow. What a sport so they they miyamar like it's part of the culture after every every training we go in a circle and we do we do that so it kind of helps you can you know like oh yeah and your flexibility i'm sure i don't know if you can see on youtube there's one uh it's with it's uh dave it's in my video it's like david miyamar and i've tried it and I can only do my like with my right leg

like a hacky sack and my headbutt that's it you can see maybe Dave and me and Mar or something there's in my

and yeah they use their legs like crazy and I think it helps you I think become a better fighter I believe oh I would imagine

you know what I mean yeah the leg just the dexterity and flexibility and range of motion these guys have. I mean, they're almost like, it's like watching a ballerina slash kickboxer play soccer with their feet, but you're playing volleyball. Yeah. And this is plastic, but usually it's made of rattan. Oh, okay.

You know, like some kind of bamboo. Yeah. But at first, you know, some kind of bamboo yeah and uh yeah and but at first you know yeah it doesn't hurt right but i i now i can enjoy it like last time i did a seminar and i actually like i made them play a little bit it's just part of the culture because it's cool yeah it's it's uh it's pretty wild game and that's a a very popular game over there yeah yeah everywhere in the street i usually when i'm walking my wife and she's like, oh, not again, I see a couple,

like, you know, locals playing and I just stop, I drop everything, I put my laundry up because I always wear my laundry and I start playing with them and they're all excited

because, oh shit, like, they do some pictures and look. So you're like a big celebrity over there? Like, when you walk down the street, do people recognize you? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

they love us there. It's pretty cool. But again, I really like them. They're so kind. Like, honestly, have you traveled in Asia a lot? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They love us there. It's pretty cool. But again, I really like them. They're so kind. Like, honestly, have you traveled in Asia a lot? Yeah, Thailand. And that's how I felt.

Everyone was so nice there. Okay, well, but imagine like 40 years before that when they were untouched by tourism. Uh-huh. You know, even like. That's how me and Miles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they kind of like, they shake your hand like this. Give me your hand.

Like they shake your hand like this. Oh, wow. Look at this. Yeah, that's my video. I was in the forest with them. And the guy in the red, he's sponsored by the country to play that. Wow.

It's like, we're going to see that. Yeah, he's good. That's a wild fucking game. That's the laundry. You see, I tied it up. But then you have to lift it up like this. It's so cool that you have that video. And you lift it up, and then if you have your leg tats,

then you show your ward tats, right? Ah, I see. So then. So this is before you had leg tats too. Yeah, before. I looked naked almost. Wow. Look at the head.

Yes, that's the only strike I can do in the end. They play that all the time. It seems do in the it's a they play that all the time it seems like there's a steep learning curve to this game yeah

oh yeah headbutt right there yeah pretty crazy game so that's the and you see the tanaka on their skin yes

that's his specific from Myanmar and it's like it's a root that they they break up and the it's good for SPF

and it's really and it makes your skin better. So it's... And so they rub it on their face? Yeah. And they have such a soft skin. It's crazy. I think it helps.

It helps my skin, yeah. Well, listen, David, thanks for coming by, man. And let us know when June rolls around, when the fight is set. We know how people can watch it. Will it be on pay-per-view?

Yeah, I believe it's going to be on UFC Fight Pass. I'm not sure for pay-per-view yet. But it will be on UFC Fight Pass. Yeah, hopefully you can talk about it. It's going to be a pretty cool, historic debut. Thanks for having me, Joe. Thank you, brother.

Thank you. Appreciate it, man. It was fun. Really fun having you on. Bye, everybody. That was good. That was good. Great.

Very interesting.