The School of Greatness - Georges St-Pierre: Kill Your Ego, Transform Your Health & Build Self-Confidence EP 1129

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

“Fighting is unbearable, I do it because of what it provides me. But bigger the risk, bigger the reward.”Today's guest is Georges St-Pierre, who is well known as the undisputed G-O-A-T of combat sports, UFC record holder for most wins in title bouts, and all-time best pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the history of the world. Georges St-Pierre has now also made his arrival into Hollywood permanent, reprising his original breakout role as “Batroc the Leaper” in Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, for the long-awaited “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” TV miniseries.In this episode Lewis and Georges discuss how GSP’s childhood bullies shaped him into who he is today, why it’s so hard to let go of ego, why Georges never enjoyed fighting, how fasting has transformed his health, why he chooses an animal-based diet, and so much more!For more go to: www.lewishowes.com/1129Check out his website: www.gspofficial.com/ The Wim Hof Experience: Mindset Training, Power Breathing, and Brotherhood: https://link.chtbl.com/910-podA Scientific Guide to Living Longer, Feeling Happier & Eating Healthier with Dr. Rhonda Patrick: https://link.chtbl.com/967-podThe Science of Sleep for Ultimate Success with Shawn Stevenson: https://link.chtbl.com/896-pod

This is episode number 1,121 with one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time, Georges Saint-Pierre. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Maya Angelou once said, we may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.

And Gandhi said, whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love. My guest today is the iconic and legendary Georges St-Pierre, who is well known as the undisputed GOAT of combat sports, UFC record holder for most wins in title bouts, and all-time best pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the history of the world. Georges St-Pierre has now also made his arrival into Hollywood permanent, reprising his original breakout role as Batroc the Leaper in Marvel's Captain America, the Winter Soldier, for the long-awaited The Falcon

in the Winter Soldier TV miniseries. And in this episode, we discuss how George's childhood bullies shaped him into who he is today, why it's so hard to let go of our egos, why George never enjoyed fighting. He never enjoyed it. Every match, he didn't want to do it. How fasting has transformed his health at his age now, why he chooses an animal-based diet, and he talks about what he's learned from doing that and so much more. This was inspiring. He goes into his pre-fight ritual, his breathing strategies, all the different things he does

to focus his mind to get ready for battle and for life. And if you're enjoying this, make sure to share this with someone else who you think would be inspired by it. Just copy and paste the link wherever you're listening to this, or you can do the full show notes link, lewishouse.com slash 1129. Okay, in just a moment, the one and only Georges St-Pierre. Welcome back, everyone in the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest, Georges St-Pierre is in the house. That's right.

My man, very excited that you're here. I always love having the greatest of all time in athletes. I've had Novak Djokovic, Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant. I've had some incredible athletes on this show. And as a former athlete, I just geek out about it. So, so glad that you're here. My first question is, who is the most influential person in your life growing up? And, because I know you had an interesting childhood that I want to talk about. And what was the greatest lesson they taught you I think the most influential the person that the most influential influence on me was probably my dad he was a very hard-working man and he

taught me the the value of hard work he taught me a lot of good stuff that I've learned and also a lot of stuff that I realized that he did very well, but stuff that I don't want to be like him. Like what? I think he works so much because he didn't have a choice. He comes from a family of nine kids. I'm from countryside. That's where we grew up.

So family tend to be bigger normally in the country. Because they work on the farm and all that. And his dad died when he was young. And he was the older of his family of nine. So he had to become the dad and bring money. So he had to become the dad and bring money. So I believe he got used to that life of working and working and working. And down the line, he lived to work and he didn't work to live. And that's one thing I don't want to do.

Yeah. That's a good lesson. Yeah. He needed to do. Yeah. What's a good lesson? Yeah. He needed to at one point. It was a necessity, but I know very well now that it's not a necessity anymore for him. Right.

But he still do it. Yeah. It becomes a pattern. That's right. It becomes who you are, your personality, your identity, right? Yes, yes. It's hard to kind of take that off.

And I think that if he does not do it, he feels useless. And I thought before, because I'm very wealthy now, I wanted to make sure everything was taken care of by my parents. And I thought that it would have taken easier because he would retire.

He'd relax, yeah. Now he keep the same rhythm. So now I understood also that he need this to maintain his health. Because if he does not do it, you see very often older people when they retire, they die. Because their brain, I believe it's because they don't work their brains.

They need to stay active up here. And I think that's the way my dad does it Yeah, you also I read about your childhood where you you were pretty much bullied and picked on and people like Beat you up and stole your money. Isn't that true? Yes, I am I Think it left a scar in my head and yeah I start martial art as a self defense against that stuff right? yes I was also a big fan of

Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bloodsport Chuck Norris didn't you do a movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme? I did and I got my butt kicked by Jean-Claude Van Damme, by Steven Seagal also what was that like doing a movie with your hero? It's amazing.

I did this movie. I mean, the movie, it's not a movie that came out on theater. It's like on Netflix, but it's called Kickboxer. It's a reboot. I did it. And just to have the experience to be able to have a fight scene with my idol, it was amazing. Wow. And that's one of the reasons why I started martial art,

because of a self-defense, and I got, I was bullied when I was young. And at the time, I saw it as a very negative experience, and it was, but I realize now that the fact that I was bullied when I was young helped me later on in my life facing the mental warfare that I had to face and mix martial art because it's a very egotistic sport there's a lot of intimidation when you get into a fight especially during the

promotion of the fight the press conference press and I got used to it when I was so young so and we see very often a lot of fighters they lose their chill so they they go crazy it can often a lot of fighters they lose their chill so they they they go crazy it can make them commit mistake but they never worked with me because i had a very strong shield to protect me that i probably built built during my youth so no one could say something to you that would get under your skin no they would talk about this or that or whatever they can make anything up and you're just like okay okay. That's right. I think the way to get to me would be not trying to get to me, try to get to someone that I love or like a family.

That's why a lot of people ask me sometimes, hey, you're very mysterious. You're a public person, but you always keep your private life private. And that's one of the reasons. Because fighting, you play hockey, you play soccer, but you do keep your private life private. And that's one of the reasons. Because fighting, you know, you play hockey, you play soccer, but you do not play fighting. So if I'm fighting you, it's very serious business because the outcome of the fight might affect your well-being or mine.

Your life. Yeah, yeah. Your arm, your face, something. That's right. So if I can do something to you to make you derail from your strategy by insulting someone that you love, I will do it in a heartbeat. You know, that's what fighting is about. I mean, no, because I'm not a trash talker. I'm just not good. But most guys will.

Yeah. If I can do something, trying to play. I have done some stuff like, for example, I'm fighting a guy that I made him know that I know one of his good training partner that I, you know, I play mind games like this. I've done my mind games too. You're like, I've trained with your training partner and I've destroyed him and he beats you. Yeah, I know your training partner, you know, and he told me what he's, what you're good at. And now he's getting angry. Instead of focusing on me, he's getting angry at his training partner. So he's not focusing on the task ahead.

He's focusing on something else that has nothing to do. So I've done some stuff. Mind games. Yeah, I've done my own. I'm not a trash talker, but I'm more slick. I've done my stuff. That's probably an advantage because English wasn't your first language.

So maybe you didn't feel the confidence to say a bunch of things. Yeah, I choose my battle very carefully. And I believe if I try to get into a trash talk contest with, like my last fight was against Michael Bisming. He's known for his trash talk. If I would try to get into a trash talk fight, I would never win. He's from England, you know.

I'm just not good at it on top of it. So I do my talking in the octagon. It's great, man. What was... So I felt like I was picked on a lot as a kid as well. And it's what got me into sports. Because I was like,

I never want to get picked on, bullied, made fun of ever again. And I was picked last on sports teams early on. And I was like, I'm going to become so on, bullied, made fun of ever again. And I was picked last on sports teams early on. And I was like, I'm going to become so big, so strong, so dominant that people have to pick me. They have to choose me that I will win at all costs. And I built a shield as well. So I can kind of relate in a sense. What did that teach you about building this, you know, identity around self-defense, around karate, around jiu-jitsu,

all the different mixed martial arts that you've built for decades. What did that do for you, that identity? For me, right now, training, people ask me, why do you train? You don't have a fight coming up. For me, it's not because only I like it.

It's because it's a therapy. I believe because I was bullied when I was young, it left a scar in my mind. And it might sound crazy to most of people because most of them cannot relate to that, but because when I was young, I got bullied so much, I got humiliated so much. And sometimes physical damage is not as bad as like emotional damage and that's

what happened to me so i need to train i remember even sometime when i when i'm not not in shape and i've or i got an injury i don't feel as confident as i am and i don't know i know i would never get probably beat up because you know i'm an adult now, but I don't know it's inside my head like it's a question it's a confidence thing for me and I Believe confidence is very important for me. So if I like to walk in a room knowing that if something happened I can take care of business. I know it sounds maybe preposterous because we were in a very civilized world But because I was victim when I was young, it left that scar.

And I know confidence is very important because you could have all the skills that you want. And I'm not only talking about fighting, I'm talking about everything. If you have the skills but you do not have the confidence, I believe it's like someone who has a lot of money in his bank account, but no way of accessing it.

For the magic to happen, I think you need the skills and the confidence. Do you feel like you ever learned how to heal from the bullying? I think it left a scar, but sometimes it's for the best and sometimes it's for the worst. There's good things that it does it train you to become right killing machine Essentially right to train to become a disciplined human being goal-oriented You know structure with your life. Yeah, and and and I'm not a psychologist But I think it it helps me to be stronger to face adversity. Yeah When you get ready for a fight, the stress, the fear, it's unbearable.

And there's no courage without fear. And for a long time, because looking around me and my entourage, before a fight, sometimes I corner other fighters and everybody reacts differently. Other fighters, you'll see them there. Some of them are very excited. They're in the locker room.

We're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Some are quiet and nervous. Yeah, and I'm thinking, I'm like, man, this guy's a psychopath. When I'm getting ready for a fight, I'm scared. Deep down inside,

yeah, I pretend that I'm happy and everything. Yeah, everything's good. Yeah, but deep down inside, I'm getting ready for a fight, I'm scared. Like deep down inside, like, yeah, I pretend that I'm happy and everything. Yeah, everything's good. Yeah, but deep down inside, I'm like, shoot, what the hell I'm doing here? Oh, God. And every fight day, I don't feel good because I sleep terribly the night before. Every time because I make too much scenario in my mind. It becomes like an obsession. like an obsession.

So I think it build up that tolerance and that courage to go face certain adversity that you would not have the courage to face if I wouldn't have gone through that. Really? How often did you doubt yourself when you were competing? Was it? Every fight. Would you doubt yourself in training days too or just during

fight days well in training also because in training you try to not every day but sometimes the training is very hard and it's borderline very dangerous even though we have equipment you can get knocked out so we try to recreate the same environment that you will face in a fight because in a fight you're always outside of your comfort zone yeah and i believe in order to improve you need to get out of your comfort zone because they force you to adapt and the fighter that are the best are people that adapt that become the perfect nemesis to their opponent yeah so every training you're on the floor, you've got one arm back, you're like having to get out of every horrible scenario.

I see the lineup of my aspiring partner and I fly them from outside, you know, because I don't, when I'm, that's one thing, when I'm getting ready for a fight, I don't train with my normal training partner because. Why, you're used to it? No, because the reason I'm used to them, so there's some kind of camaraderie.

So I fly a lot of the guys. That you I don't know them I never touch them I don't know their movement pattern and I don't know them so emotionally I know they're there and they may be try to take my head off but but it's the same uncertain feeling I'm nice but when when the rings are tucked like you don't know to go guys are gonna try to go crazy. So I never, I always doubt myself before every fight. The only fight that I doubt, I did not doubt myself,

was when I fought Matsuro the first time and I got knocked out. No way. I swear. You had confidence. I had a great night of sleep the night before. That's the only fight. And I got humiliated.

And I've learned from that mistake because it taught me that I should never underestimate anybody. It takes one moment, one punch, right? You zig when you should have zagged. At this level, you don't even have time

to blink. It's too late. It's a moment. You're done. They're already ringing the bell. It was a terrible experience for me but i uh i think it made me a better fighter at at the end so you doubted yourself i i know some experience can be taught yes and the best way to learn it's always through other people's mistakes however at that at that time, I just became champion. I beat Matt Hughes. I was like the next big thing.

I was borderline cocky. Not publicly. I've never been cocky. But deep down inside, I'm like, man, I'm the best. I'm this guy. He's got nothing on me. And people telling me that, I start believing it. You're the greatest.

Yeah. Yeah. But boom. One shot that I didn't it. You're the greatest. Yeah. Yeah. But boom, one shot that I didn't see coming. Oh man. Caught me. And I got dizzy. And I remember it like it's yesterday.

And I was so angry. I got emotional. I was like, man, I can't let that happen. I mean, I got to give it back to him right away. I tried to get myself into a slugfest, which is not a good thing to do when you're dizzy. So he was accurate and I wasn't. Bang, bang, bang.

I end up on my back and now I'm confronted to my worst nightmare. Oh, man. So am I going to go out on my shell like this or I'm tapping out like a coward? I tap out like a coward. You tapped out. In MMA, it's a big thing. And I got blamed a lot because they say, oh, he's a qu coward. I tap out like a coward. You tapped out. In MMA, it's a big thing.

And I got blamed a lot because they say, oh, he's a quitter, he tap out. And now I'm older. When I look back at things, it's a little bit like Roberto Duran, no mass against Sugar Ray Leonard. It's a good thing that I've done. I don't regret it.

I regret it when it happened, the few weeks month after because i i saw it like a coward move but now it's a sport we're not in a war like a soldier and i tapped out maybe if i would not have tapped out i would get brain damage i would never have come back the same way so i saved myself for another day so there's no shame in us and now i'm proud to say it in front of everybody. That's great. But I wasn't proud of myself. I was humiliated because I tapped out on strike. That's why I was humiliated. I was not necessarily humiliated because I lost

because it's like a big taboo in MMA. You tapped out on strike. Other fighter was looking down on me. On a strike, not on like an armbar or something. Yes, you tap down on a strike. That was a big thing. Most people don't tap out on a strike, right? They just kind of get beat up and then someone takes them off. That's right. They wait for the referee. But then you're going to get 10 more blows to the head, which could do some serious damage

for the rest of your life. So it makes people wonder, oh, he's a coward, he's a quitter. So I had a lot of anger. I felt like I needed to come back and add a lot of things to prove. And I remember I used to carry that inside, and I wanted to get my revenge as fast as possible. And I saw a sports psychologist, and he says to me,

he says, you're not focusing on the right thing. You're focusing always on what happened in the past you live in the past You need to live in the present moment Not live in the future live in the present So he made me carry a brick and make me wrote a name Sarah Matt Sarah on it and I carry that brick every day in my gym back Yeah, break a big brick a brick with this name with it with a truck I wrote I wrote Sarah on it.

And I carried that brick every day, every training. And after a while, like, man, my bag is heavy for nothing. It sucks,

you know. And I carry it, carry it, until the time I got tired of carrying it. And I told him, I said, hey man,

I'm tired of that shit. You know, he says, I'm coming to see you. He said, his name is Brian Kane. He's a sports psychologist. I took the brick.

I went near the Saint-Laurent River. I know it sounds crazy. And I threw it in the river. And I feel delivered. I felt like, man, I know it sounds crazy to many people because they cannot relate, but I feel great because by this physical gesture, an emotion just manifests,

and it's an emotion of delivering me. Like I didn't have, you know when sometimes you have stress, you're all stuck? The same thing, I release by chewing the brick. I know it sounds crazy, but it play a big role into the growth of my career. I'm a big believer in, I mean, I've worked with and interviewed many sports psychologists and I started doing this stuff when I was 16, visualizing and meditating and always

letting go of the past from this stuff. So I'm a huge believer and I'm a big believer in rituals. Rituals to prepare you for your event or your sport or a game or a match. Rituals to let go of something, whether it be a relationship, be writing letters and letting go and forgiving, or releasing something into a river and an ocean. I'm a big believer in the ritual process of letting go.

Otherwise, we'll always carry something. That's right. So how long did you carry this brick for? I carried it for a long time. I carried it. I was about to fight because when I lost the title the first time. Because you won it and then you lost the next match. The next fight, right?

Yeah, I won against Matt. Yuz was at the time the greatest of all time. So I became myself the new kid on the block. Like I'm like- You're what, 20, how old are you? I was like 23, 24. I was young. So I ended up saying...

And you lost the next fight. Yeah, I gained a lot of wisdom through that, in a way, like I have a lot of knowledge. So I lost the next fight. And now everybody was saying, oh, is that... You know, we don't... People say, oh, don't pay attention to the critics.

But I think we should pay attention to a certain point because it helps you get better. Not if it makes you crazy and obsessive, but if it helps you just enough to get better, I think it's a good thing. So people now start doubting me, saying, oh, he's not as good as people think, and he's a quitter, he's a quitter.

That was the big thing. I never quit in my life, and people see me as a quitter. I was very, very angry at myself not necessarily for losing but more tapping out and when when i did this i was getting ready for another fight because i couldn't go back to a revenge a rematch against that guy i need to go to other contenders in order to get my revenge so i was not focusing on my immediate opponent i was focusing on that guy that i want and which is a mistake so i could have lose down the road so i did the brick thing right before my

my match really and then i was able to focus on the present knowing where i was going but i was like focusing on what's going the task ahead And then I got my rematch in Montreal, in front of my family, my friend. I was able to redeem myself and win the title against Matt Serra for the second time. But you had already let go of the brick. Ah, yeah. Which gave you a lot of peace.

Now I'm curious about, it's almost like you need to kill your ego. Like in order to tap out, you need to be like willing to kill your ego and not be like, well, I'm gonna be this tough guy and just wait until I'm knocked out and go out on my shield or my sword. Yeah. But why is it so hard for people, especially in that sport, but in general, to let go of their ego, do you think? Personally, my ego, my pride, it's one of my best assets as a fighter, but also one of the worst issues I have in society.

Tell me more. For example, my pride, I'm a very proud person, and that's why I train so hard, because fighting is so important for me so I don't want to go there and lose and be humiliated because my friend my family will see it and remember that moment so I do it not only for myself I do it for the others because the way they look look on me that's why I'm so proud they did I'm always training with that and behind the back of my mind. However, it can become an obsession at one point. Because if you... And I'm a little bit obsessive compulsive, I think. You'll train 10 hours a day. I will train 10 hours a day.

And I'm the kind of guy that when I get ready for a fight, the idea of fighting the person, the scenarios haunt my mind. You go over every scenario in your mind. I eat it. You watch it all day long. Everything they do. Everything.

Training, repetition, how do I get out of this? How do I get out of this? And sometimes before a fight, it haunts you so much when you eat, when you drive your car, before you go to bed, when you wake up, when you go to the bathroom, every time, every time. To the point that there's

some highlight that pop-ups in your head sometimes sometimes you see yourself winning sometimes you see yourself losing however the trick that I've learned is and I think one of the reason of success I believe that I stay very strong mentally is that and sometimes it pops in your head it's not because you want it's just pop in your head you don's not because you want it. It's just popping in your head. You don't control it, and you're in trouble. Sometimes you're not winning.

However, you never want to let go your thought on a negative ending. You always want to let go. Let's say you're in trouble. You want to force yourself off thinking. Even if you're in the middle of something, you say, wait a second, put things on pause and say, okay, if this happened, I'm gonna do this, this, this,

to get out of trouble and get the upper hand. Now I can go do my thing, you know what I mean? So that's what I've been doing through all my life. But it become an obsession because it haunts you. And I believe it haunts me because of my pride because I care so much about it, I don't wanna be humiliated that it's working out there. So when you're going through scenarios in your mind, it's happening all day, right?

In your sleep, all day, you know. And the closer you get to the fight, it's like a funnel, like on the other way, you know, it gets worse and worse and worse and worse is terrible How often would you imagine yourself losing? When you you or would you always find a way away I'm getting out of it now when you're instigate yourself the your newest instigate the visualization you You focus on the positive thing. However, sometime

the visualization, you focus on the positive thing. However, sometimes, like anything in life, there is something that will pop in your head. Very often, it's a threat. And this imagery will be negative. However, you don't want to let it, like I said, you don't want to let it hang on a negative note before you go back to what you do. You want to, okay, wait a second, okay.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Okay, this, you put me down. Now i'm gonna humbar you and then i'm gonna win the fight and that okay now now what we're doing now and then so you write the script you write i don't write i do it all mentally yeah i mean you're writing it in your mind it's all a word it's a different world that happened in my mind it's a movie in your mind yes and that movie by the time i get to the fight i've seen almost every possible scenario. I've seen myself in trouble in any possible ways because I had run it through my mind so many times.

So when I get into the fight, it's like it's not the first time I've lived through this. And when I fought Michael Bisping, just to give you an example. This was about five years ago, right? Yes. When I came out, I came out after four years. People say,

oh, you didn't look that restless because I play stuff in my mind all the time. So maybe physically I was not competing, but I did in my mind. And the way I finished the fight, people will think I'm lying, but I visualized it. Really?

Yes. I didn't know for sure that's how, but I know that I remember visualizing it exactly yes i didn't know for sure that's how but i know that i remember visualizing it exactly like it happened or if it's not exactly like i knew it was going to pass out and i got him like this after dropping in so when you had him like that were you just like oh yeah this was already did you just know it was over when you had him behind we like this is ending so this fight yeah so so the way it happened is is uh if i recap the end michael besping is bigger man he's taller than me and one of my strategies because most people will not know that because when they watch a fight they think it's

only people two two guys trying to scrap each other when you're fighting a taller guy he's punching down on you because michael is taller taller guy, he's punching down on you, because Michael is taller than me. Because he's punching down on you, he's wide open. However, if you're like me, smaller than him, and you're punching up, you're protected. So the idea for me, because he's taller, was to start a combination to the body.

So if I start to the body, it will crouch me down, it will force him to punch me down in the exchange, and then come back to the top, and that start to the body it will crouch me down it will force him to punch me down in the exchange and then come back to the top and that's what i did with the hook that's how i dropped him was part of my strategy we practiced it many times once i dropped him i tried to finish him off with elbows but he's very resilient he resists and i know that michael is very good at standing back up from from his back but the way he does it he like to go on for four point on his limb because he's very strong like this and he's so strong that you can't stop him however there's a catch to it he exposes

back so I give him an opening when I knew I he was coming back to himself and I wasn't able to finish him I give gave him an opening. You let him stand up. Let him. You give him a moment. So he went back on four point, like I thought. Then he exposes back and that's when I went. So this, I knew for a long time. I didn't know for certain that that's how I would have finished the fight,

but I knew it was a possibility and I visualized it many times. Many, many times. When you're visualizing in training camp, are you visualizing the win over and over again or are you more putting yourself in adverse situations to get out of? Both. And both are very important. To do like, okay, the one punch, it's going to be easy

and I can see he's not going to touch me and everything's going to be smooth and then also what happens if it's all challenging. So there's always an X factor. There's things that are unexpected that can happen in a fight. For example, that finger and eyes like this, maybe you haven't thought through that.

They hit you in the groin. Exactly. It's like things like this that you haven't perhaps not visualized, but I do personally visualize everything like every situation maybe i did not physically drilled it exactly the same but i visualized it if i didn't re-visualize it exactly the same because i'm obsessed i've done a very close version of it yeah so you talked about doubt and confidence you said you need to have the time you were the most confident is the time you lost the time you slept like a baby and you

were like i got this you lost every other fight you said you had some doubt yeah i feel like doubt also holds us back from being our best that's right so how do you build confidence and not let doubt cripple you from not taking action and playing scared and playing like weak you know soft so i believe confidence it's a state of mind but you can work on it and of course you need to train hard but most importantly you need to train smart. You need to work smart. And this is applied to everything in life. And to make an analogy is,

a good analogy is let's say I have an exam at school. Yes. And it's very important exam, like decisive one. And I did study. I will be scared still of the result, but I will be more confident. But I'm still going to be scared. Because you know you put the work in.

Yes. And I have reason to be confident, but I'm still going to be scared. Just as scared that if I would not have studied. It's the same thing in a fight. So confidence is, if I got a fight, there's always an X factor,

an unknown factor, because I do not control my opponent, but I do control myself. So I work as hard and as good as I can to get myself ready that I know that there's no way I cannot be better than I am right now. This is confident. Now I have the right to go in there and be confident.

And calm. Yes. But I'm still going to be just as scared as if I would not have worked out. But just as scared, but I'm confident. Yeah. And when you work hard and smart and get very well prepared, on top of that, I believe, because I'm a big believer of that, but I always act and put on a mask like for me it's impossible to fail. Deep down inside, even in front of my team, and my team knows, my trainer knows how I am.

Because deep down inside, I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm in this again. But the day of the fight, I'm in the locker room because I want to carry a positive attitude. And I want my team to be positive. So even though I have doubt, I cannot let that happen. And my team, if they're scared, they cannot let that happen because it would be a breach. And if there's a breach, there's an opening. So we have to stay united and strong. We go to war together.

So I'm very scared but I go and I don't show it. I show confidence and even every fight days, I feel like very bad. But inside, you're just like screaming.

Oh, I feel terrible. I always wake up in the morning and say, oh man, I don't feel good today. And when my trainer asks me, how do you feel today?

I'm like, I can't wait. It's going to be a lot of man, I don't feel good today. And when my trainer asks me, how do you feel today? I'm like, can't wait. It's going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait. But they know I'm, because they know I'm playing games and they kind of laugh.

And after, we never tell the truth until the fight is over. But after, I'm like, hey, I went to battle, I show up a bit.

I tell the real thing. But before that, until the war is over, we're playing the role of of an invincible invincible fighter because we go to war as one unit what happens if you told the truth hey coach i'm not feeling good today i'm just not sure did i do enough scenario do we train hard enough what happens to a fighter or anyone in life, in business, sport, whatever, if they actually say the truth? Well, it's the same thing.

If I would make an analogy, you go ask a girl on a date and you go with no confidence. I'm sorry, would you please? I mean, if you wouldn't mind to come to the movie. Can I get your number? It's not very attractive. Or you go for a job interview, you, I mean if you wouldn't mind to come to the movie. Can I get your number? It's not very attractive or you go for a job interview, you go like this, like, yeah, I would work really hard, like the guy is like, yeah, I don't want to get that guy. It's the same thing, like you go, when you do something, you need to come out 100% or don't come out at all.

When I do something in life, I go 110%. I win, I win big, big i lose i lose big but i'm not gonna go and lose and tell myself after oh i wish i would have because i've done a lot of stupid thing in my life and and i but there's things that i it's hard to live with is regret and for me regret is the worst so i don't want to have regret. Yeah. Do you have any regrets? I have a lot of regret because, you know, like when I tap, I had regrets.

Now you've let that go. I let that go. So you want to live forever now. Yes. Yeah. When Matt Hughes was a number one contender at one point, and Matt Hughes, after one of his fights, I believe it's against BJ Penn, he won the fight and everybody because I was they were trying to promote the fight they were like telling me like George come in the octagon coming do you

don't say something because I thought he was speaking on the mic I thought was insulting me but I couldn't hear because of the sound the arena it was so many people so I went in the octagon and I tell him, I'm not impressed by your performance. That's where it comes from. But I regret it. And I went and apologized after him because that was his moment.

That was his win. And I tried to take that away from him to make it about me. And it was a big mistake. I regret that. But I apologize. The fact that I apologized made me feel better. When was the moment in your life you had the most fear? But I apologize. I don't. The fact that I apologize is making me feel better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

When was the moment in your life you had the most fear? So that's another thing. And it could be in the octagon or in just another area of your life. Oh. Any area of your life. The most you felt afraid. That's a good question.

I believe if it's outside the octagon, I was afraid. I got into a car accident when I was a teenager. I just had my driving license and I got into a car accident. the moment I mean you talk about fear the moment like the split second that you realize what's going on like holy shoot like you dance it's like crazy but I believe fear

we talk about fear I believe it could be a good thing fear can save your life like in fighting it could I believe it could enhance my performance

and I thought when I was young that fear will go away with time because I will get used to it. And you never get used to it because every fight is bigger than the last one. More pressure and more to lose.

Now I embrace it because I need it. And I know that it increases my reaction times and makes me more explosive and increases my decision-making time. So I need fear. So if I would go fight and I would not have fear, first it's because perhaps I don't care about it. So I believe fear can save your life.

When I had that car accident, I tensed myself. And the impact, boom, but I was so tense, maybe my head didn't hit the... Maybe I produced so much strength and isometric tension that it make me like a block and my head did not hit because the car was badly damaged. So I think fear is a good thing. It could be a good thing.

We see fear as a negative thing. I think we should embrace it as something that can save our life. What's your biggest insecurity in your life right now? Well, biggest insecurity... Because you're this multiple champion, you're a movie star now, you've done a lot of great things at 40.

You're in better shape ever than now. I think my biggest insecurity all through all my life was because I was so much concerned about performance and was able to not be able to deliver as good as I should. Now, my biggest insecurity, I mean, it's not a problem. I do not have this, not even close to the same amount of stress i used to have now i'm doing now i have four years i'm just doing the fun stuff i'm so happy all the rewards but the thing is insecurity that i had my lot of insecurity earlier in my life some people but but that's why now i don't have to have it, because I have so much insecurity, like all that negative tension.

For me, that's how I put it in perspective. I put it all early in my life, so then after I can have a smooth ride. But I needed to have it. So some people put that amount of insecurity, maybe they stretch it too down their life. Maybe that, for me, those 10 years of my career were so crazy, because I never liked it.

I never liked to fight, because it put me in. Never, I never liked it I never liked to fight because you don't like me like never I never liked it I like to train I like the science of fighting I never loved to fight I never enjoyed it once you didn't enjoy it fight never even once and the reason why I did it it's because I was very good at it it's because it gives me a lot of money it gives me the freedom when I was young was all the girls the the dream life that the celebrity the access of thing that people don't have access and I was very gifted at it that's why I did it people I why do you fight them except it's not the same person that would the George that speak to you now is not the same

person and I have two personalities a little bit like like like like in a movie the way I explain that is and every day of my life I'm Jean St. Pierre. I'm a nice guy. I don't like to fight. I like to train. I like the fitness to be fit, training and everything. The science. Fighting is unbearable.

I do it because what it gives me, what it provides me. But bigger the risk, bigger the rewards. So all that insecurity thing, I've done it only to obtain what I have now. The freedom of life, the wealth, the health, even more importantly. But I needed to go through to it. The Georges St-Pierre doesn't like to fight. However, when I go train, like earlier I train with Freddie Roach, when I start hitting pad, ping, ping, something happened to me like

a psychological transformation because I remember the mechanic of my move Wow and how good I am at this stuff and now you become a different animal now you like man yeah so you become a different animal so it's same thing before I fight you you you're so scared and, but when you start warming up, it makes you remember that you're good at this, you have done this many, many times, and you're good, and your confidence grows, you become a different animal.

So that's how I see it. People, it's very hard for them to understand. It's a love-hate relationship. So when you talk about insecurity, it's had my lot of insecurity throughout my life. Now it's the fun stuff ahead of me. Now in movie, for me, yeah, it's a lot of, it's not a hard job, man.

It's nothing. It's fun. Compared to fighting? Yeah, if I miss out, I'll do it again. This is easy. Yeah, my insecurities are maybe if I make myself look bad and so what am I like? I mean, it sucks, but I'm not going to die.

I'm not going to, you know, it's like, yeah. You're not breaking your arm. That's right. That's right. So it's the fun stuff now. I don't have, you know, I'm always concerned about health and stuff like that. People I love, their health.

I'm diagnosed with ulcer colitis. So at one point it was insecurity, but. What is it called? Ulcer colitis. So at one point it was insecurity, but... What is it called? Ulcer colitis. It's an inflammation of the colon, the intestine. So what I did is I started fasting. I cannot recommend it to anybody because everybody is there, but it works for me.

Intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting. 16 and 8, yeah. I did 16 and 8, and also I did prolonged fasting, 3 days, 5 days water fast and it diminished all my inflammation problem and I get rid of all my symptoms. Now I'm… You're fine now.

I don't need any. I'm medication free now. How long were you on medication for? For the first 6 months. But then I… the idea of fasting at first when I start investigating it seems preposterous to me because we live in a society that were bombarded by publicity all that I eat this protein shake there this that to get bit work work the company promote this and it kind of get into our head so the idea if I would not have never had that condition The which I have probably for the rest of my life. I

Would never have done fasting so we've been eating more and more still I would never have believe you if you would have to tell me even if your doctor will tell me I go try to fast I Guys out of his money five meals a day. I mean, yeah, so I This thing needed to happen to me in order to discover fasting and And I'm glad, and I wish I would have done it when I was younger. And I talk to younger people sometimes, I'd say, it's worth investigating,

you should try if it works for you. And they laugh at me, it's true. I started doing intermittent fasting probably four years ago, and I've done a three and a half day, no food, just water and coffee. Um, and that was inspiring, you know, to see the clarity I had, you know, I lost something like seven or eight pounds in like three and a half days, but just like feeling better, sharper. I wasn't, I was giving my body a rest, my digestive system. So what's the farthest you've

gone without food? I've done five days. Five days. But in those, the thing is when I do fast, I still train. That's crazy. Because I believe

it gets you in autophagy faster. You're just getting rid of the dead cells. I do not train, I mean the first two days I do exactly our normal training

but the third, fourth, and five days I start, I modify my training. Slower, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because otherwise you can't. You have no energy. No, no, and you can't hurt yourself.

And I wanted to do a week at first, but after four days I started having troubles through sleep, and the fifth day I told myself, I said, I'm doing this for the benefit, not because I want to break a record, because I have that crazy competitive spirit and i said you know what i'm good let it go and and just just drop it out i think for me personally everybody's there for me personally the sweet spot it's three days the way my system is

for me it's three days maybe for you is a different and for someone else but three days was good for me for me i think it's the perfect sweet spot. I've done three days twice, and then I've done a two day a couple of times. And I wanna do a 24, I wanna do like a 36 hour once a month. What makes you start fasting? What would these is for a-

I think it was like health benefits. Yeah, I was like, I was a little bit overweight. I mean, I was probably like 15 pounds more than now. So I was like, ah, you know, how do I get rid of this belly fat? Like finally get rid of it. And it was also, I was getting some like eczema, like little skin. And I was like, is this allergies? Is this food?

I don't know what it is. Or is it stress? Am I holding on to something emotionally? So I was just trying everything. And then I've interviewed a lot of experts who were talking about fasting. So I was like, let me explore and test this out. I think I was telling you beforehand, I just interviewed someone who does water-only fasting for 7 to 40 days. And he has people come in and do it in his clinic.

Modify it, make sure he's watching them all. So I'm just fascinated by how to extend the quality of my life. Happier, healthier, more flexible, look better. I love that you said you look better now than the last when you were 20 years fighting yeah i i mean recently i've done that that's crazy i was doing yeah yeah i feel i feel better and and imagine if i would have known what i've known now and put that when i was in my 20s and i don't i don't i'm not a doctor but i don't know if fasting is good for a teenager i don't think so maybe because

he's not he hasn't grown fully yet but like if i would have known what i've known now perhaps i would never have had my ulcer colitis problems and maybe you know what i mean maybe i would i would not have that like two acl tear and then that you know so now i think you just had one you had two both knees i had two at my surgery done by Dr. Ella Trash. The thing is in Canada, the healthcare system is free, but everybody gets treated the same. So if you're a professional athlete, you have the same treatment as a lady who's,

for example, 70 years old. So I'm an athlete, so I need to have a good surgeon and also rehab faster than a normal person because that's my job so that's why

I came in LA Dr. Latrache did my two ACL and I rehab with Heather Milligan and with Gavin McMillan

in Orange County it was great the best thing I've done it came back even better than it was really

yeah good six months. You feel stronger now. Six months. Six months. Yeah, six months. Yeah. Now, you were probably, I'm assuming,

you probably had the best nutritionist, the best sports psychologist, doctors, camp that you were working with. But even then, you didn't know about fasting. It wasn't really that popular 10, 15 years ago, right? No, it wasn't popular. Maybe it was, but I never would have paid attention. I got to eat my food. And nutritionists, I never had really nutritionists until last May. I tried that animal-based diet.

I always eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Because you're a genetic freak, too. And you're burning so many calories. I burn a lot of energy. And I believe some people have a faster metabolism, which is advantageous nowadays, but perhaps 12,000 years ago in the hunter-gatherer society, it would not have been so advantageous because food was more scarce.

So a guy like me maybe would have died. I would have died earlier. So were you eating, when you mean you were eating everything like pizza and ice cream? you were just like whatever I want I'm gonna eat it. Yeah, one thing I would have I would I did is like maybe a month before a fight I would try to cut down the desert no desert. No, no Well, yeah, I eat sugar but no, let's say chop excessive desert

I would have take it but no excessive no excess on sugar because I'm a kind of excess person. You're all in. You're like, it's not one scoop of ice cream, it's the whole bucket of ice cream. It's not one slice of pizza, it's the whole pizza. Maybe two pizzas. That's one thing. It also manifests when I eat. It manifests when I party, when I'm drunk. I mean, there's a line I don't cross, but if I know we party and I drink, I'll drink and i get drunk and then you know like like not every time but if it's a party and i'm with a good good friends and i'll take advantage and have fun because it's clear my mind the next day i can start out fresh you know yeah but same thing with food you know take it i'm the man i'm a little bit of an excessive personality but before before a fight, I used to tell myself,

no alcohol, no sugar too much. That's good. But outside of that, it was bad. I eat very bad. So it wasn't until really a year ago when you started to focus on nutrition. And you tried not the carnivore diet, but which diet? I try not an exclusive carnivore diet,

but I try an animal-based diet animal-based diet yeah guy the person who gave me is paul salesno um his uh instagram is at carnivore md okay and what does this consist of he's a doctor and um it's uh consists of uh mainly you try to feed off animal organs mostly organs you try you try organs because if you look at nature and when a predatory animal goes after the stomach that's right they leave them they leave the leg right they go they go for the the stomach when a horko killed a great white it eats the liver like like every animal, like even when I went to Africa, I went to see the Maasai,

they're almost exclusively carnivore. When they kill an animal, they eat the organs. They don't eat like us, the flamingo and all that. So you eat organs, then you eat, of course, like you try to get fat, like a ribeye, bone marrow, grass-fed meat, free-range eggs, like wild-catch fish. And then if you're still hungry after, you get fruit.

No veggies, no fruit, no veggies, no processed food. That's what I did. So you're eating mostly the organs. Yes. So what are we talking about? Trip, heart, liver, testicle, brain. You're eating all that? Yeah.

That's all you're eating every day? Yeah. Every day I try to get like a... Where do you get this from? But it's not a lot. It's maybe one gram or two grand. Oh, you get that at the supermarket. In Canada, it's every super...

You get the heart and the liver and everything? It's cheap as hell because nobody buys it. It's not part of our North American culture. A liver. And the more you do it, the more you'll develop a taste for it. It's an acquired taste. Yeah, now I love liver. Now for my breakfast, I'm doing eggs, bacon, sausage, and I put a liver,

like maybe the size of a cell phone. Like an iPhone, you put 90. So I put a liver, like maybe the size of a cell phone. Like an iPhone, you put 90, you put your cup very, very hot, like 90 seconds, 90 seconds, thank you, you eat, it's delicious. Calf liver, very, very delicious. Is that good, huh? I love it, I mean, at first it was weird,

but I love it now, yeah. Okay, so was weird, but I love it now. Yeah. Okay. So we're talking intestines, heart, everything. Everything. Yeah. Yeah. And so you did this for how long? I've done it for a month, the month of May. One month. And I took a picture on my Instagram, like to show that at 40 years old. Last month.

Last month. Yeah. One month. And I took a picture to show that even at 40 years old, it's possible. I was lean and shredded like I never been before. So imagine if I would have done that when I was like 30, 25 years old, I would have been like, ah, you know? So one month, were you bigger? I mean, you weren't that big.

You're still shredded. I lost, I think I lost maybe four pounds, three to four pounds. Yeah, you're still shredded, but you got lean. You look bigger, but it's not that you're bigger. You lose water retention inflammation because your skin is like really under muscle. for three or four hours but you got lean you look bigger but it's not that you're bigger you lose water retention inflammation because your skin is like really under muscle yeah yeah for a body builder i think would be a good idea wow so no vegetables no vegetable no leafy greens no leafy

green no vegetable nothing only animal base and fruit a little bit if you're still hungry after your meal i gotta i'll have to interview this guy to learn more about it but what was the science that you're aware of behind not having leafy greens and what i've i've uh i've investigated a lot of uh paul salad's nose work that's the carnivore md guy yes yes and uh you know it's a very controversial controversial subject you know and i'm aware of it because I grew up like everybody else I guess like my parent I eat your vegetable and I just I'm just curious I like to think outside the box I like you know I like to break the

rules not break the law but break the rules and I think sometimes it's in order to improve in life you need to do that so I wanted to do something that everybody thought I was crazy but now I've, now because I post that picture, everybody's like, no way, what the hell is it? People thought I was on steroids or something. And I was like, no, it's like I did that, that picture was taken three weeks after I was on that diet. You know, so only in three weeks, you know, so.

I wonder what did the photo look like before? You still look shredded. No, I'm still, I'm still, but not as much as this. And it's not a lighting thing, because the guy who took a picture, he had a real professional camera, but it was not like a lighting trick. What did your body fat get down to?

Do you know? I have no idea. I have no idea. As long as I feel healthy, and I feel good in my own skin, I don't. Now tell me about after the month. Do you feel like you were sleeping better? Do you feel like you were clearer mind?

Or were there side effects to this? I did not feel like that I was stronger. I just feel I was just as strong. I felt a little bit that I had less inflammation because when I train in martial art, there's a lot of impact. And I feel like my body sometimes was not as damaged, I would say, than I would normally.

You were recovering faster. Yes. And I also have a little bit of, I would say, arthritis and my big toes, one of my big toes, because I think earlier in my life, I must have kicked someone. A turf toe or something like that. Yeah.

Jammed it. And sometimes when I'm laying down in bed, not when I'm moving, but when I'm laid down in bed, I feel and it jammed. Yeah, I have the same. This, during that month when I did the diet, did not happen. No way. And now I'm back to live normal. It's back again. Shut up.

Yeah, so it's not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence. I think it has something to do with inflammation. Really? Yeah. I played arena football. I'm not sure if you know what that is, but it's not a coincidence I think it has something to do with inflammation really yeah I had I played arena football I'm not sure if you know what that is

but it's indoor football in America and they play it in like a hockey rink but they put like astroturf down

like fake grass oh and it's intense there's walls so it's kind of like hockey but football with the wall

with the wall but they put they put pads on the walls, but it's still. Okay, okay. You're still like diving. So like a hockey wall, like. Yeah. But it's a pad, but it still hurts.

Yeah. And you're falling down all the time. Like there's a concrete and then turf, like a grass. And I jammed my toe one time, like stopping and just jammed it. And it's always been, had problems, but. Never came back. It's never, the flexibility. There's always been had problems but uh never came back it's never the flexibility there's no flexibility i can barely bend it back but it's like i notice when i eat certain things like oh the pain's gone and then other times the pain is back yeah i uh

however i do not know if i would eat vegetable and and do animal-based diet and fruit with no processed food if I would have the same result. I mean, maybe it's just a fact because I stopped the processed food. Right. It may not be the... You might have vegetables and fruit.

According to certain people, but Paul Salas does not believe that's the right way to eat. It's no vegetable. Because he believes... I mean, you can research him, but he strongly believe that any living organism develop a defense mechanism to survive. And vegetable, when you eat them,

they make you have inflammation and all kinds of different issues. So what they do to defend themselves is to create an allergic reaction and also they create fruit in order like a bait for an animal to eat the fruit instead of eating the plant so it protects themselves. Have you heard about the blue zones?

The blue zones are the... I think there's seven blue zones in the world which are areas of the world, regions of the world that have people that live the longest. Like, they live over 100. And so there are these seven places.

There's one here in Loma Linda, which is about an hour and a half away from Los Angeles. There's one in, like, somewhere in Japan. And there's these seven, I think it's seven zones. And I've heard that they mostly have, plant-based diets with like some fish. Yeah. Mostly. That wouldn't make sense. There might be other environmental things.

Like they have a good sense of community. There's like all these factors. They have a good sense of family, community. They have a sense of purpose. All these other things that help them live longer. But who knows? If you look at nature, that makes sense. Because if you look at nature, the animals that are the more, I mean, I would say, more rip normally is the carnivore, but they don't live as long as the herbivore.

Herbivore, like the turtle, I mean, might not be true. Gorilla is plants, right? Exactly. Nothing is shredded. Yeah, yeah. If you look like most of the predatoryatory animal i don't think they live as long as the arab a certain herbivore i mean i i mean maybe the greenland uh shark i think he's like i'm not sure if he's a carnivore animal but i know he lives like 500 years or something maybe

i'm wrong in that but uh it would be worth to investigate yeah i want to learn more about so that makes sense if you say that most humans yeah that don't? Yeah. That could be... I think we don't... It's not been long enough that we study this stuff. I know. We need more data. There's other factors, too. There's other environmental factors, the weather, the community, all these things. The stress.

The stress. They're not stressed, yeah. They need purpose. Absolutely. Absolutely. But when you watch a nature documentary of a lion eating a deer or something, it's going right for the intestines. Hyena, same thing.

When an animal is dead, they don't know how to kill it, but they know how to eat. They go for the testicle, for the gut. Yeah, it's crazy. Is that just because that's where the most nutrients are? That's right. That's why. Over like the arm or the leg or whatever it's like? No, the nutrients are, there is right. That's why. Over like the arm or the leg or whatever it's like.

No, the nutrients are, there is more nutrients in those parts, in the organs. That's right. So what is your, so you just turned, happy birthday by the way, because you just turned 40 like a couple weeks ago, right? Yeah, May 19th. It's crazy, man. You look, you're the best you've ever looked. That's right.

Thank you. So what's your diet, now that you've been testing these things, intermittent fasting, this carnivore style diet, you've trained like a machine for so long. What is your diet and workout routine going to look like moving forward from 40 to 50? What's your vision?

Is it still experimentation? Is it train hard? Is it yoga and relax? I'm in a constant phase of learning, but there's certain things that I experiment that I will keep with me forever. For example, eating organs is something that I'm still doing now.

However, I loosen up on my diet. I like chocolate. I'll eat chocolate. I live my life to the fullest. I like coffee. I stopped coffee for that period of time, but now I like coffee. I am up on my diet. I like chocolate. I'll eat chocolate. I live my life to the fullest. I like coffee. I stopped coffee for that period of time, but now I like coffee. I am back on it. Yeah, it's good.

One thing that I do too that most people think I'm crazy, and I think that's one of the things that contribute to try to make me fit and live long and contribute to my athleticism is I like ice bath. That's so good. I have it at home three to four times a week. First thing I do when I wake up in the morning, I go in the ice bath. And when I say ice, it's titanic cold water. And when I am, when I'm, why I'm,

it depends the temperature of the water. In the winter, it's much colder. When I'm doing it in the summer, I need to put ice in it it but it doesn't go down as low as it is when it is... Winter it's like 20 degrees in the water. Yeah, yeah. The water actually in the... when I do it in the winter it goes maybe 4 degrees. 4 degrees Celsius. Right over the... Fahrenheit? Yeah. Celsius? goes maybe four degrees four degrees right right over the the fahrenheit yeah it's like 35 degrees fahrenheit or something yeah yeah it's 40 40 40 yeah 40 that's mean it's yeah it's about five yeah

that's right so so the reason why i'm doing this is also therapeutic yes what it does is yeah i believe it helps to boost my, I believe. I mean, there is no real stuff, strong data. Well, there is data now. I mean, there are cold chuck protein and hot chuck protein with suno. Yeah. But what I'm saying, I believe it helps boost my immune system. I believe it helps me with inflammation.

I'm talking just personal experience. And also, it helps with my mood the reason why it does is i'm forcing myself to find comfort in a very extreme uncomfortable situation and i believe in life pleasure it's also related to a relief of pain and and and i'll doubt that thought i don't get explaining my point if people are not i agree with that so the fact So the fact that I find comfort in a very extremely uncomfortable situation, when I'm in the cold water forcing myself to breathe by the nose, when I get out of it, I don't stay too long because, of course, you'll die of hypothermia. When I get out of it, it makes me feel better in my own skin.

Example of that, to make an analogy for everybody to to understand is let's say we go eat a meal the same meal together we eat the same dish you eat maybe your breakfast or your dinner but i haven't eat for five days because when we eat the meal, because of what I've done, my meal will taste much better than yours because I wasn't paying it. So it's a relief of pain. Same thing that I'm trying to do with the highest bath. I try to put myself in a very extreme situation

to force me to find some kind of comfort to resist. Then when I get out, I'm like, wow wow and i feel so good it's very therapeutic yeah it's very therapeutic uh have you heard of wim hof absolutely yeah i'm doing i'm doing this as well have you done with them i went to poland last year i took a group of guys to go with whim we spent five days with whim just ourselves no way a bunch of influencers former pro athletes and hockey player and n NFL guys and former champions. And we went for five days together just as us guys. And we dove in the freezing river.

We climbed a mountain in snow with no clothes on. You did this? Yes. We were in the ice tub for 10 minutes. It's crazy, man. And it was an incredible experience. And as a football player, I used to have ice tubs after practice for 10 minutes after practice. But it wasn't this cold ever.

It was cold, but it wasn't. But this was another level. And it just continued. I'm a big believer in putting yourself through structured pain on a daily basis. Even if it's two minutes. Even if it's something where it's an ice bath, it's push-ups, it's whatever you've got to do. Something that's uncomfortable. And it sounds like you've been doing this for a long time. Yeah. But have you met Wim yet? I never did. Oh, I got to connect you guys because he's,

I think he might be in town right now. Wow. How long are you here for? I'm leaving tomorrow. Okay. Well, next time you're back, I'll have to connect you guys. Or if you go to Poland, I'll have, I'll set you up with like a private session with him. He's unbelievable. He's probably more extreme than you. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I see stuff that he does. It's insane. But I like the, you know, he claims that he believes the body can learn how to heal itself. Heal itself.

He's injected and then resisted it from his mind and the cold. And then resisted it from his mind and the cold. And also, I believe 14 of his students have done the same thing. Yes. Versus 14 other subjects that were not trained to his methods. And the result data was like… The same. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Crazy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's climbed like Mount Kilimanjaro or something with like no clothes, just shorts. I think we underestimate the power of the mind. And we just start touching it. And I'm a big fan of Matthew Walker too. Oh, the sleep guy? Yes.

I'm supposed to have him on soon too. And he talks about, we talk about that subject. So he talks about meditation and he says that at first, when he heard of the idea of meditation to help someone to sleep, he kind of rejected, but he knows now that the data proves that it can help. So the brain has a strong influence of the body.

Do you meditate a lot? Well, what I do is when I'm in this cold water extreme environment. Yeah, yeah, so what I do is i try to force myself close my eyes force myself and breathe by the nose so so it put me in some kinds of meditation because it helped me to find to find peace and calm in a very extreme environment so it's some kind of meditation but i do not spend like half an hour and i do it for a few minutes and then I go on with my day. Speaking of breathing, did you learn how to breathe properly growing up as a fighter?

And did they teach you this in martial arts? Because breathing is everything in competition, any sport. If you don't have your breath under control, you're screwed. You're tired. Did you learn this early on or did you learn it? I've learned the technique, but I didn't know why. And now I've read books and I know why. And it makes sense.

What did you learn that was effective for you to stay relaxed under extreme tension and not burn out? And not burn out. So let's say you do a crazy physical activity. You're exhausted. And you're out of breath. The worst thing you can do is bend over and breathe by the mouth. So you take a straw, for example, and try to make the air go. If you bend it, it will not go through. So you try to stand up straight.

And we call it in karate, in Kyokushin karate, it's called Ibuki. It's breathing. So we used to do an exercise after, let's say, a fight when I was young. And I always wondered why it was making us do that, but I knew it was helping me recover very fast.

So you stand up straight, you're exhausted. You take big, big inhale by the nose and exhale by the nose. And it's like you're trying to hyperventilate yourself, but you exhale, you inhale, long inhale and very quick exhale, but very powerful. And what it does-

Can you show me an example? Yeah, so I go like this, it's ibuki it's a karate so it's a little bit like him but i used to that when i was a kid yeah and i didn't know why i knew it was working well but i didn't know the why i know how to do it but i didn't know the why now i know now the why and i'll tell you why yes is he in camera is he in a frame still, just somewhere? Okay, cool, yeah. So Ibuki is this. So you go like this. You can do like five to 10 to 30, it depends.

We used to do, like I was a kid, we used to do five. Wow. Then you hold it as long as you can. Then when you're ready... Then that's the first cycle. Then you do three cycles. Wow. You do that in between rounds. So when I go fight in MMA.

When I go fight in MMA and I sit down on the stool. I didn't do the movement, but I inhale, bite the nose, I'm doing the same. I'm doing very often that. If I needed it, I'm doing it. And inhale. Where most guys are like. Yes.

They're like sucking to the mouth. They're panicking mouth they're panicking they're panicking Wow and the reason why you is better to inhale by the nose from what I've understood when I've decided yeah yes indeed goes to the nose it goes over your eye and right at the brain and there's a filter in here if you breathe by the mouth it doesn't go to the same part. Yeah. And I thought it was very interesting. We have a nose, and a nose is like a hearing. If you don't use it, it will close a little bit.

Like a woman, they put hearing, you know, like very often. So it closes down. After you take it off for too long, your ear will close down. But if you want to keep it open, you need to exercise it or breathe. Some people are mouth breather I think it's very bad. Have you read the book by James Nestor James? That's right. That's the one it's called breathe Yeah, the heart the heart of the lost heart of breathing. It's crazy. It's fascinating We had a monitor was talking about this how?

Even the jaw changes when you breathe through the mouth all the time like you your face will change Yes, and I explained that's that's what I'm talking about. He explained that it goes over here changes when you breathe through the mouth all the time like you your face will change yes and he explained that's that's what that's what i'm talking about he explained that it goes over your it goes in the brain it oxygenate your brain and the body it's good for anti-depressing it change your behavior and everything so i thought it was very fascinating data you know and i and i did it a long time ago but i didn't know why but I used to do it still but now I know the why your teacher taught you this earlier yes a long time ago and I think it's been transmitted to karate to martial art to generation and I don't even know if they know why

they know it works because it makes people you know but they don't know why now we know the why the science behind huh what's something that you've done your whole life through training that you still don't know the why it works Like what and this meant is many thing we talk about breathing. It's another thing about breathing act if I may yeah Yeah, when you breathe a lot of people they breathe to here Like if I may put your your put your hand here. Like if I may put your hand here. Yeah. You feeling the back there? Yeah, expanding?

So it expands. So your lungs are like a bag, it goes all the way down. If you never use it, you always use maybe one third of your lung. Your chest up here. Yes, so you don't fully oxygenate yourself. Wow. So, and the oxygen not only goes of your lung. Your chest up here. Yes, so you don't fully oxygenate yourself. Wow.

And the oxygen not only goes into your lung, it goes everywhere in your body. But you were taught this early on. You didn't know why it was working. I didn't know why. You were just like, you're practicing every day. Exactly, exactly. And I'm glad that I had, you know,

we talk about the reason why some people are successful and we don't know always the why, the cause why some people are successful and not. And we don't know always the why, the cause. I believe in cause and effect. I believe. I personally believe in causality and determinism. I do not believe in a free will in a way. Because by definition, if there is a cause, there is. I mean, I still don't know.

But I believe the fact that I had that technique when I was young could have a huge influence on my... Huge, everything. Yeah. For decades. This is one example that now I know the why, but how many things like this that I'm not aware of that happen in every day, you know, for everybody, you know? That's why teaching and being educated the right way early on could transform your life

that's right hussein boat is the fastest man in the world how many guys like hussein boat there is in the world like perhaps even more talented than him but maybe they didn't have the same path exactly so i you know it's fascinating how do you you seem like one of the most mentally determined individuals. I mean, you are obsessive with training, with learning, with mastering things and with putting yourself through pain and hard work consistently. never negotiate with your mind to do less than what you really want to do in order for you to be successful how do you not say oh i'm tired today so i'm going to negotiate with myself and take the day off like how do you like be so determined with your mind no matter what is happening in your world pain stress family like you are committed committed all in on what you need to do. I think it's, I mean, it could, I've never been diagnosed to be excessive compulsive.

I just think I am, but I've never been diagnosed. I can live in society with no problem. I'm not the kind of guy who opens the door at the time. I mean, but I have my own mental issues and stuff as stupid as when I drill a technique, if you talk to my training partner, I drill the same amount of time on the left side than on the right side.

Pretty cool. And I have some guys sometimes that I drill, they're like, hey, I don't want to do this shit. And I'm like, no, no, no. And they think like, yeah, he's got issues up here. Like maybe I do issues, but these issues maybe made me the success, made the success that I have.

So it could be a bad thing in terms of how you live through society if it makes you go crazy to have a weird behavior towards other people. But it could be a good thing. In my case, I try to take that and put it into my field of work your creation yeah but become it sometimes become an obsession yeah so you try to do you

think like when i play basketball just an example when i play basketball and i look at the alarm clock oh i gotta go i need to do a free shot a free throw and get it in. I cannot leave the court if I do not get my free throw. Otherwise, I know it sounds completely preposterous to everybody and it is, it is, but I have this impression that if I don't do that, it will ruin my day. I know it sounds crazy. You'll think about it and you'll never, yeah.

This is not normal. This is insane. No, no, but you know what i mean that's how crazy i am people think i'm a normal guy i'm not like i'm nuts i'm everybody's as their own issue but that's one of the thing i have in the in the fundamental do you think anyone can be number one and what they do in the world without being insane a little bit without being a little crazy without being obsessive like you can't be number one at something you can be great yeah but to be number one consistently you gotta obsess over something for a while yeah

perhaps if you dig into these individual lives you'll find some pattern that like hey whoa this guy's got issues you know oh yeah i mean it's not really an issue, but it serves him well, but he's not normal. And what is normal? Normal is just to compare to the norm, the average. I mean, the word normal is a word that we made it up. You know what I mean? Maybe nobody is normal. You know what I mean?

Right, right. When do you feel the most loved? When you're doing something, when you're around certain people, when do you feel the most, when you're accomplishing, when do you feel loved the most? I've got to tell you the truth. Yes.

The most love is, as good as my career was, I was very happy with what I've done. It's nothing compared my life you know I like my my my my my career is great they did great thing but my personal life I feel very lucky and this is the most important thing for me in order to maintain that I keep all the extraction away from it, you know, to protect it. But I think this is my core. This is what makes me an happy person, you know.

This is the most important thing. And that's where I feel the most love. That's beautiful. The moments where people aren't seeing you performing and being in movies and training and competing. That's where I feel the most love, yes. I really enjoy what I do. Right now, it's only fun stuff. All the stuff that I do not like to do, it's in the past.

Really? I'm very lucky. I mean, there's no perfect job, you know. Right. But I feel very lucky and very privileged to have had the adventure of life that I have. And especially now, I mean, it's only fun stuff ahead of me. And I have the opportunity now to do things, only things that I, you know. That I want to do. That I want to do with people that I want to do. And I am here today with you.

I'm very happy to be here. And I wanted to be here with you. And it's great. It's fun. I didn't come because I had to, because I want to. And that's the difference now. Even in business, when you start in mixed martial art, there's not a lot of money. And you take what... Especially, what, 15 years ago when you were getting mixed martial art, it's, there's not a lot of money

and you take what, especially what, 15 years ago when you were getting into it, right? It's like, you take whatever it comes. You make what,

like 20 grand a fight or 50 grand a fight with your first few? My first fight, I made $1,300 because my opponent did not make weight so I gained 30% of his purse.

Oh my God. $1,300. That was in UFC though. No, that wasn't. In UFC, I'll tell you, I'm not shy. In UFC, my first fight, I did $3,000 to show, $3,000 to win. My first UFC world title, I did $9,000 to show. No, come on.

$9,000 and I didn't win. So I only did $9,000 against Matthews. I got on bar. I did $9,000. That's't win. So I only did 9,000 against Matthews. I got on bar, I did 9,000. That's how it was back then. So when we had an opportunity to take money, we took from him everything. But now, now the good thing is I have my health, which is the most important thing.

I have my wealth. So I do not associate myself with something that I don't like. I need to be authentic and I'm lucky that I reached that point of my life in terms of autonomy in terms of wealth and I wish it to everybody especially in MMA but in MMA it's not like other sport there's no guideline basketball soccer you go in a school program they take they take it

they take you they will show you the guy like mma it's it's it's a world of shark it's crazy like i lost so much money but i made a lot thanks i'm so happy but through my journey i was like i was lucky but i lost a lot of bad luck happened to me. But just what I'm saying is, it's a crazy sport. And very often I have parents coming to me with their kids. They're like, hey George, this is my son, the future world champion. Do you have any advice for him? I look at the kid, I tell him, I say, you go to school?

He's like, yeah. He's like, good man, stay at school. It's very important for you. It should be your number one priority. And the parent always look, give me a weird look when I say that. And it's not because I made it. I'm gonna tell your kid to do it

because the chance that you have success, the odds are very low. And I know me because I only talk about the one who make it, but I know the truth because I've been there, I've seen it. One of the happiest place in my life and one of the saddest place to go it's in the gym because when i go there is happy because i go train i go do what i love to do one of the saddest places to to be also because after training there's always some people that come to me and say hey can you give me some advice about

this i give them some advice it's always technique give them some advice. It's always technique related. But the real advice for me would be like, hey, man, you're 35 years old, bro. What are you doing here? It's been three loss in a row. Get out of there. It should have get out 10 years ago, by the way. I know you're not going to make it.

So when I tell the kid this, I say stay at school. The reason is if he put all his eggs in the same basket to do a sport, and I'm talking about soccer, hockey, baseball, not only fighting, everything. And then he reached the age of 28 years old, 30 years old, and he doesn't make it. It's too late. There's nothing that he can fall back into. At least if he goes to school, even though he doesn't know what to do, at least it's a grind.

He will get his diploma at least he has something it's an assurance yeah i chose fighting not because i didn't have choice i went to school i i just i i stopped school when i had my first title shot people don't know that because it's a stereotype and university or were you, I was in kinesiology. People don't know that. But like every other kid, I didn't like what? Who likes what? I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do.

I was lost because it's normal. You're not the same person at 15 that you will be at 20 and 25. You'll change. But stay there. Stay, keep the grind. Maybe one day something will happen to you and boom, that's what I want to become.

That's where I want to go. Now you will orient yourself towards that. But if you do not stay there and you only put your eggs in the same basket, especially in sport, maybe you get hit by a car. Maybe you're not good enough. You won't make it. You have nothing. So that's the reason why I tell the kids because I've seen this movie in the gym when I see my training partner. It's a really bad ending

and I don't wish that for any kid. Try to make it. If you want to be a professional, try to make it. Make it big. Dream big. The problem is not to aim high and never make it. It's to aim too low, but at least go to school. It's very important. Get your assurance. Have other skills as well. Yeah, learn other skills. Learn other things that you can use in your life. Not just only one thing. That's a problem with a lot of young generation now. Yeah.

I see it every day when I go to the gym. It's very sad. It's very, very sad. And if I would tell them the truth, they will say I'm cocky. They will be insulted. Right. I tell my real friend.

I tell them. Some of my friends, they listen to me. They rearrange be insulted. I tell my real friend, I tell them, some of my friends, they listen to me. They re-arrange their life. Training partners, like guys who are actually fighting. Because I care about them. I know I said, it's not gonna work, bro. It's like, I'm telling you the truth, it's not gonna work. And it's painful to say for me as well,

because I see their pain, their dream is shattered. But some other people, I, they never listen to me. They don't, like they keep doing and they're gonna, they're gonna hit the wall and they're gonna, oh, I should have, it's too late, man, because you wait too long. Now you have nothing that you can fall back on. Do you feel like you left the sport

at the right time for you? Yes, a lot of guys, they stay too long in here. And it's unfortunate because a lot of these guys, a lot of guys they stay too long in here and it's unfortunate because a lot of these guys a lot of them are legend but because they stay too long it damaged their legacy and we forget how good they were when they used to compete in their prime and everybody compete for different reasons yeah i competed personally to become the best in the world because I wanted to have my life, my dream life, my freedom, but I didn't want nothing less

than being the best and the champion. Number two, I don't want to be number two. I want to be number one. But if you compete, if you still compete because you like to fight and perhaps it's a good choice but me that's the reason why i do not compete because i'm 40 years old i came to the realization which is very hard to accept by the way that very hard man i think my best years are behind me oh i hate to say it but it's true the best fighting years yeah yeah exactly the best of the good years are there

they're here coming man that's, friends, family, whatever you want to hear. Businesses. All the rewards now can come from this. Look at George Foreman. He had a party, but then, like, okay, he kept blowing up afterwards. His barbecue. Absolutely. So smart.

What's the, you know, the poutine machine that you can sell in Quebec. The problem is if you're amongst the best and the best and you retire right on time, your stock is high. So the door is open on a new level of different business. If you retire when you're on many, a set of losses, now your stock is low. When you retire, the door are closed. So it's also about business and opportunity.

I think you close the door for yourself if you do so. On top of having damage and physical injuries. Yeah. It's very sad to, you know. Did you ever wish you would have done one more fight or you're like, okay. There's always the idea behind my head, oh, if I would have fight Khabib,

if I would have, you know, and this. And it did not happen. And maybe I'm glad that it didn't happen. You never fought McGregor, right? Or could be, those are different weight classes? That was, Khabib was one of the fight I would have come back at the time. Not now because now it's done,

but at the time we tried to make it, UFC said they had a plan for Khabib. And now up to recently you know you know my days of competing to be the strongest man and to prove I'm the the strongest man in the world is done because I believe my best era behind me however I'm an entertainer I'm in the entertainment business so would you fight again if I do fight would be maybe an exhibition for a novelty fight and I got a proposition not a long time ago

to fight Oscar De La Hoya in a fight. Boxing? Yeah, boxing, eight round with bigger gloves, two minute rounds, and I would have done it. Not because I believe I'm a better boxer than Oscar was in his prime, because I think the fact that I'm heavier than Oscar, I'm younger, and maybe I think he has perhaps more mileage than me,

it would have make an even fight. And I would have done it because a big purse, a big paycheck, and also a big money would have been given to charity. Because I request that when I was on the phone with Oscar and Mr. Cannes of Thriller, to show that we don't take ourselves too seriously. I think there is room for entertainment in that.

Now, there are certain fighting promotions. They want to find out who's the best man in that, like in boxing or in MMA. But there are also other promotions that want to, they make entertainment say this celebrity versus this celebrity. And people are curious. They want to see what happens. I think there is room for both to exist.

What do you think? I've had both Logan and Jake Paul on the show who are friends of mine from Ohio. I'm from Ohio. What's your thoughts on both of those guys entering this world, training, fighting, winning? Great, great business guy, man. And they're very opportunist. They serve the wave they take advantage of the world that we live in and in social media and people who are jealous and say oh they're not real it's because they're jealous they're not they don't have as much money

and i think it's hypocrite because i'm sure if they would be in the same situation as these guys they would have done the same thing they would have done the same thing. They would have done the same thing. So I'm not a Paul Logan and Jake Paul haters. I think I admire these guys. They're very smart. And I watched the fight against Mayweather. Yeah, because I was curious. What did you think?

I think he did great. For three years fighting, it's pretty good you think? I think he did great. For three years fighting, it's pretty good. Yeah, I think he did great, and I think it was a good show. It's all about entertainment. Of course, Mayweather is not the same Mayweather that he was, and perhaps he did not maybe prepare himself as good as he would if he would have fought Pacquiao in his prime. But it was great.

I had fun watching it, and I enjoyed it. Would you fight one of those guys for the right purse i would more because who i am uh i would maybe more i fight more like i like a legend for me oscar del aureo is my second favorite boxer of all time behind sugar ray leonard so that'd be cool so for me it would have been cool at 70 years old to look back in my life and say I fought him I thought I got but Dana Dana white Stopped it. He didn't want me to do it because I'm still under contract with UFC still. Yeah, because I retired and Even when you retire it, I didn't finish my fight contract

Even if when you retire your fight in five years after you retire you're still in contract and and people will say why don't you fight? It in court. It's not MMA. It's boxing people will say, why don't you fight it in court? It's not MMA, it's boxing. I know, I just don't want to have a headache and hire lawyers to go in court and be the bad guy. So what I do is I let Triller and UFC taking care of their business, and maybe if it works one day, I'll be in.

But if it doesn't right now, it does not work. So maybe we'll see what's gonna happen. It'll be a fun fight to watch. It will be a fun fight, but I know Oscar and Dana hate each other. They hate each other. So we need someone to bridge the gap perhaps. How old is Oscar now?

I think he's 48. Oh really? Yeah, so now I know I was going maybe to fight him. I started studying his video and everything. I was like going like crazy, in the same mode than when I'm fighting. What about like Mike Tyson? Mike Tyson, I think he might be

50. would you fight him no no no no mike tyson no it's it's like a different thing i think i think he's heavyweight i think he's a big guy too yeah yeah maybe not now maybe not but but oscar would be it'd be fun because he's like the golden boy of boxing i was like the nice guy i've ever missed i think he would have made and we give a purse to, a big purse to charity. I think it would have been, it would have been a fun event. You think it would still happen, maybe? It's a possibility or not? I think there's a chance that it happened.

I gotta come watch that for sure. I think there's a chance that it happened, but right now there's problems that need to be solved in order for that to happen. I got a few final questions. Does that work for you? Yeah, absolutely. This has been inspiring me.

I'm so glad that you've been opening up like this. For people who, for people in the world who are not extreme fighters, not in your field, but they have a lot of challenges that come to them, relationships, career, health challenges, just whatever, the pandemic, they have challenges that come to them.

How do you think people should prepare for tough challenges, for pain that's coming their way? What's the best way to prepare for pain? To prepare for a challenge, sometimes time restricts you in terms of your preparation because you might not be qualified to face certain problems. And I think you need to build a team of people that are qualified,

but also people that you can trust. For example, when I started making money in my career, I was facing a big challenge because I was paid in US, but my structure was never, I was facing a big challenge because I was paid in US, but my structure was never, like I never did that before. So what I did is I didn't try to make my tax report myself. I hired someone that I first could trust

and I know is qualified to take care of that problem. So I think one thing that was good in my career is to build a team. And I think one thing that was good in my career is to build a team. And I think if you're facing a challenge that is overwhelming, overwhelming you, and you need help in order to face that challenge, I think you need to build a team of people that are qualified and also that you can trust.

And if you don't have these two things, it could be very damageable. You can hire someone that is qualified, but you do not trust, he's going to maybe take advantage of you. And if you can trust, you hire a friend, but he's not qualified, it's just as bad, you know? So you need both. So you need both. Qualify and trust, yeah. qualify and trust.

Do you see a lot of fighters who just have people in their corner that they trust, they're homeboys or whatever, friends, but they're not qualified and it just ruins their career? Tons. Really? Tons. And it affects their career because the career of an athlete, and the career of a person, not only an athlete, it's not a

straight line. Career is a long, it's a marathon, not a sprint. And then sometimes there's failure. You need to come back. There's a victory. There's something that you learned but you lost and this and that. It's not a straight line.

So building your team is very important, I believe. Inspiring, man. Okay, you've got a new movie out. It's called Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It's a series. You play the bad guy. I'm excited to watch this. It's going to be fun, man.

I'm super excited. Kai, our producer, said it was amazing, and he was like, you were awesome in it. So I'm excited to watch this. It's on Disney Plus right now, right? Yes, it's on Disney Plus. I'm very lucky because after I retired, I had a call from Disney. They want me to reprise my role of the Winter Soldier. In the Winter Soldier, it's a movie.

I have a fight with Captain America. He beat me up, but I survived. I ran away. So they wanted me to play the same character in the series, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So I said yes. And I've done some gig in the series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So I said yes. And I've done some gig in the past in acting, but I was not focusing on it

because I was too busy training for a fight. It was life-threatening. So I was training for a fight. Now it's only fun stuff. So I'm still training, but I'm focusing on acting full-time. It's been two years that I'm focusing. I'm having a theater class, camera classes,

English classes, audition classes, because these are, like in MMA, you have a jujitsu coach, a Muay Thai coach, a karate coach, a wrestler. It's very specialized. And in order to improve, you need to learn every specialization. And you need to get out of your comfort zone.

So I know I'm always going to be choose for an action figure in a movie. Fighting and doing something. Of course, because of my background. But when I do train, I get out of my comfort zone. I play a drama script, a romantic script,

a comedy. So I'm not playing an action figure. So it's important. That's cool, man. Are you enjoying it? I really enjoyed it. It's a lot of fun

and I have because the the background I have I'm very lucky and privileged because I have a lot of projects coming

so I'm very happy you got a lot of stuff in the pipeline coming now yes that's amazing man but you know in movies

it's always uncertain because they need to find budget and all that but there's a lot of stuff I'm very happy that Disney gave me that opportunity that's amazing man I'm excited to find budget and all that but there's a lot of stuff I'm very happy that Disney gave me that opportunity

that's amazing man I'm excited to watch it and I want everyone else to watch it on Disney Plus it's called The Falcon and the Winter Soldier there's a lot of fight scenes

that you're into there's a lot of fight scenes and the fight scene you don't have a stuntman either dude the stuntmen are incredible do you have a stuntman too? I've done some of my son but

not every every of every of my son you're not jumping off buildings yourself no but you're doing the fighting scenes these guys are a different level they're they make me look bad in a way like oh they're incredible like to be a martial artist i think there is three different major uh dimension there's the fighters like i did throughout my career, like the timing and everything, I'm a fighter. There is the choreography, like the forms, the stunt people that you see in movies. And there's also the philosophy, like I would say Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee was known mostly for his philosophy. Maybe, I know he was perhaps able to defend himself, for sure, if he would defend himself, I would say Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was known mostly for his philosophy. Maybe, I know he was perhaps able to defend himself for sure, if he would be good enough to put in UFC, I don't know, maybe I don't think so, but in terms of philosophy, his philosophy changed my life. Like stuff that he says, like it's incredible, like use your longest weapon against his nearest point,

it's still stuff that we do in MMA. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. He was ahead of his time. And in movies, we talk about choreography. These guys, the stunt people are just on a different level in what they do. They're martial artists. They can defend themselves, but they specialize in stunt.

It's just unbelievable. And they make me look good, like very good. Because they do stuff, like I can do certain things, but stuff that they do on the concrete, it's a different level. I needed them in order to make it to the next level. That's cool, man. That's exciting. Well, it's cool that you're learning and you're challenging yourself. This is a question I ask everyone at the end.

It's called the three truths. So I'd like you to imagine a hypothetical scenario. It's your last day on earth many years away from now. You get to live as old as you want to live, but then eventually you got to turn the lights off. And you've accomplished every dream. Everything you want to accomplish, healthy, happy, family's good, it all happens.

But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your work with you. This interview, you got to take it with you. All the videos of your content, from your fights, the movies, the shows, it all goes with you. This interview, you gotta take it with you. All the videos of your content from your fights, the movies, the shows, it all goes with you to the next place. So no one has access to your information anymore. Okay.

But you get a piece of paper and a pen and you get to write down three things you know to be true that you would share with the world. Three lessons that this is all we would have from you. What would you say are those three truths for you? My God, you're getting deep. I think one of the lessons will be work hard or work smarter. It's even more important.

Work smarter, it's more important than working hard. I would tell to live in the present. Try to not live in the past because of your experience, the things that haunt you, your nightmare, makes you have nightmares, but also not live in the future to worry too much about what's going to happen.

Try to live in the present. Throw the brick away. Yes. And I think I will say in order to be happy, health, we say very often, in order to be happy, health, we say very often, like in French we say, I don't know if I can translate it, like an healthy mind and a healthy body.

It's like a symbiose. It both works together. Healthy mind and body. How do you say it in French? Un esprit sain dans un corps sain. It's actually, I believe it's a Spanish coat, but this is very true. Healthy mind, healthy body.

Yeah. I think it's, I have to research, but there's a coat. It's healthy mind and a healthy body. If one of it, it's not healthy, you won't be as happy as you could. Yeah. Those are beautiful.

Simple too. I love it. You're all over social media. It's George St. Pierre on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Same name everywhere there. What else can we do to support you? How else can we go to, is there a website?

We can go to can we sign up for something else besides watching the series? Yeah, I I'm promoting well-being and fitness have equipment that I'm promoting I try to to you know to give people other Avenue of how they can you know, to give people other avenue of how they can increase their health and fitness, you know. And I'm working with TrueConnectTV.fit. It's a platform that promotes health and fitness.

And when I say health, it's only physical. There is help for mental health books, guidelines, diet. There's program training for yoga. My program is called Strike. I teach martial art. I teach people how to fight and maintain their level of fitness. It's called Strike on the True Connect TV.fit platform.

I also promote Aqualogic. It's a training device that we use in the water. It uses the drag of the water. I think I saw you using this with Ben. Yes.

In his videos, right? With water, yeah. So you don't have the load on your joints so it really helped me. What is this? It's like weights in the water.

It's not weight. It uses the drag of the water so you can do the entire body. It's very good. It's not wait it used the drag of the water so you can do the entire body it's it's very good it's not complete at for it by itself but it's a great complement and you're training and it's it's called again aqua logic aquastrink aqua logic and also have base block it's a very easy portable equipment that you can bring in your suitcase or put

somewhere near in your house and you can train with it I'm promoting this that's cool the Aqua logic looked really cool I watched you with Ben yeah using that that's pretty cool it looks like it was a I saw someone else using it with him and it was like this is a total workout like his whole body was like yeah I learned that when I blew up my two ACL and CL. And you can use it as a rehab, but you can also use it as a performance. Now, more and more American football players train with it because there's so much impact in their sport. This does not give you the impact.

It just helps your muscle fiber to work out without the impact on your joint. It's amazing. It's good for inflammation. I got one final question, but I want people to follow this. Is there a website for you as well? Baseblock, Aqua Strength, Aqualogic, and TrueConnectTV.fit platform. Okay, cool. Do you have a personal site?

George St. Pierre site? George St. Pierre. Dot com or something? Yeah, dot com. Yeah, absolutely. Fine. I'll just Google you. I wanna acknowledge you, George, for being here

and for the incredible career you had, for being an inspiration to so many people, for getting even fitter at 40 than when you were at 25 and 30. Well, I don't know if I'm fitter, but... You look amazing, man. For the passion and drive for life you have, you have an incredible joy and passion,

which I love being around. And it's fun to see someone who is number one in the world for so long, dominant, arguably one of the greatest of all time in your sport. Oh, thank you. Be incredibly joyful, playful, curious, and not act like he has all the answers.

So I really acknowledge you for just the human being that you've become and how you've given back to society. And I know you have, I believe you have a charity as well, an organization where you give back for anti-bullying and things like this. Like for you to constantly show up. Trying to help the youth, I think for me it's important. For you to constantly show up is an inspiration, so i really acknowledge you for the gift you've been for the world and i'm excited to see what you create for the next 100 years man you're going to be around for a long time so oh thank you very much of course man my final question is what's your definition of i think it's linked with happiness everything i've done in my life it was to get me closer to my ultimate goal and if people think my goal was to be champion it's it's bs it's not my goal

i use that as a platform to get me to my goal. My goal is to have a family and live long and happy with my loved one. That's my goal. And I use that to get through that. Right. To get my money, to get through that. But that's, you know, I think that's the ultimate goal is greatness, is to be happy. If you're happy, you're successful.

Yeah. What else? You're happy. You succeed. That's all you need, man. That's all that matters. My man, George. Thank you so much, man. Appreciate you're happy, you're successful. What else? You're happy. You succeed. That's all you need, man. That's all that matters. My man, George. Thank you so much, man.

Appreciate you, brother. Thank you very much. Powerful, man. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I just wanted to get in the ring and battle someone after I heard all the lessons. Actually, I didn't. He said it was terrifying every time we went into a fight,

and I don't think I'd want to get hit in the face that hard either so lots of lessons though for how to overcome adversity and really train your mind and body to be prepared for something when that time arises but really loved his message his personality and the breathing strategy he shared if you want to see what that was like make sure to go to the YouTube channel, subscribe over there, youtube.com slash Lewis Howes. You can watch that full interview and watch him actually perform this breathing technique live on YouTube.

So make sure to check that out as well. And if you enjoyed this, make sure to click the subscribe button over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts so we can stay up to date on your feedback and really see what you enjoyed most about this episode. And I want to leave you with a quote from the iconic Bruce Lee, who said, use only that which works and take it from any place you can find. We try

to bring you some of the greatest strategies in the world from some of the most inspiring people in the world of multiple disciplines here. And I'm telling you, you could gain a lot of wisdom from the over 1,000 plus episodes, but use what works. Take one thing from each episode and apply it to your life to help improve the quality of your life and continue to do more of that thing. I hope you got many of those ideas from George today. And I wanna remind you, if no one's told you lately

that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.