The Sevan Podcast - #142 - AJ Fletcher

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

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I'm living the dream in someone else's nightmare. It's not even fair. Life isn't even fair. There we go, bro. How are you? I'm good how are you i'm good man i'm good got a little coffee so we good aj um i uh i'm uh i'm a retired executive from crossfit inc i don't know if you're familiar with crossfit but i i used to work there I had 70 to 100 people working for me, and I was in charge of all the media there. Okay.

And after I transitioned out of that, that means I got fired, I've basically just been chilling and raising my three boys. I have three little boys. Like, you're one of three brothers, right? Uh-huh. Yeah, exactly. And I watched your whole series last night.

Oh, wow. oh okay that's really cool that you've surrounded yourself with filmmakers and people like you're giving those people a tremendous opportunity to work with you but i mean obviously you're getting something out of it too but i love seeing stuff like that because i'm 49 now but as a 23 year old uh wannabe filmmaker that's how i got my start just find someone else who's passionate and doing their thing. And then hopefully just ride their coattails. You know what I mean? Make the best video you can of them. Yeah, dude, it's not even just that though. It's like a building kind of thing, right? It's a, if I look to like somebody who is maybe in your position right now to like, try to help me with stuff like that and try to get me accustomed to the ropes of

getting your own media, your own content, and putting it out there, they would almost laugh in my face if I offered, you know, what I could actually pay them and stuff like that. But, you know, you get guys who are, like, in my position but in another field who are just starting out, but, you know, they're passionate about it. You can see that they care about it, and, you know, you can see that they care to get better at it too. Giving them a shot, it's almost like you're, I don't know,

it's almost like you're kind of building together more than anything you know for sure and you hope that they're as passionate as you but the truth is the world's greatest fighter alive right now is is is six years old and we just don't know it yet and the same thing with the filmmaker the world's greatest documentary filmmaker could be your guy and and it's not me i'm over the hill i'm 49 so yeah i love it anyway so so so about i don't know three or four months ago i was uh someone who i had crossed paths with earlier in life was like hey you should start a podcast and i was like no thank you and they really pushed me and talked me into it and so i was like okay i'm gonna do 500 shows and uh and and that's it and i'm gonna it. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to do 500 shows and that's it. And I'm going to be done.

And so I've kind of been piggybacking off of my little bit of fame that I have in the CrossFit community to like build this. But really what I'm interested in is every Saturday night, the only TV I watch is fighting, MMA. So every Saturday I spend three to four hours just watching MMA. And then I spend a ton of time in the jujitsu gym

because I have three little boys, right? And they do martial arts five days a week so but i don't know shit about fighting except that it looks scary so um but i'm super into the sport and um so uh the the the people who have no showed me the most out of 100 so i'm at 140 episodes i'm gonna do 500 and then reevaluate if i'm not more famous than joe rogan i'm getting the fuck out like if you're not the champ in five years you're like fuck this um so i uh the only people who've stiffed me are hot chicks and fighters and it's tough because the show's live so yeah so so it's uh it's uh super hot chicks and fighters you guys

are the most entitled fucks on the planet. But not you. Not AJ Fletcher. The human highlight reel. That's it, dude. I'm just – we chilling. I got my coffee. We do whatever, bro.

Man, you're – let's start with Mo and then we'll dig in with you. I love Dana. I don't want to disparage anything about ufc and mma there's enough people doing that already but um i'm that guy he fought was really good did you watch the fights last night yeah yeah i did tuned in i thought that guy he fought was really good um a very unique physique right um tree trunk legs yeah yeah and um i thought mo did an amazing job and i had two feelings about it because he won the fight um in dominant fashion he won every round but he didn't get the contract but um i was also tripping that uh okay dana so maybe you see you're

the expert and maybe you and the team see something like, hey, Mo really does that. I started trying to spin it in a good light. He has a ton of potential. He needs a couple more fights, and it's for his safety and for the betterment of his career. But then I see that heavyweight who made it in, and I'm like, I don't know, man. You got this heavyweight who got a guy on a competitor who's on late notice, then compare that to Moe, like, do you have any feelings about it? Like, I mean, obviously I'm biased because I've had Moe on the show twice and I love the guy, but. Dude, okay. First off, I guarantee you Moe within probably a year, if not,

I'd say two years for sure. Probably more close to a year. I think Moe is going to be in the UFC. There's no question about it, dude. He, in terms of control in that fight, he looked freaking incredible. The double leg he hit, I think in the third round where he ducked under the guy and like spun and took his, dude, beautiful wrestling. And on the ground, like he was active the whole time. He was laying in punches. He was laying in elbows. Like he was right there.

I think Dana sees that he's young, you know, and like you said, could use maybe a fight or two outside of the UFC or whatever, just to make sure that when he does get in, he's going to go on a run. You know, you don't want to start a prospect off too early. I don't want to throw any names out there, but like Sage Northcutt, you know, some of these guys like that, like it happens, you know. And yeah, dude, I think another think another fighter too and mo's gonna be in the ufc no question in terms of the heavyweight i would say he probably did that

i think there's less heavyweights going around than there is bantamweights if that makes sense so yeah maybe the the level or the bar was maybe a little bit lower um that dude was good he i definitely i know they're heavyweights bro but I'd like to see a little bit more of like a gas tank you know to carry him through I know it's you know it's rough and all but like uh I don't know man it was he was good he got the finish you know you're supposedly got the finish there's some controversy with the tap right um I don't know I think where Dana's head was at though if I'm if I'm picking it apart yeah I like that for those of you who don't know. I think where Dana's head was at, though, if I'm if I'm picking it apart. Yeah, I like that. For those of you who don't know, AJ is a professional fighter.

There's a show called The Contender Series, the ultimate fighting championship, the UFC. For those of you who don't know, basically, it's their show. And AJ came on the show in week one. Yeah, week one, first fight. And had a really, really tough fight. I mean, it wasn't tough for you, but that guy's a beast. That guy is a savage. And what you did to him was, I mean, arguably the greatest knockout I've ever seen in the five or six years. Crazy, right?

Yeah, dude. It's wild. I'm still trying to, you know, figure it all out and believe that it happened, you know, but yeah, Leonardo was tough, dude. We knew going into the fight that he throws hard shots. He likes to get guys against the cage. Like he got me a couple of times and just wing some shots, come in with some wrestling, take you down.

And like you said, he's a big, physical, strong guy. So once he gets you confident and he's confident, he wasn't scared of you at all. He was ready to come forward. And we kind of knew that. And I knew I knew I wanted to use movement in this fight, but I also knew I had to let him know that, hey, I can throw I can throw some shit, too. I can I can, you know, sit down on my punches and wing a shot or something, too. So straight off the jump, the first thing I threw was like, it looked like a wild overhand. But that was like, and I think he actually tagged me on the counter.

But I wanted to show him like, hey, I've got some pop, too. And the fight just kind of developed and took him down once and then kind of knew in his head that maybe he thought I wanted to wrestle and stuff like that. And then basically use what's called a level change where you kind of sink down low under your haunches and kind of fake a takedown. And whenever you do that, it also loads up for, you know, a jump whenever you sink down into your squat like that. So I use that and then, you know, came up with a flying knee. And long story short, it was yeah, it was a wild knockout. And Dana told me it was going to be number one on SportsCenter and threw it up on SportsCenter. It's, yeah, it's been wild, man.

I know a lot of you watch fighting and some of you don't watch fighting, but oftentimes, and I'm making this shit up, I have no idea if it's true, but 50% of the times you see knockouts like that, it was an accident by an accident. I mean, it's just two guys, just like schoolyard fighting. Like it gets really intense and people are just throwing shit and someone walks into one and gets knocked out. This was not one of those knockouts. This was a very perfectly executed.

And as you just shared with us, thought out movement and it delivered right to the target. It was incredible. If you guys haven't seen this, you guys should Google it. Not now, not now. Ah, shit. Open up another window and Google it now.

Do it. AJ Fletcher Contender Series. It just pops up number one. Are you born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana? Mm-hmm, yep. And your parents are still together yeah yeah they're still living there at the same house i grew up in pretty much and uh and and you're you're the third of three brothers yep yep i am the caboose and uh you're 24 years old that's's right. Tell me about growing up and being born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. How big was the town?

What was your elementary school like? Just tell me, if you can, about growing up. If you get stuck, trust me, I'll have questions. Okay, perfect. Yeah, so Baton Rouge is, I would consider it, it's definitely not as big as New Orleans. It's not as dense as New Orleans. It's definitely not as big as New Orleans. It's not as dense as New Orleans, but I would say in terms of Louisiana, it's bigger cities for sure. Like maybe top three for sure. Top five, 100 percent. And yeah, I don't know. We we live kind of on the outskirt. We weren't like, you know, deep into the city, kind of on the outskirts away from downtown and stuff.

like, you know, deep into the city, kind of on the outskirts away from downtown and stuff. And a lot of, at least from what I can remember, a lot of my childhood was, you know, sports in the front yard with the older two brothers. Before I was in my formalized sports, it was going to their sports games, going to their football games and, you know, sitting on the sideline and half the time playing my own games on the sidelines. And then, you know, when I got of the age that I could start playing sports, I played football, soccer, and baseball pretty much all the way through the end of high school. Baseball, I stopped playing freshman year.

But, yeah, that was it. It was I played tournament soccer where we, you know, go travel around the region, play tournament baseball where we, you know, mostly travel around the state, but we'd also do some tournaments other places um the love though was football for sure and that was kind of the plan you know going through high school and all that um i've touched on it before yeah i didn't get like basically didn't get a lot of recruiting offers and stuff like that so started figuring out like you know know, what could I do with this competitive spirit and where could I put it? And eventually, you know, landed on MMA. I'd

always kind of seen it and stuff like that and been a fan of it. But after high school, I kind of, you know, decided to just try it and take a few classes. And it's kind of led me from there. We can go on, I guess, about since the MMA thing started and all, if you want, but I guess regarding childhood, it was, it was basically do like a lot of sports. Um, I had everything I needed. My parents, you know, I wouldn't say we were wealthy by any means, but, um, for sure, you know, middle-class and my mom and dad, it's, it's my mom and dad worked really hard. It was, they would drive us all over, take us to all of our sports and then, you know, be driving the next morning and most of the time doing both. My dad, I remember him. He'd get up every pretty much every day of the week, you know, four o'clock. He was a teacher and then a principal. And he's always worked with kids and stuff like that.

And, yeah, man, they gave us everything we needed. They provided pretty much every opportunity we could ask for and always supported us and stuff we did and uh yeah just a lot of sports a lot of getting you know little tips with my older brothers that i mostly got wrecked in but now it's funny dude now that i know how to like wrestle and you know fight and stuff every time we you know start wrestling a little bit they're like oh okay we're done we're done payback anymore but that's about it man i had an older sister and and i i think i lost every fight until the one in the eighth grade i think she was like i was in she's probably three years three and a half

years older than me three years older than me and uh she won every fight until the one i won i won one in the eighth grade and then that was it and i remember my dad being like hey you guys can't fight anymore i'm like wait wait i'm one in 50 i'm one in a thousand and now the game's over that's all i think dude uh why do you think did your parents push you to get into sports and did your brothers brothers play football soccer soccer, and baseball too? Did you just follow in their steps? Brothers both played a good bit. We played soccer. Yeah, we all played soccer throughout high school. And then baseball, they both played, but I was the only one to stick it out to high school. And why did your parents put you in sports?

And were you a good student? Yeah, I was always a good student at school. I was a B student. I was never like the, you know, perfect 4.0. Mom and dad were always just, you know, make your A's and B's. And that's kind of, you know, what we did. And they never really pushed us to play sports. But my dad was a coach of pretty much all of us from what I remember.

And, you know, just being born and being younger than them going to their games, it's always like, you know, you want to be like your older brothers and stuff. So it was never like, I don't know. It was just like that was kind of the next step, I guess, from what I can remember when I was five years old. You know, it was just around us. So it was always something that I wanted to do. And it was something that we did.

We played football in the yard with the neighborhood kids and whip football and stuff. And they were all older than me. So, you know, I was always that we did. We played football in the yard with the neighborhood kids and whiffleball and stuff, and they were all older than me, so I was always the last pick. But eventually we turned that around. But yeah, it's kind of a natural way of things. Who did you get your work ethic from, you think? Your mom, your dad, your brothers? Man, that's hard to say.

I've had a lot of good people around me, all of them included. My mom and dad, they kind of lead the charge. And my older brothers, I've had a lot of people to learn from, for sure. And then also just being in sports with your dad and playing with your brothers, you see that in a physical sense in the sport. And then you also, because you have, like, I'd say because you have positive role models and stuff like that to look up to in a home setting, it makes it a lot easier to identify those people outside of that home setting, if that makes sense.

So throughout my sports, just playing all my life, I can recognize, you know, traits and coaches that were good to have. And I just had a lot of people around me who, you know, tried in coaches that were good to have. And I just had a lot of people around me who, you know, tried to, since that I work hard, since that I was passionate about sports and stuff like that. And, you know, they really took their time and made a lot of sacrifices to pour their energy into me. And, you know, I tried to just be an open book of that. And I got it from a lot of places, I guess. Is your earliest memory of fighting all with your brothers?

All the, like, just tons of wrestling that, like, turned into fighting? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Well, there's one with a go-kart where they shot. I don't know if you remember those goo guns way back, like, 10, 15 years ago. It was, like, a little gun thing, but you had like basically like, what is it? Not Play-Doh, but like gooier than Play-Doh, I guess. You could shoot it out of the gun.

It made a mess with carpet and all. But we had a little go-kart thing, and they shot me out of the go-kart with the goo gun. That's probably the earliest memory. The earliest fighting one is we were doing something and i got pissed at my brother so i went and grabbed a comb from the bathroom and like threw it at his face and then but that's uh yeah those are probably the two earliest ones and just tons of wrestling i'm assuming i'm assuming you guys wrestled like my three boys they like they just if i don't assign them a task they're wrestling oh yeah yeah for sure and like they're they like they just if i don't assign them a task they're wrestling oh yeah

yeah and like they're pretending like they're superheroes and punching each other and just all that shit and you're you're where are your brothers in terms of age up from you one is 20 oh man i think he's 20 28 maybe so four years older than you is the closest one maybe so well no five because we were never in high school at the same time so yeah okay five years apart and then austin is two years older than him and did they include you or did you just force yourself were you like hey i'm gonna be included a little bit of both um i was always i was i'd say i was in the outskirts i was maybe not always doing what they were doing but i was always trying to be and then every once in a while they're like uh you know we need another guy to make teams even or whatever so then

they would just like pass me the ball and then just freaking wreck me but uh yeah i'd say they were good about including me for the most part tell me about soccer as a contribution to an overall athlete like you always hear people say hey you should do gymnastics hey you should do martial arts um but but a lot of great athletes seem to have an insane soccer background. And I'm assuming it's the footwork and the, and the building of the lungs, the metabolic capacity, but tell me about your experience with soccer and what it's contributed to who you are now. Yeah, I would say definitely the biggest thing it's given me is footwork and obviously, you know, the ability to kick and be comfortable with, you know, moving your hips like that um it uh yeah that's that footwork for sure i'd say is like the key component and then also understanding like

angles if this football was good for this too but i feel like most sports are but um understanding like how your body position if it's facing a certain way especially if there's a defender around has circumstances and outcomes that maybe don't completely dictate how the play is going to play out but they give you higher percentages if you turn this way there's a way higher probability you're going to hit the pass facing this way if you turn this way when you receive a ball and it's not going to work so well um and then like that angles and all that and understanding um just understanding that there's different percentages based off a small thing of before the play happens that you

can do that idea translates to all sports and especially in fighting it fighting is a game of like you said it's a lot of times it looks super random in there but you can tailor those percentages if you figure out how to like build yourself into certain patterns depending on what each fight needs to happen if that makes sense i hope i hope i'm not getting too far in the weeds there but no no i like that you know one of my kids plays tennis and i and the only reason why i put him in tennis a year ago is because it was one of the only sports in town where they didn't make the kids wear masks and so i just shit i have no interest in tennis but i'm like my kid's not wearing a mask so hey you're gonna play tennis and uh so i watched the u.s open i'd never watched tennis in

my life and you know the u.s open just happened last week did you watch any of it i didn't get you any of it anyway so i i realized that holy shit this is a game of percentages. Like when you have two guys who are the best in the world, it's like, it becomes a math game. Like, like, Hey, if you're better at rallying than the other guy, then you should keep this in a rally. If you're not better than the rallying than the other guy, you better make it turn into something else, but it's a game of percentages, right? Kind of like what Mo did last night.

Hey, the odds were, if he took it to the ground the other guy wasn't going to get up and guess what he didn't right no exactly it's figuring out where your strong points are in a fight figuring out where your weak points are maybe not even your weak points just the the places where maybe it's 20 that you'll win or 20 that you'll get this point and staying in your positive areas and guiding the fight understanding how to are guiding the match into these certain places where you have a higher chance of winning. That's the game within the game, right? That's all the little battles that lead up to the big battle. That's all that stuff going on right there.

Does someone teach you that or do you figure that out? man playing I would say playing football and and really kind of playing with my older brothers and stuff you when you don't have size and physicality and this is true for jiu-jitsu too as I'm sure you'll probably heard of with your boys but uh not necessarily having size and physicality as a tool in my arsenal for most of my sports career, it makes you figure out certain other way. If you're good, it makes you figure out certain other ways to be good and compete and, you know, actually want the older brothers to, you know, want you to come into their game and be on, you know, be on their team and stuff. It makes you figure out,

it makes you explore the angles. It makes you explore these percentages. It makes you in football. I learned to, I had some really good defensive coordinators that taught me so much about the mental side and the tactic side of football. And basically it got to the point where at the end of my senior year, I could diagnose a play based off the first three steps that an offensive guard could do, a lineman could do. And just by understanding what his first three steps look like, there was a high percentage that I knew where the play was going um wow I think yeah yeah so it's that's like where a lot of my game in MMA has come from I think it's just like taking in what my coaches have said being coachable and trying to also I think part of my part of that is like my biology degree the The thing that really kind of first fascinated me with science and all that was I like cell like, I don't know, I like all aspects

of it. I like the nature part. I like the, you know, the intracellular part and all. But I remember one of the things that really fascinated me was those little videos of like all the little things that are happening inside of your cell at once. And I love watching those little videos. And eventually, like when I would recall things on test and how I learn things now, like whenever I'm taking in a new technique or when I'm visualizing like a fight, a lot of it I think stems from a passion

in like watching those little intracellular videos and stuff and how these systems work together in like a way you can see, even though it's not really like here. I think that's developed into a skill in itself being able to identify tactics and identify openings that are there and then you know understanding how to tailor it into your game not necessarily using size and speed and and power like a lot of other guys may use. Have you read The Lives of Cells? No, I haven't.

The Lives of a Cell. I'm going to show you this. Oh, shit. It's not the same. Have you seen that book? No, I don't think so. Oh, man. You love this book. The Lock. Yeah, The Lives of Cells. no i don't think so oh man you really love this book the lock yeah the lives of cells and it's um notes of a biology watcher by lewis thomas there's i i had a friend um it was actually my boss the

founder of crossfit and he was he was fascinated by mitochondria and he would talk to me about mitochondria for basically 15 years those 15 years that i worked side by side with him and it's nuts but but i but i understand your fascination i was not a biology degree i was a college dropout i was an undergrad for i don't know 10 years so you're um that that that's you said something really good in there, interesting in there about being coachable. So you – because the question was, hey, did you learn this? Did someone teach you this or did you teach yourself? And basically your answer is a combination of both.

Someone taught it to you, but you taught yourself because you knew – you made yourself coachable. Tell me about what it's like when someone's not coachable. Would you see kids who weren't coachable? Well, what's interesting now is I'm on the flip side. I coach a kid's class now a couple of days a week and I do private lessons and stuff like that. And, uh, you just, you see a wide mix, right? The ones who are the ones who are able to understand what you're saying and one are willing to understand what you're saying and listen attentively. And you can tell you have their attention when you're talking to them, the ones who do that.

And then the ones who understand how to put your words into their body movement. Sometimes there's a disconnect, right? Sometimes like some kids will listen, listen, listen, but it's just not, it doesn't quite connect. I think part of that's time in the sport. And part of that's just overall like athletic development in terms of. Hey, rotate your hip. And all you see them doing is rotating their shoulders and you're like,

no hip first. And they just can't, they can't do hip first. The shoulders are leading or vice versa. Is that what you mean? Like the motor recruitment patterns and the words just aren't. Exactly. Now, now it's not to say that they can't learn, right? It's just for, for a, for a student like that, I would maybe have to take the time and demo it for them, like right in front of them. So they see my hips moving or actually like, kind of like, like you'll see,

I don't know if CrossFit coaches do this, but I know powerlifting. I think I lost you. Yep, you froze. Like, let them, oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. Pick up with, you don't know if CrossFit coaches do this, but powerlifting and then you cut out. Okay, yeah, but they'll actually,

like if they want you to make sure you're engaging a muscle, like your trap or something, right? They'll tap on the muscle and make sure that you kind of fire it, right? It's something similar with a student who maybe has that disconnect of, you know, can't figure out how to put the words into the body. You give them a couple indications, you show it to them themselves, and then they're able to do it. But somebody like that, that's more of like a private lesson setting in like a big group class, right? Somebody who's, you know, where a lot of the practices are done.

If somebody is able to make that connective, one, they're actively listening. And two, they have that connection of being able to put the words and being able to put what they see into their movements quicker. You see those students just, I mean, those are the naturals, right? Those are the ones that, you know, they catch on to everything quick. I can show them this thing. And those are the ones who, you know, kind of start creating other, other moves off of, off of those moves. And, um, yeah, I, I, does that make sense? A hundred percent. Um, you don't have an accent. You're from Louisiana and you don't, I, I'm not hearing the y'alls and I'm not, where's your, where's your way? They'll come out. My, um, I go to a lot of kids' class. I'm basically a professional van driver.

I have a Toyota CNN and you know, that's why I do my podcast at 7am and my kids will wake up and I'll get off with you and I'll spend the rest of the day driving them around. at 7 a.m. and my kids will wake up and I'll get off with you and I'll spend the rest of the day driving them around. And when I take them to classes, I know I have a bias because it's what I'm looking for, but I see that the kids who are having the most problems seem to be the ones who show up with like a blow pop in their mouth or the ones who are drinking like the soda pop. And I feel like the kids kids i feel like sugar has really uh affected their their brains like forget about their bodies and making them you know obese do you see any of that like you see like oh yeah shit this kid like these kids are spinning out of

control because someone just gave him a coke or or god forbid like like a frappuccino to a 10 year old and you're like wait what yeah what? Yeah, getting them wired. I don't see too much of the diet side, I would say. But in terms of your question, yeah, I do think sugar does for sure. Like I'll see every once in a while, like if we're just hanging around, get the fights or we have somebody fighting, sometimes, you know, some of the guys will bring their kids and stuff like that. And, I mean, yeah, you see them get wired up. But I'm sure some of that's like the atmosphere and all that too. But, um, in terms of, yeah, dude, I think it's been vastly understated and I think it's been understated for kind of malevolent reasons and kind of malevolent, uh,

As to all the detriments, sugar has kind of been plaguing. Not just, like you said, not just health-wise, not just attention-wise, but I think there's a lot of other diseases and a lot of other... Like all of them. Yeah, pretty much. Like all of them, yes. Speaking of cells, the cells hate sugar. Yeah. And they especially hate...

They like certain times right with certain combinations and stuff and whenever you overload it and you have so much input that's just fucking doo-doo i mean what they're like what is what's going on and then they freak and then you got metabolic disease yep how how strict are you with your diet i mean because you're how you because you said you're 24. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because you can be sloppy. I mean, because of how hard you train, you could be sloppy. Bro, I am thick, though. If I like, if I go, I can lean down pretty quick, but I can also pack it on pretty quick, too.

and uh no no i'm i'm i'd say 90 of the time unless it's like a week to a week and a half maybe two weeks after the fight i'll kind of you know let myself indulge a little bit and remind myself why i don't whenever i start feeling how i feel uh but for the most part i'm buying the same groceries every week it's i have my same little route every sunday i go hit this uh all organic grocery store and then go hit this uh all organic grocery store and then go hit a little produce market sometimes on saturdays we have a little local oh yeah that that produce market in your videos looks awesome oh fresh pickings bro it is the jam it is the jam um there's something about like seeing all the different colors of food too and i'm like whoa whoa whoa what's this fruit it's like a dragon fruit it's a big pink big pink thing or whatever but um you know I try to get the same groceries pretty much every

week sometimes I'll like you know change it up a little bit but in terms of like a framework I know exactly what I mean it's ground beef it's quinoa it's rice it's some sort of vegetable it's chicken or beef it's yeah I've got a pretty good little framework i stick to a lot do you eat any um organ meat no i need to though i've heard i mean those are pretty rich in vitamins and all huh yeah totally um i've interviewed uh the carnivore md a couple times you know have you know that guy uh paul saladino yeah absolutely yeah you might check out his stuff you know what's crazy is he just got kicked off of uh instagram i think he has a new he started a new account he got kicked off of instagram because some of the shit he was saying was controversial it's not

controversial at all at all um you know uh my my prejudice and my judgment is like, hey, a 24-year-old fighter out of Louisiana, he would never talk about going to a farmer's market and the color of vegetables, and he would never be a biology major. The only thing that kind of fits is that you're a UFC fighter, right? He lives in Louisiana. He's just trying to get out. It's so refreshing talking to you and having, like, my mold and my judgments, like, just broken, right? Like, yeah, you're a crazy, well-rounded person. And you also have had the same girlfriend for 10 years. Ooh, that's a little rough. No, I'm kidding. We actually ended up deciding to go our separate ways back in December, I believe. Okay. I apologize.

That's what I get for digging around on your Instagram. All good, dude. That's all good, bro. Does a lot of that have to do with your career? Are you extremely focused? Do you live at home, by the way? Yeah, I used to live up until January and December of this past year. I lived with some roommates whenever I first moved down to Lafayette. I lived with them pretty much the whole way through until January.

Now I'm living by myself, but first year of college when I was in Baton Rouge, I lived in my parents' house. I mean, all the way up until then, lived in my parents' house. Why move out? Whenever I left to go, so a little bit of context. I started training senior year of high school and carried that on through my freshman year of college at LSU in Baton Rouge. And then in the summer, I remember one of the guys from the gym who had kind of taken me under his wing there. It was a little bit smaller gym and not too many fighters and stuff. And he just basically told me, he was like, look, you have some potential,

but if you really want to do something in the sport, you've got to go to a gym where that's kind of, maybe it's not the focus and all, but that's part of what they do there. And so I took his advice, and I started, I was still working. I was waiting tables in Baton Rouge at the time. And my, who I ended up moving in, they were already down here going to college and they had moved everything back for the summer. There was no furniture, no TV, no nothing, but they had an apartment room. So I'd go sleep in their apartment.

You know, they had some bed with no sheets on it and stuff. I'd bring my, bring a little lunchbox down and I do that. Probably two days. Those are the best days of your life, buddy. Those are going to be the best days of your life. They paid off now, huh? Yeah. Yeah, I'd do that.

I'd go down on the weekend and train at Gladiators, and then after doing that, I knew. I knew I had to move, so I started making the plans for that. I moved down here for my sophomore year of college and then started going through just training since then. So there's a distance issue. Your gym's too far away from your parents' house? I mean, if I got to get back, I still go back on the weekends a good bit.

It's about, I'd say, an hour and a half away. Okay. Do you think you would live at home if your gym was closer to your parents' house? Would you still be living at home? No. No, for sure. You're ready to get out? Yeah, bro.

I like having my own little space for sure. Always kind of have, you know? I was the exact opposite of you. I never wanted to get kicked out of the nest. No, yeah? Yeah, I had to be kicked out a dozen times i said if i didn't have kids and a wife i'd still move back in with mom hey bro the food's good huh it just life was life's good my mom was so good um

uh how when did you know you're gonna be a biology major so you're in high school and were you a good student because you were a good student or was it because um your dad was a principal and you felt like i better not screw this up there's a lot of eyes on us it was a i'd say it was a lot of things all kind of spurred on by sports right so i went to private school and at all i don't i think this is like for public school too but uh if you drop below a certain gpa you can't play sports right so there's always that incentive and then mom and dad kind of taking it at the next level we're like you better always have A's and B's. You know, you can slip up if you're really trying and it's a tough course or whatever and you get a C, but the goal, the expectation is A's and B's. And I don't know, TOPS is a thing down here in

Louisiana, basically, you know, I guess it's state money or maybe it's federal money. No, I think it's state money for, you know federal money. No, I think it's state money for going to college and stuff. And they have certain requirements. So I knew I wouldn't be getting a lot of scholarships and stuff from colleges. So I knew I had to keep my grades high to try to get grade money basically to basically partially fund if I needed to walk on or only got a partial scholarship or something like that. So they were always kept high, I guess, because of sports, if that makes sense. And then obviously, you know, dad's a principal, mom's on it, making sure you're doing stuff. And oh, it just kind of plays into it. Did your brothers go to college? Yeah, my oldest brother, Austin, went for, I think he's got a minor in chemical engineering, a minor in something.

And then he majored in what? What is it? Some kind of engineering, bro. I can't remember. He's a engineer at one of the sugar refineries down here. And Stephen, he majored in. Oh, man. Isn't that funny that he's an engineer at one of the sugar refineries? I know, right? Is it like B&H? Is B&H still around?

B&H sugar? I'm not sure. So everyone in your family goes to college. That's the deal with your family. Yeah, pretty much. Don't you need some sort of dark shit in your life in order to be um the best at a professional sport like doesn't there need to be something fighting right yeah doesn't there need to be something driving you

like you know like a cousin died or, you know, your parents are divorced. Like there's two formulas, right? There's the formula of the kid who's successful because he had two loving parents at home. And that seems to be like, you know, 85% of the guys in jail today, they come from broken homes. Like we cracked the code on that. But then on the other hand, like, you know, whether it's, I don't know, Tupac or Mike Tyson or like anyone who's at the top of their game, some crazy shit happened to him as a kid. But it seems like you live sort of more like this. You don't have that in your life.

What's driving you? Why do you want to be so good? Yeah, dude. So I've maybe studied that or investigated that a little bit myself, right? I would say I think you're right in the fact that a lot of the ones who have something troubling like that in their past or a lot of that dark side, a lot of them, if they haven't really done the work of figuring that out themselves and maybe healed from it, I guess you would say, a lot of them maybe get that success, but then derail themselves outside of their sports you know sports arena in some other way and you know it's a some of them are flashing the paint some of them become great and then you know punch old guys in a bar and then you know some of them you know it's I think it manifests itself in different ways it's not to say that they all turn out like that but I think it takes some work to not have that. In terms of, and I've also thought about that in a fighting context, right?

I look around and I see a lot of, you know, you see Brazilian fighters, you know, who come from favelas, who come from literally nothing. And they fought and scratched their way to get here. You see, you know, these guys from Russia, these guys from Dagestan who are like living in the mountains and all this, you see, you see guys with, you know, real adversity early in their life, early in their childhood. And I would say one of the early things I had to get over was the fact that maybe I didn't quite have something like that. Right. Maybe I didn't have these super tough early circumstances. Like your dad didn't beat you enough. Like you, like, super tough early circumstances. Like your dad didn't beat you enough. Like your dad should beat you for three years and then your whole life you'd be a great fighter

because you're chasing that childhood experience of your dad. I mean, like just some textbook shit. Yeah, for sure. I had to kind of navigate that and figure out like, okay, well, what is my thing? And I would say if I do have a thing, if I do have and figure out like, okay, well, what is my thing? And I would say if, if I do have a thing, if I do have a thing that like drives me, I guess it's that little chip on my shoulder from like going to all these football combines and wanting, you know,

my whole dream or whatever, wanting to, for a long time, wanting to be, you know, to go play football somewhere. And, you know, seeing how I stack up with these guys who are getting recruited to go places on the field, seeing me tackle them them seeing me have more tackles seeing me like just be successful against them in the actual arena we're going in and then going to these combines seeing the same guys and because they could a little higher or run a little bit faster or we're a little bit taller getting all these chances that I didn't get so that was one I wanted to go find an arena find somewhere that it doesn't matter

what you think of how tall I am. It doesn't matter what you think of how long, or how, you know, how long my arms or how long my legs are, how long, whatever. If I'm being successful, if I'm knocking people out, if I'm strangling people unconscious, there's nothing you can say as to why I don't get this shot. I can earn it with these two things

and it really has nothing to do with what you think about if I can't get this shot. I can earn it with these two things. And it really has nothing to do with what you think about if I can do it or not. And I realized I didn't need to, I didn't need one of these, you know, horrific stories of growing up with absolutely nothing. I had everything that I needed. And to me, it's my job here to make sure that whatever I leave behind is better than what I had. And I've got some pretty big shoes to fill. I would say, you know, coming from parents like I have and coming from older brothers, like I have, um, I've had every opportunity and I, I don't take that for granted. I, you know, I, this is my dream. I, I can't picture myself doing anything else. Every other like day job or every other thing that I could think about what I would want

to do with just knowing I could do this, it would just be, it would just be torture. There's, you ever heard of that poem, a dream deferred? No. Who wrote it? Ah, man, I'm not sure. I remember hearing it way back in high school and I'm not going to remember the whole thing and I'm not going to remember the words exactly, but he talks about, he's talking about like a dream he didn't go after or something and he at the end of the poem i think he he asks himself it's like does it does it wither out slowly and

torment on long or does it is it a flash in the pan does it blow up is it explosive and either one of those scenarios i never wanted to find out i having chances turned down and like not getting opportunities i wanted to figure out some way't chances turned down and like not getting opportunities i wanted to figure out some way to keep going because to me everything else just seems like i don't know this is what i'm this is what i'm here for so yeah in in the and i know you're still um early on in your career but in the four-part series that looks like it's gonna could be you know end up being 100 episodes at the at the rate you guys are going but you're in episode four in the four-part series that looks like it's going to end up being 100 episodes at the rate you guys are going. But you're in episode four.

In the beginning, in those four episodes, there's sort of this talk of like, why do you fight? And it's like, hey, I fight because I like to punch people in the face. And then it sort of transitions by episode four. I don't actually – that's not why I fight. Although I enjoy the fighting part of it, I fight because I want to give. I want to inspire people. And I'm in twofold, like basically spiritually and emotionally,

it sounds like you want to inspire people. And then in a more superficial context, you want to make money to give back to the people who supported you. So it's, it's interesting if I, is that true? Did I, did I read that right from those four parts? Yeah, absolutely. And you nailed the whole transition from what it started as to what it's developed into. And I don't know.

Each time you let your reason for doing anything, really, each time you let it evolve past the super – like if I was to say my reason for fighting, if I was to tell that to the 18-year-old kid that started training and had just started training, like, hey, bro, this is the reason you're going to do it for your five years down from the line from here. Be like, what? No, I don't put that responsibility on me. I can't do that. I'm not, you know, it would be too much. Right. So as you develop in whatever field you're doing, I feel like in order to stay motivated, in order to keep developing, you have to let your reason evolve with you and you have to let it encompass more things. And in a way, that's what everybody talks about in becoming and doing something that's bigger than themselves, right? That ultimate sacrifice or whatever, but you have to build it into that. If you put that pressure on you from the jump,

it won't work. You got to start it because you love it and then do it because you love it and let it develop into something bigger and bigger and bigger. And, you know, why I do it right now may not be the same reasons as to why I do it in, you know, two to three years. I know my family, we talked about them earlier. They're hard workers. They're smart people. They're going to be fine no matter if I'm, you know, digging ditches on the side of the road. They're going to be fine. They're going to do their thing. You know, it's at the same time, like, I don't know. I just, I want to follow their lead. I want to, you know, be excellent in whatever field I choose.

And if I can help them do that, if I can help other people do that, just by being honest with the information I learn as I go through this thing, then, you know, then great. That's the, that's the goal. Did I hear you right? You said something else that I think is pretty profound that people should really hear. You're basically saying, if you would have known how hard this road is before you started, you may have not necessarily taken it.

And I feel like if you don't look back at your life and say that, then you're not living. Like, it's kind of like having kids. If someone like could be like hey i'm gonna give you this feeling of what the next 10 years is going to be like you might be like fuck that i'm never having kids but what a huge opportunity you would have missed oh no kidding right yeah absolutely and it was go ahead yeah well no no one i'm trying to i'm trying to think i'm trying to uh this is kind of a bad example but i went to a film festival one time in kansas and i got in this taxi cab with this taxi cab driver and he was like 500 pounds he couldn't even move i'm not exaggerating it was he

was so big that his seat was pushed back in the full reclined position and slid all the way back but he was still sitting upright and it was during a lightning storm and it was fucking scary and he was driving me to the airport it was like four in the morning i just left this film festival i was at in kansas and we're driving to the airport and i'm in the car with my girlfriend and the guy he's like and he can barely talk he's so so obese and he's like i have to pee i have to and i'm like wow this is crazy and i'm like yeah sure dude pull over and pee but he stops the car and I should have known better. And he goes, ma'am, turn your head to the side. And he unscrews this Coke bottle in the seat next to him, and he pees in the seat.

And he pees in the Coke bottle. No. And as this is happening, I'm thinking to myself, I will never forget this taxi cab ride. But if this motherfucker wouldn't have peed in a coke bottle this would just be just another taxi cab drive but because this this guy's setting the bar so high for bizarre car rides i will never forget it and it's kind of like that like because you aj fletcher have chosen a path you're um that's so um um difficult's not the right word that short changes it requires such a high demand yeah a demanding path you're gonna have a million memories like that like every day is gonna be like oh shit there's the guy peeing in the coke bottle inappropriately again yeah well that's i mean that's the thing dude that's like that's. Like those little moments, those are the priceless things. All the, the amount of people that I've met,

the amount of experiences I've had, that where fighting has taken me, it's taken me to Las Vegas. It's taken me to Milwaukee. It's taken me to Florida. It's taken like letting, that was always my idea of, of what life should be like, you know, being, playing sports, like growing up and go and travel the, you know, right around the region really with my mom and, you know, go and play in Birmingham, go and play in Atlanta, go and play in North Louisiana, go and play in Lake Charles. That was like what I thought was fun, what I thought was cool. So to have as demanding as fighting and all is when I look back at like what I

thought, what I wanted to do when I was little, like what I wanted my what I wanted to do when I was little, like what I wanted my life to be like, it's become what I wanted it to be like. Now, granted, it's in a fighting arena, which maybe if you had asked me when I was 10 years old, you know, do you ever think you'll do this? Like, no, wow, that's, you know, that's way too rough, blah, blah, blah. But like you said, like you build it into it through a basically 18 19 year sports career i developed myself into something that was oh yeah maybe maybe fighting might be a good thing and then maybe maybe it was naivety maybe it was just i don't know uh yeah i don't know maybe it was

just interest or what if you would have dig ditches for a living let's say you dug ditches for a living the only day you would remember would be the day that like you saw a rattlesnake or the day some girl drove by in a pickup truck and flash you her tits. Like there would be nothing you would remember. Every day would just be digging ditches. And you've chosen a life that's not like that. Yeah. Well, I don't know. It seems like a lot of days I'm still kind of digging ditches.

I get to do it with like minded people and it takes me other places. I'm not nobody can tell me where to go dig my ditch. I'm going digging at Gladiators Academy and then, you know, a few days, a few weeks a year. I'm going to go dig it over here halfway across the country or whatever and get to see a different place. You know, it's yeah, that's been cool to me for sure um tell me about the first time you met dustin how did your paths cross yeah yeah for sure he uh he still lives back here so in between his training camps he'll come train at uh the gladiators in youngsville or the gladiators in lafayette and uh man I'm trying to remember the first day it was at our old gym for sure I think he just I can't remember was it how long ago was it this is probably

probably four or five years if I had to bet and are you and were you tripping when you saw him I wasn't tripping like because I had been around Tim I guess who's my head coach and Tim had kind of talked about him and you know Dustin's posters from when he was fighting are still like up in the gym and stuff like that so uh I kind of like seen him I guess and been around people who had saw him so I got to see people who were like oh yeah it's Dustin you know Dustin and also four or five years ago I mean Dustin's a glorified superstar right now you know four or five years ago, I mean, Dustin's a glorified superstar right now. Four or five years ago, he wasn't quite at that level just yet. Have you ever been around Dustin or anything?

No, nope. A lot of guys, a lot of – I'll tell you this. He won my heart. I was not – I'm mad at him because he ruined Conor McGregor for me. Not because he beat up Conor McGregor, but because of how he handled himself. And I really liked Conor McGregor, and I really liked the show. And I'm like, God damn it, this guy keeps taking the high road. And finally I just DM'd him.

I don't know whether he saw it or not, but I DM'd him like a month ago. And I go, hey, like every time I see him, I just – he wins my heart he's a he's but but no i've never been around him just i'm just like the person who watches him on tv and he's bigger than life yeah but man he's a gentleman of the highest order how he's handled himself is like he's a real one bro and when he's when you're in the gym with him you share the mats with with him. He's very one. He's open to learning. OK, so I'll share a story about I guess this is one of the first times I remember it, I guess. But he's open to learning. He's open to teaching and he's open to like he talks to you like a normal person. He says, hey, what's up? Like you joke around.

He's a very down to earth guy. And I think that comes through on TV as well. That's that's who he is. You know, I remember the first time I remember training with him. Um, obviously I'm getting wrecked. I'm getting murked. This is way back. Like when I'm an amateur, I still get, he sat me down with a body shot about probably three or four weeks ago. And I swear, I'm still trying to pull my liver out my butthole, but wow. Yeah. So he, uh, is that your first liver shot? Is that, was that your first liver shot? Oh no, no, no, no, no. This, this was like a few weeks ago. I want to talk about liver shots. I'm going to make a note. Okay.

We'll come back to liver shots because I don't even understand liver shots. We'll come back to that. Okay. Oh, but this day in particular, we were like wrestling or something. We're doing like little takedowns and stuff like that and i remember i don't know if we were going live or if like we were just drilling and i did something like cool i think it was like an outside trip or something but i remember we were just kind of going and you know i'm still kind of like shy first day meeting him first day really training with him or whatever i remember i hit the little outside trip on him or something and we got him he. He was like, oh, dude, that was dope. Can you show me that? I was like, what?

What? Like him asking me to show? No way. So that's like one of the earliest things I remember, bro. And he just makes it real, dude. You see somebody like that who's at the top of the world, and they're not like this big show. They're not this big, you know, untouchable titan.

They're down to earth, and they're about their skills, and they're about what they do, and they're passionate about it, and, you know, they're a normal person outside of that. Some of his coolness even, it's kind of interesting watching Jake Paul go through what he's going through, right? I don't know if you've seen any of this stuff, but they were interviewing his mom, and his mom was basically saying, like, yeah, he really, and I'm paraphrasing, he really enjoyed playing the heel and the bad guy, but to be honest, I think he's over it,

and he doesn't want to be the bad guy anymore. And she was saying that about Jake Paul, and I kind of get that from him, too. He's like a we, he, he lets us see his temper tantrums, but I, but he's also driven by the fact that I think that he's trying to prove that he's a legitimate fighter. Right. And he's, he's kind of doing the balancing act of making the money. But when he had those interactions with Dustin, with Conor McGregor, I saw even some of Dustin's mojo wipe off onto Jake Paul. It even made Jake Paul cooler. And that's when I was

like, holy shit, Dustin is sort of like, now he's transcended the fight game. He's bigger than life now. He did it. And man, that was a tough road he towed. Holy shit, that was tough. People don't realize

And the fact that he beat gaethje's even more insane i mean that's insane yeah that his list that's like if i told you to go in my backyard and hey i want you to fight my sledgehammer what you know what i mean i mean justin gaethje is just not the car wreck dude it's yeah yeah yes yes yes yeah and dude another thing about dustin people don't realize bro okay so back uh before the ufc really had a lot of the lower weight classes there was something called the wec right and then the ufc eventually incorporated them but the wec was for i think you know 25ers 35ers 45ers and maybe 55ers that was you know that was the highest level for those weight classes and Dustin's first fight in the WEC there was a fight I think it was supposed

to be Jose Aldo versus a guy named Josh Grisby and Dustin stepped in for Jose Aldo it was supposed to be a world championship fight right Dustin steps in his first fight in the WEC fights Jonathan or Josh Grisby and replaces Jose Aldo so he's his first fight into the league bro he's coming in at a number one you know basically a title fight and he's to stay there for the amount of time and you know stay in the top 10 area for the whole time and then now have this run that he's on it's a hall of famer there's no other way to there's no other way to put it you know i'm gonna say something really mean and i apologize because someday i'd like to interview michael bisbing but he's like michael bisbing but with even more talent like michael bisbing like there was a little bit of like holy shit did he get lucky like do you remember those like three fights

he won in a row like knocked out rock hold and shit and you were just like oh my god he's the champ now but but he did but but i feel like there was some i don't want to say luck that's that's not fair but definitely going back to dustin there's zero luck he earned every single like i'm never like oh shit he got lucky or like i would never be one of those people like oh connor broke his own foot no no dustin beat his ass every time and it's like dude if your your foot breaks in a fight it's not if the dude still beat your ass oh yeah yeah no dustin's a real one a real one in every sense of the word bro how is it your game your striking game is so good? And who am I to say that? I don't know shit about strike.

Sorry, not your striking, your shooting game. How is it that you're able to shoot in the wrestling sense so good when you didn't do wrestling in high school? Like I was watching your fight and your fights and like you'll just transition like so quickly, like you've been wrestling your whole life. Am I seeing that right? Do you, I mean, do you feel super comfortable doing takedowns? Yeah, for sure. I'll say this. So whenever we watch like traditional wrestling, especially I think it's folk style that's,

you know, promoted in high school and college and stuff in the US, the range for wrestling, right, is very, very close, a lot closer than an MMA fight. For example, most of the time when we see wrestling matches, guys have a collar tied. There's a hand on the head. There's, you know, they're a foot away from each other. Maybe if you're a foot away in MMA, you're either getting kicked or punched right in your forehead. So there's no like, oh, maybe I can wrestle and be close here. That wrestling range is a lot different.

And whenever that range gets expanded, if you try to shoot a traditional wrestler double where you drop your knee to the ground, you can still cut the corner and all that, but if you try to do that traditional wrestler double leg from out far from an inmate range, you're going to get stuffed. You're going to get taken down.

You've got to have more of your legs incorporated. So me with a football background, knowing how to make angles, knowing how certain body positions line up, knowing how to form tackle pretty much, and driving with my legs, you know, for football tackles has kind of taught me to, obviously I've done deep dives into wrestling i know how to do wrestling moves i know how to shoot i know how to do all that but whenever you blend a football tackle with a wrestling takedown i feel like that's what you get when you get my double leg and i feel like that's what you kind of got with gsp's double leg i'm not saying i'm anywhere near gsp but if whenever i study these guys that's what it looks like you know um guys

who are so let me see if i understand are you saying that you're more comfortable from shooting further out but not so far out that you get stuffed or or or you've sort of explain that sorry i'm a little bit going over my head, yeah. So I'm saying a football tackle or how it looks from far away is maybe more applicable to MMA wrestling than a traditional wrestler double leg takedown. Okay. In tight, for sure, wrestler double leg takedown, single legs, all that. Do I still have you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In terms of closing.

Just a second. Go ahead. Okay. do i still have you yeah yeah yeah you just in terms of closing just a second go ahead okay in terms of closing that distance like you i think driving your legs and doing a takedown that's more football oriented i guess um is is more i don't know i think that's where it kind of comes from you know has the fight game um from the fans perspective it looks like um the fight game has really really changed with all the low kicks am i am i seeing that right like in the last two or three years it's like oh shit or is it cyclical because you seem like a are you you're a student of the game huh i love the shit i'm always always investigating little side areas and stuff. Go ahead.

Are low kicks like the... Is this cyclical? I've only been watching UFC for, I don't know, five, six, seven years. Or is this all brand new? Or what am I missing here? Or what am I seeing? I think one of the things that we're seeing is with the explosion of the... Like why we're seeing so many leg breaks. Everybody's been talking about the calf kick for about two or three years, right? And we see it works, but with that, there's a reason, you know, a lot of, a lot of checking that kick I know people say you really can't check it and all but you really can if you turn your shin out and you kind of adjust your stance you face your toes a little bit more outward than inward more of a Muay Thai stance than a boxing stance you can check the kick and I think that's where a lot of these leg breaks are

coming from from guys trying to use that calf kick and maybe not setting it up straight away. I think we are, in terms of leg kick overall, I think it's always been pretty in there. I think guys are just getting more well-rounded now. Their whole game, like Jiu-Jitsu guys have leg kicks now. Obviously the Muay Thai guys, the Dutch kickboxing style guys, they've always had leg kicks now obviously the the you know Muay Thai guys the the Dutch kickboxing style guys they've always had leg kicks but now we're seeing more people especially more grapplers I'm seeing using kicks to keep distance and then maybe not feeling comfortable with that like hand exchange

and then using their jiu-jitsu and kind of rushing in so they can start a a tie up or and start initiating a takedown or whatever but a lot of guys we're seeing now are playing that kick range. And, yeah, we're seeing a lot of leg kicks for sure. But they've always kind of been pretty prevalent, I'd say. Man, it just seems like he – incredibly hard. I mean, that guy had crazy legs he fought. Brandon Lewis, his legs were nuts. He was thick for sure.

And, and, and Mo took some, but, but most seem to handle them pretty well. I mean, I haven't asked him how his legs feel, but he seemed to take it well, but man, those look vicious. Is the, is the, how come we're not, is the liver shot the half court shot of basketball, not just the three point shot shot but the half court shot like how come like if i'm understanding the liver shot correctly there's no man alive who can take a liver shot the toughest biggest strongest don't matter you get hit in the fucking liver right you go down

then i'm why don't we see them all the time is it that hard to execute like is it like the half court shot in basketball or what's it? I don't think it's quite there. It's tough to execute because you have to get in pretty close to do it, I'd say, or to do like a finisher, right? You can touch the liver and kind of get a little or whatever. But to really get a finisher, you got to be in kind of close, I would say. Do you know where the liver is? are you like yeah it's on your right side right here and it hangs down just below these ribs so okay whenever you hit it if you don't want to try to go from the side like this it's almost like you want to cross

an uppercut with the hook and kind of like jab it up like try to get it up under the ribs um but you have to get it kind of close to do that so you can keep your elbow in nice and tight and all. And some guys, it's better too if you catch them breathing out, I would say. Like if you get them occupied, put their hands up, they can't see, and then they can't tighten up their core when they see you coming. That's when you see a lot of the dudes where it's just an off button, bro. You tap it and you tap it on a breath and you tap it right at that right angle you hit the right spot it's just i don't know dude it's like it's like your your soul leaves your body for a second you're like oh i'm gonna and then like getting hit in the balls like like is like getting hit in the balls maybe that but no breath's no, I mean, the breath just leaves you.

So it's like hitting the balls and having the wind knocked out of you at the same time. A unique, uh-oh, he froze. He'll be back. I trust the internet. I trust the Wi-Fi. Are you there, AJ? AJ, it looks like I haven't lost you completely. I still see your picture.

It still says it's recording. Ah, there you go. You're back. So is it like some sort of combination, like getting the wind knocked at you and getting kicked in the balls at the same time? Uh-oh. I don't know if I can ask that question one more time.

You froze again. Is that me or is that you? Looks like I have plenty of R's, but you never know. Jacob Flores, damn. Don't worry. He'll be back. I'm going to try to keep AJ on. We're so lucky to have him. We'll try to keep him on for another 15, 20 minutes. This is the most underrated podcast I know, don't worry. He'll be back. I'm going to try to keep AJ on. We're so lucky to have him. We'll try to keep him on for another 15, 20 minutes. This is the most underrated podcast I know, don't you think? Thanks, TV. AJ, have you changed camps and shopped around to explore different techniques? Jason Watkins. He says Lafayette instead of Lafayette.

Lafayette. AJ, I still can't hear you. Sorry, buddy. You're frozen. But I'm hanging in there. Any minute. I wanted to ask you who your agent is, who your manager is, how you chose them. Oh, my goodness.

We lost him. Let me see if I can text him and get him to come back. Maybe he's done with me. Maybe he's just like, fuck this. This has been going on for an hour and six minutes. You think? I'm good. I'm great. I'm awesome. I'm healthy. I'm strong. I don't eat sugar, added sugar or refined carbohydrates. I'm healthy. I'm strong. I don't eat sugar, added sugar or refined carbohydrates. We had an amazing podcast going an hour and seven minutes with A.J. Fletcher, winner of Contender Series Season 5, Episode 1 this year.

He had an amazing knockout. I don't know if we're going to get him back. Oh, there he is. Bam. Bam. Oh, you the man. Hey, you had to take a piss and you just faked it? You just pretended like your internet went out?

I just cut off the Wi-Fi real quick. Something I would do. So the liver shot, you can't breathe in a horrible feeling at the same time your description of nut shot and getting the wind knocked out that's pretty pretty accurate um i can't imagine watching one of my three boys fight for a living um and your and your mom because my kids are like my sistine chapel right they're like my greatest creation they are um they're everything like there is no sevan anymore i'm gone and your mom talks about that um in one of the in episode four um on your podcast what's the show called it's called

the is it called the ghost what's the name of the show uh ghost stories go oh yeah yeah ghost stories episode four your mom talks about that do you help her with that or is that her own personal journey like do you talk to her about that not so much uh they i mean she's kind of been doing it in some capacity you know football and soccer and all that growing up um so she's had a little bit of experience with it wasn't like she's going in completely blind um but obviously fighting take that takes that to the next level i don't talk to her too too much about it but i i definitely understand it dude even when i have like teammates and stuff fighting i'm like watching like my heart race is probably more than my heart races when I fight watching them, just knowing that you can't

do anything. And, you know, they're in there and they've got to, you know, take care of themselves. But I think my mom and dad, one, they like videoing, right? So they have like a veil over like the actual violence and the actual, actual but uh they uh i think they trust they they've seen my work ethic they've seen what i do and they've seen my passion for it and they know that i trust myself in there and i think that's pretty reassuring to them even you know as as unassured as unassuring as fighting is i think that's a good uh yeah a good little little thing to have for sure it's a tough combo because you want your kids to be happy and you want your kids to pursue their dreams and yet you definitely don't want to see your kid get hurt have your parents been to any

of your fights like yeah actually they're okay and that's what they've done the videoing oh wow okay holy cow except i mean except this last one i found out like two days before that they weren't gonna be able to get in there i thought we were gonna get tickets and all but they ended up with covid they kind of shut it down but yeah man pretty much all all the fights have you had covid yet probably probably just i actually i i was sick last week and went and tested myself twice after all the travel and everything and came up negative. But, I mean, I've had training partners. We've had people in the gym.

We've had, I've been around it. I've been, you know, probably. Yeah, it's interesting. So, last, probably, I don't know, 10 days ago, one of my kids got sick. And then another one got sick. And then another one got sick. I have three boys. And when I mean sick, I mean just like kid sickness.

Like we just keep doing the same shit. You know what I mean? They just have like a runny nose or they sound funny. And then a few days, I don't know, about a week ago, my wife got sick and then I got sick. But both the sore throats. But you just keep doing your shit, right? And we went and got tested and we tested negative. But then like four days ago or three days ago she's like hey uh i can't

taste my coffee so we went she went and got tested again she tested positive and so i'm assuming i'm assuming i mean who the fuck knows right like but i'm assuming we all have it now which is kind of cool because it's a good excuse not to do shit i mean by not do shit i mean like i just go to the beach every day now hey get that vitamin d dog yeah oh yeah i have covid fuck this sucks i have to go to the beach every day so i i can't really smell but i think it's uh i think it's for a little bit different reason this thing doesn't uh doesn't work too well anymore have. Have you had your nose broken? Probably four times, I would say.

Wow. It looks pretty straight. You're being nice, bro. Let me see my get up. You're all – okay, yeah, you got a little – on this side, you got a little – Yeah, it comes out. Can you breathe through both nostrils okay? It depends.

I've noticed the right one opens up a good bit once i start kind of working out and moving but like now or especially if i have a cold or something i have to lay like on this side so it travels to this nostril and then we can get it on out but uh it when i was in college i was super fucked up one night and i a bunch of friends and i we went to a swimming pool we jumped over the fence on on campus and i dived in the shower dove in the shallow end i'm so lucky i'm alive and i broke my nose and ever since then like one of my nostrils just doesn't like it just doesn't breathe right it's like you're saying like it opens up sometimes but most of the time it's

not open and i have to sleep at night on one particular side or else the other side will just close up it's fucking lame i should get it fixed are you gonna get yours fixed are you gonna have like someone drill it out or maybe do it for sure not while i'm fighting i've uh i've talked to people who've gotten it done and it's been mixed results and they said especially if you're gonna get hit again like there's just just wait on it if you do do it. Because breathing is important, though. Yeah, for sure. Breathing out of your nose, especially more and more stuff, you know, coming out about that.

So we'll see. Melissa Odier says, by the way, I don't know if you know this, but we're live. Okay, yeah. And she makes a very interesting comment, which is nice. She says, I don't know much about MMA, but I'd rather listen to this guy all day than two-minute rants from McGregor. Well, I appreciate that, Melissa.

Thank you. I'm glad I'm not quite on that level just yet. I will say this. Although we've been introduced to AJ in the last hour and 15 minutes, and it's clear that he has a shit together uh very well spoken um good son well educated there is a side to him that when you see his fights that i mean you are a jump up on the um edge of the cage scream your head off what is that is that i mean that's just that's just extra energy after the fight just Is that like when you park your car or when you test drive a car and you kind of like just push the gas pedal just to hear the engine roar?

For those of us who don't know, what is that after a fight that we see coming off of fighters? I don't know, man. I don't know how to describe it. It's just this like electricity flowing through you. I don't know how else to describe it's just this like electricity flowing through you i don't know how else to describe it you got to go put it somewhere at least i feel like i do and the quickest way is to get my little legs running bro find a cage put two two toes in the in the little fence and climb up and give a good you know a good yell i don't know why that's my go-to i don't know why like whenever i like finish a fight that's what i do but it seems pretty consistent that

that's my jam uh but and it's some tarzan shit i hope so that's i mean it's some it's some like yeah it's some i mean i mean you see it in all sports like you know uh you see they call it a celebratory dance but i see it more as like it's like a burning of excess fuel. It's like a – or like I'm trying to think like – you know like we never had an air compressor, but you go to someone's house and their dad has an air compressor and they use it, and then when they're done, they like pull a valve so that it doesn't stay pressurized. It's kind of – it's like that, right? It's kind of it's like that right it's kind of like i mean you don't plan that shit right you're not like after the fight i'm gonna run up on the

ring and scream it's just just comes out dude it's uh i don't know it's uh i've always like one of my favorite football players like i like the dudes who like freaking nail somebody like a linebacker something nails a receiver covering over middle, and then they just get up and let out one of them big screams. But one of my favorites was Ray Lewis, and that was, like, his jam. You know, he would wreck somebody and then give a big, you know, yell and stuff after. I don't know why that's what comes out. I really don't. It may be a little bit of burning excess energy.

Maybe it's just a little bit of, like, I mean, it's a mix of things, dude. It's, it's relief. It's, it's joy. It's, you know, in some ways like a weird, your, your brain runs so fast, dude. It's like a recognition of everything you did to like get to this point of on the cage. It's, you know, in, in the last one, it was me climbing, climbing a cage. Like, you know, I just basically known that I achieved my dream that I set out, you know, you can say five years or you can say since I was five years old,

either way you want to put it. It's just, it's a lot of things all in that moment. And, you know, at the same time, as soon as you step down, you, you look across the cage and you see the other person. And I feel like a lot of the good ones who are you know conscious of things that can happen and who are you know maybe are realist you know they see the other guy across the cage and they recognize that damn you know any night that that could be me too so there's this realization and it's like i don't know that second part of it's like a sobering moment where it's like all right as cool as that was it happened so quick dude it's like all right as cool as that was we got to get

back to work to make sure i'm i'm this person every time you know does anyone ever compare you to other fighters i've gotten some especially since the last one for sure has anyone ever compared you to michael michael chandler yeah yeah for sure you have heard that i mean what a great comparison uh the after watching a bunch of your fights like preparing for this interview i was like holy shit i'm i mean like once again who the fuck am i i'm just i'm nobody but i i see um i man i see something uh very similar between um you and michael chandler which is crazy because he's basically been fighting his whole life and you're based and you're basically an athlete have you read this book bounce by matt saeed no no no uh i'll send you i'll send you a couple

books and there's another book um called range by david epstein but it's interesting the book range by david epstein starts by comparing comparing Roger Federer, who played every single sport but eventually became the greatest male tennis player ever to live in his time, and then talked about versus someone like Tiger Woods, who at 10 months old had a golf club put in his hand and also became the greatest in his sport. But it's interesting to see that two guys take different paths but but reach the tops of their sports one being a specialist and one being you know doing not being a specialist yeah um are you glad you took the path you did do you wish you would have started earlier or are you like no this is perfect man i i wonder that there's definitely um i'm glad i'm glad how it turned out i think i got a lot of skill my takedown i think came from football my

kicks i think have come from soccer my footwork i think has come from soccer i think uh baseball trained my eyes in a certain way to be able to react to certain things pretty quickly um i think i took i think i got certain things out of all the sports that I played that I found a way to relate to MMA. I think that's the whole thing with MMA. There's no like people can say there's this ideal body type. People can say it's better to be tall. It's better to be short. It depends. Right. It depends on the era you're in. Like you said, it's all cyclical. If we look at back at Mike Tyson, he was one of the shortest heavyweight fighters, but he had a style that everybody tries to emulate now, right? And if we look back before that, a lot of the guys that were at the top of the division were guys with big straight punches, Muhammad Ali types.

And, you know, he kind of set the standard for that, who was a little bit longer, lankier heavyweight than a lot of these big muscled up guys before him. All these things go in cycles. in cycles. And I think fighting is something really special because if I was to go try to play NBA basketball, there's a certain thing that I definitely wouldn't have that's almost absolutely necessary. It's almost like to me, the more specialized a sport gets, the more golf oriented where you're just doing this one swing, it's almost better to be like in it when you're young. But the more comprehensive a sport is, the more widespread attributes you need, it's almost better to be like in it when you're young, but the more comprehensive a sport is, the more widespread attributes you need. It's almost like it's better to be,

to play other things along so that maybe if I play soccer, it's more agility focused. And maybe if I play football, it's more power focused. But whenever I bring something from football to soccer, now I have something most soccer players don't have. When I bring something from soccer to football, now I have something that sets me apart from the football players. When you combine all that into something as free ranging of body movement as MMA, and you incorporate all those

things, and you recognize your body style, you recognize how it stacks up to other people's, that's where the real artistry comes in. Because everybody has their own attributes, their own skills, their own physical qualities, their own mindset, their own behavior patterns, their own psychology. That's why we, that's why MMA is what it is, dude. It's the ultimate unknown. It is the ultimate, whatever size you are, whatever, wherever you come from, everybody knows how to fight. For the most part, there's some places that are better at it than others. I think like South Louisiana, I think we just got the best in the world, but it's, it's, you know, it's fighting, it's, it's all encompassing, man. And I think that, you know,

it lends itself to what I did because like you said, I wasn't a specialist. I did a lot of things. So, but at the same time, all those things I did give me something to, to weave into a puzzle for MMA that, you know, a lot of guys can't solve, I feel like. AJ is 9-0, undefeated as a professional fighter. A couple losses as an amateur that he has openly spoke about is probably some of the best things that ever happened to him. Absolutely. Are you prepared?

I'm going to make a presupposition here. Feel free to push back on it. Are you prepared to be to achieve the levels of selfishness that are required to be a champion? Are you prepared to

do that? Because some people I feel, are you prepared to do that? Because some people, I feel like, aren't prepared to do that. And I don't mean selfish. I know it has negative connotation. I don't mean it in a negative way. I mean, I think it's the only way to become a champion and sure as fuck the only way to maintain it. Right.

I think, I don't know. I think that's kind of, I think I hear a lot of people say it that way, right? To be successful in the sport, you have to be selfish. I think it's a little bit different, right? Or a hermit. Or a hermit. Well, I'm already kind of, I already kind of do that. So we got that.

But I think it's just, you have to, peterson has this quote right you don't get to choose if you sacrifice you get to choose what you sacrifice right there are certain things i've sacrificed that yeah normal people may want that in their in their in parts of their lives but for me i understand that my way of giving back even if it even if people can't see that this is my way of doing it right now i know that i have a plan five to ten years later down the line that this is all leading into you know what i mean it's as much as i as much sacrifice as i have to put into myself and my craft and as much as it may take away from other things and time that i could give other people and give you know give other things this is a point in my life it's give other people and give, you know, give other things. This is a point

in my life. It's assuming I live to be past, you know, 35 years old or whatever. This is a very brief period in my life. And to, to learn the lessons, to walk the path that I think I need to, to grow one as a martial artist, two as a human being, this is like what I feel like I need to do for the moment. And this is how I feel like as selfish or as, you know, self-sacrificing as you can say it is, it's as I need to be. I feel like, yeah, maybe it's there's got to be a focus in my life a good bit of the time where it's, you know, it's on me. I think people around me realize that whenever I do have fightings and waves, right, we get these waves of a lot of attention, a lot of obligations, a lot of responsibilities, a lot of pressure. And then it goes like in a moment where I'm at right now where it kind of sinks down and, you know, things are kind of dying down a little bit. And you have time to, you know, start getting that time and making sacrifices for other people and being there a little bit more. making sacrifices for other people and being there a little bit more. But I think people recognize around me that this is a place where I've got a chance to really do something and a chance to really change things around me.

And they understand that and they see where my heart's at. And they, people have supported me pretty much all the way through. So I don't think I necessarily. Do you have any high maintenance people in your life? High maintenance people? Not really, dude. I don't, I necessarily. Do you have any high maintenance people in your life? High maintenance people? Not really, dude. I don't have anything high maintenance to give people. I got this bean bag that's pretty sweet.

Other than that, some posters on the wall, and I got some coffee mugs, and that's what I got to offer right now. You just got people bugging you to do podcasts. I don't mind it, bro. It's been a good conversation. People jumping on the AJ Fletcher bandwagon. There's room. Hop on. Are you...

You win this fight and you know that there's promise. I guess every time you win a fight you know that, okay, that means there's going to be another one. Is it hard to, like, dial yourself back? I'm assuming a party wanted to fight the very next week. Oh, shit, okay, I'm ready. But then, right?

I mean, I'm guessing, like, okay, the ball's rolling. But you can't do that, right? Yeah, no, it's, I feel like a lot ball's rolling, but you can't do that, right? Yeah. No, it's – I feel like a lot of – And who do you talk to about that? Do you have a manager? Do you have an agent? Do you have all that stuff in place?

When you say dial yourself back, do you mean in terms of like training or in terms of like – Everything, like sort of like more starting mostly with mentally. Like, okay, you win your fight. The ball's rolling. All the attention's on you. It was a relatively easy fight. I don't mean easy in the sense that your opponent wasn't absolutely savage, but just everything moved.

It was efficient. It was a very efficient fight. And yet, you do have to, like, I'm assuming there has to be some sort of reboot. I mean, like we don't see the iceberg that's under the water, right? Like, like fuck the training camp. Like we don't know what toll the training camp took on you. The weight cut, the lack of getting to see your mom and dad or your loved one. Like there's a whole shit of damage or wear and tear that went on you that we don't know about.

But also like you feel momentum i mean you you catapulted yourself into the limelight so i'm guessing you want to uh take advantage of that parlay that into the next and yeah no it's i would say i'm naturally inclined to be more of like a hermit style i got my little books here bro i got my little drawing of stuff i got an xbox if i want. That's just kind of me. And for sure, there has to be, I don't really talk too, too much with people about it. Dustin's one I get to bounce ideas off of. Tim, I get to bounce ideas off of. And also just, I found YouTube University is a, for the most part, as censored as it's getting now, it's a pretty decent place to get an education in basically whatever you want, right? So for me, I've looked up to people in my industry and people not even in my industry that have, you know, maybe some certain characteristics about what they have to do that are similar to me. One of those guys who have kind of listened to this kind of take on is

Israel Adesanya. He has a little YouTube channel. And one of the things he was talking about is, I think he actually has a therapist or somebody he talks to, whatever you want to say. And he was talking about kind of the waves of fighting, right? You have to, I don't know if it's him or his coach who takes like a week or two in the mountains or something just kind of to themselves and and lets everything die down a little bit but you have to have certain things in place certain little uh maybe landmarks that you you know you have in your head and you have in your activities to kind of recenter yourself and bring yourself down to like a normal pace of life i guess obviously you want to ride that momentum but i feel like i'm maybe don't have it quite just yet but we're getting there a fine tuning of that little switch of when to dial

it on and when to, when to dial it back. For example, I've learned that like my reading material, it just kind of happens naturally, but it changes as a fight comes closer. Right. So I was reading some sort of war book. I was reading a Muhammad Ali book, and then I just finished Hicks and Gracie's new breathe book going into the fight. Oh yeah. How is that i heard that book's great it is it's if have you ever heard of the book of five rings yes i haven't read it it's very good that's very good

as well but if the book of five rings was written now in an mma context in the gracie family context with old fight stories and old like street fight stories and stuff it's this like very like uh profound kind of you know insights into fighting and mindset in general it's i couldn't recommend it enough okay sorry i interrupted you so you were saying your your reading changes as you get closer to the fight yeah and then now you know i'm a little bit more like not oh you know coming at you now it's i have this uh like a stephen fry's like the retelling or what's it called uh mythos so like a retelling of the greek myths um i have what is it into the wild i'm gonna start on in a little bit oh wow yeah dude so it changes like that i try to really whenever you if if you if you polarize right on one wave the higher the wave gets right

the more attention the more publicity the more circus you get also you have to like lower there's got to be that balance right if the waves get higher but my my low point i say my low points the low points in the waves where i'm chilling if those stay the same then eventually something's gonna tip right and the same time you know you don't know how to rise yourself when that wave starts coming you get overwhelmed by it so i i try to explore that deeper high like heights and also the the troughs i try to you know make sure it's a good balance of going into it and coming out of it. Damn, dude.

Yeah, we got a lot working up here. Yeah, and fuck YouTube and their censorship. I really appreciate what they've done for the world. It's a better place than 20 years ago when there was no YouTube. People have more opportunity than ever. Homeless people have iPhones now. People bitch about the discrepancy of wealth

and how rich people are. You know what? That doesn't bother me fucking in the slightest. Someone has to go to Mars first. Let it be Bezos and all those guys. And those of you who are concerned about poor people, if you think poor people are poor now, you should look back and see how poor they were 50 years ago.

Sorry for getting on my horse, but as you guys who listen to this podcast know, I do that often. I resent the fact that people who are not enjoying this amazing, insane accepting and welcoming to everyone. And if you're not being accepted and welcomed somewhere, change your perspective or fucking

move, because there's fucking weirdos who will accept everyone in this fucking country. Stop being a bitch. Well said, Mark. Sorry. That wasn't to you. You don't deserve to have me throw a temper tantrum. AJ, I've taken an hour and a half of your time.

I'm going to stay on the fucking bandwagon. When is your next fight? Man, I'm trying to get one in before the end of the year, but not quite sure just yet. All right. I am going to do two. Oh, and you're an Android guy.

God, that's, I guess you're not perfect. I guess you're not perfect. I got a pixel two, bro. So not even like the pixel five or whatever. So we're doing,

Oh, it's a pain in the ass, but at least you have a computer. So many people your age don't even have a computer true true it's nuts um what kind of computer do you have oh you have a pixel you just wait no wait what kind of computer do you have it's a lenovo legion it's actually oh my god oh my god no no no apple products good for. And you're young and you know YouTube censored. Jesus, you're a smart guy. All the smartest people in the room have the Lenovas and the droids. I'm an Apple guy. everyone else does go to your google alerts and type in aj fletcher and that way anytime there's an article or an update on what's going on in his life you'll get it and we can know when he's gonna fight next brother thank you so much thank you man it was a good time

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