The Sevan Podcast - #150 - Devonte Smith

Episode Date: September 25, 2021

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To get started, just open the app. It's as easy as that. See the PC Optimum app for details. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We book your reservation and when you get to the main event skip to the good bit using the card member entrance let's go seize the night that's the powerful backing of american express visit amex.ca slash y amex benefits vary by card other conditions apply and by the way how you pronounce your name properly bam live that's a great question no one can say my name except my mom okay my name is savon okay that's what i was gonna say

too i make sure but a lot of people call me savon or savvy or but it but it's savon like Like the number seven, Sevan. Okay. There you go. Devontae Smith, Cleveland, Ohio. 7 a.m. in California. And what time is it where you're at? 8. 8 a.m. Yep. Wait, you're only one hour.

Cleveland's only one hour ahead of California? No, I'm in Colorado right now. Oh, that's right. And that's where you go before your big fights? Yeah. Is that where you go before every fight? Basically, yeah, since 2018. How come? Obviously,

the altitude is a big help, like a real big help. And, you know, the people at Factory X, they have a lot of really elite fighters that specialize in certain things, whether it's striking, grappling, or just having the overall IQ. Is it contentious at all or weird at all to tell your main train camp,

hey, I'm going here right before the fight to do the final sharpening of the knife? Or no, it's just normal for the business? Oh, no, it's not. No, it's what I want to do the final sharpening of the knife or no it's just normal for the business oh no it's not no it's what i want to do no one gets their feelings hurt or whatever nah yeah they did it'd be like why why are you why you're feeling sorry that don't make no sense and i guess you go there and you get that knowledge and you bring it back to your hive right you fly you're a bee you fly to one hive get some knowledge and bring it back to your hive exactly and vice versa when you go there they get they get glean uh more knowledge and skills off of you yeah when i come back from cleveland oh yeah i'll be on a different level so they be they be after me how many years have you been

fighting um amateur and professional since your professional uh first professional fight uh amateur about about 10 probably about to go on 11 years crazy yeah and and you're how old uh just turned 28 and you fight in the 155 class the lightweight yes sir i i heard that guy ask uh in one of your interviews i was watching yesterday if you'd ever go up and wait. It was interesting seeing Kevin Lee try to make that jump the other day. And anytime I see a fighter do that and I'm watching, I start to get scared for them, right? They just be too big. I'm not afraid to fight big people because I've always fought bigger guys since I was little.

But it's the business now so I'm not about to like go up a weight class to get my head beating you know and I'm not about to drain my my body to go a lower weight class I'm gonna just go where I feel good I feel confident and I feel healthy if you're a 170 pound dude that really means you're a 170-pound dude, that really means you're a 200-pound dude, though, right? Right. Right. And you're about six foot on average, six foot and up, and the majority of them gone. A lot of them can stand up, but the ones who want to wrestle and lay on you, I ain't got time for all that. Yeah. Did you see Mny's last fight

pacquiao's last fight uh who was it um i can't pronounce the guy's name the guy was amazing it was a black oh i didn't see it the guy was amazing but he was too big for manny he was like 147 pound dude and an old manny pacquiao should not be fighting 147 pounds i don't think that's what i saw it was just too much for Manny. Yeah. I remember seeing the video on Instagram of his wife feeding him. Cause both his eyes exposed. I'm like,

dang. Yes. Yes. Do you have one of those? Do you have a wife? No, no, I got it. I got a lady though.

I ain't got a wife. Oh, congratulations. And how long have you been with her? Uh, for a while. For a good while. Does it help to have a strong, good woman, or is it just complicated? Does it just make it crazier?

It all depends on that situation or that relationship. Because, you know, sometimes they can be be supportive other times they can be highly annoying it just depends on the communication between you and your partner and you know the trials and tribulations because everybody mess up here and there and you know me being away from home for so long can make things, but for the most part, everything's cool. I don't really see any cons of it. I dug through your Instagram pretty thoroughly. Before we go back to the ladies, the main lady in your life, your mom, your mom got younger.

in your life your mom your mom got younger your mom when there's pictures of you as a little boy and you're and you're hugging on your mom um she looks like your mom and now when you take pictures of her she she could be your kid sister do you see that it's kind of crazy right i remember one time we went to a fish market and uh it was me and her and it was all these dudes just staring at her and i was like all right cool and when we went to go uh we went to go purchase some fish and uh the clerk she was like uh does your husband want anything she's like husband she's like this is my son you should have seen all the dudes in that store eyes light up and oh that's your son that's her son i'm like come on y'all y'all this is weird so we left but i get that we get that a lot i was uh i was at a coffee shop i'm in california and i was in the coffee shop and um i was with my i have three little boys two four year olds and a six year old and we're and i'm sitting outside at the coffee shop with my mom

and i got a bunch of gray yeah my top's not gray. My top's still black. And we're sitting outside in this buff dude and this buff chick, super hot with their little kid. Come walking up and they look young. They look like they're your age. And they go, oh, my God, how sweet. The grandparents are out with the grandkids. And my mom starts laughing. And I go, mom, that's not funny.

And she goes, yeah, it's cute. And I'm like, no, that means they think we're sleeping together. I'm like,'m like nah it's not cool mom it's not cool plus I don't want I it's it's pretty crazy when I grow this beard out that everyone thinks I'm the granddad yeah I think it's because of the gray but it looks nice bro thank you thank you um I was talking to Jack uh De La Dela, Mad Delaina yesterday. You know who that is? He was on the contender series with Mo Miller, 171 pound dude. Anyway,

he's out of Australia. Okay. Out of Australia. I, um, ironically he has the, uh, same record as you 11 and two.

He lost his, or he lost, sorry, 10 and two. He you're 11 and two. He lost his first two fights and then he him and his uh trainer got together and they're like hey we're gonna win the next 10 and they did it no no i mean if they made that the goal and actually accomplished it that's a that's a huge accomplishment that's

nuts right yeah yeah dude like 10 straight absolutely nuts when When was your first by the way, your first amateur fight was insane. Oh, yeah, the 30 seconds. Yeah, that's what I knew. This was the right career path for me. When you won that fight? Yeah, yeah, because there was a lot of things going

into it, such as transitioning from high school wrestling and to doing now punching and kicking. And then six months later, I turned 18. It was like December something, December, maybe the 11th or 21st, one of those. And one side, I remember being nervous and finally getting into that cage and just remembering the cage locking, watching, seeing the people's eyes on me

and seeing my opponent just pacing back and forth. And I'm just like, dang, well, I'm here now. I might as well do what I was trying to do and to just lock in the way I did and get the win in 30 seconds. Didn't even know I could knock people out. I was just fighting. And I was like, I like this feel.

I like this rush. Let's see, about 10 years later, this is where I am now. You had been a high school wrestler, and you only had six months of MMA training before your first amateur fight? Yeah, I was good at wrestling though um i i think i was i was uh ranked in states or nations one so i got to find uh i got to find uh the paper uh but no yeah i used to i used to wrestle was my first love like wrestling was my that's all i did everybody when i didn't win when i didn't win

or go to states everybody in my school because you know i i didn't want to go to school for a couple days because i was you know sad and depressed everybody thought i committed suicide that's how that's how much like everybody in school knew wrestling is all i did you either caught me in the wrestling room or in the weight room. Other than that, you know, that's all I did. That's why I kept my grades up, because of wrestling. When the guy's on the ground, that last punch you throw at him, it's a left. He's on his back, and you're on top of him,

and his head, like, bounces like a pinball. It's a crazy punch. Yeah. I remember seeing, like I said, I didn't know that I could knock people out. So when I was hitting him, I remember the first time I hit him, everything slowed down. And I just hear the referee like, stop. But again, I'm in my mode. And I hit him again, and his eyes rolled back.

And all of this is happening like super fast, but in my head, it's super slow. And I'm just like, man, why is his eyes like that? And then I hit him again, and the referee grabbed me off. I'm like, oh, okay. Now I know that's what happens. Yeah, nuts. And then basically, and then you have an insane celebration. Basically, it's just all that, I guess, adrenaline and energy just dumping off of you, right?

Like kind of like one of those steam pots when you're done cooking. Like you release the steam on it. I mean, you just kind of explode. Yeah. I mean, it's a crazy sport. And when you get a win like that and you're hearing the crowds screaming, yelling, people that you don't even know you screaming your name. Like, I see you. I see you.

So that just do nothing but amp you more up, and your team is screaming behind you happy. So it's a lot of emotions that go with it. You were born in Cleveland? Yeah. And how many brothers and sisters? On my mom's side, I got two brothers, two sisters.

On my dad's side, I got an older brother and an older sister. So six total. Yes. And where are you in the pack? I'm like... I'm the oldest on my mom's side

and the second youngest on my dad's side so I'm like a weird middle right and uh and born in Cleveland and all in all and never left nope uh left the like and it's like move somewhere else and stayed there yeah you could say I moved it was a part of the time I lived in Colorado for like six months straight because fights kept falling through. And I was like taking the opportunity to just train in like such a like high profile gym. So I've been out here.

So like I said, since like 2018. So this is basically my second home. Where do you stay when you go there? Man, trials and tribulations, bro. When I first came out here, I was staying with some people. That was like a fighter house. And then from there, they had a situation going on. So then I moved with a teammate the next time I came out.

Then I went to another teammate when I was here and then Then I got my own apartment and then I got another one and then I got this one so It took a while, but I took those steps it down by myself okay, so so it's not like it's not like the gym just has like a Hotel next to it that they own and they're like, hey, that room's yours. Yeah, nah, nah. It was kind of like that with the first people, but I guess the kids start coming back home and they needed the space. So you're born in Cleveland and you're the oldest brother. And when did you get into wrestling? When I was 14.

Me and my older brother, we used to watch Pride a lot. And we used to spar in the basement all the time. And I remember we were talking about, because he went to Euclid High and I went to Bedford. And he was like two years ahead of me. And he was like, oh, you wrestle. You know, you can go against our schools and collide. And we can like, you know, I beat his teammates when we finally had that special moment. But yeah, I wrestled from freshman all the way to senior.

And how did you, did your mom make you do that? How did you have the discipline to do that? Wrestling's hard in high school. It's hard in high school it's hard yeah especially i feel like my my school had a specific uh old school mentality whereas like the older generation really screwed up the younger generation so they had not in a bad way but they just really had them like old school, like principles, like hard work. If somebody's slacking, they like, they won't beat up on a guy, but they make an example of like, hey, we here to work hard. We're not here to play.

And I was just the last person to like get a taste of that. So, you know, when you got people who are consistently pushing you and pushing themselves and you get for the first time in your life, you you get that brotherhood, you know, their brotherly love in a lot of ways. And it's like fighting. Basically, it was fighting without getting in trouble. It was a lot of times I wanted to go on people's mouths in school, but I let them slide. You'd be like, I got wrestling later. I got a wrestling meet this Saturday. I got a wrestling meet this Friday. We got sectionals this weekend.

Let me woosah and just take it out on that. So I feel like that was just a really good way for me to release, you know, that, like, aggression. You were a freshman yeah and and so you're at school and you and your brother fool around in the basement with some fighting um and then so one day you're just like okay i'm gonna sign up for wrestling practice did you used to walk to school and walk home were you latchkey kid you get home no one's there, let yourself in the apartment, that whole deal? No. So I lived at that time. I lived in Bedford. We had a – what's the houses that go, like, the vertical way?

Brownstones? No, no, no. The ones in New York? One person on this side of the house and one person on this side. Oh, oh, oh. Town houses? Is that a townhouse? Okay. Maybe.

I don't know. Yeah. I don't know if it's a dude or a town house, whatever. But one of those types of houses. For the most part that I can remember, did I have to walk to school? No, my mom gave me rides. But after school, sometimes I did have to walk home. And that wasn't always fun, especially, fun, especially Ohio winters are brutal.

I just got done doing it. It was supposed to be two hours, but for whatever reason, the coach felt like we were slacking, so it was three hours. We didn't eat properly. We weren't taught how to diet well. It was just starve yourself. After practice, you get one meal before you go to bed that's how they used to teach us how to like lose weight you either get the sandwich or some

cereal you can't eat both uh and that right there that's that's mental discipline may maybe not been the right way but still it builds some type of character when it came today so so that so it was all self-motivated your mom wasn't like hey you have to do sports it was just self-motivated. Your mom wasn't like, hey, you have to do sports. It was just like, hey, I'm going to do wrestling. You went in your freshman year. How much did you weigh your freshman year? 125 pounds. And that's what you wrestled in meets?

Yeah. So my freshman year, I was 125. And from freshman going into my sophomore year, that summer, that whole summer, I did nothing but wake up in the morning. I will make a huge breakfast and work out for like two hours. I would do 500 pushups, make sure I do 500 pushups, 500 sit-ups a day. And the next year when I was a sophomore, I was 160. Holy cow. Yeah.

I was lifted. How are you so motivated, Devontae? Why weren't you out doing what I did, throwing rocks at cars, chasing girls, going to the arcade? I didn't do 500 push-ups my entire high school career you know what i mean like and you're doing 500 a day just to do it um reason why i ain't throw rocks at uh windows and stuff because my mom used to uh beat me not in a bad way like maybe let me use a better term my mom used to whoop. My mom used to whoop me. My dad used to whoop me. So it's like, nah, I know right from wrong.

Girls, they were weird in high school. They really wasn't with me like that. Yeah, they weren't with me either. I just knew a lot of Jason. But I will take some of the blame because I didn't have much talking points other than wrestling and lifting weights. I actually didn't know how to talk without bringing up wrestling. And what was the third one? I'm just curious how you were so disciplined, and I think you got to it.

Basically, you're saying your parents, you had a strict home. In a sense. And then plus, I mean, there's a lot of things my parents raised me to do and the way they taught me to think or common sense. The kids in high school, I understand it's a growing period. So everybody listening to the rappers and singers or, you know, following the crowd. That really wasn't my thing. Not because I was trying to be different.

It just didn't feel right. You know, I'd rather go watch anime and lift weights. And y'all, y'all rather go chase girls. That's cool. Like, I mean, no judgment, but my thing was my thing. You know, I mean, look where I'm at now yeah it's crazy did you ever think you would be a professional athlete um i mean yeah no yeah because oh deja vu bro wow good let's get like this whole thing um yeah um yeah no because um I said, I wanted to be in the UFC.

I remember I told everybody I wanted to be in the UFC since I was 14. Wow. So I knew I was going to do it, but to actually do it and be a professional athlete and actually be really good at what I do, it's like, oh, wow, okay, cool, I did it, you know, I mean, I still got ways to go, you know, for my own personal reasons, but, you know, I did it. Are you, are you, is there something you're trying to prove? Is there any, like, dark pathology, or is there, like, something like, someone, like, when you were 10, someone called you stupid, or there was some kid pushed you down the like when you were 10 someone called you stupid or there was some kid pushed you down the stairs when you were 13 and you're like that you know of

that you're kind of like circling like i have a chip on my shoulder i'm gonna prove this to the fucking world it could be i was actually bullied um was it it was in first yeah first grade it was like kindergarten first grade i was like actually bully bully not like the the not saying it's not bad but the the internet bully the cyber bully wasn't that i'm like the bathroom getting jumped and beat up you know and then the teachers not believing me i used to have a bully named Randy. I always remember his name because one day I'm going to see Randy again. But, you know, I've always been told that I wasn't able to do certain things. You know, basically, I feel like it's because of my character.

Very, very like, ha-ha, he-he, very friendly-go-lucky guy. And a lot of people took that kindness as a weakness. Even my wrestling coach, he took that kindness as a weakness. Even my first MMA coach, he didn't believe in me. You know,

I might as well say, I forgot what it was called. Have you ever heard of a man named Bill Duff? There used to be like a martial art show where him and this other character used to like go around the world learning like martial arts. I don't, but I'm going to look it up as soon as we get. Yeah. Yeah. Look up Bill Duff. But so he was my first MMA coach.

He was cool. But I remember it was me and a former teammate of mine, well, two former teammates of mine, and we were getting to a point where the gym we were at, they really weren't taking us to where we needed to be. They were kind of like a cardio kickboxing, boxing place, but they had cage fighting, and we were like the good ones. And I remember when we went up to them to discuss about, hey know we're thinking about going to another gym um you know no hard feelings it's just we don't have the type of work here we you know they had us sparring old ladies where we couldn't fight back we had to learn how to

just move our head real fast while they like swung on us and so yeah they helped us with our head movement and I remember he talking to the one guy. He was talking about the one dude. He was like, hey, I'm weird with names, but okay, well. He was like, dude, hey. He was like, you know, you're a really good boxer. You know, fast, got a lot of knockouts. Y'all understand why you can't be here in this night, you know.

Dude number, letter B, whatever, do B, you know, you have really good wrestling, really good technique, and you're going to make it far in this and that, so I'm just waiting for my turn, you know, because he didn't, you know, and he just, he just looked at me, and he just, you know, kept moving, like, oh, what about me, he was like, ah, well, you're just trying to kill people, so, and I'm just like, what? I kind of thought that was the, you know, and no hard feelings to them, but they not in the UFC. You know, they not doing what I'm doing.

And that's just a very small glimpse of what a lot of people have done. And I remember a point in time I felt like I had to prove something to them just to like really rub it in their face. But I'm at a something to them just to like really rubbing in their face. But I'm at a point now that it's like I'm not here to prove anything to anybody. You know, you hold no power over me.

I'm here to do what I know I can do. You know, when people say, you know, what makes you do this? What makes you feel this way? It's because I know I can. You know, like I know I can do it. Like i i know i can do it like i just know i can so why not do it yeah that's how i feel about podcasts see someone the other day made a comment in the uh in the comments and they're like man you have the worst memory for for a guy who interviews people for a living i'm like i don't interview people for a living i interview people because i can see it's not my it's not my fucking job i didn't i didn't i'm not interviewing davante smith

because someone's telling me to it's because i don't want to interview davante yes see you want to say i'm doing i'm doing what i want to do yeah it's it's a trip right and when people say shit like that too i start to think oh my god is their life like that do they not do what they want to do and so they can't imagine us doing what we want to do yes they follow the trends and one of the trends is wake up go to work and make somebody else richer and that just didn't sit right before me i i worked at a job that they would call a career nestle stouffer's yep and every day i'd be like i was saying like like, I do not like, I know the boss still has to do some work, but I know he gets to wake up whenever he wants to. Yeah. He has to go

to a meeting, but after that meeting, he gets to go do whatever he wants to do. And I didn't like sitting here on this line, sprinkling cheese and some guy in a white coat with his hands behind his back looking at me telling me you're putting too much cheese on that you're losing this money i ain't losing that's money i'm still getting paid so i didn't like that i like that feel i think uh i have nothing nice to say about nestle's or stover's or anyone who's selling garbage food and spreading type 2 diabetes to the public yeah i ain't got nothing nice to say about Nestle's or Stover's or anyone who's selling garbage food and spreading type 2 diabetes to the public. Yeah. I ain't got nothing nice to say about those guys.

So at 14, so like I watch the UFC pretty religiously. I try to watch as much MMA as I can. I spend probably shit, I don't know. You know, they got the three hours every Saturday of UFC on. But I don't know. They got the three hours every Saturday of UFC on. And then when I'm riding the assault bike or something, I put on the TV and I watch all the gossip. You know, like those little 10-minute gossip videos on YouTube.

Like, today, Conor McGregor fell down the stairs. Or today, Devante was seen buying a new necklace. Or just whatever the shit they say. And where was I going with that? I would never want to go in there and at 14 you no fuck no i i would not i can't have someone punch me like be chasing me around trying to punch me in the face get around my neck and put me to sleep yeah and and at 14 like you want to do that do you like like as a part of you like do you have that are fighters like hey i don't want to do that too so that's why you guys do it you guys are facing your fears like i'm like well

that's scary i'm not going over there and you're like well that's scary i'm gonna go over there and check that shit out i feel like my life has brought me to this point i could i feel like i could do anything i put my mind to but i've always been in fights you know um i was the just being straightforward is this yes please yeah yeah i was the very i was the small dark-skinned kid you know and my mom said i used to have clown feet you know and it took a while for my body to grow to my feet so i what size what size shoe right now i'm a i'm 11 and a half to 12 but when when you seen how my body looked when i was like five or six compared to 28 it's like yeah so i used to get into a lot of fights like like i said i was bullied bullied uh and uh the the school that i went to at that particular moment,

I think it was like K through six or something like that. And I was in kindergarten getting beat up by like third, fourth, fifth, sixth graders. And I used to get into fights in the streets. I used to get into fights in middle school. I used to get into so many fights that when I went to ninth grade, my mom, before I went to school, my mom was like, hey, you cannot be fighting these people. They will take you to jail, juvenile, one of the two. And when I wasn't fighting people, they started picking on me.

I remember I'd go come home like, I'm trying, and it ain't working. And it got to a point where my mom was like, go ahead, Vontae. And the next day, when I tell you I had a smile on my face, I was ready. So I feel like it's just a natural thing. Like, yeah, it's still scary. I mean, you're going in there to fight another man that's been training, that has his own problems and traumas and things that he's fighting through, and his own thing, he has his own goals, and I'm pretty sure he wants to win just like you,

but that's what makes it fun, like, MMA is like, you get to create your own style, like, yeah, you have the bases, like boxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, kick type right all those things but you have your own unique flavor depending on you know your your body you know and what you like to do and what you've been through that brought you here are you can you remember the last time you were in a street fight are those days just long long behind you the last time man the last time i got to a street fight are those days just long long behind you the last time man the last time i got to a street fight uh so okay so we were down it was me and my people who was down in akron and akron ohio i forgot what the plaza called but it was a lot of like college kids and people go to you know for bars hook and all that cool stuff and i didn't know my one dude when he get drunk he fuck with people i ain't know that i just know

with you a part of my team you know swing first ask questions last but so what happened was we was having fun and we all walking back to the car it's like it's like six of us i don't like going out if you can't fight and if you know yeah you can't we got to be at least minimum five people and you got to be able to fight not because i want to start stuff but just in case something happened you're not the scary guy running down the street when we need help. So we was walking. We was walking to the parking lot, going back to the car. And I remember my dude, Marlon, he was, like, backing up. It was weird the way he was backing up.

And I'm seeing three dudes walking up on him with their fist balls. Now, before I did anything, I looked around at my people like, y'all don't see what's going on. And everybody just, you know, in la-la land. So, one of the big dudes that was like trying to swing on my dude, I just came up from behind him and I just started going. And my dude, my dude Jarrell, he grabbed me like, what are you doing? What are you doing?

They was just playing. And I'm like, we don't play like that. I don't know you. That's not what we do. Come to find out, no, they were actually trying to jump him. And then chaos broke loose. People were starting to get slapped because

then more of my people started coming out and then I'm just watching like people get kicked in the chest. One guy tried to like stop it. I ain't going to land nobody, but one of the chest. One guy tried to, like, stop it. I ain't going to land nobody. But one of my people came up from behind him, hit him, slept him. People was getting, like, drop kicked because these are all MMA fighters. So they hit people with, like, special moves.

And I'm like, ah. They were all MMA fighters? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, I can't be with you if you can't handle yourself. You know, but. I said, I can't be with you if you can't handle yourself. But now I know it got so bad that any time I went out with him, him and his brother, they were notorious for getting drunk in a fight. And I start the day. We be pre-gaming, and we be in a hotel chilling. And I'm like, hey, if you get in a fight, if you get in a fight, I'm walking away.

I'm not helping you. And then we'd be thinking I was going to be playing. And they'll laugh like all this stuff. And I'm like, no, for real, because y'all just be starting stuff. We went out. I seen them about to start some stuff. And I was just sitting back watching. And as soon as they stood up to walk over there, I went the other way.

I was like, I'm not playing with y'all. You gave them the heads up. How old were you? Probably 18, 19. That shit does not happen to you anymore. I stay out of the way. People shoot people now. I'm cool. I heard an interview from

Daniel Rodriguez. He's one of the welterweights in the UFC. And he basically said this in an interview. He said he used to fight a lot as a kid. He said he's probably been in over 200 street fights. And the reason why the UFC is so much better is because when you're done fighting, and I bet you can relate to this, you don't have to worry about then someone stabbing you or shooting you

or like you win the fight you lose the fight it's over there's a ref in there there's a doctor in there it's over he said he said once you do street fighting he's like you never know if they're going to come to your house afterwards you don't know if you have to fight him tomorrow because it's fucking just it's chaos and i was like wow i never thought of that um you know i i probably haven't been in a fight since the sixth grade i've probably been in five fights in my whole life you know so it's like so it's uh yeah it's it's it's it's interesting it's it's all it's all relative right if you're fighting if you're fighting a shitload growing up then the ufc probably doesn't seem that crazy but if you're like someone like

me the ufc seems completely insane especially when you see somebody get kicked in the face and then they like you know freeze up it's like oh yeah i want that to happen to me are you gonna have kids yeah yeah i'm waiting though i'm waiting um because i basically got them i mean i don't have any that came from me but i basically have kids uh so i'm waiting you know because i want to make sure that i mean i know you'll never be ready but i want to make sure i'm financially like stable emotionally mentally stable uh but i'm getting practice with my baby brother my nephew and my niece yeah yes i am i'm getting a lot of practice with them i didn't have kids till i was 43 i was with my girl for

20 years okay and we were never going to get married and never had kids like we had the talk we're like that's just just we're not just that's just what everyone else does right we're not we're not we're not doing that and then when she was 39 and I was 43, she's like, hey, I want one. And by then, though, like you, I grinded in my 30s and my 20s. And I saved every, like you, I just worked. There was no time to spend money. I just put my head down and worked. Saved all the money.

And so it's great. And now I'm 43 and I do podcasts in the morning. And then I hang out with my kids all day, take them to jiu tennis swimming just all that you seem pretty healthy that's and that's why i just i just work out every day right simple shit yeah 40 and and old and my kids are 10 i'm like i've seen a lot of men in their older ages still like you gotta just work out cool workout kid yeah i don't drink coke i don't eat cookies i just i'm just i just eat fucking meat and vegetables and drive my kids around and and chill that sounds nice oh it's so nice it's so nice life's life's good but but i work my ass off in my 20s and 30s like like you said like you're doing and i really i really liked kids

and i had kids in my life, but like, I just never thought I was gonna have my own kids. But then as soon as I did, I was like, okay, this is for me. Okay. Okay. That's something to look forward to. Tell me about, do you have a manager? Yeah. And who's your manager? Jason Howes from Iridium. Oh, I've been trying to get him on the show too. He's a busy man. Yeah. No show too. He's a busy man. Yeah, no, yeah.

He's good in the DMs. He always responds, but I got to get him scheduled to come on. I'm so interested to hear his story, how he got into the game. And does he represent more MMA fighters than any other manager in the business? I think so. I don't know if he do, but I think so because he be having everybody, everybody on the roster. Yeah. And is it because he's a good businessman or is it because he's a cool dude?

I say both. He's a really good dude. He's really cool. He's both. He's a really cool dude, really nice. He can be straightforward with you, uh, shoot, he got me in the, uh, on a contender series, uh, uh, contender series of, uh, thing, fight, um, and that was the first thing he did for me, you know, uh, he actually was, uh, and once

you get him on here, he'll tell you himself. He was actually like basically hunting me for a whole year and some change. I had like really bad managing experiences. So when he came my way, I really wasn't trying to hear him, but he had hit me up every blue moon. It was like, I thought it was weird, but it hit me up every blue moon, like just checking up on me. And I remember when we had a conversation about a certain situation, and he was just basically telling me, like, bro, man, you know,

I'm not telling you that, you know, everything's going to be perfect, but I'm letting you know that I will work. Like, just give me the ball, bro. Just give me the ball and, like, let me do my thing. And the first thing he did was get me on a contender series. And since then, we just... What's it look like to have a bad manager if you're a fighter? Oh, man.

Yeah, okay. All right. So when they say... I mean, shit happens. But when they say they're going to do something and don't do it, don't, like, you know, I say after the second time, or maybe the third, but after the second time, man, they BSing you. They'll tell you, they'll basically make you do all the work,

and then they still want a percentage in the sense of, you got to go get the sponsors, you got to do this, you got to do that. And then I remember that happened one time. I'm like, ain't you supposed to be this you got to do that and and then i remember that happened one time i'm like ain't you supposed to be doing this and they lol no like then what are you doing like what do i have you for um they will lie to you and if they bring up a lot of numbers like if they don't answer the question you ask them and they say tell you all this good stuff instead of like when am i fighting you know and they say oh yeah the ufc and and then this guy and then this is happening and you just like

i just needed a like a simple question i mean since i'm a simple answer they bs it uh almost like almost like you feel like you start to feel like you're being hustled yes if you feel like you know i don't want to say it but i'm gonna just say if you feel like you're being hustled? Yes. If you feel like, you know, I don't want to say it, but I'm going to just say it. If you feel like you're being hustled, you probably are. You know, I'm not telling people to be overly paranoid, but it's a business. And they will say anything just to keep you on. I remember my last manager, when I got to the point of like,

I ain't fucking with you no more, bro, because you ain't really for me. I ain't saying this disrespectfully, but basically, this ain't a match. And he would try to hold me on talking about like, oh, the UFC, man, we're gonna, you know, I was getting some calls from the contender series, and you know,

and then when I left them, when I left, maybe two, three days later, he takes me. Like, oh, the UFC just hit me up looking for a lightweight. But I guess you're not with us anymore, so have a nice life. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so for somebody who's struggling and want to be in the UFC and they keep dangling the UFC in front of you

and you don't know how else to get into the UFC. Because I was knocking everybody out. I went to whole nother state and knocked out they number one guy and I still wasn't getting any calls and oh man I had very bad experiences with managers um it's interesting you say that it's funny how people react right that's always the telltale sign how someone reacts when things when they don't get what they want. So let's say let's say let's say you ask a girl out and she says no. And you said, OK. And then there's two ways you can you can you can act right. You can be like, OK, I'm going to up my game. I'm going to work out a little more.

I'm going to buy her some flowers. You could or you could be like, fuck you, bitch. You don't deserve me. It's like, well, you just kind of just proved your point. Right. Right. Like like she like she made the right call you're a fucking quitter a bitch and a complainer like like why would she want to be with you exactly instead of being like okay i'm going back to the drawing board yes next time i ask her out i'm going to sing a song and have a guitar or some shit yes yeah up your game with fireworks in the background yeah you're a cry baby and a quitter yeah yeah so i i totally hear you so you the second you say hey i'm gonna move on it's like well i got the you like i got the ufc and on the call but i guess you don't want it's just baby shit yeah it's not big boy shit no at

all um i'm not really into the uh i can't even believe i'm gonna bring this up i'm not i don't really do too much of the sex thing or the race thing or any of that shit it kind of annoys the fuck out of me um i i think it's it's uh the root of most of the victim mindset not that that shit doesn't happen but i have this question for you are there any female managers i've never in the in in the fight game that was one of my bad experiences she was my first uh oh you did you so you did have a female manager because i haven't seen one okay interesting okay yeah she was uh uh and i am sexist as shit because obviously i never think of women as being hustlers i always think of women being nicer than men i don't want to say manipulative but she was the first case that I remember.

Okay. So I'm from Cleveland, right? And Pittsburgh, depending on where. My mom's from Cleveland, by the way. Oh, for real? Yeah. You ever been? Maybe when I was a kid.

Maybe when I was a kid. My grandmother was there when she passed away. I think that was the last time I was there. I was going to say, you should go with summertime. Wintertime is just super cold. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've been to Cleveland since then because I used to work for CrossFit. Wintertime is just super cold. Yeah. But, uh, Oh yeah. Yeah.

I've been to Cleveland since then when I, cause I used to work for CrossFit and we did, did some business trips there and I was there in the winter. I was there in the winter. Yeah. I did like it. I mean, I enjoyed the restaurants.

I enjoyed hanging out like in that big square. I stayed at the Ritz Carlton there. It was nice, but it was fucking cold. It's that, it's that frigid cold. That's like, and I'm California shitifornia shit yeah your skin

was hurt i know it was uh she had me uh she had me like drive down pittsburgh is like two three hours away from cleveland right and she had me drive down to pittsburgh for this like arm wrestling tournament to like you to introduce me to the alcohol vendors. Budweiser, Coors. I don't drink beer. If they're the same brand, I'm sorry. Heineken. Just all

these alcohol vendors. I drove two, three hours to this arm wrestling contest. I partook and won just to fuck around and contest, I partook in one just to fuck around and shit. I remember she was in the back and I knocked on the door

like, hey, when you going to introduce me to the people? She just got a lot of cash. They're not here yet, but I'll let you know. All right, cool. Go back to mingling, talking to people. Come back 30 minutes to an hour.

Like, hey, so, will you go introduce me? Oh, yeah, give me a second. I got to do this. And then I'll, you know, we'll do that. I was like, all right, cool. I did that like three, four, five times.

You know, because I was trying not to get mad. And I was trying not to like, you know, because it's my first time dealing with this. So I'm trying to see it through that, to the end. And I forgot what happened, whether they left or something happened to the point that I'm like, yeah, I'm about to just drive all the way back home.

So I basically came out here to take pictures with people that not going to remember me because I wasn't in the UFC. So they have no reason to remember me. I wasn't in the UFC, so they have no reason to remember me. I remember we started taking pictures. She had me do this photo shoot. She had me. One of the pictures was

I got my underwear on, right? But I got the belt covering up. Basically, I look like I'm naked. I didn't know why I was doing it, but I was like, basically, like, I look like I'm naked. And I didn't know why I was doing it. But I was like, well, my manager said we doing this for, like, whatever. And I was like, all right, cool. I'll go with it.

And that shit, it did nothing. It didn't grow into anything. I feel like she just got, like, she can put it on OnlyFans now, probably get a couple of dollars from it. But, yeah, yeah, she was real bad. Then I learned from her sister that she's never managed anybody. She would always send me pictures of her with Stipe, like little things like that.

Like, you know, I've seen Stipe. His gym is, like, five minutes away from my house. I've seen Stipe plenty of times. But she'll be like at an Indians game with him. And she'll just like show a little picture that she's with him. And me being new, I seen it as, okay, she connected. She in there. She got clout.

Yep. Yeah. And she would always tell me. I remember talking to her about shit. I mean, I used to drink back then. Not heavily, but I used to just drink. It wasn't my thing, but since I did partake in some of the activities, I'm like, whatever, let's get some Hennessy, a Hennessy sponsor. I remember she would always tell me that she's about to go talk to Hennessy. She's about to be wearing her pencil-tight dress to go talk to them to the folk and i'm like all right

cool never grew into anything i forgot how we even stopped talking i think i just like i'm done uh so yeah no yeah male and female you know it don't matter because they if they on some trash they on some trash yeah um you said steep age jim's five minutes from you yeah and that's where mo trains also right yep i've had mo on the show a few times uh what did you think about most performance on the contender series i felt like he did a great job man like me too it threw me off when they didn't give him that that contract uh uh but i mean it is what it is. I mean, the only thing, I don't know, man, truthfully, because the dude was catching Moe with some leg kicks,

but, I mean, Moe was catching him with the boxing. He was the aggressor. He took him down plenty of times. He won every round. Every round. Yeah. You see the one where he held the dude's hand and kept hitting him? And it was actually like, I'm like, so to be dominant like that,

and even though he looked fatigued in the third round, he still did his job. You know? He went out there to win. And, you know, yeah, he didn't slam dude on his head five times or get the knockout. But his technique, his will to win uh i feel like that should have showed like give him another shot in the ufc you know and he'll be

there but it is what it is but he he's he's on a route to get into the ufc that's for sure how did you meet mo how did you guys meet if you guys are at separate gyms how do you guys run into each other same manager uh no no i've known i've known mo for a while actually uh like before he had a cameo he had a cameo in your on your youtube station on on episode four too i noticed i'm gonna look at you you're looking at the traveling circus okay oh i watched them yeah i watched them all yesterday I got on the assault bike, put on my headphones and... Oh, I appreciate that. What did you think about it?

I liked it. You want to know... So I've made a lot of movies. I've directed 10 movies. I got four movies in the top 10 on all time on iTunes for documentaries. I've been around a lot of movie making. If you want to take...

Just change the whole game game you got to get a wireless mic the guy who's filming you have to put a wireless mic on the guy because half the stuff i can't i can't understand okay and i appreciate the feedback and and there's some great tidbits in there you're training with some really smart guys and there's some great exchanges in there but like i just can't hear it okay you know what i mean like i'm like oh shit what do they say and then i rewind it and i'm and like there's too much like fan noise and okay you just get a um you can get a cheap wireless mic that's high quality 200 bucks okay and i can send you a link to it afterwards and then you just plug one end of the camera and the other end you just whoever's talking you just clip that shit on them liked it. It's kind of hard when people fight and spar. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but I do appreciate that. But I enjoyed it. I watched all four episodes. I flew through them quick. Cool. I'm glad. And it's good people, and I was excited to see Mo. So sorry, so I interrupted. So tell me, so you've known Mo a long time? Yeah, I've known him

for a while, like before the UFC. Seeing him actually get here. how do you guys meet how do you guys meet how do you know the crazy thing i might have to i might have to ask him because i kind of forgot you know but different gyms you're at different camps yeah uh he was strong style i was evolved and then I left evolved, and then I was just a lone fighter for like a year or so. I was just doing my own thing, no gym. I'd just be going from Cleveland to Pittsburgh.

I'd be gym hopping. Anywhere that there was work, that's where I would go. And I remember he was just that guy that would still be fighting too and be doing good. And we'd talk. We'd be vibing well.

And, again, just to see him getting this far and doing as well as he's doing, I'm like, wow. Good job, bro. Keep doing your thing. And he's cool as shit. He's mellow. He's like you. He's got his head on straight, right? Like he knows where he's going.

Yeah, most definitely. Like he's focused. most definitely like he he's focused um are you a jujitsu practitioner like do you have a gi and a belt and all that shit i technically got a gi and a belt but uh my uh my jujitsu coach back at home in cleveland he wanted me to do gi i don't know why i only wanted to do gi is because he just wanted to beat me Because in no Gi I get to use my athletic ability Oh yeah I seen that guy In your Instagram

Older white dude with a fucking neck Like a fucking rhino Yes Yeah he looks like a savage He looks And then I went to his Instagram account But he competes nogi yeah uh okay thank you for letting me know that yeah yeah yeah and he's great at nogi he's like

holding up his nogi medals and shit yeah right he's so close he's actually uh he's actually my strength and conditioning coach back at home too okay so yeah he he'll work you he will get you in shape he like he's like uh one of them uh meatheads but he got a lot of like you know good techniques he's very understanding if i'm hurt or not feeling well he's like go home take three days off like we have a really good relationship but when i'm feeling good uh get on the bike rower uh sprints lift this up throw it this way move that way climb he sometimes i feel like he's gonna be making shit up man just to just to get you to sweat yes davante you had a pretty crazy injury at least what i think is a crazy injury uh achilles right yeah and and so that's that's

basically the tendon on your ankle that big thick thing right yes that goes to the bottom of your foot to your heel and and i read on your instagram you described about um when it it did it snap just clean uh it's snapping and rupturing the same thing? I don't know. Well, the doctor said rupture. They said it ruptured all the way through. Basically, I was sparring against my teammate Yusuf Zulaw, and he threw a flying knee. And I went from like an orthodox stance to a southpaw stance. No, yeah, yeah. So yeah, orthodox did I step back into a southpaw stance and from the flying knee, he switched it off

into a head kick. And from this stance, I blocked the head kick. All the weight went into my ankle. And I felt pressure. Didn't understand why. But I was like, okay. Pop! It felt like if your foot was dorsiflexed, it felt like somebody just stomped on the back of my ankle. Because I was in so

much pain. And I'm like, trying to bite my gloves off, take these off so I can rub my leg. And I'm like holding my foot like who was behind me who was behind me I keep looking behind me and like you was like nobody what was wrong with you I was like I don't know so like five ten minutes later after the pain started going down I'm like all right I think I'm cool I think I was just one of those things that's just like, damn, that hurt. Once I stood up, bro, it felt like my leg was a noodle. And I'm like, oh, that doesn't feel right.

Like, obviously, I've never had a ruptured Achilles, but I just knew that. Like, it's just, like, you can't control the foot? Like, it's just dead? No, because I stood, you seen that Gervonta Davis fight when he fought uh what was that one cuban fighter that he ruptured his achilles and he kept fighting i know what you're talking about but yeah we were on the same page but basically i was able to stand on my foot it just didn't feel right and i remember like limping to the chair and it was like okay i took you to er

by the way all the all the other achilles snaps i've ever heard of before are exactly the same way it's and i've only ones i've ever heard of before it's it's usually like someone running to second base or something yeah in baseball and and the person thinks that that a ball someone threw the ball and it hit them in the ankle yes they're like looking around being like who hit who threw a ball at me and so you're kind of describing the same thing like who the fuck was behind me? Exactly. Hey, it was one guy that I knew.

Somebody was behind me. I was staring at him. I'm like, it was you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They took me to the hospital, man. And I was in a wheelchair. And the ladies, the doctors, they brought me to the back. And one of the, I don't know if she was a nurse the doctor but i didn't know in order to check to see if your achilles is still attached that you're

supposed to squeeze the calf muscle she didn't like one two three this is what i'm gonna do she just grabbed my shit and scrolled when i tell you I was so close to backhanding her, I had to pause myself because it was like, it was just that immense pain. You just want to react to it. And I'm like, what are you doing? She's like, oh, you got to do this to see. And I'm like, why are you waiting? She's like, yeah, it's ruptured. And I was like, I don't know.

And how do you, do you have a UFC contract at this point when that happens? Yeah, at that time, yeah. And are you just tripping? Are you like – is that the lowest point in your career? I've been lower. So it did suck. It did suck um it did it's like it's like um it's worse than on prom night finding out like your tuxedo didn't show up and that you're going in jeans it's fucked up especially when you're just coming off of a loss and it's your fight back and bills are piling up back at home man

you got a lot of shit going on back at home and you're not you're living with people and there's just a lot of things going on that's not right and then this happens and it's like i have to go home now like with with with nothing no trophies no good job no did you have your girlfriend at the time yeah you did well that's good yeah yeah but it still sucked to come home with with nothing you know yeah and your money maker's broken you you you rely on your body yes and knowing that you know basically i'm the breadwinner in the family and now i can't provide. That really did something to me. I mean, my family's very supportive.

They helped me all the way through. But still, just as a man and just being used to able to help and make sure everything is cool and then having to take a back seat, it just wasn't a good feeling at all. And it was 17 months from the day you you heard it to when you got your next fight basically they were um they said that when i spoke to the doctor he was like it takes about a year and then from there that's just basically as strong as it's gonna get

but you want to take the full year it was like like, cause if it ruptures again, the second one is the second surgery. Is it not, it's not going to be as good as the first one. And, um, I really took heed to the doctor's warning and, you know, even though people are like, Oh, you could be back in six months. Nah, eight months went by. There's a goal. You can come back. Nah, nine months. You can come back. Nah. Then 12. They said, oh, you should be good. Nah. Then a year and three months. Then a year and six months. And then I was like, okay. Nah, I'll come back now. I've never heard of anyone, Bray, doing,

hurt, injuring it twice. Have you? Nope. But I didn't want to be the first guy. For sure. For sure. sure smart you sound smart you sound smart as shit and um is it in your head at all no uh i believe it's not because i took that time off you know uh that time to like really let my body heal really go with through the trials and tribulations of you know fucking up you know, being sore, taking it at my pace, not somebody else's pace that really don't know how I'm feeling. I took it very slow. I trained with people that knew what my situation was. It wasn't trying to like, oh, it's the UFC fighter. Let me train really hard to prove something I was very smart

of who I trained with how I trained and how anybody felt it was like oh well like you ain't going through this um we've only scratched the surface with Devante to be honest uh he has a fight October 2nd he's 11 and 2 you really don't want to miss him I'm not saying that because he's on the show I didn't choose him for any other reason except that he is uh extremely intelligent in the ring and um i don't know if he's going to take offense to this but he's extremely violent it is not um it looks very dangerous for his opponents when he's in the ring He's like a fucking lawnmower. You do not want to be anywhere where he is approaching. October 2nd, UFC, you have to watch Devontae. Just like I told you, you should get on the Jack Della

Mandolena bandwagon. You should definitely get on the Devontae Smith bandwagon. You should follow him on Instagram. He's a fucking class act. He's extremely funny. I wanted to talk to him about his creativity and all this, but he has to go train right now. He told me he only had an hour for me, and I appreciate it.

But I will bug Devante after he whoops him ass on October 2nd. I'll be here for it. We'll all be cheering him on. And thanks, brother. I really appreciate you taking the time. I mean, I can't tell you how fun this is for me. Sure. Thank you.

I didn't even know it's that time yet, so it flew by. Bam. One last question real quick. This will be super quick. When you were injured those 17 months, did you still sweat every day? Did you take care of your mental health or no? That, bro, that's the thing. That's all I could do, you know, because i was literally in the bed the majority of the time until i was able to walk with a boot and even when you couldn't even sweat

so you couldn't there was nothing you could oh my god that must have been driving you insane yep i was i was smoking hella i was reading books i was trying i got stocks because i like i needed to do something i had to work something because I'm a snap. Because I'm used to doing shit. And you know who the Bob is? Oh, yeah, yeah. I got a Bob. I mostly just stare at it, but I got a Bob.

Oh, yeah. I usually, as a joke, I put Bob by the door and I'll call the kids in. So if they open the door, Bob's there. So it's funny. Yeah. That reaction. But, uh,

once I was able to like slowly do things, that's how I was just working on Bob, bro. Awesome, dude. Thank you for your time. I hope you have an amazing training day today. Thank you,

bro. Thanks for having me on, man. I really enjoyed it. And.