The Sevan Podcast - #213 - Nick Rodriguez

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

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We can 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 I mean bam we're live I forgot to put myself in the podcast I'm here Nick Rodriguez where are you brother where are you okay guys I got to pay attention to this YouTube show uh it's cool that my live on my Instagram is working yeah just coffee yes yes yes yes yes uh I will see you guys on the sebon podcast if you want to continue this talk uh tell danielle not to forget the milk yeah i'm gonna try to patch danielle brandon into this show

at like the one hour mark because uh kind of just because i want to see what happens when you mix like superman with superwoman on the same podcast uh dan Brandon is like, she's oozing Superwoman, and this guy, Nick Rodriguez, is oozing Superman. So I just kind of wanted to bring them together. I don't know. It's not like I'm trying to be Cupid or anything, but I just kind of want to see my own personal experiment, what that would be like.

All right, guys. I'm going to go over to YouTube and see what's up with Nick Rodriguez. Discard video. My attention is undivided for the YouTube audience. All the notes for Nick Rodriguez almost didn't fit on two pages. I don't know. At the one hour mark, we got catfished. Catfished? At the one hour? I don't know at the one hour mark we got catfished catfished at the one hour i don't know what that means uh i oh there he is holy shit what's up what's up hey i want uh nick good

morning what's happening buddy good morning uh where are you oh can you see me i can't i'm in the bathroom best lighting in the house you know pick up oh yeah for sure did you have coffee yet no no not yet do you want to go make a cup i can hang tight no no i uh coffee's an occasional kind of deal it's a it's a what an occasional kind of deal not like an everyday thing yeah so it's coffee's a party drug for you yeah pretty much like instead of doing cocaine i just go coffee and hit the club damn yeah damn you're a mom and dad's wet dream. Yeah, apparently. I have three little boys. Oh my God, I hope my boys talk like that. Holy shit.

Are you in Austin? Yeah, yeah. Living in Austin full time. By the way, my name's Sevan. Nice to meet you, Sevan. Nice to meet you. All right. Nice to meet you all right nice to meet you i um i watched your podcast with uh chambers and with mark bell fuck those guys are good mark bell picked you if you're a piece of chicken you're just the bone is left yeah yeah mark's good mark and uh and mr chambers pretty good podcast if you'd actually

do it in person one day you know maybe i'll fly out to cali one day um or or drive or drive it's kind of a hike but or drive i did drive to austin from uh from jersey so it's about 25 hours did you do that because you had a bunch of shit to take with you or is it because you just didn't want to get on a plane no i uh yeah i had like beanbag chair a beanbag and mattress and a bunch of a bunch of shit from my other apartment i had to drive on down i i i don't fly just because i'm a i'm a bitch i'm not doing any of the i'm gonna get in an argument with someone i was gonna say a fight but then i remembered who i was talking to what the stuff i do isn't fight it's more like a cat fight oh i see i see yeah i much rather drive than uh than flight you know if it's a three-hour

drive versus three-hour flight i'd probably be on the road. I was in the shower this morning, and you just rolled out of bed, so you didn't get your time to think in the shower. I was in the shower this morning, and I was doing my thinking, and I was thinking, like, you know, all these words we have, they're just like, they just point at shit, right? Like, if you sit on something, we call it a chair. If you call someone your brother, it's just some dude who came out of your mom's vagina the same vagina you did you know what i mean they're just words that like describe this shit that we just don't want to say out in full sentences and then i was thinking about like um spanking like there's this word spanking and it means like the kid got hit but it really like and i have three boys i know what a spanking is a spanking is when the parent loses control and

gets pissed and you hit the kid yeah right and i'll and i and and then there's levels to that like my parents spanked me but like it was like hey get the wooden spoon and then i had to go get it and then like they hit me once and i run away did you did you get spanked uh a couple times i mean i'm a i'm a fast learner so i'm like all right i did something wrong to get to deserve this so let's not do that again. Yeah. Kids are interesting like that. But isn't that weird?

No matter what a kid does, you think you deserve it. Yeah. Right? Like you could have the most horrible shit happen to you in life, and you're like, fuck, I deserve it because that's all you know. Yeah, yeah. Life's pretty simple, man. Yeah. Are your parents together? Yeah, yeah. Life's pretty simple, man. Yeah. Are your parents together? Yeah, for sure. I come from a real good family, real close, tight-knit family.

And what ethnicity are you? Puerto Rican. No shit? Yeah, more Jersey than anything, but definitely Puerto Rican. That's official now? Yeah. Apparently. Are Puerto Ricican supposed to be

big like you uh i don't know i think uh i was in puerto rico it's definitely the the biggest guy out there i mean there's a few like bigger guys but the island's kind of malnourished everybody over there just kind of eats real bad food and and they're pretty small small people what are puerto ricans you know know how Mexicans are basically Native Americans that got raped by Spaniards, and then they're like, all right, that's not cool. Let's just give them a new name. What are Puerto Ricans? I think they got raped by Spaniards as well.

Spaniards, French. Yeah, it's a port, so we have a bunch of different ethnicities mixed together. You have all the colors over there, everything from as white as you get to as dark as you can get. And are they little people? They're little? I would say it's a wide variety. I'd say more wide. There are a lot of obese Puerto Ricans I've seen.

I mean I've lived there for like six months, and it was like a really unhealthy island. There weren't like fit people, a lot of greasy food and whatnot. By the way, we're live. So there's all sorts of just comments pouring in. Someone's suggesting this is the first interview from a bathroom. It's not, I don't know if that's true. It might be true. I interviewed Sam Apple, the author of a book, and it sure is. He denied he was in the bathroom, but it sure looked like he was. Do you know who Paul Saladino is? No, I don't.

He's the carnivore MD. Okay. And he sells those ancestral supplements. No, he sells the one heart and soil supplements. It's like basically organ, meat, and a pill. GSP was doing something with that guy, right? Yeah, I know who you're talking about. Anyway, he lives in Costa Rica.

When I interviewed him, he was my first shirtless interview. The doctor came on. I put on a collared shirt because I was interviewing a doctor. This fucking dude comes with no shirt on. Oh, damn. I thought it was going to be the first shirtless interview. Maybe if I get on Rogan one day, I'll just pop the top. Maybe we'll get some reviews like that.

Um, what, and you are going to be on Rogan soon. What's the guy's name who, who interviews with Mark Bell? Oh, uh, in SEMA.

In SEMA. Yeah. Yeah. Guys, Jack too. He's my height. He's like six, three,

but he's like 260 pounds, massive guy. And he's not, and he's natural. Like probably one of the best natty physiques I've seen. How do you know that? He talks about that? He says he's natural? Yeah, he talks about it. To me, I'm not an expert, but he looks like he's natural. He has everything in really well proportion. His skin isn't like you know all leathery and and pimpled up and stuff and uh and i feel like guys that do get to get on gear have like have like maybe they

have huge huge shoulders and like small biceps or like big forearms and little wrists i don't know like there's always something that's a little off you know i'm not again i'm not an expert just like i'm around guys that do a lot of that shit. What do they do? What do jujitsu guys do? The only thing I know is the old guys I know do, what is it? Human growth hormone and testosterone replacement therapy. And then one of the CrossFitters I know who got popped was doing SARMs. Is there something that jujitsu guys do or

like you know i know the um the tour de france guys do that uh epo is there something that like jiu-jitsu guys do uh if i had to guess i probably they probably do it all i mean there's not like there's no regulations like you're not supposed to do gear but nobody tests these guys so they're just they just do whatever they want i think it's like like i don't i don't care like most guys compete against our own uh you know our own gear but i think uh jujitsu so like such a technical sport they're like you know a little bit of strength doesn't really matter if you have if you have the knowledge that's what that's what's going to win you the fight amazing coming from the guy who stormed the scene with such limited knowledge right yeah for sure for sure so says the guy who was rolling with gordon ryan at eight weeks yeah i had i went to

the first adcc i had no idea what like how to do any jiu-jitsu really the only thing i had i was like if i could get to the back i know i could like finish these guys. But yeah. Do you know what ADCC stands for? Abu Dhabi Combat Club. Abu Dhabi Combat Club. Okay. I've watched like a hundred videos now. Just going through your new channel. What is it?

Count Films? Yeah, yeah. Count Films. Flow Grappling. I watched all the Daisy Fresh fresh stuff i'd watch all your stuff anything i could find you and everyone just calls it adcc i'm like you motherfuckers someone has to say the whole thing does anyone ever say that hey what are you doing this weekend oh i'm headed out to the abu dhabi what is it something club combat club combat club no one ever says the whole thing out loud no no it takes too much time i um i so let's so let's so you're born in jersey and how many kids um i have uh two older brothers

and one little sister oh wait a second is jay your brother yeah jay jay rod jacob is brother. I have one older brother, and then I have a little sister as well. Oh, okay, okay. I thought you said you had two older brothers. I was like, Jay's older than you? What the fuck? Yeah, I think I did say that. It just came out a little wrong. Okay, and what's the oldest one? How much older than you? He's five years, So he's 30. And your sister? She is 10 years younger. So she's like 15.

All the same parents? Yeah. Oh, my oldest, we have the same dad. He's a half brother. Wow. That's amazing. And then your parents are still together? Yeah.

Yeah. Super close. They love each other, which is hard to find. You know, it's good. And what city in Jersey was that in? Clayton, New Jersey. It's in Gloucester County, far, far down south. It's like, you know, Cape May is the lowest point of Jersey.

And we're like, I don't know, 45 minutes from there. So real down south. A lot of farmland. Like, North Jersey is a real city, real heavily populated. Like, I minutes from there. So real, real, real down South, a lot of farmland, like North Jersey is real, real city, real heavily populated. Like I'm from a small town. My school graduated 75 kids when I, when I graduated high school. So real, real small. So I was like determined to kind of see the world get out and get on out

there, you know? And what is your dad, dad, mom, and what are the, what do your mom and dad do their vocation? Mom's a stay-at-home mom. And we're much needed because we're a very hyperactive group of children. And dad flips houses for a living. Oh, that's awesome. Do you know how to do that?

I mean, I've learned a ton. When I grew up, since I could hold a hammer, I've been helping dad out, doing hardwood floors and sheetrock and concrete work. So I have a little bit of knowledge how to work my way around some construction type stuff. I think it's awesome. And then on the other hand, I don't think it's awesome. The house I live in, I bought for $1.2 million. And the guys before me bought it for $56 and then flipped it and i was the guy who bought

it yeah fuck yeah i fuck so hard i plan on buying a house here in austin you know maybe in the next year or two because the markets ain't gonna blow up but the plans to buy it by you know a little beat-up house and you know slowly but surely fix it up and make a profit off it and keep on people flipping it like that guys uh if you have not seen this 40 minute documentary about um nikki rodriguez it's on youtube you can just type in nick rodriguez it's like 42 minutes about it's it's all in black and white it's beautifully shot it's beautifully edited there's something about um it's funny to see him just that you know two minutes after he rolls out of bed. You have to see this, and you have to – this is not someone you want to not have experience.

It doesn't matter if you're into BJJ or whatever the fuck you're interested in. You're a man of the robe or a crossfitter. He's not normal. He's like the male version of, of Daniel Brandon. He reminds me, do you know who Travis Bajent is? The arm wrestler?

The name sounds familiar. I do watch some arm wrestling on YouTube. There's this, there's a, I made a movie a few years ago, named, called Pulling John. If you get a chance,

check it out. You'll like it. It's, it's arm wrestling. I don't know how like combat guys think of arm wrestling because no one gets punched in the face or gets their arm broken. But Travis reminds me so much of you. And I called him the other day and I was like, dude, I'm going to – and I sent him the video. He goes, oh, yeah, I know who Nick Rodriguez is. I'm like, dude, he reminds me so much of you when you were 25. Yeah, that's what's up.

You're just sure. You're just sure what's going to happen. Yeah, that's what's up. You're just sure? You're just sure what's going to happen? I mean, when I'm competing, yeah, I don't have any doubt. When I step onto the mat, I'm probably – maybe people consider overly confident. Like I'm not even – I've got to be honest. When I step onto the mat, I'm not really a human anymore. I kind of make a transition to something else. But I'm just a normal dude outside of my grappling expertise for sure.

When you transition to that other thing, the first time that happens, are you like, what the fuck is going on? Who is this guy? When did you meet that guy? I guess it's a learning process to try to find out who I have to become when I'm on the grappling mat. Like, you know, I've wrestled for a long time in high school in Jersey. In college, I did a year and, you know, had hundreds of wrestling matches. And throughout the process, you know, you learn what kind of mentality that you need before you're stepping on the grappling mats. you're stepping on the grappling mats.

And it's just like Mike Tyson says. He says he's a guy before he steps out into the ring. And I like to embody something similar to that before my grappling matches. I think you have to have a balance. Sometimes it's hard to shut off that ego when you're leaving practice or leaving a match. It's really important to be kind of human after the competition and stuff like that because it's not good to be a douche all the time. If your ego is up here and you're walking around and you're just walking around Walmart thinking you're the shit. It's really not the best way to live life.

I switched your name. Does that have your Instagram right? Yes, it does. Thank you. Route 247. It's interesting you say that because I have this note in here, and he goes he leverages his ego marvelously. I pride myself on also being able to leverage my ego. Basically by that, I mean, you don't care about being, for me, I don't care about being right. I need to get what I want.

And, um, and so in that video, that's, what's so awesome. Well, as I got to know you, that's, what's so awesome. You're so so humble but you can see your ego is you're you're using your you're being humble because you know in the end you need to get the knowledge and the practice and the wisdom you need to get somewhere yeah i don't think if you can learn if you have if your ego's on you know if you're like if you're just uh yeah if you're a little if you think too much of yourself it's hard to to really learn it and understand that there's more knowledge to be learned out there. My favorite part of the movie is when you beat the guy. I forget his name. I think maybe his name is Cyborg.

He's pissed. And you walk by him and you're holding water and you're with your is that guy your coach is it what's that guy's name is his name jay yeah jay regal budo yeah he's my coach yeah are you still friends with that guy yeah for sure we talk all the time yeah that guy seems like a cool dude to have with you an event like that yeah most definitely the best um you walk by that guy and he says something like good job but you't win. And there's a split second there where your body turns around. It's like a, I just love that, to look at him. And you're basically like, what did you say?

But it just reminds me of like just a big aircraft carrier that has to turn around and point all its guns at something. And it's like you just come so present. Do you remember that moment when he said oh yeah it's just that feeling because you were saying about how you have to turn your ego off as you come off the mat is that like you're transitioning from the hulk to bruce banner and then all of a sudden something pricked the hulk again it's like oh really yeah very similar transition so i'm like i'm slowly you know i'm walking off the mat and just carrying my shit i'm like all right good wait let's get ready I'm walking off the mat and just carrying my shit. I'm like, all right, good.

Wait, let's get ready for the next match. He walks by and he's like, good match, but you didn't want it. I arm barred you. And I just remember like dropping my stuff and I'm like, we can go right now. Like we can do it again right now. That's what it looks like. You know? So, yeah, don't like, I don't know.

It's kind of disrespectful for like, you expect somebody that's been around the sport and preaches being humble and humanity to be like understanding of his loss. And I dominated the whole match. Every time we – everything that happened in the match, I initiated, and then I finished the sequence in a dominant fashion. So like for somebody like that to say know say that to me it was just like it kind of burned me up inside but uh yeah in in the moment i was like all right i guess i have to fight this guy right now but it was definitely not that deep in jujitsu when a guy throws himself

on the ground like that and sits on his butt you know gets on his back is that called pulling guard even if they don't pull guard on you what is that yeah it's called it's yeah it's called pulling guard because you know you're pulling open guard. It's open guard, closed guard. Yeah, so you're closed guard. So what if a guy does that? Like you approached him and he went to his back, but you hadn't even touched him. What if you just stood there?

Then he would probably try to scoot forward and see your legs or something like that. So he would scoot around like one of those dogs that's like with itch in his butt. Yeah, it's kind of a, I don't know, I think it's a lazier way to go about the match. But people are setting their ways. And a guy like Cyborg is known for being on top and being aggressive. But against a guy like me, he's just kind of shut down.

He gets really intimidated. It's just so that's such a weird i mean and i go to today after i get off the phone with you i'm going to go to my fourth jiu-jitsu tournament with my kids and that's just something i just don't i guess because i don't understand all jiu-jitsu that well even though i sit in jiu-jitsu classes for fucking god knows 10 hours a week just watching um it just doesn't make sense to me that that that's it's honestly it's easier it's so weird it's easier to submit an opponent from from bottom position you have a lot of different entries it's like because but then why does the guy on top

engage if that's the truth what you're saying then why wouldn't you just be like hey dude get the fuck up you know what i mean or just like yeah but no one ever does everyone's like all right that guy's on his back i'm gonna engage him yeah i think uh i think the culture of jiu-jitsu is based around pulling guard like people people kind of think of jiu-jitsu as like uh you know the the royce gracie or the gracie's time where where everybody was just pulling guard and winning these uh uf UFC fights. And the sport changes a bit. I think people – I think in my division, the heavyweight division, the best guys are the top players. So that's kind of why I had an advantage because I was like,

there's no way these guys could get on top of me because of my wrestling background and how efficient I am. So I think just the culture in general, people are accustomed to pulling guard. And pulling guard does have its value, especially if you're a leg clocker or maybe you're really good on bottom. I think people are scared of getting taken down, so they eliminate that by pulling guard and playing it safe. So it really is a cultural thing too. Once someone does that, you have to engage them. thing too like once someone does that you can't you have to engage them yeah there's there's a few like there's a lot of big differences between like uh you know american wrestling and then

jiu-jitsu like for instance the takedown when somebody shoots on you in wrestling we teach you to sprawl somebody shoots on you in in jiu-jitsu they teach you to break fall it's like why would you teach somebody to concede a takedown you know there's no fighting You take a shot and the guy falls on his back and slaps him. That's considered a break fall. And it's like the first day of jujitsu class, that's what they try to teach. And it just never made any sense to me. So definitely it's a cultural ordeal.

Is your teaching interfering with your training? I mean, you're doing a lot of teaching now, right? No, I mean, I only teach like one day a week, maybe two here and there so no it doesn't interfere at all and even when i teach it's like you know teach for 30 45 minutes and i only teach the shit that i i need to work on you know like if i'm having trouble or i'm thinking about move like i'll teach that the way i can work myself through it help the class understand it and then uh you know give it get to roll in at the end of the class so

it's not like we teach and just watch. We teach, we drill, we roll with our students and keep it rolling. We have about five or six guys that teach throughout the week. So it's me, it's Craig Jones, it's Damian Anderson, Isaac Mitchell, Nikki Ryan, and Nick Ortiz, and then Ethan Krelis signs in Canada right now, but he'll be down in a couple weeks and he'll be teaching as well. So we have a great split where everybody only has to teach once or twice a week and we just cruise, man. Oh, really?

All the guys only teach once or twice a week? Yeah. So it's a really interesting thing because most academies, they have one or two instructors and you just have the same instructor all the time so here we constantly have different people teaching and uh it's world-class guys at that there's no like flow grappling called us the number one uh gym in the world and at b team we have i mean it's true we have like five guys that are ranked in the top 10 and i think that's kind of undeniable yeah that's that's that so is it kind of b team is the name of the studio yep b team b team true too and is that you guys just kind of making fun of yourself because you

came from the a team uh yes it's a it's a it's a like a uh heavy contradiction because we call ourselves a b team but we're really all the varsity players from DDS. Right. And why did they – what did you call it? DDS. DDS is Dana Heard Death Squad. It was our old team name. And that's gone? When you left, they changed their name. They got a different name now too with whoever's left over over there?

I think they call it New Wave now, New Wave Jiu-Jitsu. But they don't even have an academy. They have a friend that has some mats and they drill on there and stuff, so they don't have a school or nothing like that. And who came up with that name, Danny here Death Squad? I don't know who came up with it,

but it fit really well, man. It was catchy. People knew us for being DDS, Danny here Death Squad. It was around for a while and did some did some damage with dds for sure and you basically just the the version i heard on mark bell i think is you got into jiu-jitsu because you were in modeling you did too you were doing it to stay

lean to sweat after two weeks you got hooked and after eight weeks, you were already over with your first class with guys over at DDS. Yeah, yeah, about eight weeks. So at the end of the second week of training, my first week of training, I did a tournament, and it was against black belts, and it just destroyed everybody. I must have ran out the score. It was like 80, 85 points to zero. So it wasn't even competitive.

Granted, these were just like hobbyist black belts. So soon after, about the eight-week mark, I started training with John Denher in New York City at Hensel Gracie. I really saw heavy progress. I was one of the worst guys in the room as far as technicality goes. every round was really hard for me and man it just elevated my game tremendously i have uh you know hard rounds with regular guys and i go train with guys like gordon ryan and then craig jones and and just kind of repeat the cycle every day and uh yeah man it may it may be tough and maybe good and maybe, maybe have to learn.

It's funny. I keep wanting to go back to, um, you being raised at home as a little kid, but you keep saying all this shit that makes it so I can't. Um, so, so you're, so you, you signed up for jujitsu. Why do you go in the tournament against the black belts? Like, so you're saying you went in this tournament and you were a white belt and you went against black belts. Who lets you do that? Like, weren't they like, they like no no you can't do that you have to be in here with the white belts so there's an uh there's an open the tournament that i did it was called grappling industries my first tournament and it was called uh it's like an open division to where it's no belts no weight classes just completely open so i signed up for it and just gave it a go and just beat up everybody.

I did a Naga soon after that at an expert level because they don't – in Nogi, they don't say like white belt, blue belt. They say like what's your level? Are you expert, intermediate, something like that? So I just clicked expert and, yeah, gave it a go. It was – I mean, again, like I'm a – Does Jay tell you that? Is that where you meet Jay at? Sorry to you that is that where you meet jay at sorry to interrupt is that where you meet jay you're like hey i'm a model i want to lose some

weight and jay's like sure sign up sign sign here sign the waiver that's where you guys met so i my first first training session session of jujitsu was at south jersey bjj um in south jersey bjj i was rolling for like a day or two and then j Jay Rigobudo, which he was a coach there, sees me practicing. He was like, okay, you should come to my 6 a.m. class. I'm like, whoa, 6 a.m.? I'm getting a little crazy here. So I was like, all right, whatever. I just woke up early.

I popped in there. And he showed me some stuff. And I was doing well against their toughest guys. He's like, I think you should compete on the weekend. I like all right no problem second week i competed now why no problem why no problem because you've been competing your whole life like you've already done uh played football or wrestling in high school or so competing is no big deal to you yeah yeah i uh had so many wrestling matches so i was like all right no problem and i'm confident like i was like there's no way just normal people like you know i'm a i'm an athlete you know i'm a very uh i'm faster than most i'm stronger than most and i understand i understood my differences uh from

these regular like hobbyists so uh you know how and how old were you at this point uh 21 okay and so also you're just you're in the you in that – your body is just fucking pumping out testosterone. I mean you're – I think I remember what it's like being 21. It's awesome. Yeah. No, yeah, for sure. Definitely, you know, I'm not my prime yet, but every year I feel like I get better, bigger, more dense, more defined. But your body is firing on all cylinders.

You're 21. Like you're turning into a man. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So i was confident going out there and man i like every every time i practiced i mean i was going against black belts in practice i was just having no problem beating them so i was like all right let's do a competition then you know after some research i learned about uh dds and and uh guys that were making money doing jiu-jitsu i was like all right i mean am I gonna like try to try to get like a regular job or see where this grappling stuff can go and uh I knew

like once I started jiu-jitsu that it was either I was never gonna train it or I was gonna train it every day um and I just chose to do it every day just like that and and not are you just kind of just a a go with it guy like you don't put a lot of thought into things like i like are you more like forrest gump are you like i feel like i'm all my life all my success comes because i'm like a labrador or forrest gump i just chase oh there's the ball i'll just chase it till i get it i take every opportunity that comes my way if it makes sense for me i'll give it a try like uh, I feel like time is the most valuable thing you can give. You can offer somebody.

So anytime I find opportunity, I was like, all right, I can give this a go. Like, coming from a small town, I knew that I had to meet people in order to kind of find my way. So I met Jay Rigobudo. And as soon as I started grappling, I started meeting, you started meeting guys that are making money in the sport and talking to them and seeing that they're not that much different than me. I can definitely do this stuff. So meeting guys like Tom DeBlas at tournaments and talking to guys like Gordon and Gary Tonin, I kind of gained confidence understanding that if I get some of these simple accomplishments, along with a social media following, I can make this more profitable and live by it. I appreciate what you said.

Time is the most valuable thing you can give, and I hope you know that I take the time that you give me so fucking seriously, and I put in a ton of work, and I crazy appreciate it. I know you weren't asking for that, but I'm just telling you. That's how I feel about all my guests it's like holy shit i want to make sure they leave here and like they they that there there was some growth that they're not like fuck that was a waste of time i appreciate that yeah um and what's if i was also tripping on this usually your audio the worst place anyone could go to do an interview would be a bathroom. Your audio is better than some people who have studios. Hey, what can I say, man? It should sound like you're in a fucking tin can.

Okay, I'm going to go way – I'm going to get us back on track here. But this guy, Dylan Val, who in this picture is climbing a rope, and it's fucked up because this guy sends in money all the time. And all I do is stare at his ass. I mean because it's just that picture. I'm always like, is his ass hungry? Is it eating his – but he needs to change his picture. He's making me too ass conscious. Anyway, he says, what's going to happen between Craig Jones and Cowboy?

Craig Jones is one of your training partners, and is he talking about Cerrone? Yeah, Cowboy Cerrone. They have a combat jiu-jitsu match. So it's a no-gi match but there's there's palm strikes so like oh yeah watch some of that that shit is crazy yeah yeah it's pretty sick so like if you're standing up you can't hit but as soon as it gets to the ground you can you can finish guys with your with your palms and uh i mean i don't think craig is gonna pull guard just because he can't get smacked and i don't think craig wants to get smacked. So I think he wrestles with Cowboy a little bit,

probably does his best to put him down, and he either submits or tries to finish him in palm strikes. The thing, it's hard to go, it's like if the roles were reversed, if Craig goes into a cage, it's like there's a little chance that he's going to beat Cerrone. But same vice versa. It's Craig's world for sure, man. And props to Cowboy for stepping up, man, because it's a different battle in there. And I think Cowboy's looking for some fun.

He's not going to make a million dollars from this fight. It's just something to do and something to kind of feed that ego or feed that drive that he has. When is that? I think december 9th and that's the um that's the guy uh he was in your documentary too the little guy something eddie is that isn't eddie bravo thing eddie bravo yeah yeah eddie bravo runs that okay are you going uh no it? No, it's in Cancun. I'll be in Austin for that. Do you like to travel?

I don't mind traveling. I'd rather not fly if I don't have to. It's hard for me to leave Austin. I've only been here for a few months. The food's fantastic. The people are nice. I have great training here. It's sunny all the time the time we have hiking trails we can hit the lake and go wakeboarding like uh everything i need is or i want is in austin so it's hard for me to kind of leave home

you know do you have a girlfriend yeah i do and she's never she's not in any of your social media no i keep my keep my private life private. Social media is, for me, social media is a means of building my brand and making money. And I'm probably a bit of a jealous guy, to be honest. So keep that solo, you know? Wow. You are a bit of a jealous guy. I mean, like, I make sure that I set my life up so I don't have to be jealous, you know?

Right. Like, I couldn't have a girlfriend that trained trained jujitsu and it fucking drive me crazy. I couldn't do it. Because of just dudes on top of her and like just all over her. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's the thought about that makes me cringe a little bit. Is she jealous? I mean, I think everybody's jealous, but I mean i mean as long as you you can't have a

relationship where you're making somebody jealous you know it's not like a healthy healthy way to go about it i i thought for sure you were going to say you don't have a girlfriend because because just just in relationship to what you said about coffee and just the stuff that i that i heard you say on mark bell and some of the stuff you said here that you're just singularly focused and that that would just be a major distraction? No, I mean, if it was a distraction, I definitely wouldn't have a girlfriend. I don't do anything in my life that doesn't benefit my future. So like, you know, she helps me out with telling Cleese how she cooks for me. Like, you know, I need that.

Having those tasks don't really, really benefit my life and my future because it saves me time from, you know, I need, uh, that though having those tasks done really, really benefit my, my life and my future. Cause it saves me time from, uh, for, for, you know, other things. So you're a team. A team. Yeah. Like, yeah, for sure. Definitely. How about the trash? Does she take the trash out or do you take the trash out? Uh, no, I take the trash out. Yeah. I take the trash out too. My wife does a lot of shit, but for some reason I take the trash out. Do you have to go into like a dark alley or anything like that where you live?

No. I'm a – so in Austin, right? I'm not useless, but in Austin, they try to charge you every month for taking your trash out. Like in Jersey, we just pay taxes and they pick up the trash. So I literally put my trash in the bed of my truck and I drive it. When I drive to practice, I put put a dumpster right next to practice and it's only it's only like 50 bucks a month for them to pick up my trash but it's the principle i'm like i can't i can't think about giving these guys 50 bucks a month to fucking pick my trash up i pay taxes the fucking city should be doing this for free

it's more of a stubborn thing but uh i don't mind it. I mean, I just walked to my truck dumpsters right next to my truck when I called for practice. So it's, it's all good. I appreciate the dedication. Plus it's, it's a good practice. So you stay, stay with every man. You stay at the soul level. Yeah, exactly. Where did you meet your girlfriend at? Dude, I met her at Home Depot and I was working at Home Depot when I was like, dude i met her at home depot i was working at home depot when i was like i was like 18 or 19 uh met there and just been cruising ever since man um and you tell a great

story i have a story very similar to that a little different you you would go to work and you'd look around and be like dude i could beat everyone up here yeah for sure i would i remember like just i was mixing paint at home depot for sure i would i remember like just i was mixing paint i hope deeper for a little bit and i was just like everybody in here the first thing i thought when i saw a person was like i could beat the shit out of this guy and uh i soon found out that that wasn't normal thinking most people don't you know don't process information hey let me tell you i think it's totally normal you're just in touch with it i think every single dude knows i can beat him up i can't beat him up i can beat him up i can't beat up and the same

thing with girls i think every single dude goes i want to have sex there i don't want to have sex there and i know as bad as that sounds it's what we're here to do in the most superficial sense we're here to mate and then protect our, our, our kids and, and the, and the, and the woman. And,

and, and I don't know. I think, I think, I think you were just really in touch with it. You haven't had a deprogrammed out of you. That's the kind of shit they want to deprogram out of you. And it's not like you were acting on it.

Right. You weren't like, no, I'm not acting. I'm just, I'm just observing. Like I could definitely, you know,

I don't know. I think it was just normal for me. Any, if I see any, any guy, I'm just like, I can, you know, if this is a wild, you're dead, man. If this is what? If this is the wild, you're dead, man. Right, right. You either work for me or you're dead. Yeah, exactly. cave while i'm sleeping or i kill you um yeah well i um when i was 34 i started doing crossfit and i i started realizing that holy shit everywhere i went it was kind of the opposite of spot fighting i was like hey i could run away from anyone in here but it's still survival mechanism don't don't laugh at me nikki it's still survival mechanism but i'm just like now and now it's even worse right i'm 49 it's 15 years later and just everyone like

i live in one of the fittest cities in the world like you and it's still half the people are obese and just piles of just shit treat their bodies horribly and i just walk into starbucks and i'm like my god like if the cold comes in here everyone's dead yeah like like like i'm a fan of the crossfit culture to be honest i got a chance to meet and hang out with and work with uh jason kalipa a little bit you know crossroad world champion then he taught me a lot about the the world of crossfit like i always thought it was about lifting heavy weights and uh you know uh stuff like that but it's really about like being well rounded in the fitness world you know not only can you put some numbers up but you can run a few miles and and uh and i like the fact that

these guys are jacked right they have insane physiques but they also are are in shape like they're not bodybuilders where they have these crazy crazy muscles but you know they're tired from 10 minutes on the stairmaster so uh i'm So I've always been a fan of people that look like they're in shape but can actually use their body. It is weird to see some of the strongest men in the world. Do you know what a sumo deadlift is? Yeah. You picked – okay. The guy is deadlifting 700 pounds, but he barely has the flexibility to reach down and grab the bar.

And at some point you're like, dude, I will just run across the street and grab a stick and come back and beat you. Like what? You can't even like you can't tie your shoes. Yeah, it's some weird shit. Yeah, for me, being a man means, you know, can you win a fight? That's that's always been my like, you know – regardless of how you look, what you do, can you beat a lot of these guys up? And that's always kind of been my mindset. It's interesting. There's these two terms. There's this term gender and there's this term sex.

And sex means like your penis and your vagina, and gender is just made up shit. Like, like what you just made up. Yeah. I tried to, so in Instagram, there's a, there's like a thing where you could put like a pronoun. Yeah. I tried to, I tried to change it to like beast or like, you know, something, something crazy because there were, I see that like the pronouns are just like whatever you want to be. So I was like, if social media can let me do something cool, I'll try. But it was, it was definitely a heavy fail. they didn't let you do it no no i think i tried

like warrior or something you know something cheesy just to see if it would work and it didn't work at all isn't it funny that that thing is probably just to make people feel better in acceptance but not people like you yeah yeah oh my god. Well, so so and so people like whenever I see a bathroom that sign and it says all genders welcome, I'm like, well, of course, all genders are welcome. Gender's just made up in your head and people like I don't even know what gender I am. I know what sex I am. I'm man. But but I like that definition of if you're going to make something up about your uh your gender that's a good one the death what was it again that i think it's a beast or no but before that it was like hey the your your definition of being a man is being able to beat up other men yeah yeah for sure yeah i like that and it's not you say it so casually it's not even violent it's just that well i don't mean i

don't mean it violently i just mean uh in the aspects of control. How well as a man can you control a situation? I feel like that's being a man in itself where you're able to calm and collectively understand and assess what's going on and take control of it. on here who was it damn they were basically like hey at the end of the day it kind of doesn't matter what someone can or can't do to you let's see if i can find this if you can beat them up like like you that's it that's like you can beat them up and and there's like no it doesn't matter if they have more money than you it doesn't't matter if they have a prettier girlfriend than you. They know it. You know it. I can beat you up. That's the top of the pyramid. You can't make fun of me now.

You can't like, hey, I can beat you up. And I was like, oh. Yeah, yeah. For sure. Because anybody can wield a gun. But you put a gun away. What can you do with your body? What can you do with your two hands?

I feel like that's very important. A lot of people kind of miss out on that aspect of life trying who was that how far back do i have to go do you um you probably don't know who this guy is he's at bellator his name is dalton rosta r-o-s-t-a he's five and oh over at Bellator. Does that name ring a bell? No, no. I've never heard of him. I don't know too many Bellator fighters. Did you watch the fight last night? The fight?

UFC fight. I know that Sean Brady won. Yeah. Yeah. Tough guy, man. He's from my area, from Philadelphia. We trained a little bit together. Oh, you have?

So you know him? Yeah, yeah. I know him. I know him. I know him. Been around in the same gym and whatnot. Yeah. I think he's 15 and 0 now. Yeah, guy's tough, man.

Scrapper. Yeah, crazy. And then did you see the post-price interview where he kind of got into it a little bit with Daniel Cormier? No, I didn't. What was that about? I guess Daniel forgot his name. Oh, man.

And he called him out on it. But I think it was more lighthearted. He said, that was disrespectful. You forgot my name. Oh, man. And he called him out on it. But I think it was more lighthearted. He said, that was disrespectful. You forgot my name. But it's like, dude. Daniel Cormier looks like he just eats donuts all day. His brain might not even be functioning perfectly anymore. Yeah, guys.

I mean, fuck. It's crazy that you can not be chiseled out of granite and still just be guys up. That's amazing to see. Or once you know – like could you ever see yourself letting yourself just go? I think about it sometimes. Like if I want to be like old and out of shape. But I think I want to be like a super fit old guy. Like when I'm like 60, 50 years old, it would be nice to have like abs and be like – and people would be like, look fuck like he's old but he's shredded he's in shape his body's well i like uh i like to think

of like fitness as not as less of a diet and more like a lifestyle you know like i i i try to add on years to my life so me getting out of shape i'd be you know even if i get it can get an extra year or two out of life um and a healthy extra or two out of life, then I'm all about eating right and working out. By the way, your quality, if you don't do that, your quality of life will plummet. Yeah, definitely. Like being overweight is like, unfortunately, once you're overweight, probably that's all you know. But being overweight is like your whole quality of life. And so if you're 60 years old and you're 50 pounds overweight your life is fucked yeah i mean relative to mine relative to mine or yours even simple things

like sleep or like being overweight or just you know not eating right has effects on on everything man so you know i like to i think even like getting outside sometimes get some sunshine get your feet on the ground has a big difference in your quality of life. Will you go a whole day without putting a shirt on? Honestly, in Texas, yeah. I'll just walk my dog around the corner, take him back home, drop him to practice, no shirt. I put a rash guard on to be on the mats, and that's about it, man. How about shoes? Will you go a whole day with no shoes too? Yeah.

I mean, I'll go, I'll go a long time without shoes. I honestly only wear like, I only wear, I have a pair of Vans that I put on, but no socks. I'm not a fan of socks. I'll wear, I'll wear sandals or Crocs throughout the day. And then I put Vans on for the lifting. That's about it, man. I honestly, I would lift barefoot if I, if I. Yeah. Why don't you? Well, I, I, if there's a gym that would let me, you know, I'm's about it i honestly i would lift barefoot if i if i uh yeah why don't you

well i i if there's a gym that would let me you know i'm all about it but when i was in puerto rico for the past year i lifted every day barefoot because it was at my friend's garage so like i'd go days without shoes yeah i i only wear shoes if i have to i do all my i even do don't and i do i do rope climbs. I wear shoes. But even the assault bike or rowing or all that shit, deadlift, whatever, I barefoot. I don't even think shoes are that good for you, like how narrow they are. Your feet are supposed to spread out and be nice and wide, and shoes are just meant to narrow your toes and feet together. It's probably not the best for you. No.

It's fucking horrible. Are you going to have kids? Yeah, I'll probably have a lot. I feel like it's selfish to keep these superior genetics to myself. Spend them around. Does your current girlfriend have good genetics? Oh, yeah. She's, I would say, a power lifter in genetics.

A strong lady, for sure. So you're in Home depot and why did you get a job there uh my dad worked there uh for a little bit and uh my dad's a a workhorse you know he's a seven day a week kind of guy if he he literally worked from uh like 4 a.m to like one and then he'd drive to philly and go work on his houses and then go back home and just restart the whole day. So I kind of grew up with that kind of keep going mentality. What was your question again?

So he worked there and so you're like, okay, I'll get a job there. He told you or he told you, hey, you should come work here. Yeah, yeah, because I was just like, you know, I was it was the year after my first year of college and i kind of knew i wasn't going back because like i did i did every everything i could in the rest in the wrestling

world like i was a i worked my way up to be the best guy in the practice room so i was like all right i need to find a new practice room so i'm looking for other colleges and stuff and i made some verbal commitments uh to another school and And then that summer I started working at Home Depot. And at the same time, I simultaneously found some, I signed with a modeling agency called Wilhelmina in New York City. And I started posting every day on social media. I was like, all right, I see people making money on social media that look half as decent as I do. I could definitely make this happen. So I commit to social media.

I'm like, all right, I'm going to make a post every day. I started working at Home Depot just to make some money. I think I was working at Home Depot and working at Public Works as well a couple days a week. What's Public Works? Public Works are the guys that go around their town. They cut the high school soccer fields. They cut the grass around the city and shit like that.

Super easy, simple job. Home Depot was cool. I'm just not a guy that takes orders. It's really hard for me to – again, this goes back to the ego where you have a boss telling me what to do. I'm like, I can fucking kill you right now if I wanted to. Don't talk to do. I'm like, I can fucking kill you right now if I wanted to. Don't talk to me. That's being young and naive. Yeah, just not the right way.

Not the best mindset to be in a retail store. I wasn't the best employee for sure. I was actually late every day. I think I was there for like, I was at Home Depot for like six months and i might have racked up like 60 latenesses it was pretty rough and did you do that on purpose to make a

statement like fuck you you can't tell what to do i'll come in when i want or it was just sloppy that's just how i live my life i was even late to the interview okay wow yeah like i like even in practice like i i mean i would show up to John's class 30 minutes late every day, and it was just accustomed to it. I don't know. I feel like I set the standard of being late from day one, so people just knew I was going to be late. Two questions. Is that why you were such a good fit there when you went there? Because you needed to be around some dudes that you didn't think you could beat their ass?

Yeah, I needed to be not the best guy in the room i i trained at so many jiu-jitsu academies looking for got people that were better than me i went to south jersey bjj uh went to grindhouse with this with it which is run by james booth in pennsylvania uh ricardo amados i trained at uh tom de blas's and it was just me searching for better competition people that that were better than me and finally i get up get up to hensel gracie and i'm getting beat up talks around by these guys i'm like all right this is this is the place i need to be so like it wasn't a it wasn't close either i had to drive three hours one way to get to practice and then three

hours back so and only 35 miles too right yeah no it was uh it was a hundred like 135 miles oh it was okay okay i was being serious i thought it was like 35 miles okay so it was far yeah it was 135 miles one way but the you get the new york city traffic so like in jersey i'm good and i get to the city and and you know one mile could take you 30 minutes so so sometimes you'd be in the car for three hours and be just five miles away and then be another hour to get there. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, it's a – Fuck that life. Usually the way – and I did this for like a whole year and a half, about five – originally it was three days a week.

And then I started making money with jiu-jitsu and that was like six to seven days a week. And I would drive – I spent like six hours in the car but sometimes on the way home it would take me like five or six hours because of the traffic jam or like something like that so it was a it was a headache every day man and would you listen to audiobooks yeah i do some audiobooks or like uh podcasts you know that podcasts are easy just put them on cruise and when you what do you remember any of the audiobooks did you listen like to self-help books or fiction or i did uh i think the only book i listened to was art of war and uh something called relentless it's like a uh it's a book by um by kobe bryant's like a mentor

or something like that yeah do you do you have any time to listen to that stuff anymore do you listen to podcasts or books anymore is your day just full uh i mean my day's full but like yeah when if i do listen anything it's usually it's usually a podcast you know when i'm walking the dog i have a podcast on i'm driving to practice i have i have like a 30 minute drive to practice and i do that on purpose because i think it gives me some mental clarity just to plan my practice or plan my day you know so uh i don't mind know, a little 30 minute drive, put a podcast on and cruise. Meaning you found a location for your, for the B team gym. And then from there, like, okay, I need to live about 30 minutes from here.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like I had the option of being like right there where it's like a, you know, five minute walk or 10 minute drive. Um, but, uh, I like, you know, I like, first of all, I like being out. out like i have i'm in development right now a housing development um but there's farmland everywhere and eventually i'd like to buy you know a piece of land where i could just do whatever i want this guy's out of his fucking mind you're out of your fucking mind i bet money ben askren pins nick in the first period you're you're fucking right i'm a bit bigger than uh than ben i actually got to meet ben um he did some content with uh lex friedman at b team at our studio and i got to talk to ben for a little bit and uh he's not he's not a a jiu-jitsu guy at all he's more of a bruce strength

kind of guy you know he's like a bulldog choke kind of guy get up get up in there and squeeze your head off bro super nice super knowledgeable too i saw like how he is moving and talking to lex freeman i was like this guy knows a ton of wrestling is it um is it is it is it at all odd for you the way you've just stormed onto the scene so so let me rephrase that for there's never this people talk about overnight success and like then everyone who's like there's never been overnight success but from the outside it does look like that right like you're not on the radar for a bunch of people and then all of a sudden you're on the radar you're everywhere their youtube algorithm won't stop bringing you up yeah it feels to you or i had uh no honestly it just it just feels like i'm a normal dude that has a lot of friends like it's uh it's cool it's

cool to go out and have like randomly where i'm getting like an acai bowl or something people like oh like you're nikki rile like what's up bro i think that i think that's fun and it's cool um but again i'm not like uh i don't know i don't i guess i don't take shit to heart like i don't i can never see myself being uh being the guy it's like oh like i don't want any pictures or shit like that again i'm not that fucking joe rogan like superstar status i'm sure it gets a little little crazy up there but um i mean the small niche the small niche that i'm in it's it's fun man everybody i meet that knows me is friendly and uh they're just you know happy for my success and you know it's a good community that i'm in man well also right now it's all people who are kind of at the top of the food

chain who know about you right you haven't really dribbled down to the right now it's all people who are kind of at the top of the food chain who know about you right you haven't really dribbled down to the masses yet it's like clearly obviously joe rogan knows who you are clearly you know i mean gordon ryan knew who you were in the fucking first eight weeks of your fucking jiu-jitsu career i mean you you're top down you're not you're a lot of people actually i don't even know i was gonna make the comment a lot of people – actually, I don't even know. I was going to make the comment a lot of people's success starts from the bottom. Who the fuck am I? What do I know? But it is top – like a lot of blue check marks, for lack of a better word, and fuck those guys, know who you are.

I had a lot of success early on. I mean Luke Rockhold called you out in 2019. That is weird. Yeah, pretty crazy. We had a match, right? And I was like, nobody. i'm sorry i mean luke rockhold called you out in 2019 that is weird yeah pretty crazy we had a we had a match right and i was like nobody say i'm sorry we we i mean me and rockhold had a match and i was like i was a nobody you know yeah i mean that's just weird yeah yeah i uh before grappling before i even started grappling i had about 30 000 instagram followers so i think i think one modeling from modeling, yeah, yeah. From modeling and posting on social media. Cause I was, I was determined. I was like,

if I can get a, uh, um, you know, a following, then that means I'm worth more, you know? I mean, as superficial as that sounds, I mean, the numbers matter. If you have more attention on you, you're going to, it's your, your value more. So I had about 30,000 when I started grappling. So already when I started posting jujitsu, people were like, why does this guy have a following? Why is he hanging out with Gordon? I had people very interested early on because of that. And I think every grappler, everybody that's trying to do anything like, I'm going to say, own their own business or anything like that. If you're independent, social media is a great tool to use. Did you leave those guys?

What did you – Danaher? Danaher? Danaher? Say his last name for me. Danaher, yeah. Danaher. That's the bald guy. Yes.

Looks like he's from X-Men. Danaher, Death Squad. Did you leave them because at some point you felt like you were then the toughest guy in the room? Is that the breakup there? Is that just like the normal transition? Okay, I got what I needed from those guys. Now I'm going to move on to this group? No.

So essentially the whole DDS stays together. Like we're all – we're literally the whole team. And how many people is – oh, shit. Bye-bye. Damn. I was just saying wrestling strictly hence pin. Oh bug. You're just, I like what you said because it lets me say something completely. It lets me say something completely crazy to him. So, okay. So sorry.

How many people are in that on that team it's not a school it's a team whereas now you have a sort of a hybrid school team thing right yeah yeah exactly so the whole dds is uh comprised of nikki rod nick uh nikki ryan gordon ryan craig jones ethan krelis son and gary tonin um and, the whole team stayed together. We just separated from Gordon and John. They're doing their own thing. We did it really just because it's best for our future.

The mentalities within the gym weren't compatible anymore. Again, the whole team stayed together. We just eliminated something that now we're happy that we did – our future is bright. Our training is fantastic, and we're getting better every day. So I'm just going to interpret what I'm hearing. You reached some sort of ceiling there with the group, and you felt these guys's now are at the b team felt like they could grow more taking this path uh it wasn't not not to necessarily grow more uh we can grow this at

the same rate it was just more so we had we had a few distractions because of uh you know internal things that were on the team and we just had to eliminate those distractions to keep uh to keep on track of our success okay so so it wasn't that all of a sudden you were beating everyone up in the gym and you're like hey i got to go somewhere where i can't beat someone up no it was it was personal personal conflict with it within the team that uh okay forced us to kind of separate and can do our own thing and right now we're really happy and uh we're having fun and like every day of their practice is like we look forward to training like we can't we're just hanging out with like every day of their practices, like we look forward to training.

Like we can't, we're just hanging out with our friends doing what we love. So it can't get better than this. Well, congratulations. I love hearing that. Let me ask you something just really silly. This is just, I'm going to get destroyed for this. Who now gives you your belt? You're a purple belt.

Yeah, I'm a purple belt. How do you get your brown belt if you left your teacher? Like, do you still go, like, would you still go back to Danaher and be like,her and be like hey can i get my brown belt or or hey can i train with you for a month and get promoted like how do you do that now did he give you your purple belt or did jay give it to you jay jay regaboodle gave me my purple belt okay on the podium of adcc so once i took second they he gave me a purple belt and uh and does that mean anything to you like part like part of me thinks like you don't give a fuck because like you just want to do no gi um yeah no it doesn't it doesn't mean much to me it's more like a uh probably a trophy or anything you know for me the belts mean knowledge

how much how much do you know you know like i can like anybody like you can get a couple like two or three moves that you're great at and beat a lot of guys. But are you a well-rounded athlete? Do you have knowledge everywhere on the legs, on the back, and stuff like that? So I think we'll do something like after I win ADCC, we'll have Nicky Ryan. Maybe he'll give me a stripe on my purple belt, do something funny like that. Oh, and Nicky Ryan is one of the instructors at your gym like i see i saw him in the videos on count is it count count films i subscribed yesterday yeah yeah count films we'll be

producing our uh our specific uh youtube channel as well it'll be btm jiu-jitsu that's uh soon to come oh so count films isn't yours it's just some some – Yeah, Count Films is a friend that we helped grow his platform. We did much of YouTube videos just to kind of get the word of B-Team out and help build his brand as well. That was nice of you. Yeah, now we're ready. We're ready to start producing our own stuff, our own content. So we're going to create a YouTube channel. We'll have weekly videos.

We'll have weekly podcasts as well. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Do you, did you watch the Daisy fresh series? Yeah. I watched the tournament for sure. Did you like it? I don't know. The guys are, these guys are interesting. I would, I would say that not, not that you've not that you asked my opinion, but if you talk to the guy at count films like and i don't do jujitsu i mean my kids do but i watch daisy fresh with my kids and they're young they're uh four and

seven but they were they were fucking glued to it um as i went through those count films uh videos it's really just jujitsu and we need like more of you guys like talking we need like you guys like walking more vlogs street yeah moving yeah or like having a bottle cap shooting contest or like talking about whose ghee stinks more or just like you know fun just hear funny stories like your your toilet overflowed in the middle of the night just it would just be cool to hear fanduel casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do.

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right that's why we're kind of uh branching off and do all the things because we'll have you know more control of the content and uh that's where we're going for a lot of for which we're trying to make like a reality show out of our vlogs. People want to see not only what we do but who we are. So the more we can do that and build our brand that way, I think that's the way to go about it. Yeah, like if you were standing in line at the DMV for an hour and a half like the rest of us, I think people would just be dying laughing. Yeah, exactly. It doesn't have to be like super deep or crazy, but stuff like that I think people will be like, or to show you eating at Panda Express and you take all the rice out. All you eat is the fucking meat.

Yeah. Simple things. People love it. You did say that was an awesome thing that you said on the Mark Bell podcast when you talked about counting calories or what you eat. And you said basically you know how much protein you want to get in in every day and then everything else kind of just follows around that. But you also said it's a job because you're trying to get so much protein. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I have to, I'm a big boy. I'm two or 40 pounds. So like, you know, I have to eat a lot of food to keep this mass and, and, and be sufficient when I'm, when I'm training every day. Um, yeah, it's definitely a process to eat all the food throughout the day.

But it's a job that has its reward. You know, I like – I'm in the heavyweight division, so I don't have to look like this to compete and do well. You know, I just like being photogenic. I like looking good on camera. I feel like it draws more eyes towards me. You know, when I'm shirtless and I'm shredding on camera, shredded on camera people like oh like look at this guy like a lot of times people just think that's a good looking kid he might just be that's it you know just just a handsome

dude i was like yeah but i could rip your head off if i needed to you know so i think that's uh more intriguing to people and i know you're young now but in your 30s it'll be everything because your inflammation will be down your joints will feel better and you'll move better you like being fat's stupid yeah honestly you actually said fat people you actually said the head not fat people sorry you actually said the heavyweight class is lazy and i i all the heavyweight athletes i've ever known even the top of the food chain best dudes in the world at shit there's always a little bit of a component of laziness to them. Just because getting up and walking across the room is fucking hard.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I do what I do for longevity. I'm trying to be around as long as I can and have as much fun as possible. So you're at Home Depot, and does she work there, or she was a customer? And how do you talk to her? Are you afraid to talk to girls at this point in your life? I don't really – honestly, I'm so good looking. I know it sounds bad, but I'd really have to talk to women.

If we make eye contact for more than like three or four seconds, I pretty much – my God, it's in a bag. I don't even think – don't take this wrong. I don't even know if it's just your looks but there's something there's something else it's called they call they call the it factor it's even something else um it's something that i had this girl on emily abbott she was a crossfit athlete uh super beautiful and redheaded chick so fucking awesome just a savage right and she says once you get in touch with like she didn't i think she said once you get in touch like with your pussy and like like like mentally like you can go to your pussy like you can you can get

drunk with that power you just you're just oozing that and like fucking dudes are my interpretation and bde bde is big dick energy yeah big yeah yeah that's what you have yeah yeah you have big like you're like the you're like uh you're just oozing testosterone like if there was a way like to like you know how like like they can put a black light on a towel and see how much semen there is if there was like something if there was some light that they could put on you that showed your pheromones you would just be giving off like this shit like that that makes girls like confused like like like leppy lepew like girls would like float around around you yeah yeah for sure i'm definitely uh you know i've always had had uh i do dad have that sorry go ahead yeah no for sure i mean i get i have a

death i think i have an innate advantage when it comes to women um i never had you know problem like i was never a guy to chase to chase a girl um my and definitely might get that from my dad my dad's like a good good looking handsome guy and he has that same energy you know he's uh uh uber confident and you could tell it's just uh maybe it's like a fair point thing maybe just uh you know women women to catch like a sense and they're like that's a fucking man right there yeah i mean in that in that in that documentary it's just like and i've shown it to a couple women who've come over to my house i'm like what do you think about this dude they're just fucking i can tell

they're just like seeing stars and they're like yeah he's cool and they're not even like fight fans or jiu-jitsu fans you know what i mean i'm like i knew it something's going on and my friend travis the arm wrestler had that too so fucking weird so like if he got into a taxi with the woman like like it felt like they were gonna mate yeah like you just can't be in a closed area with a woman yeah yeah for sure that's uh some people are blessed man so so how do you so how do you was she a customer or an employee uh she was an employee and uh man i think the the first like conversation we had she just like asked for my instagram and that was kind of it just been

talking from there the first time you kissed her did you kiss her at work? No. That's too bad. That would be a great story. God, I kissed her under the hand. The first time I kissed her, it was in the gym parking lot. So not only were we working together, I guess we worked together, and I saw her my first day at work, didn't talk to her. Did you know when you saw her, were you like, oh, she's pretty like I I'm gonna eventually talk to her yeah for sure for sure

I uh I went to the gym that night to go lift and mind you like I just moved back home from from college and I saw her at the gym that night and we chatted up and I think we first time we kissed was like in the in the car park park in the car so i'm what was she doing at your gym just lifting some weights doing some cardio with her so she happened to work it at home at the same place you worked and worked out at the same gym you work at yes yes it was it was meant to be was she stocked i'm not buying it i'm smelling some fucking yeah some shit here so was she did she come who was at the gym first um i think she was there first and i pulled up and was killing a workout and uh did you go there because you knew she was there you're like okay i'm gonna find out where this girl works out and no i just i just

uh i just signed up to this gym because i was like i was like it's the closest gym to my house like you know i gotta get a workout in my like my mind has never been on like on like getting chicks i've always been like focused on on myself and i think that's why women have been like super attracted to me because i don't give i don't give them much much attention i mean it sounds weird but i feel like the less the less attention you give a girl like the more they kind of they kind of want you you know so i've always been really very self-driven and like you know like i said time is valuable so i've always been focused on myself and i think that's very attractive yeah how what is she like is she like that uh yeah i mean she she's uh she's definitely

a motivated kind of person um but uh she's loyal i trust her um her. And that's really what I care about. Like, are you a good person? Are you fun? You know, like, for me, like, do you elevate my quality of life? Like, am I stressing because we have a fucking, like, okay relationship? Or do I enjoy life when we're around each other more? So that's kind of what it's been about for me. I'm going to do anything in life that's like – gives me stress or anxiety or like even gets my mind off track from what I have to do today or tomorrow.

So she kind of fit that bill perfectly and couldn't be happier. And you're seven years into the relationship? Yeah, yeah, six or seven, something like that. Do you see it? Do you know about the seven year itch no what's that that's just that there's this you know whatever wives tale that at seven years like that's what if you that's the hump you got to make it the seventh year is the hardest year and that's like the hump and you got to get past that oh i mean i don't i don't know i just take

it day by day to be honest like again like if anything changed, if it was like she became this person that was building stress in my life or I had to take extra time out of my career to help her be happy in life, then that's not for me. I just need another happy person to have fun with. That's all I'm looking for. I want to have as much fun in life as possible. And she definitely helps me out with that have you guys ever had a talk like hey i'm going to take this body and this mind and i'm going to perform at the take it to the highest level that it can possibly perform i'm going to jump from the highest fucking rooftops

and climb the tallest trees and i I can't have any friction. So like, if you suspect that I'm cheating on you, like don't, cause I'm not, or like, Hey, if like,

if you're mad at me because I didn't call, I didn't text you. Cause I was in gone for three days. Don't like, that's all your own shit. Like, like, yeah,

I think if, uh, I think if, uh, especially at your age, it seems like relationships are so high maintenance because you guys are tethered by these phones. Yeah. I mean, it's, I think if – Especially at your age, it seems like relationships are so high maintenance because you guys are tethered by these phones. Yeah, I mean it's – I think it's kind of easy to like keep track of each other. I mean we can FaceTime whenever we want if I'm like at the gym or whatever.

So it's kind of – it's easy for me. But I don't know. I really don't put too much thought into it. Like I just live life and if I'm stress free i'm i'm like all right i'm doing it right if i am stressed i'm like all right what's why am i stressed you know what's what's causing this stress and we gotta fix it from there and that was basically what happened then also with the with the with the um dana heard death squad you just you just you taking it day by day was fucking amazing you learned a lot of shit and then someday you're like ah this doesn't

feel right this isn't this right. This isn't – Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. We had some – there's some internal issues with a person amongst other guys in the team. And we just had to eliminate those internal issues. And, man, we couldn't be happier. We're winning the battle. And we have a fantastic facility.

We have people lining up outside the door to come train with us. It's like – Dude, it's sardines in there. It's fucking sardines in there. We have open mats on Sundays sometimes, and we have to – we cap it at like 100 people, and we have to turn away like another 100 people because there's a line around the corner. Hey, is it dripping from the ceilings in there? Because that's a lot of body

heat coming off of people right yeah no we have 60 degrees in there and those dudes pile in and start moving it goes like to 80 right yeah you know it gets it gets hot in there but we have pretty well ventilated we'll open the back door and let some air in and uh no we like it hot when we're you know training stuff so it's not it's not bad at all it was like in henzo gracie in the basement um it would get like foggy in there, like halfway through practice. It'd be like a mist around us, you know. So definitely tough to breathe in there when you're going at it. Does anyone in the jiu-jitsu community roll with masks on, like during all that mask shit?

I mean, I hope not. I wouldn't be too safe. Yeah, it's – I mean, I hope not. I wouldn't be too safe. Yeah. When shit was getting crazy here in California, it's still fucking morons everywhere. That was one place that didn't change. Oh, the jiu-jitsu. Yeah, the jiu-jitsu. Yeah. God, thank God for that shit.

My kids could just still just go there and just… Yeah. Like it was – God, thank God for that shit. My kids just could just still just go there and just – Yeah, I don't know if you ever suffocated somebody, but it consists of covering the nose and mouth. I mean you can't work out that hard if you're covering the nose and mouth. Even being on the planes, it's like I really – I'm not a fan of wearing a mask. I'm just not really for me. Especially because you're so good looking too that you can't be and you're not gonna be good looking forever you can get old and wrinkly and shit exactly i'll get a lot of free shit because uh that's my looks you know maybe get some extra french fries or a free movie ticket so

can't have that without without a mask so you're this you're this kid you're living in jersey you're one of four and um do you from your earliest memories do you like moving around and and how did and how do you what was kindergarten first second grade when do you start getting into like sports um i started i started sports uh we moved to jersey from philadelphia when i was about when i was like maybe six years old um i started i played a bunch of sports like in elementary school i tried like baseball and soccer and shit like that but i found wrestling found wrestling maybe was out when i was about 12 years old and man i remember my first wrestling practice they were showing us like headlocks and it was like the hardest day of my life and i was like just instantly addicted to it and 12 years old

they should wrestle didn't you wrestle with your brothers and shit before then yeah yeah for for sure we we played around and stuff but uh you know as far as like being serious and and being extremely competitive inside of a practice it was it was wrestling practice and i was just i was blown away away by how hard it was how fast paced it was. And just like me being absolutely exhausted after practice was, uh, was very satisfying to me. So I always, I always chase that. Like I always was always the guy to push hardest and, uh, and really get, leave it all out there. That was my, that was my thing. It's crazy that you knew that at 12, do you know at 12 years old, uh, Nikki, I was like, when we would do the presidential fitness exam, you had to run four laps. And what I would do

is, is I would run slow so that the kids would lap me so that I could, so that I could come in and cheat. Yeah, no, I, it was always a race for me for sure. Everything was a, was a competition. You know, if we're doing sit-ups, I had to do the most, if we're doing sit-ups i had to do the most if we're doing a race i had to win uh it was constant competition it would fucking hurt like if i would lose anything it would be physically painful uh physically or like emotionally i mean if definitely emotionally but i feel like i would i would feel like like my body was like i was just so let down down. It would hurt me if I ever lost. Man. And do you know where that comes from?

No, I don't. I don't know where it comes from. Your dad wouldn't be like, Hey, you're a bitch. Get back in there and win. No, my parents were always, uh, were always like, listen, just do what you want. Like they never pushed me to do athletic things, but they gave me the option. They were like, we'll drive you to practice if you want to try. So I would come with, to them with things I want to try.

They helped me get there and support me. And yeah, it was definitely just an internal thing that I had. I think from an early age, I was like, I need to learn how to beat everybody up. That's why wrestling was really attractive to me. In the ninth grade, i was uh started wrestling at the high school it wasn't with the high school it was a city program at the high school and then and then a few months later the the high school season would have started and in the city program it was pretty cool because i was little so i wrestled all sorts of young kids and it was just

awesome i could just beat them all up it was like fucking nothing and then um and then the high school season started and then there were fucking dudes five years older than me who were smaller than me and just beating the shit out of me and like after the first practice or two practices i started getting like headaches just from like just normal headaches from just getting beat up and i quit and i quit yeah yeah it's not i fucking quit it's a it's a tough lifestyle you know it's not not for everybody um yeah everybody's got to find their niche got to find what's uh what's uh you know perfect for them i wonder i wonder why you wanted to beat everyone up like did you see a movie like did you see like enter the dragon with bruce lee or did

you see something you're like or like you're like hey i i need to be on the top of that mountain could be i mean i was always a a fan of uh uh what's that what's the ape movie where there's like caesar takes over the world planet of the apes i know these but like the original one you know like the 1998 version or whatever i remember i watched that movie like like a ton and it was pretty aggressive in the sense that the champs are trying to win, trying to take over the world. I don't know. Maybe they had some – they've had some – they got some imbalance in me that wanted to build aggression or whatever. Yeah. And then it's fascinating that not only you were like that, but you found such an amazing outlet for it. Yeah, yeah. It was like the effort.

I really enjoy putting out as much effort as I can. When I would go to practice, I would try to learn, but I would try as hard as I could. And I felt like the more tired I got, the better I got, which isn't like – looking back at it isn't like the best way to go about it. Cause knowledge, knowledge really is power. But yeah, for me, it was just like, I just wanted to exert as much energy as I could. And it's just felt fantastic every time. Yeah. You found your drug.

My kids, my kid's tennis coach said that the curse of kids is at the age of 12. And I said, why? And he said, because at the age of 12, a boy starts wanting to win. And the second you put winning over learning, you're fucked. And tennis is crazy hard, super, super steep learning curve, right? Like my kid started when he's four and he's when he's 12, he still won't be, you know, a master at it. And, uh, it sounds like you have, you have figured out how to marry those two, to still want to win but not be afraid to lose. Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty scared to lose for sure. I love winning, right?

I don't know. I guess there's a transition where – oh, hey, how you doing? Danielle, you didn't get the dress code? What the fuck are you doing doing What do you mean I just took my dog on a walk And then I get this Freaking text Oh Danielle the show's today Um uh

Nikki this is Danielle Brandon Hi nice to meet you Danielle Hello nice to meet you You took 10th at the CrossFit Games this year. Yes. Was that at Round Rock? No, that was at Rogue, which I did as well. Okay, very nice.

That's a tough sport, man. I'm a big fan of CrossFit. I'm a fan of one of the sports where you guys look like superior athletes and you can move like them too. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. you guys look like superior athletes and you can, you can move like them too. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I had a, I was making fun of Danielle. Well, on accident, kind of on accident on the podcast the other day.

And I took some cheap shots at her and I did that to provoke her to come on. Cause the last few times we were supposed to have podcasts, she left me hanging. She didn't show up. So I had to like, I first, I had to make fun of her and taunt her. And then I had to send her a picture of you, Nikki, and show you that you were going to be on the show. And bam, here she is. True. You're the real reason I'm here, Nikki. It's good to hear. No problem. So, so Nikki, it's interesting that nicky was just saying about how he likes to push as hard as he can and leave everything on the table and just and and he did

that in 12 years old at wrestling and then he also said he's a fan of crossfit and then now i get it right i mean that's what crossfit is it's like you're trying to go until the you're trying to push yourself as hard as you can but the wheels can't fall off the bus until you cross the finish line. It's a delicate balance. It is. Have you done jiu-jitsu, Danielle? I actually have in high school. I did judo.

I think, but it was like, that's like different. That was just on the ground. Have you done jiu-jitsu, Nikki? I mean, have you was like, that's like different. That was just on the ground. So have you done jujitsu, Nikki? I mean, have you done judo, Nikki? I mean, I've trained, I've trained some like judo type throws. I mean, in like nogi judo is pretty much Greco Roman wrestling. It's like upper body throws and whatnot. Yeah.

I mean, I've done a bunch of that, just trying to get better and learn, but I'm not, I'm not a geek kind of guy you know i like uh i'm as little clothes as possible it's my style he's daniel daniel he rolled out of bed went to his bathroom and we started the podcast are you sitting on the toilet right now no i, I got a nice red stool under me. Oh, good. Daniel, what are you up to? So you thought this podcast was next week? Yeah, I thought it was next week. But my dog wakes me up at like 6.30, 7 a.m. every day.

So I went and took him on a walk. What kind of dog you got? A mini schnauzer. Actually, he's a standard. He's not a mini. He's a standard. All right. So have a uh a french bulldog he's a bit of a handful oh yeah mine is crazy so you are gonna have kids uh nikki that's the precursor a dog uh i mean i really just had a dog someone and a friend. So, yeah, we just hang out every day.

Cruising. Danielle, are you in Vegas? I am. And you're staying there? You're going to keep training there? Yeah, at least for another couple of years, probably. I don't see myself living here forever, but. And this Rogue event was in Austin.

Yeah. And that I, damn, I didn't even make that connection. And that's where Nikki moved. You just moved there two months ago, Nikki. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. I'm living in Austin two, three months. Love it out here.

Oh, wow. Is there a good training group out there? Yeah. Yeah. My whole team just kind of moved to Austin, opened up a gym and uh we're loving it great food great people oh wow yeah so you're living uh you live in vegas right have you been to chippendales been where to chippendales no no okay haven't yet okay nikki were you a chippendale dancer i was i was almost so i don't like you know there is a crossfitter that was a chippendale

i'm blanking on his name he trains with in nashville okay i uh i went to like a uh interview there and they uh i passed the interview they offered me a job which is like i must have been 19 or 20 years old maybe 21 actually 21 yeah yeah why didn't you take it yes well because they were offering me like 60k a year um standard and i could make like another 60 in tips or like i don't know whatever they consider it um but yeah it just wasn't that much money to like move across country so it was just yeah um tell me about the audition for that the job interview for that yeah so they fly me out i stay at uh i think the rio and um pretty much the interview consists i had to go watch the show which i'm like all right i'm fucking watching these guys shake their ass

and it just wasn't for me um and then i then i go do the interview and i just have to dance in front of them with some music in the background. And yeah, I mean, apparently I passed the test, but it just wasn't my kind of lifestyle. So you can dance? I mean, I'm a jack of all trades, some would say. Oh my gosh, really? Dude, Nicky, you got to publish, you got to get that video, dude, and put that on your Instagram. instagram yeah they might have a recording of it actually maybe that's hilarious danielle can you dance i like to think i can yeah i heard you could dance

like a motherfucker i heard at the uh crossfit games after party you were on some fucking balcony in this crazy dress dancing i heard it was just like a friend of mine i will not disclose his name said it was like breathtaking he said like you couldn't even look at her you'd take your breath away is that true were you on some balcony or something i was yeah that's awesome wow well i love it you've been on the show for uh three minutes and we are and you already got nikki telling us about we're talking about his job at home depot and you already got Nikki telling us about it. We were talking about his job at Home Depot and you already got the Chippendale story out of it. And I'm exposed.

Nikki, I like how casual you are about that in everything you say. Everything's just so nonchalant. Yeah, I just needed to make sure that if I walk into a room, I look around and I know that I can beat everyone up in the room yeah i was i was i applied to be a chippendale dancer yeah i mean everything is just so sounds kind of rough you're saying it back to me sounds kind of rough no no it's but and don't watch any of your podcasts don't go back and watch it but you say it and there's no like there's's no, there's no WWE in what you say. There's no bravado.

There's no arrogance. It's just like, yeah, that's my Ferrari parked over there. It's just, it just is. Try to keep it real with y'all. Yeah, just matter of fact. You have a Ferrari? Or is that, was that a joke? I wish I did. Maybe someday. You have a Ferrari? Or was that a joke?

I wish I did. Maybe someday. I'm a little too big to fit in a Ferrari, to be honest. How big are you? I'm 6'3", but I'm a little wide. I've been in a Lambo before, to kind of tell you. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah, you're big.

6'3"? Wow. Yeah. How about you? You got some height on you right like five seven okay oh you're okay i thought you were way taller on your i was told that you look like a like a six foot i know i look really lanky on there yeah yeah i i leveraged you too daniel when i after he was going to be so he was going to be on and and he had said and i had seen him so basically what happened is i knew who he was and then he went and worked out with Jason Kalipa.

And then I was – and then someone showed me a video of him and Jason working out. And like even before the video is over, I'm like quickly DMing him. I'm like, oh, hey, will you come on my podcast? So I don't know. A day later he responds and then I'm like, what can I do to make sure this fucking guy comes on? And I go, oh, I'll just play him and Danielle against each other. I'll tell him, I'll send him Danielle's profile and be like, oh, she might join us because he likes CrossFit. And then I'll tell, and I'll send Danielle Nikki's documentary and lure Danielle on.

I was like, fuck, this is fucking brilliant, Sevan. You're a genius. Man with a plan right there. Are you, do you ever go to vegas uh nikki uh i mean i've been there i've been there for my 21st birthday i've been there for the chippendales interview and maybe one other time it's fun but i never like uh i'm not like a club kind of guy i just go there and gamble a little bit. What about working out with Danielle and everything you do, she's just fucking crushing you at? Is that – are you cool with that?

Like some guy who's like just top of the food chain and then you go there and she runs faster than you. She lifts more than you. She just – everything, she's just mopping you up. Are you good with that? Yeah. I mean it's a learning process. I definitely – I'm down to learn some stuff. I'm sure it would be some good content.

It would be, it would be amazing content. Yeah, that'd be good. That'd be cool. It would, it would be amazing. Although Jason said you were a good CrossFitter. Oh, me? Yeah. I mean, I just try hard.

I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say good. I mean, uh, I probably can't put all those numbers, but I put out some effort for sure. Do you have any interest in going to the CrossFit Games as a spectator? Yeah, I'd love to watch. I was trying to go to the event in Round Rock, but I just got caught up in my academy. But I would like to make it out.

Daniel, what did you get? Were people saying that i was bad mouthing you in your dms what happened hell yeah they were like you know savann talking shit every time i wear a little cute crop top they say that savann's gonna come at you and attack you every time they're like that savann wouldn't approve of this oh that's awesome i fucking love it i love it yeah i got so many screen recordings of you talking shit on that last podcast you know it's funny too as i can't remember exactly what i was comparing it to but i basically i i called um nikki i called danielle

garnish a garnish yeah i mean she's the 10th fittest woman in the world i mean it's fucking nuts her accomplishments it's fucking ridiculous to to say anything negative about her she's she's otherworldly and how she's done it and she was a fucking collegiate athlete and she was a a pole vaulter and there's no and she's been on the podcast a couple times and there's no um it's all hard work on her part. There's nothing in fucking life has been given to her. She's a fucking special, special human being. It's fucking crazy. But I basically made a joke about her saying she had no chance of winning the CrossFit Games and she was just fucking garnished, meaning just like one of the people there just to – part of the show.

Like the guy, Cirque du Soleil, who rides the unicycle but he doesn't got the star roll. And as it's coming out of my mouth i'm like oh i'm fucked i'm fucked i probably shouldn't have said that uh daniel what do you think is the hardest aspect of crossfit there's just so many things you have to be good at at once like the variety of like you know you have to be good while you're trying to get better at running and conditioning and gymnastics you also have to be getting stronger and you know able to lift heavy while also run very fast you have to be able to train both of those things and hopefully at the end of the season come to a peak where you're really good at both.

But a lot of people, I mean, just genetically, it's very hard to get stronger and faster at the same time. Because you guys are like the most well-rounded athletes, right? You have great strength. You have great cardio. You have great balance, especially with your handstands and stuff. That's impressive. Thanks.

You're welcome. Yeah. That guy, Adam Klink, what did he do? He did something crazy. Oh, the five or 600 pound back squat. And then, yeah, the guy did a 500 pound back squat and then ran a mile all within five minutes, right? Yeah. Sub five. Yeah. Sub five minute mile. And then what, 100 pull ups or something? I don't know.

I don't know about that. But I just remember that him doing that and being like, holy shit. When when he said that, what's the hardest thing about CrossFit? I started thinking like more bigger picture. I wonder what because there's times both of you want to quit, right? No, like during a training session? No, but during a – so during a competition, do you ever want to quit, Danielle? Like you're 30 minutes into a fucking workout or 20 minutes at the CrossFit Games, you're doing Murph or something?

No. I never want to quit. Fuck yeah. I like her. I never want to quit. I'm never like, dang, I just want to stop. I'm like, this is shitty. It's probably hard because you have, you have guys,

you have competition next to you and you're like, you know, you gotta, you gotta beat them. I don't think when you're, when you're competing, you're worried about quitting. You're more so worried about like, what's next. I think if you're, if you have faults of like, you know, am I tired or am I, do I want to quit? It's like kind of losing the battle already. Yeah.

Like if you're at that, if you're like, Oh, I want to quit. Like, fuck, you must be hurting bad. Um,

when, when, uh, there was a, early on in the CrossFit world, there was a, uh, an athlete,

a pretty famous athlete within the CrossFit world named Chris Spieler, and he was a collegiate wrestler. And one of the things he described, he said he liked CrossFit so much, was no one's trying to stop you. Yeah. And that is different, right? Because in Nikki's sport, that's all that there is. There's just another dude trying to stop you the whole time from trying to do your shit. And with your sport, Danielle, it's just you against you. Yeah.

You can't blame anyone else. What's so attractive about CrossFit? Is it the independence of it? What's so attractive about it? Yeah. What really drew you in? You're like, this is what I want to do. Probably.

What really drew you in? You're like, this is what I want to do. Probably. Well, so when I did sports like gymnastics, pole vaulting and swimming and diving, I would say I picked up on them like pretty quickly. You know, like there's, of course, frustrations within the sport and learning new skills and stuff. But with CrossFit, I wasn't great at everything right away. So I think that was really motivating like i was just like dang i want to be good at everything and it's really hard and nobody just starts crossfit and is good at every like every aspect so and in the same way fucking schmucks like me who were getting picked after girls in high school sports they can go to crossfit and find something that they are good at so like i was a fucking horrible athlete but i could go to a crossfit gym and there was some shit like holy shit i could beat everyone in here this is weird because there's so much shit

yeah right like like you were saying like um like jason taught you the bar muscle up right nikki yeah like so for me that shit was just came just naturally like i didn't know one had to teach me that it was like no that was the hardest thing i've done in a long time plus though you learned that in one session you know some crossfitters that takes five years and they still never get it it was it actually destroyed my hands like putting the chalk on the hands and then trying to turn some muscle ups it was like my grips are gone yeah that that's a that's a son of a bitch. And another thing that's – when you were asking Danielle what attracted her to CrossFit, Danielle may have used sports differently than you did. As I recall, Danielle used sports as a way to change her life in totality.

She needed to – she had to be good at sports in order to make her life better. She was looking for a way out. She was looking for a change in reality. She had hardships as a child. Like, okay, fuck, I better be good at this and plow my way. Whereas yours was you wanted to be top of the food chain. You're like, hey, I need to – like from a young age, you knew you wanted to beat every dude up who's in the – or you wanted to make sure that when you looked around the room you felt best when you knew you could beat everyone up in

the room right i think there's a security that's primal yes dude he said some crazy primal shit yeah i think i wanted to start just eating a raw drumstick in the middle of the show now yeah i think i think skills like that just gave me a sense of security and a little bit more confidence just everyday life. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it's nuts. Yeah. When do you compete next, Nicky?

I'm healing up from a little banged up, so I got like a month or two, a couple months before I can compete. Is that what – so there's stuff you would want to do but you're just not 100% yeah I mean I'm like uh I'm like 50 50 I'm so I'm training training hard training every day but uh you know I'm not like uh can't do everything yet wait you're 50% is that what you said that's low yeah yeah no I mean okay so 50 50 for me is like when i'm competing i'm never i'm never going 100 right because if i'm good if you have to sprint if you have to go 100 it's because you're losing so like in a match uh it's more jujitsu is more of a marathon right because matches can go 15 20 30 minutes so it's how long can you keep you know your pace like my pace my pace i usually keep 50 60 percent for uh you know in practice

it's for two hours um so like if i have to sprint again like i was saying like you're kind of falling behind so 50 for me i can i can beat everybody uh at 50 pretty you know pretty fairly wow um and when do you compete next danielle maybe wadapalooza why maybe i'm a little injured so i was supposed to go to dubai but it was just too soon because I was pretty injured at Rogue and then did we just like you know I started competing and we were like should I pull out should I pull out and then I was like nah it's too much fun I was having too much fun competing now you know what it's like to be a guy you just summed up a man's life right there should I pull out should I pull out nah it's just too much fun exactly and uh i was gonna go to dubai but then

pulled out of that and then i'm hoping i really would like to compete at waterpalooza is it serious what's going on my back i don't know i uh i'm getting an m i'm seeing a doctor on monday in hopes to maybe get an mri how's your headspace around it? You feel good about it or you're just fucking like a bull trapped in a, in the corral. It's just frustrating because it was rogue, rogue. I was able to see a really good PT who kind of like yanked on me literally and then kind of fix it.

But then it just shifted to the other side. So then it was getting better though after rogue it was better and then literally just yesterday i was uh dead lifting which pulling hasn't really been hurting and then i just fucking can't even like bend over without oh shit idiot so did you seize up in the gym like did you feel it go out and you're like, Oh fuck. Yeah. Like it literally felt like my spine was separating from my hips. Like it's weird. So it's just,

it's just frustrating because I've been getting so much better in my condition, like with conditioning and skills and stuff. And then to kind of get set back with strength again is frustrating. Not that it's something I need, but. What do you mean? It's not something you need. Like strength. I don't think is, I don't think I need like a long time on like a strength.

How do I put this? I don't need as long to build strength as like other things. Right. You know, like I took a lot of time off. I hadn't snatched since the games and then snatching at Rogue, that snatch event, the last event. That was the first time I touched a snatch since the games. Wow. Holy shit.

Wow. Yeah. since the games wow holy shit wow yeah and then like a week ago i was able to hit like 185 190 consistently just right like out of the blue and i was like i've even been snatching so i was like it must not be too bad taking time off the strength yeah that's crazy uh nikki in that video with you and jason speaking to Snatching, how much does he weigh? Does he weigh like when you were rolling with him, 205? Yeah, maybe. I don't know. He's only 205?

What do you think he weighs? No, he's got to be like 220. Is he? Okay. He's pretty dense, big boy. He's not as tall, but he's pretty wide. It's great. So I saw that video i immediately

texted him i'm like holy shit you rolled with nikki rod and he goes yeah he said it was super cool and then um and then last night i was watching or a couple nights ago i was watching a video game you literally when you're like is it side control or side guard you're basically moving him around like he's a baby. Thank you. I mean, does it feel easy or do you just make it look easy? I mean, you literally have your arm around like literally like a baby. It's like you're just like – you just slide him around effortlessly. Yeah. And I'm like, holy fuck, that's Jason Kalipa.

Yeah. It's a knowledge is power, man, and I know quite a bit more than him on the graphic. So I'm just going to have my way. He's strong. He's fast. He's athletic. and I know quite a bit more than him on the grappling mat, so I'm just going to have my way. He's strong. He's fast. He's athletic. I mean, just like it's – it would be the same comparison if I hopped on a crossfit stage against him. It would be rough. There's this thing that you – there's something you say about

when you're doing jiu-jitsu matches that you just – when you're in there, you're trying to break their arms and break their legs, like in the submissions. Is that really true? Isn't there some part of you that just – you know when you get someone in an arm bar that, hey, you should start lightening up a little bit? No. No, when I go to competition, my goal is to break my opponent physically. And then – I mean usually their mind breaks first and then their body so if you have someone in an arm bar you're literally thrusting your hips up and trying to like snap their elbow and then they tap and you stop before

it happens well i mean usually it breaks before they tap you have you actually have you has someone's arm broken in your hand oh yeah i just posted a video with a guy uh me uh camorra him just broke his shoulder um i broke in i broke in two shoulders three arms and and two legs my first time i heel hooked somebody i absolutely blew his knee out he was like carried out in a in a uh in like a wheelchair do you ever feel bad i i used to think i would feel bad but they're trying to do that to me no so like if you have somebody trying to break your arm like i'm gonna break his shit first so yes wow damn so so you don't even even as you get close to it something inside of you doesn't say to stop i'm trying to kill my opponent right

right he's the thing is right if you if you let up like i'm pulling i'm breaking a guy's arm and you and they're like you feel like they're gonna tap and they fake tap and then they just scramble and they get away it's like that that stuff happens they they fake like they're gonna tap they stop you loosen up and then they pull it out and it's like you can't have that you know they know what they know what they're signing up for just like i know what i'm signing up for if a guy gets in on my legs or gets in in this mission he's gonna try to break me so you know there's this guy um danielle his name is uh gordon ryan and he's considered the best guy ever and at when uh nikki had only been doing doing jiu-jitsu for eight weeks, he started training with this guy, which is just weird and unheard of. It needs to be a whole podcast going through the minutia of how that – those first eight weeks.

But when you first get in there with him, you would think that even the greatest black belts in the world would show deference to him. But something about me makes – about you makes me think you showed no deference. Yeah, I mean I just – You just went at him and just took his back? I did take his back for first practice for sure. I had a really innate ability to get to people's back just because of wrestling. And again, like I have – you take a guy like gwen ryan and he's forced to to pull guard on me because he doesn't wrestle you know he can't he doesn't he can't stand with me on the

feet because he's he's intimidated or he just he just understands that you know i'm levels above him in the wrestling department so uh you you're forced into pull guard and you know he has to play off his back then that's a defensive position to start. But did you take it easy on him at first, like out of respect? Like when you go in there, you're like, hey, this guy's the best in the world. I'm just going to just feel him out. Or is it just like just two rocks

just come at each other? Yeah, no, we just go to war every day. It's amazing to me because you know what I'm talking about, right? Like if you... My goal every time I go to practice is to be the best guy in the room and if there's a guy better than me you know we gotta make sure we take him out and even even on day one there's never like a feeling out period or anything it's just like

hi gordon i'm nikki let's go and then bam two rocks just collide the first day we practice right like how long are we practicing practice rounds usually five minutes the first time we shook hands and trained together we went for 30 minutes straight no break just 30 minutes grappling straight and then uh and just started doing that every day wow so you don't even know the dude isn't that amazing that two dudes were you shirtless when you did that or rash guard no i was shirtless shirtless was he shirtless no i started i think i started the shirtless when you did that or rash guard no i was shirtless shirtless was he shirtless no i started i think i started the shirtless trend in jujitsu people kind of like it i don't know it's more views on instagram so off the top yeah fuck yeah everyone wants to

see a human beautiful human body move around um yeah that's that's 90 of crossfit um uh so you just walk into this room you've never met the dude you never facetimed him before you obviously have seen his videos um and they're like okay you want to roll with gordon and you're like yeah and then you and danaher puts you two together and that's it you guys just fucking just two dudes just start tangling like just fighting spiders so he knew i was a wrestler so we shook hands we wrestled i put him down a couple times and uh are people and is everyone in the room watching or is that what i try to cool and not watch if we're training the whole room pretty much stops and just watches us so we're we're training and like it's usually supposed to be like five or ten minute rounds

and that's like when danielle was dancing at the games by the way everyone just stopped and watched yeah yeah so we're uh we're we're training and uh pretty much i feel like in jujitsu and grappling or in wrestling like how you really get to find out who somebody is is by training with them you know like do they give up when they're tired do they keep going uh how long can you keep that you know that cognitive uh thinking when you're exhausted so i feel like uh you know more than words you know your body language when you're grappling is how you really get to find out who somebody is wow wow and and are there things that dudes do out of desperation when you're competing with them that like give you signs like oh shit i must be really winning he's he's got his fingers in my ribs now that's not a normal thing it'll be a

body language like i'll see a guy breathing through his mouth i look him in his eyes and he you know you can see a little bit of that one there or you see him look at the clock you're like you want it to be over so yeah there's a few telltale signs i'll listen to the breathing i see what i see you uh the way their eyes look if they're peeking at the clock if they if they're trying to if they're on bottom they're just trying to stand up and get away um and i just keep holding them down like it gives you a kind of understanding where you are in the round there was something you said in there about uh in one of the podcasts that like that basically being underneath a 240 pound man who's sweating is literally like drowning it's like drowning yeah i uh i spent a lot of my uh like the first two

years of grappling danielle's like sign me up i would love to be underneath a 240 pound sweating woman yeah oh my god yeah there's a yeah it's tough being stuck under somebody because like Put me down. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's tough being stuck under somebody because all you want to do is stand up and get away, and you just can't. You're laying on your back. You have this guy on top of you, and you're forced to make adjustments, and you're forced to learn mid-match. It makes you tough. if you've never been held down before you're then you're being held down you just have no option um yeah it's a it's a few mental adjustments that you have to make and things that you have to work through and then

like to drive to practice again the next day and fucking do it all over again it's uh yeah it's rough but it's good i'm a lot better now. Danielle, you should take up this sport. I know. Come roll in Austin, girl. Whenever you're in Texas, come swing by. When I think of you, I think of you as, I don't know why, I think of you as probably one of the tougher CrossFit Games athletes. Like you're made for this shit, Danielle.

That sounds fun. Have you ever pole vaulted, Nicky? Yeah, I did. I did it in high school. I think I got like 11 11 foot but i only did it like uh i did it for like a day or a couple or a week or two more more practice never in competition though danielle was a scholarship athlete at uh in sacramento california as a pole vaulter and she actually qualified for some of the highest uh level CrossFit events while she was in college but didn't go because she had to honor her scholarship to her college.

That's one of the more scary things on the track and field, the pole vault, because you're so high. You see people get fucked up pole vaulting. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've seen people break their femurs, flip over the mat, a lot of confusion. What's your highest pole vault? About

14. Yeah, wow, that's up there. You have the record highest pole? About 14. Yeah. Wow. That's up there. You have the record at the college, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.

And did you, and you had the record and then you broke your own record, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's dope. You guys are fucking amazing. Yeah.

It's fun. Um, I have to go take my kid to, uh, San Jose, California to his, uh jiu-jitsu tournament oh really? yeah, this morning

oh, that's sick what? I can't believe I'm staring at both of you I wanted to just see both of you on the same show I think the world of both of you I think that it's really important that there's human beings like you guys on the planet that show what the rest of humanity what men men and women can really do, what they look like, how you can be a cool person and still just pursue at the highest level.

So I appreciate your guys' time. A shitload. Danielle, I don't believe in God, but I'm going to pray that you have a speedy recovery. And I really mean that. I want the best for you. I love you to death. I think you're awesome. Oh, thank you. Thanks for letting me pick on you from social media and Oh, bye Nikki. I was, I was so excited. I was so excited to have both you guys on and see both of you guys on the same show. Me too. That was fun. I'm glad I hopped on.

you guys on and see both you guys on the same show me too that's fun i'm glad i hopped on there's uh there he is there's i i like this term man child um i think it's just and i when i think of nikki rod i think he's a man child he's just like he he's he's a boy who turned into a man and it's just like just the most amazing and i and i was like oh and danielle brandon's a woman child she's like this a little girl who's just turned into a superwoman. Oh, I love it. So thanks for your time, you guys. And we should do it again sometime. Of course.

Sounds good, man. Thank you. All right.