The Sevan Podcast - #247 - Josh Emmitt

Episode Date: January 1, 2022

Joshua James Emmett is a professional mixed martial artist.  A professional competitor since 2011, Emmett is #6 in the UFC featherweight rankings, with a 17-2 record.The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.comFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/Watch this episode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59b5GwfJN9HY7uhhCW-ACw/videos?view=2&live_view=503 Support the showPartners:https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATIONhttps://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK!https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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To get started, just open the app. It's as easy as that. See the PC Optimum app for details. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We book your reservation and when you get to the main event skip to the good bit using the card member entrance let's go seize the night that's the powerful backing of american express visit amex.ca slash y amex benefits vary by card other conditions oh so good bam we're live dude you josh when i invited you on the show we were doing 200 000 downloads on itunes a week and now we're doing like almost 350 000 downloads a week because you waited that critical three weeks while we went through great your pr guy's a genius. Yeah. That's awesome.

People who are watching, I am a – I'm just like a UFC fanatic. Not like the normal guys who interview you who know shit about the sport, but I'm like – for me, it's like junk food, right? Okay. On Saturdays, I sit down and I watch that for three hours. And then when I'm warming up on the assault bike to work out, I watch all the gossip shows, you know, like those 10 minute like gossip shows they have on YouTube. Like what's Joe Rogan say about Conor McGregor's being juiced up? What's what's Dana White say about John Jones hitting his wife? You know that those all those. Not really.

But yeah. OK, that's me. Yeah. Right. Right. You're too busy training. That's me. Right. Right. You're too busy training. And so I've been fortunate enough to dig in.

I was an executive over at CrossFit. I was with CrossFit for a long time. And I basically started this podcast and I've been parlaying this following I have and just a huge growth of the CrossFit to just talk to some of the people that I really – really the only TV that I watch, which is UFC. And people have been kind enough. Like Al Jermaine came on a couple weeks ago, a couple weeks before that. Volkanovski came on. And we've been just getting just awesome people. So I really appreciate you doing this. You are – man, you're a special cat.

Thank you. For those of you who don't know, this is a guy, he's 17-2. You could probably argue quite convincingly that he's 17-1. His one loss was a decision, and it's quite questionable. And so to put that in perspective, you have someone like who's the current champ who may be considered the great, is in the conversation for one of the greatest fighters um ever uh also only has one loss and uh you are i mean is it it's fair to say you are the it's in it's weird to say this because you're 36 but you are the next guy to break into that like all the guys above you i mean they're like their household names in the mma space right for for us fans right and they've

all that that's what i've been saying you know it's like all the guys in front of me they they've all fought each other they've fought the champions but for some reason it's like they don't fight for a year or two they come back and they just hold their slot in the top three. You know what I mean? Like I'm constantly, I was ranked fourth in the world at one point. And then I had a small setback and it's like I've been working my ass off to get back to where I'm at. But I'm always fighting the guys behind me. Never turned a fight down.

Always accepted a fight. Even though you see some people say that I turned fights down, was never offered that fight then um but it's it's been tough like i want to fight the best guys and like volkanoski like you said he is he's the best in uh in our weight class i think whoever the champion is is the best but you know i i think stylistically him and i match up like it's the best matchup for me. You know what I mean? And he's a great guy. I met him once when I was in Rio when he fought Jose Aldo and beat him.

But it's like I want to fight these guys. I know I can hold my own, and I believe I'm the best in the world. I just want the opportunity. Matt, can you bring up that – I think I sent it to you in the email, the link from – is it SureDog? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's SureDog, and it's the fighter profile on Josh Emmett. Do you see that in the email? It's crazy when you look at how successful you've been.

It's a testament to how hard it is to be an athlete and scroll down a little bit. And the funny thing is, like you're saying, I could be 17 and one, like in my mind, I'm like, you know, I could argue that I'm I'm 18. Oh, and one, you know, it's I feel that Desmond Green fight. I'm grateful for that loss because it made me go down to uh featherweight and that was always the plan but since i was winning it lightweight i wasn't going to change it so i'm happy that that happened i do feel like i won that fight steven's loss you know it is what it is but it's like little controversy behind that like i don't take anything away from him you know it's the fight game um but i i did set the new there's a reason why they have instant replays now they they set that rule because of that fight

and then explain that to me go into detail explain that to me please um so now they have instant replay with the jeremy stevens fight you know there was a there was an illegal knee, you know, that they should have stopped the match right away. And then I would have had, you know, time to recover. I wanted to take in those elbows that kind of like, you know, fractured my face and cost me the fight. And people forget I was winning that fight. You know, I almost finished him in the first round. But, you know, it's all part of a learning process. You know, I was my first main event slot in my head. I was thinking you have four more rounds

conserve some energy. Um, but I learned from it, you know, because I should have done what he did to me in the second round. But, but what I'm saying with that, uh, that illegal knee, I was on all fours and he threw the knee and it grazed my head. It didn't do a whole lot of damage, but it still, it was illegal. You know, there's rules for a reason. So it grazed my head and then came down, hit me in the back of the head. Um, which it didn't honestly, people talk about that and it, it didn't affect me at all. Like it's a fight, you know, and there's some elbows to the back of the head, but I'm turning away so i'm creating that so i don't take anything away from um stevens but after that fight then there was another illegal knee i think it was

greg hardy maybe a few weeks after maybe months um but they implemented the instant replay um now because of that. Well, I wouldn't have gone here, and this is really more technical than a knob fan like myself should care about, but I guess I'm there. I think that in the Aljamain fight, they should just stop. Like, it's a sport. That's the rule.

It's a severe breakage of the rules. It's not like you grab the fence and someone, and the ref knocked your fingers off. I think if you need someone in your head, I don't think it should be up to the athlete, whether they can continue or not. I think the ref should call the fucking fight and they should refight later. If they want to fight, it is a,

it's like serious misconduct. No, I a hundred percent. Or get rid of the rule and let the dudes need each other in the head, but you can't have it both ways it's not fair to put that on aljamain it's not fair to put that on you it's not fair to put that on um who did john didn't john jones need someone in the head too it's not fair to put that on those dudes the dude who got knee in the head the whole he's got to deal with

peer pressure winning the fight the referee and it's fucking nuts. No, I 100% agree. And it's like, and the only thing is like, I don't care. But like you said, there's rules for a reason. Right. If not, hey, take them all away. Let's go back to pride rules. I could have soccer kicked him in the face when I dropped him, but that's against the rule, so I didn't. You know what I mean? It's just, for me, it's the principle.

If you can't enforce a rule, it's pointless. It's like that in society too. I hate to get all political on you here for a second, but in my town you can steal up to $950 in my town in California or in any of these, I don't know what's happened to the whole Western side of the United States. Um, but you can break all these laws and get away with it. Like then don't have the law. the United States. Um, but you can break all these laws and get away with it. Like then don't have the law. I thought it was under a thousand. So it's nice. Yeah, sure. It's just, it's just nuts. Yeah. You can, you can, you can put someone up, you can hold, uh, my, my kids, jujitsu instructor, Garth Taylor was held up at a ATM by a knife. And, uh, 24 hours later, by the way, the guy didn't get any money from him. And, uh, 24 hours later, the guy's out because of COVID. No, no, sorry.

You don't get protection from COVID if you put a knife to someone at the ATM. Yeah. Or don't have the rule. Let all robbery at the ATM go on. I mean, like, so we can all show up there with a gang of people. I mean. um you think you i mean you fight and you um interview like someone who thinks they can beat everyone up like you have like some crazy confidence not like um fake confident i don't mean fake not like bravado i don't want to call it fake what connor does or what some of these guys

does but it's it's very clear listening to you talk that you just think you could beat everyone up. Yeah. And that's why I got into the sport. I feel like you have to have self-belief in yourself. You have to be confident, but not, not in a bad way. I, a hundred percent, like I only got into the sport because I was a huge fan of it. I've always been a fan of it. I've wrestled my whole life. I've played sports my whole life and I, and I thought I could do well at it. Um, I also, I'm from Sacramento, California, so I'm grateful and lucky that Uriah opened one of the best gyms for the lighter weights in my backyard. Um, otherwise I wouldn't be fighting,

you know, I didn't have the money. I wouldn't have gone in and travel to any other city or state to try this out. And so I've been training with them since he opened his gym in 2006. Um, and then there was a small break that I went down, um, to the Bay area, um, Menlo college. And I wrestled down there from 2007 to 2010, just cause I wanted to get my degree. Um, I knew I was going to come back to fighting, but just in case fighting didn't work out for me, I wanted to get my degree. I knew I was going to come back to fighting, but just in case fighting didn't work out for me, I wanted to have something to fall back on. And so I got better at wrestling at the four-year level. And then I came back in 2010,

picked up where I left off, had a few amateur fights, and then went pro. I've been training with the best guys in the world my entire career i was all of the the top guys main training partners when i was two and oh as amateur one and oh as a pro so i i kind of i've known where i stack up the entire time um i've also trained with everyone that's come through team alpha male and trained with us you know over the last decade so i i just i needed – just my opportunity to get in the UFC, and I was lucky and grateful to get that on a four-day notice across the world, and I took advantage of it. What's your dad like? Were you born in Sacramento, did you say? I was born in Phoenix. Okay.

I was born in Phoenix. My mom and dad came out to Sacramento when I was six months old. That was when I was home to me. What is your dad like? My dad passed away 12 years ago. He was a great guy. My mom raised me. My mom was a single mom.

I raised my older brother and I, and then I have, you know, my dad had my stepmom at the time, um, you know, and then had two kids, my, my brother and sister as well. But I just wasn't, I wasn't, you know, it just wasn't, uh, it was different. Like we just weren't as, as close, you know? Oh wasn't uh it was different like we just weren't as as close you know oh how did your dad pass uh he was kind of got into a like altercation and just it was uh i don't know it was ruled homicide and then the da's everything ruled it out it it wasn't. He had a heart attack during the altercation. Wow. Holy cow. Man, that was hard. And it was all like I was talking about. It's like a lot of people,

I don't talk about a lot of this, but it's like my whole life was just tough. Not even just in my career. It's like growing up as a kid and just a lot of dysfunction. And, you know, my, my dad and older brother, it was just a lot of addiction and mental illness and alcohol abuse. And so it's like, that's why I'm, I think that's kind of like molded me into the way I am. I, you know, as a child, seeing so much stuff and was, you know, just scared all the time and around, you know, the police were always at the house. So it's like when I'm going to go fight somebody in a controlled environment that I signed up to do, that does not scare me at all. You know what I mean? There's a rep in there to stop us if something happens.

Is it is it that you're is it that you're not scared oh that's interesting i i heard daniel ross sorry i got a couple competing thoughts here i heard daniel rodriguez say he's one of the welterweights and he came off the mean streets of east la and i remember him saying god he loves the ufc because in in east la he said you get in a fight and even if you win or lose like you don't know like if someone's gonna stab you yeah yeah in the ufc there's a ref and it's over and you get to like go back to your car without someone stabbing you um or is it that maybe you're trying to there's an intensity in that um um in those moments when you're a kid that you're trying to relive, do you think maybe it could be that?

It's not so much that you were afraid, but your psychological makeup is you're at home under just tremendous stress. Yeah. I don't know about that. When I'm fighting, it's kind of crazy. And you've probably heard people talk about this. When I'm fighting, it's kind of crazy. And you've probably heard people talk about this. It is crazy in a sense that I'm not nervous at all before a fight. Like my, since my first amateur fight, like I was asking my coaches, is it bad? Right before I walked out, is it bad? I'm not nervous. They is like, I'm just from a financial standpoint, I'm thinking about not that I'm not thinking about losing, but I'm just like, if something goes wrong, I get half of my pay. And you know, I'm banking, I'm always banking on myself. And I'm like,

you know, what do you mean if something goes wrong? Like if the other guy pulls out with COVID or something? No, if you lose, if you lose, you get paid half, you know what I mean? It's like, it's a, you get a show and a win, you know? So it's like, that's the only thing from a financial standpoint that is always in the back of my mind. Cause I'm going to, I'm not fighting any harder. I'm trying to win and knock the person out and hurt the person with every single strike I throw. So it's, uh, that's the only thing in the back of my mind. But, um, as far as like reliving, say, I don't, I don't know. I don't think so. I'm just, I just feel like I'm, I'm good at this. And, and there's not a whole, there's not another job that I could just go out there and make these big lumps of, um, cash. And my goal is to be a world champion. You know, it's, uh, so I'm, I'm the type of person that when I want something, like I, I'll do all my research on it. I'll do this, but it's like, I want it now.

You know, I can't, it's hard for me just to kind of like wait and wait and wait. And so it's like, I want to be a world champion and I'm, I'm, I'm all in on this. You know what I mean? I also feel like, like you were talking about my age earlier. I, I am older than most, but at this point I feel the absolute best I've ever felt. I got into the sport late too. You know, I, I didn't, I haven't taken really any damage. I'm sorry. Um, besides, um, besides the Jeremy Stevens fight, you know, I, I took, that's the most damage I've ever taken. And you know, I have

19 pro fights and a few amateur fights. Um, so I, I feel great and I feel like I have the longevity of my career. Um, I feel like I'd have a handful of years, but only a, uh, maybe a year and a half to two years and they'll really make a run at that title. of damage these guys um who are the five guys who are ahead of you in this weight class the 145 pound class volkanovski holloway ortega yair rodriguez i don't know how you i mean i like yair i don't know he was gone for so long i don't know how he jumped up so quickly uh and then and then and then uh this chanong, that's the Korean zombie, right? Yep. And Calvin Cater, these guys are like human punching bags. These guys have taken insane damage in all their last fights that I've seen.

I mean, what Calvin – the Holloway-Cater fight was almost uncomfortable to watch. I mean, it was nuts um i mean so you know if you see and you're a toe-to-toe guy you almost look like when you fight like you have something like you want to send a message not only can i punch harder than you but your hardest punch can't hurt me and that's the thing it's funny you say that because uh i've been working with my my boxing coach i'm not saying by the way you don't have great head movement i'm just saying you will stand toe to toe with anyone. You're just like, fuck you. Let's do this.

No. And that's the thing. I spar with pro boxers and it's a different look. They hit harder, even though we have bigger gloves. The punches don't stop. It's punches and bunches. But it's like in my boxing coach, he says Joey always gets on me when he knows like certain things that I do. So as soon as I get in there and trust me, I give all my opponents so much, they say too much respect, um, just because

they fought the best guys in the world. And, and I'm never going to overlook anyone. Even if I was fighting the guy that's making his debut or the person last in the rankings, anything can happen in this sport, especially with four ounce gloves. And I don't take that for granted. So, um, but as soon as I get hit by some of these guys, I just like, I think in my head, I'm like, man, that's it. And then I've just, I know people can't, um, yeah, you're right. Because I feel like I hit anybody. It doesn't even have to be a featherweight. I could hit a welterweight. If I land a clean punch on them or a middleweight, I'll knock them out. You know, um, I feel like I do possess a different type of power and, um, you know, I have good boxing. It's like, but I, what we're fighting with four ounce gloves. Like I listened to some of the, I don't know, just people that

say stuff or journal, whatever they are. And they're just, uh, like talk about even my last fight, like, Oh, he doesn't have the best boxing. I guarantee you come watch me at a boxing gym with 16 ounce gloves and headgear. I guarantee I have the better boxing than anyone I've ever fought. You know, if I, if I find them in a boxing match, but this is MMA, you know, so we have to be a lot more careful and, and I'll have a lot better head movement and, you know, slipping punches and countering if I was actually boxing. But I'm just kind of careful with these small gloves. And that's what it was with Ige. I gave him a ton of respect. He's a tough guy.

I did want to go out there and be the first one to finish him because he's never been finished. But I also thought he would try to wrestle me a lot. And I was more cautious of the takedown, so I wasn't as aggressive as I typically am. I just wanted to get the win. I wanted to get two checks. Just looking at it, it was relatively I came out of that fight. I had a few scratches on my face, but I'm a pretty light-skinned guy, so you see everything.

As soon as I get hit, it just turns red, so sometimes it looks worse than it is, but in two days, I was all cleared up, my face, and I feel great. It was relatively looking at it, not saying anything bad, but it was an easy fight, looking at that fight, and he's such a tough, tough guy. Shane Burgos, can you pull that back up? I fancy myself as just loving, watching human beings, loving all human beings and, uh, being a study of just human beings. Shane Burgos doesn't seem human to me. Is he, is he weird to be around? Like he, he seems like he's a, um, he doesn't, the rest of you guys look like you're supposed to be in

that weight class he he doesn't i mean everything on him looks long his levers his bones look thicker than all your guys's i mean when you get into a ring with someone like that that was the guy you the fight you just showed matt is it different like are you like oh shit this is a cyborg when you get in there with a guy like that no or am i just totally miss miss looking at him i mean he looks like a freak to me he's a big guy he's a he is a big guy like a funny story about that even when i fought in new york when i fought you know desmond green back in what was that two i don't know 2017 or something like that shane burgos and i were in the the same like training room you know how we have a red and a blue corner like

throughout the week so we were he was training with his coach you know throughout the week I would see him I think it was his first or second fight I'm not even sure um but I was fighting at 155 and I saw him hitting pads and kicking kicking pads with his coach and then uh I was asking one of my coaches I was like I was like who is that I was like, I was like, who is that? I was like, what? He fights at one 70, you know, he's a big ass guy. And then he fights at one 45 and I was at one 55 and I was like, no way. And then, you know, fast forward a handful of years, we ended up fighting each other, but yeah, I don't, I don't know how he makes the weight. He is big. You know, I remember even when I fought him, I mean, look at his neck and the distance between his elbow and his shoulder.

I mean, he's just giant. His reach, it was the longest reach. I think it's like a 75 inch reach or what does he have? It's like 75, 76 inch reach. And he can take a punch, man. That guy can. Wow. But even like, you know, everyone's a little smaller and just sucked up at weigh-ins. So at weigh-ins, I was like, uh, you know, every, everyone's a little smaller and just

sucked up at weigh-ins. So at weigh-ins I was like, Oh, he's pretty skinny. I remember walking out and this is weird in the hangar. You know, when I fought with no fans, it was like UFC Vegas three. Um, I was talking to my coaches. I was trying to like pump myself up, but there was no music, no fans. It's dark. I was like, Oh, this is weird. But I looked at myself and I was like, I'll warm up in the first round and then and then my coach also said because he saw burgos running around the ring he's like damn he filled out you know and it was fucking huge and then that's like here you know and then as we got closer i was like man like he really did fill out like i wonder what he weighed

you know the night we fought because i put on a lot of weight and i think i was like 169 170 when i fought i guarantee he was heavier than me wow so you go from 145 to up to 170 what that's 20 25 pounds yeah and typically sometimes um i used to i used to put on like 30 pounds in 12 hours and then by the time out of me like i you know friday night i'll be 176 and then the next day i would fight at like 68 to 70 um but this this fight i was i was little i was a lot lighter for this fight so i i heard i heard like the the commentators saying like oh i'd like to get josh on the scale um but i think i was like mid 60s um and that was so light for me it was is that much weight fluctuation in that short amount of time like mess with you at all like do you

really feel that happen or is it just it's just the process that it plays out yeah i feel like i work with one of the best like dieticians in the country and they're awesome. My last handful of, um, fights I've been with them and it makes the cuts easy. Um, I thought I, I thought I knew what I was doing before. Um, but until I started working with them, it's like, like, I guess I really didn't, or I did better than most, but now it's on another level. And that's why I'm talking about, I feel the best i've ever felt in general just because like i have everyone in in play and like i say my team and i'm not talking about team alpha male it's just like all my you know my dieticians my coaches my nutritionists my chiropractors everyone that kind of helps me along the

the way with things it's like it's the best i felt and and I feel like from a – I don't know. What do they say? Like your chronological age, and I just – even though the number is getting up there, I'm like 36. I feel great. There is, I guess – I don't mean to put words in your mouth, but a sense of urgency in terms of – can you pull up that Sherdog thing again? urgency in terms of can you pull up that sure dog thing again so you hear people like olivera who went like whatever nine fights without getting a title fight or you have leon edwards with nine now and you have these guys i mean so so make that smaller so i can even see more wins if you took out the jeremy stevens it's like i don't know how many fights it is one two three

four five six can you scroll down more oh sorry okay right there that's good okay now go back the I don't know how many fights it is. One, two, three, four, five, six. Can you scroll down more? Oh, sorry. Right there. That's good. Okay. Now go back the other way. From John Tuck, one, two, three, four.

Oh, no. From there. One, two, three, four, five, six. You would be on it and keep going all the way. It would be a seven-fight win streak. And so at 36, do you feel like, okay, you cannot lose or it'll be you the the chance for a title shot will will be gone yeah yeah that's why i'm all in like i even felt like this going back to my my regional i was getting older and so i was like the number one prospect in the ufc i almost got on the ultimate fighter twice i almost got into the ufc a few

times but they always kept saying win one more win one more um so i got to the ultimate fighter twice. I almost got into the UFC a few times, but they always kept saying, win one more, win one more. So I got to the point where I was like, man, screw this. I was fighting guys that were all UFC vets. I was fighting guys with like 40 fights and I'm like, I only have six pro fights.

And so I, I got to the point if I would have lost, I would have been done, you know, but my, my, also my only goal was to get to the UFC. I got offered to fight in other promotions. I only wanted to fight in the UFC because it's the

biggest, best platform out there. And, you know, I wanted to be a world champion in the UFC and I'm getting closer. So I do feel that way. You know, I feel like my career, I have, who knows, five, six years, you see these guys fighting into their early to mid-40s now. And I feel like I can do that just because I live a healthy lifestyle. Even my mom was a, or she is a naturopath. So I grew up, you know, I'm grateful for that. Now at the time as a kid, I was like, mom, why can't we have this? Why can't I have this in the house?

You know, sodas or, you know, processed stuff. Um, but I'm grateful for it. You know, I never went to the doctor unless I needed a, an x-ray or a physical for a sport. Um, so I've lived this way my whole life and my wife is on another level with like food. So it's like, it just, it just helps me in general. I've been enjoying myself as you can see for the last like three weeks. I don't think I've ate a healthy meal. I bet you your unhealthy meals are 10 times healthier than the average American's meal. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. I go kind of crazy. You were saying that you were considering maybe I heard you on the Mark Bell podcast, by the way, him and what's his partner's name? Oh,ma in sema him and sema are amazing great podcast by the way you were fantastic on it i was glad to be able to watch it before you came on

um you mentioned that you were there was a time you were thinking about retiring and your wife said um go another year like she tell me about your relationship with her and like having someone who believes in you, especially, it sounds like you had a rough childhood and that, um, that maybe there weren't a lot of people who believed in you. Yeah, it's, um, yeah, no, it's great. My, like my wife is my number one supporter and she's the reason why, like, I'm, I'm here. Like I literally couldn't do it without her. Like I get all the record or not recognition. I don't really need it, but everyone's always like, you know, Oh Josh, eyes on me. It's like, I should pass that spotlight, put it on her. You know what I mean?

Cause I wouldn't be here. She helped me through everything. She's been there since the beginning. And it's, uh, yeah, like I, like I was saying, I was going to hang up the gloves and be done because I felt like I'm trying to chase this dream of mine. Um, and you know, I'm trying to chase this dream of mine because I want to get in the UFC. And then I'm like, I'm going to be a world champion. She believed in me. Um, and when, when it got to the point where, you know, I beat Christos Yagos, he was, uh, he was a UFC vet. He was coming, you know, he was trying to work his way got to the point where I beat Christos Yagos, he was a UFC vet. He was trying to work his way back to the UFC, and I fought him in West Coast Fighting Championship. It was for my lightweight title. I was a champion over there, and I gave him his first knockout.

And then I thought that was going to lock me into getting in the UFC for sure. And then I heard that, hey, just win one more fight. So I was like, man, I'm done with this. Who do you hear that? Who do you hear that from your manager that UFC tells your manager that? No, it was Dana White. I'm talking to you and some of my, my management team, you know, win one more fight. So I was like, I'm never getting in the UFC and I'm getting older. I felt bad that, you know, we have, we've been struggling my entire, like our entire relationship, my whole life. And so I just felt bad. I was like, man, I need to go get a normal job because she's like along for the ride. And it's like, we're living in our best friend's bedroom that man, I just have so many people I'm grateful for because I wouldn't be here without them. Like our best friends, like we lived with them because he they know how dedicated I was and and believed in me as well.

So they're like after college, just move in with us, you know, pursue fighting because my buddy was playing. He was playing in college football and his father passed away and so he had to come back and take care of his his sister he would have got drafted to the nfl for sure because there was guys that started under him and uh they're playing in the nfl now so he would be but he's super humble guy and uh i think he just not regrets or anything but i think he just knows what it what it's like to be in that position and it's like like I said earlier if you're riding open the gym I wouldn't be fighting but going back to my wife she was just when I said I'm done I'm not going to do this anymore I'm never

going to get in the UFC she's like let's just give it one more year if if nothing happens we'll kind of reevaluate and see what we have to do next. And, and so I kept training and luckily I did because then I got, I got the call on four day notice, you know, and I was in good shape and I literally flew across the world to Amsterdam and, you know, fought a tough John Tuck, um, on a four day notice. And, you know, it's that, that, that's your UFC debut, right? Yeah. And I had that compound fracture and bone sticking out of the finger. I had to hide that from the rest so I can continue to fight because they would they would have stopped the fight and I would have lost and there was nothing.

So before you get too far ahead, I want to I want to just say one thing. People, do you see this? There was there was nothing easy about the path. You almost have the same exact thing. It's funny. I have a very similar path. I was fucking just into photography and video and filming, and I was a workaholic, and I would go anywhere and work anywhere for free and do anything. And I basically had to live with my girlfriend for free for years or live in a car or whatever. But, but she could tell, like, I wasn't a drug addict. I wasn't an alcoholic. I was a workaholic

and I had passion and I was a good person. And I would, and I pursued my dreams and she stayed with me through the whole thing and believed in me. It's crazy what it means when someone believes in you. And now, now we're fucking set for life. But, but, but I mean, she, but, but when I was 36, I was grinding. Oh my God, I was grinding. It was like, I never thought I'd own a home. Now I'm 49, I have four homes, nicest homes, like some of the nicest real estate

in the world. That's awesome. But I did what you did. And I had people who cared about me, who would let me stay in their house, who would like, I wouldn't have enough money for food. They'd buy me my meals every single day because but I was grinding and I implore you. Those you out there who have means don't think you're doing.

You give the money to people who you know you can support. The kid who works, who's who's parking valet at the local hotel, who's extra good and always treats your wife nice. Give him the tip. Don't reward the homeless guy who's parking valet at the local hotel, who's extra good and always treats your wife nice. Give him the tip. Don't reward the homeless guy who's on heroin. Please. The guy who's playing his flute on the side of the street, give him the money. Support, you know, send a check to your favorite fighter.

You can reward people with your dollars who are working hard and with your love and your kindness. Okay, sorry, sorry, tangent. So how does she know, what's your kindness. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Tangent. So, um, so how does she know what's your, what's your wife's name? Vanessa. Vanessa. How does she, why do you think she, um, and then I want to, and then I want to talk about Tuck. Um, why do you think she believed in you and what's that look like to you when someone believes in you? Yeah, it means it means the world to me. It's like, uh,

I think she just sees how hard I work and just how passionate I am about like it, like our future and stuff. And I keep saying like, I'm doing this not because like, I don't like to fight, you know, who the hell likes to get hit in the face and stuff. Like, I don't like to fight. It's a, like I a hundred percent, I say it all the time because people are like, Oh, I, like I would fight even if I wasn't getting paid. You know, I just want to be the best in the world. Like I want it. I'm doing it strictly for the money. And I'm good at it, you know, but and I'm doing it to set up like my my family and my, you know, my mom and, you know, just friends. I have a huge group of friends. And that's one thing that you can talk about character. You know, anybody that actually knows me, my friends or family, you know, there are some people that they're like, I can't count on my hand. And how like if I needed something, I don't have enough fingers or toes to count how many people if I called someone, they would be there in a heartbeat.

Wow. Do anything. No questions asked because they know I would do the same thing. Like if someone said, hey, Josh, meet me here. I'll be there in a heartbeat. Wow. Do anything. No questions asked because they know I would do the same thing. Like I, if someone said, Hey Josh, meet me here. I'll be there in a heartbeat. I'm not asking, Hey, what should I wear? Um, and so I have a huge, man, a huge group of friends that I've been with the whole time that I'm so close to. And, um, yeah, it's, it's just another thing. My wife, she's, she's the best. Like I, I literally, she keeps me on, on track and schedule and I'm just, I fight just so I can provide for them. And just the things that like you're talking about, like I want to get into some businesses. I want, you know, multiple homes. I want, you know, real estate so much, so much for us. And this is just a,

you know, just a small little thing that to help get me there you know i mean the the better i'm fighting the better everything that i'm a part of will do earlier when you were talking about how you don't really feel nervous before the fights do you feel the pressure of everybody that believes in you that that wants to be there is there a pressure there or is it just a belief for regardless win or lose? And you feel secure about that? Yeah, I put so much pressure on myself. I'm the I'm my hardest critic, no matter what. But all my friends and family, like, I know, I know for a fact that they'll be there regardless win or lose. But me personally, I would feel like if I lost, I would just feel like I let them down. I would,

I would want to just go like, you know, I wouldn't want to see anyone, but that, that wouldn't be the case, but I would just, uh, yeah, it would just, it would just be hard that it's just losing is the only thing that I don't know. It just, and I, and I know you have to lose and fail and stuff like that. And trust me, like I've tasted defeat. I know what it feels like to lose. I hate it. Not a lot. Not very much. Sports or stuff like that. So the whole time when people would always say, Oh, you, you got to lose. And then you learn from it.

Like I wanted to go undefeated. I wanted all these things. I, I was like, I know what it feels like to lose. I don't want to, especially in a fight, you know, you leave losing a wrestling match. It's like, okay, someone won by points in my mind. I was always thinking if I was throwing punches, you wanted to beat me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did you watch the fights last night, by the way, the fury three grappling? Yeah, I did. I, uh, my buddy was on, I was actually supposed to be on that. They, they asked me, um, Tuesday. Yeah, no, it was Monday, Monday afternoon. Hey, you want to, you want to go up against someone? I was like, yeah, sure. So they were going to pay me. I was going to hop on a plane Tuesday, make weight Wednesday. Like I said, anything between 170 and 180, I'm good. Um,

but yeah, for whatever reason in the chain of command through the UFC, they didn't approve my match. I don't know. Ah, wow. That would have been my next question. Okay, before we get distracted on Fury, where were you going with that? What was the question, Sousa? Do you remember? He was talking about…

I think it was the support and the belief of my friends and family. And that's the same thing with all my coaches and my friends, my close friends and family. They believe in me because they see how hard I work. I don't know. You just have to see. I have this big group of friends, and we've been friends forever, 15, 20 years. I have friends that are my best friends that was in like grade school with still that i talked to and and you don't see a whole lot of that with people and you thrive under pressure love it love

it yeah me too it's weird like i hate it but all my best it's like how can you hate it when all your best shit like nothing ever happened when you weren't under pressure right and and that's the thing like i, sometimes it's like even in wrestling or fights, you know, I want to fight the best because it brings out the best and not saying if you're fighting someone that's not as good as you, not saying you like stoop down to their level, but in a sense, you know, if I fight the best of the best or I was wrestling the best of the best, that's when I'll have the best matches but i i i wrestle someone that's mediocre it's like maybe it looks sloppy you know yeah um do you know who you're fighting next no because i i mean

i you will you fight any of those dudes i like if they were like hey um he's gonna fight um holloway and we want you to be the backup would you cut weight and be ready for that oh we lost your audio we lost it oh can you hear me now yep better yeah no i'm saying yeah they already know my answer you don't even have to just tell me just send me my my flight itinerary and I'll be there. So do all of these guys in this group want to fight Volkanovski? I think so. And I, but I think everyone's,

everybody's fought towards the top. You know what I mean? Like they've all fought each other. And of course they do. Who doesn't want to fight for the title? And it's like, I want to do that because not only is the money that much larger, like, and that's why I want to do it so I can secure, you know, a bag for my, my family and friends. It's like, I really, I don't give a damn about a belt. Like I would be that person that doesn't bring it anywhere. it anywhere you know i i you'll never catch me with a belt on my shoulder at any event unless like the ufc handed to me at the weigh-ins um i don't know i'm just that way like even on the

regional scene i would see people walking around with their belts i had two you know but they're they're somewhere in my storage like as soon as i come in the attic or storage like i'll never you want the knockout and the money yeah Yeah, that's all I want. That's awesome. I don't mean to just be stroking you here, but you really need to fight Holloway or Volkanovski, I feel like, because these other guys we've all seen, like you said in the beginning of the podcast, they've all beat up on each other already.

And don't get me wrong. They're the best in the world. They're there for a reason, but it's like... I don't want to see you fight Calvin Cater. I mean, not... I do want to see it, but I don't want to see it the next fight. I don't really want to see you fight Korean Zombie now. I'd rather, like...

I feel like Ortega, Yair, Zombie, and Cater have had their chance. And I feel... And I know that you respect the fact that Volkanovski's the champ. I think that they're both champions. Ortega, Yair, Zombie, and Cater have had their chance. And I know that you respect the fact that Volkanovski is the champ. I think that they're both champions. It's hard for me to take anything away from Max. I mean, it's just fucking nuts. They need to have two 145-pound classes. I mean, it's bizarre that those two guys are in the same class.

Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. You know, Max, he's one of the greats too. He's the best. I think it's just stylistically for whatever reason, uh, Volkanovsky just kind of has his number, but the first fight was unanimous decision, but then the second flight was such a close fight. You know, it's like, you could see it going either way. And so I'm excited to see the, this third one, you know, and just kind of solidify, um, you know, really who has their number, but then what happens, you know, it's, I don't know, it's, it's kind of like a coin flip. They're, they're both so damn good. Um, you're a visual learner. Sorry,

damn. We only have you for three more minutes. We're good, man. You're good. Okay. Uh, if you got to go, you just say, don't let me know. We're good. uh if you got to go you just say don't let me no we're good okay um you're a visual learner you see someone do something and um do you think like you could teach yourself like i hear about people teaching themselves jujitsu just on youtube like you can do that yeah i can do that if i see something like i i can mimic it uh really well um as like a young child, I taught myself how to swim. I was one of those ones that was on like the edge of the pool, you know, just holding on. I don't even know how old I was. I have to ask my mom, but she said I was really young.

I would sit there and even at the time I was kind of, you know, seeking the adrenaline and excitement. I remember I was really young. I must have been like one or two, I had water wings and then she, she couldn't find me. She saw me on the high dive, like jumping off and, uh, you know, watering coming off. But anyways, going back to that, I was on the edge of a pool. Hey, that sounds so Sacramento in the, in the fucking eighties and nineties. That's so Sacramento, not the small dive or the high dive you know sacramento's fucking

20 years it's mine it's the california's midwest okay go on sorry um yeah and so so i would just see these kids like swimming underwater and i'm just watching them while i'm on the edge of the pool and then i just decided like push off and try to copy and then before you know what i'm swimming and then i'm like hey mom look i can swim. Like I must've been so young, even with watching or riding a bike. I was watching kids like pedaling and I had training route wheels. And then I just remember our house had like a steep driveway. I just remember picking up my older brother's bike. I'm like, Oh, I'm going to give this a, give it a shot. And then before you know it, I'm going down and I'm just pedaling. And I was super young too. So it doesn't sound that, that like great now, but if I asked my mom how old I was, like, it's, it's different.

Like, cause kids aren't riding bikes or swimming that young, you know, just by watching some other kids do it, you know? And, and I can do the same thing with like really anything i played all sports and you know i'm i'm a really athletic guy and i i can do things really tell me when you say all sports what what do you what do you mean soccer uh yeah when i was younger i probably played a lot of things but then uh yeah i played soccer i played football i wrestled baseball uh really yeah basketball did you did you do gymnastics i did and that's that's one of the things so i did acrobatics so i uh my my mom had normal people do gymnastics if you're gonna be a c fighter you do gymnastics just like i bet you there's a correlate between fighters and

steep hills in their front in their you probably all learn how to ride a bike going down it's steep though okay acrobatics you know my brother and i had to pick a sport and so my brother picked taekwondo and then i was going to do that but we we fought all the time at home and you know he was beating me up and stuff so then she she didn't want that because she thought we would be fighting in taekwondo class which we probably would have so since he was older we got to do that and then my mom said i couldn't do it i was so upset at the time i must have been like first grade or something um and so she she's like we have to find you another sport and then she found me acrobatics i was like i don't want to do that it was just it was just she got you a pink tutu.

It wasn't gymnastics though. So it was just for exercises. So, uh, we, uh, yeah, so I did that. And, and, and I think that a lot of my, um, you know, strength and success comes from that. Like, you know, I was, I was tumbling at a young age and, and I was going to all these regional and national, uh, competitions too. And, and there'd be like two of us or four of us. And I was like the little guy they'd throw up and I was going to all these regional and national competitions, too. And there would be like two of us or four of us. And I was like the little guy they'd throw up. And I was doing all these flips and stuff. But as like third grader, I had, you know, a six pack and I was just a little kid.

And so I think that helped a ton with my balance and all that. And just was like a foundation to everything I I've done where it comes from like most sports I played and I can do well, but I excelled at wrestling and, and I, in high school I was playing football, wrestling, and I was going to play baseball too. But at the time I just wanted to kind of hang out. So I just went to football and wrestling. And then, uh, my junior and senior year, I just focused solely on, on wrestling. And now as I'm older, I'm like, I regret that. But, you know, as wait, why do you regret that? Well, just cause I wanted to play multiple sports at the time.

I just want to hang out with friends, you know, but what's the difference between you and your, uh, or the older brother? Uh, he, he would have been, he, he passed away last year. Um, uh, but yeah, but yeah it was uh like four years did he pass away from substance abuse uh he was murdered oh my goodness you have two potential murders in your in your man this is like and this is out of set this is unfortunately this part isn't funny this that's more more typical uh sacramento talk too man yeah it was yeah it was just it was tough time in it and i i talked about it like during fight week but i i i couldn't talk about this because it's like man it just hurt so bad like yeah you know yeah it was just and that's one of the things i've

always been i i just like bundle things up and i i don't i'm not one to like really express myself or talk about and i know that's bad but i just is it bad they say it's bad maybe it is bad i don't know but they say it's bad yeah maybe that's why i i where i've heard that you know i i uh i just that's just not me like i'll never ask for anything either like it's in my mom knows that my wife knows that like even if i'm i don't have a dime in my account and i'm i'll figure out a way to pay for things like i'm never going to ask some like it's just hard for me i it's hard for me to say no but then it's i won't ask people for anything even if i need help you know that's

just me what do you think about people who do ask for stuff? I think it's okay, depending on what it is, you know? Um, yeah, it, it, it depends. Like, I guess every situation and scenario would be different. Um, dude, you don't have any kids, huh? No, we don't. We're, we're like some of the, we're the only ones out of all of our friends that don't have kids. You know, I have nephews, I have godchildren from our best friends. And how old is your wife?

She's 35. That was always the plan five years ago. She wanted to have, you know, we wanted to have kids when she's 30. But then it's like life goes on so fast. And at this moment, it's like we're constantly talking about it. We're like, dude, we don't have my wife had her first kid when she's 39 i i if you get 10 10 free minutes in your life you and your wife should go through my instagram my wife had our first kid when she's 39 i was like 42 or 43 then she had twins at like 42 or 43 and i was like 45 all natural just from just like you

know just fucking while watching game of thrones you know what i mean on the couch and um and uh we never wanted to have kids and we never wanted to get married but we did and and dude like i wouldn't i would implore you a healthy guy like you who's got the natural path mom wait as long as you can and i've seen your wife i i i i i accidentally went to your wife's instagram account and she's fine too she can she's good like just keep eating right um keep training keep doing you dude there's tons of time and all this shit that people are like oh but i want to play with my kids hey i still play i can't play six hours of frisbee on the beach with

my kids like i used to like i to, but I can play 30 minutes. But there's no better five hours than me sitting in a lawn chair on the beach and watching my kids. I swear it's as good as playing with them. That's awesome. So exactly what you're talking about, that's our – And my kids are living the dream. Dude, you'll be great as a retired UFC fighter driving a minivan, driving your kids from soccer to jiu-jitsu. It's great.

And because you're a visual learner, you probably love watching people move, right? Yeah. Yeah, I just sit there and watch my kids move all day. I just love watching them move. It's awesome. And have some snacks, and it'll be great. But that's our thought process. Like, my wife is so healthy.

I feel like I'm a healthy guy, but we're like, you know, we've seen everything. We just got to the point a few years ago where we can actually, we, we love our life and we don't have the luxury of like, I know our parents would, you know, my mom would help out if she could here and there, her parents would, but we don't want to, we don't want to rely on that. My wife has a good job that she loves her job right now. You know, I'm like trying to, you know, chase greatness and achieve something for us. So it's like, we know we do not want kids in the next few years, but we also, we don't want to like, not say we don't ever want kids. We're just like, we want to enjoy our love life. We love, we love to travel. And I don't care what anyone

says. Like it wouldn't be the same with kids. We experienced. No, it's not the same. When you have kids, when you have kids, Josh Emmett will die. And they, I know it sounds scary, but it's actually kind of cool. Like several Matosian died and there is no more me. And it's just about my kids and you start life over again. It's kind of weird. I was like you, I was with my life.

We were with my wife. We were cruising. We're living the dream had all all more money than we could spend life was easy we both just worked our asses off we bought a house we never even moved into it we still lived in a shitty 400 square foot apartment because we're too busy just living our lives and and then you have kids and the whole thing starts over again like everything like it's nuts i i but don't feel rushed at all. You're, I, I see you at 36 and being like, okay, he's on perfect pace. He's got seven more years till he has his first kid. And say, and it sounds like your wife, you said your wife's 35. Yeah. She's 35. She'll be 36. You know, the beginning of the year I'll be 37.

Yeah. But yeah, I'm telling you, I'm like, she's so healthy. Like she, she eats better than I do. Like, yeah, she is. It's like, it's, it's crazy, you know? And, uh, yeah, she's way better than I do. I just, I eat on her level only during like eight to 10 week camp. Cause I have to. Right. Um, how many times, um, could you fight in 2022? So how many times could you fight in 2022? Like, I want to fight as much as I can. Like, I want to be as consistent as possible. But it also depends now that I'm getting higher in the rankings.

I think it gets a lot tougher because, you know, just because I want to fight a few people in front of me, I want to fight for the title. So it just depends. But on the regional scene and early in the ufc i was fighting as much as i could you know i i think when i made my featherweight debut what does that mean give me like uh as much as you could every two months i was fighting uh like even for west coast i was fighting every three months every time they had a show i was i was on the thing just because i was trying to make money and get my record a little better and stuff like that. Even when I made my featherweight debut, I think I fought three times in a four-month period. I fought in October, December, and February.

Wow. And then I had that hic that, that hiccup, you know, in February against Stevens. Um, but if I would have won that, I would have turned around and fought again, you know, a few months later, I was just, I just try to fight as much as I can. And as long as I'm healthy, you know, there's a game you're playing, I guess you don't want to, you're, you're within striking of the belt. And so you, why risk fighting a guy who could get a lucky punch in below you and set yourself back. But that's my career. Like look at my last four fights. I fought people, everyone's behind me and it's a huge risk, but I'm, you know, I'm, I'm banking and betting the house on myself,

you know, um, but now I'm getting really close to where I want to be. So I want my, my next fight to be for a title eliminator, or like you said, if there's some, something that happens, I need to just get back in the gym and I will next week, just in case something happens. Cause you never know what this sport, you know if i'm not close to weight because i'm never close to weight but if if i can get to a place where i know i can make the weight and something happens like i'll i'll take any opportunity there that presents itself to me how much do you weigh right now that josh emmett we're just staring at like 100 probably 180 179 oh man you hold it well holy cow um this guy uh dylan vowels an

amateur fighter a huge fan of the show dylan thanks for the the 499 i'm gonna spend that this afternoon on coffee uh your uh josh your first pro fight was relatively later in life did you hear any concern from others that maybe it's too late for you to make it um yeah there's there's a lot of people you know you're always going to hear later in life, did you hear any concern from others that maybe it's too late for you to make it? Um, yeah, there's, there's a lot of people, you know, you're always going to hear like the naysayers and doubters and that's the reason why they're going to, they are where they are, you know, they'll continue to be on online tweeting stuff or sending you stuff or, you know, you know, just doing stuff from the couch. They won't ever make it. Uh, but yeah, no,

of course I was, I think I had my first amateur fight when I was like 26 or 27, but, um, wow. Wow. And had you ever even fought in anyone before then in your life? No, like, like, you know, little things here and there, like scuffles, not, not like a fight, just standing there fighting somebody. Um, you'd never been in a two-minute fight before then no it was it was just like a bar fight or just a playground fight or something yeah something little things like that parking lot someone took your mom's parking spot and they had to you had to tune them up real quick exactly but nothing nothing like yeah i just i just knew i could do well at it so yeah of course i heard that and then what do, I just knew I could do well at it. So yeah, of course I heard that.

And then what do you mean you knew you could do well at it? How, like, how do you know, don't you have to get punched in the face to know that? Like, how do you know? I like I've boxed, I've done, I've trained MMA, I've sparred, I've, I've done everything, you know? Okay. I don't know. I just, I, I just really felt like I could, just like I was saying, going back saying going back to the wrestling like when i lost the match okay i lose by a few points i'm like man if i was

if we were fighting you went in a one like i don't know i just feel like my my physical and natural abilities i i don't know i just i had that belief uh from a young age and even when i was like a young child there was only two things i ever wanted to do and that would be a police officer or i want to be a pro athlete and and but i was thinking about um playing in you know the nfl or nba and then like i always say i i got a little older and i stopped growing and so that was how tall are you you're five seven yeah i'm like five a little little over five seven it's funny because when i made my debut in the u, the only time they measured me, they actually measured me. I was five, eight.

I'm like just under five, eight. And, uh, and then each fight, like they didn't measure me. They, my, my height keeps getting lower and lower than I was five, seven. When I fought in Sacramento, I think they announced me as like five, six now. They shave an inch off. When I bought in Sacramento, I think they announced me as like five, six now. Uriah is five, six. I'm not, I'm taller than him, you know? So it's just funny. So I don't care. It's like net, maybe my next fight I'll be five, five and a half or something.

It's so funny when I see Uriah on TV, I'm like, man, that motherfucker's small. And then I see he's five, six and he's actually taller than me so i'm like oh shit i'll stay behind a microphone in a chair oh my goodness um christian leon what does conditioning look like leading up to a fight during the period of intensification always been curious by conditioning you mean like the workouts christian i assume yeah but yeah even even that so i i stay in top shape like i i do so much um you know i work with my my strength coach darren i you know year round and uh i've done a lot of different stuff like i actually owned a crossfit gym before okay you did what was the name of it it was movement Movement CrossFit in Sacramento and it was MBMNT. Okay.

Yeah. So I, I've been in like the CrossFit community for, you know, quite a while. I, I started, let's see, I started doing like sports specific training and CrossFit style stuff. And in, in, in like 2007, then I, like I was saying, I went away to college. I came back and I would, I was at a CrossFit gym for a while. Then, you know, my wife and I were partners of this other gym and then it just wasn't working out well. So is that how you guys met? Did you and your wife meet in a gym? No, no. We, we met like in jail. We were high school, high school sweetheart. So,

Oh, wow. We've been together for a long time, but it's, uh, going back to the CrossFit stuff. It's like my, my friends at the time, or not at the time, my friends, they were, uh, we were all running the gym. So we just opened our own in 2013. And, um, yeah, it was, it was awesome. So I've always done similar to like, you know, high intensity workouts. I was doing CrossFit stuff, but then more sports specific. And then I've done like, I've done everything French contrast training, but now I just work on like, you know, speed agility. I do some like power couplets and then just like finish with some like conditioning. My, um, my old business partner and now coach, he just, you know, he, he went to school for, you know, kinesiology, exercise science. He just programs everything.

And I just follow it to the T and, and one of my business partners and friends, Jay Nationalis, he was another, like, he's helped me so much throughout my entire career as well. And, um, just over the last, like, you know, year and a half because of COVID, he was really busy. Um, he works at one of the high schools, Jesuit, and he's like their strength coach and stuff. So he just kind of had to step back and focus on that. But, uh, yeah, those guys helped me so much in my, just my career, you know, in general. So that that's kind of my, I don't even think I answered the guy's question, but just, um, I do so much. I also do running and a lot of endurance stuff, just get my weight down and, and I'll have a

great gas tank. You know, people are like, Oh, he's breathing out of his mouth. He's tired. I always breathe out of my mouth. My nose is so screwed up. I can't breathe through my nose at all. Um, but I will never get tired in a fight. I can always match or beat people's gas tanks. Um, but I will never get tired in a fight. I can always match or beat people's gas tanks. Um, do you do all the machines? Do you do like that? The erg where you pull down? Do you do like the, you do the rower, you do the assault bike, you do all that shit. Yeah. It just depends what's like, if it's like in some like condition, but I mean, throughout the week, like all those machines touch your body. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Whether I'm warming up on some or burning out on some. Yeah, for sure. And you, and you run too. I've run that. That's one thing that

I've always, I've always done, you know, it's, uh, so I can get the weight down, get my legs strong and I'll stay in like a fat burning zone. Uh, it's the most boring thing, but I would do that. Even if I do two to three workouts a day, no matter what Monday through Saturday, I'm on the treadmill for one hour in my fat burning zone. Um, at the end of the night, one hour, are you on one of those treadmills where you like the, the, the one where it's like, you do the motorized one. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Wow. I just do that just because it's, it's so boring. It's, it's in my garage at home. So I have a little garage with bags and, you know, some weights and a treadmill and it's

like the garage door is literally like right in front of the treadmill. So, you know, I stare at that, that garage door for seven hours and I'm just going over the bikes in my head, visualizing it, uh, listening to some music. So damn boring, but yeah, it's just, you have to do, you know, you, I have to do it. Um, it's interesting. You either have severe mental illness and your training is curing you or your training is going to cause severe mental illness. You're either, I don't know, I don't know which one it is. It is, um, there was a CrossFit games athlete, Miko Salo. I don't know if you remember him. He won the CrossFit Games.

And I went and visited him and did a piece on him in 2009, I think, in Finland. And he used to row in a closet. Yeah, that's storage unit. Yeah, storage unit. Just enough space for the row. And he would row in there basically same thing like you said. He would row in there for like 30 minutes or an hour every day. And he just said it was just built mental toughness and not only that and in

pacquiao was is what would is that's his i mean i guess a lot of boxers running's the it's your bread and butter right and you know some people are like oh running doesn't get you you know it doesn't help with fighting i'm like it'll help with my conditioning like i will never be tired my legs are strong it's like the the fight is easy. It's a, it's a potentially 15, maybe 25 minutes. I fought 25 minute fights multiple times on the regional scene. Cause I was a champion in an organization. I can go for 10, like even the Burgos fight. Like I could have kept on going. We could have done another seven rounds, you know, and I would have been fine. Like I can go and go and I push myself to the brink. you know and i would have been fine like i i can go and go and i push myself to the brink and then i try to keep going because like i want to be exhausting and i want to feel like i don't know i just i just want to feel that in training because then the fight is so easy it's uh it's so easy i put in thousands of hours i'm telling you i'd rather i one week of my training and all the hours i put in if i want to do that or a 15-minute fight, I'll choose that 15, 25-minute fight.

How old's your mom? My mom's 68. How's her health? Awesome. She's super healthy. I wish I had a picture of her. A recent one. You'd think she's in her 50s. I could date her. I wish I had a picture of her, right? A recent one, but it's, yeah. No, you'd think she's in her 50s, you know?

I could date her. I'm 49. Is your mom single? She is. The reason why I ask is one of the things about having kids that you don't ever think about, but then when you have the kids, man, it's a crazy gift to your parents. Holy cow. When you have a kid, you're going to see this noose. You're going to see your mom different

because all of a sudden you're going to be like, the trip is that you love your kids so much that you're like, you can't believe another human being loved you that much. Like you think you know what love is and then you have this kid and you're like, well, fuck, I jump in front of a train for this kid. And then you look at your mom and you're like,

oh my God, that's why my mom did all that shit no just blow your brain but what made me think of that also is she lost a son man that's that's crazy and that's one of the things that man it was so oh we lost your audio oh can you hear me now yeah uh 2020 like i was saying with covid and all that was so tough but then it's like my my brother you know lost his life and then literally um that was in september and then the day before thanksgiving then my grandpa passed away and that was my mom's father too and so it's just like that and i've been like there's a lot of people that if you haven't been around death or you haven't experienced it it's i understand like the first time it's different i've been a lot around a lot of death like i've had you know friends die i've had like

family members die before you know and then my father you know a while ago in a tragic incident and then like my brother and then her father just seeing the the pain that the pain yeah it just won like it hurt me bad it was different you know it was like a different type of pain just i can't even explain it like it just you mean watching your mom hurt was worse than being hurt yourself uh well even me just what i felt from the loss of my brother and then and my grandpa but then watching my mom and my family what they're going through it's that hurt so bad and that that's what like i was saying just motivated me and and and got me like it it just adds to i have so much like man you're not letting that shit go to waste you're not letting you're not

letting that shit go to waste i i set goals and I'm, I'm really goal oriented and, and I'm trying to do something to achieve something for everybody. And then that just, that just like, you know, sparks the fire even more. It's like pouring gas on the fire. I just, uh, I can't, I just watching all that. It just, I bundled all that up again, I always do. It motivated me to get up. I'm going through this knee injury and rehab and all this type of stuff. That's still nothing. It's nothing to see what my mom was going through and the pain that she went through and myself and family. It's hard to describe.

I didn't talk about this for so long. It was almost two years. That so long. It was like, uh, yeah, almost two years, two years. That was 2020 is 2022. So, or 2020, I was like 18 months again, or a little longer, you know, and I, I just kind of kept all that inside and just kept, you know, just working every day, working every day. And, and it made me want to push harder and harder and harder you know i'm so happy to hear you say all this like oh my god so and so died i'm gonna get into heroin and drink myself into the ground nah i ain't doing that and there's two ways that things can go you know yeah yeah i saw this like not a meme but this thing and it was like there was these two brothers and it was uh this guy was like an alcoholic or a drug addict. And then this guy was a successful guy. And the top was because my father was alcoholic, you know, and not saying that for me, but I'm just saying in general,

like there's always ways that you can approach things. And even my, my older brother, when I was a young kid, he was, he was into a lot of bad stuff and like he he was a drug dealer and all these type of things and he almost he got who wasn't who wasn't yeah multiple altercations and things like like just bad bad stuff you know with people like held at gunpoint and all these what drug what drug did he do everything what drug didn't he do you know okay yeah as soon as you get out of weed and the guns show up i was just kind of like all right i'm gonna go back to that was it like a young age older and like it was just you know like drug of choice meth and stuff like that yeah that one's scary horrible horrible drug um but it's man it's i don't even know where i was going with you were basically saying there's two ways you could go yeah and that's your misery along a young age basically everything that he

did and don't get me wrong he was he was a great person a genuinely a good person but he just had a bad bad addiction that he couldn't break yeah um and so i did the opposite because even then i saw the pain my mom was going through with like you know your son and he's staying out late she's like freaking out because he's not coming home this and. He's like 13, you know? And so I just remember that as a young kid. And that's why I wanted to be a police officer because I learned that too. It's like the cops were always at our house. I'd see all the stuff that my mom would go through. And, you know, my brother was a 51 50. And like every time I would come come home from school or something, like, I didn't want to leave the house. Cause I felt like I had to try to stay there to protect my mom just because I would come home guns drawn and I'm

like freaking out that something happened to my mom. Um, yeah, so it was, it was, yeah, it was just tough, but that, that's like, that molded me into who I am. And I wanted to be a cop because I wanted to help families going through the same type of stuff that I was going through. You know, I think you would ever become a cop still just for fun. Like you retire for five years, you retire from the UFC, you're kicking it and you're like, fuck, what am I going to do with my time? I should I'll just go to the police academy. I would do it. And that's one of the things I almost. I'm grateful I went through the Sacramento Police Academy and I, or not Academy, but the hiring process,

I was, I did everything. You know, I passed the oral boards. I was like, I scored the highest. I was waiting for a job offer. And then they had some budget cuts. So at the time they, you know, budget cuts, so they weren't hiring. So I was grateful. I didn't get in because I wouldn't be fighting.

I would be a cop right now, you know, because that's my goals in life a cop or a pro athlete and i it's such a shame the way society has decided to treat cops the rest of us need to like overcompensate for that if you see a police officer today or any day say hi wave smile you guys like they're there to protect us and i think we have a contract with the citizenry yeah both ways too it's like i have a lot of friends that are you know police officers or peace officers and um yeah you know there's a lot of good cops you don't hear about it but there's also a lot of shitty cops you know hey there's a there's more shitty people than there are shitty cops you want you want to a better fucking – you want better cops? Then we need to be better people in society.

We're not going to have like – cops aren't – like if five out of every ten people in society is a scumbag, then don't expect more than five out of every ten cops to be a scumbag. Quit it. That's true. Like – Fucking start yelling at these motherfuckers again. Is this true? Conor McGregor doesn't run is that true i have no idea there's a lot of people that don't are you are you tripping when you see him like on a on a big like gas out are you like holy shit how is this dude gassing now he's supposed to be the greatest because we do see him gas out a bunch. Yeah, man. I don't know what his like training regimen looks like.

That's one thing with me too. I, I, I can't talk on bad about people, especially I don't know them. You know, it's like, I don't know what, what he's going through or what, what his training regimen is, but it's, uh, Or you just might be genetically superior too. You might have just better. Well, that is funny. That, that is something that like, I forgot about.

You said that I I've done like all the VO two testing I've done, like where they do the lactic acid testing, take my blood every minute while I'm running. Um, I did it at the golden one center. So it's the Kaiser sports medicine with someone, they printed out my, like my, uh, just my results. And, and the lady was saying, by looking at like the paper and the printout from how I produce lactic acid in my, my oxygen levels and everything, she said, I would think you are a marathon runner. I would think you're a tall, skinny marathon runner, you know, but then I possess both worlds. Like I, I am explosive, you know, but then I possess Diaz Diaz. Yeah. Both worlds. Like I, I am explosive, you know, things like this. And, and I was telling like, my heart rate is on another level too. I can

get my heart rate to like around like one 95 plus, and I can just maintain that. I can't like, I'll get my hundred or my heart rate up in like the low 200s and i can just thrive in that area where people can't even get it up to like 180 you know so yeah i maybe or 170 but maybe it is like i was just saying i was like i i hope it's a good thing i hope it's not a bad thing i'm like either it's hope i don't have like some enlarged heart or something that's gonna mess with me later in life but um all the all like the zones like you know from like uh endurance conditioning you know fat burning like mine i have to get to a different level so it's like i have like the printout and everything like i'm like almost one or two um levels of bond i have to pump it up like two notches on everything so it's like even endurance

is the highest right or not the highest uh like high intensity would be i'm not even sure i'd basically you have eight gears and normally you're being as five you have to like you have you have you have all these other gears that you have to get into got you got six kind of crazy and at one point when i do my vo2 max it's like i i score like just like a few points like one and a half under lance armstrong like and he has a endurance for days and i'm not doing any uh anything i've been tested so many times by usada but i feel like a lot of people still they're like they're always saying stupid stuff on the internet but i'm like whatever man I'm closer to getting my Letterman's jacket for 50 clean tests in a row. And does that thing exist?

Is there one of those? Yeah. When you get 50 clean tests in a row, you get a literally a Letterman's jacket that says you saw it. And on the back, it says 50 X. Like I have. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. That's awesome 25x and it's uh you know i i got that like i think

i'm like 30 something 35 testing you know and crossfit i think they um you have to always tell them where you're at i think there's two kinds of testing there's testing where they they can you have to always tell them where they're at and they can surprise you and then you can you can be wrong like twice not be there and then there's another one where they're at and they can surprise you. And then you can be wrong like twice, not be there. And then there's another one where they give you 24 hours notice, but you have to be there. So, yeah. Which one do you guys do? Everywhere.

You saw it. So it's the United States Anti-Doping Association. So they know where you're at right now. And like we could be doing this podcast and we could hear a. No. Yeah. Yeah. Josh, pull your dick out. we need you to pee in a cup

and then if there's two of them then i know they're doing blood too that so they have the phlebotomist as well but they did i have an app all the usc fighters do we have to update it quarterly and and the thing is that they they show up anywhere so even if i'm like oh the app's tracking you so they see where you're at. Well, you have to update it, but I don't think that I don't think there's like a tracking that they can see our GPS, but we have to update it.

And so where we sleep, like where we're training, if you're working, where you work and you have to put it in because you have, they go to these locations. And if you're not there, I think you can get to, if they can't find you or you go out of town

then it's like a no-show and you get two of those in 365 days if you do more than two of those in a year then you'll get a failed attempt it'll just say you know it's a fail it's the same thing as I think testing dirty but it's like a six month, maybe, maybe year suspension. So like if I'm going out of town, if we're going to, we're going to go out of town next week, just for a few days, like up the coast, my wife and I, it's like, I have to go back into the app because I already have it for the quarter, but I have to put my hotel, um, and the room number and everything that where we're going to be at and they can show up there, you know? Yeah. Have they ever showed up at like five in the morning? Because one of my buddies who competed in the Olympics over the last year said that

they've showed up to some times at like super early in the morning. Yeah. They do early ones. I think it's, I think now they can't come before six, but I kind of know when. How kind of them. Yeah. And then that's simply when, when they do show up here and there just because then they can catch me it's easy i wake up and uh like even if i have to i get up and say it's

like four o'clock i have to pee a lot now i have a like a thing like i'm like shit that's way totally six or six i'll check out like the the window first make sure no car is out there before i go because i've done that i've done that before where i you know i i pee in the morning and then it's like then i hear boom boom boom did they just hang out and wait for you to have to go again yeah they'll hang out until you have to go what if what if they came like it's sick what if they came like really early and you still got the morning wood and you're like hey you better stay up and you're like doing one of those where you like got to push your penis down and you're like this you're like yo yo you better stand back you gotta angle it off you gotta you're like trying to lean and you're like hey you better stand and you're like doing one of those where you like got to push your penis down and you're like this you're like yo yo you better stand back you gotta angle it off you gotta angle you're like trying to lean forward you're like i can't

push it down anymore can i get a hand here yeah a little embarrassing but uh big old dollop of white shit comes out oh sorry but yeah they come any anytime man it's uh i'm gonna work that word dollop into as many shows as i can a dollop hey um this is this is kind of flattering that this guy is watching the show chad schroeder he's probably he's one of the greatest analysts in the in the crossfit space he knows everything about crossfit games athletes um i don't know why he's not a commentator he must not talk so good because his brain's full of all the shit um the burgos fight was insane this guy's a true student of sports by the way chad schroeder the burgos fight was insane so impressed with how you kept going after first round injury what happened i don't remember that in the first 19 seconds, I tore my ACL.

Oh. Yeah, complete tear. And then I tore my MCL. Baker's cyst ruptured. My femur and tibia fractured because they hit together when the ACL snapped. That was 19 seconds into the first round of the fight. And that's when I saw you say that when your ACL tore, there's some sort of slamming of the femur and tibia that was so hard that it fractured. It snapped and they just hit together.

And I think that's normal too. But when something like that happens, and so it was just a small fracture on my femur and tibia. But it was the stability and that ACL was on another level. Like for one, it hurt. It was right when the fight started. And I didn't have stability and he was on another level. Like for one at her, it was right when the fight started and I didn't have stability and he was targeting that leg. And I, and I couldn't, so for, in my mind, that wasn't like the performance I wanted just because I couldn't do a whole lot. I fought a guy, a really good fighter on one leg. A great fighter. He's so good.

Yeah. And so that, that's the thing. It's like, he can be a champion in another in any other uh and i think he was yeah yeah yeah out of the ufc he's he's fucking terrifying i mean he's terrifying anyway but even answering chad's uh question it was uh oh you didn't want to yeah it's it's my my mentality it's my mindset like i i work with a mind coach too i've talked about him several times joshua manual he's a fight mindset. He's a phenomenal guy. And I think it's just, before I even worked with him, I would visualize so much. And I've always done that throughout my life. And like I said, for me trying to achieve what I want, and this is, it's a rough, rough sport. I'm literally willing to go. And I

don't just say that because like, I will go through whatever I need to do. That was the compound fracture of my, my finger, my first UFC fight. Um, that's the worst injury in the history of UFC hand injury, right? The hand injury. Yeah. I read that somewhere. That's the worst. Oh, I had the bone. I had to hide that while I'm fighting. I had to hide that behind my back. I got kicked in the cup and the ref stopped and he's like, are you okay? And I put my hand behind my back and I said, yep, go. I just wanted to keep going because it was in the third round and there was a

few minutes left or something. I didn't want to take a chance of losing that fight, but it's, it's the mindset I have. I'm willing to go through hell i like i i will i'll go through whatever as long as i get my hand raised you know so that that hand injury we just saw is that your your finger broke going the wrong direction and the bone popped out exactly yeah i went to go parry or block a kick and it it must hit at the right angle and And it just snapped my finger in half. Like it was literally hanging on by the, the back of the index finger,

like the skin, like it was completely just open and I, it hurt. And then I like during the fight, I looked down at it right after that happened. And I saw the bone. I was like, Oh shit.

Like, and then again, I looked at the clock and I'm like, Oh, you only got 90 seconds. You keep calling. You'll be happy. That was against tuck. I was like, oh, shit. And then, again, I looked at the clock, and I'm like, oh, you only got 90 seconds. Just keep clocking. You'll be happy. That was against Tuck?

That was your UFC debut? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. In Rotterdam in the Netherlands. I kept thinking he kicked my finger off, too. So every time he would kick me or hit me, I would block it. And then literally my finger would flop all the way back but like like if it would have fallen if you would have looked on the floor and seen your

finger you wouldn't you wouldn't have been surprised i didn't care if i was using my finger that would have been crazy if so badass hit it off it was literally hanging on just by like literally a little bit of skin on the back side of my feet were you afraid when they had wrapped it that it was gonna like come off on when they were unwrapping the gloves and the hand wraps just laughing there so yeah it was painful when i was taking the glove off but it was just sitting there uh you don't have an obligation to tell the ref like you can hide it that's legit you don't get like if you want to weigh out yeah tell the ref or tell the ref like you can hide it that's legit you don't get like if you want to weigh out yeah tell the ref or tell the doctor but i mean afterwards they're not like hey you were supposed

to tell us about this no we don't have obligation like even my knee i knew something was seriously wrong and i'm like there's a reason why um you know people in the nfl or anyone that tears their acl they don't they don't get up and finish the down or finish the the quarter they they're carted off um i fought for 14 and a half minutes with a complete blown out knee um the ufc is barbaric fighting is just my favorite sport my only sport i watch is it's barbaric what does barbaric mean am i using that word right yeah i would say in my, uh, even in my first pro fight, I, uh, same thing. I've broken my hands and just flopping around in there. And I had to just use what I have. You know, my coaches are like, use your right hand, take them down, use your elbows. I'm like, you know, break your hand, use an elbow, keep going. Yeah, even that. It's just flopping around. It's just, yeah, it's just.

Barbaric. I like number three, brutal or cruel. And then number two is marked by crudeness or lack of sophistication. I don't know if it's crude or lack of sophistication. Maybe a little lack of sophistication. I'll have bones sticking out of my hand. It might just be stupid. Knee blown out, still fighting. but that's what i was saying i

was making these like no probably not i i was gonna say if i was making millions of dollars you might not have seen me come out in a second but that's just me i i can't like i won't give up i can't because then i have to i have to live with that so it's like even with the injuries coming out and stuff like that everyone would have been understanding but i wouldn't have been because i would have known deep down inside that i quit i gave up and it would just uh would just tear me up inside damn when would you find out who you're going to fight next um that's what or do you know and you just can't tell us i'm hoping that's i have no idea i am who's your manager uh lloyd pearson so i'm managed by vayner sports okay um gary and aj

vaynerchuk's um management oh that's cool that's new right they're new yeah they're uh i've been with them for yeah about 18 months. I was with Lloyd, my manager, he was at a different, uh, management, um, you know, company. And then he, you know, this has kind of been in the works for quite some time and he finally pulled this together. And, uh, so I just kind of followed him, um, over there. And, and can you like, just call, what if like you just call them after this show and yeah they're gonna fight and then text me on the side

let's do i i'm gonna talk to him after the after the first of the year so probably probably next week i'll just you know we've been texting here and there but we're gonna get on the the phone and i just want to see kind of what the game plan is moving forward and and uh yes kind of see see what the plan is. And in, in an ideal world, they give you how many weeks notice? Uh, hopefully I would like eight or so, but at least, you know, at least eight. So does that mean we wouldn't see you fight until March? Possibly. I was hoping to maybe fight in sometime, March, April.

Okay. I was hoping to fight on in sometime, March, April. Okay. I was hoping to fight on the March 5th card. You know, that's always a huge card in Vegas. It's an hour flight for me the day after my birthday. Um, but I, I just, I don't know what's available and whatnot. So I am going to talk to him and kind of see. Why, why, what, what's March 5th? Is that, is that like the, the, the fight week thing the

no that's uh that's in july but those are always some of the biggest like even i i set goals with that they always have a huge card around december you know new year's and that's the one i fought on even though it was you know a few weeks before new year's and then uh it's always right around my birthday march 3rd to march 6th they always have a huge pay-per-view fight in Vegas. And then international fight week is around July 4th. So just some cards I always wanted to fight on. And so I checked off the December one. I've always been wanting to fight around my birthday.

And then I will fight international fight week too. So just some goals of mine, but nothing. They're just big pay-per-view cards is is is o'malley in your weight class no he's he's a vanim weight he's uh he's 35 yeah oh because that would be a fun one for you to fight just because then i mean it would get you so much recognition and then i'm looking here cater is fighting giga giga in uh january right uh uh yeah January 15th that that's the that's the next fight that's the next UFC I think man man and uh do you watch any of these fights do you do I'm not what I watch them all you know I I've been a fan of the sport you know I was like watching this

my best friend back in like 99 before it was mainstream, you know, uh, getting the pay-per-views and stuff like that. So I've always been a fan. Um, so unless I have something going on or even, even if I'm at a wedding or something, I'll still pull it up and work. Then I'll get like a big crowd behind me at a table and we're taken away from the, you know, the reception. But yeah, i try to watch most of the fights unless i literally am doing something where i can't especially guys in my weight class you know i i try to i definitely watch um the guys in my weight class because you never know like if i if i'll be fighting them soon um uh i always brag to my well to anyone who will listen about

how great i am and how great my podcast is, and especially to the other fathers in my kids' jiu-jitsu class. And I was bragging to them the other day that you were going to come on the show even before you had agreed. And one of them had said that they had just trained with one of your instructors in Hawaii. Do one of your instructors have was he lying just trying to like one-up me no you have an instructor who has a gym in hawaii yeah uh felipe bragio oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and you can only train there in a white gi or something oh is that uh felipe lives in kawaii he he uh he just opened his gym out there in kawaii so um is that your guide do you train with that dude?

Yeah, no, he's awesome. He's been with, you know, he's helped me since the beginning, too, of my MMA career. And, yeah, he's an awesome friend and coach and everything of mine. And, yeah, he moved out there with his wife and two kids. And he's a Brazilian guy. He's from Rio, I think. And then he's a Brazilian guy. He's from, he's from, uh, let me see. He's from Rio, I think. And then he, he's been out here. Um, he has a gym in Sacramento that he's coming back from quiet, like every four to eight weeks. Um, just to kind of like check in, stay here for a week. And then he just opened his gym out there. If that's who he's talking about, I'm assuming.

Yeah. Yeah. That is it. And I recognize the name when you said, and he, that dude just keeps upgrading. He went from Brazil to Sacramento and now he's moving to Kauai to retire. you know portuguese english he lived in like france he speaks french he speaks it's and he's been all over the place he's like oh yeah i lived in spain for you know a few years like i lived in france for paris for four years i'm like geez like and he's and he's young he's like in his early 40s i i know you i know um team alpha male is is insane There's an insane pedigree there. Uriah Faber, the whole crew. I know you got the Stockton guys over there. You got the Diaz brothers.

I know that you have access to just insane dudes. But if you go inland 90-minute drive from your house, you also have access to where Daniel and Khabib and Luke. Do you ever go there? Are you ever tempted to go there and play around? I have not. You know, that's one thing that I haven't really cross-trained like a lot of people just because I'm from here. You know, I go to the gym and we've had a lot of people come through the gym.

I mean, and you have insane people there, by the way. I mean, look at these guys. I mean. No, and they say how lucky we are. Yeah. Because our gym is so structured. there by the way i mean look at these guys i mean no and they say how lucky we are uh yeah because our gym is so structured but i i have like years years ago um danny castillo my coach and i and like we we had a we'd go down to uh stockton and we'd cross train with like uh you know nate and nate's an awesome guy you know and a lot of guys there. Um, I think it was before

he fought gray Maynard. So that's a long time ago, but before I was even in the UFC, Danny and I were going down there to kind of work on some wrestling with Nate. Um, but yeah, I haven't, I haven't really got a cross train and don't get me wrong. I would love to go down there and, you know, I've seen Nate around and I'm like, man, I got gotta get down there and come into your gym and just roll with you and he's like anytime you know like same thing like anytime he wanted to come up here but i know certain people they just don't i don't know they don't have good relationships with um certain people on our team and vice versa but it's like you know i just treat people how they treat me what did you think about sorry now i'm really just geeking out what did you think about rob now i'm really just geeking out what did you

think about rob font and jose aldo's fight jose aldo's fight yeah i thought it was a it was a good fight and it's uh you know jose aldo he just kind of man that guy is so good i i thought rob was going to retire him i i you know you never know how it's going to turn out. And then the way Aldo came out and just, it was wild. It was a wild fight. Font's a great fighter, you know, and a good dude. Like he came out and trained with us, I want to say like eight years ago. And, you know, I've seen him at the PI here and there. It's a, Oh yeah. Do you use the PI? I did when I did my ACL surgery, I stayed out there. My wife and I lived in Vegas for two months and, uh, I did, you know, PT, um, with Heather and Bobby and all them like twice a day, I was doing strength with Bo. Um, yeah, it's a, it's an awesome facility. Um, they have some,

some, yeah, I think the best PTs in the country and they have great strength coaches and everything is you have access to it. So it's really nice if you actually live there, I say, um, because you can get, you know, your food for free, you got supplements. And we can get supplements as well. Um, and you can get like the best physical therapy and they, they just have, it's like a state of art facility, you know, with, I think like Al Jermaine basically lives there. He's like, yeah,

he loves it in Vegas. Right. And, uh, and just, yeah, he kinda, he goes back and forth. I, it's, it's great. And the PI is something else in there. They're opening multiple facilities in different countries and stuff like that. So it's, uh, yeah, we, we are lucky that we, we have access to it. Yeah. That's cool. Josh, thank you so much man what uh what we and there's so much we still didn't get to talk about i'd love to uh bug you again um yeah anytime it's a total total honor to have you on the show so fun to pick your brain you're a great conversationalist that that's my that's my newest thing i had a a dusty tuckness on here last week i don't know if you know who that is but he's the greatest bullfighter in the history of bullfighting.

He's only 35. He's been bullfighter of the year 10 years in a row. And the next closest guy is only five years in a row. He's amazing. But he's not a – That's a dangerous sport or dangerous whatever you want to call it, sport. Holy shit, it's dangerous. They've seen people like die from the bull stepping on him killed in

front of him he's lost a finger you know like literally lost it because the bull stepped on him like i wouldn't want to do that yeah dusty's job and why he is a bullfighter of the year 10 years in a row is the second the dude gets bucked off the bull that dude just steps right in front of him in the bull it's nuts the insane he has a 2013 highlight reel that's on youtube that's like it's it's crazy you can't even fathom it but and bulls just will just fling him like 10 feet in the air and he lands on his feet it's kind of it's awesome but but is my i i really enjoy talking with him but he's not a conversationalist you know what i mean like i ask him a question and then he answers he's not he's not like yeah and then my finger was flopping around on the ground and shit every time like he's not like he's not like

adding like i gotta like but he's great then dusty if you're if you're watching you know because i know you're at home with a broken leg don't i love you you gotta come back on you could have your own podcast is what i'm saying that's what everyone's talking about they're like you need to do a podcast. I'm big into like the crypto and NFT space too. Oh yeah. Like you need to be the first fighter to have. I know Ben Askren is big into like crypto, but not so much NFTs unless he is now.

But my friend keeps, he's on me. He's like, you'd be the first one. And I don't know. It's hard for me. Like I can do interviews like this and other people's podcasts but it i don't know i i just i don't know it'd be hard for me to be on like you know we switch roles like me be the person people i don't know i just i think you'd be good at it i think you'd be good at it get a couple reps in i think you'd feel comfortable maybe i'll give it a shot you know yeah i feel i feel sorry for professional

athletes in the interview space because most interviewers it's so fucking stiff and they're trying to be sports interviewers and i'm just like i would fucking kill someone if i was a fucking athlete and they and they it's not the questions it's the it's the stuffiness it's like and and just to bitch about espn i can't i love bisbing and cormier and uh and uh um joe rogan and say say who else dominic cruz and it john and it yeah and when they bring over these dipshits from espn like uh uh who's who's the uh the they got one black guy and one white guy they do the box they're the uh stephen a smith and okay yeah i know who you're talking about max keller like

i like you guys but stay at your fucking corporate job over there the ufc is real like i don't want to hear any of your fucking nonsense bullshit over here like i just want to hear what fucking joe but annick is stuffy enough i like him he's not it's not a dig in him but let annick play the professional sports commentator role and let daniel michael bisbing and joe rogan and all those other guys just be real dudes i want to hear any of your woke bullshit from espn stay the fuck over there fucking crying did you ever see stephen a smith's like fighting video like where he's training punching don't see it don't see you'll be so it brings out the worst judgment in human is come on guys i find go over there and stay over there with tia fimo and those guys those the boxers i love it how you said um when when when seroni lost last

night i thought oh i know what seroni's thinking he's thinking well i beat this guy up in the back alley and that kind of reminded me of what you were saying when you lose a wrestling match. You're like, I'll beat you up in the parking lot if you want. You held me on my back for a second. You wouldn't beat me in a fight. I promise that. No time limit. Yeah.

I have to get Nick Rodriguez in every show. So let me say one thing that reminded me. I wonder if you do this. We had Nick Rodriguez on the show. Do you know who that me say one thing that reminded me. I wonder if you do this. We had Nick Rodriguez on the show. Do you know who that is? Nikki rod. Yeah. The jujitsu guy.

Right. Or yeah. He competed last night too. Right. He won. Yeah. Against that giant dude. I saw that.

Yeah. So he said that I was like, how did you know? How did like, how do you know? Like you're a tough guy or that you can fight. He's a, well,

I used to work at home Depot and I used to just sit there and everyone who walked in i'd be like i could beat you up i just love that story is that kind of like he's like he's like if you're if you're a dude that's like just one of the alpha things that alpha dudes do you walk into a room and you're like yeah i beat everyone up in here you got a little bit of that in you like you're going to starbucks and you're like hey probably pretty i fight all you at the same time probably i think so like i i don't i don't go in and just like individually looking at everyone but i i just feel like i feel pretty confident wherever i am i think i could take care of myself you know uh yeah like like when i go pee in a public restroom like i always pee like at an angle even if like

no one's in there and there's like no one could get close just in case someone snuck up and hit me you're more relaxed than that you're like they better have a gun i don't want to get like yeah blindsided or something a long time like not a long time ago but even in 08 when i was in college i got i was just in a bad or not even it was a bad situation and just me being me who i am i walked outside and i saw this huge guy getting beat up by these big tonguing guys and like kicked in the face other guy hitting him he was out cold and so i just without thinking which is kind of stupid i ran over there threw the guy on top of him into a car and then this huge tongue guy's coming at me i'm like shit i'm gonna have to fight this guy so he gets close i'm just gonna just drill him right in his chin but then i got he was with

four other friends and i got sucker punched and then they were doing that to me all this stuff it's like you had your jaw broken yeah wired shut when i was uh it was my first year of at down at menlo it was like the summer um yeah it was all messed up but even even doing that I would have I would have done it again because I was in the I was in the uh not the ER but what's the um like urgent care it's not urgent no it was the it was the hospital it was Stanford hospital but it's like uh it's like a department of like the the hospital where like the not the oh icu yeah the icu i was in the icu because it's pretty bad you know and like where you go if you have covid and you're 400 pounds overweight yeah so i went to the icu and uh i was i was fine i

had a broken jaw like you know that's why i have this big old scar on my forehead from that because my face just hit this concrete and i was i was out but i guess i was still fighting from what the witnesses said um i was still fighting and this isn't oh wait but it's uh i was out but i was still fighting warning on my all and all future content uh crazy competitor i was in the hospital he was in he was in a neck brace and he was a big he was like a i think he was a tong guy so it was like the simoans were beating up this tong guy but he was a big guy and he was in a neck brace his face looked like someone beat it up with a bat he just had lumps and stuff all over and the cop was saying that if they find the guys they're going to arrest them for attempted murder. And they were saying that he's lucky that I did something because they think he would have killed them.

horrible. Uh, that's kind of a crazy story. I'll tell you a quick thing about it, but I would have done it again because if the guy would have died, like, and I hopped in and I took, I just had a broken jaw and the guy lived, I'll do it again. But I, uh, this was right before 4th of July. And I was, uh, so my mom loves fireworks. She's coming down to the Bay area. After this happens, I get released from the hospital on fourth of july um broken jaw still i haven't had the surgery yet they're going to schedule it for next week um all the pharmacies closed so i couldn't get um like pain medication and uh i guess i had a bad concussion too i didn't realize at the time but um I couldn't get pain medication. My mom is there kind of freaking out. I'm all banged up, broken jaw still. And I'm like,

oh, let's go see some fireworks. You know, like this is good up here. And my wife was upset that I'm doing this and driving us around. Um, but I ended up doing that just so my mom could see the fireworks. And then, uh, I come home and I'm, I'm like throwing up because i'm in pain this is later on but my jaw is broke so i'm throwing up that hurts like hell uh because this side was how do you throw up with your jaw wired shut there's just like it wasn't it wasn't wired shut yet oh surgery was the next week but this side shattered this side was broken you know and half and so i'm throwing up and like that and oh it hurts so bad and then my jaw gets stuck it's like i can't shut my mouth so after i'm growing up it's like stuck i'm like uh and i have no pain medicine because the pharmacy's closed till the fifth did it get stuck open

because it was cramped or because like bones were blocked broken bone something it couldn't shut but after a while like i just shut my mouth it was just that just reminded me of it was just like yeah i forgot about all that till you brought something just that just reminded me of it was just like yeah i forgot about all that till you brought something up it just took me there but it's a south park episode your mouth just stuck open and just vomiting like a fire that was another painful thing and then i'm sitting there just like in pain and agony until like literally the next morning and then i can get you know because it was it was bad so they gave me like the liquid oxycontin and stuff like that um wow and then that kind of helped but that was a that was a tough i guess you say like 16 18 hours there's this pain medicine i don't know what it is but they can

they can inject it into you if i heard the name i think we would all know what it is but my wife was in so much pain one time um she with an infection in her knee and i just remembered she was vomiting like like just being in so much pain you're vomiting and they inject her with this shit like god what was that it was like anti-inflammatory it was just like pain it's some crazy hard narcotic it's some crazy and i was soon as i saw what it did to her i was like god i need some of that I just wanted to try it. All right, brother. You are in my Google alerts, Josh Emmett.

I don't know if you know what that is, but anytime anyone writes anything about you in the press, I get an email. So I will know the second you have a fight. So I will know the second you have a fight and like most of the people who come on this podcast, you'll, you'll probably regret it. Cause I bug you so much, but thanks man for the hour and 44 minutes. You're a great dude. Thank you, Josh. Incredible stories, man. Oh, thank you.

Yeah. We'll talk soon.