The Sevan Podcast - #282 - Mike Trizano "The Lone Wolf"

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

Mike Trizano is a mma fighter in the featherweight division of the UFC. He was the winner of "The Ultimate Fighter: Undefeated" Season 27. He grew of in Ramsey, New Jersey and it was not until the age of 17 that he joined an academy for mixed martial arts.  He took his first professional fight on March 4, 2016 where he fought James Gonzalez and won by unanimous decision. He is scheduled to fight Hakeem Dawodu on UFC Fight Night 200 on February 5th, 2022.  Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://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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Trap, directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Only in theaters August 2nd. Bam, we're live. People are like, hey, you should do. Bam, we're live. People are like, hey, you should do a Bam, we're live shirt. Like a Bam, we're live shirt. Can't even, I don't get it. But I sent it over to the guy at Life is Rx, Marcus, and I'm like, hey, what about a Bam, we're live shirt? Bam.

Bam, we're live? Bam, we're live? Bam. Mike. What's up, Caleb? Good morning. Thanks for coming. Good morning.

Do you have anything better to do on a Saturday? No. No. Yes. Yes. We have Mike, the lone wolf, Trisano. Trisano? Trisano. Tr the Lone Wolf Trezano. Trezano? Trezano.

Trezano. Mike Trezano. Mike Trezano. I think Trezano sounds right. A good Irish name. Coming on the show, he said – hey, Heidi. What's up, guys? He said that there's a snowstorm where he's at.

I think he's in Jersey. I mean, doesn't that sound like a Jersey name? Holy cow. Sounds like he fights people in the alleys. I love it when I do research on these guys and I see interviews with them and they're just crazy, like hyper articulate and just cool as shit. Like Rasta. Rasta, he speak good. Because some of these guys don't speak so good he got

good english yeah he got good english he's articulate this guy's uh 30 years old he looks like he's 15 he man when my beard when my beard grows in i'm 49 and i'm gonna look 79 okay 89 dude this thing this thing is about to get fierce fierce fierce fierce what is that like two hours of growth about two or two or three oh there it is okay okay good i got i i i have this uh old christmas tree in my backyard and um and my nephew was going to burn it last night. He was going to go to a beach bonfire. What's up, Mike?

Hey, what's happening, fellas? Michael. Bye, Caleb. Whatever you want. Don't matter. I just kicked Caleb to the curb. Caleb always comes on at the beginning of the shows so that I have someone to talk to

while people deal with some new stories. Yeah, freaking nuts. You know, I don't really feel this way about any other time I watch TV, but whenever I'm watching UFC and I take a piss and the dudes are in the middle of a fight, I always feel like bad. Like what? You can't

hold your piss to the middle of the round until the round's over while these two dudes beat the shit out of themselves it's like weird i'm watching by myself but i just like hold it like out of respect like someone's watching me i i always try and hold in any sporting event because i always with my luck i always feel like i miss like some crazy play or crazy part of the of whatever i'm watching so So if I leave, something always happens. Your sport is so trippy. If you watch just two ass football teams play, go ahead, get drunk, get fucked up, hit on girls,

walk around, get popcorn, do whatever. But in the UFC, you could see the best fight of your life in the early prelims. Yeah, it's wild. People who are future champs going against each other i mean just uh the other week the first fight in the prelims it was two it was two ladies one lady was like from guatemala the other lady she may have been from jersey or something the lady from guatemala they're 115 pound class i don't know if you saw

it the girl from like guatemala or something. It was some Central American country shit. Big old fake titties. And she was a great striker. And she knocked this girl out. The girl's knocked out, goes to the ground. She gets on top of her. The girl comes to. She's a black belt. Flips her over and fucking chokes her out.

It was the greatest fight on the card. I was like, holy shit. It's unpredictable. You never know what the hell is going to happen. Yeah, it was crazy. That's why you got to hold your piss. Right. And that's why you got to watch the hell's gonna happen yeah it was crazy that's why you gotta hold your piss right and and that's why you gotta watch the early prelims and i bring up the fake titties just because kind of because i just think it's weird to cut someone open and and and like surgically alter them so that i'm attracted to you even though it works and i don't want it to work i

don't understand why they do that for yeah we don't really need it oh yeah and then they're fighting yeah that pro athlete thing what are you doing you're a pro athlete don't you need to like those things weigh extra weight right exactly that's what that's the whole thing i'm thinking of is that how you just made your weight cut that much harder uh yes i i got a three pound penis, and I fight at 145, and I have to lose an extra three pounds. Three pounds is a lot. How tall are you? I'm 5'11".

Wow. I'm 5'5", and I weigh 155, and I just went on vacation with my family. When I came back, I weighed 167. I put on 12 pounds in five days. Oh, man. I've done that before, too. I've put on like I put on 12 pounds in five days. Oh man. I've done that before too. I've put on like 20 going on vacation before. So what's the most you've ever weighed? 192. That's the most I've ever weighed. And is that recently? Like a year ago or so. Um, two years ago because it was right after my first knee surgery.

And I had knee surgery. Then like a month later, I went on a cruise. And it's just all you can eat and drink. And I wasn't really walking anywhere. So I literally sat down and just gorged myself. And I was thick when I got back. I went on a cruise once and i was like oh and now in hindsight i'm like oh that's like i couldn't believe the people i saw in there they didn't even look human to me and the buffets were just crazy full so like when we have stuff like

this this so-called pandemic happened and people are done i'm like well like those people on the cruise ship weren't going to be alive for another five years anyway. I know. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. It's crazy. I went on two cruises. I'm cruised out. I like renting a house on a, on a island or something and then stay in there.

That's what I like to do. Guys. Mike Trezano was the season 27 winner of the ultimate fighter that's a show that's been going on forever that's a show that basically saved the ufc 30 years ago turned it around from a brutal fight organization to something that i mean skyrocketed it skyrocketed i think it was on spike tv or something yeah for a while and in 2018 they did their 27th season congratulations to them and uh not only not only was mike on the show which is kind of one of the craziest shows you could ever imagine just being locked in a

house with a bunch of dudes and then you have to befriend them and then fight them but he was on the first ever episode where all the dudes in the house were un-fucking-defeated. Yeah. As I was doing research on you, I'm like, wow. That's insane pressure cooker. Definitely added to the pressure that was already there. Dana has all you guys in, or at least the way it looks on the TV. He has you guys all in one room, and then he's like, all of you are undefeated, and only two of you get to keep your O. And I'm like, oh my goodness.

Yeah, it's crazy. I tried not to think about it. And you came out on top. I did. Yeah. It's nuts. Well, congratulations. Thank you, man. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. A lot of, I think that entire show was mental, honestly, because everybody's good. You know, you're going to have a tough fight regardless, but you had to, uh, really keep your,

your mind focused and stay level headed the entire time. Cause yeah, like you said, you're in a house locked away with a bunch of dudes for six weeks. Everybody's just full of testosterone, ready to fight each other. And you got to just do your thing. They did a good job of

keeping us busy. We were doing two a day training. Stipe, the coaches would always bring us out. We'd go go-karting and shit and try and take us out of the house, get our minds off of fighting for a little bit. They did a good job of sidetracking us a little bit when we were in there,

but it was, it was tough, but a great experience. Was James Krause in the house? Um, yeah, he was one of the coaches, but he, I mean, they would visit time in like every once in a while, but he didn't, he didn't like stay in the house. Okay. Cause I saw a photo online and uh and it was you um you and steve bay and a couple of guys were looking at a screen and then james krause was in the background i was like oh shit i wonder what he was doing there i really like him yeah no great guy uh

great mind for fighting uh i i learned a lot from him um and yeah he was part of the coaching staff all the coaches didn't have to stay in the house. It was just the fighters. The coaches were able to come and go as they, as they pleased. They didn't stay in the house, right? None of them stayed there. And it was, it was steep. A cool.

Yeah, no, it was a great guy. Very helpful. Was he too cool by that? I mean, like, was he like, not like, was he, he seems like the kind of guy who has a coach would be like, yeah, punch him in the face. You know, you know like some like like i get that from like sean strickland too like his coaching's like what do you mean duck and punch and then kick him i mean to be honest he kind of he he brought in a great coaching staff and he kind of was just like my coaches are going to take care of you guys and like he he kept us like mentally sane and he was just great to have around and and great to just learn from just because he's he was he's at the top.

You know, he's where we all want to be one day. And but he mainly had his coaches take us through our training and everything like that. So it was pretty cool. And he's just got great mojo. The other guys did the coaching and he's just I mean, he seems like he'd be fun as shit to hang out with. Yeah, he was. No, they were all great, man. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

And then you had Daniel on the other side. Did you get to hang with him much? I did. He actually – one of the days he brought in Jordan Burroughs to teach a wrestling seminar and he actually invited both teams and he we all got to do it do a training session with Jordan Burroughs which I I mean that's once in a lifetime you know uh that's one of the best wrestlers ever and uh that was cool he was very humble you know he gave me good advice too even though I was on the opposite team. Very nice guy as well. Yeah, that's awesome. You are 9-1 now. You're 5'11", you're 30 years old, you fight at 145, but in that series you were fighting at 155?

I didn't want to cut weight. I was going to have to fight multiple times. Fighting at 145, it takes a little bit because I'm a little bit bigger. So I didn't want to have to suffer. I wanted to enjoy the process. And fighting at 155, I can make that in my sleep. So that's why I chose it. That's easy for you?

Oh, yeah. Wow. that's why that's easy for you oh yeah wow um is it um they they say that that show is like the hardest thing you could ever do as a fighter is it really like that like is is everything from there gotten easier not that it's ever easy i mean like i said before it's it's the mental side of it that's tough. You know, everybody can fight. It's just being able to keep your head in the right mindset the entire time because they took everything from us.

Like we didn't have a phone. We didn't have contact with anyone from the outside. It was just training, back to the house, training, back to the house. And it takes a toll you know and especially you know everybody was very cool with each other very professional you know not not too much like arguments and fights really broke out but it's still tough man you're just you're in there you don't you start to go stir crazy a little bit like i i like to go out and do things and be active but like being confined to one area was was tough it's very tough there's there's a quote you say it a couple times it throughout your instagram when i was digging in digging in there

and um you say something along the lines, basically take the hard road. Don't take the easy road. There's no gains on the easy road. You've got to go through the discomfort. Do you remember when you learned that lesson? I mean, it's just been ingrained in me. My parents taught me to work for what you want, and that's what I've been doing. And honestly, fighting has always been

something I, I wanted to do. And it's a great opportunity to just better myself and martial arts in general. Um, if you want to get good at anything, you know, if you have two options, you got the easy thing or the hard thing. I suggest doing the hard thing because there's so much more reward from it. Whether you, you succeed or you fail, you're still going to learn so much and doing something easy and never challenging yourself. You never get to see your true potential.

And I just, I always want to test myself and see how much I can improve. And that's how I take each and every fight. You know, yeah, there's always a chance you're going to lose, but, you know, I'd rather lose giving it 100% than win giving like 20%. But I wasn't raised like that. I was raised to like avoid discomfort.

It wasn't until I was like in my 30s. I'm 49 now. It wasn't until I was in my 30s. I'm 49 now. It wasn't until I was in my early 30s. I stumbled upon this thing called CrossFit. And basically, the thing is, hey, really shock your body. Put your body through some hard shit and then let your body go through the adaptation. And I learned that from my parents. I had good parents, but my mom was like, hey, why would you do that?

That hurts. That sucks. Avoid that. Yeah, I mean, they didn't tell me like, oh, do things that were like painful. Go out there and kick a tree. yourself, push yourself. You'd be surprised what you can, you can do. And that's almost like a, like doing hard activities like CrossFit or martial arts, things like that. It's almost like a, a, a simulation on what life's going to be like, because you never know what kind of obstacles and struggles you're going to go through. It's unpredictable, but you got to be able to overcome whatever comes your way and come out on top. And you don't really have a choice, especially when it comes to life.

Like something bad happens. Like you can't just curl in a ball and go away. Like you got to work through it. And tough workouts like that is like almost like a small simulation of, of life. Yeah. Um, where were you born? I was born in, uh, I was was born in the city but grew up and raised in uh jersey the city meaning new york new york city yeah and then so your whole life you've been over there on the east coast you're a jersey guy yep and you don't have an accent no not like the the typical guido accent and and Mike Truzzano, that's Italian. Yeah.

My dad is 100% Italian. And your mom too? No, she's Irish. And then what was growing up like? Did you live in a neighborhood or did you live in the city or did you have a yard? Yeah. No, I had a great upbringing. I grew up in a town called Ramsey in New Jersey.

It's like way north Jersey. We were like five minutes from the border in New York. And it's like maybe like 40 minutes outside the city without traffic, two hours with traffic. But yeah, no, it was a great town, great house, big yard. I had a couple couple dogs growing up you know i grew up just playing in the woods in the yard running outside you know how kids should be playing nowadays yeah just you go outside parents go dinner and then you have to run inside are you gonna have kids yeah of course yeah you're married now i am yeah i got married in july your wife looks like she's 12 well she's not good good right answer get in i she looks so

she looks so young i went all the way back in instagram she hasn't aged like in 10 years like in the you guys been together a long time right yeah uh uh march march will be nine years yeah i think eight or nine congratulations i um that i don't think a lot of people know this but um i i'd be curious to get your take on it but it's really worth staying with one person the reward especially as you get older or like pay massive dividends. Yeah, man. I mean, we're, we're a team. She's my best friend and we do everything together. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Before her. Well, I guess even including her, do you all, do people around you believe in you and do you sense that? Yeah. Yeah. I have a huge family and a lot of friends, and everybody's always supporting me. I've been waiting for the UFC to go back to Prudential Center because I could get so many people there coming to watch me fight. I've been fighting at the Apex the last few times, and it's great. But a hometown crowd is something different. come and watch me fight. You know, I've been fighting at the apex the last few times and it's great. But, you know, a hometown crowd is something different. Do you remember that feeling of realizing that your parents believe in you?

Yeah. Your mom believes in you or your dad believes in you? Yeah. Actually, when I first started training, like they had wanted me to go to college and college was just a school was just not my thing. And they had wanted me to go to college. And school was just not my thing. And it took a while for them to realize how serious I was about fighting. And eventually, I got home from my second semester of college.

And they were like, we want you to stop going to school and just focus on fighting. Wow. As soon as that happened, because I came home and they were both standing in the kitchen. And I was like, oh, crap. What the hell did I do this time? They found my weed from the eighth grade that I hit under a floorboard I know right and uh yeah they they said that to me and it was like freaking elephant off my shoulders man and haven't looked back since man I wonder what that conversation was like for them I have three kids no no um you know i was tough yeah there there's sections i mean i really like school i really really like school like i love junior high i loved high school

but i didn't like the school part of it i just like going there to see my friends and hang out and like play hell yeah you can do that stuff but my parents should have pulled me out of school i would have flourished somewhere else they should have like got me doing like you should really have to find what your kid likes and then get them on that fucking path yeah they'll get smart college will be there forever like yes you don't you don't have to be 18 years old and go to college it's like that's the only time you have to you you gotta go right you know and there's other stuff too like nobody ever really told me about like going to a trade school and doing stuff like that like being like a an electrician or something because like i got a cousin who's electrician and dude's making stupid money crazy money like he's killing it but like you go to

college he didn't he and so he went to a trade school so he had like no debt meanwhile everyone go to college we got like hundred thousand dollars in debt. Meanwhile, everyone going to college, we got like $100,000 in debt. And they're like, now you're on – oh, all right, now you can start making money. Like what? It just doesn't make any sense. And like I really believe this. So let's say your kid is just into horses, right? And you're like, no, but he has to learn math, and he has to learn biology, and he has to learn the sciences, and he has to learn history.

Hey, man, you take horses all the way to the fucking deepest corner of the world in studies. You're going to learn biology. You're going to learn math. You're going to learn science. You're going to learn history. I mean, the history is like the first horses came to America and blah, blah, blah. The biology is going to be when your horse gets sick. I mean, it's all – everything is in every subject.

And it's crazy. Yeah, you flourished in fighting then all of a sudden. Everything is in every subject. Yeah. And it's, it's crazy. Yeah. You, you, you flourished and you flourished in fighting then all of a sudden. So people know Mike's fighting on February 5th. He's fighting a guy who's tough as shit. So pumped for that.

Yeah, you are. He's a big dude. He's five 11. He's fighting at one 45. Did this is a crazy, crazy weight class. He's in. Oh5. This is a crazy, crazy weight class he's in. Oh, yeah.

It's tough. But I love it. Like I said, bring on the challenge. And you're 30 years old. I mean, you're like right in your prime. What is your prime as a fighter, like 28 to 32? Yeah, I'd say late 20s, early 30s. That's everybody's prime per se you know you

never know though because like look at daniel cormier like the dude started super late and he was a champ at like late 30s so early 40s was something like that and you would think because of his body that he wouldn't have lasted that long yeah because that he carries a lot of weight and you would think that would fucking beat up on you. With all that inflammation, that would put a lot of wear and tear on you. Yeah, I'm sure it does, and I'm sure it did. But, I mean, he does well for himself, so maybe he can afford to help heal his body now and give himself a break now that he's retired. He sure can afford it.

Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah, no, like some of the highest athletes, they spend millions and millions of dollars on just recovery alone, taking care of their body. So like LeBron James does that and all those guys. He should take care of his brain more. Oh, yeah. LeBron. I agree.

So you come home from college. You're 18 years old, 17 years old. What year is that? So that's 2000. It's like 10, 11. And then your first post on your Instagram is 2013, and you're kicking a dude in the head. Is that your first fight? Not my first fight.

My first fight was a boxing fight. It was at an L. an LA boxing in Hoboken. And then eventually LA boxing changed to UFC gym. But that was my first ever Muay Thai fight. And yeah, I landed a head kick. Ended up finishing him with a body shot. How come then you posted after that that you want redemption? Because did you lose if you won?

Why would you want redemption if you won? Which head kick is this then? Oh, then maybe it's two posts after that, and I'm conflating the two fights. Caleb, is there a post a couple fights after that where he says he's training for redemption? Oh, yeah, that one right there. Okay, so I had my first ever loss damn look at your body there crazy my first ever loss um that that was a experience i never wanted to feel again so So I wanted, I had fought this dude pretty good, but I had got sick that fight week and I was, I must've had gotten like the flu and I just felt

like crap. And I gassed out in like the first round. I was just shot. I did not feel well at all, but I stuck through it and I lost a split decision. So it was killing me that this dude won by a split decision when I just felt like absolute ass and I wanted it back. And like I had had a picture of this dude right next to my bed. So every time I woke up in the morning, like I'm like, I'm getting it back. And eventually I did. And but that that was like the worst feeling ever i i don't like losing i'm very competitive um so anytime i lose i always want to try and right the ship did you ever fight that dude again yeah i did and i beat him check done uh it it seems like the worst thing that could ever possibly happen

to you as a fighter is to run out of gas like it's like then then and you see it sometimes especially in the heavyweights right or these real muscle-bound guys sometimes in the 171 who look like they should probably be in the 185 or 200 yeah just see all of a sudden they turn off and you're like oh shit now what yeah there's nothing worse than being exhausted and still in a fight because you literally are helpless you're helpless especially if the other guy senses that you get tired then all of a sudden it's like they get an energy boost and they're like oh i got him and then that's it it's just it's miserable it's happened in training before especially like early in fight camp when you're

not like 100 in fight shape and you're going against maybe a teammate who is like right about to fight so they're already in really good shape and you're just starting your camp and you get in you do a sparring session you're like oh my, oh, my God, this is like hell. So it definitely cripples you. That guy you train with is one of the most biggest freaks, I think, in the UFC, Shane Burgos. Yeah, he's one of my main training partners. Love the guy. Yeah, he's amazing. And he's got some crazy dimensions to him, right?

Like distance from here to his elbow and elbow to his fingertips. Every time I see him in the ring, I'm like, is that guy human? Yeah, he's got some weird reach. Yeah. He's got like gorilla arms. And he's tough as fuck. Yeah, man. We have some good training sessions, that's for damn sure.

I trained with him his entire last fight like i was i was billy quarantillo his entire fight camp i mean it's crazy i see someone like that and i'm a fan of his and and he when i when i would watch his early fights he just looked completely unbeatable and then it's crazy then when when you end up seeing and look at his arms i mean he does not he's a 145er yeah yeah and he walks around a little bit heavier than me he probably won't like me saying that but yeah that's nuts i mean he looks like a big dude he looks like a bigger dude than you yeah i think i'm a little taller than him so my weight's a little bit more dispersed, but yeah, no, I mean, he's a big 45-er.

So you're born in Jersey. You're just a kid who likes to play out in the woods, ride your bike. And then what was the first sport you got into? Probably either baseball or football. So I love both of those sports. And you played them organized? Yeah. Not just in the street no yeah i played for fun and organized and then junior high high school you played both of those still

football and yeah so i actually stopped playing baseball and i was really into lacrosse i was playing lacrosse for a little bit but then my high school didn't have it and i had stopped baseball so i just played football in high school and then i had i stopped playing football my senior year to focus fully on fighting oh no shit and then and then when did you start the martial arts i started when i was like 16 17 and why did you start i just i wanted to get into it. I loved watching boxing and stuff. And I originally, when I wanted to fight, I was only thinking about boxing. I hadn't really thought too much about MMA. And then I stepped into the gym and got my ass kicked.

I was dead tired in like two seconds. And I was like, all right, this is for me. I want to do this again. So you didn't have an engine when you went into the sport? No. You grew it. Yeah, pretty much. And now is your engine just unbelievable?

Yeah, I take pride in being in really good shape for my fights. If you're going to beat me, it's not because I was out of shape. shape for my fights if you're gonna beat me it's not because i was out of shape and what is the what is the secret to having just in just being able to go some guys say i always think guys are going to respond with like a training answer like oh you got to do a ton of work on the stairmaster you got to do a ton of work on the bike or and then it always their answer always ends up being controlling your breathing in the ring yeah you got to be able to relax and that just comes with experience you know and just getting ring time that's why i mean i had a huge amateur career i had almost 25 fights as an amateur and all that ring all that ring experience

you know it calms you it makes you be able to relax more while you're in there because you could be in great shape and the adrenaline alone will gas you out in two minutes, you know? So you gotta be able to handle all that, the nerves and the butterflies and the pressure and that kind of stuff. Cause it'll gas you out even if you're in good shape. And you're, you're, so you're a pretty hardcore veteran now. Yeah, i guess so do you ever sit and think okay i'm just four fights away from having to defend my title

if i win four if i win these three in a row doesn't matter who they have like my fourth fight has to be a title and i mean i have thought about it but i I try and make small little goals for myself. My goal this year is to crack the top 15. I technically am one fight away from that. If more happens, great. That's a bonus. I take it one fight at a time. Again, the more you think about it, the more unnecessary pressure you're putting on yourself. It just makes it that much harder.

unnecessary pressure you're putting on yourself. It just makes it that much harder. Uh, when you watch people like Holloway and cater fight, uh, what, what goes through your brain when you see a fight like that? Oh, it gets me so excited.

It does. Yeah. Cause they're so good and they're at the top of their game. And that's what I want. I want to be able to go in there and step in there with those guys and be able to prove to myself that I'm on their level and that's what I want who did cater just fight um Giga Chikadze oh yeah that was a great fight that was nuts right yeah cater fought a very smart fight he did exactly what he should have done against the kicker. Moved forward.

Did a great job. When I see a fight like that, it's just crazy just the levels in that division, right? You know Cater's amazing, and yet you see Holloway just have his way with him, but he can't put Cater down. And then you see Giga, who's talking this big game, and Cater fucking just is like, okay, welcome to the big leagues. Yeah. You know what?

Let's have it. Different styles make different types of matchups, man. One guy might just absolutely stun one dude, but then that dude he stunned crushes this other guy, and that other guy crushes the guy that stunned him. So it's like, you never know what's going to happen. Um,

and every time you fight, it could be different. You know, the sport is so unpredictable. Like those two could fight again and Giga could put a beat on him. Like you never know. It's just whoever shows up that night. Uh,

Steve, I love you, Sevan, even though you're a kook. Steve, go fuck yourself. Okay, so where were we? Like, you love me, but I'm a kook? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I guess. Your mom loves me.

How's that? God, I hope my mom's not watching. I try not to do too many of your mom jokes anymore. My mom watches the show once in a while. You got a new dog. Yep. You just had your birthday. You turned 30.

You got a new home. Like, you're busy. And you got a big fight coming up are you you're in fight camp now yeah my last hard day was yesterday so now it's just maintenance light workouts here and there and then fight day and and do you win this fight 100 and and do you see how you win it already i always want to finish we don't get paid by the minute. So if I can get in and out unscathed, that's the best kind of fight you could ever get into. I guess for the most obvious reasons, right?

Your career lasts longer if you don't get hurt and you can fight sooner. I mean, those are the two obvious reasons. Yeah. I mean, your brain the two obvious reasons. Yeah. I mean, you can only, your brain can only handle so many wars and the less of them you get into, the longer your career is. And it's a young man's sport. It's funny you say that. So, you know, even just like at 49, like if I bumped, like the, like I was, I was in Lake Tahoe in a cabin the other day day and there was a bunk bed I was sleeping in and I went to duck my head in at night and I hit and I didn't duck low enough. Right. And I fucking hit it and it fucking hurt, man.

And there's like there's an age like when you're six and you do that and you cry and then somewhere like in like, I don't know, 10 or 11, you don't cry. Right. And you don't cry again until you don't ever cry again, I guess. But but at 30, I would have just hit it and it would have been nothing at 49 i'm like holy fuck like it just rocks my shit i'm like okay i need to sit down it's the shit that you don't expect that's what hurts like i stubbed my toe yesterday and i i thought i was gonna die like hey when you do something like that do you, do you go into a panic when that happens? Like, oh shit, what if I broke my toe? I got to fight in a week. I mean, I've broken my toe so many times.

I wouldn't even – I'd still fight. If I broke something right now, I'd still fight. Unless like I literally couldn't walk the bones out of the skin. That's different. But I'm not fighting. I put in the work we're going yeah um when you you bought this house with your wife um who does all the paperwork and shit like do you do that like who who gets the loan and like signs that big old stack of papers and does like all the adult stuff we actually did it together wow. So it's like a joint thing.

I don't do any of that. I don't do the adult stuff. My wife has to do all that. We wouldn't own it. We wouldn't own shit. We'd be like just on bikes and shit if it wasn't for. Yeah, no, we're, like I said, we're a team, man. We do everything together.

So, you know, it makes, makes life easier. Doesn't one person doesn't have a full plate. Would you want your kids to fight? They're going to train, that's for sure. Whether they want to compete or not, I'll leave that up to them. But I think that they're not going to really have a choice with martial arts. Introducing TD Insurance for Business with customized coverage options for your business. Because at TD Insurance,

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retailers. Even if they resist, which will probably happen, They're going to resist doing stuff regardless. Knowing how to protect yourself is number one. So just the confidence boost you get from being able to train and know how to protect yourself is something that I want them to have. Can you dance? Competition is different. Can you dance? I mean, I think I can dance.

Right. Whether everyone else thinks I can dance is a whole totally different conversation. So you'll get out there and dance. You like dancing. 100%. Yeah. Do you know who Kayla Harrison is? Yeah.

So I had her on the show the other day and we were talking. She's got two kids. And I have three boys. And so my boys, like, they'll, I them in dancing, and I have them in martial arts. And basically a ton of – as much as I can of both. Like I encourage dancing and martial arts. And the reason why is because with dancing, you can court women, and then with the martial arts, you can defend them. Yeah.

And like that should get you like at least – And the dancing is great for footwork and balance and all that kind of stuff. So, I mean, they go hand in hand. Yeah, definitely. And then everyone knows the story of Lomo, right? His dad pulled him out of fighting for three years and just made him dance. And then you see his footwork and it's nuts. Yeah.

Do you like that? Do you study footwork? I have been doing footwork every week actually, tons of ladder drills and things like that just to get light on the feet and be quick. I think it's very important. It makes a huge difference. If you're flat-footed, I mean, can't go far. It's funny. I never thought of this before, but when I watch boxing, you watch people like Pacquiao or you watch people like Lomo or you watch people like Mayweather.

And they're just – I mean even – you'll even see Tyson Fury do it sometimes. They sidestep and just take a fucking crazy angle on a guy and fucking hit him. And the guy is like down, and then the guy is standing on his side punching him. And then he turns, and the guy is on the other side. I don't see that in the UFC, do I? and the guys on the other side. I don't see that in the UFC, do I? It's just different because you got to worry about kicks and takedowns.

And, yeah, I mean, maybe you just don't have that same level of just that one aspect in the UFC. But, I mean, you see it from a few guys. Like, Max Holloway makes some crazy angles like that dude is good point good point yeah he's you're right right left right left right so it depends i mean you'll see it but it's not obviously as prevalent as like just boxing for instance because that's all they do is that one aspect it's a third of fighting it's just the hands you know and then they're doing their footwork and stuff. So it's different,

but you do see it. Not like, yeah, not as prevalent, but I, you're as soon as you said hallway, I just remember yet. Anytime someone starts keeping their hands up too much or they slow down a

little bit, Mac starts fucking spinning around him like a tornado. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Once he gets going, that's why you got to be in shape when you fight him. Cause he going to be in shape he's going to be able to go 100 for five rounds um our friend steve steve i forgive you what's the worst injury uh mike's um entered a pro fight with uh i had a completely detached meniscus for like two, three fights.

I worked through it and I kind of just had to modify my training. And I didn't realize how limited I was because I was kind of just, I was younger and I was like, it was more of like the suck it up attitude. Like just got to deal with it. It's pain, whatever. get up attitude like just got to deal with it it's pain whatever and uh after my my my first loss as a pro i really couldn't do much with that knee and i was like all right it's it's time to get it fixed and that's when i had my couple surgeries got it fixed and at once i was able to get back to training after the surgery and see how much I was able to do. Now that it was, it was a hundred percent. I was like, Jesus Christ, I didn't realize how limited I was and how much it was taken away from me improving. And, uh, did that open my eyes with

recovery and being smart about my body and not always just saying, Oh, suck it up, tough it out. You know, you got to be smart about it. And, uh, yeah, that, that's definitely the toughest one. Um, and you were out for two years after that surgery. Yeah. Cause I had to get a second surgery in that two years and like the surgery I had. So like normally like a meniscus tear, you would be, they would shave it down. You'd be good in like six weeks but mine was completely detached from where the meniscus should be connected to so it's kind of just floating around and they had they repaired it and they put like these sutures on it to hold it in place that were like dissolvable and that required six months of like nothing because there's such little like blood flow in the knee and the recovery time takes longer that I ran the risk of it detaching again very, very easily.

So I was in like one of those like ACL straight braces for a while, just not allowed to really bend it too much because it could detach. So it took a lot longer than i thought uh was that hard was that depressing two years i feel like i read somewhere on your instagram or an interview that that you do feel the clock ticking you're 30 years old i got the impression something i read that you do feel the clock ticking and i thought oh shit that two years must have been horrible for him yeah it was you know what the worst part about it was is that it was right after a loss and i couldn't redeem myself right away because that's what was eating me up like the loss we were talking about before i had the dude's picture right there blah blah blah like i was able to redeem that loss like right away even if i wasn't able to rematch um Grant Dawson like whatever I just wanted to

get back in there and win right wanted to just right the ship and I wasn't able to because I was I was out and it was driving me nuts so uh I think that was what bothered me the most but it was a great chance for me to clear my head and improve on stuff that I wasn't able to. And I think I'm way better now than I was two years ago, for sure. But yeah, it was definitely tough. And when I had originally started fighting, I told myself, I started, I had my first fight when I was 20. And I said, 10 years.

What do you mean you had your first fight when you were 20? Your first pro fight? No, just fight a general amateur. But MMA? Because you had fought before then. Yeah, no, it was a boxing fight. Oh, you were 20 when you had that? Yeah, I believe so.

Okay, okay, okay. And I said, I'll do this for 10 years. And then at the 10-year mark, I'll evaluate, see where I'm at. If I'm in a good position i'm gonna keep going if if i'm not really in a great position but i'm gonna hang up the gloves and coach and do that kind of stuff and 10 year mark is hit i'm in a great position i'm gonna keep going i'm hungry you really are in a great position you're one of those fighters that

like we're about to find out hell yeah we're about to make a statement next week yeah is this dude uh gonna pop up into the um contender for the belt uh i mean it's it's a crazy record it's a pretty crazy record and and for your loss to be during a busted up meniscus is it's legit yeah i'm ready man um what goes through your head when you tap when i want a fighter taps especially like in in i'm not talking about in training but in a fight i know you've only had to do it once but like what's going through your head so the choke he had on me was not a blood choke because i would have not a what choke a blood choke what's that he had so when he gets a rear naked choke on you a blood choke the rear naked choke is cuts off the two carotid arteries here so blood flow stops going to the brain you pass out

but he didn't have that he had more of like an air choke so he was putting a lot of pressure on my windpipe and i was stuck like he had it and uh if it was a blood choke i would probably i would have tried to fight out and gone out but it was like crushing my windpipe and i was stuck and i just tapped like does it feel like like that thing could break like it's your windpipe or his forearm something's gonna break yeah i mean I was stuck I wasn't getting out There was plenty of time on the clock And yeah I don't have anything to say about it I had to tap

And then right when that happens Is in your brain are you like I shouldn't have fucking tapped I was just like Fuck That's it I just was like you got me fucking kidding me I can't believe I just did that

and then how long after that before you get your surgery a month I scheduled it right away actually yeah no exactly a month and then since then since then you

you fought Klein yeah and you're supposed to fight in October too but that that fell through and then now again yep and it's And it's early in the year. Oh, yeah. I plan on fighting another two, three more times. So let's see what happens. Is your grandmother still alive? No, she passed away early last year. And you were close to her.

Yeah, very close. And how old was she? 103. How do you take that? How did you take it? It was tough. I'm not going to lie. Especially with the whole COVID thing breaking out and she wasn't able to see a lot of people.

And, uh, you know, I, I was kind of hesitant. This was like early on. I was hesitant to like, just go and see her. Cause I was around so many people. I didn't want to like give it to her. Right. So it was tough, but, uh, I mean, she was one of my biggest supporters for sure. I mean, even like when I would fight, she would like, we she would like we had a a caretaker for to help her out around her house and uh she would like wake her up in the middle of the night

to let her know that i was getting on ready to fight and she would get up in like the middle of the night especially like if i'm fighting in vegas it's like 12 o'clock at night one o'clock in the morning and uh she would get up and watch me fight and uh she would always bake me a blueberry pie for after my fights is the the youngest one the 14th she has 37 grandchildren yep and 34 great-grandchildren yeah and that it's a lot more now because they they pop out like every month so italians that's what they do they they make a they that's not even hard that's not even the italian side so that's the irish side oh yeah yeah those guys that's my mom's side of the family wow and um and she did she she took a class from out she met albert einstein or she took a class from Albert Einstein? Yeah, she took a class and he was the professor when she was going to college.

Wild. So when you love it, you can be like, well, I mean, fuck, she's at the 99.9 percentile of people on the planet, right? Yeah, I mean, she lived an incredible life. Epic life. Some of the things she would talk about is just wild. She lived through two pandemics. She was born and was a young child during the influenza pandemic in the late teens, early 20s, whenever that pandemic happened. She lived through the Great Depression, two world wars.

Yeah, it must have been nuts living through the world wars. Crazy. Like her husband, my grandfather, who I actually never met, he died when my mom was like 15. He served in World War II. So when he got back, they didn't stop, man. 14 kids. You said you never met your grandfather? Yeah, no, I never met him.

Not because they were divorced, but they— Yeah, he passed away in like 76, 75. Yeah, man. So she – and did all – are all 14 of her children alive? Yeah, yeah. So the oldest sibling – Well, good on her that she didn't have to go through that. You have 14 kids, and man, the odds of one of them dying are pretty high.

Yeah, especially when you're 103. The oldest one is like 78 now, I think. Holy shit. Yeah. And how old's your mom? She's 60. Yeah, so her oldest sibling was 18. 18 years? Yeah.

I guess you have to – so basically, I guess she was pregnant for 14 years. Yeah, even longer than that. Yeah, yeah. Wild. They didn't use contraception that's for sure hey and you have a you have a little sister no no i just have a younger brother oh in one of the pictures you're is that your mom you're with right there yeah that's my mom in one of the pictures there's a young it's you and your mom and a young girl and the young girl looks just like your mom. I'm like, holy cow.

It's a spitting image. I wonder who that is. I don't know. I was digging through just the whole – the thousand of them, 1,400 of them. It could be a cousin. Do you guys do family reunions? Yeah, we do. Is it epic?

The last time every single person on that side of the family got together was for my grandmother's 100th. So we did a huge celebration for her, obviously. And that was like the first time in a long time that everybody in the family, not a single person missed that we all got together was for her 100th. Moving forward, we got to try and start. Someone's got to take up the mantle and organize it again because it's a huge family. Everybody's spread all over the place. So it's very difficult to get everybody together all the time. But we got

to start organizing it again it must be crazy you're like okay there's joe he just got out of jail there's carol she's uh three weeks sober off fentanyl oh there's gay uncle buck i mean it just must be fucking nuts there's the cut there's the cousin i kissed when i was eight god this is weird seeing her i mean it just must be nuts yeah. Yeah, everybody's spread all over the country doing tons of different stuff. And it's just it's crazy. It's a huge family. It's hard to keep track of. When you become champion, all you got there, all everyone's going to get closer.

We're already close, man. Yeah. It was tough, though. We're already close, man. Yeah. It was tough, though. Like I did an interview on Fox, and they did like a quiz, and they're like, all right, you have 15, 20 seconds to name as many cousins as you can. Go.

Wow. It was tough. As soon as they said that, I blanked. I had no cousins anymore. I didn't know what to say. I mean, it's a posse um the the bow hunting i saw some pictures is that something like you you're you're like would you call yourself a bow hunter yeah i i prefer to bow hunt um but i do rifle too uh i actually just did it got back from uh

south africa in november we went uh me and my cousins and my uncles and the whole family on my dad's side um we uh we went hunting in South Africa that was a hell of an experience yeah the thought of traveling right now um and like dealing with other people's bullshit like yeah I can't I mean me personally I can't even wear I can't I cannot do of this stuff. I can't participate in any of the – like I can't. I can't participate. Yeah, they were – in South Africa, really – all right. First of all, like – Like if a stewardess tells you, sir, pull your mask over your nose, I'd fucking – I think I would go to jail. I've almost been banned from a couple airlines already.

So it is what it is. Like they're going to yell at you and but there's been times where i've flown and like the flight attendants didn't even care and like i had my mask down the whole time so yeah it all it all depends on the person you get somebody who thinks they got all this power for no reason and they want to just enforce it because they can like honestly it was worth going it was worth going to deal with all that. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

100%. I mean, I never thought I'd ever go to Africa, let alone hunt. And I was able to do it. So it was a trip of a lifetime for sure. Whose idea was it? Do you have like some rich dude in your family and he's like, all right, I'll pay for everyone to go. Let's go. And threw down 50 grand and you all fucking go.

My uncle is a big time hunter huge hunter he goes all over the world hunting so do my cousins and uh he's the one who organized it and got everybody to go we like to do family trips together and uh he's been wanting to go back to africa because he's been a couple times and uh so he got everybody together and we all went and like it was like there was like 17 of us wow all yeah all the girls went did like safaris and spas and stuff and then we went hunting every day oh that's awesome yeah what what what have you got it with a bow what have you what what have you killed with a bow um so i've i've, I've killed a couple of white tail with a bow. I haven't killed much.

I've been very unlucky when I've gone bow hunting in the last few years. Haven't seen anything, but, uh, I've killed a lot more with a rifle than I have with a bow. Uh, and do you eat all those, all those deer you get?

Yeah. A hundred percent. I'm actually out of meat. I need to go hunting. I'm trying to plan an elk trip, uh, this year, probably in Colorado. I need to stock up on some elk meat. It's the best meat out there. Right. So on a trip like that, you take your bow, but you also bring your gun because now you want meat. Now you're doing it for like, okay, I need meat. Depends. Depends. It depends on the season, too, and when I plan on going, because bow hunting season will be from this date to this date, and then rifle season will be from this date to this date.

And depending on when I'm fighting and stuff, I've got to figure out my schedule, but it's either one or the other. You usually can't bring both because they're separate. Separate. Why do you think you fight? It's not even fighting. Why do you think you push so hard? Do you think you're trying to prove something to someone or you like discomfort? Because there's got to be an easier way to make a living. I'm sure there is, but it's not for me. I don't want to live a life where I just sit down, stare at a computer, nine to five, go back home, repeat. That's a boring lifestyle. I don't want to live that lifestyle. I'd rather live a short life full of craziness than a long life that's boring. That's boring. When stuff gets hard, is there a story you tell yourself of why you have to go on?

No, I kind of just go on. It's pretty mentally tough. There's always days, especially during fight camp, where I'm just like – I get up and I'm like trying to find some sort of excuse not to go train. But I get up and go train anyway. And then I always feel way better afterwards. But like your mind starts like trying to play tricks on you and like, oh, don't go because you got a low tire pressure. You should just go do that instead. Like any little excuse you're trying to make. But I push myself anyway.

Like just go. Do it. You'll feel better after. And I always do. Do your peers know why you're so good? Like do people see you and train with you and they're like, yeah, that's not – that's all hard. Like if I asked Shane, what's Mike like, would he be like fuck dude he's like the hardest worker never missed his practice or would he be like uh he's just fucking really talented both i think i think i'm

good i think i've worked fucking my ass off and yeah and i got nothing good things to say about nothing but good things to say about all my teammates too everybody works fucking hard man you can't get anywhere without working hard yeah do you hate those guys who don't like or do they just not last like if someone's like bringing the energy down or the work ethic down or um i mean you want guys who like you want to be with guys who every guy thinks they're the best dude in there, right? And kind of has a chip on his shoulder? Yeah, but people that feel like they have a chip on their shoulder always get humbled. And people that survive on just talent alone and no work ethic, no discipline will fade away. They'll phase themselves out eventually because it's just it's too much for

them what percentage of dudes come in there that want to be fighters and then like like after a little bit of training or sparring you like they're like okay that's not for me i mean i've been i've been teaching martial arts for a long time over 10 years and uh i'd say out of the almost 14 years I've been doing this, I'd say two people that I've personally coached have stuck it out and continue to fight. Damn. Damn. And what do you think? Most people kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, the works.

I've had a lot of people come in and say, yeah, I want to fight. Okay, you want to fight. There's all this other stuff you've got to do in order to fight. You can't just go in there and fight. People see how hard it is and they don't want to do it they don't want to put in the work yeah and and the discipline of the lifestyle right there's not a lot of wiggle room in your lifestyle now that you have to sacrifice a lot if you want to get to a level like the ufc that that high of a stage you got

to sacrifice a lot people don't understand that you got to sacrifice a lot i'm sure other professional sports as well like the mlb like they sacrifice a lot they sacrifice time with their families they sacrifice they i'm sure they've lost tons of friends this and that like there there is no going around it like if you want to do that type of of or live that type of life you've got to make a lot of sacrifices and people aren't ready to do that and they're not willing to. Yeah. And that's what I wonder.

I always wonder like the P like what the commonality is between you guys who reach that level, who have that commitment. Like what's, what's like, like what's the deal? Like I, like I have a friend,

Travis Bajan is a professional arm wrestler and he was way into you know sports and he basically said he grew up in a trailer and the whole reason why he did sports was because he knew that if he did sports that other parents would then invite them over to their house and he could shower there because he didn't have a shower at his house he lived in west virginia and i was like yeah like like you know what i mean that's a hell of a motivation right i practice baseball so i can go to someone else's house and get a warm meal and shower. Yeah, I mean, I've been lucky that I wasn't in a situation like that. But, I mean, I'm sure everybody's got their one reason that really motivates them and pushes them. And, yeah, getting a nice hot shower in a clean house is definitely one of them.

Have you ever watched that series, the Daisy Fresh series? No, I have not. Have you heard of it? I have not. It's on, you can just watch it on YouTube, but I think Flow Grappling has it, but it's basically there's a dude in Southern Illinois, Heath Pettigo. I had him on the podcast,

and he's basically he rented out an abandoned laundromat and he lets fuck it's like peter pan but for jiu-jitsu and he lets just like boys who are like fucking have all this hardship just come and sleep in there and train and they're like now they got world champions coming out of their fucking uh abandoned laundromat uh that's nuts that's an awesome thing to do dude it's so crazy you got you should watch at least a little bit of this series it's just a bunch of dudes sleeping on jujitsu mats in a freezing cold fucking abandoned laundromat in southern illinois and uh and they've all they're just turning into savages i mean savages right but they're all the boys have crazy stories like living in cars and moms prostitutes and just nuts right yeah

hey i tell people all the time stay you want to stay out of trouble you want to write go in the right direction martial arts martial arts will put you on a good path i believe that yeah all in in all the dudes my kids have been doing jiu-jitsu a while and all the guys i knew who were like collegiate wrestlers or like were like physically competent dudes all the calmest nicest most loving affectionate man i've ever known like just chill like shit's like you being a diner and some dudes like getting crazy and everyone else is panicking and the dude who's like you know an ncaa division one wrestler he's just still sipping his coffee like he he's not he's not tripping and you kind of touched on that earlier that's why your kids would do jiu-jitsu right or they would do martial arts because you want to in general

that's confidence right 100 yeah you're just you're just sure of yourself. People don't say this, but it's a necessity. It should be a necessity just like your basic levels of schooling. You go to school so you can understand the world. You need martial arts so you can protect yourself against the world. You learn how to swim, right? If you don't learn how to swim, you might come across water one day. That's a necessity. There's few things that are necessities, and I think martial arts is one of them.

It's crazy. The misconception is that you teach your kid martial arts and they would become violent, but it's actually the truth. You teach your kid martial arts and they become peaceful. Yeah. It makes you humble. You have respect. You understand the type of damage you can cause to somebody. So you don't.

You prevent it. And like if someone does this to me, I'll flinch. If someone does that to you, you don't flinch. Like you know. Like, hey, they had their hands in their pocket. What were they going to do? Like I had this friend one time. we were out so he was a fighter and we were out somewhere and we were in high school and uh there was a big giant dude and he was talking shit to us and my friend my and he's like oh fuck any of you guys up and my friend who's like just little asian dude but tough as shit and he's like you're not gonna do shit and the guy's like

you know a foot taller than him and i'm and he's like, you're not going to do shit. And the guy's like, you know, a foot taller than him. And I'm, and he's like, you're barefoot. He goes, I would never lose a fight to a dude who's barefoot. And like, we were in the street and I just saw it change the whole guy's demeanor.

And my friend said, it's so calm and everything. And the guy just like back down. And it was just like, holy shit. Nine times out of 10, they're just looking to see what they can get away with. Yeah. They're going to talk and what they can get away with. Yeah.

They're going to talk and talk and talk, but they don't really want to fight. They're trying to see if the other person will back down. But when they don't, they're like, ah, shit. Maybe.

No, I don't want any of it. Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. Um, the same thing with, uh,

some of the guys who, um, are the coaches at my kids' jujitsu school. Um, one of the guys is a brown belt and he's striking coach, and he's a bouncer at bars. And basically he said like, yeah, I never want to get in an altercation. I never want to fight. I do it all day and here at the fucking gym.

Like everything at the bar has to be diffused. I have nothing to prove. I've just been in the gym for three hours proving or getting unproven. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. No, that is 100% true. I have nothing to prove. I've just been in the gym for three hours proving or getting unproven. Yeah, exactly. No, that is 100% true. I train every day for a few hours. If I go out, the last thing I want to do is fight.

I want to just relax, enjoy my time with whoever I'm with, and that's it. That's why I don't go out at all when I'm training for a fight. It's just better to avoid a situation than get into one. How did you know you were going to like fighting? Did you fight in school? Did you fight as a kid? I had a few fights, but I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I started training martial arts, and it stuck.

If martial arts didn't take off, I probably would have went to the military or something because I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I needed structure. That's for sure. What's up with the American flag cowboy hat? What, why, why, what are the origins of that? What makes you such a, like a Patriot? Why do you like this country? It's a land of opportunity, man. nothing like it you know i mean how many places in the world can can you do what you can do here nowhere nowhere people take it for granted and they do and and it's a shame why don't you take it for granted you're a young kid what do you know like how do you know how special it is here there's so many people who don't realize that how did you figure that out well you don't see people leaving here to go immigrate to other countries right and if they do it's small amounts everybody wants to come here that that

that's a sign right there why do people want to come here because they don't have the opportunities over there that they do when they come here people want to make a life for themselves they want to open up a new business they want to do this they want to do that it's all here you can do it you can do anything here but you got to work hard people forget that um i have this friend who was raised in the Ukraine, and he says it's so sad here because he said at any time anyone in the United States can go get a job. There's always a job. There's never not – and he says it's not like that in the Ukraine. He said you could just be – everything is just a hustle. You can't just find a McDonald's and go get a job.

He's like in the United States, you could get a job at McDonald's, at Pete's Coffee, and at a hotel and work fucking 24 hours a day if you wanted. Like you can do it. There's so much opportunity available. And that's what blows my mind is why people are having – businesses are having a hard time hiring people. Everybody's short-staffed. I know why. I know why. I know why too. There's a lot of reasons why.

Things need to get changed ASAP. But I just – I think that – It's a fucking – yeah, it's a fucking joke. It's a fucking joke. It is. It is. It's a fucking joke it's a fucking joke it is it is it's a fucking joke when i when i when i hear yeah if you ma'am it is a fucking mess it really is and it's very simple to fix but

we got clowns running the show right now so were you ever scared of kovat how did your grandma how did your grandma pass she was 103 yeah so just she didn't die of kovat no she just passed away yeah in her sleep yeah that was it uh there was no complication she never got kovat it probably says kovat on her death certificate but that's another conversation. Oh, God. But no, she passed from natural causes. She went to sleep, and that was it. Epic life.

Where you live, is everyone all masked up? Jersey, it depends. I moved. Western Jersey is a little bit more red. So around here, it's very laid back. But when you get closer to the city, it's like fucking chaotic. The psychosis is real there. Oh, it's so bad.

California is pretty bad. I grew up in Berkeley, and I live in Santa Cruz. If you go near the beach, it's not bad at all because those people all know that they're healthy and there's nothing to worry about yeah but if you just come off the the ocean just a tiny bit it's fucking complete nutterville like yeah wackadoodles like like seriously crazy people what if someone in the comments is seven don't get started we'll be here for another four hours um uh did your dad pass no oh he's there oh because you posted a picture of him black and white and you said pop i think i'm oh caleb could you pull that black and white picture up that mike posted of his dad it was probably his birthday oh oh i was like he turned 60 so uh what's it say here um oh no that's that's my grandfather oh okay okay okay when was that posted

2020 yeah wow shit you look just like him. I know it's wild. Crazy. That's your dad's dad. Yeah. Yeah. That's nuts. And then your grandma is your mom's mom. Correct.

Yeah. So my, both my dad's parents. So my grandmother, my, my dad's mom passed away in 2000 I believe then my grandfather his dad passed away in 2009 and then like I said before I never met my mom's dad and then he passed in like 76 or something like that and then grandmother was the only other

grandparent I had and she passed away last year, I think it was. You're fighting this guy, Hakeem. Hakeem. Dawidu, I think is how you say it. Thank you. Hakeem Dawidu. 12 and 2. You're 9 and 1.

This is like a crossroads for both of you. I guess that's stupid to say. Every fight's a crossroads in the UFC. It's like weird. Every fight for you guys is like a playoff fight, like the fight before the Super Bowl. The UFC's nuts. What a tough business to be in. Losing is not okay.

Yeah, it's tough i mean i mean if you look at it though it's you have a little bit more leeway in mma with losses than you do in like boxing you lose one boxing fight like that true back far but in mma like look at the top guys in the ufc like some of them got four five six seven eight nine ten losses like when you're fighting at this level against these types of the best fighters in the world it's tough and and and sports are unpredictable anything can happen you know i mean yeah you just get hit by one shot and boom you know four ounce gloves makes a. And there are some amazing stories, Jorge Masvidal, Nick Diaz, Michael Bisbing. You follow them in their careers, and you think their careers might be taking a downward trajectory,

and then all of a sudden it goes back up again. You're like, holy shit, this is amazing. All it takes is one or two fights, and boom, you're back in the fold. Yeah. I'm excited to see you fight, manam and i really and i really appreciate your time hell yeah man absolutely yeah yeah and it's it's great to get to know you it's great to just to to hear your life you got a good life um and it's just a great it's just a great example for everyone so this fight is on february 5th yep uh a bunch of us will be watching hell yeah and uh

and be rooting for you completely 100 biased i'm 100 rooting for you sorry hakeem team underdog baby i think i'm i'm uh i'm the underdog again they always they always are uh put me as the thedog. I love it. Do you have a plan? Yeah, go in there and beat his ass. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I'm going to go in there and just go forward. That's it. I'm going to be in his face the entire time. Oh, I can't wait. I can't fucking wait. All right wait all right brother hey are you gonna watch it oh wait tell yeah yeah i got one more question sorry um bellator you had one fight in bellator yeah how does that work so like i always think like don't don't they make you sign like a four fight contract or something no so they tried to make me sign like a multi-fight deal but i only

did a one-fight deal. I was still young. I think I was only 4-0 or 5-0 at the time. I think I was 5-0 when I fought Bellator. I was still young in my career, so I was like, I'm not going to commit to anything. I did a one-fight deal. Thank God I fucking did that because as soon as I fought Bellator a few months later, somebody sent me a picture.

It was tough 27 tryouts coming up in like November. And I was like, perfect. Is that a step backwards to go to Bellator and then to tough? No. No. I was taking every opportunity I could, man. I'm young in my career. Whatever happens, happens.

I just wanted to fight and'm young in my career. Whatever happens, happens. I just wanted to fight and get to the highest level. Had anyone else fought at that high of a level who was in the house? I don't think anybody fought Bellator. I think one of the guys on the show, I think Kyler Phillips fought contender series before he did the show. I believe. Wow.

And he had won and still not made it to the UFC. I think they didn't sign him though at the time because he was so young. So that's the only guaranteed way to get to the UFC is to win the tough. I mean, we've seen another guy talk to Mo Miller. He won in the Contender Series and he didn't get signed. Yeah, I mean, Contender Series is a great way to get in. I think it's easier because it's one fight and that's it. It's yes or no right then tough like you got to fight a few times in the house and then

it's it's it's not easy like both my fights were within eight days when i was on the show so it's tough hey um what about pfl would you ever go there and get that does any party be like shit i could go over there and get that million bucks if the opportunity came up hell yeah why not oh you mike do you want to fight for a million dollars nah nah i'm good it's pretty it's it's pretty crazy that uh kayla harrison's done that twice it's pretty fucking nuts it's awesome awesome. Yeah. Oh, I'm so stoked for it. Yeah. It's freaking awesome. Who's your manager?

Uh, Jim Walter. And how did you pick him? How do you pick that dude? So he, he was Steve Bay's manager. And when I was on the show, that's where I met him.

I met him on the show and, became good friends with them and just took off. Yeah. That's awesome. You seem so happy, dude. Life is good, man. I just took off. Yeah. That's awesome. You seem so happy, dude. Life is good, man.

I can't complain. Yeah. You got good family. You got good wife, good management. All right, man. Um,

we'll be cheering for you and I'll be in touch. Hell yeah, man. Yeah. Thanks for doing it. Yep. Have a good one. Take it easy,

brother.